CULTURE IN MORAL

BEHAVIOR AND
DEVELOPING
VIRTUE AS A HABIT
ETHICS PHL 1B
Presented by: Group 1
 EARNING OBJECTIVES
L
ARTICULATE WHAT CULTURE ANALYZE CRUCIAL QUALITIES OF
MEANS AND ATTRIBUTE FACETS OF THE FILIPINO MORAL IDENTITY IN
YOUR PERSONAL BEHAVIOR TO YOUR MORAL EXPERIENCES
CULTURE

RECOGNIZE AND APPRECIATE THE IDENTIFY UNIVERSAL VALUES AND

DIFFERENCES OF MORAL BEHAVIOR EXPLAIN WHY UNIVERSAL VALUES
IN DIFFERENT CULTURE. ARE NECESSARY FOR HUMAN
SURVIVAL

EVALUATE THE STRENGTHS AND RECALL DEFINING MOMENTS IN YOUR

WEAKNESSES OF CULTURAL MORAL FORMATION AND THE
RELATIVISM RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL
ACT AND MORAL CHARACTER YOU FIND
IN YOUR MORAL FORMATION
 CULTURE IN
MORAL BEHAVIOR
 CULTURE
Denotes practices, beliefs and
perceptions of a given society.
 CULTURE
Other Definitions:
Culture refers to the cumulative “What
people think”
Culture refers on "What people do".
Culture is the sum total of the learned
behavior
Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated
behavior.
Culture is a symbolic communication.
CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE
It includes all the things individuals learn while growing up
among group:

Attitudes
Standards of Morality
Rules of ettiquete
Language
Perceptions of reality and how to
properly live.
CULTURE'S ROLE
IN MORAL
BEHAVIOR
 Culture is learned as children grow up in society
and discover how their parents and others around
them interpret the world. In our society, we learn
to evaluate what is (morally) good and bad and to
judge when an unusual action is appropriate or
inappropriate (Manebog & Pena, 2016).
Moral Standards
as Social
Convention and
the Social
Conditioning
Theory
WHAT IS CONVENTION?
WHAT IS SOCIAL
CONVENTION?
SOCIAL CONVENTION

Consists of moral laws (moral standards or

rules) and merely a human invention.
The philosopher C.S. Lewis offers two
reasons for saying that morality belongs to
the same class as mathematics:

C.S Lewis
1.Although their differences between the moral
ideas of one time or another country and those
of another, the difference are not very great.

2.We affirm that the morality of one people is

better or worse than that of another which
means that there is a moral standard or rule by
which we measure both moralities and that
standard is real.

C.S Lewis
CULTURE
RELATIVISM
CULTURE RELATIVISM
Cultural Relativism is the most famous and
dominant form of moral relativism.

moral => socially approved

CULTURE RELATIVISM
Culture Relativism claims the following:
1.Different societies have different moral codes.

2.The moral code of a society determines what is right

or wrong within that society.

3.There are no moral truths that always hold for all

people.
CULTURE RELATIVISM
Culture Relativism claims the following:
4.The moral code of our own society has no special
status; it is but one among many.

5.It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We should

always be tolerant of them It is concluded that morality
differs in every society as concepts of right and wrong
vary from culture to culture.
CULTURE
RELATIVISM:
An Analysis
1. Valuable lessons from ethical relativism.
In proposing that there’s no independent
standard in ethics, moral relativism does
encourage tolerance.

2.The Theory's ethical fault

Cultural relativism discourages analytical
thinking and independent decision-making in
ethics as it requires unsuspecting compliance
and subscription to social norms.
3. Rachels’ evaluation of cultural
relativism

Philosophy professor James Rachels (1941-

2003) made a compelling assessment of
Cultural Relativism.
The fact that different cultures have different
moral codes implies that moral values lack
objective truth and since different cultures
have different morals, it is unfair to use our
own ideals as a guideline to make a basis for James Rachel
something morally good but unlike to others.
THE CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES
ARGUMENT
THE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
ARGUMENT
Facts about the differences between culture outlooks to a
conclusion about the status of morality

