MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS Human Acts are different from the acts of man since acts of man are those that humans share with animals whose actions and movements emanate from purely sensual nature. These things are performed without deliberation and free will. The person here is not morally...

CHAPTER 2 THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS Human Acts are different from the acts of man since acts of man are those that humans share with animals whose actions and movements emanate from purely sensual nature. These things are performed without deliberation and free will. The person here is not morally responsible for these kinds of action Constituents of a Human Act: 1.Knowledge 2.Freedom 3.Voluntariness  HUMAN ACTS 1. The act must be deliberate.  It must be performed by a conscious agent who is very much aware of what he/she is doing and of its consequences – good or evil.  Thus, children who are below the age of reason, the insane, the senile, and lunatics are said to be incapable of acting knowingly and with sufficient knowledge.  HUMAN ACTS 2. The act must be performed in freedom.  It must be done by an agent who is acting freely, with his/her own volition and powers.  An action against duress and against one’s own free will cannot be strictly considered a free and voluntary action.  The person who is performing the action should be free from any force beyond his/her control, or from any powerful influence from outside.  HUMAN ACTS 3. The act must be done voluntarily.  It must be performed by an agent who decides willfully to perform the act.  The act, to be truly a voluntary one, must come from the core of a person’s being.  This willfulness is the resolve to do an act here and now, or in some other time in the future.  MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS  These are factors and conditions that affect to a considerable extent man’s inner disposition towards certain action.  They influence specifically the mental and/or emotional state of a person concerned to the point that the culpability of the act is either increased or diminished  They affect human acts in the essential qualities of knowledge, freedom, voluntariness, and so make them less perfectly human (Glenn 1965: 25).  MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS 1. Ignorance - Is the absence of necessary knowledge which a person in a given situation, who is performing a certain act, ought to have. Ignorance is either vincible or invincible. Vincible Ignorance can easily be remedied through ordinary diligence and reasonable efforts on the part of the person who is in this particular mental state. This specific type of ignorance is therefore conquerable since it is correctible. Invincible Ignorance is the kind of ignorance which an individual may have without being aware of it, or, having knowledge of it, simply lacks the necessary means to correct and solve it. This type of ignorance is unconquerable, and thus not correctible. under the classification of vincible ignorance is the Affected Ignorance. This is the kind of ignorance which an individual keeps by positive efforts in order to escape blame  PRINCIPLES GOVERNING IGNORANCE 1. Invincible ignorance renders an act involuntary - A person cannot be held morally responsible or liable if he or she is not aware of his or her ignorance. 2. Vincible ignorance does not destroy, but lessens the voluntariness and the corresponding accountability over the act. - To act with vincible ignorance is to act imprudently. Ignorance could have been dispelled if there was an effort to dispel it. 3. Affected or pretended ignorance does not excuse a person from his bad actions; on the contrary it actually increases their malice. - This specific kind of ignorance happens when a person really wants and chooses to be ignorant so that he can eventually escape any accountability arising from the wrongfulness of the act later on.  MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS 2. Passions or Concupiscence  Understood as a strong or powerful feeling or emotion.  Refers to the bodily appetites or tendencies as experienced and expressed in such feelings as fear, love, hatred, despair, horror, sadness, anger, grief and the like.  Also known as sentiments, affections, desires, etc  These are inclinations toward desirable objects or a tendency away from undesirable or harmful things.  These include both positive and negative emotions Passions are either classified as antecedent or consequent. Antecedent – are those that precede an act. It may happen that a person is emotionally aroused to perform an act. Antecedent passions predispose a person to act Consequent – are the direct results of the will which fully consents to them instead of subordinating them Principles Governing Passion: 1. Antecedent passions do not always destroy voluntariness, but they diminish accountability for the resultant act. They weaken the will power of a person without, however, completely obstructing his freedom. Thus, the so called ‘crimes of passion’ are voluntary. But in so far as passions interfere with the freedom of the will, one’s accountability is diminished. 2. Consequent passions do not lessen voluntariness, but may even increase accountability. This is because consequent passions are the direct results of the will which fully consents to them instead of subordinating them to its control (Panizo 1964). Here, the person concerned who wilfully acts following his passion, allows himself to be completely controlled by it and hence, is “In themselves passions are indifferent; they are not (intrinsically) evil… inasmuch as they are the movements of the irrational appetite, have no moral good or evil themselves. But if they are subject to the reason and will, then moral good and evil are in them. God has endowed the human person with these appetites which pervade his/her whole sensitive life. They are instruments and means for self- preservation of the individual and the human race. Every person needs them for self-defense, growth, and  MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT 3. Fear - The disturbance of the mind of a person who is confronted by an impending danger or harm to himself or loved ones (Agapay 1991). - Considered a passion which arise as an impulsive movement of avoidance of a threatening evil, ordinarily accompanied by bodily disturbances (Panizo1964). - It is treated as a special kind of passion since it is a kind of a test of one’s mental character. Principles Governing Fear 1. Acts done with fear are voluntary. - This is so because the person acting with fear is acting in spite of his fear, and thus, still very much in control of his conduct. - Therefore the person concerned remains morally responsible of his action, whether good or bad, right or wrong. 2. Acts done out or because of intense fear or panic are simply involuntary. - A person when acting out of extreme fear is not morally accountable of his action or conduct. - An example is a cashier who hands the money to a robber who is poking a gun on her head is acting out of intense fear and panic, and thus, doing something involuntarily and without her consent. Such action exempts theperson from any moral or even legal responsibility.  MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT 4. Violence - Refers to any physical force exerted on a person by another free agent for the purpose of compelling the said person to act against his will (Agapay 1991) - Any act where great and brutal force is inflicted to a person constitutes violence. - This includes acts such as torture, mutilation and the like. Principles Governing Violence: 1. Any action resulting from violence is simply involuntary. - If one is compelled to do something, one should not consent to it. - An example is a woman whose body may be violated but remained defiant in the presence of an unjust and brutal aggressor, whose superior strength overpowers that of the woman victim. 2. When a person experiences so much fear in the face of an unjust aggressor who is armed and extremely dangerous, he or she is not held morally responsible of his or her action. - Active resistance should always be offered to an unjust aggressor. - But if resistance is impossible, or if there is a serious threat to one’s life, a person confronted by violence can always offer intrinsic resistance by withholding consent; that is enough to save one’s moral integrity (Panizo as cited in Agapay 1991). 3. Absolute violence excludes any voluntariness from the forced action. - The reason is that lack of consent precludes a human act and consequently  MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT 5. Habit  Is a constant and easy way of doing things acquired by the repetition of the same act (Panizo 1964).  Is a lasting readiness and facility, born of frequently repeated acts, for acting in certain manner (Glenn 1965). Principles Governing Habit: 1.Actions done by force of habit are voluntary in cause, unless a reasonable effort is made to counteract the habitual inclination (Glenn 1965). 2.A deliberate admitted habit does not lessen voluntariness and actions resulting therefrom are voluntary at least in their cause (Peschke 1985). 3.An opposed habit lessens voluntariness and sometimes precludes it completely. The reason is that a habit weakens both the intellect and will in the concrete situation in a similar way as passion does (Peschke ibid). 4.When a person decides to fight his habit, and for as long as the effort towards this purpose continues, actions resulting from such habit may be regarded as acts of man