ETHICS

RYA N B A L B UE NA K AT IG BA K
U N I V ERS I TY O F B ATA NG A S
PART 1: The Foundations of Morality
The Development of Moral Character
▪ Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas
had the conviction that ethics is fundamentally related to
what kind of persons we are.
▪ On the assumption that what kind of person one is
constituted by one’s character.
▪ Etymologically, the term “character” comes from the
Ancient Greek term Charakter, which initially referred to
the mark impressed upon a coin.
The Development of Moral Character
▪ The term character refers more generally to any
distinctive feature by which one thing is distinguished
from others.
▪ In philosophy, the term character is typically used to
refer to the particularly moral dimension of a person.
Aristotle often used the term eqh for character, which is
etymologically linked to “ethics” and “morality”
▪ The Greek word used by Aristotle and most commonly
translated as virtue is areth.
The Development of Moral Character
▪ A human person who is acting excellently consistently is
said to have a great moral character.
▪ Excellence is a quality that makes an individual a good
member of its kind. Excellence is connected to its
function.
▪ We judge the moral character of the person based on
consistency.
▪ Character is tested across time.
▪ Moral character is the force behind moral action.
 The Development of Moral Character

ETHICS
(Good and CHARACTE
DECISIONS ACTION R
Bad)
(values)

Examples:
Money ------ Mukhang Pera
Food --------- Baboy
Studious Student ---- GOOD STUDENT
The Development of Moral Character

Consistently
(actions) Character Excellently
(actions)
identity/personality

PINAKAMBUTI
PALAGI /PINAKAMAGA
LING
The Development of Moral Character
Questions:
▪ Who are the people who contributed much to your
character?
▪ Will there also be a person who can influence us
immorally?
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Regardless of our culture, we all develop in our moral thinking
through a series of set stages.
▪ Moral education should help children develop their moral
thinking toward more advanced stages.
▪ Moral Psychology studies what IS moral development.
▪ Moral Philosophy considers what OUGHT TO BE.
▪ The IS of psychology and the OUGHT of philosophy must be
integrated before one can have a reasoned basis for moral
education.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Central to moral education is the problem of relativity of values.
▪ Are there universal values that children should develop?
▪ Kohlberg’s theory of moral education is both psychological and
philosophical.
▪ There are three Stages: (Pre-Conventional [Stage 1 and 2];
Conventional Stage [Stage 3 and 4]; and Post-Conventional Stage
[Stage 5 and 6]).
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ PRE-CONVENTIONAL (Self-Focused) —concerned

with concrete consequences to individuals, focusing on
pursuing concrete interest, while avoiding sanctions.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ Stage 1: Punishment: Authority orientation [Obey

or Pay / Authority—Fear].
▪ What is right is to obey the rules, avoid physical damage to
persons and property. The reason is that one wants to avoid
punishment. Also, there is the deterrence to power and
position. In relation to social perspective, what is considered
is simply one’s own interest as there is still no sense of
another’s point of view.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Stage 2: Pleasure Orientation [Self-satisfaction /
What is in it for me?”
▪ Hedonistic orientation with an instrumental view of human
relations. Beginning notions of reciprocity, but with emphasis
on exchange of favors—”You scratch my back and I will
scratch yours.”
▪ What is right is one’s immediate interest, and letting others
act also in their own interest. Thus, each to his own. What is
right is what is fair. You do your thing, I do my thing; we have
fair, equal exchange.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ CONVENTIONAL (Group-Focused) —concerned

with fulfilling role expectations, maintaining and
supporting the social order, and identifying persons or
groups involved in this order.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Stage 3: Peer and Group Acceptance Orientation
(Approval—Group Norm/ Loyalty—Belongingness)
▪ “Good boy” orientation / interpersonal concordance
orientation: seeking to maintain expectations and win
approval of one’s immediate group.
▪ What is deemed right is what pleases or helps others; what is
approved by others; what reinforces mutual relationships
such as trust, loyalty, respect, gratitude.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Stage 4: Legalistic Orientation (Law and Order / Duty
to Society)
▪ Social Structure Orientation. Orientation to authority, law, and
duty, to maintaining a fixed order, whether social or religious,
assumed as a primary value.
▪ What is right is doing one’s duty; showing respect for laws,
authority, and society, and contributing to the maintenance of
society and institutions.
▪ One’s reason for doing one’s duty and the like is that, action which
breaks the social or moral agreements impairs the system, which
is a value. It would be hazardous to digress from conformity, from
social norms.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ POST-CONVENTIONAL (Group-Focused)—
concerned with fulfilling role expectations, maintaining
and supporting the social order, and identifying persons
or groups involved in this order.
▪ There is the effort to define the moral values and
principles than have validity and application apart from
the authority of groups or persons and the ability to see
beyond laws and norms of society.
▪ It is here that one examines, adopts, and applies the
different ethical frameworks or principles.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Stage 5: Common Good (Standards of Society / Social
Contract)
▪ Social contract orientation, with emphasis on equality and mutual
obligation within a democratically established order.
▪ This stage includes what is right; individual rights and standards
which have been critically examined, and agreed upon; one says
“these rights have been examined, and since they are right, they
are the ones to be followed.”
▪ Good of the many—CONCENSUS RATHER THAN MAJORITY RULES
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Stage 6: Universal Principles (Decision of Conscience /
Logical Moral Principles)
▪ Principles of conscience that have logical comprehensiveness and
universality. Highest value placed on human life, equality, and
dignity.
▪ Kohlberg was not able to observe this stage in his group, and thus,
he projected it. What is right is following self-chosen ethical
principles based on judgments that are universalizable,
irreversible, and consistent.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ What is right are the universal principles of justice, and the

