Introduction 2

Lesson : Reasoning in Everyday Life

Key Ideas: Reasoning, Theoretical, Practical, Moral Agent, Moral

Patient, Freedom, Obligation, DMMR, REM

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 The Individual and Society
As what we have seen in the history of Mores, the morality of
one’s conduct is inevitably tied to the society. To fully illustrate
how this works, Plato’s The Republic once again gave an allegory
that further investigates upon the nature of morality. In Book II
where the famous Ring of Gyges story was narrated, Gyges was a
shepherd who found a golden ring that, whenever the gem of
the said ring was turned inward, could make him invisible. With
this power he seduced the queen, killed the king, and ruled over
Lydia. This allegory became the inspiration for stories such as The
Lord of The Rings and Hollow Man (2000).
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 The Individual and Society
The continuation (and variation) of the tale in The
Republic was that given two people, a righteous
one and a not-so righteous one, and each having
their own ring of invisibility, would they continue
doing what they do even if no one is watching
them? This additional twist goes to show that what
we usually think of what is “good” is always tied to
what we expect other people or society as a whole
to approve or not. 1
 The Individual and Society
Reiterating Plato’s philosophy such that the soul, for it to
gain immortality or to “reach the realm of wisdom,” must
not let itself be influenced by things that are temporary,
corruptible, and illusory, such is the physical world which
hinders us from reaching the higher level of reality (like
the chains in the Allegory of the Cave). Instead of relying
on mere perception, reason alone is sufficient to live a
good life. As influenced by the teachings of Socrates, to
“know thyself” is the true way in gaining wisdom and
living an ethical life. 1
 Reasoning and Its Role in Ethics
Reasoning comes in various forms. We reason either theoretically
or practically. The former focuses on understanding and
manipulating ideas and concepts to form knowledge (deals with
abstract thought). The latter focuses on the conduct we decide to
project into the world (deals with moral evaluation). As how
Aristotle defined them, we use Theoretical Wisdom in pursuit of
our intellectual aspect while we use Practical Wisdom in purist of
our moral aspect. The latter is thus the type of reasoning
employed in Ethics. Who are qualified in the practice of both
types of wisdom (particularly the latter since our subject is
Ethics)? 1
 Reasoning and Its Role in Society
Human Beings are the primary agents of concern in Ethics
due to their capacity to reason. This could be narrow
down further to Moral Agents who possess the freedom
and ability to choose and make rational decisions. On the
contrary, Moral Patients pertain to entities incapable of
making their own rational decision, thus the moral agent
makes the decision on their behalf. Moral patients include
children, elderly, mentally challenged, animals, plants,
even the environment.
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 Reasoning and Its Role in Society
Going back to Moral Agents, freedom and obligation
are said to be the necessary conditions in making
moral decisions. Freedom entails that an individual
is fully conscious and responsible for the outcome of
one’s decision and actions. Obligation on the other
hand concerns one’s duty to oneself to exercise
freedom in planning for one’s future. As a whole,
these two key elements help us in making moral
decisions. 1
 Reasoning and Its Role in Society
In making moral decisions there are two basic
models. The first model, referred to as Deductive
Model of Moral Reasoning (DMMR), follows a
deductive scheme that starts from a general rule
(Ethical Framework or Theory) that dictates what
should be considered as ethical or not, proceeded by
a specific example (human conduct), then concluded
with the evaluation of the example based on the
rule being used 1
 Reasoning and Its Role in Society
Example:
General Rule According to Immanuel
Kant, all acts of lying are
immoral
Specific act to be Rudy lied to his
evaluated constituents
Evaluation of act based on Rudy is immoral
general rule

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 Reasoning and Its Role in Society
The second model, referred to as Reflective Equilibrium
Model (REM), follows an inductive scheme that starts
from a specific scenario evaluated alongside relevant pre-
existing beliefs, eventually arriving at one‟s judgment of a
particular conduct, and in turn that decision formulated
by the individual could be revised and adjusted through
time due to the inclusion of new facts in order to apply to
new cases. This process aims to arrive at a coherent
decision making
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 Reasoning and Its Role in Society
Example:
Conflicting Rules Leni believes that lying is bad, yet she
does not want to hurt her friends
Arriving at a She lied (white lie) to her friend to not
compromise hurt her.
Newly adjusted rule Leni now believes that it is immoral to
lie except for some instances

As to what model should be use depends either on what the situation

calls for, the Ethical Framework being used, or on personal choice.
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 Challenges in Studying Ethics
There are several challenges in studying Ethics, some would question the
relevance of Ethics, the existence of ethical standards, and even the very
nature of Ethics as a subject.

