NOTES ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS | REGINALD MATT SANTIAGO 1
Christian Ethics
DISCUSSION NOTES
Ethics comes from the word ethos, meaning customs and
morals comes from the word mores. It involves the way we
conduct our life, the general framework of life.
Kinds of Norms
1. Technical Norms
This involves ways to allow us to address what is going on in
the environment. It is meant for survival, including techniques
to overcome physical problems like ways how to heal and
maintain health.
2. Societal Norms
They are those norms which assure cohesion, bonding and unity
in the societies. They bring one and others closer. It involves
ways to achieve identity, sense of belonging and orientation
like families, groups and societies.
3. Aesthetic Norms
This involves free play and celebration of the human spirit.
These involves our inner joy though cathartic appreciation
which involves a therapeutic experience. This is usually
embodied in movements, scent, sceneries and sound.
4. Moral/Ethical Norms
It is something that we ought to follow. Also known as an ethical
religious norm. It is the dimension of our existence that we aim
to achieve an ideal goal or an ideal state or vision.
 It should be seen as an imperative demand
 In accord to the ideal vision.
Ethics, in that regard there is some kind aspect in existence
some kind to an ideal state and an ideal goal. This becomes our
fundamental norm.
Two Strands in Ethics
1. Teleological – ethics of ends
2. Deontological – it is my moral obligation
Good – ontological bias, oriented towards an objective goal, a
fulfillment to the being of man.
 Somehow points to the existence of the ideal good,
which is the basic aim or end.
 It is something beyond material and time, it is
something objectively out there considered to be in
the person, considered the beatitude and is
considered.
 Good or bad usually involves being in conformity with
the goal or otherwise.
Right – moral obligation, a moral duty imposed upon
individuals and therefore it is subject to exigency. Right or
wrong usually involves doing the ought duty or refraining from
such duty.
Concept of Value
Something that is useful, desirable and significant. We can say
it is distinct from such.
 A relation between the human subjectivity and the
one being valued.
Layers of Value
1. A value is a value because it corresponds to his
yearning and desire.
2. A value may refer qualities that are desirable.
3. A value actually desired by the individual by himself.
4. It is prescribed by a group for all individuals to
observe, so that the individuals may desire this value.
5. It is intrinsically desirable and thus desirable for all
men and for all groups.
In our human existence, we find an ideal vision, this ideal vision
has certain qualities
 All our actions must be directed or in consonance to
the ideal vision.
 These values, customs, and practices in the
community are internalized to the individual and
develop a sense of belonging.
Ethics or morality. It is something that is completely
embedded in the culture from a person. It is not imposed in
one’s mind. It is something one is awakened into and one live
with and a part of day to day.
Ethics of moral experience is handed down through
generations, a kind of legacy that is to be taken care of and to
be preserved. One accepts it, and must hand it over to the
succeeding generations, passing to generation to generation.
Moral Experience
It is something concrete, embedded in our nature which can be
a creative development in moral experiences. There are factors
that affect our moral experience leading it to have a creative
transformation.
Three Factors that Affect Moral Experience
1. Psychological Maturation
It is being able to understand, see the value and appreciation
the part of one’s moral conviction, by gradually appropriating
such acts as one’s own as becomes a part of one’s decision. It
is the psychological appropriation and assimilation.
2. The Very Nature of Moral Experience
the moral experience comes from freedom, that is an
imperative imposed upon one to follow but one has a choice to
follow or not. It is a directive, and with one’s freedom that
demand is not absolute.
3. Encounter with Other Cultures
One has to revisit own moral experience for the new values
which are unique and peculiar challenge our belief, this is when
one’s culture is put to the test. Accommodation, recognition
and even questioning the ethical presuppositions will happen,
but as much as possible, we cannot afford to stagnate.
From the Discussions of Mr. Alfredo L. Alpas (2017)       s 

