Module 2:

The Three Fonts of

Morality
 Objectives

At the end of this module, you must be able to:

1. Explicate the meaning of morality.
2. Value the importance of the three fonts of morality.
3. Apply the three fonts of morality in a specific case or
scenario.

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 References:
✣ Maboloc, C.R. (2018): Applied Ethics: Moral
Possibilities for Contemporary World. Revised
Edition. SMKC Printshoppe, Davao City

✣ Fernandez, A. (2018). Ethics: Deciding

What’s Right and Wrong. SMKC Printshoppe,
Davao City

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 ACTIVITY Time frame: 3 days
A group of Christian missionaries was held hostage in the
hinterland of Patikul, Sulu. The captors told them that they will
be beheaded on a daily basis, one person per day if the
government won’t give the money they have demanded as a
ransom. The leader of the missionaries asked the captors to
spare them because they are not the enemies and that, they
are doing missionary works to the poor children in the
mountains. The captors agreed to free them on one condition:
that the leader will kill one of their companions in front of
them all. Refusing to follow the captor’s command, they
threatened him be the first person to be beheaded that day.
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✣ If you are the leader, what will you
do?

✣ If you kill one of your companions,

are you morally liable of the crime?
Why?

✣ Who is to be blamed
5 in this
 ABSTRACTION

✣ Morality is concerned with the knowingly chosen

acts of human persons. There are three sources
or determinants or ‘fonts’ of morality, which
determine the morality of any act:

✣ (1) intention,
(2) moral object,
(3) circumstances.

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✣ Every act with three good fonts is morally licit; it
is not a sin. Every act with one or more bad fonts
is morally illicit; it is a sin. The morality of
human acts depends on: the object chosen; the
end in view or the intention; the circumstances
of the action. The object, the intention, and the
circumstances make up the ‘sources,’ or
constitutive elements, of the morality of human
acts.” (CCC, n. 1750).

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✣ As such, Human Acts (Actus Humani) refer to ‘actions that
proceed from insight into the nature and purpose of one’s
doing and from consent of free will” (Peschke, 1995: 247).
Specifically, human acts are those actions done by a person
in certain situations which are essentially the result of his/her
conscious knowledge, freedom and voluntariness or
consent (Fernandez, 2018). The morality of human acts
depends on three sources: the object chosen, either a true or
apparent good; the intention of the subject who acts, that is,
the purpose for which the subject performs the act; and the
circumstances of the act, which include its consequences
(Compendium, n. 367).

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✣ Every moral act consists of three elements: the
objective act (what we do), the subjective goal
or intention (why we do the act), and the
concrete situation or circumstances in which we
perform the act….

✣ All three aspects must be good — the objective

act, the subjective intention, and the
circumstances — in order to have a morally
good act (USCCB Catechism for Adults, July
2006, p. 311-312).
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✣ First, the intention is of the subject, the human
person who acts. You have control over your
own intentions. If your intention is immoral,
change your intention. Your intention is the
purpose or goal for which the act was chosen.
But for this font to be moral, all that you intend
must be moral. It is not moral to intend to
achieve a good end by an immoral means.

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✣Second, the moral object is of the act itself,
the objective act chosen by the human person.
Some acts are in themselves immoral
(Intrinsically evil acts); other acts are moral acts
that remained subject to moral assessment.

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✣ Third, circumstances are meant all the
elements that surround a human action and
affect its morality without belonging to its
essence. The circumstances, including the
consequences, are secondary elements of a
moral act. They contribute to increasing or
diminishing the moral goodness or evil of
human acts (for example, the amount of a
theft). They can also diminish or increase the
agent's responsibility (such as acting out of a
fear of death).

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✣ The three fonts of morality are the sole
determinant of the morality of each and every
knowingly chosen act, without any exception
whatsoever. When all three fonts of morality
are good, the act is moral — it is at least
morally permissible. When any one or more
fonts are bad, the act is immoral — it is a sin
to choose such an act.

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Difference Between Human Act
and Acts of Man
✣
✣ A human act involves a person deliberately
exercising their intellect and will. The person
is able to discern the choice by having the
knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness to
do so.

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Difference Between Human Act and
Acts of Man
✣ Acts of man, however, are acts which do not
take place because of one’s deliberation and
does not involve fully utilizing one’s intellect.
It is undertaken without knowledge or consent
and without advertence.

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✣ Examples of acts of man which are not under
the control of one’s will include acts of
sensation (the use of senses), acts of
appetition (bodily tendencies such as
digestion), acts of delirium, and acts when one
is asleep. The presence of these factors
(ignorance, passion, fear, violence, and habits)
causes an act to be classified as acts of man.

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✣ Since a human act arises from knowledge and
free will, acts of man do not have a moral
quality as they do not possess a conscious
nature. If either intellect or will is lacking in the
act, then the act is not fully human and
therefore not fully moral.

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 ✣ Modifiers of Human Acts in Relation to
the Voluntariness of the Acts
✣
✣ Factors and conditions that affect to a
considerable extent man’s inner disposition
towards certain actions are known as
“modifiers” of human acts. As modifiers, they
influence specifically the mental and/or
emotional state of a person concerned to the
point that the voluntariness involved in act is
either increased or diminished.

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✣ The following are the modifiers of human acts:
✣
✣ Ignorance
✣ Passion
✣ Fear
✣ Violence
✣ Habit

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 ✣ Answer the following:
APPLICATION
1. What is a human act and what is an act of man? Do you agree that on
human act must be subjected to moral assessment? Why?
2. Explain the different modifiers of human act. Cite concrete examples
3. If the leader of the missionaries killed one of his members, what
modifier of human acts has greatly influenced him to do such act?
Explain.
✣

✣ Criteria:

✣ Novelty and Rigor of Argument – 80%

✣ Citation/Attribution of sources – 20%

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