Frameworks and

Principles Behind
our Moral
Disposition
Frameworks
 Malizon
Canones
Roxas
Liwanag
Balbuena
Malacaste
Estrada
Medina
Benjamin
Apura
Osio
This section addresses the
following questions:

RULE 02
01
What are the What is my
overarching
framework in
frameworks that dictate
the way we make our making my
individual moral decisions?
decisions?
 Virtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in
normative ethics. It may, initially, be identified as the one that
emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the
approach that emphasizes duties or rules (deontology) or that
emphasizes the consequences of actions (consequentialism).
Virtue Suppose it is obvious that someone in need should be helped.
A utilitarian will point to the fact that the consequences of

Ethics doing so will maximize well-being, a deontologist to the fact

that, in doing so the agent will be acting in accordance with a
moral rule such as “Do unto others as you would be done by”
and a virtue ethicist to the fact that helping the person would
be charitable or benevolent.
 Virtue

A virtue is an excellent trait of character. It is a

disposition, well entrenched in its possessor—
something that, as we say, goes all the way down,
unlike a habit such as being a tea-drinker—to notice,
expect, value, feel, desire, choose, act, and react in
certain characteristic ways. To possess a virtue is to be
a certain sort of person with a certain complex mindset.
A significant aspect of this mindset is the wholehearted
acceptance of a distinctive range of considerations as
reasons for action.
 Forms of As we observe the people around us, we
find ourselves wanting to be like some of
Virtue Ethics them (in at least some respects) and not
wanting to be like others.
Agent-Based and
Exemplarist Virtue Ethics

Eudaimonia is, avowedly, a moralized

or value-laden concept of happiness,
something like “true” or “real”
Providing a target-centered definition
happiness or “the sort of happiness
of a right action requires us to move
worth seeking or having.”
beyond the analysis of a single virtue
Eudaimonist and the actions that follow from it.
Virtue Ethics
Target-Centered Virtue
Ethics
 Platonistic Timothy Chappell takes the
defining feature of Platonistic
virtue ethics to be that “Good

Virtue Ethics agency in the truest and fullest

sense presupposes the
contemplation of the Form of the
Good” (2014). Chappell follows
Iris Murdoch in arguing that “In
the moral life the enemy is the fat
relentless ego” (Murdoch 1971:
51). Constantly attending to our
needs, our desires, our passions,
and our thoughts skews our
perspective on what the world is
actually like and blinds us to the
goods around us.
 Objections to Value
Ethics
ACTION-GUIDING

SELF-CENTEREDNESS Virtue ethics, it is

MORAL LUCK
objected, with its
Virtue ethics seems to emphasis on the
Some people will be
be essentially interested imprecise nature of ethics,
lucky and receive the
in the acquisition of the fails to give us any help
help and encouragement
virtues as part of the with the practicalities of
they need to attain
agent’s own well-being how we should behave.
moral maturity, but
and flourishing. others will not.
 Aristotle
·Aristotle is considered as
the most important virtue
ethicist.

Aristotle was born in Greek colony of

Stagra Macedonia. Nicomachus, his
father, was a student of natural history
and an eminent physician who serve
under Amnytas II, King of Macedonia,
and father to Philip the Great and
grandfather to Alexander the Great. As
fate would have it, Aristotle also
eventually serve the royal family as tutor
to the young Alexander the Great.
 If Plato was confined to the belief
that the good or purpose of the
human person is to be found in
another realm, which he called
the world of forms, Aristotle
contradicts this by saying that
the proper good of the human
·Aristotle is known as person is achievable in this world,
Plato’s greatest student.
through the practical cultivation
of virtue (arête).
Nicomachean
Ethics This book, thought to be
dedicated to his son, is essentially
a guide for living well, a
handbook for those who seek to
build and cultivate one’s
character in the hope of achieving
life’s ultimate goal (telos) which
he says is happiness or
flourishing (eudemonia).
 11 Moral
Virtues
Magnanimity
Proper
Courage Friendliness
Ambition
Temperance Modesty
Truthfulness
Liberality Righteous
Wittiness
Magnificence Indignation
Phronesis or
Practical
Wisdom
“a true and reasoned
state of capacity to act
with regard to the things
that are good or bad for
Central to Practical wisdom is man’'
what we called as “Doctrine of
Mean” or also known as “Golden
Mean”. This is an understanding
that a virtue lies between two
vices and once we have a
knowledge of these, we are in
better position to act in a virtuous
way
 Telos

