Module 20 Module 21

St. Thomas’ Natural Law ethics Kant’s Deontological Ethics: The Duty Framework

Ethical according to the natural law ethics framework Kant’s Deontological Ethics
that which the natural law commands us ‘to do good,
avoid evil”. Kant ethics is now referred to deontological. The term
deontological has its root from the Greek “deon which
Meaning of Natural Law and Other Laws means “duty”. Hence deontological ethics focuses on
“duty, obligation, and rights. The following clarifies
Natural law is the “ordinance of Divine Wisdom, Which Kant’s duty-based approach;
is made known to us by reason and which requires the
observance of the moral order. The duty based approach, sometimes called
deontological ethics, argued that doing what is right is
It may also defined to be “ The eternal law as far as it not about the consequence of our actions but about
made known by human reason”. having the proper intention in performing the action.

Rev. Charles Coppens, S.J. explains the various kinds of Kant’s famous formula for discovering our ethical duty
law according to St. Thomas: is known as the “categorical imperative”

There are these four points of difference: between The Duty Framework
natural law and positive law. Duty framework, we focus on the duties and
obligations that we have in a given situation, and
1. The natural law; unlike positive laws, does not consider what ethical obligations we have and what
depend upon the free will of god; things we should never do.

2. Consequently, the natural law is the same at all Kant’s theory of right
times, in all places, and for all the person; but this is According to kant, the “universal principle of right is
not true to positive laws that an action is right if it can coexist with everyone’s
freedom in accordance with a universal law.
3. The natural law emanates from god alone; but
positive laws may be enacted by men. Legally and Morally Right
It appears that in Kant, what is legal must be the
3. The natural law is promulgated through the light of same time moral.
reason; positive laws require for their promulgation a
sign external to man. Good will
Kant says, “Nothing can possibly be conceived in the
Natural Law as a Universal Formula world, or even out of it, which can be called good
without qualifications, except a good will.
A universal formula which contains in brief an
expression of the whole natural law is this: Keep the Categorical Imperative: to serve the will as a principle
moral order, or “ observe right order in your actions. two (2) versions of the categorical imperative.

Law Defined The first version states “ I never to act other than so
Laws that are enacted are called positive laws. St that I could will that my maxim should become a
Thomas defined law in general as “an ordinance of universal law”.
reason which is for the common good, and has been The second version is as follows: ‘Always treat
promulgated by one having charge of the community. humanity, whether in your own person or that of
For a law to be law, it must have the four requisites, another, never simply as a means but always at the
namely; same time as an end.
a.) ordinance ( order, command) of reason, b.) for the
common good, c.) promulgation, and d.) by one who Ought implies can
has charge of the community. This means that if only we can or are free to act in
certain ways can we be commanded to do so.
 Module 22
Utilitarianism: The Conseqeuntialist Ethical Module 23
Framework The love and justice framework

Origin and Nature of the Utilitarianist Framework The principle of love

There are three well-known concepts of love originating
Two British philosophers, namely, Jeremy Bentham from the Greeks, namely, agape or charity , erotic or
and john Stuart Mill, are known to be the original passionate sexual encounter and philia, the affection
advocates of utilitarianism, the former being between friends.
considered the founder, Bentham (1789), described this
moral philosophy as follows: Justice and fairness: Promoting the Common Good as a
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of Moral framework
two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.
a. Social Justice
Similarly, John Stuart ( 1861) Mill’s What utilitarianism Social justice is equal access to wealth, opportunities
is, open with the following paragraph: and privileges within society.

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals b. Justice as the Minimum Demand of Love
‘utility” or the “greatest happiness principle” holds that William Luijpen, referred to justice “the minimum
actions are right in proportuin as they tend to promote demand of love”. To do justice is already an act of love,
happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse the minimum demand of love.
of happiness. By happiness pleasure and the absence of
pain; by unhappiness; pain and privation of pleasure. c. Distributive justice
“Justice that is concerned with the distribution or
The consequencialist Framework allotment of goods, duties, and privileges in concert
Consequencialist framework, we focus on the future with the merits of individuals, and the best interests of
effects of the possible courses of action, considering the society. The following have features of distributive
people who will be directly or indirectly affected. justice.

