ETHICS - Lesson 3 - 4 (Human Act and its Modifiers)

Modifiers of Human Act

This refer to the degree or intensity of an act. “How bad” or “how good” the human act is

Ignorance, Concupiscence, Fear, Violence, Habit

Modifiers of Human Act

Ignorance

Absence of Knowledge.
Unavailability of information about the causes or effects of a thing or action.

Ignorance of Law

 when one is unaware of the existence of the law or at least, a particular case comprised under its provision.

Ignorance of Facts

When not related to the law but the thing itself or some circumstance is known.

Ignorance of Reality

When a person is not cognizant that a section has been attached at a particular time.

ignorantia juris non excusat

Latin for ignorance of the law excuses not

ignoratia legis neminem excusat

ignorance of law excuses no one

Ignorance of the law excuses no one

 it  is a legal principle holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely by being unaware of its content.

Concupiscence

defined as a strong desire, a tendency or attraction, usually arising from lust or sensual desires. It is, morally speaking, the tendency to go off course.

Antecedent, Consequent

2 kinds of concupiscence

Antecedent Concupiscence

 a passion that suddenly flares up without approval of the mind or will

• lessens the voluntary nature of human acts and lessens the degree of moral responsibility accordingly.

Consequent Concupiscence

when the will or mind acts in favor of the antecedent

• does not lessen moral responsibility. Rather, a person is completely responsible.

Fear

This is a disconcerted state of a person’s mind due to the expected danger that comes anytime.

Act out of fear, Act in fear

2 kinds of Acts relevant to fear

Moral Principle of fear

Fear diminishes the voluntary nature of the act. A sinful act done because of fear is somewhat less free and therefore less sinful than an act done not under the influence of fear.

Violence

A force usually physical, inflicted upon a person for the purpose of compelling the said person to amend or act against his will.

Perfect, Imperfect

2 types of violence

Perfect Violence

 if the cases where the victim gives complete resistance,

Imperfect Violence

 if the cases where the victim offers insufficient resistance

Habit

A repeatable act of a person in comfort and ease. It is an inclination to do and finish something.

Virtue

If a habit disposes a person to do good

Vice

If a habit disposes a person to do evil

Morality

may refer to the standard that a person or group has about what is right and wrong or good and evil.

Moral Standard

are those concerned with or relating to human behavior, especially the distinction between good and bad (or right and wrong) behavior. 

Moral Standard

involve the rules people have about the kinds of actions they believe are morally right and wrong

Non-moral standards

refer to rules that are unrelated to moral or ethical considerations.

Immoral Act

Was only forced to do such an act but against his own will, or merely unaware of the fact that such an action is bad, he is not therefore to be held morally reliable. 

Immoral

lacking moral sense

Amoral

is unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something. Not conforming to accepted standards of morality

Amoral Person

Doesn’t care whether lying is right or wrong; he cares only about whether there will be consequences for him. seems to have no conscience.

Dis

Twice

Lemma

Assumption or Premise

Dilemmas

 are situations in which moral reasons come into conflict.

Personal Dilemmas

those that are encountered and resolved personally by the individual, by another person, or by a group. 

Organizational Dilemmas

“encountered and resolved by social organizations. This include moral dilemmas in business, medical field and public sector” (De Guzman,2018). 

Structural dilemmas

dilemmas encountered and resolved by network of organizations.

Materialism

Refers on the theory of matter (everything in the universe is made up of matter).

Only a material component

Man According to materialism

Materialism

Man has no soul. When a person dies, it is his end and nothing more. There is no life after death.

Man According to Idealism

Man is a spiritual being. The final essence of reality is the mind

Idealism

– The body is only a piece of box that houses the spirit or intellect. 

– Man under the Christian notion is created by God according to his image.

SOCRATES

Every man is composed of body and soul

Every individual is dualistic.

Body

According to Socrates, all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect

Soul

According to Socrates, all individuals have a perfect and permanent aspect

rational, Spirited, appetitive

Plato’s three components of the soul

Rational soul

Forged by the reason and intellect has to govern the affairs of the human person.

Spirited Soul

Which is in charge of emotions

Appetitive Soul

In charge of base desire, like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sexual intercourse, is controlled as well.

Aristotle

Body (matter) and Soul (form) > soul actualizes body (matter)

Soul

According to Aristotle, the principle which causes movement

Movement

According to Aristotle, this is life

Essence

According to Aristotle, what makes you, you

SELF NUTRITION and REPRODUCTIONS

According to Aristotle, autonomic biological systems = life = begins/generates & corrupts (dies)

St. Augustine

“Man is bifurcated nature”

 – there is an aspect of man, which dwells in the world, that is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the divine while the other is capable of reaching immortality.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Man is composed of two parts

SOUL is what animates the body 

BODY  is what makes us human

Rene Descartes

Body is nothing else but a machine that attached to the mind

Cogito, Extensa

The thing that thinks and the body according to Descartes

David Hume

 men can only attain knowledge by experience

Immanuel Kant

 The self is not in the body, it is outside the body and even outside the qualities of the body – meaning transcendent.

Sigmund Freud

The “I” is the state of the mind : the conscious and unconscious

id, ego, superego

pleasure, reality, moral. the structure of personality according to Sigmund Freud

human being

Emphasizes man's biosocial, body-mind origin

Persona

Latin word for Personality which means mask

Personality

–  is the face that confronts us. 

 – everything in a person is "interconnected" and affects the personality as a whole. 

 –  is a socially developed person,

Personality

an integrating principle that unites the biological and social in a single whole, and also all the psychological processes, qualities and states

Matter, Hyle

According to St. Thomas Aquinas this Refers to the common stuff that make up everything in the universe

FORM, MORPHE

According to St. Thomas de Aquinas this Refers to the essence of a substance or thing