The document discusses the etymology and origins of the terms "morality" and "disposition", tracing morality back to its Latin and Greek roots referring to proper behavior, manners, and character. It then provides five approaches to understanding morality: as law, inner conviction, personal growth, love, and social transformation. Each approach is briefly defined.

2. Etymology of Morality
Morality
 “moral qualities,” “moral instruction; morals, manner,
character,”
 directly from Latin moralis “proper behavior of a person
in society,” literally “pertaining to manners,” coined by
Cicero (“De Fato,” II.i) to translate Greek ethikos. Latin
mos (genitive moris) “one’s disposition,”

3. Etymology of Morality
Disposition
 “arrangement, order; mood, state of mind,”
 “arrange, order, control, regulate” from dis- “apart” + ponere “to
put, place“
 from Latin positionem “act or fact of placing, situation, position,
affirmation,”
 ponere “put, place,” from po-s(i)nere, from apo- “off, away” + sinere
“to leave, let”

4.  Morals are qualities of behavior. It can broadly refer to
our way of living, the manner, character, and disposition
of our lives.
 Morals are an arrangement and order that we create
through a state of being from our will to control and
regulate ourselves.

5. Through understanding and living
more morally, we are placed apart
from the unregulated and
uncontrolled automatic and reactive
subconscious, unconscious, passions,
desires, whims and wants of the
“carnal”, “beastly”, lower basic
animalistic consciousness that focuses
on it’s own gains and enjoyment above
all.

6.  Morality is to affirm ourselves into a position and
situation of higher order living in alignment with the
“higher will” of recognizing moral law and choosing
to live in accordance with that understanding of a
better way to live. Our will is then to be more moral
and live more morally.

7.  Beings who can discern morals are of a higher
order consciousness, like humans. This sets us
from others who are not as capable of harnessing
this moral force of good to such a degree of
potential manifestation. This applies not only to the
general genus of human animals compared to non
human animals, but also within our own species
between each other.

8.  With this higher order consciousness potential, comes
higher order creative capacities as well. Not only for
art and construction of materials, but also for creating
good instead of evil.

9.  This is the ultimate personal
responsibility we have, to truth, and
moral truth as the force of
good/”god”.
 Failure to understand reality,
others within it, and navigate it
with humility under truth and an
understanding of a “natural moral
law“, will result in the creation of
evil/”devil” (the opposer/adversary
against what is good that we
become) and devolution of our
way of life towards chaos is what
results.

10. • Five Approaches to Morality
o Morality as Law
o Morality as Inner Conviction
o Morality as Personal Growth
o Morality as Love
o Morality as Social Transformation

11. Reflection Question
 What formed my morality?

12. • Five Approaches to Morality
o Morality as Law
 This view of emphasizes the external
 It’s not something that originates from us
 It’s something that is imposed on us
 People, such as our parents, our teachers, and priests are sources
of this view.
 We see our moral role in terms of duty or obedience.
 The words “reward” and “punishment” are very much a part of
this way of looking at morality.

13. o Morality as Inner Conviction
 It emphasizes the value of conscience
 The Church in the Modern World(Vat.II) teaches that deep within our
conscience, we discover a law that we have not laid upon ourselves,
but which we must obey.
 This is the inner law that has become part of our inner convictions.
 Inner Peace versus Inner Disquiet
 The Inner Peace of a Good Conscience accompanies the knowledge
that we have been true to our principles.
 The Inner Disquiet of a Bad Conscience accompanies the realization
that we have failed ourselves by going against what we know to be
right.
 I feel guilty, my conscience is pained (nakukunsensya ako)

14. o Morality as Personal Growth
 This view is quite different from the first two approaches
that focuses on our behavior – what we do and what we
shun.
 This view shifts from the actions that we do, to us, who are
doing the action. We question what happens to us, as a result
of the action.
 The person can either grow or regress
 We the start to use the language of moral conversion that gives
access to the dynamics of challenge and change, or of what it is like
for us to try to change for the better.

15. o Morality as Love
 The other is as important as the I.

