SS 121 – ETHICS LESSON 2

HUMAN ACTS VS. ACTS OF MAN

Ethics is primarily concerned with man’s action. It is important to know and distinguish man’s actions,
because not all actions are subject to the examination of ethics. Hence, the distinction between
human act and act of man should be drawn as used and understood in ethics.
Montemayor (1994) defines human acts as:
1. Voluntary (free) acts of man.
2. Acts done with knowledge and consent.
3. Acts which are proper to man which is acted with knowledge and freedom of the will.
4. Acts which man is conscious, under his control, and for which man is responsible of it.
5. Acts which man is the master, as man has the power and control of doing and not doing as he
pleases.
Human acts are actions done with KNOWLEDGE, FREEDOM, and VOLUNTARINESS.
• KNOWLEDGE - Has intellectual knowledge of the act.
- When the doer is conscious and aware of the reason and the consequences of one’s action –
good or bad.
• FREEDOM - When the doer acts on its own initiative and choice without being forced to do so.
• VOLUNTARINESS - An act is done voluntarily or willfully when the doer approves/consents to the
act and owning it as its own.
- It requires knowledge and freedom.

Cheating - according to our school’s regulation, cheating is an act of dishonesty, hence, it is not
tolerated and permitted in any form (KNOWLEDGE). But despite this knowledge, students remain
free, they have the FREEDOM to follow or not to follow such regulation. If the student opted to follow
the regulation, its springs from his/her VOLUNTARINESS or WILLINGNESS. And if the student opted
to cheat, it is still the same, he/she acts voluntarily.

An act is a human act when the three qualities are present.

The children below the age of reason (when the time man can distinguish right and wrong; around 8
years old), those who are clinically diagnosed as having mental illness (due to the fact that they
cannot know what is right and what is wrong), and the like, are morally exempted. It is due to their
incapacity to discern and to distinguish right from wrong that makes them inept in making moral
judgment. Hence, actions committed under this circumstance cannot be called human act.
acts of man are actions done according to our biological and physiological make up. It is instinctive,
involuntary, and not within the control of the will (Agapay, 1991). Ex. Breathing, digestion, sweating,
snoring, sneezing, and the like. As such, it is not the concern of ethics.
DETERMINANTS OF MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTION
On the basis of their relation to the norm of morality, actions are classified into moral, immoral, or
amoral.
• Moral Actions – are those actions which are in conformity with the norm of morality. They are good
actions and are permissible.
• Immoral Actions – are those actions which are not in conformity with the norm of morality. They are
bad or evil and are not permissible.
• Amoral Actions or Indifferent Actions - are those actions which stand neutral in relation to the norm
of morality. They are neither good nor bad in themselves. But certain amoral actions may become
good or bad because of the circumstances attendant to them. E.g., Playing basketball, Eating, etc.
THE MORALITY OF THE HUMAN ACTS DEPEND ON:
• the object - The first quality describing human acts is the object. It is like the basic actor of morality
or the action itself, the substance of the human act. The object chosen morally specifies the act of the
will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good.
• the motive or intention - In contrast to the object, the intention resides on the acting subject. The
motive or intention is that for the sake of which is something is done and concerned with the goal of
the activity. It is the reason behind our action. Man usually puts an act as a means to accomplish an
end and it is different from the act itself.
The end or intention of the agent can modify or change human actions in four ways:
a) An indifferent act may become morally good or evil depending on the motives.
b) An objectively good act done on an account of an evil motive becomes morally evil.
c) An objectively good act on account of good intention may receive more goodness.
d) An objectively evil act can never become good despite the good motive.
• the circumstances - The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a
moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evilness of human acts.
Circumstances play an important role in affecting the morality of our actions, because man’s act are
performed at a definite time and place, in particular manner, for certain reasons, etc., All of which in
one way or another, increase or diminish the responsibility of an action.
Who, Where, What and by what means, With whom, Why, How, When.
These three are the determining elements of morality of the particular action performed by a free
agent. Human acts are also defined by these three elements which characterize the moral order and
make our acts good, evil or indifferent.
CULTURE AND MORALITY
What is culture? “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be the water” (from a famous
anthropologist)
- Culture is a complex phenomenon. It contains nearly all aspects of shared human experience.
Emile Durkheim
- Father of sociology
- asserted that culture has the power over individuals to create beliefs such as belief in God.
- added that with more people holding the same beliefs, social order is also strengthened.
Edward Taylor
- father of cultural anthropology
- stated that in general, culture is the way of life of a group of people that “includes their
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by
man as a member of society”.
- Culture includes language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that
are passed from one generation to another.
5 BASIC ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
• symbols - can be anything that a group of people find meaningful. Ex: in religious group, the cross is
a symbol for Christianity while the crescent is for Islam.
• language - is a complex symbol system that enable human beings to communicate either verbally or
through writing.
• beliefs - are assumptions or convictions held to be true or by an individual or a group of people.
These assumption/convictions could be about events, people or things. Ex. Ancient civilizations
attributed events to spirits and gods. This is what we now call “superstitious beliefs”.
• values - are culturally acceptable standards of behavior. It is what a person considers important or
beneficial in life.
• norms - is an informal guideline by a particular group of people or social unit about what is
considered is normal or correct/incorrect social behavior. For instance, The Filipino norm in relating to
other people to other people is to get along well with others, even with complete strangers. This
Filipino trait called “pakikisama”.

