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Ethics lecture 3

Chapter 3 discusses the distinction between involuntary and voluntary actions, emphasizing the importance of intention in law and morality. It outlines different levels of intention and modifiers of responsibility, such as ignorance, passion, fear, and habit, which can influence accountability. The chapter concludes that while actual intention is not always necessary, the influence of prior intention on actions is crucial in determining responsibility.

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Ciara Louise Loo
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2 views

Ethics lecture 3

Chapter 3 discusses the distinction between involuntary and voluntary actions, emphasizing the importance of intention in law and morality. It outlines different levels of intention and modifiers of responsibility, such as ignorance, passion, fear, and habit, which can influence accountability. The chapter concludes that while actual intention is not always necessary, the influence of prior intention on actions is crucial in determining responsibility.

Uploaded by

Ciara Louise Loo
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 3 - RESPONSIBILITY

Difference between “I am not willing to do” and “I am willing not to do”

“I am not willing to do” - involuntary act, forced to do the act


“I am willing not to do” - voluntary act, intentional/ refusal to do the act

Law and morality

Law - there is an external act committed and then you can be held accountable.

Morality - it’s not always that you have to consider only the external act committed but also
intention because if you perform the act unintentionally, you can’t also be held accountable.
(Ex. you are driving your own vehicle, then you hit a bystander and he/she died. What is the
crime committed? Not murder nor homicide because of the absence of intention. You can be
held liable with reckless imprudence & gross negligence/ homicide)

Question: Is it really necessary that the time that you performed the act, the intention must
also be present? So while doing the act, you must also be conscious of the intention?

Answer: Not necessarily, so long as your act is influenced by your intention. In other words,
there are levels of intention.

Levels of intention:
1. Actual intention - at the time you perform the act simultaneously you are also aware
of your intention.
(Ex. if you cheat, and at the same time you are also aware that you cheated.)
2. Virtual intention - you made a prior intention but at the time you performed the act,
the intention is not present. Possibly your mind is thinking about other things rather
than your intention but the act is influenced by your prior intention.
(Ex. prior intention of thinking about riding a taxi while your mind thinks about other
things like your exam.)
3. Habitual intention - you made a prior intention but at the time you performed the act,
the intention is not present and at the same time the act is not affected by your
intention. It is simply just a coincidence.
(Ex.1 thinking about killing your friend while you're out hunting for deers. You killed
the deer thinking about killing your friend.)
(Ex.2 You want a new car, and you won a new car. It was not your intention to win a
new car, but it’s a coincidence that you won a new car.)
4. Interpretative intention - after the act was committed.
(Ex. you rob a bank and then you are caught and then you confess but really it was
not your intention but it was your intention to distribute the money to the poor. That
intention was made after you were caught.)

Actual intention is not really necessary. Virtual intention would suffice because the act
is influenced by your prior intention. Habitual & interpretative has no bearing to action &
intention which can be said that you performed the act unintentionally so you can’t be held
accountable.
It is not necessary that the time you perform the act “the intention must be present”
so long as the act is affected by your intention.
Modifiers of responsibility - factors that influence the knowledge of the act or will to do the
act then it will also influence your responsibility. It could lessen or increase your
responsibility.

Modifiers of responsibility:

1. Ignorance - lack of knowledge


Types of ignorance:
1) Invincible ignorance - lack of knowledge that can’t be overcome no matter
what. No means of overcoming your ignorance.

Reasons why it can’t be overcome:


A. You are ignorant of your ignorance. You don’t know your state of
ignorance. How can you overcome it?
B. Even if you know that you do not know so long as you have no means
of overcoming it.
(Ex. you want to buy something in the canteen, not knowing the
money is counterfeit.)

2) Vincible ignorance - you know that you do not know and you have the means
of overcoming your lack of knowledge. By reading and researching, etc.
3) Affected ignorance - actually you're not ignorant but you are making
ignorance as your excuse.
(Ex. there is a notice that there is an exam but you made ignorance that you
have not read about that post so that you can excuse yourself.)

For law, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

2. Passion
Types of passion:
1) Antecedent passion - before the will can act, you are so overwhelmed/ so
carried by your emotions. Weighing the pros and cons of the actions that you
are about to undertake. If it is prior to the act as much as you are deprived of
the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons of the actions, then it absolves you
from responsibility.
2) Consequent passion - after you perform the act. If you know that you know,
then it increases your responsibility.
(Ex. if you see someone getting raped, then immediately you respond. Like
when you nurture the feeling to avenge or take action after the crime has
been committed.)

3. Fear - apprehension of an impending evil. Evil is imminent to happen.


(Ex. you are motivated by that fear that you can’t graduate then you cheat.)
4. Force - actual use of compulsion, intimidation. You are forced to do something and
end up reducing yourself as a mere instrument for the will of others.
5. Habit - constant way of acting obtained through the repetition of the same act. It
becomes a habit and consciously or unconsciously, you perform the act. You don’t
have to deliberate or spend time thinking about it anymore. Somehow it is
simultaneous and mitigates your responsibility.
6. Intoxication
7. Addiction
8. And so on… (sleepiness, sickness, pain, alcohol, drugs, and other conditions)

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