Ethics

Ethics
Living virtuously in a changing world.

Living virtuously in a changing world.

ANGELO BAUTISTA | JOSIE ALMADRIGO

Published and Distributed by

ANGELO BAUTISTA | JOSIE ALMADRIGO

ñaque City
Tel. #: 260-0037
Email: JTCAPublishing@yahoo.com
 Our sincerest gratitude to the Supreme Being and the
Ethics people who had made this book possible. To the Almighty God,
Living virtuously in a changing world.
for the sustenance of strength, the outpouring of wisdom, and
Copyright 2018 His never-ending guidance. He is the Force and the Source of all
ANGELO BAUTISTA | JOSIE ALMADRIGO that is in this book. To the respective families of the writers, for
their unfailing support and understanding during the course of
the completion of the whole book. Special acknowledgement is
also given to PATTS College of Aeronautics for the opportunity,
specifically to the Social Sciences Department headed by Mr.
Eugene B. Cruz II. Many thanks are given to our students for
serving as the inspiration behind the writing of this book. To our
friends and loved ones, and to all the people who have made the
process all worthwhile, this book is written for all of them.

The Authors

Published & Distributed by:

ñaque City
Tel. #: 260-0037
Email: JTCAPublishing@yahoo.com

iii |
 UNIT I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
Ethics, Philosophy & the Human Life …………… 1

UNIT II: Man: The Moral Agent

Chapter 1 Man & His Virtue …………………………….. 16
Chapter 2 Man’s Freedom & Reason ……………………. 31
Chapter 3 Man & Culture ………………………………… 45

UNIT III: The Acts of Man

Chapter 4 Critical Thinking ……………………………… 60
Chapter 5 Utilitarian Ethics & Man’s Notion of
Justice and Rights ..………………………. 73
Chapter 6 Man & The Natural Law .…………………….. 87
Chapter 7 Virtue Ethics: Seeking Happiness
and Purpose ……………………………… 103

iv | v|
 Ethics Living virtuously in a changing world
presents the course in a clear and straightforward
manner appropriate for the 21st century learners. It
discusses the principles of ethical behavior in the
modern society at the level of the person, society, and
interaction with the environment and other shared
resources. As a response to the global reality of
morality, this book hinges on the standards of right and
wrong based on what an individual originally picks up
from the community. It is for these reasons that this
book was formulated to teach students to make moral
decisions by using dominant moral frameworks and by
applying a seven-step moral reasoning model to
analyze and solve moral dilemmas.
This book is essentially Outcomes-Based in that
it aims to achieve student learning competencies that
will develop their capability to make sound ethical
judgments based on principles, facts and sensitivity to
the common good. At the end of the course, the
students will be able to realize the challenges to ethical
behavior in today’s world and respond to an
increasingly pluralist and individualist globalized
world.

vi | vii |
 UNIT I
INTRODUCTION to ETHICS and PHILOSOPHY

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=ethics+and+philosophy&rlz=1C1CHBD_enPH767PH767&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved
=0ahUKEwjj95nJqNDeAhUMjLwKHe6EDqoQ_AUIDigB#imgdii=K5gefDa-4h7gRM:&imgrc=4NF5Ai3cRz3yMM:

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do

and what is right to do.”

- Potter Stewart
Justice of the Supreme Court

viii | 1 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy


INTRODUCTION:
Ethics, Philosophy and the Human Life
At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:
1. define Ethics as a philosophical study.
2. explain the role of ethical thinking in human lives.
3. define and explain the terms that are relevant to ethical thinking.
“Let me begin by putting it bluntly: The war against illegal drugs is
far from over,” Duterte said two minutes into his 48-minute speech
during his third State of the Nation Address last July 23, 2018. Current
statistics point to the number of the victims of the said drug war.
According to the Philippine National Police (PNP) documents obtained
by the Press in the Philippines, 4540 drug suspects have been shot dead
in anti-drug operations, all presumed by cops to have fought back, or in
native Filipino slang, nanlaban. The data cover the period from July 1,
2016 to June 30, 2018. It has also been reported that there were 149,265
people arrested and 1,274,148 who surrendered. This does not include
figures from operations of other law enforcement agencies like the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). The PDEA's
#RealNumbersPH tallying initiative that was updated on June 30, 2018
gave a death toll of 4,354.
For some sectors of the society, these numbers are considered high
and sometimes alarming. Some, on the other hand, clamor that these
numbers are just and in order for the society and the country to be safe,
clean and be clear of drugs. In a nutshell, the war is mostly backed up
by the support of the people. This is not surprising since in our every-
day news, we also see how violence is perpetuated and caused by drug
addicts and people who are under the influence of illegal drugs.
Interestingly, it has been known that in these statistics, there is a portion
that the Philippine National Police refer to as “Collateral Damage.”
This includes people and properties who are not intended to be part of
the operation but are caught unguarded and thus, affected by the
2 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
operations, or worst, shot unknowingly, dead. There are a lot of stories
surfacing the media today that give faces to this sector.
Kian, a Grade 11 student, is one of the many faces of the drug war of
the government. The boy died in an anti-drug operation in Caloocan
City on August 16. Police said he was a drug courier. He was among
the 82 casualties of a series of "One-time, big-time" anti-drug
operations in Metro Manila and nearby province of Bulacan from
August 15 to 18. Kian is found dead in a fetal position with gunshots on
his head. Police said that the 17-year-old boy drew a firearm, which
prompted them to fire back. However, accounts from witnesses and a
closed-circuit television (CCTV) show two men in civilian clothes
dragging a boy, presumed to be Kian, across a basketball court while
other young men look on. After a series of investigations and probing
about the case, a decision released last January 29, 2017 by the
Department of Justice found a probable cause to file charges of murder
and planting of illegal drugs and firearm against the four policemen
who were responsible for the said shooting incident.
If you just stop for a while and think about it, you may simply
ponder about the real value of life. Decisions and actions cannot be
undone, and anytime, you can be a victim of someone’s inability to
think clearly about his course of actions. Our life is never in our hands,
which will ultimately lead us to the question, “Is there any good to all
of the things that are happening around me?”
If you were to think about the state of the war on drugs in our
country today, what could be your thoughts regarding the effectivity of
this state-sponsored solution?
How much do you think about your actions and their effects
to the society, every single day? Do you still spend time to be quiet,
and reflect on your everyday actions and decisions? How important
is this time of reflection?
3 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy

Ethics and Philosophy
The Commission on Higher Education states that “ethics deals with
the principles of ethical behavior in modern society at the level of the
person, society, and in interaction with the environment and other
shared resources.” – In the unmasking portion above, we are presented
with a case that ended with a question regarding our own course of
actions. Our decisions and thoughts about the said situation will
definitely show and reveal our dispositions about life, our beliefs and
knowledge – more so, our morality.
Philosophy came from two Greek words, philein and sophia, which
translates to love and wisdom, respectively. Therefore, philosophy
simply means love for wisdom. Wisdom is a different thing from
knowledge. You can possess the knowledge of how to drive a car,
know the different signs on the road, memorize the parts of the car that
needs calibration, and yet, miss the wisdom of knowing how important
it is to drive safely and think about the people and the other cars around
you. You can top the board exam and keep in mind the important
formulas used in engineering, and yet, lack the wisdom of knowing
your purpose and disposition in life. Knowledge is defined as the
acquired skills and information vital to one’s survival, and wisdom, is
something innately acquired through experiences and reflection.
Therefore, we gain wisdom when we think deeply about things. Think
about the time when you first fell in love and felt the urge to be with
that single person in a relationship. You would show yourself, with
your best foot forward, and that you would do anything in your might
just to end up with that person. Well, that is also the case when you
want to be full of wisdom. To understand philosophy and be lovers of
wisdom, you should always do your best to chase it, and end each
experience with a new bucket of learnings and reflections.
Today’s generation is known to be the busiest of all generations.
We take on roles, from one point to the other. At home, we should be a
great kid, an obedient daughter, or a disciplined son. In some other
households, students are expected to be academic achievers. In school,
4 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
students are expected to comply with the bulk of assignments and
requirements, some even irrelevant to their course of learning. Aside
from that, you are sometimes pressured to act very much okay in front
of your professors and respect them, whatever they say and do inside
the classroom. When it comes to your group of friends, you are always
expected to go along – like what they like, do what they do, eat what
they eat, and buy what they buy. For some of you who are in a romantic
relationship, you also sometimes feel the pressure of always being there
for your partner, despite of your own personal struggles. At the helm of
all of these aspects, one may say that it is already normal to feel
abnormal and crazy. However, Socrates, as cited by Plato in The
Apology, once stated that “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
True to its sense, the many roles we play every single day may be very
difficult, but one way to carry and survive them is to examine the self.
Know your purpose, role and disposition. Most of the time, we let one
moment past so easily that we forget to reflect about it and spend even
just a short time to think about the reasons and the lessons that can be
learned from it. This is exactly what philosophy is all about. It is
thinking about the implications and the reasons behind everything. It is
asking the “Why’s” to achieve better understanding, and a better living.
It is simply a way to learn how to surf the waves of life, so much that
the next time you experience almost the same decision making
dilemmas, you get to stand up in a better way and to say and put it
straight that “I know what to do this time! Try me!”
Now that we know the relevance of philosophy and using it to
improve our living, in order to fully understand ourselves and the way
we operate on our self-made decisions and actions, we must also
understand the morals that become the basis of these decisions and
actions. This is where ethics come in. If philosophy answers the
question “Why do we live?” – Ethics tries to answer the question of
“How should I live?”
Ethics is considered to be a system of moral principles. These
principles affect how we make our everyday decisions. Ethics is
concerned about what is good for individuals and society. Some call it
moral philosophy. The term ethics came from the Greek word Ethos
which means custom, habit, character or disposition. Thus, it is both
societal, and personal. It both involves matters concerning the self, and
5 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
matters concerning the society and the environment that one lives in.
Ethics form our ethical beliefs. These beliefs are the foundation and
the root causes of the way we act as human beings. These beliefs shape
the way we live – in terms of what we do, what we make and the
society, and the larger world that we create through our personal
dispositions, decisions and choices. This ethical type of living examines
what was said by Aristotle as “a life well-lived.” – he believed that in
order to live a good life, we must connect our knowledge to our morals
and good habits, in order to make sound judgments and decisions. In a
nutshell, a life well lived is a life that is morally upright. It may seem
very profound for some, but truthfully, it is not exclusively made for
philosophers or intellectuals. It is a part of our everyday life!
Every single time you ask yourself about your actions and choices,
your questions are considered to be ethical questions. Being ethical is a
part of what defines us as human beings. We are the highest form of
beings – we are rational, thinking creatures. This is what separates us
from animals. Because unlike them, we have a say in what we do and
we decide on. We all possess the capacity to make conscious choices.
Unfortunately, some of us only make choices based on pressure, on
what is trending, what is socially accepted, which makes life dreadful.
There are many of us who lie to bed at night feeling empty even after
doing so many happy things – all because we do not really thought
about these things before doing them, and much more, because we
really do not like what we did. The truth of the matter is, we can all
make conscious ethical choices if we all wanted to.
This clearly shows us the interrelatedness of philosophy and ethics
— that in the course of trying to determine how to live life the good
way as much as possible, we also spend an amount of time to think
about the actions and decisions that we normally do, and classify
whether they are ethical, morally upright or not.
Ethical problems can be both individual and private, widespread and
systemic, involving a large number of people, and more. The distress
that these problems can cause may most of the time be real and
pervasive, leaving a number of people struck and struggling, anxious or
6 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
broken. Say for example the managers and leaders who do not think
about their workers and employees, and only care about the profit that
they can make. This compromises the welfare of a large number of
people. In here, ethics can also provide a framework for answering and
trying to find a solution to these problems as well. This helps us to be
consistent in our judgments, provide reasons for our beliefs and to
critically examine opinions without relying too much on emotions. All
in all, ethics helps us to act in a manner that accords and is in harmony
with a personal set of core values and principles.
Values and Ethics
In a more general manner, ethics is concerned about matters such as
what is good and what is bad. It examines the good that one should
always pursue and the bad that one should ideally avoid. It also
magnifies the ways in which one should and should not act. Ethics is a
subject for us to study is about determining the grounds for the values
with particular and special significance to human life.
However, in this manner, one should avoid the notion that what is
good for you may also or should be good for somebody else. This is
what we call Aesthetic Valuation – where aesthetics is derived from the
Greek word aesthesis which is defined as sense or feeling. This will
lead us to understanding one’s personal judgments about the senses.
Take for example your choice of color palettes in terms of clothing or
your favorite type of pasta. This is simply the way we see things
subjectively in terms of senses. This is not a concern of ethics.
In learning basketball, we are taught that it is prohibited to walk for
more than two seconds without dribbling the ball. In baking, people are
taught that measurements should be accurate and precise. These are
presets that are seen to be the “right thing” to do. But we have to
understand that this is also not a concern of ethics. These things are
considered to be techniques – coming from the Greek word techne
which means technical or the proper way of doing things. These are
considered to be Technical Valuation which is not a primary concern of
ethical thinking or ethical actions.
Understanding these two valuations lead us into a more precise
7 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
understanding of what ethical thinking is. Ethical thinking involve
values and valuations that we make in a sphere of human actions,
characterized by certain gravity and concern the well-being of humans
or human life itself. However, we have to understand that the
distinction between what belongs to ethics and what does not is not so
always clearly defined. Even a discussion of clothing may or may not
belong to ethics when we consider the effects of clothing on the
perception of society. Are the choices that one make in terms of
clothing, a reason to blame him/her for being sexually harassed or is it
really just a matter of taste? These and all are but reasons why the
values and ethics are a vital part of our lives, and is something that we
should really spend time to talk about.
Morality and Ethics
Much of the confusion between these two words can be traced back
to their origins. For example, the word ethics comes from Old French
etique, Late Latin ethica, and Greek ethos and referred to customs,
dispositions, beliefs or moral philosophies. Morals comes from late
Latin's moralis, which referred to appropriate behavior and manners in
society. So, the two have very similar, if not synonymous, meanings
originally. However similar, some thinkers try to draw a line between
the two. Although not considered as a source of confusion, it is
somehow important to note some differences between the two. Say for
example, it is part of a lawyer’s ethics to defend a client as much as he
can, for it is his ethical duty to do so. However, a defense lawyer may
personally believe that murder is against his morality and that he sees it
to be an immoral act. Morals are the beliefs of the individual or group
as to what is right or wrong. Ethics are the guiding principles which
help the individual or group to decide what is good or bad. In this book,
we will not be heeding in the direction to accurately interpret the
precise distinction between the two, as we will collectively study and
reflect both on our self-morals and our ethical living as human beings.
Moral Dilemmas
By definition, dilemma is a situation in which choice has to be made
between two or more alternatives, especially unequally desirable ones.
It is a situation in which you are made to choose between choices that
8 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
somehow, both resembles either an unethical act or an unreasonable
motive or action. It is also the same situations wherein your choice of
actions may also lead to another set of far more or worse problems. You
may classify a situation as a dilemma when there are two or more
actions that you can choose to possibly do, and that there are moral
reasons for doing such actions, but you just cannot do all the possible
actions presented to you because you can only choose one. Since there
are moral reasons for doing such actions, it follows that no matter what
you choose to do, you are doing something morally wrong, but at the
same time, a moral and a right reason may also occur. Take this case for
example:
These moral dilemmas are not exclusively limited to situational
problems like this. In our everyday lives, we experience and we do face
moral dilemmas that make us decide between two unlikely and
undesirable choices. Say for example, the choice between giving alms
to a beggar kid on the street because he seems to be very lowly and you
feel pity for him, but thinking that if you give him alms, he would only
use it for inappropriate things and purchases. Moral dilemmas are
real-life situations in our everyday that makes us take time to think
about things and our choices that will ultimately lead to our own
made-up decisions. In this manner, we realize that ethics and
philosophy is really vital in understanding ourselves and the choices
and decisions that we make every day.
9 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
 Look for an artistic creation online,
whether it would be a painting, video, still Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
photo or a drawing that you think may be a source of
Yr./Sec. _____
conflict between the creator’s artistic expression and the
imagery that it may offend. Present the significant details Identify what is being described in each item. Choices are given in
that you think would explain the artwork and make a the box below. Write your answers on the space provided.
stand whether you think it is really offensive or not.
_____________1. These are situations in which a choice has to be
made between two unequal options.
_____________2. This term came from the greek word techne which
means the proper way of doing things.
_____________3. Deals with the principles of ethical behavior in
modern society.
 Ethics deals with the principles of ethical behavior in modern
_____________4. A moral dilemma written by L. Kohlberg about a
society at the level of the person, society, and in interaction with
husband’s quest to find cure for his wife, but entails ethical and
the environment and other shared resources. unethical choices.
 The term ethics came from the Greek word Ethos which means
_____________5. This is a Greek word which means love.
custom, habit, character or disposition. Thus, it is both societal,
and personal. _____________6. Defined as the love for wisdom, where the quest
 Philosophy came from two Greek words, philein and sophia, for learning comes from each experience.
which translates to love and wisdom, respectively. Therefore, _____________7. This pertains to choices that comes from subjective
philosophy simply means love for wisdom. and personal senses.
 Aesthetic Valuation – where aesthetics is derived from the Greek _____________8. This pertains to knowing the proper and right way
word aesthesis which is defined as sense or feeling. This is the of doing things.
understanding of one’s personal judgments about the senses. _____________9. The Old French term where ethics came from.
 Technical Valuation – from the word technique, which originates
_____________10. When a lawyer chooses to function on the belief
from the Greek word techne which means technical or the proper that it is his duty to defend his client, whatever crimes he has
way of doing things. committed, even if it goes against his own beliefs, he is operating on
 Moral dilemmas are situations in which choice has to be made what principle?
between two or more alternatives, especially unequally desirable
Moral Dilemmas Sophia
or undesirable ones.
Technique Heinz Dilemma
Ethics Philein
Philosophy Technical Valuation
Aesthetic Valuation Etiqua
Morality Ethics

