Ultimate Purpose of Human Life
was born. It is towards this
PURPOSE – is that for which an action is
done.
● All our actions, provided they are
human acts, have a purpose or end
or objective.
● There is no human act without a
purpose.
● Every human act has happiness for
a purpose or objective.
● All men strive to be happy.
Therefore, the over-all purpose of
human life is happiness.
Aristotle: Good is “that which all men
desire.”
● The concepts of good and evil are
most fundamental in Ethics for that
is what Ethics is all about: to
determine what is morally good or
evil for man.
● The concept of good and evil, from
the moral point of view, is
determined from man’s relationship
to his end or purpose, that is to say,
we consider man as man.
● Any action that leads an individual to
his end as man is morally good
● Any action that separates or
prevents an individual from his end
as man is morally evil.
Thus, it will be impossible to define the
notion of what is morally good or evil without
making reference to man’s end as MAN.
Intellect and Free Will
➔ Man is created imperfect. He is
endowed with power and potencies
or faculties through the exercise of
which he grows and develops until
he reaches a progressive state of
perfection he did not have when he
perfection that man dedicates his
life.
The intellect and free will are two spiritual
faculties of man.
➔ Intellect: man discovers the Truth.
➔ Will: man tends towards that which
the intellect presents as Good
(desire to do good)
(anything that appears to be good we are
naturally attracted to it)
➔ The intellect of man seeks the truth
and will not stop until it possesses
truth without error. The will of man is
always inclined towards the good.
➔ Anything that is good and known as
such by man, will attract his desires.
Things attract man differently because they
are:
● useful - it renders service and
facilitates work
● pleasant - it makes you feel good
● befitting his condition - it promotes
healthy and vigorous life
Aristotle, it is “that for the sake of which
everything else is desired and which is not
desired for the sake of anything else.”
➔ Happiness to be considered the
ultimate purpose or end of man must
be self-sufficient to satisfy man’s
aspiration.
Aristotle also says: “that which when
isolated makes life desirable and lacking in
nothing.”
➔ Happiness even isolated makes life
desirable.
➔ It will be easy to understand that
whatever happiness consists in, it
will have to be something that
 satisfies man’s total needs and
aspirations, especially the needs of
his superior qualities: the
INTELLECT and the FREE WILL.
From what has been said it will follow that
the Supreme Good being correlative of
Perfect Happiness must meet several
criteria among which are the most
important:
1. Happiness being the last and
Supreme Good must be desired for
its own sake.
2. Happiness being proper to man, the
Supreme good must be something
that fits man as man.
3. The Supreme Good must be
capable of permanent possessions.
Requirements of Lasting Happiness:
● must be total, permanent, lasting
and eternal.
● True happiness must have no
admixture of pain, misery or
unhappiness.
● So man’s ultimate happiness does
not consists in the possession of
money, power, popularity or good
looks.
● What can make man happy lies in
the satisfaction of his capacities of
man.
➔ What makes man distinctly man are
his faculties of intellect and free will,
and hence man’s satisfaction lies in
knowing the ULTIMATE TRUTH and
doing the SUPREME GOOD.
➔ In any theological ethics the
ultimate criterion of morality is true
happiness.
➔ An action is morally good because it
leads to happiness for persons.
➔ The only authentic happiness is one
which satisfies the whole person in
his or her deepest and most ultimate
needs
God/Supreme Being
● total and ultimate truth
● total and highest good
● where we can find such perfection.
● Perfect Truth and Supreme
Goodness who alone can fully
satisfy man’s aspirations for
knowledge and goodness
➔ If we therefore search ourselves
deeply for the satisfaction of our
deepest human desires , we would
find that only the Creator can satisfy
His creatures
➔ Hence, God or the Supreme Being is
the ultimate purpose of human life
He alone can make man completely
happy. God or the Supreme Being
is the beginning as well as the end
of human existence, truly the Alpha
and the Omega.
St. Edith Stein (teresa benedicta of the
cross): Anyone who seeks truth seeks God,
whether or not he realizes it
➔ It is therefore imperative for us to
seek and know the TRUTH, for it is
only in knowing the truth where we
can strive to do the GOOD which
eventually will lead us to GOD our
ultimate purpose and end, the
source and summit of infinite
HAPPINESS.
