Week 2-3 - ATRN 419 PDF

AMTE 419 – WEEK 3-4 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND PRACTICES Human Acts vs. Acts of Man  Human Acts Acts that proceed from the deliberate free will of man. Any sort of activity, internal or external, bodily or spiritual, performed by a human being. Acts that are proper to man as Man who is ra...

AMTE 419 – WEEK 3-4 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND PRACTICES Human Acts vs. Acts of Man  Human Acts Acts that proceed from the deliberate free will of man. Any sort of activity, internal or external, bodily or spiritual, performed by a human being. Acts that are proper to man as Man who is rational, has understanding and free will. Characterized as acts that are considered to be carried out freely, voluntarily, and done with knowledge. Human Acts Human acts are moral acts, therefore man is responsible and such are imputed to him as worth of praise and blame, of reward or nourishment. A man is what his human acts make him ❏ Human acts tend to repeat themselves and to form habits and will become Man’s Character. Examples: Decision-making on material things, like choosing what perfume to wear. Doing things with reason, like putting make-up to impress. Acts of Man ❏ Man’s animal act of sensation (use of the senses) and appetites (bodily tendencies), acts that man performs indeliberately or without the exercise of free choice. ❏ Acts done on sleep, in delirium, in the state of unconsciousness, acts done abstractedly, acts performed in infancy, acts due to infirmity of mind or the weakness of senility.  Exercise: Human Act or Acts of Man? ❏ Looking ❏ Seeing ❏ Dreaming ❏ Day Dreaming ❏ Hearing ❏ Listening ❏ Walking ❏ Sleepwalking Classification of Human Acts CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN ACTS Elicited Acts Commanded Acts  Elicited Acts ❏ Emanates from the will of the agent. ❏ Acts begin and are perfected in the will itself, and the rest begin and are perfected by other faculties under the control of the will. ❏ Wish ❏ Intention ❏ Consent ❏ Election ❏ Use ❏ Fruition  Elicited Acts: Wish ❏ A natural inclination of the will towards an object. ❏ The simple love of anything. The first tendency of the will towards a thing, whether this thing be realizable or not..  Elicited Acts: Intention ❏ The will’s tendency towards something attainable but not obligatory.  Elicited Acts: Consent ❏ The acceptance of the will of the means necessary to carry out intention ❏ It is further intention of doing what is necessary to realize the first or main intention Elicited Acts: Election ❏ The selection by the will of the precise means to be employed (consented to) in carrying out an intention Elicited Acts: Use ❏ The will’s command to make use of the selected means in carrying out the intention ❏ The employment by the will of powers (of body, mind, or both) to carry out what you elected Elicited Acts: Fruition ❏ The enjoyment of the will as a result of the attainment of the object desired earlier. ❏ The will’s act of satisfaction in intention fulfilled. Commanded Acts ❏ Body-mind acts done to carry out the elicited act of the subject or agent ❏ Perfected by the action of mental or bodily powers under the control of the will, or more so, under orders from the will Internal External Mixed Commanded Acts: Internal Acts ❏ Acts done by internal mental power under command of the will Examples: Effort to remember or intentional recall, conscious reasoning, nerving one self to meet an issue, effort to control anger, meditation Commanded Acts: External Acts ❏ Acts affected by bodily powers under the command of the will Examples: Deliberate walking, eating, speaking, hand gestures and writing Commanded Acts: Mixed Acts ❏ Acts that involved the employment of bodily powers and mental powers Examples: Studying involves the use of intellect and use of eyes in reading, playing chess Relation to dictates of reason Relation to dictates of reason ❏ Human acts are either in agreement or in disagreement with the dictates of reason, and this relation with reason constitutes their morality. ❏ On the score of their morality, human acts are: ➔ Good when they are in harmony with the dictates of reason ➔ Evil when they are in opposition to these dictates of reason ➔ Indifferent when they stand in no positive relation to the dictates of reason Dictates of reason ⮚ These are shared consciousness of prudent people about the manner of action or behaviour. ⮚ Norm of morality which is the standard by which actions are judged as good or evil. Essential Qualities of Human Acts  Three Essential Qualities of Human Acts ⮚ It must be knowing (knowledge) ⮚ The agent does it consciously; he knows that he is doing ⮚ the act and aware of its consequences, good or evil. ⮚ Requires deliberation. It must be free (freedom) ⮚ The person who is doing the act must be free from external ⮚ force. Otherwise, the act is not his own. The act must not be ⮚ done out of fear. ⮚ It must be voluntary (voluntariness) ⮚ The act is done out of the will and Human Act and Responsibility  Responsibility The ability of an individual to give a fitting response to a human situation that involves human needs. Responsible Person ⮚ Has that feeling of moral obligation to do an act as a response to the demand of the situation. ⮚ The agent, who is a moral person, feels that he must do “what-ought-to-be-done” to the demand of the prevailing situation. His conscience tells him from within that he must do something for the situation.  