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CHAPTER 4

THE MORAL PERSON

Moral reasoning Moral feeling

Principalistic ethics form Ethical dimension Moral form Situational ethics form

Moral action

THE MORAL PERSON


MORAL CONTENT

Human Characteristics
Feeling of guilt & disapproval Intrinsic motivation Believed importance

Societal Rules Protecting human rights


Developing intellect

Admiration and esteem


Special terminology Believed justification

Avoiding moral deviation


Protecting human life Raising standard of living

Preserving social order Preserving peace Saving time and energy

INTRODUCTION

Many views about Moral Concept and Moral Educational Concept are multidimensional. SUGARMAN (1973) says A person view will influence his way of thinking and his life and subsequently shape his approach to morality. The way a teacher or a parent educates his pupils or children will be influenced by his views on the concept of morality.
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For instance, a parent who sees morality as a human obligation in following the rules and the law will behave like a dictator who is unlikely to compromise when teaching his children about morality in life. If that parents consider morality as a relative values which can be weighed one against another, it is likely that he will allow his children to have free choice of moral values and decide between right and wrong. This compromising attitude of parents is considered more democratic.

In this chapter, we will discuss the concept of moral from three aspects, i.e, Moral Content, Moral Form and Moral Dimension. At the end of the topics we can see how they relate to the formation of a moral person.

MORAL CONTENT

Moral or ethics has a content. The contents divided into two aspects

Societal Rules

Human Characteristics

SOCIETAL RULES Human being require rules which place certain restraints on their freedom to act in order that the safety and human rights of others can be protected. D. EMMET (1966) in his book Rules, Roles and Relations says that human rules do not exist by themselves, but are compiled from old and new knowledge and experience in human life. He also says people tend to observe customary rules and traditional codes in their relationship with other people. Such rules save time because they provide a reference. For people when they make choices or decision in their daily life. However we need to understand the role of rules that are universally 7 considered as a moral in society.

ROBERT B. ASHMORE (1987) in his book Building a Moral System says that all matters in the natural worlds act according to certain rules and laws. For instance at physical objects act according to the law of gravity. Such laws enable us to predict how a natural body will react. However, besides these natural rules, human being can choose the way they react to a rule, a law or a principle. Humans have the ability to determine their objectives in life according to certain situations, and design rules to achieve these objectives. However, they can also contravene the rules that themselves have fixed. Praise and condemnation, reward and punishment are intended to validate the rules and limit human actions.
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The moral issues experienced first by an individual are the customary rules and regulations that form the mores of a society. Such customs are not merely habitual ways of action, but are also ways that are validated by a human group. They have a prescriptive force which not only imposes conduct and behavior in the community, but also explains how one should act.

Customary Rules and regulations provide customary morality which is different from reflective morality. Customary Morality Customary morality refers to standards or rules of our ancestors. An individual accepts and act accordingly because they are prescribed norms. These customary morality cannot be disobeyed or challenged. An individual is expected to conduct himself within the boundaries of customary morality.

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Reflective Morality Reflective morality calls for reasoning and consideration of the individual. The main thing about reflective morality is to be familiar with the reasoning and then to observe or oppose the customary rule. This leads to the formation specific criteria to judge the way to act. Here, the justification of the customary directions must be carefully considered. Reflective morality stresses on reasoning to observe and examine customary rules before 10 acting on them.

LIST OF RULES OF SOCIETY/NORMS TO BE DISCUSSED CUSTOMARY/REFLECTIVE TYPES OF MORALITY ONES CANT GIVE CLOCKS TO PEOPLE ON THEIR BIRTHDAY(SIGN OF DEATH) LADIES SHOULD ONLY BE TAKING CARE OF THE FAMILY & NOT ALLOWED TO WORK DONT WEAR RED SHIRT WHEN ATTENDING FUNERALS NEVER OPEN AN UMBRELLA INSIDE THE HOUSE (SIGN OF BADLUCK) CANT MARRIED IF THE COUPLE GOT A SAME SURNAME (RISK OF GETTING DISABLE BABY)

