THE QUESTION OF

MAN’S FREEDOM
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

Articulate his own idea of freedom.
Point out the differences/consequences of the 3 types
of freedom.
Sort out according to priorities the different values in
life.
Evaluate the hierarchy of values according to
Scheler’s categorization.
1. Why are humans the only
moral agents?

2. Is there only 1 type of

freedom?
THE HUMAN FREEDOM

Human freedom is a social concept

that recognizes the dignity of individuals
and is defined as negative liberty or the
absence of coercive constraint…as
opposed to positive liberty which refers
to the possibility of acting in such a way
as to take control of one’s life.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s notion of ‘true
liberty’ may be placed under this
category.

Positive freedom therefore is less about

what individuals are forbidden from doing,
and more about what individuals
can do to reach their full human
potential.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
“ABSOLUTE FREEDOM”

(1) EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE

It gives emphasis on man’s

“subjectivity”.
Leads to the question of being.
Rejection of a divine meaning
to one’s life (because….)

For Sartre, existence precedes

essence, freedom is absolute,
and existence is freedom.
(2) SUBJECT RATHER THAN OBJECT

Humans are not objects to be used by

God or a government or corporation or
society.

Nor we to be "adjusted" or molded into

roles --to be only a waiter or a conductor
or a mother or worker. We must look
deeper than our roles and find ourselves.
(3) Notion of CHOICE:

FREEDOM is the central and unique

potentiality which constitutes us as human.

“I am my choices. I cannot not choose. If I

do not choose, that is still a choice. If faced
with inevitable circumstances, we still
choose how we are in those circumstances”.
(4) RESPONSIBILITY:

Each of us is responsible for everything we

do. If we seek advice from others, we
choose our advisor and have some idea of
the course he or she will recommend. "I am
responsible for my very desire of fleeing
responsibilities."
(5) OUR ACTS DEFINE US:

“In life, a man commits himself, draws his

own portrait, and there is nothing but that
portrait." Our illusions and imaginings about
ourselves, about what we could have been,
are nothing but self-deception.
A "brave" person is simply someone who
usually acts bravely.

Each act contributes to defining us as we

are, and at any moment we can begin to
act differently and draw a different
portrait of ourselves.

There is always a possibility to change, to

start making a different kind of choice.
(BUT) WHAT REALITY
OPPOSES SARTRE?
Video on Predetermination
 THE THREE POSITIONS OF
FREEDOM

Man is absolutely free. (Sartrean)

Man is absolutely determined.
(Causal, Logical, Psychological,
and Theological)
The middle position: Man is
situated (Maurice Merleau Ponty)
TYPES OF DETERMINISM

Logical determinism maintains

that the future is already fixed as
unalterably as the past.

Physical determinism is based on

there being physical laws of nature.
Theological determinism argues that since
God is omniscient, He knows everything,
the future included.

Psychological determinism maintains that

there are certain psychological laws which
we are beginning to discover, enabling us to
predict, usually on the basis of experiences
in early infancy, how a man will respond to
different situations throughout his later life.
*OBJECTIONS ON THE ABSOLUTE
DETERMINISM

If the feeling of freedom is rejected, then no basic

experience is trustworthy, which would lead to total
skepticism and inaction.
If the statement “man is absolutely determined” is true,
the statement is also determined, and the opposite “man
is absolutely free” would also be determined, and so
there would be no truth value anymore to the statement.
If human beings are manipulable like machines, there
would be no problem in making a society just. -M.Dy
 THE SITUATED FREEDOM
MAURICE MERLEU-PONTY

Freedom could never be divorced from the

individual's insertion in a world; (it is
interwoven with the field of existence).
The concept of freedom only made sense
in conjunction with this insertion (man’s
beingness in the world).
In Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, men faced a
previously constituted world that nevertheless
accommodated free action.

For Merleau-Ponty, there was "never

determinism and never absolute choice,"
by the very nature of man's being in the world.
Choices are made in this field of meaning.
Objection on Sartre’s Absolute
Freedom:

If freedom is absolute, always and everywhere,

then freedom is impossible and nowhere.

Absolute freedom implies that there would be

no distinction between freedom and
unfreedom.
GABRIEL MARCEL ON FREEDOM

Freedom is related to person.

