Lesson 5: Freedom of the Human Person

Aristotle (384 BC to 322 BC): Realizing that “All Actions Have Consequences”

- Was an Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist

- Considered as one of the greatest thinkers in politics, psychology, and ethics

The Power of Volition

- The imperative quality of a judgement of practical intellect is meaningless apart from will.
- Reason can legislate but only through will can its legislation be translated into action.
- For others, reason is limited to thoughts that could be realized into actual action and behavior.
- The task of practical intellect is to guide will be enlightening it. Will, in fact, is to be understood wholly
terms of intellect.
- If there is no intellect, there would be no will.
- Humanity’s capacity to make choices, also called “free will”, 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 of:

 our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or wrong;

 the common testimony of all human beings;
 the reward and punishment of rulers; and
 the general employment of praise and blame.

St. Thomas Aquinas:

- is considered one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologian and philosopher.

- His writings span the fields of theology, metaphysics, philosophy, and politics. 

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.
- Our spirituality separates us from animals. Through our spirituality, we have conscience. Whether we
choose to be “good” or “evil” becomes our responsibility.
- A human being has a supernatural, transcendental destiny. This means that he can rise above his
ordinary being or self to a highest being or self.
- The power of change cannot be done by human beings alone, but it is achieved through cooperation
with God.
- Change should promote not only any purely private advantage but the good of the community as well.

Four-Fold Classification of Law:

1. Eternal Law - is the Divine Wisdom of God which oversees the common good and governs everything. 
- Aquinas defines eternal law as God's plan for the world.
- He explains that if God exists, then God must have a divine plan for everything and everyone in this
world. That plan serves as the eternal law of the world.
- This common good is God's will, meaning we participate in the eternal law through choice and reason.
2. Natural Law - is an ethical sense, that applies only to human beings.
 - The natural law expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights
and duties.
- The first principle of the natural law is “good is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided.”
3. Human Law - is the interpretation of natural law in different contexts.
- Human law can be changed, and occasionally should be changed, but it should not be lightly changed.
- The reason is that respect for the law is largely a matter of custom or habit, and inessential change
undermines this custom.
4. Divine Law - is the historical laws of Scripture given to us through God’s self-revelation.
- Divine law is divided into the Old Law and the New Law, which correspond to the Old and New
Testaments of the Bible;
- and according to Spinoza, this law is necessary and eternal; it cannot be changed by any human or
divine action. 

Spiritual Freedom:

- Thomas Aquinas established the existence of God as a first cause. Of all God’s creations, human beings,
have unique power to change themselves and things around them for the better.
- As human, 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

- French novelist, playwright, philosopher and exponent of existentialism - philosophy acclaiming the

freedom of the individual human being.

Individual Freedom:

- Sartre ‘s philosophy is considered as to be a representative of existentialism (Falikowski, 2004).

- For Sartre, the human person is the desire to be God: the desire exist as a being which has sufficient
ground in itself.
- There is no guidepost along the rod of life. The human person builds the road to the destiny of choosing;
he is the creator (Srathern, 1998).

Sartre’s Existentialism:

 Sartre’s existentialism stems from the principle, “Existence precedes essence.”

 The person is nothing else but that what he makes of himself.
 The person is provided with a supreme being an opportunity to give meaning to the word and one’s life.
 Freedom is the very core and the door to authentic existence.
 Authentic existence is realized only in deeds that are committed alone in absolute freedom and
responsibility and which is, therefore, the character of true creation.
 The person is what one has done and is doing.
 The person who tries to escape obligations and stives to be is acting on a bad faith
 Sartre emphasize the importance of freedom of an individual regardless the power 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.

Thomas Hobbes: Theory of Social Contract

- The idea of the social contract goes back at least to Epicurus (Thrasher 2013). In its recognizably modern
form, however, the idea is revived by Thomas Hobbes.
 - This theory is nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons’ moral and/or political
obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they
live. 
- The aim of a social contract theory is to show that members of some society have reason to endorse and
comply with the fundamental social rules, laws, institutions, and/or principles of that society.

