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Ethics-Reviewer For POLSCI Students

Human acts require knowledge, freedom, and will. Acts of man like breathing are not always voluntary. There are three types of human acts: moral, immoral, and amoral. Voluntariness of acts can be perfect, imperfect, conditional, or simple. A person is indirectly responsible for unintended consequences if they could foresee and avoid the harm. The five determinants of morality are the person, place, time, manner, and objective/end of the act. Ignorance, passion, fear, violence, and habit can modify the voluntariness of human acts. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that judges actions based on their consequences.

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Edwin Darvy Valdez
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69 views3 pages

Ethics-Reviewer For POLSCI Students

Human acts require knowledge, freedom, and will. Acts of man like breathing are not always voluntary. There are three types of human acts: moral, immoral, and amoral. Voluntariness of acts can be perfect, imperfect, conditional, or simple. A person is indirectly responsible for unintended consequences if they could foresee and avoid the harm. The five determinants of morality are the person, place, time, manner, and objective/end of the act. Ignorance, passion, fear, violence, and habit can modify the voluntariness of human acts. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that judges actions based on their consequences.

Uploaded by

Edwin Darvy Valdez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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•Human acts Vs acts of man•

Human Acts: Knowing, free and willful. The lack of any of these attributes renders an act odefaective
and less voluntary;
A. Elicited acts
b. Commanded Acts
Acts of man: Not always voluntary; and individual might not have knowledge of an action. Breathing,
digestion, blood circulation, muscle spasms.
Moral actions – in conformity with the norm of morality; good per se.
E.g. helping other people, praying.
Immoral Actions= not in conformity with the nor of morality; bad per se
E.g. cheating, stealing, killing,
Amoral actions- Neutral in relation to the norm, or Neutral Action.

•VOLUNTARINESS OF HUMAN ACTS•


○Perfect Voluntariness – present in a person who full knows and fully intend and act
○Imperfect Voluntariness – Present in a person who acts without fully realizing what he means to do
or without fully intending the act.
○Conditional Voluntariness – present in a person who is forced by the circumstances beyond his
control to perform an act.
○Simple Voluntariness – present in a person doing an act willfully, regardless of whether he likes to do
it or not.
Indirectly Voluntary: Is a person responsible for results not directly intended?
Paul Glenn considers a person accountable for indirectly voluntary results of his acts when:
The doer is able to foresee the evil result or effect, at least in a general way
The doer is free refrain from doing that which would produce the foreseen evil
•5 Determinants of Morality•
1. Person: WHO is the DOER/AGENT of an action WHO is the RECEIVER of the action?
2. Place: WHERE is the action is done
3. Time: WHEN the action is done
4. Manner: HOW is an action done
5. End/Objective: REASON in doing the action? END RESULT of the Action.

•MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACTS•

•IGNORANCE• – absence of knowledge: Ignorance of the law excuses no one


Three types: 1. Vincible – can be easily remedied through diligence and reasonable efforts.
(A student who was absent last meeting can ask his classmates if there is an assignment)
2. Invincible – a type which a person possesses without being aware of it, or having
awareness of it but lacks the mean to rectify it.
(It will be very difficult to teach cannibals not to eat the flesh of human beings)
3. Affected – Kept by positive efforts to escape responsibility or blame.
(A student who does not ask about assignments from his classmates so that he will have an
excuse in not doing the assignment)
○Invincible ignorance renders an act involuntary (a person cannot be held morally liable if he is not
aware of his state of ignorance)
○Vincible ignorance does not destroy, but lessens the voluntariness and the corresponding
accountability over the act
○If a person becomes aware of the state of ignorance he is in, he has the moral obligation to rectify it by
exercising reasonable diligence in seeking the needed information.
○Affected ignorance, through it decreases voluntariness, increases the accountability over the resultant
act
•PASSION OR CONCUPSCENCE•
-Tendencies towards desirable objects; known as positive emotions (love, desire, delight, hope, bravery)
-Tendencies away undesirable or harmful things; known as negative emotions (Hatred, horror, sadness,
despair, fear)
Two Types: 1. Antecedent – those that precede an act; a person is emotionally aroused to
perform an act.
-Antecedent passions do not always destroy voluntariness, but they diminish accountability for
the resultant act.
2. Consequent – those that are intentionally aroused and kept; voluntary in cause.
-Consequent passions do not lessen voluntariness, but may even increase accountability.

•FEAR•
○ Frame of mind of a person who is confronted with an impending danger; actions are done WITH fear;
OUT of fear or because of fear.
○WITH FEAR – you do an action even if you are afraid; there is knowledge in doing the action
> a student enters the principal’s office with fear.
> a person looks for the snake which entered the room with fear.
○BECAUSE OF FEAR- involuntary; knowledge in doing the action is not perfect
> a min jumping from the 5th floor because there is a fire
> a child hitting a dog with a stick because it is barking furiously at him
○OUT OF HEAR
> a child does not say the truth out of fear of her father
> a drug addict surrenders to the police out of fear for his life
> ten of thousands of Serbs fled out of fear of revenge attacks
Principles: -Acts done with fear are voluntary
-Acts done with fear, however great, is simply voluntary,
-Acts done because of intense fear or panic are involuntary
-Actions done out of fear are INVALID acts; contracts entered into out of fear are voidable

•VIOLENCE•
○ Any physical force to compel another person to act against his will; bodily torture,
maltreatment, isolation and mutilation are examples of violence.
○ Elicited acts or those by the will alone, are not subject to violence are therefore voluntary.
Principles: ○ External actions or commanded actions performed by a person subjected to
violence, to which reasonable resistance has been offered are involuntary and are not accountable.
•HABIT•
○ Something that you do often and regularly
○ An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary
○ Drug addiction is a habit – but how did you become addicted in the first place?
○ Smoking cigarettes is a habit
○ Cursing is a habit, but can you correct it?
Principles: Actions done out of habit are still done with knowledge, therefore a man doing thing
out of habit are responsible for these actions.

•MORAL THEORIES•
•UTILITARIANISM•
○ A theory in ethics by which actions are judged by right or wrong solely according to their
causal consequences
○ Actions are right if they promote the greatest happiness or pleasure to the greatest
number of people

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