HUMAN ACT

Human Acts
 Those of which a man is a master, which he has the power of doing or not doing as he
pleases.”
 Those acts which precede from man a rational being.
 Voluntary

Acts of Man
 actions committed by unconscious and insane persons, infants, or by those physically forced
to do something
 Actions which merely happen in the body or through the body without awareness of the mind
or the control of the will
 Involuntary

Determinants of the Human Act

1. The object of the act
2. The end, or purpose;
3. Its circumstances

1. The Object
 It is the thing done.
 In reality, it is not distinct from the act itself.
 It may be viewed as containing a further specification e.g. going to church, praising God,
not eating meat.
For an individual human act to be good, its object, whether considered in itself or as
further specified must be free from all defect
2. The End
 The end here spoken of is not the end of the work, but the end of the workman or the
agent.
 No matter how good the object of an act may be, if the end intended is bad, the act is
thereby vitiated, spoiled or impaired.
3. The Circumstances
 Time, place, and persons have their part in determining the morality of an individual act.
 The moral character of an act may be so affected by attendant circumstances that an act
good in itself may be evil when accompanied by certain consequences, for example, it is
good to give drink to the thirsty, but if the thirsty man is morally weak and the drink is
intoxicating, the act may be evil.

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 ACCOUNTABILITY OF MORAL ACT

TO WHOM ARE WE ACCOUNTABLE?

Violation of Laws - Government
Violation of moral standards -
Theists - God
Nontheists - Themselves

THREE BASES FOR MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY

1. Knowledge
 The awareness of, or familiarity with a fact, situation, or truth, unveiled through
experience or disclosed in dialogue or encounter with persons or things.”
 To have genuine knowledge your mind must be normal, not impaired or vitiated by
mental condition or ignorance.
2. Freedom
 An act is freely done when you can exercise your power of choice.
 Freedom should not be impaired by an irresistible force or uncontrollable fear.
3. Voluntariness
 An act is voluntarily if it either intentional or negligent.
 An act is voluntarily intended when it is done with the aim, purpose, or goal of attaining a
result.
 An act is negligent when it is done voluntarily, but without care or precaution in avoiding
the happening of foreseeable event.
Act Of God - When something is done purely by accident, also referred to as fortuitous
event.

MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT

1. Ignorance
 The absence of knowledge.
 Invincible ignorance - one that is beyond one’s ability to overcome by due amount of
diligence.
 Gross or supine ignorance - scarcely an effort has been made to remove it
 Affected ignorance - exists when a person deliberately avoids enlightenment to sin
more freely.
2. Passion
 The positive emotions like love, desire, delight, hope, and bravery and negative emotions
like hatred, horror, sadness, despair, and anger.
 Antecedent passions - those that precede the act, do not always destroy voluntariness,
but they diminish accountability for the resultant act.
 Consequent passions - those that are intentionally aroused and kept, they do not
lessen voluntariness, but may increase accountability.
3. Fear
 The disturbance of the mind of a person due to an impending danger or harm to himself
or loved ones.
 Acts done with fear is voluntary
 Acts done because of intense or uncontrollable fear or panic are involuntary.
 4. Violence
 Any physical force exerted on a person by another free agent for the purpose of
compelling said person to act against his will.
 Actions performed by person subjected to violence or irresistible force is involuntary and
not accountable.

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FEELING AS MODIFIER OF MORAL DECISION-MAKING

Feeling
 an emotional state or reaction, experience of physical sensation, like feeling of joy, feeling of
warmth, love, affection, tenderness, etc.

HOW DO THEY AFFECT MORAL DECISION-MAKING?

 Several studies conclude that up to 90 percent of the decisions we made are based on
emotion.
 Actual emotional states can influence the process of moral reasoning and determine moral
judgment

ADVANTAGES OF EMOTIONAL DECISION

 A totally emotional decision is very fast in comparison to a rational decision. This is reactive
and can be useful when faced with immediate danger, or in decisions of minimal significance.
 Emotions may provide a way for coding and compacting experience, enabling fast response
selection. This may point to why expert’s “gut” level decisions have high accuracy rates.
 Decisions that start with logic may need emotions to enable the final selection, particularly
when confronted near equal options.
 Emotions drive us in directions conflicting with self-interest.

DISADVANTAGES OF EMOTIONAL DECISION

 We make quick decisions without knowing why, and then create rational reasons to justify a
poor emotional decision.
 Intensity of emotions can override rational decision-making in cases where it is clearly needed.
 Immediate unrelated emotions can create mistakes by distorting and creating bias in
judgements. In some cases this can lead to unexpected and reckless action.
 Projected emotions can lead to errors because people are subject to systemic inaccuracy
about how they will feel in the future.

MORAL STATEMENTS AS EXPRESSION OF FEELINGS

 According to emotivists the statement “stealing is wrong” is not a statement of fact, it is an
expression of a desire or emotion.
 The maxim “stealing is wrong” means “I desire that you do not steal”
 Emotivists view that moral judgments do not function as statements of fact but rather as
expression of the speaker’s or the writer’s feelings.

MANAGING FEELINGS
 Anger should not be misplaced.
 The moral person manages his/her feelings well.