Theory of Social Contract:

- Seek peace or seeking peace is the second law of nature which we mutually divest our certain rights
(such as the right to take another person’s life) to achieve the peace. That person is willing and others
too. (This is necessarily for peace-building).
- The mutual transferring of this rights is what we called a contract and is the basis of notion of moral
obligation or duty. If one agrees give up to harm you, you give up to harm him.
- The state itself is the result of the interplay of forces and by human reasons. These systems rooted from
human nature and not are not God-given laws. And according to Hobbes, there are no absolute value.
- Leviathan by Hobbes:
“The fundamental law of nature seeks peace and follows it, while at the same time, by the sum of
natural right, we should defend ourselves by all means that we can.

Jean Jacques Rousseau: Theory of Social Contract

- Rousseau was one of the most famous and influential philosophers of the French Enlightenment in the
18th century.
- In his book The Social Contract, he elaborated his theory of human nature.
- According to him, the states owe its origin to a social contract freely entered into by its members. He
interpreted the idea in terms of absolute democracy and individualism.
- To restore peace, the man’s freedom should be brought back, and as it returned to his true self, he saw
necessity and came to form the state through the social contract whereby everyone grants his
individual rights to the general will.

Evaluating and Exercising Prudence in Choice:

- Our lives should not be merely controlled by punishment and reward. As a human being we are capable
of reaching different levels of heights and ideals.
- According to Yelon (1996) 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.
- Analogously, in the case of reward we are concerned with incentive.
- The consciousness of freedom is merely the knowledge of having acted on one’s own desire.
“One’s own desires” are those which have their origin in the regularity of one’s character in the given
situation.
- The absence of external power expresses itself in the well-known feeling that one could also have acted
otherwise.
- Indeed, the environment plays a significant part in our lives. We have and shall continue to tame and
adapt to the changes in the conditions of the environment.
- As Plato believes, the soul of every individual possesses the power of learning the truth and living in a
society that is in accordance to its nature.

Consequences of Our Choices:

- There is the apprehension on the group-oriented approach of the Filipino that might hamper the
individual’s initiative and responsibility.
- It is contended that the individual should be disciplined from within rather than fear from authority
figure. Discipline and responsibility should be inculcated especially through education.’
- 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.
- The use of intermediaries or go between, the values of loyalty, hospitality, “pakikisama” (camaraderie)
and respect to authority are such values that relate to persons.
- In short, the Filipino generally believes in the innate goodness of the human being.
- Filipino ethics has an internal code and sanction than other legalistic moral philosophies that are rather
negative.
- The Filipino, who stresses duties over rights, has plenty in common, once again with Chinese or Indians.
- The Filipino looks at himself as one who feels, wills, thins, acts, as a total whole – as a “person”,
conscious of his freedom, proud of his human dignity and sensitive to the violation of these two.
 What is the Meaning of Life?

At the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

 Enumerate the objectives he/she really wants to achieve and to define the projects he/she really
wants to do in his/her life
 Reflect on the meaning of his/her own life

Modes of Meaningfulness

External Causal Relationship

- implies that meaning of life is anchored on the life that is causally connected with others.

External Semantic Relations

- life becomes more meaningful when one draws out a referential relation between life and
symbols would represents life.

Intensions and purpose

- life will have a meaning based on the plan, goals or sets of intentions a person intends to do.

Lessons

- the fourth mode is meaning as a lesson to be learned.

Personal Significance

- a significant life seems permanent and leaves a mark or trace.

Meaning as Transcending One’s Limits Anchored Value

This concept will make us realize that the problem of meaning is a problem of limits.

If according to the modes of meaning, causal or semantic relations, life plans, major goals, and personal
significance determine life’s meaning,

then naturally, it means to transcends the limits is to go beyond the self

and connect the self with every relation possible with others and with the world.

This means, the more relations you have with others, the more you transcend your limits.

