Moral Theories and Mental Frames: By: Prof. Katherine E. Evasco Sociology Department, BUCSSP

By: Prof. KATHERINE E.
EVASCO
Sociology Department, BUCSSP
MORAL
THEORIES AND
MENTAL
FRAMES
ETHICAL FRAMEWORK
• Decisions about right
and wrong that
MORAL FRAMEWORK permeate everyday life
because ethics should
• To select some concern all levels of
aspects of a life: acting properly as
perceived reality and individuals, creating
make them more responsible
salient in a organizations and
communicating governments, and
context making society as
whole, more ethical
MORAL THEORIES/
NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORIES
THEORIES MORAL THEORY

• A structured set of • Explains why a
statements used to certain action is
explain or predict a wrong or why we
set of facts or ought to act in a
concepts certain way
UTILITARIANISM
• Right or wrong can be determined by a

cost-benefit analysis therefore we must
consider all the good and bad
consequences when deciding if an action
is right
• An action is then right as long as it
satisfactorily causes good consequences
compared to alternative actions and it
will be wrong if it doesn’t
STOIC VIRTUE ETHICS
• True moral beliefs and thoughts tend to lead to

appropriate emotions and actions
• Virtue is the ultimate value that over-rides all other
values
• It defines virtue in terms of having true evaluative
beliefs
• We can know what is preferable based from our
instincts which was given to us by God
• Everything that happens is for the best because it was
pre-ordained by God and therefore there is no reason
for us to have a negative emotional response
ROSS’ INTUITIONISM
• We have self-evident prima facie duties such

as the duty of non-injury, the duty to fidelity
(to keep our promises), the duty to reparation
(the duty to try to pay for the harm we do to
others, the duty of gratitude and the duty of
beneficence (to help others)
• We can know moral facts through intuition or
the way contemplation can lead to knowledge
of self-evidence
ARISTOTLE
(384 to 322 BC in Greece)
VIRTUE ETHICS
THEORY GEOCENTRIC THEORY
• Act as a virtuous • He believed that the
person would act in earth was the center
your situation of the universe
• A virtuous person is
someone who has
ideal character traits
Nicomachean ethics
• One supreme good is the aim of human actions,

investigations and crafts
• Virtues are habits and that the good life is a life of mindless
routine
• The supreme good is therefore an activity of the rational
soul in accordance with virtue. Moral virtue is then a
disposition to behave in the right manner and as a means
between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices
• Eudaimonia: doing and living well
: happiness therefore means doing well
and living well
• Happiness is therefore not a state but an activity thus
the supreme good for man is that which is the best
way to lead our life and give it meaning
• Happiness is the highest good because we choose
happiness as an end sufficient. Even intelligence and
virtue are not good only in themselves but also good
because they make us happy. Therefore, the supreme
good should be an activity of the rational soul in
accordance with virtue.
THOMAS AQUINAS
(1225 to 1274 in Italy)
Natural Theory of Morality:

• The natural law is comprised on those precepts of
the eternal law that govern the behavior of being
possession reason and free will
• What is good and evil is derived from that nature of
human beings thus everything in nature has a
purpose. Good and evil are thus both objective
and universal
• We can never achieve complete or final happiness
in this life
THEORY OF INDIRECT
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
• The mind only knows itself in a

second order act that reflects
on a first-order act directed
towards extra-mental objects
The fifth way/teleological
argument
• The universe is being directed towards a telos or an end

purpose and that the a posteriori evidence of an
apparent intelligent design of the world implies the
existence of an intelligent designer we call God
• Therefore laws are rules and measures of acts whereby
man is induced to act or is restrained from acting. The
natural law is therefore promulgated by God and God
has instilled it into human minds to be known by them
naturally
IMMANUEL KANT
(April 22, 1724- February 12, 1804 in Russia): KANTIAN ETHICS
• Reason is the capacity of a rational being to act

according to principles
• The rightness or wrongness of actions does not
depend on their consequences but on whether
they fulfill our duty
• We do our moral duty when our motive is
determined by a principle recognized by reason
rather than the desire for any expected
consequence or emotional feeling which may
cause us to act the way we do
• The human self or transcendental ego, constructs
knowledge out of sense impressions and from
universal concepts called categories that it
imposes upon them. Thus, the nature of objects
as they are in themselves is unknowable to us but
knowledge of their appearances is nevertheless
possible (transcendental idealist).
• We can know objects as they appear to us
(empirical realist).

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By: Prof. KATHERINE E.

THEORIES MORAL THEORY

• Right or wrong can be determined by a

• True moral beliefs and thoughts tend to lead to

• We have self-evident prima facie duties such

• One supreme good is the aim of human actions,

Natural Theory of Morality:

• The mind only knows itself in a

• The universe is being directed towards a telos or an end

• Reason is the capacity of a rational being to act

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