Philosophy Notes - Group 8 PDF

Aristotl The power of e volition Aristotle believes that human beings are rational Apart from will, the imperative quality of a judgment of practical intellect is meaningless. Reason can legislate, but only through will can its legislation be translated int...

Aristotl The power of e volition Aristotle believes that human beings are rational Apart from will, the imperative quality of a judgment of practical intellect is meaningless. Reason can legislate, but only through will can its legislation be translated into action. Reason, Will, and Action drive each other. Will is linked to the intellect. Practical intellect guides the will by enlightening it. Will, in fact, is to be The will of humanity is an instrument of free choice. It is within the power of everyone to choose from courses of action. This is borne out by: our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or wrong; the common testimony of all human beings; the rewards and penalties by rulers; delivering of praise and blame. Moral acts are in our power and we are responsible for them. (Character or habit can’t excuse immorality)  St. Thomas Love is Aquinas Freedom Humans can change ourselves and our world because we have the ability to choose right from wrong. This makes us different from animals. We also need God's help to make real change happen, as He connects us to something greater. True change should help not just ourselves but also our community. Aquinas gives a fourfold classification of law: Eternal Law Natural Law Human Law Divine Law St. Thomas Aquinas Spiritual God’s freedom love: represents true freedom Conscience: is guided by God's love and helps us make good choices. Actions: represents the outward expression of our inner state.  Jean-Paul Charles Sartre Individual Freedom For Satre, the human person is the desire to be God: the desire to exist as a being which has its sufficient ground in itself. There are no guideposts along the road of life. The Human person shapes his or her own destiny of his or her choosing. Sartre’s existentialism stems from the principle: existence precedes essence.  The person is provided with a supreme opportunity to give significance to one’s life in the course of giving meaning to one’s life, one fills the world with meaning. Freedom is, therefore, the very core of authentic existence. Authentic existence is determined only by the actions of the individual, in absolute freedom and responsibility which therefore the character of true creation. The person is what one has done and is going. The human person who tries to escape and strives to be en-soi (i.e., excuses “I was born this way” or “I grew up in a bad environment”) is acting in bad faith.  Thomas Theory of Social Contract Hobbes According to Hobbes, it is natural and rational for people to give up some liberty to gain self-preservation security. Hobbes develops a conception of what forms of social organization and political system are consistent with those aims. The condition in which people give up one individual liberty in exchange for some common security is the Social Contract. Hobbes defines a contract as the "mutual transferring of right." Thomas Theory of Social Contract Hobbes A Law of Nature (lex naturalis) is a general rule established by reason. “A person is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his of his or her life or take away the means to preserve it; Omit that by which he or she thinks it [life] may best be preserved” - Thomas Hobbes (Levianthan)  The rational pursuit of self-preservation is what leads us to form commonwealths or states (organized forms of government) for the laws of nature, The first 3 laws of nature (detailed in Leviathan): 1. Seek peace and follow it 2. Mutually divest ourselves of certain rights so as to achieve peace Mutual transferring of these rights is called contracts 3. Human beings perform the covenant (agreement) made  The law of nature is unable to achieve the desired end by themselves alone as they are contrary to humanity’s natural passions. It is necessary that there should be a common power/government backed by the force and able to punish. The plurality of individuals should confer all their power and strength upon one human being or assembly, which may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will.  Jean-Jacques Social contract Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an important philosopher during the French Enlightenment, wrote The Social Contract, where he discussed human nature. He believed people are born free and good, but society corrupts them. To restore freedom, people need to form a community where everyone works together and follows the "general will," which represents the common good.  The 1986 EDSA Revolution in the Philippines reflects Rousseau's ideas. Filipinos peacefully gathered to remove Ferdinand Marcos from power, showing they valued self-sufficiency and human dignity. This event highlighted their political maturity and desire for freedom. Both Hobbes and Rousseau believed people form states through a social contract. They also both believe that human beings must create a civil community to protect themselves from each other, as their nature inclines them towards conflict. Since humans inherently seek self- preservation, they need to reach a mutual agreement to ensure their protection. However, they also had different views. Hobbes thought people needed a strong leader to keep order whereas Rousseau believed in freedom and democracy, where people rule themselves.  In Rousseau’s idea of a social contract, people voluntarily give up some personal freedom for the good of the community. Examples of this in real life include the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, where people agree on laws to create a stable society. The term social contract is a certain way of looking at a society of voluntary collection of agreeable individuals. There must be a common power or government which the plurality of individuals (citizens) should confer all their powers and strength into (freedom) one will (ruler). B. Evaluate and Exercise Prudence in Choices  B.F. Skinner argues that the environment plays a crucial role in shaping behavior. Behavior, in Skinner's view, is not just an isolated act but a continuous process shaped and maintained by its consequences. These consequences, which could be rewards or punishments, create patterns in behavior that can be observed and analyzed. (operant conditioning)  According to Skinner, our struggle for freedom is not due to 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. Skinner proposed that to make the social environment as free as possible from aversive stimuli, we do not need to destroy the environment or escape from it. What is needed, accordinlg to skinner, is to redesign it. The feeling of freedom, according to Skinner becomes an unreliable guide as soon as would-be-controllers turn to non-aversive measures, as they are likely to avoid the problems raised when the controller escapes or attacks. Skinner thinks that the problem is to free human beings not from control but from certain kinds of control, and it can be solved only if we accept the fact that we depend upon the world around us and we simply change the nature of dependency.  Life is full of paradoxes, nobody could nor should control it. We have to be open to life, learn to accept and live with paradoxes. Learning with contradiction is not the same as living contradiction. In the spirituality of imperfection, we learn to accept that life, our environment is both evil and good. We learn to be flexible and adaptable.  The theory of freedom involves both negative and positive tasks, emphasizing that lives should not be controlled solely by rewards and punishments. Yelon states that punishment is an educative measure, forming motives to prevent the wrongdoer from repeating the act and discouraging others from committing a similar one  More important than being declared responsible is when a person feels responsible, having acted “independently” with the awareness that they acted on their own desires. This consciousness of freedom arises when desires stem from one’s character and not external pressures, along with the feeling that one could have acted differently. C. Some Things are Given Up while Others Are Obtained in Making Choices.  Individual rights, that Hobbes and Rousseau have adopted are not merely number Ayn Rand emphasizes individual rights rejecting collectivism. He also points out that individual rights are essential for protecting human dignity and morality in capitalism Filipino ethics includes an internal code beyond legalistic moral philosophies. it also states that Filipinos are encouraged to recognize their dignity and personal freedon.  Rand's idea of individualism emphasizes being independent and thinking outside the box. Filipinos can benefit from embracing individualism to boost their understanding of themselves and dedication. D. Situations That Demonstrate Freedom of Choice and the Consequences of Their Choices According to Rand, individual freedom is synonymous to economic freedom. The Filipino "sakop" or harmony can be of a helping value to the full development of the Filipino if it 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 upward the social ladder. For instance, the more well-off members of a family share their gains with their relatives or friends in need.  Summar Freedom is ayprecious gift that we must take care of and respect others’ rights. For Filipinos, freedom is about community and fighting for justice, like during the EDSA revolution. Rabindranath Tagore said that true freedom takes patience and must be earned. We shouldn’t focus only on ourselves but work together with others and the environment. We are responsible for our choices and what happens because of them. While we didn’t choose to be born, we can choose how to live and improve our lives.