WEEK 5 MODULE

Course Ethics

Course Description This course explores and articulates a unique way of doing ethics that resonates with the Filipino today
while dealing with the richness and complexities of human condition without compromising the peculiar
character of ethics as a humanistic and philosophic field of study.

Instructor Emmanuel John R. Pangan

Program & Block No Ph 1-1; TM 2-2

Lessons/Topics Inclusive Dates Activity Intended Output

• Being Good in Eastern 20 April 2020 to Read the provided lecture. Then create a Thought Paper No. 5
Ethics 24 April 2020 thought paper.

NOTE: Consultation is done ONLY during your respective class schedule. Submission of the intended output will be upon resumption
of classes.

LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of this module, the students should be able to…
1. Compare and contrast Oriental from Western ethics
2. Explain the core principles of Eastern ethics
3. Apply the principle of Eastern ethics in a moral dilemma
READINGS
From Kreeft, P. (2003). Ethics: A History of Moral Thought. USA: Each of these religions contains a moral code, and though each
Recorded Books, LLC differs greatly on theoretical questions like the nature of God,
they don’t differ very much on practical questions, or how one
LECTURE 13: BEING GOOD IN EASTERN ETHICS should live one’s life. Yet, although the content of ethics in
Eastern religions traditions is similar to the content of ethics in
Before beginning this lecture, you may want to… Western religions, the status of ethics in these religions is
Read Beiard T. Spalding’s Life and Teaching of the Masters of different. In Western religions morality comes from the ‘top,’
the Far East. that is to say God. The ultimate reason for human morality in the
West is the nature of God. This isn’t found in the Eastern
If ethics is universal, if it depends on universal laws or universal religions. The purpose for morality here is to wipe the bad dust
reason, then one should look to the East as well as the West, for off the mirror of the human mind so that we can see God and
the same reason that one should look at the past as well as the have a mystical experience. The goal of Eastern religion is
present. mysticism and the goal of Western religion is sanctity. In the
East, the moral will has to be purified so that the mind is clear.
East vs. West In the West, man has to be enlightened so that the will is better.
In the West, philosophy in general, and ethics in particular,
distinguished itself from religion, largely due to Socrates and his Hinduism
successors. In the East there was no Socrates and so ethics in In Hinduism the ultimate reality is called Brahman. Brahman is a
particular, and philosophy in general, is not regarded as a purely person in some forms of the religion, and in others it is not a
rational science but is more closely tied to religion. person, but the one and only reality, of which we are all
manifestations. The ultimate end of Hinduism is realizing our
Consider this… unity with Brahman, realizing that in the depths of our soul,
How are Eastern religions fundamentally different in their known as Atman, that we are all one, and that the one we really
ideas of God than the three main Western religions are is Brahman, God, infinite and absolute and indefinable
(Christianity, Islam, Judaism)? perfection. The formula for this is:

The Four Major Religions of the East and Ethics “Thou Art That” / “Tat Tvam Asi” = Atman is Brahman
The four most influential, lasting and popular religions in the East
are: The Road to Brahman
1. Hinduism There are four different roads to Brahman. These roads are more
2. Buddhism precisely called YOGAS, which means deeds, or works, or ways
3. Confucianism of life. Each of these yogas is an interior journey of self-
4. Taoism discovery that leads to Atman and thus to Brahman, and each is
for different personalities. Each has its own moral code and each
code is similar—purification from all kinds of evil and impurity for vice from your last life. Hindus believe that we should fear
and selfishness—but the psychological emphases differ: death less, and love life less, then we naturally do because both
are only temporary and repeatable.
Jnana yoga is a mental, intellectual path by which you learn to Consider this…
understand yourself differently and learn to detach your What are the primary differences between the Christian idea
thoughts from your body and your ego and its desires. of the Incarnation and the Hindu idea of Reincarnation?

