Freedom of the Human Person

• Opera Sequitur Esse


  Essence is the principle of activity.
• St. Thomas Aquinas


  Jurist in the tradition of scholasticism.
• Human Act


  It is an act that proceeds to the deliberate free will of man.
• Act of Man


  An act that man performs indeliberately, without the advertence and exercise of freewill/free choice.
• The Three Essential Elements of an Act to become Human:

  1. Knowledge
  2. Freedom
  3. Voluntariness
• Knowledge


  The advertence of what the moral agent is doing, thinking, or willing. It is awareness or consciousness.
• Freedom


  Human acts must be free. Every human act is free since it is under the control of the will.
• Voluntariness


  Any action or omission results from a principle within the agent and from some knowledge that the agent possesses of the end.
• Freedom is an intrinsic and essential property of the person.
• Freedom is also understood as the power to be what you want to be and the ability to decide and create your self.
• A human person can choose the course of action to take when given a stimulus or faced with a certain situation.
• Freedom is rooted in the human person's self-determination and the exercise of intellect and freewill.
• Imago Dei


  Image of God
• From the Christian Perspective, Freedom originates from God as a gift to mankind.
• The very essence of man's freedom is to do what is good and avoid what is evil.
• There is an existence of struggle every single day since good and evil still co-exist in man. But because of God's grace which we shared with him, we are being restored every time we desire to follow his WILL.
• Freedom


  It is the power rooted in reason and will to act or not to act, to do this or that and so to perform deliberate actions.
• • Theological – God freeing us from our sin
  • Political – Laws
  • Philosophical – State of mind
• Theological Perspective


  It defines freedom as freedom from sin and living a life of righteousness.
• Political Perspective


  It defines freedom as the freedom of an individuals from oppression, compulsion, or coercion from other persons, an authority figure, or from society itself.
• Positive Liberty


  This type of liberty refers to a person taking control of his or her own life and fulfilling one’s potential.
• Negative Liberty


  This type of liberty is freedom from external restrain, barriers, and other inferences from other people.
• Liberalism


  It upholds the preservation of individuals rights and stresses the role of the government in protecting civil liberties.
• Socialism


  It considers freedom as the freedom to acquire economic responses and the ability to work and act according to one’s desires.
• Natural Rights


  This refer to rights which are innate in the person such as the rights to life.
• Legal Rights


  These are rights that are base on society’s customs and laws, and are enacted by legislation and enforced by a government.
• Free Action


  The freedom to perform an action without any obstacles or hindrances
• Freewill


  The capacity to choose from alternative courses of action or decision.
• Human Agency


  This refers to the capacity of a person to act and exert control over his or her behavior.
• Faculties Model


  This refers to freewill as the use of our mental faculties. It assumes that we have free will due to intellect and that each human action is based on rationality and sound judgement.
• Hierarchical Model


  This argues that free will is based on human wants and desires.
• Reasons-Responsive View


  This view believes that man has free will because he is able to entertain reasons not to enact a certain decision and act upon them when the need arises.
• Constraints


  Limitation or Restriction
• Determinism


  It is a philosophical view that believes that every event in the world is brought about by underlying causes or factors.
• Freewill


  It is being exercised in a deterministic scenario is how people deal with things that are “outside their control”.
• Factors to Consider:

  1. Influence in Society
  2. Socioeconomic Situation
  3. Culture
  4. People
  5. Community
• Marxist Philosophy


  This believes that society imposes certain controls on people, and that a person’s social group largely influences how he think or acts.
• Moral Responsibility


  This refers to a person’s status of deserving praise and reward, or blame and punishment for an action.
• Jean-Paul Sartre


  A Philosopher, Atheist, Teacher, and an Existentialist. "If god does not exist, then everything is permissible."
• NO GOD - NO RULES

  NO RULES - YOU CAN DO ANYTHING