Ethics (Virtues pa din) 09/11/14

To be virtuous is to be excellent

Excellence means virtue

Aristotle gave reasons:

- Virtue is that what makes us capable of excellent work

o We ourselves are excellent, we possess excellence
o Writer can produce a literary piece because he has excellence the capabilities to write or
produce literary pieces
o Excellence is the eye
- How do we achieve this?
o In everything that can be measured to a certain extent, it’s possible to take more or less
or unequal amount or right amount (but it is better to take not too much not too little =
excellent)
 can be measured either based on the thing we’re dealing with or based on the
thing that can be relative to us
o 2 types of the Intermediate
 Objective intermediate – measured by arithmetic. It won’t vary, it is universal
(easy,)
 Relative to you and me – not according to arithmetic proportion, it’s relative
 In the case of eating, the right amount cannot be the same as all of us,
not calculated, no specific right amount similar to everyone else, each
has its own amount, it doesn’t simply fit, we cannot apply
mathematical proportion what is right for us.
 Being virtues has to do with relativity, not easy to find the intermediate
which is relative to us. (What’s excellent to you and me… it is difficult)
hard to find what is best for us. Not possible for us to be morally perfect
actions
 Augustine – will – inordinate desire, you know you should be preparing
for the exam but you don’t like
- If the intermediate is excellent it is something perfect
o Why? Because it is not too much and too little, if you subtract something from it, it will
become defective
o Virtue is more exact, virtue has the quality of being perfect ( not too much or little and
anything cannot be subtracted from it or add since it is already perfect )
o Thomas Aquinas ADDED WHAT IS BETTER
 If virtue is the intermediate of us, it must be the intermediate that has
something related to you and me
 Intermediate we’re talking about is concerned with passions and actions, those
who belong to you and me
 We can measure our actions and passions to a certain extent and identify an
intermediate for them
 Not good that we’re too afraid and not good we’re too confident, or too angry
  That the intermediate is talking about, not only the increasing decreasing of the
act of passion.
 Intermediate is rightfully due to a certain time, place, person so on and so forth
(impossible for us to determine the virtue isolated from specific circumstances)
(excellent)
 We consider this scheme when it comes to emotions and passion –
 Virtues = excellent, praiseworthy
 determine the intermediate through time, place and people
- Excellent determine the intermediate
o One way – the way that avoid the defective and the excessive meaning between the
intermediate. There is only one why to perfection but there are 2 ways to failure
 The defective
 The excessive
 To be easy = failure
 To be difficult – success
- Excellence inside of us is a kind of character / identity (something that we have engrave, shape,
formed in us)
o We can educate ourselves if we want to,, we can direct our temperaments to our
strengths than weaknesses if we want to
o Character that is habituated to aiming at excellence (anytime, anywhere)
 Trying to be excellence at any place, any time
o VIRTUE CONCERNED WITH CHOICE, YOU CHOOSE IT, YOU WILL IT, it doesn’t happen by
itself,
o Tools to determine the intermediate
o Rational principle determines the intermediate; practical wisdom has to the something
with practical intellect
o INTELLECT AND WILL THAT ENABLES US TO FIND AND HIT THE INTERMEDIATE
- Everything can be become excellent, what we can be excellent in us is through our actions and
excellent but is it possible to become perfect?
o Not every action and passion admits of the mean.
o Aristotle: spite, envy, adultery, murder, they’re very nature are bad
 These passion and actions are not excess and defects but in themselves bad
 Passions can be bad by excessive or deficit use.
 No time, no person, no motive for shamelessness
 Action: adultery – no person for adultery, no time and no motive, can be
an excess or deficit
o Absurd – how can you have a mean of an excess of an excess
o Temperance – cannot find the excess and defects because it is already THE mean

Note: Virtue – singular way to goodness, Vices – multiple ways to badness

Not all passions can be excellent because there are instances that it can be bad in itself.

The intermediate
CHAPTER 8

3 types of character

1. Excellent – not too much

2. Defective
3. Excessive

- All are one in a sense as oppose to all

o Right way of talking, eating, TALKATIVE IS AGAINT THE MEAN
 BRAVE MAN knows what is THE INTERMEDIATE, BUT THE COWARD THINKS THE
BRAVE MAN EITHER EXCESSIVE OR DEFECTIVE because he does not know what
is the intermediate
 CONSIDER THE PERSON, THE TIME AND PLACE. EXAMINE: IS IT APPROPRIATE TO
A CERTAIN PERSON, TIME AND PLACE
 CHOOSE OUR FRIENDS THOSE WHO CAN MAKE US THINK PROPERLY.

