 Modifiers of human act are also called obstacles of

human act that affects or prevents a clear knowledge

of the object of the act. Or impair the coming about
of a human act in its roots by diminishing or
preventing the consent of free will.

 These obstacles may increase, decrease, or totally

inhibit human behavior from moral responsibility or
liability.
Ito ang “nagtuturing” or “nagpapabago” ng gawaing
pantao.

“Nababawasan ang pagkakusa ng

ginawa.”
 Ignorance
 Error
 Inattention

 Passion
 Fear
 Violence
 Habit
 Defined as lacking of a required
knowledge which human being
should have of his moral duties.

Classified into:
 Invincible Ignorance
 Vincible Ignorance
 Suppine/crash
 Affective
 Invincible Ignorance – that ignorance which a man is
not able to dispel by such ordinary diligence and
reasonable efforts.
It is also characterized as
antecedent ignorance,
because it preceeds any
voluntary act and is not
willed by any consent of the
will.
Ex. When you are in a foreign
country.
The speed limit in Poland is
written in Polish/Polski.
 Vincible Ignorance - the knowledge CAN be
acquired by ordinary effort, but was not acquired
because of negligence or intentionally not
acquired.
› Crass/Suppine – when hardly effort has been used to
dispel ignorance.

› Ex. A nurse who has strong doubts about the medicine administered to
a patient upon doctor’s orders and yet does not consult a doctor when it
could be easily done.
 Affected/Pretended Ignorance
occurs when a person positively
wants to be ignorant in order to
plead innocent to a charge of guilt.
› Ex. A student who does not want to read
the bulletin board/the student manual, for
he suspects that a certain regulation
posted/written there in is opposed to his
plans.
1st. Invincible ignorance makes an act
involuntary.
An act which proceeds from this ignorance is not voluntary, it is not therefore a
human act and consequently, it is not imputable to the agent.

2nd . Vincible Ignorance does not destroy

voluntariness, but it does lessen the
voluntariness and responsibility of an act.
3rd. Affected ignorance does not excuse a person
from his bad actions; on the contrary, it
actually increases their malice or their moral
responsibility.
 Error is the state of holding
incorrect beliefs or opinions, or
the fact of acting wrongly or
misguidedly.

 It is an incorrect, unwise, or unfortunate act or decision

caused by bad judgment or a lack of information or care.
 Or a belief or opinion that is contrary to fact or to
established doctrine.
 It is a result of poor judgment or lack of care.
 Its origin may lie in deficient education, the influence of bad
company, the reading of misleading books and papers, etc.
 Aberratio Ictus – there is mistake in the blow.
› Means the offender intending to cause injury to one person actually
inflicts it to another.

 Error in Personae – there is mistake in the

identity of the person.
 Praeter Intentionem – there is mistake in the
intended result of the act.
› Means the injurious result is greater than what was intended.
 Man is to overcome the errors which hold him
under their sway in personal search for truth, to
escape the negative influence of those forces
which misguide him, and reach views based on
sound reasons.

 For false convictions bring with them false

attitudes to life.
 It is a failure to take proper care or give
enough attention to something.
 Is an actual, momentary privation of
knowledge.
 Inattention of a person may result to
his contributory negligence to an act,
thus, he/she can be partially liable.

Example
› Using a cell phone while driving and meets
an accident
› Texting while walking
 Passions are strong tendencies towards the possession of
something good or towards the avoidance of something evil.

 The object of somebody’s intense interest

or enthusiasm or overpowering emotions
or a sudden outburst of emotion.

Passions are neither good nor evil,

but indiferrent (without bias or preference
for one person, group, or thing rather than
another)
 Love
 Desire
 Delight
 Hope
 Bravery
 Anger
 Hatred
 Sadness
 Despair
 Fear
 Horror
 Passions are provided by nature for self-preservation of the
individual and the human race.
 A person without them would be with no capacity for self-defence,
growth, improvement and devotion.
 Passions may be called good when ordered by the rational will to
help man in the practice of virtue, or in the attainment of that which
is morally good.
 Passions may be called bad when used by the rational will to
accomplish morally evil actions or when it not controlled by
reason. A person should be a master of his/her passions and not a
slave of it.
 Antecedent Passions – it arises spontaneously before the
judgement of reason and before the will can control the
psychological situation.
Example:
› When a delicious food is served at the table, it spontaneosly causes
appetite and the desire to it.

