1.1.2. The Object of the Moral Act

Full Text | by Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist. | 1. Acts are determined by their objects. 2. For acts have natures. 3. The goodness or evil of an act is derived in the first place from the goodness of their object. 4. Human acts, in the strict sense, are acts that proceed from reason and will. 5. Like all acts, moral acts are determined by their objects. 6. The object of the moral act thus has two components. 7. Objects which are “materially” the same can be determined as different kinds of actions by the formal component. 8. Because the object determines the nature of an act, it is the most important reality in judging the morality of an act— more important than the ulterior consequences of an act, or the intentions of the agent with respect to such consequences, or any other circumstances of the act. 9. To understand how an evil moral object, even if good consequences are expected from it, is contrary to happiness, it is helpful to consider the distinction between making and doing, and between art and prudence. 10. Making proceeds from art, which is a habit that enables someone to make well. 11. Doing proceeds from prudence, which is a habit that enables a person to recognize and choose what tends towards the perfection and end of a person as a person. 12. Happiness is not some product of human activity to be produced by cunning design; it is the activities of human life itself done in a truly human, a truly rational way.