Sources of Authority

Sources of Authority
• The authority of the law
• The authority of one’s religion
• The authority of one’s own culture
 The authority of the Law
• Supposed that it is one’s guide to ethical behavior.
• Positive law – rules and regulations that are posited or put forward by
an authority figure that require compliance.
• Murder? Theft? Etc. = system of sanctions.
• “Ethics? It is simple. Just follow whatever the law says.”
 The authority of the Law cont.
• One should obey the law.
• Idea we are examining here: the more radical claim that one can look
to the law itself in order to determine what is right or wrong.
• Can one identify ethics with the law?
 The authority of the Law cont.
• One point to be raised is the prohibitive nature of law.
• The law does not tell us what we should do; it works from
constraining us from performing acts that we should not do.
• Law cannot tell us what to pursue, only what to avoid.
• Would we be satisfied thinking about ethics solely from the negative
perspective of that which we may not do?
 The authority of the Law cont.
• Acts which are not forbidden by the law, but are ethically
questionable to us.
• For instance, a company with permanent employees with full benefits
and contractual employees without benefits and job security.
• Concrete point, the story of a toddler who had been run over by a
couple of vehicles with many passers-by who witnessed but no one
did anything to help. The child later died in the hospital.
• The law does not oblige people to help others in need.
• Deontology
 The Authority of One’s Religion
• “Love the Lord, your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his
statutes, decrees, and commandments.” (NAB)
• Religious sensitivity: one is obliged to obey his/her God in all things.
• This referred to as divine command theory.
• More radical form of this theory: God spoke to him directly to
instructs him what to do.
 The authority of one’s religion cont.
• Brought up with one form of religious upbringing or another = basis
for our moral valuations.
• Prohibitions given by religion: “thou shall not kill”, “thou shall not
steal”, “thou shall not commit adultery” – sense of what ethics should
rightly demand.
• Religion is not simply prohibitive, but it also provides ideals to pursue.
• For instance, forgiveness.
• Advantage not only a set of rules but also a Supreme Authority.
• “Ethics? Just follow whatever your religion says.”
 The authority of one’s religion cont.
• Some problems with religion:
1. Practical level
• Presence of a multiplicity of religions – conflicting ethical standards. For
instance, food.
• Differences, however, are not confined to being problematic of varying
religious traditions.
• Experience teaches us that sometimes even within one and the same faith,
difference can be a real problem.
• Various interpretation of passages in the bible.
 The authority of one’s religion cont.
2. Conceptual level
• Understanding the connection between ethics and the Divine.
• Plato in his dialogue titled Euthypro, the question is raised as to
one is supposed to define “holiness”.
• Euthypro puts forward that what is holy is loved by the gods.
Socrates puts it into question by asking the following clarification:
is it holy only because it is loved by the gods, or it is holy in itself
and that is why it is loved by the gods?
 The authority of one’s religion cont.
• Rightness: is it right because God commanded it, or something is
right in itself wrong, and that is the reason why God commanded
it?
• Killing: is it wrong because God commanded it, or that killing is in
itself wrong, and that is the reason why God commanded it?
• Considering the latter, there is nothing inherently wrong with
killing.
• Considering the former, there are standard of right and wrong that
we can refer to independently of God.
 The authority of one’s own culture
• There is a wide diversity of how different people believe it is proper to
act.
• Aesthetic differences
• Religious differences
• Etiquette differences
• Cultural relativism – what is ethically acceptable and unacceptable is
relative to, or that is to say, dependent od one’s culture.
 The authority of one’s own culture cont.
• Cultural relativism – we experience the reality of differences in how
cultures make their ethical valuations.
• One’s culture teaches to be tolerant of others from different culture,
as we realize that we are in no position to judge whether the ethical
thought or practice of another culture is acceptable or unacceptable.
• In turn, our own culture’s moral code is neither superior nor inferior
to any other
• “Ethics? It is simple. Just follow whatever your culture says.”
 Filipino Moral Character:
Strength and Weaknesses
• Filipino cultural morality centers on ideally having a ‘smooth
interpersonal relationship’ with others. This is anchored on six basic
Filipino values:

- Pakikisama - Utang na loob

- Hiya - Filipino hospitality
- Amor propio - Respect for elders
 In a classic exposition of this topic by James
Rachels, he presents some of these difficulties.
• The argument of cultural relativism is premised on the reality of
differences.
• Under cultural relativism, we realized that we are in no position to
render any kind of judgment on the practices of another culture.
• Under cultural relativism, we realized that we are in no position to
render of judgment on the practices of even our own culture.
• Perhaps, the most evident contemporary difficulty with cultural
relativism is that we can maintain it only by following the
presumption of culture as a single, clearly defined substance or as
something fixed and already determined.
• It is difficult to determine what exactly define one’s culture.
 The authority of one’s own culture cont.
• Is my culture “Filipino”?
• If I am an Igorot, is this then is my culture? Cuyunon? Cagayanen?
• The point here is: What am I supposed to take as my culture?
• My father is from Pampanga, my mother is from Leyte, and I was
brought up in Puerto Princesa City. What am I supposed to take as my
culture?
• My father is American and my mother is Filipina, and I was brought
up in San Diego, California but I am studying in Western Philippines
University. What is my Culture? What am I supposed to take as my
culture?
 The authority of one’s own culture cont.
• In an increasingly globalized world, the notion of a static and well
defined culture gives way to greater flexibility and integration.
• One result of this is to call into question an idea like cultural
relativism, which only makes sense if one could imagine a clear-cut
notion of what can be define as my culture.
 The authority of one’s own culture cont.
• We can conclude this criticism of cultural relativism by pointing out
how it is a problem in the study of ethics because it tends to deprive
us of our sense of critical thought.
• On the positive side, it promotes sense of humility, i.e., urging us not
to imagine that our own culture is superior to another.