Different cultures have different

moral codes
There is no objective "truth" in
morality
Right and wrong are only matters of
opinion
THE DISAGREEMENTS AMONG
CULTURES
Since the difference in customs may be because of some
other aspects of social life, then it is wrong to conclude
that there is a disagreement about values and morality
just because customs differ.
THE CASE OF ESKIMOS
AND CALLATIANS

In Sociology and Anthropology, Eskimos

are popular for killing normal infants,
especially girls
An Eskimo will always protect its babies,
but the live in harsh environment.
THE CASE OF ESKIMOS
AND CALLATIANS

Food is in short supply that life is hard and

the margin of safety is small.
Infanticide is thus recognition that drastic
measures are sometimes needed to
ensure the family's safety.
THE BAD CONSEQUENCES OF
CULTURAL RELATIVISM

If we took cultural relativism seriously, we would be

necessitated to deal with the following corollaries enumerated
by Rachels (1999, pp.25-27)
THE BAD CONSEQUENCES OF
CULTURAL RELATIVISM

We could no longer say that the customs of other societies are

morally inferior to our own.
We could decide whether actions are right or wrong just by
consulting standards of our society.
The idea of moral progress is called to doubt.
ASIAN AND
FILIPINO
UNDERSTANDING
OF MORAL
BEHAVIOUR
WESTERN ETHICS EASTERN ETHICS
Finding the truth
Rational thought
Logic, cause, and effect
Athens, Rome, and Judeo
Christianity
Rational
Good must triumph over Evil
Protocol and Respect
Religious Teachings
Respect towards Family
Hinduism, Buddhism,
Confucianism, and Taoism
Holistic and Cultural
Good and Bad, Light and Dark
all exist in equilibrium.
FILIPINO MORAL
CHARACTER:
STRENGTH AND
WEAKNESSES
 SIX BASIC
FILIPINO VALUES
Pakikisama
Hiya
Amor Propio
Utang na Loob
Filipino Hospitality
Respect for Elders
UNIVERSAL VALUE
A value must have the same value for
all people in order to be considered
Universal Value

Can be attributed into 2 ways :

1. If everyone finds something valuable,

it may have a universal value.
2. When everyone has a good reason to
think it has value.
3 UNIVERSAL VALUES
Peace - able to resolve conflicts
without violence
Democracy - control of an organization
or group by the majority of its people
Justice - concept of moral rightness,
based on ethics, rationality, laws,
religion, equality, and fairness
DEVELOPING
VIRTUE AS A
HABIT
 MORAL
CHARACTER
Character came from the greek word
"charakter"

initially used as a mark upon a coin

to distinguish from others
TWO DISTINCT HUMAN
EXCELLENCES
Book II of Nichomachean Ethics
Excellences of thought - develops
through teaching

Excellences of Character -
develops through habit
EXCELLENCES OF
CHARACTER
Often translated as ‘moral virtues’ or ‘moral
excellence’
Blend of qualities that make a person
ethically admirable individual
 MORAL
CHARACTER
Existence or lack of virtues
Either you have virtue or vice
Means you’re a good person and a good
citizen
Moral traits have an irreducibly evaluative
dimension
THE CIRCULAR RELATIONS OF
ACTS AND CHARACTER
It is acts that builds moral character, but
not all
A person’s actions determine his/her
moral character, but moral
character itself generates acts that help in
developing either virtue or vice
MORAL CHARACTER AS
DISPOSITION

Dispositions are particular Moral character traits,

kinds or characteristics either virtue or vices are
that objects can possess also considered as
dispositions
 VIRTUE VICE
A moral character trait for which
A person is deserving of a
the agent is deserving of a
positive reactive attitude
negative reactive attitude
SIX STAGES OF
MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
Lawrence Kohlberg
"Heinz dillema"
 Stage 2:
Individualism and
Exchange

Stage 1: Obedience

N
and Punishment

O
TI
Orientation

AC
G
N
SI
RI
LEVEL 1: PRECONVENTIONAL
MORALITY
 LEVEL 2: CONVENTIONAL
MORALITY

Stage 3: Good
Interpersonal
Relationship
FA
LL

Stage 4: Maintaining
IN

the Social Order

G
AC
T
IO
N
 Stage 6: Universal
Principles

Stage 5: Social
Contract and
Individual Rights

LEVEL 3: POST-
CONVENTIONAL MORALITY
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!