a. Egalitarianism is the doctrine of politicall and social

equally.

b. Capitalist and free-market systems let the law of

demand and supply follow its course.
c. Socialist follow the rule, “from each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs .
d. Taxation is government’s getting a part of what its
people earn in order have money to spend for public
services, operating and maintaining public.

e. Protection and Preservation of Public Welfare The

government has constitution-granted power to govern,
to make, adopt and enforce laws for the protection and
preservation for public health, justice, morals, order
safety and security and welfare.

f. Property for public use The government has

constitution-granted power to take private property for
public use with just compensation.

The Better Moral Framework: Garner and Rosen’s

Synthesis
Richard T. Garner and Bernard Rosen (1976) tried to
identify the most acceptable criterion of the rightness
or wrongness of action, the goodness or badness of
character or of personal life.
 Module 24 There are global problems or issues that require
Globalization and Pluralism: New Challenger in Ethics corresponding ethical considerations.

Globalization Defined 1. Global Poverty

Globalization means “the erosion of national Is there a moral duty to help the global poor?
boundaries and the reduced significance of national Should wealthy nations share their wealth to the poor
governments.” Suter, K., 2006). It is “moving from a nations? A quotation traced by St. Thomas to it’s
world with borders to aworld without,” Nation states author, St. Ambrose states: “ it is the hungry man’s
will remain in existence but they have to work together bread that you withhold or hoard. Fr. Gerry Orbos, SVD
with other centers of power such as 1.) transnational said; “If only learned to share, no one will have so little,
corporations, 2) intergovernment organizations like the and no one will have too much.” of course, the basis of
United Nations and 3) non-goverbmentat organizations the moral obligation is the principle of love.
(NGO) such as environment movements.
2. Migration
Jan Scholte (2005), an expert in globalization, gave five People living in poor places, or being ruled by
different interpretations of globalization, namely; 1.) oppressive, dictatorial or tyrannic regimes long to
internationalization, 2) Liberalization, 3) migrate to places where they believe life is better.
universalization, 4) modernization or westernization
and 5) deterritorialization. 3. Environmental ethics
Environmental ethic states that there is a moral
Internationalization refers to cross-border relations duty of moral agents “to protect or at least refrain from
between countries. damaging” the environmet. The basis of the duties lies
in the environment’s ‘intrinsic value”, its goodness in
Liberalization focuses on “open, borderless world itself.
economy.
4. Pluralism vs. Fundamentalism
Universalization refers to the “various ways in which a Pluralism as to content refers to diversity, to
synthesis of cultures has takes place, etc. such as having differences in values and beliefs, and to notions of
a common calendar, shared common technology. “otherness.” Pluralism about morality “may be
understood as a form of relativism which holds that
Modernization or westernization refers to the ways there is no single universal standard.”
that ‘social structures of modernity’ capitalism, science, Despite pluralism as an offshoot of globalization,
movies, music have spread throughout the world. there are sectors who refuse to get out from where
they are used to. Their movement is called
Deterritorialization means that in a highly globalized fundamentalism. This refers to any sect or movement
world “social space is no longer wholly mapped in within a religion that emphasizes a rigid adherence to
terms of territorial places and borders. what it conceives of as the fundamental principles of
it’s faith, usually resulting in a denouncement of
Moral Challenges of Globalization alternative practices and interpretations.
Along with globalization comes ethical or moral issues.
If the values of people, particularly moral values, are
influenced by culture, then globalization where people
are exposed too new ways of doing things further
enhances moral development, particularly global moral
consciousness.

Global Ethics
Globalization includes the observance of global ethics.
Global ethics is concerned with the critical ethical
inquiry into the nature and justification of values and
norms that are global in kind and into various issues
that arise such as world poverty and international aid,
environmental problems, peace and security,
intervention, human rights, gender equality, child
labour, torture, scarce resources, migration, climate
change, and global trade.
 Module 25 are also described as “broke”. They are also described
Millennials and Fillenials: Ethical Challenges and as narcissist, the “ Me, Me, Me generation”. They are
Responses fun-loving, self-expressive and liberal.

