MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS

CRITERIA OF THE MORAL JUDGMENT OF

HUMAN ACTS
Every human act begins from within the person, in their intellect
and will and is then made manifest in their external behavior.
When we speak of the morality of an act we are indicating the
orientation of an act (and so, the person who does it) towards the
final goal or not; this will depend on three elements
1. the object of the act itself
2. the intention of the person who does the act
3. the circumstances of the act
These are the sources of the morality of the act.
THE OBJECT
Each voluntary act has a particular object or content
that is known and willed by the person who acts.
E.g. a person slicing beef knows what he is doing
and wants to do it.
However, the object or content of each free act also
has a basic moral value, that is the object or
content of the act should be considered in terms of
natural moral law; is this act (object, content) good
for man according to his nature or not.
 THE OBJECT
Each human act has an object (content, something that is done)… we can
distinguish two aspects of this object…
A) the physical dimension;- what is actually to be done
B) the moral dimension:- the goodness or badness of the act itself
considered in terms of the Natural Law (final goal of man)
For example
Stealing a car (the physical object is a car true, not in as much as it is of a
certain brand, but more the fact that it belongs to someone else). In this
case it relates negatively to the moral law that prohibits the taking of
another person’s belongings.
THE OBJECT
Other examples;
Speaking in order to tell a lie, spread calumny or
praise someone
Killing someone else in self defense, because of
carrying out a death penalty or with the desire to
assassinate.
Taking someone else’s thing in an act of theft, or in
act of borrowing it for a while then returning it.
THE OBJECT
The object chosen is a good toward which the
will deliberately directs itself.

It is the matter of a human act. The object chosen

morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as
reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be
in conformity with the true good.
THE OBJECT
The object is the thing with which the action is
essentially concerned, for example, lying, stealing,
helping a blind person cross the street.

For a morally good act, the object of it must be good,

that is, the thing with which the action is concerned
must confirm to the natural law.
 THE OBJECT
Certain types of acts are immoral, regardless of intention or
circumstances.

What makes these acts immoral is their moral species, that is,
the type of act in terms of morality. These acts are immoral by
the very nature of the act, in and of itself, regardless of the
intention or purpose for which the act was chosen, and
regardless of circumstances or consequences.

These acts are called intrinsically evil; they are inherently

immoral.
 THE OBJECT
The object of the human act is that which is actually
done.

From this, we get the character of the objective

morality. There are actions that are objectively in
conformity or not in conformity with the human
person, and thus, actions in conformity with them or
against them are objectively good or evil as such.
 THE OBJECT
However, the subjective nature of us as human may
reduce the culpability of our action if we do not
know that the object of our action is morally evil.
While this cannot change the objective nature of the
act, one may be more or less morally responsible for
the good or evil of the action based on one’s
knowledge of the objective character of the act.
 THE OBJECT
For example, the object of murder is the taking of an
innocent life. Murder is objectively wrong, and thus the
taking of an innocent life is never morally good. No
intention or circumstances can make it to be otherwise,
and this is because of its basis in reality itself.
 THE INTENTION
The intention resides in the acting subject. The intention
is in the subject, the person who acts.

The intention is the intended end of the human person.

The intention is the purpose for which the act is chosen
by the person; it is the motivation for choosing the act.
 THE INTENTION
Every human act, no matter how trivial, is done for
some purpose. The Sunday driver who blocks traffic
and seems to be driving aimlessly has a purpose: he
may not be going anywhere definite but he does seek
the joy of just driving around and looking.
For a human act to be morally good the agent or doer
must have a good intention -- he must want to
accomplish something that is good in one way or
another.
 THE INTENTION
Some actions, like blasphemy and stealing, are always
wrong and no purpose, no matter how noble, can make them
good.
Other actions may be either good or bad, depending on why
we do them. Taking a drink is not sinful; drinking in order to
get drunk is. The morality of many things that we do is
determined by the intention -- such as walking, talking,
reading, and so forth. Many such activities are said to be
indifferent morally in themselves, but they receive their moral
quality from the intention behind them.
 THE INTENTION
As stated, the intention is the purpose or motive for which the agent
acts.
While a wrong intention can make a morally good act subjectively
wrong and cause culpability in the agent, a good intention can never
make an objectively evil act to be good. The end does not justify the
means.

All intentions should be in conformity to the objective truth, and again

this is to be found in the natural law. Humans first of all find this
“written in their hearts” and this participation of the rational creature in
the eternal law is called the natural law. Conscience is closely related to
this, as it is a judgment of reason. Our intentions, then, must be in
conformity with our conscience.
 THE CIRCUMSTANCES
The circumstances of an action are individual conditions of
specific acts in time and place that are not of themselves part of
the nature of the action.

They do, however, modify the moral quality of the action. The
who, what, when, and where of actions are bearing on the
goodness or otherwise of specific actions.

These circumstances cannot, of course, make an objectively evil

action to be good, but they can increase or decrease both moral
culpability and the degree of goodness or evil in the act.
 THE CIRCUMSTANCES
Circumstances are good, if the reasonably anticipated
bad consequences do not outweigh the reasonably
anticipated good consequences, for all persons affected
by the act.
The human will is the source of circumstances, in so far
as the good and bad consequences were reasonably
anticipated by the intellect at the time the act was
chosen, and the will, in the light of that knowledge,
chose the act.
 THE CIRCUMSTANCES
The circumstances are such things as the person involved, the
time, the place, the occasion, which are distinct from the object,
but can change or completely alter its moral tone.
Circumstances can make an otherwise good action evil, as
when a soldier deliberately goes to sleep. They can increase the
guilt, as when a girl lies to her mother; or minimize the guilt, as
an unpremeditated lie in order to get out of an embarrassing
situation. Since all human actions occur at a certain time and at
a certain place, the circumstances must always be considered in
evaluating the moral quality of any human act.
 SUMMARY
Briefly, it may be said that law, which all law has its foundation in the eternal law, is the
norm by which all objective truth is measured. Likewise, conscience is closely related to
our participation in the eternal law, by way of the natural law.

Conscience then, while its purpose is to lead man to perform actions in accordance with
objective truth, can be said to be on the side of his subjective culpability.
Among the intentions of men must be included the intention to form their consciences with
objective truth. Man is culpable for seeking the truth, and a willful neglect of seeking the
objective morals is itself can be evil, for man, being rational, must seek the truth. A being
must act in accordance with its nature, and this means that a rational being must act with
reason.

We are always obliged to follow our conscience, but we are also responsible to form it
according to the law. “Conscience has rights because it has obligations.”