Dimatulac, Lhara Beatrice A.

GEd 107 ETHICS

BS Petroleum Engineering 19-49235

FEELING AND MORAL DECISION MAKING

FEELING
• is the nominalization of the verb to feel.
• The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch though
either experience or perception.
• The word is also used to describe experiences other than the physical sensation to touch, such as “a
feeling of warmth“ and of sentience in general.
• Play a major role in most of the ethical decisions people make.
• Most people do not realize how much their emotions direct their moral choice.
• But experts think it is impossible to make any important moral judgment without emotion.

In Latin, “ sentire” meant to feel ,hear or smell. In psychology, the word is usually reserved for the
conscious subjective experience of emotion. No one can deny the fact that when the human person is
placed in a moral dilemma, his or her decisions can also be greatly affected by his/her feelings.

The moral decision that man makes will definitely not be fully objective.For instance, one’s
decision regarding the morality of death penalty will vary if he is placed in a situation wherein his family
is greatly affected by murderous act. A person who is never a victim of any crime may view death
penalty as morally unacceptable. At the same time, a person who has a very close relative indicted for
robbery may cry for forgiveness while those who do not have such may demand punishment.
In this regard, a moral decision can be a product of feelings or emotions.

During the early part of philosophizing, David Hume(1711-1776) believed virtue is in conformity to
reason.Like truth, morality is discerned merely by ideas.In order to distinguish the good and bad, we
have to consider the reason alone.

Philosophers during the time of Hume, placed greater emphasis on the prominence of reason over
feelings. Western philosophers were actually reacting to the position held by the church scholars who
asserted that religious apologist, moral decisions must be rooted in religious laws and doctrines.

During the ancient period,Plato (423BC-347BC) would argue that the function of reasons is to rule
the appetites and emotions. He held that the mind or the intellect, which is the highest level of the soul,
is that immortal part of the soul that gives man the capacity for truth and wisdom.Then, the Stoics
upheld that human person must be able to learn to control his passion with reason in order to live a
moral life. For Hume, the central fact about ethics is that moral judgements are formed not by reason
alone but through feelings.

Hume held that moral decision would always involve feelings or emotions. For instance, because I
will feel sympathetic pain on my friend whose brother is brutally killed by a gunman. I will surely develop
a moral condemnation on the action of the killer. However, if somebody will do charitable deed of
feeding a street child, I will surely feel sympathetic pleasure for that person. Such pleasure originates
from my moral approval of the good deed. From the point of view of Hume, moral sentiments are found
in all people. Everyone has instinctive capacity to praise and uphold moral actions performed by person
to others.

According to Hume, basing ourselves on experience, our moral decisions are based not on
judgements based on reason but on feelings. More so, our experience tells us that we have sympathetic
feelings of pleasure and pain in response to a range of virtuous characteristics that people possess. It is
obvious that Hume, believed that feelings and agreeableness can be considered as a clear criterion of
moral judgment. He believed that behavior is considered virtuous if it is useful or agreeable to people
who are affected by the action being considered. Then, some religious moralist critique Hume’s moral
point of view because Hume did not include the role of God in determining the morality of one’s action.
For this reason, the religious moralist would consider Hume’s moral philosophy be weak and groundless.

An American philosopher has another claimed about the feelings named,Thomas Nagel. He
believed that morality must be rooted not in the feelings or emotions because that will make morality
subjective. Morality must be objective. Also, according to him, no matter how great our feelings on a
particular situation can be, such feelings will not be considered as basis for universal moral principle
because FEELINGS MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM THE FEELINGS OF OTHER. Our feelings may be
irrational.They may be product of prejudice, selfishness or cultural conditioning. From the point of view
of Nagel ,the basis of morality must be on the happiness that one’s action may cause to others. If an
action is going to cause harm to others, then the action is considered evil.

In some situations, we may ask what is amoral truth?It has to be noted that discovering truth can
only be made possible if one is guided by reason. Most philosophers would consider this as essence of
morality. The morally right thing is to do actions that is supported by rational arguments

MORAL DECISION MAKING

- making is the ability to produce a reasonable and defensible answer to an ethical question or case.
It must be noted that every reason is good. There may still be valid reasons. It is important that one’s
know how to morally good indecision making. In discerning over the facts, it is important that decision
maker must be impartial to certain issues. One should be able to consider that every moral decision is
equally. Important to others In this regard, no decisions should be given more favor than the others.

Nagel points out that it is quite difficult to establish a universal moral decision because there are
many disagreements among those who accept morality in general and about what in particular right or
wrong. The difficulty in making decisions is that the situation that requires our decision may have
already placed us in dilemma.More so, the manner of deciding may place us again in separate dilemma.

And so to avoid falling into dilemma after dilemma, we have to address this order to serve as a
model that can be used in assurance of our decisions:

1.GATHER THE FACTS

• Before making moral decisions, it is important that necessary facts be gathered.
• Ethical dilemmas can be resolved simply by clarifying the facts of the case question.

2.DEFINE THE ETHICAL ISSUES

• Ethical issues are considered as competing interest or goods.
 • This will help the person to analyze the interest that are contradicting to one another.

3.REVIEW RELEVANT ETHICAL GUIDELINES

• It is important to determine different ethical guidelines to determine which ethical guideline must
be applied to the issue.
• Constitutional and natural law must also be taken into account.

4.OBTAIN CONSULTATION
• In as much no one can really be an expert in making moral decisions, it is important to consult to
persons who are competent in terms of morality.
• One may consult religious leader, well revered teacher, oran elder in society who can have more
wisdom than us.

5.LIST THE ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION

• Making moral decisions require creative thinking which will help one identify various alternative
courses of action.

6. COMPARE THE ALTERNATIVE WITH THE PRINCIPLES.

• From the listed alternatives, the next step is to connect alternatives with moral principles.

7.WEIGH THE CONSEQUENCES

• If the moral principles do not yet provide clear decisions, it is better to take note of the positive and
negative consequences.

8.MAKE A DECISION
• After weighing a decision has to be made. Notice that in an ethical dilemma, one has to undergo the
painful process of critical studies and analyses.
References:
Manigbas, D. (2019). FEELING AND MORAL DECISION MAKING. Retrieve from:
https://www.scribd.com/presentation/427382600/FEELING-AND-MORAL-DECISION-MAKING-pptx