Values and Characteristics of the Millennial generation The catchphrase “YOLO” (you only live once) has
become a cultural sensation. It is not new. The latin
Who are Millennials? Those who were born from 1981 poet Horace coined the phrase “Carpe Diem” in 23 BC.
to 1996. They are also known as generation Y. they
were preceded by Generation X (1965 to 1980) and The Benefits of YOLO
were followed by Generation Z who were born from Based on the research, the catchphrase YOLO has
1997 to 2012. ( Dimock, M. Defining generations: some positive effects. Research on “post-traumatic
Where millennials end and Generation Z begins) growth started by Ronnie-Janoff Bulman of the
University of Massachusetts has explored how terminal
ilness diagnoses and near-fatal experiences influence
Characterizes of millennials people.
- One reported result of millennial optinism is entering Research on “socioemotional selectivity theory”
into adulthood with unearalistic expectations which (Laura Carstensen, Stanford University) explores the
sometimes leads to disillusionment. way that devoted their time as something such as life.
- Millennials are a generation that is dependent on
technology to improve their job perfomance and The Downside of YOLO
intends on a flexible schedule and strives for a better Some untruly behaviors are associated with YOLO.
work life (Choong, Keh, Tan, Lim & Tho, 2013.) Here are publicized cases of “YOLO” being associated
with some rather untruly behavior. These include a
- Moreover, millennials were targeted due tp their person tweeting “YOLO”before crashing their car while
highly opinionated demeanor that is often viewed as driving drunk, and a young woman storming the field of
troubling, overly demanding, and uncommitted to the a college football game intoxicated, and after being
common work place (Smith &Nichols,2015) arrested and released, tweeting YOLO in reference to
- More than anything, millennials are confident. This the incident.
confidence comes from their trust and optimism (guha,
2010: Kowske, Rasch, & Wiley, 2010). Kaife et al. (2012)
Felt that a generations confidence was fostered and
molded by previous generations.

- Millennials are family-focused and thus need to have a

better work? Life balance. This generation grew up with
an emphasis on family which has created a shift in the
workplace ( Andert, 2011).
- Millennials enjoying utilizing technology. The
millennial generation became independent on
technology at an earlier age than other generations.
- Millennials are also known “look at me” generation
because they are thought to be too confident and
concerned with their own interests.

Fillennials
Filipino millennials have their own uniques
characteristics, and thus are specifically called
fillennials.

“In our studies of the Filipino millennials, although

tthey are generally considered as the type who have a
YOLO-mindset (You Only Live Once), fillennials live at
the moment and adventurous.

Fillennials are described as social media dependent

and also the “selfie generation”.They are usally
spendthrifts who usually spend for luxury goods and so
 Module 26
The Religious Response: The Role of Religion

Ethics is concerned with what is good and moral based

on reason. This is what religion is also concerned about,
what is moral based on God’s revelation.So religion is
not contrary to ethics. Religion is in support of ethics.

To an Asian author Sim Kwang Yang, the question is,,

“Is ethics possible without religion.” If the question is
one on a matter of fact, his answer is a resounding
“yes”. According to him, two great philosophers,
namely Socrates and Confucius, “expounded their
ethics without recourse to any supernatural being.”

Charles Taliaferro, echoes in his Philosophy of Religion

Dostoevsky’s moral argument for theism:

Fetures of human moral experience are best

accomodated on a theistic world view. In particular,
than common claim is that moral realism, calls for
theistic metaphysical or epistemological underpinnings.

Ethics and Religion

Both ethics and religion are concerned with the most
fundamental question of human existence. Religion
draws answer to what is moral and ethical from
revelation as written in Scriptures and as “lived by their
prophets and Jesus Christ (for Christians). Ethics gets its
answer to what is moral and ethical reason and
experience. It doesn’t mean that theist don’t use reason
when they determine what is right and in fact, even
those for whom morality is religiously based may want
to examine their views based on reason.

It is not true that ethics atheistic or opposed to

religious belief. The role of religion in ethics is this:
region is the region is the foundation of ethics, for
theists. Religion makes clear and concrete what is
ethical through revelation. Theists draw their ethical
views from their religion.