Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person PDF

Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person Quarter 2 – Module 1: Freedom and Responsibility  Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person Quarter 2 – Module 1: Freedom and Responsibility  What I Need to Know Freedom – one of the most abused and misunderstood w...

Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person Quarter 2 – Module 1: Freedom and Responsibility  Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person Quarter 2 – Module 1: Freedom and Responsibility  What I Need to Know Freedom – one of the most abused and misunderstood words during these times. A well-loved concept which ancestors fought for, yet poorly understood by the present generation. There is always something in being free. People associate freedom with one’s ability to do whatever he or she wants to do. Well, the concept of freedom is as wide as the universe. There are so many notions about it. Some claim to be free means to do anything, regardless of their actions’ consequences. Some say freedom is the ability to exercise one’s will towards the good. Others even say there is no such thing as freedom – that we are governed by natural law. As starters for this philosophical sojourn, learners – through this module – will be guided about the basic philosophical teachings about freedom. The emphasis is on understanding freedom importantly the dynamism of choices and consequences. As learners who will face bigger decisions soon, it is important to see how your choices are made. Do you make decisions based on their impending consequences or you simply do it because it is what the present situation is asking from us? This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you master the different philosophical concepts of about human freedom, and thereafter examine the its relationship with responsibility. The scope of this module permits it to be used in many different learning situations. The language used recognizes the diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are arranged to follow the standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read them can be changed to correspond with the textbook you are now using. After going through this module, you are expected to: 1. identify the different concepts related to understanding of human freedom; 2. explain the relationship between Human freedom and Obligation; 3. distinguish Human actions from Acts of Man; 4. distinguish intellectual choice from practical choice; 5. apply the concepts to hypothetical situations. 15  What I Know Learning Task 1. COMPLETE THE TABLE. Determine the possible consequences and obligations of the actions listed below. You assume that intention and voluntariness existed in every happening. Write your answers in your notebook. Scenario number 1: Patrick drove his car without registration and license. Consequences Obligations 1. 2. Scenario number 2: Erwin used all his income in upgrading his motorcycle. Consequences Obligations 1. 2. Scenario number 3: Janzen entered in a no-label relationship. Consequences Obligations 1. 2. Scenario number 4: Mark uses digital devices in finishing his studies. Consequences Obligations 1. 2. Scenario number 5: Nadine copied someone’s song just to please her mother. Consequences Obligations 1. 2. 15  What’s In Learning Task No 2. EVALUATING SCENARIOS. In your way of understanding, evaluate the following circumstances whether they are right or wrong. Write the word “Tama” if you think the action is right and write “may kakaiba” if the situation is wrong for you. Provide your reasoning for your classification. Write your answers in your notebook. _____________ 1. Selma continuously supports her friend Georgia in flirting someone else’s husband. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 2. President Duterte orders several government agencies to continue placing dolomite sands in a small portion of Manila Bay during pandemic. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 3. MaeMae is in the verge of failing her exam in General Mathematics. While she is taking the exams, she received a small piece of paper from his classmate Ben. The piece of paper contains all the answers for the last portion of the exam. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 4. Molina is in-charge of the distribution of medicines in her barangay. The local government of Imus usually provides for extra packages of medicines as a buffer stock or reserve in case of uncounted members of barangay. One day, Josielyn, a citizen from Calamba City, offers to buy the extra packages of medicine from Molina, because there is a shortage of medicines in Calamba. Molina, in turn, sold the extra medicines to Josielyn. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 5. Gladys is the gate custodian of Bilibid prison. One day, the former Mayor of Calauan Laguna and convicted of complex crime of Rape with homicide Antonio Sanchez who has kidney illness asks Gladys to allow him to buy some medicine to alleviate the pain caused by his kidney disease. However, Gladys did not allow the request and instead reported the former Mayor’s attempt to go outside the penal colony. 15 Reason:_________________________________ _____________ 6. Samson oversees the installation of an internet satellite in Camp Caringal. While the construction is ongoing, his wife Lizjoy called him because their son Erwin is sick. Lizjoy asked Samson to return to their house because Erwin misses him so much. Samson said he cannot return immediately because the Chinese contractors are spoof. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 7. Ruby is the best online seller in her town. She can earn as much as 10,000 php per day. On the other hand, Celeste is a newbie in online selling. She barely earned a thousand peso for a day. Knowing Ruby’s ability to sell online, Celeste approached Ruby and asked the latter to teach her how to be a successful online entrepreneur. Ruby asked for a tutorial fee, because she said that it entails a lot of work just to make a online strategy work. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 8. Ylah is a dean’s lister in her department – School of Business Management and Accountancy of De La Salle University. At the same time, she is the captain of the table tennis team in the said school. Her boyfriend, Armando usually complains because Ylah has minimal time for him. Because Armando thinks Ylah is too busy with her own life, he broke his 6 years relationship with the young lady. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 9. Jovi and Rency are good friends. They are schoolmates since their. However, there is no venue to hold the meeting. Jovi requested Rency to allow them first year in college. Because of great academic performance, Jovi has been elected as the vice-president of the college department. On the other hand, Rency has been chosen as the in-charge of the college’s laboratories since she is trustworthy and keen in details. One day, the college’s student council needs to meet for a quarterly review of their activities to use the department’s physics laboratory, but Rency denied such a request. Reason:__________________________________ _____________ 10. Ariel is an LTO officer who has a lot of connections is the said office. He usually accepts under the table transactions from people who want to expedite their application for a driver’s license. His sister Amor once asked him why he’s doing those kinds of transactions. Ariel answered that he simply wants to help people by avoiding the grueling application process in the LTO. Reason:__________________________________ 15  What’s New Learning Task 3: COMPLETE THE CHART BELOW. Recall three decisions you have made recently. Then, analyze them. What are the good things they produced for you and your community and what are the negative effects do they caused to yourself and others? Write your answers in your notebook. Decision No. 1: Positive Effects Negative Effects 1. 2. 3. Decision No. 2: Positive Effects Negative Effects 1. 2. 3. Decision No. 3: Positive Effects Negative Effects 1. 2. 3. Learning Task No. 4: PROCESSING. Answer the following questions based on how you answered the activity above. Write your answers in your notebook. 1. What are your prior considerations for making those decisions? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 15  __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 2. What are your considerations for classifying the effect of your action as a positive one? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 3. What are your considerations for classifying the effect of your action as a negative one? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 4. In making those decisions, are you free in doing them? If yes, how? If no, what binds you? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 5. What are your considerations in saying that you made a “best decision?” __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 15  What is It HUMAN ACTIONS VS ACTS OF MAN An act that is performed only by a human being and thus is proper to man. Not every act that a human being does is a distinctively human act. Some acts that human beings do are performed also by animals, e.g., vegetative acts and acts of perception and emotion. When a human being does such acts, they are called acts of man but not human acts. Acts of man are actions shared by humans and other animals while human acts refer to the appropriate actions of human beings. What makes an act performed by a human being distinctively a human act is that it is voluntary, that is, an act in some way under the control or direction of the will, which is proper to man. One can therefore identify the human activity with the voluntary act. A voluntary act continues either by the will - like an act of love or choice - or from another human power that may be motivated by the will, either by an act of intellect or by the sense of reasoning or emotion; even a gesture commanded by the will can be a voluntary act. Aristotle’s Distinction of Voluntary and Involuntary Actions Voluntary Actions - these are acts originating from the individual performing the act using knowledge about the situations of the act. 1. Classifications of Voluntary Actions A. Voluntary – actions are performed from will and reason. B. Related to Compulsion - it is considered as mixed of voluntary and involuntary. It is more voluntary if the desire and choice has been performed and involuntary if it has considered preferences or alternatives. Example: You are asked to perform a crime and your options are; either you do it and your family survives or you don’t do it but they will be murdered. 2. Involuntary Actions – are acts done under a) force or coercion and b). ignorance where the doer failed to understand the effect and feels sorry on the result. Classifications of Involuntary Actions A. Under Compulsion – circumstances which are beyond the control of the agent and contributes none to the action. Example: A person was kidnapped, hence impossible to resist. 