Concerning Human

Acts
• Before one can determine whether an act is morally
right or wrong, one must identify first whether the doer
can be morally responsible for his kind of actions.
Gualdo expounds characteristics for acts to be
considered a human act.
Gualdo expounds characteristics for acts to be considered a
human act.

Acts of Man Human Acts

Involuntary deliberate
Acts that man has in common with
free
animals
Natural acts of vegetative and sense
voluntary
faculties (biological & physiological)
• Of the elements aforementioned, Glenn considered voluntariness as the
formal essential quality of a human act. What makes man morally
responsible, therefore, is voluntariness with which the act is done. Acts of
man, since done in the absence of such essential elements, are not meant
to be subjected to the rules of morality. However, once done with malice
and performed directed by the will, acts of man can become human acts.
• Such voluntariness, however, can be tainted depending
upon the disposition of the doer. Certain conditions
may influence mental or emotional states of the agent,
to the point of affecting not just voluntariness but any
of the three elements of human act.
Such factors or obstacles are called Modifiers of Human
Act. They are as follows:

Modifiers of Human Act definition

the absence of knowledge necessary for
Ignorance
the performance of an act
the passions or strong emotions or the
Concupiscence
bodily tendencies of man
the agitation of the mind caused by an
Fear
impending danger or threat
the external force done in order to
Violence compel one to do something against his
will
Habit the acts frequently-done and repeated
Ten Basic Principles of Morality are what emanates from
the modifiers. These are:

1. Invincible Ignorance destroys the voluntariness of an act.

2. Vincible Ignorance does not destroy but lessens the voluntariness of an act.
3. Affected Ignorance in one way lessens and in another way increases the
voluntariness of an act.
4. Antecedent Concupiscence does not destroy but lessens the voluntariness of an
act.
5. Consequent Concupiscence, however great, does not lessen the voluntariness of an
act.
Ten Basic Principles of Morality are what emanates from
the modifiers. These are:
6. Acts done from fear, however great, does not lessen the voluntariness of an act.
7. Acts elicited by the will are not subject to violence; external acts caused by violence, to
which due resistance is offered, are in no wise imputable to the agent.
8. Habit does not destroy voluntariness; and acts from habit are always voluntary, at least in
cause, as long as the habit is allowed to endure.
9. The agent is responsible for the foreseeable evil effect of an act that he is free to avoid.
10. The agent may perform an act, not evil in itself, from which both good and evil effects flow
provided that the evil effect does not precede the good effect; there is sufficient reason for doing
the act; and that the good effect is the one intended, the evil effect being only secondary and
unintentional.