You make moral decisions daily.

However, have you noticed that some

decisions are automatic responses and

CHAPTER 1 that you are not consciously deciding

at all?

THE ACT
For example, you help an elderly cross the road.
Without thinking, you ran to the opposite side of the
road, away from some perceived danger. Your desire
to help and your fear of danger are gut reactions
while reasoned argument is just swirling beneath
conscious awareness.
 LESSON 1:
FEELINGS AS
INSTINCTIVE AND
TRAINED RESPONSE TO
MORAL DILEMMAS
Philosophical Insights on Feelings
- Ancient to contemporary philosophers discussed the role and importance
of feelings in moral decision-making.

Hume and the Philosophy of the Mind

- David Hume (1711-1776) is a philosopher, Historian, Economist and
Essayist. Famously placed himself in opposition to most moral
philosophers, ancient and modern. Hume is best known in ethics for
asserting four theses:
1. Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the
" Slave of the Passions".
2. Moral distinction are not derived from reason
3. Moral distinction are derived from moral sentiments.
4. While some virtues and vices are natural, other (including justice)
are artificial.
According to Hume's "Theory of Mind" , humans have what he called "Passions"
( which he used to describe emotions or feelings). He further classified passion as
Direct and Indirect.

1. Direct passion
- are the caused directly by the sensation of pain or pleasure; the
passion that "arises immediately from good or evil, from pain or pleasure".
that we experience or expect to experience.

2. Indirect passion
- are caused by sensation of pain or pleasure derived from some
other idea or impression. Other indirect passions are humility, ambitions,
vanity, love, hatred, envy, pity, malice, generosity (Blattner, 2017).
 However, Hume's acceded that there are instances wherein
passion can be unreasonable. He said this could be happen when we
make a mistake in judgment as our opinion is wrong. Once the
judgment or opinion is corrected, "passion yields to reason without any
opposition",(Norton & Norton,2017).
Scheler and the Philosophy of Feelings

Max Ferdinand Scheler was an important German Ethical

philosopher distinguished for his contributions in phenomenology, ethics and
philosophical anthropology (Davis and Steinbock, 2016).

In Max Ferdinand Scheler's philosophy, the emotion is the most

important aspect in human existence (Dy, 1986). Scheler asserted that
emotions/feelings are inherent, objective, and it exists even if you have not
experienced it before (a priori). He also claimed that feelings are independent
of the mind; that it corresponds to the Divine Plan (Chuhina, 1993; Frings,
©2017; Tymieniecka, 1993).
Scheler presented four strata of feelings. He claimed that these strata or levels
are constant and it follows an exact order of importance. He called these levels
of feelings as the “stratification model of emotive life”

Four Strata of Feelings

1. Sensual Feelings
- involves bodily pleasure or pain.
2. Vital Feelings
- are the life functions such as health, sickness, energy, fatigue, etc.
3. Psychic Feelings
- are about aesthetics, justice, and knowledge (scientific).
4. Spiritual Feelings
- deal with the Divine.
Difference Between Responses Based on Reason and on Feelings
Feelings can be irrational and merely a product of your prejudice,
selfishness, or cultural conditioning. The morally right thing to do is one
that is supported by rational arguments. An argument is reasonable if:

1. The facts are correct.

2.The moral principles are correctly applied.
3.Each individual's well-being is treated
equally important.
What is the Role of Feelings in Decision-making

Feelings are also visceral (Strong Emotion) or instinctual by providing

motivations to act MORALLY. It is from the verb “to feel” and means
anything that can be experienced via touch, smell, see or any other
sensory organ. It is experienced via physical means as well as mental
states.
Emotion can be rational in being based at leas sometimes on good
judgements. It causes such reaction: the powerful emotion of a great
symphony.

JEALOUSY HURT AFFECTION

Elements of Moral Judgement

1. Emotive Element
- It means expressing positive feelings towards a particular act. E.g.
“Kindness is good” meant you feel positive about acts of kindness. When
you feel positively about an act, you do not only do the act you also feel
the act should be encourage that others may follow.

2. Prescriptive Element
- “Be kind to others”. It is an instruction or prescription of a particular
behavior.
The Non-Deliberate Nature of Feelings
➢ Deliberate means the act was intentional, planned, with conscious effort.
➢ Non-deliberate is the contrary term that denotes spontaneous actions. • It is doing
something without thinking through.
➢ Common excuse for doing grossly undesirable acts was “being overcome by
emotions” in that customary restraints failed ( “I couldn't help myself”, “I totally
blanked out”, “I felt overwhelmed”, “I don’t know, I just felt like doing it”).

