Part I: The Moral Agent

Part I: The Moral Agent

Course Learning Outcomes:
a) Explain the influence of Filipino culture on the way the
students look at moral experiences and solve moral
dilemmas; and,
b) Describe the elements of moral development and moral
experience.

Guide Questions:
This lesson addresses the following questions:
1. How does culture shape moral behavior?
2. Why should culture not be the ultimate determinant of values?
3. Are there Asian and a Filipino understanding of moral behaviors?
4. How is moral character developed? What are the circular relation
of acts that build character and acts that emanate from character.
5. Moral Development: a) What are the stages of moral
development?; b) how do we get to the highest level, conscience
based moral decisions?

CONTENTS:
A. Culture and Moral behavior
1. Culture and its role in moral behavior
2. The Role of Moral Behavior in Creating a Culture

B. Moral Agents: Developing Virtues as a habit

1. Development of Moral Character
2. Moral Development:
Stages and Conscience-based Moral Decision

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 Part I: The Moral Agent
A. Culture and Moral Behavior
It is expected that the learners do the following:
 Discuss what culture means
 Derive aspects of personal behavior from culture
 Assess the role of culture in moral behavior

1. Culture and Its Role in Moral Behavior

What is the role of culture in shaping moral behavior?

For centuries, culture has been

defined in so many ways. But Culture is that complex whole
anthropologists, scientists, thinkers which includes knowledge, belief,
and experts could not create and agree art, morals, law, custom, and any
on one universal definition of culture. other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of
Studies and discussions about it are
society,”
impressively mushrooming and [Tylor, E. (Spencer- Oatey, 2012)]
increasingly becoming controversial
everywhere. Thus, it would be safer to
first typify culture into two: material and formal.

Formal Culture points to all the abstract,

non-physical, spiritual, mental, immaterial, Arranged Child
invisible elements such as knowledge, philosophy, Marriage is a
beliefs, ideas, morals, laws, customs, values, cultural practice by
emotions, assumptions, systems, orientations. some of the tribes in
Whereas Material Culture refers to all the physical, the Cordilleras in
corporeal, solid, spatial, sensible, temporal, actual, which some parents
agree on having
observable (visible and audible) and tangible their children to get
objects such as the artifacts, actions or behaviors, marry when they
arts, buildings, technology, music, “popular” reach young
(television, movies, mass media, social media, fads, adulthood. ”
digital gadgets), costumes, architectures, food, [Tylor, E. (Spencer-
utensils, designs, dances, smell, means of Oatey, 2012)]
transportation, tools and inventions. As a vehicle
or expression, Material Culture is shaped by Formal Culture in the same way

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 Part I: The Moral Agent
as the Material Culture (e.g. popular culture) may also shape Formal Culture
(e.g. new radical religious sects).

The two types are interrelated co-principles. Their being intertwined

makes an overlap that makes it difficult to create a universal meaning of
culture. This is manifested in Oatey’s (2012) distinction of the three
fundamental levels at which culture manifests itself: (a) observable artifacts,
(b) values, and (c) basic underlying assumptions. They could also be
categorized as the individual culture, organizational culture and structural
culture. Following the Western or deductive process since culture is a foreign
concept, the three levels of culture are discussed from the structural to the
individual.

The first level (INDIVIDUAL), the analysis of Kinds of Culture

the Eskimo’s moral behavior (under Material Culture)
– “lending his wife to a guest for a night” is visible and Individual Culture
easily described as distasteful but hard to decipher or (i.e. Rodrigo,
interpret especially the underlying good or right Baustista, Donald,
reasons why it is done and being preserved. student, driver, farmer)
Organizational
Culture (i.e., company,
Following Oatey’s (2012), to analyze this instituion, association
Eskimo’s moral behavior it is important to study the agency, corporation,
values (under both Material and Formal Culture) that group, firm, assembly)
govern such behavior. But the espoused value such as Structural (i.e.,
network of institutions,
hospitality (Rachels, 2003) of “lending a wife to a information systems,
guest for a night” is hard to observe directly. So when global network, United
the Eskimos say that such moral behavior is part of Nations)
their hospitality it is interesting to analyze why
hospitality is the reason for such behavior, what they
ideally would like hospitality to be, and what are often their rationalizations
for “lending of wife to a guest for a night.” Or could it be that the value of
hospitality is just the biased understanding of non-Eskimo observers. The
value of hospitality is becoming the acceptable value to some Eskimos and
outsiders. Nevertheless, the underlying espoused value of hospitality for the
“lending of wife to a guest for a night” remains unknown.

