"Here we find the realm of human freedom seen in acts put into existence by our choices. These choices need not exist; we could have done something else in each instance of their coming to be. Each of them, until the instant of their doing, could have been otherwise. This fact that they could have been otherwise, but that we make them to be this way or that, is the foundation for our responsibility for them, why we can be praised or blamed for them.
... Human acts that are, but need not be ... is what is generally understood to be the sphere of morality or ethics.... All real drama and risk in the world are based on this possibility of something initially not needing to exist, but when it does, the consequences follow from the act.
... What we consider as needing to exist are the consequences flowing from free acts, both good and evil, once they are chosen and put into effect.... We do not understand human acts ... unless we understand them as freely aligning themselves for or against the norm of what is good order. This is why all human actions are worthy of praise or blame because of the content put freely into them by the human decision that brought them about in the first place."
James V. Schall, S.J., The Order of Things, 89-90.
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