The Moral Agent and Contexts

Introduction
Individual choices, decisions, plans and needs even when initiated and originated
from the individual himself or herself may seem not to be products of purely individual
nature. Many variables of external origins may be at play.

Ramon Reyes as suggested by Bulaong Jr. et al. (2008, pp. 102-104), strongly pointed
out that multifarious influences play important roles to arrive at a decision. Four significant
cross-points influence people’s ideas, motivations, reactions, thoughts and emotions,
including and especially moral judgments and decisions.

People live not in isolation but are well situated in a given environment and particular
context influencing their behaviors and mentality. Parental influences cannot be undermined
as confirmed by well-known psychologists among those of psychodynamic orientation.
Behaviorists would certainly agree that the environment play an important role to people’s
reaction while denying any cognitive materials to explain human behavior.

Furthermore, the socio-cultural and social contexts are undeniably important elements
to consider that explain the way people are molded and therefore are real sources of influence
to people’s worldview and behavior. The discussion below provides ample situations and
events to explain the critical assumptions that influence people’s daily life.

Learning Outcome
1. Explain human behavior in making moral judgment and decision;
2. Articulate the crucial influences in one’s personal life; and
3. Analyze situations and actions of moral agents.

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 Presentation of Contents

Bulaong Jr. et al. (2018) argues that the one who is tasked to make the moral decision
is a human individual. This person when making moral valuation is not doing it out of
nowhere or from a purely personal stance. The moral agent is, according to Ramon C. Reyes
as cited by Bulaong Jr. et al (2018) is a cross-point. This means that any moral agent is a
product of many forces and events outside of one’s choosing. Reyes mentions 4 cross-points
namely: the physical, the interpersonal, the social and the historical cross-points.

First, the physical cross-point include the genetic endowments, characteristics

endemic to the species Homo sapiens with its limitations and strengths, the geographical
realities in which the individual is born and lives, the kind of natural environment with all
resources and challenges that impact growth and development. All these physical cross-
points are influences not from the individual own choosing.

An important aspect when making a decision which is clearly a physical cross-

point based is intelligence. Intelligent people may for instance make crucial decision to
solve a situation or concern definitively, while others might simply go for a tentative
solution unsure about the veracity of their chosen option. Or, it is possible that someone
decides making a career in sports having special talents that gives assurance of success in a
certain field. Usually special talents are best when it is a product not only of training but also
and especially when it is inherent in the person. These factors based on physical cross-point
influence individual decisions, motivation and judgment which are not one’s own choices but
simply something given.

Second, is social cross point. No person is born outside human contact. Every individual
is a product of interpersonal cross-points. The first and the most influential of them are those
established with the parents. The first human contact of every individual is with parents who
nourish, protect, give care and attention and provide security at the very first stages of life. How
individuals are brought up in the family influence an individuals’ character, manners and his or
her thinking and mindset. One’s personality is shaped by the people around especially by those
who influence the person during the early years of existence. Again, these influences are not the
individual’s own choice. The person is born of parents who dispose their time making sure that
every need of the newborn is addressed and taken care of resulting to a compassionate
interpersonal cross-point. Other interpersonal cross-points come in as the individual’s relational
horizon expands with friends, colleagues, clients, schoolmates, etc.

Third, as individuals grow and discover their way in the outside world, they come
into contact with the broader social context. From now on, the shaping of individual
personality accommodates those brought about by the larger society. The culture and the values
inherent in it are inevitably forces that impact the way individuals perceive the world and judge it
. Again, the social and cultural influences as with the other cross-points are not according to the
choices of any individual but realities in which one is born in and is molded by it to become
partly the person that one is. People see things and make choices based on their training and are
influenced by the kind of association they have forged in life. Unconsciously, they serve

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 as important influences coming from outside when they make options or choose solutions
from available alternatives.

Finally, the historical and cultural cross-point. It means that events especially
those with crucial importance shape an entire nation and every individual living in that
particular society. Significant events like wars, devastating natural calamities, and important
societal changes are powerful forces that lead to new awareness leaving incredible impact on
people’s attitude and thinking. Thereby, people’s lives are shaped by the crucial events of
their lives manifested in their day to day attitude and manner of perceiving new experiences.

Similarly, Filipinos have been shaped by its own unique history. The centuries of
Spanish’s colonization have brought a new consciousness that was different before they
landed in the archipelago. Christianity made critical and permanent changes in the lives of
Filipinos. Even if they chased away the colonizers they kept their Christian faith which they
embraced profoundly. Filipino traditions and lifestyle have been the result of the influences
of its historical journey. History has molded the Filipino people resulting to what we
Filipinos are now. The historical and cultural influences are external influences, but they may
have crucial impact on individuals’ moral valuations and decisions.

So far, history is yet another cross-point interacting with the other ones – the
four of them making impact on the Filipino consciousness, his or her perspective
including but especially his or her type of moral valuation.

However, Reyes believes that the Filipino is not only the product of the cross-points
of his life but is also a product of his or her free will and intention in life. The freedom
that every Filipino enjoys allows one to make choices of his or her own, giving the capacity
to direct or invent one’s own life toward the realization of an ideal self. Reyes describes this
point in the following manner:

Summary
No individual born is free from all possible influences in this world. Everyone
experiences the natural life cycle of being born, gaining knowledge, going through life and
growing up until death. The moment one is born, one receives all-at-once the trademark of
the physical cross-point. No one escapes everything that is given about being born in a
particular family, community, country and all that is circumstantial about a certain context.
Many things are given without our permission but they all count and influence our being
human and all that every human being does. But one can choose what one can be. Despite
the different possibilities that personal cross-points indicate, one can and therefore have the
ability to break away from all cross points and possess freedom from the cross-points of
one’s existence and invent what one desires in life.