MORAL VALUE

OF HUMAN
ACTS

Nelson V. Arnante
CHSS Faculty
Becoming a Moral Person
 UNDERSTANDING HUMAN ACTS

Human Acts vs. Acts of Man

 ACTS OF MAN
•Involuntary acts
•spontaneous biological and sensual
processes
 HUMAN ACTS
performed by a person who has full knowledge
through free will

done with knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness

All of these elements must be present in order for an act to be

considered a human act.
 1. KNOWLEDGE of the ACT
• the person is conscious and aware of the
(1) reason and the
(2) consequences of his/her actions.

Knowledge directs one to be

mindful of his or her actions.
 2. FREEDOM in DOING the ACT

• The person acts by his/ her own choice and initiative.

• A person was not influenced by another person or any
situation to perform his/her action.
 Freedom and Responsibility
Every act directly
willed is IMPUTABLE
to its author.*

IMPUTABILITY
•The moral responsibility for one's human actions.
• A person has accountability for his or her deliberate actions.
3. VOLUNTARINESS OR FREE WILL in DOING the ACT

The person:
1. consents or agrees to
the act,

2. accepting it as his/her
own, and
3. assumes accountability
for the result
MORAL DISTINCTIONS
 Moral Immoral
▪ actions that are in
conformity or agreement
with the norms of morality

▪ actions that are not in conformity

to or in disagreement with the
norms of morality
Amoral • actions that stand neutral or indifferent
with the norms of morality (neither
good nor bad actions)
• Action becomes good or bad depending
on its intention and/or circumstances.

EXAMPLE
• Watching TV is amoral but becomes bad when
you do not attend your class at that same time.

• Sitting in a deckchair of itself is an indifferent act. But

sitting on deckchair waiting for your contact to deliver
illegal substances will determine the morality of your act.
SOURCES OF THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS
 THE DETERMINANTS OF MORALITY

determine how an act is rendered good or bad, moral or

immoral in relation to the norms of morality

1. Object (Act itself)

2. Intention (Purpose) and

3. Circumstances
moral object of the act (WHAT WE DO)
▪Also known as “act-
in-itself”;
▪the action that the
person did.
▪the primary source
for the judgment on
the morality of the
act.
 INTENTION
▪ refers to the GOAL which
the agent aims to achieve
▪ This is usually called the
subjective element of a
moral act because the
intention for doing the act
lies within us.
 PRINCIPLES TO
CONSIDER REGARDING
THE INTENTION
OF THE AGENT
1. an act which is good in itself and is done for a
good end becomes doubly good. (GA + GI = 2G)
means an agent performs a good act
for a good purpose, hence, one
receives a merits for good act and
another for good intention.

Example: a rich person gives

donation to the poor because of his
love for them.
 2. an act which is bad in itself and is done for a
bad end becomes doubly bad. (BA + BI = 2B)
❑ means an agent
performs a bad act Example:
with bad intention, a man steals
hence, one is liable
money out of
for the bad act and
another for bad
vengeance.
intention.
3. an act which is good in itself and is done
with bad intention becomes bad. (GA + BI = B)
❑ this principle demonstrates the
strong influence of the agent
upon the morality of the act.
Example:
a manager of business firm
increased the salary of his secretary
from 7,000 Php to 14,000 Php. He
does this so that his secretary can’t
turn him down.
 4. an act which is bad in itself and is done for a
good end does not become good (BA + GI = B)
❑ means no good end can change the bad act for a
reason that end cannot justify the means.
However, though, good end can’t change a bad
act, it can lessen/decrease the agent’s culpability.
Example:
a father steals money to buy
gift for his son’s birthday;
5. an indifferent act which is done for a good end
becomes good. (IA + GI = G)
❑ this principle agrees with the statement that an
indifferent act becomes good according to the
end of the agent.
Example:
act of writing is indifferent. If
one writes to explain an issue or
doctrine so that people will be
informed and enlightened. His
purpose is good thus the action
becomes good.
6. an indifferent act which is done for a bad end
becomes bad. (IA + BI = B)
❑ means a statement which is indifferent act
with end becomes bad in itself.
Example:
talking is neither good nor
bad, but if its done to destroy
the reputation of another, the
act becomes bad.
CIRCUMSTANCES
CIRCUMSTANCES
• are conditions outside the act that influence or
affect that act by increasing or lessening its
voluntariness or freedom, and, thus, affecting
the morality of the act.
Circumstances are :
• the person, the place, the time, the manner, the
condition of the agent, the thing itself, the means.
a. the circumstance of person
❑ refers to the doer [agent] of
the act and to the receiver
or the person to whom the
act is done.

There are Two Principles under this circumstance:

a. the circumstance of person
1. good act can become better
or bad act can become worse
by the reason of the doer.
e.g.
act of giving aid to orphan is good,
but if it is done by a City
Street Sweeper [who is poor
himself] is more meritorious
than if it is done by a big time
businessman.
2. good act can become better, or
bad act can become worse by the
reason of the person to whom the
act is done.

e.g.
stealing is bad but it is worse if one
steals from a beggar.
b. the circumstance
of place
• refers to particular space or
locality where the act is done or
performed.

