ETHICS 2nd lesson

• Says Fr. Coppens (2017):

  “When I perform a free act -- one which I am able to do or not to do, as I choose – the act is evidently imputable to me:
• Every human act is a free act so it is imputable to him/her who performs it.
• For violation of government laws… People are held accountable directly to the government, and indirectly to the people.
• For violation of moral standards…

  Under Christian natural law ethics, God is deemed the author of the law, hence

  violators are accountable to God.
• For nontheistic morality, violators are accountable solely to themselves.

   
• There are three bases for moral accountability, namely: knowledge, freedom, Voluntariness
• Knowledge

  •  Human acts must be done knowingly.
• Freedom

  The act is freely done
• Voluntariness

  •  It must be done voluntarily (intentional or negligent).
• Modifiers of Human Act

   The factors which either increase or decrease accountability.
• They affect the mental or emotional state of a person to the extent that the voluntariness involved in an act is either increased or decreased (Panizo, 1964).
• Modifiers of Human Act are Ignorance, Passions, Fear, Violence
• When it cannot be overcome by the due amount of diligence, it is invincible; otherwise, it is vincible.
• The basic rule is invincible ignorance, one that is beyond one’s ability to overcome, is entirely involuntary, and hence removes moral responsibility;
• •  vincible ignorance does not free us from responsibility.
• Passion

  •  It refers to positive emotions like love, desire, delight, hope, and bravery and negative emotions like hatred, horror, sadness, despair, fear, and anger.
• Fear

  •  The disturbance of the mind of a person due to an impending danger or harm to himself or loved ones.
• Violence

  •  Refers to any physical force exerted on a person by another free agent for the purpose of compelling said person to act against his will.
• Moral Accountability for What Could Have Been

   

  •  It is termed as sin of omission.
• Ignorance

  •  The “absence of knowledge.”
• Antecedent passions are those that precede the act, do not always destroy voluntariness, but they diminish accountability for the resultant act.
• •  In criminal law, the Commission of a criminal act “with passion and obfuscation” means the perpetrator is blinded by his emotions, lessening his accountability from maximum to medium or from medium to minimum.