TOWARDS A MORAL
FRAMEWORK
Learning to be Moral
How we will learn

In our sessions we will:
Explore the moral framework
Reflect on our moral framework
Reflect upon how to teach morality to our
children.
Reflect upon the relevance of the
conversation to the program.
Reflect upon how to teach the parents.
Ethics and Morality

"[Ethics is] is the philosophical study of
morality. The word is also commonly used
interchangeably with 'morality' to mean the
subject matter of this study; and sometimes it
is used more narrowly to mean the moral
principles of a particular tradition, group, or
individual. Christian ethics and Albert
Schweitzer's ethics are examples."
-- John Deigh in Robert Audi (ed), The
Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 1995
Does good and bad exist?
How do we know that
something is good or bad?
Good Vs Evil
Things Considered “Good” Things Considered
“Bad”
Justice
Injustice
Kindness
Cruelty
Wisdom
Folly
Freedom
Slavery
Respect
Selfishness
Peace
Murder
Courage
Cowardice
Love
Hatred
Hope
Despair
Why do we consider some
things good and others bad?
Where Do Our Moral Values Come
From?
Where Do Our Moral Values Come From?


This question is the most basic and important in
the study of ethics and it has two possible
answers: that values are OBJECTIVE or
SUBJECTIVE. Do we discover these values as
a scientist would, in objective reality or do we
create these values like the rules of a game or a
work of art?
Looking at history, we can see that pre-modern
societies saw these values as objective, and as
universal, absolute and unchanging
Ethics is about three things:
1. Good—the thing desired, the ideal
2. Right—the opposite of wrong as defined by
some law
3. Ought—personal obligation, duty,
responsibility
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using a metaphor supplied by C.S. Lewis in which we are a
fleet of ships and ethics are our sailing orders. These orders
tell the ships (us) three things:
1. How to cooperate with one another and thus avoid
bumping into to each other. This is Social Ethics.
2. How to keep each ship afloat and in good condition. This
is Individual Ethics or Virtue Ethics. It asks the questions:
What is a good person? What is moral character?
3. What the ship’s mission is. This is the most important
“order” of all, for it gives us our ultimate purpose and goal in
life. If we don’t know or care where we are going, it doesn’t
make a difference what road we choose. (QUO VADIS?)
Can Virtue be Taught?
Meno asks Socrates, “Can virtue be taught, or
does it come to us in some other way? Do we
get virtue by:
1. Teaching
2. Habit and practice
3. Innately, by nature
4. By going against nature

How do we Become Virtuous?
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Most optimistic-----nature---- Rousseau
Less optimistic -----By teaching---- Plato
Even less optimistic ----By work/practice---- Aristotle’s
Pessimistic --By force/against nature --Machievelli/
Hobbes
Virtue For Aristotle

"Virtue, then, is a habit or trained faculty of choice,
the characteristic of which lies in moderation or
observance of the mean relatively to the persons
concerned, as determined by reason, i.e. as the
prudent man would determine it."
Virtue For Aristotle
Virtue is the state of experiencing the passions
and acting:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

at the right time
with reference to the right objects
towards the right people
with the right motive
in the right way
"virtue" (arete) = excellence in fulfilment of a
particular function
Virtue For Aristotle
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Strength of character (habit)
Involving both feeling and action
Seeks the mean between excess and
deficiency relative to us
Promotes human flourishing
Virtue and the Mean


General/universal rule: "Virtue then is a state
of deliberate moral purpose consisting in a
mean that is relative to ourselves, the mean
being determined by reason...."
The mean is not mathematical it is not the half
way point, but rather the appropriate for the
person.
The Virtuous Mean
Passion
Deficiency
MEAN
Excess
Fear/Confidence Cowardice
COURAGE
Rashness
Pleasure/Pain
Insensible
TEMPERANCE
Self-indulgence
Anger
Unirascible
GOOD TEMPERED
Irascible
Wealth
Meanness
LIBERALITY
Prodigality
Do we still see morality this
way?
Twelve Important Differences Between Typically
Ancient and Typically Modern Ethical Philosophies


1. For the ancients, Ethics comes first. They
saw ethics as the single most important
ingredient in a good life. For the ancients
morality is not a means to an end, it IS the end.
2. Within “ancient wisdom” is a profound respect
for tradition and authority. The ancients believed
in an obedience or conformity to authority not in
the sense of “power” but of “goodness.” They
believed that right makes might, not that might
makes right.
Twelve Important Differences Between Typically
Ancient and Typically Modern Ethical Philosophies