 Consequent Passions – it is deliberately aroused by the will in

order to ensure a more prompt and willing operation.
Example:
› When a person deliberately provoking hatred in his heart in order to
carry out his intentions to murder/kill another.
 Antecedent Passions may completely destroy freedom, and
consequently, moral responsibility.
Example:
› A wife, who, out of love for her husband, becomes so jealous that in a moment
of savage rage, kills him and the concubine.

 Antecedent Passions lessens freedom and diminish the

responsibility of human actions because they tend to blind the
judgment of the intellect and block the freedom of the will.
Example:
› A man who drinks immoderately shows in his actions more voluntariness but
less freedom than a man who drinks occasionally only.
 Antecedent Passions do not always destroy freedom,
for passions seldom escape the control of reason.

 Consequent Passions do not lessen the voluntariness

of an act but may increase it, because these kind of
passions are deliberately excited and they are
voluntary in themselves.
Example:
› By reading or watching immoral literature in order to intice or arouse the
intellect and the will for another evil act – masturbation.
 Fear – is a disturbance of the mind caused by the
thought of a threatening evil.
 It is the apprehension by the mind of an impending
evil.
 It is an unpleasant feeling of anxiety or apprehension
caused by the presence or anticipation of danger.
 Acts done with fear or in spite of fear.
› When a person climbs a dangearous mountain at night.

 Acts done from or through fear or because of fear.

› When a sea captain throws his cargo overboard in a storm in order to
save the ship and the lives of the passengers.

 Fear may be slight or grave according to the amount

or to the proximity of the impending evil.
 Acts done with or in spite of fear are always
voluntary.
 Acts done from, through or because of fear are
involuntary.
 Fear as a disturbance of the mind lessens the
voluntariness but it does not destroy it.
 Fear considered as an ordinary passion may
increase or diminish the voluntariness of the
human act.
 Violence or compulsion - is the
application of external force on a
person by another for the
purpose of compelling him to do
something against his will.

 It consists in the actual application of physical force

to extort something from a person.
 Human act resulting from violence are involuntary by
themselves.
› But we are held morally responsible for all acts of the will itself even when
the body is suffering violence.

Example:
The body of a woman can be violated (rape), but her will or internal
consent may remain inviolate or she may internally consent.
 Active resistance should always be offered to an unjust aggressor. However, if
resistance is impossible or if there is a serious threat to ones’s life, a person
confronted by violence can always offer intrinsic resistance by witholding
consent; that is enought to save his/her moral integrity.
 Habit – is a constant and easy way of
doing things acquired by the repetition
of the same act.

 It is an established action or pattern of

behavior that is repeated so often that it
becomes typical of somebody, although
he or she may be unaware of it.
 Synonymous to addiction, dependency,
fixation, obsession, weakness, custom,
routine, practice, tradition, convention,
pattern.
 Habits do not destroy voluntariness, and actions performed by the force
of habits are imputable to man.
 If a habit has been contracted absolutely involuntary and
unintentionally, it will lack voluntariness and responsibility as long as
the person concerned remains ignorance of the existence of such habit.
› Example: A habit of foul language during childhood.

 If an evil/bad habits has been contracted voluntarily, but a positive and

constant effort is being made to counteract/resist/deter it, the acts
inadvertently proceeding from the habit are considered involuntary and
not imputable to man.
› Example: A person seriously exerts effort to repress a habit of saying foul words,
he/she is no longer responsible for his/her occasioanlly foul language.
1. Divide into groups of 5
2. Think of one situation for at least five (5) of the Obstacles/Modifiers of
Human Act.
• It should show that the responsibility of person changes because of the
modifier.
3. Describe each situation in the class.
– Example: A waiter in a restaurant did not issue a receipt to a customer. He did this because
he was told not to do it, and he feared losing his job. (Modifier is fear).
4. Explain in the class if the person doing the act is morally responsible.
5. Do not use example already used during class discussion.
6. Present it in the class with visual aide (written in a manila paper).
7. Each situation is worth 5 points.
 Catechism of the Catholic Church
 Catechism for Filipino Catholics
 Ethics or Moral Philosophy, Alfredo Panizo, O.P.
 Christian Ethics, Karl H. Peschke
 Encarta Dictionaries