Philosophy

Lesson 1: Morality and Freedom

 Morality seems to be a heavy and broad subject matter for discussion if we do not have the basic tools for
analysis
 Ethics- is a branch of philosophy that deals with the systematic questioning and critical examination
o the underlying principles of morality
o Ethics came from the root word ethos which refers to the character of a culture
o Ethos- includes the attitude of approval or disapproval in a particular culture at a given time
and place
o The subject being studied in ethics is morality
o Morality- mores (customs including the customary behavior of a particular group of
people)
o Mores (Latin) and ethos (Greek) both refer to customary behavior
 Normative ethics- meant to give an answer to the question, “What is good”?
o Pertains to certain norms or standards for goodness and badness, rightness or wrongness pf
an act
 Meta-ethics- tries to go beyond the concepts and parameters set by normative ethics by trying to
question the basis of the assumption proposed in a framework of norms and standards by normative
ethics
o Examines the presuppositions, meanings and justifications of ethical concepts and principles
 Role of Society and the Individual in the Emergence of Mores
 William Sumner (Folkways)- our notion of what is right stems from man’s basic instinct to survive
o To be able to do this, man started to form groups as they carry out their survival task
o As they begin to form groups or tribes, they would observe the best practices and develop the
most practical way of doing things
o Thus, from these practices, emerged the most expedient ways of doing things
o Other groups would also do the same thing, therefore imitating and transferring these practices.
Through this process, traditions would emerge
o Each individual living in that particular group would develop their notion of what is the right
thing to do
o The notion of what is ‘right’ and ‘true’ according to him is called folkways
o These practices have been considered as the most practical way to do things. Thus, tradition is
established
o Thus, the process of learning your culture, which may be unconscious, involuntary and natural
comes into play.
o The mores come from folkways, with the added element of societal welfare embodied in them
o In order to preserve society together with it’s accepted norms and practices, the individual has to
defend and maintain this notion of what is right
o The individual, whether consciously or unconsciously, develops habits to preserve the notion of
what is right
o Society or the group, on the other hand, develops the social rules and sanctions, which may be
implicit or explicit, in order to preserve these practices
o Customs emerge out of these repeated practices, while from the individual emerges habits
o The mores are the compelling reasons to do what is ought to be done because they are the right
things to do
o These same mores may change to adapt to new conditions
 o Sumner states that: ‘The ‘morals’ of an age are never anything but the consonance between
what is done and what the mores of the age requires.”
o Two important factors in the emergence of morality
 Point of view of the society, together with its customs, social rules and sanctions
 Point of view of the individual or the human person
o Society is not homogenous, because there is an interplay of varying views and groups where
the individual belongs.
o These groups could exert varying and sometimes contrasting degrees of influence on him
but ultimately, it is still the individual who would make his own moral decisions
 The Realm of Freedom
 Jean-Paul Sartre (existentialist philosopher)- assumes the idea of radical freedom, by claiming that
man is condemned to be free.
o Man is an unconstrained free moral agent in the sense that he always has a choice in every
aspect of his life
o “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself”
o Man is totally free and therefore, totally responsible for all the things that he does
o When we are exercising freedom in making choices, we are taking control and assuming full
responsibility for the choices that we are making
o You are free but this freedom is not absolute
o The mores are there to serve as a form of social control to limit, govern or regulate your
behavior in order to uphold and maintain order in your society
o Freedom, of the human person from the moral sense of the word, assumes that one is a free
moral agent
o Moral is when one is free to make his choice in accordance with his own moral discernment
o what is good and bad
 John Mothershead (Ethics: Modern Conception of the Principle of Right)- 1955 book said that there
are two necessary conditions to occur: Freedom and obligation
o Freedom is assumed when one is making his choices ad is the agent that is taking full
responsibility in planning his life, and in the process, planning and budgeting his actions for
some future outlook or goals
o This condition of freedom, could be seen as limiting or constraining the realm of morals to
human beings
o Only human beings are capable of planning the future, planning their life, and setting their
goals as a result of these plans
o Obligations is construed as one’s duty to himself to exercise this freedom as a rational moral
being
o Obligation is the duty to himself to do the budgeting and planning for their future because
the future is yet to be
o You are not free to be unfree
o It is within the capacity of the human person as an active and free moral agent to exercise
his freedom of choice as an obligation to himself