Week 11

Definition-wise: What is a term used to describe the faculty of mind that is alleged to stimulate motivation of purposeful activity?

Will

Definition-wise: What type of attention happens naturally, such as watching an exciting movie?

Spontaneous attention

Definition-wise: What type of attention requires effort and decision, such as focusing on a boring but important lecture?

Voluntary attention

Definition-wise: What is defined as the lack or absence of knowledge in a person capable of knowing a certain thing or things?

Ignorance

Definition-wise: What type of ignorance eliminates moral responsibility or culpability because the person had no way of knowing?

Invincible ignorance

Definition-wise: What type of ignorance does not eliminate culpability but lessens it, because the person could and should have known?

Vincible ignorance

Definition-wise: What is defined as mental disturbance caused by danger, whether real or imagined?

Fear

Definition-wise: What is defined as strong emotions or feelings, representing a movement of the sensitive appetite produced by good or evil?

Passion

Definition-wise: What type of passion arises spontaneously before the will can act, lessening responsibility?

Anticipated passion

Definition-wise: What type of passion is deliberately stirred up or sustained by the will, increasing responsibility?

Consequent passion

Definition-wise: What is defined as external force compelling action against one's will, either through physical or moral pressure?

Violence

Definition-wise: What are repeated actions that become second nature, where we are still responsible if we choose to continue them?

Habits

Definition-wise: What moral determinant refers to the act itself, representing what is done?

Object

Definition-wise: What moral determinant refers to the intention or why the act is done?

End

Definition-wise: What moral determinant refers to the details surrounding the act, such as who, when, where, and how?

Circumstance

Situational: A student has an important exam tomorrow and knows the negative consequences of failing, but chooses to sleep and party instead of studying. When questioned, they claim they didn't know the material. What modifier of human acts best describes this student's situation?

Vincible ignorance

Situational: A person is raised in a remote mountainous area with zero access to schools, books, or media, and as a result, they violate a basic societal rule they had no possible way of learning about. What modifier of human acts applies here?

Invincible ignorance

Situational: While walking alone at dusk in a famously safe neighborhood, a person feels a slight fluttering of uneasiness and walks a bit faster. How does this slight fear affect their moral responsibility?

It has very little effect on responsibility since freedom is mostly intact

Situational: A man is severely threatened with the death of his family if he does not sign a fraudulent financial document. He signs the document out of terror. What kind of pressure is acting upon his will?

Grave fear

Situational: A driver is suddenly cut off on the highway, and before they can even process their thoughts, a burst of intense anger causes them to honk aggressively and yell. What kind of passion is this?

Anticipated passion

Situational: An employee holds a deep grudge against a coworker, actively broods over an insult for days until their hatred grows massive, and then intentionally sabotages the coworker's project. What kind of passion drove this action?

Consequent passion

Situational: A woman is physically overpowered and forced against her absolute will into a dangerous situation, fighting back the entire time while her mind completely rejects the act. Is she morally responsible for the act?

No, because external force compelled it and her will rejected it

Situational: A smoker has been smoking for ten years, fully knows the health risks, and continues to buy cigarettes daily because they willingly choose not to quit. Are they culpable for continuing this habit?

Yes, because the habit is freely continued

Situational: A person decides to steal money from a charity organization. When caught, they explain that their intention is completely noble because they plan to use the stolen money to pay for their sick mother's life-saving medication. According to moral determinants, is this act morally good?

No, because a good intention does not justify an evil object ("the end does not justify the means")

Situational: A man donates a large sum of money to a local orphanage. The act itself is noble, and his stated intention is to help the children. However, he records the donation and broadcasts it solely to manipulate public opinion and win an upcoming local election for personal fame. Based on the rule of moral determinants, is this act morally good?

