group 3 REPORTERS

Darren
Abraham

Draike John Paul Paul

Bargas Canlas Barrozo

Andrea Jules Dan Allen

Argueza Cacho Alvaran

Peter Louie Khenjie

John Paul
Baron Cabailo Cañero
The Human Act As
Willfully Done

BY GROUP 3
 Introduction
This module is concerned with developing your
understanding of what human act as willfully done
is, the modifier of free will, and feelings and moral
decision making. It is hoped that the discussion,
description and explanation in this module will
further help in your journey to the understanding of
ethics, especially will as an essential attribute of
human act and the role of feelings in making
moral decision. Make use of this module to provide
you with insights and ideas to help you understand
free will as an essential attribute of a human act
and the role of feelings in moral decision making.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
With the completion of this self-learning module, you should be able to

1. Describe free will as an essential attribute of human act.

2 Cite and explain the principles related to

passions and habits as modifiers of knowledge.

3 Capture and analyse their feelings in personal moral

experience
 Acts as Willfully Done

One essential attribute of an act to be truly human is the

willingness to do the act; you like doing it, you love doing it and
F_or___e
your mind, your heart, your soul and your whole self is with.
Whether it be elicited or commanded, the willingness should be
present to be truly human and to have moral significance.
 Will

• refers to that faculty of the mind which chooses, at the moment of

making decision, the strongest desire from among the various desires
present
• It does not refer to any particular desire, but rather to the capacity to
act decisively on one's desire. Within the philosophy the will is important
as one of the distinct part in ethics because of its central role in
enabling a person to act deliberately.
Modifiers of the Will :
Passions and Habits
-As the moral significance of a human act is very
important, it good to know that there are instances
when the presence or absence of such essential
attribute can make a difference in the determination
of its moral distinction as to whether moral immoral or
amoral.
 Passion or Concupisence

-are either tendencies towards desirable objects

or tendencies away from undesirable or harmful
things. -Former are called positive emotions. -
Latter are those negative emotions. -Passion are
physic response either be moral or immoral. .
Passions are either antecedent or consequent

-antecedent passions are those

that precede an act. It may happen that
a person is emotionally aroused to
perform an act.

-Antecedent passions predisposed a person to act.

•ANTECEDENT PASSIONS (crimes of passion)

-do not always destroy voluntariness.

-weaken the will power of a person without

however, completely obstructing his freedom.
 •CONSEQUENT PASSIONS
- do not lessen voluntariness.
-are those intentionally aroused
and kept.
-are said to be voluntary in
cause, the result of the will
playing the strings of emotions. Reference:
Burckhardt, Jacob. “The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Civilisation of The Renaissance In Italy, by Jacob Burckhardt.” Gutenberg.Org, Project Gutenberg, 20 Oct.
2014, www.gutenberg.org/files/2074/2074-h/2074-h.htm.
 Habit
- Habit is a lasting readiness and faculty,
frequently repeated acts, for acting in a
certain manner.
- It is easy for one to acquire habit.
- It also implies that a habit is not easy to
overcome or alter it.
- It requires a strong willed person to
correct a habit successfully within a
limited period of time.
- Alcoholics and smokers find it
almost impossible to reform.
- Habits are either good or bad.
- Bad habits leads to immoral
acts.
- When a person decides to fight
his habit, and for as long as the
effort towards this purpose
continues, actions resulting from
such habit may be regarded as
Acts of man and not
accountable.
 •Feeling as Instinctive response to Moral
Dilemmas

~ Ethics is also a matter of emotion, moral judgments

at their best shouldF_or___e
be emotional, Feelings are
deemed as instinctive and train response to moral
Dilemmas.
•Feelings as obstacle to Making the Right Decisions

~Feelings/Emotions can become obstacle or

impediments to becoming ethical.
 Ethical subjectivism
-is a meta-ethical theory, It holds that
the truth or falsity of ethical
propositions is dependent on the
feelings, attitude, or standards of a
person or group of persons. Example
Homosexuality is wrong! He is not
stating a fact about homosexuality, he
is just reporting his feelings towards it.
Positive side: We are to identify our moral principles by simply
following our own feelings, not by what society dictates.
F_or___e
 Problem.
It provides a weak foundation when dealing with acts
like rape, bullying, and slavery
• We cannot say that these acts are morally incorrect,
we can only express our negative feelings towards it
• We believe and claim that our stance represents the
“truth"
• Another problem is that feelings and attitudes often
change over time, as knowledge, experience, and
circumstances change, which does not make a good
base for Ethical decisions
 EMOTIVISM
Is an improved version of Subjectivism, usually the most
popular form of non-cognitivism, the meta-ethical theory
that claims that ethical sentences do not convey authentic
proposition.

Moral judgements
according to emotivism are not statements of fact
but are mere expressions of the emotions of the
speaker.


Purpose of the Language;

Statement to convey information

"Marcos was a President once"

"Jose Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere"

Command to influence conduct

"Close the door"

 Expression
Express the speaker's attitude
T
"Yes Lord"

Reporting Vs. Expressing an attitude

"I like Marcos"
- I am reporting the fact that I have a positive attitude towards him.
"Hurrah for Marcos!"
- I am expressing an attitude, but not reporting that I have it.
Two Purposes of Ethical Utterance
1. As a command “Stealing is
immoral” “Don’t steal!”
2. To express (not report) a
speaker’s attitude “Fair play is
good” “Hurrah for fair play!” “I
approve of fair play
 Subjectivism:
“I disapprove of hazing.” Seen as a
statement of fact about the speaker. Can
be true or false.
Emotivism:
“I disapprove of hazing.” "Do not participate in
hazing.” Does not state a fact about the speaker
at all.
 Evaluating Emotivism: Faults
1. It suggests that in ethical disputes, we can only appeal to emotion, not
reason. This situation can bring about anarchy.
2. It is against deliberate discussions about ethical differences.
3. It fails to distinguish moral judgements from expressions of personal
preferences.
4. Personal taste, does not require to be supported by reason. Moral
statements require backing by reasons. In the absence of sensible
rationale, they are merely capricious and ignorable.
5. The theory reduced morality to mere matters of feelings without
reasons. The fact is moral truths are truths of reasons
Feeling Can Help in Making the right Decisions

There are situation in which our feeling and linking

are relevant to the rightness of our decision action.
Christian Philosophy of love is basically of linking
desire and emotion.
Moral compasses are strongly influenced by the
fleeting forces of disgust, fondness or fear.

Emotion and feeling like our love for family and

friends Ethics without feeling goes against Christian
Philosophy

Feeling and emotions involved in moral thinking

Six ways to Control Your emotions
and Make Better Decision

1. Pause and assess the situation.

2. Don't always rely on your gut.
3. Put it in writing.
4. Narrow your options.
5. Ask the majority.
6. Avoid burnout.


Synthesis/Generalization

~ A wilfully done action can be

altered by the presence of passion
and habbit. Feelings are instinctive
response to moral Dilemmas.
THANK YOU!!