ETHICS

Alyssa Balmes
Aeron Dane
Shaira Misterio
Ma. Cecilia Ranara
HUMAN ACTS

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 ARTICLE 1

THE HUMAN ACT

IN ITSELF
 A human act
is an act which
DEFINITION proceeds from the
OF HUMAN deliberate free
ACT will of a man.
 Ethics,
DEFINITION however, describe
OF HUMAN that human acts are
ACT only those acts that
are proper to man as
man.

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 Man is an animal as
he has many activities
that are similar to
DEFINITION them.
OF HUMAN
But man is more than
ACT
animal as he has
understanding and free
will.

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 Acts of man
are acts that man
perform
ACT OF MAN indeliberately or
without exercise of
free choice.

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 Acts of man may
sometimes become
human acts by the
ACT OF MAN consent of the human
who performs the
acts.

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 Human acts, when
repeated several times
“A man is turn into habits.
what his
human acts
make him.” Habits coalesce into
a man's character.

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 • their adequate cause
or where do they stem
up
CLASSIFICATION
OF HUMAN ACTS • their relation to the
dictates of reason or
moral worth or value

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The Human acts
Adequate can be classified
Cause of either as elicited
Human Acts or commanded.

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 Elicited acts are
acts begun and
The completed in the will.
Adequate Commanded acts
Cause of
are actions that are
Human Acts
carried out by the
mind and body that are
ordered by will.
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 Elicited Acts:
• Wish pertains to
The • Intention the objective
Adequate will
• Fruition
Cause of
Human Acts • Consent pertains to
the means to
• Election accomplish
• Use the will

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 Commanded Acts
• Internal Acts - done
The by the mind
Adequate • External Acts - done
Cause of by the body
Human Acts
• Mixed Acts - done by
both mind and body

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The Human acts are
Relation also classified
of Human according to their
Acts to moral worth or value
Reason

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 On the score of morality,
human acts are:
The • Good - in accordance with
Relation the dictates of reason
of Human
Acts to • Evil - in opposition to
Reason the dictates of reason
• Indifferent - neither
good nor evil

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 There are three
constituents of human acts:

CONSTITUENTS • must be knowing and

OF THE HUMAN deliberate
ACT • must be free
• is an involuntary act

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 A human act proceeds
from the deliberate will;
it requires deliberation.
Knowledge Deliberation means
having knowledge of what
one is about and what
this means.

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 By definition, human
act is a deliberate act;
it is a knowing act.
Knowledge
No human act is possible
without knowledge.

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 A human act is an
act determined by the
will and by nothing else.
Freedom An act is under
control of the will,
therefore can be done or
left undone. Such an act
is called free act.
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 Voluntariness came from the Latin
word 'voluntas', referring to the will.

Voluntariness Voluntariness is the

formal essential quality of
the human act, and for it to
be present, there must be
ordinarily be both knowledge
and freedom in the agent.
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 ARTICLE 2

THE
VOLUNTARINESS
OF HUMAN ACTS
 - Came from the Latin word
“voluntas” which means
will.
Voluntariness - voluntary act is an act
which proceeds from free
will acting in the light
of knowledge.
 1. Perfect and Imperfect

Perfect- is present in a
Kinds or person who fully knows
degree of and fully intends an act.
Voluntariness Imperfect- is present in
a person who acts without
fully realizing what he
means to do or without
fully intending the act.
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 2. Simple and Conditional

Simple- is present in a
person doing an act
Kinds or
willfully.
degree of
Conditional- is present
Voluntariness
in a person who is forced
by circumstances beyond
his control to perform an
act which he would not do
under normal conditions
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 3. Direct and Indirect

Direct- the act is

directly willed to attain
an end which is
Kinds or necessarily and directly
degree of intended.
Voluntariness Indirect – an act serving
as an effect that is not
directly intended, of an
act serving as it cause
which is directly
intended. 26
 4. Positive and Negative

Positive – an act of
Kinds or committing, of doing or
degree of performing “act of
Voluntariness commission”
Negative – an act of
committing of not doing,
refraining from performing.

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 5. Actual, Virtual, Habitual
and Interpretative

Actual – which is
Kinds or present here and now, before
degree of the mind while performing an
Voluntariness action.
Virtual – which was
made at some former time and
still influences the act
which is now being
performed.
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 5. Actual, Virtual, Habitual
and Interpretative

Habitual – an act done in

harmony wit, but not as a result of a
Kinds or formerly elicited and unrevoked
degree of actual intention.
Voluntariness Interpretative – the act done
proceeding from an intention
interpreted not as present but would
be present. Proper knowledge and
freedom been available to wish for
the performance of such an act.

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 The First Question: When is an
agent responsible for the evil
effect of a cause directly
willed?