Karma yoga is a path to Brahman through ordinary daily work There is a great difference between the East and the West
and fulfilling your duties with a new motive, sheer obedience to because of this concept of reincarnation. India tends to be a
your Karma or fate. patient country while the West which believes “you only go
around once in life,” is impatient. The West has more hospitals
Bhatki yoga is a personal, emotional path of love and attachment and more wars. Western ethics emphasizes right action. It is
to Brahman instead of yourself. more involved and practical. Hindu ethics emphasizes right
understanding. It is more detached and contemplative.
Raja yoga is a careful, difficult, experimental and detailed path,
that combines elements of all the others. Buddhism
Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism, a kind of simplified and
Ethics on the Paths purified Hinduism. Buddha’s ethics, summarized in his “Noble
While the focus for each path differs slightly, they all have the Eightfold Path,” is in many ways similar to raja yoga, but
same goal: detachment from ordinary selfishness and self- Buddhism rejects the Hindu theory of Brahman and Atman. It
consciousness and attainment of unselfishness and says that our belief that we have souls, or egos, or selves stems
unselfconsciousness. Some Hindus believe that when you reach from our practice of selfish desire. If we stopped desiring, we
your goal, you see that you simply are Brahman, while other would stop thinking there was anyone there doing the desiring.
Hindus believe that you then attain union with Brahman, a kind So the ultimate end of all Buddhist ethics is to stop all selfish
of spiritual marriage. desire, to purify our thoughts and actions from selfishness, in
order to reach the state of consciousness called Nirvana.
Reincarnation Nirvana means ‘extinction.’ Once you reach Nirvana you are not
The major specific difference between Hindu ethics and most good or bad, you simply are not. So even though there is a strict
Western ethics concerns the value of individual human life. For ethics on the Noble Eightfold Path to reach Nirvana, and one
Hindus this life is not the only one, so a man dying is only passing that is similar to much of Western ethics, it exists only to be
out of one body and will soon get another one, by reincarnation. transcended; it is not a way of perfecting the self but of
Reincarnation states that after you die your soul gets another destroying it, or rather destroying the illusion that there is a self.
human body and comes back to Earth to learn the lessons you
didn’t learn last time, to fulfill your karma, your destiny and
cosmic justice, to reap the rewards for virtue and punishments
The Four Noble Truths Karuna Is Not the Same as Agape (Charity)
The essence of Buddhism, as summarized by Buddha himself in Buddhist compassion is not the same as Christian charity, which
the 6th Century B.C. is The Four Noble Truths: is active and personal. They both negate the same thing
• All life is infected with “dukkha,” or suffering. To live is (selfishness) but do not affirm the same thing. Karuna is the
to suffer. feeling of empathy with all suffering beings, which is a matter of
• The cause of suffering is greed, or “tanha.” We have feeling and thought and intuition. Agape is active love, willing
selfish desires, and that sets up a gap between desire and the good of the other. Agape, is a matter of the will. Both karuna
satisfaction, and that gap is what suffering is: wanting and agape are to be given to all people, both good and bad, but
what you don’t have. karuna is to be given to animals too, since they suffer also.
• To eliminate the effect, eliminate the cause. The way to
extinguish suffering is to extinguish selfish desire. Some Conclusions
Nirvana is the cure. In Buddhism as well as Hinduism there is not the great priority
• The prescription for this cure is the Noble Eightfold Path. put on human life and individuality and certainly not on human
Life is divided into eight aspects and egotism is bodily salvation, that there is in the West. The Buddhist sees the
deliberately reduced to zero in each. human body as a boat and the sailor is apparently the soul or self
or ego. Since there really is no ego we are empty boats, driven
Buddhism is a way of salvation, but not salvation from sin as
by the wind. Since there is no one there, there is no one to hate
Christianity is, but from suffering. There is no notion of sin,
and when we see this, we no longer hate. We can no longer hate.
divine law, or a personal God in Buddhism. The ultimate purpose
of the Buddhist ethics of the Noble Eightfold Path is not to be But the price you have to pay for this is that there is also no one
virtuous or charitable or happy or pleasing to God, but to there to love.
transform our desires and our consciousness so that we can
escape suffering and illusion and find Nirvana. Confucianism
Confucian ethics is much less mystical than Hindu or Buddhist
Wisdom and Compassion ethics, and much more practical and political. Its central idea is
The two greatest virtues for Buddhists are wisdom and harmony. Justice does not mean equality or rights, but a kind of
compassion, or pranja and karuna. Wisdom means social music, each person singing the note that is right for them.
