THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS

1. The Nature of Human Act

Human acts are actions that proceed from the deliberate free will
of man. These actions are characterized as:
a. The free and voluntary acts of man
b. Acts are done with knowledge and consent
c. Acts which are proper to man as rational being since man has
been gifted with rationality and freedom of will
d. Acts which are conscious and under our control and for which
we are responsible

Categories of Human Acts

1. Natural involuntary actions
2. Natural voluntary actions

Human acts in Relation to Reason

* Good acts are those done by man in harmony with the dictates
of right reason.
* Evil acts are those actions done by man in contradiction to the
dictates of right reason.
* Indifferent acts are those acts that are neither good nor evil.

The Voluntariness of Human Acts

The concept of voluntariness is important in ethics because only
voluntary acts have moral being.

Categories of Voluntary Actions

1. Perfect voluntariness
2. Imperfect voluntariness
3. Direct voluntariness
4. Indirect voluntariness

2. The Moral Principle involved in Actions Having Two Effects (The

Indirect Voluntary Acts)
A difficult question sometimes arises as to whether it would be
morally right to do certain actions from which good as well as bad effects
follow: meaning is it morally right to do an act which entails good as well
as bad consequences? The answer to this question is "yes" provided
one follows the following conditions:
- the action must be morally good in itself, or at least morally
indifferent
- the good effect of the act must precede the evil effect
 - There must be a grave or sufficient reason in doing the act
- The evil effect should not outweigh the good effect

The Determinants of Morality

The factors that link human acts with their norms are called the
determinants of morality.

1. The end of the action

2. The end of the actor
3. The circumstances of the act (who, what, where, when, how, by
what means, why)

The principles involved in the Circumstances of the Action

Paul Glenn writes five principles involving the implications of the
circumstances
1. An indifferent act can become good or evil through
circumstance
2. A good act can become evil through circumstance
3. An intrinsically good act can become better or an intrinsically
evil act can become worse through circumstance
4. An evil act can never become good through circumstance
5. A good act done with evil means destroys the entire objective
goodness of the act