Week 1

FREEDOM OF
THE HUMAN
PERSON#ROM
•This lesson highlights freedom
from the intellectual, political,
spiritual, and economic aspects.
To be free is a part of humanity`s
authenticity.
REALIZE THAT
“ A C T I O N H AV E
CONSEQUENC
ES.”
A R I S TOT L
E
•The power of Volition (the power
to make your own choice or
decisions) – The imperative
quality of a judgement of practical
intellect is meaningless,
apart from will.
•Reason can legislate (control), but
only through will can its
legislation be translated into
action.
•If there is no intellect, there would
be no will.
•The will of humanity is an
instrument of free choice. It is
within the power of everyone to be
good or bad, worthy or worthless.
This is borne out by:
•Our inner awareness of
an aptitude to do right or wrong;
•The common testimony of
all human beings;
•The rewards and punishment of
rulers
•The general employment
of praise and blame.
•Moral acts, which are always
particular acts, are in our power
and we are responsible for them.
Character or habit is no excuse for
immoral conduct. (e.g. cutting
classes)
For Aristotle, a human being is
rational (based on facts or reason
and not by emotion). Reason is
divine characteristic. Humans have
the spark of the divine. If there
were no intellect, there would be
no will.
•Our will is an instrument of free
choice. Reason, will, and action
drives each other.
ST.
THOMAS
AQUINAS
LOVE IS FREEDOM
•Of all creatures of God, human
beings have the unique power to
change themselves and the things
around them for the better.
•A human beings therefore, has a
supernatural transcendental
destiny. This means that he can
rise above his ordinary being or
self to highest being or self.
•This is in line with the idea of St.
Thomas that in the plan of God, a
human being has to develop and
perfect himself by doing his daily
tasks.
•Hence, if a human being
perseveringly lives a righteous and
virtuous life, he transcends his
mortal state of life and soars to an
immortal state of life.
•The power of change, however,
cannot be done by human beings
alone, but is achieved through
cooperation with God. Between
humanity and God, there is a gap,
which God alone can bridge
through His power.
•For love is in consonance with
humanity`s free nature, for law
commands and complete; love
only calls and invites.
Thomas St. emphasizes the
freedom of humanity but
chooses love in governing
humanity`s life.
•Since God is love, then love is the
guiding principle of humanity
toward –self- perception and
happiness his ultimate destiny.
ST.
THOMAS
AQUINAS
SPIRITUAL FREEDOM
ACTIONS
(GOOD OR
EVIL)
CONSICENC
E
GOD`
S
LOVE
•St Thomas Aquinas establishes the
existence of God as a first cause of
all God`s creations, human beings
have the unique power to change
themselves and things around
them for the better.
•As humans, we are both material
and spiritual. We have a
conscience because of our
spirituality. God is Love and Love
is our destiny.
JEAN
PAUL
SARTRE
INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
•Sartre`s philosophy is
considered to be a representative
of existentialism. The human
person is desire to be God. The
human person builds the road to
the destiny of his/her choosing;
he/she is the creator.
•Sartre emphasizes the importance
of free individual choice,
regardless the power of other
people to influence and coerce our
desire, beliefs, and decisions.
•To be human, to be conscious, is
to be free to imagine, free to
choose and be responsible for
one`s life.
JEAN
JACQUES
ROUSSEAU
SOCIALCONTRACT
•He is the most famous and
influential philosophers of the
French enlightenment in the 18 th
century. In his book The Social

