Chapter 1-The Importance of Moral Studies
Essential attributes of morality
a.Morality presupposes a person
b.Man is responsible for his moral behavior not for his abilities such as mental acumen/sharpness.
c.the responsibility presume freedom of the will
d.Morality is indispensable/necessary
e.Moral righteousness expect rewards and the unique disharmony of guild/society demand atonement/indemnity
f.Rewards and punishment imply the notion/belief of God
g.Morality is universal/comprehensive
3 sources of principles of determinants of morality:
The object
To slap a rapist is good but to slap one's mother is bad
To hate a disease like AIDS is good but to hate one's parent or God is bad
To kill an animal is indifferent/good but to kill a business rival is bad
The circumstances
The situation.accident which accompanying or surrounding the act,increase or decrease the morality
Who,what,where,what mean
Why,how,what time
For ex;gossiping in church,paying debts slovenly,obeying promptly,killing by stabbing or shooting
The Intention
The free choice for which an act is performed or the aiming at the end to be achieved by the act
It increase or decrease morality
For ex;
To reveal faults in order to gossip or to harm or to prevent harm
To make up in order to please,to seduce or to attract others
To give aims in order to help or to boast,to torture
To give aims to correct or to give a way to anger
The object is the thing with which the action is essentially concerned, for example, lying, praying the rosary, stealing, helping a blind person cross the street. For a morally good act, the object of it must be good, that is, the thing with which the action is concerned must confirm to the law of God.
The circumstances of the act are the second determinant of the morality of any action. The circumstances are such things as the person involved, the time, the place, the occasion, which are distinct from the object, but can change or completely alter its moral tone. Circumstances can make an otherwise good action evil, as when a soldier deliberately goes to sleep. They can increase the guilt, as when a girl lies to her mother; or minimize the guilt, as an unpremeditated lie in order to get out of an embarrassing situation. Since all human actions occur at a certain time and at a certain place, the circumstances must always be considered in evaluating the moral quality of any human act.
The third determinant of the moral quality of any human act is the intention or end or purpose. Every human act, no matter how trivial, is done for some purpose. The Sunday driver who blocks traffic and seems to be driving aimlessly has a purpose: he may not be going anywhere definite but he does seek the joy of just driving around and looking. For a human act to be morally good the agent or doer must have a good intention -- he must want to accomplish something that is good in one way or another. Some actions, like blasphemy and stealing, are always wrong and no purpose, no matter how noble, can make them good. Other actions may be either good or bad, depending on why we do them. Taking a drink is not sinful; drinking in order to get drunk is. The morality of many things that we do is determined by the intention -- such as walking, talking, reading, and so forth. Many such activities are said to be indifferent morally in themselves, but they receive their moral quality from the intention behind them.
No comments:
Post a Comment