Why do we as humans do what we do? Is there an explanation for our actions? What exactly are our actions and what goes into those actions? All of these questions can be answered and it all comes down to the point of happiness. Through text such as “Human Fulfillment” by David Cloutier, Moral Theology True Happiness and the Virtues by William C. Mattison, and “On Free Choice of the Will” by Augustine we will find answers and examples to these questions. It is everyone’s purpose in life to live a happy life or a life that leads to happiness, but not all of us as humans can achieve this happiness. Through human action we can understand what needs to be done to achieve happiness. First we need to understand why anyone does anything at all.
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Human action is described by Mattison as free action. Here he defines what free action is, “Free action is goal-directed activity, but not simply that. It is the activity of a person who understands the goal of an activity and therefore does, or does not, do it with a certain understanding of that goal in mind.” (Mattison 48) Anyone, anything, can have an intentional action where you have a goal and you make it happen, but it takes a free action for someone to understand that goal and understand what they do to accomplish this goal. Animals do not have free actions thus why this is a human action. There are also three aspects of human action that Mattison points out. These three aspects are Object, intention, and circumstance. Object would be the action, intention would be the goal, and circumstance is the features of the situation which help to determine the morality of the action. These aspects can help us to evaluate human action. Take the example of self-defense: the object would be the action of harming another human, the intention is to protect yourself, and the circumstance would be you are being attacked and need to protect yourself to survive. Through human action we can understand why we are doing these actions and how these actions separate us from animal. Animals have actions but they do not have free actions because they do know have an understanding of their actions unlike us as humans
Human action is described by Mattison as free action. Here he defines what free action is, “Free action is goal-directed activity, but not simply that. It is the activity of a person who understands the goal of an activity and therefore does, or does not, do it with a certain understanding of that goal in mind.” (Mattison 48) Anyone, anything, can have an intentional action where you have a goal and you make it happen, but it takes a free action for someone to understand that goal and understand what they do to accomplish this goal. Animals do not have free actions thus why this is a human action. There are also three aspects of human action that Mattison points out. These three aspects are Object, intention, and circumstance. Object would be the action, intention would be the goal, and circumstance is the features of the situation which help to determine the morality of the action. These aspects can help us to evaluate human action. Take the example of self-defense: the object would be the action of harming another human, the intention is to protect yourself, and the circumstance would be you are being attacked and need to protect yourself to survive. Through human action we can understand why we are doing these actions and how these actions separate us from animal. Animals have actions but they do not have free actions because they do know have an understanding of their actions unlike us as humans