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Philippines He Explores The First Two Basic Positions To The Questions Above. The First

The document discusses two positions on the role of morality in human life. The first position is "A-Morality", which sees morality as confined to one area among many in human experience. The second position claims that practically all human life falls under the domain of morality with clear moral rules for every situation. The author agrees more with the second position, arguing that all human actions can be judged as right or wrong. However, the philosopher Moga offers a third position, arguing that morality plays a role in every situation but in varying degrees - either explicitly through moral obligations or more subtly as an implicit guide. The author agrees with this balanced third position, that life should be experienced holistically by balancing moral sensitivity with involvement in all

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Akashi Seijuro
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345 views2 pages

Philippines He Explores The First Two Basic Positions To The Questions Above. The First

The document discusses two positions on the role of morality in human life. The first position is "A-Morality", which sees morality as confined to one area among many in human experience. The second position claims that practically all human life falls under the domain of morality with clear moral rules for every situation. The author agrees more with the second position, arguing that all human actions can be judged as right or wrong. However, the philosopher Moga offers a third position, arguing that morality plays a role in every situation but in varying degrees - either explicitly through moral obligations or more subtly as an implicit guide. The author agrees with this balanced third position, that life should be experienced holistically by balancing moral sensitivity with involvement in all

Uploaded by

Akashi Seijuro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Moral Dimension of Human Existence

According to Michael Moga, the experience of morality is part of every person’s


life. From this ideology stems the keywords such as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘righteous’,
‘inappropriate’, ‘obligation, ‘duty’ and the like, which we commonly use to measure one’s
or other’s actions and deeds. However, we ask ourselves: is morality applicable only to
a certain aspect of human life? Or is it a crucial part of every human experience?
In Moga’s book Toward Authentic Morality: An Ethics Textbook for the
Philippines he explores the first two basic positions to the questions above. The first
position, also known as the “A-Morality” position, describes morality as merely
occupying one area among the many diverse areas in human life. Hence, the rest of the
other areas in human experience are not subject to ethics or morality. The second
position is contrary to the first, as it claims that practically all human life is under the
domain of morality. This particular position affirms that there are clearcut moral rules in
every situation in life.Thus, this position totally considers morality as permeating all
facets of human experience.
If given the chance to choose between these two extreme positions, I believe that
all human conduct and enterprise is subject to moral praise or condemnation. Hence, I
agree with the second position. May it be something as simple as thinking bad thoughts,
or saying your honest opinion about everything, we cannot deny that all our actions are
being judged in a scale of what is right or wrong. Though this scale may be very
subjective, it all boils down to the fact that in all our experiences—past, present, and
future—morality serves as a guideline on how we should live our life. To be human
means to recognize these rules laid down by ethics and to strictly follow them since they
are the basic guides for everything we do. To say that morality is simply confined in one
area, as what is stated by the first position, is simply unreconcilable. No matter what we
do, people will always have something to say about our actions. Even we, the doers,
have an inclination to judge ourselves based on what is right or wrong. No matter how
warped or twisted your idea of what morality is, the scale of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ exists
within all of us.
However, Moga offers a third position. After evaluating the two polar positions,
and taking into account their respective value to human life, this third position is what he
considers as a ‘middle ground’. He states that “morality is not just limited to a few select
areas of man’s life but is found in every situation in various ways…There are situations
in life where the focus of human experience is a moral obligation or value, when we are
concentrating on what should be done.” However, “there are other situations in life when
morality is more in the background. While morality is not explicitly thought about…it
serves as a horizon or context which gently and implicitly guides us…Morality may not
take the form of clear moral rules or precise moral actions.” In conclusion, Moga
contends that a balance must be maintained if we are to fully experience our human life.
Based on his description about the third position, I agree to the fact that we
should not neglect any area of our lives by simply focusing on one or few areas and
failing to take notice and to enjoy the other parts. Life is meant to be experienced as a
whole and for us to grow and develop holistically, it is crucial that we involve our time,
effort and consciousness into living all areas of our life fully by balancing a mature moral
sensitivity with a well-rounded involvement. It is a challenge to every human being to be
able to live fully, and the secret to this is to maintain a balance among all the other
areas in our lives.

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