Good
by Austin Fagothey, Summary
PROBLEM
The individual man relies on his:
 Consciousness to determine the degree of his
responsibility
 Conscience to judge good or evil, rightness or
wrongness of these acts done by him in concrete
circumstance.
 There is no more ultimate court than the testimony of
conscience.
But subjective morality alone is insufficient.
 Conscience can be erroneous as well as correct.
 Error can be vincible as well as invincible.
When objective truth is attainable, conscience cannot rest
satisfied with a subjective opinion that it knows may be false.
 Whether there is an objective morality which
judgment of conscience should be in agreement.
DEFINABILITY OF THE GOOD
George Edward Moore
Good is a simple concept unanalyzable into anything simpler,
and that therefore it is indefinable.
 We can point to certain properties of objects because
we call these objects good, but that does not tell us
what is good about these properties.
 We can then define good as in an object which is
good, but not the predicate good itself.
Naturalistic Fallacy
It is the reduction of good, the simplest of ethical ideas, to
something non-ethical, as if good were a natural property that
some things possess and others lack.
 Moore argues that good is just good, irreducible,
unanalyzable and indefinable.
Subject matter of ethics is the concept of the good itself and
not correctness in speaking about it.
 To define good as pleasure, desirability, evolution, and
similar concepts are precisely examples of what is
meant by naturalistic fallacy.
 Intuitionism. If good cannot be defined, it will have
to be known by some sort of direct intuition.
Whether or not good is indefinable in principle, we have to
begin our study of it without a definition, since we could
achieve only by committing ourselves in advance to a
philosophy we have not yet examined.
 Even without a definition much has been written
about the good.
 Ancients developed on of its fruitful aspects, good as
an end.
NOTES ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS | REGINALD MATT SANTIAGO 2
GOOD AS AN END
The traditional approach as espoused by Aristotle by stating
that “good is that at which all things aim” which looks at the
relationship of good and end.
 End is that “for the sake of which a thing is done”
Four Causes of End
For him, all change is a process whereby:
 Some given underlying substrate (the matter)
 Acquires a new specification or determination (the form)
 Through the action of an efficient operator (the agent)
 Moved to act by the attraction of some good (the end)
Teleology or Purposiveness
Such view of constant changes looks at a directed world in which
all things have an aim.
 Different from mechanistic theory that all changes
come about by chance.
Nature is the principle of direction in this directed world.
 Each being is so structured that it acts only along certain
definitive lines.
 It is not some kind of driver something distinct from the
being, but it’s very self.
 It is the essence of each being source of its activity.
Direction then supposes:
1. Nature, a moving principle
2. Target toward which to move
Thus, natural activity is teleological activity.
Nature of Man
It is natural for man to seek good as his end. The structure of
being moving along definite lines is not a bar to freedom.
 Some beings have free nature and free choice.
 Human beings act for end.
Principle of Finality of Teleology
Every end is a good and every good is an end. An end would
not be sought unless it were somehow good for the seeker, and
the good being sought is the end or purpose.
 No activity is possible except for the attainment of
some end, for the sake of some good.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Every agent of necessity acts for an end. Every person is moved
by a necessity towards an end.
 Final cause is the cause of all causes.
 Matter does not receive unless moved by an agent
 Nothing reduces itself from potentiality to act
If every being moves for an end which is good, why is there
wrong?
From the Discussions of Mr. Alfredo L. Alpas (2017)       s 