Indirect 1. The agent must able to

Voluntariness foresee the evil effect, at
least in a general way.
2. The agent must be free
to refrain from doing that
which is the cause of the evil
effect.
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 The First Question: When is an
agent responsible for the evil
effect of a cause directly
willed?
Indirect
Voluntariness 3. The agent must be
morally bound not to do that
which is the cause of the evil
effect.

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 The Second Question: When may
one perform an act, not evil
in itself, from which flow-two
effects, one good, one evil?
Indirect
Voluntariness 1. The evil must not
precede the good effect.
2. There must be a reason
sufficiently grave calling for
the act in its good effect.
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 The Second Question: When may
one perform an act, not evil
in itself, from which flow-two
effects, one good, one evil?
Indirect
Voluntariness 3. The intention of the
agent must be honest, that is,
the agent must directly intend
the good and merely permit the
evil effect as a regrettable
incident or “side issue”
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 ARTICLE 3

THE MODIFIERS
OF HUMAN ACTS
 Modifiers of human
acts are factors
MODIFIERS that influence man's
OF HUMAN
inner disposition
ACTS
towards certain
actions.
 There are five modifiers of
human acts:
• Ignorance
MODIFIERS
OF HUMAN • Concupiscence
ACTS • Fear
• Violence
• Habit
 Ignorance is the
absence of knowledge
which a person ought to
possess.
Ignorance
It is a negative
thing but it has, indeed
a positive aspect.
 Positive ignorance
is the presence of what
is falsely supposed to be
Ignorance knowledge.

Mistakes or errors
are positive ignorance.
 Types of ignorance:

• ignorance in its object

Ignorance • ignorance in its
subject
• ignorance in its result
 A person may be ignorant in
a matter of:
Ignorance • law
in its • fact
Object
• penalty
 • Ignorance of Law
Ignorance It is ignorance of
in its the existence of duty,
Object rule, and regulation.
 • Ignorance of Fact
Ignorance It is ignorance of the
in its nature or circumstances of
Object an act as forbidden.
 • Ignorance of Penalty
Ignorance It is the lack of
in its knowledge of the precise
Object sanction affixed to the
law.
 In the person in whom
Ignorance ignorance exists, it is
in its
either vincible or
Subject
invincible.
 • Vincible Ignorance can be
dispelled by the use of
ordinary diligence.
Ignorance
in its There are degrees of
Subject vincible ignorance.
 • Invincible Ignorance is
Ignorance
in its ignorance that ordinary
Subject and proper diligence
cannot dispel.
 It is attributable to
two causes:
(a) the person has no
Ignorance realization of his lack of
knowledge;
in its
Subject (b) the person who realizes
his ignorance finds his
effort ineffective to
dispel it.
 Here ignorance is considered
with reference to acts
performed while ignorance
Ignorance exists:
in its
Result • Antecedent Ignorance
• Concomitant Ignorance
• Consequent Ignorance
 • Antecedent Ignorance is
ignorance which precedes
all consent of the will.
Ignorance It does not differ from
in its invincible ignorance.
• Concomitant Ignorance is
Result
ignorance which
accompanies an act that
would have been performed
even if the ignorance does
not exist.
 • Consequent Ignorance is
ignorance which follows upon
an act of will. The will may
directly affect it, or neglect
to dispel it. It does not
Ignorance differ from vincible
in its ignorance.
If a man positively avoids
Result knowledge, his ignorance is
directly willed.
If he fails to acquire
knowledge through carelessness,
his ignorance is indirectly
willed.
 Concupiscence is often
used to signify the frailty,
or proneness to evil, which
is consequent in human nature
upon original sin.
Concupiscence In ethics, however,
concupiscence means those
bodily appetites or
tendencies which are called
passions.
 Passion can be classified
into two emotions:
Positive: Negative:
• Love • Hatred
• Joy • Grief
Concupiscence
• Desire • Horror
• Hope • Despair
• Courage • Fear
• Anger
 Passions are called
antecedent when they spring
into action unstimulated by
any act of will. Antecedent
concupiscence is an act of
Concupiscence man and not a human act.
Passions are called
consequent when the will,
directly or indirectly, stirs
them up.
 Fear is the
shrinking back of the
mind from danger.
More accurately, it
Fear is the agitation of
the mind brought
about by the
apprehension of
impending evil.
 An act done from fear, however
great, is simply voluntary,
although it is regularly also
conditionally involuntary.
If fear is so great as to
Principle make the agent momentarily insane,
of Fear the act done from fear is not
voluntary at all, for it is an act
of man. But as long as the agent
has to use of reason, his acts
performed from fear are simply
voluntary.
 Violence or coaction
is external force applied
by a free cause for the
purpose of compelling a
person to perform an act
which is against his
Violence
will. Violence cannot
reach the will directly.
It may force bodily
action, but the will is
not controlled by the
body.
 Acts elicited by the will are
not subject to violence;
Principle external acts caused by
of Violence violence, to which due
resistance is offered, are in
no wise imputable to the agent.
 Habit is a lasting
readiness and facility,
born of frequently
Habit
repeated acts, for
acting in a certain
manner.
 Habit does not destroy
voluntariness; and acts from
habit are always voluntary, at
least in case, as long as the
Principle habit is allowed to endure.
of Habit
The agent is fully
responsible for human acts done
from what is calledd force of
habit.
ENDS OF HUMAN ACT
Man does not act aimlessly.

