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Human acts
This document discusses the nature and morality of human acts. It defines human acts as actions that are consciously and freely done, requiring knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness. Human acts are distinguished from acts of man, which are actions beyond one's consciousness and control. The morality of a human act depends on its object, intention, and circumstances. Some acts are intrinsically evil regardless of intention due to their object. To determine the morality of an act, one must consider whether the object, intention, and circumstances together are good or bad.
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Human acts
- 1. Morality of HumanActs Geraldine S. Canete, RN, MAN Adapted from the lecture of: Ms. Maria Teresita B. Dalusong, PTRP, MHPEd
- 2. Objectives: • Explain thenature of man & its dignity. • Explain the concept of freedom of man and of its human action • Differentiate human acts & acts of man • Explain the morality of Human Acts • Determine the moral determinants of human acts
- 3. Nature of Man& its Dignity • To “will” something, one has “to know” beforehand. • Man cannot choose or act unless he knows which is a “better” good. • When a person chooses to act according to what he knows is right – He acts freely • Only man is capable of acting free – HUMAN ACTS • But the intellect does not always determine the will. Intellect Will Soul Body Thinking/ knowing the TRUTH Choosing the GOOD
- 4. When is MANFREE in his actions? When is an act freely done? 1. Under the control of the WILL - It is the power tending toward, choosing, adhering to & taking pleasure in a GOOD KNOWN BY THE INTELLECT - voluntary 2. We do things because we want to, we own the decision or the action 3. We face the consequence of our actions/decisions – we face it with full responsibility Intellect Will Soul Body Thinking/ knowing the TRUTH Choosing the GOOD
- 5. Nature of Freedom •Proceeds from the intellect and will • Based on reason which the will followed • When man makes decisions, he is free. • Man is accountable for what he is doing because he is CONSCIOUS of what he is doing, why he is doing it & how he is doing it. Leo Lopez DECISION Results in ACTION CONSEQUENCES Faced with Sense of responsibility
- 6. “You shall knowthe truth…” Intellect Will TRUTH GOOD= =BEING LAW FREEDOM “...and the truth shallmake you free.” Leo Lopez
- 7. Human Acts versusAct of Man • Human acts • Actions done Consciously and freely by the agent/or by man • ESSENTIAL QUALITIES/ Constituent Elements of Human Acts 1. Knowledge of the act 2. Freedom 3. Voluntariness • Man takes into responsibility of these actions
- 8. Human Acts versusAct of Man • Acts of Man • Actions beyond one’s consciousness; not dependent on the intellect & the will • ESSENTIAL QUALITIES of Acts of Man – Done with out knowledge – Without consent – Involuntary • Ex: unconscious, involuntary, semi-deliberate, spontaneous actions • Acts of man can become human acts when he employs his intellect & will in performing the act.
- 9. ACTS not morallyaccountable • Acts of persons asleep or under hypnosis. • Reflex actions where the will has no time to intervene. • Acts of performed under serious physical violence • e.g. a hostage obliged to do an evil action. • Since the will is constrained, then it is not a moral act which could be evaluated.
- 10. EXERCISE: Human Actor Act of Man? • Looking • Seeing • Dreaming • Day dreaming • Hearing • Listening • Walking • Sleepwalking
- 11.
- 12. What is Morality? •From the Greek word MORES - behavior • Refers to the sense of rightness or wrongness of an act. • Quality of the human act that is either good or bad, right or wrong based on some norms that are either inherent in the act or are observed due to some individual or social conventional acceptance • --- Manlangit
- 13. A moral actdepends on whether or not there is consent by the will. HUMAN ACTS They include… 1) Thought 2) Speech 3) Action
- 14. What is thebasis of Morality? • Morality is based in part upon the fundamental conviction that: 1. There is an objective moral law which can be known by the intellect – NATURAL MORAL LAW 2. Some actions are intrinsically evil – not justifiable regardless of the circumstance
- 15. Basic Inclination ofMan based on Natural Law prepared by: Ms. Teresita Dalusong, PTRP, MHPHEd 1. Seek food including the highest good which is God. 2. Preserve himself in existence 3. To preserve the species 4. Live in community with other men 5. To use his intellect & will – to know the truth & make his own decisions
- 16. Which Action issubjected to morality? • All Human act are subjected to morality. • Human acts are different from animal act because man by nature acts towards an end. His life has a purpose. Human Acts? Acts of Man?
- 17. Morality and HumanActs • Human acts are those that are freely chosen in consequence of a judgment of conscience. • They are either good or evil. • Their morality depends on: the object chosen, the intention and the circumstances.
- 18. Moral Determinants ofHuman Acts • HUMAN ACTS are neutral in themselves but they acquire morality when we speak of: 1. OBJECT OF THE ACT 2. CIRCUMSTANCE 3. INTENTION
- 19. Moral Determinants ofHuman Acts 1. OBJECT OF THE ACT - Substance/nature of the action - Good which the will deliberately directs itself - OBJECT specifies the “act of the will” - Nature of what was done to its distinct species - “What was performed by the moral agent?” - “An object if the act is Good when it is in conformity with reason or when it fulfills or fits the demand of reason. Otherwise, the object of the act is evil.
