Lesson 1 - Pan Determinism's View of Freedom

Pan Determinism
• Is "the view which disregards the human capacity to
take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever"
• It states that a human person is not free because
his/ her decisions, actions, and behavior are
determined by his/ her biological, psychological,
sociological condition.

1. Biological Determinism
• Refers to the idea that all human behavior is
innate, determined by genes.

 Human
• Are biologically pre-disposed to decide,
act, or behave in a certain way.

 Pan-determinism
• Is the idea that human behavior is the
symptom of biological and social
conditions.

2. Psychological Determinism
 Sigmund Freud (Id, Ego, Super ego)
• He is considered as the father of the
school of psychoanalysis.
• He is known for his concepts of the
three aspects of human personality and
the three level of mind.
• According to him, Human action are not
free. Human actions may appear free,
but they are nothing but a manifestation
of the various mental states, which
human are not are.
• These mental states, in turn, govern
human decisions, actions, and
behaviors.

 3 Levels of Mind

1. Conscious (Ego)
• It includes everything like
thoughts, feelings, and actions of
which people are currently aware
of.
2. Pre-conscious (Super ego)
• Includes all mental activities which
are not presently active but stored
somewhere in our memory. It can
be easily accessed, when required.
3. Unconscious (Id)
• It includes mental activity that
people are unaware of.
• According to him, some of the
feelings, thoughts, urges, and
emotions that our emotions that
out conscious mind wants to hide,
buried into unconscious mins,
influence some of our unexplained
behavior.
 Freud's View of the Human Mind
• Freud likens his concept of the mind to an iceberg. The
conscious level is the top of the iceberg.
• The preconscious is in-between the two levels. And the
unconscious level is the seat of the mind, which is
concealed, vast, and powerful.
• The illustration below is Freud's division of these levels
and the estimated usage of each level. Working
together they create our reality.
3. Sociological Determinism
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner
• He is an American psychologist and social philosopher.
• He is known for his defense of behaviorism, a view of
claiming that human behavior is conditioned.
• According to him, there is no autonomous agent in
humans that determines their actions.
• Human behavior is shaped by external conditions (the
surrounding environment) and not by the so-called
inner-self.

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 • Actions that produce good
consequences are reinforced:
conversely, actions that yield negative
effects have the tendency not to be
repeated.

 Positive Reinforcement
• Reward mechanism

 Negative Reinforcement
• Punishment mechanism

• Therefore imperative to shaping and

changing human behavior.
• The best way to shape and change
human behavior is through a reinforcing
environment.

Freedom
• The power or right to act, speak, or think as one
wants without hindrance or restraint.
• The state of being physically unrestricted and able to
move easily.

Responsibility
• A duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform and
complete a task (assigned by someone, or created by
one's own promise or circumstances) that one must
fulfill, and which has a consequent penalty or failure.

Freedom is Doing What is Good as a Matter of Duty

The human person has Two Obligations:

1. To obey the dictates of his/her reason.

• As rational beings, men should be governed by
their reasons.
• As autonomous beings, men should perform
actions based on their own will.
• To be autonomous is to be authority of
oneself. To be autonomous is to will one's
actions freely.

2. To obey the decrees of Moral Law.

• There exists a Moral Law governs all men in
the word regardless of space and time.
• It is absolute and universal in the sense that it
requires obedience from all its subjects.

According to Iris Marion Young (2007), the concept of

Responsibility is applied in two senses:

I. First Sense: To be responsible is to be guilty

• When one knowingly, voluntarily, and willingly
inflicted harm on someone, one should be
held someone responsible for her actions and
be held liable to a punishment.

II. Second Sense: To be responsible is to carry out tasks

• One should carry out tasks by virtue of his/ her
power, position, or authority morally and
legally.
• With great power comes great responsibilities.

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Lesson 2 - The Intersubjective Experience

Intersubjectivity of Human Beings

• Intersubjectivity presupposes a human being's
connectivity with other human beings.
• We share the same situations wherein we can create
shared meanings which are the bases for our
collective actions and beliefs.