“To really understand a culture and to ascertain more completely the

group’s values and overt behavior, it is imperative to enquire into the
underlying assumptions, which are typically unconscious but which actually
determine how group members perceive, think and feel” (Oetey, 2012).
Assumptions (under Formal Culture) are the philosophies and beliefs about
what things really are or their conceptions of what is good and
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 Part I: The Moral Agent
right (morality). They are learned and transformed values that lead to moral
behaviors. To explain such moral behavior then is to consider their
assumptions on marriage, sex and life as a whole. To Rachels (2003), this
could be traced from their assumptions: that men could mary more than one
wife, that men can have sex regularly with other men’s wives, and that they
have less regard to human life. But, as a value of hospitality leads to the
behavior of “lending of wife to a guest for a night,” and as the “lending of wife
to a guest for a night” begins to answer disagreements or condemnations, the
value of hospitality gradually is transformed into an underlying assumption
and the three original assumptions are increasingly taken for granted. The
taken-for-granted assumptions are so powerful because they are less or non-
debatable. There is a possibility to just be silent about it because it can cause
disorder and more troubles among them. Besides, they are more concerned
with other challenges of life. According to Oatey’s (2012): “they can be
brought back to awareness only through a kind of focused inquiry.”

2. The Role of Moral Behavior in Creating a Culture

It is not hidden to the consciousness of everyone that as culture shapes
moral behaviors, moral behaviors simultaneously create culture. Culture and
moral behaviors are inseparable of which a culture could be found in moral
behavior just as the moral behaviors happen in or even create and enhance a
culture. This follows the Eastern or inductive process whereby the individual
leads to the structural. This is best expressed by the author below:

“All that I am, all that I have, all that I do… are “Culture in its
all products of my culture. I am and live in a broadest sense is
culture, which eventually becomes me, my cultivated behavior;
that is the totality of a
very person. I cannot escape from my culture.
person's learned,
It determines my every personal behavior, accumulated
which simultaneously reveal the kind of my experience, knowledge,
culture. beliefs, values,
attitudes, meanings,
Using the same example of the Bontoc Igorots, hierarchies, systems,
religion, notions of
the process could be inverted in such a way that their time, roles, spatial
artifact “o′-lâg” or the physical separation of the young relations, concepts of
marriageable women to live in the “o′-lâg” is what the universe, and
shapes their value of high respect for women and their material objects and
beliefs that monogamous marriage is a blessing of possessions which is
socially transmitted.”

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 Part I: The Moral Agent
God in order to raise many children and that a married woman should always
be true to her husband.

Further, the claim of the respondents in a 2014 documentary film

that the invading western foreigners who brought with them their creations
or artifacts (symbols) such as their modern clothes, betamax (films) and
others raised their level of awareness (just like in the case of Adam and Eve
after eating the forbidden apple). The Bontoc women started to develop the
values of honor and dignity through the feeling of Symbols
embarrassment. Their involuntarily adaptation of the
foreign values simultaneously made them hate or put “Every culture is filled
malice on their own values. Then, their normal with symbols, or things
practices of being visited by men to have sex in the “o′- that stand for
something else and that
lâg” became a taboo such that they were most likely often evoke various
shaping also their own culture and assumptions that reactions and
marriage is essentially a sexual relationship and emotions. Some
separation is the answer to its problems, and that a symbols are actually
married woman is free to be true or not to a husband types of non-verbal
communication, while
depending on what works for her (similar to that of
other symbols are in
the foreigners). Such assumptions are hard to know or fact material objects.”
even to justify and to impose on them because they are
invisible and taken for granted. There could also be (Retrieved from
other assumptions that need further research. https://doi.org/10.24926/
8668.2401)

Some observers of the film attribute the growing “culture of rape” or

dramatic increase of rape cases in a certain place with the fast growing
foreign influences that spouse problematic values and beliefs. Alarmed by
this developments, many moral behaviors have been initiated by a top
government official encouraging barangay officials not to amicably settle
cases of sexual abuse, and barangay councils to reassess their development
plans for the protection of children (Baybay, 2011).The political moral
behavior only expresses that such culture of immoral amicable settlement
should not determine their values. It is his people’s moral behaviors that
should form a “culture of strong respect for children and women .”

Guide Questions:

A. How is moral character developed? The circular relation of acts that build
character and acts that emanate from character
B Moral Development: 1) stages of moral development; b) how do we get to the
highest level, conscience based moral decisions?
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 Part I: The Moral Agent
1. Development of Moral Character
According to Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Moral
Development, there are three (3) levels of moral character development
namely;

Level 1: Pre-conventional level of moral development

(Punishment and Obedience – egoism or satisfying one’s desire). In this
period, the child responds to the prevailing cultural values of right or wrong,
good and evil. The child has no actual understanding of the values themselves
and accepts the authority of others. The physical consequences of the actions
determine the rightness or wrongness, regardless of the attribution of values.
Response is based on two concerns, “Will I be harmed (punishment) and will
I be be helped (reward)?

Level 2: Conventional level of moral development (Pleasing

others and Respecting rules). The child conforms to societal expectations of
family, group, or nation in order to win the authority figures. Conventional
morality is characterized by group conformity and allegiance to authority.
The individual acts in order to meet the expectations of others and to please
those in charge.

Level 3: Post-conventional level of moral development (Social

contract and Personal conscience). The focus of this level is the development
of social contract and autonomous decisions apart from outside authorities.
Post-conventional morality is the most advanced level of moral development
where the individual is concerned with right or wrong conduct over and above
self-interest, apart from the views of others, and without regard of authority
figures. Ethical judgment are based on self-defined moral principles.

