ETHICS – CHAPTER 2

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THE MORAL AGENT

The father of cultural anthropology, Edward Tylor stated that in general,

culture is the way of life of a group of people that “includes their knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as
a member of society” (Gallinero, 2018).

“The moral agent” that we are referring to is no other than YOU (or anyone) -
the one who is in-charge and responsible for all of your actions and decisions.

Topic 1: Culture and Moral Behavior

Sub-Topic 1.1: Culture and Its Role in Moral Behavior

What is Culture?
• Culture is a complex phenomenon. It contains nearly all aspects of shared
human experiences. Culture possesses five basic elements: symbols,
language, beliefs, values and norm (Gallinero, 2018).

The Role of Culture in Moral Behavior

Plato implied that if a person’s cultural surroundings reward conformity to

agreeable norms, it would lead the person to behave much better and quell
undesirable conduct (Gallinero, 2018).

Moral rules and the sense of moral obligation and accountability are products
of social convention and social conditioning. The aspect of morality is taught, people
learn moral and immoral from cultural transmitters: the parents, teachers, novels,
films, tv shows, etc. (De Guzman, 2018).

Sub-Topic 1.2: What is Cultural Relativism? Why is it not tenable in ethics?

Cultural Relativism
• is the view that an action is morally right if one’s culture approves of it.

Rachels (2004) identified two positive lessons we can learn from cultural relativism:
1. “It warns us from assuming that our preferences are the absolute rational
standard”
2. “It teaches us to keep an open mind and to be more amenable in discovering
the truth”

Cultural relativism is not acceptable in ethics because of the dangers that it brings when making moral
decisions.

As cited by Gallinero, the dangers of cultural relativism are:

1. we cannot call out societal practices to promote harm
2. we cannot justifiably criticize our own culture’s harmful practices
3. the idea of societal progress becomes doubtful”

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Sub-Topic 1.3: Why are There Universal Values?

Universal Values
• The values that are common to all cultures.
• “There are some moral rules that all societies will have in common, because
those rules are necessary for society to survive” (Rachels, 2004).
• The existence of the universal values is the strong proof that solely adhering to
cultural relativism is not acceptable in ethics.

Sub-Topic 1.4: The Filipino Way: An Asian and a Filipino Understanding of Moral
Behavior

The Filipino culture is a mix of both Eastern and Western cultures. Patricia
Licuanan, a former commissioner of CHED and a distinguished Filipino psychologist,
wrote that the strengths and weaknesses of the Filipino Character are rooted in the
following factors. These factors are the home environment, culture and language,
history, educational system, religion, the economic system, political environment,
mass media and leaders/role models (Licuanan, 1994).

Sub-Topic 1.5. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Filipino Character

According to (Licuanan, 1994), the most common strong aspects of the Filipino
character are:
• pakikipagkapwa-tao
• family orientation
• joy and humor
• flexibility
• adaptability and creativity
• hardwork and industry
• faith and religiosity
• ability to survive.

The most common weak aspects of the Filipino character are:

• extreme personalism
• extreme family centeredness
• lack of discipline
• passivity and lack of initiative
• colonial mentality
• kanya-kanya syndrome
• lack of self-analysis and self-reflection

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Topic 2: The Moral Agent: Developing Virtue as Habit

Sub-Topic 2.1. How is Moral Character Developed: The Circular Relation of Acts that
Build Character and Acts that Emanate from Character

Moral Character
• “The existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty
and loyalty” (Merriam-Webster, 2017).
• Moral characters are those dispositions or tendencies to act or think in a
particular way by which a person can be held morally responsible (Gallinero,
2018).
• “In moral development, there is a circular relation between acts that build
character and moral character itself” (De Guzman, 2018).

Your moral character will produce particular actions that are related with it, and
on the other hand, the individual actions that you execute will determine the kind of
moral character that you possess.

Philosophical Views on Moral Character

In Confucian tradition, personality meant “an achieved state of moral

excellence”. Moral development was attributed to the “four beginnings” of the
human personality, namely:
1. the heart of compassion (jen)
2. the heart of righteousness (ren)
3. the heart of propriety (Li)
4. the heart of wisdom (Zhi)

According to Aristotle, each person has a built-in desire to be virtuous and that if
a person is focused on being a good person the right actions will follow effortlessly
and you will do good things. The principle of being virtuous is called the “Doctrine of
the Golden Mean”, the principle that the one that is in the middle of two extreme
behaviors.

Sub-Topic 2.2: Stages of Moral Development and Conscience: how do we get to the
highest level, conscience-based moral decisions?

According to Kohlberg, there are three levels of moral development:

1. pre-conventional level
2. conventional level
3. post conventional level

Each with two stages composing his so-called “six stages of moral development”,
namely:
1. punishment-obedience stage
2. reward orientation
3. good boy/ good girl orientation

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4. authority orientation
5. social contract orientation
6. ethical-principle orientation

Summary

• Culture is all around us, it is a way of life. Culture includes moral values and
behaviors, along with knowledge, beliefs, symbols, etc. that are passed along
by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Since moral
behavior is part of culture, all the aspects of morality therefore are taught –
communicated and imitated.
• Cultural (moral) relativism is a theory that holds that there is no single
objective universal standard through which we can evaluate the truth of
moral judgments.
• Cultural relativism is not tenable in ethics. There are universal values (and
moral norms) that are objectively applicable across all cultures.
• Filipino culture is a conglomeration of western and eastern cultures. Just like
any other cultures, there are strong and weak aspects of the Filipino character.
Likewise, many of our strong points are linked to our weaknesses. The most
important thing is that we know our values as Filipinos because these help us
grow and develop.
• Moral characters are rational, informed, stable and reliable dispositions.
• In moral development, a person’s actions determine his/her moral character,
but moral character itself generates acts that help in developing either virtue
or vice.
• The three levels of Moral Development are 1) Pre-Conventional Level which
includes punishment-obedience orientation stage and reward orientation
stage, 2) Conventional Level which includes good boy/girl orientation stage
and authority orientation stage, and 3) Post Conventional Stage which
includes social contract orientation stage and ethical-principle orientation
stage

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