ETHICS

DR. LIONEL E. BUENAFLOR

Head-Social and Behavioural Sciences Department
Head-Batangas Heritage Center
University of Batangas
 Moral Courage

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage (Manny Dy)
Individual reflection on a most recent moral dilemma:
• How did I decide and what did I actually do?
• Did I actually execute what I plan to do?
Sharing a recent moral dilemma of Maria, who was
discovered by my teaching assistant to have plagiarized a
part of her paper.
DILEMMA: after giving him an F for her paper, should I
file a case in the Committee on Discipline which would
mean suspension or dismissal?

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
My decision: I asked her to write a letter to me to be
given to me personally the following day explaining why
I should not report her to the Committee on Discipline.
She did write a handwritten letter (2 pages yellow pad
paper) the gist of which is begging me to give her
another chance for the sake of her parents.
But what touched me in the letter is her mention of
what she was taught in grade school: when you do
something wrong, it is not enough to say I’m sorry, I will
not do it again,” but also to ask for recompense.

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage

Two insights from my experience:

1. Moral imagination: my asking him to write that
letter.
2. Moral Courage: my not reporting him to the
Committee after reading the letter.

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

MARK JOHNSON:
“An ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for
acting within a given situation and to envision the potential
help and harm that are likely to result from a given action.”

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

CHARLES LATMORE:
“Our ability to elaborate and appraise different courses of action
which are only partially determined by the given content of moral
rules, in order to learn what in a particular situatin is the morally
best thing to do. . .Moral imagination belongs to. . .the exercise of
moral judgment” (Werharne, p. 92).

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

Moral imagination, then, is the ability in

particular circumstances to discover and
evaluate possibilities not merely determined
by that circumstance, or limited by its
operative mental models, or merely framed by
a set of rules or rule-governed concerns”
(Werharne, p. 95).

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

• Moral imagination is a necessary but not a sufficient

condition for moral decision-making.
• Moral reasoning is still needed.
• To be truly imaginative, we must disengage, and yet we will
still be operating within a scheme.

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

• Moral imagination involves developing less partial and self-critical

perspectives. But this is obviously a dynamic, two-way relationship,
for being self-critical and at the same time cognizant of one’s schema
requires lots of imagination on one particular situation.
• On the other hand, this process is not just imaginative. To be
morally imaginative, one needs to appeal to good reasons as the
basis for evaluation and moral judgments, good reasons supplied by
the ideal of an impartial spectator, social moral rules, expectations of
common morality, and moral standards (Werhane, p. 117).

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

• Are we then tied to a relativistic notion of spheres of social

goods? (Michael Walser, Spheres of Justice).
• Because different societies or different groups within a
society could have quite disparate social goods, one can
define ‘basic goods, or the human good “only contextually.”’

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
MORAL IMAGINATION

“Moral Minimums” (Michael Walzer, Through thick and thin)

• The mutual agreements on what is unjust
• Negative standards, the “bottom lines”
• Still subject to change according to different historical
periods, yet appeal to impartial standards, still within limits
of human understanding and imagination.

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage

Socrates and Plato:

• virtue is knowledge and teachable, then “no one does evil
knowingly and willingly.
• When a man chooses that which de facto evil is, he chooses
it sub specie boni, what he imagines as good.

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
Aristotle:
• Knowledge is not enough for I may know something good
and yet not do it, or I may know something bad and still do it
(Inner struggle between reason and will.)
• There are three kinds of Act:
• Voluntary=knowledge and approval
• involuntary-=knowledge and lack of approval
• Non-voluntary=no knowledge and no approval
• Only voluntary act can be held accountable

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage

So what then is moral courage? It is

the will to do what one knows is the
good or the will to avoid what one
knows to be bad

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
Courage as Virtue
• Aristotle held that courage is a virtue
• Original meaning of the word virtue: virtus meaning
manliness.
• This is synonymous with courage because in ancient barbaric
times, it is the man who protects the village from the enemy.
• Later, when killing was no longer an everyday act, courage
came to mean internal fortitude of both man and woman
(Imamichi).

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
Courage as Virtue
• Inner fortitude is needed “when we should create a
situation that will be unpleasant for us. It takes
courage to apologize.
• If a friend is grieving, it takes courage to ask her
directly how she is doing.
• It takes courage to volunteer to do something nice
that you do not really want to do (Raches, p. 177).

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Moral Courage
Courage as Virtue
• Courage, a mean between two extreme: cowardice (lack)
and foolhardiness (excess).
• Courage for the 19 hijackers who murdered almost 3000
people on September 11, 2001?
• Courage in an unworthy cause is not a virtue (Peter
Geach). So we should add “moral” to courage.
• We need courage, because no one (not even the scholar)
is free from danger (Rachels, p. 184).
• BUT WE NEED COURAGE (INNER) EVEN MORE TO BE
MORAL!!

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor

 Classroom Discussion:

Why do we have to have courage in

making decisions?

Dr. Lionel E. Buenaflor