LOVE OF

ONESELF
PHILO 501

BELINDA S. MORATA
An action, to have
moral worth, must
be done from duty.

Immanuel Kant
Man’s duty is to improve
himself: to cultivate his
mind: and, when he finds
himself going astray, to
bring the moral law to bear
upon himself.

Immanuel Kant
 TOPICS
Differentiate the biological,
intellectul,and moral duties of
a person.

Present the basic personal

rights.
 OBJECTIVES

To distinguish the integral

values of the person.

To identify the rights

essential to our integrity as
person.
Moral Philosophy is
often said to be
about what we owe
to each other.
Do we owe
anything to
ourselves?
What do you owe yourself?

Complete the sentence;

I owe myself __________

_____________________
_____________________
 What is our duties to
oneself?
Self-care - promoting our own
interest, pursuing our dreams, minding
our health and preserving our lives.
Self-respect - pride and
confidence to oneself, a feeling that
one is behaving with honor and dignity.
 THE FOUNDATION OF MAN’S DUTIES TO
HIMSELF

 Excellence and perfectibility of his nature.

 The supreme principle of all man’s duties to

himself is, Love thyself with a well regulated
love.
Man is bound to preserve and perfect himself in
order to his last end.
Aristotle , Thomas Aguinas and other philosophers
believes that man is not only homo sapiens but also
homo moralis.

 Human are ethical beings by their biological nature; that

humans evaluate their behavior as either right or wrong,
moral or immoral , as a consequence of their eminent
intellectual capacities that includes self awareness and
abstract thingking.
 Humans exhibit ethical behavior by nature because
their biological constitution determines the presence
in them three necessary conditions for ethical
behavior.
Three conditions for the existence of
ethical behavior:

 Ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s

actions is closely related to the ability to establish the
connection between means and ends.

Example: Constructionof tools by our ancestors as object

that help to perform certain actions, that is as means that
serves cetain ends or purpose., like a knife for cutting and
an arrow for hunting.
2. Ability to make value judgements

The ability to make value judgement depends on the

capacity for abstraction. The capacity for abstraction
requires an advanced intelligence such as it exists in
humans and apparently in them alone.
3. The ability to choose between altenative
courses of action using our common sense
and free will.

Free will is dependent on the exixtence of a well

develop intelligence, which makes it possible to explore
alternative courses of action and to choose one or
another in view of the anticipated consequences.
 Ethical behavior is an
attribute of the biological
make-up of humans and
hence, is a product of
biological evolution.
 MAN’S DUTIES TO HIS BODY

Man is bound to watch over the

preservation of his body. Man cannot
fulfill his destiny in this life without his
body. He should preserve it and restore
it when it has been impaired.
 SUICIDE

Immanuel Kant
Suicide can be regarded as a
violation of one’s duty to other people ( duty of spouses to
each other, of parent to their children, children to their
parents.) and a violation of duty to God, as he is
abandoning the post assigned him in the world without
having been called away from it.
 Suicide
Aristotle argues that suicide cannot in principle be an injustice
against oneself where injustice means violation of rights -
because the suicidal person ‘suffers voluntarily’ and nobody
suffers injustice voluntarily.

Frances Kamm - when people have good reason of choosing

death - as when their life is consumed by unbearable pain- they
“decline the honor of being a person.”
Arguments in favor of suicide

J.J. Rousseau and d’Holbach

They say that at times life is such a

misfotune that instinct prompts us to make a way
with it. That society is not injured when he who
takes his life is a useless member.
 Supererogation - a good deed beyond call
of duty. More precisely, it is better than a
permissible altenative, friendly favors like
saintly sacrifices and herioc rescue.

The natural law does not always forbid an

action that leads indirectly to death, for in certain
cases this is an act of virtue and even of duty.
 Mortification
Mortification is the feeling of being completely humiliated. The
word mortification has its roots in the Latin word for "death," mors.
The original meaning of mortification was religious; in Christianity
the meaning is "putting your sin to death". In Christian practice,
this has varied from denying oneself pleasurable things, like
certain foods, to inflicting physical pain on oneself. The religious
reason for this kind of mortification is to cause the "death" of sins
— or desires — of the body.
 INTELLECTUAL DUTIES OF A PERSON
 Man is bound to cultivate his intellect, to apply himself
to the study of those truths the knowledge of which is
necessary to him for attaining his last end.
 To the duty of cultivating the intellect correspond
the rights of being instructed and of teaching.

 Man is bound so to perfect his will as to render it

strong and constant in the practice of duty.
 Four kinds of moral virtue necessary to the
perfection of the will, man should strive to acquire

Prudence - so he Fortitude so he may

may judge justly what strengthen the
should be done or sensitive appetite to
avoided. overcome difficulties

Justice - so he may Temperance so he may

give every one his due hold it in check and regulate
its tendencies
 MORAL DUTIES OF A PERSON
A moral obligation or duty is a course of action that is morally
required. Obligations arise from many sources--from one's
promises, agreements and contracts, and from one's
relationships, debts of gratitude, and roles. Many roles are
not chosen, such as the obligation of a citizen, or that of a
son or a daughter, which are not the result of choices. One
does take on professional roles in part from choice and
consequently has certain obligations by choice. For ex., the
obligations of a nurse, a teacher, an engineer, or a husband
or wife.
 6 Major Moral Duties of a Man

1. Respect of Life:
It is man’s prime duty to respect his own life and the
lives of others.
2. Respect of Freedom:

The respect of freedom is contiguous to the right of

freedom. In the modem age especially is there an urgent
need for stressing this duty because everywhere people are
raising their voices against any form of oppression.
3. Respect of Character:

It is the supreme quality of mankind. It is the basis of his

morality. Every person should be an individual and respect all
others as individuals.

