Dominican College of Tarlac

College Department
College of Education
SY. 2022-2023

ETHICS
GENERAL EDUCATION SUBJECT

GE8 - ETHICS
CHAPTER 4:
THE ACT
Lesson 1: Human Acts
Lesson 2: Reason and Impartiality
Lesson 3: Feelings and Moral Decision
Making

GE8 - ETHICS
 “ONLY HUMAN BEING CAN BE ETHICAL”

Only human beings can be Ethical (lifted from the book of

De Guzman, (2017) – Ethics: Principles of Ethical
Behaviour in Modern Society)

Only human beings are rational,

autonomous, and self-conscious

Only human beings can act that can be

labeled morally or immorally

Only human being are part of the moral

community
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LESSON 1:
HUMAN ACTS

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 HUMAN ACTS VS ACTS OF MAN

Not all acts

are human
acts! 5
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 NOT ALL ACTS OF MAN ARE HUMAN ACTS

HUMAN ACTS ACTS OF MAN

• An act that • Acts that man

proceeds from performs
the deliberate inadvertently
freewill of man and without
the exercise of
free choice
Immanuel Kant
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THE THREE-FOLD ELEMENTS OF HUMAN ACTS

CHAPTER 4 – LESSON 1
 THREE-FOLD ELEMENTS OF HUMANS

KNOWLEDGE FREEDOM
Has intellectual knowledge in Acted under the control of the
doing the act and the awareness will without influence,
to the means and end of act constraints or force

VOLUNTARINESS
Presence of knowledge and freedom.
A voluntary act is a willful act.
Immanuel Kant
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 HUMAN ACTS VS ACTS OF MAN

Only human acts have moral worth,

thus can be judged either right or
wrong.

Only human acts can hold man

responsible and accountable.

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MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS

CHAPTER 4 – LESSON 1
 MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS

▰ Modifiers of Human Acts refer to the factors that affect

the degree or the intensity of the morality of an act.

▰ Ignorance
Refers to How good or how
bad is the human act ▰ Concupiscence
They lessen or increase the
Affecting the degree of ▰ Fear responsibility of the agent of
responsibility/accountability/
culpability of the moral agent. ▰ Violence the action

▰ Habit
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 1. IGNORANCE
▰ Ignorance is different from Innocence
▰ Ignorance is the absence of knowledge in a
person who is required to know what he
doesn’t know.
▰ Innocence means absence of knowledge in a
person who is not required to know what he
doesn’t know.
▰ Two types of Ignorance:
▻ Vincible Ignorance
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▻ Invincible Ignorance
 1. IGNORANCE
Vincible Ignorance is a conquerable ignorance.
Vincible ignorance can easily be reminded through
ordinary diligence and reasonable efforts and
therefore a vincibly ignorant person is culpable of his
action.

Invincible Ignorance is an unconquerable

ignorance. It is the type in which a person without
being aware of it or lack the means to rectify it,
hence, it is also called inculpable ignorance.
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 1. IGNORANCE
▰ Invincible ignorance renders an
involuntary. A person cannot be held
morally liable if he is not aware of his
state of ignorance.

Ex. A waiter who is not aware that the food

he is serving has been poisoned cannot be
held responsible for the murder
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 1. IGNORANCE
▰ Vincible ignorance does not destroy but lessens
the voluntariness and the corresponding
accountability over the act.
▰ Though it decreases voluntariness, increases the
accountability over the resultant act. Insofar as it
willed to persist, increases the accountability.
Certainly, refusing to rectify the ignorance implies
malice. And the malice is greater when ignorance
is used as an excuse for not doing the right thing.
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 2. CONCUPISCENCE
▰ A modifier of human acts that refers to the
bodily desire of man sometimes called
“passion”
▰ Always means to satisfy the body.
▰ Among others, concupiscence are;
▻ Desire, anger, hope, despair, love,
hatred, sorrow, etc.
▰ Two kinds of Concupiscence: Antecedent
and Consequent 16
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 2. CONCUPISCENCE

Antecedent Concupiscence is
passions that suddenly flare up
without approval of the will or mind.

