M1: Basic Ethical Questions Flashcards
Three elements of Human Act that are necessary to make it responsible
Awareness/Knowledge, Volition & Execution “AVE”
Usually reserved for acts that proceed from a deliberate will. Rational, Voluntary and therefore free.
Human Act
One has to _____ or to _____ to act. In order to act responsibly, the act should be ______.
Will. Want. Voluntary.
Perform a good or an indifferent act that can trigger evil consequences
Double effect
Aspects of matter in Double Effect Principle (when in doubt)
Certainty & uncertainty of the good & the evil effects, Necessity or degree of advisability of the act in bringing good effects and Influence & relation of the act with the evil effect.
Obstacles or difficulties that are frequently encountered in moral behavior
Impediments
Examples of Impediments
Fear, Violence, Customs, Habits, Ignorance and Passion “FV CHIP”
Have some bearing, albeit indirect, on the free human act.
Remote Impediments
Example of Remote Impediments
Pathologic(Neurosis & Epilepsy), Temperament, Age, Genetic traits, & Sex “P TAGS”
Performed by man
Human acts
Man can know what he is by using ______ alone. However, the best guarantee to go about this well is to adhere to what _____ has revealed.
Reason. God.
Noblest of all creatures. Marvelous unity of rationality and animality.
Man
Is a dynamic reality characterized by a natural tendency towards an end and a rational knowledge of that end.
Human nature
Is a living being composed of matter and spirit. Body and Soul.
Man
Man being a corporeal and spiritual creature, is ______ and _______.
Rational and Free
The individual human soul is
Immortal
Everything on earth should be ordained to man as its _______ and _______.
Center & Summit
Man is a
Social being
Man is a creature made in the
Image of God
The human person is ________. This is the origin of human rights and duties.
Sacred
Has redeemed man
Jesus Christ
Judges a concrete act as good or evil
Conscience
First principles of the moral order
Do good and avoid evil
Conscience does not arbitrarily determine good or evil. Rather it judges in accord with a norm of morality that has been given to it; and this norm is called the
Natural Law
To act in conscience is not merely a question of being certain and firm in coming up with a decision
Certain conscience
Conscience validates one’s judgement of conscience against the moral norm
Correct/True conscience
Christians can know the Moral Law through
Faith and Reason
Spiritual faculty of man
Moral conscience
Catholic Theology affirms the immediate and proximate norm of human acts is the
Judgment of conscience
Interpreter of an interior and superior norm than an arbiter of morality
Conscience
Supreme norm of morality
Divine Law
A judge of how the law is correctly applied to a specific action
Conscience
Must complement
Conscience and Law
Acts with an invincibly erroneous conscience commits no sin, even if he commits something wrong.
Invincible error
Subjective and proximate norm of morality
Conscience
Objective norm of morality
Moral Law
Constitutes the body of duties that God has imposed on man, and which man can know through reason.
Natural Law
Basic principle of moral life
Do good. Avoid evil.
Imprinted in the hearts of all human being
Ultimate end
Simply states that the nature of man, and its precepts express the kind of behavior that is proper to man as such
Natural Law
In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas explains that man has three fundamental tendencies called
Appetites
Summa Theologica three fundamental tendencies
Material substance, Animal being and Rational being
Need the help of moral science, which deduces, without resorting to complex reasoning, concrete and basic principles of natural law. This is a general principle.
Primary Principles of Natural Law
Upholds International Law which acknowledges the dignity of persons as the foundation of international relations
Universality of the Natural Law
Natural Law does not change in the course of history because it expresses the deepest, unchanging tendencies of man’s being. Permanent value, independent of the circumstances of time and place.
Immutable
Can the Natural Law change?
No
These are specifically Human
Intellect & Will
Stated that what distinguishes men of different eras are mere accidental features
Cardinal Danielou
It reduces human behavior to mere stimulus-response.
Neo-behaviorist theory
Distinctive characteristic of human nature
Freedon
Confirms what personal experience cannot deny
Faith
Purposely shirk responsibility by refusing to know what they ought to know
Culpably ignorant
Property of human will. Has close links with responsibility. It is not absolute.
Freedom
To be completely free, the human person needs the help of others, most especially that if God.
Conditioned freedom
Come hand in hand. Cannot be independent of each other.
Freedom & Responsibility
Man acquires through the practice of moral virtues
Moral freedom
Is a unique element of human acts. The dignity of human nature which is spiritual and free demands it.
Morality
Law of Christians
Law of God
Conformity of human act with the moral norms
Morality
Three elements of human act. Sources of morality.
Act itself, End or Intention and Circumstances
Is the primary and essential element because it is what the act itself pursues. Independent of the intention of the subject at the moment of acting.
Object
Can become good or bad depending on the intention with which these are carried out.
Indifferent acts
Principal goal or objective of the doer of the act. Without it the act will never be performed.
End or Intention
Accidental aspects of the object or of the intention of an act.
Circumstances
First condition for an act to be good is the the
Object must be good
The error of thinking that a good intention suffices to make an act morally good is called
Situational ethics
The morality of an act is primarily determined by the intention of the doer and or by the circumstance when the object is
Morally indifferent
Can increase or decrease the goodness or malice of an act but cannot convert a good act into something bad or vice versa.
Circumstances
Broader perspective of the Natural Law
Do good and do not influence others to do evil
Is a voluntary act that contributes to the evil act of another
Positive cooperation
Constitutes an omission, that is, allowing someone to perform evil act without doing anything to stop him by means of some warning or advice.
Negative cooperation
Happens when one either openly or secretly consents to tye evil act of another
Formal cooperation
Constitutes a physical assistance to an act, but without willing or consenting to it.
Material cooperation
Performed within and simultaneously with the evil act
Immediate cooperation
Happens when one provides the means that another person to do an evil act.
Mediate cooperation
One can have greater or lesser physical or moral proximity to cooperating with the evil act of another
Proximate & Remote cooperation
A person who orders a murder and hands the weapon to the assassin is the
Proximate collaborator
The store clerk who sold the weapon to the assassin is a
Remote collaborator
Inciting others to do evil is a sin called
Scandal
Always illicit because to express approval of the evil act of another encourages not only the evil action but also the intention of the doer of that action
Formal cooperation
