Ethics_Midterm-3-1. Pptx 1234 reviewers.

Ethical Requirements
A. What is reason?
- It is the capacity of consciously making sense of
things, establishing and verifying facts, applying
logic, and adapting or justifying practices,
institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing
information.
- It is man's tool of understanding.
- It is the method of thinking in an organized, clear
way to achieve knowledge and understanding.

B. What is impartiality?
- It is also called as even handedness or fair-
mindedness.
- It is a principle of justice holding that decisions
should be based on objective criteria, rather
than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or
preferring the benefit to one person over
another for improper reasons.

C. Reason and Impartiality
- The relationship between reason and
impartiality is that:
1. Reason is a requirement for
impartiality.
2. Reason clarifies the judgment of
impartiality to be logically objective on the
criteria of judgment without any biases.

D. Ethics and feelings
- Emotions – that is to say feelings and intuitions
– play a major role in most of the ethical
decisions people make.
- Most people do not realize how much their
emotions direct their moral choices. I
- Most often, it is impossible to make any
important moral judgments without emotions.

- Inner-directed negative emotions like guilt,
embarrassment, and shame often motivate
people to act ethically.
Example:
A boy sitting on an LRT saw an old
woman standing (feels guilt and shame)
offers his seat to the old woman.

- Outer-directed negative emotions, on the
other hand, aim to discipline or punish.
Example:
People often direct anger, disgust, or
contempt at those who have acted
unethically. This discourages others from
behaving the same way.

- Positive emotions like gratitude and admiration,
which people may feel when they see another acting
with compassion or kindness, can prompt people to
help others.
Example:
When a man saw a woman helping a group of
children, he feels admiration for the compassion
and kindness shown by the woman. Thus, he also
wants to help the children.

- Emotions evoked by suffering, such as
sympathy and empathy, often lead people to
act ethically toward others.
Example:
When a person sees an old weak man,
he feels empathy. Thus, he decides to help
the old man.

- Empathy is the central moral emotion that most
commonly motivates pro-social activity such as
altruism, cooperation, and generosity.
“We may believe that our moral decisions are
influenced most by our philosophy or religious
values, but in truth our emotions play a
significant role in our ethical decision-making.”

E. Steps of Ethical Decision-Making Process
1. Gather the facts
2. Define the ethical issues
3. Identify the affected parties (stakeholders)
4. Identify the consequences
5. Identify the obligations (principles, rights,
justice).

E. Steps of Ethical Decision-Making Process
6. Consider your character and integrity
7. Think creatively about potential actions
8. Check your gut
9. Decide on the proper ethical action and be
prepared to deal with opposing arguments.

F. The difference between reason and will
Reason
- In philosophy, it is the faculty or process of drawing
logical inferences.
- It is the method of thinking in an organized, clear way to
achieve knowledge and understanding.
Will
- In philosophy, it is the volitional faculty, it is an appetite for
the good; that is, it is naturally drawn to goodness.
- It commands the body to move or the intellect to consider
something.

F. The difference between reason and will
There is an evident interplay between reason and
will. Reason can legislate but only through will can
its legislation can be translated into action.
However, these two are not understood as separate
entities but they are considered as parts of the
intellect that functions differently. Thus, without
reason, nothing will give direction to the will and
without the will, reason has no power to enact.

Chapter 5: The Early
Philosophers and Their Works

The Early Philosophers
A. St. Thomas Aquinas on Virtue
Thomas Aquinas
• Born in Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily [Italy]
(1225)
• Died in Fossanova (1274)
• He is known as “the Angelic Doctor”
• Italian Dominican philosopher and
theologian, the foremost medieval Scholastic.

A. St. Thomas Aquinas on Virtue and Happiness
- Aquinas follows Aristotle in thinking that an act
is good or bad depending on whether it
contributes to or deters us from our proper
human end—the ”telos” or final goal/end at
which all human actions aim (means).
- That ”telos” is eudaimonia, or happiness,
where “happiness” is understood in terms of
completion, perfection, or well-being.

A. St. Thomas Aquinas on Virtue and
Happiness
- Achieving happiness, however, requires a
range of intellectual and moral virtues that
enable us to understand the nature of
happiness and motivate us to seek it in a
reliable and consistent way.

- Aquinas believes that we can never achieve complete or
final happiness in this life.
- For him, final happiness consists in beatitude, or
supernatural union with God.
- Such an end lies far beyond what we through our natural
human capacities can attain.
- For this reason, we not only need the virtues, we also need
God to transform our nature—to perfect or “deify” (to be
perfect like God) it—so that we might be suited to
participate in divine beatitude.

A. St. Thomas Aquinas on Virtue and
Happiness
Happiness as Knowledge of God
• Man’s true happiness can only be found in
knowledge of God.
• No other worldly good or pleasure can truly
provide us with the ultimate good we seek.

It is impossible for any created good to
constitute man’s happiness. For happiness is
that perfect good which entirely satisfies one’s
desire; otherwise it would not be the ultimate
end, if something yet remained to be desired.
Now the object of the will, i.e. Of man’s desire,
is what is universally good; just as the object
of the intellect is what is universally true.

SUMMARY
Aristotle:
Happiness = highest good and ultimate end.
Aquinas:
God = perfect and supreme being, the ultimate and the highest degree of all
perfections (including goodness).
Therefore:
Happiness = God
“Man’s true happiness is achieved through eternal bliss and union with God.”

