THE PROPERTIES AND

CONSEQUENCES OF
HUMAN ACT
Properties - attribute of a thing; a thing or things
belonging to someone; possessions collectively
- things that belong by natural
necessity to human acts without forming an
essential part or constituent element at the acts
such.

Consequences - a result or effect of an action or

condition
Properties of Human Acts
- Imputability
- Merit and Demerit
Imputability
- it belongs to the agent it is his act
- implied to him as good / evil
- the accountability that man must bear
for his human acts before Almighty God
Merit and Demerit
- the quality, state, or fact of deserving
well/ill
- property of each acts since it belongs
to them by natural neccessity
- ruler of human act is God
- free choice God rules men by suasion
not by force
So we say that every human act stands liable
to answer the bar of reason
- human reason and divine reason
Summary of the Article
- clear scientific knowledge of our
responsibility for what we deliberately
think, do, or say

- no longer done, we but rage reason by

attempting to soft the responsibility of our
acts to other
THE CONSEQUENCES OF
HUMAN ACTS
 Human acts tends to from a habit.
 Since human acts have morality, the
habit of performing any human act will
be a MORAL HABIT.
If it is a GOOD moral habit it is called:

VIRTUE
If it is a BAD moral habit it is called:

VICE
NOTE:
Vice and virtue are not matters of a
single human act, nor of an act once or
twice repeated. Frequent repetition of an
act makes the agent strongly inclined
towards that act, and in this strong
inclination lies the active or operative
habit of so acting.
HABIT
 Habit is the past participle of the Latin
verb habere, “to have”. Literally, it is
“thing had,” a thing possessed. It also
involves the notion of some permanence
in the possession.
 Habit is carried out with one ordinarily,
like a uniform dress.
ENTITATIVE HABIT
 Sanctifying grace as a permanent quality
added to human nature and directly
modifying its being (entity) rather than
its operations, as in this case of virtues.
OPERATIVE HABIT
 A disposition either infused or acquired
by which some human faculty is
perfected in its activity. Thus all virtues
(and vices) are operative habits, as
distinguished from the entitative habit of
sanctifying grace.
PROPERTIES OF HUMAN
ACTS
VIRTUES
 Comes from the Latin word virtus. This

