Republic of The Philippines

Commission on Higher Education

Region V
BAAO COMMUNITY COLLEGE
San Juan, Baao, Camarines Sur
E-mail: baaocommunitycollege@gmail.com
Telefax (054) 455 – 7015

GE7-ETHICS
MARISEL B. GASPI
Instructor
 VIDEO CLASS DISCUSSION
CHAPTER 3:THE MODIFIERS OF HUMAN ACT
 OPENING PRAYER
Lord God,
We thank you for this opportunity
For us to be together for our online class.
We humbly ask for your graces
t
to make this class more meaningful and successful.
Grant us, Oh Lord,
knowledge to understand our lesson
about the Modifiers of Human Act.
Inspire us all, Oh Lord, to learn more this day.
we ask this through Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
VIDEO CLASS
DISCUSSION
 HELLO!
CHAPTER III
THE MODIFIERS OF
HUMAN ACT
❑ The ideal is for man to act deliberately,
that is with perfect voluntariness.

❑ This means that a person fully knows

and fully intends an act.
❑ This is not always possible though.
Oftentimes, a certain degree of doubt or
reluctance accompanies an act.
❑ At other times, emotions hold sway,
propelling action with the swiftness of an
impulse.
❑ Factors that influence man’s inner
disposition towards certain actions
are called “modifiers” of human
acts.
❑ They affect mental or emotional state of a
person to the extent that the voluntariness
involved in an act is either increased or
decreased.
❑ This is significant because the accountability
of the act is correspondingly increased or
decreased.
WE CITE THIS PRINCIPLE:

◼The greater the knowledge and

the freedom, the greater the
voluntariness and the moral
responsibility. (Panizo: 38)
THE MODIFIERS
◼ Man does not act in a vacuum. He is an organism
responding and reacting to stimulus. His total
make-up is the sum of all experiences. His
personal background, education, social
upbringing, political persuasion, religion, and
personal aims contribute largely to his
development and behavioral preferences.
AUTHORS POINT TO THE FOLLOWING AS MODIFIERS
OF HUMAN ACTS:

◼ Ignorance,
◼ Passions,
◼ Fear,
◼ Violence,
◼ and Habits.
IGNORANCE

◼ We are familiar with the saying “ignorance of the law

excuses no one”. This implies that one should not act
in the state of ignorance and that one who has done a
wrong may not act claim ignorance as a defense.
◼ Ignorance is the absence of knowledge
which a person ought to possess.
◼ (a lawyer is expected to know the law, the doctor , his
medicine; a manager, his business operation).
◼ Ignorance is either vincible or invincible.
TYPES OF IGNORANCE:
◼ INVINCIBLE
◼ VINCIBLE
IGNORANCE IGNORANCE
◼ Can easily be ◼ The type which a
reminded through person possesses
without being aware of
ordinary diligence it, or, having awareness
and reasonable of it, lacks the means
efforts. to rectify it.
◼ Under vincible ignorance is affected
ignorance.
◼ This is the type of ignorance which a person
keeps by positive efforts in order to escape
responsibility or shame.
◼ (it is affected ignorance when an employee refuses to read memo precisely
so that he may be exempted from its requirement. (Glenn:26-27)
PRINCIPLES:
◼ 1. INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE Renders an act involuntary.
◼ A person cannot be hold morally liable if his not aware of his state of ignorance.
◼ A waiter who is not aware that the food he is serving has been poisoned cannot be held for murder.
(Glenn:32).
◼ 2. VINCIBLE IGNORANCE does not destroy but lessens the voluntariness and the corresponding
accountability over the act. A person who becomes aware of the state of ignorance he is in his
moral obligation to rectify it by exercising reasonable diligence in seeking the needed information.
To act with vincible ignorance is to act imprudently.
◼ A waiter who suspects that the food he is serving has been laced with poison has the moral
obligation to ascertain the fact or, at least, forewarn the guests about his suspicion. (Glenn:33).
◼ 3. AFFECTED IGNORANCE, though it decreases voluntariness,
increases the accountability.
◼ Insofar as affected ignorance interferes with intellect, it decreases
voluntariness.
◼ But insofar as it is willed to persist, it increases accountability.
◼ Certainly, refusing to rectify ignorance implies malice. And the
malice is greater when ignorance is used as an excuse for not doing
the right thing.
◼ Thus a child who refuses to be guided by his parents has only
himself to blame for his wrongdoing.
PASSIONS
◼ Passions or concupiscence, are either tendencies towards desirable
objects or tendencies away from undesirable or harmful things the
former are called positive emotion; the latter, negative emotions.
◼ The positive emotions include love, desire, delight, hope and
bravery.
◼ The negative emotions include hatred, horror, sadness, despair, fair
and anger.
◼ Passions are psychic responses. As such,
they are neither moral or immoral.
However, man is bound to regulate his
emotions and submit them to the control or
reason.
PASSION ARE EITHER ANTECEDENT OR
CONSEQUENT.
◼ CONSEQUENT
◼ ANTECEDENT
PASSION PASSION
◼ Are those that are
◼ Are those that precede an intentionally aroused and
act. kept.
◼ It may happen that a person is
◼ These are said to be
emotionally aroused to
perform an act.
voluntary in cause, the result
of the will playing the strings
◼ Predisposes a person to act.
of emotions.
PRINCIPLE

