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Philippines
we are a group of learning enthusiast who wish to share ideas on ethics as applied in our major field --education

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Voluntariness And Responsibility

Voluntariness and Responsibility
Voluntariness
 Comes from the Latin word “voluntas” referring to the will.
 Condition or accounts of which an act proceeds with a previous knowledge of the end.
1. Perfect Voluntariness – is present in a person who fully knows and fully intend an act.
2. Imperfect Voluntariness – is present in a person who acts without fully realizing what t he means to do, or without fully intending an act.
3. Conditional Voluntariness – is present in a person who is forced by circumstances beyond his control to perform an act which he would not do under normal conditions.
4. Simple Voluntariness – is present imn a person doing an act willfully, regardless of whether he likes to do it or not.
Types of Voluntariness
1. Direct Voluntariness – an act is directly voluntary when the act is intended fort its own sake, either as a means or as an end.
2. Indirect Voluntariness – is an act which is not intended for its own sake but which merely follows as a regrettable consequence of an action directly willed.




1. Relation between Voluntariness and Ethics.
2. Between Morality and Voluntariness
3. Human acts and Voluntariness
4. Responsibility and Voluntariness
5. Punishment


The Moral Principles involved in Actions having Two Effects

Involves four conditions:
1. The act in itself should be good, or act at least morally indifferent.
2. The good effect must not come from the evil effect.
3. The evil effect should not be directly intended but morally allowed to happen as a regrettable side issue.
4. The good effect must outweigh the evil results in its importance.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the word itself voluntary, meaning you are not dictating by others to do a certain tasks, you yourself has willingness and confidence that you oath it without somebody forcing you to do so. When you volunteer there is a counterpart which is the responsibility, being responsible in the sense that you should do the best that you can and have the guts for whatever circumstances may come along you’re way. If were going to relate it to ethics, isn’t it when we speak up to morality we should know our limitations and how are we going to handle it.
For instance, if you volunteer to help others you should not asking something in return likewise, in spiritual teachings if we should help someone who are in need we should not gossip it to others, it must be bare in our mind that it is a better to give than to receive. As a youth we have our own responsibilities it can be in the house like simple doing household chores, cleaning the closet, washing dishes, etc. In the church as a good servant of God we should be responsible in attending the mass every Sunday. We are living in a world were responsibilities are to be put in our shoulder, as a person we should be done it with an open arms to make things better, for you and also to others.

Anonymous said...

"bago mo gawin and isang bagay dapat mong alamin ang kahihinatnan ng mga bagay- bagay" sabi ni Salem kay Sabrina.

Man is created rational and has free will. rational in nature because he has the capacity to think what is right and wrong. Man has free will wherein he practices his will in hid decision making.

As we say about voluntariness of a person is govewrned by his will for he decides what to do and he is responsible to do the act right. Whatever happens to that decision he makes and how responsible is he in doing the act. He must face the consequences of his act. It may be a reward or a punishment.
Tqake for example in a classroom setting,a student is tasked to do a report and he used his will to do the reporting. Therefore he is responsible to do his report better or make it more substantial.

Anonymous said...

Voluntariness is the will of man to do certain things.
Voluntariness is good when it comes form our heart not asking something to be returned.It is just like when we do it,it makes us feel happy. Helping other people is one of what I want in my life because nowadays there are lot of people which they feel lot of diffulties in life, when ever I will be fortunate I will build a Foundation for young one's and for our lolo's and lola who needs love and care for them.

When we ever volunteer ourselves make sure that we have think it thoroughly because there are situations that even we volunteer ourselves makes it bad to us, it is what we called Imperfect voluntariness where I don't want that kind of voluntariness. Thus, when certain person volunteer himself to come with his peer group because he heard his friends to go out to do certain thing not knowing the things what his peer group what they will do, and when they are already in that scenario what his peers want to do they go to the bank. When they are already inside the bank and then his peers said "holdap" to the people inside the bank, he can still choose what will be his decision. He can choose if he will be still with his peers or not going with them. If he go with his peers robbing the bank he commits robbery, a sin to our legal law and to our God, and when he decided not going with them, maybe his peers will be afraid if they will let him go maybe the will shoot him with their guns so that he cannot tell it to the authority. All of the things that we do we need to think it very well because it is our responsible what ever we chose in life.

Anonymous said...

