Struktura moralnego postępowania w etyce Romana Ingardena

Abstract

The issues discussed in the article form part of the research on the phenomenological ethics of value. The main goal of this paper is to present the structure of the moral act. The starting point for our consideration is a presentation of the conditions necessary for a moral value to come into existence, both positive and negative ones. Despite the fact that the research results presented in this section are not ultimate, they may supplement traditional ethical indications and even provide an alternative to them, especially in the dispute on the sources of morality. In order to grasp the essence of moral conduct, the author briefly discuses selected moral attitudes such as bravery, honesty and forgiveness. As a result, it is easier to discern the fundamental postulate of axiological ethics, which is an individual person’s reference to the world of values. The article deals with those values which have an essential significance for morality. The article then moves on to discuss the division of human behaviour. This contains both subjective and objective aspects. Within the subjective approach, a special role in moral conduct is attributed to personal experiences. A close inspection of the role of experiences in morality reveals a ‘wanting attitude’ which – separated from the experiences – forms the core of the moral act. With regard to this issue, the author provides several important distinctions including that between ‘wish’ and ‘want’, which often go unnoticed unfortunately. The author’s analysis of the ‘wanting attitude’ draws attention to the role of motivation in moral conduct. In the moral judgement of an act it is essential to consider the type of motivation. A positive moral value arises when the human being acts in accordance with a morally significant value. On the other hand, a negative moral value is manifested in the preference of a subjectively pleasing value merely. Naturally, noble conduct does not require a radical elimination of all personal motives. What is important is that they should remain subordinated to objective significance. The entire consideration ends with an insight into the final stage of moral conduct, considered mainly in subjective perspective. The quality and type of experiences, which are directly linked to the morality of conduct, also need to be taken into account while determining the moral quality of the act. Finally, issues such as forgetting, negligence and omission of the act are also briefly presented.