Character is an essential part of personality and from the moral

view it is character which is the foundation of personality. Thus we
should respect character of others and ourselves.
4. Respect of Property:

Along with the right of property one is confronted by the duty of

respect of property. Every individual possesses the right to make a
constructive or proper use of his personal property.
5. Respect of Truth:
The respect of truth is attained to the right of contract. It is a
moral maximum that you will refrain front false statement a man
should be faithful to his promises which he should fulfill.
5. Respect of Progress:

Ethics places its faith in the progress of mankind. Every

person should evince a faith in progress and respect
progress. Work is worship. Society can progress only if
man does so.
 Duty-Based or Deontological ethics

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was arguably one of the greatest

philosophers of all time.

All humans must be seen as inherently worthy of respect and dignity. He

argued that all morality must stem from such duties: a duty based on a
deontological ethic.

 Deontological (duty-based) ethics are

concerned with what people do, not with the
consequences of their actions. Consequences such
as pain or pleasure are irrelevant.
 Do the right thing.
Do it because it's the right thing to do.
Don't do wrong things.
Avoid them because they are wrong.

Deontologists live in a universe of moral rules, such as:

It is wrong to kill innocent people

It is wrong to steal
It is wrong to tell lies
It is right to keep promises
 To Kant some duties are absolute. These are the
obligations to do certain types of actions. Kant calls this
general type of obligation a Categorical Imperative,
that is, the action is imperative because it falls within a
certain category.

Kant has three formulations of his categorical imperative.

Universal Law Formulation - Never treat a person as a means

to an end

umanity or End in Itself Formulation - Persons are always ends

in them
 The Kingdom of Ends Formulation - We must never use or exploit anyone

for whatever purpose.

 Kant has three formulations of his categorical imperative.

1. The Universal Law Formulation

‘Act only by that maxim by which you can, at the same time, will that
it be a universal law’.

So, for example, if I wonder whether I should break a promise, I can

test whether this is right by asking myself whether I would want there to
be a universal rule that says 'it's OK to break promises'.
 2. The Humanity or End in Itself Formulation

“Act so that you treat humanity,both in your own

person in that of another, always as an end not
merely as a means.”

Examples of treating persons as a means and not ends:

Treating a person as if they were inanimate

object
Coercing a person to get what you want

Deceiving a person to get what you want

 3. The Kingdom of Ends Formulation

“ Do the right thing for the right reason because it

is the right thing to do..”

Kant thought that the only good reason for doing the right thing was
because of duty - if you had some other reason (perhaps you didn't commit
murder because you were too scared, not because it was your duty not to)
then that you would not have acted in a morally good way.

But having another reason as well as duty doesn't stop an action from
being right, so long as duty was the ‘operational reason’ for our action.
 The 20th Century philosopher W. D. Ross [Sir
David Ross] (1877-1971) suggested that it would
be helpful to look at two kinds of duty:

1. Prima facie duties 2. Actual duties

W. D. Ross

Prima facie duties

- when we have reached sufficient mental maturity and have given sufficient
attention to the proposition it is evident without any need of proof, or of evidence
beyond itself.

- are self-evident and obvious duties (prima facie is a Latin

expression meaning 'on first appearances' or 'by first instance')

- can be known to be correct if a person thinks about them and

understands them:
 Do the right thing.
Do it because it's the right thing to do.
Don't do wrong things.
Avoid them because they are wrong.

What is good?

It is impossible to conceive
Kant asked if there was anything
anything in the world, or even
that everybody could rationally
out of it, which can be taken as
agree was always good. The only
good without limitation, save
thing that he thought satisfied this
only a good will.
test was a good will:
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of
the Metaphysics of Morals
 Basic Personal Rights
• I have the right to say “no.”
• I have the right to feel and express my feelings, both positive
and negative.
• I have the right to make mistakes.
• I have the right to have my own opinions and convictions.
• I have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
• I have the right to change my mind or decide on a different
course of action.
• I have the right to protest unfair treatment or criticism.
• I have the right to expect honesty from others.
• I have the right to my own values and standards.
• I have the right to be angry at someone I love.
 Basic Personal Rights
• I have the right to say, “I don’t know.”
• I have the right to negotiate for change.
• I have the right to be in a non-abusive environment.
• I have the right to ask for help or emotional support.
• I have the right to my own needs for personal space and time, even if
others would prefer my company.
• I have the right not to have to justify myself to others.
• I have the right not to take responsibility for someone else’s behavior,
feelings,or problems.
• I have the right not to have to anticipate others’ needs and wishes.
• I have the right to not always worry about the goodwill of others.
• I have the right to choose not to respond to a situation.
 REFERENCES
duty based ethics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml
https://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/cp44.htm
https://www.politicalsciencenotes.com/essay/moral-and-legal-duties-of-
individuals-towards-society

Basic Personal Rights

https://webstair.org/Content/pdf/basic_personal_rights.pdf

https://www.shareyouressays.com/knowledge/6-major-moral-duties-
of-a-man-explained/113058
obligation to oneself
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-obligations/#:~:text=The
%20traditional%20examples%20of%20obligations,our%20health
%2C%20preserving%20our%20lives.https://plato.stanford.edu/
entries/self-obligations/#:~:text=The%20traditional%20examples
%20of%20obligations,our%20health%2C%20preserving%20our
%20lives.

https://www.shareyouressays.com/knowledge/6-major-
moral-duties-of-a-man-explained/113058
THANK
YOU!