Understanding Human Acts: Morality and Responsibility

Direct and Indirect Voluntary Acts

• Direct Voluntary Act: This refers to an action that is willed and determined by an individual for themselves. In this case, the degree of responsibility is at its maximum. We are entirely responsible for these actions.
• Indirect Voluntary Act: This is when the effect of an action is not directly intended but is a predictable consequence of a voluntary act. As rational and free individuals, we are responsible for our actions and their reasonably foreseeable consequences. Therefore, we are also fully responsible for indirect voluntary acts, although the degree of responsibility may differ. We must assume the consequences of our actions.

Involuntary Acts and Responsibility

• Involuntary Act: An involuntary act is neither directly intended nor predictable. It is entirely unintentional. We are not held responsible for involuntary acts.
• Responsibility for Omission: This refers to the failure to act when one should, such as not helping in a road accident.
• Responsibility for Collective Tasks or Groups: All individuals involved in a collective action share responsibility for it.
• Responsibility in Hierarchical Organizations: While there may be a principle of obedience in hierarchical structures, ultimately, each individual is morally responsible for their own actions.

Factors Affecting Voluntary Acts

• Violence: This is an external constraint where someone forcibly compels us to perform immoral acts. We are not guilty or responsible for such acts. It is an immoral act on the part of the one who coerces.
• Passions: These are emotions that arise when we perceive physical good or evil, often accompanied by intense bodily reactions.
• Free Will: Free will can typically dominate passions, except when they are exceptionally strong and eliminate one of the two essential elements of a human act: knowledge and free will. Acting with passion is, in principle, good; it all depends on the morality of the act. Performing a good deed despite despair is doubly meritorious.
• Fear: Fear is a passion caused by the threat of impending evil that is difficult to overcome. For fear to negate a human act, it must be intense and strong enough to annul freedom. Fear does not remove the voluntariness of an act and can even enhance its ethical value.

Factors Determining the Morality of a Human Act

• Object: This is the primary factor that determines the morality of a human act. It refers to the objective reality that the act immediately and directly pursues, the reality in which the act consists. Generally, if the object is good, the act is good, and if the object is bad, the act is bad.
• End: This is the purpose that drives a person to perform the act. The end may or may not align with the object of the action. When they do not align in their moral value, it must be said that a bad end corrupts a good deed, but a good end does not make a bad action good.
  • It is unlawful to perform a bad deed with a good purpose. Almost all actions are presumably done with good or useful purposes, but this does not change the negative value of an action. The end does not justify the means.
  • It is also not morally permissible to perform a good deed with immoral intentions, such as doing a good deed solely for the purpose of showing off. However, in general, it is better to perform a good deed with a less-than-perfect intention than the contrary.
• Circumstances: These are various factors or changes that affect the human act. We can consider various types of circumstances, such as the subject, time, place, means, method, amount, and to whom. Some circumstances mitigate the morality of the act, others aggravate it, and some can even change the morality of the act entirely.

Conclusion

For an act to be considered good, it must be good in its object, end, and circumstances. An act is wrong if any of these three elements—object, end, or circumstances—is bad.