reasons given are the validity of universal moral principles and the
sense of personal commitment to these principles.
▪ The social perspective taken is the moral point of view from which
even the social arrangements are derived; from this
universalizable moral point of view, moral judgments are made.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
▪ Stage 1 and 2 are typical of young children and delinquents and
are described as ‘pre-moral’ since decisions are made largely on
the basis of self-interest.
▪ Stage 3 and 4 are the conventional stage at which most of the
adult orientation operates.
▪ The final “principled” stages are characteristic of 20 to 25 percent
of the adult population, with perhaps 5 to 10 percent arriving at
Stage 6.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ At Stage 1, life is valued in terms of power or possessions of the

person involved.
▪ At Stage 2, life is valued for its usefulness in satisfying the needs
of the individual in question or others.
▪ At Stage 3, life is valued in terms of individual’s relations with
others and their valuation of him.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ At Stage 4, life is valued in terms of social or religious laws.

▪ Only at Stage 6 is each life seen as inherently worthwhile aside
from all other considerations.
▪ In terms of motivation for moral action, at the lowest stage, the
individual acts to avoid punishment or to obtain exchange of
favors; at the highest level, to avoid self-condemnation.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)

▪ A study of Holstein indicates that children who were advanced in

moral judgment had parents who were also advanced in moral
judgment.
▪ Quite separately, however, the parents’ tendency to stimulate
reciprocal role-taking was also related to the child’s maturity. The
parent who sought the child’s view, who elicited comparison of
views in dialogue, had more advanced children.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
SUMMARY
PRE-CONVENTIONAL STAGE
Stage 1. Punishment: Authority orientation [Obey or Pay /
Authority—Fear]. - nagawa ang isang tao ng mabuti dahil sa ayaw
nya maparusahan
Stage 2. Pleasure Orientation [Self-satisfaction / What is in it for
me?” - nagawa ang isang tao ng mabuti dahil may inaantay itong
kapalit.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
SUMMARY
CONVENTIONAL STAGE
Stage 3. Peer and Group Acceptance Orientation (Approval—
Group Norm/ Loyalty—Belongingness) nagawa ang isang tao ng
mabuti/masama para maging kasali sa isang grupo. (PEER
PRESSURE)
Stage 4. Legalistic Orientation (Law and Order / Duty to Society) -
nagawa ang isang tao ng mabuti dahil sinasabi ng batas/ hindi
nagawa ang isang tao ng masama o hindi mabuti kundi dahil
ipinapagbawal ng batas.
Stages of Moral Development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
SUMMARY
POST - CONVENTIONAL STAGE
Stage 5. Common Good (Standards of Society / Social Contract)
nagawa ang isang tao ng mabuti dahil ikakabuti ng nakakarami hindi
ito nangangahulugan na kagustuhan ng nakakarami. May
pagkakaiba ang kabutihan ng nakakarami at gusto ng karamihan.
Hindi nagawa ang isang tao ng masama dahil ikakasama ito ng
nakakarami.
Stage 6. Universal Principles (Decision of Conscience / Logical
Moral Principles) – nagawa ang isang tao ng tama dahil alam nito
na ito ang tamang gawin, gayundin naman, ito ay hindi nagawa ng
hindi mabuti/masama dahil alam nitong mali ito.
Situation Analysis
MR. PETERSON’S DILEMMA
Mr. Peterson teaches a social studies class in the local
high school. Because of his great rapport with his students, he is
known as one of the best teachers in the school.
One day, after a class discussion of contemporary
problems in America, several class members approached
Mr. Peterson in his office to tell him that they planned to
boycott the school cafeteria in support of the migrant farm
workers across the country.
Situation Analysis
MR. PETERSON’S DILEMMA
Previously, the students had picketed the local grocery
store and passed out leaflets in their neighbourhood. They
had also circulated a petition and had written letters to the
school authorities in an attempt to stop the school from
purchasing non-union lettuce and grapes. Both of these
attempts to change school policy had failed.
The students indicated that they not only planned to
boycott the cafeteria, but hoped to shut it down by setting up
a picket line during lunch hours.
Situation Analysis
MR. PETERSON’S DILEMMA

The students told Mr. Peterson about the planned

boycott because of the many class discussions in which they
had talked about the American tradition of protest. They also
insisted that the success of the boycott depended on Mr.
Peterson not breaking their confidence; they did not want the
school administration to know about the plans.
Situation Analysis
MR. PETERSON’S DILEMMA

Mr. Peterson feels sure that other teachers and the

administration do not know about the planned boycott. He
also knows that part of the student body would not be
sympathetic to the boycott and this could result in a physical
confrontation.
Situation Analysis
MR. PETERSON’S DILEMMA

According to the school rule, any organized student

gathering on school grounds must be cleared by school
officials. Mr. Peterson also knows that faculty members are
supposed to notify the school administration of any activity
which may interfere with the school schedule.
Situation Analysis
MR. PETERSON’S DILEMMA

Mr. Peterson discussed the various implications of the

boycott with the students. The students understand these;
however, they are determined to go through with the plan.
Should Mr. Peterson tell the school administration of
the impending boycott and picket line? Why or why not?
Criticisms
HEINZ’s DILEMMA
▪Respondents have no knowledge about married life.
▪ Male respondents
▪ Hypothetical situation
However,
➢ connection of psychology and philosophy in establishing moral
perspective on human behavior and character.
➢ human person is capable of making moral decisions that can benefit not
only one’s self but also others.
➢ one’s maturity depends on his education and environment.
END OF CHAPTER 3