St. Thomas Aquinas: Nothing created has
ever been able to fill the heart of man. God
alone can fill it infinitely
“And the truth shall set you free….” - your soul, and your neighbor as
John 8:32
Jesus said, “ I am the WAY, the TRUTH,
and the LIFE…” - John 14:6
Christian Morality
Elem of Christian Faith
1. Creed
a. Belongs to dogmatic theo
b. Set of beliefs
c. What we must believe
2. Sacraments
a. What we have to receive to
be able to do all good
3. Commandments
a. What we ought to do
4. Our Father
a. What we should pray & hope
for
“So for one who knows the right thing to do
and does not do it, it is a sin.” -James 4:17
Aspects of Morality
● The ability to know right from wrong.
● The ability to know good from evil.
● The ability to distinguish what is
appropriate from what is
inappropriate.
● The commitment to do what is right.
Christian morality is based on the teachings
of Jesus and his Church through:
➔ The teachings of the Magisterium
(Pope, bishops).
➔ The essence of Jesus’ teaching is
love.
➔ Jesus summarized the way we are
to live when he taught: “You Shall
love the Lord, Your God, with all
yourself.” - Matthew 22: 37-39
Pope Francis: God is love. Only through
loving can we reach love
Jesus’ teachings about love have two
dimensions:
1. Vertical = pointing to God
2. Horizontal = pointing to others
Faith in God alone is not enough in order to
live a good life. We must also love our
neighbor
Catholic Faith
● The Catholic Faith teaches that
“wrong is wrong, even if everyone is
doing it.”
● And that “right is right, even though
no one else is doing it.”
● Right is right even if only you are
doing it
● God is going to judge us:
-on our COURAGE
-to choose what is good in
ALL circumstances
Dynamics of Human Actions
Acts of Man:
● They comprise all spontaneous
biological and sensual processes
like nutrition, breathing, sensual
impressions; sensual impressions;
● all acts performed by those who
have not the use of reason like
 people asleep, lunatics, drunken
people
● all spontaneous reactions which
precede the activity of the will and
intellect, like first reactions of anger.
Human Acts
● They are actions which proceed
from insight and free will.
● They are to be distinguished from
the acts of man which are performed
without intervention of intellect and
free will
Forced Acts
● Acts, though effected with some
insights and cooperation of the
intellect, are carried out against a
man’s personal decision and will.
Constituent Elements
➔ TRADITIONAL CONCEPT
Traditionally a human act is such based on
the ff:
1. Knowledge
● A human act proceeds from
a deliberate will which
requires deliberation.
● No human act is possible
without without knowledge.
2. Freedom
● The ability to affirm one’s
own being in spite of all
internal impulse and external
pressures.
3. Voluntariness
● Act w/c proceeds fr. free will
acting in the light of
knowledge
● Since every human act is a
free will act, every human act
is voluntary
Kinds of Voluntary Act
➔ Perfect
-done with full knowledge and full consent of
the agent
➔ Imperfect
- done with some defect in the knowledge or
consent or both
➔ Direct
-intended in itself by the agent
➔ Indirect
- not intended by the agent but is the result
or effect of another act directly intended
Direct Voluntariness
● Present in a human act where the
foreseen result of another act is
directly willed
One is responsible when 3 conditions are
fulfilled under the principle of indirect
voluntary act:
1. Agent must be able to forsee the evil
effect at least in a general way
2. Agent must be free to refrain from
doing that which is the cause of the
evil effect
3. Agent must be morally bound, not to
do that which is the cause of the evil
effect
PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE-EFFECT (good or
bad)
1. The act must be good in itself or at
least morally indifferent.
2. The evil effect must not precede the
good effect. At least, they should
happen simultaneously.
3. There must be sufficient reason for
doing the act. The good effect is
more important or at least equally
important with the bad effect. The
 act is the only means of achieving education, bad company
the good effect. influence, company
4. The intention of the agent must be influence, reading of
honest. misleading books and
papers, etc.
Act→ good ● Man is challenged to
● If circumstances (not good) exempt overcome the errors by
in responsibility personal search for the truth
● Act is good if intentions are good so as to prevent truth so as
to prevent negative and
Obstacles to Voluntariness misguiding views.