3. The ancients did ethics by reason and with
the mind not with feelings or emotion as is
often done in the modern world. The ancients
believed the maxim—“LIVE ACCORDING TO
REASON.”
4. Ancient ethics was more connected to
religion, while modern ethics is more
deliberately secular.
Twelve Important Differences Between Typically
Ancient and Typically Modern Ethical Philosophies


5. Because of their deeper concept of
happiness as objective perfection and not just
subjective contentment, and their deeper
concept of ethics as not just rules but virtues,
the ancients did not contrast ethics and
happiness as we often do today.
6. All ancients based their ethics on human
nature. This is one of the meanings of the term
“natural law.” Modern philosophers tend to base
their ethics either on desire and satisfaction
Twelve Important Differences Between Typically
Ancient and Typically Modern Ethical Philosophies


7. For the ancients the most important question in
ethics was not how to treat other people, or how to
have a just society, or how to improve the world, or
even how to be a good person, or what virtues to
have (all these questions were of course important)
but the most important question was the question of
the meaning of life. What was life’s ultimate purpose
or final goal or greatest good summum bonum?
8. Most of the ancients believed that politics was
social ethics. This meant that there was no radical
difference between societal and individual ethics.
Twelve Important Differences Between Typically
Ancient and Typically Modern Ethical Philosophies

9. Most of the ancients believed that human nature
had both good and evil tendencies in it. Many
moderns believe this too, but three other views.
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i. The idea of Pessimism, that man is innately bad and
it takes force to make him act well.
ii. The idea that we have no essence. Human nature is
just a word that is ever-changing and malleable.
iii. The idea of optimism, which holds that man is
innately good,
10. Moderns tend to rely on science as being more
reliable than religion.
Twelve Important Differences Between Typically
Ancient and Typically Modern Ethical Philosophies


11. In ancient philosophies, ethics was based
on metaphysics. Ethics, or your “life view,”
depended on your “world view,” or
metaphysics.
12. Most of the ancients would say that what
makes a society survive and prosper is ethics.
A modern would say it is economics.
Your ethical principals are they more
ancient or more modern?
Your ethical principals are they more
Christian or more secular?
FREEDOM
AND RESPONSIBILITY
Does God know what I am
going to do next?
Freedom
Without Freedom can we speak about
morality?
Can a computer be moral?
Within morality there are two notions of
freedom.
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Freedom of self determination
Freedom of choice
Are we fundamentally free?
Self-Determinism and Freedom
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Genetic—My genetic structure somehow determines
my moral actions.
Environmental—My upbringing determines my
moral actions.
Psychological—my psychological structure
determines my moral actions.
The case of the twins
All three have truth but the extreme formulation is
untrue.
Self-Determinism and Freedom
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The behavioral sciences show us that freedom
is limited.
Yet human experience and the ability to
transcend ourselves culturally and morally
suggests that determinism is not absolute.
We do not start from a position of equality
In the moral life we do the best we can do with
what we have been given.
Self-Determinism and Freedom
Can we be held morally responsible for what is
a given in our life?
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E.g. our genetic makeup
What is the moral response to the hand of
cards that life has dealt us?
Core Freedom
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The ability to decide to make someone of oneself.
What we do eventually becomes who we are.
This is a moral choice that is posed to us every day
in the little decisions. The choice for who we will
become.
The human is a complex multi-layered being
Basic Freedom
Basic Freedom
Fundamental option
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
The significant moments of choice in our lives that
establish or affirm more strongly than others the
character and direction of our lives.
What led us to our life options?
Fundamental option

