Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

36 JOSEPH A. SELLINGgive a gift that will benefit the recipient even though it mightnot please in the short term? Or is one giving out of anothermotivation, such as a desire to manipulate the other or to temptthe recipient to do something they might not otherwise havedone? These pre-moral assessments are carried on independentlyof one’s consideration of which gift is actually chosen.Exactly which gift pleases, or benefits, or flatters or simply getsthe attention of the recipient is an assessment that must bemade on the basis of who the recipient is and the circumstanceswithin which the giving takes place.Obviously, not all moral events are equivalent to “gift-giving”.However, all moral events do involve doing (or omitting)particular activities that are potentially beneficial or harmfulfor persons; all moral events do involve the (life) circumstancesof the agent as well as the circumstances of that activity oromission; and all moral events do involve the commitment toachieve specific ends or goals within those given sets of circumstances,which is usually referred to as intention. It is onlywhen all the aspects are accounted for that one is able to combinethe pre-moral assessment of those aspects and reach thelevel of a moral judgment about the moral event as an integrated,unified whole.In the best of situations, and probably in the majority ofcases of moral decision-making, these pre-moral assessmentstake place prior to any consideration of particular moral events.Mature persons have most likely accumulated knowledge andunderstanding of what is beneficial and harmful for persons sothat when particular activities come up for consideration theyhave an informed, pre-moral, opinion about how such an activitywill affect themselves and others. That said, it is clear that not allcircumstances in life are predictable, so that even our pre-moralassessments may need to be revised in “special” cases.Simultaneously, mature persons have also accumulated anunderstanding of how an attitude of love (for God and for one’sneighbor as for oneself) is translated into various contexts. Thisis what our tradition has commonly referred to as virtue.Nevertheless, attitudes must also be realized in the real life situationof the particular person. The kind of “honesty” that is exer-