REASONS AND IMPARTIALITY AS REQUIREMENTS OF ETHICS

One of the reasons Ethical Subjectivism and Emotivism are not viable theories in ethics is that they miss to make
distinction between moral judgments and mere expressions of personal preference. Genuine moral or value judgments
ought to be backed up by pertinent reasons.
Moreover, they must possess the quality of impartiality, which means, among other things that personal feelings or
inclinations should be suppressed if necessary. Reason and Impartiality Defined Humans have not only feelings but also
reason, and reason plays a vital role in Ethics. In fact, moral truths are truths of reason; that is, a moral judgment is true if
it is espoused by better reasons than the alternatives. Reason is the basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction.
As a quality, it refers to the capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; for consciously making sense of things,
establishing and verifying facts, applying common sense and logic, and justifying, and if necessary, changing practices,
institutions, and beliefs based on existing or new existing information. A relevant definition of reason to our topic is “the
power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic. However, one of the most influential
philosophers in the history of Western philosophy, Immanuel Kant, argued that reason alone is the basis for morality, and
once the person understood this basic requirement for morality, he or she would see that acting morally is the same as
acting rationally You know the importance of studying and the consequence of not studying. However, you also know the
importance of taking a break from the daily grind. So, when exams are coming and you feel so stressed from fulfilling all
school requirements and you feel the need to take a break- in Kant’s argument that morality is based on reason, what is the
moral choice?
❑ Humans have not only feelings but also reason, and reason plays an important role in Ethics as it is a moral truth.
Reason spells the difference of moral judgments from mere expressions of personal preference.
Moral deliberation is a matter of weighing reasons and being guided by them.
Being defined by good reasons, moral truths are objective in the sense that they are true no matter what we might want or think.
The idea that each individual’s interest and point of view are equally important is impartiality.
Impartiality requires that we give equal and/or adequate consideration to the interests of all concerned parties.
The principle of impartiality assumes that every person us equally important and no one is seen as intrinsically more signifi cant than
anyone else.
The 7-step Moral Reasoning Model is good in the sense that it has room in it to accommodate a whole host of different moral and
ethical perspectives, considering the ethnic and religious diversity of our society.
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Impartiality on the other hand involves the idea that each individual’s interests and point of view are equally important. Also
called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness, impartiality is principle of justice holding that decisions ought to be based on
objective criteria, rather on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit of one person over another for improper
reasons. Impartiality, in morality requires that we give equal and/or adequate consideration to
❑ the interests of all concerned parties. The principle of impartiality assumes that every person, generally speaking is equall y
important; that is, no one is seen as intrinsically more significant than anyone else.
❑ And the consequence of not studying. However, you also know the importance of taking a break from the daily grind. So,
when exams are coming and you feel so stressed from fulfilling all school requirements and you feel the need to take a break-
in Kant’s argument that morality is based on reason, what is the moral choice? Impartiality on the other hand involves the idea
that each individual’s interests and point of view are equally important. Also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness,
impartiality is a principle of justice holding that decisions ought to be based on objective criteria, rather on the basis of bias,
prejudice, or preferring the benefit of one person over another for improper reasons.
❑
Impartiality, in morality requires that we give equal and/or adequate consideration to the interests of all concerned parties. The principle
of impartiality assumes that every person, generally speaking is equally important; that is, no one is seen as intrinsically more significant
than anyone else.
Other ethicists however, suggest that some clarification is required. From the impartial standpoint, to say that no one is seen as
intrinsically more significant than anyone else, is not to say that there is no reason whatsoever for which an individual might demand
more moral attention or better treatment than others. Many ethicists suppose that from the impartial point of view, properly conceived,
some persons count as more significant, at least in certain ways. A virtuous and respectable religious leader may be supposed to be more
significant than a mere maid; so in an emergency (say a building on fire) the decent religious leader ought to be rescued first.
The reason, nonetheless, is not that the religious leader is intrinsically more significant; rather, it is that he makes greater contribution to
society How is impartiality a requirement for morality? For example, during an exam you saw your friend (who is sitting next to you)
secretly open he notebook to look for an answer on one of the test questions. Your teacher noticed that your classmate was doing
something suspicious. He called your classmate and asked if she was cheating. She surreptitiously closed her notebook and answered,
“No”.
Your teacher did not trust your classmate’s answer so he asked you. What will you say? According to philosopher and professor. James
Rachel’s, for your decision to be moral, you should think how your answer will affect your friend, your teacher, the rest of your
classmates, and how it will affect you as a person. An impartial choice involves basing your decision on how all the person in the situation
will be affected, and not to the advantage of a particular party that you favor.

