PHILO 1

THE ACT
FEELINGS AS INSTINCTIVE AND TRAINED
RESPONSE TO MORAL DILEMMAS
• Philosophical Insights on Feelings
• David Hume
– Philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist.
– Opposes most moral philosophers, ancient and
modern who argued to regulate actions using
reason and reason has dominion over feelings or
emotions
– Theory of the Mind
Four Theses of David Hume for Ethics
• Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but
rather is the “slave of the passions”.
• Moral distinctions are not derived from reason.
• Moral distinctions are derived from the moral
sentiments; feeling of approval (esteem, praise)
and disapproval (blame) felt by spectators who
contemplate a character trait or action.
• While some virtues and vices are natural, others
(including justice) are artificial.
David Hume maintained that:
• Although reason is needed to discover the facts of
any concrete situation, reason alone is insufficient to
yield judgment that something is virtues or vicious.
• A person gains awareness of moral good and evil by
experiencing pleasure of approval and the
uneasiness of disapproval. (similar to what moral
theorist argues)
• Humans have what we called passions (emotions or
feelings)
• Direct Passions
– Caused directly by the sensation of pain or
pleasure; the passion that “arises immediately
from good or evil, from pain or pleasure” that we
experience or expect to experience.
– E.g. desire, it is an immediate response to the
pleasure we expect to feel.
– Aversion, hope , fear, grief and joy.
• Indirect Passions
– Caused by sensation of pain or pleasure derived
from some other idea or impression.
– E.g. pride is a passion that emanated from the
pleasure you get for possessing something
admirable (intellect, physique, property, family
etc.)
• Pride, therefore, is but a result of the person, the object
of the passion, and the quality of the object.
– Humility, ambition, vanity, love, hatred, envy, pity,
malice, generosity.
• Hume acceded that there are instances
wherein passion can be unreasonable.
– We make mistake in our judgment or our decision
is wrong.
– It is not passion that can be called unreasonable
but the judgment or opinion that was wrong in the
first place.
– Once the judgment was corrected, “passion yields
a reason without any opposition”.
 Scheler and the Philosophy of Feelings
• Max Ferdinand Scheler
– German Ethical philosopher
– Popular with his contributions in phenomenology,
ethics, and philosophical anthropology.
– As a phenomenologist he sought to know what
comprised the structures of consciousness,
including that of mental acts such as feelings,
thinking, resolve etc. as well as inherent objects or
correlates of these mental acts such as values,
concepts and plans.
• Scheler believes that emotion is the most
important aspect in human existence.
– Emotions /feelings are inherent, objective and exists
even if you have not experience it before ( a priori).
– Feelings are independent of the mind; that it
corresponds to the Divine Plan.
– Emotions/feelings are not chaotic. It is actually
strict, exact and objective.
– Emotions follows a peculiar form of laws that you
cannot avoid and is obligated to follow
– He rejected the idea that feelings are in the
subconscious and asserted that it is actually the
“purest sphere” of human consciousness.
Four Strata of Feelings
• Sensual Feelings
– Involves bodily pain or pleasures
• Vital Feelings
– Life functions such as health, sickness, energy,
fatigue, etc.
• Psychic Feelings
– Feelings about aesthetics, justice, and knowledge
(scientific)
• Spiritual Feelings
– Deals with the Divine.
• Scheler argues that
– Among the four, it is the divine feeling alone is
intentional. It is directed to a special object or a
higher being that he attributed to as the Divine.
– Values of the holy is the highest of all the values
because it has the ability to endure through time.
– Spiritual feelings is the most important since it
possessed the nature of intent.
Difference Between Responses Based on
Reason and on Feelings
• Dr. James Rachels
– Philosopher and a professor
– Argues that in moral reasoning, you could not rely
on your feelings no matter how powerful these
feelings may be.
– Feelings can be irrational and merely a product of
your prejudice, selfishness, or cultural conditioning.
– The morally right thing to do is one that is
supported by rational arguments.
• An argument is reasonable if:
– The facts are correct.
– The moral principles are correctly applied.
– Each individual’s well-being is treated equally
important.
What is the role of feelings in decision
making?
• Reason plays a role in making decision.
Philosophers encourage the use of reason in
making moral decisions.
• However, it should be noted that moral
compasses are also powerfully influenced by
feelings.
• Hume claimed that in any given situation a
person would act based on emotions rather
than reason.
• On several instances, reasoning in moral
decisions is preceded by an initial intuition or
gut-feel.
– In choosing between studying and partying before
an exam you already feel negative emotions (guilt,
worry) just thinking about going out rather than
studying.
• Alfred Jules Ayer described two elements in
moral judgment.
• Emotive Element
– It means expressing positive feelings towards a
particular act. E.g. “Kindness is good” meant you feel
positive about acts of kindness. When you feel
positively about an act, you do not only do the act
you also feel the act should be encourage that others
may follow.
