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Week 2
Week 2
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
GE ETH 1
Week 2: The Morality of Human Acts
Concept Digest
Human acts (Actus Humani) refer to “an act which proceed from the
deliberate free will of man”. Specifically, human acts are those
actions done by a person in a certain situations which are
essentially the result of his/her conscious knowledge, freedom and
voluntariness or consent. Hence these actions are performed by man
knowingly, freely, and voluntarily.
Acts of Man
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DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
Classification of Human Acts
Adequate Cause
Elicited Acts are simply will acts- acts begun and completed in
the will. An example of this is intention. Intention is a human
act in so far as it is deliberate, free and voluntary.
A student for example, has the intention of graduating summa cum laude and he know what it means and what it
takes to realize this intention (knowledge). He has the option of realizing it or to (freedom) and has the power to
will himself to realize his intention (voluntariness).
In order to carry it out, actions of the mind and the body must be
ordered by the will. These actions are so-called commanded acts.
So, after having the intention of graduating summa cum laude, the
all commands the body and the intellect to work together in the
act of diligently and responsibly studying one’s lessons.
1. Elicited Acts
a. Wish—- The first step of a human act. It is defined as “the
first tendency of the will towards a thing”.
b. Intention— “Purposive tendency”. This purposive tendency is born
out of the fact that thing desired is realizable regardless of
whether it will actually be attained to not.
c. Consent— It is the will’s acceptance of the means needed for
the realization of an intention.
d. Election— It means choice or selection. Election is the will’s
act of choosing from among the different means necessary in
realizing the intention.
e. Use— It pertains to the will’s employment of the mental and/or
physical faculties in the performance of the means selected in
view or realizing a particular intention.
f. Fruition— Is the will’s act of satisfaction or enjoyment after
the thing intended is realized.
2. Commanded Acts
a. Internal Acts— Are acts done by the mind through the command of
the will. Example: thinking, recollection, analysis, effort to
control emotions, visualizing and the like.
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DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
b. External Acts— Are acts done by the body through the command of
the will. Example: walking to the library, opening of book,
writing of correct answer on the test sheet.
c. Mixed Acts— Are acts done by both the mind and body. Example:
Studying lessons or taking up an examination, require both the
bodily (sensation) and mental (reason) faculties.
a. Moral— Morally good acts are acts that are in accordance to the
dictates of right reason.
b. Immoral — Immoral acts are acts that are not in accordance to
the dictates of right reason or that which fail to measure up
to the norm of morality.
c. Amoral — Amoral acts are acts that are neither good or evil.
However, as human acts, these acts exist only in theory since
al human acts are either good or evil by nature of the motive
or purpose of the agent.
References:
Fernandez, Ambong, Grumo, Emmanuel and Reambonanzjo, Eric. 2012.
Ethics Basic Concepts, Theories & Cases. Davao City: MS LOPEZ
Printing & Publishing.
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