Example:
creating scandal is bad but it is
worse when done inside the church
 c. the circumstance
of time
refers to the exact or definite
moment or hour when the act is
performed.
example:
fasting is good to mortify oneself, but
it is more meritorious if it is also done
in designated time like Ash Wed or
Good Friday.
d. the circumstance of manner
❑ refers to the way the agent manages to
do his act. It answers the question,
‘how did the agent do the act?’
e.g.
A man manages to withdraw
the money of an old woman
by making her believe of his
false/fake products. (budol
scam)
e. the condition of the agent
❑ answers the question, ‘in what condition was the agent
when he performed the act?’ and ‘was the agent
ignorant or influenced by fear, habits, emotions, etc.?’
Example:
failure to attend mass or
services on Sunday or on
designated day is not good for
Christ’s believer but if he is
invincibly ignorant that it is
Sunday, no sin is committed.
 f. the circumstance
of the thing
• denotes special
quality of the object.

•Example: the object stolen

is a famous religious icon
g. the means
• answers the question,
‘by what means?’ and
‘by whose help?’

• Example: a person robs

the bank with the
help of the security
personnel [inside job
robbery]
 The Modifiers of Human Acts

What factors can make affect the morality of a human act?

The impediments to human acts
Impediments
• refer to factors that influence the person to perform a moral action.

• This is when the actions are done under

the circumstances where ignorance,
passion, fear, violence, and habit are
present.
• These are the factors that diminish
one's responsibility and impair the
element of voluntariness of human act.
 Impediments to full Knowledge
Knowledge of a moral
situation is impaired by:

▪ Ignorance,

▪ Error, and by

▪ Inattention.
1. Ignorance

• the lack or
absence of
knowledge
needed by a
person in doing
an act.
 Invincible ignorance
• the person is not aware, and which
• he/she is unable to overcome by him/herself unless
someone will tell him/her about the truth.
 Example
A market stallholder has
bought branded goods which
he thought were genuine.
In fact, his wholesale supplier
has sold him fakes at the price
for the genuine goods.
The fraud is only discovered
when DTI came round to
investigate customer
complaints.
 Example

A woman receives a
gift of a pearl
necklace, not
knowing that it is
stolen.
 Vincible ignorance
• The person has the chance to know the norm/truth BUT did not avail
the opportunities offered, to correct his/her lack of knowledge.
 example

A heart surgeon's patients keep

dying because he has not
properly mastered new
techniques.
• It is his professional duty to
keep up-to-date, and not to
risk procedures which he is
not sure of.
 "ignorance of the law excuses no one”

• Over speeding
along SLEX
because its your
first time to drive
along the said
highway.
2. Error
• Error about
moral truths is
very widespread
in mass-media
culture - the
"fraud of the
masses".
3. Inattention • may be the result of
drunkenness, of violent
emotion, sleepiness or
absent-mindedness.
– To drive for 6 hours
non-stop on the
motorway and cause
an accident implies
culpability, because
the driver should have
known to stop for a
rest.
Impediments to full FREEDOM AND CONSENT

• Full consent to a
particular moral act is
impaired by passion, by
fear, by force or by
ingrained habit.
• These may lessen
responsibility for an evil
or a good action.
 1. Passion or Concupiscence
• is an intense emotion which
urges ones feeling, enthusiasm,
or desire for something.
• They are either tendencies
towards desirable objects which
refer to positive emotions like
hope, love, bravery, and delight
or tendencies away from
undesirable objects which point
to negative emotions such as
anger, fear, sadness, and hatred.
• Intense passion may reduce the
voluntariness of an act, because
it weakens or swamps the
working of reason.

EXAMPLE
• A man is being bullied and planned
revenge because of wrath.
2. Fear

• Fear is the shrinking back of

the person from an
impending evil.

• fear is the ability to recognize

danger by either confronting
it or withdrawing from it
(also known as the fight or
flight response).
 3. Social pressure / Peer pressure

• Social pressure is a very pervasive form of fear, operating through

the instinct for acceptance, esteem, safety, competitiveness.
 4. Force
Force is where violence is employed to constrain a person to
act in a certain way.
The presence of force prevents a
person to think clearly according to
reason.
Example:
• rape and robbery both use force
and the persons involved from
these acts are liable.
 5. Habit
• a firm routine of behavior that is done regularly.
• Anything you do automatically without consciously thinking about
it, or without specifically deciding to do it, is a HABIT.
• Here we see why education in good habits is so important.
• The child who learns to resist sin from an early age will have
a much greater degree of freedom as an adult, and be able
to channel her energies far more constructively.
 Case # 1
• Greg works on a privately owned farm (hacienda) as a tractor driver. His
salary is Php 10,000. 00 pesos per month, which is enough for a living
especially in the province. The farm is two months behind in paying his wage
because it has no income due to the recent typhoon that hit the area. His
employer promised to pay them on the third month once he received a loan
from the bank. However, Greg has two hectares of private land where he
and his wife and two children grow rice, vegetables, root crops etc. They
have two pigs, one cow, some chickens and geese, so they manage to
survive in spite of Greg’s delayed salary. Like the other hacienda employees
and managers, Greg occasionally steals sacks of rice, fertilizers, mechanical
and electrical components and tools from work. Some are for his animals
and plants, or his own family; others he barters with relatives and friends, to
earn money to repair the TV, mend his bicycle, to buy pens and paper which
the children need for school etc.
• Did he commit a morally wrong action? Analyse the situation
and make a judgment according the three determinants of
morality (object-intention-circumstances) in relation to the
characteristics of human actions (knowledge-freedom-full
consent/will).