MODULE 11

FEELINGS AND
REASON
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Learning Objectives:
At the end of the topic, students are expected to:

Appraise and analyze their feelings in personal

experiences
Compare reasonable and emotional responses.
Compare and contrast Ethical Subjectivism and
Emotivism
Apply the principles of Ethical Subjectivism and
Emotivism

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Feeling and Moral
Decision-Making

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 According to Ells (2014), emotion is a
response to stimuli based on past
experiences which is made instinctively.

Reason is a form of personal

justification which changes from person to
person based on their own ethical and
moral code, as well as prior experience.
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• Researchers (and some philosophers)
now see emotion and reason as tightly
intertwined. Emotion and reason are
jointly at work when we judge the
conduct of others or make choices
ourselves.
• Some hold that reason and emotion are
not really opposite.
• Reason when removed from emotion,
allows a person to make conscious
decisions based on fact, with no
references to personal involvement.
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Feeling-based Theories
in Ethics
 Ethical Subjectivism
 Emotivism

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 Ethical Subjectivism
This theory basically utter runs
contrary to the principle that there is
objectivity in morality. Fundamentally a
meta-ethically theory, it is not about what
things are good and what are things are
bad. It does not tell how we should live or
what moral norms we should practice.
Instead, it is a theory about the nature or
moral judgments (De Guzman et al. 2017).

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Simple Subjectivism

The view (largely as

described above) that
ethical statements
reflect sentiments,
personal preferences
and feelings rather than
objective facts.
 Individualist
Subjectivism

The view (originally put

forward by Protagoras) that
there are as many distinct
scales of good and evil as
there are individuals in the
world. It is effectively a form
of Egoism, which maintains
that every human being
ought to pursue what is in
his or her self-interest
exclusively.
 Moral Relativism (or
Ethical Relativism)

The view that for a

thing to be morally right is
for it to be approved of
by society, leading to the
conclusion that different
things are right for people
in different societies and
different periods in
history.
Ideal Observer Theory

The view that what

is right is determined by
the attitudes that a
hypothetical ideal
observer (a being who
is perfectly rational,
imaginative and
informed) would have.
Thanks!
Any questions?

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