Social Ethics: Morals, Principles, and Catholic Teachings

Posted on Jan 10, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Social Ethics Midterm

Morals and Ethics

  • Morals: Our fundamental standards; rules that govern our behavior.
  • Ethics: How we apply standards.

Two Forms of Revelation

  • Old Testament: Ten Commandments
    • First three concern the relationship with God.
    • Second seven concern relationships with each other.
  • New Testament: Jesus’ moral teachings.

Catholic Social Teachings

  1. Life and dignity of a human person
  2. Call to family, community, and participation
  3. Rights and responsibilities
  4. Option for the poor and vulnerable
  5. The dignity of work and the rights of workers
  6. Solidarity
  7. Care for God’s creation

Rerum Novarum

Rerum Novarum was written by Pope Leo XIII.

  • It addressed the rights of workers and dignity in the workplace.

Catholic Social Teaching Dimensions of Work

  • Means of unique development
  • Provides material needs
  • Contributes to the common good

Catholic Social Teaching Dimensions of Being Human

Three truths of creation:

  • Humans are created in God’s image.
  • Humans are created to have a relationship with God.
  • Humans are created to live in a society with each other.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

  • Punishment: Guided by selfishness and external force.
  • Self-interest: “What’s in it for me?”
  • Pleasing others: “Good boy” stage.
  • Law and order: Breaking rules is always wrong, and you must accept the punishment.
  • Social contract: “What is good for society?”
  • Principle: Greatest good for all humanity.

Responses to Violence or Oppression

  • Flight
  • Fight
  • Peaceful subversion

The Ignatian Plus

  • Presupposition: People are generally good with good intentions.
  • Assume the best.
  • Cynicism is a mark of desolation.

Moral Reasoning

  • Attention
  • Dialogue
  • Assumptions
  • Proposal
  • Test

Pluralism

  • There are many different opinions, and we cannot just agree to disagree.
  • We must engage in dialogue and develop understanding beyond tolerance.

Subjective Relativism

“Opinions cannot be wrong” is false. Arguments must be sensible and reasonable.

Dogmatic Absolutism

Truth is acquired through some predetermined faith.

Fallacies

An error in reasoning.

  1. Argumentum ad hominem: Attacking the person.
  2. Argumentum ad ignorantiam: Claiming something is true because there is no evidence to the contrary.
  3. Argumentum ad populum: Bandwagon fallacy.
  4. Argumentum ad verecundiam: Faulty appeal to authority.
  5. Equivocation: Use of ambiguous language that causes confusion.
  6. False dichotomy/dilemma: Presents only two options when there are others.
  7. False analogy: Assuming two things are similar because they are similar in some ways.
  8. Hasty generalization: Drawing conclusions about populations based on small samples.
  9. Petitio principii (circular reasoning): Argument in which the conclusion is included in the premises.
  10. Loaded questions: Questions that imply built-in assumptions.
  11. Post hoc ergo propter hoc: Concludes that one event caused another simply because it occurred before.
  12. Red herring: Diverting the argument by introducing an unrelated topic.
  13. Slippery slope: False assumption that one thing must lead to another and another.

Justice

Why Do We Think About the Right Thing to Do?

  • People are emotional and moral.
  • People are social.
  • People are rational and reflective in terms of:
    • Time
    • Space
    • Causation

Human Condition

Only human beings can reflect on their own suffering and contemplate the suffering of others.

Basis of Moral Theories

  • Mature:
  • Maximizing welfare
  • Respecting freedom
  • Promoting virtue

Consequentialism

  • Consequential morality: Based on the result of the act itself.
  • Categorical morality: Based on one’s intentions and “duty” to a moral law.

Utilitarianism

  • Emphasize end over means.
  • Humans serve pain and pleasure.
  • Divine Command Theory (DCT): God’s command creates morality.
  • The goal of life is heaven, not happiness.

David Hume

Consequentialist

  • Said morality depends on our “sentiment of benevolence.”
  • We are morally sensitive creatures who naturally sympathize with others.

Jeremy Bentham

Act utilitarian/consequentialist

  • Act utilitarianism: We should always do whatever will produce the greatest amount of happiness (pleasure principle).

John Stuart Mill

Rule utilitarian/consequentialist

  • Rule utilitarianism: Moral acts must consider the quality of happiness, not just quantity.
  • Respect for individual rights.
  • “Majority rule” over the long term is good.
  • Higher pleasures require education and cultivation.