CHAPTER 2 THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS AND - sources that define goodness or badness of an act.

MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY 1. THE ACT ITSELF OR OBJECT OF THE ACT

HUMAN ACTS
 What the person does
 Actus Humani  Intrinsically or extrinsically good or evil
 Actions that proceed from insight  The “substance of the moral act”
 From consent or free will  The basic factor of morality
 Result of conscious knowledge, freedom and
voluntariness Object of the Act
 Classified as good or bad, thus, subject to  The result of the act independent of any
morality and its norms circumstance or intention
 From POV of the object, morality can be
ELEMENTS TO BE CONSIDERED A HUMAN ACT objective and intrinsic
On part of acting agent o By their very nature is morally g or
b
 Knowledge o No amount of good or bad
 Freedom intention or favorable circumstance
 Voluntariness or Consent can alter their goodness or evilness
 Though may affect the
Acts under Human acts
degree of g or b
 Proper for humans alone
Every act has its intrinsic character or quality that
 Makes man truly human
defines it morality
ACTS OF MAN
Nature or Object of the act
 “Naturally” even w/out awareness
 Most important and crucial consideration in
 Instinctively
judging the moral worth
 All human acts are acts of man , BUT not all acts
 Primary determinant or source of morality
of man are human acts
 Shared w/ animals 2. THE MOTIVE OR INTENTION
 w/out deliberation and free will
 Why
 neither morally responsible nor accountable
 Practically present in all human acts thus an
BASIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN ACTS important part of morality
 Depending on the motive, the act can be
1. Act must be Deliberate
modified in its moral worth
 aware of his act and its consequences
2. Performed in Freedom
 Free from any force beyond his control 4 PRINCIPLES
3. Done Voluntarily
1. An indifferent act can become morally g or
 Willful to perform
morally e depending upon the intention
 Come from the core of a person’s being

The presence of these 3 affects the moral quality 2. An objectively g act becomes morally e due
to a wrong or b motive
MAJOR DETERMINANTS OF THE MORALITY OF HUMAN
ACTS

-the factors that would allow us to identify concretely 3. An intrinsically (objectively) morally g act
whether an act is good or not in reference to the can receive added goodness, if done w/ an
objective norm of morality equally noble intention or motive
Ex. Praying
 4. An intrinsically evil act can never become
morally g even if it is done w/ a g motive
or intention
- The end does not justify the means
Ex: cheating in an exam
3. THE CIRCUMSTANCES
 Surrounding the performance of the act
 Various conditions outside of the act
 Not strictly part of the act itself
 Influence to a lesser or greater degree the
moral quality of the human act
 Affect the act by increasing or lessening its
voluntariness or freedom, thus affects the
morality
4 TYPES OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT AFFECT THE
MORALITY OF AN ACT
1. Mitigating or extenuating circumstances
- Diminish the degree of m g or e
Ex: first time to kill then later admits
- lessens severity
2. Aggravating circumstance
- Increases the degree w/out adding a
new and distinct species of moral g or e
Ex: murder at night and w/ use of
superior arms
3. Justifying circumstances
- Giving adequate reasons
Ex: murder in defense of his life
4. Specifying circumstances
- Give a new and distinct species of moral
g or e of the act
Ex: murderer is wife of the victim or
murderer and victim are one and the
same
7 SPECIFIC KINDS OF CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH
AFFECT THE MORALITY OF AN ACT
a. WHO –performer and to whom the
act is done; what status or level
(age, education, position, etc.)
b. WHERE- includes the nature of the
place
c. BY WHAT MEANS
d. WHY
e. HOW – involves diff conditions or
modalities such as voluntariness,
consent, violence, fear, ignorance,
weapon/equipment/tools, etc.
-similar to BY WHAT MEANS
f. WHEN- vital to moral assessment
g. TO WHOM
PRINCIPLES GOVERNING
CIRCUMSTANCES
1. C may increase or decrease the
wrongfulness of an evil act
2. C may either increase or
decrease the merits of a good
act
3. C may exempt temporarily
someone from doing a required
act
4. C do not prove the guilt of a
person. His presence during the
act does not mean he is the
criminal
MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS (IPFVH)
- Factors & conditions that affect man’s
inner disposition towards certain
actions
- Influence specifically the mental &/or
emotional state
- Increases or decreases voluntariness
- Affect the k, f, v so make them less
perfectly human
1. IGNORANCE
- Absence of necessary knowledge that a
person ought to have in a certain
situation
- Either Vincible or Invincible
VINCIBLE IGNORANCE
- Can be remedied through ordinary
diligence& reasonable efforts
- Correctible
Affected Type of Ignorance
3. FEAR
- Indiv keeps by positive efforts to escape
blame & accountability
INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE
- w/out being aware of it or has
knowledge
- lacks the necessary means to correct
and solve it
- not correctible
Principles Governing Ignorance
a) Invincible Ignorance renders an act
involuntary.
- Can’t be held morally liable
b) Vincible Ignorance does not destroy, but
lessens the voluntariness and the
corresponding accountability over the act.
4. VIOLENCE
Degree of responsibility of having vincible
ignorance depends on:
1. the amount of effort spent to obtain info
2. the gravity of the matter concerned
3. the obligation of the person involved to
acquire proper knowledge
2. PASSION OR CONCUPISCENCE
- Sentiments, affections, desires, etc.
- Inclination towards desirable objects or
a tendency away from undesirable
things
5. HABIT
- Inludes both positive and negative
emotions
- Antecedent or Consequent
Principles Governing Antecedent
Passion
- Does not always destroy voluntariness
- Diminish accountability
- Weaken the will power w/out
completely obstructing his freedom
Principles Governing Consequent
Passion
- do not lessen voluntariness
- may increase accountability
- direct results of the will which fully
consents to it
- The disturbance of the mind of a person
who is confronted by an impeding
danger (him or loved ones)
- May be considered a passion which
arises as an impulsive movement of
avoidance of
 A special kind of passion
 Thus another distinct modifier
of human act since a test of
mental character
Principles Governing Fear
 Acts done WITH fear are voluntary
 Acting in spite of his fear thus in
control
 Acts done BECAUSE OF intense fear
or panic are involuntary
 Not morally responsible
Principles Governing Violence
- Involuntary
- Even if one is compelled to do
something, one should not consent to it
 Active resistance
 Intrinsic resistance
- Absolute violence excludes any
voluntariness
- Relative Violence does not impair v
completely
 Makes a person carry out what
he would not do.
- Acquired by repetition of same act
Principle Governing Habit
- if a person will simply let his habit take
control w/out doing anything still is
morally accountable since such habit
includes approval of all consequences
which the person is aware form
beginning
- voluntary because of previously willed
acts done repeatedly

An opposed habit

- lessens v and sometimes precludes it

completely bc habit weakens intellect
and will (same with passion)

when tries to fight his/her habit

- actions resulting may be acts of man

and not accountable bc the cause of the
habit is no longer expressly desired.