Now, how do you connect with the world to transcend the limits?

Lives contain many dimensions along which it will be clear

what is more and what is less limited.

Therefore, it will be difficult to formulate the total meaningfulness of a person’s life as a weighted sum

or unexpected value with the weights being his degree of intensity of involvement.

Life’s meaning is gained when you put yourself to activities

which accepts your finite nature and limits,

yet at the same time does not hinder you to try to overcome

or go beyond these limits.

From then on, you will value your life more because you have accomplished something beyond what
you thought you could do.

Each moment in your life, you are faced with the reality of limits,

but when you bravely struggle to overcome these limits,

then your life becomes more meaningful.

 THE HUMAN PERSON IN SOCIETY

At the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

 Recognize how individuals form societies and how individuals are

transformed by societies
 Compare different forms of societies and individualities
 Explain how human relations are transformed by social systems

Recognizing How Individuals Form Societies and How Individuals are

Transformed by Societies

What is society?

Society refers to a large, independent, and organized group of people living in the
same territory and sharing a common culture and heritage.

People within society impart to each other knowledge, skills, behaviors though their
various everyday interactions.

These interactions are often governed by written and unwritten rules that reflects
the shared ideas, views, and values of the members of society.

Life was much simpler than before one begins to comprehend how technology
evolved.

This development started from medieval crafts to industrial inventions dominated

by factors such as

revolutionary discoveries in natural sciences, detection, and extraction of energy

resources,

invention of mechanical devices, availability of investment capital, improved means

transportation, communication,

and growing interest taken by scientific and commercial circle in technology and
engineering.

Philosophically, our totality, or “complete life” relies on our social relations.

For Buber, the human person attains fulfillment in the realm of the interpersonal, in
meeting the other, through genuine dialogue.

Interpersonal relationship means nothing if the person uses people to fill up the
emptiness he feels in his life.
For Wojtyla, through participation, we share in the humanness of others.

Buber and Wojtyla stressed that the concreteness of our experiences and existence
is directly linked to our experience with others.

Thus, if one has a meaningful relationship.

Aside from enjoying one’s blessings, then, as Aristotle concurs, he is truly the one
who may rightly be termed happy.

Agrarian Period

In the Philippines, during the pre-Spanish time, women occupied an equal position
with men in society.

They shared honors with their husbands and could dispose freely of what they
bought into the marriage.

They could also assume headship in a village or “barangay” (Evasco et al., 1990).

It was acceptable for women to be priestesses where they could perform religious
rites, a spiritual healing and journey for the community.

Medieval Period

Some historian say that the Middle Ages began in AD 476

when the barbarian Odoacer overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustulus,

ending the Western Empire; still others say about AD 500 or even later.

Historians say that the Middle Ages ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

The invaders, however, lacked the knowledge and skills to carry on Roman
achievement in art, literature, and engineering.

In effect, highly developed systems of Roman law and government gave way to the
rude forms of the barbarians.

Thus, the Early Medieval period is sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages.

In the reign of the barbarian-turned-Christian Clovis, Christianity began to lift

Europe from the Dark Ages.

Many barbarians had become Christians earlier through mostly held the Arian
belief,
a doctrine that holds the convictions that the Son of God is finite and created by
God the Father and thus, condemned as heresy by the Church.

Christianity’s influence widened when the great Charlemagne became King of the
Franks

who founded schools and monasteries and churches for both the poor and nobility.

The way of life in the Middle Ages is called feudalism, which comes from medieval
Latin feudum, meaning, property or “possession.”

Peasants, about nine-tenths of them, were farmers or village farmers.

All peasants -men, women, and children-worked to support their lord who is
member of the ruling of the class a nobility.

Many peasants built their villages of huts near the castles of their lords for
protection in exchange of their services.

Besides labor, peasants had to pay taxes to their lord in money or produce.

In addition, they had to give a tithe to the Church, for instance, every tenth age,
wheat, and the like.

