Objectives Introduction

At the end of the session, the

students can: Good and evil have a foundation based on the truth. It is evil
to kill another person, not just because it is prohibited by law
Discuss clearly the norms and but because every man has the right to live. In the final
determinants of morality analysis, laws should correspond to God’s will, who is the
through a case analysis; creator and knower of all
that aids our human life. Capsoul of the Day
Cite concrete ways of God is not arbitrary, but
becoming a law abiding citizen knows and indicates what
“The worst thing in the
through a pledge of is permitted or prohibited, world is not sin; it is
commitment; because he knows what the denial of sin by a
Pray the prayer of St. Francis.
aids or harms man. false conscience – for
Human has the right to
act in conscience and in that attitude makes
freedom so as personally forgiveness
BTI to make moral decisions. impossible”
________
The pre-service teachers can Bishop Fulton Sheen
develop & demonstrate the Activity.
following competencies:

Domain 1. Content Knowledge The Lolo Narding Case:

and Pedagogy

1.1.1 Demonstrate content

knowledge and its application Q: What was your first
within and/or across curriculum reaction when this news
teaching areas. went viral? Why did you
come up with that
statement?

Acquisition of New Knowledge

Two norms of Morality:
▫ The eternal law of God
▫ The human reason in the context of conscience.

▫ The Eternal Law is the ultimate norm of morality while conscience (is ) the
proximate norm of morality.
In strict analysis, we can say there are not two norms but one:
 for conscience is the judgment of human reason recognizing and applying the eternal law in
individual human acts.

Definition of Law
• Law is an ordinance of something put into order by reason, for the sake of the common good.
• Made by someone who has the authority to govern that community and promulgated.
• Is a rule of conduct or action established by custom or laid down and forced by the governing
authority.

Law orders and directs human acts towards their end. Law flows from reasonable will:
From the illumined understanding of the will of an end, promulgated for the common good.
Law is made known to those who are bound by it. Law is not meant to impose hardships or
needless restriction. True law tends to make men good, liberates men from perverse and
mistaken judgements
leads them to their ultimate end.

Norms of Morality
Natural Law Is recognized by all men regardless of creed, race, culture, or historical
circumstance (Agapay, 1991).

It is a moral obligation that arises from human nature, compelling an individual to be true to
his/her nature as tao.

Is necessary because it indicates the difference between human beings and other creatures.
Natural laws are rules derived from the nature that guides the human life.

Definition of Norms of Morality

• Are the standards that indicate the rightfulness or wrongfulness, the goodness or evilness, the
value or disvalue of a thing (R. Agapay)
• The criteria of judgment about the kind of person we ought to be and the kind of actions we
ought to perform (R.M. Gula, 1981)

Contribution of Moral Laws

◼ They provide the objective criteria for our own conscience to judge what is morally good
or evil.
◼ They help our moral development, especially in the formation of our conscience.
◼ They offer the needed moral stability in our lives
◼ They challenge us to stretch for an ideal beyond our limited experience, and correct our
moral misconceptions in the process. CFC 849

Classification of laws:

◼ According to immediate author (Divine laws ; Human laws)

◼ According to duration (Temporal laws: Eternal laws)
◼ According to manner of promulgation (Natural law ; Positive law)
◼ According as they prescribe or forbid an act (Affirmative laws: Negative laws)
◼ According to effect of violation (Moral ; Penal; Mixed)
Classes of Law

Eternal law
God’s eternal plan and providence for creation
Eternal law applies to all creatures and directs them in harmony with their nature
◼ The plan of divine wisdom as directing all acts and movements. (st. Thomas Aquinas)
◼ The universal law whereby God directs and governs the universe and the ways of the
human community according to His plan of wisdom and love.
◼ Properties of Eternal Law
◼ Eternal and unchangeable
◼ Absolutely universal
◼ Examples: Physical laws such as the laws of cohesion, gravity, inertia, etc.; growth of
plants, animals follow the guidance of instinct; earth turns upon its axis.
◼ a) Eternal and unchangeable: existed from all eternity
◼ b) Absolutely universal: rules all things and actions. There is no limit to the breadth of
its application to corporeal and spiritual, to rational and irrational creatures.

As a bodily being
Man acts in accordance with physical laws
In matters that lie under man’s free control
Man may refuse the direction of eternal law

Natural law
That moral order (a directive, ordering man towards ultimate end)
Which arises from the nature of man and creation and which can be recognized by man’s
reason.
It is also divine natural law because its origin is ultimately traced back to the will of God.
◼ The rational creature’s participation in the eternal law. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
◼ It is the Eternal Law as known to man by his reason.
◼ There is a way human life should be lived and this “should-ness” is grasped by reason.
◼ Fundamental Expression of Natural Law (Do good, avoid evil).
◼ It refers to the human participation in God’s Eternal Law. Man knows naturally, by the
light of his understanding, that there are some things evil in themselves, and some
things which are necessarily good.
◼ Natural Law involves a recognition of the objective nature of the moral order, grounded
in God’s providence, and which is accessible to human understanding and obedience
through the use of reason .