- 20. Moral Determinants ofHuman Acts 2. INTENTION/END IN VIEW - Motive of the agent – factor which the agent acts; either be morally good or evil - Purpose for which a human agent performs the act - Concerned with the goal of the activity - It aims at the good anticipated from the action undertaken - “What specifically does the agent want to accomplish?” • Good intention doesn’t make an intrinsically disordered act right • The end does not justify the means.
- 21. Moral Determinants ofHuman Acts 3. CIRCUMSTANCE - Refers to the events, occasions or conditions that make the act concrete - Modify acts either by increasing or diminishing of the moral goodness or evilness of an act/ responsibility of the agent - Lighten or aggravate the weight of moral accountability of the performer * The circumstance do not change the specific nature of the human act.
- 22. Moral Determinants ofHuman Acts • HUMAN ACTS are neutral in themselves but they acquire morality when we speak of: 1. OBJECT OF THE ACT 2. CIRCUMSTANCE 3. INTENTION
- 23. What makes amorally act good or bad? 1. Goodness of object, end or intention & circumstance all together as well as consequence 2. Evil end or intention corrupts the action even if the object is good 3. Avoid concrete acts that are always wrong to choose – object of the act 4. The acts which in & of themselves independent of circumstance & intention are always gravely illicit by reason of their object. Error: to judge only the intention & circumstance
- 24. JUDGING THE MORALITYOF HUMAN ACTS The moral object can either be good (e.g. praying) bad (e.g. stealing) indifferent (e.g. eating) The intention can be either good or bad.
- 25. • There aresome actions that are evil by their very nature. (e.g. murder, adultery). • These are never morally allowable, even if the intention and the circumstances are good. JUDGING THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS
- 26. Moral Determinants ofHuman Acts • HUMAN ACTS are neutral in themselves but they acquire morality when we speak of: • OBJECT • CIRCUMSTANCE • INTENTION • CONSEQUENCES
- 27. Objectives: • Explain thenature of man & its dignity. • Explain the concept of freedom of man and of its human action • Differentiate human acts & acts of man • Explain the morality of Human Acts • Determine the moral determinants of human acts
- 29. Human Act asFreely Chosen • Human Acts are not merely physical events that come & go, like the falling of rain or the turning of the leaves, nor do they as Karol Wojtyla emphasized in THE ACTING PERSON, “happen” to a person.
- 30. Human Act asFreely Chosen • They are, rather, the outward expression if a person’s choices for at the core of a human act is free, self determining choice, an act of the will, which as such is something spiritual that abides within the person, giving him his identity as a moral being.
- 31. • Although manyhuman acts have physical, observable components, they are morally significant because they embody and carry out free human choices. • We are free to choose what we are to do and, by so choosing, to make ourselves the kind of person we are. Human Act as Freely Chosen
- 32. • But weare not free to make what we choose to do to be good or evil, right or wrong. • We know this from our own sad experience, for at time we have freely chosen to do things that we knew, at the very moment we choose to do them, were morally wrong. We can, in short, choose badly or well. Human Act as Freely Chosen
Editor's Notes
- #4 The nature of man. capacity.. We cannot learn to love something that we do not know. Given several choices, a person cannot choose unless he knows the thing if it is likeable or not
- #5 What is freedom? When do we say that man act with freedom -- we to things bec we want to not because something, person or power outside us compels us ** The responsibility presupposes that no one forces or determines a man to act accordingly. Outside forces only influence, they can never make a man become WHO they are now.
- #6 He may not be responsible for his abilities (mental & talents) bec, these are given. But he is responsible with his actions. There is no excuse because man is behaves due to a personal choice he makes given his situation & circumstance. – ex. In school set up. Not even people under torture can be made to act unless their intellect & will suppressed. ** The responsibility presupposes that no one forces or determines a man to act accordingly. Outside forces only influence, they can never make a man become WHO they are now.
- #8 * Take necessary steps for the action to happen Action need not to be obvious, it can be voluntary in thought Knowledge – resides in the intellect; mindfulness of what the moral agent is doing, thinking or willing; knows what he is doing, end & consequences Freedom – quality of the freewill by w/c 1 is able to choose bet 2 alt. *** lack of freedom – underpressure/forced, do not agree Voluntariness – quality of human act where whereby any commission or omission of the act is a result of the knowledge w/c an agent has of the end – requires full consciousness of the nature of act & coensqence
- #9 Unconscious (breath, heartbeat); involuntary (sneezing, stepping on something by mistake); semi-deliberate (done asleep/delirium); spontaneous (reflex) Acts becoming human acts: seeing billboard & hearing
- #19 How do we know whether human act is done morally/ when action done is good or bad? ** the goodness & the badness of the human act take into consideration the object of the act, the motive of the agent & circumstance of the act
- #20 “What was distinctly & specifically done. EX: obj of therapy – tx dse & relieve pain; abortion- kill an unborn;
- #21 Motive – moving element in the whole spectrum of the proposed action. EX:
- #22 Ex: theft, acting out of fear, EX: where, how, when, who, what, * Cannot change the nature: cannot make the food or right an action that is in itself evil
- #24 Always wrong: fornication, stealing, adultery
- #27 How do we know whether human act is done morally/ when action done is good or bad?