UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS

College of Arts and Sciences

MODULE 2 in Soc Sci 101 (Ethics )

Course: Soc Sci 101

Course Title: Ethics
Course Credits: 3 units
Contact Hours/week:2 hours
Prerequisite: none
Course Description: Ethics deals with principles of ethical behavior
in modern society at the level of the person, society, and in interaction
with the environment and other shared resources. (CMO 20 s 2013)

Course Outcomes:
At the end of the trimester, the students are expected to:
1. Differentiate between moral and non-moral problems
2. Describe what moral experience is as it happens in different levels of
human existence
3. Explain the influence of Filipino culture on the way students look at
moral experiences and solve moral dilemmas
4. Describe the elements of moral development and moral experience
5. Use different ethical frameworks and principles to analyze moral
experiences
6. Make sound ethical judgments based on principles, facts, and the
stakeholders affected.
7. Develop sensitivity to the common good
8. Understand and internalize the ethical implications of globalissues in
the modern society such as digital technology, environment and
other social interactions

Topic :
Human Acts versus Acts of Man

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:
1. Know what moral standards are and apply them in their daily lives every
time they encounter a life dilemma;
2. Understand the extent of freedom and use them in making crucial decisions
in life;
Use the advantage of owning moral standard over merely abiding by moral
standard

Instructional Materials:
Powerpoint

Video Lecture
Teaching-Learning Activity/Lesson Proper:
Human Acts versus Acts of Man
Human Acts
 Knowing, free and willful.
 The lack of any of these attributes renders an act defective and less
voluntary;
 Elicited acts
 Commanded acts
Elicited Acts
 Performed by the will and are not bodily externalized
 Wish – tendency of will towards something, whether
realizable or not
 Intention – tendency towards something attainable without
necessarily committing self to attain it
 Consent – acceptance of will to carry out intention
 Election – selection of the will of the means to carry out
intention
 Use – command of the will to make use of the means to carry
out intention
 Fruition – enjoyment because wish has been attained

Acts of Man
 Performed by the will and are not bodily externalized
 Wish – tendency of will towards something, whether
realizable or not
 Intention – tendency towards something attainable without
necessarily committing self to attain it
 Consent – acceptance of will to carry out intention
 Election – selection of the will of the means to carry out
intention
 Use – command of the will to make use of the means to carry
out intention
 Fruition – enjoyment because wish has been attained

Moral Distinctions of Human Acts

 Moral actions – in conformity with the norm of morality; good per se
e.g. helping other people, praying
 Immoral actions – not in conformity with the norm of morality; bad per se
e.g. cheating, stealing, killing
 Amoral actions – neutral in relation to the norm of morality; not good, not
bad
e.g. eating, walking

Imputability of Human Act

 The person performing the act is liable for such act; it involves the notion of
guilt or innocence
Voluntariness of Human Acts
 Perfect voluntariness – present in a person who fully knows and fully
intends an act
 Imperfect voluntariness – present in a person who acts without fully
realizing what he means to do or without fully intending the act
 Conditional voluntariness – present in a person who is forced by
circumstances beyond his control to perform an act
 Simple voluntariness – present in a person doing an act wilfully, regardless
of whether he likes to do it or not

Indirectly Voluntary
 Is a person responsible for results not directly intended?
 Paul Glenn considers a person accountable for indirectly voluntary results
of his acts when:
  The doer is able to foresee the evil result or effect, at least in
a general way
 The doer is free to refrain from doing that which would
produce the foreseen evil
The doer has moral obligation not to do that which produces an evil affect

Determinants of Morality
An action becomes better or worse depending on the determinants of
morality

