CHAPTER 4. THE IMPORTANCE OF FEELINGS The task of this chapter is to explain the importance of both reason and feeling in every moral decision- making. Many thinkers in the past made no recognition of the role of feelings in the moral evaluation because feelings tend to be biased to what it used to or what it liked to feel. History would tell us that reason had a full recognition as the authority and the primary, if not the only basis of any act of moral evaluation. As time passed by, few great minds had tried to deal into the mystery of human emotion. From these different attempts, we have discovered the huge role of feelings in our desire to address moral dilemmas and to understand the complications of human action. Hence, feeling is indispensable in every decision-making. ‘We have learned from the previous chapter how the culture contributed to the formation of the moral standard of every human being, The ethical standard that we have, is patterned from the kind of morality, which we picked up from the community where we are coming from. Our choice of what is right and wrong is determined by how we exposed to the concept of right and wrong.Activity: Recall an emotionally-charged experience (not necessarily a moral dilemma) that you would want to share with a confidant in the class - Triad 1. Class discussion after the sharing: a. How did you feel sharing your experience? b. What did you learn of yourself in sharing the experience? ¢. What did you learn of the other in listening to their experience. (Choose one member to share in the class) “Never make decisions on temporary feelings.” This statement sounds diché but a good start to talk about the role of feelings in every decision-making. The introductory statement is often used by people who tried to remind others regarding the possible regrettable effect of a decision made out from the rashness of feeling. We usually heard the reminder from the people who had a personal experience of a lamentable effect of a decision out from intense emotion. These people are not necessarily the moral exemplars in our society, but they have been to various situations which make them familiar of the different human-life struggle. Most of these people are family members like parents, elders, co-workers, friends, and sometimes literary figures. What is wrong with feelings that it chould not be the basis of any decision-making? German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), one of the leading ethical theorists in the history of human kind, gave high regard to reason as the foundation of any form of ethical evaluation. Genuine morality is based on moral law and moral laws are based on.reason. Reason is universal because it has a priori foundation. This means that what is moral is not dependent on empirical data or object, which the emotion is connected to. What is good is good whether we fecl that it is good or not. Feelings, therefore, chould not be the basis of morality or any moral evaluation and decision-making because “it is far from having an absolute worth” due to its dependence on the human experience. However, is it a fair treatment to fecling:? The succeeding paragraphs give another perspective about the role of feelings in every moral decision-making, There are two arguments to considerin this part of the paper. First, there is objectivity in feeling opposite to the claim of some moralist, including Kant, that feeling is simply subjective. Second, fecling is necessary in every moral decision-making because humans arenot only rational, but emotional creatures. Most people, ifnotall decide in consideration with the emotion. It might not be reliable to depend our decision from feelings, but it could contribute to how we decide in most situations. Virginia Held sums up: “caring, empathy, feeling with others, being sensitive to each other's feelings, all maybe better guides to what morality requires in actual contexts than may abstract rules of reason, or rational calculation, or at least they may be necessary components of an adequate morality (Rachels, p. 150).” This topic uses Max Scheler’s phenomenology of feelings and Mengzi’s reflections on the functions of feelings and reason in the cultivation of virtues, to construe the importance of feelings in moral decision-making,Max Scheler owed a lot from his predecessor, fellow Germen philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), the success of his work: “Phenomenology of Feclings.” Originally, phenomenclogy for Huser! is a method which suggests “bracketing of presuppositions,” or “epoche.” The general idea is that it is only when both the subject and the object of consciousness are pure and free from any unnecessary features that a direct seeing of the essences is possible Gripaldos, p. 128). Scheler, however, made a unique interpretation of phenomenology. He did not look at phenomenology as a method, rather as an attitude. Phenomenological attitude is necessary for humans to look at, to go into, and to know the object-in-itself. ‘Epoche’ or ‘disengagement’ is a necessary attitude to have a knowledge of the essence of an object. To disengage is to participate in the essence of an object. Disengagement can be only done by the love of the world, It means to say that our love towards the different objects in the world and the world-itself, motivate us to participate and to delve into the nature of an object. This concept of love by Scheler is likened to Gilligan's language of care. These two terms are similar in a sense that they are both attitudes which establish connection between the one expressing the feeling and the object of feeling. Thus, disengagement is an act out of loving to know the world, to know the objects in the world, and to participate