ETHICS: REVISITING THE MORAL DIMENSION OF MAN ETHICS Ethics is known to be the philosophical study of morality, the rightness and wrongness of a certain action, a particular tradition, group, and individual. The word is also commonly used interchangeably with ‘morality’ to mean the subject matter of this study. ETHOS AS MORAL CHARACTER Ethos is a Greek word which means moral character. In Rhetoric Aristotle, ethos establishes three primary arguments: ethos, logos, and pathos, PATHOS, LOGOS, ETHOS In the art of persuasion, pathos is an emotional appeal. It balances out the ethos by providing more emotional reasoning, On the other hand, logos a logical appeal. It is effective when grounded in credibility or ethos. Ethos (rast, authorty) Persuasion (craton, beliefs) (eee MORALITY ‘© Morality is primarily a demand for action which arises from the tension between what man is and what he ought to be. In moral perspective, man always remains unfinished. Man, then, is will oriented to the good which is the fulfillment of being. Morality is a lived experience. The human person, in defining himself as “moral.” Thus, the question: “What is being human or how to be human” can be answered from a moral standpoint, ‘© Therefore, in answering the question: “What is being human and how to be human?” we must take into consideration the basic understanding of the human person and view them as open pathways to his moral existence.SYNDERESIS The foundation of ethics is synderesis, that is, to do what is good and avoid what is evil, in which man tends to do the good, toward the good, yet, man has inclination to do evil. There is a possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing to do good. THE DESIRE TO BE GOOD ‘* Man desires to be good but usually finds it hard or unable to do so. © Andrew E. aptly quips in his rap song, “Gusto kong bumaet pero di ko magawa.”” © Ittakes a strong will to choose the good. CHARACTER ‘+ Inbeing steadfast in choosing the good, it becomes a habit which then tums into virtue that defines one’s character. Man, then grows into perfection. On the other hand, constantly failing to choose morally good acts can harden a person and eventually define himself as an evil character. MAN'S INTELLECT AND WILL Actions are concrete and living forethoughts to his future. This future is partially unveiled within the context of the present action. There is no force outside man that determines what he should be and ought to be. What leads man into action is the intellect. MAN IS FREE ‘* According to Dr. Reyes, “As person, man has the power to be the origin and to be the self initiating source of his actions (GNM 80).” ‘+ Manis free insofar as he is the originator and author of his actions. Accordingly, the origin and authorship of a certain action stem from a deliberate choice or decision made by man. HUMAN FREEDOM ‘+ Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will, one shapes one’s own life, Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness. ‘+ There is no such thing as absolute freedom. Man’s freedom is limited by the determinations of his health, physical limitations, education, environment, ete. ‘© Though man can transcend his limitations by working his way out of it, e.g., ignorance, poverty, etc, there shall always be a limit in which he can exercise that freedom. Freedom ends when another man’s right is encroached upon. Wrong choices in the exercise of freedom is not freedom at all, it is but an illusion, It effectively reduces one’s circle of freedom. © We are never free to choose vices, it shall in the end limit your choice to live a vice free life when you are already hooked, e.g., smoking, drugs. ‘* You are not free to be dishonest. You shall always be on guard to protect and live up to your lie. There is a distinetion between freedom from and freedom for.‘* To be free from is to work your way out from situation and things that prevent you from achieving the good. ‘+ Freedom for is to choose the good. It sometimes requires that you choose to free yourself from things and situation that prevents you to live a better life. E.g., freedom from smoking to be free for a better health; freedom from habitual sins to be fice for a holy life; freedom from addiction to pornography to be free for a life of chastity or purity. HUMAN ACTION Dr. Reyes writes in the Ground and Norm of Morality: “The moral dimension or moral experience in general reveals man to himself as being under some kind of constant tension between what is at present and what must be in the future, between what he is now and what his being somehow must ultimately be, what his being ought to realize as its proper immanent telos or end.” (GNM 79). SOURCES Ethics: Foundations of Moral Valuation, Oscar G. Bulaong, Jr., Mark Joseph T. Calano, Albert M. Lagliva, Michael Ner E. Mariano, Jesus Deogracias Z. Principe. (Manila: Rex Bookstore, 2018). Celestino, Joseph Roy F., M.A., Being and Oughtness, Lecture on the Moral Dimension of the Human Person. Audi, Robert. Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd Edition. (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Ramon Castillo Reyes, Ground and Norm of Morality, keynote lecture delivered for the course, Seminar in Applied Ethies, (Ateneo de Manila University, 14 May, 2003.)