Ethics - Introduction (PDF)

# ETHICS/Introduction ## A. Prologue - Morality is life itself, not a mere extract from facts and events, a product of brooding, or mere frills. - Abandon the idea of sacrificing morality for practicality. - Moral upheaval is everyone's responsibility to counter moral decadence. - Moral recovery...

# ETHICS/Introduction ## A. Prologue - Morality is life itself, not a mere extract from facts and events, a product of brooding, or mere frills. - Abandon the idea of sacrificing morality for practicality. - Moral upheaval is everyone's responsibility to counter moral decadence. - Moral recovery must be spread aggressively. - Build a community well-equipped with necessary virtues, smashing the fetters that hinder us from attaining moral ideals. ## A profound reflection of the moral demands is absolutely necessary: - We need philosophers whose thoughts have a significant influence on moral teachings. - Empowered by creativity and critical awareness, we must protest against asinine beliefs that philosophy is useless. - Without philosophy, we will never get to the bottom of our moral problems. ## We must be vigilant and attentive to the fraying moral fabric: - The school is an influential venue for human transformation, so we must start there. - Progress is a much-desired reality, but it is often misconstrued by students who seek relevance. - They assert a need to restructure curricula, including ethics. ## Ethics is one of these subjects: - The question of its _relevance_ must be raised. - Ethics is a philosophy of action, so how can it affect the life of humans today? ## The relevance of ethics is seen in the fact that it is a basic discipline: - It is the backbone of human existence and the vertebrate that supports the whole life direction of man. - Without ethics, there is a collapse of the human person and society, making life a stinking mess. - Ethics is absolute and immutable, with only one moral law. - The problem is that the moral law is translated by various charismatic thinkers (philosophers and theologians), leading to manifold kinds of ethical theories, such as hedonism, pessimism, situationism, utilitarianism, evolutionism, existentialism, Kantianism, and more. - The East also has ethics in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism. - Despite all these, the contemporary man is not harmoniously attuned to the absolute Natural Moral Law. ## The basic moral question remains intriguing: Why do we want to be moral? - Kant says because it is man's rational duty. - Mill and Bentham say because of pleasure and happiness. - Fletcher says it depends on the situation. - Lawrence Kohlberg says because of the fear of punishment. - Thomas Nagel says because of the intrinsic impersonal standpoint any moral agent is supposed to do, every person being a person among others. - Ralph Barton Perry says because every human person is a creature of values. - Beauchamp argues that people strive to be moral because as a member of a certain society he adopts a particular moral way of life. - Saints Augustine and Aquinas say because there is God. - Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates say because of happiness. - The Hindu seers say because of man's Karma to be one with the Brahman. - Lao-Tzu and Confucius say because of man's harmony with nature. - Mohammed says because of Allah. ## Can the Why-do-we-want-to-be-moral question be simply answered from intrinsic longing (or desire)? - What about the answer from the standpoint of the existence of God? - Many appeal to wanting to be moral because of God. - But what if there is no God? - “Can't we be good without God?" - Friedrich Nietzsche, an atheist, believes that God has nothing to do with man’s quest for goodness. - Nietzsche argues that man can do good even without God, saying that God is dead and has nothing to do with moral life. - He wrote The Birth and Genealogy of Morals and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. ## Confronted with Nietzsche’s irreligious stance, any moral being should reflect on the question "Why do we want to be moral?" - The tone of the question displays a subjective imposition towards a moral life. - This question can be answered in a three-fold manner: 1. We want to win the good opinion or impression of others. 2. We want to avoid trouble or punishment. 