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Lesson 5
Freedom of
Human Person

"The Freedom Fence“
The class will be divided into two group and
every each group will be selected 8
representatives to make this game.
MOTIVATION

At the end of the lesson, the students should be
able to:
Objectives:
• realize the consequences and
responsibilities of one’s actions;
• show situations that demonstrate freedom
of choice;
• evaluate and exercise prudence in one’s
choices; and
• utilize various approaches that immerse
humans to responsible way of living

To be free is part of the humanity’s authenticity.
Understanding freedom is part of our transcendence.
Freedom consists of going beyond situations such as physical
and economic.
For instance, Filipino students may be poor and young, but
they can still pursue their dreams.
Introduction

A. Aristotle
Realizing that “All Actions Have Consequences’’
The Power of Volition
The imperative quality of a judgement of practical
intellect is meaningless apart from will. The task of practical
intellect is to guide will by enlightening it. Will, in fact, is to be
understood wholly in terms of intellect. If there was no
intellect, there would be no will. Free will, is an instrument of
free choice. It is within the power of everyone to be good or
bad, worthy and worthless. This is born out of:

• Our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right and
wrong;
• The common testimony of all human beings;
• The reward and punishment of rulers; and
• The general employment of praise and blame.

Moral acts are in our power and we are responsible for
them. All moral acts are specific actions done at a particular
time in a particular situation with people. Character or habits
are no excuse in immoral conduct. Attending class is the
student responsibility. Should the student cut class, then he is
responsible for the consequences of his actions. He might fail
and regret but the point is the student should not cut class in
the first instance. When the matter sifted down, the happiness
of every human is on their own hand, to preserve and
develop, or to cast away.

For Aristotle, a human being is rational. Reason is a
divine characteristic, that is, God created humans to
reason and are inclined to reason. In other words,
humans are made according to the characteristic of
God. Without intellect, there is no will. Though reason
rules over will, our will is an instrument of free choice
turning into actions.

b. Thomas Aquinas
Love is Freedom
A human being, therefore, has a supernatural, transcendental
destiny. This means that he can rise above his ordinary being or self to a
highest being or self. To achieve the highest level of human fulfillment
and happiness, humans must aspire to go beyond their basis needs. The
power of change, however, cannot be done by human beings alone, but is
achieved through cooperation with God.

Aquinas gave a fourfold classification of law: eternal law,
natural law, human law, and divine law.
• Eternal law
• Natural law
• Human law
• Divine law

1.Eternal Law: is the decree of God that governs all
creation. It is ‘that law which is the supreme reason
cannot be understood to be otherwise than
unchangeable and eternal.’
2.Natural Law: the first principle and percept of the
natural law is that good is to be sought after and evil is
avoided. For instance, if there is fire, and its burning heat
is felt. It is but a human tendency to avoid it. Natural law
is the law that governs natural phenomena in nature like
Fourfold classification of law:

3. Human Law: are concerned with ends determined by humanity’s
nature. However, since a human being is, in fact, ordained to an
end transcending his nature, it is necessary that he has a law
ordering him to an end.
4. Divine Law: gives human beings the certitude where unaided
human reason could arrive only at possibilities. It deals with interior
disposition as well as external acts and it ensures the final
punishment of all evil doings
Fourfold classification of law:

C. Thomas Aquinas’s Spiritual Freedom
Thomas Aquinas established the existence of God as a first
cause. Of all God’s creations, human beings have the unique
power to change themselves and things around them for the
better. As human, we are both material and spiritual. We
have a conscience because of our spirituality. God is love and
our love is our destiny.

D. 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 which ha its sufficient ground
in itself. There is no guideposts along the road of life. The
human person builds the road to the destiny of life. The
human person builds the road to the destiny of his choosing;
he is the creator.

Sartre’s existentialism stems from the principle, ‘Existence
precedes essence.’
• The person, first, exists and encounter himself and
surges up in the world, then define 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, he fills the world with meaning.

• Freedom is, therefore, the very core and the door to
authentic existence.
• Authentic existence is realized only in deeds that are
committed alone in absolute freedom and responsibility
and which is, therefore, the character of true creation.
• The person is what one has done and is doing.
• On the other hand, human person who tries to escape
obligations and strive to be ensoi is acting on bad faith.

Sartre emphasized the importance of free individual choice
regardless of the power of other people to influence and
coerce our desires, beliefs, and decisions. To be human, to be
conscious, is to be free to imagine, free to choose, and be
responsible for one’s life.