10 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy 11 | Ethics Unit I: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

In a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate

your sensitivity to the way that you compose your decisions and
choices? Have you been doing good choices lately? Why or why not?
What can you do to improve your decision making?
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12 | Ethics Unit I Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy 13 | Ethics Unit I Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy
 UNIT II
MAN: THE MORAL AGENT

https://www.google.com.ph/search?hl=en-PH&q=self-publish+or+not+to+self-publish&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlwEJOrCMmD2YFgEaiwELEKjU2AQaBAgVCAgMCxCwjKcIGmIKYAgD EijIErQdnArs-
BskSyxLHErMdnQrKEvgzpjTGP8k3kim_1PrYnljXiNKU0GjDNqQx-JlI6sydqbv8kW40jMVdN82AMeozPsKRHUKF_1nQUL4bKBWCtV5RookT0KWQ8gBAwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBF4cpe4M&sa=X&
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“Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity,

moral courage, and the like. More than anything else,
it is about how we treat other people.”

- Dennis Prager

14 | Ethics Unit I Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy 15 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 issues affecting today’s world.
CHAPTER 1 The root cause comes from an oversight of good character qualities
Man and His Virtue we need in order to find long-term solutions to these daily
problems. We can work on improving our character individually and
collectively as a community.

At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to: What is Character?
1. explain how a moral character is developed. The word “character” comes from the Greek word kharakter which
2. describe the elements of moral development and moral means “engraved mark”, symbol or imprint on the soul”, and
experiences. “instrument for marking”. It is not revealed in your choice of clothing,
3. integrate the elements of moral development in solving personal in your preference for a certain kind of music, not even whether you are
dilemmas. an outgoing or shy type of person. Character equates with morality.
How do your habits, thoughts, motives, perceptions, emotions, behavior
relate to morality? Do your actions and judgment talk about your
integrity as a person? As William Straton Bruce puts it, character is
Marj, at 17 years old, had a boyfriend. The boyfriend got her
pregnant and the former decided to run away and refused to take defined as “your moral self,” the “crown of a moral life,” and
responsibility. Marj contemplated on aborting the baby. As a friend, referred to as a “moral structure,” something you built through
what will you advise Marj? Write her a letter. virtuous behavior. Therefore, action expresses one’s character. We
cannot separate the actor from the act. Character and a person’s action
go together.
Morality refers to a system of behavior in relation to standards of
Think of a situation when your moral stance is challenged? right or wrong behavior. It describes the principles that govern our
What was the choice you made? How did it affect you and others? behavior. Without them in place, the community will not be able to
survive for a long time (Taken from allaboutphilosophy.org).
C.S. Lewis, renowned thinker, scholar and author, asserts that our
beliefs are central to our moral behavior. He views morality as
important for three things - to ensure fair play and harmony between
individuals; to help make us good people in order to produce a good
Moral Character society; and, to keep us in a good relationship with the power that
What confronts societies today? created us.
Prevalent are the crucial controversies we Morality influences our everyday decisions and choices directed by
face such as the national enforcement our conscience. If we make bad personal choices, we hurt others. How
project called “Oplan Tokhang” in relation we decide and the choices we make ultimately leads to a system of
with the government’s war against drugs, virtues and values.
alcohol abuse, domestic violence, Taken from www.google.com

dysfunctional families, child abuse, graft and corruption, social

media scandals - included among the long list. We see these similar
16 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 17 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent

Which of the statements below illustrates a moral
problem? Which of them shows a non-moral problem? Wr ite
your answer on the space provided before each number.
_________________1. You avail of the electricity connection in your
home using electrical jumper wires from your neighbor’s house.
Foolish not to?
_________________2. You saw peso bills left unattended on the
table. Keep the money and your mouth shut?
_________________3. At a birthday party, you notice your friend’s
boyfriend engaged in some serious flirting with another woman. Tell
your friend—and possibly ruin her relationship - or mind your own
business?
_________________4. The coach tells the players the rules in
basketball.
_________________5. The units of measurement are taught in
Mathematics subject.
_________________6. Your friend follows the fashion trends.
_________________7. Military haircuts are required in the military
academy.
_________________ 8. Your friend has an affair with a married
man. You tell others about it or keep silent about the whole thing.
_________________ 9. There are dining etiquettes across cultures
that we should observe.
_________________ 10. Drew bashed a friend on social media.
Some netizens disliked what Drew did.
Developing Virtue as a Habit
An individual who volunteers to extend help to victims of
calamities, a person who shares food to the needy, someone who
found money and returns it to the owner, are these people virtuous?
Virtue give us a guide for being a man. In fact, the term virtue
originates from the Latin word vir, meaning man. Another Latin
word virtus, signifies power, strength, and ability. As Tim Gray puts
it, virtues are habits that give us the power to act in a manly way, with
18 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
strength sufficient to do what is right. Therefore, virtues are the
building blocks of character. Virtue, by definition, is the moral
excellence of a person. It is a positive trait that is the essence of one’s
character such as courage, honesty, respectfulness, kindness. Man
aims for what they perceived as good. It is the “power” rooted in
character of a person to do the right thing in a given circumstance. This
forms one’s personality such that habits tend towards doing the right
thing (Stephen, 2016).
Sometimes, we confuse virtues with values. We assume that values
are vital to morality. Values are actions or things we hold as desirable,
important, useful, and worthy. Programs related to value-based moral
education epitomize modern beliefs that morality is simply making
good choices, guided completely by one’s values. But values do not
make men moral. Gray cited these commonsense examples:
Mr. A can value sailing, but that does not make him a sailor.
Likewise, many men can value fidelity in marriage but that does
not make them faithful. Despite their values, they alarmingly
abandoned their vows.
Mr. B can value flying, spend countless hours as a passen-
ger, and be the most avid aviation fan around but that does not
enable him to fly a plane. In order to fly, one must have the
skills of a pilot. Few have the ability.
Many men want to be good husbands and fathers, but if this
wanting is not supplemented by the virtues such as the skills
for successful moral living, then success will not be likely.
Values alone are not enough. Man should possess the habits that
will enable him to live the values he/she declares.
Aristotle, a Greek Philosopher and a student of
Plato, believed that the function of man was to
engage in an activity of the soul in accordance
with virtue. Aristotle thought that there were two
overriding virtues, intellectual and moral. The
intellectual virtues, he claimed, were acquired by
inheritance and education and the moral ones
Taken from www.google.com
19 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
through the imitation of practice and habit. There are additional 12
virtues that can be attributed to Aristotle. These are:
1. Courage – bravery and valor
2. Temperance – self-control and restraint
3. Liberality – bigheartness, charity and generosity
4. Magnificence – radiance, joie de vivre
5. Pride – self-satisfaction
6. Honor – respect, reverence, admiration
7. Good Temper – equanimity, level headedness
8. Friendliness – conviviality and sociability
9. Truthfulness – straightforwardness, frankness and candor
10. Wit – sense of humor, meaninglessness and absurdity
11. Friendship – camaraderie and companionship
12. Justice – impartiality, evenhandedness and fairness
Moral Development
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987), an American
Psychologist, best known for his theory of stages of
moral development, identified the six stages of moral
development. He grouped these into three levels of
morality: pre-conventional, conventional, and
post-conventional morality. Taken from www.google.com
As discussed in the previous chapter, Kohlberg relied on stories such
as the Heinz dilemma, and was interested on how individuals would
justify their actions if placed in similar moral dilemmas.
20 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
Stages of Moral Development (Adopted from SimplyPsychology.org)
Level 1: Pre-conventional Morality
At the pre-conventional level, most nine-year-olds and younger,
some over nine, do not have a personal code of morality. Instead, their
moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of
following or breaking their rules.
Authority is outside the individual and reasoning is based on the
physical consequences of actions.
• Stage 1. Obedience and Punishment Orientation. The child/
individual is good in order to avoid being punished. If a person is
punished, they must have done wrong.
• Stage 2. Individualism and Exchange. At this stage, childr en
recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by
the authorities. Different individuals have different viewpoints.
Level 2: Conventional Morality
At the conventional level, most adolescents and adults begin to
internalize the moral standards of valued adult role models.
Authority is internalized but not questioned, and reasoning is based
on the norms of the group to which the person belongs.
• Stage 3. Good Interpersonal Relationships. The child/individual is
good in order to be seen as being a good person by others. Therefore,
answers relate to the approval of others.
• Stage 4. Maintaining the Social Order. The child/individual
becomes aware of the wider rules of society, so judgments concern
obeying the rules in order to uphold the law and to avoid guilt.
Level 3: Post-Conventional Morality
Individual judgment is based on self-chosen principles, and moral
reasoning is based on individual rights and justice. According to
Kohlberg this level of moral reasoning is as far as most people get.
Only 10-15% are capable of the kind of abstract thinking necessary
for stage 5 or 6 belonging to this level. That is to say, most people take
their moral views from those around them and only a minority think
through ethical principles for themselves.
• Stage 5. Social Contract and Individual Rights. The child/
individual becomes aware that while rules/laws might exist for the good
of the greatest number, there are times when they will work against the
21 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
interest of particular individuals.
The issues are not always clear-cut. For example, in Heinz’s
dilemma, the protection of life is more important than breaking the law
against stealing.
 Character is defined as “your moral self,” the “crown of a moral
• Stage 6. Universal Principles. People at this stage have developed
life,” and referred to as a “moral structure,” something you built
their own set of moral guidelines, which may or may not fit the law.
through virtuous behavior.
The principles apply to everyone.
 Virtue is the moral excellence of a person and a positive trait that
Examples: human rights, justice, and equality. The person will be
is the essence of one’s character such as courage, honesty,
prepared to act to defend these principles even if it means going against
respectfulness, kindness.
the rest of society in the process and having to pay the consequences of
 There are twelve (12) virtues attributed to Aristotle such as
disapproval and or imprisonment.
courage, liberality, magnificence, temperance, pride, honor, good
Kohlberg believed that only a few people reach this stage.
temper, friendliness, truthfulness, wit, friendship, and justice.
A story about a man named Mr. Jones had been told by Blatt (2015).
 Action expresses one’s character. Character and a person’s action
Mr. Jones had a seriously injured son and wanted to rush him to the
go together.
hospital. Mr. Jones had no car, and so he approached a stranger, told
 The strongest influence on morality starts at home.
him about the situation, and asked to borrow his car. The stranger,
however, refused because he had an important appointment to keep. As  American Psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg, identified six stages
a result, Mr. Jones took the car by force. Blatt then asked whether Mr. of moral development under three levels of morality which are the
Jones should have done that. pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional morality.

A. Character Studies of Nelson Mandela and Adolf

Hitler. For m a group of five (5) to discuss and
analyze the lives of Nelson Mandela and Adolf Hitler.
Prepare a Group Presentation summarizing your
analysis.
B. What character traits would you like to develop in
yourself? Identify at least thr ee (3) char acter
traits. Research on the nature of each of the trait you
have chosen. How can you apply them in real-life
situations? Cite specific instances.

22 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 23 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

A. Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.

_____________1. These are the building blocks of character for

without them, sense of morality collapses under pressure.
_____________2. He formulated theTheory on the Stages of Moral
Development.
_____________3. A person who has self-control and restraint
possesses this character trait.
_____________4. This virtue is displayed when one is brave enough
to tell the truth when it is difficult.
_____________5. It is the stage of moral development when the
child learns to adhere to the rules to avoid punishment.
_____________6. People, at this stage, have developed their own set
of moral guidelines which may or may not fit the law.
_____________7. A person who does not cheat on people, and says
things in a straightforward manner.
_____________8. At this level of moral development, adolescents
and adults begin to internalize the moral standards of adult role
models whom they value.
_____________9. If you see someone does good or bad things and
agrees to see that the person gets what he/she deserves, you manifest
such character trait as _____________.
_____________10. It is a Greek word which means an engraved
mark, a symbol or imprint on the soul.

Aristotle virtus
truthfulness Lawrence Kohlberg
kharakter virtue
justice and fairness conventional morality
temperance courage
Universal principles obedience and punishment
orientation

24 | Ethics Unit I Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy 25 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent

B. Video Clip - Patch Adam’s “You Treat A Person.” What were
the virtues demonstrated by the main character in the story? What
lessons have you learned in the true story presented? If you were the
medical student, would you do the same thing as he did? Why or why
not?
C. Research on ethical issues that our country faces today. As a
Filipino youth, what measures can you recommend to deal with these
issues?
D. Individual Activity: Dr aw a char t of your life’s journey using a
Manila paper showing the emerging moments in your life and where
you are now in your moral development. Check your personal
growth. Share it with a group and be ready for a group presentation.
26 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
A. Create your own Character Chronicle. List down at least ten (10)
character traits that you would like to improve. What will be your
action plans to see them realized? Use the template below for this
activity.
Name ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subj/Section _______________________________________________________________________ Date ____________________________________________
My Character Chronicle
Character Traits I Need to Improve Action Plans
____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
27 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

B. What is your basis in building friendships? Do you have

something in common such as virtues and character? Support
your answer.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

28 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 29 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 CHAPTER 2
Man’s Freedom and Reason

At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:

1. explain why only human beings can be ethical.
2. define freedom and its types.
3. discuss how the presence of absolute freedom requires
understanding of ethics and morality.
4. explain the different sources of authority and their basis in ethical
thinking.

Source: https://www.livescience.com/16814-animals-wrong-clues-point.html)

In a famous YouTube video, there is a dog by the name of Tank

(Tank, The Dog) who seemed to be very guilty and is showing a pitiful
face after his owner came home to him with the trash all around the
house and the trash lid in his head. It is interesting how this dog
emulates a face that seems to show that he is regretting what he had
done. But, do animals have rationality and ethics too? What do you
think?

Just like animals, human beings are born with

innate freedom too! We are not programmed and
ingrained to act in a single manner all the time. How do you
think have you been using your freedom lately?

