CHAPTER 3: FREEDOM IN THE CONTEXT OF MORALITY INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON L3 APPROACHES TO MORAL REASONING WHAT IS MORAL REASONING? ■ ■ Moral Reasoning is a process of examining moral arguments. The result of the process reasoning or inference is an argument has to contain an analysis of what is considered as good or bad, right or wrong, correct or incorrect in moral. DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS ■ ■ derived from the Greek deon, “duty,” and logos, “science.” is an ethical theory that suggests an individual should act based on what they believe to be morally right, regardless of consequences. EXAMPLES ■ Honesty: Telling the truth no matter what, even if it may lead to unfavorable outcomes. So, it would be wrong if a husband lied and told his wife he liked her dress. EXAMPLES ■ Humility: Showing modesty and not taking credit for something you don’t deserve. It would be wrong to accept a prize when you feel someone else did better. DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS Deontological Ethics recognizes that there are moral principles that we follow which consider as universally correct and should be applicable to humanity. MORAL PRINCIPLES This fundamental moral principle is known as the Categorical Imperative or the law of morality. This is something that we are unconditionally obliged to, without regard to the consequences. Moreover, this could be described as doing something from duty or for duty’s sake alone. MORAL PRINCIPLES Without regard to feelings, emotions or inclinations. When do something that is incorrect, you do this without condition attached and without counting the effects or beneficial consequences of doing action. IMMANUEL KANT ■ ■ made an exhaustive elaboration of deontological ethics in his article entitled Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals. Made a distinction and examined technical terms underlying his ethical assumptions of a dutybased ethics. WORLD AS REALITY According to Kant, as human beings, we perceive the world as phenomena. This phenomena is our reality, the knowledge of reality that our mind is capable of interpreting and understanding. Our mind according to Kant had to impose certain structures on the content or material coming from sense of perception or experience. TWO FACULTIES OF MIND The mind is, thus, endowed with two faculties, The Faculty of Pure Reason and The Faculty of Pure Intuition of Space and Time. WHAT IS PURE REASON? ■ provides the Priori (or prior to experience) source of knowledge which contains the structure of our mind as human being providing form and order to the data or content or material coming from experience referred to by Kant. WHAT IS PURE REASON? ■ ■ ■ A priori is a term applied to knowledge considered to be true without being based on previous experience or observation. In this sense, a priori describes knowledge that requires no evidence. A priori comes from Latin and literally translates as “from the previous” or “from the one before.” EXAMPLE OF PRIORI KNOWLEDGE 'All squares are polygons.' : A person can know this fact based just on the fact that they know what a square is and what a polygon is. They don't need to actually experience any squares in order to know that this statement is true of all squares. PURE INTUITION OF SPACE & TIME (POSTERIORI) ■ ■ from Latin ā posteriōrī, which means literally, "from what is later." It describes knowledge based solely on experience or personal observation. EXAMPLE OF POSTERIORI KNOWLEDGE 'Many buildings are square.' : A person can only know this if they had seen many buildings and noticed that they were square, or if someone else informed them about the shapes of buildings. There is no way to know this statement without experience, so the knowledge of its truth would be a posteriori knowledge. The merging or working together between these two faculties, will pave the way for the emergence of practical reason. WHAT IS PRACTICAL REASON? ■ ■ is responsible for our capacity to recognize what is good through the will. Without qualification, once this will is fully functioning, this is where freedom is truly exercised because this is also when reason is working to tell us what ought to do. FROM DUTY AND ACCORDING TO DUTY ■ We also realize that this act of doing something even if we do not want to is based on duty. We are duty bound to follow them even if we are not inclined to do them because they are correct. Your recognition of duty is based on the objective principle of the practical law. FROM DUTY AND ACCORDING TO DUTY ■ In addition, Kant would claim that if you will consider doing an action based only on your inclination and feelings, this is done according to duty, and it has no moral worth. On the other hand, when you are doing an action devoid of any feelings and emotions, then you are morally worthy because you are doing it from duty. TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS ■ ■ came from the root word telos, meaning ‘end, goal or purpose’. Thus, a Teleologist believes that the end, goal or purpose of an action must be based on its consequences. EXAMPLES ■ The most common, thought extreme form of consequentialism is the use of the dictum “ The END justifies the MEANS”. EXAMPLES ■ ■ ■ ■ There are 3 patients ( A, B, and C). A needs liver, B needs kidney and C needs a heart to get healthy. 1 out of 3 people should give his organs to other 2 to save them, himself dying in the process. The act is ETHICAL as maximum people will be saved.