The key idea in Aristotle's natural law

is that there is an unchanging order
(principle) to the changing physical
world. By understanding this order we
can learn what is natural for something
or someone to do, or be, or become
(its purpose or telos).
 Virtue as a
Habit
Aristotle defines moral virtue as
a disposition to behave in the
right manner and as a mean
between extremes of deficiency
and excess, which are vices.
We learn moral virtue primarily
through habit and practice
rather than through reasoning
and instruction.
Aristotle believed that virtue as a
habit requires an intentional
choice when you begin. The habit
of virtue is not yet developed, but
over time one becomes used to
behaving virtuously and after a
while one acts virtuously without
needing to use volition. You have
become virtuous—it’s now part of
you and how you act.
Happiness
as Virtue
Aristotle starts with the claim that
happiness is dependent on virtue.
He describes virtue as a disposition,
rather than an activity. The
individual needs
to be naturally a ‘virtuous’ person,
rather than just acting accordingly.
Concerning the relationship
between happiness and virtue, he
believed that these two elements
are neither dependent on nor
independent of one another.
Therefore, to distinguish between
these two ends, attention must be
paid to rules and goals: happiness
is according to goals and virtue is
according to rules.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
ON VIRTUE
NATURAL LAW
PHILOSOPHY OF MAN
INTRODUCTION TO ST. THOMAS
AQUINAS

•Name: Thomas Aquinas (Tommaso

d’Aquino), also known as St. Thomas
Aquinas
•Congregation: Order of Preachers, also
known as Dominican priest
•He is a confessor and Doctor of the
Church
•Patron saint of Catholic schools
 NATURAL LAW THEORY

Aquinas’s Natural Law Theory contains four different types

of law:
• Eternal Law
• Natural Law
• Human Law
• Divine Law
 NATURAL LAW
THEORY

•By “Eternal Law” Aquinas means God’s rational

purpose and plan
for all things. And because the Eternal Law is part of God’s mind
then it has always, and will always, exist. The Eternal Law is not
simply something that God decided at some point to write.
•Aquinas thinks that something is good in as far as it
fulfils its
purpose/plan. This fits with common sense. A “good” eye is one
which sees well, an acorn is a good if it grows into a strong oak
tree.
 NATURAL LAW
THEORY
•Natural Law does not generate an external set of rules
that are
written down for us to consult but rather it generates general
rules
that any rational agent can come to recognize simply in virtue of
being rational.
Aquinas gives some more examples of primary precepts:
•Protect and preserve human life.
•Reproduce and educate one’s offspring.
•Know and worship God.
•Live in a society.
 NATURAL LAW
THEORY
•Aquinas also introduces what he calls the Human Law
which gives rise to what he calls “Secondary Precepts”
like do not drive above 70mph on a motorway, do not
kidnap people, always wear a helmet when riding a bike,
etc.
•It is not always morally acceptable to follow secondary
precepts. It is only morally acceptable if they are
consistent with the Natural Law. If they are, then we
ought to follow them, if they are not, then we ought not.
To see why think through an example.
 NATURAL LAW
THEORY

• The Divine Law, which is discovered through revelation,

should be thought of as the Divine equivalent of the Human
Law.

Divine laws are those that God has, in His grace, seen fit to give
• us and are those “mysteries”, those rules given by God which
we find in scripture.
 PHILOSOPHY OF
MAN
• For Aquinas does indeed say both that a
human being is a human body, namely, a
rational, sensitive, living body, and that a
human being consists of a soul and a body.
B. KANT AND RIGHT
THEORIST
EMMANUEL KANT: WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF.

Refuses Hume’s theory.

