1. GEC7 (ETHICS)
REVIEWER
1. People are also rational.
Rationality—consists of the
mental faculty to construct
ideas and thoughts that are
beyond our immediate
surroundings.
The ability to stop and think
about what we are doing.
2. Deontology
Duty And Agency
Autonomy
Universalizability
Duty And Agency (Deontology)
It is the moral theory that
evaluates actions that are
done because of duty.
Refers to the study of duty and
obligation.
Comes from the Greek word
deon, which means “being
necessary.”
3. Law—the determination of the
proper measure of our acts
4. Natural Law
Thomas Aquinas
a. The Context of the
Christian Story
b. The Context of Aquinas’s
Ethics
The Greek Heritage
a. Neoplatonic Good
b. Aristotelian Being and
Becoming
c. Synthesis
The Essence and Varieties
of Law
a. Essence
b. Varieties
c. Natural Law
d. Uniquely Human
Thomas Aquinas
Natural Law – a theory which
will provide us a unique way of
determining the moral status
of our actions.
Natural Law—participation of
the eternal law in the rational
creature.
Universalizability
Kinds of Moral Theories
5. Substantive Moral Theory—
immediately promulgates the
specific actions that comprise
the theory.
it identifies the particular
duties in a straightforward
manner that the adherents of
the theory must follow.
6. Formal Moral Theory—it us
the “does not supply the rules
or commands straightway.
it does not tell you what you
may or may not to do.
it provides us the “form” or
“framework” of the moral
theory.
to provide the “form” of a moral
theory is to supply a procedure
and the criteria for
determining, on one’s own, the
rules and moral commands.
A formal theory will not give us
a list of rules or commands.
Instead, it will give us a set of
instructions on how to make a
list of duties or moral
commands.
A formal theory will not give us
a list of rules or commands.
Instead, it will give us a set of
instructions on how to make a
list of duties or moral
commands.
7. Categorical imperative—
provides a procedural way of
identifying the rightness or
wrongness of an action.
Four (4) Key Elements in
Formulation of The Categorical
Imperative
1. Action
2. Maxim
3. Will
4. Universal law
Action-Kant states that we must
formulate an action as a maxim.
The choice that can be
determined by pure reason is
called Free Choice.
Maxim-Define as a “subjective
principle of action.”
in this context, a maxim
consists of a “rule” that we live
by in our day-to-day lives, but
it does not have the status of a
law or a moral command that
binds us to act in a certain
way. Rather, maxims depict
the patterns of our behavior.
Akin to the “standard
operating procedures”(SOPs)
in our lives.
We became aware of our
maxims when we talk about
ourselves, when we reveal our
habits and the reasons behind
them.
8. Subject comes from the Latin
word sub (under) and jacere
(to throw)
Subject—refer to that which is
thrown or brought under
something
the will must comply with the
law, which is the authority
figure.
9. Human choice, in contrast, is
a choice that may indeed be
affected but not determined by
impulses, and is therefore in
itself (without an acquired skill
of reason) not pure, but can
nevertheless be determined to
do actions from pure will (Ak
6:213).
10. Autonomy – means giving
individuals the freedom to act
and make decisions according
to their own will and beliefs,
without interference from
others.
is the property of rational will.
is the opposite of Heteronomy.
from 3 greek words:
Autos -” self”
Heteros -” other”
Nomos -” law”
2. Combine autos and
nomos=autonomy
Combine heteros and
nomos=heteronomy
Autonomy—means self-law
(or self- legislating)
11. Heteronomy- means an
individual’s decisions are
influenced or controlled by
external factors, rather than
being based on their own
beliefs and desires.
Heteronomy—means other
law.
12. Divine Law—refers
specifically to the instances
where we have precepts or
instructions that come from
divine revelation.
13. Human Law—refers to all
instances wherein human
being construct and enforce
law s in their communities.
14. Eternal Law—refers to what
God wills for creation, how
each participant in it is
intended to return to Him.
15. Promulgation—rules or laws
to be communicated to the
people involved in order to
enforce them and to better
ensure compliance.
16. Cause – it is the form of
archetype, that is, the
statement of the essence and
its genera.
