Transcript In Search of the Good

In Search of the Good
A Catholic Understanding of Moral
Living
What is Ethics?
Ethics is the study of how people treat each
other, and what it means to lead a good life.
Ethics is questions and a hunt for the truth.
Ethics guides morality; it gives vision to
our action. It answers why should we do
or NOT do a particular action.
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Ethics refers to standards of right and
wrong, and what humans ought to do in
terms of rights, obligations and what
benefits society and the natural world. In
other words ethics describes how we
ought to act as reflected, for instance, in
ethical policies in schools.
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Ethics asks questions such
as:
How can we tell what is
right and what is wrong?
How should people treat
each other?
How can we get people to
be fair to each other?
Wh
o o
d w
e lo o k o
t fo r a
n sw
e rs?
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Family
Friends
Society
Philosophers
Church
God
What is o
M rality?
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Morality is interested in the ways humans
can attain the “good”.
It includes the rules, laws or
commandments which we experience as a
duty or obligation to follow.
It has to do with our actions and
behaviour.
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Morality refers to our manner and
character. Morality refers to our actual
beliefs and the way we act in the world
according to our virtues and guiding
principles. In other words we may get
100% in an ethics exam based on the
theories of right and wrong conduct but
we may fail as a person who acts morally
and with integrity.
What is the difference between
Ethics and Morality?
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Ethics guides morality.
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Ethics you understand how and why you should do something
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Morality You do or don’t do the action
Example: You are going to a friend’s house and your parents have told you to be home
by midnight.
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Ethics: (having the knowledge; knowing WHY)
You understand the rule, you know you should leave at 11:45 p.m. in order to get home
on time.
Morality: (doing what you should do/ WHAT Action should be taken)
You LEAVE your friend’s house and drive home. You arrive at 12 midnight.
(Action/Behaviour)
Comparison of Ethics and Morality
to playing an instrument
Ethics is like understanding musical theory, knowing how to
read music and understanding technique.
Morality is like actually playing music, hitting the right
notes, correctly interpreting the musical phrase,
performing.
You can play music without understanding musical theory.
However you would have difficulty in making good
decisions in your musical performance should challenges
arise that require your response.
Four Ways of Locating the Ethical
in YOU
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The Scream—experience
of personal response
The scream is an appeal
for help
Imagine lying on the
beach and you are in
your own little world.
You are comfortable,
relaxed and next you
hear…
HELP!!!!!
Ethical R
e sp
o n se : Th
e Scre am
Without thinking about it, you
RESPOND.
You are forced into an awareness of
your responsibility for another
person.
The scream touched you at a deep
level without you actually having
to think about it. You may begin
to ask, who screamed? Are they
drowning? Where are they? How
can you help them?
It is an automatic response. You
must help them. You have just
experienced an ethical response.
Ethical Response: The Beggar—
the experience of the other
Philosopher: Emmanuel
Levinas ( 1905-1995)
Levinas says that an ethical
experience all starts with
the face of “the Other”
Face-to-face encounters are
ethical because they
remind us of our
responsibility for “the
Other”
Imagine you are
walking downtown
and you meet
someone who asks
you, “can I have
some spare change,
please?”
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When you are confronted with this person
you probably go through a number of
emotions.
“Oh the poor guy!” “Get a job.” “I have
better things to spend my money on.”
He/She will probably spend it on drugs or
alcohol.”
Whether you choose to
give money…
…or walk away,
the “other” person, the
needy one, is still with
you.
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You are still thinking
about him/her as you
defend your decision to
not give—or your decision
to give.
“I have to…” The experiene of
Obligation
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The Philosopher
Immanuel Kant (17241804) worked out an
ethical theory for the
experience of duty or
obligation.
Imagine you are about to
leave your house to go
out for the evening with
your friends. Your
parents tell you “Be home
by midnight and please
drive carefully.”
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As the time passes, you
grow increasingly aware
of the time and of your
need to get going.
If you choose to ignore
these warning signals any
anyway, your unrest
doesn’t go away. You
will continue debating
with yourself what you
will tell your parents.
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When you get home after midnight, you may try to sneak to your
bedroom without making any noise in order to avoid confrontation
with your parents.
The experience of feeling obliged to obey a rule or a law has
everything to do with your ethical side. Something in you obliges
you to follow the law or to do what is considered the right thing to
do.
The Fourth Ethical
Experience:
This is Intolerable! This
isn’t fair!—The
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Experience of Contrast
This occurs when you feel
outraged by something
blatantly unjust or unfair
that is happening to YOU
or to OTHERS
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When you feel overwhelmed by the unjust
suffering of others, by the plight of
workers who are let go while the bosses
award themselves big bonuses, by
battered women and abused children, the
indignation you FEEL is an experience of
contrast with what OUGHT to be.
“This is NOT right! This MUST stop!!”
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Journal #2
For each ethical experience/response
provide an example from your own lived
experience.
Do not use examples already given in the
text.
Provide details of the experience.