Human Act versus Act of Man
Factors that can prevent man from
HUMAN ACT is an act which proceeds from
the deliberate free will of man.
Each human act can be CLASSIFIED as:
- moral – good
- immoral – evil
- indifferent – neither good or evil
ACT OF MAN is an act that proceed from
bodily tendencies.
*It is an act that a man may perform without
the exercise of free choice.
The Elements of Human Act
Knowledge – it is the awareness of the act
that man does.In order for an act to be called
a human act the doer must have the
awareness that he is doing something and he
has the command of it and has it in mind.
Freedom – A human act is always
determined by the will. It means that the act
is always a product of the will that can do it or
leave it undone.Every act that comes from
the will is called a free act. And for an act to
be human, it has to be a free act.Freedom
therefore is an essential element of the
human act.
Voluntariness – It comes from the Latin word
voluntas which means will. Human act must
be a will-act.
Voluntariness is the formal essential quality
of the human act, and for it to be
present,there must be ordinarily be both
knowledge and freedom in the agent.
Christian Freedom and Love
Freedom-is a power rooted in reason and
will,to act or not to act, to this or that, and so
to perform deliberate actions on one’s own
responsibility. The more one does what is
good, the freer one becomes.There is no true
freedom except in the service of what is good
and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is
an abuse of freedom and leads to the slavery
of sin.
Human Freedom can be internal (the
freedom to be all one can possibly be) and
external (freedom to do all one can possibly
do).
experiencing authentic freedom
*Biological – inherited handicaps and defects
as well as external substances like drugs.
*Psychological – interior compulsions,
including those originating in the
unconscious.
*Social pressures – economic,political and
cultural conditions.
SIN – the greatest single obstacle to freedom
Christian Freedom
-the capacity of the will, aided by God’s grace
to decide, to do what is good, and to avoid
what is evil in every possible way.
Two important truths with regards to
Christian Freedom:
1.The freedom that we enjoy as God’s
children is simply God’s gift.
2.The gift of freedom involves responsibility.
LOVE is the highest form of choosing because
it is taking an option for others.
According to Greeks,there are four kinds of
LOVE
*Narcissism or self-love - destructive self-
love
*Eros – passionate attraction between sexes
*Philia or platonic love – love among friends
*Agape- brotherhood, sense of community
The Modifiers of Human Act
Ignorance – This is defined as the mere
absence of knowledge.The absent of any
intellectual knowledge.
Ignorance maybe classified as:
vincible - an ignorance that can be conquered
by proper diligence.
invincible – an ignorance that cannot be
dispelled by ordinary and proper diligence.
affected – an ignorance that is directly willed.
CONCUPISCENCE
In theology it refers to the proneness of sin in
man’s nature due to the fall of Adam and Eve.
But in morality, it refers to the bodily
appetites or tendencies which are called the
PASSIONS. These are love, joy, fear, grief,
desire, aversion of horror, courage, anger,
despair, and hope.

Antecedent concupiscence – When these
passions spring into action without any
stimulation or influence by the will. They are
acts of man and not human acts therefore
they are amoral or without any connection to
morality.
Consequent concupiscence – These are acts
directly or indirectly stirred by the will.This
means that the will approved or consented
them either directly or indirectly. So the
agent is responsible for them.
In here we see that antecedent
concupiscence is an act of man and therefore
the agent is not responsible for it since he
does not will it.
Fear – is defined as the shrinking back of the
mind from danger. It is the agitation of mind
brought about by the apprehension of
impending evil.
Actions may be done from fear or done with
fear.
Violence – It is external force applied by a
free cause (a cause with freewill;by man) for
the purpose of compelling a person to
perform an act which is against his will.This
cannot reach the will directly. It may cause
the body to be forcibly doing something
which is against the will but it can never reach
the will directly. As long as the will exert
command to counter the force the agent is
not responsible of the act.
Habit – It is a lasting readiness and facility,
born of frequently repeated acts, for acting in
a certain manner. A man who always gives
alms to the poor has the habit of generosity
and it is always against his habit to be selfish
and not to give.
A good habit is called a VIRTUE while a bad
habit is called a VICE. A man who has many
good habits is called a virtuous man while a
man who has many bad habits is called
vicious.
Human acts – are measured by the norms
that would make them good or evil.
Determinants of human act
The Object – the thing done.
The End – the purpose, the motive in doing
the act.
The Circumstances – conditions which
contribute to increasing or diminishing the
goodness or evil of human acts
Guides of the influence of the end of the act:
1. good act + good motive = good act
2. evil act + evil motive = evil act
3. good act + evil motive = evil act
4. evil act + good motive = evil act
5. indifferent act + good motive = good act
6. indifferent act + evil motive = evil act
The Circumstances
-conditions which do not belong to the
essence of the act but may affect it morally.
Conditions which contribute to increasing or
diminishing the goodness or evil of human
acts:
1. Who refers to the person who does the act
or to whom the action was done.
2. What is the circumstance of quantity and
quality.
3. Where is the circumstance of place.
4. With what ally refers to the circumstance
of means or instrument.
5. In what condition refers to the
circumstance of manner.
6. When is the circumstance of time.
When was the act done?
7. Why is actually equivalent to the end or
the purpose of the agent.