CHAPTER 9

Moral virtue is a mean since it aims for the intermediate

It is the intellect that instructs and the will that executes the instruction

INTELLECT – CRITIL THINKING OR RESEARCH AND ADVICE THE WILL

WILL – EXECUTION

Intellectual Virtues

- In order to work properly, one must do a thing not so much not too little
o Understanding
 Habit of the intellect
 Opposed to overthinking
 Being straightforward to intellect grasps, don’t overthink with
complicated variations
 See
o Knowledge
 Requires some kind of method (require deduction and induction)
 Situation cannot be self-evident
 SCIENCE PREFERS TO ETHICS
o Art
 Habit of the mind that allows you and me to identify the most efficient means
to an end
o Wisdom
 What is the ultimate benefit, what may be the consequences?
 o Prudence
 Both a moral and intellectual virtues.
 Function: we get to identify the right time, place, and person (being habitual to
find the right things)
 EXCESS AND DEFECTS HAS MANY FORMS – we identify the right time is too
much, at dahil too much you’re wasting time already.
 You write and write but it’s still not yet done.
 The best is the enemy of the good. You are always targeting the best
and you fail to target what is good

Moral virtues – will – strongest desire = to possess the good, hard for the will to let go of good things

o Justice
 The habit of giving what is due
 The will has a desire that needs to be tempered
o Temperance

o Fortitude
o Prudence

09/18/2014 MORAL VIRTUES

Someone who is excellent can produce something excellent

Excellent person = works of the person = reveal the excellence of the person

Capable of excellent work = excellence in passions and actions

Virtue and excellence is never genetic

It is something we develop in ourselves by choice

Philo Anthropology - We cannot will everything

We cannot make ourselves feel happy if we are in a situation it is really freighting

Aristotle: We can be virtuous through actions and passions

- Referring to our response to what we feel

- We have action how to be sad in sorrow times
- It is what we can control

Virtues – not mathematically computed, it must be the human person itself

Standard of virtue is Reasonability – what is most reasonable

Measured? According to the condition of the person

For this to work we need 2 rational faculties namely intellect and will
Will – Moral Virtues

Justice – resides in the will of the human person

- Its object is not the person, not the individual that possess it but to another
- Directed to another person
- Habit of giving
- Emphasize the giving what is due to the goodness of another
- 3 TYPES OF JUSTICE
o Commutative – habit of giving what is due to someone who is just like us
 It’s about what we owe to an “other”
 You give what you owe to an individual
o Legal – the habit of giving of what we owe to the state
 Doing our duty as citizens
 Registered voter, you vote, You work, you pay taxes
o Distributive – what the state owes to its citizens
 Parents: habit of giving what is due to their children

Fortitude – belongs to virtue, directed to oneself

- It is found in the Irascible appetite

o Reverse of concupiscible
o Driven away that is perceive to be pleasant
o But not all good things are pleasurable and easy, some are difficult
- There must be a way to dominate irascible appetite
- Manager of irascible appetite for the sake of the good
- Difficulty or challenge
- Tendency to dislike exams and quizzes, fort helps us to face difficulties for the sake of the good
- To insist of what is good despite difficulties and challenges
- The mean between fear and confidence
o Not being too afraid, not being too bold in facing a difficulty
o Boldness is actually cowardice according to Aristotle since it lacks proper reasoning
- Auxiliary virtues for Fortitude
o Patience – assists fort it allows you to wait for the right time to comfront evil to
achieve good, as we wait we endure the difficulty and we fix our gaze on the good that
we really want
o Perseverance – insisting on what is good, despite of difficulties, we still go on to achieve
the good
o Magnanimity – special kind of fortitude that inclines us to do good deeds,
 take risks for the sake of a good,
 it is also measured – Aristotle since it is not a blind act

Temperance – is a kind of excellence that reside in a faculty of the human person that is not yet
determined

