FEELINGS AND MORAL DECISION-MAKING

At the end of this lesson, the students must be able to:

1. Recall immediate responses to moral dilemmas.

2. Differentiate responses based on reason and based on feelings.
3. Identify the Role and Function of feelings and reason responding to moral dilemmas.
4. Explain the functions of feelings and procedures in responding to the demands of moral
responsibility.

MORAL EMOTIONS
Moral emotions are the feelings and intuitions that play a significant role in most
ethical decision-making and actions.
Emotions can be defined as psychological states that comprise thoughts and
feelings, physiological changes, expressive behaviors, and inclinations to act. The
precise combination of these elements varies from emotion to emotion, and
emotions may or may not be accompanied by overt behaviors. It plays a significant
role in most of the ethical decisions people make. Most people do not realize how
much their moral choices. But experts think it is impossible to make any essential
moral judgments without emotions.
Inner-directed negative emotions like guilt, embarrassment, and shame often
motivate people to act ethically.
Outer-directed negative emotions, on the other hand, aim to discipline or punish.
For example, people often direct anger, disgust, or contempt at those who have
acted unethically. This discourages others from behaving the same way.
Positive emotions like gratitude and admiration, which people may feel when they
see others acting with compassion or kindness, can prompt people to help others.
Psychologists have long explored the range of human emotions and their definitions.
Eckman (1999) identified six initial basic emotions:
  Anger
 Disgust
 Fear
 Happiness
 Sadness
 Surprise

How are decisions affected by emotion?

Emotions are created when the brain interprets what is going on around us through
our memories, thoughts, and beliefs. This triggers how we feel and behave. This
process influences all our decisions in some way.
For example, if you feel happy, you might decide to walk home via a sunny park. But
if a dog had chased you as a child, that same sunny park might trigger feelings of
fear, and you would take the bus instead. There may be logical arguments to be
made either way, but at the moment, the decision is driven by your emotional state.
Different emotions affect decisions in different ways. If you feel sad, you might be
more willing to settle for things that aren't in your favor, such as not putting yourself
forward for promotion or remaining in an unhealthy relationship. But sadness can
also make you more generous — research shows that unhappy people are more likely
to favor increasing benefits to welfare recipients than angry people who lack
empathy.
Emotions can affect not just the nature of the decision but the speed at which you
make it. Anger can lead to impatience and rash decision-making. If you’re excited,
you might make quick decisions without considering the implications as you surf the
wave of confidence and optimism about the future. While if you feel afraid, your
choices may be clouded by uncertainty and caution, and it might take you longer to
choose.
What this means is that your gut feeling plays a massive part in your decision-making
process, but at times may be steering you wrong — it might lead to poor judgment,
unconscious bias, and recklessness, or risk-aversion. But are there ever occasions
when we should pay attention to our gut instinct?
Should we always ignore our intuition?
A visceral response to a situation could be a survival mechanism – the flash of fear
felt by early humans who came face to face with a dangerous animal motivated them
to RUN NOW! They would not have survived if they stopped to think.
Similarly, get a 'bad feeling' in the pit of your stomach because of a particular
situation or person. It could be your body's way of telling you it senses danger, based
on your past experiences and beliefs. Of course, this reaction might be completely
unfounded, but it might also serve to protect you from danger or prevent you from
repeating past mistakes. This points to one of the significant advantages of
automatic decision-making it’s quick. If you are in a life-or-death situation, you do
not want to waste time working through the pros and cons.
This is true at the other end of the spectrum too, when faced with a choice about
something completely insignificant. No one should spend hours considering the
relative advantages of tea over coffee!
Decisions led by emotion can also be more compassionate, mainly if they affect
other people. We see this at play in stories of people putting their own lives at risk to
save someone else or when we choose how to break difficult news to a friend.
So sometimes, paying attention to our emotions can be a good thing. If you have
regular mindfulness or journaling practice, you probably know yourself well and
enjoy a high level of self-awareness. You might be better off listening to your
intuition when it comes to considering whether a romantic partner is right for you or
whether you should change careers. Being in emotional balance and knowing
yourself at this deeper level means you can trust your instincts.

