Christian Ethics: Discussion Notes
Christian Ethics: Discussion Notes
Concept of Value
Christian Ethics Something that is useful, desirable and significant. We can say
it is distinct from such.
DISCUSSION NOTES A relation between the human subjectivity and the
one being valued.
Ethics comes from the word ethos, meaning customs and
morals comes from the word mores. It involves the way we Layers of Value
conduct our life, the general framework of life. 1. A value is a value because it corresponds to his
yearning and desire.
Kinds of Norms 2. A value may refer qualities that are desirable.
1. Technical Norms 3. A value actually desired by the individual by himself.
This involves ways to allow us to address what is going on in 4. It is prescribed by a group for all individuals to
the environment. It is meant for survival, including techniques observe, so that the individuals may desire this value.
to overcome physical problems like ways how to heal and 5. It is intrinsically desirable and thus desirable for all
maintain health. men and for all groups.
2. Societal Norms In our human existence, we find an ideal vision, this ideal vision
They are those norms which assure cohesion, bonding and unity has certain qualities
in the societies. They bring one and others closer. It involves All our actions must be directed or in consonance to
ways to achieve identity, sense of belonging and orientation the ideal vision.
like families, groups and societies. These values, customs, and practices in the
community are internalized to the individual and
3. Aesthetic Norms develop a sense of belonging.
This involves free play and celebration of the human spirit.
These involves our inner joy though cathartic appreciation Ethics or morality. It is something that is completely
which involves a therapeutic experience. This is usually embedded in the culture from a person. It is not imposed in
embodied in movements, scent, sceneries and sound. one’s mind. It is something one is awakened into and one live
with and a part of day to day.
4. Moral/Ethical Norms
It is something that we ought to follow. Also known as an ethical Ethics of moral experience is handed down through
religious norm. It is the dimension of our existence that we aim generations, a kind of legacy that is to be taken care of and to
to achieve an ideal goal or an ideal state or vision. be preserved. One accepts it, and must hand it over to the
It should be seen as an imperative demand succeeding generations, passing to generation to generation.
In accord to the ideal vision.
Moral Experience
Ethics, in that regard there is some kind aspect in existence It is something concrete, embedded in our nature which can be
some kind to an ideal state and an ideal goal. This becomes our a creative development in moral experiences. There are factors
fundamental norm. that affect our moral experience leading it to have a creative
transformation.
Two Strands in Ethics
1. Teleological – ethics of ends Three Factors that Affect Moral Experience
2. Deontological – it is my moral obligation 1. Psychological Maturation
It is being able to understand, see the value and appreciation
Good – ontological bias, oriented towards an objective goal, a the part of one’s moral conviction, by gradually appropriating
fulfillment to the being of man. such acts as one’s own as becomes a part of one’s decision. It
Somehow points to the existence of the ideal good, is the psychological appropriation and assimilation.
which is the basic aim or end.
It is something beyond material and time, it is 2. The Very Nature of Moral Experience
something objectively out there considered to be in the moral experience comes from freedom, that is an
the person, considered the beatitude and is imperative imposed upon one to follow but one has a choice to
considered. follow or not. It is a directive, and with one’s freedom that
Good or bad usually involves being in conformity with demand is not absolute.
the goal or otherwise.
3. Encounter with Other Cultures
Right – moral obligation, a moral duty imposed upon One has to revisit own moral experience for the new values
individuals and therefore it is subject to exigency. Right or which are unique and peculiar challenge our belief, this is when
wrong usually involves doing the ought duty or refraining from one’s culture is put to the test. Accommodation, recognition
such duty. and even questioning the ethical presuppositions will happen,
but as much as possible, we cannot afford to stagnate.
Good
GOOD AS AN END
The traditional approach as espoused by Aristotle by stating
that “good is that at which all things aim” which looks at the
by Austin Fagothey, Summary relationship of good and end.
End is that “for the sake of which a thing is done”
PROBLEM
The individual man relies on his: Four Causes of End
Consciousness to determine the degree of his For him, all change is a process whereby:
responsibility Some given underlying substrate (the matter)
Conscience to judge good or evil, rightness or Acquires a new specification or determination (the form)
wrongness of these acts done by him in concrete Through the action of an efficient operator (the agent)
circumstance. Moved to act by the attraction of some good (the end)
There is no more ultimate court than the testimony of
conscience. Teleology or Purposiveness
Such view of constant changes looks at a directed world in which
But subjective morality alone is insufficient. all things have an aim.
