Baliwag Polytechnic College

Dalubhasaan Kong Mahal

2nd Semester
A.Y. 2020 – 2021

STUDY GUIDES
Your success to finish this module lies in your hand. This module is prepared for you to
learn new concepts and invaluable skills diligently, intelligently, and independently. As a future
young professional, doing these will greatly help and prepare you to become a responsible
student. Set your goals and invest for your future. This is your first step towards your priceless
investment for a brighter tomorrow. Do not waste your time, effort and energy. Always stay
motivated and inspired to make your dreams come true. The following guides and house rules
will help you further to be on track and to stay at the end of the module.

1. Schedule and manage your time wisely for you to accomplish the given tasks
in this module.
2. If there are things that you do not understand, go over and focus on the lesson.
If this will not work, seek the help of your family members or leave me a
message so I can give assistance.
3. Before you start doing anything else, read and understand the learning tasks
carefully. Always aim for the best and do not settle with low grades.
4. Think before you write. In answering all the assessment activities, write
legibly and follow the instructions as needed.
5. Do not hesitate to keep an open communication with me through any available
platforms. I am more than willing to help you to accomplish your goals.
6. Once you are done in the module, you can proceed doing other tasks in the
succeeding units that are scheduled for the finals.
7. You are expected to answer all the printed-based activities, assignments and
reflection guides for you to pass in this course.
8. Remember you are the student hence you are expected to accomplish and
study the module on your own. You can seek help and support from your
family members and friends but the actual activities must be done by you.

GRADING SYSTEM
Midterm Grade
 Self-paced activities, Quizzes -60%
Examination -40%

Tentative Final Grade

Self-paced activities, Quizzes, Portfolio -60%
Examination -40%

Final Grade Midterm 50% + TFG 50%

STUDY SCHEDULE

Dates Module /Topics

Module 1 The Scope and Meaning of Ethics
Week 1 Future Growth
Lesson 1 A Deeper Understanding of Ethics
January 4-8, 2021 Lesson 2 Morality and Other Phases of
Human
Life
Lesson 3 Morality and Human Acts

Weeks 2 Module 2 Moral Standards and Human

January 11-15, 2021
Week 3
January 18-22, 2021
Week 4
January 25-29, 2021
Week 5
February 1-5, 2021
Freedom
Lesson 1 Moral Standards
Module 3 Morality
Lesson 1 The Norms of Morality
Lesson 2 Defective Norms of Morality
Module 4 Dilemma
Lesson 1 What is Dilemma?
Module 5 Culture in Moral Behavior
Lesson 1 Culture in Moral Behavior
Explained

Week 6 Module 6 Filipino Culture and Morality

February 8-12, 2021 Lesson 1 Culture Relativism
Lesson 2 Filipino Psyche and Morality

Week 7 Module 7 Morality and Conscience

February 15-19, Lesson 1 Morality
 2021 Lesson 2 Kinds of Values
Week 8 Module 8 Feelings and Moral Decisions
February 22-26, Lesson 1 The Ethics of Love
2021
Week 9 Module 9 Human Reasoning
March 1-5, 2021 Lesson 1 Types of Human Reasoning
Week 10 Module 10 Courage and Moral Courage
March 8-12, 2021 Lesson 1 Virtue and Types of courage
Week 11 Module 11 Aristotle on Virtue
March 15-19, 2021 Lesson 1 Virtue According to Aristotle and
his
Definition of Happiness
Week 12 Module 12 The Philosophy of St. Thomas
March 22-26, 2021 Aquinas
Lesson 1 St. Thomas Aquinas on the Natural
Law
Week 13 Module 13 The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
April 5-9, 2021 Lesson 1 Man and Duty
Lesson 2 Kant’s Philosophy of Good Will
Lesson 3 Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Lesson 4 The Kingdom of Ends
Week 14 Module 14 Rights
April 12-16, 2021 Lesson 1 Types of Human Rights

Week 15 Module 15 The Philosophy of Utilitarianism

April 19-23, 2021 Lesson 1 Utilitarianism
Lesson 2 Positive and Negative Utilitarianism
Lesson 3 Business Utilitarianism
Week 16 Module 16 Justice and Fairness
April 26-30, 2021 Lesson 1 State and Law
Lesson 2 Government and Justice
Week 17 Module 17 Pluralism versus Fundamentalism
May 3-7, 2021 Lesson 1 What is Social Justice
Lesson 2 Globalization and Pluralism
Lesson 3 The Filipino Millennials aka
Filinnials
Lesson 4 The Role of Religion in Ethics
Course Description:
Ethics is the study of how we ought to live. Since the ancient Greeks,
philosophers have held ethics as one of the most important fields in philosophy
because of its intimate ties with everyday life. During the first part of this course, we
will consider and critique different principles and theories which purport to explain
what makes an action right or wrong, and what sort of character traits we ought to
develop. In the second part of the course, we will investigate the status of ethical
theories and claims. We will attempt to discover whether there are objective truths
about how we ought to live, or if ethics is ultimately a matter of subjective opinions
and desires. In the final part of the course, we will consider some practical ethical
issues such as global poverty and animal welfare.

Module 9
Human Reasoning
This module is comprised of two lesson

Lesson 1 Types of Reasoning

Lesson 2 The Seven Steps to Moral Ethical Decisions

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. To understand the importance human reasoning
2. To differentiate the types of human reasoning
3. To learn the steps for moral reasoning

Human Reasoning
Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying
facts, applying logic, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new
or existing information. In short, this is the ability of man to decide which is also the same way
how morality is. But let us make a discernment here, as Immanuel Kant explained, morality is
the usage of our freedom of choice but is based on what we want, this is purely based on the
necessity of men needed to fulfill such as the freedom to do whatever we want. Human
reasoning is our sense of obligation to do what is right even if we do not want to do it. For
example, we have fifty pesos in our pocket and we went to a canteen to satisfy our need for
food. In the counter, we see a plate of fried chicken and a bowl of hot noodles, you want them
both, so morality tells us to make a choice.
But circumstance denied you these things for they cost beyond your allowance and
cannot spare additional cash from your transportation allowance so you have to choose only
one to fit within your means – that is where reason comes in.
 Reason is a feature that is characteristic of men and without it they are not classified as
such. Reason is a tool for the man to cognizance as well as our guide to correlate to the
absolute truth (God). It must be noted though that it is reason just as long as man can act on
them, supernatural truth is beyond human reason. Stimuli such as human sensation,
perception, and observation that the five senses can perceive are part of man being part of the
animal kingdom but the power transforming sensuous stimuli into experience is inherent in
man’s intellect denied to brutes. With it, he alone can arrange his experience that will later
guide him in his decisions. In any human endeavor, action is secondary to thinking. Thinking is a
deliberate act of anticipating future events that might come by reflecting past actions or
occurrences Thinking and acting are inseparable. Every action rests upon the foundation of an
idea related to causal relations. Casual relations developed theories that guide human action.
Action without basis is absurd but acting without thinking is ludicrous. The reason for his action
may be erroneous and his understanding of the situation is muddled; but thinking and
theorizing are still present so his action might be “valid” or at least acceptable. Thinking is an
individual process, society does not think for man even if his customs, traditions or laws are
dictated by the society an individual belongs. There is joint action, but no joint thinking,
meaning people can be moved into a collective action but collective thinking is impossible.
People often subscribe to common sense but the trouble with common sense is that it is not
common. People can never think the same hence there is no common sense.
In the religious point of view, God created human beings aside from his image and
likeness as rational creations capable of reason. Divine Revelation that may center on the
salvation of the soul or foreboding natural catastrophes are in harmony with reason. Reason is
God and comes from God so human reason is the only way of understanding Him.

LESSON 1
Types of Human Reasoning

1. Deductive Reasoning– it is the form of reasoning in which a conclusion follows

logically and coherently from the factual premises and proposition. Arguments are
based upon the concept of logical reasoning. In doing so the premises which the
conclusion hinges its validity that if they are true then the resulting statement are true
and valid. This is plain logic.
Ex. Deductive Reasoning – All men are mortal. William is a man. Therefore, William is
mortal.

2. Inductive Reasoning– refers to reasoning that takes specific information and makes a
broader generalization that is considered probable, allowing for the fact that the conclusion
may not be accurate. This type of logic also uses experiences to come up with conclusions
based on general observations coming from occurrence that might give similar results. To
differentiate, Deductive reasoning began with a premise while Inductive reasoning begins with
a conclusion.
 Ex. Inductive Reasoning – Mark shows a golden ring to his friend Paul, Mark said he
will marry Martha therefor Paul thinks Martha will receive the ring.

3. Abductive Reasoning – is a method of reasoning in which one chooses the hypothesis

that would, if true, best explain the relevant evidence. It is a type of reasoning that gets
its conclusion in an abductive argument of what is possibly true. This type of logic is
also considered as inference to the best explanation. It is choosing the most likely or
best hypothesis or explanation based upon the most relevant evidence.
Ex. You wake up in the morning and you see that your roommate has left but you see a
half-eaten food in the kitchen then you abduce that he left early.

4. Reductive Reasoning – It is proving a statement true by reducing to the opposite of it

and showing the absurdity of the opposite result. A statement is true based on reducing
or showing the absurdity of the opposite result. It is also called Reductio ad absurdum
(Latin: “reduction to absurdity”).
Ex. People do not go to college because they don’t need it.
5. Fallacious Reasoning– It is not real reasoning it is the faulty premises for
critical thinking and logic.
Ex. God is love. love is blind ergo God is blind.

LESSON 2
The seven steps to moral ethical decisions

1. State the problem – what is the dilemma one is facing

2. Check the facts – find out if the problem can easily be solved by mere speculations alone
or there is still a need for a deeper means of resolving it.
3. Identify the relevant and irrelevant factors – there are things that are contributory in
answering the question but we have to separate from those that might help or not.
4. Develop the list of options – by options we mean sources beyond what we are aware of
that may be a list of sources person or books that might help in answering the dilemma.
5. Prepare test questions – that might give us possible solutions
6. Choose the best answer
7. If need be, review steps 1 – 6.

References and Supplementary Materials

Online Supplementary Reading Materials
Ethics
Human Reasoning 3
Course Module
1. Human Reason; https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/713;
2. God, Man and the Universe; http://scalar.usc.edu/works/god-man-and-
theuniverse/whatabout-human-reason; Written by: Christopher S. Espiritu, AMACC Caloocan
Campus