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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND

SCIENCES
Department of Social Sciences

NAME OF THE General Education

PROGRAM
COURSE TITLE Ethics COURSE CODE HUM102
PREREQUISITE/ CO- None COURSE UNIT 3 units
REQUISITE
COURSE OUTCOME CO1: discuss the nature of ethics and the factors that may affect ethical
standards
MODULE 1 Ethics as a branch of Philosophy
LESSON LEARNING After successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
OUTCOME/S a. Ability to discuss the genral knowledge in ethics
b. Ability to apply ethics in different life disciplines
c. Ability to identify the determinants of morality
TOPICS Philosophy of the self as viewed by different philosophers
WEEK / INCLUSIVE Weeks 1-2
DATE January 30 - February 10
MODALITY Synchronous (MS Teams) and Asynchronous (Neo LMS)

 LESSON PROPER

Human Acts 2. Human acts must be free.

Actions that are proper to humans, thus the An individual as the moral agent is free from any
crucial element of willful consent and knowledge of the external factors as well as internal pressure to do an
action must be present. One must freely use his/her act. He/she is neither forced nor intimidated to do or
intellect and freewill when acting. Human acts reveal not to do something (Living a Christian Moral Life,
the value of responsibility. or accountability. 2013).
Human acts reveal the value of responsibility or There is an obvious absence of constraint from within
accountability. Man/woman takes into RESPONSIBILITY and outside of the individual. He/she is free to do the
of these actions. act without the influence of an outside factor and
personal pressure from within. He/she does the act so
HUMAN ACTS VS. ACTS OF MAN independently and not because of shame, request, or
control from someone else nor from emotional
Essential qualities of Human Acts disturbance.
 KNOWLEDGE OF THE ACT IT MUST
BE DELIBERATE 3. Human acts are voluntary.
 FREEDOM IT MUST BE FREE
 VOLUNTARINESS IT MUST BE The action proceeds from the willingness of an
VOLUNTARY individual to perform an action with a perceived
knowledge of the end. (Living a Christian Moral Life,
Essential qualities of Acts of Man 2013). It asks the question: Are you willing to do the
 DONE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE act? and do you know what you are doing and where
 WITHOUT CONSENT your action is leading into? He/she wills to perform the
 INVOLUNTARY act with the understanding that he/she knows
consciously where his/her actions are leading into.

Constituents of Human Acts As an object of morality, the human action is done with
full knowledge of the action, performed with the use of
1. Human acts must be known and deliberate.
free will, and acted upon voluntarily. The absence of these
An individual, as the moral agent, has full knowledge three crucial determinants renders the action as a mere act
of doing a certain action. There is prior knowledge and of man
a deliberate evaluation of whether to fulfill an action or
not (Living a Christian Moral Life, 2013). It asks the As an object of morality, the human action is done with
questions: Do you know exactly what you are doing? full knowledge of the action, performed with the use of
or Do you do the act intentionally? He/she must have free will, and acted upon voluntarily. The absence of these
full knowledge and consent of his/her action. three crucial determinants renders the action as a mere act
of man
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND

SCIENCES
Department of Social Sciences

Modifiers of Human acts 3. Fear

Human actions, though naturally a product of will and Fear affects the performance of a human act since the
reason, are sometimes influenced by certain factors, which individual is threatened by the impending dangers
are called impediments to human actions. These factors (ginawa or nagawa mo yung isang bagay kasi tinakot
intervene and bar one’s actions from being human or ka) The presence of danger and intimidation affects
contribute to the reduction of the quality of a certain his/her thought-processes in determining the goodness
action. The impediments affect the quality of human acts. or badness of his/her actions.
A human act done with fear is considered voluntary,
therefore it will be culpable if it is a bad act. The act is
1. Ignorance still culpable because one can still choose not to act
Pertains to the lack of pertinent information, as to the despite the fear or danger. Example: They forced a
nature, circumstances, and effect of a certain action. woman to remove her clothes with a gun pointing at
Ignorance takes place when an individual consciously her, the woman can still choose not to do the act.
proceeds to act on a certain matter without due However, the culpability of a bad act done out of fear
consideration of the relevant or necessary information can be lessened, increase, or even negated depending
related to it on the gravity of the threat and the circumstance
surrounding the action especially in a situation where
2. Concupiscence - defined as a compelling desire for one just follows his/her instinct to survive.
something. It can also refer to a person's sexual desire
or lust. 4. Violence
The morality here is that one is culpable if he/she will not
A situation where one’s inordinate passion hinders one exert all the necessary efforts to defend herself/ himself
to exercise correct reasoning, thus also affects his/her from the aggressor if needed if his life or dignity is at
action. stake. Although, the culpability can be lessened depending
on the circumstance.
Passions mean our emotional elements like anger, Self-defense is a classic example in the face of aggression
pride, envy, love, joy, etc. Not all passions are bad. wherein one has to protect himself/herself from the
Some are innately bad, but some become bad only attacker.
when they are excessive or called inordinately. An
example is a pride and anger, these two becomes bad 5. Habits
only when they become excessive that they already A firm and stable behavior pattern of acting. An individual
control one’s mind and even push him/her to do a naturally and consciously performs an action as a result of
certain action its repetitive perormance through time. One acts based on
his/her repeated response to situations.

 REFERENCES
Ariola, M. (2018). ETHICS Manila: Unlimited Books Library Services & Publishing Inc

Corpuz, R., Corpuz, B(2020). Ethics. LORIMAR Publishing Inc.

De Guzman J M, Aquino, E., et al, (2017). ETHICS: Principles of Ethical Behavior in Modern Society. Malaban
City: Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
Pasco, M O., Suarez, V., et. al. (2018). ETHICS. Quezon City: C & E Publishing Inc.