Feelings and Moral Decision Making CONCUPISCENCE. PHENOMENOLOGY OF FEELINGS. AXIOLOGY I. Concupiscence The term concupiscence is used often to signify the frailty, or proneness to evil. They are bodily appetites or tendencies which are called passions: love, hatred; joy, grief; desire, aversion or horror; hope, despair; courage or daring, fear; and anger. refer to the emotions and feelings of man in relation to his actions. Since emotions and feelings belong to man’s sensory appetites they are in themselves irrational. This is why concupiscence is interchangeably used with passions. Concupiscence also called as feelings or emotions. I. Concupiscence The Two Division of Concupiscence or Passion Concupscible passions are broadly referred to those passion that are inclined to favor good as their objects. These are the five passions of love, desire, joy, hope and bravery. Irascable passions are broadly referred to those passions that are perceived by sensation as evil and also to those that offer hardship to the acquisition of its object. These are hatred, horror, sorrow, despair, fear and anger. I. Concupiscence The Two Kinds of Concupiscence or Passion Antecedent concupiscence are those which spring into action unstimulated by any act of the will, that is, when they rise antecedently to the will-act. They are considered as an act of man. Consequent concupiscence are those that arise when the will, directly or indirectly, stirs them up or fosters them. They are considered as human acts. Anger that occurs due to unjust treatment of another; the desire for revenge due to an act of cruelty done by another; the feeling of hatred to an enemy; all these are examples of antecedent passions. However, they can become, consequent passions when they receive the approval of the rational will. II. Phenomenology of Feelings PHENOMENOLOGY The study of conscious experience as experienced from the first person point of view. From the root word phenomenon, this philosophical movement is concerned with the study of phenomena or appearances of things as they experienced. II. Phenomenology of Feelings PHENOMENOLOGY Came from the Greek words, phainomenon- “the appearing, that which appears” and Logos-to study. It is defined as a science or study of the appearing or that which appears. As a philosophy, Phenomenology is a philosophical study of that which appears as meaningful to consciousness in living experiences by means of direct awareness. II. Phenomenology of Feelings PHENOMENOLOGY Awareness of something that “which appears” connotes three entities: 1. The object of our intention 2. The intentional act 3. The conscious self II. Phenomenology of Feelings Feeling an emotional state or reaction. a belief, especially a vague or irrational one. II. Phenomenology of Feelings I. Introduction Sharing can be of several levels: Superficial: tsismis Intellectual: sharing of ideas Gut level: sharing of feelings Feeling and thinking are distinct but intertwined we say “I think” when we really mean “I feel” and vice versa but the two are distinct e.g. we do not say “I think I’m lousy today” nor “I feel my answer to the quiz is correct.” II. Phenomenology of Feelings II. Common Attitude toward Feeling: Ambivalent As a rational beings, we tend to look down on feeling we screen out feelings because they are unstable, fleeting; we must not be overcome by our strong feelings. Yet we also hate cold detached people, people with no feelings. And when we teach, we teach with feelings, with passion, with feelings. II. Phenomenology of Feelings III. What is feeling? 1. To feel is to be involved in something” in a person, concept, myself, process, problem, another feeling. Feeling can be in the foreground or background: “I am involved in something” (background) “I am involved in something” (foreground) Most of the time, feeling is in the background unless intense. As involvement, feeling is an interiorization of the world. More immediate, spontaneous link, response to world than thinking. II. Phenomenology of Feelings 2. More immediate because feeling involves the BODY More expressed and expressible in body language (smile, frown) than in concepts. To control feeling is also to control expression of feeling. But here, we do not conceal the fact that we feel but what we feel: e.g. “crying in the inside but laughing in the outside” : genuine smile different from plastic smile. II. Phenomenology of Feelings 3. More intimate than thinking Our feelings give the main information to what we are and our relation to the world. That’s why, feelings are more difficult to hide than thinking. II. Phenomenology of Feelings 4. Object of feeling: Value E.g. Knowing that smoking causes cancer different from feeling it. E.g. Knowing that there’s a need to help the poor different from feeling it. Intensity of feelings indicate different valuations: unlike thinking, feelings are valuations of facts. But it’s not your feelings that are right or wrong but your choices, actions that spring from value-preferences. II. Phenomenology of Feelings IV. Importance of Feelings 1. 2. 3. 4. Unless I am aware of my feelings, I do not know what I’m involved in. Need to share my feelings, because feeling is connected with body, and the body relates us to others. Need to share the feelings of others, because feelings reveal intimate core of persons. Confidentiality is important when one shares his/her feelings Emotion invites action, because feeling sees values. II. Phenomenology of Feelings Max Scheler’s Phenomenology of Feelings Epoche: prejudice against feelings as chaotic, fleeting, unreliable. Emotional aspects of consciousness, like feeling, preferring, loving and hating, are a priori, immediate relations among objects called values. Feelings cannot be controlled or managed arbitrarily; they can be controlled or managed only indirectly, by controlling their causes and effects (expression, action). II. Phenomenology of Feelings Order and Stratification of Emotional Life: 1. Sensible feelings of sensation 2. Feelings of the lived body or feelings states, and feelings of life as functions. 