15  B. Through Ignorance of Particular Circumstances. Example: a man steals and ignorant of the law, arrow or gun shot by mistake. HUMAN FREEDOM AND OBLIGATION According to John Mothershead, freedom and obligation are two indispensable conditions for morality to occur. Freedom is understood to be present when one is choosing a course of action, and he or she is taking full responsibility for consequence of his actions. Importantly, this is anchored to the individual’s moral and rational capacity to discern what is right and wrong. In several meta-ethical traditions obligation usually follows or arrives from freedom. Freedom can be said to be present if the human person is free in making choices in the realm of morality – that is, in making choices with regards to determining what is the right thing to do in situations and circumstances in his own life. This can be summarized in our Filipino saying, “Buntot mo, hila mo!” It is taking full responsibility for your actions and being obliged to do so. Hence, an action is not in the full extent of morality if a person does something while his or her freedom and rationality is altered or modified. This event can happen if the person’s environment highly affects his judgement. When was the last time you see yourself escaping from the consequences of your actions? When was the last time you hide from the problems brought about by your irresponsible actions? We have the tendency to blame others for their choice of a course of action. At present times, several marriages – most especially in the Philippines – are being brought to different courts of law to be annulled. What is the main reason for this? Atty. Jim Lopez in one of his books says that most of the marriages which are tried in civil courts are sagas of unending throwing of blame and accusations between two lovers. Which can be simply be solved had one of the parties make himself accountable for a problem which sit between them. INTELLECTUAL CHOICE VS PRACTICAL CHOICE A. Intellectual Choice – This is a choice which is deliberately selected based on a moral standpoint. Basically, they are normative answers about what we ought to do from a moral system that we uphold and its moral principles. These normative answers would take into consideration the behavior which the society will accept. For example, when you are to decide in a moral issue, you can try to give intellectual choice as a normative answer. Here you are simply assuming because you are not, as it were, facing that actual moral situation described in the dilemma. In this case, the answers that you are inclined to give are prescriptive in this imaginary and hypothetical situation. 15  B. Practical Choice – a choice which is borne out of psychological and emotional considerations. Unlike the previously discussed type of choice, practical choices are made when confronted with the actual situation, and usually affected by psychological aspect of the person embroiled in the moral situation or dilemma. For instance, psychological and emotional stress and lack of time to deliberate during an actual moral situation may affect a person’s moral decision in that situation. A person may be so engulfed by emotions that he may sometimes fail to make the right choice. Likewise, stress could make a person’s practical choice inconsistent with his intellectual choice. What’s More Learning Task No 5.A. Find the differences and similarities, if any, between Human Acts and Acts of Man. Write your answers in your notebook. Involuntary Voluntary Learning Task No 5. B. List down five Human Acts and Acts of Man you have done this week. Write your answers in your notebook. Human Acts Acts of Man 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 15  Learning Task No 5. C. Give three examples of the following and write your answers in your notebook. 1. Clearly voluntary actions 2. Actions which are voluntary yet influenced by compulsion 3. Actions did out of ignorance 4. Actions did out of ignorance of a circumstances What I Have Learned Learning Task No. 6: SOLVE THE TROLLEY PROBLEM. There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the sidetrack. You have two options: 1. Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track. 2. Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the sidetrack where it will kill one person. Which is the more ethical option? Or, more simply: What is the right thing to do? Justify your answer using the lesson above. Write your answers in your notebook. Process Questions: 15 1. Was there freedom on your part in facing the situation? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 2. What are your considerations for saying that your choice is the right thing? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 3. Following the concept of Intellectual choice, will your decision be the same? Why or why not? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 4. Following the concept of Practical choice, will your decision be the same? Why or why not? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 5. Was your decision a choice based on your understanding or based on some reference? