Modifiers of Human Act

1. Modifiers ofHuman Act Prof. Fernandino J. Pancho

2. Modifiers of human act are also called obstacles of human actthat affects or prevents a clear knowledge of the object of the act. Or impair the coming about of a human act in its roots by diminishing or preventing the consent of free will. • These obstacles may increase, decrease, or totally inhibit human behavior from moral responsibility or liability.

3. Ito ang “nagtuturing” or “nagpapabago” ng gawaing pantao. “Nababawasan ang pagkakusa ng ginawa.”

4. Impairments of Required Knowledge • Ignorance • Error • Inattention Impairments of Free Consent • Passion • Fear • Violence • Habit

5. Ignorance • Defined as lacking of a required knowledge which human being should have of his moral duties. • Classified into: • Invincible Ignorance • Vincible Ignorance • Suppine/crash • Affective

6. Invincible Ignorance • Invincible Ignorance – that ignorance which a man is not able to dispel by such ordinary diligence and reasonable efforts. It is also characterized as antecedent ignorance, because it preceeds any voluntary act and is not willed by any consent of the will. Ex. When you are in a foreign country. The speed limit in Poland is written in Polish/Polski.

7. Vincible Ignorance • Vincible Ignorance - the knowledge CAN be acquired by ordinary effort, but was not acquired because of negligence or intentionally not acquired. • Crass/Suppine – when hardly effort has been used to dispel ignorance. • Ex. A nurse who has strong doubts about the medicine administered to a patient upon doctor’s orders and yet does not consult a doctor when it could be easily done.

8. Affected Ignorance • Affected/Pretended Ignorance occurs when a person positively wants to be ignorant in order to plead innocent to a charge of guilt. • Ex. A student who does not want to read the bulletin board/the student manual, for he suspects that a certain regulation posted/written there in is opposed to his plans.

9. Principles: 1st. Invincible ignorance makes an act involuntary. An act which proceeds from this ignorance is not voluntary, it is not therefore a human act and consequently, it is not imputable to the agent. 2nd. Vincible Ignorance does not destroy voluntariness, but it does lessen the voluntariness and responsibility of an act. 3rd. Affected ignorance does not excuse a person from his bad actions; on the contrary, it actually increases their malice or their moral responsibility.

10. Error Error is the state of holding incorrect beliefs or opinions, or the fact of acting wrongly or misguidedly. • It is an incorrect, unwise, or unfortunate act or decision caused by bad judgment or a lack of information or care. • Or a belief or opinion that is contrary to fact or to established doctrine. • It is a result of poor judgment or lack of care. • Its origin may lie in deficient education, the influence of bad company, the reading of misleading books and papers, etc.

11. Aberratio Ictus – there is mistake in the blow. • Means the offender intending to cause injury to one person actually inflicts it to another. • Error in Personae – there is mistake in the identity of the person. • Praeter Intentionem – there is mistake in the intended result of the act. • Means the injurious result is greater than what was intended.

12. Man is to overcome the errors which hold him under their sway in personal search for truth, to escape the negative influence of those forces which misguide him, and reach views based on sound reasons. • For false convictions bring with them false attitudes to life.

13. Inattention • It is a failure to take proper care or give enough attention to something. • Is an actual, momentary privation of knowledge. • Inattention of a person may result to his contributory negligence to an act, thus, he/she can be partially liable. Example • Using a cell phone while driving and meets an accident • Texting while walking

14. Passions or Concupiscence • Passions are strong tendencies towards the possession of something good or towards the avoidance of something evil. • The object of somebody’s intense interest or enthusiasm or overpowering emotions or a sudden outburst of emotion. Passions are neither good nor evil, but indiferrent(without bias or preference for one person, group, or thing rather than another)

15. Eleven Chief Passions • Love • Desire • Delight • Hope • Bravery • Anger • Hatred • Sadness • Despair • Fear • Horror

16. Passions in moral point of view • Passions are provided by nature for self-preservation of the individual and the human race. • A person without them would be with no capacity for self-defence, growth, improvement and devotion. • Passions may be called good when ordered by the rational will to help man in the practice of virtue, or in the attainment of that which is morally good. • Passions may be called bad when used by the rational will to accomplish morally evil actions or when it not controlled by reason. A person should be a master of his/her passions and not a slave of it.