E. Thomas Hobbes
Theory of Social Contract
Law of nature (lex naturalist) is a percept or general rule
established 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 best preserved.

In Leviathan, Hobbes asserted:
‘The fundamental law of nature seeks peace and follows it,
while at the same time, by the sum of natural right, we
should defend ourselves by all means that we can.’
The third law of nature is that human beings perform the
covenant they made. Without this law of nature, covenants
are nothing but empty words. With the right of all human
beings to all things remaining, we are still in the condition of
war.

Hobbes made a distinction between a commonwealth by
institution and by acquisition:
1. A commonwealth is said to exist by institution when it has
been established through the covenant of every member of a
multitude with every other member. The multitude of human
being subjects themselves to a chosen sovereign from fear of
one another.
2. A commonwealth is said to exist by acquisition when the
sovereign power has been acquired by force. Here, human
being fears death or bonds with that human being who

F. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau was one of the most famous and influential
philosophers of the French Enlightenment in the eighteenth
century. In his book The Social Contract, he elaborated his
theory of human nature. In Rousseau, a new era of
sentimental piety found its beginning.

Both Rousseau and Hobbes have one thing in common, that
is, they believe that human beings have to form a community
or civil community to protect themselves from one another,
because the nature of human beings is to wage war against
one another, and since by nature, humanity tends toward
self-preservation, then it follows that they have to come to a
free mutual agreement to protect themselves.

Hobbes thought that to end the continuous and self-
destructive
condition of warfare, humanity founded the state with its
sovereign power of control by means of a mutual consent.
On the other hand, Rousseau believed that a human being is
born free and good. Now, he is in chains and has become
bad due to the evil influence of society, civilization, learning,
and progress. Hence, from these come dissension, conflict,
fraud, and deceit.

Evaluating and Exercising Prudence in Choices
For B. F. Skinner, the environment selects which is similar
with natural selection. We must take into account what the
environment does to an organism not only before, but also
after it responds. Skinner (in Yelon, 1996) maintained that
behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.
Behavior that operates upon the environment to produce
consequences (operant conditioning) can be studied by
arranging environments in which specific consequences are
contingent upon it.

The second result is practical; the environment can be
manipulated. Yelon (1996) accepted that behavioral
psychology is at fault for having overanalyzed the words
"reward" and "punishment." We might have miscalculated
the effect of the environment in an individual. There should
be a balance in our relationship with others and the
environment. a will to be free as for Aristotle or Sartre, but to
certain behavioral processes characteristic of the human
organism, the chief effect of which is the avoidance of or
escape from aversive" features of the environment.

Consequences of our Choices
Similar to Aristotle, Rand believed that thinking is
volitional. A person has the freedom to think or not. Though,
for Rand, the majority belongs to the passive supporters of
the status quo who choose not to think. Individual rights, as
espoused by Hobbes and Rousseau, are not merely
numbers. Rand rejected collectivism because of its brute
force. Though human beings have rights, there should also
be responsibility.

Situations That Demonstrate Freedom of Choice and the
Consequences of their Choices
According to Rand, individual freedom should be aligned
with economic freedom. The Filipino "sakop" or harmony can
be a helping value to the full development of the Filipino if he
opens up to embrace the whole Philippine society. However,
there are cases where the Filipino sakop may adversely affect
the social and financial status of the one moving up the
social ladder. For instance, the more well-off members of a
family share their gains with their relatives or friends in need.

Remembering the 1986 EDSA Revolution
The lines showed the Filipinos' sovereignty-Filipinos
who stood up for what they believe was right, voluntarily
risking their lives in the face of danger They ousted
Marcos, proving their political maturity. Miranda (1987)
viewed the 1986 EDSA Revolution as a redeeming event
and not as fate. The Filipinos concept of kasarinlan
recognizes human worth and dignity. The person, basing
his actions through reason, is free and not a servant to
anyone (Ordonez, 1986)

The Filipinos' self is rooted in loob (Alejo, 1990) from
which springs a person's authenticity. Individualism could
only progress to real change if it springs from the innermost
depth of kalooban and not only pakitang tao (outward
appearance's sake). Thus, individualism manifests changes
within and outside the person.

Freedom should not be squandered but taken as a
wonderful gift that must be nurtured and protected, not
impinging the rights or freedom of others. Therefore, it is
not enough that the human person is free but that one is
responsible for the consequences of one's choice.

Freedom is important in our life. God has given us
the freedom to act as our self and even the government.
But despite achieving the freedom we have limitations in
our action and restriction. Additionally, we have to take
responsibility of our action.

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