The non-deliberate nature has been claimed to contradict the possibility of

moral responsibility, and the partial nature of emotions has been perceived to be
incompatible with the impartial nature of morality. Although admitting the presence
of these features, I claim that emotions are very important in morality. I argue that we
have some responsibility over our emotions and that emotions have both
instrumental and intrinsic moral value
Aaron Be’en Zeev summarized the non-deliberate nature of feelings
as follows:

➢ Responsibility entails free choice; if we are not free to behave in a certain manner,
then we are not responsible for this behavior. •

➢ Free choice entails an intellectual deliberation in which alternatives are

considered and the best one is chosen. Without such consideration, we clearly not
understand the possible alternatives and are not responsible for preferring one of
them.

➢ Since intellectual deliberation is absent from emotions, we cannot be responsible

for our emotions.
The Partial Nature of Feelings
Emotions notoriously play favorites, it operates on a principle
called “the law of concern” (Fridja, 1988) where emotions give focus only
on matters of personal interest.

However, emotions are quiet when it is of no personal concern.

Take for example a catastrophic event like an earthquake. The sorrow that
you feel for earthquake victims from other countries is nowhere near the
level of sorrow that you feel if your family were the victims.
Emotions influence our attention, it governs what attracts and holds
attention. Emotions makes us preoccupied with specific matters and we
become oblivious to everything else.

There are two aspects in the partial nature of emotions:

1. Decisions based on feelings focus only on a narrow area

2. It reflects personal and self-interest perspectives
- draws its perspective from personal interest, it addresses
subjective concerns and takes action primarily to satisfy such concern
The Capricious Nature of Feelings

The third problem with emotions is that it rises up for arbitrary

reasons. For example, you did not give money to an old beggar asking for
alms simply because she tugged at your shirt and startled you. Aspects or
situations that have nothing to do in moral situation could rile up your
emotion, and this emotion will certainly influence your subsequent moral
judgement.
How Emotions Help in Making the Right Decision?

Although several studies point out the negative effects of emotions

in making decisions, several studies suggest that emotions are the
foundation of all our cognitive and behavioral processes, and emotional
responses often guide a person in making beneficial choices without any
conscious reasoning (Arnold, 1960; Damasio, 2003).
 A study conducted by Bechara et al. (1997) provides compelling
evidence of the non-conscious biases that emotions can influence. In this
experiment, two groups of participants, one composed of healthy individuals
and the other with decision-making impairments resulting from head
injuries, were tasked with making risky choices in a gambling game. The
researchers observed that the healthy group began to choose cards that were
advantageous to them even before they consciously developed a winning
strategy. Additionally, the healthy group exhibited physiological changes in
response to potential risks, while the impaired group showed no such
reactions. This suggests that emotions can guide decision-making even
before conscious reasoning takes over.
Other studies further suggested that negative feelings make the perfect
occasion to develop emotional responses and align it with moral attitude and
goals (Gilovich and Medvec, 1995).

3 ways that feelings, especially negative feelings help in making the right
decisions:

1. It signals the need to adjust behavior. -

2. It can help us learn from our mistakes.
3. Emotional responses can be reshaped as time pass by.
Psychologists have long acknowledged that emotions serve as a "Red Flag". This Red
Flag aspect in emotions helps in making better decisions. Emotions signal that
something is happening and that it needs attention (Arnold, 1960).

Studies, however, have shown that negative feelings are integral to our ability to learn
(Smallman and Roese, 2009)

Counterflactual Thinking
-is a psychological concept about the human tendency to create possible or
alternative scenarios other than what had actually happened.

The idea that behavior can be changed is a hallmark in psychology. what is important,
however, is the idea that emotional responses can be deliberately altered. "Emotions are
powerful and unavoidable, Upsurge of feelings is natural". However, it should not
control behavior nor should it prevent reason. what we do with our feelings is what
makes us ethical or unethical.
 LESSON 2:
REASON AND
IMPARTIALITY AS
REQUIREMENTS FOR
ETHICS
You might wondering, "Why should human beings be
moral? why should I do what is right! "

Here are some compelling reasons:

a. It is enlightened self interest.
b. It is the traditional law.
c. It is a responsibility.
d. It is what the fair and equitable.
e. People have shared human needs, goals, desires,
and/ or objectives.
Is reason a requirement for morality?
A relevant definition of reason to our topic is "the power of the mind to
think, understand, and form judgements by a process of logic" (Merriam-Webster
2017). However one of the most influential philosophers in the history of western
philosophy, Immanuel Kant, argued that reason alone is the basis of morality, and
once the person understood this basic requirement for morality, he or she would see
that acting morally is the same as acting rationally ( Beck 1960).

