PHILO031

• Human Act (Actus Humanus):

  • An act that proceeds from the deliberate free will of man
  • Proceeds from the knowing and freely willing human being
  • Example: listening to a talk, studying this PDF
• Act of Man (Actus Hominis):

  • Man's animal act of sensation and appetition done without advertence and the exercise of free choice
  • Example: actions done in infancy, in sleep, in delirium, etc.
  • An act of man can become a human act by the advertence and consent of the agent
  • Human acts are moral acts
  • Human acts are imputed to man, as worthy of praise or blame, of reward or punishment
  • Human acts tend to repeat and form habits in man, which unite into his character
• Classification based on Complete/Adequate Cause:

  • Some acts begin and are perfected in the will itself, while others begin in the will and are perfected by other faculties under the will's control
  • Elicited Acts:
  • Find their adequate cause in the will alone (deliberate will)
  • Example: Your intention to study in your room
  • Commanded Acts:
  • Do not find their adequate cause in the will but are perfected by the action of mental or bodily powers under orders from the will
  • Example: Using your mind, eyes, etc. in studying
• Elicited Acts:

  • Wish:
  • Simple love of anything
  • The first tendency of the will towards a thing, whether realizable or not
  • Every human act begins with the wish to act
  • Example: I do so long to see you tonight
  • Intention:
  • Purposive tendency of the will towards a thing regarded as realizable
  • Example: I will see you tonight
  • Consent:
  • Acceptance by the will of the means necessary to carry out intention
  • Further intention of doing what is necessary to realize the main intention
  • Example: If I will see you tonight, I consent to how really to see you
• • Election:
  • Selection by the will of the precise means to be employed in carrying out an intention
  • Example: I will select riding my bike to see you tonight
  • Use:
  • Employment by the will of bodily or mental powers or both to carry out its intention by the means elected
  • Example: To actually see you, I will command my mental and bodily powers to carry out my intention
  • Fruition:
  • Enjoyment of a thing willed and done
  • The will's act of satisfaction in intention fulfilled
  • Example: I will experience this the moment I will see actually see you
• Commanded Acts:

  • Internal:
  • Acts done by internal mental powers under command of the will
  • Example: effort to remember, effort to control anger
  • External:
  • Acts effected by bodily powers under command of the will
  • Example: eating halo-halo, writing your answers
  • Mixed:
  • Acts that involve the employment of bodily and mental powers
  • Example: solving a Math problem
• Human acts are either in agreement or disagreement with the dictates of reason, and this relationship constitutes the morality of human acts.

  • Good:
  • Human acts are in harmony with the dictates of right reason
  • Evil:
  • Human acts are in opposition with the dictates of right reason
  • Indifferent:
  • Human acts stand in no positive relation to the dictates of reason
• Constituents of the Human Acts:

  • Essential elements or qualities for an act to be human are knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness
  • Knowledge:
  • A human act proceeds from the deliberate will; it requires deliberation
  • Deliberation means advertence, or knowledge in intellect of what one is about and what this means
  • No human act is possible without knowledge
  • Freedom:
  • A human act is an act determined by the will and by nothing else
  • It is under control of the will, an act that the will can do or leave undone
  • Every human act must be free
  • Voluntariness:
• • A human act must be a will-act
  • There must be both knowledge and freedom in the agent or the doer of the action