17. Natural - Used to refer to
some kind of intuition that a
person has, one which is so
apparently true to him that it is
unquestioned.
Used to try to justify a certain
way of behaving by seeing its
likeness somewhere in the
natural world.
Used an appeal to something
instinctual without it being
directed by reason.
Refer to what seems common
to them given their particular
environment.
18. CREATION—is the activity of
the outpouring or overflowing
of God’s goodness. Since
each being in this way
participates in God’s
goodness, each being is in
some sense good.
Three (3) parts to voluminous work
19. First part: We are created
by God. (CREATION)
20. The second part: Deals with
man or the dynamic of human
life. (WORK)
21. Third part: Focuses on Jesus
as our Savior. (SALVATION)
22. Material cause—any being
we can see around is
corporeal, possessed of a
certain materiality or physical
“stuff.”
Material cause- could be
the biological and
environmental factors
influencing behavior.
The stuff that affects how
we act. This includes
things like our genes, brain
chemicals, and
surroundings like where we
grew up and who we’re
around.so basically, its
about how our bodies and
environment influence
what we do.
23. Formal cause—a material
takes place on a particular
shape.
24. Efficient cause—a being does
not simply “pop up” from
nothing but comes from
another being which is prior to
it.
25. Final cause—a being has an
apparent end or goal.
A chair to be sat on
A pen for writing
A seed to become a tree
A child to become an adult
26. Neoplatonic Good
GOD CREATES
He brings about beings.
He cares for, and thus
governs, the activity of the
universe and of every
creature.
Ancient Greek philosopher
Plato
He is credited for giving the
subsequent history of
philosophy one of its most
compelling and enduring
ideas: the notion of a supreme
and absolutely transcendent
good.
27. The will is thus not only
subject to the law, but it is also
subject to the law in such a
way that it gives the law to
itself (self-legislating), and
primarily just in this way that
the will can be considered the
author of the law under which
is subject. (Ak 4:431)
28. Sentient—meaning an
organism has the ability to
perceive and navigate its
external environment.
29. Common Good - what is good
for the community as well as
our own good.
30. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
He was the German
Enlightenment philosopher
who wrote one of most
important works on moral
philosophy, Groundwork
towards a Metaphysics of
Morals (1785)
He is the main proponent of
deontology.
In this work, Kant brings our
attention to the fact that we,
human beings, have the
faculty called the rational will,
which is the capacity to act
according to principles that we
determine for ourselves.
To consider the rational will is
to point out the difference
between animals and persons.
Animals are sentient
organisms.
3. 31. God’s act, like an
emanation of light, is the
creation of beings.
As God is that toward
which all beings seek to
return, it is possible for
us to speak of Him as
the final cause.
We see the beginning
of the synthesis by
noting how the
Neoplatonic movement
from and back toward
the transcendent is
fused with the
Aristotelian notion of
causes.
It must be noted,
though that this is not
some mechanistic
unthinking process. It is
God’s will and love that
are the cause of all
things; to every existing
thing, God wills some
good.
TRUE or FALSE
Autonomy is the opposite of
Heteronomy. (TRUE)
In Final cause, a being has an
apparent end or goal. (TRUE)
For Aquinas, there is a sense
of right and wrong in us that
we are obliged to obey.
(TRUE)
Aquinas identifies that there is
in our nature, common with all
other beings, a desire to
preserve one’s own being.
(TRUE)
It can be said that Plato was
trying to answer questions
such as, “Why should I bother
trying to be good?” and “Why
cannot’ good’ be just whatever
I say it is?” (TRUE)
Plato’s answer, placed in the
mouth of the main character
Socrates, is that the good is
real and not something that
one can pretend to make up or
ignore. (TRUE)
Creation is the activity of the
outpouring or overflowing of
God’s goodness. (TRUE)
It is God’s will and love that are
the cause of all things; to
every existing thing, God wills
some good. (TRUE)
Deontology refers to the study
of duty and obligation. (TRUE)
Aquinas goes on to say that
there is in our human nature,
common with other animals, a
desire that has to do with
sexual intercourse and the
care of one’s offspring.
(TRUE)