Freedom of the Human Person PDF

      ...

           **Division of Baguio City** **BAGUIO CITY HIGH SCHOOL** **Governor Pack Road, Baguio City 2600** **INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON** **FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN PERSON** +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | OBJECTIVES: | | | | 1. To realize the consequence of one's action | | | | 2. To show situations that demonstrate freedom of choice | | | | 3. To evaluate and exercise prudence in one's choices | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ INTRODUCTION: This lesson highlights freedom from intellectual, political, spiritual and economic aspect. To be free is part of humanity's authenticity. In one way, understanding freedom is part of human transcendence. Freedom consists of going beyond situations such as physical or economic. REALIZE THAT "All Actions Have Consequence" HUMAN PERSON AS FREE That context in which we speak of freedom includes: a. Political Freedom -- or liberty: State of affairs in which people are shaping politics to which they belong. b. Religious freedom -- choice to belong, propagate, practice or not to practice any religion. c. Freedom of expression -- freedom of speech and freedom to write or express and disseminate opinions and, d. Personal freedom -- or inner freedom, distinguishes persons and his actions from merely natural behavior. **Freedom can be an empty space:** The distinctively human mode of existence arises from an act of negation, in the sense that humanity has distance itself from nature of the world of things. **The human person is always something new:** one who is entirely subject to nature's compulsion, someone who is in fact asserting independence from nature. **Freedom is the negation of nature in itself:** a distance from nature; a kind of declaration of human independence. Human condition manifests that humans are both **free and determined** but the beginning of freedom starts from an act of negation; a finite being has transcended nature. So, human freedom remain a mystery, something that can never be fully taken in by understanding or by experience. **Human** **freedom is always limited:** People do speak of "the open future", but the tragedy is that the future is never fully open sometimes we can only hope that it is a jar and there is some small of freedom. Human freedom is always conjoined with **finitude** or limitations. To be finite means to stand at a given point in space or time. A. **Aristotle:** - Our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or wrong - The common testimony of all human beings; - The rewards and punishment of rulers; and - The general employment of praise and blame. Moral acts, which are always particular acts, are in our power and we are responsible for them. Character or habit is no excuse for immoral conduct. Attending class is a student's responsibility. Should the student cut class, then he/she must be held responsible for the consequence of his actions. As a result, he/she should be held responsible for any accident or failure in grades that will befall on him/her. The point is the student should not have cut class in the first place. When the matter is sifted down, the happiness of every human being's soul is his/her own hands, to preserve and develop, or to cast away. 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. Reason can **legislate,** but only through WILL can its legislation be turned into action. OUR WILL IS AN INSTRUMENT OF FREE CHOICE. For Aristotle; the purpose of human being is to be happy. To be one, one has to live a virtuous life. B. **St. Thomas Aquinas** ***Love is Feedom*** Of all creatures of God, human beings have unique power to change themselves and the things around them for better. St. Thomas Aquinas considers the human beings as a moral agent. Through our **spirituality,** we have a conscience. Whether we choose to be "good" or "evil" becomes our responsibility. **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. This in line with the idea of St. Thomas that in the plan of God, a human being has to develop and perfect himself by doing his daily task. Hence, if a human being perseveringly lives a righteous and virtuous life, he transcends hos moral state of life and soars to an immoral sate of life.** The power of change, cannot be done by human beings alone, but is achieved through cooperation with God. Between humanity and God, there is is an infinite gap, which God alone can bridge through His power. Perfection by participation here means that it is a union of humanity with God. Change should promote not just any purely private advantage but good of the community. Aquinas gives a fourfold Classification of Law: 1. Eternal Law -- the decree of God that governs all creation. It is, "that Law which is the Supreme Reason cannot be understood to be otherwise that unchangeable and eternal. 2. Natural law -- is the human participation of the eternal law and is discovered by reason. Applies only to human beings, the first principle and precept of the natural law is that good is to be sought AFTER AND EVIL BE AVOIDED. 3. Human law 4. Divine Law -- is divided into old (Mosaic) and the New (Christian) that are that re related as the immature and imperfect to the perfect and complete. For St. Thomas Aquinas, he follows the same line thinking but points out a higher happiness be possible to humanity beyond life, and could be found only in God alone. C. **St. Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Freedom** St. Thomas Aquinas establishes 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 humans, we are both material and spiritual. We have a conscience because of our spirituality. God is Love and Love is our Destiny. D. **Jean Paul Sartre: Individual Freedom** Sartre's philosophy is considered to be representative of existentialism. For him, the human person is the desire to be God: the desire to exist as a being which has its sufficient ground in itself. Person 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. E. **Thomas Hobbes: The Theory of Social Contract** A Law of Nature is a precept 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. Hobbes concludes that we should seek peace. This becomes his first law of nature. The reasonableness of seeking peace immediately suggests a second law of nature, which is that mutually divest ourselves of certain rights so as to achieve peace. The mutual transferring of these rights is called **a contract** and is he basis of the notion of moral obligation and duty. **If one agrees to give up his right to punch you, you give up your right to punch him.** You have then transferred these rights to each other and thereby become obligated not to hurt each other. F. **Jean-Jacques Rousseau**