The Dimensions of a Nonrelational Self:

A. The Self in Isolation

• Human being lives in isolation when he/ she
does not recognize the existence of other
human beings.
• Another form of isolation is when a human
being consciously leaves the communicative
situation.
• He/ she cannot attain full consciousness of
himself/ herself in isolation.

B. The Self in the Realm of Presentations

• Buber observes that human being pretends to
be another person to be accepted by others.
• When a human being relates with another in
deception, the content of such communication
is not the true self but the seeming and
imagined self.

C. The Self in the Realm of Manipulations

• A human being sees the other person as a
mere "thing or it."
• He/ she does not recognize the very being of
the other.
• He/ she controls the other as an object.

D. The Self in the Realm of Selfishness

• The "I" is the center of the relationship and
sees only itself as the basis of truth and of
social existence.
• Selfishness blinds a person from seeing the
other as a source of unique world, values and
meaning that can possibly enrich his/ her
being.

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Lesson 3 - Homo Socius
"Humas are Social Beings"
"Humans are Political by Nature"
Humans as Political Beings
 Human
• have natural desire to live in communities for
the sake of self-preservation, common
protection, and good life.
 Political Society (State)
• Is formed out of the natural evolution of
communities not a product of human
conventions.
Plato's Idea of a Just Society
A. Plato's Idea of Human Nature
• A human person has a soul
• A soul is composed of three parts, namely:
1. The Appetitive
• Responsible for the person's need for
nourishment and reproduction.
• There are times when the appetite
overwhelms the human person and he/
she becomes desirous.
2. The Spirited
• Responsible for the person's emotion,
passion, and will power.
• There are times that the spirit is
dominant in the human person. He/ she
becomes competitive and ambitious,
and courageous.
3. The Rational
• Responsible for person's thinking
• It is the highest and is supposed to
govern both the appetitive and the
spirited parts.
• Reason should tame the appetite and
guide the spirit in order to produce a
harmonious personality.
B. Plato's Ideal Society
• There are three kinds of people who are
individually subject to the chaotic interactions
of the three parts of the soul.
• The three kind of soul is the three kinds of
people are indispensable in health of the
society.
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• No one should be thrown aways' everyone should be placed
where he/ she best fit.
 First Problem
• Determine who among the people belong to the
Desire-Driven (Appetitive), to Power-Driven (Spirited),
and to the Wisdom Seekers (Rational).
 Second Problem
• Determine the positions of each class of people in the
society.
 Third Problem
• Determine how they should live as members of the
society given their respective natures and positions.
• There is no better way to classify people to determine their
social position except though Education.
• His means that people will occupy their social position
according to their Educational Qualifications.
• This mode of classification of the people is democratic in
the sense that everyone is given equal opportunity to hold
social positions.
• Social positions are Merited and Not Inherited.
The Evolution of Societies
 Karl Marx
• Societies all over the world have undergone the process of
evolution.
• Underlying this evolution of societies has been constant
struggle between antagonistic social classes
 Antagonistic Social Classes
1. The Master and the Slave (Ancient Period)
2. The Lord and the Serfs (Medieval Period)
3. The Bourgeois and the Proletarians (Industrialization)
 Four Major Stages of Society
1. Prehistory
• Selfless and Cooperative Beings
• Possessing no private property
• People lived by hunting and gathering
• Abundance supply of foods
• No division of labor
• No social classes
• No war
• People live in peace and contentment
• The prehistoric society was a paradise-like
(Tannenbaum & Schultz, 2004)
2. Precapitalist (Precapitalism)
• Agricultural society
I. Period of Slavery (Ancient)
• Masters and slaves
• Development of agriculture
• People started to cultivate
• Gave birth to private property and division of
labor
• Birth to social classes
• Establishment of social institutions.
 II. Period of Serfdom (Medieval)
• Lords replaced the masters and
the serf replace the slaves.
• Some changes in the modes of
production (Ex. Such as invention
of better tools).
• Compared to the masters, the
lords had lesser powers.
• The serfs enjoyed freedom not
enjoyed by the slaves.

