1.

could exert varying and

sometimes contrasting
degrees of influence on
him/her. For example,
individuals can be influenced
by their family, peer groups,
church, school, the mass
media, and social media.
Ultimately, however, it is still
the individual who would
make his/her own moral
decisions.

2. As mentioned, the
notion positive about acts of
kindness. When you feel positively
about an act, you do not only do
the act you also feel this act
should be encouraged that others
may follow. This is where the
second element prescriptive comes
in such as saying “Be kind to
others:" The prescriptive element,
in a sense, is an instruction or
prescription of a particular
behavior.

3.

4. Why feelings can be

obstacles to making the right
decision

5. There are three central

features as to why emotions can
be obstacles in making the right
decisions:

6.

7. Non Deliberate Nature of

Feelings
 8. Deliberate means the act
was intentional, planned, with
conscious effort. Non-deliberate is
the contrary term that denotes
spontaneous actions. It is doing
something without thinking
through. For instance, you run to
your bed the moment you turn off
the light because you are afraid.
Why did the darkness scare you?
You never thought about it, you
just ran. Not surprisingly, you will
find that a common excuse for
doing a grossly undesirable act
was "being overcome by emotions
in that customary restraints failed
(“I couldn’t help myself"; "I
totally blanked out; "I felt
overwhelmed; I don’t know, I just
felt like doing it"). Under this
characterization, emotions are no
different from mindless automatic
reflex.

9. Philosopher Aaron Been

Zeev summarized the
nondeliberate nature of feelings as
follows:

10. Responsibility entails free

choice; if we are not free to
behave in a certain manner, then
we are not responsible for this
behavior.

11. Free choice entails an

intellectual deliberation in which
alternatives are considered and
the best one is chosen. Without
such consideration, we clearly
cannot understand the possible
alternatives and are not
responsible for preferring one of
them.
 12. Since intellectual
deliberation is absent from
emotions, we cannot be
responsiblefor our emotions
(p.244).

13. The Partial Nature of

Feelings

14. Emotions notoriously play

favorites. It operates on a
principle called "the law of
concern" (Fridja, 1988) where
emotions give focus only on
matters of personal interest.
However, emotions are quiet
when it is of no personal concern.
Take for example a catastrophic
event like an earthquake. The
sorrow that you feel for
earthquake victims from other
countries is nowhere near the
level of sorrow that you feel if
your family were the victims.

15. There are two aspects in the

partial nature of emotions:

16. Decisions based on feelings

focus only on a narrow area, and

It reflects personal and self-interest perspectives