MANUELS. ENVERGAUNIVERSITYFOUNDATION-CATANAUANINC.

Quezon, Philippines

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

Lesson 5: Freedom of the Human Person

Objectives:

1. Realize the consequences and responsibilities of one’s action.

2. show situation that demonstrate freedom of choice.
3. evaluate and exercise prudence in one’s choices; and
4. utilize various approaches that immerse humans to responsible way of living.
Introduction:
In this lesson, Freedom will highlight the intellectual, political, spiritual and economic
aspects.To be free is part of humanity’s authenticity. In one way, understanding freedom is part of
our transcendence. Freedom consists of going beyond situations such as physical and economic.
Critical thinking is an important tool toward freedom and truth.

Freedom is so central to moral life that without it, we cannot speak of being moral persons at all.

Morality pertains to those areas of our lives where freedom is possible and enables us to actualize
our potential as the “Image of God”.

It is something we experience as persons in our capacity to choose, in our individual choices and in
the persons we become through our choices.

Realizing That “All Actions Have Consequences”

A. Aristotle
The Power of Volition
The imperative quality of a judgment of practical intellect is meaningless apart from
Will. Reason can legislate but only through will can its legislation be translated into action.
Thetask of practical intellect is to guide will by enlightening it. Will, in fact is to be
understood wholly in terms of intellect. 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.

Moral Acts are in our power and we are responsible for them. All moral acts are specific actions
done at a particular time in a particular situation with people . Character or habit is no excuse for
immoral conduct.

For Aristotle, a human being is rational. Reason is a divine characteristic, that is God created humans
to reason and are inclined to reason. Human are made according to the characteristics of God,
without Intellect, there is no will. Though reason rules over will, our will is an instrument of free
choice turning into action.
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Quezon, Philippines

B. 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. Humans are the only creatures on earth endowed
with the capacity to reshape their physical environment and civilization according to their
thoughts, plans and beliefs. Thomas Aquinas considered a human being as a moral agent.
The Unity between both elements helps us understand our complexity as human beings.
whether we choose to be good or evil becomes our responsibility.

A human being has a supernatural, transcendental destiny. To achieve the highest level
of human fulfillment and happiness, humans must aspire to go beyond their basic needs to
live, eat and sleep.

Thomas Fourfold Classification of Law:

1. Eternal Law
2. Natural Law
3. Human Law
4. Divine Law

Natural Law - applies only to human beings

- is that good is to be sought after and evil is avoided ( Basis of self preservation )
- is the law that governs natural phenomena in nature like the weather, the elements
and gravity.
- this law looks to the common good as its end, it is then conceived primarily with
External acts and not with interior disposition.

Human Law - it should not only be obeyed religiously but also voluntarily and with
understanding.

Divine Law - gives human beings the certitude where unaided human reason could arrive only
At possibilities. It deals with interior disposition as well as external acts and it ensures
The final punishment of all evildoings neither of which is possible for human law.

2 Division of Divine Law

1. Old ( Mosaic )
2. New ( Christian )
that are related as the immature and imperfect to the perfect and complete.

Eternal Law - is the decree of God that governs all creation.

- It is that law which is the Supreme Reason cannot be understood to be
otherwise than unchangeable and eternal.

C. Thomas Aquinas’ Spiritual Freedom

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Quezon, Philippines

Thomas Aquinas established the existence of God as a first cause. Of all God’s creations,
human being have the unique power to change themselves and things around them for the better.
As a humans, we are both material and spiritual. We hav conscience because of our spirituality. God
is love and love is our destiny.

D. Jean Paul Sartre: Individual Freedom

Sartre’s Philosophy is considered to be a representative of existentialism ( Falikowski,

2004 ). For Sartre, the human person is the desire to be God: the desire to exist as a being which has
its sufficient ground in itself ( En sui causa ). There is no guideposts along the road of life. The
human person builds the road to the destiny of his choosing; he is the creator ( Srathern, 1998).

Sartre’s Existentialism Principle:

1. The person, first, exist and encounters himself and surges up in the world then defines himself afterward.

2. The person is provided with a supreme opportunity to give meaning to one’s life.

3. Freedom is, therefore the very core and the door to authentic existence.

4. 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.

