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Mr. Salter
Morality
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Imagine that you were the Athletic Director at
CC.
◦ What kind of concerns and decisions would you
have to think about in order to put on the CC vs.
Brother Rice game?
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Imagine that you were the Athletic Director at
CC.
◦ What kind of concerns and decisions would you have to
think about in order to put on the CC vs. Brother Rice
game?
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Pep Rally / Band
PR
Crowd Control / Safety
Referees
Mothers’ Club / Dad’s Club
Point: Sometimes our moral decisions can be
equally involved and thought through
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Lets look at the scenarios presented on p.
121 questions1,2 & 3
In groups of 3 or 4, discuss and answers the
questions.
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This chapter discusses a process for moral
discernment and decision making that will
help us answer the question “What would
Jesus do?”
That will help our conscience come to its last
and best judgment about what we should or
should not do.
This process of moral discernment and
decision making will be applied to specific
areas of morality addressed in the second
part of this book.
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Class reads p. 123 aloud
◦ Together do Reflection on 124
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Three Traditional Sources of Morality
1. Object Chosen
2. Intention
3. Circumstances
1.
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Object Chosen – What we do
Action taken is the “Object”?
◦ Some acts are intrinsically evil, i.e., always wrong to
choose no matter our intention or the circumstances
e.g.,
 selling illegal drugs, killing an innocent person, stealing,
deliberately harming another person’s good name, etc.
◦ Some acts are good in and of themselves, e.g.,
feeding the poor, refusing to ridicule a classmate,
visiting the sick, telling the truth
1.
2.
Intention
Circumstances
1.
2.
Object Chosen – What we do
Intention - our motive in performing an act
◦ An important/traditional principle:
 The end (our intention) doesn’t justify the means
(any object chosen)
 Consider examples…
 Having an abortion to save one’s ”teen years”
◦ Also, our intention can make a good act morally
wrong
 Consider examples…
 Cleaning our neighbor’s house with the intention to
later rob it
1.
2.
3.
Object Chosen – What we do
Intention - our motive in performing an act
Circumstances - conditions surrounding the act
◦ Important principle: circumstances can increase or
diminish the goodness or evil of an act
 Cheating – on homework, vs. a Final Exam
◦ Can diminish or increase one’s moral responsibility
 e.g., acting out of fear (panic), ignorance, or coercion
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Prayer helps us move from discernment to
judgment (diminishes self-centered purpose)
Work with a partner to complete the Reflection
on p. 124. Identify the Object, Intent and
Circumstance for both scenarios.
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In moral decision making, asking the
question what reminds us that moral decision
making occurs only when real people make
choices in concrete situations (p.126)
◦ We need to know more about the situation, whether
it is opinion, observation based on fact
◦ What allows us to “know” what we are talking about
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Consider possible effects
◦ A way to stretch our perspective, is to imagine the
effects of different choices
◦ Our actions have consequences
1.
Name and explain the questions that we can
ask ourselves to help us understand the
actions involved in moral decision making.
1.
Name and explain the questions that we can
ask ourselves to help us understand the actions
involved in moral decision making.
◦ We can better understand acts involved in moral decision
making if we apply the following questions to the
situation with which we fare faced:
◦ What? Who? Why? How? Where? and when?
◦ What are the possible alternatives? What are the
probable results?
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2. Explain the three traditional sources of
Christian morality:
 Object Chosen
 Intention and
 Circumstances
◦ How do we use these sources to judge the
goodness or evil of an act?
◦
2. Explain the three traditional sources of Christian morality:
 Object Chosen
 Intention and
 Circumstances
◦ How do we use these sources to judge the goodness or evil of an
act?
◦ The Object Chosen refers to the specific action a person
takes
◦ Intention refers to the motive underlying the action
◦ Circumstances refer to the conditions surrounding the act
that affect its goodness or evil
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Used together, these three help us in making sound moral
judgments
3. Explain how people could distort the means
used in achieving goals.
3. Explain how people could distort the means
used in achieving goals.
◦ If people used hurtful means to achieve what
appears to be a good end, then they are distorting
means
◦ In moral decision making, means and ends cannot
be separated from each other
4. Name two ways that we can stretch our point
of view during moral decision making.
4. Name two ways that we can stretch our point
of view during moral decision making.
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Two ways that we can stretch our point of view
during moral decision making are by seeking
alternatives and by considering possible effects
Questions to understand moral dilemmas:
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What
◦ “What” seeks to identify the ‘reality’
◦ What are the facts or merely opinion, hyperbole, spin,
manipulation behind what we are being asked to do,
believe, or not do?
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Who
Who is doing the action, and who is affected by the
action?
◦ Age, gender, cultural background, emotional state,
socio-economic can make a difference in deciding how
to act
Questions to understand moral dilemmas:
 How
◦ “How” asks about the means toward the goal
 How we carry out our intention or our goals?