1. Moral Subjectivism posits that since each individual has

their own ethical point of view, it would be useless to
settle disputes between clashing beliefs and rather just
agree to disagree. Since this sometimes highly depends on
a person’s background, it closely relates to Moral
Relativism.
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 Challenges in Studying Ethics

2. Moral Relativism, as opposed to Moral Subjectivism,

focuses on the differences in ethical point of view on a
societal level. In the same case with Ethical Subjectivism it
would be useless to compare and contrast groups that differ
in their Ethical Framework (diverse cultures and religious
beliefs). In addition, from the word relate, Moral Relativism
also talks about differences in ethical evaluations depending
on how one scenario relates to several factors. This
highlights the importance of context in ethical discussions.
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 Challenges in Studying Ethics

3. Equating Morality and Religion together

introduces the questions whether morality is
intrinsically dependent on religion or not,
and if it is possible to come-up with moral
standards void of any religious or divine
aspect.
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 Challenges in Studying Ethics

4. Equating Morality and Law together

introduces the question whether the law
should be the basis of morality (Is what is
legal also moral? Should all moral conducts
be legalized? Is it possible to have a lawless
but moral society?).
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 Challenges in Studying Ethics

5. Contrasting Morality and Biology with one another

question whether moral decisions are indeed crafted
by free will or they are just accidental causes of
biological adaptation due to natural selection and
other evolutionary processes. Is your moral decision
just a product of chance, or accident, or mere
animalistic urges? This topic challenges as well the
foundations of Social Sciences.
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 Challenges in Studying Ethics
6. Related to the former challenge, Is-Ought Fallacy (sometime interchanged
with the Naturalistic Fallacy) introduces the problematic derivation of the
prescription of an action (ought or what should/must be) from something
that occurs naturally or something that is merely described to be happening
(is). If everyone is doing it, why can’t we? It is common for politicians to
steal, does it mean they ought to steal if it has been, “normalized”? Should
we just tolerate widespread misconducts? In relation to the, “is-ought‟
distinction, it should be noted as well that it is a common (and
unacceptable) error when the words is and ought are used in one sentence
(the former is descriptive while the latter is prescriptive). Not only is it
grammatically incorrect, such statement utters no sense at all.
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 Ethics in Everyday Life
Ethics play a vital role in our daily life, from the basic decisions
we make when we wake up (Will I walk or ride the jeepney to
school? Will I even go to school or not? Should I go back to
sleep instead?) to long-term life plans (What do I want to be?
Should I do this for myself or for others? Should I do this for
the country, the world, the universe rather?). Applied or
Practical Ethics, the third approach in studying Ethics, is the
application of Ethical Frameworks to specific concerns, which
in turn helps us see them in action (thus practical).
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 Ethics in Everyday Life
Here are some examples:
Environmental Ethics deals with evaluating human conduct in
terms of environmental concern (Is this action also ethical for
animals, plants, nature, the environment as a whole?). It
branches out to different concerns such as Animal Liberation
(concern for animals), Biocentrism (concern for all forms of
life), Ecological Ethics (concern for the interrelation between
the biotic and abiotic community).
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 Ethics in Everyday Life
Here are some examples:
Biomedical Ethics or Bioethics deals with ethics in the
medical field. It concerns just distribution of medical aid
and prioritization of patients (Principle of Triage) and
ethics behind sensitive medical issues (consent, patient-
physician relations, surgery, blood transfusion,
euthanasia, abortion, definitions of life and death).

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 Ethics in Everyday Life
Here are some examples:
Other examples are Business Ethics (deals with
intrapersonal relationship, team building, corporate
duties and responsibilities, fair trade, business
confidentiality), Cyber Ethics (deals with the modern
age of the internet, focusing on data privacy, identity
theft, cyberbullying, cyberpornography, other forms of
cybercrimes), Journalism and Media Ethics (deals with
the delivery of truth void of any bias).
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