REVIEWER Ethics (ETH)

MODULE 6
“How is Moral Character Developed & Stages of Moral Development”

 Lawrence Kohlberg, (born October 25, 1927, Bronxville, New York, U.S.- died January 17, 1987, Boston,
Massachusetts), American psychologist and educator known for his theory of moral development.
 Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development, a comprehensive stage theory of moral development based
on Jean Piaget's theory of moral judgment for children (1932) and developed by Lawrence Kohlberg in 1958.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

One of the best-known explanations of how morality of justice develops was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg and
his associates (Kohlberg, Levine, & Hewer, 1983; Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1991).

Moral States According to Kohlberg (Three Level)

I. Preconventional Level
 At the preconventional level, morality is externally controlled. Rules imposed by authority figures are
conformed to in order to avoid punishment or receive rewards. This perspective involves the idea that
what is right is what one can get away with or what is personally satisfying.
 Stage 1: Punishment/obedience orientation
 Behavior is determined by consequences. The individual will obey in order to avoid punishment.
 Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation
 Behavior is determined again by consequences. The individual focuses on receiving rewards or
satisfying personal needs.

II. Conventional Level

 At the conventional level, conformity to social rules remains important to the individual. However, the
emphasis shifts from self-interest to relationships with other people and social systems. The individual
strives to support rules that are set forth by others such as parents, peers, and the government in order
to win their approval or to maintain social order.
 Stage 3: Good Boy/Nice Girl orientation
• Behavior is determined by social approval. The individual wants to maintain or win the
affection and approval of others by being a "good person."
 Stage 4: Law and order orientation
• Social rules and laws determine behavior. The individual now takes into consideration a
larger perspective, that of societal laws. Moral decision making becomes more than
consideration of close ties to others. The individual believes that rules and laws maintain
social order that is worth preserving.

III. Postconventional Level

 At the postconventional level, the individual moves beyond the perspective of his or her own society.
Morality is defined in terms of abstract principles and values that apply to all situations and societies.
The individual attempts to take the perspective of all individuals.
 Stage 5: Social contract orientation
 Individual rights determine behavior. The individual views laws and rules as flexible tools for
improving human purposes. That is, given the right situation, there are exceptions to rules.
 When laws are not consistent with individual rights and the interests of the majority, they do
not bring about good for people and alternatives should be considered.
 Stage 6: Universal ethical principle orientation
  According to Kohlberg, this is the highest stage of functioning. However, he claimed that some
individuals will never reach this level. At this stage, the appropriate action is determined by one's
self-chosen ethical principles of conscience.
 These principles are abstract and universal in application. This type of reasoning involves taking
the perspective of every person or group that could potentially be affected by the decision.

MODULE 7
“How Reason and Impartiality as Minimum Requirement for Morality & Seven Steps of Moral Reasoning
Model”

Reason and Impartiality Defined

 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.
 It also spells the difference of moral judgments’ from mere expressions of personal preference. In the case of
moral judgments, they require backing by reasons. Thus, reason commends what it commends, regardless of our
feelings, attitudes, opinions, and desires.
 Impartiality involves the idea that each individual’s interests and point of view are equally important. It is a
principle of justice holding that decisions ought to be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of
bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to 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 intrinsically more significant than anyone else

The 7-Step Moral Reasoning Model – Scott B. Rae, Ph.D.

Moral reasoning, also known as moral development, is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy.
Children can make moral decisions about what is right and wrong from a young age; this makes morality fundamental to
the human condition. Moral reasoning, however, is a part of morality that occurs both within and between individuals.
This is a model that will help marketers make ethical decisions. When making any decision, marketers might think of
these aspects as well as the financial and other aspects involving profits, branding, customer relationship building, and
so forth. Using a system for solving moral dilemmas and considering all impacts of a decision will help avoid conflicting
opinions when business people operate automatically from their own value systems.

Scott Rae’s model for moral reasoning presents a 7-step approach to moral analyses and evaluation. It is oriented
towards virtues and principles with consideration of consequences as a supporting role (Rae 2018). This model is free
from cultural, ethnic and religious background and biases, though it is consistent/uses biblical principles. The 7-step
model is as follows:

1. Gather the Facts

 It is essential that in moral decision- making, one has to know the general facts of the moral situation, before
coming up with a moral analysis, more so, a decision or an evaluation.
 The simplest way of clarifying an ethical dilemma is to make sure the facts are clear. Ask: Do you have all the
facts that are necessary to make a good decision? What do we know? What do we need to know? In this light it
might become clear that the dilemma is not ethical but about communication or strategy (Rae, 2018).

2. Determine the ethical issues

 After having identified the facts and overall context of the moral situation, the ethical issue/involved in the
situation, must be clearly stated in order to specify what issue one has to make a decision to. This section must
likewise clearly state the major moral dilemma involved in the case.
  Ethical interests are stated in terms of legitimate competing interests or goods. The competing interests are
what create the dilemma. Moral values and virtues must support the competing interests in order for an ethical
dilemma to exist. If you cannot identify the underlying values/virtues then you do not have an ethical dilemma.
Often people hold these positions strongly and with passion because of the value / virtue beneath them (Rae
2018).

MODULE 8
“Moral Theories and Mental Frames and Why they are Important”

What is a moral framework?

 A moral framework is a set of codes that that an individual uses to guide his or her behavior.
 Ethics are what people use to distinguish right from wrong in the way they interact in the world.
 Moral values help in improving behavior, instilling respect and enhancing relationships with others.
 Knowing what is right or wrong is an important element in life that shapes the character on an individual.
 Good moral values allow a person to make the right decisions and improve their interactions with other people.
 Virtue ethics is the name given to a modern revival and revision of Aristotle's ethical thinking. Aristotle’s ethics,
while not generally thought of as consequentialist, is certainly teleological. For him, the telos, or purpose, of a
human life is to live according to reason.