and value of their existence. This object of experience is, for Scheler, the bearer of values (Driver, 2014). Valuing the object is giving meaning to an object. The manner of giving meaning to an object is an act not of the intellect but of the emotion, an act of the heart.However, if objects of experience are bearers of values, how does it answer the doubt about the subjectivity of feelings? Tt seems that ethical values are nothing but subjective preference. To dlarify the issue, Scheler cited two basic emotional acts: Love and Hate, and Brentano's two characteristics of values: Positive and Negative. Love reveals the highest and most profound significance of an object which we are attracted of. Hate, on the other hand, is a movement of distraction which pushes man to move away from the object. Positive values are characteristics of an object which entice man to participate with the object's existence, while negative values are what an object ought not to be. In this sense, values are in hierarchy(ranking). Objects provide us the value of pleasure(pleasant/ unpleasant), utility(noble/vulgaz), vitality(beautiful/ugly), and spirituality (holy/unholy). Pleasure is the lowest form of valuing and holiness is the highest. Objects with higher values are to be preferred than lower values. The act of value-preferencing is a priori by nature, Value-preferencing is not given before experience but present in the experience of the specific value modalities (Driver, 2014). Consequently, feeling is important in every moral decision-making because it is the ‘heart that can validate and determine the value of an object or an action. Indeed, reason teaches human that there is an object with highest value, while the heart makes us prefer objects with the highest value. The feeling makes us aware of what we are involved in. So much more that feeling makes us relate with others’ feeling too ‘More than that, feeling is an important aspect of any moral decision-making because feelings connect with the value of an object in experience. Through feeling, the object with positive and highest value is preferred and chosen rather than the object with negative and lower values. But, this does not mean that choosing objects with lower values are wrong, “There is no problem if we choose objects with lower values as long as it does not displace the objects with higher values (Dy, p. 98).” eg, one decides to go to bar after having a heavy workload and stressful day. We can love anything that is good or has value. There is no wrong in loving because “it is an act of participating and putting meaning” to an object in experience. The error comes in the exercise of the feeling which is supposed not to be. It means that, evil is committed when humans prefer to choose negative values, than positive values and to love objects with lower values over higher values. e.g. students cheat during exam prefer the value of passing through cheating over the value of honesty and dignity.Further, choosing positive values over negative values and higher values over lower values is not an easy task. Although it is a priori to prefer positive values over negative values, our human nature is conditioned by the environment where we are situated. While some people are molded with good values, others are brought up with bad practices. Thus, in value preference, some people have the huge tendency to prefer objects with lower values rather than objects with lower values. However, Mengyi pointed out; “to assure that human being would prefer objects with higher values, he must be conditioned to cultivate in him the moral feelings which serve as a foundation of virtue.” The basicmoral feelings are compassion, shame, deference, and right and wrong, These moral feelings are called “sprouts” which will turn into a virtue. ‘The seed of compassion develops in human the virtue of benevolence; shame forms in human the virtue of righteousness; deference evolves in human the virtue of propriety; and right and wrong unfolds in human the virtue of wisdom. The actuality of the moral feelings is only possible through the help of a guiding principles. The principles are the doctrines which allow these feelings to mature into a virtue. Besides, the participation of the members of the society are indispensable in the formation and the moral maturity of the young, The elders and the moral exemplars in the family and in the community are necessary to serve as a good example to the people especially the young. The moral exemplars are those who have gone to difficult situations and ethically-challenging conditions but chose to stay faithful and committed to what is true and moral. Feeling, therefore, is important in every ethical decision-making because it has gone through a complex process of cultivation. This process makes feeling a reliable basis of moral evaluation. More than that, feelings direct human decision to prefer objects with higher values over objects with lower values. The preference of a higher value is an act of the heart rather than of the mind. In addition, feelings make our decision more authentic and personal. We can always provide good arguments to justify our decision to convince others that our decision is the right one, yet we can never deny to our self whenever we are bothered with our decision. The feeling of being bothered pagkabagabag signaled a moral problem in our decision. Whenever we feel bothered by our decision, we are, once again invited to reevaluate our previous decision. If itis still possible to undo the things that we had already decided, better consider the option. When there is no chance to change our decision, the invitation is to learn from the situation to avoid committing the same mistake again.