Properties of human acts

- that is, with the things that belong by natural necessity to human acts without forming an
essential part or constituent element of the acts as such.

Imputability
- ​A human act is, by definition, both knowing and free. It proceeds entirely from a knowing
and free agent, from a rational being. Thus it belongs to the agent; it is his act. This is what
is meant by saying that a human act is imputable to its agent, or that a human act has the
property of imputability.

Merit & Demerit

- The dictionary defines merit as the quality, state or fact of deserving well or il. We may
divide this definition, and describe merit as the quality, state or fact of deserving well; and
we
may describe demerit as the quality, state or fact of deserving ill.

Consequence of human acts

- A man does more easily that which he has done before, and the more frequent the
repetition of an act, the easier becomes its performance.

Virtues
- comes from the Latin word virtus (s military and meant the courage, the bravery of the
soldier)
- man comes from latin word vis
- signifies that habitual manliness and power for good acts which arises from the frequent
performance of such acts
- may be supernatural or acquired
- acquired:
● Prudence
- is that virtue of the understanding which enables one quickly and clearly to know,
in concrete circumstances, the best means to an end, and it further inclines one to
take these means promptly and accurately.
● Justice
- is the virtue which inclines one with constancy always to render to everyone his
own
- is the virtue which steadily inclines man to recognize and pay this debt
● Fortitude
- is the virtue which inclines one to face dangers with intrepidity, especially with
such dangers as threaten life
- is not rashness, over-boldness, or presumptuous love of danger for its own sake
or for ostentation; nor, on the other hand, is it supineness or dead submission
- involves a largeness of mind and soul, and combines with these the power of
fadeless endurance
 ● Temperance
- is the virtue which controls one in the pursuit and use of pleasure of life,
especially of those pleasure that attract most strongly, and in while there is a
consequent danger of excess and disorder.
- keeps the desire and use of sense-pleasures particularly, within the bounds of
right and reasonable action

Vices
- is a habitual lack of virtue; and it stands opposed to virtue either by defect or by excess
● Prudence
- ​Defect: ​imprudence, precipitateness, lack of docility, carelessness,
improvidence, etc.
- ​Excess: o ​ ver-solicitude, smartness, trickery, fraud,
● Justice
- injustice, irreligion, impiety, irreverence, mendacity, ingratitude, cruelty
● Fortitude
- ​Defect: ​weak spiritedness, inconsistency, impatience,
- ​Excess​: presumptuous boldness, stubbornness, insensibility
● Temperance
- ​Defect​: pride, lust, anger, gluttony
- ​Excess​: fanatical rigorousness, too great self-effacement of self abjection,
affectation, morose and gloomy conduct

Kinds of clarification
- Recognizing the notions of good and bad, and right and wrong, are the primary concern of
ethics.

NOT PART OF DISCUSSION OF ETHICS

● Aesthetic
- Greek word aesthesis (“sense” or “feeling”) and refers to the judgments of
personal approval or disapproval that we make about what we see, hear, smell, or
taste

● Etiquette
- a sense of approval or disapproval concerning certain actions, which can be
considered relatively more trivial in nature
- concerned with right and wrong actions, but those which might be considered not
quite grave enough to belong to a discussion on ethics

● Technique
- Greek word techne the English words “technique" and "technical" which are
often used to refer to a proper way (or right way) of doing things, but a technical
valuation (or right and wrong technique of doing things)
 PART OF THE DISCUSSION OF ETHICS
- involve valuations that we make in a sphere of human actions, characterized by certain
gravity and concern the human well-being or human life itself. Therefore, matters that
concern life and death such as war, capital punishment, or abortion and matters that
concern human well-being such as poverty, inequality, or sexual identity are often included
in discussions of ethics.
Ethics and Morals
- discussion of ethics and morals would include cognates such as ethical, unethical,
immoral, amoral, morality, and so on
- term “​morals​” may be used to refer to specific beliefs or attitudes that people have or
to describe acts that people perform
- individual's personal conduct is referred to as his morals, and if he falls short of
behaving properly, this can be described as immoral
- term “​ethics​” can be spoken of as the discipline of studying and understanding ideal
humans and ideal ways of thinking
- ethics is acknowledged as an intellectual discipline belonging to ​philosophy ​(word
“philosophy” is rooted in the Greek words that translate to “love of wisdom”)

