FEELING &

MORAL
DECISION
MAKING
FEELING
◦is the nominalization of the verb to feel. 
◦The word was first used in the 
English language to describe the
physical sensation of touch through
either experience or perception.
◦ The word is also used to describe
experiences other than the physical
sensation of touch, such as "
a feeling of warmth" and of sentience in
general.
FEELING
◦Play a major role in most of the
ethical decisions people make.
◦Most people do not realize how
much their emotions direct their
moral choices.
◦But experts think it is impossible
to make any important moral
judgments without emotions.
In Latin
, “sentire”meant
to feel, hear or
smell. In
psychology, the
word is usually
reserved for the 
conscious 
subjective
 experience of
emotion.
◦No one can deny the
fact that when the
human person is placed
in a moral dilemma, his
or her decisions can also
be greatly affected by
his/her feelings.
The moral decision that man makes will
definitely not be fully objective.

◦For instance, one’s decision regarding the

morality of death penalty will vary if he is placed
in a situation wherein his family is greatly
affected by murderous act. A person who is never
a victim of any crime may view death penalty as
morally unacceptable. At the same time, a person
who has a very close relative indicted for robbery
may cry for forgiveness while those who do not
have such may demand punishment.
In this regard, a moral decision can be a
product of feelings or emotions.
◦During the early part of
philosophizing, David Hume
(1711-1776) believed virtue
is in conformity to reason.
Like truth, morality is
discerned merely by ideas.
In order to distinguish the
good and bad, we have to
consider the reason alone.
• Philosophers during the time of
Hume, placed greater emphasis
on the prominence of reason
over feelings.
• Western philosophers were
actually reacting to the position
held by the church scholars who
asserted that religious apologist,
moral decisions must be rooted
in religious laws and doctrines.
◦During the ancient period,
Plato (423BC-347BC) would
argue that the function of
reasons is to rule the appetites
and emotions. He held that
the mind or the intellect,
which is the highest level of
the soul, is that immortal part
of the soul that gives man the
capacity for truth and wisdom.
◦Then, the Stoics upheld
that human person must be
able to learn to control his
passion with reason in
order to live a moral life.
◦ For Hume, the central fact
about ethics is that moral
judgements are formed not by
reason alone but through
feelings.
Hume held that moral decision would always
involve feelings or emotions.
◦For instance, because I will feel sympathetic
pain on my friend whose brother is brutally
killed by a gunman. I will surely develop a moral
condemnation on the action of the killer.
However, if somebody will do charitable deed of
feeding a street child, I will surely feel
sympathetic pleasure for that person. Such
pleasure originates from my moral approval of
the good deed.
 From the point of view of
Hume, moral sentiments are
found in all people. Everyone
has instinctive capacity to
praise and uphold moral
actions performed by person
to others.
◦ According to Hume, basing
ourselves on experience, our moral
decisions are based not on
judgements based on reason but
on feelings. More so, our
experience tells us that we have
sympathetic feelings of pleasure
and pain in response to a range of
virtuous characteristics that
people possess.
◦ It is obvious that Hume,
believed that feelings and
agreeableness can be considered
as a clear criterion of moral
judgment. He believed that
behavior is considered virtuous if
it is useful or agreeable to
people who are affected by the
action being considered.
◦ Then, some religious moralist
critique Hume’s moral point of
view because Hume did not
include the role of God in
determining the morality of
one’s action. For this reason, the
religious moralist would consider
Hume’s moral philosophy to be
weak and groundless.
◦An American philosopher has
another claimed about the feelings
named, Thomas Nagel. He believed
that morality must be rooted not in
the feelings or emotions because
that will make morality subjective.
Morality must be objective. Also,
according to him, no matter how
great our feelings on a particular
situation can be, such feelings will
not be considered as basis for
universal moral principle because
FEELINGS MAY BE DIFFERENT
FROM THE FEELINGS OF OTHERS.
◦Our feelings may be
irrational. They may be
product of prejudice,
selfishness or cultural
conditioning.
◦From the point of view of Nagel,
the basis of morality must be on
the happiness that one’s action
may cause to others. If an action
is going to cause harm to others,
then the action is considered
evil.
In some situations, we may ask
what is a moral truth?
◦It has to be noted that discovering
truth can only be made possible if
one is guided by reason. Most
philosophers would consider this
as essence of morality. The morally
right thing is to do actions that is
supported by rational arguments.
MORAL DECISION
MAKING
◦making is the ability
to produce a
reasonable and
defensible answer to
an ethical question or
case.
◦It must be noted that every reason is good.
There may still be valid reasons.
◦ It is important that one’s know how to
morally good in decision making. In
discerning over the facts, it is important
that decision maker must be impartial to
certain issues.
◦ One should be able to consider that every
moral decision is equally
◦ important to others. In this regard, no
decisions should be given more favor than
the others.
◦Nagel points out that it is quite
difficult to establish a universal
moral decision because there are
many disagreements among those
who accept morality in general
and about what in particular right
or wrong.
◦The difficulty in making decisions is that
the situation that requires our decision
may have already placed us in dilemma.
More so, the manner of deciding may
place us again in separate dilemma. And
so to avoid falling into dilemma after
dilemma, we have to address this order
to serve as a model that can be used in
assurance of our decisions:
◦ 
◦Before making moral 1.
decisions, it is important
that necessary facts be GATHER
gathered.
◦Ethical dilemmas can be THE
resolved simply by
clarifying the facts of the FACTS
case question.
◦Ethical issues are
2.
considered
competing interest or
as
DEFINE
goods.
◦This will help the person
THE
to analyze the interest
that are contradicting to
ETHICAL
one another. ISSUES
 3.
◦It is important to
determine different REVIEW
ethical guidelines
determine which ethical
to RELEVANT
guideline must be applied ETHICAL
to the issue.
◦Constitutional and natural GUIDELINES
law must also be taken
into account.
◦In as much no one can really
be an expert in making moral
decisions, it is important to 4.
consult to persons who are OBTAIN
competent in terms of
morality. CONSULTATION
◦One may consult religious
leader, well revered teacher,
or an elder in society who can
have more wisdom than us.
◦ Making moral
decisions require 5.
creative thinking LIST THE
which will help one ALTERNATIVE
identify various COURSES OF
alternative courses of ACTION
action.
 6.
◦From the listed
alternatives, the next
COMPARE THE
step is to connect ALTERNATIVE
alternatives with WITH THE
moral principles. PRINCIPLES.
◦ If the moral principles
do not yet provide 7.
clear decisions, it is WEIGH
better to take note of THE
the positive and CONSEQUENCE
negative S
consequences.
◦After weighing a decision
8.
has to be made. Notice
that in an ethical
MAKE
dilemma, one has to
undergo the painful
A
process of critical studies DECISIO
and analyses.
N