16. • Five Approaches to Morality
o Morality as Law
o Morality as Inner Conviction
o Morality as Personal Growth
o Morality as Love
o Morality as Social Transformation

17. The Five Approaches to Morality
Morality as Law
Duty, Obedience
Reward versus Punishment
Morality as Inner Conviction
Conscience, Integrity
Inner Peace versus Disquiet
Morality as Personal Growth
Value, Conversion
Wholeness versus Fragmentation
Morality as Love
Faithfulness, Response
Communion versus Isolation
Morality as Social Transformation
Justice, Solidarity
Social Peace versus Division

18. You are a very skilled doctor with five dying patients, each of whom needs a
different organ in order to live. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to
perform any of the transplants. It just so happens that you have a sixth dying
patient, suffering from a fatal illness, who will die sooner than the other five if
not treated. If this sixth patient dies, you will be able to use his organs to save
the five other patients. However, you have a medicine you can give to this sixth
patient that will cure his illness and he won’t die.
Would you:
a: Wait for the patient to die and then harvest his organs or
b: Save the patient even though the other patients won’t get organs. If you chose to
administer the medicine, would you still do so even if the medicine will not cure the
patient, but, instead, delay his death to some short term future date or time after
the five patients will have died? Why?

19. Robin Hood Robber
Robin Hood You have witnessed a man rob a bank, but then, he did something completely
unusual and unexpected with the money. He donated it to an orphanage that was poor,
run-down and lacking in proper food, care, water and amenities. The sum of money would
be a great benefit to the orphanage, and the children’s lives would turn from poor to
prosperous.
Would you:
a: Call the police and report the robber, even though they would likely take the
money away from the orphanage, or
b: Do nothing and leave the robber and the orphans alone?
Friend’s Wedding
Your best friend is about to get married. The ceremony will be performed in one hour, but
you have seen, just before coming to the wedding, that your friend’s fiancée has been
having an affair. If your friend marries this woman, she is unlikely to be faithful, but on the
other hand, if you tell your friend about the affair, you will ruin his wedding. Would you, or
would you not, tell your friend of the affair?7

20. Plagiarized Report
Plagiarism999You are head of a student council at a high school, and are faced with a difficult
decision regarding a grade-twelve girl’s risky, last-resort choice. This girl is an honor student. All
through her academic years, she has obtained straight A’s, has many friends and has never been
disciplined by the principal. However, near the end of her grade twelve year, she fell ill with the
flu and fell way behind in her school work. She missed three weeks of class, which resulted in her
having to rush a report that would be worth 40% of English, a required graduation subject in her
curriculum. She was so desperate about the report that she went online and passed off a report
she found on that subject as her own. Her English teacher caught her and has referred her to
you. If you enter on her academic record that she plagiarized, she will likely not be eligible to be
accepted into St. Steven’s University, a school she has dreamed of attending all through high
school and needs in order to fulfill her academic and future dreams.
What would you do?

21. Photo Shop
Darkroom Lawrence 38808S You are a developer at a photo outlet. There have been six instances over the
past several weeks in which the same parents have taken film to you for developing. In those pictures you
have processed, you have seen those parents with a little boy, obviously their young son. In three of those
six cases, the child appeared to be injured in some way. One time, he had a bruise, one time he had a
burn, one time he had multiple bruises and a cast. The first time you saw him with some degree of injury,
you just thought to yourself, “Well, kids will be kids,” but, now that you have seen him this way three out
of six times, you are starting to grow concerned that these parents could be abusing their child. You know
the policy at your outlet is to “Report questionable photos”, but you fear that if you do so, the police will
take outrageous measures to try to “protect” this child. The parents could be totally innocent after all, but
a child protective agency may take the child without any thought. This would leave the parents facing
criminal charges, an expensive court case and possibly have to keep fighting to win their child back, even
if found not guilty. On the other hand, maybe the parents are harming their son and to not intervene
would mean he will have to endure more of this cruel treatment, maybe indefinitely.
You consider asking his parents what the relationship is between them and their child, but for all you
know, they might just lie to protect themselves.
What would you do?

