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Chapter 6: Morality in Action: Our Moral Life in Christ
Chapter 6: Morality in Action: Our Moral Life in Christ
Chapter 6: Morality in Action: Our Moral Life in Christ
ANTICIPATORY SET
Have the students write a paragraph on what this lesson has taught
them about object, intention, and circumstance.
1. Introduction (pp. 118–119)
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT
Have the students free write for five minutes applying the statement,
“Every moral action changes the actor for better or worse,” to Adam and
Eve.
2. Analysis of the Human Act
(pp. 120–123)
ANTICIPATORY SET
Have the students work with a partner to come up with two acts that
can never be made good no matter what.
2. Analysis of the Human Act
(pp. 120–123)
BASIC QUESTIONS
What is the importance of the object in analyzing the human act?
What is the effect of intention on the human act?
What are the effects of circumstances on the human act?
KEY IDEAS
In analyzing the morality of a human act, the object, or act itself, is the
primary factor, because this determines the objective morality of the
action.
Intention, which is the “end,” or why the person performs an act, can
make an act better or worse, but it can never make an evil act good.
Circumstances, or the conditions prevailing when the act is committed,
can also make an act better or worse, but they can never make evil good.
2. Analysis of the Human Act
(pp. 120–123)
FOCUS QUESTIONS
Of the three criteria for the morality of an action, why does the
object carry the most weight?
Because the object determines the morality of an action. A wrong
action can never be made right.
Why will the act itself exhibit goodness or evil?
Every act tends either to comply with the Ten Commandments or
violate them.
What can the wrong intention do to a good act?
It can take away some or all of its goodness.
2. Analysis of the Human Act
(pp. 120–123)
FOCUS QUESTIONS
Why is it usually best to correct people in private?
Correcting a person in public can humiliate him or her, which makes our
act of correction wrong. Extension: In addition, humiliating people
usually makes them reject what we say, making the correction ineffective.
What do circumstances do to the morality of an act?
Circumstances can make a good act evil or lessen the gravity of an evil act,
but no circumstances make a wrong action right.
2. Analysis of the Human Act
(pp. 120–123)
GUIDED EXERCISE
❏ What are some “good intentions” a member of the Mafia could have for
carrying out acts of bribery, extortion, illegal gambling, selling drugs, or
murder?
2. Analysis of the Human Act
(pp. 120–123)
GUIDED EXERCISE
Have the students summarize their knowledge of the effect of intention and
circumstance on the morality of an act.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Have the students turn one of the Graphic Organizers from this lesson
into a well-organized paragraph on the effect of intention or
circumstances on a moral act.
3. The Principle of Double Effect
(pp. 123–124)
ANTICIPATORY SET
Have the students work with a partner to try to think of an action that
is good in itself—that is, the object, intention and circumstances are all
good—but which could have a bad effect.
Then discuss the following question:
❏ Under what circumstances would you still perform the act even if
you knew for certain the bad effect would occur?
3. The Principle of Double Effect
(pp. 123–124)
BASIC QUESTIONS
What is the purpose of the principle of double effect?
What are the four conditions necessary to use the principle of double effect?
KEY IDEAS
Some actions may have good objects, right intention, and good
circumstances, but nevertheless bring about bad effects. In these cases, the
principle of double effect could be used to choose an action that has
undesired bad outcomes.
The principle of double effect requires that (a) the action be good in itself;
(b) the agent must have a right intention; (c) a good action must be the
means of the good effect; and (d) the good effect must be proportional to
the evil effect.
3. The Principle of Double Effect
(pp. 123–124)
GUIDED EXERCISE
Have the students work with a partner to identify (1) the four conditions of
the legitimate use of the principle of double effect from the Supplement
“Principle of Double Effect in Action” (p. 134) and (2) how the conditions
apply to the case studied.
3. The Principle of Double Effect
(pp. 123–124)
FOCUS QUESTIONS
What is the principle of double effect?
When a desired good action is foreseen to have good and evil effects, the
action may be morally licit under certain circumstances.