1. Ignorance
-Lack of req knowledge in man
-The same ignorance can be: 3. Inattention
➢ Vincible ● An actual, momentary
-ignorance that can be dispelled by privation knowledge.
reasonable diligence or due to ● A perfect human act is only
circumstances performed when full attention
-it does not take away the voluntariness of is had of full attention is had
the human act or its omission of what one is doing.
-still responsible ● The same privation does not
➢ Invincible remove responsibility.
-ignorance that man is not able to dispel by
reasonable dilligence or due to
circumstances
-prevents the human act from being
voluntary in regard to that w/c is not known
-thus, the person is inculpable in the
performance of this action
-lessens/removes the responsibility
➢ Affected Obstacles to Free Consent
-ignorance that can easily be dispelled by 1. Passion or Emotions
diligence & yet the agent is not making ● Movement of the sensitive
serious effect to remove such ignorance appetite which produced by
-affected ignorance increases the good or evil apprehended by
responsibility of the person the imagination. In this the
-aware of his ignorance but does not do imagination. In this sense, it
anything has no connotation of evil.
-intentional (increases responsibility) ● Emotions become
destructive and evil when its
2. Error force is not controlled by
● Habitual privation of reason.
knowledge and insight that is 2 Kinds of Emotion
caused by deficient ➔ ANTECEDENT
-Emotions that precede the action of the will
and at the same time induces the will to
consent.
-takes places in involuntary movements.
- always lessens voluntariness & sometimes
precludes
➔ CONSEQUENT
-Follows the free determination of the will
and is either freely admitted and consented
to or deliberately aroused.
- does not lessen voluntariness
-either good or bad.
-freely accepted or even deliberately
aroused.
2. Fear
● It is the shrinking back of the
mind on account of an
impending evil.
● Inasmuch as it is caused by
a grave evil which one by a
grave evil which one cannot
escape or by a slight evil one
can easily avoid it is either
slight or grave
● Fear does not destroy
voluntariness; it usually
lessens guilt as well as its
merits
3. Violence
● It is a compulsive influence
by some extrinsic agent
compelling one to do
something against his will.
● It is not caused by moral
force but only by compulsive
force of some psychic or
physical agent.
● cannot reach the will directly.
It forces bodily directly.
● forces bodily action.
2 Kinds of Violence
➔ Absolute
- If the will dissents totally and resists as
best as it can.
-excludes any voluntariness fr the forced
actions
-The reason is that lack of consent
precludes human act and consequently
imputability
-no exercise of free will
➔ Relative
- The will dissents only partially or weakly
and is perhaps deficient in its external
resistance. its external resistance.
- does not impair voluntariness completely
but lessens it
- Voluntariness is not completely taken
away since there is partial consent of the
will.
4. Habits or Dispositions
● The facility and readiness of
acting on a certain manner
acquired by repeated acts.
Good-virtue
bad-vice
● Man is not without
responsibility for the
development and retention of
his habits.
● A deliberately admitted habit
does not lessen
voluntariness and actions
resulting therefrom are
voluntary at least in cause.
5. Influence of Unconscious Motivation
● The dynamic unconscious
can leave behind lasting
anxiety, inhibitions and
defense reactions.
● The balanced tension
between the instinctive
impulses and the “superego”
can be upset by the ego” can
be upset by the
permissiveness or rigidity in
upbringing.
 ● Sudden shocking events may
even affect or may even
paralyze growth.
● Deliberate acts of the will
may be influenced by the
unconscious.
-But to influence is not to compel. It exerts
its pressures on the human will w/o
necessarily forcing it
● On the other hand, allowance
should be made for the
functioning of unconscious
psychic mechanisms that
may reduce responsibility.
Determinants of Morality
The Sources of Morality
● Because we have free will and
reason, we are responsible for our
acts and our failures to act. (sin of
omission)
We can judge whether our actions are good
or bad by reflecting on three traditional
sources of morality:
1. The object
a. Chosen (What I choose to
do).
b. In morality the Object
chosen is what we choose to
do, the act itself.
c. The act can have good
matter, bad matter, or just be
neutral.
d. An example of a good act
could be helping an old
woman carry her heavy
basket.
e. The object is the primary
determinant of morality.
Thus, there are objects that
are good in themselves,
objects that are evil in
themselves and indifferent in
the ideal.
f. Bad matter automatically
makes an act evil.
g. Ex: Gossiping about a
classmate is consider bad
matter.
h. Spreading half truths about
someone is always wrong.