Existence grows out as an ego
(in the context of having
freedom) and grow into
becoming (beingness) a person.
 THE TWO REALMS OF FREEDOM

The realm of HAVING: The realm of BEING:

freedom is external to
me; pertains to persons;
it does not commune open to others to
with me; commune;
a “problem” apart from
me; this is not a “problem” but a
applicable to ideas, mystery that is part of me;
implying possession (not applicable also to things: I
open for sharing with am my ideas, I am free.
others).
Understanding Freedom and
Responsibility
Video on Responsibility
TWO MEANINGS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Accountability:

I am accountable for an action that is free,

whose source is the “I”…. I acted on my own; I
decided on my own; I am free from external
constraints.
A person is morally responsible for an injury if:

The person caused the injury or failed to prevent

it when he or she could have or should have
prevented it.

The person did so despite of knowing what he or

she was doing.

The person did so out of his own freewill.

The response-ability:
The response-ability means the ability to give an
account, the ability to justify actions that are truly
responsive to the objective demands of the
situation.
A response that meets the objective demands of
the situation is a response that meets the demand
of justice.
 Greater freedom is NOT just being able
to do what I want to do but being able to
do and wanting to do (wills it) what the
situation objectively obliged me to do.

Source: Dialectical Materialism (Alexander Spirkin, 1983 by Progress Publishers)

FREEDOM AND JUSTICE

The relationship of these concepts can be

discerned when the network of relationships
with FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS and the
GOODS intended by freedom is given
consideration.

Justice is giving to the other what is due.

If human being is to keep is
freedom, he must assess his
real needs with respect to what
is available around his world
and the equally real needs of
his fellowman.
 ON MAX SCHELER’S
HIERARCHY OF VALUES
Freedom is often associated with
VALUE.
Every choice is based on a value.
Value is never taken in isolation
from what the total self aspires to
become.
 Arrange the following concepts
according to your priorities or sense
of valuing…
 Marriage
Money
Love
Health Friendship
Intelligence Food

Equality
Laptop
Baptism
Money/Food/Laptop

Health/Intelligence

Love/Equality/Friendship

Baptism/Marriage
SCHELER’S HIERARCHY OF VALUES

Sensory Value: (pleasant/unpleasant)

Vital Values: (Noble/Vulgar)
Spiritual Values: (beauty/ugly; Truth/Lies;
Justice/injustice)
Holy and Unholy: (Sacraments/Biblical
Truths/Faith, Traditions)
 THE SENSORY VALUE

Values that are objects of sensory feelings, and

their corresponding subjective states are pleasure
and pain.
Under this realm are also technical values, values of
civilisation and luxury value.
Essentially, the pleasant is always preferred over
the unpleasant.
(but) are there instances where unpleasant are
preferred for another value?
 THE VITAL VALUES

These values are connected with general well

being.
The corresponding states of vital values are
feelings of health and sickness, aging,
exhausting, energy, vigorousness.
These values are completely independent and
irreducible to the pleasant or unpleasant
values.
THE SPIRITUAL VALUES

They are independent of the body and the

environment.

They correspond to spiritual feelings, more

appropriately to the spiritual acts of love
and hatred.

The corresponding feeling states are

spiritual joy and sorrow.
THE HOLY AND THE UNHOLY

These are values that appear only on objects

given intentionally as “absolute objects”.
Values that are independent of things and
powers.
Derivative values of this kind are value of the
sacrament, cults, and other forms of worship.
the subjective feeling states are bliss and
despair, and their responses are faith, lack of
faith, adoration.
A value is higher than another if it is
not divisible,
If it contains in its essence the ability
to be endured through time,
qualitatively and not quantitatively,
If it generates other values
if it accompanies depth of
contentment.
An act has a matter and form.

Matter means substance or material

while Form structure or common
characteristics).

At the back of every act entails a

value..which implies a hierarchy.
THE TWO KINDS OF CHOICE

Horizontal choices refer to freedom of

choice.
Vertical choices refer to choices in
relation to values order).
Both choices shape our
FUNDAMENTAL option.
Thank you
This presentation is made by:
Dr. Madeleine M. Co
CHED GET UE-ETHICS