Why can an abortion never come under the principle of double effect?
Abortion is the direct killing of an innocent person and is intrinsically evil.
Therefore, it does not fulfill the first requirement, which is that the action to
be performed must be good in itself.
What does proportionalism mean in relation to the principle of double
effect?
It means that the good to be achieved must be equal to or greater than the
evil effect that will result from the action.
3. The Principle of Double Effect
(pp. 123–124)
GUIDED EXERCISE
Have the students work with a partner to analyze one of the following pairings of applications
of the principle of double effect and explain which of the pair is moral and which is not.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
ANTICIPATORY SET
Have the students reflect and free write on the following questions:
❏ What does the young man’s fundamental orientation toward life seem to
be? To what extent is he divided between two or more basic orientations?
4. Errors in Moral Theology and the
“Fundamental Option” (pp. 124–127, 132–133)
BASIC QUESTIONS
What is the error of situation ethics?
What is consequentialism?
What is proportionalism?
What is the fundamental option theory?
KEY IDEAS
In evaluating the goodness or evil of moral acts, situation ethics bases itself on the unique,
concrete circumstances prevailing but leaves out the universal moral law, thereby permitting
intrinsically evil acts.
Consequentialism is a false ethical system that determines the goodness or evil of an action
from its effect, or result.
Proportionalism is a false ethical system that deduces the moral value of an act from the
proportion between the actions’ good and evil effects.
The “fundamental option,” in the traditional sense, is the free and responsible choice a
person makes to orient, in a radical manner, his or her whole existence in a moral direction
toward good or evil, God or self.
4. Errors in Moral Theology and the
“Fundamental Option” (pp. 124–127, 132–133)
GUIDED EXERCISE
❏ What is the truth at the heart of the error of situation ethics, according
to Pope Pius XII?
GUIDED EXERCISE
Have the students work with a partner to choose a concrete moral act that is
intrinsically wrong from the perspective of the universal moral law and then
explain how the act might be justified by situation ethics, consequentialism,
and proportionalism.
4. Errors in Moral Theology and the
“Fundamental Option” (pp. 124–127, 132–133)
FOCUS QUESTIONS
What is the basic position of proportionalism?
It judges the morality of acts based on the relationship between the good and evil
effects. Good acts are those in which the good effects outweigh the bad effects.
How do consequentalists and proportionalists differ on how they
justify abortion?
A consequentialist might justify abortion on the basis that good will come of
it. The proportionalist might say that the good results of an abortion exceed
the evil that comes from it.
Why do some proportionalists say abortion and euthanasia should be legal?
They say the state should respect the assertion that only a person present and
personally involved in a concrete situation can correctly judge the good and
evil effects at stake, even in the cases of abortion and euthanasia.
4. Errors in Moral Theology and the
“Fundamental Option” (pp. 124–127, 132–133)
FOCUS QUESTIONS
What is the traditional and legitimate sense of the term fundamental option?
It is the basic orientation of a person’s life in relation to God, either toward
obedience and fidelity or toward selfishness and disobedience.
What do current users of the fundamental option claim about mortal sin?
They say mortal sin only consists of a direct and formal refusal to respond
to the call of God, or it is found in an egoism by which one completely and
deliberately closes himself or herself to love of God and neighbor. Basically,
it is a rejection of the fundamental option for God, as they define it.
What is wrong with the fundamental option view of mortal sin?
First, it denies that virtually all gravely disordered acts could be a mortal sin.
Second, by making the only mortal sin an act that is carried out without
choice or conscious awareness, it robs the human person of freedom.
4. Errors in Moral Theology and the
“Fundamental Option” (pp. 124–127, 132–133)
GUIDED EXERCISE
CLOSURE
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT
Have the students work with a partner to discuss the following scenario:
A man walks into an auto parts store to return a carburetor that he could
not get to work properly, becomes angry with the manager who will not
give him a refund, goes to his car, loads his handgun, returns to the store,
and kills the manager.