Metaphysical or Ontological Good
It means only that every being, by the very fact that it is a being,
has some goodness about it and is good for something.
 Considers good in its broadest scope
 Contributing harmony and perfection of the universe
 Every being has a certain amount of physical
goodness
The fact that every being is good for something, does not mean
every being is good for everything.
 There is some good in all things but it need not be the
ethical or moral good.
It is up to man’s judgment what is good for him.
 Human judgments are open to error to mistake the
apparent good for the true good.
 The moral good must always be the true good.
Degrees of Goodness
a. Useful or instrumental good
It is good only in a qualified and analogous sense, such that it
is desirable only because it leads to something more desirable
such as tools or instruments.
b. Pleasant good
This is when we seek a good for the satisfaction or the
enjoyment it gives without considering it will be beneficial to
our whole being. It delights us and may be harmless but offers
no guarantee that it may not hurt us in the long run.
c. Intrinsic good
This is a good we seek because it contributes towards the
perfection of our being as a whole, because it fits a man as such.
 This is the befitting good, upright and honorable, the
noble and the righteous.
 This is good in the fullest sense. It is not only good for
us, but good in itself as an independent value apart
from its effect on others.
 The moral good, is always and necessarily the
befitting good.
GOOD AS OUGHT
The good is our constant quest. Our existence is a passage from
capacity to fulfillment, potentiality to actuality, from
perfectibility to perfection.
Two Different Senses of Ought
1. Moral ought
2. Nonmoral ought
Every good except the moral good is optional, but the moral
good is necessary. There is no getting away from the demands
of morality, from the requirement of living a good life and
thus being a good man.
 This obligatory character of moral good is what
impresses to those who see ethics in terms of duty.
The apparent good can be beckon with alluring smiles while the
true good gravely points to the harder path.
 One is obliged to follow the true good.
NOTES ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS | REGINALD MATT SANTIAGO 3
Moral Necessity
This the nature of the moral ought that commands with such
authority. It is a kind of necessity unique and irreducible to any
other. It guides us to the proper use of freedom.
 It is a freedom that is a necessity, and a necessity that
is a freedom.
 The requirement is absolute thus it is a necessity, but
it can be refused, thus a freedom.
Moral necessity affects the acting subject.
1. Legal sanction
2. Social sanction
3. Psychological sanction
4. Religious sanction
Remove these four sanctions from judging an act as good or
bad then we look at:
5. Moral sanction
It is intrinsic to the very act itself, identical with the deliberate
choice of the will, relationship between the doer and his deed.
In despising the moral good I despise myself. As I accept or
reject the moral good, I rise or fall in my own worth as man.
 The moral good provides the scale by which I
necessarily rate myself, unavoidably judge myself.
Varieties of Ethics
1. Teleological – consideration of good as and end
2. Deontological – good as ought
3. Axiological – good as value
GOOD AS VALUE
Value, In General
There are objects that appeal to us because they supply a need,
satisfy a desire or stimulate an emotion. These are value
judgments or subjective values that are matters of experience.
Kinds of Value Judgments
1. Noncomparative – its either we approve or disapprove
2. Comparative – scale of values
Characteristics of Value
1. Values are bipolar, with a positive or negative pole
They can be pleasant or painful, easy or difficult, strong or weak,
rich or poor, beautiful or ugly. The positive pole is the one
preferred, the negative pole is a disvalue.
2. Values are not homogeneous but of many kinds
Some are quite unrelated thus a construction of a scale of
values is so difficult for there are too many crosscuts.
3. Values transcend facts in the sense that nothing
ever wholly comes up to our expectations
Even if anything should, it only shows that our expectations
were pitched to low and we want something further.
4. Values, though not wholly realizable, clamor for
realization
They should exist, they deserve to be, even if we have no way
of bringing them into existence.
From the Discussions of Mr. Alfredo L. Alpas (2017)       s 