Latin was military and meant the

courage, the bravery of the soldier.
 The word itself is derived from the non

vir a man. Hence, virtue is quite literally

manliness.
TYPES OF VIRTUES
 Natural or supernatural
 Infused or acquired
 Physical
 Intellectual
 Theological
 Moral
The chief moral virtues
 Prudence
 Justice
 Fortitude
 Temperance
Also called cardinal virtues, derived
form the Latin word Cardo a HINGE
PRUDENCE
 Is the virtue of understanding which
enables one quickly and clearly to know,
in concrete circumstances, the best
means to an end, and it further inclines
one to take these promptly and
accurately.
 Prudence is a intellectual virtue not a
moral.
 A prudent man is never precipitate or
headlong; he does nor embroil or
entangle a situation; he is not cock-sure,
head strong or self confident. Nor, on the
other hand, is he weak, hesitant, or over-
cautious.
 The ancients counseled prudence in their
axiom, “Virtues stand in the middle”.
JUSTICE
 Justice is the virtue that inclines one with
constancy always to render to everyone
his own.
 Justice is the virtue which steadily
inclines man to recognize and pay his
debt.
FORTITUDE
 Fortitude is the virtue that inclines one
to face danger with intrepidity,
especially such dangers as threaten life.
 Fortitude, like all virtues, observe the
“meson” or balance.
TEMPERANCE
 Temperance is a virtue which controls
one in the pursuit and use of the
pleasures of life, especially of those
pleasures that attract most strongly, and
in which there is a consequent danger of
excess and disorder.
 Is not insensibility nor the extinction of
natural tendencies. It is the regulation of
tendencies, the sane self-mastery which
reason (conscience) dictates.
VICES
 A vice is a morally evil operative habit.
 A single evil human act is a sin. Vice is
the habit of sin.
 Vice is the habitual lack of virtue.
Examples of vices
 Opposed to prudence by defect we find,
among other vices, imprudence,
precitateness, lack of docility,
carelessness, improvidence.
 Opposed to by excess, we find the vices
of over-solitude, smarter, trickery and
fraud.
 Opposed to justice we find the vices of
injustice, irreligion, impiety, irreverence,
mendacity, ingratitude and cruelty.
 Opposed to Fortitude we find weak-
spirited, inconstancy, impatience as vice
by defect; while we find the following as
vices by excess: presumptuous boldness,
stubbornness, insensibility.
 Opposed to temperance by defect we
find pride, lust, anger, gluttony etc. while
we find opposed by excess the vices of
fanatical rigorousness, too great
effacement of self abjection, affectation,
morose and gloomy conduct, etc.
INDIVIDUAL ETHICS
Article 1 : Rights
A. Definition
B. Division
C. Properties
D. The Subject of Right
A. Definition of Right
 Right ,considered in general, is that
which is just, whether this be a just law,
a just deed, a just debt, or a just claim.
 Right, as substantive, is defined as that
which is owed or that which is due.
A. Definition of Right
 Right, subjectively, as residing in the one
who possess it, it is a moral power
residing in a person – a power which all
others are bound to respect – of doing,
possessing, or requiring something.
A. Definition of Right
 Right is founded upon law.
 Right exist in one person involves an
obligation in all others of not pending or
violating a law.
 It is only law can impose such obligation.
 Ultimate basis of right is the Eternal Law.
 B. Division of Right
i. Natural Right and Positive Right
 Natural rights founded upon natural law as in
rights deriving from human nature or from the
edicts of a god.
 Positive rights are permission to do things, or
entitlements to be done unto.
2 divisions of Positive Rights
1. Divine rights are rights derives from the will of
God or mandated by God.
2. Human rights are based on the society’s
customs, laws, statutes or actions by
legislature.
According to Division of Human Law:
Ecclesiastical and civil right
1. Ecclesiastical rights are rights established
by the laws and principles made and
enforced by the church to regulate its
external organization and to order and direct
people’s activities toward the mission of the
Church
2. Civil rights protect individual’s freedom
from infringement by government, social
organizations and private individuals.
B. Division of Right
ii. Right to Property and Right to Jurisdiction
 Right to property is the power one has
of disposing of a thing possessed
according to one’s own wish or benefit:
to sell, to keep, to lend, to change, to
give away.
 Right to jurisdiction is the lawful
power of a duly constituted superior to
make laws and to govern his subjects.
 B. Division of Right

iii. Alienable Right and Inalienable Right

 Alienable Right is when its
subject/possessor may lawfully code or
renounce it.
 Inalienable Right is when its subject
is not free to renounce, but must retain
it.
 B. Division of Right

iv. Judicial Right and Non-Judicial Right

 Judicial Right is when it is a legal
right, a right strictly enjoined by law,
which meant be respected, allowed,
fulfilled, as a matter of strict justice.
 Non-judicial right is when it is
founded on a virtue other than justice.
It is founded upon the virtue of charity.
 C. Properties of Right
i. Coaction is the power which right
enjoys of forcefully preventing its
violation, and of exacting redress for
unjust violation.
C. Properties of Right
ii. Limitation is the natural terminus of
right, beyond which cannot be
exercised without violating the right of
another.

 A right ceases to be a right at the point

where it impinges injuriously upon
another’s right.
C. Properties of Right
iii. Collision is the apparent conflict of two
rights in such wise that one cannot
exercised without violation of the other.
 All right is founded on law; all law is an
ordinance of reason, and there can be no
conflict between the ordinances of
reason, for it would be not be reasonable
for reason to contradict itself.
C. Properties of Right
iii. Collision
 In apparent collision of right, that is a
prevailing right, to which the other
cedes which:
1. Belongs to the more universal order
2. Concerned with the grave matter
3. Founded upon the stronger title or
claim.
D. The Subject of Right
 The subject of right is a person. It is not
an irrational creature.
 For right is a moral power and belongs
only to those that can exercises moral
acts.
 We may argue, creatures that have
rights have obligations; and no creature
can have rights which is incapable of
assuming and discharging obligations.
Therefore, animals have no rights.
 What of cruel treatment of animals?
 Cruelty is not in accord with the dictates
of reason.
 Cruelty to animals does not square with
the right and reasonable order of things
which reason demands.
 What of vivisection?
 Animals are created for man’s use. It is a
most valuable use of animals to employ
for the furtherance biological knowledge.
Hence, vivisection is not illicit.
 But to inflict injury or pain upon animals
where no necessity or use is served, it is
evil.
 As to sentiment about animals, especially pet
animals, it is to be said that the sane treatment
of them, the treatment required by reason, is
ordinary care for their needs.
 With having pet animals may be associated in
having a certain pleasure and amusement in
having them about.
 Two extremes are unreasonable and hence evil:
1. Extreme cruelty
2. Extreme or excessive care or consideration for
animals
 The subject of rights, we have said,
must be capable of assuming and
discharging obligations. This is the true
in the order of creatures.
 God, All Perfect Creator has perfect
rights, but He has no obligations, for He
made all creatures and all they have in
His: He owes them nothing. But God’s
rational creature have rights and duties.
 In Ethics, the science of human acts, we
consider man as subject of rights, and
indirectly we must consider God as
subject of rights when we come to
consider man having duties towards
God.
ARTICLE 2

