ETHICS HANDOUTS

DAY 12 DIFFERENTIATING HUMAN ACTS FROM THE ACTS OF HUMAN

Human Acts - is the action done by an agent knowingly, freely and
willfully ( or voluntarily).
- acts with conscious knowledge, acts that are done freely.
Determinants of Human Acts
1. Knowledge - an action performed by conscious agents who is aware
of its action and its consequences.
2. Freedom - it must be performed by an agent who is acting freely,
without any external factors affecting its actions.
3. Voluntariness - it must be performed by an agent who decides
willfully to perform the acts.
Act of Man- it is an action done by an agent, which does not have one
or more determinants of human acts.
- acts are that happen naturally, acts done without self-awareness
with deliberation, reflection, consent.
The three moral determinates of the human acts are:
1. The object of the human act is that which is actually door motive for
which the agent acts.
2. Intention the purpose or motive for which the agents acts.
3. The circumstances of an action are individual conditions of specific
acts in time and place …
DAY 13 MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS
Modifiers of human act are factors that affects the essential elements
of human acts.
Modifiers of Human Acts:
1. Ignorance - is the absence of knowledge that a person ought to
posses.
Vincible ignorance - lack of knowledge that a rational person is
capable of acquiring by making an effort.
Invincible ignorance - lack of knowledge that a person has no way ton
obtain.
2. Passion or concupiscence - is either tendencies towards desirable
things.
 Antecedent passion - it is are those that precede an act.
Consequent passion - it is are those that are intentionally aroused and
kept.
3. Fear - is the disturbance of mind.
Acts done with fear
Acts done out of fear
Principles governing fear:
A. Acts done with fear are voluntary; the person acts in spite of fear
and is thus in control of his/her behaviour; the person is morally
responsible.
B. Acts done because of fear are involuntary; the person is not morally
accountable of his/her action.
4. Violence - refers ton any physical force.
5. Habit - is a lasting readiness and facility; born of frequently.
Vice - it is the repetition of the same act that is evil.
Virtue - it is the repetition of the same act that is good.
DAY 14 IMPEDIMENTS OF HUMAN ACTS
Reason - is the capacity for consciously making sense of things.
- is the faculty that determines the best things to do in a given
situation - it enables us to execute moral judgments.
Impartiality - a principles of justice holding should be based on the
objectives criteria.
- meas that every stakeholder interest is equally important.
DAY 15 ROLES OF REASON AND WILL IN MORAL DECISION MAKING
Will, generally is the faculty of the mind to select, at the moment of
decision.
1. Voluntary ( ekousion) acts.
2. Involuntary or unwilling ( akousion) acts which are the simplest case
where people do not praise or blame .
3. Non- voluntary or non willing ( ouk ekousion) acts which are bad
actions by choice.
4. Virtue and Vice according to aristotle are up to us.
DAY 16 VIRTUE ETHICS
Virtue Ethics not only deals with the rightness or wrongness of
individual actions, it provides guidance as to the sort of character and
behaviour a good person will seek to achieve.
Virtue Ethics is concerned with the whole of person life's rather than
particular episodes or actions.
Aristotle Virtue Ethics ( Niomachean Ethics)
Thomas Aquinas Virtue Ethics
Habits resides in the faculties as stable disposition or hard to eradicate
qualities.
Four Cardinal Virtues
Aquinas refers to the virtues as the cardinal virtues.
1. Prudence - doing the right thing in the right time.
2. Temperance is the moderation of physical pleasures.
3. Courage - call the irascible appetite means the desire for the which is
difficult to attain or avoid.
4. Justice - the virtue of justice governs our relationship with others.
DAY 17 KANTS RIGHT THEORY - Categorical imperatives
Immanuel Kants Theory is an example of a deonotogical moral theory
according to these theories the rightness and wrongness of actions
does not depend on their consequences but on whether they fulfill our
duty. Kant believed that there was as supreme principles of morality
and referred to its the categorical imperatives.

The Categorical Imperative - unconditional commands binding on

everyone at all times, based on the reason, not feelings.
- you ought to tell the truth kant called these maxims, or
general rules.
Fundamental Duties of Actions: Versions of Categorical Imperatives
1. Respect persons : ‘ act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in that of another, always as an end never as means
only’.
2. Universalize principles: ‘ act only according to the maxim by which
you can at the same time will that should become a universal law’.
3. Be autonomous: ‘ act only so that the will through its maxim could
regard, itself at the same time as universally law giving.
Kants three fundamental duties called maxims and moral laws.
Imperatives is simply a command.
Categorical commend is one without conditions or qualifications
attached.
DAY 18 ULITIRIANISM
Ulitirianism - is a normatives ethical theory that places the focus of
right and wrong.