FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN PERSON

Freedom in the Context of Morality

 Rights
Rights refer to the privilege or the
entitlement to have or to do something.
For example, the right to live.
LESSON 1: MORALTY AND FREEDOM

Overview

• Discusses the nature of ethics as a branch of

philosophy that deals with the study of values
and justification including the nature conduct
and moral principle that govern it.
LESSON 1: MORALTY AND FREEDOM
 THE REALM OF MORALITY
• MORALITY heavy and broad subject matter
for discussion if we do not have the basic
tools for analysis.
– Ethics and morality play vital role in our lives—in
the process of making choices until the end of our
conscious existence.
• Choices that are based on the value we place
on things—material and non-material.
 THE CONCEPT OF MORALITY
• Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the
systematic questioning and critical examination of the
underlying principles of morality.
– Ethos – refers to the character of the culture—attitude of
approval or disapproval in a particular culture at a given
time and place.
• Morality – the subject matter being studied
• Mores – the customs including the customary behavior of
a particular group of people—constitutes the core of
attitudes and beliefs
– Thus, mores and ethos, both refers to customary
behavior.
 Two General Approaches in Ethics

1. Normative Ethics – gives answer to the question

“what is good?”
– Pertains to a certain norms or standards for goodness and
badness of an act.
• Example: Christian Ethics
 Two General Approaches in Ethics
2. Meta-ethics – tries to go beyond the concepts
and parameters set by normative ethics by trying to
question the basis of assumptions proposed in a
framework of norms by normative ethics.
– An ethical approach, examines the presuppositions,
meanings and justifications of ethical concepts and
principles.
• Example: put into question the objective and
subjective moral truth
• Thus, the study of ethics and morality entails an
analysis both the human person as an individual ad
society together with its social rules that sets
limitations on the behavior of the individual.
– Example: how our parents raised us in a particular society
that is governed by mores of the time and place.
 THE ROLE OF THE SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
IN THE EMERGENCE OF MORES

• William Sumner, an anthropologist, “Folkways”

stressed that our notion of what is ‘right’ stems from
man’s basic instinct to survive.
– In this way, man started to form groups as they carry out
their survival task, they would observe the best practices,
then the practice would become mass phenomenon for
their group and other group would do the same thing,
therefor imitating and transferring these practices.
• This notion of ‘right and true is what we call
folkways.
– the mores emerge—mores came from folkways.
– Folkways now becoming the basis of the mores,
consciously or unconsciously the individuals develop
habits to preserve the notion of what is right and on the
other hand, the society develops social rules and
sanctions, which may be implicit or explicit, in order to
preserve these practices and to control behavior of the
individual to maintain order in society.
• Thus, in the society custom emerged out of repeated
practices, while from the individual emerges habits.
• Meaning, mores, are the compelling reasons to do what
ought to be done—rights things to do.
– In reality, mores may change and adapt to new
conditions.
• Sumner stress that “the ‘morals’ of an age are never
anything but the consonance between what is done and
what the mores of the age requires.”
 Two Factors in the Emergence of Morality
1. One has to consider the 2. Society is not
point of view of society— homogenous, because there
customs, social rules, is the interplay of varying vies
sanctions and point of view and groups where the
of the individual. individual belongs.
– Ultimately, it is the – Varied and contrasting times
individual, in his capacity as may affect individual
a rational and free moral choices.
agent, who would decide— – Example: the effect of
to follow the norms. media, family, friends, peer
groups, church etc.
REALM OF FREEDOM
 REALM OF FREEDOM

• FREEDOM – widely used and applied in the

analysis of Philippine society as a whole, as
well as application of freedom to individual
rights.
– What is freedom and how is it being exercised in
the realm of morals?
• Jean-Paul Sarte – assumes the idea of radical
freedom, by claiming that man is condemned to
be free.
– Unconstrained free moral agent in the sense that he is
always as a choice in every aspect of his life.
– “Man is nothing else but that which he makes himself”
• Man is never compelled or determined, he is
totally free and therefore, totally responsible for all
the things that he does.
• “You are free but this freedom is not absolute”—you
could not do anything that you please without taking
into consideration the norms of your society.
• “Your Freedom ends where my freedom begins”
• Freedom of human person therefore, is a free moral
when he is free to make his choice in accordance
with his own moral discernment of what is good and
bad.
 “No one is free when
others are oppressed.”
~ Author Unknown
• John Mothershead – Ethics: Modern Conception of the
Principle of Right (1995)
• Two Necessary Conditions for Morality
1. Freedom – assumed when one is making his choices and is
the agent that is taking the full responsibility in planning in his
life—in accordance to his/her moral and rational capacity
2. Obligation – construed as one’s duty to himself to exercise
this freedom as a rational being.
• “you not free to be unfree”—in making moral
decisions and choices, it is within the capacity
of human person as an active and free moral
agent to exercise his freedom of choice as his
obligation to him/herself.
• Human person is free to make choices in the realm of
morality—taking full responsibility of our actions.
LESSON 2: VALUE EXPERIENCE AND MORALITY

