Midterms

(5) The Moral Agent and Contexts

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), (read attachment) 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.

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 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:

The Filipino, “who one is” is a cross-point, but in an existential level. Whose meaning of existence is the
interaction between the fact that one’s being is a product of may forces outside her/his choosing and
his/her ideal future for herself or himself.”

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.

Activities:

1. Share it! (Group) Share in the class who has influenced you most in making up your mind to
take the course of your life now. Was it a significant individual, a situation, a personal ambition?
Listen to what others have to say about their own experiences.

2. Reflection

Which of your cross-points has the greatest impact in your life? Had you followed your freedom,
would you be different now? How honest have you been to yourself?