• Prescriptive Element
– “Be kind to others”
– It is an instruction or prescription of a particular
behavior.
Why feelings can be obstacles to making the
right decisions?
A. The non-deliberate nature of feelings
– Deliberate means the act was intentional, planned,
with conscious effort.
– Non-deliberate is the contrary term that denotes
spontaneous actions.
• It is doing something without thinking through.
– Common excuse for doing grossly undesirable acts
was “being overcome by emotions” in that customary
restraints failed ( “I couldn't help myself”, “I totally
blanked out”, “I felt overwhelmed”, “I don’t know, I
just felt like doing it”).
• Aaron Be’en Zeev summarized the non-deliberate
nature of feelings as follows:
• Responsibility entails free choice; if we are not free to
behave in a certain manner, then we are not
responsible for this behavior.
• Free choice entails an intellectual deliberation in which
alternatives are considered and the best one is chosen.
Without such consideration, we clearly not understand
the possible alternatives and are not responsible for
preferring one of them.
• Since intellectual deliberation is absent from emotions,
we cannot be responsible for our emotions.
B. The partial nature of feelings
– Emotions notoriously play favorites. It operates
on a principle called “the law of concern”.
• Emotions give focus only on matters of personal
interest, it is quiet when it is of no interest.
– There are two aspects in the partial nature of
emotions:
• Decisions based on feelings focus only on narrow area.
• It reflects personal and self-interest perspective.
 Decisions based on feelings focus on a
narrow area
• Emotions influence our attention. Thus, it
governs what attracts and hold attention.
• Emotions make us preoccupied with specific matters
and we become oblivious to everything else.
• Example of this is the feeling of “being in
love”.
Emotions reflects personal and self-interest
perspective.
• It addresses subjective concerns and takes
action primarily to satisfy such concern.
• A highly partial perspective is interested only
in the immediate situation; no rational
explanations from a broader perspective.
C. The capricious nature of feelings
– Emotions rises up from for arbitrary reasons.
– Example is, you did not give money to an old
beggar asking for alms simply because she tugged
at your shirt and startled you.
– Aspects or situations that have nothing to do in
moral situations could rile up your emotion, and
this emotion will certainly affect your subsequent
moral judgment.
How emotions help in making the right
decision?
• Studies that suggests that emotions are the foundation
of all our cognitive and behavioral processes; and
emotional responses often guide a person in making
beneficial choices without any conscious reasoning.
– Non-conscious biases guide behavior before conscious
knowledge does.
• Emotions could help in making better choices, even
without consciously reasoning these choices out.
– Negative feelings make the perfect occasion to develop
emotional responses and aligned it to moral attitudes and
goals.
Three ways that negative feelings help in
making the right decision
• It signals the need to adjust behavior.
• It can help us learn from our mistakes.
• Emotional responses can be reshaped as time
pass by.
How emotions help in making the right
decision?
• Emotions serve as red flag. It signals that
something is happening and that it needs
attention.
– Physiological processes are heightened when
incorrect judgments were made. Those who spend
more time deliberating on his or her mistake are
more likely to correct his or her behavior.
How emotions help in making the right
decision?
• Negative feelings are integral to our ability to
learn. The surge of negative emotions trigger
“counterfactual thinking”.
– This is a psychological concept about human
tendency to create a possible or alternative scenarios
other than what had actually happened.
– Counterfactual thinking is supported by evidence
that focusing on the action, rather than on the
shortcomings or weaknesses can result in making
better choices in similar encounters in the future.
How emotions help in making the right
decision?
• Behavior can be changed, emotional responses can be
deliberately altered.
– The psychological state of “mindfulness”, where you give active
an active and open attention to personal thoughts and feelings
show that, with some effort, emotional reactions can be
brought in accord with your beliefs and goals,
• Emotions are powerful and unavoidable. Upsurge is
natural. However it should not control behavior nor
should prevent it.
• What we do with our feelings is what makes us ethical or
unethical.
Why should human beings be moral?
Why should I do what is right?
• Here are some of the compelling reasons:
– It is enlightened self-interest- “I will be better off”
– It is a traditional law- “Because some authority says so”
– It is a responsibility- “it is expected of me”
– It is what is fair and equitable- “It is about fairness and
justice”
– People have a shared human needs, goals, desires,
and/or objectives; and these are better met when
people treat each other in a manner that promotes
what is right and good.
Is reason a requirement for morality?
• Reason is defined as the power of the mind to
think, understand, and form judgments by a
process of logic (Merriam-Webster).
• Reason is the basis or motive for an action,
decision, or conviction.
• Immanuel Kant
– He argued that reason alone is the basis of morality.
– Once a the person understood the basic requirement
of morality, he or she would see acting morally is the
same as acting rationally.
