Lesson 3.

3: Norms of Morality

Lesson Summary

This lesson discusses the moral role of feelings and conscience. It argues that
conscience is the ultimate guide to morality and that it is a moral duty of every person to
form one’s conscience.

Learning Outcomes
1. The students are able to realize the importance and limitation of feelings in moral
decision making.
2. The students are able to understand and apply important principles on conscience.
3. The students would devote their life in forming their conscience.

Motivation Question

“It feels so right.”

Have you heard of this saying?
What does it imply to you?

Discussion

Feelings, Reason and Impartiality

Our previous topics, we established that we cannot make something that rely on feelings
as a moral standard. In this lesson, we will argue that though feelings are not reliable moral
standard, it can be an instinctive moral response. David Hume, a philosopher, argues that “moral
distinctions are derived from the moral sentiments: feelings of approval (esteem, praise) and
disapproval (blame) felt by spectators who contemplate a character trait or action.” He further
claims that given the situation a person tends to act based on feelings rather than reason. In fact,
according to Hume, the origin of morals is sympathy (Morris, 2021). To elaborate his argument,
Hume is saying that before any person rationalizes that murder is wrong, that person first felt that
murder is wrong. This feeling is most probably derived from the negative feelings of fear, disgust,
and discomfort that a person may feel upon seeing a dead body. Furthermore, human beings
derived with distinctions between homicide, murder, and parricide first and foremost because
people feel that killing a person without the intention evokes a lighter feeling than killing a person
intentionally and even greater is killing one’s member of the family. Alfred Jules Ayer has a similar
idea. He claimed that there are two elements in moral judgements; emotive and prescriptive
(Gallinero et al, 2018: 53). Emotive element pertains to the expressions of feelings positive or
negative about a certain act while prescriptive element pertains the moral judgements which
instructs people the right action. But then again, it must be clear that feeling is just an instinctive
guide to morality. Its reliability is low because as we discussed in the previous topic about
concupiscence, feelings can possibly modify the voluntariness of our actions and lead us into
doing things that are less desirable.
Reason is a higher basis for morality. If we follow the thinking of Immanuel Kant who
claims that reason is the only guide to morality, it is possible to think that it is the highest basis
for moral actions. Moral actions are rational actions. It is important that moral actions are
deliberately done. It must be thought of. This seven-step model might help us in our ethical
decision making (ibid, 60).
1. Gather the facts
2. Identify the stakeholders
3. Articulate the dilemma
4. List the alternatives
5. Compare the alternatives with principles
6. Weigh the consequences
7. Make a decision
It is important that moral agent is constant with the principle of impartiality. It means that
as much as possible, moral agents do not succumb to any form of bias. Impartiality is an
expression of justice. In this way, a moral agent can attain a sound judgement that will most likely
lead to a morally acceptable action.
Conscience as an Ultimate Norm
Conscience is a practical judgement of reason for a particular act to be a good and
desirable act or evil to be avoided. It our main contention in this topic that conscience is the
ultimate norm of morality. To expound, there are different states of conscience: correct,
erroneous, certain, and doubtful. Correct or true conscience is a state of conscience that judges
and act to be good if it is good and bad if it is. Erroneous conscience is the opposite of correct
conscience. It judges an act to be good even if it is bad and vice versa. Erroneous conscience can
possibly be a fault of the subject or not. If it is not, it is called inculpably erroneous and if it is, it is
called culpably erroneous. A certain conscience is a state of conscience when it forms a sure and
firm judgement of an action. Lastly, doubtful conscience is a hesitant conscience when faced
with a particular action. Now, from the different states of conscience, it is possible to say that a
good conscience is a true and certain. Because of this claim, it is important that a person always
strive to form his/her conscience. It is our moral obligation to always desire to have a good
conscience. In turn, a person who does not care and exert enough effort to form his/her
conscience is still culpable for the actions made. Furthermore, a certain conscience must be
obeyed, even if it is not always true and correct given the due effort to form one’s conscience.
While a person having a doubtful conscience has to follow the principle “when in doubt do not
act.” It is important that the doubt must be resolved first before deciding the right course of
action.
Learning Tasks/Activities
1. Read and make a review on the article:
Private conscience, public acts
By: Eva LaFollette and Hugh LaFollette
Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598118/

Assessments
1. Discuss why feelings is called an instinctual response to morality.
2. Discuss why it there a need to form your conscience and give concrete example on how
you will form your own conscience.

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