FINALS

WEEK II – LAW AND MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS

LAW is an ordinance of reason promulgated for

the common good by the one who is in charge of society. – St. Thomas
Aquinas.

There are two kinds of law. Manmade laws (example: Civil laws or Criminal
laws) which was made by man and the other is Natural Law which is by its nature
or by its essence is a law. In this philosophy subject we deal with Natural Law.

NATURAL LAW is from the Roman term Jus natural which means a system
of law based on fundamental idea of right and wrong. It is an unwritten moral
principle that underlie the ethical and legal norms by which human conduct is
sometimes evaluated and governed.

MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS

In exercising our freedom, our acts should be done according to the law or
rules, Laws of nature and laws of man.

Philosophically speaking, HUMAN ACTS are acts that are freely chosen in
consequence of a judgment of conscience, it can be either morally good or evil. It is
an exercise of will and intellect, a deliberate choice of the human person.

MORALITY refers to the principles concerning the distinction between right

and wrong, good or bad behavior.
 In every actions we made, we tend to do good since our essence of being a
human being or the principle of our practical reasoning being a human is to do
good and avoid evil.

ETHICS, or in Philosophy is called MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

This will be the one that will guide us in our every act to do good
and avoid evil. Our ethics is concerned with what is morally good
and bad, morally right and wrong.

In every action we always seek to reach that goal, which is

HAPPINESS. Happiness is defined in Philosophy as the ultimate
end or ultimate goal. Being happy is one of our ultimate goals in
life. However, we should always remember that in order to reach
that ultimate goal we should see to it that we did not hurt anyone or
left anyone behind because of our action.

You can never be really happy if your conscience is not clean.

You might have what you want, but deep inside your conscience will
tell you that something is missing or something is wrong if you have
hurt anyone.

Conscience is a commitment to morality itself, or to acting or

choosing morality according to the best of one’s ability. It is the
activity or the inner voice of judging that an act one has done would
or had violated something.

It simple and layman explanation, our conscience is the inner

voice that tells us that before we do the act, our conscience will ask
if whether what are we going to do is morally good or morally bad?
Whether or not what you are going to do is right or wrong?

After we do bad: your conscience will tell you that “So what
now? What are you going to do”; “What you did was wrong? “You
hurt someone, how can you escape?” (Your conscience will always
be there, whispering you)

After we do good, I did good. (You felt relieved and happy)