The Human Act

● Actions, since they are products of our thoughts

and desires, reveal our moral character.
● What we are and what becomes of us as
persons depends on our choices and
actuations.

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 Attributes of Human Act
● Human acts are those performed by a person
who is acting knowingly, freely, and willfully.
● These actions are deliberate, intentional, or
voluntary. They are differentiated from acts of
man which are instinctive and are not under the
control of the freewill.

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 1. An act is done knowingly when the doer is
conscious and aware of the reason and the
consequences of his actions. Every normal
person of age is presumed to act knowingly.
● However, children below the age of reason, the
senile and the insane – are considered
incapable of moral judgment.

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● An act is done freely when the doer acts by his
own initiative and choice without being forced to
do so by another person or situation. An action
done under duress and against one’s freewill is
not a voluntary action.
● A person is not acting freely when he gives up
his money to a robber who threatens him with a
knife.

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● An act is done willfully when the doer consents
to the act, accepting it as his own, and
assumes accountability for its consequences

-An act w/c lacks of any of the above

mentioned attributes is either imperfectly
voluntary or involuntary.

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 Kinds of Human acts
Human acts are either elicited or commanded
acts.
A. Elicited Acts are those performed by the
Will but are not bodily externalized such as the
following:
1. Wish is the tendency of the Will towards an
object, without considering whether it is
attainable or not. The object of wishing includes
the impossible, or that w/c is remotely possible,
w/c is winning the lotto.

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 2. Intention is the tendency of the will towards
an object w/c is attainable, w/o necessarily
committing oneself to get it.
● A student, for instance, may intend to study
without applying himself to the task.
3.Consent is the acceptance of the Will to carry
out the intention.
● A student shows consent to the act of studying
when he accepts the reasons and
accountability for undertaking the act.

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 4. Election is the selection of the will of those
means necessary to carry out the intention.
● The student, for instance, may elect to stay in
the library to study his lesson, or seek a friend
to help him.
5.Use is the command of the Will to make use
of the means elected to carry out the intention,
such as when the student makes up his mind to
stay in the library to study.

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 6. Fruition is the enjoyment of the Will due to
the attainment of the intention. The student may
feel satisfied about the prospect of learning the
lesson and being prepared for the class.
B. Commanded acts are the mental and bodily
actions performed under the command of the
will. These are either internal or external
actions.
● Internal actions are those performed
mentally, such as reasoning, recalling,
imagining, and reflecting.

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● External actions are those performed bodily,
such as walking, dancing, talking, and writing.
All external actions derive themselves from the
internal acts, since every deliberate act is first
thought of and decided mentally.
● Thus, philosophers speak of human acts as
“being first in intention, but last in execution”.

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 Moral Distinctions
● Human acts are either moral, immoral, or
amoral.
1. Moral actions are those in conformity w/ the
norm of morality. They are good and
permissible actions, such as working, studying,
paying debts, telling the truth, loving someone,
etcetera.

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 2. Immoral actions are those w/c are not in
conformity w/ the norm of morality. They are evil
and prohibited actions, such as cursing,
cheating, stealing, lying, etcetera.
3. Amoral actions are those which stand
neutral or indifferent to the norm of morality.
These acts are neither good nor evil, but they
may become evil because of circumstances…
● Playing basketball becomes morally wrong
when it causes a student to miss his class.
Drinking wine is amoral, but excessive drinking
is wrong.

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● The adjectives ethical and unethical are
respectively synonymous w/ right and wrong,
proper and improper.
● They best describe actions in relation to
professional standards rather than in relation to
moral laws.
● A doctor who reveals information about his
patient is unethical but not necessarily immoral.

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 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Evil

● Immoral acts are either intrinsically or

extrinsically evil.
● An act is intrinsically evil when its wrongfulness
is part of the nature of such act.
● The act of stealing, because it consist in
depriving someone his property against his will,
is intrinsically evil.

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● An act is extrinsically evil when its wrongfulness
comes from an outside factor.
● The act of alms-giving, though good in itself, is
extrinsically evil when it is done for purposes of
building one’s public image.
● This indicates that actions which are
themselves good or neutral may become evil
due to external factors, whether this be the
motive of the person or the circumstances of
the act.

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 Voluntariness
● Voluntariness, or volition, comes from the Latin
“voluntas” which mean the Will.
● An act is voluntary because it is done under the
control of the will.
● Voluntariness is either perfect or imperfect,
either simple or conditional.

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1. Perfect voluntariness is possessed by a
person who is acting w/ full of knowledge and
complete freedom. We act w/ perfect
volunatriess when, for instance, we are eating
our favorite food or when we are telling a story
to a friend.
2. Imperfect voluntariness is possessed by a
person who acts w/o full understanding what he
is doing, or w/o complete freedom. We act w/
imperfect volunatariness when we perform an
act which we dislike.

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 3. Simple voluntariness is the disposition of a
person performing any activity regardless of his
liking or not liking it.
● Simple volunatariness is either positive or
negative.
● It is positive when the act requires the
performance of an activity, such as taking the
train, going for a walking, or caring for a sick
person.
● It is negative when it requires the omission of
an activity, such as refraining from talking, or
not taking prohibited drugs.

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 4. Conditional voluntariness is disposition of
a person who is forced by circumstances to
perform an act which he would not do under
normal conditions.
● A person who gives up his money to the robber
is acting w/ conditional volunatariness.

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