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.