It is possible to find the essence of the self.
Man is a free agent, capable of
Making decision for himself, he is gifted without
reason and free will to enable him to organized the
data gathered by the senses.
We can build an idea of who we are, thus, the self is
very present.
A. GOODWILL
- Kant’s theory is a version of
rationalism- it depends on reason.
Kant argues that no consequence can
have fundamental moral worth; the
only thing that is good in and of itself is
the Good will. The Good will freely
chooses to do its moral duty. That
duty, in turn, is dictated solely by
reason.
B. CATEGORIAL
IMPERATIVE

- Kant defines categorical imperatives as

commands or moral laws all persons must
follow, regardless of their desires or
extenuating circumstances. As morals,
binding these imperatives are on everyone.
DIFFERENT
KINDS OF
RIGHT
 WHAT IS
RIGHTS?
A right described as something to which a person
entitlement or justified claim.
According to Meriam-webster, Right may take the
form of power or privilege to which person is justly
entitled to.

According to the new Webster dictionary, Rights is

obeying the moral law.
A. LEGAL RIGHTS

WHAT IS LEGAL
RIGHTS?

Legal right is a right which exist under the

rules of legal systems or by virtue of decision
of suitably authoritative bodies within them.
B. MORAL RIGHTS
WHAT IS MORAL
RIGHTS?

Moral rights is based on human

consciousness. It is supported by moral
force of human mind. Moral rights are
justified by moral standards that most
people acknowledge, but which are not
codified in law.
UTILITARIANISM
ORIGINS AND NATURE OF
THEORY
BUSINESS'S FASCINATION WITH
UTILITARIANISM
UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarianism is a theory in the field of
ethics which contends that moral actions
are those which produce the greatest
good for the greatest number of people.
PRICIPLE OF
Jeremy bentham john stuart mill
UTILITY
Bentham's version of Utilitarianism
To be subject to pleasure and pain is a fact we all recognize,
and it is also a fact that we desire pleasure and avoid pain.
Bentham offers the principle of utility which is that principle
which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever,
according to the tendency which appears to have to augment
or diminish happiness.
A sanction is what gives binding force to a rule of conduct or to
a law, and he terms these four sanctions the physical, the
political, the moral and the religious sanctions.
EXAMPLE:
I drove a car and I bumped into a house due to my own
fault. Because of the accident, I hurt my arm and my feet. I
have to undergo a series of surgical operations. Because I
bumped a house, not only do I cause damage to myself
but also to others. Since there is a law that punishes the
results of my imprudence, I have to face the charges
against me as well as the liabilities and the legal
obligations it implies. If a lot of people dislike me because
of the imprudence which resulted from the accident I was
in, that punishment is called moral sanctions. And if by an
immediate act of God's displeasure manifested on
account of the sin I committed, the punishment is called
religious sanction.
 Utilitarianism
Bentham's version of Utilitarianism
Kant argued that the morality of an act depends upon having the right motive
and not upon the consequences of the act. Bentham takes the opposite position
saying that the morality of an act depends directly upon the consequences of
an act.

Bentham claims that each individual is concerned with avoiding pain and
achieving pleasure. With an attempt at mathematical precision, Bentham speaks
of units or what he called lots -of pleasure or pain. He suggests that before we
act, we should calculate the value of these lots.
 Utilitarianism
Bentham's version of Utilitarianism
Their value, taken by themselves, will be greater or less, depending upon
pleasure's intensity, duration, certainty and propinquity or nearness.