Properties of Natural Law

a. It is universal. Natural law is constitutive element of human nature. Therefore, it is true
wherever human nature manifests itself. All humans are equal because of shared human
nature. It binds every man at all times and in all places
b. It is immutable or unchangeable. Natural law is human nature. It is immutable because
human’s essential nature can never be lost as long as human is human. There is a
constant in human nature which remains throughout all historical and cultural change.
c. It is Obligatory and Indispensable. Natural law is human nature, calling for itself to be
actualized, to “live” according to its basic and essential demands. Natural law is identical to
God’s will. No human authority may give a dispensation from
d. It is Recognizable. It is imprinted in the human nature and human has the light of reason to
know it. It is knowable by all persons using their critical reason.

3. Positive Law
Laws created by human beings which can enjoin specific obligations upon individuals.
Divine Positive Law | Ecclesiastical Positive Law | Civil Positive Law
◼ Divine positive law – laws legislated by God found in the Bible
◼ Ecclesiastical Positive law – laws emanating from the legislative power of the Church.
They are principally found in the Code of Canon law
◼ Civil Positive law – laws legislated by a legitimate government.
4. Human law
➢ Laws enacted by church or state
➢ Ecclesiastical law
➢ Civil law
A human law derives its binding force
From natural law and ultimately from eternal law
A concrete and determinate application of natural law

Properties of Human Law

◼ Enforceable
◼ Has the coercive power of the law
◼ Concerned with external conduct only
◼ External compliance with the law suffices to secure the social order and the
common good.
◼ Limited to particular groups
◼ Human laws oblige only those who are members of the community for which the
laws are enacted.
◼ Historically conditioned
◼ Human laws change as societies and civilizations change
◼ Has presumptive obligatory force
◼ Presumption favors the duty to obey the law.
5. Evangelical or New Law:
The Law of the Spirit
◼ The New law is called a law of love because it makes us act out of love infused by the
Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace, because it confers the strength of
grace to act, by means of faith and the sacraments; a law of freedom, because it sets us
free from the ritual and juridical observances of the Old Law, inclines us to act
spontaneously by the prompting of charity, and finally, lets us pass from the condition of
a servant to that of a friend of Christ – or even to the status of son and heir (CCC 1972).

B. Conscience
Deep within his conscience human discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself
but which he must obey.
Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil,
sounds in his heart at the right moment.
For human has in his heart a law inscribed by God.
His conscience is human’s most secret core and his sanctuary.
There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.
(Gaudium et Spes, 16)
Conscience is derived from the Latin phrase cum alia scientia which means the individual
man’s application of knowledge or “acting with knowledge.”
The connecting link between law and individual acts.
An act of the practical judgment of reason deciding upon an individuals actions as good and to
be performed or as evil and to be avoided.

• is present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good
and to avoid evil
• is a judgment of reason whereby the person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete
act that:
• he is going to perform
• is in the process of performing
• has already completed

Practical judgment of reason upon an individual act

As good to be performed or evil to be avoided

Various Notions about Conscience

◼ Feeling of guilt, worry, dissatisfaction, restlessness or a feeling of “hiya” when they do
something wrong.
◼ Sincerity: to be “true to one’s self”: “I can do anything as long as it does not hurt
anybody”
◼ What “authorities” tell them to do: the laws of the government, the Church, the parents,
the “barkada.”

Synderesis
➢ Acquired equipment of moral principles
➢ Intuitive knowledge of right and wrong (dictate of one’s conscience)
➢ The starting point of the reasoning process which ends in the judgment of conscience
➢ When we are confronted with possible course of action we compare it mentally with
moral rinciples and arrive at a conclusion whether the act is good or bad

Basic concept of conscience

1. Moral judgment that discerns what is right and wrong.
2. Moral obligation or command to do good and avoid evil

Determinants of Morality

1. The Object of Human Act is the natural purpose accomplished by the act. Human reason can
see that some acts are good because their natural purpose is good, what they accomplish is
good and that other acts are evil because their natural purpose is evil, what they accomplish is
evil. For example, giving alms to the poor is always a good object of human act, to steal is
always a bad object for a human act.

2. The Motive of Human Act. The motive of an act is the purpose which the doer wishes to
achieve by such action. It is what gives direction and motivation to an act. It comes first in the
mind as intention, occurs last in the action as its culmination or fulfillment. Without a motive, an
act is meaningless and considered an accident.
3. Circumstances of Human Act can help determine its moral character. An act is an event. It
happens in a definite time and place. It is accompanied by certain elements that contribute to
the nature and accountability of such act. Morality takes into account the circumstances
surrounding an act. These circumstances are:

a. Who refers primarily to the doer of an act. At times, it also refers to the receiver of the act.
This circumstance includes the age, status, relations, family background, educational
attainment, health and socio-economic situation of the person involved in the act.

b. What refers to the act itself, to the quality and quantity of the results of such act.

c. Where refers to the circumstances of place where the act is committed.

d. With whom refers to the companion or accomplices in an act performed. These include the
status and number of the persons involved.

e. Why refers to the motive of the doer. f. How refers to the manner in which the act is made
possible.

g. When refers to the time when the act was performed.

Application
Case Analysis. Discuss the norms and determinants of morality using the case of Lolo Narding.
End your discussion with three commitment statements on becoming a law-abiding citizen.

Assessment: Quiz

References
Knox, I. (2003). Theology for Teachers. U.P Box 4, Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines.
Clarentian Publications

Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994). Manila, Philippines: ECCE Word & Life Publications.