 Healthy morality must choose the right means (good) not
evil means to accomplish a goal
◦ Goals can cause us to forget to use proper means to
achieve our end, e.g.:
 Win at any cost (cheating)
 Do whatever it takes to make the sale (deception)
 “Lie” to be able to use her
Questions to understand moral dilemmas:
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Why
◦ “Why” questions move us from a morality of doing, to a
morality of being
◦ Why seeks to know if we are acting out of selfish
motives or out of concern for the good of others
◦ “Why are we doing what we’re doing? – motivation?
◦ Our motives are seldom pure. Our actions tell us a lot
about who we are
Questions to understand moral dilemmas:
 When and/or Where
◦ Time and place help ground a moral decision in concrete
reality
 Circumstances can change the gravity of our wrongdoing
 Stealing a candy bar from a department store vs. $500.00 dollars from
a poor person
◦ There is a time a place for everything
 e.g., killing, sexual relations, eating at CC
◦ Circumstances allow an action to be evaluated in the context
of a situation
 e.g. for above – war/murder, marriage/adultery,
cafeteria/classroom
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Principal emotions (Passions) - love & hate;
desire & fear; joy, sadness & anger
◦ Emotions are neither morally good nor bad
◦ Emotions can cloud decision making, but do not
determine whether an act is good or bad
◦ Emotions can affect our will power and good sense
and thus, how we make our decisions
◦ When emotions help us make good decisions they
are morally good…and vice versa.
Healthy discernment will call upon as many resources as
possible to evaluate whether an action is right or wrong
A Moral Prescription:
1.
2.
Talking to others
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Deciding for yourself, does not mean deciding by yourself
Others can help by listening and sorting out feelings
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The Catholic Church reaches infallible truths when
speaking on behalf of morality
Authentic teachers speaking the message of Jesus
Consulting the Church
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3.
Awareness of thoughts and feelings
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Personal feelings and reflections can surface insight into a
situation that only you could come to know
A Moral Prescription:
4.
Personal experience
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5.
Scrutinize your values
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6.
Wisdom is learning from experience
Maturity discovers the awareness of the correct time and
place to behave and know how/when to act
Identify your values; know what is really important for you,
and what is the foundation driving results
Judgment guided by Prayer
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Allows us to search God’s presence within us
God is our origin and destiny; prayer allows us to seek the
gifts of the Holy Spirit to live a life aimed at goodness,
holiness (Beatitudes)
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Saint Edith Stein
◦ Patron Saint of my Parish growing up; St. Edith
◦ Born a Jew
◦ An accomplished and published Atheist philosopher
professor just before WW II
◦ Through circumstance exposed to a hope-filled
Catholic widow
◦ Converts, becomes a nun
◦ Arrested by Nazi’s, dies at Auschwitz concentration
camp
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What and Who Matter, p. 126-7
◦ Activity p.126
◦ Group Talk p. 127
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Why, How, When, and Where, p.128
◦ Reflection p.128
◦ Activity p. 129
1. According to the text, what is typically the
most important function that talking to
others serves?
1. According to the text, what is typically the
most important function that talking to
others serves?
◦ Usually the most important function served by a
friend is to be an active listener while we sort out
the jumbled thoughts and feelings we carry around
inside us.
2. What contributions to decision making do
feelings make?
2. What contributions to decision making do
feelings make?
Feelings can lead us to an awareness of the truth
that we might otherwise miss if we left feelings out
of our decisions. Our feelings can serve as the
driving force that leads to action on behalf of
others, i.e. empathy, compassion, joy.
Methods: How a person achieves a goal; the process
used
Motives (p. 128): Reasons people do what they do
Scrutinize (p. 136): To examine or look over with care
various dimensions of a challenging situation so
that overlooked aspects can come to light
Discernment: Thinking (sorting out) about a moral
problem
Judgment: Making a decision about what to do
Effects: The reasons people do what they do
2. What contributions to decision making do
feelings make?
Feelings can lead us to an awareness of the truth
that we might otherwise miss if we left feelings out
of our decisions
Our feelings can serve as a driving force that leads to
action on behalf of others
3. Name three influences on our values.
3. Name three influences on our values.
Culture, Church, and family and friends
1. Why is moral decision making not meant to
be a solitary experience for Christians?
1. Why is moral decision making not meant to be
a solitary experience for Christians?
Christians are meant to decide FOR themselves
but not BY themselves.
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Help from others
Even when they turn their gaze inward,
Christian teaching proclaims that God resides
in the very depth of our being.
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Discernment with prayer
2. What is the role of prayer in moral decision
making?
2. What is the role of prayer in moral decision
making?
Prayer means calling upon God, within us
and among us in our decision making
Prayer can and does allow us to seek the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit to explore a
fuller and deeper goal for decisions
3. What prayer did Jesus say in the Garden the
night before His death?
3. What prayer did Jesus say in the Garden the
night before His death?
In the garden Jesus prayed, "not what I want
but what you want...Your will be done." (Mt
26:39,42)
This becomes the model for our thought:
“What would Jesus do?”
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With a partner, identify situations in which
each of these factors could influence the
moral character of decisions.
Motives
Methods
Time
Place