General Ethics: On Human
Acts (Definition,
Modifiers, Ends)
The Human Act
• It is an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will of man.
• Generally, 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 calls
human only those acts that are proper to man as man.
• Man is more than an animal. He is rational – he has
understanding and free will. It is only the act that proceeds
from the knowing and freely willing human being that has the
full character of a human act.
• Human acts tend to repeat themselves and to form habits.
Habits coalesce/unite into what we call a man’s character.
• A man is what his human acts make him.
Classification of Human
Acts
1. The Adequate Cause of Human Acts
2. The Relation of Human Acts to Reason
1. The Adequate Cause of Human Acts
• 1.1. Elicited Acts – human acts that find their adequate cause
in the will alone, as follows:
• Wish – the simple love of anything; the first tendency of the will
towards a thing, whether this thing is realizable or not. Every human
act begins with the wish to act. Example: I wish to see you. I would like
to help the frontliners in the COVID pandemic.
• Intention – the purposive tendency of the will towards a thing regarded
as realizable, whether the thing is actually done or not. Example: I am
going to see you. I am going to help the frontliners in the COVID
pandemic.
• Consent – the acceptance by the will of the means
necessary to carry out intention. It is a further intention of
doing what is necessary to realize the first or main
intention. Example: If I see you, I consent to the necessary
difficulties of the journey.
• Election – the selection by the will of the precise means to
be employed (consented to) in carrying out an intention.
Example: While I may go to your place to see you either by
motorcycle or by foot, I cannot go by both simultaneously,
but must elect or select one of the means.
• Use – the employment by the will of powers (of body, mind,
or both) to carry out its intention by the means elected.
Example: If I intend to go to your place to see you, and
elect to walk, I exercise the will-act of use by putting my
body in motion.
• Fruition – the enjoyment of a thing willed and done; the
will’s act of satisfaction in intention fulfilled.
Of the elicited acts listed, three relates to the objective thing
willed, and three to the means of accomplishing it. Suppose
the thing willed is to help the frontliners in the COVID
pandemic, then:
I wish ……………………………….
I intend …………………………….. to help the frontliners
I enjoy (when accomplished) …….
I consent to ………………………..
I elect ……………………………… the
means required to help the
I use my faculties on ……………..
Frontliners
1.2. Commanded Acts – are human acts, which do not find
their adequate cause in the simple will-act, but are perfected
by the action of mental or bodily powers under the control of
the will, under the orders of the will. Commanded acts are:
Internal – acts done by internal mental powers under
command of the will. Examples: effort to control anger,
deliberate use of the imagination in visualizing a scene
External – are affected by bodily powers under command
of the will. Examples: deliberate walking, eating, writing,
speaking
Mixed – acts that involve bodily powers and mental
powers. Examples: study, whic
2. The Relation of Human Acts
to Reason
In relation to reason, human acts are:
Good – when they are in harmony with the dictates of
reason
Evil – when they are in opposition to the dictates of reason
Indifferent – when they stand in no positive relation to the
dictates of reason; it becomes good or evil according to the
circumstances which affect its performance, especially the end
view (or motive or purpose) of the agent.
The Essential Elements or
Constituents of the Human Act
It must be knowing, free, and voluntary .
• 1. Knowledge – a human act proceeds from the deliberate will; it requires
deliberation (which means advertence, or knowledge in intellect of what
one is about and what this means). An act may be done in the blink of an
eye, and still be deliberate. No act is possible without knowledge. For
example, “I cannot will to love and serve God if I do not know God.”
• 2. Freedom – a human act is an act determined (elicited or commanded)
by the will and by nothing else; it is under control of the will, an act that
the will can do or leave undone. Such an act is called a free act. Every
human act must be free.
• 3. Voluntariness – voluntas is the Latin word for will. For voluntariness to
be present, there must ordinarily be both knowledge and freedom in the
agent. Therefore, a voluntary act is synonymous with human act.
The Modifiers of Human
Acts
These modifiers refer to the thing that may
affect human acts in the essential qualities
of knowledge, freedom, voluntariness, and
so make these human acts less perfectly
human. They lessen the moral character of
the human act, and consequently diminish
the responsibility of the agent.
1. Ignorance – the absence of intellectual knowledge in man.
2. Concupiscence – is often used to signify frailty, or proneness
to evil; in Ethics, it means those bodily appetites or
tendencies which are called passions like love, hatred; joy,
grief; desire, aversion or horror; hope, despair; courage or
daring, fear; and anger.
3. Fear – is one of the passions (under concupiscence) but in
Ethics, it is usually given special attention because it is a very
common passion and has a distinctive characteristic- it
usually induces the will to do what it would not do otherwise.
4. Violence – is external force applied by a free cause for the
purpose of compelling a person to perform an act which is
against his will. External acts caused by violence are not
imputable to the agent.
5. Habit – in Ethics, it is understood as a lasting readiness and
facility, born of frequently repeated acts, for acting in a
certain manner. It does not destroy voluntariness; and acts
from habit are always voluntary, at least in cause, so long as
the habit can endure.
The Ends of Human Acts
• An end is both a termination and a goal of an activity. It is that which
completes or finishes a thing, and it is that for which the thing is finished.
• Every activity leans toward an end. Every human act comes from
appetency, or tendency toward an end and thus every human act is
performed on account of an end, which is the final cause.
• The end of human act is always sought because it is desirable, satisfactory
or good. Evil is never the end of human acts.
• Man’s ultimate end is the infinite good and the possession of the limitless
good or happiness. For Aristotle, happiness is the ultimate end of human
action. Example: We, Filipinos, aspire for the good life of our family. It is our
idea of happiness.
After all the challenges that you have meet
along the way as a student, what has
become your end in mind?
