COR JESU COLLEGE, INC.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES

Sacred Heart Avenue, Digos City
Province of Davao del Sur

Gen Ed. 8: Ethics

Module 2: The three fonts of morality

Objectives: At the end of this module, you must be able to:

1. Explicate the meaning of morality.
2. Value the importance of the three fonts of morality.
3. Apply the three fonts of morality in a specific case or scenario.

Reference/s Maboloc, C.R. (2018): Applied Ethics: Moral Possibilities for Contemporary
World. Revised Edition. SMKC Printshoppe, Davao City
Fernandez, A. (2018). Ethics: Deciding What’s Right and Wrong. SMKC
Printshoppe, Davao City

Time frame: 3 days

A group of Christian missionaries was held hostage in the

hinterland of Patikul, Sulu. The captors told them that they will be
ACTIVITY
beheaded on a daily basis, one person per day if the government
won’t give the money they have demanded as a ransom. The leader
of the missionaries asked the captors to spare them because they
are not the enemies and that, they are doing missionary works to
the poor children in the mountains. The captors agreed to free them
on one condition: that the leader will kill one of their companions
in front of them all. Refusing to follow the captor’s command, they
threatened him be the first person to be beheaded that day.
 ANALYSIS

1. If you are the leader, what will you do?

2. If you kill one of your companions, are your morally liable of the crime? Why?
3. Who is to be blamed in this situation?

ABSTRACTION

Morality is concerned with the knowingly chosen acts of

human persons. There are three sources or ‘fonts’ of morality, which determine the morality of
any act:

(1) intention,
(2) moral object,
(3) circumstances.

Every act with three good fonts is morally licit; it is not a sin. Every act with one or more
bad fonts is morally illicit; it is a sin. The morality of human acts depends on: the object chosen;
the end in view or the intention; the circumstances of the action. The object, the intention, and
the circumstances make up the ‘sources,’ or constitutive elements, of the morality of human
acts.” (CCC, n. 1750). As such, Human Acts (Actus Humani) refer to ‘actions that proceed from
insight into the nature and purpose of one’s doing and from consent of free will” (Peschke, 1995:
247). Specifically, human acts are those actions done by a person in certain situations which are
essentially the result of his/her conscious knowledge, freedom and voluntariness or consent
(Fernandez, 2018). The morality of human acts depends on three sources: the object chosen,
either a true or apparent good; the intention of the subject who acts, that is, the purpose for which
the subject performs the act; and the circumstances of the act, which include its consequences
(Compendium, n. 367).

Every moral act consists of three elements: the objective act (what we do), the subjective
goal or intention (why we do the act), and the concrete situation or circumstances in which we
perform the act…. All three aspects must be good — the objective act, the subjective intention,
and the circumstances — in order to have a morally good act (USCCB Catechism for Adults,
July 2006, p. 311-312). First, the intention is of the subject, the human person who acts. You
have control over your own intentions. If your intention is immoral, change your intention. Your
intention is the purpose or goal for which the act was chosen. But for this font to be moral, all
that you intend must be moral. It is not moral to intend to achieve a good end by an immoral
means. Second, the moral object is of the act itself, the objective act chosen by the human
person. Some acts are in themselves immoral; other acts are in themselves moral. The moral
object is the end in terms of morality toward which the act itself, by its very nature, is directed.
This inherent ordering of the act toward its moral object determines the essential moral nature
(the inherent moral meaning) of the act itself. When the moral object is evil, the act is
intrinsically evil and always immoral, regardless of intention or circumstances (the other fonts).
You have no control over the objective moral nature of the various acts that you are able to
choose. Evil acts remain evil, and good acts remain good, no matter what you may think or do.
Nothing can transform an intrinsically evil act into a moral act. But you do have control over
which acts you choose. If an act is intrinsically evil, your only moral choice is to choose a
different type of act, one that is moral. Third, the circumstances follow from the intention and
the act. A particular objective act is chosen for a particular subjective purpose, and the result is
particular consequences; these are the three fonts. The circumstances are the good and bad
consequences of the chosen act, in so far as these can be reasonably anticipated by the person at
the time that the act is chosen. If an act can be reasonably anticipated to have bad consequences
which morally outweigh any good consequences, then the choice of that act is a sin. If the
reasonably anticipated good consequences morally outweigh any reasonably anticipated bad
consequences, then the font of circumstances is good.