30 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 31 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent

Humans: Rational and Ethical Beings
According to a traditional philosophical view, dating back to
Aristotle and shared by Immanuel Kant and many others, what makes
human beings different from the other animals is that human beings are
“rational” or have “reason.” Animals are known to be beings that
operate on their instincts. That’s why, we have this principle called
animal instincts, where they do certain actions in order to survive and
protect themselves. For instance, you have a 7 year old dog that you
have been petting since his birth, however, one night, you accidentally
stepped on its tail, which made him bite you on your left leg. Through
your frustration, you kept asking why he bit you when you have been
taking care of him since his birth. In studying animals, we call this as
their survival instinct. In another situation, you are no exception to the
moments where you felt the urge to hurt or be violent with somebody
because they are just so downright annoying. Whether it is a classmate
who is actively noisy minutes before a major examination, or your
naughty little brother who keeps on interrupting you while you are
working on your homework. All of these sometimes prompt you to be
aggressive and impulsive towards them, but you immediately realize
and operate on your patience and choose to compose yourself, making
you just keep all of your negative impulses inside of you, or sublimate
them on another task, like writing, crumpling paper or just squeezing a
thing real tight. This is a sign of rationality – where animals violently
act base on their instincts for survival, human beings are born rational,
and they have the ability to reason out, whether in their minds or
verbally. This is the line that separates man’s actions from those of the
animals. However, we are fully much aware that there are some people
who cannot control their impulses. But this does not mean that they are
better born as animals. No, they are not! This only shows that the
learning of rationality and man’s morality is just as important as
everyday living. We should be aware of the things that make us
distinctively human. Yes, we are not wired robots and we can act base
on our freedom and operate on our personal thoughts and feelings, but
we are all rational human beings. We get to act consciously, all the
time!
32 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
Freedom: Is the human person really free?
When we look up in the dictionary on the definition of the word
freedom, it would tell us that it is the absence of necessity, coercion
or constraint in choice or action. This concise definition gives rise to
the thought that in order for us to really experience freedom, we must
be able to make our own desired choices without anyone, or anything
holding us back. Technically, it is correct. But to understand the true
freedom of the human being, we must philosophize on the
implications of our thoughts. If being free means being able to make
our own choices in life, then why do people think that they still do not
have freedom? Why is it that aside from the fact that any minute now,
you can walk outside of the corridor and scream as loud as you can
without anybody interfering with your thought of doing so, you still
feel as if there is no freedom?
Think of this: Why are rules and regulations imposed all around
us? Do not litter. Jaywalking is not allowed. Do not steal. Is it an
implication that because the human person is free and possesses true
freedom, one should be reminded about the limits of exercising it?
Are rules made to be broken?
Freedom of choice is one of the basic characteristics of a person.
Aristotle classified human beings as a rational animal, one whom is
able to think about his actions and choices. To this, we can clearly see
how our mechanism is endowed with freedom and the free will to
determine our own personal lives. There is no such person who is not
created without freedom, because from the very small choices and
thoughts that we have, we exercise being free. You can think of
anything in your head without anybody knowing about it. You can
plan your actions for the other day, without somebody telling you
what to do.
Rules and regulations simply exists to regulate our freedom.
Collectively, we believe that freedom is doing what we think and
desire is applicable to a certain situation without anybody imposing
on us. That is correct! That is why standards of behavior exist, to
remind us that we are very much free to do what we want. Hence, to
regulate our freedom and help us determine our limits, certain
standards are set. They are not made to stop us from enjoying our
human freedom. They exist so that with the freedom that we have, we
33 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
get to do the right, proper and applicable things.
As freedom is the absence of constraint imposed on a subject by a
situation, condition, thing, person or any other subject, one should
understand that human freedom does not lie on the situation or the
circumstances where one can freely exercise it, but rather, the freedom
lies on the subject, that albeit the present hindrances or conditions may
limit one’s choices, true human freedom is to act or not to act, to choose
to do this or that, and to deliberately perform a desired action with the
end in mind that the sole responsibility of the outcome of that action lies
on the doer, in his exercise of freedom. In this knowledge, we can
therefore connote that the right and responsible use of human freedom
can be an opportunity for growth and maturity, unless otherwise.
Reason and Impartiality
As we begin with the understanding that human beings are born free
and that they are rational beings, then therefore, they are born with the
ability of reason. As defined in Merriam-Webster, reason is the power
of the mind to think, understand and form judgments by process of
logic. Interestingly, according to Immanuel Kant, reason alone is the
basis for morality. Hence, when one fully understands and practices the
right act of reasoning, he will begin to act morally upright. In simpler
terms, Kant believes that as soon as man knows how to decide on his
own reason, and does not solely base his actions on desire or pressure
from the outside environment, then the individual is learning how to be
moral. When a person is able to think about his actions and reflect on
the choices that he is going to make, then he is acting on his reason and
morality, and not on his desires or other pressures.
In today’s generation, you are very much susceptible to pressure,
whether from your peers or from your family. Your family is pressuring
you to make your studies and academic achievements your top priority,
while your peers are encouraging you to take it slowly and learn the art
of resting and enjoying your life. Some even tell you to YOLO (You
only live once!), that’s why, you become torn by the myriad of choices
that are available to you. This situation can be best solved if you try to
internalize Kant’s belief that morality is based on reason, therefore, you
may be able to come up with your moral choice.
Impartiality, on another note, is understood to be a principle of ethics
34 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
that promotes justice.
It suggests and requires that decisions should be based on objective
criteria rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring to
benefit the self, or one person, over the other. Clearly, impartiality
means that everyone should be given importance and not favor one
class over the other.
For instance, think of this situation: you are taking your final
examinations in History when your teacher noticed that your best
friend, who is seated beside you, was doing something suspicious. You
saw with your own two eyes that she is trying to glance at her cellular
phone for her notes since the beginning of the exam. Now, to clarify the
situation, your teacher called your best friend’s attention and asked her
if she was cheating. She denied it immediately, and because of your
teacher’s suspiciousness, he also asked you. “Is your best friend
cheating?” – What could be your answer in terms of your impartiality?
One philosopher, Dr. James Rachel, suggests that in order for your
answers to be impartial and moral, you must think about how your
answers would affect your best friend, the rest of your classmates, and
also your teacher. An impartial choice would definitely be based on a
decision that would concern your best friend, your classmates, and your
teacher, and not just one party that you would favor more than the
others.
As Dr. Rachel (2004) suggests, morality is “at the very least, the
effort to guide one’s action based on the most logical choice, while
giving equal importance to each person affected by your decisions.”
Sources of Authority
Part and parcel of understanding that the human person is free, and
is rational, he in his own free will is bound to still be under different
sources of authority. This means that even in the presence of freedom,
he is still bound to follow some sources of rules and regulations. These
are what we call authorities. Although there is a presence of authority,
we must take into our minds that this does not mean that your freedom
is compromised. It only means that your freedom is being regulated and
is rationalized by the rules and disciplines set by these authorities.
 Government – A source of authority may be the government,
where we can consider the need to submit under the rule of law, the
35 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 authority of the police, civil service, the executive officers of a
country, or its constitution. Arguments that will go against the rule
of law or respecting the will of the authority will include the fact
that these rules are written by individuals who are generally
experienced and accomplished among us, and that we were given
the power to choose them base on the principle of democracy.
However, we must take into consideration that even if we had the
ultimate power to choose and vote for these people, we do not have
the power to vote on every action that they take. There are many
legal authorities with whom our ethical position may be in clash
with. The law is one of those. Take for example the idea of
euthanasia. Almost all countries condone the idea of suicide,
because we are never in a position to choose how we should die,
nor have the option to end our life at the time that we want to.
However, in hospitals, we know how dying people are given the
option to sign a waiver that will allow the institution to take off
their life support. These ethical discussions concerning legality and
the law will also take us back to history. The Nazi in Germany is
one obvious example where minority groups such as Jews and
homosexuals where isolated and then exterminated. Our
government today may also be in a point of discussion where poor
people who resort to drugs because of poverty are being shot dead
while landlords and rich men who are part of the drug scheme are
not even tried in court nor chased by the authorities.
 Religion – For a majority of people, religion is the ultimate source
of authority and the sole guide on how to live their lives. The
presence of holy books such as the Bible for Christians or the
Quran for Islam are testaments that their lives should be based on
how their Gods have ordered them to live so. Most of the time,
religion and its teachings are not to be questioned by its followers,
and so they pattern their lives according to the interpretations of
these teachings. Manny Pacquiao, a Senator in the Philippines,
always quotes the bible as a source of his ideals and principles.
Sometimes, he is a testament that it may also be a confusing source
of ethics, like the way he condones and expresses his disagreements
regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriage because the bible
says that a man is for a woman, but when asked about his stance on
36 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
the drug war killings sponsored by the government, he instantly
says that the commandment “Do not kill” should be interpreted in
another way.
 Personal Experience - Inter estingly, Er nest Hemingway, a
known writer, based his ethical positions on finding out things for
himself. Rather than basing them on the interpretations or ideals of
others, he stated that “I only know that what is moral is what you
feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.”
Clearly, personal knowledge and feelings of a thing is also
exceptionally important. That is why most of the time, we hear
people say “I dare not comment on that which I did not experience
first.”, experience and personal authorities are also a source of
authority. When we do not feel like riding the 60 ft. roller coaster
because we are certainly aware that it would only make us feel bad,
we stop listening to the persuasions of our friends.
 The Majority – As stated in the previous chapters, as social beings,
we are subject to socialization as social beings, and that every day,
we encounter pressure from different people at different times. The
fact that we live with millions of people around us, our individual
preferences and voices are sometimes drowned out. In our society
today, it has become very easy to base our views and ideals on
others and to stand up for your own opinions and principles became
a challenge. So many people become content with the way that they
go with the flow of other people. It has become more than a
challenge to go against the majority. Obviously, it has been a belief
that rather than “beating them”, it is much more easier to just “join
them.”
 Self-interest and the Golden Rule – Self-interest and the common
golden rule is oftentimes used to inquire about our real intentions,
making itself authoritative and powerful over the course of our
actions and choices. When we were kids, we were asked by elders
“How would you feel if someone did that to you?” – or the typical
Filipino cliché “ubusin mo ‘yang pagkain mo, maraming
nagugutom na tao.” And it seems like these arguments are
unanswerable any more. Ideally, many people believe that
everybody should be treated equally. However, there are also some
people who do not believe in that principle. In reality, it has
37 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 become too much to ask everyone to treat everybody equally.
Remember, that even in the presence of all of these roots of authority,
one may feel like you are no longer free to do whatever you want, or Using the Seven Step Moral Reasoning Model by
that your freedom is not real nor unlimited. That is not the case. Real Exelon, group yourselves into 5 and brainstorm on a
and genuine freedom lies on the fact that we are rational beings; that moral dilemma that is commonly faced by our society
we can think about our choices and reasons before acting out on today. Note that no same topic shall be shared by
them, and that we can choose to do or not to do actions, as long as we different groups. Talk about this situation and come-up
always base them on our rationality. with a step by step process on how to formulate choices
and decisions based on the model presented on the next
The Seven Step Moral Reasoning Model by Exelon (2006) page. Be ready to share your outputs with the whole
In the interest that we would like to improve the way we regulate class.
our use of freedom and the way we compose ethical decisions, we can
consider the Seven Step Moral Reasoning Model by Exelon below:

 Freedom of choice is one of the basic characteristics of a person.

 Rules and regulations simply exists to regulate our freedom.
 Reason is the power of the mind to think, understand and form
judgments by process of logic.
 Immanuel Kant believes that as soon as man learns how to decide
on his own reason, and does not solely base his actions on desire or
pressure from the outside environment, then the individual is
learning how to be moral.
 Impartiality suggests and requires that decisions should be based on
objective criteria rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or
preferring to benefit the self, or one person, over the other.
 Dr. Rachel defines ‘morality’ as “the effort, at the very least, to
guide one’s action based on the most logical choice, while giving
equal importance to each person affected by your decisions.”
 Sources of authority that guide our actions and the way we decide
on things are the following: the government, religions, personal
experiences, the majority, and our self-interest.

Sourced from: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_human-relations/section_09

38 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 39 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.

_____________ 1. The effort to guide one’s action based on the most

logical choice.
_____________ 2. The absence of coercion.
_____________ 3. Bandwagon effect
_____________ 4. “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
_____________ 5. This is the very thing which makes us different
from animals in terms of our actions.
_____________ 6. He believes that unlike animals, human beings are
born with the gift of reason.
_____________ 7. They exist not to remove us from our freedom, but
to regulate our use of it.
_____________ 8. You would not do it because you wouldn’t like if
it will be done to you, too!
_____________ 9. Decisions should be based on objective criteria
rather than on the basis of bias.
_____________ 10. Because we only believe and testify to things
that we first-handedly experience.

Religion Personal Experience

Reason Self Interest
Majority Rules and Law
Philosophy Rationality
Freedom Immanuel Kant
Morality Impartiality

40 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 41 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

Think about the sources of authorities in your life at the moment. If

you were given a single chance to remove one of them from your life
for a day, what would it be and why? What actions would you do if
this source is eliminated in your life for a moment? Why do you feel
the need to choose this source over others?
________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
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42 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 43 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 CHAPTER 3
Man and Culture

At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:

1. explain the critical role of culture in ethical reasoning.
2. examine how culture can sometimes be in conflict with ethics.
3. explain the influence of Filipino culture on the way a man looks at
moral experiences and solve moral dilemmas.
4. discuss cultural relativism and its relation to ethics.

Juan de los Santos, wanted to run for a senatorial slot. His friend,
Leo, supported him during his campaigns without asking favors in
return. Juan won in the election, and in turn, gave Leo a position in the
government and other favors not based on merit but because of debt of
gratitude.

What was one decision you made in the past

which was influenced by family and friends, be
it a relationship, social, spiritual, physical, or moral aspect?
Would you have done it otherwise given a chance? Explain.

Culture in Moral Behavior

In many facets of our everyday lives, our actions and behavior
reflect the kind of culture we belong to. It is present in the customs we
practice, the values we learn, the judgment we make, the ideas we
share, the fashion trends we follow, the kind of music we choose, and
the stage plays we watch. Culture is everywhere, no matter what we do.
Culture influences its people. In turn, people mirror the culture. By
looking at the way a group of people behave, we can easily tell the

