What precisely is a conduct?

Conduct vs Behavior
- has an ethical meaning -Collective actions - Behavior is more
and is exclusively human
- may either voluntary
of a psychological
or involuntary word and is
- We are not concerned applied even to
with the muscles we use animals
but the *actions
* Actions we
choose to do with or not
do which is governed by
our WILL
What precisely is a conduct?
•CONDUCT- It consists of voluntary or human
acts. In contrast to involuntary acts, human
acts are those of which a person is master
by consciously controlling and deliberately
willing them.
In the Case of voluntariness, what do you think
would prevent our acts from being voluntary?

Two main things that would prevent our act from being
voluntary:
1. Ignorance
2. External Force

Therefore, A voluntary act is said to be knowingly or

deliberately willed.
 Two Main Kinds of Acts
1. Voluntary acts or human Acts:
-those acts that we consciously control and
deliberately will and for which we are held responsible.
- it is impossible to have a human act unless it is guided by
the intellect and will
- Human act can be either physical or mental provided it is
deliberately willed.
2. Involuntary acts or Acts of Man:
-those acts that a person happens to perform but
that he or she does not consciously control or
deliberately will and for which the person is not
held responsible.

Note: This distinction between voluntary and

involuntary acts is not a distinction between mental
and physical acts.
What Commands our actions?
 What Commands our actions?

•Commanded Acts
Will- We think of the Will as the controlling
factor in us
- The will can command itself, as when it decides to
reach a decision now or put it off until later. The will
can command, then both bodily acts and mental
acts.
 What Commands our actions?

Act of the Will is the HUMAN ACT – for it is in

the will that choice and consent reside and
give an act its specifically human character.
Ex. If a person chooses to do something
with clear consent of will but is prevented
by circumstances from carrying out the
choice, he or she is responsible for this
consent.
Voluntariness
• It should be evident that there can be
no voluntariness without knowledge.
We cannot strive for what we do not
know.
Voluntariness

• The will can make no choice

without the intellect.
Voluntariness
• For a human Act to be performed, it is
not sufficient that it be guided only by
knowledge it must also be willed

•A voluntary act is one that proceeds

from the will with a knowledge of the
end or good