Lesson No.

The Nature of Human Acts

I. Definition

Human Act (Actus Humanus)

 an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will of man
 an act that proceeds from the knowing and freely willing human being
 Example: listening to a talk, studying this PDF

Act of Man (Actus Hominis)

 these are man’s animal act of sensation (use of the senses) and
appetition (bodily tendencies) done without advertence and the
exercise of free choice
 Example: actions done in infancy, in sleep, in delirium, etc.
 It is to be noted that an act of man can become a human act by the
advertence and consent of the agent.
 Human acts are moral acts.
 For human acts, man is responsible, and they are imputed to him, as worthy of
praise or blame, of reward or punishment.
 Human acts tend to repeat and form habits in man, which in turn, unite into his
character.

 Thus, a man is what his human acts make him.

II. Classification

A. Based on Complete/Adequate Cause

 There are some acts that begin and are perfected in the will itself, and the rest
begin in the will and are perfected by other faculties under control of the will.
A.1. Elicited Acts
 These are those that find their adequate cause in the will (the deliberate will)
alone. (Example: Your intention to study in your room.)
A.2. Commanded Acts
 These are those that do not find their adequate cause in the will-act but are
perfected by the action of mental or bodily powers under orders from the will.
(Example: Using your mind, eyes, etc. in studying.)
A.1. Elicited Acts
a. Wish
 refers to the simple love of anything
 the first tendency of the will towards a thing, whether realizable or not
 every human act begins with the wish to act
( Example: I do so long to see you tonight. )
b. Intention
 the purposive tendency of the will towards a thing regarded as
realizable, whether the thing is actually done or not
( Example: I will see you tonight. )
c. Consent
 the acceptance by the will of the means necessary to carry out
intention
 it is the further intention of doing what is necessary to realize the main
intention
( If I will see you tonight, I consent to how really to see you. )
d. Election
 the selection by the will of the precise means to be employed in
carrying out an intention
( I will select riding my bike to see you tonight. )
e. Use
 the employment by the will of bodily or mental powers or both to carry
out its intention by the means elected
( To actually see you, I will command my mental and bodily powers to
carry out my intention. )
f. Fruition
 the enjoyment of a thing willed and done
 the will’s act of satisfaction in intention fulfilled
( I will experience this the moment I will see actually see you. )
A.2. Commanded Acts
a. Internal
 acts done by internal mental powers under command of the will
( Example: effort to remember, effort to control anger )
b. External
 acts effected by bodily powers under command of the will
( Example: eating halo-halo, writing your answers )
c. Mixed
 acts that involve the employment of bodily and mental powers
( Example: solving a Math problem )
B. Based on the Relation of Human Acts to Reason
 Human acts are either in agreement or disagreement with the dictates of reason,
and this relationship constitutes the morality of human acts.

B.1. Good
 when human acts are in harmony with the dictates of right reason
B.2. Evil
 when human acts are in opposition with the dictates of right reason
B.3. Indifferent
 when they stand in no positive relation to the dictates of reason
III. Constituents of the Human Acts

 These refer to the essential elements or qualities for an act to be human.

 These qualities are knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness.

1. Knowledge
 A human act proceeds from the deliberate will; it requires deliberation.
 Deliberation means advertence, or knowledge in intellect of what one is
about and what this means. Deliberation means knowledge.
 Thus, no human act is possible without knowledge.
2. Freedom
 A human act is an act determined (elicited or commanded) by the will and
by nothing else.
 It is an act that is under control of the will, an act that the will can do or leave
undone.
 Such an act is called a free act, thus, every human act must be free.
3. Voluntariness
 A human act to be voluntary, or must have voluntariness, simply means it
must be a will-act.
 This is to say that there must be both knowledge and freedom in the agent or
the doer of the action.