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.