MAN AS A MORAL AGENT

THE HUMAN PERSON AS A MORAL AGENT

A moral agent is "a being who is capable of those actions that have moral
quality and which can be properly denominated good or evil in a moral
sense". One moral agent is capable of human acts. That's why "morality is
for persons".
Human acts are "those of which a man is a master, which he has the power
of doing or not doing as he pleases" or "those acts which proceed from man
as a rational being “.
WHAT IS A SUFFICIENT CONDITION FOR
MORAL AGENCY?
A moral agent should have the capacity to rise above their feelings and
passions and act for the sake of the moral law.
The capacity to conform to moral standards, to act for the sake of moral
considerations, that is, for the sake of moral law, qualifies one to be a moral
agent. The absence of that capacity to conform to moral standards, as in the
case of an insane person, excludes you from morals.
THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN MORAL AGENT

"Every human act is directed toward an end". An end may be pursued

merely as a means to another end, that is, merely an instrumental end.
For St. Thomas, the highest good or end is happiness but the absolutely final
end is God.
THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN MORAL AGENT

Alfredo Panizo cites the three Thomistic principles regarding the end or purpose
of the moral agent:
First Principle - Every agent that performs an action acts for the sake of the
end or purpose to be attained. In other words, a moral agent is purpose-driven.
Second Principle ultimate end. - Every agent acts for an
Third Principle - Every agent has the power of moving for an end which is
suitable or good for him.
THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN MORAL AGENT

"From the Christian point of view, a A person's act is moral if it realizes

human person's destiny in the world
is not only to achieve cultural and
moral perfection, but to attain the
eternal happiness of the soul after
death of the body.
his potentials and brings him nearer
to this goal in life, immoral if
deviates from_it.
THE FUNDAMENTAL OPTION
The fundamental option is "the
stance or position I decide to take
vis-à-vis the Absolute Value (God)
which then influences ultimately all
my other individual actions and
decisions.
One theologian says that if one is
used to a life in accordance with the
fundamental option, at the moment
of death, he/she would be asked by
God what his/her option will be,
and he/she definitely will say yes to
God.
NO PRE-FIXED PLAN FOR MAN

A human person is or becomes what he/she makes of himself/herself by

choice. He/she is nothing, no "essence", until he/she starts his/her
"existence" by making choices.
A human person has to create his/her end, purpose, or directions. He/she has
to invent his/her destiny. Since there is no goal or end design for him/her,
he/she would completely be the author of what he/she turns out to be. He/she
will be totally responsible for what he/she will be.
NO PRE-FIXED PLAN FOR MAN

But other groups, like Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel and Martin Buber
see themselves as being- with-others, inseparably related to their fellow
man.
The other is saying, "let us learn to live together", to affirm each other being.
Consequently, the end, purpose or direction of beings-with-others, is what
they discover as they learn to live together.
"WORLD TO COME" MEANS "WORLD TO
COME OUT OF THIS WORLD"
It means, instead of avoiding "this
world" as a sinful world of flesh,
ourselves improving constructing
developing we involve in it, it, and
it, perfecting it to bring out the
world to come.
the future world toward which a
person should direct his/her life, is
this same material world but
spiritualized, material spiritualized,
that a is, world world devoid of its
material limitations, a world
liberated and freed from its spatio-
temporal conditions.
THANK YOU!!