Philosophy Reviewer

“EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE.”

The Human Person and the Problem of
Suffering
THE REVOLT OF EXISTENTIAL ATHEISM
Two Types of Evil:  To overcome anxiety and
despair, we must become a
Physical evil-Consequences of natural
single individual by
events or phenomenon.
constantly choosing to be
Moral evil -evil due to man’s abuse of ourselves and not somebody
freedom. else.” Being the sovereign
maker of himself, man has
Attributes of God: the power to become
- Omnipotent (all-powerful), someone because there is no
Why can’t He control the evil in the world? God who gives purpose to
- Benevolent (Good or Loving) the universe.
Why is He indifferent to man? THE REVOLT OF EXISTENTIAL ATHEISM
- Omniscient (All-knowing)  Existential Atheism of Sartre
Why can’t he prevent evil from happening? declares that every truth is
relative, subjective, and
Atheism dependent. If the only thing
 From Greek ‘A’ – ‘not’ and Theos – that matters is the self,
‘God’ humans are not bound to be
 The doctrine of disbelief in a formed by any conventions.
supreme being. RESPONSE TO THE PHENOMENON OF
Existentialism SUFFERING AND THE DISTORTION OF
 “Existentialism’s first move is to EXISTENTIAL ATHEISM
make every man aware of what he is  One way to characterize
and to make the full responsibility of suffering is to see it as evil.
his existence rest on him because of Thomas Aquinas would say
man’s anxiety, the existential that evil is a privation of
movement had desired for the good. In other words, evil is
stable human condition.” In other an absence. Whatever lacks
words, the existential attitude is a goodness is evil. We suffer
straightforward reaction against the because there is a lack.
swift dehumanization of man, 1. The problem of suffering does not
brought by the phenomenon of constitute a disproof of God’s existence.
angst. - WORLD WAR II
THE REVOLT OF EXISTENTIAL ATHEISM - In the light of Thomas Aquinas, all created
“Atheistic existentialism, there is at least beings are changing. The world is created so
one being in whom existence precedes it is subject to change.
essence, man. -Jean-Paul Sartre
Accordingly, whatever is in motion entails prepared for us. The world is not our
imperfection. Our finite cosmos is in a state home. This imperfect cosmos is nothing
of motion so it follows that it is in a state of compared to the paradise of God.
imperfection.
2. God is like a surgeon who operates on us
Man as a Moral Being
and knows best how to heal us.
Our goal is to realize that all actions have
consequences. Man is not just a rational
–C.S. Lewis
being that acts according to reason. Man,
-The entire surgical procedure is painful but also acts according to his will and intellect.
we will be all right at the end. If God Therefore, every human person is a moral
stopped in the middle of the surgery then being.
all of the pain that we bear are worthless.
HUMAN ACTS VS ACTS OF MAN
3. The consequences of eliminating the
SOURCES OF MORALITY
phenomenon of sufferings in the world.
• Moral Object
-It is a great misleading notion that if
suffering in the world is eliminated, the only • Intention
fruit will be good. But we must bear in our
• Circumstance
mind that suffering is not completely bad at
all. Besides, if God will remove all the pains 1. Moral Object (what)
and sufferings in this world, it is more
– suggest whether an action is directed
chaotic.
towards good.
4. If the world is freed from all physical evil
Makabubuti ba yan?
and if all human suffering will be
eliminated, and if God created a perfect 2. Intention (why)
world, man will be entering into the realm
– determines by its end and indicates
of the self a perfect total universe.
the purpose pursued in the action.
-Our attitude in questioning the existence of
Bakit mo gagawin?
God whenever we experience human
anxiety and suffering is just an attitude to 3. Circumstance (who, where, when,
bend reality into our own. and how)
There are deeper and justified reasons why - The circumstances, including the
suffering exists. The problem is that we are consequences, are secondary elements
too blind so we cannot see. It is true that of a moral act.
suffering exists and has dreadfully affected
the whole human race. But we are called APPROACHES TO MORALITY
once more to climb the valley of life and to
see the perfect landscape that God has
“Deontological Ethics” • Proportionalism
Δεον (Deon) = obligation/duty Man as a moral and free being acts
according to his intellect and will. Our
λογος (logos) = speaking/study
precious freedom must not be understood
KANT’S MORAL PHILOSOPHY according to what we want. It should not be
wasted but be considered a wonderful gift
• Act only in such a way that you
that must be taken care of.
would want your actions to become
a universal law, applicable
to everyone in a similar situation.
PHILOSOPHY AND THE CONCEPT OF
• Act in such a way that you always FREEDOM
treat humanity (whether oneself or
BAKIT MASARAP ANG BAWAL?
others), as both the means of an
action, but also as an end. BAWAL FREEDOM?

