Chapter 2:

The Moral Agent

Lesson 1:
Man As A Moral
Agent
 * To explain
LEARNING
what moral
OUTCOMES:
agent means

*To discuss
the meaning
of
fundamental
option
After learning the basic consept of morality and
ethics,let us now turn our attention to the in moral
agent who is expected to develop in moral and ethical
character.
 ACTIVITY

1. Can a dog be a moral agent? Why or why not?

2. Can a robot be a moral agent? Why or Why
not?
ANALYSIS

1. Why can't a dog and a robot be a moral agent?

2. What must a moral agent have for him/her to
be a moral agent?
The Human Person as a Moral Agent
Moral comes from the Latin word "mores"
-referring to society's patterns, standards, rules of
doing.
Agent comes from Latin word "agere"
- to do, act.
A moral agent is one who performs an act in accordance
with moral standards.
A moral agent is the moral actor, one who acts
morally.
 A moral agent is a being who is
capable of those actions that have
moral quality and which can be
properly denominated good or evil in
moral sense.
 Edward (1754)
- Only a moral agent is capable of human acts.
That's why "morality is for person"
Haring ( 1971)

-Human acts are "those of which a man is a master, which he

has the power of doing or not doing as he pleases" or "those
acts which proceed from man as a rational being"
(Edward, 1754)
What is a sufficient condition for moral agent?
-it will suffice if the agent has the capacity to conform to some of
the external requirements of morality. So if a agents can obey
moral laws such as "Murder is wrong" or "Stealing is wrong",
then they are moral agents, even they respond only to
prudential reason such as fear of punishment and even if they
are incapable of acting for the sake of moral consideration.
- A moral agent should have the capacity to rise above their
feelings and passions and act for the sake of the moral law.
Kantian version

-according to the strong version, it is also essential

that the agents should have the capacity to rise
above their feelings and passions and act for the
sake of the moral law. Haksar, V., Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.

The Purpose-driven Moral Agent

Textbook from Rev.Charles Collens,S.J(1924)

According to St.Thomas Aquinas, "Every human act is

directed toward an end".
The highest good or end is happiness but the
absolutely final end is GOD.

According to Aristotle,the
summum bonum, the
highest good
is happiness.
Alfredo Panizo(1964)
Three Principles regarding the end or purpose of
the moral agent.
First Principle
Every agent that performs an action acts for
the sake of the end or purpose to be attained.
( A moral agent is purpose-driven)
Second Principle

Every agent has the power of moving for an ultimate end.

Third Principle
Every agent has the power of moving for an end which is suitable or
good for him"
 Christian point of view
-a humans persons destiny in the world is not only to achieve
cultural and moral perfections, but to attain the eternal
happiness of the soul after death of the body.
The Fundamental Option

-a person's act is moral if it realizes his/her potentials and

brings him/her nearer to this goal in life, immortal if it
deviates from it.
Fernandez (1988) Fernandez quotes Janssens(19
-the fundamental option is "the stance of position, I decide to
take vis-a-vis the Absolute Value of God which then influences
ultimately all my other individual actions and decisions.

Troisfontaines(cited by DY,2001)
-if one is used to a life in accordance with tyhe fundamental
option , at the moment of death , he/she would be asked by
God what his/her option will be and he/she will say yes to God.
No- Prefix Plan for Man
-a human person is or becomes what he/she makes of
himself by choice. He/she is nothing, no "essence" until
he/she starts he/she "exitence" by making choices.
-a human person has to create his/her end, purpose or
directions. He/she has to invent his/her destiny. since there
is no goal or end designed for him/her, he/she would
completely be the author of what he/she turns out to be.
He/she will be totally responsible for what he/she will be.
Consequently, the end prupose or direction of beings-with-
others, is what they discover as they learn to live
"World to Come" means "World to Come Out of this World"
Fr.Rene de Brabander
-he wrote an article, "Christianity in the Modern World"
-
The Modern christians depart from the view that earthly life,the
world of flesh, is a sinful thing that has to beabandoned for the sake
heavenly life.But "(h)eaven and earth are one and the same thing you
cannot love one and despite the other."
The "World to Come"
that is the heavenly world that every Christian desires to
direct their life to, can only come out or emerged from
this world of flesh.
 The World to come"out of''this World"
-it means instead of avoiding "this world" as a sinful world of flesh
we involved ourselves in it, improving it,refining it, constructing
and developing it,perfecting it to bring out the world to come.

Robert Francoeur's

"Persfective of Evolution"
the future world toward which a person should direct
his/her life is this same material world but spiritualized,that
is, material world spiritualized, a world devoid of it's
material limitations, a world liberated in freed from its
spatio-temporal conditions.
That's all for today!