44 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 45 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
Edward B. Tylor, explains that culture is a complex whole, which
includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired and shared among members of a group
of people.
Culture, therefore, influences the manner we learn, live and behave.
Because of this, many theorists believe that culture is an important
shaper of our personality (www.explorable.com). If so, does culture
shape an individual’s moral behavior?
Culture and its Role in Moral Behavior
What can you say about arranged marriage? How will you respond
to mean comments on social media? How do you treat others who has a
physical handicap or is less fortunate in life?
Culture molds the way a person lives and relate within the culture
and with other cultures. It is a very essential component in the
development of the human person in various aspects - whether
physical, social, spiritual, or moral development. What members do,
how they do things, what should be done and should be avoided are
impressed by culture on its members. The existing moral principles are
etched, thus, shape the character of its members.
Cultures differ in terms of beliefs, practices, habits, traditions, even
moral codes, among others. Each culture is unique. Hence, we cannot
say that one’s culture is better than another due to its morals or values.
Early anthropologists developed a position, which states that we must
understand individuals in the context of their own culture and not judge
them by the standards of our culture.
German-American Anthropologist Franz Boas, in
the early 20th century, established cultural relativism
as an analytic tool (www.thoughtco.com). Cultural
relativism r efer s to the idea that the values,
knowledge, and behavior of people must be
understood within their own cultural context. There is
Taken from www.google.com
no ultimate standard of good or evil, and every
judgment about right and wrong is a product of society. Any opinion on
morality or ethics is subject to the cultural perspective of each person.
Ultimately, this means that no moral or ethical system can be
considered the “best,” or “worst,” and no particular moral or ethical
46 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
position can actually be considered “right” or
“wrong” (www.allaboutphilosophy.org).
Role of Culture in Ethical Reasoning
As earlier defined, culture is a set of values, beliefs, morals, laws,
and ideas commonly shared by members of a group. It is a collective
programming of the society thought system that distinguishes humans
from other populations in a particular geographic area and which has a
relatively permanent system of meanings (Hofstede, 2005). Different
cultures, therefore, have different ways of perceiving the world. This
difference affects how ethical problems are defined.
The concepts of ethics refer to classifications such as good-bad, right
-wrong, true-false as perceived by the community with the same values.
Ethics deals with human behavior (Mehalu, 2011). Actions and
behavior considered ethical in one society may be considered unethical
in another.
Aside from the level of integration of the individual in society,
personal factors such as age, sex, religion, etc. also have an impact on
one’s ethical perceptions and attitudes.
An examination of the Filipino cultural variables by Geert Hofstede
suggests that there is a relationship between two of Hofstede's cultural
dimensions (i.e., Uncertainty Avoidance and Individualism) and ethical
perceptions.
POWER DISTANCE
Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful
members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and
accept that power is distributed unequally.
At a score of 94, the Philippines is said to be a hierarchical society.
This means that people accept a hierarchical order. Hierarchy in an
47 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is
popular.
INDIVIDUALISM
It refers to the degree of interdependence a society maintains among
its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in
terms of “I” or “We”.
The Philippines, with a score of 32, is considered a collectivistic
society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the
member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended
relationships.
MASCULINITY
A high score (Masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society
will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success
being defined by the winner / best in field – a value system that starts in
school and continues throughout organizational life.
A low score (Feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant
values in society are caring for others and quality of life.
The Philippines scores 64 on this dimension and is thus a Masculine
society. In Masculine countries people “live in order to work”.
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a
society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should
we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings
with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this
anxiety in different ways.
The Philippines scores 44 on this dimension and thus has a low
preference for avoiding uncertainty.
LONG TERM ORIENTATION
This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some
links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present
and future, and societies prioritize these two existential goals
differently. Normative societies. which score low on this dimension, for
example, prefer to maintain time-honored traditions and norms while
viewing societal change with suspicion. Those with a culture, which
48 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
scores high, on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach: they
encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for
the future.
A very low score of 27 indicates that the Philippines are more
normative than pragmatic. People in such societies have a strong
concern with establishing the absolute Truth; they are normative in their
thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small
propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.
INDULGENCE
One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the
degree to which small children are socialized. This dimension is
defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and
impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is
called “Indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “Restraint”.
Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained.
With a low score of 42, the culture of the Philippines is one of
Restraint. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency
to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies,
restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and
control the gratification of their desires. People with this orientation
have the perception that their actions are restrained by social norms.
Cultural Relativism
In the Philippines, we do not simply talk about Filipino culture as a
whole. There are sub-cultures identified with ethno-linguistics groups
that speak Ilocano, Tagalog, Bicolano, Waray, Cebuano, Ilonggo,
Maranao, Maguindanao, Yakan, Tausog, Badjao, etc. And, within these
major ethnic groupings, there are still cultural variations in the different
aspects of the behavior of people such as the way people dress, values
affecting marriage relationships, dwellings, delicacies, etc.
In the Moral Recovery Program written by Patricia Licuanan (2016),
she identified the strengths of the Filipino character as follows:
Pakikipagkapwa-tao (regard for others). Filipinos are open to others
and feel one with others. We regard others with dignity and respect, and
deal with them as fellow human beings.
49 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
of closeness to one another. It helps promote unity as well a sense of
social justice.
Family Orientation. F ilipinos possess a genuine and deep love for the
family, which includes not simply the spouses and children, parents,
and siblings, but also grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents,
and other ceremonial relatives. To the Filipino, one's family is the
source of personal identity, the source of emotional and material
support, and the person's main commitment and responsibility. This
sense of family results in a feeling of belonging or rootedness and in a
basic sense of security.
Joy and Humor. F ilipinos have a cheerful and fun-loving approach to
life and its ups and downs. There is a pleasant disposition, a sense of
humor, and a propensity for happiness Laughing at ourselves and our
trouble is an important coping mechanism. Often playful, sometimes
cynical, sometimes disrespectful, we laugh at those we love and at
those we hate, and make jokes about our fortune, good and bad. The
result is a certain emotional balance and optimism, a healthy disrespect
for power and office, and a capacity to survive.
Flexibility, Adaptability and Creativity. F ilipinos have a great
capacity to adjust, and to adapt to circumstances and to the surrounding
environment, both physical and social. Flexible Filipino adjusts to
whatever happens. We possess a tolerance for ambiguity that enables us
to remain unfazed by uncertainty or lack of information. We are
creative, resourceful, adept at learning, and able to improvise and make
use of whatever is at hand in order to create and produce. It is seen also
in the ability to accept change. The result is productivity, innovation,
entrepreneurship, equanimity, and survival.
Hard work and Industry. F ilipinos have the capacity for hard work,
given proper conditions. The desire to raise one's standard of living and
to possess the essentials of a decent life for one's family, combined with
the right opportunities and incentives, stimulate the Filipino to work
very hard. This is manifested most noticeably in a willingness to take
risks with jobs abroad, and to work there at two or three jobs. The result
is productivity and entrepreneurship for some, and survival despite
50 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
poverty for others.
Faith and Religiosity. F ilipinos have a deep faith in God. Innate
religiosity enables us to comprehend and genuinely accept reality in the
context of God's will and plan. Nevertheless, tragedy and bad fortune
are accepted and some optimism characterizes even the poorest lives.
Filipinos live very intimately with religion; this is tangible - a part of
everyday life. Prayer is an important part of our lives. The results of
the Filipino's faith are courage, daring, optimism, inner peace, as well
as the capacity to genuinely accept tragedy and death.
Ability to Survive. F ilipinos have an ability to survive which is
manifested in our capacity for endurance despite difficult times, and in
our ability to get by on so little.
Similarly, P. Licuanan pointed out the weaknesses of the Filipino
character:
Extreme Personalism. F ilipinos view the world in terms of personal
relationships and the extent to which one is able personally to relate to
things and people determines our recognition of their existence and the
value. There is no separation between an objective task and emotional
involvement. This personalism is manifested in the tendency to give
personal interpretations to actions, i.e., to "take things personally," also
manifested in the need to establish personal relationships before any
business or work relationship can be successful.
Personal contacts are involved in any transaction and are difficult to
turn down.
Preference is usually given to family and friends in hiring, delivery
of services, and even in voting. Extreme personalism, thus, leads to the
graft and corruption evident in Philippine society.
Extreme Family-Centeredness. While concern for the family is one of
the Filipino's greatest strengths, in the extreme it becomes a serious
flaw. Excessive concern for the family creates an in-group to which the
Filipino is fiercely loyal, to the detriment of concern for the larger
community or the common good. It results in lack of concern for the
common good and acts as a block to national consciousness.
51 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
Lack of Discipline. The F ilipino's lack of discipline encompasses
several related characteristics. We have a casual and relaxed attitude
towards time and space which manifests itself in lack of precision and
compulsiveness, in poor time management and in procrastination. We
are impatient and unable to delay gratification or reward, resulting in
the use of short cuts, skirting the rules (“the palusot syndrome”) and in
foolhardiness. We are guilty of ningas cogon, starting out projects with
full vigor and interest which abruptly die down, leaving things
unfinished.
Our lack of discipline often results in inefficient and wasteful work
systems, the violation of rules leading to more serious offenses, and a
casual work ethic leading to carelessness and lack of follow-through.
Passivity and Lack of Initiative. F ilipinos are generally passive and
lacking in initiative. One waits to be told what has to be done. There is
a strong reliance on others, e.g., leaders and government, to do things
for us. This is related to the attitude towards authority. Filipinos have a
need for a strong authority figure and feel safer and more secure in the
presence of such an authority. One is generally submissive to those in
authority, and is not likely to raise issues or to question decisions.
Filipinos tend to be complacent and there rarely is a sense of urgen-
cy about any problem. There is a high tolerance for inefficiency, poor
service, and even violations of one's basic rights. In many ways, it can
be said that the Filipino is too patient and long-suffering (matiisin), too
easily resigned to one's fate. Filipinos are thus easily oppressed
and exploited.
Colonial Mentality. F ilipinos have a colonial mentality which is made
up of two dimensions: the first is a lack of patriotism or an active
awareness, appreciation, and love of the Philippines; the second is an
actual preference for things foreign.
Kanya-Kanya Syndrome. F ilipinos have a selfish, self-serving attitude
that generates a feeling of envy and competitiveness towards others,
particularly one's peers, who seem to have gained some status or
prestige. Towards them, the Filipino demonstrated the so-called "crab
mentality", using the levelling instruments of tsismis, intriga and
unconstructive criticism to bring others down. There seems to be a
52 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
basic assumption that another's gain is our loss.
The kanya-kanya syndrome results in the dampening of cooperative
and community spirit and in the denial of the rights of others.
Lack of Self-Analysis and Self-Reflection. There is a tendency in the
Filipino to be superficial and even somewhat flighty. In the face of
serious problems both personal and social, there is lack of analysis or
reflection. Joking about the most serious matters prevents us from
looking deeply into the problem. There is no felt need to validate our
hypotheses or explanations of things. Thus we are satisfied with
superficial explanations for, and superficial solutions to, problems.
ROOTS OF THE FILIPINO CHARACTER
Licuanan further stated that the strengths and weaknesses of the
Filipino have their roots in several factors:
 home environment  religion
 social environment  economic environment
 culture and language  political environment
 history  mass media
 educational system  leadership and role models
Ethics is a discipline that is based on well-founded stand-
ards of right or wrong. Is cultural relativism tenable in
ethics? Why or why not?
 Culture is a complex whole, which includes knowledge, beliefs,
arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired and shared among members of a group of people.
 Cultural relativism refers to the idea that the values, knowledge,
and behavior of people must be understood within their own
cultural context.
 Any opinion on morality or ethics is subject to the cultural
53 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 perspective of each person.
 According to Patricia Licuanan, the strengths of the Filipino
character include pakikipagkapwa-tao; family orientation; joy and
humor; flexibility, adaptability, and creativity; hardwork and
industry; faith and religiosity; and, ability to survive.
 The weaknesses of the Filipino character, on the other hand, are
extreme personalism; extreme family-centeredness; lack of
discipline; passivity and lack of initiative; colonial mentality;
kanya-kanya syndrome ; and, lack of self-analysis and reflection.
54 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____
Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.
_____________1. It is a set of values, beliefs, morals, laws, and
ideas commonly shared by members of a group.
_____________2. It is a Filipino cultural variable identified by
Hostede which showed that the Philippines is a hierarchical society.
_____________3. This character weakness of Filipinos leads to graft
and corruption evident in the Philippines.
_____________4. It is a Filipino character that often results to
inefficient work system, violation of rules leading to more serious
offenses.
_____________5. It is seen in the Filipinos’ ability to accept change.
The result is productivity, innovation, entrepreneurship, equanimity,
and survival.
_____________6. It is a cultural dimension that has to do with the
way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be
known, to control it or just let things happen.
_____________7. The cooperative and community spirit of Filipinos
is dampened because of this character trait.
_____________8. This analytic tool about culture believes that there
is no ultimate standard of right or wrong , good or bad behavior.
_____________9. It is a Filipino character which results to a certain
emotional balance and optimism.
_____________10. It is a character trait of Filipinos manifested in a
basic sense of justice and fairness and concern for others.
Uncertainty Avoidance Pakikipagkapwa-tao
Lack of discipline Joy and humor
Culture Individualism
Kanya-kanya Syndrome Extreme Personalism
Flexibility Power distance
Cultural Relativism
55 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

Explain the influence of Filipino culture on the way a man looks at

moral experiences and solve moral dilemmas. Cite your insights on
personal experiences or other people’s experiences.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

56 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent 57 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
58 | Ethics Unit II Man: The Moral Agent
 UNIT III CHAPTER 4
Critical Thinking
THE ACTS OF MAN

At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:

1. differentiate critical thinking from ordinary thinking.
2. identify the elements of critical thinking.
3. apply the said elements in ethical thinking.
4. discuss the importance of critical thinking in ethical reasoning.

Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to

entertain a thought without accepting it.” What do you think is an
educated man for Aristotle?

Think of a certain situation in your life where you are faced

with opinions that are very much different compared to yours. How
do you go about these kind of situations? What goes on through
your mind when you encounter people with radical ideas compared
to yours?

“Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.” Critical Thinking

- George Washington
59 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
In our day-to-day lives, we may be most unaware about the way
that our mind works, and more so, the way we think about things. We
live in a very fast-paced world where everything is created to be
instant. In 3 seconds, you can communicate with your loved ones
abroad, meet somebody new online, cook your food in an instant, take
a picture of something and share it to the world, and much more. This
culture of instants – brings us far away from really taking the time to
process things in our mind. Ethics and philosophy, just like how it is
60 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
stressed on the previous chapters, teaches us to take the time and
evaluate events in our everyday lives and how they gravely affect our
beings. Filipinos are fond of the cliché, “Laging nasa huli ang
pagsisisi.” And there is nothing more real than that. However, we can
somehow lessen the amount of regrets in life if we try to take some of
our time to think before we decide on things. This is where critical
thinking can come in. When we are forced to decide on things, we are
offered a process that can narrow down our choices and make us
choose more effectively regarding our acts and their possible effects, so
that in a way, we can somehow lessen the regret that we most of the
time experience.
Critical thinking is known to be the ability of an individual to be in
full control of his own thinking. It includes the ability to consciously
examine the elements of one’s reasoning, or that of another, and
evaluate that reasoning against universal intellectual standards - clarity,
accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and logic. It also
involves the structured examination of sources of information. Critical
thinking is big part and an important tool in ethics because it is a
process by which we can determine for ourselves whether or not there
is something right or wrong. In a sense, critical thinking is a process of
analyzing and determining what is fact and fiction, knowing what is
still unknown, or coming into the right understanding of things. By
being a critical thinker, you will be able to develop a mental process of
evaluation which helps you determine your own set of ethical
standards. By learning the process of critical thinking and engaging this
into your mindset, it will enable you to be more effective in composing
decisions that is based on truth and verified information, rather than
inconsistent variables. Having a critical approach to ethics is very
important because it removes unnecessary stuff from your cloud of
thinking and makes you able to concentrate on plain truths that really
exist.
The Different Elements of Critical Thinking
Philosophically speaking, a process becomes a process because of
the stages and the elements that it comprises, arriving at a desired
output. This is the same when we talk about critical thinking. These
components provide the structure and the foundation of the whole
61 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
process, which if taken very seriously, makes persuasive, truthful and
supportive communication possible to highly influence the points of
view of others, and more so, be able to help us make sound decisions
sand judgments regarding circumstances. The major elements of critical
thinking include perception, assumptions, emotion, language, argument,
fallacy, and logic.
 Perception – is defined to be the manner in which human beings
receive, interpret and translate subjective or collective experiences.
This include how individuals perceive things work as being
defined by how they think. Perception tends to provide individuals
a significant filtering system where they can argue that it is better
to speak of something from experience rather than from nothing.
For instance, when your teacher asks you how you knew about the
incident reported last night, you can tell him that you saw it and
that you are a first-hand witness.
 Assumptions – as defined in the dictionary, it is the process of
assuming that something is true. Assumptions are central to
critical thinking as they tend to be implied, and that most of the
time, they are processed unconsciously. Although they may
become very subjective at times, they are not always bad as they
tend to make a person comfortable with his/her present beliefs and
tend to focus on them rather than being shaken by others.
However, one must be sensitive about whether or not his/her
ideals and principles are based on assumptions or on facts.
 Emotions – Some critical thinkers may argue that emotions are
not a vital part of the whole process as they lessen the objectivity
of the situation, but in the process of thinking about everything
critically, one must not ignore nor deny any emotions, as emotions
are always valid, and thus, must be examined, learned and
managed. Say for instance, a leader asks his group mates about the
direction that the group is leaning to, “How is everyone feeling
about our group?” – From this question, the leader may take into
considerations the opinions of those whose feelings are not in
harmony with the others.
 Language – The way we put things into words cannot be
62 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 separated from the way we think about them because most of the
time, the things that we think about has the same purpose as the
things that we talk about: to inform, persuade and to explain.
Language is able to designate meanings into things and at the same
time, implies or suggests something, most of the time through
figurative language. For instance, when you arrive at a restaurant
and the attendant tells you on your seat that “These seats are for
VIP customers only, sir.” – The attendant does not directly tell you
to get out but politely informs you that you seated on the wrong
seat. Most of the time, the source of confusion and disagreements
start at the proper use of language. We must be wary about the
words and the expression being used to convey messages.
 Argument - An argument is a claim, which is used to persuade that
something is or is not true, or should or should not be done. An
argument contains three basic elements: an issue, one or more
reasons or premises, and one or more conclusions. An argument
can be either valid or invalid based on its structure and only
premises & conclusions are reached, which are either true or false.
The goal of critical thinking is to implement a sound argument,
which has both a valid or proper structure and contains true
premises. For instance, when presented with all the perspectives
and evidences of the case, the man who is accused of stealing from
the supermarket now presents his argument and explanation,
backed up by his reason and objective details of what really
transpired in the incident.
 Logic – is the final component and incorporates two types of
reasoning: deductive and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning
relies on facts, certainty, syllogisms, validity, truth of premises
sound arguments and supported conclusions. Inductive reasoning
relies on diverse facts, probability, generalizations, hypotheses,
analogies and inductive strength. For instance, the saying that
because there is smoke, then there is fire, is an inductive reasoning
because it is based on the evidence that there is smoke. But when
somebody says that you must be a black American because you
have dark skin is a deductive type of reasoning.
63 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Egocentric & Sociocentric Thinking
One of the reasons why human beings sometimes do not go well
along with each other is the presence of contradicting opinions and
clashing beliefs. In today’s generation, we are faced with so many
beliefs and standpoints, that most of the time, it becomes the reason
why the gap and division between different groups of people and race
become wider and wider each day. We do not realize that we are
created and that we operate on different levels and thinking, and that
the truth of the matter is that we have to get along with each other, no
matter how different we are. That is why, knowing the importance of
critical thinking and putting it into practice every single time we are
faced with a difficult-to-accept standpoint from other people is an
important thing to learn in ethics. Critical thinking will help us improve
in choosing more ethical decisions and actions, despite the differences.
One important concept in ethical and critical thinking is
egocentrism. It can also be called egocentr ic thinking, wher e one
becomes aware that his/her thinking starts to operate on a
biased-personal mode, forgetting the presence of thinking socially –
that is, to remember that there are other people that we have to think
about, too. The thoughts that appear when a person thinks
egocentrically are called egocentric thoughts. These thoughts are
considered to be part of human nature, as we have the instinct to
survive on our own ideals and principles. Although it may appear to be
selfish and self-serving, we also have to remember that there are times
and instances that we need to also operate on our egocentric thoughts.
Say for example, a group project where you were assigned as a leader,
but in the process, feeling abused because your group members became
social loafers – those who did nothing and just benefitted from the
efforts of those who are really working. Operating on your egocentric
thought, you consulted and opened up the matter to your instructor,
because you do not want to carry the whole weight of the group.
Another concept in ethics that is somehow opposite to egocentric
thinking is sociocentric thinking. Sociocentric thoughts are defined to
be the native human tendency to see the world from a narrow and
biased group-centered perspective, to operate within the world through
subjective and partial group beliefs, group influences, group rules,
group think or group interests. This is when we operate on the belief
64 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Sadly, our generation today became extremely sociocentric when it
comes to their view of the self. It became a need to feel validated and
accepted by the people around us. Social media became very prevalent
that it has become a necessity to inform and show others about what we
are doing, eating or thinking about. ”What’s on your mind?” - the line
that’s asked by Facebook to every user around the globe, which humans
feel the need to express themselves socially and that it is integral and
important that others should accept and believe that same beliefs that
they have, as it is shown by the number of like reactions. Some people
even delete pictures and posts if they do not garner likes and reactions
because it makes them feel bad; they think they are unaccepted by the
people around them.
Beginning at a very young age humans begin to internalize the
mores and folkways of the groups to which they belong. They begin
“fitting in” to groups, form majority of their choices that are not of their
own, but out of instinct and in order to survive.
Due to an innate need to be accepted and esteemed by others, to be
validated, humans operate largely as members of various groups
through the whole of their lives. Sadly, although it is not always bad to
think sociocentrically, sociocentric thought is the same reason why
there are injustices and hidden pains that are not spoken of by
individual human beings. Say for example, a student who is a victim of
abuse by her professor refuses to speak up because then, all students
would stop believing and respecting the same professor. A family
member who refuses to speak up of verbal abuse by his father because
he does not want to destroy the family ties so he chooses to keep quiet
about it. Instances like this are a product of sociocentric thinking. We
are built up too much on the idea that there are standards to keep and
ideals that should be followed because we belong in a certain strata or
group. Remember, part of being a free person, or a human being
endowed with freedom, is the freedom to choose between what to do.
And as we are free human beings, it follows that we can choose paths
of action that will help us with certain situations in life. Whether there
is a need to operate on egocentric or sociocentric thoughts.
Though the mind is by nature egocentric and sociocentric, it also has
the capacity to reason rationally and reasonably. This imposes the fact
that critical thinking is a fundamental concept in understanding and
65 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
doing ethics. We have to be fully aware of the processes that make up
our decisions. Are we thinking egocentrically? Are we operating on a
sociocentric thought? This is important to ask because we sometimes
neglect others, and more so, ourselves, in the way we make our
decisions and how they manifest on our actions. Remember that your
thoughts manifest on the way that you act, and that action can never be
undone. Truthfully, one goal of ethics is to develop our rationality,
because we are the highest form of beings. And in order to develop as
rational persons, we must take command of our native egocentric and
sociocentric nature.
Chimpanzees are now popular subjects for
AIDS research, although their immune system
does not succumb to the virus. Chimpanzees are also used in
painful cancer, hepatitis, and psychological tests, as well as
for research into artificial insemination and birth control
methods, blood diseases, organ transplants, and experimental
surgery. Their use in military experiments is suspected, but
such information is kept secret and hard to verify.
Chimpanzees are highly active and very socially oriented.
When kept isolated in laboratories with no regular physical
contact with either humans or chimps, they quickly become
psychotic. Because adult chimpanzees are strong and often
unmanageable, and because infected chimpanzees cannot be
placed in zoos or existing sanctuaries, many chimpanzees are
killed before the age of 10. (Source: PETA )
Using the principle of critical thinking, sociocentrism and
egocentrism, develop three different advocacy campaigns that
you can use to help alleviate the situation of chimpanzees and
animal testing. Take note, you should be able to create three
different advocacies, one that is a product of critical thinking,
another that operates on an egocentric thought, and one that is
based on a sociocentric thoughts. Be sensitive and aware of
the differences between the three. Write your answers using
the template on the next page.
66 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Critical thinking is known to be the ability of an individual to be in
full control of his own thinking. It includes the ability to
consciously examine the elements of one’s reasoning, or that of
another.
 The major elements of critical thinking include perception,
assumptions, emotion, language, argument, fallacy, and logic.
 Egocentric thinking happens when one becomes aware that his/her
thinking starts to operate on a biased-personal mode, forgetting the
presence of thinking socially – that is, to remember that there are
other people that we have to think about, too.
 Sociocentric thoughts are defined to be the native human tendency
to see the world from a narrow and biased group-centered
perspective, to operate within the world through subjective and
partial group beliefs, group influences, group rules, group think or
group interests.

67 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 68 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____

Yr./Sec. _____

Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.
_____________1. This is known to be the concept that makes us
different from each other.
_____________2. The product of the thinking process as defined in
item number 3.
_____________3. One becomes aware that his/her thinking starts to
operate on a biased-personal mode, forgetting the presence of
thinking socially
_____________4. The process of deciding on things with regards to
other individuals.
_____________5. This is the very thing which makes us different
from animals in terms of our actions.
_____________6. These are the products of sociocentric thinking.
_____________7. The process where one begins to unconsciously
lose the self in order to gain approval of others.
_____________8. The ability to be aware and evaluate how one or
others is/are thinking.
_____________9. Central to critical thinking as they tend to be
implied, and that most of the time, they are processed unconsciously.
_____________10. A claim, which is used to persuade that
something is or is not true, or should or should not be done.

Egocentric thinking Critical Thinking

Sociocentric thinking Rationality
Conformity Individuality
Egocentric Thoughts Sociocentric Thoughts
Argument Immanuel Kant
Morality Assumptions

69 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 70 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

How is your circle of friends doing at the moment? If you would be

given a chance to choose who to be with, would you still choose your
same group of friends? What traits and actions have you been doing
that you actually resent with them? What decisions and/or attitudes
do you like doing with your friends? Are they contributing to your
development as a person? Why or why not?
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71 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 72 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 CHAPTER 5
Utilitarian Ethics and Man’s Notion of Justice
At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:
1. explain the basic principles in understanding the ethics of
utilitarianism.
2. discuss and explain the differences between the quantitative model
of Jeremy Bentham and qualitative model of John Stuart Mill.
3. use in application the ethics of utilitarianism in understanding real
life scenarios.
Let’s look into this trolley dilemma (Taken from www.conversation.com).
Imagine you are standing beside some tram tracks. In the distance, you
spot a runaway trolley hurtling down the tracks towards five workers
who cannot hear it coming. Even if they are able to spot it, they won’t
be able to move out of the way in time.
As this disaster approaches, you glance down and see a lever
connected to the tracks. You realize that if you pull the lever, the tram
will be diverted down a second set of tracks away from the five
unsuspecting workers.
However, down this side track is one lone worker, just as inattentive
as his colleagues. Would you pull the lever, leading to one death but
saving five?
Cite an instance when you decided to do
something because you are abiding by the rules
or because you feel that it was just the right thing to do.
What did you consider in your decision? What was the outcome of
your action? How did you feel about it?
73 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Maxim of Utilitarianism -
"The greatest amount of good for the greatest
number of people.”
Taken from www.google.com
Principle of Utility
The principle of utility conceives that the most moral action is the
action that provides pleasure or happiness for the most people. Actions
are right if they produce the greatest pleasure. Actions are wrong if they
produce more pain than pleasure to more people. It is not the person's
intention that matter; it is about the consequence or implication of that
person's actions.
It is from the principle of utility that Utilitarianism originated.
What is Utilitarianism?
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that
determines right from wrong by focusing on
outcomes or consequences. The philosophy is
associated with Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill, two towering British philosophers
and political thinkers.
Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical
choice is the one that will produce the greatest
good for the greatest number. It is the only Photo of Jeremy Bentham taken from www.google.com
moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. It is
also the most common approach to moral reasoning used in business
because of the way in which it accounts for costs and benefit.
Jeremy Bentham describes his "greatest happiness principle" in
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, in which he
writes: "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two
sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out
what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the
one hand, the standard of right and wrong, on the other, the chain of
causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all
we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw
off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it."
74 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Jeremy Bentham describes his "greatest happiness principle" in
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, in which he
writes: "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two
sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out
what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the
one hand, the standard of right and wrong, on the other, the chain of
causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we
do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off
our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it."
John Stuart Mill, in his book, Utilitarianism
in 1863, had this key passage: "The creed
which accepts as the foundation of morals
utility, or the greatest happiness principle,
holds that actions are right in proportion as
they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they
tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By
happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence
of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation Photo of John Stuart Mill taken from www.google.com
of pleasure." (Source: Investopedia.com)
Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely
determined by its contribution to overall utility in maximizing
happiness or pleasure as summed among all people. It is, then, the total
utility of individuals which is important here, the greatest happiness for
the greatest number of people. Utility, after which the doctrine is
named, is a measure in economics of the relative satisfaction from, or
desirability of, the consumption of goods. Utilitarianism can then be
described as a quantitative and reductionistic approach to Ethics
(Source: www.philosophybasics.com).
It is a form of Consequentialism (in that the moral worth of an action
is determined by its outcome or consequence - the ends justify the
means), as opposed to Deontology (which disregards the consequences
of performing an act, when determining its moral worth), and to Virtue
Ethics (which focuses on character, rather than rules or consequences).
Rule and Act Utilitarianism
There are two (2) types of utilitarianism namely, rule utilitarianism
and act utilitarianism. Both have different views although these two are
75 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
concerned with the outcome and usefulness of an individual’s action.
Early on in our lives, we are governed by rules and are taught to
adhere to them. Our society expects us to behave in accordance with
these rules in order to live in harmony with other people. So we do
things and consider not to hurt people. However, sometimes we act
based on what we feel is right, putting aside the prevailing rules in
society. If that is so, it becomes morally right to steal money to buy
food or medicine to save someone’s life. Or it will be morally right to
kill a rapist in order to save others from further harm by the person who
did it?
How should morality be viewed? What is the proper way to act in
society?
Act utilitarianism is the belief that it is the right action that brings
the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. It is a concept
that believes that the morality of an action is determined by its
usefulness to most of the people, that this act is in accordance with the
moral rules since it brings greater good or happiness.
Rule utilitarianism, on the other hand, is the belief that an action can
be morally right if it conforms to the rules that will lead to the greatest
good or happiness. It conforms with the belief that the correctness of
an action is determined by the correctness of its rules and that if the
correct rule is followed, the greatest good or happiness is achieved
(Source: www.differencebetween.net).
Act Utilitarianism Rule Utilitarianism
An action becomes morally right The moral correctness of an action
when it produces the greatest depends on the correctness of the
good for the greatest number of rules that allows to achieve the
people. greatest good.
It is alright to break a rule as If a rule cannot bring a greater
long as it brings a greater good. good, breaking it will not either.
Jeremy Bentham’s Quantitative Utilitarian Mode
The manner by which Bentham estimated pleasures and pain can be
applied to egoistic hedonism. Play computer games rather than go to
school, eat whatever you like, be unkind to the needy, sleep all day. As
defined, hedonism is the philosophy of pleasure. It means doing
whatever brings you the greatest amount of pleasure, regardless of any
76 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
other effects.
Bentham added another factor in his Utilitarian model which is the
“extent” of pleasure extended to any number of persons. His
quantitative model sums up as follows:
1. He believed that the right act is the act that actually produces
happiness and pleasure to the greatest number. Pleasure and pain
form the basis of the standard of right and wrong.
2. Pleasure is explained in terms of the benefits, good, happiness or
sum of the pleasures of the individuals that compose the
community.
3. The main problem for the Hedonistic Calculus is calculating the
interpersonal utility comparison using cardinal utility measurement
rather than ordinal measurement.
The major factors of sensations of pleasure and pain resulting from
an action are based on the following variables as outlined by Bentham:
The first four (4) variables such as intensity, duration, certainty, and
propinquity show the value of the pleasure or the pain. Bentham did
not see pleasure and pain as polar concepts or contraries.
Intensity (I) - How intense is the pleasure or pain?
Duration (D) - How long does the pleasure of pain last?
Certainty (C) - What is the probability that the pleasure or pain
will occur?
Propinquity (nearness or remoteness) (N) - How far off in the
future is the pleasure or pain?
The next two variables are properties of the event or action produced
by the pleasure or pain, and not properties of the pleasure or pain, itself.
Fecundity (F) - What is the probability that the pleasure will lead to
other pleasures?
Purity (P) - What is the probability that the pain will lead to other
pains?
Other variable include:
Extent (E) - How many persons are affected by the pleasure?
John Stuart Mill’s Qualitative Utilitarianism Model
According to John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism is the foundation
77 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
of morals. The utilitarian principle says actions are right in proportion
as they tend to promote overall human happiness. Mill focuses on
consequences of actions and not on rights nor ethical sentiments. Mill
believed that utilitarians are consequentialists who held that pleasure is
the only intrinsic value.
Not all forms of pleasure are alike as hedonism conceives it. Mill
was convinced that some types of pleasure are more valuable than others
in terms of their inherent qualities. That is why, his position is often
called “qualitative hedonism”. He argues that the more valuable
pleasures are those which utilize “higher faculties” which include the
pleasures of the intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the
moral sentiments. The use of judgment and empathy are examples of
highly developed faculties (Source: iep.utm.edu). He further asserts
that all or almost all people prefer “manner of existence” which employ
higher faculties as valuable than a manner of existence which does not.
According to him, the best human life is one in which the higher
faculties play an adequate part. This partly explains why he put such
great emphasis on education.
Many philosophers hold that qualitative hedonism is not a consistent
position. Hedonism asserts that pleasure is the only intrinsic value.
Nevertheless, critics such as F.H. Bradley and T.H. Green, British
idealists, argue that there can be no evaluative basis for the distinction
between higher and lower pleasures.
Justice and Moral Rights
Morally and politically, justice is one of the most important concepts.
Western philosophers view it as the fundamental virtue in interpersonal
relations and in maintaining a stable political society. The word justice
comes from the Latin word “justitia” which means righteousness, equity
and “justus” which means upright, just, honorable, fair.
Aristotle asserts that justice consists in what is lawful and fair.
Fairness involves equitable distributions and correction of what is
inequitable. Plato, on the other hand, believes justice is a virtue
establishing rational order - each part performing its role and not
interfering with the proper functioning of other parts.
The justice approach holds that moral decision must be based on
standards of equity, fairness and impartiality. In business and
78 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
organizational settings, executives are concerned with three (3) types of
justice (Rao, 2010):
 Distributive justice - This requires that different treatment of
people are not based on arbitrary characteristics. Individuals in the
organization who are similar in qualifications and considerations
relevant to a decision should be treated similarly. In other words,
men and women who perform the same job should receive the same
salaries. However, people who differ in a substantive way, such as
job skills or job responsibility can be treated differently in
proportion to the differences in skills or responsibility among them.
This difference should have clear relationship to organizational
goals and tasks.
 Procedural justice - This concept claims that rules should be
clearly stated and consistently and impartially enforced.
 Compensatory justice - This maintains that individuals should be
compensated for the cost of their injuries by the party responsible
and also those individuals should not be held responsible for
matters over which they have no control.
The moral rights approach asserts that human beings have funda-
mental rights and liberties that cannot be taken away by an individual’s
decision (Rao, 2010).
There are six (6) moral rights which should be considered during
decision making:
 The right of free consent - Individuals are to be treated only as they
knowingly and freely consent to be treated.
 The right to privacy - Individuals can choose to do as they please
away from work and have control of information about their private
life.
 The right of freedom of conscience - Individuals may refrain from
carrying out any order that violates their moral norms and religious
norms.
 The right of free speech - Individuals may criticize truthful ethics
or legality actions of others.
 The right to due process - Individuals have a right to an impartial
hearing and fair treatment.
79 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 The right to life and safety - Individuals have a right to live without
endangerment or violation of their health and safety.
Justice is about living with other people, while morality is about
living with yourself. Justice is about right relation to others as
measured against the mores of society, while morality is about right
relation to right itself, as measured against your own beliefs
(Morehouse,____).
Pair Work
Is there justice in every moral act? Isaac Morehouse
(2013) cites this example:
Suppose Charles jumped in someone else’s car parked in
the valet entrance at a hotel and sped away to get his wife in
for an emergency C-section. Charles saved the baby and
possibly the mother. Was this a moral act? Did Charles acted
justly?
Share your ideas and position about the situation to the
class.
 The principle of utility presupposes that the most moral action is
the action that provides pleasure or happiness for the most people.
 Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong
by focusing on outcomes or consequences.
 Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are the two towering British
philosophers and political thinkers who founded Utilitarianism.
 There are two (2) types of utilitarianism. These are rule
utilitarianism and act utilitarianism.
 Act utilitarianism believes that it is the right action that brings the
greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.
 Rule utilitarianism believes that an action can be morally right if it
conforms to the rules that w ill lead to the greatest good or
happiness.
80 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 John Stuart Mill’s Qualitative Model Mill maintains that there are
some types of pleasure which are more valuable than others in
terms of their inherent qualities as opposed to Jeremy Bentham’s
Quantitative Utilitarian Model.
 The justice approach holds that moral decision must be based on
standards of equity, fairness and impartiality.
 The moral rights approach asserts that human beings have
fundamental rights and liberties that cannot be taken away by an
individual’s decision.

