MODIFIER OF HUMAN ACT

1. HUMAN ACTS
AND MORAL
ACCOUNTABILITY
Lesson 4

2. MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT
● Factors that affect to a considerable extent man’s inner
disposition towards certain actions.
● They influence specifically the mental and/or emotional state of
a person concerned to the point that the voluntariness involved
in an act is either increased or decreased.
● These modifiers affect human acts in the essentials qualities of
knowledge, freedom, voluntariness and so make them less
perfectly human.

3. MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT
1. IGNORANCE
2. CONCUPISCENCE
3. FEAR
4. VIOLENCE
5. HABIT

4. IGNORANCE
Ignorance is the absence of necessary knowledge which a person in a given
situation, who is performing a certain act, ought to have. Ignorance is the
negation of knowledge.
1. VINCIBLE IGNORANCE - this can be easily remedied through ordinary diligence
and reasonable efforts on the part of the person who is in this particular mental
state. This type is conquerable since it is correctible.
● 1.2 AFFECTED VINCIBLE IGNORANCE - an individual keeps by positive efforts
in order to escape blame and accountability.
2. INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE - this type of ignorance which an individual may have
without being aware of it, or having knowledge of it, simply lacks the necessary
means to correct and solve it. This type in unconquerable since it cannot be
corrected.

5. PRINCIPLES GOVERNING IGNORANCE
I. Invincible ignorance renders an act involuntarily. A person cannot be held
morally responsible or liable if he is not aware of the state of his ignorance.
I. Vincible ignorance does not destroy, but lessens the voluntariness and the
corresponding accountability over the act. To act with vincible ignorance is
to act imprudently because he is conscious of the state of his ignorance.
Enough diligence should have been employed to overcome it.
I. Affected or pretended ignorance does not excuse a person from his bad
actions; on the contrary it actually increases their malice.

6. CONCUPISCENCE OR PASSION
● Passion or concupiscence is here understood as a strong or powerful feeling
or emotion. They are those bodily appetites or tendencies as experienced
and expressed in such feelings as fear, love, hatred, despair, horror,
sadness, anger, grief and the like.
I. ANTECEDENT CONCUPISCENCE are those that precede the act. It may happen
that a person is emotionally aroused to perform an act. It predisposes the
person to act.
II. CONSEQUENT CONCUPISCENCE are the direct results of the will which fully
consents to them instead of subordinating them to its control.

7. PRINCIPLES GOVERNING CONCUPISCENCE OR PASSION
I. Antecedent passions do not always destroy voluntariness, but they
diminish accountability for the resultant act. They weaken the will power of
a person without, however, completely obstructing his freedom.
I. Consequent passions do not lessen voluntariness, but may even increase
accountability. This is because they are the direct results of the will which
fully consents to them instead of subordinating them to its control. Here,
the person concerned who willfully acts following his passion allows himself
to be completely controlled by it, and hence is considered morally
responsible.

8. FEAR
Fear is the disturbance of the mind of a person who is
confronted by an impending danger or harm to himself or
loved ones. It a passion which arises as an impulsive
movement of avoidance of a threatening evil ordinarily
accompanied by bodily disturbances.
● PRINCIPLES GOVERNING FEAR
I. Acts done with fear are voluntary
II. Acts done because or out of intense fear or panic are simply
involuntary.

9. VIOLENCE
Violence refers to any physical force exerted on a person by
another free agent for the purpose of compelling the said
person to act against his will. This is any act where great
and brutal force is inflicted to a person like torture,
mutilation and the like.
● PRINCIPLES GOVERNING VIOLENCE
I. Any action resulting from violence is simply involuntary
II. Active resistance should always be offered to unjust aggressors

10. HABIT
Habit is a constant and easy way of doing things acquired
by the repetition of the same act. Also, habit is the
readiness, born of frequently repeated acts, for acting in a
certain manner.
● PRINCIPLES GOVERNING HABIT
I. Actions done by force of habit are voluntary in cause, unless a
reasonable effort is made to counteract the habitual inclination
II. An opposed habit lessens voluntariness and sometimes
precludes it completely

11. Are we always
accountable for
our actions?

12. MODIFIERS OF
HUMAN ACT