When he acts, it is because he

enjoys the action,

or because he wants to achieve

something by that action

Ends in General
END

● It is the purpose or goal of an act

● End of an activity

● Termination and goal of activity

❖ Every activity tends toward an end
❖ Every activity is a tendency
❖ Every tendency may be called appetite or appetency

Appetency

- A longing or desire
3 Types of Appetency
● Natural Appetency

- exist without any sort of knowledge - as in plants and lifeless

things

● Sense Appetency or Sesual Appetite

-desire which is stirred into action by sensation (knowledge acquired by

senses)

● The Will or Rational Appetency

-appetency which is stirred into action by intellectual knowledge

Classification of Ends

1. The end of the act

2. The end of the doer or agent

2.1 Proximate and remote ends

2.2 Intermediate and Ultimate ends

● The end of the act

- is the natural termination of an activity

Ex. The end of eating is nourishment; jogging is physical exercise; reading is

comprehension

● The end of the agent or doer

- is the personal purpose intended by the person performing the act

Ex. He who eats aims to satisfy his hunger; the jogger to maintain the
physical fitness; the reader to relax himself
Proximate and Remote Ends
● Proximate End

- is the purpose which the doer wishes to accomplish immediately by

his action

● Remote End

- is the purpose which the doer wishes to accomplish in a series of

acts
Intermediate and Ultimate End
● Intermediate End

- is the purpose which is desired as a means for obtaining another thing

● Ultimate End

- is the purpose which is desired for its own sake and not because of
something else

➔ The attainment of an ultimate end completes an act and stops all further acts.
Ultimate End = Graduation

Intermediate End = Attending

Classes, Passing the Exams, etc
The Ultimate End of Human Act
An ultimate end is both subjective and objective

● The Objective Ultimate End

-is an object or thing which motivates a human act

● The Subjective Ultimate End

- is the possession of the objective end and the satisfaction or

happiness it brings
The first principle we need to accept to make sense of
human actions is that we all seek the good.

Good = Desirable
Why does the doer perform a human act?
because he has a

- Motive
- A reason
- A final cause

To induce him to perform it

● All three appears good to the agent to perform the act and attain
its end
● Even when the human act is difficult or undesirable in
itself, it becomes desirable in view of a further end

● Thus, human act are always done for an end

apprehended as good and as a greater good when there
is a sacrifice of one thing over the other
Kinds of Goods
1. Essential and Accidental Goods
⦿ Those that fit the natural needs of man are essential good.
Such good include food, shelter, health, knowledge, virtue
and life.
⦿ Those that fit the wants of an individual because
of his circumstances are accidental good. Such include
money, car, good name, academic degree, power and luxury
and many more.
2. Real and Apparent Goods

⦿ A real good is something which has an intrinsic value. Thus, we call

it: Value.
⦿ It possesses qualities rendering it fitting or desirable.
⦿ Examples of real good are good acts and habits, parents,
parenthood, pleasure and joy, work and leisure
⦿ Apparent good is actually an evil thing but is viewed as “good”
under certain aspects
3. Perfective and Non-Perfective Goods

⦿Perfective good is that which contributes to the integral

perfection of the person such as education, virtue, food,
exercise, medicine.

⦿ Non-perfective good is that which merely contributes to the

external appearance and convenience of a person, such as
clothes, wealth, etc.
4. Perfect and Imperfect Goods

⦿ Perfect good has the fullness of qualities enabling it to fully

satisfy human desire.
⦿Imperfect good possesses only certain qualities so that it
does not fully satisfy human desire except in a relative or
limited sense.
⦿ All “earthly good” are imperfect . Only God, the absolute
sense, is perfect.
The Greatest Good
⦿ In every activity, man seeks that which is good. The greatest
good as a matter of fact.
⦿This is evident in our concern for the best in everything: best
friends, best parents, best food, best performance, best job
and so forth.
⦿SUMMUM BONUM - is a latin expression meaning “the highest
good”
-introduced by the Roman philosopher
Cicero
⦿For Aristotle, the greatest good is happiness.

⦿Happiness is what man aims to achieve in all

his activities.

⦿The ultimate purpose of life is the attainment

of happiness.
THANKS!