Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Philosophy and ethics for Secondary education

Kant's Formal Ethics: Duty as the Moral Standard

Formal ethics is an ethics without specific content. It does not define actions as good or bad based on the outcomes achieved, but rather according to the manner in which they are performed. This approach emphasizes universal, objective, necessary, and categorical rules. It is an autonomous morality.

Formalism: Good as a Duty

Immanuel Kant's formal ethics tells us not what we must try to achieve, but how we must act if our action is to be morally good. According to Kant, this way is to follow the only possible moral standard: duty.

Kant distinguishes three types of actions:

• Actions contrary to duty
• Actions in conformity with duty (but not from duty)
• Actions from duty

Actions from duty are the foundation...

Understanding Moral Duty and Its Implications

When we use words like "good" or "bad," their meaning can vary significantly depending on the context, particularly between non-moral and moral senses.

The Relative vs. Absolute Sense of 'Good' and 'Bad'

Non-Moral, Relative Sense

In a non-moral sense, "good" or "bad" (or what "you have to do") is relative. It depends on, or is connected to, something else. For example, "This is a good knife for cutting bread."

Moral, Absolute Sense

Conversely, when we use these words in a moral sense, their meaning is absolute. You must do something, or something is good or bad, regardless of whether you like it or not, or whether you want to. It simply is.

Moral Judgments and Absolute Obligations

When these words are used...

What Is Personality?

Personality encompasses all doctrine and civilization, stating the primacy of the individual's material needs and the collective mechanisms underlying their development.

Profiles of Human Personality

The person is an independent spiritual being. They maintain their livelihood through adherence to a hierarchy of values, freely adopted, assimilated, and lived in a responsible commitment and constant conversion. This structure consists of three dimensions:

• Vocation: The dimension of transcendence, which is open beyond the given, the acquired, and the past.
• Incarnation: The descending dimension, which represents the commitment to mundane realities.
• Communion: The horizontal dimension, which involves detachment from oneself and connection

Ethics and Morality: A Philosophical Exploration

Defining Ethics and Morality

Ethics is the philosophical reflection on morality, residing in the realm of thought. Morality, on the other hand, is lived experience—how we act. While often used synonymously, they represent distinct concepts. Morality encompasses life's choices, while ethics delves into the reasoning behind those choices. Being demoralized implies an inability to make decisions, while living morally means being a fully realized person, ready to face any challenge.

Moral Structure and Content

All individuals possess a moral structure, the capacity to choose between alternatives and justify their selections. This makes us accountable for our choices. Moral content comprises the norms,...

Instructional Texts: A Comprehensive Overview

Instructional texts describe, step-by-step, directions to perform a necessary action. These texts are used for giving orders, rules, warnings, or advice.

Structure of Instructional Texts

The structure of an instructional text usually consists of two parts: the objective and the instructions.

Language Characteristics

The language of an instructional text features clear and precise vocabulary, use of the imperative mood, and a prevalence of simple sentences.

Pronouns: A Detailed Explanation

Pronouns are words that replace a noun. Personal pronouns serve to indicate the grammatical persons involved in communication. Forms of demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, indefinite pronouns, numeral pronouns,

Doctrine of the Soul: Hylomorphism and Immortality

Doctrine of the Soul

Both Aristotle and St. Thomas rejected Platonic dualism that identifies a human being with the soul alone. Aristotle, in his theory of hylomorphism, held that soul and body are united as form and matter; for St. Thomas Aquinas, this union does not invalidate the claim that the soul is immortal.

The soul is the substantial form of the body, the principle of life and organization. It is therefore also the principle of human operations, which are diverse. St. Thomas treats these operations as various faculties or active powers in the soul, each responsible for certain activities.

Division of Powers

These powers are subdivided into lower powers (those common to animals) and higher...

Nouns

Nouns are words for things, animals, people, feelings, concepts, etc. In nouns, the gender morpheme does not reflect sound but is included in the lexeme of the word. The noun usually appears in concordance with the article or adjectives. In some cases, sex cannot be differentiated by grammatical gender; these are called epicene gendered nouns. In nouns referring to people and many animals, the masculine corresponds to the male and the feminine to the female sex, which employs the terminations -o, -a, -isa, -ina.

Classifying Common Nouns

• Common: Designate classes of things (tomato, country).
• Proper: Designate individuals (including names).
• Concrete: Designate things perceptible by the senses (table, dog).
• Abstract: Refer to things that are not

Grammatical Sentence Components

Treatment: This is a function that plays a prepositional phrase, which we do not choose if the governing verb is present.

Attribute: Role of a VP, AP, or SPREP. It appears with linking verbs and semi-copulative verbs. It can be pronominalized. The attributes range over qualities of the subject, copula verbs, and identified elements.

Preaching (Predicate): Performed by an NP or a Sadje (Adjective Phrase/Adverbial Phrase, assuming context). It will not couple with VBOS (Verbs without complements). You cannot pronominalize it with 'LO'. The PVO (Verbal Phrase Object/Predicate) provides features to the subject or the CD (Direct Object) of the prayer/sentence. For these, the worth of a copula and VBO (Verb without Object)...

International Human Rights Instruments

• Convention on the Political Rights of Women
• Convention on the Abolition of Slavery
• Declaration on the Rights of the Child
• Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons
• Declaration on the Human Environment
• Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons
• Convention Against Torture

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and National Constitutions

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a landmark document upon which democratic countries must base their constitutions. For example, principles found in the UDHR are reflected in national laws, such as in the Spanish Constitution:

• Article 1: Spain becomes a social and democratic state of law.
• Article

Albert Camus: The Philosophy of the Absurd

Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a renowned writer and essayist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. His work, including The Myth of Sisyphus and The Plague, centers on the concept of the absurd—the conflict between the human desire for meaning and the silent, chaotic universe.

Core Themes in Camus's Thought

• The Absurd: Camus rejects religious explanations for human suffering, such as pain and death.
• Rebellion: Rather than succumbing to despair, Camus argues for a rebellion against the absurd.
• Human Solidarity: He advocates for justice and compassion, choosing to act for the good of others without relying on divine intervention.
• Rejection of Transcendence: Camus insists on facing the reality