A.

THE HUMAN PERSON:

*DEFINE ETHICS
- Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what
humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society,
fairness, or specific virtues.
*ENUMERATE THE BASES OF A MORAL CHOICE

Mores- customs and rules of conduct

Etiquette – rules of conduct concerning matters of relatively minor importance but which
do contribute to the quality of life. Violations of such rules may bring social
censure. Etiquette deals with rules concerning dress and table manners and deal with
politeness.

Morality- rules of right conduct concerning matters of greater importance than the rules
of etiquette. Violations of such can bring disturbance to individual conscience and social
sanctions as well as changes in personal relationships.

Law- rules which are enforced by society. Violations may bring a loss of or reduction in
freedom and possessions.

Moral Philosophy to understand and to justify moral principles

Ethics to establish principles of the GOOD and those of right behavior Ethics deals with
the basic principles that serve as the basis for moral rules. Different principles will
produce different rules.

Meta Ethics- discussion of ethical theories and language.

HOW IS ETHICS APPLIED TO THE REALITY OF OUR SOCIAL EXISTENCE?

- Ethics is a purely human construct used to re-shape reality to the ends of justification
of society. It's the reverse of morality, which is the use of natural order to determine
social norms.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF JUSTICE?

- His quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold

the justice of a cause. Rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of
ground or reason: to complain with justice. The moral principle determining just
conduct.
 B. MORAL VIRTUE
1. What are moral virtues?

- In a general sense, moral virtues are any positive personal qualities that lead a person to
lead a life characterized by self-control, altruism and good acts. In a more specific sense,
the moral virtues are a part of the Catholic catechism that advise a believer about the
ways to lead a good and pure life.

2. What does Aristotle mean by:

2.1 Good life - According to Aristotle, happiness consists in achieving, through
the course of a whole lifetime, all the goods — health, wealth, knowledge, friends, etc. —
that lead to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. This
requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult.

2.2 Self- perfection and - According to Aristotle, the "moral" refers to whatever
is related to a person's character. He taught that the value of virtuous activity resides in
realizing a state of eudemonic character. ... A human being is ordered to self-
perfection and self-perfection is, in essence, human moral development.

2.3. Moral Wisdom - Wisdom as Knowledge. ... Aristotle distinguished between

two different kinds of wisdom, theoretical wisdom and practical wisdom.
Theoretical wisdom is, according to Aristotle, “scientific knowledge, combined with
intuitive reason, of the things that are highest by nature” (Nicomachean Ethics, VI,
1141b).

3. How does one achieve human flourishing?

- Human flourishing must be achieved through a person's own efforts. Each person
has reason and free will and the capacity to initiate conduct that will enhance or inhibit
his flourishing. Rationality, the cardinal virtue for human flourishing, can only gain
expression when a man has responsibility for his own choices.

C. MORAL DUTY

1. What is the basis of morality according to Kant?

- Kant's theory is an example of a deontological moral theory–according to these

theories, the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences
but on whether they fulfill our duty. Kant believed that there was a supreme principle
of morality, and he referred to it as The Categorical Imperative.

2. What is the fundamental law of human nature?

- This doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it’s just an acknowledgement that need to
be made. Being evil is separate. You’re a selfish bitch and so am I.
Even when I do something “selfless.” I still benefit, because I know other people see it that
way… but wait does it stop being selfless at that point? Fuck it. Whatever, I like making people
happy - it makes me happy!

3. What does Kant mean by moral duty?

- Kant answers that we do our moral duty when our motive is determined by a
principle recognized by reason rather than the desire for any expected consequence or
emotional feeling which may cause us to act the way we do. The "will" is defined as that
which provides the motives for our actions.

4. What are the principles of the Kant’s Categorical Imperative?

- Kant's improvement on the golden rule, the Categorical Imperative: Act as

you would want all other people to act towards all other people. Act according to the
maxim that you would wish all other rational people to follow, as if it were a universal
law. The difference is this.

D. UTILITARIANISM

1. What are the principles of Utility according to Jeremy Bentham?

- According to Bentham, pleasure and pain govern not only how human beings
act but also how human beings ought to act. The principle of utility or the principle of
utilitarianism: I ought to do that act which will bring about the greatest happiness
(pleasure) for the greatest number of persons (the community).

2. How does quantitative and qualitative pleasure differ?

- Qualitative and Quantitative pleasures come out of Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism can

often be thought of as dangerous and wretched because it allows for seriously immoral
acts to take place. Utilitarianism argues for maximum pleasure to take place, but in
doing so can allow such acts as rape, torture etc.

3. Is the principle of maximum utility just? Why?

- UTILITY MAXIMIZATION MODEL. The theory of consumer behavior uses the

law of diminishing marginal utility to explain how consumers allocate their incomes. ...
Consumers' incomes are limited because their individual resources are limited. They
face a budget constraint.

