VALUES 10

Review Materials
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Responsibility is defined as a duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete task that

one must fulfill, and which has a consequent penalty for failure.

Accepting personal responsibility – which is taking ownership of your own behavior and the
consequences of that behavior.

Indirect responsibility- It involves moving beyond yourself and taking action to help people or
situations around you that call for assistance.

Responsibility is a human act. The degree of responsibility depends on the degree of knowledge
and deliberation. But there are some factors that affect responsibility. These factors are called
modifiers of human acts.

1. IGNORANCE Is the lack or absence of knowledge in a person capable of knowing a certain

thing or things.

Vincible Ignorance is the type of ignorance which can and should be dispelled.

Invincible Ignorance is the type of ignorance which cannot be dispelled by ordinary

diligence.

2. FEAR is a mental agitation of disturbance brought about by the apprehension of some

present and or imminent danger.

Slight fear is a fear that is aroused by danger. It is a fear that is not serious, something that
is only in our mind.
Grave fear is a fear aroused by the presence of danger. It is regarded by most people as
serious such as death.

3. PASSION is a movement of the sensitive appetite which is produced by good or evil as

apprehended by the mind.
A passion is considered good when it is ordered by the will to help man and woman in the
practice of virtue, while it is considered bad when used by the will to accomplish morally
evil actions.
Antecedent passion arises spontaneously before the will controls the situation.
Consequent passion deliberately aroused by the will to ensure a more prompt and willing
operation.

4. VIOLENCE An external force applied by someone on another in order to compel him to

perform an action against his will.

5. HABITS Are inclination to perform some particular action acquired by repetition, and
characterized by a decrease power of resistance and an increase facility of performance.
Sometimes these are called second nature; something deeply embedded in an individual.
In his book, Summa theologica or Theological Summary, St. Thomas Aquinas stated that there are
13 stages of human acts which can be summarized into 3 main phases.

1. Intention phase, “the end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose
pursued in the action. The intention is a movement of the will towards the end, concerned
with the goal of the activity.
2. Decision Phase. It revolves around making a choice or decision of doing the intention or not.
3. Execution phase is the act of doing or performing the action.

A human act is done with full knowledge and full deliberation.

Morality is the ability to distinguish what is right from what is wrong.

DETERMINANTS OF MORALITY

1. Motives
2. Deeds
3. Circumstances

Motive is the purpose for which the act is willed.

 Id
 Ego
 Superego

Id is regarded as the pleasure principle because it is the one that pushes us to satisfy all our
cravings and pleasures.

Superego is also known as the morality principle, it contradicts the id, and focuses only on what is
right and just.

Ego is the balance between Id and superego. It is regarded as the reality principle, it balances id
and ego in such a way that id can get or satisfy the cravings or pleasure without resulting to harm
of a person.

Deeds is what the free will chooses to do or not to do

Circumstances refer to the elements that surround a human action and affect morality without
belonging to its essence.