UNIT 3

THE HUMAN ACT

 Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this learning episode, you are expected to:
• explain the meaning of human act, the morality and accountability of
human act;
• discuss the three bases of moral accountability;
• give examples of modifiers of human act;
 Lesson 1:
The Meaning of
Human Act
 Act of Man Vs Human Act
• Fr. Coppens (2017)
“Human acts are those of which a man is master, which he has the power of
doing or not doing as he pleases.”
• Panizo (1964)
“Human acts are those acts which proceed from man as a rational being.”
 Act of Man Vs Human Act
• Actions committed by unconscious and insane persons, infants, or by those
who are physically forced to do something, are not considered as human
acts but act of man.
• Actions which merely happen in the body or through the body without the
awareness of the mind or the control of the will are not human acts but
merely acts of man.
 The Determinants of the Morality of Human Act
• Three things to consider to know whether an individual human act is
morally good according to Rev. Coppens S.J. are:
a. the object of the act;
b. the end or purpose; and
c. its circumstances.
 The Determinants of the Morality of Human Act
a. The Object of the Act
• The object of an act is the thing done.
• The act itself.
• For an individual human act to be good, its object, whether
considered in itself as further specified, must be free from all defect;
it must be good, or at least indifferent.
• The following are instances: honoring one’s parent, going to mass on
days of obligation, saving human life, respecting others’ rights and
property, having pure acts and thoughts, being true to marital
commitments, telling the truth, etc.
 The Determinants of the Morality of Human Act
b. The End or Purpose
• The purpose intended by the agent.
• It is the end of the workman or agent.
• No matter how good the object of an act may be if the end intended is
bad, the act is thereby vitiated, spoiled, or impaired.
• The end, or purpose is the intention of the acting subject, or what
inspires the acting subject.
• The guiding rule is the end does not justify the means.
 The Determinants of the Morality of Human Act
c. The Circumstances
• The circumstances of time, place, and persons have their part in
determining the morality of an individual act.
• The moral character of an act may be so affected by attendant
circumstances, that good in itself may be evil when accompanied by
certain circumstances; for instance, it is good to give a drink to the
thirsty, but if the thirsting man is morally weak, the drink is
intoxicating, the act may be evil.
• The circumstances, including the consequences, refer to the time,
place, person, and conditions surrounding the moral act. They
increase or diminish the moral goodness or evil of human acts.
The Determinants of the Morality of Human Act

• A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and
of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the
object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting “in order to be seen
by men”).
• For an act to be good, all three determinants must be without flaw,
according to the received axiom: “Bonum ex integracausa, malum ex
quocumque defectu” – “A thing to be good must be wholly so; it is not
vitiated by any defect.”
 Lesson 2:
Accountability of
Moral Act
As a future educator,
what is your main
responsibility/
accountability?
 Bases of Moral Accountability

• Says Fr. Coppens (2017):

“ When I perform a free act -- one which I am able to do or not to do, as I
choose – the act is evidently imputable to me: If the thing is blameworthy,
the blame belongs to me; If it is praiseworthy, I am entitled to the praise.
Every human act, therefore, since it is a free act, is imputable to him who
performs it.

Every human act is a free act so it is imputable to him/her who performs it.
To whom are we
accountable?
Bases of Moral Accountability

For violation of government laws…

People are held accountable directly to the government, and
indirectly to the people.

For violation of moral standards…

Under Christian natural law ethics, God is deemed the author of
the law, hence violators are accountable to God.

For nontheistic morality, violators are accountable solely to

themselves.
 Bases of Moral Accountability

• There are three bases for moral accountability, namely:

1. Knowledge
• Human act must be done knowingly.
• For you to be morally responsible for your act, you must, first, have
knowledge, that is, you are in possession of a normal mind.
• Knowledge is “the awareness of or familiarity with a fact, situation,
or truth, and veiled through experience or disclosed in dialogue or
encounter with persons or things.”
 Bases of Moral Accountability

• There are three bases for moral accountability, namely:

2. Freedom
• The act is freely done.
• This happens when you can exercise your power of choice.
• Your freedom should not be impaired by an irresistible force or
uncontrollable fear.
 Bases of Moral Accountability
• There are three bases for moral accountability, namely:
3. Voluntariness
• It must be done voluntarily (intentional or negligent).
• An act is voluntarily intended when it is done with the aim, purpose,
or goal of attaining a result.
• An act is negligent when it is done voluntarily, but without care or
precaution in avoiding the happening of a foreseeable event.
• You can be morally liable either by intentional act or negligent failure
to exercise care and precaution.
 Bases of Moral Accountability
• There are three bases for moral accountability, namely:
3. Voluntariness
• “A voluntary act proceeds from the will and depends upon the will
for its performance.”
• When something is done by accident, this is referred to as fortuitous
event, act of God.
 Bases of Moral Accountability
• The degree of moral accountability depends on the degree or extent of
knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness.
• Addiction of whatever kind, e.g. drugs, sex, power, money or property,
weaken all three bases: knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness, so that
instead of eliminating them “like dregs of civilization,” they should be
treated with compassion, however, not condoning their acts.
 Modifiers of Human Act
• The factors which either increase or decrease accountability.
• These are analogous to exempting, mitigating, aggravating and justifying
circumstances in criminal law.
• They affect the mental or emotional state of a person to the extent that the
voluntariness involved in an act is either increased or decreased (Panizo,
1964).
• They are as follows:
1. Ignorance
2. Passions
3. Fear
4. Violence
 Modifiers of Human Act
1. Ignorance
• The “absence of knowledge.”
• There are various degrees of ignorance. Traditional ethics classifies them
as vincible, invincible, affected, and supine or gross ignorance.
• When it cannot be overcome by the due amount of diligence, it is
invincible; otherwise, it is vincible.
• The latter is said to be gross or supine when scarcely an effort has been
made to remove it.
• If a person deliberately avoids enlightenment in order to sin more freely,
his ignorance is affected.
 Modifiers of Human Act
1. Ignorance
• The basic rule is invincible ignorance, one that is beyond one’s ability
to overcome, is entirely involuntary, and hence removes moral
responsibility; vincible ignorance does not free us from responsibility.
 Modifiers of Human Act
2. Passion
• It refers to positive emotions like love, desire, delight, hope, and bravery
and negative emotions like hatred, horror, sadness, despair, fear, and
anger.
• Antecedent passions are those that precede the act, do not always destroy
voluntariness, but they diminish accountability for the resultant act.
• In criminal law, the Commission of a criminal act “with passion and
obfuscation” means the perpetrator is blinded by his emotions lessening
his accountability from maximum to medium or from medium to
minimum.
 Modifiers of Human Act
2. Passion
• Consequent passions are those that are intentionally aroused and kept.
They do not lessen voluntariness, but may increase accountability
(Panizo, 1964).
 Modifiers of Human Act
3. Fear
• The disturbance of the mind of a person due to an impending danger or
harm to himself or loved ones.
• Acts done with fear is voluntary, but acts done because of intense or
uncontrollable fear or panic are involuntary.
 Modifiers of Human Act
4. Violence
• Refers to any physical force exerted on a person by another free agent
for the purpose of compelling said person to act against his will.
• Actions performed by persons subjected to violence or irresistible force
are involuntary and not accountable.
Moral Accountability for What Could Have Been
• It is termed as sin of omission.
• Whatever one fails to do but which should have been done is also
imputable to him.
• This refers to failure to act despite knowledge of being free, therefore
different from negligence or lack of foresight.
• It is intentionally not doing same thing when one should have done it.
• It is failing to act as a Good Samaritan when one should have acted as
such.