DUTIES
A.Definition
B.Division
C.Exemptio
n
A. Definition of Duty
Objectively:
“…is anything one is obliged to do or
to omit.”

Example:
- Our daily work
A. Definition of Duty
Subjectively:

“…defined as a moral obligation

incumbent upon a person
of doing or omitting (avoiding)
something.”
 Types of Obligation:

1. Moral Obligation – an obligation

resting as a
requirement upon a free will.
Example:
A Catholic is morally obliged to assist at mass on
Sundays;
he is, however not bound or carried to mass by force.

2. Physical Obligation
 “DUTY” is the correlative to
“RIGHT”

Right – one imposes a duty on all others

of respecting it, of not
violating it.

Duty – like right, is based on law.

B. Division of Duty
I. Natural Duty and Positive Duty

 NaturalDuty – imposed by
Natural Law
Example: The duty of worshipping God

 Positive Duty – inalienable right

Example: The duty of hearing mass on a
certain Feast day
B. Division of Duty
II. Affirmative Duty and Negative Duty

 Affirmative Duty – a duty which

requires the performance
of an act
Example: “Honor thy father and thy mother”

 Negative Duty – a duty which requires

the omission or avoidance of
something
Example: “Thou shalt not kill”
 B. Division of Duty

III. Perfect/Juridical Duty and Imperfect/Non-

Juridical/Moral Duty

 Perfect/Juridical Duty – a duty which

obliges in strict justice
Example: Obligation of paying to an employee the wage
agreed upon

 Imperfect/Non-Juridical/Moral Duty – a
duty which does not
oblige according justice
Example: Duty of giving alms to needy
B. Division of Duty

IV. Greater Duty and Lesser Duty

There are greater and lesser duties, and where

these seem to
conflict, the lesser ceases to be a duty, and the
greater prevails.

Example: The duties towards God come before duties

towards men, and if a parent forbids his child to hear Mass on
Sunday, the duty of obeying parents ceases, in this instance,
to bind the child, while the duty towards God prevails.
C. Exemption from Duty
“Necessity knows no law”

Necessity – conflict of a duty and a

danger; or more accurately, it means
the state in which one finds oneself
when performing a duty means
enduring an evil
Grades or Degrees of Necessity

1. Extreme Necessity – one’s choice lies between duty and

death
Example: Christians taken a prisoner by the early prosecutor, and
faced with the alternative of death or denial of their faith.

2. Grave Necessity – one’s choice lies between duty and a

notable evil less than death, such of loss of health etc.
Example: A man who will be considered an embezzler unless he
secretly and unlawfully employs a fund which he holds in trust
for another.

3. Common/Ordinary Necessity – one’s choice lies between

duty and the enduring of ordinary evils or common
hardships.
Example: A man of sound health who must disregard the Lenten
fast or endure some weakness and occasional headaches.
C. Exemption from Duty
Principles Concerning the Exempting Force of
Necessity:

I. Common or Ordinary necessity never exempts from

duty
II. No necessity exempts from a negative natural duty
III. Extreme or Grave necessity exempts from a natural
affirmative duty, provided there is no involved
violation of a negative precept of the natural law
IV. Extreme or Grave necessity exempts from duty
imposed by human positive law, provided there is
no involved violation of negative natural law.