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The Moral Decadence In Nietzsche’s Philosophical Writings
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Concupiscence: is a tendency of human nature towards evil. Is
equally the rebellion of the passions against reason. There are times
when we feel strongly drawn to do something that we know would cause
nothing but sorrow and regret to all concerned, even to ourselves, and
yet we are strongly tempted to do it. Just like St. Paul said, “I cannot
understand even my own actions. I do not do what I want to do but what I
hate†(Romans 7:15).under here, we may have love, fear, hatred, joy,
grief, desire, aversion, hop, despair, and anger.
Habit: The
voluntary nature of human actions is also affected by habit, which is an
inclination to perform some particular action. It is usually acquired
by repetition and characterized by a decreased power of resistance and
an increased facility of performance. A habit is sometimes called
“second natureâ€, meaning it is deeply ingrained in an individual as a
result of constant repetition.
1.6 Principles for Judging Morality
In judging the morality of a specific action, some fundamental principles must be applied. They include;
1.
An act is morally good if the act itself, the purpose of the act, and
the circumstances of the act are substantially good. We say
“substantially†good because an act may have minor shortcomings or
defects and still be a truly good act. A person who declined to steal
from an employer out of fear of being caught than because stealing is
wrong performs a good act, but not for the best of motives.
2. If
an act is intrinsically evil, the act is not morally allowable
regardless of purpose or circumstances. Murder, abortion, rape,
adultery, racism are always evil. They are never allowed as a solution
to a problem, no matter how serious the problem.
3. If an act is
itself morally good or at least indifferent, its’ morality will be
judged by the purpose or the circumstances. For instance, going to the
bank is in itself indifferent. If a person is going to the bank to
withdraw his money through legal means, he is doing something good. But,
if he is going to the bank to steal money, then he is doing something
morally evil.
4. The circumstances may create, mitigate or
aggravate sin like studying your book in preparation for examination is
good thing, but becoming so engrossed in the book that one neglects to
take care of a sick person is morally wrong.
5. There are three
moral elements (the act itself, the purpose, and the circumstances) that
make an act morally good. If any one element is evil, the act is evil. A
child who never does anything wrong except disobeying the teacher, is
not a good person.
1 R. M. Hare, The language of morals (Oxford: O.U.P., 1952) , P.1
2 B. Haring, The Law of Christ, Vol II (USA: Newman Press, 1964), P.123
3 S. Stumpf, Philosophy, History and Problems, fifth edition (New York: McGraw-Hill), P. 420.
4 C. Ekwutosi, Ethics, A Normative, Practical And Speculative Science, Unpub. Lecture note, 2003, P.4
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