CHILDREN MARRIAGE CONTROLLED BY THE PARENTS

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Hence, the main difference between customary morality and reflective morality is not what is believed but the reason that believe is preserved. So, customary morality always defends itself with statements like This is traditional or This is the way we act or This is how we have been taught
We can say in a moral system, the conduct of an individual is rule-governed, i.e, that all actions of a similar kind are considered in the same way. Consistency and reciprocity mark the attitude of a moral agent towards his own action, and that of another person, i.e, he will use moral language like justice, honor, benevolence and temperance. His moral system will also cover both general as well as specific norms.

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For example, the welfare and needs of other people are things that will be given attention to by the moral agent. He considers himself in the same way as he considers other people and he sympathizes with other people. Such an individual realizes that there is a need for people in the community to form criteria to streamline interaction between one another and that an agreement can be achieve based on mutual needs.

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The importance and functions rules of society

Improve the standard of living of the people. Develop the intellectual capacity of the people so that the function more effectively. Protect human life Defend human rights and peoples welfare Prevent degradation in behavior and morals of the society

Stabilize condition in the society Create and preserve social order Maintain peace in the society Preserve social harmony, and Save time and effort when making decisions for oneself or other people
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Nevertheless, it is difficult for all the people to follow all the rules of the society and we cannot force anyone to do so. Therefore, when some people do not follow a certain rule, but oppose it, we can only hope that they can quickly find a way to settle the matter by forming a new rule that is acceptable to everyone. In conclusion, the aims of rules of the society in preserving peace and in ensuring harmony are of equal importance. As moral individuals we cannot overlook this.

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ADAT PERPATIH
The name 'Adat Perpatih' is derived from Datuk Parapatieh Nan Sebatang, a nickname used by Sutan Balun. Adat Perpatih was introduced in Negeri Sembilan subsequent to the migration of the Minangkabau in the 14th century. The custom is practised by twelve clans (the biggest family unit) which are Biduanda, Batu Hampar, Paya Kumboh, Mungkal, Tiga Nenek, Sri Melenggang, Sri Lemak, Batu belah, Tanah Datar, Anak Melaka, Anak Acheh and Tiga Batu. RULES & REGULATION

Adat Perpatih has its own unique rules regarding the matrimonial ceremony, divorce and inheritance
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For example, a man is prohibited from marrying a women of his clan MAN is required to live at his wife's place and be part of his wife's suku. marriage between maternal first cousin are also prohibited Wealth in Adat Perpatih is divided into four; harta pembawaan (wealth owned by the wife before marriage), harta dapatan (wealth owned by the wife after marriage) , harta carian (wealth gained by the couple after marriage) and harta pesaka (inherited wealth). Property acquired during marriage is shared Property inherited is set to one side Personal property is taken back when a wife passes away.

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GROUP DISCUSSION AND ACTIVITIES Imagine that a visitor from a different culture is coming to your country. You are going to draw up a list of eight tips about social behaviour. Make a list of ideas under the following headings: Addressing people Meeting and greeting Gestures Public behaviour An invitation to someones house At a meal Dress code Other important dos and don'ts

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HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS
An individual should have virtuous characteristics that distinguish him as a moral person. This statement is important and supported by many philosophers.

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J.D WALLACE (1978) says that virtuous characteristics is important to a person and to his tranquility in life in the society.

Z.FENG (1993) says that the development of a virtuous character in a pupil during lesson in school should be the main aim of the curriculum of Moral Education. Educationist in Western countries agree that virtuous character should be the main moral content in the shaping of an individual. 19

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Richard B.Brandt (1979) in his book A theory of the Good and the right calls this system is moral code or ethical code of an individual or a society. The ethical code of an individual is the conscience of the individual, and not all persons have an ethical code. He also says babies and small children do not have an ethical code because ethical code is not something natural, but is learnt by an individual, as are virtuous characteristics. An individual has to be exposed to his environment and be thought through various approached, such as religious education, moral instruction or parental upbringing before he acquires a character that is virtuous.