2. The intentions
a. (Why I choose to do
something).
b. The motive
-It is that which the agent, doer, performer
of an act intends or wishes to achieve by his
act. It is the end he has in view, his
purpose, his motive in performing the act.
c. The purpose
-answer why we acted in a certain way.
-can be good, bad, or mixed.
-determine whether our acts are morally
right or wrong.
-A good intention can never turn something
that is bad (the object) into something good.
-Good intentions can never justify choosing
something that is by its nature wrong.
- A good intention cannot make something
that is bad into something good.
-A bad intention can turn something that is
good into something bad.
d. The end for which we choose
to do something.
e. The end doesnt justify the
means
Object & intention
● Indifferent + Good = GOOD
● Indifferent + Evil = EVIL
● Good + Good = GOOD
● Good + Evil = EVIL
 ● Evil + Good = EVIL
● Evil + Evil = EVIL
3. The Circumstances
a. (The what, where, when, how
of my actions).
b. includes the act’s
consequences.
c. Circumstances can lessen or
increase our responsibility for
an act.
d. Ignorance, fear,
psychological, and social
factors can lessen and in
certain cases cancel out our
responsibility for our actions.
e. Particulars of the concrete
human act which are not
necessarily connected with
its object. They are
conditions that affect an act –
and may affect it morally –
although they do not belong
to the essence of the act
itself.
7circumstances: who, what, when, where,
why, with, how
f. a condition, detail, part, or
attribute, with respect to time,
place, manner, agent, etc.,
that accompanies,
determines, or modifies a
fact or event; a modifying or
influencing factor.
g. They generally answer the
question who, what, where,
with what means, why, how,
when.
h. They can be also classified
into:
- Aggravating
-Mitigating
-Liberating
-Justifying
★ For an act to be morally good and
acceptable, the object, the intention,
and the circumstances must all be
good.
★ A person also has to have full
knowledge of his or her actions.
★ And free consent of the will
(permission to act in a certain way).
Nature of Morality
MORALITY
● The quality of the human act which
makes it good or evil.
● Such quality is based on the
following things:
I. Norms of Morality
A. TRADITIONAL
NORMS
1. Right Reason
--That which proceeds from the
apprehension, judgment and logical
deduction of the truth.
- It also presupposes common sense.
2. Law
-In its widest meaning means any constant
of action and reaction. Thus, one can speak
of the laws of physics, chemistry and
nature.
-When applied to man it is not only
concerned with activities like the arts but the
activity of man as man or the directing of his
life to the final end.
-Law has two dimensions:
a. It is an expression of the intrinsic
human value and the call of God.
Thus, it is internalized, and an
invitation to love as a way of
attaining human perfection.
b. It is also a demand and as such
seems to come from outside and
appears like a constraint provoking
resistance. In the right perspective,
 law is an expression of human
value.
EXISTENCE OF LAW
● Reason concludes that a Supreme
Being as supremely wise cannot act
without a plan, rules and decrees at
the evolution of creation and no less
the course of human activity.
● Scriptures testifies that God has a
well defined plan for the world and
mankind (Job 28:20-27).
CLASSIFICATIONS OF LAW
● Origin
> Divine
- when the law comes directly from
God
>Human
- when God delegates law-making to
men by virtue of their responsibilities
and positions in society.
- Civil when they refer to secular
society and
- ecclessiastical when they refer to the
Church.
● Duration
>Eternal
- objective and universal law whereby
God orders, directs and governs the
whole world and the ways of the
human community according to the
plan of wisdom and love. This law
has no end and co-exists with God.
>Temporal
- laws subject to time and therefore
can be changed, abrogated,
amended or superseded by other
laws. Human laws are temporal
laws.
● Manner of Promulgation
>Positive
- when the laws are directly
promulgated whether human or
divine.
>Natural
- Natural when they are indirectly
promulgated or is found in the nature
of creation. It is the law that guides
creatures towards their end.
- Physical law: Natural law applied to
irrational creatures
- Moral law: guides rational creatures.
It is the participation of the eternal
law in rational creatures.
● Effect
PRESCRIPTIONS
> Penal
- when the transgression of the law
entails a punishment.
>Moral
- when the transgression of the law
entails sin or a fault.
>Mixed
- when the transgression of the law
entails both a sin and a punishment
3. Conscience
II. Sources of Morality