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 Part I: The Moral Agent

*Six Stages of Moral Development

By: Lawrence Kohlberg

LEVEL 1 Moral Reasoning of

each Stage
Stage 1: Stage of Punishment and Obedience. “I won’t hit him because
Rules are obeyed in order to avoid punishment. he will hit me back.”
Stage 2: Stage of Individual Instrumental “I will help him because
Purpose and Exchange. Conformity to rules is he may help me in
viewed to be in one’s own interest because it provides return.”
reward. Fear of punishment is a major motivator at this
level “I work extra because I
want to be given bonus
points.”
LEVEL 2
Stage 3: Stage of Mutual Interpersonal “I will go along with you
Expectations, Relationships, and Conformity. because I want you to like
The concern is about the reactions of others as bases for me.”
decisions and behaviors. The primary motive is to be
good for others in order to maintain good relations. “I will treat you for lunch
so that we will be
friends.”
Stage 4: Stage of Social System and Conscience “I will comply to the order
Maintenance. The person conforms to laws and to because it is wrong to
those in authority because of duty. Both out of respect disobey.”
for them and in order to avoid censure. For persons in
this level, fulfilling role in society and living up to
expectations of others are important, and guilt is more
of a motivator than fear of punishment noted in Level 1.

LEVEL 3
Stage 5: Stage of Prior Right and Social “Although I disagree with
Contract or Utility. The relativity of some social his views, I will uphold
values is recognized, and moral decisions derive from his right to have them.”
principles that support individual rights and transcend
particular societal rules such as equity, liberty, and
justice.
Stage 6: Stage of Universal Ethical Principles. “There is no external
Internalized rules and conscience reflecting abstract force coming from
principles of human dignity, mutual respect and trust conflicting social norms
guide decisions and behaviors. Persons in this level that can compel me to do
make judgment based on impartial universal moral an act that is considered
principles, even when these conflict with societal morally good.”
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 Part I: The Moral Agent
standards.

SIX STAGES OF MORAL REASONING AND DEVELOPMENT

(By LAWRENCE KOHLBERG)

Six Stages of Moral Development

1. Punishment and obedience: Rules are obeyed in order to avoid punishment.

2. Individual instrumental purpose and exchange: Conformity to rules provides

rewards; and, the fear of punishment is a motivator.

3. Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships and conformity:

Concerns about the reactions of others are bases of behaviour and decisions and being good
in order to maintain relations, is important.

4. Social system and conscience mentainance: Conform to laws because of duty and
out of respect for others and guilt of not doing the good is the motivation rather than fear of
punishment.

5. Prior right of social contract or utility: Recognize plurality and relativity of

cultural values and transcend particular societal rules and support equity, liberty, and justice.

6. Universalize ethical principles: Internalize rules and conscience reflecting abstract

principles of human dignity, mutual respect and trust that guide decisions and behaviors.
Judgment is based on impartial universal moral principles even when people have conflicts
of standards.

*A separate sheet for the stages is aavailable in another sheet

References

Books:

Gualdo, R.S., Placido, D and Dagwasi, C. (2012). Ethics: Basic Concepts and
Contemporary Moral Issues. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House,
Inc.

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 Part I: The Moral Agent
Gula, Richard (1989). Reason informed by faith. New York: Paulist Press.
Huffman, Karen and Piggrem, Gary (2003). Psychology in action. “Case of
cancer – wife of Heinz: Analysis for Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development.” USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Kohlberg, Lawrence. Essays on moral development. Vol. 1. The hilosophy of
Moral Development.
Pasco, M.O.D, Suarez, V.F and Rodriguez, A.M.G. (2018). Ethics. Quezon
City: C & E Publishing, Inc.
Rachels, J. (2013). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. New York: McGraw
Hill.
Wostyn, L., et al. (2004). Living like Jesus: Workbook for college students.
Manila: Claretian Publication

Electronic Sources:

Baybay, A. (2011). Rape cases prevalent: ‘Shameful crimes’ against children

up in Mt Province. NORTHERN PHILIPPINE TIMES. Retrieved from
http://northphiltimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/rape-cases-prevalent-
shameful-crimes.html
De Paromita. Considering the Influence of Culture on Morality. Retreived
from http://thegoodproject.org/considering-the-influence-of-culture-
on-morality/
Gorospe, V. SJ. The Filipino Norm of Morality.
http://www.thefilipinomind.com/2008/01/our-filipino-norm-of-
morality-revisited.html
Jenks, A.E. Retrieved from file:///D:/ethics/The%20Bontoc%20Igorot.html
McLeod, K. Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/cultural-
influence-on-morals-12087678.html
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2012). What is culture? A compilation of quotations.
Retrieved from http://www.warwick.ac.uk/globalpadintercultural

Socilogy: Undrstanding and Changing the Social World.

https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401
http://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/
http://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/3-2-the-elements-of-culture/
http://ethics/The%20Bontoc%20Igorot.html

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