Modifiers of

morality
• Voluntary acts are free acts.
• Voluntariness is the basis of
man’s ethical responsibility.
• The free will of man is the
basis of imputability.
 Imputability is the

The law property of moral acts

imputes guilt in virtue of which these
on you
or imputes no acts are attributed to
guilt on you.
the person as his own

because he is their

author and cause.

 Since our accountability for an act is
based on our power to control the act,
whatever hinders or lessens this power
must, to the same extent, hinder or
lessen our accountability

Main hindrances
Ignorance, Concupiscence, Fear & Violence, Passion
 Kinds of Ignorance
Ignorance of the law
or ignorance of the Feigning or not
fact
1. Affected – feigns
1. Vincible – Can ignorance on purpose
remove ignorance 2. Crass – not feigns
reasonably but does ignorance on purpose
not. Increases but does nothing to
responsibility remove it.
2. Invincible – Unable ✓ Both increase
to reasonably remove responsibility.
ignorance even if one
wants to. Decreases
responsibility
 Concupiscence (inclination to evil from
sensible appetition) can be

1. Antecedent – Uncalled by the will: not

imputable to us
2. Consequent – Willed: Increases
responsibility
Fear and violence – restrict
freedom, hence decrease
responsibility.
Passions – become relevant to morality
when the will is involved in terms of
checking on and controlling the passion or
not.

An act that is done in passion because the

will inflames is a voluntary act.
 Principle of Double Effect.
Conditions for application.
For an act to be morally allowed, from which a double effect
(one good and one evil) is foreseen to follow, the following
conditions must be present simultaneously.

1. The case involves only one single act that has two immediate,
simultaneous effects: one good and one not good: e.g., surgical
removal of the cancerous womb & death of the child

2. That single act involved must be morally good or indifferent,

never an intrinsically evil act: e.g., the surgical procedure of
removing a diseased organ is good.

3. The good effect must come before or as immediately as the

bad effect: e.g., removal of the diseased womb & death of the
child

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 Principle of Double Effect.
Conditions for application.

4. The good effect must be directly intended: e.g., removal of

the diseased womb.

5. The bad effect must NOT be directly intended either as a

means or as an end: the death of the child not intended

6. The good effect may never be produced through the bad

effect because the good end does not justify the bad means.

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 Principle of Double Effect.
Conditions for application.
7. The bad effect may follow from the good effect only on
these conditions.
a. The foreseen bad effect –not intended or approved- is
merely tolerated to happen -when there are grave and
proportionate reasons for permitting the bad effect to
occur- when performing the good act.

b. The bad effect is tolerated only in so far as it is inevitably

linked to the good that is directly willed: e.g., serious
reason – life-threatening disease.

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