The three fonts of morality are the sole determinant of the morality of each and every
knowingly chosen act, without any exception whatsoever. When all three fonts of morality are
good, the act is moral — it is at least morally permissible. When any one or more fonts are bad,
the act is immoral — it is a sin to choose such an act.

Difference between Human Act and Act of Man

A human act involves a person deliberately exercising their intellect and will. The person
is able to discern the choice by having the knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness to do so. Acts
of man, however, are acts which do not take place because of one’s deliberation and does not
involve fully utilizing one’s intellect. It is undertaken without knowledge or consent and without
advertence. Examples of acts of man which are not under the control of one’s will include acts of
sensation (the use of senses), acts of appetition (bodily tendencies such as digestion), acts of
delirium, and acts when one is asleep. The presence of these factors (ignorance, passion, fear,
violence, and habits) causes an act to be classified as acts of man. Since a human act arises from
knowledge and free will, acts of man do not have a moral quality as they do not possess a
conscious nature. If either intellect or will is lacking in the act, then the act is not fully human and
therefore not fully moral.

Modifiers of Human Acts

Factors and conditions that affect to a considerable extent man’s inner disposition towards
certain actions are known as “modifiers” of human acts. As modifiers, they influence specifically
the mental and/or emotional state of a person concerned to the point that the voluntariness
involved in act is either increased or diminished. This is significant precisely because the moral
accountability of the doer of the action is also increased or decreased.
The following are the modifiers of human acts:

1. Ignorance
2. Passion
3. Fear
4. Violence
5. Habit

APPLICATION

Answer the following:

1. What is a human act and what is an act of man? Do you agree that only human act must
be subjected to moral assessment? Why?
Ans.
Human acts, that is, acts that are freely chosen in consequence of a judgment of
conscience, can be morally evaluated. They are either good or evil” ( Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 1749).
“Acting is morally good when the choices of freedom are in conformity with man’s
true good  and thus express the voluntary ordering of the person towards our ultimate
end: God himself.”

The morality of human acts depends on:

— the object chosen;

— the end sought or the intention;

— the circumstances of the action.

“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.

2. Explain the different modifiers of human act. Cite concrete examples.

Ans.
Factors and conditions that affect to a considerable extent man’s inner disposition
towards certain actions are known as “modifiers” of human acts. As modifiers, they
influence specifically the mental and/or emotional state of a person concerned to the point
that the voluntariness involved in act is either increased or diminished. This is significant
 precisely because the moral accountability of the doer of the action is also increased or
decreased.
The following are the modifiers of human acts:
 Ignorance is lack of knowledge in person who is capable of knowing. In
some cases, we are responsible for knowledge, in other cases we are not.
Example: When a driver does not know that there is an 80-kilometer per-
hour speed limit for particular road.
 Fear is one of the emotions. Agitation or disturbance of mind resulting
from some present or imminent danger. Example: An elderly lady
experiences fear when she hears someone passing his door at night.
 Concupiscene is the rebellion of the passions against reason. Revolt of the
sense faculties of man against the dominion of his highest faculty of
reason. The tendency of human nature toward evil. Example: An evil
action performed in the heat of passion is different perhaps quite different –
from act an evil action that is calculated.
 Violence is a external force applied by someone on another in order to
compel him to perform an action against his will. Example: A man being
robbed attempts to fight the robber.
 Habit is a stable quality superadded to a faculty positively inclining a
person to act in a certain way. Example: Smoking in the street.

3. If the leader of the missionaries killed one of his members, what modifier of human acts
has greatly influenced him to do such act? Explain.
Ans.
It is concupiscene, in a definition of this that “the rebellion of the passions
against reason. He/She killed one of his members without reason or becausr of
his evil action.
Criteria:
Evidence of research – 40%
Novelty and rigor of Argument – 40%
Citation/Attribution of sources – 20%