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Brandt recommends six qualities or traits in moral code or ethical code

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Intrinsic motivation
An individual has intrinsic desires or aversion to do, or not to do something in a certain way. For example, his reluctance to break a promise, reluctance to hurt a person and reluctance to help someone in need. According to intrinsic motivation, when asked why he did something, that individual will answer, I did it because I didnt want to break a promise. When an individual is reluctant to do something in a certain way, he usually hopes that other people will not do it in that way either, and will try to prevent others from doing it. Nevertheless, intrinsic motivation used in this manner is usually not encouraged by society. The most positive effect of intrinsic motivation that an individual can display is a reluctance to hurt or kill another person, and willingness to help save someone in danger.
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Feeling of guilt and disapproval


When an individual acts in a manner contrary to his own intrinsic motivation, he feels uncomfortable, sinful and remorseful. When another person acts in a manner that is opposed to the individuals intrinsic motivation, that individual will be biased towards that second person (especially if he himself is the victim of the action). Similarly, an individual does not like other people to disagreeing with his actions. If he knows that other people do not agree with him, he becomes uneasy and feels sinful. However the disapproval of others will improve the ethical code and make it more effective in preventing action not liked by other people.
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Believed importance
Conduct brought about by intrinsic motivation is considered very important to an individual, to the extent that he feels it should become part of his nature. For instance, an individuals may believe that rendering first aid to an accident victim (intrinsic motivation) is so important (because it saves life) that he may want to include that as one of his personal characteristics. This means that he has a perceived or believed importance about rendering first aid.

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Admiration or Esteem
Opposed to the negative attitude one has for people lacking in moral motivation is the feeling of admiration and esteem for someone who has done something extraordinary in the moral sense.

For instance, a person who has done something extremely praiseworthy, like a soldier sacrificing his own life to save a colleague from being killed in a hand-grenade explosion. In this case, the soldier has done something beyond what is required by basic motivation. Acts like this are sometimes called acts of supererogation.
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Special Terminology
It is difficult for the ethical code to control the actions of a person if that person does not know how to conceptual framework that is rather complex. Only through knowing special terminology for motivation and moral action can a person understand and appreciate this complex moral concept.

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Believe justification
An individual must have justification for his motivation, sinful feeling, disagreeable attitude, admiration etc. An example of such a justification concern religion. If a person hold strongly to the teaching of a religion and considers its moral principles as gods demands, he will satisfied with his morality and feels rational to act in a way that may be opposed to his own interest in the long run.

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According to the Brandt, if a person possesses all these, he definitely has ethical code. However, if he possesses fewer than six of these qualities, he may, or may not, have ethical code. It depends on who evaluate him.

PERSONALITY EVALUATION

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Several educationist also gave their views about the importance of virtuous characteristics in improving the quality of morality in the society.
G.J WARNOCK (1976) stresses justice, love and the reluctance to hurt others physically and mentally.

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R.B ASHMORE (1987) explains in detail how virtues eventually become habits. He gives the example of a medical doctor who is an expert but neglect his expertise and talent in his work as a doctor, or uses his knowledge of medicine to carry out that are immoral. In conclusion, a person who has virtuous character will benefit himself and the people around him. Rules in the society alone cannot ensure that the people live in peace and comfort. Happiness and welfare of the society largely depend on virtuous qualities which everyone in 27 the world should possess.

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MORAL FORM
Principle of ethics is The decision you take must be determine by moral principles, especially justice and altruism which are basic values and mother to other values. The development of science and technology, particularly information technology (IT), has resulted in closer communication among the people of the world. The world has become more complex. The world we have today is made up of many made up of many countries with people of various nationalities, races and ethnic groups. This plurality means that there are many types of laws, various rules, ethical codes, customary practices, cultures and administrative systems.
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As a result, people in each society cannot run from their own morality questions, and have to solve their own moral problems, especially the moral dilemmas that constantly disturb their thinking and emotions.
For example, for an individual who lives in the modern society but is still influenced by the rules of his traditions and customs, there is possibility that he cannot resolve the problems he faces in his modern life with the rules that are quite out-dated but still influential in his community. This situation does not arise if the individual is brave enough to oppose such rules and make decision without concern for the views of his community.

