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CHAPTER 1 YOU, THE TEACHER, AS A PERSON IN SOCIETY

LESSON 3 The Foundational Principles of Morality and You

A. Directions: Answer the following with a YES or NO. If your answer is NO, explain your answer in a
sentence.

1. Is morality for persons and animals?


Answer: No. It is only for persons because only persons have intellect and will.
2. Is the natural law known only by the learned?
Answer: No. Even the unschooled have a sense to do good and to avoid evil.
3. Did the primitive people have a sense of the natural law?
Answer: Yes.
4. Is an animalistic act of man moral?
Answer: No. To be moral is to be human. Any act that brings down man to the level of the brute like
any animalistic act is, therefore, not moral.
5. Is it right to judge a dog to be immoral if it defecates right there in your garden?
Answer: No. Morality applies only to persons and not to animals because animals have no choice.
They are bound by their instincts.
6. Is the foundational moral principle sensed only by believers?
Answer: No. Even unbelievers have a sense to do good and avoid evil because this natural law is
written in every mans heart.
7. Is the foundational moral principle very specific?
Answer: No. It is a general statement, Do good and avoid evil.
8. Is the foundational moral principle the basis of more specific moral principles?
Answer: Yes.
9. Is the foundational moral principle so called because it is the basis of all moral principles?
Answer: Yes.
10. Are the Ten Commandments for Christians more specific moral principles of the foundational moral
principle?
Answer: Yes.
11. Is the natural law literally engraved in every human heart?
Answer: No, not literally. But it is written or engraved in every human heart in the sense that every
man has a sense of the principle Do good and avoid evil
12. Are The Five Pillars of Islam reflective of the natural law?
Answer: Yes.
13. Is the Buddhists Eightfold Path in accordance with the natural law?
Answer: Yes.
14. Are the Golden rule for Christians basically the same with Kung fu tsus Reciprocity rule?
Answer: Yes.

Synapse Strengtheners
A. Direction: Answer the following in a sentence or two.

1. To be moral is to be human. What does this mean?


Answer: To be moral is human. This means that any act that is moral makes man/woman become
more kind of human being that s/he was intended to be.

2. Why is morality only for persons?


Answer: Morality is only for person because only persons are endowed with intellect with which they
can think, reason out and analyze, and free will with which they can choose.

3. What do the following tell you about the natural law?


Ancient philosophers and dramatists had already mentioned the natural law. Sophocles, for instance, in
the drama Antigone, spoke of the unwritten statutes of heaven which are not of today or yesterday but
from all time and no man knows when they were first put forth.
Cicero wrote: True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application,
unchanging and everlasting
Lawless license or promiscuity is not common among primitive peoples. According to Fr. Vanoverberg,
a Belgian anthropologist of the CICM congregation, the Negritos of northern Luzon have excellent moral
standards especially with regard to honesty and sexual matters although their power of abstraction is so
low that they can hardly count beyond 5. (Panizo, 1964)
Answer: The natural law is written in the heart of every man. This is true to all men and women. One
need not be schooled to have a sense of the natural law.
B. Journal Entry

1. Do good; avoid evil is the foundational moral principle. List at least 5 good things that you have to
do as a teacher and 5 evil things you have to avoid doing.
Answer:
5 Good Things That a Teacher should do 5 Evil Things that a Teacher should avoid
1. Understand the students on what theyre 1. Dont bad mouth another staff member of the
thinking and their work. school
2. Believe that every students can achieve 2. Dont fail the students for personal reasons
success
3. Learn something new everyday 3. Dont curse the students and avoid using bad
language
4. Listen to the students more than they talk 4. Dont hit the students
5. Plan lessons clearly to achieve goals 5. Dont harass the students

2. The Golden Rule for Christians is: Do to others what you would like others to do to you. Give a
concrete application of the Golden Rule as you relate to a learner, to a fellow teacher, to a parent or any
member of the community and to your superiors.
Answer:

C. Research on the following:


1. What do the following statements imply about the role of religion in the moral formation of man?
If God did not exist, then everything would be permitted. Dostoyevsky
Answer: The implication is that if God didnt exist, morality also doesnt exist because only God
can impose moral limits on human behavior. This is a concept often given as a reason for a deist
type belief in some sort of God, even if a person doesnt attend church, read the relevant holy
text, observe the relevant holy days or rituals, etc. It doesnt make sense for the simple reason
that God is the only thing whose existence is necessary. Everything else, and everybody else in
the world only has contingent existence we exist because God created us and holds us in
existence. In other words, the nature of God is Existence itself that is why he gave His Name as
I am. The only thing implied by the statement if God did not exist then everything would be
permitted implies that the person making the statement is either lunatic or insane, or perhaps
they just dont understand what God is, or what the concept of God implies.
There is no doubt that man can organize the world without God, but in the final analysis he can
only organize it against man. Pope Paul VI
Answer: It implies that he, the Pope accepts that man can organize the world, or the gross
things in the world. However without faith in his, (the Popes) God, it can only be detrimental to
man in the end. This may or may not be the case, depending on your point of view. That some
people have faith in a particular religion is usually a good and helpful thing in life. It supports
and comforts many, particularly in difficult times. People of faith, of any deist religion, insist that
the universe, and all in it, depend on their God, and that mankind is doomed without that
particular religion. There are nearly as many religions as there are Gods that populate them. All
differ on what and how man/womankind should act, worship and respect their God. Simple logic
tells us they cannot all be correct, at least in this single universe. We are asked and, in some
religions, commanded, to believe the particular words revealed by the deity to some person
to take them as the true word of God or Gods.
2. How does conscience relate to morality?
Answer: The connection between conscience and morality: If you are conscience of what you are doing
your common sense will guide to do the right thing, therefore your actions will be morally good. Your
conscience is inborn, natural ability to detect what is right and wrong. It is literally, how we become
conscious of the morality of our actions. We feel bad when we do something wrong. Now the problem
is, it is possible to ignore and eventually kill your conscience, so that this natural sense is no longer
functional. So, your conscience doesnt make things good or bad, but merely detects when weve chosen
evil.

3. Are man made laws part of the natural law? What about the Code of Ethics for Professional
Teachers?
Answer: Man made laws are sometimes an outgrowth of natural or physical laws. Think about just any
traffic law. These laws are governed by the laws of Physics. Professional Code of Ethics are not laws in
the same sense but you abide by them because they show the correct way to treat mankind.
4. Do laws limit our freedom?
Answer: Laws do limit our freedoms, but that will always be necessary until there is only one person left
on earth. There is a saying that goes Your freedom ends where my nose begins. In other words, until
you interfere with my rights and freedoms.

5. What is meant by the statement The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Answer: The Sabbath is made for man not man for the Sabbath means that things that might not be
usually be acceptable may be so under certain circumstances. The saying originated when Jesus
disciples were rolling ripe grain stalks between their fingers to get the wheat out and eat it because they
were hungry. They were not breaking a law, but the Pharisees were upset about it because to them the
disciples were working on the Sabbath. Jesus answered with this saying and reminded them that if
some of their livestock fell in a hole, the Pharisees would get them out even if it was the Sabbath and
even if they were having to work to do so.

D. By means of a song, a poem or an acrostic (on the word MORALITY), show the importance of
morality.
Answer: M morality, O Opens, R Rational, A Attitude towards, L Life, I in, T Tempting and Y Youth.

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