Famines are frequent. Plagues cut down the livestock. Floods, frosts, and droughts
destroyed the crops.

However, with the growth of commerce and towns, feudalism as a system of

government began to pass.

As changes in business, government, and social customs steadily shaped new life in
Europe,

rising interest and intellectual achievements reached a peak in the Renaissance – a

revival of classical learning.

The Middle Ages employed pedagogical methods that caused the

intercommunication between

the various intellectual centers and the unity of scientific language.

In all school philosophy was thought in the Latin language. Philosophical works
were written in Latin.
Modern Period

The Modern Period is generally said to be begun around 1500 than a decade before
the arbitrary date,

Christopher Columbus had landed in his ship in the ‘New World,’

altering not only the geography but the politics of the world forever.

Only a decade after, Martin Luther would nail his ninety-five theses on the door of
the castle charge at Wittenberg and initiate the Reformation,

which would cause several centuries of sociopolitical and economic upheaval in

Europe,

change the operation and policies of the Christian Church, and eventually, change
conceptions of human nature.

Human Being as the Most Interesting in Nature during the Modern Period

Leadership in art and literature reached a peak in the Renaissance period.

The result was the revival of ancient philosophy and European philosophers turning
from the superstitious to empirical explanations of the world.

Experimentation, observation, and application of mathematics in the natural

sciences set standards for philosophic inquiry.

Discoveries of the Medieval and Renaissance Artist Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and
Newton influenced the thinking of philosophers.

Nonetheless, we should not overemphasize the triumphs of modern science in the

history of modern philosophy.

Globalization and Technological Innovations

Globalization is not a one – way process but comprises the multilateral interactions
among global systems, local parties, transnational trends, and personal lifestyles.

The process of globalization, however had already begun long before the twenty -
first century.

Globalization, in the sense of adoption and acceptance of two some standards in the
various aspects of life,

had its embryonic beginnings in the West in fifteenth century as an accompaniment

to the new ideas of the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment.
The introduction of new inventions in science eventually led to the Industrial
Revolution in the eighteenth century,

and since then, Western society has taken off on a journey through the endless
world of science

to bring society into the developed conditions that can be seen nowadays.

The Industrial Revolution is a movement in which improvement and innovation of

machines used in farms and factories changed people ‘s way of life as well as their
methods of production.

Significant changes that brought about the Industrial Revolution were (Germain,
2000):

•The invention of machines in lieu of doing the work of hand tools;

•The use of steam and other kinds of power vis-à-vis the muscle of human beings
and animals; and

•The embracing of the factory systems

As technology advanced, more and more automatic machines were invented to

handle the jobs with little supervision by human beings.

Everywhere, the computer is assuming an increasing central place in scientific

research and data processing is becoming all-important.

Google’s current mission is to fulfill a search engine that is artificial intelligence

complete of one that is smarter than people (N. Carr, 2009).

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science or the stud and design
the intelligence agents

where an intelligent agent is a computer software that perceives its environment

and

autonomously takes actions that maximizes its chances of success without human
supervision or control.

Messages and data can travel in a big office through the use of local and wide area
network.

The emergence of laptop or portable computers enabled business operations a

learning to occur in an airplane or anywhere.
As technology is exploited, it becomes easier for those already wealthy to maintain
their advantage.

Transformations of Human Relations by Social Systems

Changes as a Condition of Modern Life

As industry changed, social and political conditions were transformed.

European farmers and artisans flocked to the manufacturing centers and became
industrial workers.

Cities grew quickly as the percentage of farmers in the population declined.

A. New Knowledge

“Know thyself’ is the main belief of Socrates in terms of good living.

He believed that “Knowledge is virtue; ignorance is vice,”

is a summation of what he wanted to teach about human beings should live a good
life.

Ignorance, as opposite of knowledge, is the source of evil.

Humanity commits evil because people do not know any better.

Humanity has met, with increasing success and understanding, the secrets of
nature, applying this new knowledge to human affairs.

