Name: Sheena Mae M.

Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 1: ETHICS

Ethics is a practice common to many or a particular manner of acting and behaving. It

arms people with knowledge on the morality of human acts. However, it does not guarantee

morality on a person’s conduct and behaviour. Although people already knows what is good and

bad because of ethics and also because they are rational beings, their actions would always be

based on their morality. Take for example a woman who chose to love a man that is already

married. That particular woman is aware that her actions are wrong because she is a human

being. A creature that is capable of knowing the right thing to do but still chooses a decision that

will cause other people pain and suffering. That is the reason why we should live an ethical life.

Confining ethics would be a major tragedy because knowing what is right without actually

changing the way we behave morally is nothing but useless knowledge. “A person as a rational

being without morality is a failure”, that statement would be enough to define importance of

ethics and morality.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 2: THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS

Human acts are actions done with knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness from the

person performing the act. The morality of human acts or the goodness and badness of an act is

affected by various factors; the act itself, the motive or intention, and the circumstances

surrounding an act. There are also five modifiers of moral act or the factors and conditions that

affect the inner disposition of a person towards certain action; ignorance, passion or

concupiscence, fear, violence, and habit. Ignorance is an absence of the necessary knowledge a

person must have in performing an act and ignorance can be invincible or vincible. Invincible

ignorance is ignorance that a person have but may not be aware of having and do have a

tendency to be permanent. Vincible ignorance is a purposeful ignorance as the person voluntarily

wanted to be ignorant. Passion is a strong and powerful feeling or emotion and can affect a

person in making moral decisions and can affect the voluntariness of the person performing the

act. Fear, everyone knows fear and how it can affect man’s action but fear can also be voluntary

and involuntary. Acts done with fear are voluntary since the person performing the act is still in

control of his actions, example killing a man whom you are afraid to have relationship with your

wife. Acts done because of fear are involuntary as the person performing the act is under panic

and does not know if he did it or not, example accidentally killing a person who tries to stab you.

Habit is a constant way of doing things acquired by repetition of the same act. Habit can be

voluntary if the person performing the act since habit includes approval of the consequences

which the person is well aware from the very beginning. It can be involuntary in the case where

the person is exerting an effort to fight the habit.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 3: ETHICAL RELATIVISM AND THE AMBIVALENCE OF FILIPINO

CULTURE

Ethical Relativism is a theory that states ethical values and beliefs are relative to the time

place, persons, situations and societies that hold them. In ethical relativism there are no

universally valid moral principles, all moral values are therefore are relative to ones culture or

individual choice. Its states that the morality of an action is decided upon which a society a

person belongs to. What is moral for one culture may not be for another but I don’t think I can

agree with that because each person knows how things must be as they are especially for those

things that carry heavy moral accountability actions. I think universal truths may not be present

in the society but is from an individual. Take for example Uganda, in a documentary I have seen

in youtube, some people in Uganda are eating flesh of their neighbors and the government

themselves are not doing anything about it because maybe they do not concern it as a serious

crime due to the poverty in the area. The people in the area are just accepting that it happens and

they hide in fear in their houses as the night comes. There is one person there interviewed and

admitted himself that he used to eat a dead person. He was asked if what he thinks about it and

told the interviewer that he knows that it is bad. Each person knows what is moral but just

ignores it because they see the society agree with it.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 4: NATURAL LAW ETHICS

In natural law ethics humans have wisdom to know how things must be. The natures of

things need not to be explained because humans have the capacity to know and understand what

morality demands. In contrast with ethical relativism, the morality of a person is not dependent

on anything other than the nature of life of a human being. To simply say natural law is universal

and everyone is obliged to follow it. Although human beings have wisdom I still don’t

understand some people. Those people who choses to disrespect others even in when they are

sane, what is going on with their mind? Those fathers who catcall teenagers, aren’t they ashamed

to their family? Their own daughters? Aren’t they concerned if what if their child will be

disrespected?

I also agree with natural law theory that being homosexual is natural and I do like the fact

that they are not seen as someone disgusting nowadays, except for those who do not give respect

to their selves. As if they chose to be like that. We don’t know what they feel and we don’t know

how it feels to be someone you don’t want to be. Why do people judge them? Why don’t they let

them be who they are? As if they will be harmed if someone is homosexual. I’m not homosexual

and I don’t think I will be in the future but I just don’t like people judging those homosexual.

Why can’t people concern themselves with their selves?

