Chapter 2

The Act:
Feelings as Instinctive and Trained
Response to Moral Dilemmas
 Feelings as Instinctive and Trained
Response to Moral Dilemmas
Think of about an instance in your life when you were faced with a
moral dilemma. Answer the following questions briefly.

1. How did your feelings influence your decision?

2. Do you agree to use only reason in making moral decisions, and
that feelings should be ignored? Defend your view point.
3. What is the difference between reason and will?
 Philosophical Insight on Feelings
a. David Hume and the Philosophy of the Mind
- Philosopher, historian, economist and essayist
- he argued to regulate actions using reason and that
reason has dominion over feelings or emotions
- he is best known in ethics for asserting four theses:
1. Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the
“slave of the passions.”
2. Moral distinctions are not derived from reason.
3. Moral distinctions are derived from the moral sentiments:
feelings of approval and disapproval felt by the spectators who
complete a character trait or action
4. While some virtues and vices are natural, others (including
injustice) are artificial
 - According to Hume, humans have what he called passion and he
further classified it as direct and indirect.

Direct Passion
- caused directly by the sensation of pain and pleasure
- arises from good or evil, from pain and pleasure
-examples: aversion, hope, fear, grief and joy

Indirect Passion
- caused by the sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some
other idea or impression
- examples: humility, ambition, vanity, love, hatred, envy, pity,
malice, generosity.
 - According to Hume, humans have what he called passion and he
further classified it as direct and indirect.

Direct Passion
- caused directly by the sensation of pain and pleasure
- arises from good or evil, from pain and pleasure
-examples: aversion, hope, fear, grief and joy

Indirect Passion
- caused by the sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some
other idea or impression
- examples: humility, ambition, vanity, love, hatred, envy, pity,
malice, generosity.
-Hume also acceded that there are instances wherein passion can
be unreasonable
-this could happen when we make a mistake in judgment or our
opinion is wrong
-strictly speaking, it is not passion that can be called unreasonable
in these instances because it was the judgment or the opinion that
was wrong in the first place
- Once the judgment or opinion is corrected, “passion yields to
reason without any opposition.” – Norton & Norton, 2007
-Hume also acceded that there are instances wherein passion can
be unreasonable
-this could happen when we make a mistake in judgment or our
opinion is wrong
-strictly speaking, it is not passion that can be called unreasonable
in these instances because it was the judgment or the opinion that
was wrong in the first place
- Once the judgment or opinion is corrected, “passion yields to
reason without any opposition.” – Norton & Norton, 2007
 Philosophical Insight on Feelings
b. Max Ferdinand Scheler
- German Ethical philosopher and phenomenologist
- in his philosophy, the emotion is the most important aspect
in human existence
- he asserted that emotions/feelings are inherent, objective,
and it exists even if you have not experienced it before
(a priori)
- he also claimed that feelings are independent of the mind;
that is corresponds to the Divine Plan
- according to Scheler , human feelings are not chaotic. It is
actually strict, exact and objective. It follows peculiar form of
laws that you cannot avoid and is obligated to follow
- He firmly resected the idea that feelings are in the subconscious and
asserted that is actually the “purest sphere” of human consciousness.
- Scheler presented four strata of feelings. He claimed that these strata
or levels are constant and it follows an exact order of importance. He
called these level of feelings as the “satisfaction model of emotive life.”
1. sensual feelings - involve bodily pleasure or pain.
2. vital feelings - the life functions such as health, sickness,
energy, fatigue, etc
3. psychic feelings - are about aesthetics, justice, and
knowledge (scientific)
4. spiritual feelings – deal with the Divine
- according to Sheler, of the four, it is the spiritual feelings alone that is
intentional. This means spiritual feelings are directed to a particular
object or a higher being that he attributed to as Divine.
- He believed that values of the holy are the highest of all values
because it has the ability to endure through time.
- Since it possessed the nature of intent, Scheler philosophized that
among all the four levels, spiritual feelings is the most important (Moran
and Parker, 2015)
 Difference Responses Based on
Reason and on Feelings
c. Dr. James Rachels

- He asserted that in moral reasoning, you could not rely on your

feelings no matter how powerful these feelings may be.
- Feelings can be irrational and merely a product of your prejudice,
selfishness, or cultural conditioning. the morally right thing to do is
one that is supported by rational arguments. An argument is
reasonable if:
a. the facts are correct
b. the moral principles are correctly applied
c. each individual’s well-being is treated equally
 The Role of Feelings in Decision-Making
• Reason plays a role in making moral decision. Philosophers
encourage the use of reason in making moral decisions.
• However, it should be noted too that our moral compasses are also
powerfully influenced by feelings
• David Hume claimed that at any given situation a person would act
based on emotions rather than reason.
• On several instances, reasoning in moral decision is preceded by
an initial intuition or gut-feel (Haidt, 2012)
• 20th century philosopher Alfred Jules Ayer described two elements in
moral judgment: the emotive – expressing positive feelings towards
a particular act and the prescriptive – is an instruction ir prescription
of a particular behaviour.