Module 3: Lesson 1

THE HUMAN ACTS

 Human acts are actions that proceed from the
deliberate free will of man. In a broader
perspective, the term human acts refer to any
activity performed by man freely and knowingly.
 Moral philosophy, however, treats of the term
human acts not in its broader but in its stricter
meaning. Moral philosophy, therefore,
understands human act as actions that are proper
only to man.
 These actions are those which man does not
share with the brutes, because human acts are
rational and willed acts.
 Acts of man are man’s actions which man
shares with the brutes. These are actions that
proceed without man’s deliberate free will such
as the beating of the heart, palpitating, salivating,
breathing, winkling of an eye, etc. All these
activities do not need man’s freedom and will.
 Elements of Human Acts

 Knowledge
 Freedom
 Voluntariness
Knowledge

A human act is an act done with knowledge.

Doing an act with knowledge makes the act
deliberate. This means that the one who
performs the act has intellectual knowledge of
the act.
 Further, in performing an act with
knowledge, the one who performs the act has
awareness of the means to employ as he
performs an act and the agent has also the
awareness of the end to achieve in his action.
Freedom

A human act is an act done with freedom.

An act done with freedom means that the
agent does an act under the control of his
will.
 This suggests that the agent performs an
act with freedom, his will is not affected or
influenced by any constraint either within
himself or outside himself.
 In simple terms, it means that the one who
do the act is not forced to do or not to do a
particular action. And because of this, a
human act is purely and solely determined
by the will.
Voluntariness

Of the three constituents of human acts, it is

voluntariness that requires the presence of
the two other constituents, namely:
knowledge, and freedom. This means that the
voluntary act is synonymous with human act.
 Voluntariness requires the presence of
knowledge and freedom in the agent because
for the agent to will an act, he/she must have
knowledge of what the act is and he/she must
also have freedom to perform or not to
perform the act. Thus, a voluntary act is a
willful act.
 Classification of Human Act

 Human Act in relation to the will

 Human Act in relation to reason
 Human acts in relation to the will refer to
those actions which are started, performed,
and completed by the will either by the will
alone or through other faculties which are
under the control of the will.
 On the other hand, human acts in relation
to reason refer to those actions that are either
in agreement or in disagreement with reason.
 Kinds of Human Acts in Relation to the
Will

 Elicited Acts
 Commanded Acts
 Elicited acts are those actions which are
started in the will, performed by the will, and
are completed by the will as a sole agent
without bodily involvement.
 Classification of Elicited Acts

 Wish
 Intention
 Consent
 Election
 Use
 Fruition
Wish

It refer to the primordial desire, like, or

inclination of the will to a thing conceived by
the will as good and known by the intellect.
Embedded in the inclination of the will is its
wish to act. This where all human acts start
the wish to act.
Intention

It refers to the purposive tendency of the

will towards a thing regarded as realizable,
whether the thing is actually done or not.
This means that through intentions, the will is
assured that the object of its inclination is
attainable.
Consent

It refers to a definite decision as to what

means should be used. This means that the
will and intellect are in a process of picking
or choosing rightly the should-be-used
means.
Election

It refers to the active commitment of the

agent to follow what means the intellect has
finally opted as the right pick, so much so that
the will shows acceptance of the choice of the
intellect in order to achieve the desired good.
Use

After the mind has selected the means to

carry out the intention, this time the mind uses
the means.
Fruition

It refers to the actual attainment of the

desired good. This means that the will is
enjoying because it possesses satisfaction
since it achieved what it willed.
 Commanded acts are those which are begun
in the will, performed by the will, but
completed through bodily involvement which
is under the control of the will.
 Classification of Commanded Acts

 Internal Act
 External Act
 Mixed Act
Internal Acts

It refer to those actions done by man by way

of his internal mental powers under the
command of the will. Examples of this could
be the act of remembering, the act of nerving
oneself to meet an issue, and the act of
deliberate use of the imagination in visualizing
a science.
External Acts

It refer to those actions that are affected by

bodily powers of man under the command of will.
Examples of this could be that of deliberate
writing, walking, eating, spitting.
Mixed Acts

It refer to actions that include the use of

bodily and mental powers. Examples of this
could be that of painting, where the artist uses
the power of his intellect through imagination
and the power of his hands in sketching the
contents of his imagination.
 Kinds of Human Acts in Relation to
Reason

 Good Acts
 Evil Acts
 Indifferent Acts
Good Acts

It refer to those actions done by man in

harmony with the dictates of right reason.
Evil Acts

This pertains to those actions done by

man in contradiction to the dictates of right
reason.
Indifferent Acts

It refer to those actions that neither

good nor evil. Indifferent acts bear no
positive relation to the dictates of right
reason. For clarity’s sake, it exist only in
theory and not in the actual situation.
The reason is that in the concrete
advertence of actions, actions are only
either good or bad.
Morality of the Human Act

It refer to the goodness or badness of an act.

These are what they call morally good and
morally evil. When an act is done in
accordance with the law of God and human
reason, which is attested to by the conscience,
the act is morally good.