How can emotional intelligence help us make better decisions?

Both emotion and logic have a role to play in helping us make positive decisions. If
we understand where our feelings come from and start to notice how they affect our
thinking and behavior, we can practice managing our responses and learn to make
better choices. You can find out more about how to develop your emotional
awareness in our guide to emotional intelligence. You’ll soon feel confident in
knowing when to listen to your emotions and when to tune them out.
Feelings versus Emotions
Many people use the terms “feeling” and “emotion” as synonyms, but they are not
interchangeable. While they have similar elements, there is a marked difference
between feelings and emotions.
Feelings. Both emotional experiences and physical sensations — such as hunger or
pain — bring about feelings, according to Psychology Today. Feelings are a conscious
experience, although not every conscious experience, such as seeing or believing, is
a feeling, as explained in the article.
Emotions. According to Psychology, it “can only ever be felt…through the emotional
experiences it gives rise to, even though it might be discovered through its
associated thoughts, beliefs, desires, and actions.” Emotions are not conscious but
instead manifest in the unconscious mind. These emotions can be brought to the
surface of the conscious state through extended psychotherapy.
1. A fundamental difference between feelings and emotions is that feelings are
experienced consciously, while emotions manifest subconsciously. Some people may
spend years, or even a lifetime, not understanding the depths of their emotions.
2. Emotions evoked by suffering, such as sympathy and empathy, often lead people
to act ethically toward others. Indeed, empathy is the central moral emotion that
most commonly motivates pro-social activity such as altruism, cooperation, and
generosity.
So, while we may believe that our moral decisions are influenced most by our
philosophy or religious values, in truth, our emotions play a significant role in our
ethical decision-making.

SEVEN-STEP MORAL REASONING MODEL

One way of ensuring the rationality and impartiality of moral decisions is to follow
the seven-step ethical reasoning model. These steps can serve as a guide in making
choices of moral import.
1. STOP AND THINK – Before making any decisions, it is best to consider the
situation itself, our place in it, and other surrounding factors that merit
consideration, such as the people involved and the potential effects of it your
decisions on them. This consists of a step back from the situation to ensure that you
do not act out of impulse.
2. CLARIFY GOALS – It is also necessary to clarify your short-term and long-term
aims. One often decides based on what they want to accomplish. Sometimes, in the
heat of the moment, short-term wants eclipse long-term- goals. Thus, you must
determine if you are willing to sacrifice more necessary life goals to achieve your
short-term goals. If you, for example, are seeking retribution for harm caused by
another person, you have to think about the long-term consequence of revenge on
your character in the long run.
3. DETERMINE FACTS – Make sure you gather enough information before you
make a choice. Verified facts support an intelligent choice. You must first make sure
that what you know is enough to merit action. Without verifying facts, you may
regret your choice in the future once various aspects of the situation come to light.
Never choose based on hearsay. Make sure your sources are credible and have
integrity.

 Consider the reliability and credibility of the people providing the facts.
 Consider the basis of the supposed facts. If the person giving you the

information says they heard or saw something, evaluate that person's honesty,
accuracy, and memory.
4. DEVELOP OPTIONS – Once you are clear about your goals and facts, try to
develop alternative options to exhaust all possible courses of action. Most of the
time, the pressure of a situation may make you feel you have fewer options than you
think. Clear your mind and try to think of other creative ways of clarifying your
motives and implementing your actions with the least ethical compromise.
5. CONSIDER CONSEQUENCES – Filter your choices and separate the ethical from
the unethical decisions bearing in mind both your motives and potential
consequences of your action. Think of long-term consequences and act following
the principles of justice and fairness. Consequences are historical realities that bear
upon the lives of others. A decision turns something in your mind into reality. Make
sure you do not regret the decision you have conferred reality upon.
6. CHOOSE – Make a decision. If the choice is hard to make, try consulting others
who may have knowledge or experience of your situation. Find people with virtuous
character and compare your reasoning with your moral analysis. Once you make up
your mind, summon the will to do the right thing, even if it is complex and seemingly
counter-intuitive. Make a decision. If the choice is not immediately apparent, try:

 Talking to people whose judgment you respect.