3. We want to be moral because we are persons, who live with others. - Man's realistic desire to be good is caused by a great deal of his concern with public relations. ## We cannot just get stuck in the realistic level of the Why-be-moral question: - However, if it is the terminal point, then there is no difference between our stance and that of Nietzsche. - There should be a point of departure between the realistic why-be-moral question and our faith in God. - The fundamental reason why we want to become moral is because we need to be moral; because for all we know, moral law cannot be dissociated from the Natural Law and the Eternal Law of God. ## Why do we need to be moral, anyway?: - By their etymological definitions, "ethics" is derived from the Greek word "ethos" and “morality" from the Latin word "mos" or "moris", both meaning custom. - Does this mean that our need to be moral is part of our custom, meaning we could also be immoral if it's our custom? ## Can we prove that morality is founded on God's law?: - Much of our experience is that we want to be good and do good deeds because of our belief in salvation. - This suggests we are reward-oriented creatures. - Of all creatures, man alone seeks reward; one never sees a carabao clamoring for reward or a dog biting its master for an unjust reward. - Humans are “lucky” that God, in his wisdom, knows how to reward us properly, not only later in Heaven but here on earth. ## Clarificatory remarks: - It is difficult to provide a clear line between moral philosophy and moral theology. - There is much faith that sustains man’s struggle to do good. - It is absurd to deny that the Natural and Eternal laws of God, and our faith in them, have nothing to do with our moral lives. ## The categorical association of the moral law with God's law: - This is the broad schema followed in this book. - It also deals with ethical theories not oriented to this schema, such as Oriental Ethics, Greek Ethics, Kantian Ethics, Existential Ethics, and Situation Ethics. ## The book has the following parts: - Introduction, Western and Eastern ethics, general ethics, and special ethics. - The introduction includes: prologue, meaning of ethics, ethics compared with other sciences, morality and human existence. - Part One has two chapters, Part Two has two chapters, and Part Three has five chapters. ## B. Meaning of Ethics ## 1. Definition - Etymologically, "ethics" is derived from the Greek word "ethicos," which pertains to "ethos," the English translation of which is “custom" or “character." - From this meaning, "ethics" is taken to mean as a philosophical science that deals with the morality of human conduct or human acts. ## 2. The Difference between Ethics and Morality - On the basis of etymology, there is no difference between “ethics" and "morality". - "Ethics" comes from the Greek word "ethos", meaning "custom.” - "Morality" comes from the Latin word "mos" or "moris," which also means "custom." - Ethics is also called moral philosophy. - There is an affinity between ethics and moral philosophy due to their etymological construction. - However, there is a slight difference in practice versus theory. ## Ethics, as a normative philosophical science, is a theoretical science of good and bad or right and wrong actions: - It provides principles on the morality of human acts, giving us theoretical knowledge. - However, just because we know the morality of human acts doesn't guarantee that we will do what we know. - "Ethics" doesn’t actually guarantee that man will be moral or good. - One becomes moral when one applies ethics. - The praxis of ethics is morality. - Morality is the practice of ethics, so called Applied Ethics. ## While ethics (as a theoretical science) provides principles of right and wrong, morality actualizes the theory: - Ethics outlines theories of right and wrong and good or bad actions, while morality - Ethics is the doing of ethics. ## 3. Postulates in Ethics - Postulates are proven facts that need to be presupposed. - Examples include the Theory of Relativity or the Theory of Gravitational Pull. - Ethics doesn't need to prove these; instead, it takes them as they are. - In moral philosophy, there are three basic postulates: 1. The existence of God. 2. The existence of intellect and free will. 3. The spirituality and immortality of the soul. ## C. Ethics Compared with Other Sciences that Deal with Man ## 1. Ethics and Psychology - Psychology is a descriptive philosophy that treats of man's intellect, free will, and conduct. - Ethics guides man's intellect to know moral truths and man's will to translate his knowledge into action. - Psychology deals with human behavior, asking "How does man behave?" - Ethics asks: "Why does man ought to behave?" ## 2. Ethics and Sociology - Sociology deals with human relations. - Human relations presuppose proper setup or order in society. This proper order postulates the observance of proper laws. - These proper laws postulate the moral laws or order of right and wrong action, which is ethics. - Ethics and sociology are closely associated with each other; without ethics, there can be no civilized or humanized relations in