In our present times, this expansion has been so rapid that local knowledge is no
longer remains purely local.

This intellectual growth and paradigm shift are continuing without any slackening of
peace, and changes in our understanding in the years ahead may well be greater.

B. Policy-making

As life become more complex, the legal system has also grown to the point where
almost all human activities come in contact with the law in one form or another.
This integration of policy-making has brought people within states into
unprecedentedly closer relationship and has resulted in a greater complexity of
social organization.

C. Economic Sphere

The effects of new knowledge have been partially noticeable in the economic
sphere.

Technological improvements have made possible a mechanization and automation

of labor

that has resulted in mass production, the rapid growth in per capita productivity,
and an increasing division of labor.

A greater quantity of goods has been produced during the past century than in the
entire preceding period of human history.

D. Social Realm

Equality important are the changes that have been taken place in the social realm.

Traditional societies are typically closed and rigid in their structure.

The members of such societies are primarily peasants living in relatively isolated
villages, poor and illiterate, and having little contact with the central political
authorities.

The way of life of the peasants may remain virtually unchanged for centuries.

Modern technology has created have had an immense impact on this traditional
way of life.

• In a modern society, two-thirds or more of the population live in cities, and

literacy is virtual and universal. Health has also greatly improved.

• This complex and interrelated series of changes in humanity’s way of life is

generally known as modernization.

• Modernization has changed the power relationships among societies by

rapidly strengthening the position of some at the expense of others.

• At the same time, societies have become more independent, and the conduct
of their relations has been transformed.
While many of the traditional forms of international relations have survived –
alliances and war, conquest and colonization, cultural diffusion, and propaganda,
these forms have been infused with new beginnings.

• Modernization is seen as part of the universal experience, and in many

respects, it is one that holds great hope for the welfare of humanity.

Yet, it has also been a destructive process.

It has destroyed traditional patterns of life, which had evolved through the
centuries many humane values.

E. Technology

The more society is influenced by technology,

the more we need to consider the social, ethical, technological, and scientific
implication of each our decision and choice (Germain, 2000).

In the present era, humanity does not live according to the natural cycles regulate
by natural rhythms anymore (Germain, 2000).

Instead, it is governed by a “second nature” that is an artificial environment

characterized by the results of technology.

The modern era is characterized by new inventions that sometimes cannot be

followed by the most people

because technology is not only the copy of the “first nature” but a replacement of
nature itself.

It has to be admitted that in this century,

human success-whether personal or as species-is measured by mastering science

and technology.

Modern people also cannot isolate themselves and live without technology.

F. On (Women’s) Friendships

Women’s friendship has a unique qualify that may only exist between women.

There’s a sexual interaction between a man and woman (eros), which is another
completely different thing.

According to Joy Carol in her book, The Fabric of Friendship (2006), women’s
friendships are special.
Girls, and later women, can discuss with each other anything or everything –
whether dreams, fears, children, boyfriends, or dying.

There is quality of friendship between women offering sympathy learning,

validation, and advice.

True Friends

True friends allow each other to be completely themselves without the worry of
being judge or mocked.

Acceptance and love give women to the courage to try new experiences and expand
their horizon and increase their capabilities.

Our female friends are extremely important to our emotional and physical health.

Carol (2006) cited that strong female relationships lead to happiness and healthier
lives while recovery from distress or sufferings become easier.

On the other hand, people with less or no friends at all tend to smoke, overweight,
and not exercise.

As a new knowledge, policy-making, economic/social realm, and technology exert a

major in our lives,

we should continue ask questions and reflect, or our discoveries and innovations
will overtake our concept of the “human person.”

Finally, we should view a wider context of our attempts to live well and create good
societies (Germain, 2000).
 INTERSUBJECTIVITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

At the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

 6.1 Realize that intersubjectivity requires accepting differences and not

imposing on others

 6.2 Explain that authentic dialogue means accepting others even if they are
different from themselves

 6.3 Performs activities that demonstrate an appreciation for the talents of

persons with disabilities and those from the underprivileged sectors of society

This lesson focuses on building strength despite our various differences.