Contract. He elaborated his theory
of human nature.
•Human beings have to form a
community or civil community to
protect themselves from one
another, because the nature of
human beings is to wage war
against one another,
•And since by nature, humanity
tends toward self-preservation,
then it follows that they have to
come to a free
agreement mutual to
themselves. protect
•Hobbes thinks that to end the
continuous and self-destructive
condition of warfare, humanity
founded the state with its
sovereign power of control by
means of a mutual consent.
•Rousseau believes that a human
being is born free and good. Now,
he is In chains and has become
bad due to the evil influence of
society, civilization, learning, and
progress.
•Because of this human being lost
his original goodness, his
primitive tranquility of spirit.
•In order to restore peace, bring his
freedom back, and as he returned
to his true self, he saw the
necessity and came to form the
state through the social contract
whereby everyone grants his
individual rights to the general
will.
•The term social contract is a
certain way of looking at a society
of voluntary collection of
agreeable individuals.
•There must be a common power
or government which the plurality
of individuals (citizens) should
confer all their powers and
strength into (freedom) one will
(ruler).
E VA L U AT E
A N D EXERCISE
PRUDENCE IN
CHOICES
C A R E F U LG O O D J U D G E M E N TT H AT
A L L O W S S O M E O N E T O AV O I D D A N G E R O
R RISKS.
•Skinner maintains that behavior is
shaped and maintained by its
consequences.
•Yelon accepted that behavioral
psychology is at fault for having
overanalyzed the words reward
and punishment. We might have
miscalculated the effect of the
environment in the individual.
•There should be a balance in our
relationship with others and the
environment.
•Skinner thinks that the problem is to
free human beings not from control
but from certain kinds of control, and
it can be solved only if we accept
the fact that we depend upon the
world around us and we simply
change the nature of dependency.
•We do not need to destroy the
environment or escape from it.
What is needed, according to
skinner, is to redesign it.
•Life is full of paradoxes, nobody
could nor should control it. We
have to be open to life, learn to
accept and live with paradoxes.
Learning with contradiction is not
the same as living contradiction.
•In the spirituality of imperfection,
we learn to accept that life, our
environment is both evil and
good. We learn to be flexible and
adaptable.
•Indeed, the theory of freedom has
negative and positive tasks. Our
lives should not merely controlled
by rewards and punishments.
•According to Yelon, punishment is an
educative measure, and as such is a
means to the formation of motives,
which are in part to prevent the
wrongdoer from repeating the act
and in part to prevent others from
committing a similar act.
•Indeed, the environment plays a
significant part in our lives. Since the
stone age, we had proven that we are
not completely under its mercy. We
have and shall continue to tame and
adapt to the changes in the conditions
of the environment.s
•As Plato believes, the soul of
every individual possesses the
power of learning the truth and
living in society that is accordance
to its nature.
CHOICES HAVE
CONSEQUENCES AND
SOME THINGS ARE GIVE
N UP WHILE OTHERS A
RE
OBTAINED IN MAKIN
G CHOICES
•20th century gave rise to the
importance of the individual, the
opposite of medieval thought that
was God.
•For Ayn Rand, individual mind is
the tool for economic progress,
since the mind is important, the
sector that molds it should not be
controlled by the government.
•Rand believes that thinking is
volitional. A person has the
freedom to think or not.
Rand cited the right to gain, to
keep, to use, and to dispose of
material values. Most
developed countries have
disposed their toxic wastes
developing countries.
•Filipinos embraced family and
political parties. For the Filipinos,
one does not only fulfill reasons
of the mind but of the heart and
personal involvement as well.
•Filipinos look at themselves
as holistic from interior
dimensions under the
principle of harmony.
•It aspires harmony
with others and nature
•Filipinos loob is the basis of
Christian value of sensitivity to
the needs of others and
gratitude. It encompassed
give and take relationship
among Filipinos.
•As such, repaying those who have
helped us is a manifestation of
utang na loob or debt of
gratitude. Loob prioritized
family, relatives, and even non-
kinsmen (male relative).
•It bridges individual differences
and is the common factor among
human beings
•The concept of Rand`s free
individual and Filipino`s
view of the free human
being may have differences
but can be overcome.
•The potential of the Filipino
should be able to grow so that he
will be aware of his uniqueness.
Children should be brought up to
the identity of the members of the
family and simultaneously with
that of the nation.
•Self-sufficiency (kasarinlan)
should recognize human worth
and dignity.
•Kagandahang loob, kabutihang
loob and kalooban are
terms that show sharing of
one`s self
to others. Loob puts one
in
touch with his fellow beings.
S H O W S I T U AT I O N S T H AT
D E M O N S T R AT E F R E E D O M
OF CHOICE AND THE
CONSEQUENCESOF
THEIR CHOICES
•According to Rand, individual
freedom should be aligned with
economic freedom. The Filipino
harmony can be a helping value to
the full development of Filipino if
it opens up to embrace the whole
Philippine society.
•There are cases where the Filipino
may adversely affect the social and
financial status of the one moving
upward the social ladder. For
instance, the more well-off members
of a family share their gains with
their relatives and friends in need.
•Sometimes, the beneficiaries of
the monetary assistance (utang or
loan) just use the money for non-
essentials. Where there are more
important concerns that should be
prioritized.
•As leader or manager with
“magandang kalooban” is not
passive but plays active role in
economic development. Leaders
should not just focus on the impact
of job performance but treats every
individual worker as
persons and not as objects.
•“kasarinlan” promotes
entrepreneurship which
minimize foreign control of
Filipinos.
•Individualism should be tied with
social responsibility and should
not be just “tayo-tayo” or “kami-
kami”. Our own individuality
should be interact with others.
•As individuals who are free,
Filipinos should recognize their
own brand of uniqueness, instead
of copying foreign cultures.
•For Aristotle and Rand, reason and
will or volition is part of our being
human. In relation to this,
Filipinos had proven matured
thinking, pertaining to EDSA
revolution.
•The decision Is based on the
Filipinos` belief in freedom. They
also voluntarily risked their lives
as they face danger. Again, the
EDSA Revolution is one example
of social contract as discussed
earlier in this lesson.

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FREEDOM OF

century. In his book The Social

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