C. Capitalism
• Overproduction and oppression are
inherent to capitalism
• The capitalist society is doomed to
collapse and said self-destruct.

D. Communism
• Is a political theory that advocates the
abolition of private property.

I. Private Property
• It is the root cause of all evils in
the society.
• All private properties will be
confiscated and will be owned in
common.
• Each will work according to his/
her needs.
• There will be no classes in the
society.
• Instead of competition, there will
be cooperation.

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Lesson 4 - In the Face of Ultimate Reality
Jean Cocteau
• "Since the day of my birth my death began its walk..
It is walking toward me, without hurrying"
The Paradox of Death (p. 181)
• We have no personal experience of death. But we
are sure that sooner or later we will die.
• Our knowledge of our death may not be
experimental, but it is with certainty- perhaps the
only certainty we can speak of- that we will die.
We are certain about death because….
• History attests that no one who had lived in the far
past still exists today.
• Science tell us that anything that comes also goes.
• We have seen people die
• Everyone dies. It is ultimate truth, a truth than no
one can deny and no one can defy. The unfortunate
thing about this truth, however is that, it remains to
be revealed (p.182).
• Death is the greatest equalizer in life.
• No one can claim supremacy over death.
• There is another certainty about death is a
permanent cessation of physical life.
We are uncertain about death because…
• Death is uncertain as to its time, place, and the way
it happens.
• It always catches people unaware
• Timbreza, 2008; p. 182 - Boholanos observes "Death
comes to us whether we are standing or sitting"
• We do not know whether life continues after death
of our life?
• Or is there a truth to the promise that there is life
after death?"
2 General Views of Death
1. Materialist
• Human is nothing but a material entity.
• Human does not have a spirit or soul
(existence of these are just an illusion)
• Everything in life ends in death
2. Spiritual
• According to Plato, a human person is
composed of body and soul.
• When the body dies, the living soul continues
to live.
Death's Absurdity and Meaning
 Absurdity
• The condition of incongruence between
human intention and the silence or
indifference of the world.
• "Death is the contradiction of life. While we
want to exist, death puts an end to this desire"
 Meaning of Death (Victor Frankl)
• Believes that life does not render life
meaningless.
• Life becomes meaningful because of death
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• Death is a boundary situation that imposes upon us tasks to be
accomplished.
• Since we have no eternity, we have only our lifetime within which
to make our lives meaningful by experience and creating values.
• Knowing that we may die anytime, we need to valued every single
moment and single opportunity to create values.
Consciousness and Responsibility (Frankl)
• Death is an essential characteristics of life- it makes life
meaningful.
• Our responsibility lies on the singularity of our chance to live the
uniqueness of our existence,.
• We cannot live forever; hence, we have to experience and create
values.
• Since we are going to die, then we cannot waste the opportunity
while we are alive.
• Since we are going to die, then we cannot waste the opportunity
to make sense of life.
• Death is the source of meaning of life.
"Death is certain and yet it brings uncertainty"
7 life lessons from this movie: The Bucket List (Find the Joy)
1. Death often comes out of nowhere
2. Make your bucket list(s) now
3. Actively plan to execute whatever is on your bucket list, and
continue to add to it
4. See the world
5. Find the joy in your life
6. Bring joy to other people's lives
7. Be adventurous
Attitudes Toward Death
 Know thyself
• Socrates - "ignorance give rise to fear of death"
- "if ignorance is the cause of fear of death, then
wisdom is its antidote"
• Buddha - believes that fear of death is caused by one's
ignorance of the true nature of the self. But unlike Socrates,
Buddha believed in no-self.
1. Live a Meaningful Life - Viktor Frankl
• Life has a purpose. If death is part of life, the it must also
have a purpose
2. Live in Present Moment
• Our awareness of death makes us celebrate life. It makes us
live in the present moment.
3. Live Calmly - Marcus Aurelius
• Everything that happens is a normal and expected as the
spring rose or the summer fruit; this is true of sickness,
death, slander, intrigue, and all the other things that delight
or trouble foolish men
4. Live Courageously - Martin Heidegger
• My awareness of my death own death makes me realize that
my life is my own and that I have to take care of it