Human Act

A human act is an act

which proceeds from
the deliberate free will
of man.
In a wide sense, the term human
act means any sort of activity ,
internal or external, bodily or
spiritual, performed by a human
being. Ethics, however, employs
the term in a stricter sense, and
call human only those acts that are
proper to man as man.
Now man is an animal and he has
many activities in common with
brutes. But man is more than
animal; he is rational, that is to say,
he has understanding and free
will.
Hence it is only the act that
proceeds from the knowing
and freely willing human
being that has the full
character of a human act.
Such an act alone is proper to
man as man. And therefore
ethics understand by human
acts only those acts that
proceed from a deliberate and
freely willing human being.
Acts of Man
Man’s animal acts of sensation
(i.e., use of the senses and
appetition) (i.e., bodily
tendencies), as well as acts that
man performs indeliberately or
without advertence and the
exercise of free choice are called
acts of man.
Thus, such acts as are effected in sleep, in
delirium, in the state of unconsciousness;
acts done abstractedly or with complete
inadvertence; acts performed in infancy;
acts due to infirmity of mind or the
weakness of senility—all these are acts of
man, but they are not human acts.
Acts of Man Human Act
It is to be noticed that acts which are
in themselves acts of man may
sometimes become human act by the
advertence and consent of the human
agent
Example:
If I hear words of blasphemy as I
walk along the street, my act of
hearing is an acts of man; but the
act becomes a human act if I
deliberately pay attention and
listen
Example:
My eyes may fall upon an indecent
sight or upon a page of obscene
reading matter. The act of seeing and
even of reading and understanding the
words, is an act of man; but it
becomes a human act the moment I
deliberately consent to look or to read.
Constituents of
Human Act
In order that an act be human, it
must possess three essential
qualities: it must be knowing , free
and voluntary. Hence we list the
essential elements, or constituents
of the human act:
A. Knowledge
For the purposes of Ethics,
deliberation means knowledge.
Now, a human act is by definition a
deliberate act; that is, it is a
knowing act. No human act is
possible without knowledge.
A human act proceeds from the
deliberate will: it requires deliberation.
Now deliberation does not mean
quiet, slow, painstaking action. It
means merely advertence or
knowledge in intellect of what one is
about and what this means. An act
may be done in the twinkling of an
eye, and still be deliberate.
For example:
A hunter flushes game; the birds rise; the
hunter whips up his gun and fires. The act
of firing is the work of a whips up his gun
and fires. The act of firing is the work of a
split second and it is a deliberate act. The
hunter adverts to what he is doing, and so
adverting, wills and does it. In a word , the
hunter know what he is doing. His
knowledge makes the act deliberate.
The will cannot act in the dark,
for the will is a blind faculty in
itself. It cannot choose unless it
see to choose and the light , the
power to see, is afforded by
intellectual knowledge
Example:
• I cannot choose to eat oranges
or not to eat oranges , if I have
never seen nor heard of oranges.
• I cannot will to love and serve
God if I do not know God.
B. Freedom
A human act is an act
determined by the will and by
nothing else.
It is an act, therefore, that is under
control of the will, an act that the will
can do or leave undone. Such an act is
called a free act. Thus every human act
must be free. In other words, freedom
is an essential element of the human
act.
C. Voluntariness
The Latin word for will is voluntas and
from this word we derive the English
terms, voluntary and voluntariness. To say,
therefore, that a human act must be
voluntary or must have voluntariness, is
simply to say that it must be a will-act.
Voluntariness is the formal
essential quality of the human act,
and for it to be present, there must
ordinarily be both knowledge and
freedom in the agent. Hence, the
term voluntary act is synonymous
with human act.
Example:
A Catholic is aware that today is Sunday
and that he has the obligation of hearing
Mass (knowledge). He is free to attend
Mass or to stay away—not , indeed, free
from duty in the matter, but physically free
to perform the duty or leave it
unperformed (freedom). He wills to do his
duty and to hear Mass (voluntariness).
Determinants of
Morality
A human act, to be morally good
act, must be found in agreement
with the Norm of morality on all
three points, i.e. it must be good in
itself or objectly, in its end and in
its circumstances
“Bonum ex integra causa,
malum ex quocumque
defectu.”
A thing to be good must be entirely good; it is
vitiated by any defect.

Example: Analogy of the Body

A. Object
- the act itself
- by the object is meant the human act
performed , the deed done
-If an act as object is good or evil, it
has objective morality
If an act, considered abstractly,
is indifferent (i.e. neither good
nor bad), its morality is
determined by the end for
which it is performed and by
the circumstances which affect
it.
Certain actions are in themselves,
or objectively good and certain
others are objectively evil : and this
morality is intrinsic, i.e. resides in
the act independently of positive
law prescribing or forbidding the
act.
The object is the primary
determinant of morality. If the
object be evil, our quest end there,
the act is definitely evil and
forbidden; nothing can make it
good.
But if the act is good as an
object, it may still be vitiated
by its circumstances,
particularly by that
circumstance called “the
end of the agent.”
Hence, if we find an act good in
itself as an object, we have still
to look to the end of the agent
and to the other circumstances
before pronouncing permissible
as an individual act.
B. The End
- it is the end in which the agent
intends or wishes to achieve by
his act.
- It is the end he has in view , his
purpose, his motive in
performing the act.
How far does the
influence of the end of
the agent extend?
1. An objectively good act
performed for a good purpose
takes on a new goodness from the
good end; and if it have several
good ends, it takes on a new
goodness from each.
2. An objectively evil act
performed for an evil purpose
takes on a new malice or evil
from the evil end; and if it have
several evil ends, it takes on a
new malice from each.
3. An act which is objectively good, but
done for an evil end, is entirely evil if the
evil end is the whole motive of the act;
likewise the act is entirely evil if the evil
end is gravely evil even though it is not the
whole motive of the act; but the act is only
partially evil if the evil end is neither
gravely evil nor the whole motive of the
act.
4. An objectively evil act can
never become good by the
reason of a good end.
5. An act which is indifferent
objectively becomes good if
done for a good end and evil if
done for an evil end.
C. Circumstances
-are conditions that affect an act
and may affect it morally although
thy do not belong to the essence of
the act as such.
In other words circumstances
are conditions without which
the act could exist, but which
happen to affect or qualify it in
its concrete performance.
Kinds of
Circumstances
1. Who? Circumstances
of person
Who is the agent?
To whom is the action is done?
2. What? Circumstances of
quantity or quality of the
object

What is the extent of the act?

 Was the injury inflicted serious or slight?
Was the amount stolen large or small
3. Where? Circumstance of
place

Where did the act commit?

4. In what condition? How?
Circumstance of manner

• Was the agent in good faith or bad?

• Was the agent’s evil disposition intensely
malicious or only slightly so?
5. When? Circumstances of
time
- How long did the agent retain an evil
thought or intention for a long period or
momentarily?
The ethical principles involved
in the matter of circumstances
as determinants of morality are
the following:
1. An indifferent act
becomes good or evil by
reason of its
circumstances.
2. A good act may
become evil by reason
of circumstances.
3. A good or evil act may
become better or worse by
reason of circumstances, and
may even take on specifically
new goodness or malice from its
circumstances.
4. An evil act can never
be made good by
circumstances.
5. A circumstances which is
gravely evil destroys the
entire goodness of an
objectively good act.
6. A circumstances which is
evil, but not gravely so, does
not entirely destroy the
goodness of an objectively
good act.