Conscience can be erroneous as well as correct.
Error can be vincible as well as invincible. Different from mechanistic theory that all changes
come about by chance.
When objective truth is attainable, conscience cannot rest
satisfied with a subjective opinion that it knows may be false. Nature is the principle of direction in this directed world.
Whether there is an objective morality which
judgment of conscience should be in agreement. Each being is so structured that it acts only along certain
definitive lines.
DEFINABILITY OF THE GOOD It is not some kind of driver something distinct from the
George Edward Moore being, but it’s very self.
Good is a simple concept unanalyzable into anything simpler, It is the essence of each being source of its activity.
and that therefore it is indefinable.
We can point to certain properties of objects because Direction then supposes:
we call these objects good, but that does not tell us 1. Nature, a moving principle
what is good about these properties. 2. Target toward which to move
We can then define good as in an object which is
good, but not the predicate good itself. Thus, natural activity is teleological activity.
B. Some are subjective in nature, but their lack of Moral Values are Personal
arbitrariness shows that they have some objective basis. Not only because a person has them, but because they are the
Like money, credit or reputation, these are created by human expression of each one’s unique personality in the innermost
convention. These human conventions are not wholly center of its being, as shown in the act of choice.
subjective on the fact that if they have no backing in reality,
they are considered fraudulent and their value vanishes. Moral values reside in both:
(1) acts a man chooses to do and
C. Objective values. (2) the results of those acts on the character of the man
When a value is objective there is something about a thing that
makes it suitable for a person, so that his preferences are not Take the analogy of a shark attack. A saved B even though the
arbitrary. Thus, the taste in food may be subjective and swimming was not correct, the rescue was unscientific, and B
arbitrary but the need for food is objective and rooted in is died later. There is no value but one, moral value, but these are
biological requirements. understood to be those that make a man good purely and
simply as a man.
Recognition of Values
Derivative values. These can be arrived at by logical reasoning Characteristics of Moral Value
from other values. 1. Moral value can exist only in a free being and his
When we ask ourselves why a thing is attractive and voluntary or human acts.
to only find out the answer is our psychological By willing good a man becomes good. It cannot happen
conditions is when we value labels as subjective. accidentally. It makes no difference whether the act was
successful or not or even planned and executed brilliantly.
Primary values. These general or abstract values are not
reasoned. They simply present themselves. 2. Moral value is universal in the sense that what
holds for one holds for all in the same conditions.
When we find in such a real suitability to ourselves, It shows the worth of man as a man. All would approve of his
and suitability that we do not find but already existing action as the right thing to do in the case, whether they would
these are values we call objective. have the strength to do it or not.
However, abstractions are based on foundation in way things 5. Moral value implies obligation.
really are. Those who admit a realistic basis to universal ideas We can still retain respect for a foolish man as a man, thus we
accord realism to values that are objective. shall respect him to be so.
Values like other universals, are drawn from the data of THE MORAL IDEAL
experience and have their concrete fulfillment in existing What we use in moral judgment is a moral ideal. While it is true
persons, things, and actions. that no one ever perfectly lives up to it, but it must mean the
ideal because he ought to. It is constructed by taking the various
It is a fact that we evaluate goods to buy, persons to kinds of acts that experience shows us men perform.
employ, students to reward.
We all have an ideal of the perfectly living human being. So far
We do so because we see some objective qualities in as men approach this ideal, he has moral value and is good. So
them that makes them deserve such. far as man approaches this ideal, he has moral value and is
good. The good here is intrinsic, perfect good. Not
instrumental or perfective good.
CONCLUSION
Good as value. The good as value stresses the intrinsic, perfect
good in itself as this must be the most fundamental aspect of
the good.
Good as ought. This stresses the fact that each thing ought to
be as perfect as it can be, that the ideal is not merely something
to be contemplated but to be put into act, and this demand is
laid on a free being in the form of moral obligation.
Fortes in Fide