philosophy

• Aristotle's view on freedom


  • The power of volition. Reason can legislate, but only through will can its legislation be translated into action. Will is an instrument of free choice. Moral acts are in our power and we are responsible for them.
• St. Thomas Aquinas' view on freedom


  • Human beings have the unique power to change themselves and the things around them for the better. Humans are both spiritual and material. Through our spirituality, we have a conscience and are responsible for choosing between good and evil. Perfection is achieved through cooperation with God. There are four types of law: eternal, natural, human, and divine.
• St. Thomas Aquinas' view on love and freedom


  • Love is the guiding principle of humanity toward self-perception and happiness, our ultimate destiny. Since God is Love, Love is the way to govern humanity's life.
• Jean-Paul Sartre's view on freedom


  • The human person is the desire to be God, the desire to exist as a being which has its sufficient ground in itself. The person is nothing else but what they make of themselves. Freedom is the very core and the door to authentic existence. The person is what one has done and is doing.
• Thomas Hobbes' theory of social contract


  • 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 their life or takes away the means of preserving it.
• Freedom


  The very core and the door to authentic existence
• Authentic existence


  Realized only in deeds that are committed alone, in absolute freedom and responsibility, and which have the character of true creation
• Person


  What one has done and is doing
• People hearing without listening

  Gente que escucha sin escuchar
• Human person who tries to escape obligations and strives to be en-soi


  Acting on bad faith (mauvais foi)
• Sartre


  • Emphasizes 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 to be responsible for one's life
• Law of Nature (lex naturalis)


  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
• "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 laws of nature are unable to achieve the desired end by themselves alone; that is, unless there is coercive power able to enforce their observance by sanctions.
• Plurality of individuals


  Should confer all their power and strength upon one human being or upon one assembly of human beings, which may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will
• The people described in "The Sound of Silence" are "so near yet so far"
• Between hearing and listening, talking and speaking, which do you prefer? Why?
• Can you say that the people described in "The Sound of Silence" are people who are "so near yet so far"? Why or why not?
• Hobbes developed social in favor of absolute monarchy.
• 1. Thou relationship


  Human person as a subject, who is being different from things or objects. The human persons as subjects have direct and mutual sharing of selves. This signifies a person-to-person, subject-to-subject relation or acceptance, sincerity, concern, respect, dialog, and care.
• Hobbes thinks 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.
• Rousseau's interpretation of social contract

  In terms of absolute democracy and individualism
• Rousseau believes that a human being is born free and good. But human has become bad due to the evil influence of society, civilization, learning, and progress. human being lost his original goodness, his primitive tranquility of spirit.
• In order to restore peace, he has to return to his true self. He has to see the necessity and come to form the state through the social contract whereby everyone grants his individual rights to the general will.
• 1. It relationship


  A person to thing, subject to object that is merely experiencing and using; lacking directedness and mutuality (feeling, knowing, and acting)
• The Constitution and the Bill of Rights constituted, as an instance of a social contract
• Emmanuel Levinas' Face of the Other


  • Differs from traditional ethical theories like deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue-ethics. Emphasizes on endless responsibility to "Others". Concerned more on our infinite and unconditional duty to "others".
• Levinas grounds his ethics in a criticism of Western philosophical tradition which subordinates the personal relation with concrete person who is an existent to an impersonal relation with an abstract "Being"
• This is an actual agreement and actually "signed" by the people or their representatives
• Levinas' concept of responsibility to the "Other"

  Has preference for those who are poor, weak, and marginalized by the society. Doing something for the "Other" and fulfilling one's responsibility even to the point of sacrificing one's life for the sake of the "Other" is the identification mark of one's humanity and spirituality.
• Society


  A group of people involved with each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations
• Human societies


  • Characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions
  • The sum total of such relationships among its constituent members
• Sociological terms, society


  A group of people who live in a definable community and share the same culture
• Society can be understood as referring to the totality of all natural relations and institutions between man and man
• Basis of classification of societies


  • Geographical location
  • Culture
  • Ethnicity
  • Belief system or religion
  • Political ideology
  • Type of economy
• Societies can overlap, such as when religious societies and ethnic societies exist in one geographical society
• A human individual can be a member of different societies at the same time
• In each kind of society that a human person is a part of, the human person plays a set of roles, the totality of which defines his/her social identity
• Information superhighway

  Contribution to society as the basic tools enabling fast and efficient transfer of information
• Rather than being ourselves, we tend to conform to an image or idea associated with being a certain type of person