We must calculate other circumstances:

Fecundity - its chances of being followed by more pleasure, and its purity, or
the chances that pleasure will be followed by some pain.
Extent - the number of persons to whom it extends or who are affected by the
action.
 Utilitarianism
Bentham's version of Utilitarianism
According to Bentham, we sum up all the values of
all the pleasures on the one side and those of the
pains on the other side. The balance, if it is on the
side of pleasure, will give the good tendency of the
act, otherwise, it is of the bad tendency. This shows
that Bentham is interested chiefly in the quantitative
aspects of pleasure. Thus, all actions are equally
good if they produce the same amount of pleasure.
Mill's version of Utilitarianism
John Stuart defines the principles
of utility perfectly consistent with
what Bentham taught. He says
that the Greatest Happiness
Principle holds that actions are
right in proportion as they tend to
promote happiness, wrong as they
tend to produce the reverse of
happiness.
By happiness is intended pleasure,
and the absence of pain by
unhappiness, pain and the
privation of pleasure. But even
though he started with the same
general ideas as Bentham did,
especially relating happiness with
pleasure, Mill soon took a different
approach.
Mill's version of Utilitarianism
Mill substituted Betham's quantitative approach into
qualitative approach. He believes that pleasures differ
from each other in kind and quality, not only in
quantity. He took his stand with the ancient Epicureans
who emphasized that pleasure is the end of all
behavior.
Mill's version of Utilitarianism
He argues that human beings have faculties more elevated than the
animal appetites, and when once conscious of them, do not regard
anything as happiness which does not include their gratification.
Further, he contends that pleasures of the intellect and imagination
have a higher value than the pleasures of mere sensation. For him, the
mere quantity of pleasure produce by an act was of secondary
importance when we have to make a choice between pleasures.
Now...
Mill prefers the higher quality of happiness over a mere quantity
of pleasure.

MiIl’s theory involves when we should actually consult the

utilitarian guideline. These rules can be trusted since they are
already tested whether we facilitate general happiness when
we follow them.

Bentham’s and Mill’s theory involves their respective ways of

dealing with human selfishness.
 Four Components of Utilitarianism
1. Consequentialism - the view that one morally ought to promote just good outcomes.
Two Views of Consequentialism
1. Direct View (Act Utilitarianism) - directly evaluate the consequences of the
actions to see which has the best consequences.
2.Indirect View (Rule Utilitarianism) - evaluate the moral status of an action
indirectly, based on its relationship to something else (such as a rule), whose
status is itself assessed in terms of its consequences.
2. Welfarism - the view that only the welfare (also called well-being) of individuals
determines the value of an outcome.

3. Impartiality - the view that the identity of individuals is irrelevant to the value of an
outcome. Furthermore, equal weight must be given to the interests of all individuals.

4. Aggregationism - is the view that the value of the world is the sum of the values of its
parts, where these parts are local phenomena such as experiences, lives, or societies.
The Two Elements of Classical
Utilitarianism
Classical utilitarianism is the view that one morally ought to promote just the
sum total of happiness over suffering.

THEORIES OF WELL-BEING: HEDONISM POPULATION ETHICS: THE TOTAL VIEW

The view that well-being One outcome is better than

consists in, and only in, the another if and only if it
balance of positive over contains greater total well-
negative conscious being.
experiences.
Justice and Fairness:
Promoting the
Common Good
 John Rawls
Author
Life and Works

TH
20 CENTURY PHILOSOPHER

BORN IN BALTIMORE ON 1921

GRADUATED FROM PRINCETON

OXFORD, HARVARD & MIT

 THEORY OF JUSTICE AIMS TO
1 Provide a moral theory alternative
1971
PUBLISHED BOOK to Utilitarianism
THEORY OF JUSTICE

2 Addresses the problem of distributive

justice

Develop standards or principles of

3
social justice that could apply to real
societies
 JUSTICE FAIRNESS
Justice means giving each person what he Fainess is the freedom from prejudice
or she deserves or , in more traditional and quality of. treating people equally
terms, giving each person his or her due.

 
When something is just, it is, It is usually dictated by our
by definition, fair. moral systems.


Focuses mostly on the
standards and rules of Law in
our current Justice Systems.
 Example

Robin hood steals money from the rich

to give to the poor
 Example

A police inspector has claimed trial at the

Sessions Court for raping and molesting two
Mongolian women at a hotel.