REASONS AND FEELINGS

Although reason and emotions can be perceived as completely opposite human traits, they are in fact very closely related. These two traits
influence each other, and in one way or another help shape each other. Reason is often related to the brain while emotions are related
more to the heart. Reason comes from the logical part of the human, reasonable things are things that makes sense in an individual's
mind, things that are logical.
Emotions on the other hand, tend to be much less logical; they are inner feelings which in many cases are very unreasonable, and
inexplicable. Yet, it is common that the emotions of a person influence that person's reason. Both reason and emotion are nec essary in
justifying moral decisions. Moral decisions are simple decisions where each individual makes the distinction between what is right and
what is wrong.
Since emotions are very often unreasonable the ideal would be that people justify their moral decisions by reason and reason alone. The
reality is however that emotions play such a key role in human lives that they cannot be ignored, and for that reason both re ason and
emotion are, maybe not equally but still are necessary in justifying a moral decision.
What it comes down to in the end is the individual person that makes the moral decision. Some people are more reason oriented people
and are very good at ignoring their emotions and listen to plain reason, while others are more emotional people and would bel ieve that
emotions are much more necessary in justifying moral decisions. Since no one can absolutely ignore one of this traits, they a re both
necessary in making moral decisions, and the amount of their necessity depends on the individual who is making the moral deci sion.

Ethics vs. Feelings - Many times, there’s a conflict between what we naturally feel and what is considered to be ethical. Our
subconscious reaction to a news event might be hatred, jealousy or other negative feelings, but we might not be able to moral ly argue
why we feel that way.
My guess is that the human race developed those subconscious reactions as an evolutionary mechanism to survive. Our ancestors
wouldn’t have been able to find & obtain food if they hadn’t fought for it. Arguing about ethics would’ve meant that you’ll h ave to stay
hungry and die.
The problem is, most of our feelings in today’s world are unethical, politically incorrect or even outright harmful. It takes a g reat deal of
effort to retrospect and self-analyze our feelings to judge whether they are ethical or not.
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Let us take a few common examples and see how to tackle those feelings.
1. Groupism - Natural feeling: I am part of a group. I am supposed to help this group become better. I am also supposed to
compete with other groups.
Reasoning: Being part of a herd made it easier for us ancestors to survive in the wild. There were so many survival benefits that
belonging to a group brought. Naturally, our ancestors started developing good feelings about belonging to a group.
Ethical viewpoint: Help the group. Help other gr0ups too. There is no compelling reason to compete in today’s times of peace.
2. Patriotism - Natural feeling: I was born in a place. I am supposed to help people in the geographical vicinity around me. There
are human-decided borders that define my country. Those outside the border don’t deserve that much attention as those inside the
border do.
Reasoning: Patriotism is Groupism in a higher scale. Most borders were drawn for political benefits by a small group of individual
running that country. There have been countless stories of propaganda by governments to motivate people to join their wars to fight
people over borders. We humans tend to justify these efforts as noble.
Ethical viewpoint: Wars are always bad. There is no reason to be proud of your country just because you were born in it. It is okay to
be in your country and help your country because you are used to it. But it is also okay to move to other countries and help those
countries.
feeling: I cannot maintain more than 150 stable relationships.
Reasoning: Our brains have limited capacity and it becomes mentally hard to maintain more relationships.
-promotes Groupism. Just as we push ourselves to become better humans, we should also try to push the Dunbar number limit
further. Accepting that all life forms in this world (and outside the world if life exists) are part of the same group counters the
negative effects of Groupism.
4. Negative feelings to content on Social Networks
Natural feeling: I hate what’s being posted on Facebook. They are just stupid selfies, people gloating their achievements or just
distracting, unproductive content.