HUMAN

ACTS
Human Acts
All sort of activities done
by human being
Actions that proceed
from the deliberate free
will of man
CIRCUMSTANCE
DEFINITION
 Conditions that affect human acts by
increasing or decreasing the responsibility
of the agent
 Circumstances are only conditions
-Not part of the essence of the act whether
of the good or bad
- “ CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES”
 Moral Point of View
- Human acts are those factors
KINDS OF
CIRCUMSTANCES
 WHO
-called circumstance of agent
- Refers to the person or the one to whom the
act is ascribed

FOR EXAMPLE:
To slap a criminal is a ligher offense while to
slap one’s mother or father is graver offense
WHAT
 -the circumstance of the object or act
itself
-refers to the quality or quality of the
act of the object of the act

Ex: The agent has graver responsibility if

he steals P500 from the farmer while
the same amount from a businessman
WHERE
 the
circumstance of the place
where the act is performed
Ex:
The agent steals in the church ,
lighter responsibility in
supermarket
Late & using cellphones , lighter
responsibility in the room
By what
means
 The circumstance of the means
employed
Ex: To get a perfect score during
examination through cheating is
evil to get the same through
serious study is good
HOW
Thecircumstance of the manner or
mode by which the act is done
How the agent perform the act
Manifold conditions or modifiers (
Consent, voluntariness ,fear and
ignorance

EX: Insane person kills somebody

during a lucid interval, then he is
responsible for the act
WHEN
 The circumstance of time
 Points to how long the agent keep
evil intentions or thoughts

Ex: to keep anger toward someone

forever calls a graver responsibility for
the agent while to be angry with
someone in passing calls a lighter
responsibility for the same
 FIVE PRINCIPLES
 An indifferent act become good or evil
Ex: Eating meat during good Friday;Evil
 A good act can be become evil through circumstance
Ex: Giving money to indigents for votes; Evil
 Intrinsically good act can become better or an
intrinsically evil act can be worse through
circumstances
Ex: Not Visiting one’s sick father in a hospital out of hatred
worse
 An evil act become good through circumstance
Ex: Stealing money in order to buy food cannot
make stealing good
(circumstance of object)

 A good act done with evil means destroys the

entire objective goodness of the act
-Giving money to the through corruption
(circumstance of means)