 Think of a strong character that you know or know of and ask yourself what

they would do in your situation.

 If everyone found out about your decision, would you be proud and

comfortable
 Follow the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated and keep

your promises.
7. MONITOR AND MODIFY – Monitor what happens after your decision and have
enough humility to modify your action or behavior as necessary. Pride may get in the
way of admitting that you might not have thought out a decision well enough. As
you become more aware of the consequences of your actions, especially on the lives
of others, summon the strength and determination to make changes to rectify any
shortcomings. Do not hesitate to revise your decisions considering new
developments in the situation.

MORAL DECISION
Decision-making is the ability to produce a reasonable and defensible answer to an
ethical question or case. One’s must know how to morally good in decision making.
In discerning the facts, the decision-maker must be impartial to specific issues. One
should be able to consider that every moral decision is equally important to others.
In this regard, no conclusions should be given more favor than the others.

ROLE OF REASON AND EMOTION IN MORAL DECISION MAKING

1. Feelings influence your decision. Decisions are ruled to some degree by emotions.
For instance, being over-optimistic or over-pessimistic. Mixed emotions are present
in this state and sometimes result in clouded thinking and can lead to poor decision-
making.
2. I'm not convinced that only reason can be applied in making decisions. Feelings
should be ignored because there are always emotions in making a decision and that
reason and feelings are not separate and insulated compartments of human
consciousness. Although emotions can be a product of selfishness and cultural
affiliation and can create biases, they cannot be avoided in making decisions. For
instance, if your family and friends are cheerful, it can boost you up when you feel
negative; it helps you make positive decisions.
3. The reason is the capacity to knowingly make sense of things, create and verify
facts, and apply logic and beliefs based on new or existing information. At the same
time, Will is the mind's ability that selects, at the moment of decision, the strongest
desire from among the various wants and enables a person to act consciously.
There is always a way to determine what is right from what is not correct, distinguish
what is just from what is unjust, what ought to be done and what should not be
done, and what is ethical from what is unethical. In the corporate world, the
appropriateness of one's action can be decided with the organization's vision-
mission and its core values. What is right is judged based on the members' code,
creed, and professed conduct in religion. In legal matters, we can know the truth
based on what the law and jurisprudence say. In culture, what is right is convicted
based on the good custom, beliefs, and practices those members of the said culture
claim as acceptable. These claims are debatable since everything in philosophy can
be questioned, but our relative nearness to what is right becomes closer. We must
remember, ethics is not just in words or just academics. It also includes our thoughts
and how we translate into action what we think and speak.

