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Lesson 3

Ethics

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Ai Ran
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11 views

Lesson 3

Ethics

Uploaded by

Ai Ran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lesson III.

Habits and its Moral Significance

Man is a creature of habits. He is born with a wide assortment of powers that


open up limitless horizons for development. Reason stands to the apex of the vast
array of potentialities. Man, if he must integrate all his powers in one wholesome
personality, must rely on the powers of reason. Man must for the habits of reason.

Specific Objectives:

1. Explain the moral significance of habits


2. Articulate how your habit affects your education.

Lesson Outline

Habit comes from a Latin habere, meaning to have. Habit is either the
disposition to have something, or the disposition to act in a certain manner. The first
is called entitative habit, that which disposes a thing to have a certain nature or
quality of being, such as to be beautiful, talented or to be obese. The latter is called
operative habit, that which disposes for doing something in a certain manner, such as
painting, writing or talking. We are primarily interested with operative habits. They
may be defined as the readiness to do something.
Habits are acquired. Once acquired, they become very difficult to alter. They
are therefore relatively permanent. Acquiring habit is like starting a pathway across a
lawn. At first, our foot impressions are hardly visible but with each successive step,
as more and more people walk across the lawn, the pathway comes out clearly.
In like manner, habits are not formed in an instant. They result from
constantly repeated actions. After they are formed, they do not vanish instantly. It
would require a tremendous effort to change a habit.
Habits are largely dominant and subconscious patterns of action established
and maintained by repetition. So, habits are patterns of action, such as tying our
shoes, with three distinguishing features:
(1) Dominance
(2) Unconsciousness
(3) Repetition
(1) Dominance means that we perform the habitual actions the vast majority of the
time. In almost every case that we pick up the ends of our shoelaces, we tie our
shoes.
(2) Sub consciousness means that we are not consciously choosing or 2 attending to
the habitual actions. We don‘t have to think about each loop and pinch in order to tie
our shoelaces.
(3) That habits are established and maintained by repetition means that we
automatize the actions by practicing them over and over again. We have all tied our
shoes a billion and one times, so now we can do it in our sleep.
Moral habits share all of these features of ordinary habits, plus one more:
moral habits arise out of a commitment to particular moral principles. We might adopt
the moral habit of consciously setting aside time to rest and rejuvenate in order to
achieve the value of being more productive while working. We might adopt the moral
habit of being aware of our emotional states in order to achieve the value of greater
clarity of thought. In other words, moral habits are habits which aim to achieve moral
values.
The Function of Habits in Life
Without habits, without the capacity to automatize frequently repeated
actions, we could never move beyond the most simple of tasks. We would barely be
able to walk, let alone perform amazing feats of multi-tasking, such as walking and
chewing gum at the same time. Our conscious mind would be wholly engaged in
tasks that, with habits, we relegate to the background.
The exact same analysis applies to moral habits. Imagine not being in the
habit of honesty. Imagine having to consciously determine, with every new fact of
which you became aware, whether to accept it or pretend that it isn‘t true. Imagine, in
every sentence of every conversation, consciously deciding whether to tell the truth
or to lie. You‘d be thinking very little and speaking even less! Only through habit, only
by automatizing these moral decisions -- so that we are always accepting facts and
always telling the truth -- can we actually go about living our lives. Having no habits,
making all moral decisions consciously and deliberately, is simply not an option.
Thus the question is not: Should I have habits? Our brains naturally form
habits, whether we deliberately cultivate them or not. The real question is: Should I
form habits consciously or unconsciously? Should I choose my own habits or have
them chosen for me?
To show why consciously-cultivated habits are so worthwhile, let‘s take a
peek at the three of benefits that well-developed and consciously-chosen moral
habits bring us, namely (1) reduction of cognitive load, (2) the disposition to act
morally, and (3) consistency between our words and our deeds.
Benefit #1: Moral habits reduce our cognitive load. Moral habits automatize
decisions for us, freeing us from the time and effort of deliberating most everyday moral
choices. As I mentioned, without any such automatization, we would be mentally
crippled. But more broadly speaking, our moral habits allow us to both focus our
attention on the more interesting and complex aspects of life and act quickly.
Benefit #2: Moral habits dispose us to act morally. Good moral habits make
virtuous action easy and natural, and render vice difficult and unpleasant. In forming
habits, we condition our emotions to take pleasure in acting on principle and feel pain in
acting against principle. That emotional feedback naturally inclines us towards the right
thing to do.
Benefit #3: Moral habits give us consistency between our words and our deeds.
Moral habits connect our abstract moral principles to the concrete moral choices we face
every day. As such, habits strengthen the bond between what we say and what we do.
They strengthen our integrity. However, integrity concerns more than the ―trickle-down‖
effect from our principles to our actions. It also concerns the
―trickle-up‖ effect from our actions to our principles. To put it bluntly, what we do
affects what we think. If our actions are inconsistent with our beliefs, we will change our
beliefs in order to reconcile the two.

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