1. PERSON: WHO is the DOER/AGENT of an action? WHO is the RECEIVER of

the action?
2. PLACE: WHERE is the action done?
Example: where is it best to study?
3. TIME: WHEN is an action done?
Example: Is it better to get married while you’re young or when you’re already
old?
4. MANNER: HOW is an action done?
Example: Praying quietly or praying somewhere loud?
5. END/INTENTION/OBJECTIVE: REASON in doing the action? END RESULT of the
Action
a. Good act and good end/intention = double good
> you give grocery items to your neighbors because you want to help
them
as they are affected by the pandemic
> you lend your notes to your classmate who have been absent for a
long
time because you want him to pass the subject

b. Good act and bad end/intention = bad

> some politicians give grocery items to the poor because they are
already
campaigning for the 2020 elections
> you help your classmate by lending her money for her tuition because
you
want to copy from her every time there is an exam or a quiz

c. bad act and good end = the badness of the action is minimized
> Robin Hood stole from the rich because he wanted to help the poor
> a mother stealing money so she can save the life of her child

d. bad act + bad end = double bad

> you steal money from your parents so you will have money to buy
drugs
> a spurned suitor kidnaps the girl he is courting so he can rape her

e. simple act + bad end = bad

> writing a post in FB to destroy the reputation of your enemy
> singing loudly to disturb your seatmate who is trying to concentrate
in
studying

f. Simple act + good end = good

> cleaning the house to make your mother happy
>giving a note to your classmate to make her happy
MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS
1. Ignorance

THREE TYPES
a. Vincible – can be easily remedied through diligence and reasonable
efforts
b. Affected – kept by positive efforts to escape responsibility or blame
c. Invincible – cannot be corrected

Principles
 Invincible ignorance renders an act involuntary ( a person cannot be held
morally liable if he is not aware of his state of ignorance)
 Vincible ignorance does not destroy, but lessens the voluntariness and the
corresponding accountability over the act
 If a person becomes aware of the state of ignorance he is in, he has the
moral obligation to rectify it by exercising reasonable diligence in seeking
the needed information
 Affected ignorance, though it decreases voluntariness, increases the
accountability over the resultant act

2. Passion or Concupiscence
 Tendencies towards desirable objects; known as positive emotions (love,
desire, delight, hope, bravery)
 Tendencies away undesirable or harmful things; known as negative
emotions (hated, horror, sadness, despair, fear)
 TWO TYPES
 Antecedent – those that precede an act; a person is
emotionally aroused to perform an act
 Consequent – those that are intentionally aroused and kept;
voluntary in cause
Principles
 Antecedent passions do not always destroy voluntariness, but they
diminish accountability for the resultant act
 Consequent passions do not lessen voluntariness, but may even increase
accountability

3. Fear
 Frame of mind of a person who is confronted with an impending danger;
actions are done WITH fear; OUT of fear or BECAUSE of fear
 WITH FEAR – you do an action even if you are afraid; there is knowledge in
doing the action
> a student enters the principal’s office with fear
> a person looks for the snake which entered the
room with fear

Principles
 Acts done with fear are voluntary
 Acts done with fear, however great, is simply voluntary, although it is also
conditionally voluntary
 Acts done because of intense fear or panic are involuntary
 Actions done out of fear are INVALID acts; contracts entered into out of fear
are voidable
4. Violence
 Any physical force to compel another person to act against his will; bodily
torture, maltreatment, isolation, and mutilation are examples of violence
 Elicited acts or those by the will alone, are not subject to violence are
therefore voluntary
  External actions or commanded actions performed by a person subjected
to violence, to which reasonable resistance has been offered, are
involuntary and are not accountable

5. Habit
 Something that you do often and regularly
 An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost
involuntary
 Drug addiction is a habit – but how did you become addicted in the first
place?
 Smoking cigarettes is a habit
 Cursing is a habit, but can you correct it?
Principle
 Actions done out of habit are still done with knowledge, therefore a man
doing things out of habit are responsible for these actions

Enhancement Activity/Outcome:
Assessment of Good and Bad Actions
Download a picture depicting your idea of what is good and another picture
depicting your idea of what is bad. This should be related to the video lecture on
modifiers of human acts.

Examples of Human Acts

Give an ORIGINAL example for the following combinations. ORIGINAL means I did
not give it as an example in the video lecture. You have to show that the action
is good (better) or bad (worse) depending on the given combination

a. PERSON and bad act + bad end

b. PLACE and good act + bad end

c. MANNER and bad act + good end

 Research
on Terminologies

1. from the definitionsgiven, conduct a research on three additional definitions

POLITICAL THEORY for

Definition Author Publisher YearofPublication

Topic 2:
Key Concepts of Political Philosophy

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:
 identify the key concepts of political philosophy
 trace the historical background of political philosophy

Instructional Materials:

Definition of Political Philosophy

Timeline of events / description of political philosophy in the different era

Teaching-Learning Activity/Lesson Proper:

Political philosophy,
*branch of philosophy that is concerned, at the most abstract level, with the
concepts and arguments involved in political opinion. Like all aspects of
human experience, political philosophy is conditioned by environment and by
the scope and limitations of mind, and the answers given by successive
political philosophers to perennial problems reflect the knowledge and the
assumptions of their times.

