A human act is an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will of man. In a wide sense, the term human act means any sort of activity, internal or external, bodily or spiritual, performed by human being. Ethics, however, employs the term in a stricter since and calls human only those acts that are proper to man as man. Now man is an animal, and he has many activities in common with brutes. thus, man feels, hears, sees, employs the senses of taste and smell, is influenced by bodily tendencies or appetites. But man is more than animal; he is rational, that is to say, he has understanding and free will. Hence it is only the act that proceeds from knowing and free willing human being that has the full character of human act. Such an act alone is proper to man as man. And therefore Ethics understands by human act only those acts that proceed from a deliberate and freely willing human being.
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