HAZRUL HIZHAM GHAZALI

 DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

Distributive Justice concerns what measurement should be

used to allocate society’s resources

Distributive Justice is absent when equal work does not produce equal
outcomes or when an individual or a group acquires a disproportionate
amount of goods.
 REFERENCES

https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/thorne15/files/2015/03/Rawls-JUSTICE-AS-
FAIRNESS.pdf

https://www.yahoo.com/news/police-inspector-claims-trial-raping-
042522636.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNv
bS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJy7gH_rVWSLz8Oyo4SUs_knBdNAhYy8gj7aJyjMuMSt
8wX3z4tkYpHUXTxGIsihyIq98zt0_wwGOtVu1wEVol4nZfLOFsujuuYoKIS0DpLUwER
Wd_lyQEURB7tIfnZckinW3dMOyLF_Q-I6wDHxXAxrbxym7t1qbDonMkFFjXAM
Distributive Justice
Kind of Justice
JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS
Distributive Justice
Refers to extent to which society’s institutions
ensure that benefits and burdens are distributed
among society’s members in ways that are fair and
just. When the institutions of a society distribute
benefits or burdens in unjust ways, there is a strong
presumption that those institutions should be
changed.
Distributive Justice
For example, in time of pandemic, a handful of
ordinary citizens were arrested for violating the
Bayanihan Law while a lot of government allies who
are public officers were not charged though they
committed clear violations of the said law. Or
another is that a number of disqualified
beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program
(SAP) receive such benefits because of ther close
ties with the barangay officials.
Principles of Justice
Principles of distributive justice are best thought of as providing moral
guidance for the political processes and structures that affect the
distribution of benefits and burdens in societies.

Egalitarianism

Socialist

Capitalist
Egalitarianism
It is also known as radical equality. It
says that every person should have the
same level of material goods including
burdens) and services. The principle is
most commonly justified on the grounds
that people are morally equal and that
equality in material goods and services
is the best way to give effect to this
moral ideal.
Egalitarianism
For example, If Juan is given a pack of
relief goods during the time of pandemic,
then Pedro should also be given, though
he is a little richer han Juan. As citizens,
both are entitled to the benefits the
government gives since both are also
burdened by the taxes they pay. In fact,
Pedro may be paying a higher amount of
taxes than Juan.
Socialism
It is a system in which every person in the
community has an equal share of the
various elements of production. Such a
form of ownership is granted through
democratic system of governance. It can
be demonstrated through cooperative
system in which each member of the
society owns a share of communal
resources.
Socialism
Socialists, actually, have deployed the
ideals and principles of equality,
democracy, individual freedom, self-
realization, and community or solidarity.
Regarding equality, they have proposed
strong version of the principle of equality
of opportunity according to which
everyone should have broadly equal
access to the necessary material and
social means to live flourishing lives.
Socialism
Socialists also embrace the ideal of
democracy, requiring that people have
broadly equal access to the necessary
means to participate meaningfully in
decisions affecting their lives and the
community as a whole.
 Socialism
Third, socialists are committed to the
importance of individual freedom. This
commitment includes versions of the
standard ideas of negative liberty and non-
domination which requires security from
inappropriate interference by others.
 Socialism
Finally and relatedly, socialists often
affirm an idea of community or solidarity,
according to which people should
organize their economic life so that they
treat the freedom and well being of others
as intrinsically positive duties to support
other people.
 Capitalist
Another principle of Capitalism. In the classical
Marxist definition, capitalism involves certain
relations of production. These comprise
certain forms of control over the productive
forces – the labor power that workers deploy
in production and the means of production
such as natural resources, tools and spaces
they employ to yield goods and services – and
certain social patterns of economic interaction
that typically correlate with that control.
 Capitalist
Here, the bulk of the means of production is
privately owned and controlled by the
capitalists and the workers. Finally, there is a
class division or a class struggle, it can be
gleaned that there is an unequal distribution of
justice in a capitalist society. By this, class
struggle, it can be gleaned that there is an
unequal distributution of justice in a capitalist
society.
 Capitalist
The capitalist get richer and richer and the
workers just receive a small portion of the
profits as their wage and salary and other
benefits. For instance, various companies profit
billions of pesos each year. Their workers only
receive a small fraction of money of overall
profits.