Good Morning: Topics For Today: Introduction To Ehtics Virtue Ethics & Aristotle - Eudaimonia - The Soul

Good Morning

Topics for today:

Introduction to Ehtics
Virtue Ethics & Aristotle
- Eudaimonia
- The Soul
The Alligator River Story
Once upon a time there was a woman named Abigail who was in love with a man named Gregory.
Gregory lived on the shore of a river. The river, which separated the two lovers, was teeming with man-
eating alligators. Abigail wanted to cross the river to be with Gregory. Unfortunately, the bridge had
been washed out. So she went to ask Sinbad, a riverboat captain, to take her across. He said he would
be glad to if she would consent to go to bed with him preceding the voyage. She promptly refused and
went to a friend named Ivan to explain her plight. Ivan did not want to be involved at all in the
situation.
Abigail felt her only alternative was to accept Sinbad's terms. Sinbad fulfilled his promise to Abigail
and
delivered her into the arms of Gregory.
When she told Gregory about her amorous escapade in order to cross the river, Gregory cast her aside
with disdain. Heartsick and dejected, Abigail turned to Slug with her tale of woe. Slug, feeling
compassion
for Abigail, sought out Gregory and beat him brutally. Abigail was overjoyed at the sight of Gregory
getting his due. As the sun sets on the horizon, we hear Abigail laughing at Gregory.
Ethics
Foundations of Moral Valuation

Chapter I:
The Ethical Dimensions of Human
Existence
Table of Contents
Chapter I: The Ethical Dimension of Human
Existence
• Value
• Sources of Authority
• Senses of Self
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be
able to:
• Identify the ethical aspect of human life and the
scope of ethical thinking;
• Define and explain the terms that are relevant to
ethical thinking; and
• Evaluate the difficulties that are involved in
maintaining certain commonly-held notions on
ethics
INTRODUCTION
In August 2007, newspapers reported what
seemed to be yet another sad incident of fraternity
violence. Cris Anthony Mendez, a 20-year-old
student of the University of the Philippines (UP),
was rushed to the hospital in the early morning
hours, unconscious, with large bruises on his chest,
back, and legs. He passed away that morning, and
the subsequent autopsy report strongly suggested
that his physical injuries were most probably the
result of “hazing” (the term colloquially used to
refer to initiation rites in which neophytes may be
subjected to various forms of physical abuse).
VALUE
• Ethics, generally speaking, is about matters such as the good
thing that we should pursue and the bad thing that we should
avoid; the right ways in which we could or should act and the
wrong ways of acting.
• Ethics as a subject for us to study is about determining the

grounds for the values with particular and special significance
to human life.
Kinds of Valuation
• Aesthetics – from the Greek word “aisthesis” which