enlightenment, which consists in seeing your identity with Confucius took this central idea of harmony and constructed a
everything else, overcoming the habitual illusion of distinct social ethic that transformed China from a period of civil war to
individuality; and compassion means feeling one with all
relative peace and unity for over 2000 years until Mao Zedong
suffering beings and overcoming the habitual desires of the
destroyed it and replaced it with the opposite philosophy of
separate self.
Communism, based on class conflict. Confucius’ influence is
unparalleled in history: he was the single most successful thinker
in the field of social ethics in the history of the world.
Some Differences Between Confucianism and the West when the gatekeeper at the Great Wall refused to let him
1. In a Confucian society everything is done with elaborate through until he paid, not in money, but in wisdom. Lao Tzo
and precise correctness. There is a right way to address agreed to this ‘tariff’ and wrote 81 short poems, gave them to
your older brother which is different from the way to the gatekeeper, and left, never to be heard from again. Those 81
address your older sister, which is different than the way poems constitute the Tao Te Ching, the second most popular
to address your younger brother, etc. book in the world next to the Bible. (“Ching” means “book,” “Te”
2. In Confucian ethics the basic unit is not the individual but means “spiritual power,” and “Tao” means “way.”
the family. The individual is subordinated to family and
social roles and patterns of acting, like dancers at a The concept of Tao has three dimensions:
formal ball. Preserving family loyalties and structures is • The way ultimate reality works
primary while individual happiness is secondary. • The way nature works in its manifestation of ultimate
3. There is a much greater emphasis in a Confucian society reality
than in the West on tradition and respect for the old. • The way of the wise individual and the wise society that
Confucianism envies the old more than the young imitates the way of nature, as nature imitates the Tao
because it values what the old are better at—wisdom—
more highly than what the young are better at—pleasure This pattern is similar to Christian charity and Hindu/Buddhist
or health. mysticism in that it is selfless, or self-giving. The greatest power,
4. Where the West places an emphasis on distinguishing or “te,” according to Taoism, is in the feminine side of our being,
things, clearly and logically (the Creator and the creation, or in our womblike receptivity. Rigid things die, flexible things
good and evil, etc.), the East, and especially live. The favorite Taoist model in nature is water. It always goes
Confucianism, is flexible and has a talent for mediation to the lowest place and it has no form of its own, as it takes the
and compromise. form of its container. But it is the source of all life, and its waves,
dashing themselves to extinction on the hard rocks, are not
Consider this… changed by the rocks, but the rocks are changed and turned to
America has 4% of the world’s people but 75% of the world’s sand by the patient water.
lawyers, while China has 20% of the world’s people but only
1% of the world’s lawyers. Why do you think this is so? The Tao Te Ching says that “nature is a sacred vessel and that
those who only want to use her do not succeed.”
Taoism
Taoism is opposite to Confucianism in many ways. Its founder Consider this…
Lao Tzu was a romantic and a mystic while Confucius was a When the first Japanese mountain climbing team conquered
rational pragmatist. Lao Tzu was leaving civilized China, Everest, they stopped 50 feet from the summit and went back
disenchanted with the rules and regulations of Confucianism, down, out of respect for the mountain. Asked why, they said,
 “We did not climb to conquer Everest but to befriend her.” Do East vs. West
you think this is wise or foolish? Why? In Eastern philosophies ultimate reality is beyond moral good
and evil. This Oriental metaphysics has great ethical
Yin and Yang consequences. In this philosophy, you don’t take the difference
Yin and Yang are the basic polarity found everywhere in nature, between good and evil with absolute seriousness, just relative
the law of opposites: hot and cold, day and night, male and seriousness. In the West, ultimate reality, is infinitely good and
female and ultimately, life and death: Western ethics is life- not evil. God does not have a dark side. The meaning of life is
affirming and death-denying. It is an either/or ethics of choice. Him, or being like Him, or surrender to His will, etc. So morality
But Eastern ethics, and especially Taoism, takes its model from is taken with ultimate seriousness, because moral goodness is
nature and the law of Yin and Yang, not only concerning light not relative, like biological goodness or physical goodness.
and dark but even life and death. In Taoism, life and death are Whether in pre-Christian classical, Christian, or post-Christian
not enemies but allies. At the heart of life there is death and as humanist form, the West tends toward moral absolutism. Even
soon as we are born we begin to die. if everything in the physical universe is relative, morality is not
relative to immorality as Yin to Yang.

FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING

SUGGESTED READING AND OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST

Spalding, Beiard T. Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East (Six Volume Set). Los Angeles, CA: DeVorss and Co., 1997.
Confucius, D.C. Lau and Arthur Waley (trans.). Analects of Confucius. New York: Penguin Classics, 1979.
Lao-Tzu, Stephen A. Mitchell (trans.). Tao Te Ching: A New English Version. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.
Mitchell, Stephen. Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2002.
Suzuki, Daisetz T. Introduction to Zen Buddhism. Berkeley, CA: Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 1976.

WEBSITE TO VISIT
1. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/2 - Stanford University website contains a biography of Confucius, a narrative on
his philosophy, a bibliography and links to other sites on Confucianism.
2. http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/lao.html - A short biography with some of the poetry of Lao-Tzu and links to
other Taoist sites.
3. http://www.hindunet.org/ - Not unlike the Buddhist site above, this address is a primary source for all things Hindi.
FORMAT
Thought Paper
A thought paper is a method of assessing what one knows about a certain topic. This includes facts from researches and opinion based
on logical inferences not just simply reactions particularly psychological in nature such as fear, anxiety, anger, joy, disgust, etc.

In making a good thought paper, it is essential to find a comfortable place. Writing your paper should include an introduction which
may consist of the current situation of the topic at hand, description of the issue/s, current practices and conventions used to address
the issue/s, and the research gap. The research gaps are those in need of clarification such as those with highly debatable nature,
unresolved issues, or unknown to all. Then one can do a critique and an analysis. This could be done methodically and scientifically.

The step-by-step process to achieve a good thought paper is as follows:

1. After reading the document or researching the topic at hand, usually you are going to look at your reaction to the matter.
Formulate a question or questions you want to answer. Read it several times and allow it to sink into your mind.
2. Read again the document to have a clear idea of its message. List down its points.
3. Write down your thesis statement that answers the question you have prepared.
4. You may write subthemes to the main question. The subthemes must supplement your main answer to your main question.
Write as many subthemes as you can think of. Then choose among it, the subtheme/s you wish to discuss on your paper.
5. Write an outline.
6. Write the first draft. The suggested format of a thought paper would be:
a. Introduction
b. Question to be answered
c. Message of the document
d. Your arguments
e. Conclusion
7. Edit and proofread your paper. Go over it several times and look for errors. Do not stop until you are satisfied.

NOTE: Your thought paper should be about 500 to 1000 words in length (one to two pages). Sources and quotations should be
appropriately identified. You must observe the following paper specifications: Arial typeface, 11 font size, single spacing, one-inch
margin, letter-size paper, and in portrait orientation. Write your name, block, subject and thought paper number at the upper right corner
of the first page.
RUBRICS
For Thought Paper:
CRITERIA 4 3 2 1 SCORE
Content
Does the paper have a focus? Is the message clear? Did you provide convincing
support for your claims and assertions?
Organization
Have you arranged the main points of your paper clearly and logically? Are there
order and logic in the ideas you presented in each paragraph?
Language and Mechanics
Did you observe proper use of language (grammar) and mechanics (punctuation,
capitalization, paper format, etc.)?
Bibliography and Citations
Are your sources credible and up to date? Are your sources from varied mediums?
(4=Highly Proficient; 3=Proficient; 2=Minimum Standards; 1=Below Standards) TOTAL SCORE

RATING