REASON AND IMPARTIALITY

WHEN DO WE MAKE ETHICAL DECISIONS?

- When we faced situation where there are no clear cuts or
obvious choices (moral dilemma)
- When situation cannot be determined by simple
quantitative analysis of data
- When you need to choose between good and better or bad
and worse.
- When reason and impartiality are present
REASON
- Humans have not only feelings but also reason, it plays an important role in Ethics as it is as a moral
truth
- Is reason a requirement for moral judgment? YES
- Reason is the power of the mind to think, understand and form judgment by a process of logic.
Reason (Immanuel Kant) alone is the basis for morality, and once a person understands this basic
requirement for morality, he or she would see that acting morally is the same as acting rationally.
- We cannot just rely on our feelings, no matter how powerful they might be
- Our feelings may be irrational and may be nothing but products of selfishness, prejudices and
cultural conditioning
- Our decisions must be guided by reason
- The morally right thing to do is always the best supported by arguments
How can we tell if an argument is really good?
- Moral judgments (arguments) must be backed up by good reasons
- Morality requires impartial consideration of each in individual’s interests.
IMPARTIALITY

- Is Impartiality a requirement for moral judgment? YES

- Impartiality is a broad concept, but it is also identified as a core value in professional code of
ethics.
- Impartiality is commonly understood as a principle of justice
- Impartiality is based on objective criteria (factual information) rather than on the basis of bias,
damage or preferring to benefit one person over another for improper reason
- Impartiality stresses that everyone is ought to be given equal importance and not favor one
class (people, animals or things) in a capricious way
- Impartiality-fairness
- Without being influenced by the sort of contaminating biases and prejudices
- Not influence by another party
- Exclusively being influenced by the considerations and resisting solicitation of any motive from
those which need to be considered.
FREEDOM
- Without personal freedom, any choice of action must be between options
laid down by another, instructing which option to select for which scenario
- Freedom is not doing whatever you want to do but doing what you ought
to do.
- What is at the very heart of the human person’s exalted place in creation?
It is the freedom to make moral choices, or “free will.”
- What is a common misunderstanding of freewill?
- The idea that freewill is the “freedom to do whatever one wants” is
erroneous.
- What is the authentic meaning of freewill?
- It is “freedom to do what one ought”
EXAMPLE:

During an exam you saw your friend (who is sitting next to you)
secretly opened her notebook to look for an answer on one of the
test questions. Your teacher noticed that your classmate was doing
something suspicious. He called your classmate and asked if she
was cheating. She closed her notebook and answered “NO”. Your
teacher did not trust your classmate’s answer so he asked you.
What will you say?
According to Philosopher and professor Dr. Rachel’s, For your
decision to be moral, you should think how your answer will affect
your friend, your teachers, the rest of your classmates, and how
will affect you as a person.
THEREFORE, an impartial choice involves basing on how all the
persons in the situation will be affected, and not to the advantage
of a particular party that you favor.
THE REQUIREMENT OF IMPARTIALITY
- Each individual’s interests are equally important, and no one should get special treatment
- If there is no good reason for treating people differently, then discrimination is unacceptably
arbitrary
 THUS, FOR THE QUESTION; ARE REASON AND IMPARTIALITY A
REQUIREMENT FOR MORALITY?
At the very least, it is the effort to guide one’s action based on the
moral logical choice (reason) while giving equal importance to the
interest of each person affected by your decisions (impartiality)
To sum up – REASON (Moral Logical Choice, deciding what to do,
what to act) plus IMPARTIALITY (equal importance based on
objective criteria or fairness) = MORALITY