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 15  What I Can Do Learning Task No. 7: Supposed that you are the main character in the situation, and you are required to act or to decide: a. What will you do? b. How will you classify your choice? Is it practical or intellectual? c. What will be the cost of your decision? You must answer the following questions for each situation. Write your answers in your notebook. 1. Atty. Nathalie Joy is one of the best criminal lawyers in the country. One time her boyfriend Mark who is the judge of the Regional Trial Court of Calamba was assassinated by the unknown armed men. One evening, she received a call from her friend saying that she has to meet her old client and friend. Upon coming to her office, she received her former client and friend Zandy. Zandy confessed that she is the one who commanded the assassins to assail the judge. Unknown to Zandy is the relationship between the celebrity lawyer and the deceased judge. However, before they talked, both signed an agreement that says that what shall transpire in their conversation shall be considered as privileged communication. Zandy asked Atty. Nathalie to be her legal counsel. Atty. Nathalie Joy and her deceased fiancé highly believe in the sanctity of the legal profession. If you are Atty. Nathalie Joy, what will you do? 2. Victoria, the mother of Rico, is known to be a church servant in their Local Church. One night while she was preparing for diner, suddenly, her son came rushing to her. This son of hers confessed that her girlfriend Gayle was found pregnant. Her girlfriend, being a minor, told her parents that she was just simply seduced by her boyfriend that is why they ended up with a child in her womb. Frederico, the father of Gayle and a military sergeant, becomes furious and hunts the lover of his daughter to harm the latter. Afraid of the father of Gayle, Aling Victoria brought his son to Pastor Denggoy, the eldest brother of Vicoria, to seek refuge for his son. It so happened that the said pastor and Frederico are “compadres” because the former is one of the godfathers of Gayle in her baptism. If you are Pastor Denggoy, what will you do? 3. During a buy-bust operation conducted by the PNP San Gabriel City, the daughter of the incumbent city mayor, Chenelyn, was accosted by the policemen in pot – session. There is a strong public belief that Chenelyn is behind the rampant drug activities in his town. During the preliminary investigation, Dr. Nicole, the resident criminal laboratory doctor is given 15  the task of conducting a drug test to the accosted daughter of the city mayor. Dr. Nicole is known for her credibility for her profession and is even recognized by the United Nations as one of the excellent practitioners in her field. In the afternoon before she would conduct the drug test for the accused, she received a call from her mother, who was a victim of a drug- related crime, saying that she must perform the drug test well. After a few minutes, the city mayor himself shows up and offers 1.5 million pesos surety just to falsify her soon to be findings. The mayor indirectly conveyed that if she does anything against his will, evil may befall on Dr. Nicole’s family. Outside the Crime Laboratory is a group of anti-drugs citizens shouting for justice and conviction against the accused daughter of the city mayor. If you are Dr. Nicole, what will you do? Assessment True or False. Write the word True if the statement is correct and write the word False if the statement conveys otherwise. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper. 1. Human actions are always conceived intellectually. 2. According to Aristotle, Acts of man are actions which are deliberately done. 3. Freedom and obligation are two distinct philosophical concepts. 4. A person is totally responsible for an action even if he acted with an impaired conscience. 5. A choice is made from freedom if the person totally knows the kind of choice he makes even though unsure with the consequences. 6. Intellectual choice usually refers to answers for hypothetical moral issues. 7. Practical choice usually pertains to choices for an actual moral dilemma. 8. Freedom is present in the Acts of Man. 9. Involuntary actions are excused from moral examination. 10. Without freedom, obligation does not exist. 15  Additional Activities CASE ANALYSIS: The case below is a real case decided by the Supreme Court. Read it and try to determine the morality of the action below. In a moral standpoint, do you think Ah Chong’s action is morally upright or not? Defend your answer based on philosophical concepts discussed. Note: You are not required to answer the case based on legal principles, because it is a different thing. Some actions may be morally upright but illegal and sometimes actions are considered legal but immoral. US vs. Ah Chong (15 Phil 488) Ah Chong was a cook in Ft. Mckinley. He was so afraid of bad elements. One evening, before taking his night rest, he locked himself in his room by placing a chair against the door. Then, he was awakened by someone who was trying to open the door of his room. He called out twice, “Who is there?” but received no answer. Fearing that the intruder is a robber, he leaped from his bed and called out again, “If you enter the room, I will kill you.” But at that precise moment, the chair which he placed against his door has strucked him. Believing that he was going to be attacked, he seized a knife and stabbed and fatally wounded his roommate. In a moral standpoint, do you think Ah Chong’s action is morally upright or not? Should he be held liable for stabbing his roommate? 15