- Found in an appetite of the person

 o Concupiscible appetite
 The desire for anything pleasureable, comfortable, nice
 Anything that perceives to be pleasure
- GOAL: WE MAY DESIRE RIGHTFULLY WHAT IS THE GOOD OR PLEASURABLE
o Too much desire, we forget what is rightfully
- RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT PURPOSE, RIGHT INTENTION, RIGHT WAY TO ACHIEVE
- AIMS TO MAKE YOU AND I FREE TO PURSUE PLEASURE
o SIMPLY POINTING US THE RIGHT TIME, WAY OF DOING PLEASURE FOR A RIGHT REASON
AND MANNER
- HELPS US TO PLACE SOMETHING IN OUR HEART
- WITHOUT TEMPERANCE WE ONLY SEE THE UTILE AND DECTABELE AND FORGOT HONESTUM
WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT GOOD OF ALL (FORGETTING TO LOVE)
- How to assert ourselves
- We’re the ones who perform a certain pleasure
- Sight: on you way to school, love to look at this building, so nice to look at,concupiscible
appetite to look at it
o You try to control it
o We can tell ourselves when to achieve enjoyment, we can schedule it since we control
our concupiscible appetite
o We are not slaves of our concuscipble appitite
 Don’t want to hear people, youre trying to be too good, we’re afraid of that
discomfort, we abort to

Prudence

- Lodged in the intellect

- Do what is right in a right place, time, person and manner
- THIS IS ABOUT DOING

Higher power – rational – difficult to manage = MORAL VIRTUES

Lower power – passions – not so difficult

Lower appetite – temperance and fortitude

Higher – justice and prudence

09/29/14

Virtues

Aristotle – virtues is the intermediate of actions and passions

To be virtuous is to be

Not easy to be virtuous, flexible in every ways

Target is not fixed

Targeting the intermediate

Virtuous man targets the intermediate and it is moving all the time

Balance our actions and passions according to our own status

Balance things according to one’s status

Target of the virtue is moving this is why it is difficult

David Hume – contributions – idea of morally intuition

- Sensitivity to the intermediate

Feelings are not always reliable, it must be coupled with reason

To be virtuous is to be habituated to what is reasonable

These 4 are hinges that will turn us into excellent person, turn someone into an excellent person
through their habits

Aristotle – not all passions and actions can be excellent

THEY ARE ALL INTERDEPENT

- They are all together all the time

Virtues

- We don’t achieve them absolutely, we achieve them in degrees

- We achieve the habit of 4 in degrees
- No one is absolutely morally good or degenerate

According to Aristotle:

The mean is gentleness

- Confront the person

Deficiency – spiritlessness

- You do something bad, you are not bothered by it

Excess – irascibility

- You get too angry

Self-Masters equates to FREEDOM

The human person is autonomous meaning self-ruling

- One should be free from enslavement

- A true human person
We cannot perfect the 4 by ourselves, we need the cooperation of the people around us

- We need this in forging the virtues

ALWAYS REMEMBER.. THE 4 ARE INTERDEPENDENT WITH EACH OTHER

- IF YOU HAVE PRUDENCE, YOU ALSO HAVE FORTITUDE, TEMPERANCE AND JUSTICE

10/02/14

Experimentation can be allowable since it can be for the benefit for the human person..

- To know the side effects

- To know the ailments

But not sure about it, not know what can be the effects, they must be ready for compensation

Clear Benefit of the participants and must outweigh the bad side effects

Violation of the dignity of the human person = PREMARITAL SEX

Chapter 5

Comparing cultures

Cultural difference

- Moral essentials do not change in spite of difference in culture

- Hello paul! Boo is watching you O______________________O
- Cultural difference as an excuse to do certain actions
- No total absence of common value (exposed differently)
- Sometimes the difference is not about discarding of the value just because the value is not
applicable
- Value of education not absent, not extended because the rest cannot consider rightful or fit for
liberal education
- Not right to morally judge other cultures because we do not practice them
- Keep moral judgments within the boundaries of our culture

3 important cautions when doing cultural criticism

1. Understanding is no substitute for moral judgment

a. Spartans whip children to toughen them up
i. However there are many ways
2. Essential quality of an action does not change from time to time and place to place
a. Time and place would not alter the quality of moral actions
 i. Murder is murder to day and in the past
ii. Aztec did = immoral
iii. Not allow women to go to school = immoral
iv. Making human person as slaves = immoral
v. Reality does not change
vi. What is wrong is wrong
vii. Wrongness not affected by time and place
3. Culpability is moral responsibility

10/08/14

Comparing cultures

- Time cannot alter the quality of a moral action

o Knowledge and understanding of actions that changes and not the nature of actions
o Avoid judging people and judge actions instead

Chapter 6

Basic criteria for judgment

This chapter explains that moral analysis must be done

Moral Reasoning (end-means reasoning in the light of Natural Moral Law which is universal)

David Hume – knowledge cannot translate into ought (Moral Principle)

- We should not kill and steal

Adler argued that this may be possible but we are capable of moral reasoning..

