LESSON 7
But most
Albert Camus
➢ A French Philosopher
➢ The only way to deal with an unfree world is to
become so absolutely free that your very
existence is an act of rebellion
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)
➢ Austrian Philosopher
➢ “The purpose of the Philosophy of Freedom is
to lay the foundations of ethical individualism
and of a social and political life.”
➢ Steiner developed a spiritual movement that
he called anthroposophy, which is based on
the idea that a child's moral, spiritual, and
creative sides need as much attention as their
intellect. ... As far as education goes, he
strongly believed in the idea of developing the Human freedom is restricted by the ascriptive
whole person.
WHAT IS FREEDOM?
➢ the absence of coercion, intimidation or
constraint imposed upon a subject by another
person, institution, thing or circumstance.
➢ Freedom in this sense is usually regarded as
a presupposition of moral responsibility: the
actions for which I may be praised or blamed,
rewarded or punished, are just those which I
perform freely.
➢ The further question of whether choice—
the volition or will to act—is itself free or
subject to ordinary causality raises the issue
of determinism in human conduct.
modern philosophers have held that (internal)
determination of the will by desire or impulse
does not diminish the relevant sense of moral
responsibility.
Dimensions: Freedom from and Freedom For
Freedom from
➢ means and implies restraints, which are
interior and exterior.
- The interior obstacles are ignorance,
disordered passions, desires, anger, fears,
personality defects, bad habits, prejudices,
or psychological disturbances, while the
exterior forces are the violent forces or
threats of violence.
- These restraints or impediments are
traceable to the physical, psychological,
and social limitation of the human person.
traits of a person.
A person does not have the power to make
choices such as:
1)To choose to be born with a different sex.
2)To have different ethnic identity or race
3)To choose to remain youthful, or
4)To choose to be a PBA player when one is too
short for it.
➢ These physical limitations are real. These deny
and take away the power and ability to
determine what one wants in life.
Physical Limitations
➢ The psychological limitations are subjective
obstacles or factors that control the mind such
as fear, envy, or laziness.
- These are the enemies of freedom from
within; these are negative powers within
the consciousness of the human person
that destroys his/her ability to direct
his/her own life.
Social Limitations
➢ These social factors are the components or
elements of an organizational culture such as
norms (folkways, mores, laws, rules) values,
language, beliefs, symbols, traits and fashions,
fads, and crazes.
o The cultural way of living lacks freedom.
o Any action is performed with such cultural
pressures.
o In this way of living, an individual decision- ➢ Moral agent is a person who has the ability to
making or the exercise of personal freedom
is negated.
o What supervenes is the usual pattern of
living laid down by the society.
Freedom for
➢ means and implies growth as a full person.
Two levels of freedom
➢ The freedom of choice by which a person
directs his/her moral acts.
➢ The fundamental freedom of a person’s very
self.
➢ The freedom of choice by which a person
directs his/her moral acts.
- freedom to choose to act, to do good or
evil
➢ The fundamental freedom of a person’s very
self.
- consistency of choosing to do the good,
which makes him/her a free loving person
o The first level implies freedom to choose to
act, in this or that way to do good or evil,
while the second level refers to the
consistency of choosing to do the good, which
gradually makes him/her a free loving person.
Under the preceding concepts, the human
person is free.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
➢ To love God is something greater than to know
Him.
Human being as a moral agent
discern right from wrong and to be held
accountable for his or her own actions.
Following the natural law is following the will of
God.
➢ The natural law is comprised of those precepts
of the eternal law that governs the behavior of
beings possessing reason and free will. The
first precept of the natural law is to do good
and avoid evil.
Jean Paul Sartre the other people to influence and coerce our
desires, beliefs and decisions.
➢ Individual Freedom
- The human person is the desire to be God:
the desire to exist as a being which has its
sufficient ground in itself. There are no
guideposts along the road of life. The
human person builds the road to the
destiny of his/her choosing; he/she is the
creator.
Sartre’s Principle: Existence precedes Essence
➢ The person, first, exists/encounters himself
and surges up in the world then defines
himself afterward. The person is nothing else
but that what he makes of himself.
➢ The person is provided with a supreme
opportunity to give meaning to one’s life. In
the course of giving meaning to one’s life, one
fills the world with meaning.
Freedom is, therefore, the very core and the
door to authentic existence
➢ To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to
imagine, free to choose, and be responsible for
one’s life.
➢ On the other hand, the human person who
tries to escape obligations and strives to be en-
soi (i.e., excuses, such as “I was born this
way” or “I grew up in a bad environment” ) is
acting on bad faith. (en-soi, Being-in-itself is
the self-constrained and fully realized Being of
objects.)
➢ Sartre emphasizes the importance of free
individual choice, regardless of the power of