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R.A WESSERSTROM (1979) says, only with virtuous characteristics that he has within him can an individual deal with this moral problem because there is no guide to which he can refer in this complex situation. Virtuous, however, only provide the moral content for the individual. They do not provide a basic tool to decide what he should or should not do.

V.GRASSIAN (1981) says, to resolve a moral dilemma, apart of using your intelligence (virtuous characteristics)and referring to societal rules, an individual needs to consider the moral principles which he consistently uses. He should arrange the the principles in hierarchy so that one or more basic moral principles can be used as a tool to justify other moral principles. He should also ensure that these principles do not conflict with each other.

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GRASSIAN suggestion two of the ethical forms

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Principalistic ethics form (this ethical uses moral principle (basic and derivative) to resolve problems

Situational ethics form.

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Principalistic Ethics Form


When we make a decision in a moral dilemma, we can used the most basic moral principles, especially the justice principle or the altruistic principle which are basic values and mother to other values. Because of these, these two principles will be used as examples in the discussion of ethical forms.

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The term justice comes from the Latin word Justus which means law, right. Today justice is used in the sense of the quality of being righteous, rectitude in partiality, firmness.

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According to Kamus Dewan, justice is quality that is fair and impartial. Hence the concept of justice concerns all actions and conduct of a person that are fair to himself as well as to other people. In other words, an action that is unfair (injustice) does not benefit certain people because such actions cause dissatisfaction and anger against the person who performs injustice. The principle of altruism: is also an important ethical principle used as a reference in making moral decisions.
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THOMAS NAGEL (1970) in his book The possibility of Altruism explains altruism as an attitude or action which pleases or benefits other people. Hence, an altruist is a generous person, a philanthropist. He also says that to have an altruistic quality, a person must be empathetic, i.e, able to place himself in other peoples position and share his feelings and emotions as if they were his own, and be open minded and tolerant.
W.K. FRANKENE (1973) says, that sometimes an individual claims satisfaction not for himself, but for other people., i.e., self-sacrifice. An altruism believes that there is altruism in people, i.e. that people just want to do some good for others.
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Justice and altruism are main principles in ethical form, but there are two differences between it.

Justice is a matter (an action, behavior, conduct) that is rational, whereas altruism is a quality that is not just noble, but very noble.

Altruism is therefore sometimes considered a noble characteristics that is super human extraordinary.

However, both these principles are the bases for the formation of other moral values, such as fairness , intelligence, bravery, patience, industry and the like. these values allow a person to act more effectively when confronted with an unusual situation like moral dilemma.

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Situational Ethics Form Occasionally, in certain situations, an individual has to make decisions and act based on the situation he is in. FLETCHER opposes three approaches used to resolve problems and make moral decisions. The three approaches are Legalism, Antinomianism and Situationism. According to Fletcher, A person who uses the situation approach enters into every decision-making situation fully armed with ethical maxims and he treats them with respects as illuminators of these problems. just the same he is prepared in any situation to compromise them or set them aside in the situation if love seems better served by doing so. Ethical maxims here are the ethical rules or principles used to deal with problems based on specific 36 situations.

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For example, a case of SHERI FISHBERN who aborted a baby she was carrying in 1960.