Existence of Value
A. Subjective values.
There is an objective being or thing, but not objective value.
There are evident values due to the fact that we have our own
preferences. A thing’s worth is due to our peculiar prejudices,
psychological conditioning, unaccountable tastes and fancies.
B. Some are subjective in nature, but their lack of
arbitrariness shows that they have some objective basis.
Like money, credit or reputation, these are created by human
convention. These human conventions are not wholly
subjective on the fact that if they have no backing in reality,
they are considered fraudulent and their value vanishes.
C. Objective values.
When a value is objective there is something about a thing that
makes it suitable for a person, so that his preferences are not
arbitrary. Thus, the taste in food may be subjective and
arbitrary but the need for food is objective and rooted in is
biological requirements.
Recognition of Values
Derivative values. These can be arrived at by logical reasoning
from other values.
 When we ask ourselves why a thing is attractive and
to only find out the answer is our psychological
conditions is when we value labels as subjective.
Primary values. These general or abstract values are not
reasoned. They simply present themselves.
 When we find in such a real suitability to ourselves,
and suitability that we do not find but already existing
these are values we call objective.
Epistemological Theory of Nominalism; Argument
Nominalism admits no basis in reality for abstractions and
ideas but considers them as mere names the facilitate our way
of speaking. They have trouble with value, which is an abstract
concept and a universal idea.
 Abstractions are argued to exist only in the mind, for
extreme Platonists.
However, abstractions are based on foundation in way things
really are. Those who admit a realistic basis to universal ideas
accord realism to values that are objective.
Values like other universals, are drawn from the data of
experience and have their concrete fulfillment in existing
persons, things, and actions.
 It is a fact that we evaluate goods to buy, persons to
employ, students to reward.
 We do so because we see some objective qualities in
them that makes them deserve such.
NOTES ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS | REGINALD MATT SANTIAGO 4
MORAL VALUES
Moral Values
They are understood to be those that make a man good purely
and simply as a man. They are not external objects that, though
they may help the man be the kind of being he ought to be, are
not the man himself.
Moral Values are Personal
Not only because a person has them, but because they are the
expression of each one’s unique personality in the innermost
center of its being, as shown in the act of choice.
Moral values reside in both:
(1) acts a man chooses to do and
(2) the results of those acts on the character of the man
Take the analogy of a shark attack. A saved B even though the
swimming was not correct, the rescue was unscientific, and B
died later. There is no value but one, moral value, but these are
understood to be those that make a man good purely and
simply as a man.
Characteristics of Moral Value
1. Moral value can exist only in a free being and his
voluntary or human acts.
By willing good a man becomes good. It cannot happen
accidentally. It makes no difference whether the act was
successful or not or even planned and executed brilliantly.
2. Moral value is universal in the sense that what
holds for one holds for all in the same conditions.
It shows the worth of man as a man. All would approve of his
action as the right thing to do in the case, whether they would
have the strength to do it or not.
3. Moral value is self-justifying.
It should be made part of the moral order itself and not some
extrinsic reason.
4. Moral value has a preeminence over every other
value.
A moral value can only be compared with another moral value.
A moral value conflicts with subordinate values.
5. Moral value implies obligation.
We can still retain respect for a foolish man as a man, thus we
shall respect him to be so.
THE MORAL IDEAL
What we use in moral judgment is a moral ideal. While it is true
that no one ever perfectly lives up to it, but it must mean the
ideal because he ought to. It is constructed by taking the various
kinds of acts that experience shows us men perform.
We all have an ideal of the perfectly living human being. So far
as men approach this ideal, he has moral value and is good. So
far as man approaches this ideal, he has moral value and is
good. The good here is intrinsic, perfect good. Not
instrumental or perfective good.
From the Discussions of Mr. Alfredo L. Alpas (2017)       s 
 NOTES ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS | REGINALD MATT SANTIAGO 5
 
The ideal is good, not as instrument to such. It has value
because it has what it ought to have to be itself in the fullest
expression of itself. This is the good in the highest sense, for
what is good for another is are good also for others.

CONCLUSION
Good as value. The good as value stresses the intrinsic, perfect
good in itself as this must be the most fundamental aspect of
the good.

Good as ought. This stresses the fact that each thing ought to
be as perfect as it can be, that the ideal is not merely something
to be contemplated but to be put into act, and this demand is
laid on a free being in the form of moral obligation.

Good as end. This emphasizes the obligation of any being to

strive towards perfection as its end.

The absolute good is the ultimate end that ought to be

sought because of its supreme value.  
 

Fortes in Fide

From the Discussions of Mr. Alfredo L. Alpas (2017)       s