Is impartiality a requirement for morality?

Impartiality is commonly understood as a principle of justice. It denotes
that decision should be "based on objective criteria rather than on the basis of bias,
prejudice, or preferring to benefit one person over another for improper reasons"
(Jollimore, 2011): Impartiality stresses everyone ought to be given equal importance
and not favor on one class (people, animals, or things) in a capricious way.
Moral Reasoning Model
A key distinguishing feature of a moral dilemma is that it typically
arises when individuals or groups might be harmed, disrespected, or unfairly
disadvantaged(Beall, 2017). Most ethical decisions lie in a gray area. often
times you are faced with a situation where there are no clear-cut or obvious
choices; the situation cannot be determined by simple quantitative analysis
of data.
Ethical decision-making requires interpretation of the situation,
application of your values, and estimating the consequences of your action.
In real life, our situations do not only involve between right and wrong; good
or bad. Oftentimes, it is about choosing between good and better or bad and
worse.
The 7 step model for ethical decision making
1. Gather the facts
2. Identify the stakeholders
3. Articulate the dilemma
4. List the alternatives
5. Compare the alternatives with the principles
6. Weigh the consequences
7. Make a decision
1. Gather the facts
Do not jump to conclusions. Ask questions (who, what, where, when, how. And why).
There may be instances when facts are hard to find or are not available because of the
uncertainty that surround ethical issues. Nevertheless, gather as many facts as you can.
Clarify what assumptions you are making

2. Identify the stakeholders

Identify all the persons involved and will be affected in an ethical situation. Who are the
primary stakeholders? Who are the secondary stakeholders? Why are they stakeholders
in the issue? Get the proper perspective. Try to see the situation through the eyes of the
people affected.
3. Articulate the dilemma
Once you have gathered the facts and identified the stakeholders. It is important that
you express the ethical dilemma. What are the competing values! The purpose of
articulating the dilemma is to make sure that you understand the situation and the
moral conflict you are facing. Awareness and comprehension are important in making
the right decision, especially when there are lives that will be affected.
4. List the alternatives
Think creatively about potential actions, as there may be choices you neglected. This
will help ensure that you have not been pushed back into a corner.

5. Compare the alternatives with the principles

In decision-making, specify the relevant values that you want to uphold in making your
decision. Then compare whether your alternative actions are in line with your values.
Identifying the values and comparing your action with these values are important
because it will help identify if your alternative action is illegal or unethical, thus making
this action easy to discard.
6. Weigh the consequences
When considering the effects of your actions, filter your choices to determine if your
options will violate ethical values. Determine how all the stakeholders will be affected
by your decision.
7. Make a decision
Remember, deliberation cannot go on forever. You must avoid “paralysis by analysis” or
the state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is
never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. There is no easy painless decision to a
moral dilemma
LESSON 3:
MORAL COURAGE
Moral Courage

Moral courage is the courage to put your moral principles into action even though you
may be in doubt , are afraid, or face adverse consequences. Moral courage involves
careful deliberation and mastery of the self. However, according to philosopher Mark
Johnson, acting morally often requires more than just strength of character
(Drumwright and Murphy, 2004) .

Moral Imagination
It is the “ability in particular circumstances to discover and evaluate possibilites not
merely determined by that circumstances, or limited by its operative mental mode or
merely framed by a set of rules-governed concerns” (Werhame,1999). Moral imagination
is not sufficient alone for moral decision-making.
What is “will”?
Generally, “will” is the mental capacity to act decisively on ones desire. It is the faculty
of the mind to initiate after coming to a resolution following careful
deliberation(Joachim, 1952). Within Ethics, “will” is an important topic along with reason
because of its role in enabling a person to act deliberately. On the concept of “will” in
Classical Philosophy, Aristotle said: The soul in living creatures is distinguished by two
function.

Why is the “will” as important as reason?

Aristotle believed that “will” is the product of intellect and sensation; and that “will” gave
the person the capacity for “exciting movement in space.

Developing the “will”

In Aristotle philosophy, using the intellect to decide is just one part of the moral
decision. The resolve to put the decision into action is the role of the “will”, we become
just by the practice of just action self-control by exercising self-control;and courageous
by practicing acts of courage.