When a lady in Arizona learned, a few years ago, she might bear a defective baby because she had taken Thalidomide, how was she do decide? She asked the court to back her doctor and his hospital in terminating the pregnancy, and it refused, to the judges chagrin, since the law prohibits non-medically indicated abortion without exception. Her husband took her to Sweden, where love has more control of law, and there her pregnancy was aborted. god be thanked, since the embryo was hideously deformed. But nobody could know for sure it. was a brave and responsible and right decision, even if the embryo had been all right.
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In this case Fletcher refer to loving concern toward SHERI FISHBERN, but people who objected to Fishberns action also focused on loving concern, but this concern was on the fetus of the unborn baby. From this example, we can see that a decision that is based on a particular situation sometimes becomes controversial; it depends on whether the ethical principle used is appropriate or otherwise. Many moral educationist prefer the use of ethical principle over ethical situation. This is because, making a decision based on a situation is difficult and risky as it can result in major controversy. FRANKENA (1973) and GRASSIAN (1981) say Decision from ethical principle will be more consistent and less controversial. In conclusion, a person can make a decision and take moral action to resolve a moral problem by considering the situation that causes the problem with basic moral principles and values that he has in him.

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.DISCUSSION ON THE CASE STUDY

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Moral Dimensions
We can break up ethics into three dimensions, viz. reasoning, feeling and performance. These dimensions are illustrated in the diagram above : Moral Reasoning

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Thinking & Judging

Rational, Free, Normative, Accurate, Sharp, Creative, Innovative, Critical Empathetic, Sympathetic, Generous, Loving, Compassionate, Altruistic, Sentimental, Energetic Responsible, Dedicated, Caring, Co-operative.
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Ethical Dimensions

Moral Feeling

Emotion & Feeling

Moral action

Behavior & Action

Analysis of the three dimensions :


Moral Reasoning
Moral Feeling

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To be able to make moral reasoning, i.e. to think and judge rationally and freely. Moral action To be able to conduct oneself in a manner that is morally correct, i.e. to act in a fully responsible way, according to ones ability, in making decisions based on careful reasoning and moral emotions.

To have moral emotions like conscience and sensitivity over feelings of what is wrong or shameful, of anxiety, sympathy, empathy, generosity, love, compassion, motivated by what is altruistic and correct. Such feeling will enable the individual to act morally, so moral emotions are important to control ones behavior and actions, and prevent one from doing anything that is antisocial. For example, sympathy and empathy cause a person to always help the poor or the handicapped without thinking about his own interest.
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Moral Agent and Moral Recipient


According to ASHMORE (1987) only human being can become moral agents or moral recipients. He illustrates this by giving an example of a cat in the house. ASHMORE says that a house cat is like a moral agent because its behavior can be said to be self-governed and systematic. but a cat can infringe rules; so a cat is good or bad, depending on the performance of its action or behavior which is governed by rules that we have imposed. we teach and train the cat and ensure that it will be responsible in its behavior, because we give reward and penalty according to the cats performance. When the cat commit an offence, it shows through its guilty behavior. The cat knows that it has done something wrong by not following the norms set for it. In this situation, the cat will hide in a corner to avoid being punished. That cat knows that it will be punished if it infringes rules. In other words, if we train cats just as we rain people and react to the cat behavior in the same manner that we react towards people, there will be no difference between a cat and a human acting as a moral agent. But the difference is that the cats behavior is instinctual, and if trained, it is based on stimulus response. What is lacking in cats is only 41 conceptualization, i.e. cats do not understand why an action is right or wrong.

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ASHMORE says that only humans can be moral agents


as well as moral recipients. Human are different from animal because they have rational reasoning, free-feeling and emotions which can influence their behavior and actions; whereas animals lack reasoning and moral feeling.

Exercise on shelter dilemma

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Relationship between Ethical Dimensions The reasoning, action and feeling of an individual allow him to exercise caution to ensure that whatever he does is according to the normative dictates of the people he is in. For example, if a person does something wrong or immoral, he may feel afraid, remorseful or guilty. if he is really bothered by such feeling, he will not want to act in this antinormative and anti-social manner again. Therefore, moral emotions in this ethical dimension are very important in determining what will or will not be done.

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KUPPERMAN (1983) says that a person who does something that is immoral is not necessarily less stupid or less clever compared to an ordinary person. However the person who is immoral is always insensitive to the suffering of his victim because it is difficult for him to have moral feelings.

Hence the three dimensions must interact and influence one another to build a moral person. Generally, a moral person is one is autonomous, rational and free in his reasoning, feeling and actions.
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