Ethics and Human Action

Ethics and Human Action

·         The major focus of ethics is on human action. This also happens to be starting point of most of our legal system.

·          Ethics focus only on human deliberative action and not on undeliberative action done out of ignorance.

·         Hence, ethics come into consideration in case of deliberate action made by people.

·         Ethical action can be categorised into two broad categories.

Ethical Action

Human Action

Moral Action

“Actus Humanus” mean deliberate human  action

“Actus Huminis” undeliberate human action,

 

Actus Huminis” like blood circulation breathing etc

·         Any action to be qualified as ethical or not must carry these two –

·         one the action must be human ,

·         Second it must be Moral.

 What qualifies to be human action?

·         Considering this according to theologians point of view, Thomas Aquinas says that a human action carries three basic and two additional characters –

·         three basics are :

1. Knowledge          

2. Voluntariness

3. Free-will

·         If any one of these elements is not present, the action is not human action, therefore not subject to study of ethics.

1.      Knowledge: Any action to be willed, an individual need to have knowledge about that action.

·         Example- If you say that I sat down on chair, you will be attributed to this action, when you have knowledge of chair and sitting. Human activity is something which is willed, for will knowledge is one of the essential characteristic.

2.      Voluntariness: The individual is himself undertaking the action means no one else is doing that.

·         Example- If someone places a gun in my hand and pulls a trigger, it is obvious that my will does not control or cause that action and therefore the shooting is not voluntary and not human action.

3.      Free Will: Referred to an individual undertaking an activity while having choices, if there is no choice then no free will.

·         Example- You are going through a tunnel, suddenly, the path is closed down, you know that there is alternative path but that path leads to a prohibited area, here you have the knowledge about the action, you voluntarily acted upon but you do not have the choice, so there is less free will so this would not fall under ethics.

2. Additional

1.      sufficient knowledge

·         Individual have the knowledge of the purpose or the impact of omission or commission of an act. The actor must have sufficient knowledge of the end or purpose of the action of the human.

·         There could be insufficient knowledge or complete ignorance.

·         In case of insufficient knowledge the action would be spontaneous. (Dog reaction after seeing the bone )

·         Natural act is that act which is based on ignorance.(trees and plants – no knowledge of their growth)

·          If the action is based on ignorance then this would not be a human action.

2.      voluntary/ voluntary in cause

·         The action would be directly voluntary/ voluntary in cause.

·         Directly voluntary refers to all those action, where the consequences are indirectly related to actor or the human being.

·          Example - Fighter pilot dropping a bomb on military, this is directly voluntary and destruction of civilian places by bomb is voluntary in cause. Any action which is direct voluntary and voluntary in cause both are a human action.

Moral Action: Something which is good or right action depends upon moral values but what qualifies for right action we will understand it in the context of religion, law, logic, emotion, intuition.

Impediments to Human Action

·         If any of the three conditions is absent, the action is not human and is not subject to examination in ethics.

1.      Ignorance: Defined as absence of knowledge in a subject for which a person is capable of having knowledge. An animal cannot be ignorant because of its unavailability of knowledge but IAS cannot be said ignorant if he/she lacks knowledge of administration.

2.      Passion: It includes anger, grief, love, hatred, greed etc. But passion destroys voluntariness of action and it influence human action.

3.      Fear: It is defined as a mental or emotional reaction arising from an impending danger. Two categories :

1) Grave fear – this would effects courage of a person

2) Light fear – this would not effects a person courage

·         In case of grave fear, it destroys person’s freedom of choice, and hence will adversely affect voluntariness of action whereas the light fear does not destroy the person’s freedom but only diminishes it.

4.      Violence: It is external physical force exerted physical force exerted on a person. When a person offers all the resistance he can, actions done in these circumstances are less free and therefore not human action.

5.      Habit: It is a quality acquired through frequent repetitions that enables the subject to be acted easily and promptly. Good habits are virtues and bad habits are vices. Voluntariness and choices do not remain in these cases.

6.      Temperament: It is the sum of person’s natural propensity as opposed to character which is the collection of a person’s acquired propensities. Both may sometime lessen the voluntariness of action.

7.      Pathological state: There are many pathological states that may interfere with voluntariness. Generally, in criminal cases lawyer play great attention to the mental status of their client and seek concession from the court.

·         Other conditions that impact voluntariness are alcohol and drugs. This can affect human reasoning and knowledge.