One aspect of our uniqueness is our talents.

When talents are cultivated, the person gains self-respect (Fromm, 1976).

Though we are part of our society, we are still different individuals living in this
society. Each of us will have different points of view.

Realizing that Intersubjectivity Requires Understanding, Accepting, and

Respecting Differences and Note Imposing on One’s Views to Others

In our lives, we have given labels by others.

Labels could be negative or limiting. If the negative labels can be contagious, so

can the positive ones.

Let us focus on the positive labels to strengthen your relationship to others.

Intersubjectivity as Ontology: The Social Dimensions of the Self

In this section Martin Buber’s and Karol Wojtyla’s views will be used as the main
framework and foundation to understand intersubjectivity.

Both philosophers were influenced by their religious roots and experiences.

For Buber and Wojtyla, the human person is total, not dual.

They emphasized that life, people, and experiences are connected to us and we are
connected to them.

We must nurture, understand, and develop these connections so that we get to live
a full life filled with joy, energy, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Martin Buber

Martin Buber was a Jewish existentialist philosopher, religious thinker, and a

political activist.

He was born in Vienna and was brought up in the Jewish tradition.

In his work I and Thou (Ich and Du) in 1923, he conceived the human person in his
wholeness, totality, concrete existence, and relatedness to the world.

Buber’s I-thou philosophy is about the human person as a subject.

A person finds meaning and purpose in the world on how and why he relates with
the people, object, and experiences in the world.

The human person as subjects has a direct and mutual sharing of selves.

He believed that a human being does not exist in isolation and separation from the
situations and people around him.

This implies that for a person to truly understand himself and the world, he must
reach out to others and understand them.

The human person is not only being-in-the-world, but also being-with-others.

Fromm (1976) that we should not one’s self and the world as two antagonistic
elements.

Instead, we should view both in polarity where balance could be achieved.

In the I-It relationship, on the other hand, human beings perceive each other as

consisting of specific, isolated qualities, and view themselves as part of a world
which consists of things. 

I-Thou is a relationship of mutuality and reciprocity, while I-It is a relationship of

separateness and detachment.

Karol Wojtyla

Pope John Paul II, or Karol Wojtyla was born in Wadowice, Poland.

He was elected to the papacy on October 16, 1978 (264 th pope).

He was also an architect of communism’s demise in Poland.

In his encyclical letter, Fides et ratio, he criticized the traditional definition of

human as “rational animal.” He maintains that human person is the one who exist
and acts.

For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the human agent.

Participation explains the essence of the human person.

Through participation, the person is able to fulfill one’s self. The human person is
oriented toward relation and sharing in the communal life for the common.

As Augustine of Hippo said “No human being should become an end to himself or
herself.

We are responsible to our neighbors as we are to our own actions.”

Augustine emphasized that a person can pursue self-development and gain only if it
means his fellow man can also receive good from his actions.

We participate in the communal life (We). Our notion of the “neighbor” and “fellow
member” is by participating in the humanness of another person (I-You).

Loob has been inseparable from religious concerns.

The practice of religion is not only second nature to Filipinos, it is the spiritual
psychic of the Filipinos to view life’s experiences through the lenses of God and
religion.

Loob is very humane experience (Gorospe, 1988).

Through loob an individual lives life, yet not alone. A person can claim to be free
but should be aware of his social responsibility.

The essence of loob is emphasized in I-Thou and I-We relations that reach support
and sustain the community.

It broadens and deepens the meaning of God in the lives of the people
(Alejo,1990).

Appreciating the Talent and Contributions of Person with Disabilities

(PWDs) and Those from the Underprivileged Sectors of Society

a. On PWDs

The process of recognizing and identifying the handicap will include feelings of
shock, bewilderment, sorrow, anger, and guilt.

