Lesson-1-Introduction-to-General-Ethics-1.pptx

INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL ETHICS Mr. Jhon Mark R. Bugal Instructor I | ETHICSX | General Ethics  Course Objectives! At the end of the course, the students are expected to:  Define and explain further Human Acts – its classification, constituent elements, and modifiers....

INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL ETHICS Mr. Jhon Mark R. Bugal Instructor I | ETHICSX | General Ethics  Course Objectives! At the end of the course, the students are expected to:  Define and explain further Human Acts – its classification, constituent elements, and modifiers.  Project that all Human acts are always performed for an End – End in General and the Ultimate End.  Specify that there are certain norms/rules of Actions (Law and Conscience) by which Human acts are directed to their last end.  Determine the Morality of Human Acts (in their Object, end and circumstances) – whether good or evil, in relation to the Norms/Reason.  Stipulate that all Human Acts always affect the Doer, that is, are always attributed or imputable to the author.  Course Outline: Let’s Know About It! I. Human Acts Art. I: The Human Act in Itself Art. II: The Voluntariness of Human Acts Art. III: The Modifiers of Human Acts II. The Ends of Human Acts IV. The Morality of Human Acts Art. I: Ends in General Art. I: Morality and its Norm Art. II: The Ultimate End of Human Art. II: The Determinants of Morality Acts V. The Properties and III. The Norms of Human Acts Consequences of Human Acts Art. I: Law Art. I: The Properties of Human Acts Art. II: Conscience Art. II: The Consequences of Human Acts  Definition: Let’s Learn About It! ETHICS IS A PRACTICAL SCIENCE OF THE MORALITY OF HUMAN CONDUCT. SCIENCE HUMAN CONDUCT Systematic arrangement of Human act is deliberate and free. connected data with the causes or Differs from acts of man. reasons that are known to be true. PRACTICAL MORALITY Directly implies rules or directions Human conduct is either in and presents truths to be acted agreement or disagreement within upon. the dictates of reason.  Other Things You Need To Know! OBJECT Material Object: Human Acts, i.e., Human Conduct Formal Object: Right Morality or the Rectitude of Human Acts IMPORTANCE Noble and important science: Dealing with the important question of what an upright life must be. Ethics is fundamental to other sciences, i.e., law, medicine, sociology, etc. Principles are in perfect harmony with Christian Morality. A science deserving of careful study to address faulty ethical theories; lack of definite ethical principles. DIVISION General Ethics: Principles of morality. It explains the norms with which the moral significance of human act is determined. Special Ethics: Application of principles of general ethics into different departments of human activity, individual and social.  Human Acts: Define It Deeper! HUMAN ACT IS AN ACT WHICH PROCEEDS FROM THE DELIBERATE FREE WILL OF MAN. WIDER SENSE: Pertains to any activity performed by a human being. STRICTER SENSE: Pertains these acts that are proper to man as man. ACTS OF MAN: Acts that are performed indeliberately or without advertence and the exercise of free choice. NOTE: Acts of man can sometimes become human acts by the advertence and consent of the human agent. For human acts, man is responsible for his actions, and they are imputed to him as worthy of praise or blame, reward or punishment.  Human Acts: Classify! THE ADEQUATE CAUSE OF HUMAN ACTS: All human acts have their source in man’s free rational nature. The adequate cause is will alone.  ELICITED ACTS: Acts that begin and are perfected in the will itself.  Wish: 1st tendency of the will towards a thing whether realizable or not.  Intention: Tendency to a thing as realizable; whether actually done or not.  Consent: Acceptance of the will of the means necessary to carry out the intention.  Election: Will’s selection of precise means to be employed.  Use: Will’s employment of powers (body/mind) to carry the intention by the means chosen.  Fruition: Enjoyment of a thing willed and done. Satisfaction in intention fulfilled.  Human Acts: Classify!  COMMANDED ACTS: Begin in the will and are perfected by other faculties under control of the will.  Internal: Acts done by mental powers controlled by will; e.g., efforts to remember; reasoning; control of anger.  External: Bodily manifestation; acts affected by bodily powers under control of the will; e.g., deliberate walking; speaking; killing.  Mixed: Acts involving both bodily and mental powers; e.g., studying (eyes and intellect).  Human Acts: Classify! THE RELATION OF HUMAN ACTS TO REASON: Human acts are either in agreement or disagreement with the dictates of reason and this relation with reason constitutes their morality. Proper classification of Human Acts according to morality: Good: in agreement. Evil: not in agreement. Indifferent: neither good or bad. But could be good or evil depending on the circumstances upon its performance, e.g., End of the Agent.  Human Acts: Constituents! 3 Constituents that should be present for an act to be human.  Knowledge: Human act proceeds from the deliberate will; advertence or knowledge in the intellect of what one is about and what this means.  Freedom: Human act is an act determined (elicited or commanded) by the will and by nothing else; control of the will.  