No, because for an act to be morally good, all three (object, intention, and circumstances) must be good, and his underlying manipulative motive taints the end

Situational: During a philosophy lecture, a student notices their mind wandering to a funny TikTok video they watched earlier, while another student forces themselves to sit upright, block out distractions, and intensely concentrate on understanding a difficult text for tomorrow's exam. What type of attention is the second student demonstrating?

Voluntary attention

Situational: A person experiences the biological beating of their heart, involuntary digestion of food after lunch, and sudden pupillary constriction in bright light. Which category do these actions belong to?

Acts of man

Situational: A toddler scribbles on the living room wall with a permanent marker without understanding property ownership, rules, or moral consequences. How is this action classified?

Act of man

Situational: While fast asleep in bed, a person thrashes around and accidentally knocks a glass of water off the nightstand, breaking it. How is this action classified?

Act of man

Situational: A person touches a hot stove burner and pulls their hand back in a lightning-fast reflex before their conscious mind even processes the pain. What category of action is this?

Act of man

Situational: An individual is walking down the street telling the absolute truth to everyone they meet, giving money to the poor, and returning a lost wallet with cash inside to its rightful owner. What are these actions classified as?

Human acts

Situational: Thomas Aquinas outlines the five stages of a human act. In Stage 1 (Apprehension of the End), what is the specific role of the Intellect?

Recognizes and understands a situation, then identifies a possible good or appropriate goal

Situational: In Stage 2 of the human act (Intention Toward the End), what is the specific role of the Will?

Forms an intention, a decision to actually pursue the end through some means

Situational: In Stage 3 of the human act (Counsel / Deliberation of Means), what does the Intellect do?

Considers different possible ways to achieve the chosen end

Situational: In Stage 4 of the human act (Election / Choice of Means), what does the Will do?

Selects the means the intellect proposes as best

Situational: In Stage 5 of the human act (Command & Use), how do the Intellect and Will divide their functions?

Intellect issues the command, and the will executes it through use (directing body or mind into action)

True or False: The will is defined as a tendency toward an intellectually known good.

True

True or False: The will is bound by and limited to immediate sensory objects in the exact same way the sense appetite is.

False

True or False: If a good presented to the will were absolute and unqualified, the will would have no choice and would be completely forced.

True

True or False: People frequently choose evil purely and explicitly because it is evil for its own sake.

False

True or False: Human freedom is based on the fact that the will is open to varied, limited goods and can deliberate and choose among them.

True

True or False: Lack of knowledge, fear, environment, and habits can influence and limit human freedom.

True

True or False: Acts of Man are actions done with full knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness, making them subject to morality.

False

True or False: Natural acts of vegetative and sense faculties, such as digestion and the beating of the heart, are classified as acts of man.

True

True or False: Invincible ignorance leaves a person fully culpable and morally blameworthy for an action.

False

True or False: Grave fear aroused by serious danger lessens a person's moral responsibility because their freedom and will are pressured.

True

True or False: Anticipated passion arises spontaneously before the will can act, which lessens moral responsibility.

True

True or False: Consequent passion is deliberately stirred up or sustained by the will, which increases moral responsibility.

True

True or False: Physical or moral violence compels action against one's will, and if the victim does not consent, the moral responsibility lies with the one inflicting the violence.

True

True or False: Habits are permanent automatic excuses, meaning a person is never responsible for actions committed out of habit.

False

True or False: The object of a moral action refers to why the action is done (the intention or motive).

False

True or False: The intention (end) is the purpose or motive behind the act, and a good intention can successfully make an inherently evil act morally good.

False

True or False: Circumstances surrounding an act do not change the fundamental nature of the act itself, but they can increase or decrease culpability and affect the gravity of the act.

True

True or False: For an act to be considered morally good, all three determinants—object, intention, and circumstances—must be good.

True

True or False: If even one moral determinant (object, intention, or circumstance) is bad, the entire act becomes morally wrong.

True

True or False: According to John Kavanaugh, the will is an independent personal faculty that tends toward the good as recognized by the intellect.

True