Therefore we are capable of formulating certain oughts of those which must be done

- There are those who are good because it fits to us as human persons

Challenges to judgment – some to be considered

1. We must try to avoid absolutism

a. We try to be too formalistic
b. We cannot fully apply these moral principles meaning there will always be exemptions
c. Some actions are exempted
d. It still depends on the three sources of morality – Object, Intention, Circumstance
i. Final analysis… all the goods of the earth belongs to everyone
e. Absolutism is about applying strictly moral principles completely anytime, anywhere
without regarding the possibility of exemptions

Different types of consequences

Obligations:

- Can be legal, moral, social, professional

- Some of them compete with one another
- Moral obligations are always higher than the other obligations
- The end of the other obligations point to the ultimate end of moral obligation

Moral ideals

- Are usually the cardinal virtues

- In the final analysis, moral ideals is the same with moral obligations

Consequences (filtering of consequences to yield the favorable ones)

10/09/14

MORAL ANALYSIS REQUIRES THOUROUGHNESS

Intention can never be visible to us..

Just the circumstances

We have to be flexible in our judgments.. avoid absolutizing our statements

We do not make absolute statements

Mathematically certainty is impossible in ethics..

We should not be so harsh in our decisions and judgments

Very quick in judgment – we must know and analyze the details first and evaluate them carefully

Ruggiero proposed that we look into obligations, moral ideals and consequences

BASIC CRITERIA

Obligations

- Duty
- Some are natural duties
- You and I have will meaning we are rational
- We are expected to be reasonable all the time
o Reasonable to ourselves and reasonable to others
- Duty can be something contracted
o One imposed by nature – nothing we can do about it

- CONTRACTED OBLIGATION
 o Two: there are those which are contracted – BY AGREEMENT
 You enrolled in school, you have obligations as a student
 ALL ABOUT CONTRACT
- We deal with people who have obligations which are either natural and contracted
- Obligation of friendship
o Contracted
o FRIENDSHIP ENTAILS MUTUAL RESPECT
o REQURIES ONE TO BE TRUSTWORTHY, PROVIDED MORAL SUPPORT WHEN IT IS NEEDED
o WE CAN KEEP SECRETS BUT WE DO NOT HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO DO EVIL… JUST
CORRECT
o OBLIGATION IS REASONABLE TO DO = IT IS TO OUGHT
o Duty is the inverse of right
o Professional Obligations – obligations as lawyers, surgeons, teachers, doctors
o Obligations can be in conflict
 Case of giving a recommendation to a specific person
 There is this student asked for recommendation – student does not do
well – teacher must have the obligation to be truthful
 We try to fulfill all of the obligations

MORAL IDEAL

- A kind of perfection that you and I want

- Kind of excellence that we are trying to strive for
- Many times these ideals are virtues – moral (prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance )and
theology (Augustine – faith hope and charity)
-
- Ideals can be in conflict
o Kindergarten boy from a poor family rides the bus on his way home,
 TRY TO HONOR ALL – BE KIND, BE COMPASSIONATE AND BE HONEST
 Must think of what is the best ideal
- Moral perfection is not an everyday requirement
o Start with the good, try to be better and strive for the best = best strategy
 Case:

Consequences

- These are the effects of the actions that you choose

- These can be beneficial: - others are physical, others emotional
- Some occur immediately, some happens through time
- Some are obvious, some are hidden
- We can never be 100% sure of the future, what is probable lang..
- Most that I can imagine is the probable
o Probable? Because it is the element of human freedom
o Events in the future are 100% unpredictable because we are free
- Difficult questions about consequences
 o A good consequence may never justify an evil means
o Apply the principle of double effect
o We choose the one of what we ctt populatan do, we must be very realistic, which one
we can really do and accomplish given the time and circumstances. If each one has a
good consequence, pick the better, honorable and beneficial consequence but make
sure you will be able to do it

MORAL ANALYSIS

- First step is to gather and study the details = moral analysis should be thorough, try our best to
be well-informed before we judge, speculate details
- We look closely to circumstances – our tendency is to consider cases as if they happen before
and we pass a ready judgment = usual attitude, we over simplify
- Step 2: Identify moral ideals
o Pay attention to details
- Writer: obligations to your reader, must be honest, pleasant, factual, unique, not plagiarized =
moral ideals
- Step 3: Determine possible courses of action
- Step 4: decide which action is ethical
o Ethical – fulfills most number of obligations and more ideals honored = most benefit
- IF DETAILS ARE PROVIDED – PERMISSIBLE
- IF NOT – NOT PERMISSIBLE
- WE MUST SPECULATE ON WHAT IS PROBABLE?

CONSIDERING OBLIGATIONS