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God has created us out of love and for love.
IF we allow God’s love to penetrate us (we
choose) an orientation towards love and life.
Luke 18:1-8
Fundamental Stance
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We cannot lay claim to having a fundamental
direction in our life until we have come to a stable
identity.
Identity and Stance arise through commitment to a
way of life that is stable enough to sustain an
indestructible quality of life and thus give personal
meaning to actions.
Actions find their meaning within the fundamental
direction of ones life
Commitment is necessary for the good life.
Fundamental option
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Choice rooted in deep knowledge of self.
Rooted in a freedom to commit oneself
This is the freedom of self-determinism to commit to
a certain way of being in the world.
Fundamental Choice
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Realizing our capacity to be ourselves through the
specific choices we make.
Choosing one option from a number of good
options—Smorgasbord
Choice here is subject to hereditary determinants,
our basic inclinations, unconscious motives, peer
pressure, ignorance, passions, fears, blind habits
and cultural norms.
Fundamental choice
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The choice in the face of all of the limitations and
blind spots, to be the person we most deeply want to
become.
This is a choice to know the person choosing.
To choose not to know, or not to orient your life
towards the good, or to choose to be, less than one
is capable of, is sin.
Sin
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In the pre-Vatican II church sin was used to
prevent moral choice
Sin and fear were used to force the faithful to
keep rules without reflection on who they were
becoming.
How do we speak about sin in a world come of
age?
Sin: Biblical perspectives
Hattab—to miss the mark or to offend.
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Pesa—Rebellion.
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This speaks of relationship that already exists.
The offence is against the relationship.
This is a legal term denoting deliberate action violating a
relationship in community.
Bamartia—Deliberate action rooted in the heart and
missing the mark.
Sin and Covenant
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Only makes sense if we believe in a God who
first loved us—covenantal love.
Unlike the Godfather God makes us an offer
that we can refuse.
Hessed—Hosea’s covenantal love.
Biblical sin is not the nasty little things that are
shameful. It is breaking covenantal love.
Covenant
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Being a child of God
Solidarity
Fidelity—to God, Others, Creation and Self
Original Sin
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It is different from personal sin
It originates before we were born
It is bigger than our individual choices.
We ultimately cannot take responsibility for all
the evil in the world.
Original Sin

Original sin is the theological code word for the
human condition of living in a world where we are
influenced by more evii than what we do ourselves.
Our whole being and environment is infected by this
condition of evil and brokenness willv—nilly.
Sin: Gradation
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Sin that excludes from the Reign of God (1 Cor6:910; Gal 5:19-21)
Sin that cannot be forgiven (Mk 3-28-30)—
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Those that are deadly (1John 5:16-17)
Mortal Sins


Tertullian--idolatry, blasphemy, murder,
adultery, fornication, false witnessing, fraud,
and lying.
Fourth Lateral council (1215) Obligation for
annual confession for those who committed
mortal sin.
Mortal sin
Criterion:
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Sufficient Reflection
Full consent of the will
and serious matter
This implies freedom.
Negative fundamental option
Moral life as a story
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Individual actions –the events that make up the story
We cannot interpret the events outside of the whole
narrative (moral life)
The plot is the fundamental orientation that we only
discover after we are already well into the story.
The plot is discovered by reading back
Self knowledge
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
To name something mortal sin we must
consider the degree of self possession and self
determination that goes into the act.
To do this for our self is difficult enough, what
about trying to achieve this for another?
Sin


Venial sin—the acts that lead to a negative
fundamental option.
Social sin—structures that blind society to its
fundamental option
What do we Catholics do when
we know that we have sinned?
Responsibility
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The ability to respond (Stephen Covey)
We are not victims.
We always have a choice to make.
Responsibility
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God is acting in all events that make up our
lives thus to respond is to respond to God.
Not to respond to God is sin.
From the biblical perspective this is what is
involved in the covenant.
Vocation
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
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a]
you, before you were born I set you apart; I
appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jer
1)
1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you
distant nations: Before I was born the LORD
called me; from my mother’s womb he has
spoken my name. (Is 49)
Vocation: Four levels of God's call
Our life vocation-priest, teacher, mother, father, doctor,
etc (external)
The way God called us from the wombp (personal/
internal)p
The call of God to us in each momentzqaAawaqaqa
The call of God to his church
p
Caritas in Veritate

16. Paul VI taught that progress, in its
origin and essence, is first and foremost a
vocation: “in the design of God, every
person is called upon to develop and fulfill
himself, for every life is a vocation .” This
is what gives legitimacy to the Church's
involvement in the whole question of
development.
39
Caritas in Veritate

Integral Human Development:
 The first is that the whole Church, in all her being and
acting — when she proclaims, when she celebrates,
when she performs works of charity — is engaged in
promoting integral human development.
 The second truth is that authentic human development
concerns the whole of the person in every single
dimension
 Moreover, such development requires a transcendent
vision of the person, it needs God: without him,
development is either denied, or entrusted exclusively to
man, who falls into the trap of thinking he can bring
about his own salvation, and ends up promoting a
dehumanized form of development (#11).
46
Four disconnects (2bcatholic)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Between the idea of social justice and the
commitment that is required to build a better
world
Between the idea of community and the
personal responsibility and commitment to
build a community which serves all people.
Between the understanding of doctrine in the
Church, and the importance of Scripture
Between prayer as the relationship one has
with God and action. (Regional seminary students)
5
Pope Paul VI-Less Human Conditions
The lack of material necessities for those
who are without the minimum essential for
life,
 The moral deficiencies of those who are
mutilated by selfishness.
 Oppressive social structures, whether due to
the abuses of ownership or to the abuses of
power, to the exploitation of workers or to
unjust transactions.

