INTRODUCTION

Human beings are the only creatures who have knowledge and freedom to do what they
want or avoid those that they don’t. Thus, it is very clear that they are their own
responsibility and accountability, particularly on the consequences that they bring. They
also bring with them a quality of a human act which can be identified as good act, evil
act, or indifferent act. This quality of a human act is commonly known in Ethics as
“morality”.

A practical discussion about human acts in this chapter will be introduced including its
classification and their relation with reason or norm of morality which constitutes
morality of human acts.

DESCRIPTION ON THE NATURE OF HUMAN ACTS

Human act is an act which proceeds from the deliberate free-will of man. The term
“deliberate” means “knowing” or something that pertains to the act of understanding.
For example, the act of shooting a bird by a hunter is a human act, even if it happens in
a split-second because it is done with full knowledge and he is free to do or avoid it.

On the other hand, sometimes a person does something without full knowledge or full
freedom. In this case, this act is called “act of man”. A common case here is an act done
by an insane person because he/she does not fully know what he/she is doing. Take note
that when knowledge is absent, freedom is also absent. Just imagine that no one can
freely chose an apple if he has no knowledge of what an apple really is. Thus, any “act of
man” done is a result of a defect in the knowledge or freedom, or maybe both knowledge
and freedom of a person.

Based on this, a human act contains three important elements determined by the two
faculties of man which we call intellect (mind) and will (the power of freedom of choice).
The intellect of man makes judgments and results in what is called knowledge, while the
will is the one which affords man the freedom of choice- the reason why such is
normally known as freewill.

Through the faculties of man, the elements of a human act are determined as:
knowledge; freedom; and voluntariness.

Knowledge refers to deliberation. Thus, a knowing act is a deliberate act. It is presumed

Freedom refers to the absence of both internal and external constraints upon a desired
action. All actions done by humans are also presumed free except if there is an evidence
that the person performing them is deprived of exercising freewill or his/her consent is
vitiated by certain imperfections to free choice.

Voluntariness refers to the element of a human act as a result of the presence of both
knowledge and freedom. Thus, it is presumed that in ordinary situations, any act done
by a person is voluntary provided there is no lacking knowledge nor freedom in the
action. Hence, it is said that a human act is a voluntary act or will-act.

Now, always remember that, in Ethics, a human act is a voluntary act or will-act except
if there is a problem in knowledge or freedom wherein it can be called an act of man
instead.

In the study of Ethics, the main concern is the understanding of principles covering
human acts. A discussion on acts of man might only be included if doing so would make
the understanding of human acts better.

CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN ACTS

Human acts are classified based on their source and based on their relation with reason.

CLASSIFICATION BASED ON THEIR SOURCE

If human acts are determined to emanate from the will, then they are classified either as
Elicited Acts or Commanded Acts.

All Elicited Acts are those that come from the will and are perfected in it. It means, they
are not necessarily in need of observable bodily performance. On the other hand,
Commanded Acts are those which start from the will but are perfected by other bodily
parts. Take note that there lies a difference as to whether an action is perfected by the
will or by other bodily parts.

ELICITED ACTS

The following are considered the Elicited Acts:

1. Wish

The first love of anything regarded as realizable or not. It is believed that every elicited
act starts from a wish whether realizable or not. Thus, it is a normal elicited act to wish
something so ambitious or something so reachable like when one says “I wish to win the
lottery” although in reality he did not buy any lottery ticket.
 2. Intention

It is the tendency towards something regarded as realizable and attainable. If after a

3. Consent

It is the acceptance by the will of the means necessary to achieve the intention. This is a
furtherance of intention. It is here that one will exercise freedom of choice in order to
achieve the intention made. For example, the person intends to win the lotto and he
starts allocating a certain portion of his monthly salary for lottery bets. Consent
becomes a furtherance of intention.

4. Election

It is the selection by the will of the precise means to achieve the intention. For example,
it is not enough that there is allocation of a certain portion of one’s monthly salary for
lottery tickets. It is important to determine the exact amount to allocate from the
monthly salary like a daily expense of PhP200 good for 30 days on a monthly basis
making it a total of PhP 6,000 per month.

5. Use

This refers to the actual performance of the selected means in order to achieve the
intention. In continuation with the example, the actual betting in the lottery is
considered use.

6. Fruition

This refers to satisfaction and enjoyment of the thing desired as stated in one’s
intention. For example, if after thousands of times of betting in the lotto, the gambler
won the lottery jackpot prize, then fruition is achieved.

COMMANDED ACTS

The following acts are known as commanded acts:

1. Internal acts
are actions done by internal mental powers under the command of the will.
Example: effort to imagine, reason, recall, and control emotions. Hence, the act
of nerving oneself to picture the page number where the topic is located is an
internal act.
 2. External acts
are actions which are performed by bodily powers under the command of the will.
Example: intentional or deliberate acts of walking, eating, and dancing.So all
actions done with a purpose or motive which are observable human acts are all
external acts. Of course, walking done by a person is an external act but must be
considered deliberate or intentional, otherwise it is not considered and external
act if it has a problem with knowledge or freedom like in the case of a psychotic
walking on the street who is deprived of the use of knowledge or freedom,
3. Mixed acts
are actions that involve the employment of bodily powers and the mental powers.
Examples include: listening, reading, writing assuming they all involve the use of
both control of the mind over observable bodily actions. It is simply said in Ethics
that the combination of Internal and External Acts produce Mixed Acts.

CLASSIFICATION BASED ON RELATION WITH REASON

Human acts are either in agreement or in disagreement with the dictates of reason or
what we call conscience. This relation with reason or conscience constitutes their
morality.

The said acts are said to be:

1. Good act
A human act, which is in harmony or agreement with the dictates of reason. It
conforms to the norm of morality. Example: working, studying, or telling the
truth. Hence, there is no amount of deviation of a human act fromconscience.
2. Evil/Immoral act
A human act which is not in agreement with the dictates of reason. It does not
conform to the norm of morality. Example: murder, adultery, stealing. Here,
there is a deviation of a human act from conscience.
3. Indifferent/Amoral
An action which stands no positive relation to the dictates of reason. An action
that is neutral to the norm of morality. It is neither good nor bad in itself.
Example: Playing basketball, but if ones plays basketball wherein, he is supposed
to attend his class is wrong. On the other hand, if one plays basketball in order to
perform his duty to help his team win is good.

In the real world, any human act done is only either good or evil and there is no way an
indifferent or amoral act can ensue from the will. Why is it so? Because any human act
done is later on influenced by the intention and circumstances which can add more
goodness or evilness to an act. The reality is that even when what is done is less evil but
such act is influenced by a malicious intention, then it becomes gravely evil. Likewise,
when a simple good act carries with a more noble intention, it becomes a more good
action. Thus, an indifferent or amoral act is only possible in theory but not in actual
situation. It is only included here in order to show the possible classification of human
acts based on their relation to reason or conscience.