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Accion moral:1. It is done by adjusting to a code or a set of moral rules and values. These rules and values designate what should be considered as morally good or bad. 2. should not be imposed by the society to the people, but each individual must be free to choose it. 3. if I act freely, then I am morally responsible 4. It is necessary that they know what they do. Just this way, we can assert that they act freely 5. we are not only responsible for the consequences of our own actions in ourselves, but we also have to calculate their impact on the people we live with
Moral values are those human qualities or ideals that we appreciate by
themselves and aspire to be universal. However, any value is opposed by a countervalue or
negative value. So, goodness is opposed by evil; freedom by slavery;
we are facing moral values when we think that:
• They should be appreciated and respected necessarily.
• They are universal, that is, they are valid for all individuals without exception.
• We appreciate them by themselves, not because they could provide us some selfish
benefit, or because we are conditioned by social, economic or political interests.
Moral rules as those behavioural patterns, habits or norms
that aim to regulate the coexistence of people in society. Generally, they are expressed in
the form of orders or imperatives that compel us to behave in a certain way and they have
their origin in a series of moral values.
Moral rules come from moral values and we use it to guide our actions and behaviour
why do we do that? There are two possible answers to this question:
• Because we are guided by an external order to our conscience (moral heteronomy) imposed
by an authority which is recognized by us: parents, political or religious authority, or simply
because of the fear of a punishment if we do not obey that rule.
• Because of our own conviction about what we do is what should be done (moral autonomy). In this case, we are not guided by mere personal opinions, but we assume rationally and voluntarily the values and rules of the society in which we live.
ETHICAL THEORIES
Socrates’ moral intellectualism: The most remarkable conclusion of the Socratic moral theory is precisely that knowledge of what is good and right determines us to act in a good and a right way. According to Socrates, no one does wrong willingly. Who acts in a wrong way does it because of their ignorance, because they ignore what is “good”: no one does wrong knowingly. evil is a product of ignorance.
Sophists’ “moral relativism” :The immediate consequence of this doctrine is that no action can be considered “good” or “bad” in itself. Everything depends on the “appearance” or “opinion” of individual subjects who examine it. People judge about what is good or what is bad depending on their way of life, their interests or their projects. It is morally good what we think to be morally good, but only for the time it seems good to us. And there is no behaviour that may be considered censurable by itself, that is, regardless of any particular personal consideration.
Aristotle’s eudaemonism:everything that humans do they do it in order to achieve a purpose or a goal. And the ultimate goal of everything we do is happiness (eudaimonia). According to Aristotle, all humans seek happiness through their actions. Happiness is the only purpose that is sufficient by itself. The one who wants to be happy has to live in accordance with reason.wisdom is the virtue that provides true happiness to human being. In order to develop a rational life, it is also necessary to know how to conveniently manage our desires and passions in order to give them the “right” satisfaction, that is, without excess nor defect. “Golden mean” between two extreme attitudes which are called “vices”. Thus, we say that a human being is virtuous when their will has acquired the “habit” of acting “rightly”, that is, according to a “golden mean” that avoids both excess and defect.
Epicurus’ hedonism : the purpose of human life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Placer: “the absence of physical pain (aponía) and absence of confusion in the soul. “arithmetic of pleasures”, a calculation between the advantages and disadvantages of different pleasures in order to achieve the maximum pleasure and the minimum pain. Classification of desires: Decir si producen placer y dolor 1.Natural and necessary desires. 2. Natural and unnecessary desires 3. Unnatural and unnecessary desires. Here we should include issues such as thirst for power, fame, glory, public recognition.
Jeremy Bentham: Jeremy Bentham , the good, is what provides more pleasure to more people.Pleasure and pain are responsible for directing our behaviour. “principle of utility” according to which happiness consists in maximising pleasure and minimising pain. This principle allows to introduce again an “arithmetic of pleasures”, because it is necessary to calculate in every action or decision we take the amount of pleasure and pain that this action or decision will provide us. “An action is good when it produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of individuals” these rules imply several problems: 1) First, how can we calculate the degree of pleasure of each individual in a objective and clear way, being the experience of a pleasure something personal and subjective? 2) Another important problem was related to the quality of the different types of pleasures. It seems that humans give more value to some pleasures than others, so perhaps it should be necessary to establish a classification of the different types of pleasure according to their quality