society. ## 3. Ethics and Logic - Logic is the branch of philosophy that deals with man's correct thinking. - Ethics deals with man's correct doing and living. - Like sociology, logic is closely associated with ethics; a person who does not know how to think correctly can never live his life rightly. ## 4. Ethics and Anthropology - Anthropology deals with man's origin and the behavior of primeval man. - Ethics deals with the principles of right conduct as applied to all men at all times. ## 5. Ethics and Moral Theology - Moral philosophy (Ethics) and Moral Theology presuppose God's existence; they too have the same end - the attainment of man's ultimate goal: God. - They have the same means towards that goal: right living. - They differ in their basis. - Moral philosophy bases its principles on reason. - Moral theology bases its principles on Faith or Divine Revelation and reason. ## D. Morality and Human Existence - There is only morality in the context of humanity. - There is no morality outside the context of humanity. - There is morality because there is man. ## 1. Man is the Only Moral Being: - Man is the only moral being by virtue of the following reasons: 1. **Man is a being of action.** Man acts and knows his acts, meaning he is responsible for his actions. 2. **Man has intellect.** This enables him to know what is right or wrong and good or bad actions. 3. **Man has will.** He is free to act or not to act. His will equips him with the power to choose between good or bad and right or wrong actions. It enables him to enjoy freedom to act or not to act and to choose what course of action to perform. His will requires of him a decision which obligates him to be responsible for the consequences of his actions. - What makes man moral is his being what he is. - Ethics does not provide a detailed answer; Philosophy of Man does. - We simply take refuge in the Aristotelian view of man as a rational animal. - This is what makes man a moral agent. - People who lack rationality are not moral agents, but this does not mean they cease to be human beings. ## 2. Man as an animal - It helps to illustrate man both as an animal and as a rational being: - An animal _acquires knowledge_ through its senses. - An animal has _appetency_, or a drive to seek or strive for something through instinct. ## 3. Man as a Rational Animal - It is man’s being rational that makes man man. - This makes him a moral being or moral agent. - Man’s knowledge does not stop at perception; it is processed by his intellect to form abstractions. - This engaging in what is called reasoning helps him draw judgments as he compares ideas, meaning he analyzes, assesses, criticizes, or intellectualizes things. ## 4. Intellect Compared with Will - Intellect and will are correlative faculties endowed in man as the moral agent. - To understand the difference, consider this diagram: - **Intellect** - Wisdom: Highest Goal - Virtue - Truth: Goal - Good - Thinking: Function - Doing: - Knowing: Purpose - Choosing - **Will** - Because man is a moral being, he possesses intellect and will. - Through his intellect, he knows right or wrong actions. - Through his will, he can choose between them. ## 5. Concrete Basis of Morality - Are morality and will based only on the categories of intellect and will? - Is morality merely a cerebral affair? - Is morality anchored only in the sphere of concepts? - When can we say that morality is real enough or experienceable? - Morality is not just a cerebral affair; it is applied ethics. - It becomes real through the following: 1. **Moral experience.** 2. **Moral experience could ensue when one encounters a moral problem.** 3. **A person encounters a moral problem when the problem injuncts him of moral obligation.** - Not all experiences are moral, only those that involve moral problems. - Not all problems are moral, only those that involve moral obligation. - It is obligation that makes the problem and an experience moral. - There can be no morality apart from obligation. - Morality is always associated with "ought." - There are three degrees of moral obligation: "should", "must", and "ought." - Since man has freedom "ought" fits in morality. - When faced with a moral problem, we ask ourselves: - What ought I to do? - What must I do? - What should I do? - These belong to the intellectual level of man. ## Because man has will, he can also entertain options on what to do with his obligation: - In the context of the will, we can speak of the polarity in morality. - This means that man has freedom to choose between good and bad or right or wrong responses to his obligation. - Consider this diagram: - ACTIONS (IN HIS FREEDOM) - GOOD - RIGHT - GOOD (better) - BAD (less) - MAN - BAD - WRONG - GOOD (best) - BAD (worse or worst)