Responsibility ❖ The agent’s act of responding to the call is free, conscious, and voluntary act. ❖ The agent becomes responsible then for whatever is the consequence. ❖ Responding positively = fulfilment as a person ❖ Denial to the call = retardation and self- destruction  Free will and Freedom “Will” is man’s natural tendency of being attracted to what is good and beautiful and to be repulsed from what is evil and ugly, after they have been presented by the intellect. To Illustrate, a beautiful lady is presented to the gentleman; the lady attracts the attention and WILL (love) of the man. In other words, the gentleman wills to the lady  Free will ❑ The will is free when it acts without any pressure from outside. We call this human free will. In the performance of the human act, free will is involved. ❑ The act cannot be human without free will. ❑ Without it, the act would be classified as an “act of man”.  Freedom ❑ St. Thomas defines freedom of the will as the “power which men have of determining their actions according to the judgement of their reason”. ❑ Negatively defined as the absence of constriction. ❑ Positively, it is the power to be and to act under free will and choice. ❑ Our FREEDOM is “situated” or limited by the rights of others, things or persons. Modifiers of Human Acts ❑ Things that affect the human acts. ❑ Lessen the moral character of the human act. ❑ Diminish the responsibility of the agent. Modifiers of Human Acts: 1. Ignorance 2. Concupiscence 3. Violence 4. Fear 5. Habit  Ignorance ❑ Absence of the intellectual knowledge in man ❑ It is also the presence of what is falsely supposed to be knowledge called mistake, error, or positive ignorance. When it is the absence of knowledge that ought to be present, the ignorance is not merely negative, but privative. ❑ Example: Ignorance of mathematics by a worker is merely negative, but for an engineer or architect it is privative. Kinds of Ignorance  Ignorance A. Ignorance in its object ❑ The things of which a person may be ignorant in matters of law, fact, or penalty. 1. Ignorance of Law Ignorance of the existence of a duty, rule, or regulation Example: A freshman comes to school with fever to take an exam in Chemistry not knowing that a memo has been passed prohibiting anyone to attend his class with symptoms of AH1N1.  Ignorance 2. Ignorance of Fact ❑ Ignorance of the nature or circumstance of an act as forbidden Example: Pedestrian violates law not knowing that the underpass is in use already  Ignorance Ignorance in its Subject 1. Vincible Ignorance ( Conquerable Ignorance) -Ignorance that can be supplanted by knowledge by the use of ordinary diligence -Ignorance is due to lack of proper diligence  Ignorance Ignorance in its Result 1. Antecedent ignorance that which precedes all consent of the will 2. Concomitant accompanies an act that would have been performed even if the ignorance did not exist.  Concupiscence ❏ The bodily appetites or tendencies which are called the passions, and enumerated as: love, hatred, joy, grief, desire, fear, aversion, horror, hope, despair, courage or daring, and anger. ❏ Antecedent concupiscence or passion ❏ Consequent concupiscence or passion  Concupiscence Antecedent Concupiscence ❏ This is an act of man and an inculpable passion. ❏ When passions sprung into the action unstimulated by any act of the will. ❏ Always lessens the voluntariness of the act and diminishes the responsibility since it hinders reflection of reason and weakens attention. ❏ Does not destroy the responsibility of the agent since knowledge and freedom may be lessened but he is still the master of his acts. Example: ➔ The feeling of joy upon suddenly seeing a beautiful landscape. Concupiscence Consequent Concupiscence ❏ When the will, directly or indirectly, stirs up the passions ❏ However great does not lessen the voluntariness since it is willed directly or indirectly. ❏ Follows the free determination of the act and is freely admitted and consented to and deliberately aroused. Example: ➔ The anger that surges in resentment of adjust and offensive treatment. ➔ Planned revenge or assassination Fear ❏ Induces the will to do what it would not do otherwise. ❏ Shrinking back of the mind from danger. ❏ Agitation of mind brought about by the apprehension ❏ of impending evil. ❏ If fear is so great as to make the agent momentarily insane, the act done from fear is not voluntary at all, for it is an act of man and not a human act. But as long as the agent has the use of reason, his acts performed from fear are simply voluntary. ➔ Acts done with fear ➔ Acts done from fear Fear ❏ Acts done with fear ➔ Fear accompanies an act which in itself is voluntary. ➔ Example: ➔ When a person climbs a dangerous mountain at night. ❏ Acts done from fear ➔ Acts done because of fear. ➔ Example: ➔ When a person threatened with a gun yields his wealth to a thief. Violence ❏ External force applied by a free cause for the purpose of compelling a person to perform an act which is against his will.