UNIT 3

THE HUMAN ACT

 Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this learning episode, you are expected to:
• explain the role of feeling in moral decision-making;
• define reason impartiality as minimum requirements for morality; and
• distinguish between reason and will.
 Lesson 3:
Feeling as a
Modifier of Moral
Decision-Making
Feelings in Decision Making
• Feeling, in general, is an emotional state or reaction, experience of
physical sensation, like feeling of joy, feeling of warmth, love, affection,
tenderness, etc.
How do feelings affect

moral decision-making?
Feelings in Decision-Making
• Several studies conclude that up to 90% of the decisions we made are
based on emotion. We use logic to justify our actions to ourselves and to
others.
• Actual emotional states can influence the process of moral reasoning and
determine moral judgment.
• Feelings are instinctive and trained responses to the moral dilemma.
They can be obstacles to making the right decisions but they can also
help in making the right decisions.
 Feelings in Decision-Making
• Positive effects of feelings or emotions in decision-making:
 A total emotional decision is very fast in comparison to rational decision.
This is reactive (and largely subconscious) and can be useful when faced
with immediate danger, or in the decision of minimal significance.
 Emotions may provide a way for coding and compacting experience,
enabling faster response selection. This may point to why experts’ “gut”
level decisions have high accuracy rates.
 Decisions that start with logic may need emotions to enable the final
selection, particularly when confronted with near equal options.
 Emotions often drive us in directions conflicting with self-interest.
 Feelings in Decision-Making
• Negative effects of feelings or emotions in decision-making:
 We make quick decisions without knowing why, and then create rational
reasons to justify a poor emotional decision.
 Intensity of emotions can override rational decision-making in cases
where it is clearly needed.
 Immediate and unrelated emotions can create mistakes by distorting and
creating bias in judgments. In some cases, this can lead to unexpected
and reckless action.
 Projected emotions can lead to errors because people are subject to
systemic inaccuracy about how they will feel in the future.
 Moral Statements as Expression of Feelings
 According to some linguistic philosophers, called “emotivist” the
statement “stealing is wrong” is not a statement of fact, it is an expression
of desire or emotion.
 The rule or maxim “Stealing is wrong” means “I desire that you do not
steal.”
 An emotional statement is not verifiable like a factual statement.
Examples:
• “Pedro stole my cat.” (Verifiable. It can be established by evidence.)
• “Pedro’s act of stealing my cat is morally wrong” which is equivalent to
“I desire that Pedro should not steal” (Not verifiable)
 Moral Statements as Expression of Feelings
• Emotivism
- is the view that moral judgments do not function as statements of fact
but rather as expressions of the speaker’s or writer’s feelings.
- The emotivist thus goes further by saying that ethical statements being
emotional expressions are not verifiable.
- Emotional expressions are not assertions of what is true or false. They
are like expressions of taste.
 Managing Feelings

• Aristotle wrote:
“Anyone can get angry --- that is easy--- but to do this to the right
person, to the right extent, at the right time with the right motive, and
in the right way, this is not for everyone, nor it is easy.”

Your anger should not be displaced. The moral person manages his/her
feelings well.
 Lesson 4:
Reason and Impartiality
as Minimum
Requirements for
Morality
Requirement of Morality
 The minimum requirements of morality are reasons and impartiality.
- Moral judgments must be backed up by good reason and
impartiality.
- Morality requires the impartial consideration of each individual’s
interests.
Requirement of Morality
 Reason and impartiality
- Refer to a mental activity following the basic principle of consistency,
the lack of contradiction between one idea and another.
- It is a process of deriving a necessary conclusion from premises,
avoiding all forms of deception or fallacy of reasoning.
- Coherent reasoning is needed to establish the truth and
meaningfulness of moral judgments.
- “Morality requires impartial consideration of each individual’s
interest.” BIASES MUST BE SUSPENDED!
Scott Rae’s 7 Steps of Moral Reasoning

1. Gather the facts and information.

- Ask: do you have all the facts that are necessary to make a good
decision? What do we know? What do we need to know?
2. Determine the ethical issues, similar to “statement of the
problem.”
- Moral values and virtues must support the competing interests
(what create the dilemma) in order for an ethical dilemma to exist.
Scott Rae’s 7 Steps of Moral Reasoning

3. Determine what virtues/principles have a bearing on the case.

(Identifying the relevant factors)
- Determine if some should be given more weight than others.
4. List the alternatives or develop a list of options.
- It will help you come up with a broader selection of ideas.
5. Compare the alternatives with the virtues/ principles.
- This step eliminates alternatives as they are weighed by moral
principles which have a bearing on the case.
 Scott Rae’s 7 Steps of Moral Reasoning
6. Consider the consequences or test options.
- In general, the following may be used to test the options: (Davis, 1999)
a. Harm Test
b. Publicity Test
c. Defensibility test
d. Reversibility test
e. Colleague test
f. Professional test
g. Organization test
7. Make a decision.
- Choose the solution with the least number of problems/painful
consequences.
 Lesson 5:
Differences Between
Reason and Will
The Intellect and Will
• The moral person is endowed with an intellect and will.
• The will is what “disposes” what the “intellect proposes”.
• Reason conducts the study, research, investigation, and fact-finding.
• Will is the faculty of the mind that is associated with decision-making.
It’s the one that says yes or no.
• Jean Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, and the most popular
existentialist was saying that an individual person is nothing until
he/she starts making decisions.
The Intellect and Will
• Free will is the capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action
from among various alternatives.
- It is the ability to choose between different possible courses of
action unimpeded, the power or right to act, speak, or think as one
wants.
- One is free to the degree that he has energy, that is, physically free
to the degree that he is physically strong: materially or
economically free to the degree that he is materially or
economically strong, and so on.
1. Share 3 important things you
learned from our discussion.
2. 2 things you liked about our
topics.
3. Choose 1 person to pass on
the microphone.