Foundations of Moral Action: Freedom, Responsibility, and Ethics
Unit 9: Foundations of Moral Action
Moral Action
No people are amoral. People are moral because they inevitably act, choosing between possibilities and justifying their choices. Therefore, no person is amoral, but we can behave morally or immorally.
Forging Character
We are born with a temperament, feelings, passions, and a character shaped by nature and society. However, we can acquire a new character by choosing the best properties for ourselves. Humans, by nature, seek ownership. Acquiring a new property requires repeating actions in the same direction, leading to behavioral patterns. If performed well, these are virtues; if done badly, they are vices.
Conscience
Conscience allows us to grasp the principles distinguishing moral good and evil and makes practical judgments. The best way to understand what is required is to apply a moral principle. Conscience also has a third function: self-criticism (guilt). Responsibility is only applicable to free and conscious beings capable of mastering their actions.
Freedom and Determinism
External and Internal Freedom
- External: The absence of prevention in moving and acting as we see fit, within the laws and customs of the country.
- Internal: The ability to decide for oneself what affects us; the freedom to love one thing or another, also called free will. Depriving a person of internal freedom requires overriding their will through narcotics, hypnosis, or mind control techniques.
Determinism and Internal Freedom
If inner freedom is the power of the will to act without external influence, it must initiate a series of events. If the initiating act has a cause, it wouldn’t be free. Two attitudes exist:
- Deterministic: Nothing happens without a cause.
- Free Will: We act spontaneously, although conditioned to act in certain ways.
Conditioning and Determination
- Conditioned: Lacking absolute freedom but retaining enough to be responsible for one’s actions.
- Determined: Absolutely denied the opportunity to act freely.
Human freedom is conditioned by temperament, social environment, and education; thus, we are not absolutely free. However, these factors do not prevent us from taking initiative and acting freely, except in exceptional cases.
Cosmological Determinism: Fate
The Stoics believed everything has a reason, governed by a universal law related to fate. They envisioned the ideal sage, accepting that happiness lies in fate’s hands, seeking peace of mind through nonchalance. This distinguishes two worlds: inner freedom (in our hands) and external freedom (not dependent on us).
Theological Determinism: Predestination
The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation argued that if God knows everything, it is because He has predetermined all things. However, this raises the question of why people assume responsibility for their actions, sin, repentance, forgiveness, and salvation.
Scientific Determinism
Scientific determinism explains human behavior through scientific explanations, often built on reductionism:
- Inheritance: Sociobiological currents attribute actions to genetic makeup.
- Psychological Determinism: Behavior is governed by the strongest motive influencing our will, making behavior rational rather than arbitrary.
Critics of Determinism
Kant distinguished two ways of using the idea of scientific research:
- Regulative Use: Investigating every phenomenon as if it were always caused.
- Constitutive Use: Believing that the structure of reality is causal.
Human Freedom
Our freedom is conditioned by many factors and has a biological basis, where humans choose from possibilities and justify their choices. True human freedom is achieved through open projects of humanization, both personal and shared.
Freedom as Autonomy
Freedom of Choice
Freedom is the capacity of the will to choose between possibilities after weighing advantages and disadvantages. This requires:
- Our will not being predetermined.
- Choice not being arbitrary; simple indifference between equally attractive goods is insufficient, as it leads to irrational choices.
- Having good reasons for choosing after deliberation.
This understanding aligns with those who view human rationality as economic rationality, maximizing benefits and minimizing costs. However, this often limits choice to the means to an end.
Concept of Autonomy
Kant proposed that people can choose both means and ends, making us autonomous. He called the law of liberty or moral law the ability to make our own free laws. There are at least two views of freedom:
- External events influencing the individual’s will, subject to natural laws as physical beings.
- The human will, capable of initiating effects and thus free, governed by laws of freedom given by rational beings, allowing us to organize our lives and humanize coexistence.
Moral Maturity: From Heteronomy to Autonomy
Psychologists interpret moral consciousness as the ability to make judgments of right and wrong, studying its evolution. Moral maturity progresses from heteronomy to autonomy in three levels:
Preconventional Level: Individuals act in their own interests, respecting standards only due to potential consequences (punishment or reward). They are immature, driven by selfish impulses, and heteronomous, understanding what is right for them.
Conventional Level: Individuals are considered fair by conforming to societal laws, supporting community policies, rules, and principles. They are quite heteronomous, controlling selfish impulses to adapt to societal norms, doing what is considered normal.
Postconventional Level: Individuals distinguish between societal rules and universal moral principles, governed by their conscience and universally recognized principles. They are members of humanity, linking justice to global solidarity. Autonomy represents the highest moral maturity. Morally mature individuals also advance in values of care, developing compassion and responsibility for those in need, starting with those closest.
Responsibility
What is Responsibility?
Responsibility means justifying a questioned action or repairing damage caused. Moral responsibility is a subjective phenomenon of moral conscience, where the acting subject feels responsible without external judgment, except from their own conscience, leading to remorse as a penalty. Being morally responsible means:
- Acting freely and admitting the possibility of not having acted or having acted differently.
- Being able to explain the reasons or motives for the action.
- Accepting the consequences (good or bad) of the action.
Conviction and Responsibility
The ethics of conviction involves acting according to principles and moral values, ignoring potential consequences. The ethics of responsibility emphasizes the likely consequences, leaving principles or values in the background. These two forms are opposite but complementary for moral action.
Responsibility in Today’s World
The twentieth century saw the development of planetary consciousness. Scientific and technological progress created problems requiring global cooperation and responsibility.
- Principle of Responsibility: We must change our idea of progress to responsibly assume the consequences of our actions, leaving future generations a world at least as habitable as we found it.
- Responsible Citizens: True citizens demand their rights and participate actively and responsibly in matters affecting everyone, aspiring to be cosmopolitan citizens.
- Professional Responsibility: Professional ethics studies the specific moral values and needs of occupations, determining what constitutes professional goods.