MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE THREE ELEMENTS OF MORAL
EXPERIENCE
CONCRETE BASIS OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
-morality is not only a cerebral affair, it is also real or concrete.
a. when one encounters a moral experience,
b. that moral experience could ensue when moral problem arises,
c. a person encounters moral problem when the problem injuncts him
morally.
IT IS AN OBLIGATION THEREFORE, that makes problem a moral experience.
That is why morality is always association with the ought
THE THREE ELEMENTS OF MORAL EXPERIENCE
a.THE AGENT: morality and human existence
 man is a being of action
 man has intellect
 man has will/volition
b.HUMAN ACTS AND THE GOOD
 THE ACT PER SE
 THE ENDS OF HUMAN ACTS
- action and motivation, the good, the greatest good, pursuit of
happiness, erroneous notions of good, the ultimate end of life.
THE SECOND ELEMENT OF MORAL EXPERIENCE: HUMAN ACTS
HUMAN ACTS are actions that proceed from deliberate free will of man.
They are actions that proper only to human beings:
AGERE SEQUITOR ESSE, a thing acts according to its nature of action
follows being.
ACTS OF MAN are not the concern of ethics. e.g. acts of
perception(sensation), somnam-bulism, spitting w/c can become human
act.
ELEMENTS: KNOWLEDGE, FREEDOM/VOLITION, VOLUNTARINESS
 KNOWLEDGE: doing an act with knowledge makes the act deliberate.
In performing the act with knowledge, the agent has awareness of the
means to employ as he performs the an act and the agent has also the
awareness of the end to achieve in his action.
 FREEDOM: an act done with freedom means that the agent does an act
under the control of his will. He is not affected, influenced by any
constraint either within himself or outside himself.
 VOLUNTARINESS: this requires the presence of the two other
elements. This is synonymous with human act. This requires
knowledge and freedom in the agent because for the agent to will, he
must have knowledge of what the act is and must have freedom to
perform or not perform the act. Thus a voluntary act is a wilful act.
CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN ACTS
 IN RELATION TO THE WILL:
a. WISH - primordial desire, good, willed.
b. INTENTION - purposive tendency of will on a thing regarded as
realizable.
c. COUNSEL - series of thoughts and judgements concerning the most
suitable means for attainment of desired goals.
d. CHOICE - right pick of the intellect.
e. COMMAND - pushes the will to act after series of deliberation.
f. CONSENT - process of picking the right choice
g. FRUITION - actual attainment of desired goal.
 HUMAN ACTS IN RELATION TO REASON
a. GOOD ACTS - those in harmony with the dictates of right reason.
b. EVIL ACTS - those in contradiction with right reason.
c. INDIFFERENT ACTS - neither good nor bad.
VOLUNTARINESS OF HUMAN ACT
1. Perfect voluntariness - the act is performed with perfect knowledge and
consent of the agent.
2. Imperfect voluntariness - there is defect in the agents knowledge
and/or intention.
3. Simple voluntariness - is present in the human act whether he likes it or
not.
4. Conditional voluntariness - present when the agen is doing with
repugnance or dislike.
5. Virtual voluntariness - was made at some former time and still
influences the act.
INDIRECT VOLUNTARINESS
PAUL GLENN points out accountability:
 the doer is able to foresee the evil result or effect;
 the doer is free to refrain from doing that which would produce the
foreseen evil;
 the doer has moral obligation not to do that which produces an evil
effect.
For results not directly intended, Alfredo Panizo cites;
1. An agent is held morally responsible for any evil effect which flows from
the action though it is not directly willed.
2. A human act from which two effects may result, is morally permissible:
 the action which produces double effects must be good .
 the good effect must not come from evil effect. To do evil in order to
achieve good is not justifiable.
 the motive of the doer must be towards the attainment of good.
 the good effect must overweight the evil results in its importance.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES
. aggravating, mitigating, exempting and justifying.
THE LAW: moral and legal, properties of human laws
 reason, obligation, charged, common good, promulgated
ARGUMENTS FOR ETHICAL RELATIVISM
1. Cultural differences argument
The actual existence of moral diversity among cultures. It is
uncontroversially true that people have different customs and ideas about
right and wrong. There is no transcultural or universal consensus on which
actions are right and wrong.
Patterns of Culture, Ruth Benedict, a US Anthropologist, claims that
careful study of cultural practices of different peoples supports the idea
that what is and is not behaviourally normal is culturally determined
Acquaintance with the wide diversity of moral beliefs across societies
may lead us to deny that there really is only one correct moral code.