HOW DOES CULTURE AFFECT HUMAN BEHAVIOR?

- Since human beings are naturally social creatures, we as people, are also:
 Naturally drawn to participate in culture.
 People want to belong.
 To be accepted by peers.
 We also need protection from danger and being part of a social group not only feeds our need to
be accepted, but it also increases the human being chance of survival.
HOW DOES CULTURE DEFINE MORAL BEHAVIOR?
- The Republic, a philosophical work written by ancient philosopher Plato, cited three critical
element that jointly influence the human person’s moral development. These elements are:
 native traits (or what we might call genetic characteristics)
 Early childhood experience
 One’s cultural surroundings

Plato implied that if a person’s cultural surroundings reward conformity to agreeable norms, it would
lead the person to behave much better and quell undesirable conduct. He also expressed that the
power of culture over an individual is more potent in children because they do not have any pre-
existing values.

HOW MORAL CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED

- First, let us take the most basic definition of the terms moral, character, and moral character.
MORAL is “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior or the goodness and
badness of the human character”. CHARACTER is defined as “the mental and moral qualities
distinct to an individual”. MORAL CHARACTER refers to the “existence (or lack of) virtues
such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honest and loyal.”

PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS ON MORAL CHARACTER

Confucian traditions - The philosophy of moral development is rooted in ancient views. For Confucian
tradition, oral development was attributed to “four beginnings” of the human personality. These four
beginnings were considered as seeds of human personality that will naturally unfold to become
human activities. The teaching of Mencius, considered as the “Second Sage” of Confucianism
stresses that people are born with the knowledge of the good. As such, people have the natural
capacity to be good. According to Mencius, people have four innate ethical dispositions which are:
 Benevolence (rén)
 righteousness (yì)
 wisdom (zhì)
 propriety (lĭ)
Each of the four virtues is associated with a characteristic emotion or motivational attitude: “The
feeling of compassion is benevolence. The feeling of disdain is righteousness. The feeling of respect
is propriety. The feeling of approval and disapproval is wisdom”.
Aristotle & Virtue Ethics - Virtue ethics is an approach that reduces the emphasis on rules,
consequence and particular acts. Instead, virtue ethics focus on the quality of the person. Although
action and consequence are significant, virtue ethics does not focus on whether an action is right or
wrong; nor on whether the consequence are good or bad. It is more concerned with whether the
person is acting as a virtuous person should act in the situation.
Virtue Ethics is largely identified with Aristotle. In ancient western philosophy, Aristotle's discussion on
moral character, particularly virtue, is the most influential view on the topic. Aristotle argued that each
person has a built-in desire to be virtuous and that if a person is focused on being a good person the
right action will follow effortlessly, and you will do good things.
Virtue for Greeks is equivalent to excellence. A person of virtue is someone who performs the
distinctive activity of being human well. The principle of being virtuous is called “DOCTRINE OF THE
GOLDEN MEAN” – that moral behavior is the one that is in the middle of two extreme behaviors (or
what he called vices). When he said, “extreme behavior”, it meant the act was either excessive or
deficient.

STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Kohlberg’s theory - Lawrence Kohlberg studied morality using a very interesting technique. His
theory holds that moral reasoning, which is the basis for ethical behavior, has identifiable
development stages and each become more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas as the
person progresses from one stage to the next. Kohlberg asserted that the process of moral
development was principally concerned with justice, and that the process goes on throughout the
individual’s lifetime.
Level I: Pre-conventional morality
Stage I: Punishment-Obedience Orientation
Stage II: Reward Orientation
Level II: Conventional Morality
Stage III: Good Boy/Good Girl Orientation
Stage IV: Authority Orientation
Level III: Post Conventional
Stage V: Social Contract Orientation
Stage VI: Ethical-Principal Orientation
CULTURAL RELATIVISM - the concept of Cultural Relativism is that “Different cultures have
different moral codes.” There is no concept of universal truth in ethics. The customs of different
societies are all that exist. These customs cannot be judged as “right” or “wrong”, since it affirms the
idea that an independent, universal, ethical standards exists, which can be used to judge these
different customs.

In 1906, William Graham Summer, a great pioneering sociologist said,

“The "right" way is the way which the ancestors used, and which has been handed down. The
tradition is its own warrant. It is not held subject to verification by experience. The notion of right is in
the folkways. It is not outside of them, of independent origin, and brought to test them. In the
folkways, whatever is, is right. This is because they are traditional, and therefore contain in
themselves the authority of the ancestral ghosts. When we come to the folkways we are at the end of
our analysis.”
following central claims made by cultural relativists:
1. Different societies have different moral codes.
2. There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one societal code better than another.
3. The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is merely one among many.
4. There is no "universal truth" in ethics; that is, there are no moral truths that hold for all peoples at
all times.
5. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society; that is, if the moral code of
a society says that a certain action is right, then that action is right, at least within that society.
6. It is mere arrogance for us to try to judge the conduct of other peoples. We should adopt an
attitude of tolerance toward the practices of other cultures.

THE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES ARGUMENT

1. Different cultures have different moral codes.
2. Therefore, there is no objective "truth" in morality. Right and wrong are only matters of opinion, and
opinions vary from culture to culture.
To many people, the argument provided above is very persuasive. In a logical point of view, this
argument is not sound. The trouble is that the conclusion does not follow the premise. Even if the
premise is true, the conclusion might still be false. The premise is only concerned with what people
believe. People from different societies believe different things. The conclusion is concerned about
what really is the case. The conclusions does not follow logically from this premise. Of course, not,
we would never draw such a conclusion because we realize that, in their beliefs about the world, the
members of some societies might simply be wrong. There is no reason to think that if the world is
round everyone must know it. Similarly, there is no reason to think that if there is moral truth everyone
must know it. The fundamental mistake in the Cultural Differences Argument is that it attempts to
derive a substantive conclusion about a subject from the mere fact that people disagree about it.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF TAKING CULTURAL RELATIVISM SERIOUSLY
1. We could no longer say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to our own.
2. We could decide whether actions are right or wrong just by consulting the standards of our society.
3. The idea of moral progress is called into doubt.

UNIVERSAL VALUES
These are values which find common ground despite having different forms and enunciations in the
world’s various societies. These universal values are:
1. Care for children: If all societies fail in caring for the children, society will soon cease to exist.
2. Truth telling: It would be impossible to communicate with each other if dishonesty and falsity would
govern societies.
3. Prohibition against murder: If people were freely permitted to murder each other, on a small or
large scale, society would collapse.

THE FILIPINO WAY

Qualities of the Filipino Moral Identity - The Filipino culture is mix of both Eastern and Western
culture. The beliefs and traditions of pre-colonial. Philippines was mainly indigenous Malay heritage
(Baringer, 2006)
Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan (Psychologist, educator and former Chairperson of the Commission on
Higher Education) wrote the strengths and weaknesses of the Filipino character are rooted in factors
such as:
1. The home environment
2. The social environment
3. Culture and language
4. History
5. The educational system
6. Religion
7. The economic environment
8. The political environment
9. Mass media, and
10. Leadership and role models
STRENGTHS OF THE FILIPINO CHARACTER
1. Pakikipagkapwa-tao
2. Family orientation
3. Joy and humor
4. Flexibility, adaptable and creativity
5. Hard work and industry
6. Faith and religiosity
7. Ability to survive

WEAKNESSES OF THE FILIPINO CHARACTER

The areas that need improvement in order to grow and develop as a person. An informed Filipino will
also result in a stronger and more progressive nation, generally, these weaknesses are;
1. Extreme Personalism
2. Extreme Family-Centeredness
3. Lack of Discipline
4. Passivity and Lack of Initiatives
5. Colonial Mentality
6. Kanya-kanya Syndrome
7. Lack of Self-Analysis and Self-Reflections