Overview

Highlight the difference between human and

animals, difference between value and moral value,
moral decisions vs. moral judgment, intellectual vs.
practical choice
LESSON 2: VALUE EXPERIENCE AND MORALITY

ONLY HUMANS ARE MORAL

– Deliberation is an act pertaining to humans
alone—therefore, requires reflection and an
exercise of one’s rational capacity.
– Mothershead – refers deliberate human action to
a conduct as a result of the process of reflection
where the human person is endowed with the
capacity to think using his rationality in weighing
the consequences of his/her actions.
LESSON 2: VALUE EXPERIENCE AND MORALITY

• Generally, we do not ascribe morality to animals—but

the debate for some philosopher to whether animals
have the capacity to morals, as a compromise, some of
the philosophers agreed to call this as pre-reflective
morality.
• Because animals are not capable of wide range of
deliberation, reflection, concept construction and rational
and critical thinking as human do.
 VALUE EXPERIENCE

• Our everyday life, we could not help but

choose and consider options available to us—
from a wide and varied choices.
– Mothershead refer this as valuation process which
happens when one makes choices and indicate
preferences –like vs. dislikes, approve vs.
disapprove, favor vs. infavor.
 VALUES AND MORAL VALUES

• Mothershead “all values are priorities with

respect to some aspect human experience.
This is usually expressed by saying that values
are imperatives; they make claim upon us,
whether we admit the claim or not.”
– Example: Values of beauty, value of health, value
of money etc.
• When does a value become a
moral value?
– The priorities that we attach to these
values are limited in its scope of
importance or significance in our life.
• Example: value of Money, we save in
order to buy new cellphone,
textbook, beauty
– Money becomes the means to
an end.
 • Can beauty, money, chastity/purity become a
moral value?
• When does a value become a moral value?
• Mothershead argued that a value can become a
moral value if they become unlimited priorities
in their scope of relevance in our life.
• Moral value therefore, takes precedence and priority over
other values—willingness to give up other values just to
promote these moral values
• The priority of this moral value is unlimited
because these oral values could influence our
decisions in other aspect of our life.
• Example: willingness to leave the person you love for
the sake the value of chastity and purity.
 MORAL JUDGMENTS AND MORAL DECISIONS

• Mothershead – “Making moral judgment is budgeting

actions”…”a moral decision is the most important class
of moral judgments,” because it “has reference to the
judger’s own future action.”
– Freedom entails, to make choices and, in effect, to plan and
budget our life including mapping out plans for the future.
• Furthermore, he claims that
“not all moral judgment are
decisions,” thus, “many of
our moral judgment have
reference to other people
groups of people.”
– Often render our moral
judgments on what others
should or ought to do.
INTELLECTUAL CHOICE AND PRACTICAL CHOICE

• As free moral agent, confusion stems as we go

deeper into the examination of our choices in
making moral judgment and moral decisions.
INTELLECTUAL CHOICE AND PRACTICAL CHOICE
• In the book ”Moral Reasoning: Ethical Theory and
Some Contemporary Moral Problems (1992) by Victor
Grassian, labelled this as “confusion between what
one ought to do and what one would be inclined to
do.”
• “what do I ought to do given this situation”?
– Put us in a situation to very well examine and analyze
the situation as objectively as possible with the use of
our intellectual and rational capacity in order to come
up with an intellectual choice.
– Give us normative answer as rational moral beings.
INTELLECTUAL CHOICE AND PRACTICAL CHOICE

• “what would I be inclined to do, given the

situation?”
• Has to do with the practical choices when faced
with the actual situation.
• Deals more with the psychological aspect of the
person embroiled in the moral situation or
dilemma.
LESSN 3: APPROACHES TO MORAL REASONING

Overview

Give background of the general forms of

moral reasoning (duty based and
consequence based)—needed in evaluating
moral situations.
LESSN 3: APPROACHES TO MORAL REASONING

ANALYSIS OF MORAL REASONING

– Moral reasoning is a process of examining moral
arguments.
• Argument – the search for a statement that can be
made to yield a new statement, which is the
conclusion.
– Known as a evaluative reasoning—evaluate the
soundness of the argument from the moral point
of view.
 DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
• Ethics based on one’s duty—Greek word ‘dein’ means
duty.
• Recognizes that there are moral principles that we
follow which we consider as universally correct—
applicable to all humanity.
– Categorical imperative – law of morality, we are
unconditionally obliged to do, without regard of
the consequences.
• Describe as doing something from duty or for duty’s sake
alone!
 DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

• Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher.

“Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785),
made a distinctions and examined technical terms
underlying his ethical assumptions of a duty-based
ethics.
– As human beings, we perceive the world phenomena—our
reality, where our mind is capable of interpreting and
understanding.
 Two faculties of Human Mind

• The pure reason provides a

priori source of knowledge
• Two faculties of Human which contains the structure
Mind of our mind as human
1. Pure Reason – the a priori beings providing form and
(prior to experience)
order to the data or content
2. Pure Intention – the a
posteriori (from experience)
coming from experience as
a pure intention of space
and time a posteriori.
 DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
• The merging of two faculties led us to the
emergence of practical reason, which makes it
possible for us to have knowledge of the
phenomena.
• Practical reason therefore, is responsible for our
capacity to recognize what is good through the
will—Goodwill, claimed as the only thing good-in-
itself.
• When this will fully functioning, this is where we can
say FREEDOM is truly exercise because this is also
when our reason is working to tell us what we ought
to do.
•
 DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

• Responsible for the recognition of foundation of

morality and the objective basis in the form of practical
law which in turn responsible for the recognition of the
law of morality—categorical imperative.
– “universality principle” – recognition that there are
things that we have to do.
 DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

• ‘From duty’ and ‘According to duty’

– We are duty-bound to follow them even if we are not
inclined to do them because they are correct.
• The recognition of duty is based on the objective principle
of the practical law—then led us to trace the subjective
principle of willingness to do it.
– Your act of studying even though you do not want to, is
in accordance to the universality principle.
 DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
• Action based only on inclinations and feeling done
according to duty—NO MORAL WORTH
• Action devoid of any feelings and emotions because
you are doing it from duty—MORALLY WORTHY.
• Thus, when you are doing something that you do not want
to do, and still you do it, there must be and objective basis
that could recognize—law of morality, there a reason of
doing it therefore makes it universal.
“actions are thought to have instinct value in
their own right”
 TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS
• From the word “telos” meaning end, goal or purpose
• Believes that the end, goal or purpose of an actions
must be based on its consequences.
– “the end justifies the means”
• They aimed to examine the instrumental value of the
act itself for the attainment of the desired
consequences or purpose.
 TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS
• Dupre stressed that “In choosing between various
available courses of action, consequentialism will
merely weigh up the good and bad consequences in
each case and make their decisions on that basis”.
• Example: the act of lying
– Deontologist – wrong since it is not unverbalizable
– Teleologists – would examine the actual
consequences of the act of lying
 TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS
• UTILITARIANISM – most popular form of
teleological ethics
– Construed as the maximization of pleasure and the
avoidance of pain in order to promote happiness.
• Happiness as the SUMMUM BONUM or the ultimate goal
of utilitarian morality.
– John Stuart Mills famous dictum “actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness;
wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of
happiness”.
 TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS
• Refused to agree with Jeremy Bentham’s
hedonic calculus, proposed that there must be a
difference not just in its quantity but, what is
important to consider, is the quality of pleasure.
• Intellectual or mental pleasure
• Bodily or physiological pleasure
 TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS
• Principle of Utility or Greatest Happiness Principle –
concept of utility is equated with happiness, while the
concept of general happiness comes to seeking of
greatest happiness to greatest number of people.
• Jeremy Bentham – pleasure is quantifiable, what is
good in any situation can be demonstrated and
quantified in terms of the amount of pleasure that it
could bring about.
• Demonstrated and quantified in terms of intensity,
duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and
extent.
LESSON 4: COMMON MISTAKES INMORAL REASONING
• VICTOR GRASSIAN’s lists of pitfalls/mistakes in moral
reasoning
1. The failure to recognize the vagueness of moral
concept
• Keep a critical eye on the use of vague concepts in order to
determine the limits of applicability as they apply to
particular situation.
– Ex: moral principle it is wrong to lie
2. The failure to recognize the value-laden nature of
many concepts which appear value-free
• Analyzing mora situation to examine whether the
disagreements are based on facts.
– Ex: pornography in response to feminist view
LESSON 4: COMMON MISTAKES INMORAL REASONING
3. The uncritical use of emotive terms
• Careful attention to the emotive terms when giving moral
arguments
– Ex: emotionally loaded words such communism,
4. Hasty generalizations
• Due regard to the different levels of one’s responsibility
5. Faulty causal reasoning
• Question the assumption if the basis for the causal
connection has yet to be established and accepted.
6. Rationalization
• Avoidance to usual defense mechanism bahaviour.
7. The dismissal of moral position on the basis of their
origin