5. The person is what one has done and is doing.

6. The human person who tries to escape obligations and strive to be en-soi ( Excuses ) is acting on bad
faith.

Sartre emphasized the importance of free individual choice regardless of the power of other people
to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs and decisions.

D. Thomas Hobbes
Theory of Social Contract
Law of Nature ( Lex Naturalis ) is a precept or general rule established by reason by which
a person is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life or takes away the means of preserving
the same, and to omit that by which he thinks it may be best preserved.

Law of nature, such as

1. Seek peace
2. Peace building
3. Covenant

1. Seeking peace- is the first law for this immediately reasonableness suggest a second law
Contract - is a mutual transferring of these rights and the basis of the notion of moral obligation and
duty.
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Quezon, Philippines

2. Peace - building - to lay down this right to all things and be contented with so much liberty against other
people as he would allow other people against him,self

3. Covenant - is the fountain of justice.

The rational pursuit of self preservation is what leads us to form commonwealth or states.
The laws of nature can be said to represent axioms and postulates that render this deduction possible,

In Leviathan, Hobbes asserted

“ 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.”

Contracts made in the state of nature are not generally binding for it one fears that he will violate his part of
thebargain, no true agreement can be reached. No contracts can be made with animals since animals cannot
understand an agreement.

Hobbes Distinctions between a Commonwealth by Institution and by Acquisition:

1. A commonwealth is said to exist by institution when it has been established through the covenant of every
member of a multitude with every other member.

2. A commonwealth is said to exist by acquisition when the sovereign power has been acquired by force.

One of the prerogatives of the sovereign enumerated by Hobbes is judging what doctrines are fit to be
taught.

E.Jean- Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau is one of the most famous and influentialphilosophers of the French Enlightenment
in the 18th century.

Social Contract elaborated the theory of human nature. He said that the new era of sentimental piety
found its beginning.Rousseau interpreted the idea in terms of absolute democracy and individualism,
Hobbes developed his idea in favor of absolute monarchy.
Hobbes and Rousseau have one thing in common, that is, they believe that human beings have to
form a community or civil community to protect themselves from one another.
Hobbes thought 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 believed that the human being is born free and good.

Evaluating and Exercising Prudence in Choices

For B. F. Skinner, The environment selects which is similar with natural selection.
Skinner maintained that behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences ( operant
conditioning ) can be studied by arranging environments in which specific consequences are contingent
upon it.

Yelon (1996 ) accepted that behavioral psychology is at fault for having overanalyzed the words
“rewards abd punishment.”
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Quezon, Philippines

According to Skinner, Our struggle for freedom is not due to a will to be free as for Aristotle or Sartre, but to
certain behavioral processes characteristic of the human organism, the chief effect which is the avoidance of
or escape from “aversive” features of the environment.

The feeling of freedom, according to Skinner, becomes an unreliable guide as soon as would be-controllers
turn to non-aversive measures as they are likely to avoid the problems raised when the controllers escapes or
attacks.

John Stuart Mill. Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

The issue is controllability. We cannot change genetic defects by punishment; we can work only through
genetic measures thatoperate on a much longer time scale

Life is full of paradoxes. Nobody could nor should countrol it.

The theory of freedom has negative and positive tasks.

Yelon stated that ounishment is an educative measure and as such is a means to the formation of motives

The feeling is the consciousness of freedom, which is merely the knowledge of having acted on one’s own
desires.
“One’s own Desire” are those which have their origin in the regularity of one’s character in a given
situation, and are not imposed by an external power such as Stimulus.

The environment plays an important part in our lives. As Plato believe, the soul of every individual
possesses the power of learning the truth and the living in as society that is in accordance to its nature.

It is true that we did not choose to be born. It is also true that we choose to keep on living. It is not true that
everything that happened to us is like” being struck down by a dreadful disease. .

Consequences of our Choices

The 20th century gave rise to the importance of the individual, the opposite of the medieval thought that was
God- centered.

For Rand,Individual mind is the tool for economic progress vis-a-vis laissez faire capitalism. Since the mind
is important, the sector that molds it should not be controlled by the government. Similar to Aristotle, Rand
believed that thinking is volitional. A person has the freedom to think or not.

Individual rights, as espoused by Hobbes and Rousseau, are not merely numbers. Rand rejected collectivism
because of its brute force. Though human beings have rights, there should also be responsibility.