47
Pope Paul VI-More human
the passage from misery towards the
possession of necessities,
 victory over social scourges,
 the growth of knowledge, the acquisition of
culture.
 increased esteem for the dignity of others,
 the turning toward the spirit of poverty,[18]
cooperation for the common good, the will
and desire for peace.

48
Pope Paul VI-More Human
The acknowledgment by man of supreme
values, and of God their source and their
finality.
 Faith, a gift of God accepted by the good
will of man, and unity in the charity of Christ,
Who calls us all to share as sons in the life
of the living God, the Father of all men.

49
THE MORAL ACT
Living As Becoming
The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

Human Action

1.
2.
3.
Traditional morality has used a three-prong
principle to determine the morality of human
action:
The intention
The act-in-itself
The circumstances
The Intention
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The intention is the internal part, or the formal
element of the moral action.
It is also called the “end,” or that which we are
after in I doing what we do
I.e., the whole purpose of our action.
The intention gives personal meaning to the
action.
The Act-in-itself
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
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The act-in-itself, or the means-to-an-end,
This is the external part, or the material element of
the moral action.
It is so easily observed that it could be
photographed.
According to the theory of St. Thomas, the act-initself cannot be accurately evaluated as moral or
immoral apart from considering the intention of the
person acting
The Act-In-Itself
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
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St. Thomas: The material event of an act cannot be
evaluated morally without consideration of the
subject, the inner act of the will or of the end.
The Act-in-itself becomes a human act when it is
directed towards an end within the inner act of the
will.
A photograph cannot tell the morality of an act.
Different intensions constitute different human
actions.
Circumstances

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To determine the morality of an act the
circumstances must be considered.
Killing can be murder or self defense.
The circumstances are necessary to determine
whether a physical act is proportionate to the
intention.
Using a gun to defend your self against an unarmed
child, is not proportionate.
The end and the means exist in relational tension to
one another and to all the essential aspects which
make up the circumstances.
Principles for Determining Morality
The three points of reference for determining the
morality of human action,




the physical act—in—itself (the object of the act, the
means).
the intention (end),
and the circumstances (which include the consequences).
Morality of the Act
When we forget that the act-in-itself, the intention, and the
circumstances are three aspects of one composite action.
then we too easily make moral evaluations of any one part
without considering the whole.
1. This gives us either an “act—centered” morality which
forgets the person acting in a context (intention and
circumstances).
2. Or an “intentions only” morality which does not take
seriously enough the act being done.
3. Or a “situationalism” which maintains that circumstances
make all the difference.
The Moral Act
The habit of timely, principle centered action in
service of the other with preferential option for
the most vulnerable with the intention of love
(agape) as Jesus loved.

Virtue For Aristotle
Virtue is the state of experiencing the passions
and acting:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

at the right time
with reference to the right objects
towards the right people
with the right motive
in the right way
"virtue" (arete) = excellence in fulfilment of a
particular function
The Moral Act

As a Habit
The Moral Act


As a Habit
As a Guiding Principle of life
The Moral Act



As a Habit
As a Guiding Principle of life
As the Foundation of Character
Sources
• Kreeft, Peter. Ethics: A History of Moral Thought Course Guide,
• http://download.audible.com/product_related_docs/BK_RECO_00216
8.zip
• Gula, Richard M.. Reason Informed By Faith: Foundations of
Catholic Morality. New York. Paulist Press. 1989.
• Hamel. R.P. & I-limes. KR. Introduction to Christian Ethics: A
Reader. New York. Paulist Press. 1989.
Suggested reading
• Kreeft, Peter. Philosophy 101: An Introduction to Philosophy. San
Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2002.
• Kreeft, Peter. Back to Virtue: Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern
Moral Confusion. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1997.