(Barcalow 1998:48)
2. Argument from respect
If moral codes differ from one culture and there is no objective or
culturally dependent basis by which to judge the moral code of any
culture, then the moral code of one’s particular culture has no special
status compared with the rest.
No culture has no right to impose its own ethical views on anyone
else, least of all on people in different cultures and traditions.
The appropriate attitude to take is therefore one of respect and
tolerance for moral standpoints different from what one upholds (Gensler
1998:15)
TOLERANCE has always been considered as a virtue while taking a superior
stance is usually viewed as the height of arrogance if not plain narrowmindedness especially so in this post-modern world which have seen the
fall of many absoluteness in the course of humanity’s long history. Ethical
relativism views that people would be more accepting of moralities of
others, no matter how these may be radically different from their own.
They have to see and realize that the other side of the fence is not
necessarily wrong.
3. Psychological argument
Our values are simply the result of our having been conditioned to
behave in a certain way. All of us have acquired our moral beliefs by a
process of psychological conditioning.
Moral beliefs are neither true nor false, for there is no objective truths
in ethics.
Moral truth is relative to one’s own psychological upbringing, nothing
more, nothing less
e.g. all of us have been subjected to some sort of a psychic
manipulation by our significant others.
4. Conformity argument
As a social being by nature, it is but natural for people to easily
affiliate and conform to the accepted ethical standards of a particular
group that they belong.
It is thought that people would come to be more accepting of their
own societal norms.
Their beliefs give a good basis for a common morality within a
culture, a kind of a democratic basis where diverse ideas and principles are
pooled in, thus ensuring that the norms that a certain societies would
eventually accept have a wide a solid support.
5. Provability argument
IF THERE IS SUCH THING AS OBJECTIVE OR UNIVERSAL TRUTH IN
ETHICS, WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROVE THAT SOME MORAL OPINIONS ARE
TRUE AND OTHERS FALSE. But in fact we cannot prove which moral
opinions are true and false. Therefore there is no such thing as objective
truth in ethics.
MORAL FRAMEWORKS:REASON FOR GOODNESS
VIRTUE ETHICS OF ARISTOTLE
 NATURAL LAW ETHICS OF ST THOMAS AQUINAS
- double effect
- totality
- inviolability of life
- stewardship
- forfeiture
- dermatological procedures
- just war
- cohabitation
- rebellion/revolution –divorce/legal separation/annulment
- AI
-cloning
 UTILITARIAN ETHICS OF BENTHAM/MILL
- DDS/vigilante killing, ejk - medical marijuana
- fgm
- death penalty
- euthanasia
- surrogacy/ivf
- egg freezing
- artificial birth control
- hedonic calculus
 DUTY ETHICS OF KANT
-abortion
-same sex partnership
-sexual deviance
CONFUCIAN ETHICS
SITUATION ETHICS
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
1. LEARNED - culture is acquired through education, training and
experience.
2. SOCIALLY TRANSMITTED THROUGH LANGUAGE
3. SOCIAL PRODUCT – a product of social interaction through the mutual
interstimulation and response of people with one another
4. A SOURCE OF GRATIFICATION
5. ADAPTIVE - inventions and discoveries helped man overcome his
limitations and outdo other animals.
6. A DISTINCTIVE WAY OF LIFE OF A GROUP OF PEOPLE - men have
developed unique way of life that suits their needs and particular
situations.
7. MATERIAL AND NON-MATERIAL
8. HAS SANCTIONS AND CONTROLS - they can be formal or informal.
Rewards and punishments, prescriptions and proscriptions
9. STABLE YET DYNAMIC - it grows and accumulates with the passing of
times. It is higly stable and continuous.
10. AN ESTABLISHED PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR - there’s a mutual belief,
custom and way of doing things. Behavior of the members can be easily
predicted.
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
1. NORMS - shared rules that specified what is right or wrong. They are the
standard of propriety, morality, legality and ethics of the society.
a. FOLKWAYS - habits, customs, traditions, conventions.
b. MORES - codes of ethics, moral commandments, standards of morality.
b.1. DUTIES - ought, ethically and morally good.
b.2. TABOO-societal prohibitions.
c. LAWS
2. IDEAS,BELIEFS AND VALUES
IDEAS - man’s conception of his physical, social and cultural world.
BELIEFS - person’s perception of certain ideas,reality.
VALUES - abstract concept of what is important and worthwhile.
3. MATERIAL CULTURE
4. SYMBOL-gestures,sound,color or design that represent something other
than the self.