Freedom and Human Action 3

Freedom and Human Action

Action

Action is a process where an individual intentionally performs a behavior that involves some physical movement or decision-making. It is typically driven by beliefs and desires, leading to a choice that impacts oneself or the environment.

What Does It Mean When a Person is Acting?

When a person is acting, they are engaging in a deliberate behavior or making a choice that reflects their intentions, beliefs, and desires. This implies the person is not merely responding to stimuli but is consciously involved in decision-making, leading to an observable outcome or effect.

Criteria That Define Action:

• Physical movement: An action involves some form of physical movement.
• Beliefs and desires: The action is influenced by beliefs and desires, and it can be assessed as rational or irrational based on whether it satisfies the desires appropriately.

Two Categories of Human Action

Right Act

An act is right if it maximizes good (Bentham, 1907). Right actions bring about good or morally significant consequences.

Two Kinds of Right Action:

• Obligatory Act: An act that one is morally bound to perform, and it is not permissible to refrain from doing (Sidgwick, 1907).
• Supererogatory Act: Heroic or "meritorious non-duties" acts that go beyond moral obligation.

Wrong Act

An act that is morally forbidden.

Morally Forbidden Act:

An act that people have an obligation not to perform.

Philosophical Insights on Human Action

Aristotle on the Power of Decision

Man’s will and intellect affect human actions. Practical intellect guides the will by enlightening it, and reason legislates action through will.

Thomas Aquinas on Love and Freedom

Freedom allows humans to choose and act according to their will, enabling love to be intentional. For Aquinas, love involves willing the good for others, and freedom enables this choice.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Human existence is defined by the exercise of freedom and responsibility in both individual and social endeavors.

Martin Heidegger

Authentic existence requires man to:

• Free himself from inauthentic existence.
• Own and project his possibilities.
• Experience dread, care, guilt, and listen to conscience.
• Accept death as his inevitable possibility.

Choices and Consequences

Soren Kierkegaard

Humans possess an unforced, free way of making decisions. Each decision in life actualizes one’s personality. Authentic existence requires choices made in relation to God.

Decision-Making Method by Michael Pennock

• Search: Begin by searching out the facts.
• Think: Reflect deeply, considering alternatives and consequences.
• Others: Consider how others feel and consult them.
• Pray: For Christians, prayer helps in aligning decisions with God’s will.

Different Approaches in Morality

Freedom

Freedom is a natural right stemming from the human capacity to think and actualize choices.

Morality

Morality is defined as the rightness or wrongness of an act (R. Agapay, 1991). It depends on the conformity or non-conformity of an act with moral norms.

Human Acts vs Acts of Man

Human Acts

Actions performed with conscious knowledge, under the control of the will. Characteristics include:

• Performed by a conscious agent.
• Acted freely.
• Decided upon willfully.

Acts of Man

Instinctive and involuntary actions that are not controlled by the will.

Classification of Human Acts

• Moral Actions: Actions in conformity with the norms of morality.
• Immoral Actions: Actions not in conformity with moral norms.
• Amoral Actions: Neutral actions in relation to moral norms.

Principles by Alfredo Panizo

• A person is morally responsible for any evil effect that flows naturally from their actions.
• An action with double effects (good and evil) is morally permissible if:
  • The action is good or morally indifferent.
  • The good effect does not come from the evil effect.
  • The doer’s motive is towards good.
  • The evil effect is incidental.
  • The good effect outweighs the evil result.

Determinants of Morality

Object of Human Act

Some acts are inherently good or evil.

Motive of Human Act

The purpose or reason behind the act.

Circumstances of Human Act

Factors like who, what, where, with whom, why, how, and when affect the morality of an act.

Different Morality Approaches

Thomistic Approach

Morality derives from the agreement of the act’s object, intention, and circumstances with moral norms.

Consequentialist Approach

Morality is measured by outcomes. An act is moral if it produces good consequences and immoral if it produces bad ones (Bentham, Mill, Sidgwick).

Deontological Approach

Morality is based on duty, independent of consequences. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative is a prime example.

Virtue Ethics

This approach values moderation, or the "Golden Mean." It is associated with philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Mencius, and Confucius.