LESSON 5: FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN PERSON
* our will is an instrument of free choice
Keys:
 Philosophers (A, ST, JP, TH, R – views)
 Fourfold classification
 Laws
 Kasarilihan, tayo-tayo, kami-kami
 BF Skinner
 Yelon
 Rand
Freedom consists of going beyond situations such
as physical or economic. Students can be young
and poor, but they can still pursue their dreams
of becoming a doctor, teacher or a stage actor.
5.1 REALIZE THAT “ALL ACTIONS HAVE
CONSEQUENCES
PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR VIEWS:
1. Aristotle – Power of Volition
2. St. Thomas Aquinas – Love is Freedom
3. Jean Paul Sarte – Individual Freedom
4. Thomas Hobbes – Theory of Social
Contact
5. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Political
Freedom
ARISTOTLE - POWER OF VIOLATION
 The imperative quality of a judgement of
practical intellect is meaningless, apart
from will,
 Only through will can
 If there were no intellect, there would be
no will.
 The will of humanity is an instrument of
free choice.
 Moral acts are in out power and we are
responsible for it.
It is within the power of everyone to be good or
bad, worthy or worthless.
- Character or habits is no excuse for immoral
conduct.
ARISTOTLE: INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM
* A human being is rational
* reason is divine characteristic.
* humans have the spark of the divine.
* if there is no intellect, there would be no will.
* reason can legistate.
* but only through will
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS - LOVE IS FREEDOM
 Human beings have the unique power to
change themselves and the thing around
them for the better.
 Human beings as a moral agent.
 We have a conscience through our
spirituality.
 Whether we choose to be ‘good’ or ‘evil’
becomes our responsibility.
 If the 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 is achieved through
cooperation with God.
 Union of humanity with God
 Change for the good of the community.
FOURFOLD CLASSIFICATION OF LAW:
1. ETERNAL LAW
2. NATURAL LAW
3. HUMAN LAW
4. DIVINE LAW
 HUMAN LAW – should be obeyed
voluntarily and with understanding (e.g
following traffic rules).
 NATURAL LAW – its ethical sense, applies
only to human beings. Good is to be
sought after and evil avoided (e.g if there
is fire, a human tendency is to avoid it).
 Both NATURAL and HUMAN LAWS are
connected with ends determined simply
by humanity’s nature.
 DIVINE LAW – human being is ordained to
an end transcending his nature. It is
necessary that he has a law ordering him
to that end.
ETERNAL LAW – the decree of God that governs
all creation.
NATURAL LAW – the human participation in the
eternal law and is discovered by reason. Based on
first principle
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
 He chose and proposed Love rather then
law to bring about the transformation of
humanity
 Love is conscience with humanity’s free
nature
 Law commands and complete
 Love only calls and invite
 Freedom of humanity but love in
governing humanity’s life
 Since God is love, then love is the guiding
principle of humanity toward his self-
perception and happiness
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: SPIRITUAL FREEDOM
* Existence of God is first cause
* Human being has the unique power to change
themselves and things around them for the
better.
* Humans are both material and spiritual
* We have conscience because of our spirituality
* God is love and love is our destiny
JEAN PAUL SARTE - INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
 Sarte’s philosophy is considered to be a
representative of existentialism
 The human person is the desire to be God
 The human person builds the road to
destiny of his/her choosing.
 He/she is the creator.
EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENSE
 The person, first, exist, encounters himself
and surges up in the world then defines
himself afterwards
 The person is provided with a supreme
opportunity to give meaning to one’s life
 Freedom is the very core and the door to
authentic existence
 The person is what one has done and is
doing
 The human person who tries to escape
obligations and strives to be en-soi
(excuses) is acting on bad faith (mauviais
fai)
THOMAS HOBBES - THEORY OF SOCIAL CONTACT
 A Law of Nature (lex naturalis) is a precept
or general rule establishes 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 the best preserved
 Hobbes concludes that we should seek
peace
 Human beings seek self-preservation and
security; however they are unable to
attain this end in the natural condition of
war.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU - THE SOCIAL
CONTRACT
 In his book, The Social Contract, he
elaborated his theory of human nature.
 In Rousseau, a new era of sentimentality
piety founds its beginning.
 The “EDSA Revolution” is an example,
though an imperfect one of what the
theory of Social Contract is all about.
 The term of “Social Contract” is not an
actual historical event. It is a philosophical
fiction, a metaphor, and a certain way of
looking at a society of voluntary collection
of agreeable individuals.
HOBBES AND ROSSEAU: POLITICAL FREEDOM
- 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)
 YELON
 Punishment is a means to the formation
of motives, reward is a means to the
formation of incentive.

5.3 CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES AND SOME

THINGS ARE GIVEN UP WHILE OTHERS ARE
OBTAINED IN MAKING CHOICES
5.2 EVALUATE AND EXERCISE PRUDENCE IN
CHOICES

AYN RAND (1996)

B.F SKINNER  Individual mind is a tool for economic
OPERANT CONDITIONING progress (laissez faire capitalism)
- organism learns through the consequences of its  Thinking is volitional
behavior  Individual rights are not merely numbers
FREEDOM  Human beings have rights, there should
-when one “feels free” or “believes that he is also be responsibility
free”  Cited the right to gain, to keep, to use and
to dispose of material values
 Individualism is lined in family
dependency

5.4 SHOW SITUATIONS THAT DEMONSTRATE

FREEDOM OF CHOICE AND THE CONSEQUENCE
OF THEIR CHOICES
B.F SKINNER: SOLUTION
AYN RAND
- “to make the social environment as free
as possible from aversive stimuli, we do  Individual freedom should be aligned with
not need to destroy the environment or economic freedom
escape from it”  the Filipino “sakop” or harmony can be a
- not to control the person, but to helping value to the full devepoment of
“redesign” its environment the Filipino
 Individualism reinforces kasarilihan (self-
sufficient), as such, it discourages
subservience from external control higher
than itself
 “Kasarilihan” 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”.