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 REASON AND IMPARTIALITY AS MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR MORALITY

SCOTT RAE’S 7 STEPS OF MORAL REASONING

1. GATHER THE FACTS (INFORMATION)

 The simplest way of clarifying an ethical dilemma is to make sure the facts are clear
2. DETERMINE THE ETHICAL ISSUES, SIMILAR TO “STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM”
 If you cannot identify the underlying values/virtues then you do not have an ethical
dilemma to exist.
3. DETERMINE WHAT PRINCIPLES / VALUES HAVE A BEARING ON THE CASE.
 This is similar to identifying the relevant factors (internal and external)
 Determine if some should be given more weight than others.
 Ask what the source of the principle is.
4. LIST THE ALTERNATIVES OR DEVELOP A LIST OF OPTIONS
 Creatively determine possible courses of action for your dilemma.
5. COMPARE THE ALTERNATIVES WITH THE VIRTUES
 Here you have to weigh principles and virtues - make sure you have a good reason for
each weighing.
6. CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES
 Here you have to weigh principles and virtues - make sure you have a good reason for
each weighing.

TESTING THE OPTIONS

a) Harm Test - Does this option do less harm than the alternatives?
b) Publicity Test - Would I want my choice of this option published?
c) Defensibility Test - Could I defend my choice of option before a congressional
committee or committee of peers?
d) Reversibility Test - Would I still think this option was a good choice if I were adversely
affected by it?
e) Colleague Test - What do my colleagues say when I describe my problem and suggests
this option as my solution?
f) Professional Test - What might my profession’s governing body for ethics say about
this option?
g) Organization Test - What does my company’s ethics officer or legal counsel say about
this?

7. MAKE A DECISION
 Ethical decisions rarely have pain-free solutions.

STEPS OF THE VALUES CLARIFICATION MODEL

1. CHOOSING FREELY - Did you choose this value freely? Where do you suppose you first
got that idea? Or “Are you the only one among your friends who feels this way?”
2. CHOOSING FROM ALTERNATIVES - What reasons do you have for your choice? How
long did you think about this problem before you decided?
3. CHOOSING AFTER THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATION - What would happen if this choice
were implemented? Or what is good about this choice? What could be good about the other
choices?
 4. PRIZING AND BEING HAPPY WITH THE CHOICE - Are you happy about feeling this way?
Or why is this important to you?
5. PRIZING AND WILLING TO AFFIRM THE CHOICE PUBLICLY - Would you be willing to
tell the class how you feel? Or should someone who feels like you stand up in public and tell
people how he or she feels?
6. ACTING ON THE CHOICE - What will you do about your choice? What will you do next? Or
Are you interested in joining this group of people who think the same as you do about this?
7. ACTING REPEATEDLY IN SOME PATTERN OF LIFE - Have you done anything about it?
Will you it again? Or should you try to get other people interested in it?

THREE BIG CLARIFYING QUESTIONS

1. Did you choose freely?

2. Do you prize or cherish your choice by publicly affirming it and by campaigning for others to
choose it?
3. Do you act on your choice repeatedly and consistently?
if you answered yes to the questions, then the moral decision can be said to be a
product of reason.

CREATIVE RESPONSIBILITY
A creative response :
1. Involves positive human action;
2. Creates a response;
3. Means to choose from among many possible fitting responses;
4. Individual must be in constant dialogue with the community

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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REASON AND WILL

 The moral person is endowed with intellect and will

Reason
 Conducts the study, research, investigation, fact-finding
 Uses logic, the principle of consistency, avoids fallacious reasoning to come up with
a truthful and accurate proposition

Will
 The faculty of the mind that is associated with decision making.
 It’s the one that says yes or no
 Decision making can be developed through will

Free Will
 The ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded, the
power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
 The power of self-determination
 “When thne will is free, there is freedom.
Freedom
 Implies power, energy, strength in all human dimensions, as the stuff of freedom
 The capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various
alternatives

Free Person
 One who is physically healthy and strong, psychologically normal, and financially
stable.

Jean Paul Sartre – an individual person is nothing until he / she starts making decisions
Hornedo (1972) – the stuff of the free will is a multi-dimensional power, energy, or strength

Courage
 According to Paul Tillich, it is self-affirmation ‘in-spite-of’, that is in spite of that
which tends to prevent the self from affirming itself
 The affirmation of being inspite of non-being
 Accepting oneself inspite of one’s defects, lack, or imperfections, affirming the world
we live in inspite all that it lacks.

SUMMARY OF ENUMERATION

Determinants of the human act 7. Make a decision

1. The object
2. The end Testing the options
3. Its circumstances 1. Harm test
2. Publicity test
Three bases for moral accountability 3. Defensibility test
1. Knowledge 4. Reversibility test
2. Freedom 5. Colleague test
3. Voluntariness 6. Professional test
Modifiers of human act 7. Organization test
1. Ignorance
2. Passion Steps of the values clarification model
3. Fear 1. Choosing freely
4. Violence 2. Choosing from alternatives
3. Choosing after thoughtful consideration
Scott Rae’s 7 steps of moral reasoning 4. Prizing and being happy with the choice
1. Gather the facts (information) 5. Prizing and willing to affirm the choice
2. Determine the ethical issues, similar to publicly
“statement of the problem” 6. Acting on the choice
3. Determine what principles / values have a 7. Acting repeatedly in some pattern of life
bearing on the case.
4. List the alternatives or develop a list of
options
5. Compare the alternatives with the virtues
6. Consider the consequences