81 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 82 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.
_____________1. This theory holds that the most ethical choice is
the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number.
_____________2. It is a variable in Bentham’s Quantitative
Utilitarian model that determines the probability that the pleasure or
pain will occur.
_____________3. It is a type of justice which claims that rules
should be clearly stated and consistently and impartially enforced.
_____________4. How many persons are affected by the pleasure is
another variable considered in Bentham’s Model.
_____________5. It is the philosophy of pleasure.
_____________6. It is a moral right of a person to an impartial
hearing and fair treatment.
_____________7. It is a type of utilitarianism where an action
becomes morally right when it produces the greatest good for the
greatest number of people.
_____________8. He asserts that justice consists in what is lawful
and fair. Fairness involves equitable distributions and correction of
what is inequitable.
_____________9. If a rule cannot bring a greater good, breaking it
will not either.
_____________10. Utilitarianism stemmed from this principle.

Due Process Plato

Rule Utilitarianism Principle of Utility
Compensatory Certainty
Aristotle Act Utilitarianism
Extent Procedural
Utilitarianism Hedonism
Principle of Justice

83 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 84 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man

Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____
A. List down ten (10) examples of moral acts in society based on
your experiences and/or other people’s experiences.
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B. Based on the utilitarian view, is punishment necessary for a crime
committed necessary to ensure the greatest good for the greatest
number of people?
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85 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
C. How do you view death penalty as an effective deterrent to crime?
Do you agree or disagree? Defend your position.
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86 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man

CHAPTER 6
Man and the Natural Law
At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:
1. explain the role of ethics in understanding Thomas Aquinas’
theory of natural law.
2. identify the natural law of Thomas Aquinas in distinction and in
relation to the other types of law such as eternal law, human law
and divine law.
3. Apply such understanding of the natural law in thinking about
current issues in society.
One of society’s biggest issues surrounding conversations today
revolves around same-sex marriage and the rights of lesbians, gays,
bisexuals, transgender, questioning, and/or queers. We commonly call
them LGBTQ people, although our notion of them is somehow
uncommon and is varied, from one person to the other. Manny
Pacquiao, in one of his interviews regarding the issue, said that it is
very unnatural for same sex beings to have sex, let alone get married,
for it is against the bible. Surprisingly, his remarks against these people
are not uncommon. Many people believe that it is just a matter of
common-sense. That one has to understand that the way we should
choose our partners should be based on our biology, or more, on natural
methods.
Today, there are also increasing number of people discriminating
persons who undergo plastic surgeries and surgical treatments like
slimming and whitening, because some people say they should love
their natural looks. Some parents even express their hatred against the
idea of their children to get tattoos on their skins because it would ruin
natural beauty.
All of these talks about what is natural and not is only adding to the
confusion in terms of really understanding the way we define what they
87 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
really are. We are becoming used to people arguing with us and
justifying their stands by telling us that we should go with what’s
natural and not with what is not. It becomes a reason to discriminate
people and impose labels which promote division. For instance, one can
argue that it will be okay for any human being to urinate in public
because it is part of the body’s natural functions. One may also use the
concept of natural in a human being’s desire for sex that may lead to
abusing other people. All of these only keeps the line between natural
and unnatural as blurred as it already is. All because we believe that
what is unnatural is not good and that natural is always good. In order to
really gain wisdom regarding this issue, we should therefore ask the
question “What does natural and unnatural mean?”
What is your personal stance on the idea of abortion? What
are the implications of legalizing this act? What can be its
advantages? Is there any moral reason to push for this legalization?
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was a famous name in Philosophy as a proponent
of the natural law which bridged a way between ethics, philosophy and
theology. He was born in a small town in Italy and studied liberal arts
at the University of Naples. In 1249, he was ordained as a Dominican
friar. Up today, he is known as the Doctor of the Church because of his
immense contribution to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Aside
from that, he is known for his great contribution to western thought
and modern philosophy. One of his important works is known as
“Summa Theologica” or the Book on the Truth of the Catholic Faith
Against Errors of the Unbelievers. His books are combinations of
philosophy and theology wherein he discussed about the important role
of the natural law, virtues and happiness in moral philosophy.
88 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
The Natural Law
The teachings of Thomas Aquinas began by grounding on natural
law, wherein it was clear that all of his reflections were considered to be
theistic – meaning, he believed that God is the highest of all beings and
is the highest of all that is good. Because God created that which is on
earth and everything, then He also expresses his self through all of what
is created, through the eternal law, including his will and plan for all of
these creatures, including us, human beings.
In asking whether there is an eternal law, Aquinas begins by stating a
general definition of all law: Law is a dictate of reason from the ruler
for the community he rules. This dictate of reason is first and foremost
within the reason or intellect of the ruler. It is the idea of what should be
done to insure the well-ordered functioning of whatever community the
ruler has care for. It is a fundamental tenet of Aquinas' political theory
that rulers rule for the sake of the governed, i.e. for the good and
well-being of those subject to the ruler. Since he has elsewhere shown
that God rules the world with his reason, since He is the cause of its
being, Aquinas concludes that God has in His intellect an idea by which
He governs the world. This Idea, in God, for the governance of things is
the eternal law.
Following that explanation, Thomas Aquinas furthered that in each
creature and created thing, there is inside of them, a natural law. He
makes a distinction that a law is not only contained in the reason of the
ruler, but is also in the thing that is ruled. In the case of the eternal law,
the created things and the creation itself that are ruled by the natural law
have it inside of them through their nature or essence. Since things and
beings act according to their nature, they derive their proper acts and
define their purposive ends according to the law that is imprinted in
their nature. Everything in nature, insofar as it reflects the order by
which God directs them through their nature for their own benefit,
reflects the eternal law in their own natures.
In the case of human beings, the natural law requires greater care and
accuracy because in their nature also belongs their free will, freedom of
choice, and the quality that separates them from other beings, which is
rationality. It is purely human nature to act freely, to provide for
ourselves and others, and to act on our own good. Although, it is
possible that some individuals may miss being inclined toward what is
89 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
is proper and should be acted.
To this, it only strengthens the distinction that we are endowed with
freedom and reason which enables us to exercise our will and discover
what is best for us, to achieve the end to which the natural law inclines
us to do so. The natural inclination of humans to achieve their proper
end through reason and free will is the natural law. Formally defined,
the natural law is humans' participation in the Eternal Law, through
reason and will. Humans actively participate in the eternal law of God
(the governance of the world) by using reason in conformity with the
Natural Law to discern what is good and evil.
In applying this universal notion of Natural Law to the human
person, one first must decide what it is that God has ordained human
nature to be inclined towards. Since each thing has a nature given by
God, and each thing has a natural end, then therefore, there is a fulfill-
ment to human activity of living according to the given plan. When a
person discovers by reason what the purpose of living is, he or she
discovers what his or her natural end is.
Aquinas extricates different levels of precepts or commands that the
natural law entails. The most universal among all beings is the
command "Good is to be done and pursued and evil avoided." Since we
were kids, this has become a common sense type of command being
endowed to us by our parents. For Aquinas, this applies to everything
and everyone, so much that some consider it to be more of a description
or definition of what we mean by "good." For these philosophers, a
thing is "good" just because it is pursued or done by someone. Aquinas
would agree with this to a certain extent; but he would say that that is a
definition of a “deceptive” good. Thus, this position of Aquinas has a
certain phenomenological appeal: a person does anything and
everything he or she does only because that thing at least "appears" to
be good. Even when you choose something that you know is bad for
yourself, you, nevertheless, choose it under some aspect of good, For
instance, you do know that the cake is fattening because of its calorie
contents. But, you reason out that you don't choose to eat it as fattening.
You do, however, choose to eat it for the reason that it is tasty, which is
an apparent, though not a true, good.
Another level that Aquinas pointed out was one that we share with
other beings. The natural law commands that we should preserve
90 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
ourselves in being. Therefore, when applied to human nature, we must
never commit nor try to commit suicide. This, however, can be viewed
by the former law stated above, as one may reason out that suicide can
be an apparent good as to end one’s pain. However, this level that we
share with all other human beings, regards that we should take care and
preserve our life, more so, be able to share it with other living things and
to the next generation. Thus, it also entails that it is a basic command
that the more we preserve our lives, we are also commanded to rear and
care for our offspring.
The natural law also commands us to develop our rational and moral
capacities by growing in the virtues of intellect. Some of these include
prudence, art and science. It also commands that human beings develop
will, which includes justice, courage and temperance. Some ends
included in this command is to pursue harmonious functioning of the
society. Interestingly, our nature shows us that each one of us has a
destiny that lasts beyond this world, too. According to Aquinas, man’s
infinite capacity to know and love shows that he is destined to know and
love an infinite being – that which, is God.
Plato: The Allegory of the Cave
Plato, realizes that part and parcel of human nature is the ability to
think, and speak, without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of
his realm of form. Plato used his own illustration, called The Allegory of
the Cave is made and is supposed to explain this.
In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms
to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. They are
fixated to a single wall in which shadows are being projected. All they
can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the
fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can
walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets
that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to
see these puppets, the real objects, which pass behind them. They have
no idea that what they are seeing are just mere shadows. What the
prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they
do not see. Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They
would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they
would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows. So when the
91 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
prisoners talk, what are they talking about? If an object (a book, let us
say) is carried past behind them, and it casts a shadow on the wall, and a
prisoner says “I see a book,” what is he talking about? He may be sure
that he is talking about a book, but all he is really talking about is a
shadow. But he uses the word “book.” Now the underlying question is,
what do we call the thing that he is talking about?
Plato gives his answer at one of his writings. The text here has
puzzled many editors, and it has been frequently emended. This one
translation gets the point correctly. “And if they could talk to one
another, don’t you think they’d suppose that the names they used
applied to the things they see passing before them?”
Plato’s point is that the prisoners would be mistaken. For they would
be taking the terms in their language to refer to the shadows that pass
before their eyes, rather than (as is correct, in Plato’s view) to the real
things that cast the shadows.
If a prisoner says “That’s a book,” he thinks that the word “book”
refers to the very thing he is looking at. But he would be wrong. He’s
only looking at a shadow. The real referent of the word “book” he
cannot see. To see it, he would have to turn his head around. Plato’s
point may be that the general terms of our language are not “names” of
the physical objects that we can see. They are actually names of things
that we cannot see, things that we can only grasp with the mind.
When the prisoners are released, they can turn their heads and see the
real objects. Then they realize their error. What can we do that is analo-
gous to turning our heads and seeing the causes of the shadows? We can
come to grasp the forms with our minds. Plato’s aim in the Republic is
to describe what is necessary for us to achieve this reflective understand-
ing. But even without it, it remains true that our very ability to think and
to speak depends on the Forms. For the terms of the language we use get
their meaning by “naming” the Forms that the objects we perceive
participate in.
The prisoners may learn what a book is by their experience with
shadows of books. But they would be mistaken if they thought that the
word “book” refers to something that any of them has ever seen.
Likewise, we may acquire concepts by our perceptual experience of
physical objects. But we would be mistaken if we thought that the
concepts that we grasp were on the same level as the things we perceive.
92 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 The idea of the good can be linked into Plato’s allegory in as much as
human beings can also perceive the things that they do as good,
disregarding the realness that is behind them. In opposite, one can also
perceive something as wrong without knowing what really is behind
them. In the allegory, one man was able to get out of the cave and
followed the sunrays that were unable to take him into the world of
forms. For Plato, this is considered to be the place where reality and the
perfect form of everything exists. The perfect form has surprised the
man who was able to see it for the first time, as the brightness of reality
is blinding. He tried going back to the cave to ask other people to check
out the path that led him outside, but because he seemed very
bewildered by what he saw, people in the cave did not believed him and
tried inflicting danger in him because they thought he was crazy.
Plato’s idea of goodness and the good is that it can never be seen as
they are, in essence, in the world of forms. The very thing that you are
sitting on right now may not be considered as the real chair, because
then, all objects that you can sit on can then be called a chair. The
question then arises as to “What makes a chair, a chair?” – Plato’s
theory of forms can be used to explain that the very thing that makes it a
chair is its chair-ness. Where we can conclude that is never seen by the
naked eye, but only remains an essence, in the world of forms.
Aristotle’s Being and Becoming
Aristotle’s version of explaining beings revolved around four (4)
concepts which sheds a light on understanding any particular being
under consideration. Any being, according to Aristotle, can be said to
have four causes.
The first cause is when we recognize that any being we can see
around is corporeal, possessed and is made up of a certain element,
materiality or physical “stuff.” We call this, the material cause. A being
is individuated – it is always unique and is different from one another –
because of this particular matter. The material cause is what something
is made out of. The human body of made up of cells. Wooden boxes are
made up of wood. Computers are made out of transistors and other
electronic components. The material cause also explains the general sort
of properties of something. Wooden boxes burn because they are made
out of wood. The human body needs oxygen because its cells need
93 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
oxygen.
Yet, we also realize that the said stuff or material takes on a
particular shape: which makes a bird different from a cat, which is
different from a man. This shape that makes a being its own particular
kind is what we would call the form. Thus, each being also has its
formal cause. The for mal cause is what makes a thing one thing
rather than many things. The human body is human, wooden boxes are
boxes, and computers are computers. The difference between a mere
collection of cells and a human body is that a human body has
properties and functions that come from a particular arrangement of the
right kind of cells doing the right kind of things. A mere collection of
cells is not the formal cause. A human body is the formal cause. The
formal cause can also be divided into two: formal cause and exemplary
cause. An exemplary cause is the plan in someone’s mind that gave rise
to a computer. Things have either a formal cause or an exemplary cause
– not both.
We also realize that a being does not simply pop up from nothing,
but comes from and is a product of another being which is prior to it.
Parents produce children. A tree was once a seed. A chair is built by a
carpenter. Thus, there is something which brings about the presence of
another being. The efficient cause is what did that. If a ball broke a
window, then the ball is the efficient cause of the window breaking.
Every change is caused by an efficient cause. If your eye sees, then it
sees because light from the object strikes your eyes and causes you to
see what is there. Efficient causes answer the “what did that” question,
but do not answer how it was done.
Because we now have an understanding of what brought about the
things that we see, we also need not to miss the very reason why they
exist. This reason can be considered the final end or the goal – which
answers the “why” of things. A chair is to be sat on, a child to become
an adult or a pen to be used for writing. The final cause is why efficient
causes do what they do and why formal causes do what they do. Why
do balls break windows? The final cause says that because balls are
hard and windows are brittle, they break. Why do rocks fall? Aristotle
said that rocks fall because they are heavy. Air is light, therefore air
rises. These are all pointing out the final cause of efficient causes. To
ask for the final cause of formal causes is to ask why these things exist
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at all. Why do human beings exist? Aristotle says that they exist to make
more human beings, because they are alive. They also exist to be happy
because they are rational. Why do computers exist? They exist because
people made them. They wanted to use them as tools in math, gaming
and business. Why do rocks exist? They exist because the wind, sea and
rain break rock formations to produce rocks. These things are also final
causes.
Synthesis
From then on, we realize that the idea of a higher good, and the
highest being, according to Aquinas is none other than the one who has
caused everything into existence: God. Aquinas considers God as the
fullness of being and of goodness. To this, we realize that all beings are
only possible as participating in the first being, which is God Himself. If
God is that from which all beings come, then it is possible to possible to
consider and speak of Him as the first efficient cause. And insofar as
God is also considered as the end that all beings seek to return, it is also
possible for us to consider him as the final cause. Interestingly, in the
Christian bible, He is considered as the alpha and omega, the beginning
and the end.
However, even if all beings are created by a good God and are
considered to have innate goodness imprinted in each and every one of
us, we must remember that the goodness possessed by any being
remains imperfect. Just like in Plato’s allegory, we can only hope for
shadows, as the reality and perfect form of things can only be achieved
in perfect philosophy and that it can sometimes be blinding. For
Aquinas, only God in the fullness of His being and goodness is perfect;
all other beings, including humans, are only participating in this
goodness, and are good to that extent, but are imperfect because of their
limited participation. But then again, God did not create us to stay that
way. He endowed human beings with wisdom, reason and rationality, to
be able to comprehend and understand, in His infinite wisdom, how we
are to arrive at this perfection. God communicates to each being His
perfection and goodness. Every creature then, strives to its own
perfection thus, divine goodness is the end of all actions. We must
remain in thought that all the ends of our actions should be toward this
perfection and goodness. All things come from God, and are created by
95 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Him in order to return to Him.
Given that we are beings with a capacity for reason, our way of
reaching the divine is by knowing and loving Him. It is of utmost
importance that the presence of a capacity for reason is the prime
characteristic of a human being, and how this capacity is the very tool
which God had placed in our human nature as the way towards our
List down five (5) things that you think you can do in
order to eventually achieve your perfection of being.
1. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
2. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
3. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
4. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
5. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
GROUP ACTIVITY
In groups of 5, recall Plato’s Allegory of the
Cave and dramatize it using issues that our
society is facing today. Take note of the essence
of the story and use it as a grounding ideal in the
plot of your role play. Be ready to present your
story in class.
96 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Thomas Aquinas was a famous name in Philosophy as a proponent
of the natural law which bridged a way between ethics, philosophy
and theology. Up today, he is known as the Doctor of the Church
because of his immense contribution to the doctrine of the Catholic
Church. One of his important works is known as “Summa
Theologica” or the Book on the Truth of the Catholic Faith Against
Errors of the Unbelievers. His books are combinations of
philosophy and theology wherein he discussed about the important
role of the natural law, virtues and happiness in moral philosophy.
 Since things and beings act according to their nature, they derive
their proper acts and define their purposive ends according to the
law that is imprinted in their nature. Everything in nature, insofar as
it reflects the order by which God directs them through their nature
for their own benefit, reflects the eternal law in their own natures.
This is the idea of the natural law.
 The idea of the good can be linked into Plato’s allegory in as much
as human beings can also perceive the things that they do as good,
disregarding the realness that is behind them. In opposite, one can
also perceive something as wrong without knowing what really is
behind them.
 The material cause is what something is made out of. The formal
cause is what makes a thing one thing rather than many things. The
efficient cause is what produced the material cause. The final cause
is why efficient causes do what they do and why formal causes do
what they do.

