Ad Fontes Moralitatis. On The Complexity of Evaluating Moral Actions

Abstract

In the moral evaluation of action, reference is often made to the fontes moralitatis, the “sources of morality”, and the weight given to individual fontes (object, intention and circumstances) is discussed. Based on pertinent texts by the Church Magisterium and Thomas Aquinas, the following article initially presents the concept of the fontes moralitatis and then examines it for internal and external coherence as well as for its function. It appears that the concept of the fontes moralitatis contains several inconsistencies and is partially contradictory. It hardly does justice to the complexity of human action. In order to avoid the fontes being unduly mixed with normative ethics, it must also be taken into greater account that what counts as the “object” of an action is highly dependent on perspective: according to the extent to which intention and circumstances are included in the description of the object, the evaluation of the action may also change.