E. NATURAL LAW

1. What does the natural law tell us?

- Natural law is a theory that says there is a set of rules inherent in human behavior and
human reasoning that governs human conduct. Natural law is preexisting and is not
created in courts by judges. Many schools of thought think that is passed to man
through a divine presence.
 2. What are the attributes of the natural law?

- NATURAL LAW
 A law or rule of action that is implicit in the very nature of things. ...
 Although natural law has always been perceived in its basic content by human beings, its
concept has been formalized, elaborated, articulated, and systematized only with the growth
and development of philosophy. ...
 Greek Philosophers

3. How do St. Thomas view natural law?

- The natural law is comprised of those precepts of the eternal law that govern the
behavior of beings possessing reason and free will. The first precept of the natural
law, according to Aquinas, is the somewhat vacuous imperative to do well and avoid
evil.
4. Explain love as the basic law a person’s humanity?
- Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. 1. The purpose of this Basic Law is to
protect human dignity and liberty, in order to establish in a Basic Law the values of the
State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. ... All persons are entitled to protection
of their life, body and dignity.

F. ABORTION AND HUMAN LIFE

1. What is the position of the church on abortion? Why must we accept this
position?
- The Roman Catholic Church has consistently condemned abortion — the direct and
purposeful taking of the life of the unborn child. In principle, Catholic Christians believe
that all life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent
human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. The Church teaches, "Human life
is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains
for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the
Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for
himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being" ("Donum vitae," 5).
2. What role does human dignity play in the issue of abortion?
- Human dignity as a reason to allow government to restrict abortion, 3 while.....
Illuminates interpretive problems that courts will encounter as judges try to..... And
coalition each played a role in the evolution of the woman-protective antiabortion.

G. EUTHANASIA AND CONSCIENCE?

1. Why is human life valuable?

- What makes human life valuable, anyway? Is it worth it when weary doctors labor for
16 or 18 hours to save someone’s life? Why bother to screen thousands of people
looking for a bone marrow donor to save just one person’s life? Do you ever wonder
what motivates people to risk their lives to save the life of someone else?
I’ve been pondering that question, and as I do so my thoughts go back to 1987. I was in
Dallas, Texas the weekend an 18-month-old girl was rescued from an abandoned well
after a 57-hour ordeal that captured the heart of people all over the world. Still in my file
is the front page of The Dallas Morning News with the headline emblazoned across it in
bold letters, “Baby Jessica freed from well.”

2. Explain the principle of the Stewardship argument?

- In a recent blog on stewardship we asked the question, “What does stewardship look
like in our lives today?” Unfortunately many Christians today only associate the idea of
stewardship with sermons they have heard about church budgets and building
programs.

But for us at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, the idea of biblical stewardship is
about something much more expansive. We believe it is where the concepts of faith,
work and economics intersect.

Bill Peel over at The High Calling recently wrote an excellent essay entitled Leadership
Is Stewardship. His essay can help us build a framework to begin unpacking this biblical
idea of stewardship.

3. Why is euthanasia wrong?

- Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and are therefore of intrinsic
worth or value, beyond all prices. Almost all Christian pro-life arguments spring from the
fountain of personal dignity. Euthanasia would make moral sense only if it were possible
to say, morally, that this dignity had vanished. To commit euthanasia is to act with the
specific intention that somebody should be nobody. This is the fundamental error of all
immorality in human relations. To commit euthanasia is to fail to see the intrinsic worth
or dignity of the person. The judgement that what has worth, intrinsically, somehow does
not have worth, is both logically and morally wrong. The ethics of euthanasia is based on
dualistic anthropology and wrong moral presuppositions underlying the defense of
euthanasia, namely, proportionalism and consequentialism. The basic claim of
proponents of the ethics of euthanasia is that human persons are consciously
experiencing subjects whose dignity consists of their ability to made choices and to
determine their own lives. Bodily life, according to them, is a condition for personal life
because without bodily life one cannot be a consciously experiencing subject. It means
that bodily life is distinct from personal life. Thus, the body and bodily life are
instrumental goods, goods for the person, not goods of the person. It thus follows that
there can be such a thing as a life not worth living--one can judge that bodily life itself is
useless or burdensome, and when it is, the person, i.e., the consciously experiencing
subject, is at liberty to free himself of this useless burden. Today a key in fighting
euthanasia and assisted suicide is better care for the sick and dying. The dignity of the
sick cannot be erased by illness and suffering. Such procedures are not private
decisions; they affect the whole society. Death with dignity, in the end, is the realization
that human beings are also spiritual beings. We have to promote the way of caring for
the dying in which mercy is extended to the patients without inducing death.
H. GENETICS AND HUMAN DIGNITY

1. What is Genetics?

- The scientific study of heredity. Genetics pertains to humans and all other organisms.
So, for example, there is human genetics, mouse genetics, fruit fly genetics, etc.