17. Division - Passions • Antecedent Passions – it arises spontaneously before the judgement of reason and before the will can control the psychological situation. Example: • When a delicious food is served at the table, it spontaneosly causes appetite and the desire to it. • Consequent Passions – it is deliberately aroused by the will in order to ensure a more prompt and willing operation. Example: • When a person deliberately provoking hatred in his heart in order to carry out his intentions to murder/kill another.

18. Principles - Passions • Antecedent Passions may completely destroy freedom, and consequently, moral responsibility. Example: • A wife, who, out of love for her husband, becomes so jealous that in a moment of savage rage, kills him and the concubine. • Antecedent Passions lessens freedom and diminish the responsibility of human actions because they tend to blind the judgment of the intellect and block the freedom of the will. Example: • A man who drinks immoderately shows in his actions more voluntariness but less freedom than a man who drinks occasionally only.

19. Antecedent Passions do not always destroy freedom, for passions seldom escape the control of reason. • Consequent Passions do not lessen the voluntariness of an act but may increase it, because these kind of passions are deliberately excited and they are voluntary in themselves. Example: • By reading or watching immoral literature in order to intice or arouse the intellect and the will for another evil act – masturbation.

20. Fear • Fear – isa disturbance of the mind caused by the thought of a threatening evil. • It is the apprehension by the mind of an impending evil. • It is an unpleasant feeling of anxiety or apprehension caused by the presence or anticipation of danger.

21. Fear can be distinguish into • Acts done with fear or in spite of fear. • When a person climbs a dangearous mountain at night. • Acts done from or through fear or because of fear. • When a sea captain throws his cargo overboard in a storm in order to save the ship and the lives of the passengers. • Fear may be slight or graveaccording to the amount or to the proximity of the impending evil.

22. Principles - Fear • Acts done with or in spite of fear are always voluntary. • Acts done from, through or because of fear are involuntary. • Fear as a disturbance of the mind lessens the voluntariness but it does not destroy it. • Fear considered as an ordinary passion may increase or diminish the voluntariness of the human act.

23. Violence • Violence or compulsion - is the application of external force on a person by another for the purpose of compelling him to do something against his will. • It consists in the actual application of physical force to extort something from a person.

24. Principle - Violence • Human act resulting from violence are involuntary by themselves. • But we are held morally responsible for all acts of the will itself even when the body is suffering violence. Example: The body of a woman can be violated (rape), but her will or internal consent may remain inviolate or she may internally consent. • Active resistance should always be offered to an unjust aggressor. However, if resistance is impossible or if there is a serious threat to ones’s life, a person confronted by violence can always offer intrinsic resistance by witholding consent; that is enought to save his/her moral integrity.

25. Habit • Habit – is a constant and easy way of doing things acquired by the repetition of the same act. • It is an established action or pattern of behavior that is repeated so often that it becomes typical of somebody, although he or she may be unaware of it. • Synonymous to addiction, dependency, fixation, obsession, weakness,custom, routine, practice, tradition, convention, pattern.

26. Principles - Habit • Habits do not destroy voluntariness, and actions performed by the force of habits are imputable to man. • If a habit has been contracted absolutely involuntary and unintentionally, it will lack voluntariness and responsibility as long as the person concerned remains ignorance of the existence of such habit. • Example: A habit of foul language during childhood. • If an evil/bad habits has been contracted voluntarily, but a positive and constant effort is being made to counteract/resist/deter it, the acts inadvertently proceeding from the habit are considered involuntary and not imputable to man. • Example: A person seriously exerts effort to repress a habit of saying foul words, he/she is no longer responsible for his/her occasioanlly foul language.

27. Class Activity 1. Divide into groups of 5 2. Think of one situation for at least five (5) of the Obstacles/Modifiers of Human Act. • It should show that the responsibility of person changes because of the modifier. 3. Describe each situation in the class. – Example: A waiter in a restaurant did not issue a receipt to a customer. He did this because he was told not to do it, and he feared losing his job. (Modifier is fear). 4. Explain in the class if the person doing the act is morally responsible. 5. Do not use example already used during class discussion. 6. Present it in the class with visual aide (written in a manila paper). 7. Each situation is worth 5 points.

28. References: • Catechism of the Catholic Church • Catechism for Filipino Catholics • Ethics or Moral Philosophy, Alfredo Panizo, O.P. • Christian Ethics, Karl H. Peschke • Encarta Dictionaries

29. Thank you for your vibrant attention.