SOURCES OF MORALITY “For the sake of good.” “For the sake of

• Divine Command Theory: deprivation.”
• Natural Rights Theory FREEDOM INVOLVES HUMAN ACTS
• Contractarian Ethics  • Freedom is unique in every human
person as a rational and moral
• Pluralistic Deontology 
being.
• Consequentialism
INTELLECT + WILL = FREEDOM
• Utilitarianism
ARISTOTLE ON VOLUNTARINESS
• Hedonism
• “Men are controlling principles and
• Egoism causes of contingent effects. “
• Asceticism, • In this light, he considers man as a
principle and controller and that
• Altruism
what is caused from the human
• Virtue Ethics  person is due to his choice, thus
making the very choice voluntary.
• Eudaimonism
EPICUREAN DETERMINISM
• Ethics of Care 
• “PLEASURE is the beginning and end
• Epicureanism
of a blessed life.”
• Stoicism
• Pleasure is our starting point when
• Subjectivism whenever we choose or avoid
 anything and it is this, we make our inclined to the attainment of the
aim, the factor considered in making good of the very person.
choices therefore lies in the principle
• There exist in the world other good,
of what is the most pleasurable.
but they are but universals.
EXISTENTIALIST FREEDOM OF SARTRE However, the Good itself is God and
AND MERLEAU-PONTY knowledge of God is attainable only
in the beatific vision after death.
• As Sartre presents that “man is an
unfinished project” who has the • Therefore, we will voluntarily the
inescapable ability to choose who he Good in the aid of God’s knowledge
or she wants to be. that is to will the Good in the Good
itself.
• freedom means human autonomy. 
In a meaningless cosmos, man is LAW
condemned to freedom because he
Lt. LEX – LIGARE – means
is the only creature who is self-
surpassing. “Man is nothing but “To bind”
what he makes of himself.”
“an ordinance of reason, made and
• For Merleau-Ponty, “the real promulgated by those who are in
choice is that of whole character and charge of welfare of the community,
our manner of being in the world.” to achieve the common good.”
Freedom, therefore, is dependent
KINDS OF LAW
on our situation.
ETERNAL LAW
• To Choose in the Light of Divine
Knowledge or Freedom as Guided by NATURAL LAW
God
DIVINE LAW
AUGUSTINE ON FREE WILL
HUMAN LAW
• For Augustine, we acknowledge that
ETERNAL LAW
God is the creator and He is
omniscient in the same light that we Law which proved that the whole
are free with choices. community of the universe is govern
by Divine reason
• Therefore, the two are to be
embraced in faith: “God’s NATURAL LAW
omniscience for right belief and our
The rational creature’s participation
choice for right life.
of the Eternal Law.
AQUINAS ON FREE WILL
DIVINE LAW
• In his thought, the will, understood
in the thought of human nature is
Derived from eternal law as it
appears historically to humans,
especially through revelation, i.e.,
when it appears to human beings as
divine commands.
HUMAN LAW
“positive law”, the laws actually
enacted and put in force in our
human communities.
Free choice is an activity that
involves both our intellectual and
volitional capacities, as it consists
in both judgement and active
commitment