SAINT ANTHONY MARY CLARET COLLEGE

Axiel M. Egracial Ethics

Greek Perspective of Morality

The greek morality has well founded the perspective of ‘Agathos’. The idea of goodness from
greek perspective is very much related to oneself or even to the society. Every one of us has different
approach to goodness, meaning we live in the world were indifference occur with regards to ‘Agathos’
and the greek morality had been applied from ancient to medieval up to our present period. The moral
norms from the greek perspective still living in this world, society and to oneself. It’s still relevant to the
modern period hence, ‘agathos’ at the moment should be seen from the greek perspective rather than
other sources of goodness.

Mechanical (Functional)
When it comes to our society the trending issue today is about extrajudicial killings or in other
words the ‘war on drugs’ by President Duterte. The president has declared that there should be no doubt
to kill the people who are involved in drugs, everyone who will be caught using drugs or who has drugs
will be excommunicated or vanish from this world.. Many issues arise from the social media, radio and
newspapers. Most of the Filipino people blamed President Duterte about his promise on ‘war on drugs’,
they would want to stop it, they do not even consider him as a human being and the president of this
republic.
The ‘Agathos’ here is very much mechanical in as much as even Duterte continued the ‘war on
drugs’ which some of the Filipinos does not like, he made it out of the goodness for the country, that’s his
function as the president to promote peace out of drugs. So the ‘Agathos’ functioned based on your
reputation as part of this world that even a person took many lives, his/her goodness will always remain
because being looked up by others.

Strategical (Dispositional)
The drug pushers who makes money supplying illegal drugs involving those unsettlers. Some of
them are innocent but because of the fact that they have no money for their needs considering the
difficulty in life which they experienced, they are brainwashed, they let themselves fooled by the drugs
hence, they violated the law which cause their death.
The ‘Agathos’ here is not anymore functional rather it became dispositional. Their families has
no good shelter and no food to eat so, as part of the family you should function and look for jobs to help
your family but what happened here was that, the drug pushers put their lives into risk because of the
drugs that even if it is against the law as long as it is good for themselves and for their families they did it.
The goodness became strategical that what is good for me I will do it even if it cause my death.

Rhetorical (Pedagogical)
The well-educated man I can say is Ferdinand Marcos because he was able to rule the country,
control the military, the people and almost everything because he has the power, conviction in himself
and confidence it is all because he was very educated well. Many people remembered him even up to the
present period because of his popularity in the country.
In the society today, it is necessary for a man to study or to be educated because education gives
light to the people and give the capacity to talk with conviction, defend himself from other
discriminations and protect himself from through education. A man would gain power and attention from
the people if he is well educated. The ‘Agathos’ is based on the intellectual capacity of the man to
persuade something that others do not know or thematize things very well.

Dialectical (Relational)
In the Filipino tradition ‘papamanhikan’ wherein the man formally ask the hand of the woman
whom he wanted to marry, talking face to face with the family of the woman. Sometimes they would
prepare especial food, talk about when will be the wedding and some other details. The man should also
serve the family of the woman he wanted to marry.
This tradition suddenly vanished because aside from it is the old way many couples nowadays has
their own way of approaching their families regarding their wedding, the can just talk in the phone, decide
in the social media contacting their families or even some will be shocked because their daughters or sons
are engaged already. The couple has their own understanding of arranging weddings not in the traditional
ways, they have their own ways to fix their marriage unlike before which their parents get used to. The
‘Agathos’ is not anymore pedagogical instead it became complex. They learned that it is not only the way
to have a good marriage but in some other ways it could be possible.

Eidetical (Formal)
The ‘Agathos’ is much different from other norms of morality because goodness is now
universal. Every one of us has the eidetic soul, we have the capacity to see the perfect hidden pattern. A
cab driver from Baguio Reggie Cabututan returned a luggage containing important documents, gadgets,
and cash to an Australian businessman.
In the situation of the cab driver he knows that luggage left by the Australian has important things
inside, if the man is a regular taxi driver who has no idea of goodness and in that situation no one knows
that it was left, only him perhaps he will get it with no regrets but because we as humans Plato believed
that we have our universal goodness in us, the inner goodness that even if no one is watching us we will
prefer to do good because we have in our mind the perfect pattern of goodness.