FEELING &

MORAL DECISION
MAKING
FEELING
◦ is the nominalization of the verb to feel.
◦ The word was first used in the English
language to describe the physical
sensation of touch through
either experience or perception.
◦ The word is also used to describe
experiences other than the physical
sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of
warmth" and of sentience in general.
FEELING
◦ Play a major role in most of the ethical
decisions people make.
◦ Most people do not realize how much
their emotions direct their moral
choices.
◦ But experts think it is impossible to
make any important moral judgments
without emotions.
In Latin, “sentire
”meant to feel,
hear or smell. In
psychology, the
word is usually
reserved for
the conscious su
bjective experie
nce of emotion.
◦No one can deny the fact
that when the human
person is placed in a moral
dilemma, his or her
decisions can also be
greatly affected by his/her
feelings.
The moral decision that man makes will definitely not
be fully objective.

◦ For instance, one’s decision regarding the morality

of death penalty will vary if he is placed in a
situation wherein his family is greatly affected by
murderous act. A person who is never a victim of
any crime may view death penalty as morally
unacceptable. At the same time, a person who has
a very close relative indicted for robbery may cry
for forgiveness while those who do not have such
may demand punishment.
In this regard, a moral decision can be a product of
feelings or emotions.
◦ During the early part of
philosophizing, David Hume
(1711-1776) believed virtue
is in conformity to reason.
Like truth, morality is
discerned merely by ideas.
In order to distinguish the
good and bad, we have to
consider the reason alone.
• Philosophers during the time of
Hume, placed greater emphasis
on the prominence of reason over
feelings.
• Western philosophers were
actually reacting to the position
held by the church scholars who
asserted that religious apologist,
moral decisions must be rooted in
religious laws and doctrines.
◦ During the ancient period,
Plato (423BC-347BC) would
argue that the function of
reasons is to rule the
appetites and emotions. He
held that the mind or the
intellect, which is the highest
level of the soul, is that
immortal part of the soul
that gives man the capacity
for truth and wisdom.
◦ Then, the Stoics upheld that
human person must be able
to learn to control his
passion with reason in order
to live a moral life.
◦ For Hume, the central fact about
ethics is that moral judgements are
formed not by reason alone but
through feelings.
Hume held that moral decision would always
involve feelings or emotions.
◦ For instance, because I will feel sympathetic pain on
my friend whose brother is brutally killed by a
gunman. I will surely develop a moral
condemnation on the action of the killer. However, if
somebody will do charitable deed of feeding a
street child, I will surely feel sympathetic pleasure for
that person. Such pleasure originates from my moral
approval of the good deed.
 From the point of view of Hume,
moral sentiments are found in all
people. Everyone has instinctive
capacity to praise and uphold
moral actions performed by person
to others.
◦ According to Hume, basing
ourselves on experience, our moral
decisions are based not on
judgements based on reason but on
feelings. More so, our experience
tells us that we have sympathetic
feelings of pleasure and pain in
response to a range of virtuous
characteristics that people possess.
◦ It is obvious that Hume, believed
that feelings and agreeableness
can be considered as a clear
criterion of moral judgment. He
believed that behavior is
considered virtuous if it is useful or
agreeable to people who are
affected by the action being
considered.
◦ Then, some religious moralist
critique Hume’s moral point of view
because Hume did not include the
role of God in determining the
morality of one’s action. For this
reason, the religious moralist would
consider Hume’s moral philosophy
to be weak and groundless.
◦ An American philosopher has another
claimed about the feelings named,
Thomas Nagel. He believed that
morality must be rooted not in the
feelings or emotions because that will
make morality subjective. Morality
must be objective. Also, according to
him, no matter how great our feelings
on a particular situation can be, such
feelings will not be considered as basis
for universal moral principle because
FEELINGS MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM THE
FEELINGS OF OTHERS.
◦Our feelings may be irrational.
They may be product of prejudice,
selfishness or cultural conditioning.
◦From the point of view of Nagel,
the basis of morality must be on
the happiness that one’s action
may cause to others. If an action is
going to cause harm to others,
then the action is considered evil.
In some situations, we may ask what is a
moral truth?
◦ It has to be noted that discovering truth can
only be made possible if one is guided by
reason. Most philosophers would consider
this as essence of morality. The morally
right thing is to do actions that is
supported by rational arguments.
MORAL DECISION
MAKING
◦making is the ability to
produce a reasonable
and defensible answer to
an ethical question or
case.
◦ It must be noted that every reason is good. There may
still be valid reasons.
◦ It is important that one’s know how to morally good in
decision making. In discerning over the facts, it is
important that decision maker must be impartial to
certain issues.
◦ One should be able to consider that every moral
decision is equally
◦ important to others. In this regard, no decisions
should be given more favor than the others.
◦Nagel points out that it is quite
difficult to establish a universal moral
decision because there are
many disagreements among those
who accept morality in general
and about what in particular right
or wrong.
◦ The difficulty in making decisions is that
the situation that requires our decision
may have already placed us in dilemma.
More so, the manner of deciding may
place us again in separate dilemma. And
so to avoid falling into dilemma after
dilemma, we have to address this order to
serve as a model that can be used in
assurance of our decisions:
◦
◦Before making moral
decisions, it is important 1.
that necessary facts be
gathered. GATHER
◦Ethical dilemmas can be
resolved simply by
THE FACTS
clarifying the facts of the
case question.
◦Ethical issues are
2.
considered as competing
interest or goods.
DEFINE
◦This will help the person to THE
analyze the interest that
are contradicting to one ETHICAL
another.
ISSUES
◦It is important to determine
3.
different ethical guidelines to REVIEW
determine which ethical
guideline must be applied to RELEVANT
the issue.
◦Constitutional and natural law
ETHICAL
must also be taken into GUIDELINES
account.
◦ In as much no one can really
be an expert in making moral
decisions, it is important to 4.
consult to persons who are
competent in terms of morality. OBTAIN
◦ One may consult religious
leader, well revered teacher, or
CONSULTATION
an elder in society who can
have more wisdom than us.
◦ Making moral decisions 5.
require creative thinking LIST THE
which will help one ALTERNATIVE
identify various alternative COURSES OF
courses of action. ACTION
 6.
◦From the listed COMPARE THE
alternatives, the next step ALTERNATIVE
is to connect alternatives WITH THE
with moral principles. PRINCIPLES.
◦ If the moral principles do
not yet provide clear 7.
decisions, it is better to WEIGH
take note of the positive THE
and negative CONSEQUENCES
consequences.
 8.
◦After weighing a decision has
to be made. Notice that in an MAKE
ethical dilemma, one has to
undergo the painful process A
of critical
analyses.
studies and
DECISION