OPENING PRAYER

Heavenly Father,
You hold each of us in your loving hands.
Come fill our hearts, minds and bodies afresh with hope.
Help us to cast our worries upon you, so that we can embrace our learning today.
Bless us as we study and grow together.
Come and anoint those who teach and tutor us to be bringers of insight and
knowledge.
Lord, watch over us all, keep us safe within your Almighty hand. Amen.
Glory be. . .
Read more: https://www.prayerscapes.com/prayers/children/prayer_before_class_starts.html#ixzz5nyy92wYF
MORAL/ ETHICAL
THEORIES
ARE THERE UNIVERSAL MORAL PRINCIPLES?

REFERENCE: SCHICK, THEODORE JR AND LEWIS VAUGHN.

DOING PHILOSOPHY. MCGRAW HILL. 1998.
Moral values offer a guide to lead a noble life rather than
one that is self-serving and full of selfish motives and
interactions.
Source: Importance of Moral Values. reference.com
 WHAT ARE MORAL VALUES?

Moral values guide a person's moral compass by giving them a sense of right and
wrong.

Much of an individuals' life is driven by moral values and the ability to make choices
based on what they know to be right or wrong.

This is one of the main aspects of the importance of values.

Morals are often instilled in a person as a child, when he or she is taught what is and
isn't acceptable behavior.

This can include learning to be respectful of others or how to act in certain situations.
The Importance of Moral Values

• Moral values offer a guide to lead a noble life

• offer motivation and a sense of satisfaction in life.
• success require good moral values or are more easily navigated with
good morals.
• help people to feel as though they are leading meaningful lives,
• make their interactions with others more meaningful and enjoyable,
• and can lead to success in personal and professional lives.
• good relationships, strong marriages, professional success, motivation
to do better, being a respectful and well-liked
DEFINING SOME TERMS

Absolute - opposite of relative; means regardless of circumstances; true

to all people in all circumstances
Relative - opposite of absolute; varying with circumstances
Objective - opposite of subjective; independent of people and one’s own
opinion.
Subjective - opposite of objective; means a matter of one’s own opinion.
1. SUBJECTIVE ABSOLUTISM

The doctrine that what makes an action

right is that it is approved by someone.
SUBJECTIVE ABSOLUTISM – (SOME)
CRITICISMS

• It leads to logical contradiction.

An analogy: A square cannot be round at the same time. An
action cannot be right and wrong at the same time.
• One cannot make a statement true by simply believing it to be
true just like you cannot make the earth flat by believing it to be
so.
2. SUBJECTIVE RELATIVISM

The doctrine that what makes an action right

for someone is it is approved by that person.
SUBJECTIVE RELATIVISM: (SOME) CRITICISMS

• It implies every individual as infallible.

• It is inconsistent with the experience of moral
life. There can be no moral disagreement.
3. EMOTIVISM

The doctrine that moral utterances are

expressions of emotion.
 EMOTIVISM: (SOME) CRITICISMS

• It implies nothing is good or bad because “good and “bad”

are simply expressions of emotions. Thus, for the adherents
of this doctrine do not see the torture of innocent children for
example as neither be good nor bad.
• It provides no means for resolving moral dilemmas.
4. CULTURAL RELATIVISM

The doctrine that what makes an action right

is that it is approved by that person’s culture.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM : CRITICISMS

• It implies culture is infallible.

• It suggests that all moral disagreements are about what the
society approves.
• It does not help us solve moral dilemmas.
• To embrace cultural relativism is to reject the notion of universal
human rights.
5. THE DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

The doctrine that what makes an action right

is that God commands it to be done.
ARE THERE UNIVERSAL MORAL
PRINCIPLES?
 1. ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

He argued that Man must have a specific or proper function, which is

uncommon to anything else, and which is an activity of the soul.

The best activity of the soul is eudaimonia (happiness or joy or the good life),
which can be achieved by living a balanced life and avoiding excess by
pursuing a golden mean in everything between the two vices of excess and
deficiency. https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_aristotle.html
2. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

For moral order to exist, there must be an objective moral law easily
perceived, common to all men and obliging to all equally.
Otherwise, everything would be subject to men’s fantasies or to the rulers’
whims, leading to social chaos and tyranny. 
Without an objective moral law, social order is impossible.
Therefore, an objective moral law must exist to guide human behavior, and
prevent that individual freedom and the good of society be endangered. 
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

The universe in governed by laws for the common good. There are four
kinds of laws which overalap.
Eternal Law – the reason and will of God in the universe. (Man cannot
fully know everything of God’s eternal law.)
Natural Law - laws knowable by man through reason. These are man’s

participation in the eternal law.

Human law - these are laws coming from the natural laws.
Divine laws – these are laws found in both the OT and NT.
UNIVERSALITY OF THE NATURAL LAW

Being rooted in human nature, natural law

is universal and immutable because it applies to the entire
human race equally.
It commands and forbids consistently, everywhere and always.
All men who have the use of reason recognize natural law.
NATURAL LAW AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. Natural Law is the moral law based on the fundamental nature

or inclination of human persons.
2. The ten commandments in the Old Testament can be deduced
from the Natural Law.
3. The ten commandments are expressions of the Natural Law to
preserve the goods and rights of man.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE NATURAL
LAW AND JESUS LAW OF LOVE
1. Jesus reduced the 10 commandments to two greatest commandments.
Emphasizing love of God and love of neighbor.
2. Jesus law of love is based on the 10 commandments which are basically
expressions of the natural law.
3. Jesus law of love is based on the very nature and inclinations of man. If
truly and properly followed the law of love will enable man to achieve
his fullest potentials as a human being. Thus, to love is to be human
and to be human be moral.