Intrinsic Good and Evil Acts Questions

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: 1. What was the most important thing that you learned from our previous class session? Why do you find this important? | liked the aspect of Aquinas’ teachings that cover evil without sin. The example | gave was a child with cancer. | think it gives a better understanding of overall suffering in the world and why we must endure the suffering to be part of a greater good. Suffering does not always include sin as an aspect, just as a child with cancer has nothing to do with sin. 2. What is one question you have that stems from the previous class session or reading? Kant’s belief on virtues is that they have no “qualities conductive to the good will itself.” My struggle with this concept is that if virtues need an action to be fulfilled in order for them to have worth, how did we give them worth in the first place? For example, if a steak has protein just as virtue has worth, we won't see the benefits of the protein until they are consumed, but we can still acknowledge they are valuable pre-consumption. Does this analogy not apply to virtue? READING QUESTIONS: 1. Kant believes that virtues only have value when they are being acted upon and when they stand alone, they are just an idea. For example, if no one is being temperate, then temperance is just an idea and has no internal value. 2. According to Kant, what makes a will good solely depends on its connection or alignment with moral law and its motivation. 3. Doing something in conformity with duty is typically aligned with doing something out of fear of punishment, whereas doing something from duty is usually aligned with doing it because you believe it is a moral obligation. For example, telling the truth because if you don’t you will be punished versus telling the truth because you believe you are morally obligated. 4. Hypothetical imperatives are conditional and depend on personal goals whereas categorical imperatives are unconditional and depend on universal moral principals. 5. First start by forming the maxim, then apply a universalization test imagining a world where everyone follows the maxim, then check for consistency, after doing that, consider the contradictions which may come up. For a maxim to become a universal law, it needs to apply universally without contradictions.