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 5: UTILITARIANISM

Morality in utilitarianism is judged upon the consequence of the act and whether it brings

pleasure to the majority. When utilitarianism is only based on the result of the act, does it mean

to ignore moral obligation in making decisions? It must not be ignored because moral obligation

is unconditional and morality does not change regardless of the situation and that is the weakness

part I think of the war on drugs of the president. Yes he do care about the majority, but killing is

absolutely wrong. Killing someone will not be justified unless for self defense, but killing is

absolutely not right. But in my opinion, I think it’s the right thing to do. It is wrong and unjust

but just thinking about the possible lives that will be ruined just because of those minority, just

thinking about children being abused and raped because of those minority loses my morality.
Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 6: MORAL VALUE

Value constitutes the character of a person. The moral quality of an act that a person

performs is dependent on the values that the person has so values are foundational. Although

human person is restricted by his freedom, he can always make the right decision based on the

values he has. Being a person is a value in itself as the value of human life does not depend on

our capacity and usefulness since we are not things but our moral worth depends on our

uniqueness as a person. It depends on how we act and how value other people. Human dignity

constitutes our value as a human being. Human dignity is inherent but always depends on how

we act.
Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 7: SOCIAL JUSTICE

For Rawls, the general conception of justice consists of one central idea that all social

primary goods are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution any is to the advantage

of the least favoured but not by removing all inequalities. Some inequalities benefit everyone and

at the same time will not disadvantage anyone. Social primary goods are broken down into three

parts by lexical priority in order to make a system of priority in the theory; liberty principle, fair

equality of opportunity, difference principle. For the liberty principle, each person is to have an

equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar

system of liberty for all. For the fair equality of opportunity, social and economic inequalities are

to be arranged so that they are both to the the benefit of least advantaged and attached to offices

and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. The difference

principle creates fairness when inequalities are resulted by choices and not by circumstances.
Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 8: DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

In deontological ethics morality is based on the fulfilment of our duty and that duty is

linked with our nature, which is to be rational. The goodness in our actions is governed by moral

obligation and that moral obligation in performed in accordance to the inner law of the will. Will

is a law by itself, it empowers the agent with the capacity to legislate moral law and as rational

being moral law is something that comes from within. That is why there is no such thing as bad

will because human beings are intended to do good. A person is required to do good otherwise he

will violate his capacity to self-rule.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 9: THE COMMON GOOD

The idea of common good refers to what is of value to a particular society. People as a

community is bounded by the same history, tradition, and concepts of right and wrong. Justice as

fundamental moral principle is rooted in the solidarity of people (community). In common good,

there is no such thing as universal theory of justice as it is embodied in every culture and that

there is no way to rise above it because no person is above the law. Common good as a way of

life leads to a good life.

For communitarians, a person’s responsibility to his nations way of life is supreme

because the self is viewed as a social identity. The self is empty and the society forms the

individual and the way he sees human values. The self carries the traits of social practices that is

why the self embodies a social identity.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 10: MORAL VIRTUE

Virtue, according to Aristotle is built from practical wisdom or the knowledge of good. A

moral virtue is the capacity to be excellent in doing things. Moral wisdom does not emanate from

a single act but comes from the practice of good. It is grounded in the way a person lives, thus

constituting his moral character. The virtue of man will be the state of character which makes a

man good and makes him do his own work well. The self can achieve perfection through

phronesis or the practice of good. Character is human beings ability to make choices in such a

way that his actions are neither excessive or inadequate.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 11: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is the capacity of people to expand the freedoms they enjoy. The

evaluation of equality must not only be about resources but about how people actually live.

Depression, destitution, and oppression all suggest that the inability of people to live decently is

due to their inability to actualize their primary freedoms, thus poverty is about the lack of

capacity of the people to choose the things they have reason to value. The well being of freedom

of individuals in a family depend on how much income is used in furtherance of the interests and

objectives of the family.

Name: Sheena Mae M. Flores
Subject: Philo 107

CHAPTER 12: GENEALOGY OF MORALS (FIRST ESSAY PART 10)

The section 10 in the first essay the genealogy of morals talks about the two fundamental

types of morality (or two moral systems); master morality and slave morality. Master morality is

the morality of the strong willed, those who value pride, strength and nobility. They measure

good as everything that is helpful and bas as everything that is harmful. They view the weak as

coward and bad and those who are noble, strong and powerful as good. The essense of master

morality is nobility, which values open mindedness, courage, truthfulness, trust and accurate

sense of self-worth. The noble experiences itself as values determining, they judge what is good

and bad, they are value creators, and their self is the measure of all moral truth. The slave

morality is the opposition to what master morality values as good. They wait for the resulting

values created by masters that is why they are passive.