Freedom of the Human Person

PREPARED BY : MS. LENIE ESCARLAN

Realize that “All Actions Have Consequences”
• Aristotle- The Power of Volition
• volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides
on and commits to a particular course of action.
– The will of humanity is an instrument of free choice. It is within
the power of everyone to be good or bad, worth or worthless
this is born out by:
• our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or wrong.
• the common testimony of all human beings.
• the rewards and punishment of rulers.
• the general employment of praise and blame.
ARISTOTLE
 – For Aristotle, a human being is rational. Reason is a divine
characteristic. Humans have the spark of the divine. If there were
no intellect, there would be no will.

WILL----------> ACTION---------> REACTION

• St. 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.
– St Thomas said, that in the plan of God, a human being has to
develop and perfect himself by doing his daily tasks. Hence, if a
human being is perseveringly lives a righteous and virtuous life,
he transcends his mortal state of life.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
St. Thomas Aquinas fourfold classification of law:
• Eternal Law- is the Divine Wisdom of God which overseas the
common good and governs everything.
– Eternal law is God's plan to lead all creation towards God's eternal salvation
plan to be holy and blameless before Him through Jesus Christ
(Ephesians1:4-5)
• Divine Law- is the historical laws of Scripture given to us through
God's self-revelation.
– It is divided into Old Law and the New Law, which correspond to the Old and
New testaments of the Bible.
– Old Law, revealed by God to Moses. Ten Commandments.
– New Law, perfects the Old Law. Teachings of Jesus, commands internal
conduct, and reaches us by divine love, promising love and heavenly
reward.
• Natural Law- is “the Rational creature's participation in the
eternal law”
– The 1st principle of the Natural Law is “good is to be done and
pursued, and evil avoided”
• Human Law- is the interpretation of natural law in different
contexts.
– natural law is a foundation for moral and civil law.
• St. Thomas Aquinas- Spiritual Freedom

ACTIONS
GOOD OR EVIL
• Jean Paul Sartre- Individual Freedom
– Sartre’s philosophy is considered to be a representative of
existentialism
– For Sartre, the human person is the desire to be God. The desire
to exist as a being which had its sufficient ground in itself.
– Sartre’s existentialism stems from this principle “existence
precedes essence.
JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Theory Of Social Contract

Social Contract- it is a theory that has a concern with the

legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual.
• Thomas Hobbes- defines contract as the ”mutual
transferring of right’’.
• Jean Jacques Rousseau- argues that laws are binding
only when they are supported by the general will of
people.
THOMAS HOBBES
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU