GROUP 4

UNIT 4: FRAMEWORKS & PRINCIPLES BEHIND OUR MORAL DISPOSITION

ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS are perspectives useful for reasoning what course of action may
provide the most moral outcome. In many cases, a person may not use a reasoning process
but rather do what they simply feel is best at the time. Others may reflexively use a principle
they learned from their family, peers, religious teachings or own experiences. The study of
ethics has provided many principles that can aid in ethical decision making.

 Utilitarianism
 Natural Law
 Deontology
 Virtue Ethics
 Justice, Love and Fairness

UTILITARIANISM

 is anethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the determination of
the right behaviour based on the usefulness of the action’s consequences.
Utilitarianism is consequentialist
 Its root word is “utility” which refers to the usefulness of the consequence of one’s
action and behavior.
 It holds that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it
produce sadness, or the reverse of happiness- not just happiness of the actor but
that everyone affected by it.
 Jeremy Bentham ( 1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806- 1873) are the
two foremost utilitarian thinkers. For Bentham and Mill, utility refers to a way of
understanding the resulting happiness in the world.

The Principle of Utility

In the book an Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), Jeremy
Bentham begins by arguing that our actions are governed by two “sovereign masters” –
which he calls pleasure and pain.

Felicific calculus is a common currency framework that calculates the pleasure that some
actions can produce.

Principles of the Greatest Number

Equating happiness with pleasure does not aim to describe the utilitarian moral agent alone
and independently from others. This is not only about our individual pleasures, regardless of
how high, intellectual, or in other ways noble it is, but it is also about the pleasure of the
greatest number affected by the consequences of our actions.

NATURAL LAW

According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two

fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
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time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic

moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
 GROUP 4

done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
According to St. Thomas, Natural Law is based on the two
fundamental authority the Bible and Aristotle. Aquinas described
natural law as a moral code existing within the purpose of
nature, created by God. For him, morality is accessible through
natural order given by God. It is universal and relevant to all
situations and accessible to all. It is unchanging and for all
time, whether or not they believe in God. The Aquinas’ basic
moral law can be best described by the following, “Good is to be
done and pursued… and evil to be avoided. All the other precepts
of the law of nature are based on this. (Do good and avoid evil).
 In its simplest form, refers to a type of moral theory that asserts the existence of
objective, universal morals laws that we can decipher through plain reason and
logic.
 It is tied to ancient philosophy and underpins many world religions, such as Ten
Commandments. It posits that there is a higher moral order that transcends
human-made laws.

PROPONENTS OF NATURAL LAW

 Prominent scholars, such as ARISTOTLE and THOMAS AQUINAS, were influential

in developing and refining the concept of Natural Law.

ARISTOTLE

 First to introduce the concept of natural justice

 He also argued for “telos” or purpose in all natural things.

THOMAS AQUINAS

 Expanded this concept to merge Christian theology with Greek

philosophical thoughts.
 He emphasized God as the divine law giver.

EXAMPLES:

 Human dignity
 Prohibition of Theft
 Prohibition of Murder
 Right to Self-defense
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 The Moral Law of Truth

The Context of the Christian Story

The fundamental truth maintained and elaborated by Aquinas in all his works is the promise
right at the center of the Christian faith: that we are created by God in order to ultimately
return to Him.

 These are three parts to this voluminous work. In the first part, Aquinas speaks of
God, and although we acknowledge that our limited human intellect cannot fully
grasp Him, we nevertheless are able to say something concerning His goodness, His
might, and His creative power.
 The second part, which deals with man or the dynamic of human life. This
characterized by our pursuit of happiness, which we should realize rests ultimately
not on any particular good thing that is created by God, but in the highest good
which is God Himself.
 The third part focuses on Jesus as our Savior.

DEONTOLOGY

 Deontology comes from the Greek word deon, which means “being necessary”.
Hence deontology refers to the study of duty and obligation.
 It maintains that the wrongness of action is intrinsic, or resides in the kind of action
that it is, rather than the consequences it brings about.

IMMANEUL KANT

 The main proponent of deontology is Immanuel Kant (1742-1804). He was a

German Enlightenment philosopher who wrote one of the most important works on
moral philosophy, Groundworks towards Metaphysics of Morals (1785).
 Kant brings out attention to the fact that human beings have the faculty called
rational will, which is the capacity to act according to principles that we determine
for ourselves.
 Rational Will- refers to the faculty to intervene in the world, to act in a manner
that is consistent with our reasons.
 Agency- which is the ability of a person to act based on her intentions and mental
states.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERFECT AND IMPERFECT DUTIES

(ACCORDING TO KANT)

 Perfect Duties - duty of refrain from lying.

- obligate us strictly.

 Imperfect Duties – duty of beneficence.

-it is open; people are sometimes required to do good for others, but not always.
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TWO CLASSES OF DUTIES

 GENERAL OBLIGATIONS- Include many of commandments endorsed by
the Judao-Christian religious thinking.
 SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS- Are obligations which are derived from one’s
having made a promise, signed a contract, or as a result f occupying a social
role such as being a teacher or doctor or a parent.

VIRTUE ETHICS

ristotle defines the supreme good as an

activity of the rational soul in accordance
with virtue. Virtue for the Greeks is
equivalent to excellence. A man has
virtue as a flautist, for instance, if he plays
the flute well, since playing the flute is the
distinctive activity of a flautist.
 Virtue ethics is the ethical framework that is concerned with understanding the good
as a matter of developing the virtuous character of a person. It focuses on the
formation of one’s character brought about by determining and doing virtuous act.
 The oldest ethical theory in the world, with origins in Ancient Greece.
 It defines good actions as one that display embody virtuous character traits, like
courage, loyalty or wisdom.
 A virtue itself is a disposition to act, think and feel in the certain ways.

TWO MAJOR THINKERS:

 For PLATO, the real is outside the realm of any human sensory experience but can
somehow be grasped by one’s intellect. On the other hand, for ARISTOTLE, the real
is found within our everyday encounter with objects in the world. Therefore, the
truth and the good cannot exist apart from the object and are not independent of
our experience.

Three Directions of Virtue Ethics

 Eudaimonism- bases virtues in human flourishing, where flourishing is equated

with performing one’s distinctive function well. Furthermore, some things are done
for their own sake and some things are done for the sake of other things. Aristotle
claims that all things are ends in themselves also contribute to a wider end, an end
that is the greatest of all good. That is good eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is happiness,
contentment, and fulfilment.
 Agent-Based Theory- It emphasizes that virtues are determined by common-sense
intuitions that we as observers judge to be admirable traits in other people.
 Ethics Of Care- it was proposed predominantly by feminist thinkers. It challenges
the idea that ethics should focus solely on the justice and autonomy; it argues that
more feminine traits, such as caring and nurturing, should also be considered.

JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS

 Justice, for many people, refers to fairness. But while justice is important to almost
everyone, it means different things to different groups. For instance, social justice is
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the notion that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social opportunities
irrespective of race, gender, or religion.

 Fairness means is the product of moral judgement, the process by which people
determine what is morally right and what is morally wrong.

Principles of Fairness

 Treat all people equitably based on their merits and abilities and handle all essentially
similar situations similarly and with consistency.
 Make all decisions on appropriate criteria, without undue favoritism or improper
prejudice.
 Never blame or punish people for what they did not do and appropriately sanction
those who violate moral obligations or laws.
 Promptly and voluntarily correct personal and institutional mistakes and
improprieties.
 Not taken unfair advantage of people mistakes or ignorance.

Justice vs. Fairness

In the context of conflict, the terms 'justice' and 'fairness' are often used
interchangeably. Taken in its broader sense, justice is action in accordance with the
requirements of some law. In its narrower sense, justice is fairness. It is action that pays
due regard to the proper interests, property, and safety of one's fellows. While justice in the
broader sense is often thought of as transcendental, justice as fairness is more context-
bound.

Principles of Justice and Fairness

The principles of justice and fairness can be thought of as rules of "fair play" for
issues of social justice. Whether they turn out to be grounded in universal laws or ones that
are more context-bound, these principles determine the way in which the various types of
justice are carried out.