Feelings as Instinctive and Trained Response to Moral Dilemmas

Feelings are important. It is evidence of our being human. We feel sad upon learning
that there are about 50-200 species of plant, insect, bird, and mammal becoming
extinct every day or for 350-1,400 in a week, or 1,500-6,000 in a month and
18,000-73,000 in a year. We feel happy when modern medicine can separate
conjoined twins and allow them to have separate lives to live. We are amazed to
know that the longest name of a city is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin
MahintharaYuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet
Mahasathan Amon Piman, and we this city through its shortened name as Bangkok,
Thailand.
We wonder if humans can create a machine that can convert all human garbage into
something useful. If inconvenient upon knowing the number of animal species
getting extinct every day, if we do not react to the news of conjoined twins being
separated if we have no amazement over the beautiful inventions and human
creations, our humanity is questionable.
Emotion results in feeling, and this human ability to feel excellent. Texture gives
color to our life. It comes as a natural reaction to our encounter with ourselves,
others, and anything around us. When we receive high grades due to our hard work,
we feel elated, and we rejoice. When our rates are low because we take for granted
our academics, we feel down and regret our shortcomings.
When we see pictures of victims of crimes and violence such as the carnage of the
44 members of the Special Action Force in Tukanalipao Mamasapano, Maguindanao
on January 25, 2015, or the worst media related violence in the whole world in what
is called the Maguindanao Massacre which caused the death of 58 people
comprising of Esmael Mangudadatu’s family members, civilians and Media people on
November 23, 2009, we feel sorry for the victims of these tragedies and feel a fit of
burning anger in our hearts.
Similarly, we are moved to act when we see environmental destructions such as the
miners from Benguet and the nearby provinces letting go of their chemical wastes
down to the lowlands threatening lives and causing even deaths.
When we learn that about 350,000 children were getting paralyzed yearly in the
1980s because of polio, we are shocked. But when we know that in 2017, there
were only about 19 polio cases were reported, we are developing that we are
becoming successful against this human pestilence.
In the same manner, we became happy to know that the human race is gaining
acceptance of respecting the rights of women and minorities. Recently, Saudi Arabia
allowed women to drive while Egypt came up with laws giving equal rights about
inheritance to men and women. In Jordan and Lebanon, laws that set free rapists
who marry their victims were repealed. Gender equality is now gaining support
worldwide and t, this is a good development that tells us to keep hoping for a
brighter future. Our emotions lead to all kinds of feelings, to our humanity. We
cannot imagine what life is like if we do not have feelings at all. It is beyond question
that emotion is an essential aspect of our human critical previous discussions, we
mentioned that reason is the basis of decision-making. This means that there is a
certain logic in analyzing life situations. In logical interpretation, we avoid fallacies or
errors in thinking, wishful actions, invalid claims, and misjudgment in determining
appropriate measures. In rational thought, priority is right judgment and proper steps
and not based on mere intuitive knowledge and theoretical or assumptive analysis.
In short, a conclusion is achieved by analyzing premises that are logically coherent
and valid.
Philosophers through the year’s debate on issues and concerns relative to emotion
and reason. Traditional understanding emphasized that feeling is inferior to reason.
The sentiment is said to be fleeting and can be dangerous, while reason is superior
and reliable. Conventional thinking states that emotion must be controlled and
tamed while sense m perfected. But despite their academic discussions, no
consensus yet must be improved and arrived at on the connection between them.
The debates between and among the philosophers seem legitimate, but we might
also leave them with their mental skirmishes. More practical thinkers would see their
effort as an exercise in futility since it will never end. To capture the connection
between emotion and reason in a box may not be possible, but approaching the
problem on the level of our day-to-day experiences can make sense.
We should focus instead on what emotion and reason can do to us in our everyday
living. We might as well see how emotionally most motivated together in real life.
We might as well focus on the impacts of emotion and reason in our everyday
encounters with our fellow human beings together with the ethical decisions we
make when confronted with true-to-life concerns.
Again, experience tells us that feeling leads to thinking, thinking will further push us
to reflect deeper on what to do and what not to do. ThiThoughtll also triggers what
we feel, and this feeling can us make further to think. Even without deep
philosophical insights and debates, it is clear that emotion and thinking are
interconnected.
Experience shows that emotion relates to thinking. Those who insist that the two are
entirely different and independent may be corrected we do not contradict them. We
maintain that there is a connection between the two. Our day-to-day experiences
tell us that our feeling will usually trigger us to think d what we believe will usually
impact we feel.
Our emotion comes in terms of what we feel serves as a triggering device to make
us think. When we learn, for example, that our sickly brother is bullied in school, we
react and feel bad about it. We may experience anger and shed tears as we pity our
brother. This natural reaction will push us to think. It will trigger our minds to think
about what must be done. We may think of confronting the bullies themselves. We
may also think of reporting it to the school authorities or letting it go since we do not
want further trouble.
Here is another example to illustrate the point that feeling can trigger us to think.
When a gentleman sees someone attractive, there comes in him the natural feel
justice action. This feeling of respect and eventually attraction will ignite him to think
about what to do. His feelings will push him to come up with a plan and ultimately
make his first move. He might start asking, “How can I know her name? Is giving her
a flower a good move? Will I talk to her personally or through someone else?”