St. Thomas
St. Thomas’ natural law ethics is based on the Aristotelian principle that everything in the world, is organized in a
teleological fashion, i.e., everything has a goal or purpose. Nevertheless, this creates difficulty for those who do not
accept the existence of a Creator or a Divine Planner. This creates difficulty in the acceptance of the Natural Law Ethics
of St. Thomas for those who do not believe in the Divine Planner. Moreover, the ethics of St. Thomas is based on the
principle of synderesis and conscience.

According to St. Thomas, this conscience is innate in a human being who was created in the image and likeness of
God. Thus, being created in the image and likeness of God, human beings will always be geared towards goodness’s
Thomas Aquinas’s moral philosophy sees the basic moral norms (like the golden rule and the wrongness of stealing,
murder and etc.) as fixed and unchangeable, although they can be applied differently to different cultural situations.
Human laws are set up to promote the good and must accord with natural law. The first precept of natural law is that
good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. We can know what is good by investigating our natural
(rational) inclinations.

NONCONSEQUENTIALIST THEORIES
 These are also known as deontological theories.
 These theories say that the rightness of an action does not depend entirely on its consequences.
 It depends on the nature of the action itself.

Divine Command Theory

 It asserts that the morally right action is the one that God commands.

Natural Law Theory

 A theory asserting that the morally right action is the one that follows the dictates of nature.
 People are supposed to live according to natural law—that is, they are to fulfill their rightful, natural purpose.
 The things that we are designed to seek are called basic goods.

Study Guide: Deontology & Virtue Ethics

Right ethics (Deontology)
 Right ethics is duty ethics (deontology), so it compares a person's actions against some duty or imperative. An
example is Kant's Deontology, which has the Categorical Imperative that all persons must be ends in and of themselves
and may never be used as means. Deontology emphasizes the character of the actions.

Two reasons of moral actions:

1. hypothetical imperatives
 (e.g., "If you wish to have a good reputation, be honest").
 a moral command that is conditional on personal motive or desire.
2. categorical imperatives
 i.e. absolute & unconditional moral commands (e.g., "Be honest")
 a moral law that is unconditional or absolute for all agents

CONSEQUENTIALIST THEORIES
 These are also known as teleological theories.
 These theories say that what makes an action right is its consequences.
 Specifically, the rightness of an action depends on the amount of good it produces.

Utilitarianism
 It asserts that the morally right action is the one that produces the most favorable balance of good over evil,
everyone considered.

Types of Utilitarianism
 Act-utilitarianism: right actions are those that directly produce the greatest overall good, everyone
considered.
 Rule-utilitarianism: the morally right action is the one covered by a rule that if generally followed would
produce the most favorable balance of good over evil, everyone considered.

MODULE 9
“Feelings and Reasons”

FEELINGS AND REASONS: Upsurge of feelings is natural and what we do with them is what makes us ethical or
unethical.

FEELINGS DEFINED
These are mental associations and reactions to emotions which originate in the neocortical regions of the brain, and
are subjective being influenced by personal experience, beliefs and memories. These are next thing that happens after
having an emotion, involve cognitive input, usually subconscious and cannot be measured precisely.

EMOTION vs. FEELING

Feelings are sparked by emotions and colored by personal experiences, beliefs, memories, and thoughts linked to
that particular emotion. Strictly speaking, a feeling is the side product of your brain perceiving an emotion and assigning
a certain meaning to it. - For example, you remember a happy memory by looking at the family picture, you may
remember you we’re in joy at that moment but at present you may feel sad. EMOTION IS VERY POWERFUL.

REASON DEFINED
Reason - a form of personal justification which changes from person to person based on their own ethical and moral
code, as well as prior experience. It stands for the faculties of rational reflection, sensations and experience, memory
and inference, and any judgments that may be exercised without relying on a religious faith that is unsupported by
reason.

FEELING AND REASON INTERTWINED

 Feelings are not limited to good and bad, happy and sad moods. They also influence judgments, and hence
decisions, with feelings as mild as contentment, safety, and perceived ease or difficulty of tasks to be faced. In short,
they mess with our thinking minds in all sorts of ways.

WHEN REASON OVERRULED FEELING

We rely on our reason to guard against feelings that may reflect a bias, or a sense of inadequacy, or a desire simply
to win an argument, and also to refine and explain a felt conviction that passes the test of critical reflection and
discussion. We rely on feelings to move us to act morally, and to ensure that our reasoning is not only logical but also
humane.

WHEN EMOTION OVERRULED REASON

Emotion creates a strong opinion that is hard for reason to overcome when emotion takes over it is hard to think of
the consequences of one’s actions. It can also be constructive when working by itself in the decision-making process.

EMOTION ALONE
When emotion is left as the only way of knowing used to make ethical decisions, these decisions are often made
with little to no regard to the consequences of our actions. However, when faced with a situation where one has prior
experience, the emotions that are used to make a decision have been tested before, thus providing a solid ground for
ethical decision-making. Paul Ekman devised six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.

REASON ALONE
Reason, when removed from emotion, allows a person to make conscious decisions based on fact, with no reference
to personal involvement. The use of reason as a way of knowing, allows for the knower to see the consequences of their
actions throughout the decision-making process. There are limitations to decisions made based on reason alone,
perception of situations is not questioned as it may be with an emotional decision.