3. Psychic feelings 4. Spiritual feelings (feelings of the personality) II. Phenomenology of Feelings Only spiritual feelings are in essence intentional, meaning directed to an object, a value. Psychic feelings feeling-states and sensible feelings may or may not directed to a value. The two reasons why people change are through the feelings of pain and love. II. Phenomenology of Feelings In any striving or willing, the following components are to be found: 1. Feeling directed towards a value. 2. Feeling state from which striving and willing issue forth. 3. Feeling which accompanies execution of willing and striving. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Axiology comes from Greek words, Axios- value and logos- study. This is the study of the origin, nature, functions, types, and interrelations of values; value theory. Values comes from Latin word “valere” which means to measure the worth of something. Values are a particular class of ideal objects of our feelings. Mind is blind to values just as eyes are blind to sounds and ears deaf to colors. Independent of subject, though related to it, and of social, historical, contingent factors of situation. These can be carriers of values. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Independent of subjective emotional states. Independent of our striving, though they form the basis of our ends or striving. Values are given to us immediately in acts of preferring, the most fundamental of which is love and hatred. Preferring, not the same thing as choosing. Object of choosing is a good, already implying a value comprehension. Love is an immediate attitude towards objects of value which encompasses always a whole complex grades of value. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Two Kinds of Values 1. Absolute Moral Values those which are ethically and socially binding to all men, at times and in all places. Characteristics: a. Objective because they are truths which are derived ultimately from the truth itself, God b. Universal for they are encompasses all persons, actions and conditions c. Eternal because they have always existed and will always exist. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Two Kinds of Values 2. Behavioral and Cultural Values are inner responses or incentive which prompt a person to a certain way. Characteristics: a. Subjective for they are personal to the individual b. Societal c. Situational because they are the concepts and standards which are applied during a given occasion or set of circumstances. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES Hierarchy of values invariable, a priori, although rules for preferring one value to another varies throughout history. Rank of values not mediated by intellect but known intuitively by logique du coeur. Two groups: positive and negative. Existence of positive value is positive value. Non-existence of positive value is negative value. Existence of negative value is negative value, non-existence of negative value is positive value. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES HOLY/UNHOLY SPIRITUAL VITAL SENSORY III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES 1. Sensory Values: the pleasant and its negative, the unpleasant. Objects of sensory feelings, and corresponding subjective states are delight and pain. We always prefer the pleasant, although carriers vary Also technical values, values of civilization and luxury values. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES 2. Vital Values: the noble and vulgar Values connected with general well-being. Corresponding feeling-states are health, sickness, aging, exhaustion, vitality, etc. Feeling-toned responses: being pleased, anger, courage, anxiety, etc. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES 3. Spiritual Values: justice/injustice; truth, of which scientific and culture values are derivative; aesthetic values of beautiful; and ugly. Feeling-states: joy, sorrow Feeling responses: delight, dislike, approval, disapproval, reverence, contempt, retaliation, sympathy. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES 4. Values of the Holy and Unholy Appear on objects given as “absolute objects”. Derivative values: sacraments, forms of worship. Feeing-states of bliss, despair Feeling-responses: belief, unbelief, awe, worship, etc. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) HIERARCHY OF VALUES Characteristics of higher values: 1. 2. Ability to endure Indivisibility 3. Generates other values 4. Gives deeper satisfaction 5. Independence of experiencing organism III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Moral Values refer to the qualities of an act, which are performed by an individual freely and knowingly. It is founded on human person, love and freedom. It serves as the ultimate guide of an individual towards goodness. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Characteristics of Moral Values: Basic values More Important that all other values Permanent Universal Absolute Objective Freely Chosen by Human Beings III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Moral Values of Good and Evil Good is the realization of higher value in place of a lower value or of a positive value in place of negative value. Evil is the realization of a lower value in place of a higher value or of a negative value in place of positive value. III. Axiology (Philosophy of Values) Moral Values of Good and Evil Moral values of good and evil are personal not only in the superficial sense of coming from the person who acts but in deeper sense of contributing to formation of our person. Since higher values of holy and spiritual pertain to person, and lower values of vital and sensory pertain to ego, moral values of good and evil form our personhood. Doing good makes us more of a person while doing evil makes us less of a person. Assignment # 1 (Finals) 1. What/who makes you smile? Why? 2. What was your most painful experience? Share.