*As a normative discipline, it is concerned with what ought to be and how this
purpose can be promoted, rather than with a description of facts.

*The political philosopher is thus not concerned so much, for example, with
how pressure groups work or how, by various systems of voting, decisions are
arrived at as with what the aims of the whole political process should be in the
light of a particular philosophy of life.

Highlights of the History of Political Philosophy

 In contrast to this overwhelming conservatism, paralleled by the rule of custom
and tribal elders in most primitive societies, the political philosophers
of ancient Greece question the basis and purpose of government. Though they
do not separate political speculation from shrewd observations that today
would be regarded as empirical political science, they created the vocabulary
of Western political thought.
 The decline of ancient civilization in the West was severe. Although technology
continued to develop, intellectual pursuits, including political philosophy,
became elementary.
 In the Byzantine Empire, on the other hand, committees of jurists working for
the emperor Justinian (reigned 527–565) produced the Codex constitutionum;
the Digesta, or Pandectae; the Institutiones, which defined and condensed
Roman law; and the Novellae consitutiones post codicem; the four books are
collectively known as the Codex Justinianeus, or Code of Justinian.
The Byzantine basileus, or autocrat, had moral responsibility for guarding and
harmonizing an elaborate state, a “colony” of heaven in which reason and not
mere will ought to rule.
 In the West, two essential principles of Hellenic and Christian political
philosophy were transmitted, if only in elementary definitions,
in rudimentary encyclopaedias. St. Isidore of Sevilla, in his 7th-
century Etymologiae (“Etymologies”), for example, asserts that kings rule only
on condition of doing right and that their rule reflects a Ciceronic law of
nature “common to all people and mankind everywhere by natural instinct.”
 The idea of a Christian empire coterminous with civilization thus survived in
Western as well as Eastern Christendom.
 Nineteenth-century European civilization had been the first to dominate and
pervade the whole world and to create a new self-sustaining productivity in
which all eventually might share.
 The rule of law, accepted within the politically advanced states, had never
been achieved among them. Heavily armed nations and empires remained in a
Hobbesian “posture of war,” and Classical and medieval ideals of world order
had long been discarded. Within states, also, laissez-
faire capitalism had exacerbated class conflicts, while the decline of
religious belief had undermined traditional solidarity.
 The development of liberal theory was inhibited to some extent by the advent
in the early 1930s of logical positivism, which conceived of knowledge claims
on the model of the hypotheses of natural science.
 According to the simplest version of logical positivism, genuine knowledge
claims can be divided into two groups: (1) those that can be verified or falsified
on the basis of observation, or sense experience (empirical claims); and (2)
those that are true or false simply by virtue of the conventional meanings
assigned to the words they contain (tautologies or contradictions), along with
their logical implications.
 The adoption by many countries of liberal-democratic forms of government in
the second half of the 20th century, especially after the fall of Soviet and
eastern European communism in 1989–91, led some political theorists to
speculate that the liberal model of government has been vindicated by history
or even (as Francis Fukuyama asserted) that it represents the “end” of history
—the culmination of the millennia-long political development of humankind.
 One issue that continues to be troublesome for liberalism is its traditional
posture of benevolent neutrality toward religion. Some liberal theorists have
proposed that this posture should be extended to all disputed questions
concerning what constitutes a good life.

Enhancement Activity/Outcome:
My Personal Philosophy in Life
1. Make a timeline of your personal philosophies in not more than two (2) sentences per level
and indicate your reflection by narrating a personal experience that supports your
personal philosophy in not more than three (3) sentences for each.

Level Personal Philosophy Reflection via a Personal

Experience
Grade School
Junior
High School
Senior High School
College
Tabular Comparison
Fill in the table with 5 key concepts/words (per column) to compare the different periods of
political theory
Ancient Period Medieval Period Modern Period Contemporary Period