Descriptive study of ethics

- how people make their moral stand points without having any judgement
- usually work for social scientist

Normative study of ethics

- directs what we want to maintain as bases or standards for moral valuation

Issue, Decision, Judgement, and Dilemma

● Moral issue
- a situation that calls for moral valuation. The term issue is often used to refer to
situations that can cause a debate.

● Moral Decision
- when we are placed in a situation and confronted by the choice of what to do

● Moral Judgement
- ​when one is observing to make an assessment on the chosen behavior

● Moral Dilemma
- when we are on the matter of choosing right over wrong, or good over bad, and
considering the complicated situation wherein we feel torn on deciding

Plato
- credited as one of the pioneers of philosophy as his various writings bring up and discuss
carefully and creatively some of the questions that later thinkers will find to be of lasting
significance to humankind, such as “Can virtue be taught?” “What is beauty?” and “What is
love?”
- started a school in Athens which would be known as the Academy and is believed to be the
first institution of higher learning in the Western world

Sources of Authority
● Law
- ​one's guide to ethical behavior
- enforced by way of a system of sanctions administered through persons and
institutions, which all help in compelling us to obey
- does not tell us what we should do; it works by constraining us from performing acts
that we should not do

● Religion
- "Love the Lord, Your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes.
Decrees, and commandments." (New American Bible)
- expresses a claim that many people of a religious sensibility find appealing and
immediately valid: the idea that one is obliged to obey her God in all things
- referred to as the divine command theory
- w one’s faith may contribute to ethical thought when we look at the Natural Law
theory of Thomas Aquinas.

● Culture
- exposure to different societies and their cultures makes us aware that there are
ways of thinking and valuing that are different from our own, that there is in fact a
wide diversity of how different people believe it is proper to act
- aesthetic, religious, and etiquette difference
- ​ethical valuations​:
- cultural relativism seems to conform to what we experience, which is the
reality of the differences in how cultures make their ethical valuations
- by taking one’s culture as the standard, we are provided a basis for our
valuations
- this teaches us to be tolerant of the others from different cultures as we
realize that we are in no position to judge whether the ethical thought or
practice of another culture is acceptable or unacceptable
- ​cultural relativism​:
- premised on the reality of difference because different cultures have
different moral codes, we cannot say that any one moral code is the right one
- we are in no position to render any kind of judgment on the practices of
another culture
- we are in no position to render judgment on the practices of even our own
culture
 - we can maintain it only by following the presumption of culture as a single,
clearly
defined substance or as something fixed and already determined

Senses of the self

- one should not rely on any external authority to tell oneself what the standards of moral
valuation are, but should instead turn inwards

● Subjectivism
- recognition that the individual thinking person (the subject) is at the heart of all moral
valuations
- leaps to the more radical claim that the individual is the sole determinant of what is
morally good or bad, right or wrong

● Psychological egoism
- describes the underlying dynamic behind all human actions
- does not direct one to act in any particular way instead, it points out that there is
already an underlying basis for how one acts
- an irrefutable theory because there is no way to try to answer it without being
confronted by the challenge that, whatever one might say, there is the self-serving
motive at the root of everything
- leads us to a cynical view of humanity, to a gloomy description of human nature, and
finally to a useless theory for someone who is concerned with asking herself what is the
right thing to do because it ends up nullifying the possibility of any normative ethics in its
view of the already-determined human being

● Ethical egoism
- prescribes that we should make our own ends, our own interests, as the single
overriding concern
- act in a way that is beneficial to others, but we should do that only if it ultimately
benefits us
- one should consider herself as the priority and not allow any other concerns, such as
the welfare of other people, to detract from this pursuit
- ultimately translates into -- not just some pleasant pursuit of one’s own desires, but the
imposition of a will to power that is potentially destructive of both the self and of others