2. What the dangers are there in genetic science?

- Long with excitement, the rapid progress of research has also raised questions about
the consequences of biotechnology advances. Biotechnology may carry more risk than
other scientific fields: microbes are tiny and difficult to detect, but the dangers are
potentially vast. Further, engineered cells could divide on their own and spread in the
wild, with the possibility of far-reaching consequences. Biotechnology could most likely
prove harmful either through the unintended consequences of benevolent research or
from the purposeful manipulation of biology to cause harm. One could also imagine
messy controversies, in which one group engages in an application for biotechnology
that others consider dangerous or unethical.

3. Explain: “The embryo from the Christian’s point of view is already fully human,
to use the embryo therefore is a violation of the human dignity. Person’s cannot
be reduced to a mere function to benefit others’’.

- he Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been approached by various
Episcopal Conferences or individual Bishops, by theologians, doctors and scientists,
concerning biomedical techniques which make it possible to intervene in the initial phase
of the life of a human being and in the very processes of procreation and their conformity
with the principles of Catholic morality. The present Instruction, which is the result of
wide consultation and in particular of a careful evaluation of the declarations made by
Episcopates, does not intend to repeat all the Church's teaching on the dignity of human
life as it originates and on procreation, but to offer, in the light of the previous teaching of
the Magisterium, some specific replies to the main questions being asked in this regard.
The exposition is arranged as follows: an introduction will recall the fundamental
principles, of an anthropological and moral character, which are necessary for a proper
evaluation of the problems and for working out replies to those questions; the first part
will have as its subject respect for the human being from the first moment of his or her
existence; the second part will deal with the moral questions raised by technical
interventions on human procreation; the third part will offer some orientations on the
relationships between moral law and civil law in terms of the respect due to human
embryos and fetuses* and as regards the legitimacy of techniques of artificial
procreation.

I. RIGHTS AND ANIMAL WELFARE

1. What is animal liberation?

- “Animal Liberation” may sound more like a parody of other liberation movements than a
serious objective. The idea of “The Rights of Animals” actually was once used to parody
the case for women’s rights. When Mary Wollstonecraft published her Vindication of the
Rights of Women in 1792, her views were widely regarded as absurd, and before long,
 an anonymous publication appeared entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes. The
author of this satirical work (now known to have been Thomas Taylor, a distinguished
Cambridge philosopher) tried to refute Mary Wollstonecraft’s arguments by showing that
they could be carried one stage further. If the argument for equality was sound when
applied to women, why should it not be applied to dogs, cats, and horses? …

2. Why do we have to respect the right of animals live?

- Because every living things in this world is very special create of God. Respect and
love to give them.

J. MORAL OBLIGATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE/CRISIS

1. Why is environmental degradation a moral problem?

- Environmental degradation is a moral problem if it has the potential to harm anyone. It

certainly has the power to do that, even without considering the harm we do to other
species by driving them to extinction.

2. What is deep ecology?

- All beings belong to the universal community of life. Through respecting and honoring
our innate interconnection with all life forms, we can rediscover a human mode of being
in alignment with the natural world. This goes far beyond nourishing ecosystems for our
own benefit and survival. Through researching interspecies communication, trustful
contact and cooperation with plants, animals and all beings, we learn how to heal our
relationship with life and how we can restore landscapes and produce food in
collaboration.

3. What is our moral responsibility to the environment?

- They are views as ends in themselves regardless of whether they are also useful as
means to other ends. In addition to any such value.
Therefore, it has value in his or her own right independently of his or her prospects for
serving the ends of others.

4. What is climate change?

- Climate change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system that
persists for several decades or longer—usually at least 30 years. These statistical
properties include averages, variability and extremes. Climate change may be due to
natural processes, such as changes in the Sun’s radiation, volcanoes or internal
variability in the climate system, or due to human influences such as changes in the
composition of the atmosphere or land use.

5. Why are highly industrialized countries such as the US responsible for climate
change?
-Humans are pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at an accelerating rate. But
climate change is a cumulative problem, a function of the total amount of greenhouse gases that
have accumulated in the sky. Some of the heat-trapping gases in the air right now date back to
the Industrial Revolution. And since that time, some countries have pumped out vastly more
carbon dioxide than others.

The wonderful folks at Carbon Brief have put together a great visual of how different countries
have contributed to climate change since 1750. The animation shows the cumulative carbon
dioxide emissions of the top emitters and how they’ve changed over time.

6. Differentiate inter- generation justice from intra generation justice?

- The principle of sustainability contains two objectives of justice regarding the conservation and
use of ecosystems and their services: (1) global justice between different people of the present
generation (`intergenerational justice'); (2) justice between people of different generations
(`intergenerational justice'). Three hypotheses about their relationship — independency,
facilitation and rivalry — are held in the political and scientific sustainability discourse. Applying
the method of qualitative content analysis to important political documents and the scientific
literature, we reveal six determinants underlying the different hypotheses: quantity and quality of
ecosystem services, population development, and substitutability of ecosystem services,
technological progress, institutions and political restrictions.
 Principles of
guidance and
values education

Rodelito a. guinto
iv-beed

dra. Gloria santos

professor