◼ ANTECEDENT Passions do not always destroy voluntariness, but they diminish

accountability for the resultant act.
◼ Antecedent passions weaken the will power of a person without, however,
completely obstructing his freedom. Thus, the so called “crimes of passion” are
voluntary. But insofar as passions interfere with the freedom of the will, ones
accountability is diminished.
◼ CONSEQUENT passions do not lessen voluntariness, but may even increase
accountability. This is because consequent passions are the direct results of the
will which fully consents to them instead of subordinating them to its control.
FEAR
◼ Fear is the disturbance of the mind of a person
who confronted by an impending danger or harm
to himself or loved one’s.
◼ Distinction is made however between an act done
with fear and an act done out or because of fear.
◼ Fear is an instinct for self-preservation.
PRINCIPLES
◼ Acts done with fear are voluntary. A person acting with
fear is acting in spite of his fear and his in fault control of
himself.
◼ Acts done out of fear, however great, is simply voluntary,
although it is also conditionally involuntary.
◼ Acts done because of intensive fear or panic are
involuntary. Panic completely obscures the mind. In this
state, a person is not expected to think sensibly.
VIOLENCE
◼ Violence refer to any physical force exerted on a
person by another free agent for the purpose of
compelling said person to act against his will.
Bodily torture, maltreatment, isolation, and
mutilation are examples of violence against
persons.
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.
◼ Elicited acts or those done by the will alone, are not
subject to violence and are therefore voluntary.
HABITS
◼ Habit, are defined by Glenn “is a lasting readiness and
facility, been of frequently repeated acts, for acting in a
certain manner”.
◼ Habits are acquired inclinations towards something to be
done. They assume the role of a second nature, moving one
who has them to perform certain acts with relative ease.
PRINCIPLES
◼ Actions done by force of habit are voluntary cause, unless a
reasonable effort is make to counteract the habitual inclination.
◼ Habit are either good or bad. We speak here of bad habits which
lead to immoral actions.
◼ Habits are voluntary in cause, because they are the result of
previously willed acts done repeatedly as a matter of fact.
ACTION & EMOTION
◼ Man does not act the way a robot does without feeling or emotion.
In doing his act, man does not only evoke certain sentiment, but
his decision or intention. One who loves to sing does not only sing
with “feelings” but is moved and motivated to sing when the
occasion is there.
◼ Emotions are generally instinctive in origin. Neither the degree of
their intensity, clarity, or awareness makes them human acts
judged as good or evil.
REFINEMENT OF EMOTIONS
◼ Ethics deals with emotions as factors affecting human
motivation and behavior. Instead of repressing them,
it calls for their refinement. This means that man is
expected to act not only with his mind and body, but
precisely with his heart and soul.
◼ In the purist sense, doing good for another is not a
virtue unless it comes from the “love” of what is good.
◼ Moral perfection comes from within we
“Filipinos” refers to it as “kagandahan ng
loob”. It is “loob” because it radiates from
within the human personality.
REFINEMENT OF EMOTIONS
◼ Ethics deals with emotions as factors affecting human
motivation and behavior. Instead of repressing them,
it calls for their refinement. This means that man is
expected to act not only with his mind and body, but
precisely with his heart and soul.
◼ In the purist sense, doing good for another is not a
virtue unless it comes from the “love” of what is good.
KAGANDAHAN NG LOOB
◼ Refers to attitude. It stands for all that is good,
we call kabaitan, in a human being. It is
multiplicity of sterling qualities, both natural
and acquired, which because they proceed from
the heart and mind, also greatly influences one’s
behaviour towards himself and others.
KAGANDAHAN NG LOOB

◼ Kagandahan ng Loob, includes such moral

values as mapagmahal, maunawain,
may-pakikiramdam, may pakikiramay,
matulungin, masayahin and hindi
mapagkunwari.
THANKS!