The term “person with disabilities” is used instead of “disabled person” because this
term maintains the dignity and value of the person.
“Disabled person” implies that the personhood of the individual is broken and
problematic, when in fact it is only his body that has a disability.

Whether they are deaf or high-spirited children, denial is universal.

During the diagnosis, isolation of affect occurs when the parents intellectually
accept deafness of their child.

The loss should require mourning or grief; otherwise, something is seriously wrong.

a. On PWDs

Feeling of impotence or questioning “why me?” Are some feelings of ambivalence

regarding a child’s condition.

Some are turn to religion and consider a “heaven-sent blessing in disguise.”

Additional reactions of parents include the fear of the future about how the
disability of a child will affect his productivity or becoming lifelong burden.

Parents whose children with disability have to let go of their dream child.

a. On PWDs

Realization and grief can blind parents to their child uniqueness.

Negative attitudes to the family and community towards PWDs may add to their
poor academic and vocational outcomes.

Parents need to reach the point of constructive action.

They can decide to restructure certain aspects of their lifestyle to accommodate the
communicative as well as the education needs of their child with disability.

Community sensitivity, through positive and supportive attitudes toward PWDs, is

also an important component (Mapp 2004).

B. ON UNDERPRIVILEGED SECTORS OF FILIPINO SOCIETY

Dimensions of Poverty

The notion of poverty is multidimensional.

This means a person can be poor not only in terms of money, clothing, and food but
also in terms of education, love, and relationships.

A number of different concepts and measures of poverty relate to its various

dimensions.

Each of these dimensions has the common characteristic of representing

deprivation that encompasses:

• income
• health
• education
• empowerment
• working condition

The most common measures of the underprivileged is income poverty, which

defined in terms of consumption of goods and services.

In other words, poor because there is not enough cash in the pocket, no job or
business to generate money.

There is a growing recognition that income poverty is not the only important
measures of deprivation.

Poor health is also an important aspect of poverty. If a person has no income, he

will not have the resources of to buy a food, medicine, and proper clothing to stay
healthy and strong.

Human rights are also relevant to issue of global poverty in its focus on shortfalls in
basic needs.

Extending human rights into the realm of foreign direct investment is also an
imperative.

The church, in its pro-poor stance, is constantly challenged wherein justice is being
denied to sectors like farmers, fisherfolks, indigenous people, and victims of
calamity and labor.

C. On the Rights of Women

In 1712, Jean Jacque Rousseau said that women should be educated to please
man.

Moreover, he believed that women should be useful to man’ should take care,
advise, console men; and render men’s lives easy and agreeable.
C. On the Rights of Women

In the Philippines, women subjected to oppression, among others, of class and sex.

“Babae,” is a song by Inang Laya that problematizes the gender role assigned by
the social order to women since their childhood.

It usually sang during women’s month celebrated in March.

It is an alternative song portraying the image of the woman aspiring for liberation
form patriarchy.

Explaining the Authentic Dialogue that is Accepting Others Regardless of

Individual Differences

According Martin Heidegger, humankind is a conversation.

Conversation is more than an idle talk but a dialogue.

This means humanity is progressively attuned to communication about its being.

Language, as one of human possessions, create human world.

An authentic dialogue entails a person-to-person, a mutual sharing of selves,

acceptance, and sincerity.

This relationship is the I-thou and we relations, this refers to the interpersonal
relationship which fulfills and actualizes oneself.

The human person attains fulfillment if there is a genuine dialogue.

All of the philosophers mentioned talk about the same type of relation, that is, a
dialogue of human beings based on mutual sharing of selves, acceptance, and
sincerity.

Performing Activities that Demonstrate the Talents of PWDS and Under-

Privileged Sectors of Society

The Philippine government supports persons with disabilities (PWDs) by helping

them and find employment.

In our country, there are many different companies who employ PWDs, giving them
a chance to participate in society just as much as any other person.

As of 2014, the National Statistic Office estimated that about 1.44 million Filipino
with disabilities in the employable 15 – 64 years old age bracket.