means “sense” or “feeling” and refers to the
judgments of personal approval or disapproval that we
make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste
• Etiquette – concerned with right or wrong actions, but
those which might be considered not quite grave
enough to belong to a discussion on ethics
• Technical – from the Greek word “techne” and refers
to a proper way—(or right way) of doing things
Other Clarifications and Terminology
Ethics and Morals
• “Morals” may be used to refer to specific beliefs or attitudes
that people have or to describe acts that people perform. We
also have terms such as “moral judgment” or “moral
reasoning,” which suggest a more rational aspect.
• “Ethics” can be spoken of as the discipline of studying and
understanding ideal human behavior and ideal ways of
thinking. Thus, ethics is acknowledged as an intellectual
discipline belonging to philosophy.
Other Clarifications and Terminology
Descriptive and Normative
• A descriptive study of ethics reports how people, particularly
groups, make their moral valuations without making any
judgment either for or against these valuations.
• A normative study of ethics, as is often done in philosophy or
moral theology, engages the question: What could or should
be considered as the right way of acting? In other words, a
normative discussion prescribes what we ought to maintain as
our standards or bases for moral valuation.
Issue, Decision, Judgment, and Dilemma
• A situation that calls for moral valuation can be called a moral
issue.
• When one is placed in a situation and confronted by the
choice of what act to perform, s/he is called to make a moral
decision.
• When a person is an observer making an assessment on the
actions or behavior of someone, s/he is making a moral
judgment.
• When one is torn between choosing one of two goods or
choosing between the lesser of two evils, this is referred to as
a moral dilemma.
Reasoning
• What reasons do we give to decide or to judge that a certain
way of acting is either right or wrong?
• A person’s fear of punishment or desire for reward can
provide him/her a reason for acting in a certain way.
• The promise of rewards and the fear of punishments can
certainly motivate us to act, but are not in themselves a
determinant of the rightness or wrongness of a certain way of
acting or of the good or the bad in a particular pursuit.
• Beyond rewards and punishments, it is possible for our moral
valuation—our decisions and judgments—to be based on a
principle.
SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
• Law
– It is supposed that law is one’s guide to ethical behavior. In the
Philippines, Filipinos are constrained to obey the laws of the land as
stated in the country’s criminal and civil codes. The law cannot tell us
what to pursue, only what to avoid.
• Religion
– The divinity called God, Allah, or Supreme Being commands and one is
obliged to obey his/her Creator (Divine Command Theory).
• Culture
– Our exposure to different societies and their cultures makes us aware
that there are ways of thinking and valuing that are different from our
own, that there is in fact a wide diversity in how different people
believe it is proper to act. Therefore, what is ethically acceptable or
unacceptable is relative to, or that is to say, dependent on one’s
culture. This position is referred to as cultural relativism.
SENSES OF THE SELF
• Subjectivism
– The starting point of subjectivism is the recognition that the individual
thinking person (the subject) is at the heart of all moral valuations. From this
point, subjectivism leaps to the more radical claim that the individual is the
sole determinant of what is morally good or bad, or right or wrong.
• Psychological Egoism
– “Human beings are naturally self-centered, so all our actions are always
already motivated by self-interest.”
– It points out that there is already an underlying basis for how one acts. The
ego or self has its desires and interests, and all his/her actions are geared
toward satisfying these interests.
• Ethical Egoism
– It prescribes that we should make our own ends, our own interests, as the
single overriding concern. We may act in a way that is beneficial to others,
but we should do that only if it ultimately benefits us.
DISCUSSION POINTS
1. Identify a list of (a) obligations we are
expected to fulfill, (b) prohibitions we are
required to respect, and (c) ideals we are
encouraged to meet. Discuss whether these
are ethical in nature or not.
2. Come up with a list of common Filipino
values. Consider the strengths and
weaknesses of each of these values.
3. Comment on this statement: “What I believe
must be true if I feel very strongly about it.”
PROCESSING QUESTIONS
1. Imagine that you are a legislator. What rules or laws
that currently prohibit certain acts or practices would
you want to amend or repeal? Also, are there certain
acts or practices currently permitted by the law that
you would want to prohibit? Think of this on the level
of your school, your city, and the nation.
2. Are clothes a matter of pure aesthetic taste, or does
it make sense for clothes to become a subject in a
discussion of ethics? Why? How about other forms of
adornment, such as tattoos and piercings?
3. Is looking after the benefit of your own family over all
other considerations another form of egoism?
Discuss.
ANSWER KEY (DISCUSSION POINTS)
1. Identify a list of (a) obligations we are expected to fulfill, (b)
prohibitions we are required to respect, and (c) ideals we are
encouraged to meet. Discuss whether these are ethical in nature
or not. *Key words/sample answers: (a) paying taxes, following
the law; (b) courting/expressing feelings to someone else’s
husband/wife; (c) giving back to parents through monetary
support or taking care of them when they are old and aged
2. Come up with a list of common Filipino values. Consider the
strengths and weaknesses of each of these values. *Key
words/sample answers: hospitality, respect for elders, strong
family ties and religions, generosity and helpfulness, strong work
ethic, loving and caring, “utang na loob,” etc.
3. Comment on this statement: “What I believe must be true if I
feel very strongly about it.” *Key word: subjectivism; personal
independence
ANSWER KEY (PROCESSING QUESTIONS)
1. Imagine that you are a legislator. What rules or laws that
currently prohibit certain acts or practices would you want to
amend or repeal? Also, are there certain acts or practices
currently permitted by the law that you would want to prohibit?
Think of this on the level of your school, your city, and the
nation. *Key words: law as a source of authority, deontology
2. Are clothes a matter of pure aesthetic taste, or does it make
sense for clothes to become a subject in a discussion of ethics?
Why? How about other forms of adornment, such as tattoos and
piercings? *Key words/sample answers: Kinds of valuation,
aesthetic and ethics definition, tattoos and piercings in cultural
and professional contexts
3. Is looking after the benefit of your own family over all other
considerations another form of egoism? Discuss. *Key
words/concepts: ethical egoism
LESSON SUMMARY
In this Chapter…
• We have established the scope and the rationale for a
discussion of ethics;
• We explored various domains of valuation in order to
distinguish what makes a particularly grave type of
valuation a moral or ethical one;
• We clarified some of the terms that will be used in the
study of ethics; and
• We have also explored a number of problematic ways
of thinking of ethics; some give a too simplistic answer
to the question of our grounds or foundations for
moral valuation, while others seem to dismiss the
possibility of ethics altogether.

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Good Morning

Topics for today:

• Ethics as a subject for us to study is about determining the

• Aesthetics – from the Greek word “aisthesis” which

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