B. Kant on Good Will
- Kant means that a good will is "good without
qualification" as such an absolute good
in-itself, universally good in every instance and
never merely as good to some yet further end.
- Kant argues that no consequence can have
fundamental moral worth; the only thing that
is good in and of itself is the Good Will. The Good
Will freely chooses to do its moral duty.

- Kant's point is that to be universally and
absolutely good, something must be good in
every instance of its occurrence. To act of a
“good will” means to act out of a sense of
moral obligation or “duty.”
- According to Kant, the overarching principle of
all morality is what everyone simply calls the
“categorical imperative.”

Kantian ethics
- refers to a deontological ethical theory ascribed to
the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. The theory,
developed as a result of Enlightenment rationalism,
is based on the view that the only intrinsically good
thing is a good will; an action can only be good if
its maxim – the principle behind it – is duty to the
moral law.

Deontology or Deontological ethics
- from the Greek word ”deon” which means
"obligation” or “duty“
- It is the normative ethical theory that the morality
of an action should be based on whether that action
itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather
than based on the consequences of the action.

Hypothetical Imperatives
- one must obey if we want to satisfy our desires: i.e.'go to the
doctor' is a hypothetical imperative because we are only obliged to
obey it if we want to get well.
- These are the “oughts.”
Categorical Imperatives
- binds us regardless of our desires: i.e. ‘everyone has a duty to not
lie,’ regardless of circumstances and even if it is in our interest to do
so.
- These are the “moral oughts.”
- The primary formulation of Kant's ethics

1.) The Formula of the Universal Law of Nature
“Act only according to that maxim by which
you can at the same time will that it should
become a universal law.”
— Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of
the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)

1.) The Formula of the Universal Law of Nature
- When someone acts, it is according to a rule,
or maxim. For Kant, an act is only permissible
if one is willing for the maxim that allows the
action to be a universal law by which everyone
acts.

2.) The Humanity Formula
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity,
whether in your own person or in the person of
another, always at the same time as an end
(goal) and never simply as a means (action to
attain the goal.)”
— Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the
Metaphysics of Morals (1785)

2.) The Humanity Formula
- treat humanity as an end in itself
- Kant argued that rational beings can never be
treated merely as means to ends; they must
always also be treated as ends themselves,
requiring that their own reasoned motives
must be equally respected.

3.) The Autonomy Formula
“The idea of the will of every rational being
as a will that legislates universal law.”

3.) The Autonomy Formula
- Kant's Formula of Autonomy expresses the
idea that a person is obliged to follow the
Categorical Imperative because of their
rational will, rather than any outside
influence.

4.) The Kingdom of Ends Formula
“A rational being must always regard himself
as giving laws either as member or as
sovereign in a kingdom of ends which is
rendered possible by the freedom of will.

4.) The Kingdom of Ends Formula
- This formulation requires that actions be considered as if
their maxim is to provide a law for a hypothetical Kingdom
of Ends.
- Accordingly, people have an obligation to act upon
principles that a community of rational agents would accept
as laws.
- In such a community, each individual would only accept
maxims that can govern every member of the community
without treating any member merely as a means to an end.

B. Kant on Rights
- For Kant, natural rights, like individual
freedom, are not ahistorical, universal
standards of political justice but the historical
outcome of the long process of
enlightenment. As such, what is right will
depend on what is timely.

C. Rights
- a moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain
something or to act in a certain way.
D. Kinds of rights
•The right to due process
•The right to freedom of
speech
•The right to freedom of
religion
•The right to privacy
•The right to interstate and
intrastate travel
•The right to equality
•The right to assemble
•And the right to bear arms

E. Distinction between moral rights and legal rights
Legal Rights
- are rights that people have under some legal
system, granted by a duly authorized legal
authority or government.
- basically those codified rights which are given by
a legal system of a country and it can be
modified, repealed, and restrained by legal body
(authority).

E. Distinction between moral rights and legal rights
Moral Rights
- are rights accorded under some system of ethics.
These might be grounded in mere humanity —
they might be rights that all people deserve just
because they are humans, or because they are
rational beings, or whatever.
- are those universal rights which are not given by
any government authority and law.

Chapter 6:
Framework and Principles

Righteousness and Equality
A. Justice and Fairness
JUSTICE
- In its broadest context, includes both the
attainment of that which is just and the
philosophical discussion of that which is just.
- It is the morally fair and right state of everything.
To have justice as a person's character trait
means that they are just and treat everyone the
same, or how they would like to be treated.

A. Justice and Fairness
FAIRNESS
- impartial and just treatment or behavior
without favoritism or discrimination.
- It is defined as just and reasonable treatment in
accordance with accepted rules or principles.
Treating all people equally and applying
reasonable punishments only when rules are
broken is an example of fairness.

B. Principles of Justice
“The principle of justice could be described
as the moral obligation to act on the basis of
fair adjudication between competing claims.”

C. Principles of Fairness
“The principle of fairness establishes moral
standards for decisions that affect others. Fair
decisions are made in an appropriate manner
based on appropriate criteria.”

D. Kinds of Justice
1. Commutative - based on the principle of
equality.
2. Distributive - guarantees the common welfare
by sharing what God has created.
3. Legal - the obligations of the government to it's
citizens and society.
4. Social - everyone has a right to a fair say in
society.

. Difference between justice and fairness
“Justice should be defined as adherence to
rules of conduct, whereas fairness should be
defined as individuals' moral evaluations of
this conduct.”

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