Norms of Human Acts

Human acts is an act that is performed only by
a human being and thus is proper to man. When

a human being does such acts, they are called
acts of man but not human acts.
Human acts are directed to their true end by

LAW and law is applied by CONSCIENCE.
Hence, law and conscience are the directives
or norms of human acts
Law
 an ordinance of reason, promulgated for the

common good by one who has charge of
society.
St. Thomas
LAW
Law is a rule of external human action enforced by a

sovereign political authority
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Classification of Laws
According to their:
 Immediate author – Divine Laws (from God)

 Duration – Temporal or Eternal
 Manner of their Promulgation
 As they prescribe an act or forbid it
 The effect of their Violation
 Immediate author ( Divine Laws )
- Laws are distinguished as divine laws, which
come directly from God and
- Human laws which are the enactments of Church
or State. Human laws enacted by the church are
called ecclesiastical laws, while human laws
enacted by the State are called civil laws.
 Duration – Temporal or Eternal
- laws are temporal or eternal.
- the eternal law is God’s plan and providence for this
universe.
- all human laws are in themselves temporal,
although some of them give expression to
requirements of the Eternal Law.
 Manner of their Promulgation
- laws are distinguished as the Natural Law and Positive law
• Natural Law in the widest sense is that which directs
creatures to their end in accordance with their nature
and so understood, it coincides with the Eternal Law.
 Physical Law are the laws govern irrational creatures in
their being and activities
 Moral Law which is apprehended by sound and matured
human reason is called the natural law
• Positive Law are laws enacted by a positive act of
legislator, and these fall under the classification
already made as divine and human
 As they prescribe an act or forbid it
- laws are affirmative or negative
- Negative Laws are also called prohibitory laws.
 The effect of their Violation
- laws are distinguished as moral (violation of which is
fault or sin).
• Penal (violation of which is renders the violator liable to an
established penalty, but does not infect him with sin).
• Mixed, (violation of which involves both fault and penalty).
CONSCIENCE
-Derived from the Latin words “con” plus “scientia”
which means “with knowledge” of what is right or
wrong or “trial of oneself” both in accusation and in
defense.
- It is the “inner or little voice of God in man”
crying out man’s moral obligations and telling him
what to do and what to avoid in the moral order.
-is the practical judgement of reason upon an
individual act as good to be performed, or as evil to
be avoided.
Nature of Conscience
 Knowledge of right and wrong
 Values and Principles
 Ability to choose freely
 The urge to do what is good
Bertrand Russell Contention
 A celebrated British philosopher
 Claims that the consciences not a domain of the
intellectual faculty man.
 “voice of Conscience” is neither founded on moral
institutions from God nor on the rational faculty of man.
 Conscience covers several different of feelings which
man acquires from his experience and childhood
training.
 It is not a product of moral faculty but of infantile
conditioning
Butler’s Contention
 An 18th century exponent of conscience and a protestant Bishop
– claim that conscience is a principle of reflection in men.
 “ this principle is man, by which he approves or disapproves his
heart, temper, and actions is conscience; for this is the strict
sense of the word though sometimes it is used so as to take in
more.
 Butler contends further that there are two aspects of conscience.
 Cognitive ( or reflective)
 Imperative ( or authoritative)
Kinds of Conscience
• Antecedent
– judgment is passed before an action is performed.
• Consequent
– judgment is passed after an action is performed.
• Right/True
– judges what is really good as good and what is really evil as
evil according to the true principles of morality.
• Erroneous/False
– judges what is really bad as good and vice versa according to
a false interpretation of the moral principles.
• Certain conscience
– a subjective assurance of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of
certain actions to be done or to be omitted.
• Doubtful conscience
– a vacillating conscience, which is unable to form a definite judgment
on a certain action.
- a doubtful conscience must first be allowed to settle its doubts before
an action is performed.
• Lax conscience
– is one which refuses to be bothered about the distinction of good and
evil. It tends to follow the easy way and to find excuses for omissions and
mistakes. These are people who act on the impulse of “bahala na” on
matters of morals.
• Scrupulous conscience
– is a rigorous conscience, extremely afraid of committing evil.
-A scrupulous conscience is meticulous and wants incontrovertible
proofs before it acts . It is frequently the result of a stubborn character.
-For some, it merely means a serious concern about moral perfection.
Martin Heidegger’s Concept of Conscience
 This modern philosopher says that conscience and guilt precede morality or
ethics
 This means that conscience is independent of preexisting norms, because it
is primordial than them.
 Now, if conscience is rooted in our relatedness to our very selves and to
others then our conscience should lead us to respect the personhood of
others.
 In this light, Heidegger is admonishing us that once we attain authenticity, we
are called to help others realize that to be authentic means to be attuned
with the dictates of our well- educated conscience.
Norms of Morality
Norm
- Something by which an act or conduct is measured
as good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral; rule or
standard; criteria for judgement.
Norms of Morality
- The standard of right and wrong in human actions
Two Norms of Morality:
• Eternal Divine Law (objective)
- The ultimate and absolute norm of morality;
independent of any standard
• Human Reason(subjective)
- As related to the person’s conscience Law
as the object norm of morality
Determinants of Morality
 Object
- what the free will choose to do – in THOUGHT, WORD, or
DEED – or chooses not to do.
 End
- The purpose for which the act is willed
 Circumstances
- all the elements that surrounds a human action and
affects its morality without belongings to its essence Who?
Where? How? How much? By what means? How often?
• To be morally good a human act must agree with the
norm of morality on all these accounts – its NATURE, its
MOTIVE and it CIRCUMSTANCES

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Human acts is an act that is performed only by

a human being and thus is proper to man. When

Human acts are directed to their true end by

 an ordinance of reason, promulgated for the

Law is a rule of external human action enforced by a

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 Immediate author – Divine Laws (from God)

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