CORULLO, JOYCE ANN L. PROF.

EDISON RAYMUNDO
AB POLITICAL SCIENCE FINAL EXAM
(PS-21)

CASE STUDY

Arnel is the eldest son of a poor family. One day his father got sick. His father is now
paralyzed and in the state of partial comatose in the hospital. According to the doctor, there is
no way for his father to fully recover. He is going to be under constant medication and
connected to life-support system in order to live.

SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

a. What should Arnel do according to Stoicism, and how may it be good? 5 points

Since Stoicism asserts that we can neither control what befall us nor the actions of those around us.
However, we can control our response to whatever life throws at us. In Arnel's situation, he must
accept wholeheartedly what has happened and focus only on what he can control. As he is the eldest
son of the family, he must go on and move forward to support their family. He must reflect on
character strengths such as wisdom, patience, and self-discipline, which potentially make him more
resilient in the face of adversity and bear on the challenges he may face in daily life like a crisis like
this.

b. What should Arnel do based on Natural Law Ethics? 5 points

Natural law ethics highlights human behavior involving ethical standards and ways of being
inherent. Since Arnel is the eldest, he should be responsible for his family and do his duty to
provide for the needs of his family especially his father.
 'Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may
live.'(Socrates)

Cite an Ethical Theory to support your answer

1. You have just escaped from prison, but now the police have you trapped again. If
you are captured, you know you will spend the rest of your life behind the bars.
What would you do? Is suicide better than life in prison? 5 points

Whether we want to end our life or not, no matter what the decision has made, humans are the
ones who have power and is responsible for themselves. We cannot force individuals to decide
without them wanting it. It is based on objective; therefore, we cannot impose whatever we want.
The Objectivist Ethical Egoism (OEE) views human life as fundamentally individual–needing to
be lived, maintained, and enhanced by each individual through his own action– this theory takes
each individual’s own life as his own effective standard of value. That which promotes the
individual’s own life overall is the good for him, that which damages or destroys his own life is
the bad for him. 

2. What would happen if we taught sex education in elementary and high school? Do
you think this would lead to over-sexed youth or to more responsibility among
young people because they would have more information at their disposal? 5 points

If sex education would happen to teach in elementary and high school, I think the ones' who are
not mature enough to handle it could be a disadvantage for them because they might over-sexed
just for fun, then, later on, they will wonder if what they're doing is right or wrong. But those
who are mature enough and are responsible for their own, it can be advantageous for them since
they could foresee that something bad might happen as they can use the information that they
have learned. Consequentialism is an ethical theory that judges whether or not something is right
by what its consequences are. In the case of elementary and high school students, if they fed their
curiosity, it can cause teenage pregnancy which, is a consequence of what they've done. As for
the responsible ones', they will experience good consequences with the help of the information
they've learned so far.
 3. We keep electing people to office who promise reforms but, once in office, take full
benefit of existing immoral practices. Who is more responsible for this state of
affairs? The cynical politicians? Or the naïve voters? Or is it the political system
itself? 5 points

I think the one who's solely at fault is the voters themselves because they already know that those
politicians were greedy yet, they keep on voting for them. Then in return, the voters are facing
consequences for what they've done. They are suffering because they choose to vote the greedy
politicians. Consequentialism tells us ethical theories that judge human practices as morally right
or wrong based on their consequences.

Cite the three proposed moral convictions about the world and human life (EPICTETUS) Discuss its
significance to man’s life during this pandemic. 15 points

1. What is in our power (dichotomy of control) - We must understand what is in our power or up to
us. If we do not do this, our moral character will remain in a faulty condition, for we will remain
convinced that things such as wealth and status are good when they are indifferent, troubled by
frustrations and anxieties, subject to disturbing emotions we do not want and cannot control, all
of which make life unpleasant and unrewarding, sometimes overwhelmingly so.
 What is in our power, is the ‘authority over ourselves that we have regarding our capacity
to judge what is good and what is evil. Outside our power are ‘external things’, which are
‘indifferent with respect to being good or evil. These differences are those things that are
conventionally deemed to be good and those that are conventionally deemed to be bad. Roughly,
they are things that ‘just happen’, and they are not in our power in the sense that we do not have
absolute control to make them occur just as we wish, or to make them have exactly the outcomes
that we desire. Thus, for example, sickness is not in our power because it is not wholly up to us
whether we get sick, and how often, nor whether we will recover quickly or indeed at all. Now, it
makes sense to visit a doctor when we feel ill, but the competence of the doctor is not in our
power, and neither is the effectiveness of any treatment that we might be offered. So generally, it
makes sense to manage our affairs carefully and responsibly, but the ultimate outcome of any
affair is, actually, not in our power.

What is in our power is the capacity to adapt ourselves to all that comes about, to judge
anything that is ‘misreferred’ not as bad, but as indifferent and not strong enough to overwhelm
our strength of character.

2. Living accordingly with nature - Keeping ourselves in harmony with nature requires that we
focus on two things. Firstly, we must pay attention to our own actions so that we respond
appropriately, and secondly, we must pay attention to the world in which our actions take effect
and which prompts those actions in the first place. Epictetus focuses more on accepting what fate
brings, saying that we should anticipate the sorts of things that can happen, so that when they do,
we will not be surprised and will not be angry. In other situations, the anticipation of trouble or
misfortune is impossible, but all the same, the Stoic will accept their fate as what God has
ordained for them, and this for Epictetus is the very essence of keeping in harmony with nature.

It is circumstances or difficulties that show what men are. Therefore, when a difficulty
falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough
young man. For what purpose? you may say. Why that you may become an Olympic conqueror;
but it is not accomplished without sweat. In my opinion, no man has had a more profitable
difficulty than you have had, if you choose to make use of it as an athlete would deal with a
young antagonist.

Every obstacle we encounter in life should be interpreted as a new opportunity to

strengthen our moral character, just as every new fight for the wrestler provides an opportunity
for them to train their skill in wrestling.
3. Making proper use of impressions - To have an impression is to be conscious of something in
the world. For example, I may look out of my window and have the impression of growing
viruses over the houses in the distance. Whether there are really growing viruses there, or
whether there is just simple suffering, is a separate question. ‘Making proper use of impressions’
concerns how we move from the first thing, being aware of something or other, to the second
thing, making a judgment that something or other is the case.

In the first place, do not allow yourself to be carried away by the strength of your impression: but
say, ‘Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are, and what you represent. Let me
test you.’ Then, afterward, do not allow it to draw you on by picturing what may come next, for
if you do, it will lead you wherever it pleases. But rather, you should introduce some fair and
noble impression to replace it, and banish this base and shameful one.

That is, we have control over our own perceptions. The judgments we hold of things, the
intentions we form, what we value, and what we are averse to are all wholly up to us. Remaining
calm in the face of adversity and controlling our emotions no matter what the provocation is
accomplished in the full Stoic sense, for Epictetus, by making proper use of impressions.

Wisdom is the right application of knowledge

(Greek Minds)