• Immanuel Kant
– His definition of morality alone shows that a
person must decide what to do.
– We should be able to think and reflect on different
actions and then choose what action to take. A
moral decision means mere desire did not force us
to act in a particular manner, we acted on the
power of our will.
Is impartiality a requirement for morality?

• Impartiality
– It is a broad concept.
– Core value in professional code of ethics.
– It is commonly understood as a principle of justice.
– It denotes that a decision should be based on objective
criteria rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or
preferring to benefit one person over another for improper
reason.
– It stresses that everyone ought to be given equal
importance and not favor one class (people, animals, or
things) in a capricious way.
Are reason and impartiality a requirement for
morality?

• Morality “at the very least is the effort to

guide one’s action based on the most logical
choice (reason) while giving equal importance
to the interest of each person affected by your
decisions (impartiality)”. Dr. James Rachels
The 7-step Moral Reasoning Model
• A key distinguishing factor of moral dilemma is
that it typically arises when individuals or groups
might be harmed, disrespected, or unfairly
disadvantaged.
• The 7-step moral reasoning model is not a formula
that will automatically generate the “right” answer
to a moral dilemma but a guideline in ascertaining
that all the right questions are being asked in the
process of ethical deliberation.
The 7-step Moral Reasoning Model
• Gather the facts
• Identify the stakeholders
• Articulate the dilemma
• List the alternatives
• Compare the alternatives with the principles
• Weigh the consequences
• Make a decision
Moral Courage
• Moral Courage
– The courage to put your moral principles into action
even though you maybe in doubt, are afraid, or face
consequences.
– It means doing the right thing even at the risk of
inconvenience, ridicule, punishment, loss of job or
security or social status.
– Involves careful deliberation and mastery of the self.
– It is essential not for only a virtuous life, but also a
happy one because integrity is essential to self-esteem.
• Mark Johnson
– A philosopher
– Acting morally often requires more than just
strength of character.
– “An ability to imaginatively discern various
possibilities for acting within a given situation to
envision the potential help and harm that are
likely to result from a given action”.
• Moral Imagination
• Moral Imagination
– It is the ability in particular circumstances to
discover and evaluate possibilities not merely
determined by that circumstance, or limited by its
operative mental mode or merely framed by a set
of rules or rule-governed concerns. ( Werhane
1999)
– It is a necessary component for moral decision
making.
How can one practice moral courage?
• Will
– It does not refer to any particular desire. But rather
to the capacity to act decisively on one’s desire.
– It is important as one of the distinct parts of the
mind, along with the reason and understanding.
– It is important in ethics because of its central role in
enabling a person to act deliberately.
– In the active sense, will is self-control, of working
toward and attaining goals.
• Arthur Schopenhauer
– A German philosopher.
– He explained that when we are conscious of
ourselves, we recognized that our essential qualities
are endless, urging, striving, wanting and desiring.
• These are the features of the will.
– Will is the innermost essence, the kernel, of every
particular thing and also of the whole. It appears in
every blindly acting force of nature, and also in the
deliberate conduct of man.
– Will is primary and uses knowledge in order to find
an object that will satisfy its craving.
• Aristotle
– The soul in living creatures is distinguished by two
functions, the judging capacity which is a function
of the intellect and of the sensation combined,
and the capacity for exciting movement in space.
• Will is the product of intellect and sensation.
• Will gave the person the capacity for “exciting
movement in space”
• Will Power
– It refers to the inner strength to make a decision,
take action, and handle and execute any aim or
task until it is accomplished, regardless of inner
and outer resistance, discomfort or difficulties.
– It bestows the ability to overcome laziness,
temptations and negative habits, and to carry out
actions, even if they require effort, are unpleasant
and tedious or are contrary to one’s habits.
• Moral Courage demands us to make
judgments about what behavior or acts are
supportive of our ethical ideologies or highest
ideals, and which ones are destructive.
• Moral courage and will require us to recognize
our responsibilities and be accountable to the
consequences of our own actions.
Moral Courage sounds like;
• I believe strongly in _________
• That joke was offensive to women/Muslims/the disabled/etc.
• Let’s volunteer
• Dad, I'm in trouble
• I am going to campaign for __________
• It’s not fair that ____________
• I broke this, Mom sorry
• I’ll march with you
• No, thanks, I don’t want to hear a secret
• You shouldn’t talk behind his/her back
Lack of Moral Courage sounds like;
• It’s none of my business
• She got what she deserved
• That’s got nothing to do with me
• How could you do this to me
• It’s not for me to judge
• I only did once
• This is all your fault
• Just let it slide
Developing Will and Moral Courage
• Develop and practice self-discipline.
• Do mental strength training.
• Draw inspiration from people of great
courage.
• Repeatedly do acts that exhibit moral courage
and will.
• Avoid deeds that show lack of moral courage
and will.