Voluntariness...it is our willingness to do something without being dictated or forced by someone whether they are good or bad. this word means not only willingness to do so but having the guts to face the responsibilities it had. voluntariness and responsibility always go hand in hand, if you volunteer yourself, it only means that you know the consequences you are ought to face and you are ready to take the risks of doing so.
Man as rational being knows his limitations, he has the light of reason in deciding for himself. volunteering oneself is a great responsibility and I am proud to congratulate our volunteers who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of others without asking anything in return.

Anonymous said...

On my 18 years of existence in this world, I could say that life is a matter of choice. It involves decision making process. And our actions determine who we are. Most of the time, our actions are in accordance with our will. The basic principle is that “We can do whatever we want to do provided we are ready to face whatever consequences that awaits us, whether positive or negative.” What I want to say is that we are responsible/ accountable on every action we do. We can’t blame somebody if our actions turn to trouble because that action is our choice. If you don’t want to get in trouble then don’t do evil acts. But there are cases wherein we came to a point in which we do actions that are against the dictates of our will. We can’t do anything but do decide on this matter. With this situation we may choose to do things that are against the moral standard. Because we don’t have other best choice, we do act that somehow against moral considerations. But we consider this as an involuntary act.Voluntary act on the other hand is something that we do that is in accordance with what our will dictates us.

To end this up, I could say that “We are responsible and accountable on every act we do.”

Anonymous said...

Voluntariness is associated to responsibility. If we volunteer we must know that we have accepted a responsibility. And it is up to you if you will succeed.

For me voluntariness is our own free will. No one can ever dictate to us what to do or what should not do because we have our own mind and heart to decide.

Anonymous said...

Moments and glimpses give us chance to think for every action we are to do and for these every actions, we submit ourselves to our own consent and will to execute them.

Voluntariness as we call the exercising of man's will to do something. This very thing makes us accountable for the outcomes and consequences of what we have decided to do. Whether good or bad, we are as always bounded by the fact that whatever result we have caused, we and only ourselves are to be blamed. Our accountability this time speaks for our decision, as we're willingly liable for good effects but reluctantly accountable for bad outcomes. It's either we regret or we celebrate. It's just like floating in the air while catching every drop of victory and getting rid of every surge of misery.

Anonymous said...

Naturally man has free will. He have the choice if he would do a certain act or not. He have the choice if he'll do the right thing or the wrong one. Most of human acts are arise from man's will, but they differ in their reasons. Maybe one chose to do the wrong things because he have no choice but to do that act.

Human act is always associated with consequences and responsibility. As a human who do an act of course you are the one responsible to the outcomes or consequences of your actions.

So we are man and we have free will but we must be responsible enough.

Anonymous said...

“Ignorance of the law excuses on one”. Doing unlawful things because of ignorance of the law is not an excuse. As a human being you must know what are the law that govern
You for you to guided accordingly.

Doing things against law are legally liable but there factors that can be consider to lessen the accountability of an act. Such as fear, ignorance, habit and violence.

If you are in the situation where in you have to choose between life and death, if you killed the person that wants to kill you your liability will be lessen because you only do that just to save your life.

Anonymous said...

Voluntarinesss are merely synonymous with the word VOLUNTARY wherein you volunteer yourself to do an act without expecting things in return. Sometimes we don’t volunteer just because we are afraid to the responsibilities of it. But there are times we volunteer to an act because we think that the result of it is good for ourselves or just for our own sake.

As Jeffrey reported the classifications and types of voluntariness I now understand why people volunteer with a specific act, maybe they really want to help others or it can be for their own interest.

When you volunteer to an act be sure that you must face all the responsibilities of it. Being responsible in whatever you are doing sometimes had a good effect. Like for instance, I do my responsibilities at home without any command coming from my mother. I do that because I know that it is my task at home and my mother is happy to the result of it.

Anonymous said...

As they say, 'you cannot please every body.' whether we like it or not some would admire you other may hate you and some will be no comment at all from doing good deeds. What is good for others maybe bad for some and vice versa. and also it is easy to make decisions especially when we carried away by our passion.

LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR TEMPER
controlling our feeling is the best and the most effective to do to avoid any arguments, conflicts or even misinterpretation. Although, it seems to be the good thing to do but the most difficult to act. Admittedly, I myself find it hard to control my emotions and tend to speak obnoxiously without considering other's feeling. But the good thing in there is I find time to make apology and to reconcile those persons that I tend to get hurt.

Unknown said...

Nature of theory?

Anonymous said...

Perfect and imperfect voluntarism, anyone?