Consequent Concupiscence is
when the will or mind acts in favor of
the antecedent.
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 2. CONCUPISCENCE

▰ Antecedent Concupiscence
does not destroy but lessens
the voluntariness of an act.
▰ Antecedent concupiscence
does not destroy the
voluntariness of an act.

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 3. FEAR
▰ It is defined as the disturbance of the mind of a
person who is confronted by an impending danger
or harm to himself or loved ones.
▰ Since fear desires to evade an impending evil, its
goal is nothing else but to safeguard the self from
the anticipated evil.

▰ Two Acts under the state of Fear

▻ Action out of Fear (from fear or because of fear)
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▻ Action with Fear (or in fear)
 3. FEAR

▰ Running from someone who is

trying to kill you. (Action out of
fear)

▰ Walking along the dark alley to

get home. (Action with fear)
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 3. FEAR
▰ Acts done out of fear are voluntary; but in
certain instances, acts done out of fear
may be involuntary
▰ Acts done with fear are voluntary,
although they are unpleasant to the agent
▰ Fear as a disturbance of the mind lessens
but doesn’t destroy voluntariness.
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 4. VIOLENCE
▰ Violence, force, and compulsion are
defined in ethics as the application or use
of physical power or external force on a
person by another for the purpose of
compelling him to do something against his
will.
▰ Violence is different from a threat.
Otherwise, if violence appears as a threat,
then it is not violence at all but fears. 22
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 4. VIOLENCE
▰ Physical actions resulting from violence
are involuntary by themselves. This
means that the act by which the agent is
forced to do is involuntary in as much as
he does not will it.
▰ If the agent consents to do an act that
proceeds from the use of force, then, the
act becomes voluntary; hence the agent
is responsible for it. 23
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 5. HABIT

▰ Habit is defined as a constant and

easy way of doing things acquired
by the repetition of the same act.

▰ Once habits are acquired, it would

be very difficult to eradicate them,
because they can make the agent
act spontaneously and even
automatically. 24
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 5. HABIT
▰ Habits do not destroy voluntariness, and
actions performed by “the force of habit”
are imputable to man.
▰ If a habit is acquired involuntarily, (like the
use of profane language during
childhood), the existence of the habit and
the acts which proceed unintentionally
from the habit will lack voluntariness and
responsibility so long as the agent
remains ignorant of the existence of the
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habit.
CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN ACTS
- IN RELATION TO THE WILL
- IN RELATION TO REASON

CHAPTER 4 – LESSON 1
 HUMAN ACTS IN RELATION TO THE WILL

Elicited Acts Commanded Acts

Acts are started by the Acts are begun in the will, performed
by the will, completed by the will
will, performed by the will through another medium which is
and completed by the will under the control of the will

Controlling emotions.
“I wish”, “I want”, “I like”
Observable actions like running.

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 ELEMENTS OF ELICITED ACTS

Counsel
Consent
Wish Intention “judgment” or
‘decide what
“Desire” “Attainability” “do I really need
means to use”
that?”

Command Fruition
Choice “interplay “satisfaction of
‘right to pick” between intellect attaining desired
and the will end”

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 TYPES OF COMMANDED ACTS

INTERNAL EXTERNAL MIXED ACTS

ACTS ACTS
Actions by man by
way of internal Acts that are affected by Acts that include the
mental powers under bodily powers of man under use of both body
the command of the the command of the will and mental powers
will

e.g., Act of remembering, e.g., eating, jumping, e.g., taking exam,

imagination and singing driving, debating
controlling anger
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 HUMAN ACTS IN RELATION TO REASON

GOOD ACTS/ EVIL ACTS/ INDIFFERENT/

MORAL ACTS IMMORAL ACTS AMORAL ACTS

Actions “in Actions “in it stands in no

harmony with the contradiction to positive relation to
dictates of right the dictates of the dictates of right
reason” right reason reason

e.g., Businesses e.g., selling e.g., walking,

paying the right expired products running, playing
amount of taxes
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