Cited Rights of Rand:

1. Right to gain
2. To keep
3. To use
4. To dispose of material values

Disposing material values is not only a matter of throwing waste but also projecting where to dump wastes
that would not impinge on the rights of others.
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Quezon, Philippines

Individualism, as espoused by Rand, is lined in family dependency because Easterners believe that the
individual needs the community and vice versa .

Filipinos embrace family and political parties

Filipinos’ loob is essentially an interpersonal and social concept before it is a private, personal concept.It is
the basis of Christian value sensitivity to the needs of others and of gratitude It encompasses “give and take”
relationship among Filipinos.

Filipinos look at themselves as Holistic from the interior dimension under the principle of harmony, This
encompasses the Filipinos’ humanity, personality, theological perspective and daily experiences

Repaying those who have helped us is a manifestation of Utang na loob or debt of gratitude . Loob is
similar with other Eastern views that aspires for harmony (sakop) with others, God and nature.Loob
prioritizes family, relatives and even nonkinsmen. It bridges individual deifferences and is the common
factor among human beings.

Self-sufficiency ( kasarinlan ) should recognize human worth and dignity.

Individualism, thus, should not be seen as selfishness but an affirmation of a truly human self that is the
supreme value of human living. To be a free individual is to be responsible not only for one’s self but also
for all. Thus, the individual becomes a free and creative person who asserts one’s uniqueness.

Kagandahang loob, Kabutihang loob and kalooban are terms that show sharing of one’s self to others.
This is the freedom within loob, Loob puts one in touch with his fellow beings. Great Filifimo values, in
fact, are essentially interpersonal. The use of intermediaries or go-betweens, the values of loyalty,hospitality,
pakikisama (camaraderie), and respect for authority are such values that relate to persons. In short, Filipinos
generally believe 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.

Situations That Demonstrate Freedom of Choice and the Consequences of Their Choices
According to Rand, Individual freedom should be aligned with economic freedom. The
Filipino”sakop” of harmony can be a helping value to the full development of the Filipinoif he opens up to
embrace the whole Philippine society.
However, sometimes, the beneficiaries of the monetary assistance ( utang or loan ) use the money for
non -essentials (gambling ) when there are more important concerns that should be prioritized ( savings ).
Hence, because of the Filipino sakop, those who are better off must inspire the morale of their family
members to be more responsible.
A leader or a manager with magandang kalooban is not passive but plays an active role in
economic development. Leaders should not only focus on the impact of job performance but also treat every
individual worker as a person and not as an object.
A good Filipino leader or manager must encourage fellow Filipinos to believe in themselves so that
they can bounce back as an economic power.
Individualism will provide Filipinos an opportunity to be more aware of their capacity to harness
fully their strengths and to commit themselves to life.Individualism reinforces Kasarinlan ( self -
sufficiency ) as such it discourages subservience from external control higher than itself.

Kasarinlan promotes Entrepreneurship which minimizes foreign control of Filipinos.

Individualism also prioritizes countryside development, a self-help concept among the country dwellers
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Quezon, Philippines

which discourages dependence on government loans which would leave the locals to follow whatever
conditions the government sets in favor of the loan.
Andres ( 1986 ) the spirit of self help is the root of all authentic growth in rural development, which
is a source of national productivity and efficiency.
Filipinos learn to be self-sufficient which leads to self-respect and consequently, enhances the
Filipinos Amor Propio ( pride and respectability ).
However, Individualism should also be tied to social responsibilityand should not be just Tayo-tayo
or Kami - kami.
The Filipinos’ self is rooted in loob, from which springs a person’s authenticity.
Loob is the only identical factor among people’s diversity in creed, color and status in the society.

Freedom should not be squandered but taken as a wonderful gift that must be nurtured and
protected,not implying the rights or freedom of others.Therefore, it is not enough that the human person is
free but that one is responsible for the consequences of one’s choice.

Rabindranath Tagore once said, “Let me not crave in conscious fear to be saved, but hope for the
patience to win my freedom. “Darkness and bondage symbolize the opposite of freedom or liberation.
Freedom should not be taken for granted, but earned and protected. Freedom is spiritual. Hence, we should
not be enslaved by our self-interests but to be truly free, we should be one with each other and the
environment.