HUMAN ACT

An act that is performed only by a human being and thus is proper

to man. Not every act that a human being does is a distinctively
human act. Some acts that human beings do are performed also by
animals, e.g., vegetative acts and acts of perception and of emotion.
When a human being does such acts, they are called acts of man
but not human acts. Acts of man, therefore, are acts shared in
common by man and other animals, whereas human acts are
proper to human beings. What makes an act performed by a human
being distinctively a human act is that it is voluntary in character,
that is, an act in some way under the control or direction of the will,
which is proper to man. One can therefore identify the human act
with the voluntary act. A voluntary act proceeds either from the will
itself—for example, an act of love or of choice—or from some other
human power that can in some way be moved by the will, whether
an act of the intellect, of sense cognition, or of emotion; even an act
of some bodily member as commanded by the will can be a
voluntary act.

A moral analysis of the human act analyzes the human act in

relation to the good that is sought and insofar as all acts are moved
to their ends by the will. A psychological consideration of the human
act distinguishes the internal and external principles of the human
act, treats the notion of human freedom, and analyzes the human
act into its component parts. This article deals with the human act
primarily in its psychological aspect, which a moral analysis must
presuppose.
Chapter I.
The End to Which Human Acts are to be Directed.

In the present chapter we shall consider: 1. Ends in general. 2. Our

last end. 3. The attainment of our last end.

ARTICLE I. ENDS IN GENERAL.

6. We mean here by end the purpose for which a thing exists; the
end of an act is the purpose for which that act is done. For instance,
some may read a certain book for pleasure; others for instruction,
others again to practise obedience: the act is the same, the ends
are various.

Every human act is done for an end. For a human act is an act
of the will, and the will cannot act unless the intellect proposes to it
something to which it may tend, i. e., something good. The will is
only another name for the rational appetite -- that is, the power of
tending to a good which the intellect proposes to it. The good
intended is the end of the act. Hence, every act is done for an end.
You may object that you have no special intention, e. g., in reading;
that you read merely to kill time, to be busied with something, etc.;
nevertheless, you act for an end or purpose, the end in this case
being to kill time or to find occupation.

8. We do not say that the end intended is always a true good, but
only that it is always good after a manner; that it is at least
an apparent good, and aimed at because apprehended as good. It
may be conceived as good in itself, worth tending to for its own
sake, or as a means conducive to some other good. No man,
however, intends evil for the sake of evil, but only because he sees
something good and desirable in what he wills or in its result. A man
may do evil to another for the sake of revenge, and thus do what is
morally bad; he may do evil to himself -- he may even kill himself;
yet he cannot do so except for a purpose which he apprehends as
good in some respect -- for example, to be freed from trouble. No
will can possibly act without aiming at something that has been
apprehended as in some way desirable.
9. We must distinguish the nearest or proximate end,
the farther or remote end, and the last or ultimate end, beyond
which the agent does not look and in which his desire rests. Thus a
student may exert himself in order to win a prize, because, by
gaining the prize, he will please his parents, and by striving to
please his parents he will please God. In this act of the student the
prize is the nearest end, his parents a farther end, and God
the last end.

Perhaps he does not think of God, but aims at pleasing his parents
so as to receive a promised sum of money, with which finally he
intends to buy some sweetmeats for the gratification of his palate.
In this act he makes the enjoyment he derives from the gratification
of his palate the last end.

10, In the example just given, the sweetmeats constitute

the objective end; the enjoyment of them is the
student's subjective end. The objective or material end is the
object aimed at; the subjective or formal end is the attainment of
that object.

11. We must also distinguish the end of the work from the end of
the workman. A watchmaker, e. g., constructs watches in order to
earn a living. The end of the work, the watch, is to mark the
time; the end of the workman is to earn a living.