97 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 98 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.
_____________ 1. This philosopher believed that a perfect form of
everything exists.
_____________ 2. A cat cannot be considered a human being
because it cannot speak to another man.
_____________ 3. The television is deemed useless if its screen is
not working.
_____________ 4. This is considered as the resources from the
Divine God that humans participate in.
_____________ 5. A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to
reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
_____________ 6. In each one of us is imprinted a law which comes
from the eternal law of the one who created us.
_____________ 7. The man behind the four causes of everything.
_____________ 8. The proponent of the Natural Law theory.
_____________ 9. This law coincides everything and anything that is
created for the sole purpose of being and returning from and to the
creator Himself.
_____________ 10. This is considered to be the place where the
perfect form of everything can be seen.

Plato Sun
Material Cause Allegory
Final Cause Natural Law
Divine Providence Eternal Law
Formal Cause Thomas Aquinas
Aristotle World of Forms

99 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 100 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

What can you say about our government today? Narrate five (5)
“good” things that you know is happening in our country today. Why
do you consider each of these things as good? Share your thoughts
and personal opinions.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________
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101 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 102 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man

CHAPTER 7
Virtue Ethics: Seeking Happiness and Purpose
At the end of this chapter, the students will be able to:
1. discuss the meaning and basic principles of virtue ethics
2. distinguish virtuous acts from non-virtuous acts.
3. apply Aristotle’s ethics in understanding the Filipino character.
An interesting study about the millenials of today states that college
students spend fewer hours studying each week than did their
counterparts in 1961, according to a new working paper by Philip S.
Babcock of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mindy
Marks of the University of California, Riverside. In support to this,
there is only little evidence that young people today are hard-working
and productive. According to another article, college graduates are
jumping into the job market, only to land on their parents’ couches, as
evident in the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds that became a
whopping 17.6 percent. Generation Y (also known as the ‘millennials’,
or the ‘Facebook Generation’ as some people call the youth of today) -
has been accused of being the laziest generation ever. According to
older generations, these so-called ‘millennials’ usually feel entitled and
are coddled, disrespectful, narcissistic and impatient, say authors of
books like “The Dumbest Generation” and “Generation Me.” A recent
study also reveals that three in four Americans believe that today’s
youth are less virtuous and industrious than their elders, a 2009 survey
by the Pew Research Center found. Surprisingly, in a sign of humility,
young people agree. In that 2009 Pew survey, two-thirds of millennials
said older adults were superior to the younger generation when it came
to moral values and work ethic.
Some may raise an eyebrow regarding these information about the
dispositions of young people today. But we all know that is not a
surprise that because we live in the age of information, almost all
resources will offer us any data that we need in a single click, unlike the
103 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
past where older people has to resort to too much physical effort only to
get a small portion of the work done. This can be one of the many
reasons why young people are said to lazier than that of the past.
Interestingly, one can argue that we cannot avoid the ever-changing and
advancing wave of technology, as its only premise is to make life easier,
more convenient and better than before.
What are your thoughts about the effect of these advancements in
terms of the values and attitudes of young people today like you? Is it
doing more good than bad? Or is it the other way around?
What are your study habits? What are things in your habits
that you can consider good? Where did you learn these things and
how do they turn into habits? Is it hard to keep doing the good
things?
Albert Bandura: Behavior is learned
There is a famous term known as tabularasa by John Locke in
which it is believed that human beings are known to be born as blank
slates, like empty posters or white papers, and only acquire their
behavior, personality, attitude, knowledge and skills from outside of
their personal spheres. It is believed that under this concept, everything
is acquired because everything started as blank slates. Another
interesting psychological experiment is done by Albert Bandura, which
he called “The Bobo Doll Experiment.” In this experiment, he tried
identifying the source of behavior in children.
In today’s society, people are raising their concerns about the effects
of social influences on the development and growth of a child's
personality and morality. In public places, we see how technology
became ample to tame and pacify a kid who is breaking down. In
adults, we see how violent games where one has to attack other
opponents, smash office bosses or just kill people digitally became a
source of stress relief. Surprising, isn’t it? In addition to this, there are
104 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
researches that prove that television, computer games, food additives,
music and the lack of role models are also seen as reasons for a
supposed breakdown in society, and an increased tendency towards
violence. These concerns have existed for many years, even before the
media turned these factors into sensationalist stories. During the 1960's,
there was a lot of concern and debate about whether a child's
development was down to genetics, environmental factors or social
learning from others around them. Until today, we know how this debate
is known as either nurture or nature.
For the same purpose, Bandura designed the Bobo Doll Experiment
to try and prove that children would copy an adult role model's behavior.
He wanted to show, by using aggressive and non-aggressive actors, that
a child would tend to imitate and learn from the behavior of a trusted
adult. The Bobo doll is an inflatable toy about five feet tall, designed to
spring back upright when knocked over. Children were chosen as
subjects for the study, because they have less social conditioning; they
have also had less instruction and teaching of the rules of society than
adult subjects.
Bandura had a number of predictions about the outcomes of his Bobo
Doll Experiment, fitting with his views on the theories of social
learning:
 Children witnessing an adult role model behaving in an overly
aggressive manner would be likely to replicate similar behavior
themselves, even if the adult was not present.
 Subjects who had observed a non-aggressive adult would be the
least likely to show violent tendencies, even if the adult was not
present. They would be even less likely to exhibit this type of
aggression than the control group of children, who had seen no role
model at all.
 Bandura believed that children would be much more likely to copy
the behavior of a role model of the same sex. He wanted to show
that it was much easier for a child to identify and interact with an
adult of the same gender.
 The final prediction was that male children would tend to be more
aggressive than female children, because society has always
tolerated and advocated violent behavior in men more than women.
105 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
In summary, the results of the experiment has shown that it is likely
that children observing an adult model utilizing violence are more likely
to believe that this type of behavior is normal. They may, therefore, be
more likely to use this type of action themselves when confronted by
similar situations. Bandura even found that girls were much less likely
to be physically violent, but were equally as prone to verbal aggression
as boys. This is something often encountered in society, where bullying
at school, by boys, is more often of a physical nature; intimidation
amongst girls tends to be more verbal and social.
From this, we can somehow realize that some of our behaviors today
may be learned or acquired from different sources in our surroundings.
Therefore, it is only important and crucial for us to evaluate ourselves
and how we are open to being influenced by a lot of factors. Ethically
speaking, Aristotle believed that in order to live a fully meaningful life,
one has to master the art of living. And that, the primary source of
existing is merely to live life rationally and to do it well. Let’s read
more about his stance on living with the right behavior and the virtues
as we define what virtue ethics is.
Virtue Ethics
After knowing that most behaviors, including violence, may be
learned, it is important for us to understand how these behaviors shape
our daily living. This is one big part of knowing about virtue ethics.
Virtue ethics is the ethical framework that is concerned with
understanding the good and the right as a matter of developing what
should be virtuous character of a person. Virtue ethics simply magnifies
and zooms in on the formation of an individual’s character being
developed by doing and determining virtuous acts.
From the previous lessons, we understood how Plato believe that that
one of the highest qualities of a man is the rationality of his soul. Plato
believed that what separates and makes a human being good is his
reason – his ability to determine if his actions are right or wrong.
Aristotle also shares the same belief. They both affirm that rationality is
the highest faculty of a person because it makes him able to realize the
very purpose of existence. Unlike plants who is being planted, grown
and wilted, and animals who are fed and die eventually, human beings
have the capacity to think about their purpose in life and how to live life
106 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 According to Plato, like how we learned from the previous chapter,
the real and the ultimate good is outside of our senses and is contained
and can only be found on the realm/world of form. He states that this
world of form and perfection can be attained and seen by one’s intellect
– that is, by philosophizing. He strongly believes that this realm of
forms can only be seen when one learns how to go outside of his own
reality, for it is not what reality really is. However, Aristotle believed
the other way around. Aristotle believes that reality of things is found
within our everyday encounter with objects in this world. What makes
nature understandable is both its form and matter. We understand reality
because we see it and we know what it is made of. For him, the truth
and the good cannot exist without each other, and that they are not
independent of our experiences.
When one sees a beautiful photograph from Instagram, we know that
it is appealing to the eyes because we can see it. Even if we talk about a
famous, renowned photographer, we cannot just tell that a picture taken
by that person will always be beautiful without actually looking at all
the photos that he took or can take. We cannot discuss the beauty of the
photo without the particular photo itself. This is the same when we
apply what Aristotle is trying to explain in his belief of form and matter.
In understanding the good, the particular action of a person, which can
be considered good is more important than any conception of the good
that is outside and beyond the realm of our day to day experience. In a
nutshell, we are starting to understand that Aristotle believes that the
good in this world is apparent and is applied in our day-to-day living.
Seeking Eudaimonia and Ultimate Purpose by Living Virtuously
The Greek word telos which means purpose was used by Aristotle as
he starts his discussion of ethics with the belief that everything a person
acts and does has implied and has specific purpose. He states that when
one person does something, it is directed towards a particular purpose,
aim or goal. Aristotle believes that a person’s actions manifests a good
that he/she aspires for. He continues on to discuss that everything a
person does has in it, a specific good, and by good he maintained that it
means purpose or goal. When somebody gives a person a gift, it is
intended to make the other person feel special. When one reviews and
prepares for an upcoming licensure examination, the good of the act is
107 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
to pass the said examination. A person will never do or act without any
good that is beneficial to him/her. Even suicidal persons will think that
cutting and taking one’s own life will end the pain and hurt deep inside
of them. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that suicide becomes
good depending on its reason. It will never be. The suicidal person
would only believe that such act is good because of his circumstance.
Therefore, what Aristotle is trying to discuss is that behind every act of
man is telos or purpose for which an individual seeks the good to be
achieved.
As rational human beings, one must understand that individuals act
and has pursuits in life, and correspondingly, even if two persons share
the same act, they may not have the same aims or goals. A good in an
act will always depend on the doer of the act itself. Aristotle even adds
that one does not only act to achieve a goal but in addition, imparts that
this goal can also be directed towards a higher purpose or aim. This can
be a cycle of purposes, aims and goals, according to him. In a nutshell,
the different purposes that a man has according to his actions constitute
what Aristotle has defined as teloi or the hierarchy of purposes.
When you wake up early on a Monday and set yourself up in a
positive disposition so that you will arrive early in class and not be late,
becomes a cause for a goal so that you will not miss anything from your
7-am class. In the class, a higher purpose is set when you try your best
to eagerly listen to your ethics professor, review for an upcoming quiz
and take down notes on biology to have something to review for the
midterm examinations. The purpose of reviewing for the examinations
is deemed to be enacted by a higher purpose of passing your subjects,
and more so, acquiring your goal of being a cum-laude. This is a clear
example of how your purposes may come in on a hierarchy, with
defined levels.
In light of the discussion regarding hierarchy, Aristotle believed that
in every person exists the highest purpose, which then can be
considered as the highest good of a human being. For him, this is the
criteria to determine whether it is the highest good of the person or not.
The highest good of a person is always final. This goal should not be
used in order to achieve any other goals. In Abraham Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs, we see that the highest need of a person is
self-actualization. When a man feels that he, in his capacity and desire,
108 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
has achieved everything the he sees achievable and does not post any
other goals anymore, then this can be considered as the highest good. In
the example above, the goal of passing the exam and the desire to be a
cum laude is not a final good because once they are achieved, they will
only be paths to other goods which will be desired by the person again.
The highest good of a person must always be self-sufficient. One can
only say that he already arrived at the highest good if he thinks that it is
the best and that no desired goals follow after it. In layman’s term, a
person who achieved the highest good should be satisfied. Satisfaction
in life arrives when one’s highest good is attained.
Looking at this criteria, one may stop and think that the highest good
in life may even be impossible, all because as human beings, our desires
are endless. We see and feel how once we acquire a certain thing that
we wish or work for, time comes that we come to another desire again.
Even a certain school of idea in Psychology believes that desires will
never be satiated. So what could be then, the highest good for Aristotle?
It is interesting to note that he believed that this question can only be
answered by older and aged individuals because they have gone through
numerous purposes where some are achieved and some are not, and that
their experiences have taught them so much in life already. One can
then say that these life experiences help an individual to learn about the
ultimate telos of existing and living. According to Aristotle, older
individuals would agree that the highest purpose and the ultimate good
of man is happiness, which in greek translates to eudaimonia. He
emphasized that eudaimonia is constituted by rational activities that are
associated with virtue rather than power, honor or power. According to
Aristotle, the rational activity has to be manifested as pride, wittiness,
friendships that are mutually beneficial, pride and honesty among
others.
In order to test Aristotle’s belief, one can revisit the criteria cited
above in order to find out whether happiness can be the ultimate telos of
man. It is not false to say that when somebody is genuinely happy, he
cannot think of other needs to be met, and that when happiness is
present in a certain situation, no other desires appear and that this
emotion or state is not present to arrive at another path or goal. In
addition to this, when one might think that the ultimate good of man is
to be rich, powerful and acquire all pleasures of life, without happiness,
109 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
all of these would be deem unfit for the criteria. We have seen a lot of
movies and life stories where rich people continue to acquire their
riches and yet still feel unsatisfied because of a certain, unexplainable
void. They will tell people that they are not truly happy. From this, we
can infer that Aristotle may somehow be right. Happiness may in turn
be, the real and genuine ultimate good of man.
For Aristotle, happiness is the only self-sufficient aim that one can
aspire for. No amount of money, wealth, or riches can be fulfilling than
having achieved the condition and state of happiness. Even if you
imagine your ability to acquire all the material wealth that you truly
desire in life, such will still not be satisfying unless you are in a state of
happiness. Once happiness is achieved, things such as these only give
value-added benefits in life. The true measure of well-being and
eudaimonia according to Aristotle is not by means of richness or power,
but by the condition of having been able to attain a happy life.
It is a point of argue when we talk about the opinions of others on
what is specifically the nature of the ultimate purpose or the highest
good of a person. Some may argue that in order to be fully happy, and
achieve a genuine state of happiness, one must acquire pleasure. Others
may say that in order to fully be happy, one must take noble things such
as honor and acknowledgement of people, and many other ideals. For