Voluntariness: The formal essential quality of the human act, and for it to be present, there must ordinarily be both knowledge and freedom in the  Voluntariness: Kinds or Degrees! VOLUNTARINESS OF HUMAN ACTS formal essential quality of the human act. A voluntary act is synonymous to a Human Act. PERFECT AND IMPERFECT  Perfect: agent fully knows and intends the act.  Imperfect: when there is some defect in agent’s knowledge, intention or in both. SIMPLE AND CONDITIONAL  Simple: present in human act performed whether agent likes or dislikes doing it.  Conditional: present in agent’s wish to do something other than that which he is actually doing, but doing with repugnance or dislike. DIRECT AND INDIRECT  Direct: present in a human act willed in itself. Voluntariness in se.  Indirect: present in that human act which is the foreseen result of  Voluntariness: Kinds or Degrees! POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE  Positive: present in the human act of doing, performing. Commission.  Negative: present in human act of omitting, refraining from doing. Omission. ACTUAL AND VIRTUAL  Actual: actual intention; act willed here and now.  Virtual: act done as a result (in virtue of) of a formerly elicited actual intention; even if that is present or forgotten. HABITUAL AND INTERPRETATIVE  Habitual: act done in harmony with, but not as a result of a formerly elicited and unrevoked actual intention.  Interpretative: voluntariness, which, in the judgment of prudence and common sense, would be actually present if opportunity or  Indirect Voluntariness: What If? Voluntariness in causa: Two Principles Q1: When is the agent (doer, actor, performer) responsible for the evil effect of a cause directly willed? 3 Conditions:  Agent must be able to foresee the evil effect in a general way.  Agent must be free to refrain from doing that which is cause of the evil effect.  Agent must be morally bound not to do that which is the cause of the evil effect. Q2: When may one perform an act, not evil in itself, from which flow two effects, one good, one evil? “Epikeia - Principle of Double Effect” 3 Conditions:  The evil effect must not precede the good effect.  There must be a reason sufficiently grave calling for the act in its  Human Acts: Modifiers! These are things that may affect human acts in the essential qualities of knowledge, freedom, voluntariness, and so make them less perfectly human. Ignorance Concupiscence Fear Violence Habit  Ignorance: Define It!  Absence of intellectual knowledge in man.  In absence of knowledge, ignorance is privative.  Positive ignorance is called a mistake or error. Classification Scheme! Ignorance in its Object: Know It!  IGNORANCE OF LAW: ignorance of the existence of a duty, rule, or regulation.  IGNORANCE OF FACT: ignorance of the nature or circumstances of an act as forbidden; lack of knowledge that one is actually doing comes under the prohibition of a known law.  IGNORANCE OF PENALTY: lack of knowledge of the precise sanction affixed Ignorance in its Subject: Know It!  VINCIBLE IGNORANCE: ignorance that can be dispelled by the use of ordinary diligence; culpable ignorance.  Simply Vincible (little interest of the law)  Crass or Supine (no interest)  Affected (intentional and no interest of the law)  INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE: ignorance that ordinary and proper diligence cannot dispel; inculpable ignorance.  Physically Invincible (no human effort can dispel it)   Ignorance in its Result: Know It!  ANTECEDENT IGNORANCE: precedes all consent of the will  CONCOMITANT IGNORANCE: ignorance which accompanies an act that would have been performed even if the ignorance did not exist.  CONSEQUENT IGNORANCE: follows upon an act of the will.  Directly willed (affected)  Indirectly willed (crass or supine)  Ignorance: Ethical Principles!  Invincible ignorance destroys the voluntariness of an act.  Vincible ignorance does not destroy the voluntariness of an act.  Vincible ignorance lessens the voluntariness of an act.  Affected ignorance in one way lessens and in another way increases voluntariness.  Concupiscence: Define It!  Those bodily appetites or tendencies which are called passions.  Passions are called antecedent when they spring into action unstimulated by any act of the will.  They are called consequent when the will, directly or indirectly, stirs them up or fosters them.  Concupiscence: Ethical Principles!  Antecedent concupiscence lessens the voluntariness of an act.  Antecedent concupiscence does not destroy the voluntariness of an act.  Consequent concupiscence, however great, does not lessen the voluntariness of an act. Fear: Define It With Its Principle!  One of passions, and is included under general denotation of the term concupiscence.  It is the shrinking back of the mind from danger.  Actions may proceed from fear as their cause, or may be done with fear as an accompanying circumstance.  PRINCIPLE:  An act done from fear, however great, is simply voluntary, although it is regularly also  Violence: Define It With Its Principle!  Violence or coaction is external force applied by free cause for the purpose of compelling a person to perform an act which is against his will.  PRINCIPLE:  Acts elicited by the will are not subject to violence; external acts caused by violence, to which due resistance is offered, are in no way imputable to the  Habit: Define It With Its Principle!  Operative habit, which is a lasting readiness and facility, born of frequently repeated acts, for acting in a certain manner.  PRINCIPLE:  Habit does not destroy voluntariness; and acts from habit are always voluntary, at least in cause, as long as the habit is allowed to endure.