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What is a voluntary act?

ETHICS

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Part II

2. The Person as author ofbehaviour

y What is a voluntary act?

y Types of human acts

y The voluntary act as anintentional act

y Freedom: its nature anddimensions

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Voluntary act

y human actions

y actions we carryout freely

y our intellect andour will intervene

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Classical definition

y The voluntary act is theact that proceeds froman intrinsic principle,with formal knowledge

of the goal

y Intrinsic principle (refersto the will)

y

Voluntary actsoriginate from thepersons will

y An act is not voluntaryif carried out against

ones will

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Which is voluntary?

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Which is voluntary?

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Classical definition

y The voluntary act is the act that proceedsfrom an intrinsic principle, with formalknowledge of the goal

y Formal knowledge of the goal (refers tothe intellect)

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Knowledge of the goal

y Formal knowledge of thegoal (refers to theintellect)

y The goal:

y the source of the act

y the object towardswhich the will tends

y the good thing whichattracts the will

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Knowledge of the goal

y Every act which is deliberated on (thoughtabout), and executed (carried out), aims atachieving a particular end, goal.

There is an intention (aim) behind theact, moving the person to act in this way.

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Which is voluntary? Identify theintention

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The voluntary act and violencey The will cannot be

coerced by an outsideforce (St. ThomasAquinas)

y In the strict sense, anelicited act of the willcannot be forced: no onecan force me to willsomething

y Only commanded acts (ofthe will) can admit ofviolence:

I can willingly walk or

be forced to walk

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Types of voluntary acts

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Internal vs. externaly Internal: does not

have any outwardmanifestation

y

External- manifestedexternally

y To feel compassion foranother (internal)

y To go out of ones wayto help a person in need(external)

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Good, bad and indifferent

y Good: the object of the action is in accordwith the natural moral law

y Bad: the object of the action is contraryto the natural moral law

y Indifferent: the object does not have amoral connotation e.g. walking

y Strictly speaking there are noindifferent actions because all freeacts have a moral value that is derivedfrom the intention of the person

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Elicited or commanded

An elicited act is an act that directly comes/originatesfrom the will

To love, to hate, to desire

A commanded act is an act commanded by the will to afaculty other than itself

To think, to understand

(act commanded by the will to the intellect)

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Perfectly voluntary act

y Perfectly voluntary full awareness ofthe act

y There is full knowledge of the goal andthe will consents to the act

y There is full awareness or consent when theperson realizes perfectly what he is doing and the

moral value of the act

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Perfectly voluntary act?

y Nurse caught on CCTV turning offparalysed patient's life support machine

A paralysed patient has been left severely brain

damaged after a nurse switched off his lifesupport machine in an incident captured on CCTV.

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Perfectly voluntary act?

Violeta Aylward, an agency nurse working for the NHS,was caught on camera turning off the ventilator keepingquadriplegic Jamie Merrett alive.

The 37-year-old, left paralysed from the neck downfollowing a car accident in 2002, had a bedside cameraset up at his home after becoming concerned about thestandard of care he was receiving.

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Perfectly voluntary act?Footage recorded only a few days after it was installedshows Miss Aylward fiddling with the ventilator before ahigh-pitched warning tone sounds, indicating it isswitched off.

Mr Merrett is then left fighting for life as the nursepanics about what to do next, unable to restart theventilator or properly operate resuscitation equipment.

It was not until 21 minutes later that paramedics who

rushed to the scene managed to turn the life supportmachine back on.

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Involuntary act

y The goal is not known at all

y Shooting arrows at a tree to practicethe shot and hitting a person behindthe tree whom the person did notknow was there

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Imperfectly voluntary act

y Imperfectly voluntary

y Imperfection in the

knowledge:ignorance or lack ofknowledge

y Invincible vs.vincible ignorance

y Imperfect consent

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Imperfectly voluntary?

For registered nurse Kimberly Hiatt, the horrorbegan last Sept.14, the moment she realizedshed overdosed a fragile baby with 10 times toomuch medication.

Stunned, she told nearby staff at the CardiacIntensive Care Unit at Seattle Childrens Hospitalwhat had happened. It was in the line of, Oh myGod, I have given too much calcium, recalled afellow nurse, Michelle Asplin, in a statement tostate investigators.