22. 5
Fountain of Youth
A man/woman (whichever is opposite your gender), is immortal, because (s)he and his/her
family have drank from a fountain of youth, not knowing what it was. You are now in love with
this person and have felt this way long enough that you know (s)he to be your destiny.
However, the only way you can stay together forever is if you drink from the fountain of youth
and become immortal, too. If you do this, however, your family and everyone else you know
will grow old and eventually die, and you will never be reunited in heaven with them, or your
loved ones that you have known, who have already died. On the other hand, if you don’t drink
from the fountain, you will grow old and eventually die, and the person with whom you are in
love will never see you again, and be condemned to an eternity of loneliness and only
memories of you. What would you do?
(From Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt)

23. Concentration Camp, Revised
Concentration Camp. You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to
hang your son who tried to escape, and is telling you to pull the chair out from under him. He
says that if you don’t do so, the guard will kill not only your son who tried to escape, but also
your other son, who is another innocent inmate. You have no doubt that he means what he
says. What would you do?
Son and Granddaughter
There is a train that, much to your horror, is about to run over your grown up son, who has
been tied to its track. It just so happens that you have just enough time to flip a switch that
will send the train down a different track, saving your son. However, tied to the other track, is
your granddaughter, the daughter of the very son in danger of being run over. Your son is
begging and pleading with you not to flip the switch, not to kill his daughter. What would you
do?

24. Son’s Sacrifice
A very evil, uncontrollably murderous man tried to kill your son as a baby, but only succeeded in
killing your son’s aunt and uncle, who were babysitting him. Since the murders, you fled into
hiding, but now, you have discovered, in a prophecy, that when he tried to kill your son, a piece of
the murderer’s soul left him and went into your son. For your son to defeat him, he must go forth
and let the murderer kill him, destroying the piece of the murderer’s soul within your son.
Otherwise, his piece of soul, within your son, will make the villain able to return if his body were
destroyed. Your son has courageously accepted his fate and decides that he must die in order for
his friends and allies to bring about the death of the villain and bring peace to the world, because
it’s the only way. As his mother or father, would you:
a: Hold him back, because you love him too much to let him go, and feel you need to
protect him as a parent, or
b: Accept his fate and choice just like he did and let him die. (Modified from Harry Potter
by Joanne Rowling)

25. Friendship
Two-Guys-Talking-In-Coffee shop. Jim has the responsibility of filling a position in his
firm. His friend Paul has applied and is qualified, but someone else seems even more
qualified. Jim wants to give the job to Paul, but he feels guilty, believing that he ought
to be impartial. That’s the essence of morality, he initially tells himself. This belief is,
however, rejected, as Jim resolves that friendship has a moral importance that permits,
and perhaps even requires, partiality in some circumstances. So he gives the job to
Paul. Was he right?

26. One of the questions I had to answer was what formed my morality. I really had to ponder this
question. I decided that my upbringing by two parents who lived a very loving, and Christ like life,
along with raising me in the Catholic Church, which means I went to church weekly, went to a
Catholic School, and prayed daily with my family, and alone, all influenced my morality. The
sacrament of Reconciliation also influenced my choices to do right or wrong. As a child it probably
influenced me out of fear of punishment to do the right thing. But when I think back to moral
dilemmas they were based more on the example that was set by my parents. My parents were loving
to one another, they were kind, not sarcastic or negative. They gave to charities, they talked about
God, prayer, and lived a life that was authentically Christ like. I wanted to be like my parents.
Another huge influence on my morality was and still is my personal relationship with God. I have
known God since I was a little girl. I have talked, and walked with him daily my entire life. I always
knew if I choose wrong he would take me back. But I did not like to tempt that idea by doing wrong.
As a child I wanted to please him. As an adult I not only want to please him I want to give others the
love he has given me. To make morally bad choices means that I will hurt people and I have no
desire to hurt others.
I am so thankful that God chose my parents for me. I will be eternally grateful for being raised in the
Catholic Church and having the opportunity to know, serve, and love God from a young age. I
believe these are the elements that have formed my morality. What do you think formed your
morality?