Aristotle, arguing for or against every other opinion proves to be a futile
and a pointless attempt to arrive at the nature of happiness. Instead, he
maintains that one can arrive at the ultimate good by doing one’s
function well.
How can one be able to arrive at his ultimate good? According to
Aristotle, one must be sensitive enough in what he is doing and how he
is doing this function in order to arrive at his ultimate goal. If one
performs his function well, then he will be able to arrive at his highest
good. Aristotle believes that in each human being is a function that
distinguishes him from other beings. This function is known to be an
activity that is based on reason. He says that if the only function of the
human being is to survive daily and eat to sustain life just to continue
living, then how are we different from plants? Also, if the only function
of human beings is to perceive everything around us, then what makes
us distinct from animals?
110 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 What clearly defines a human being and a person is his function or
activity of reason. We can then understand that a measure of being
human is how he acts in accordance to his function grounded in reason.
The function of a human being is to act following the dictates of her
reason. To this, we realize that any person can fulfill his being by doing
and acting based on his reason. However, Aristotle adds that not only
can a person act and perform his action, but also, perform this function
fully well. A singer can sing, which makes him different from a soccer
player. However, an exceptional singer becomes distinct from other
singers if he exercises vocally each day. A soccer player can still be
different from other soccer players if he undergoes training and practice
every day. This follows the logic that one can be human, but not all
humans are equally human compared to others. What distinguishes a
good person from other human beings is his rational activity that is
performed well and excellently. A good individual therefore gets the
closer chance of attaining the highest good and meet the conditions of
happiness because he acts on a higher purpose and a state of doing it
well.
There is a Filipino saying that goes “Madaling maging tao, mahirap
magpakatao.” This can be understood in the light of Aristotle’s notion
of doing things well and with excellence. It follows that any human
being can perform and act in the function of reason, which makes being
human possible. But, a good human being strives hard to perform his
activity of reason fully well. No wonder why the word virtue in Latin,
read as virtutis may also mean excellence. The root word however, is
vir or man. It is logical therefore to understand virtue as something that
is linked to human nature, and the proper end of performing acts of man
excellently.
Excellence as Virtue
One does not become an excellent person overnight. We have a lot of
cliché sayings about knowing that it is impossible to always please the
people around you, nor have them remember the good things that you
do, rather than the small mistakes that you may have unintentionally
committed. Aristotle’s wisdom may be best applied to circumstances
such as these. Life is not about being exceptionally functional. It is
doing things well, and striving to always act excellently in reason. For
111 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
him, acting on reason and always doing your best to base your actions
on striving to be your ultimate good is one great reason for living. This
ideal of doing things the excellent way is what Greeks call arête.
Aristotle, along with other thinkers, believe that being virtuous cannot
be accomplished by a single act.
Take for example how our current administration is utilizing
drug-convicted and arrested people as star witnesses to convict other
people dragged into the big drug monopoly in the country. We can see
on the news that as soon as they become witnesses, they are
automatically granted the government’s witness protection program,
and are treated as the most credible persons about such cases. They are
able to expose all the grave acts that are committed by their cohorts in
the drug cartel. Their honesty and straightforwardness may seem to be
of virtue for some, but we have to properly understand that the virtue
that the thinkers were trying to teach us is focused on being an excellent
individual, as he strives to act excellently on reason, in his everyday
life.
But what really makes a human being excellent? Aristotle believes
that excellence is an activity of not just the form and function, but more
so, of the soul. And in order to understand the process of this activity,
one know the very structure of a person’s soul.
The Structure of the Soul
112 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 For Aristotle, the soul is made up and is composed of two main
components: the irrational component and the rational component. Even
if there are classifications within these components, Aristotle believed
that these should both be mastered by an individual in terms of
regulating, balancing and mastering the art of controlling these. The
irrational component of the soul is further classified into two aspects:
the vegetative aspect and the appetitive aspect. One must remember
that both of the two aspects belong into the irrational component as they
are delivered by the body impulsively, and not by ideas nor by actually
thinking of them. The vegetative aspect functions as the reminder of the
individual to gain nutrition and provides the activity to develop the
growth and the physical maturity of the person’s body. On the other
hand, the appetitive aspect of the human being focuses on the impulses
of a man that gives him desires. It also belongs to the irrational aspect
because it is never dictated by reason, and sometimes, even go against it
just to pursue the desire for pleasure and satisfaction. One example of
this is sexual impulse, where some people cannot just reasonably
control with their rationalities. However, Aristotle believes that even if
it belongs to the irrational component of the human being, it can still
be subjected to reason as long as a man wills to do so. That is, we can
take hold of our desires and evaluate if they are reasonable or not.
Aristotle believes that the desiring faculty of man can still be subjected
to reason, if one manifests the will to do so.
If the irrational component of man acts on impulse rather than
complete reason, the rational component works the other way around.
This component possibly concerns itself of the actuation of excellence
in a human being. One can rightly or wrongly apply the use of reason in
this part. This component is further divided into two aspects: the moral,
which focuses on the act of doing, and the intellectual aspect, which
concerns the act of knowing. In other words, the moral is concerned
about the acting, while the intellect focuses on the knowing.
Aristotle believed that excellence can be exercised and acquired by
teachings. Thus, he believed that one aspect that can contribute a lot to
developing excellence in a man is through his intellectual faculty – his
ability of knowing. We commonly believe the cliché that experience is
the best teacher, and that when we talk to elderly people, we cannot
help but be amazed by the richness of wisdom that comes out of their
113 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
mouth when they talk about their life experiences. For Aristotle, one
learns and gains wisdom by being taught or by learning. In addition to
this, he said that there are two kinds of wisdom where one can widen
his intellectual faculty: the philosophic wisdom and practical wisdom.
Philosophic wisdom concerns itself about knowing life’s truths and the
essential principles that concerns living in this vast universe.
This wisdom helps one understand the very purpose and the meaning
of life. Practical wisdom, on the other hand, helps an individual know
and discern the right way of acting and behaving in his daily life.
However, Aristotle posits that even if an individual an attain
excellence through his intellectual faculty, this situation does not make
a person a morally good individual. Aristotle points out that it is not
enough for a man to be excellent in his intellectual capacity, because a
man can attain all knowledge and know the rights acts toward
excellence, and still miss the mark of being a morally upright
individual. He states that knowing the good does not make a person
excellent at all, not unless he, in his morals, act on it and strives to live
everyday along these by lines of both virtue, moral and excellence. For
him, a morally upright person must know the practical wisdom of doing
what is right, the philosophic wisdom of knowing the reason behind
these acts, and the morals to keep living on these actions. This approach
is very contrasting to what another known thinker known as Socrates
believes. Socrates believes that the morals of a person will always stem
and rely on his knowledge of the good. Interestingly, he suggests that
once a person knows the good and the ultimate excellence in acting the
moral way, the moral actions follow after. While he believes that one is
able to do the good because it is already in his knowledge, Aristotle
strongly believes that the human being may know and be aware of the
good act and still be unable to act on it. For him, knowing the good is
entirely different from doing the good.
To this, we come into an understanding that man can possess two
aspects of his virtue. That is, his moral and his intellect. Aristotle, in
addition to this, believes that one can develop and work his way
towards excellence through developing such habits. A virtuous man,
according to him, is one who is able to develop of always acting on the
good and strives to do and choose the right actions always. Being
morally good is a process of being used to do the good act. Thus, the
114 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
cliché, ‘practice makes perfect’ can be applied in this sense. other people know us. Our character becomes our own identification
In our generation today, there is now only a thin line that separates mark. In Filipino, it is known as pag-uugali. One can either choose to
skilled and unskilled people. But what makes up the bigger difference is be known as possessing mabuting pag-uugali, or masamang pag-uugali.
between those who are skilled and those who are dedicated in practicing The freedom of choice always resides in us. We must base it our own
and honing their skills for the better. You can be able to drive any car reason.
that you are given, but not all drivers know how to drive defensively
and carefully. You may know how to paint, but not unless you practice
your skill of choosing the right colors, you will not be able to create a
beautiful portrait. Many people know how to play the game of A. Try and evaluate your disposition in life. What do you
basketball, but not all of them knows the rules and how to play it square think are the top three virtues that you need to focus
and fair. Only if you choose to dedicate much of your time, will and more on, in order to have a better version of yourself?
effort in making yourself a better version of you, will you be known to List them down and briefly explain each.
be outstanding on that certain field.
It is sad that in our country, there are some who still views intellec- Virtues Brief Explanation
tual people as objects of shaming and discrimination. “Oh, edi ikaw
na!” “Edi wow!” or “Ang dami mong alam!” – are just some of the
typical lines we hear when somebody is expressing themselves through
their things of passion. That is why, some just choose to keep their
talents and abilities to themselves for the fear that they will be uttered
with the same words.
In our quest of being morally virtuous and excellent people, Aristo-
tle believes that we must exercise ourselves and our will to always
choose to do the good and the right, no matter what. In terms of doing
the good, we should not focus on what other might say about us, or
their regards to our own actions, because we are not in any way
accountable for their interpretations. Our intentions are the primary
reason of our actions, and that as these intentions of doing good is
stemming from the inside of us, then we will not spend a lot of time
trying to please the people around us – all because we are sure about the B. Look for Philippine daily newspapers and go to
good acts that we will always choose. We would shift our focus from the editorial section. Cut and paste editorial comic
what people are telling us about our passion, to what we know we strips and drawings that show bad and/or good
should do to develop and tap in into the potentials deep inside of us. Filipino traits, either of the masses or politicians.
We all know that in our Filipino culture, most people are defined by React and reflect on your chosen illustration. Do
their character. And this is something that we should also remember. this on a short bond paper.
We will always be known by our character. And so, like how Aristotle
puts it, we must, in our everyday lives, exercise the act of choosing the
good. Because we will be known by it. It is through our character that
115 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 116 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
  The function of a human being is to act following the dictates of
her reason.
 Aristotle believes that excellence is an activity of not just the form
 The principle of tabularasa by John Locke believes that human
beings are known to be born as blank slates, like empty posters or and function, but more so, of the soul.
white papers, and only acquire their behavior, personality, attitude,  The soul is made up and is composed of two main components: the
irrational component and the rational component. The irrational
knowledge and skills from outside of their personal spheres.
component of the soul is further classified into two aspects: the
 Albert Bandura designed the Bobo Doll Experiment to try and vegetative aspect and the appetitive aspect. The rational component
prove that children would copy an adult role model's behavior. He is also divided into two components, which is the moral and the
wanted to show, by using aggressive and non-aggressive actors, that intellectual. There are two ways of developing the intellectual
a child would tend to imitate and learn from the behavior of a aspect: philosophic and practical.
trusted adult, , the results of the experiment has shown that it is
likely that children observing an adult model utilizing violence are
more likely to believe that this type of behavior is normal.
 Virtue ethics simply magnifies and zooms in on the formation of an
individual’s character being developed by doing and determining
virtuous acts.
 Plato believe that that one of the highest qualities of a man is the
rationality of his soul. Plato believed that what separates and makes
a human being good is his reason – his ability to determine if his
actions are right or wrong.
 Aristotle believes that reality of things is found within our everyday
encounter with objects in this world. He believes that the good in
this world is apparent and is applied in our day-to-day living.
 The Greek word telos which means purpose was used by Aristotle
as he starts his discussion of ethics with the belief that everything a
person acts and does has implied and has specific purpose.
 A good in an act will always depend on the doer of the act itself.
 The different purposes that a man has according to his actions
constitute what Aristotle has defined as teloi or the hierarchy of
purposes.
 Aristotle believed that in every person exists the highest purpose,
which then can be considered as the highest good of a human being.
 The highest good of a person is always final and it will always be
self-sufficient.
 According to Aristotle, the ultimate good of man is happiness,
which translates to Eudaimonia in Greek.
117 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 118 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

Select your answer in the box below. Write your answer on the
space provided before each number.

_____________ 1. This is the term that was used by thinkers in order

to know about the hierarchy of purposes.
_____________ 2. Concerns itself about the desires of man.
_____________ 3. This aspect deals with the acquiring of wisdom.
_____________ 4. Wisdom gained from experiences on how to do
and act on things.
_____________ 5. Under rational component, this aspect becomes
the basis of doing right and avoiding wrong.
_____________ 6. Wisdom gained from reflection and deep
contemplation which teaches a person about the reason behind acting
virtuously.
_____________ 7. Tried proving that behavior can be learned from
observing other models.
_____________ 8. Reminds an individual to gain nutrition and
provides the activity to develop the growth
_____________ 9. This component is responsible for impulses in the
body that are uncontrollable by reason.
_____________ 10. A man is born as an empty slate.

Bobo Doll Experiment Virtue Ethics

Teloi Tabularasa
Moral Aspect Intellectual Aspect
Philosophic Wisdom Practical Wisdom
Rational component Irrational component
Vegetative appetitive

119 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 120 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
 Name: _____________________________________ Score: ____
Yr./Sec. _____

As you end this chapter in your life where you were given a hindsight
about ethics, what do you think are some of the changes that have
occurred in terms of your mindset and disposition in life? What do
you need to continue working on?
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121 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man 122 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man

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+EXCELLENT+MAN
125 | Ethics Unit III The Acts of Man
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ANGELO JOSEPH BAUTISTA is a college instr uctor fr om
the Department of Social Sciences of PATTS College of
Aeronautics. He teaches subjects such as Philosophy, General
Psychology, Logic and the likes. He obtained his bachelor’s
degree in Psychology at Adamson University last 2016. He also
finished his Professional Education at Pamantasan ng Lungsod
ng Maynila immediately after, and was able to acquire his license
for professional teaching in 2017. Presently, he is in pursuit of
the fulfillment of his Master’s degree in Social Sciences at
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
JOSIE PAZ ALMADRIGO is a gr aduate of Pamantasan ng
Lungsod ng Maynila with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in
Psychology. She completed her graduate studies at the Philippine
Normal University, with a degree in Master of Education, Major
in Special Education. She is currently taking her second
Master’s Degree Program in Clinical Psychology at her alma
mater, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. She is also licensed
Professional Teacher. Presently, she is a faculty member at
PATTS College of Aeronautics where she serves as a class
adviser and subject teacher in the Senior High School
Department. She also handles classes in the different college
levels teaching social sciences subjects such as General
Psychology, Philosophy, Logic, Economics, Sociology and
Anthropology, among others.
 χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά
Nothing beautiful without struggle.

PLATO, THE REPUBLIC