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Imperfectly voluntary?

In Hiatts 24-year career, all of it at SeattleChildrens, dispensing 1.4 grams of calciumchloride instead of the correct dose of140milligrams was the only serious medical mistakeshed ever made, public investigation recordsshow.

She was devastated, just devastated, said LynHiatt, 49, of Seattle, Kims partner and co-parentof their two children, Eli, 18, and Sydney, 16.

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Invincible vs. vincible ignorance

y Invincible:

type of ignorance that

dominates the personsconscience entirelythat it cannot beovercome withreasonable means

y Vincible ignorance:

the person could become

aware ofhis ignorancebut the ignorancepersists because he didnot take enough interestto clear his doubts out oflaziness, malice, etc.

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Identify the type of acty A journalist writes a defamatory piece

of news article about a person

y

A student throws an empty waterbottle at the landing of an overpass

y A nurse injects a patient with a drug

at a level beyond indicated

y A young lady lies to her parents abouther grades

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Identify the type of acty A terminally-ill patient is given a

strong dose of a sedative to alleviateher pain; the doctor is aware that thisdosage can shorten the patients life

y A terminally-ill patient asks for a drugto end her life

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What is a voluntary act?

Part 2

ETHICS

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Part II

2. The Person as author ofbehaviour

y What is a voluntary act?

y Types of human acts

y The voluntary act as anintentional act

y Freedom: its nature anddimensions

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Types of voluntary acts

Internal vs. external acts

Good, bad, indifferent

Elicited vs. commanded

Perfectly voluntary, imperfectlyvoluntary, involuntary

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The object of the will

y Can be considered in 3 ways:

a. Direct object or indirect objectb. End vs. means

c. Honest good, delectable good, useful good

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Direct or indirect object

y Direct object of the will = the goodperceived or understood by the intellect

y Indirect object =not willed in itself

but simply foreseen and permitted asinevitably linked to what is willed directly

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End vs. means

a means to and end

The end does not justify themeans.

The human person should notbe used as a means to an end.

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End vs. means

End =somethingthat is

desired forits own sake

Means =something

that isdesired for

the sake ofanother goal

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Honest, delectable, useful

Useful good wanted as a means to an end(either honest good or delectable good)

Delectable good - wanted because it producesa positive affective response: e.g. pleasure,satisfaction, joy, etc.

Honest good loved for what it is in itself (itsown sake)

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Honest, delectable, useful?

The human person

Friendship

Money

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Part II

2. The Person as author ofbehaviour

y What is a voluntary act?

y Types of human acts

y The voluntary act as anintentional act

y Freedom: its nature anddimensions

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The voluntary act as intentional act

y Intentionality as characteristic of free acts

y our acts are directed towards achieving a

particular goal

y Conscious, guided by reason, self-referential

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Conscious

y the person plans the act;

y establishes the connection between the act andthe goalhe wants to achieve;

y each personhas the experience that he himselfis the author (source) ofhis own acts.

y weown

ou

r action

s;hence

we are resp

onsib

lefor them

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Guided by reason

y the intellect presents the intentionalobject tothe will, that is, the act or the object which thewillwants

y the rational judgment establishes the motivewhichunites the act to the goal: Iwant to dothis act because it is good, or, because it isuseful, etc.

y Freedom cannot be separated from the truth

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Self-referential

We are saying, then, that every free humanact has repercussions in the personwhocarries it out; it modifies the personone

way or another;

towant something implies a personalevaluationof the wanted thing which does

not occur in the case of the act ofknowing.

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Self-referentiality

The person becomes committed as a personthrough eachofhis free acts;

when a man decides on something, he is notonly choosing some object which is outsidehimself, rather his decision brings along with it,self-determination; the person determineshimself in some way through that decision.

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Self-referentiality

So to freely want, desire something dishonest,for example, makes the personwhowants itdishonest because he claims it for himselfwithhis free wanting, he wants it for himself5.

The self-referentiality of the voluntary act isvery important inEthics because each personis, in a certain sense, what he has done

throughhis actions; the moral value of theacts remains inside the person (immanent).