Pointers To Review PHILOSOPHY

Freedom And The Human Person

THE WILL: ITS EXISTENCE, NATURE AND OBJECT
In Psychology, Will is the faculty of the mind. It stimulate motivation of purposeful activity or personal faculty manifestation of personality
According to some like spinosa and leibniz- it is a product of conflicting elements or the ability to do decision or consciously doing decision.
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle divided actions into three categories instead of two:
•Voluntary (ekousion) acts.
•Involuntary or unwilling (akousion) acts, which are in the simplest case where people do not praise or blame. In such cases a
person does not choose the wrong thing
•"Non-voluntary" or "non willing" actions (ouk ekousion) which are bad actions done by choice, or more generally (as in the case
of animals and children when desire or spirit causes an action)
The use of English in philosophical publications began in the early modern
•Both Francis Bacon and René Descartes described the human intellect or understanding as something which needed to be considered
limited, and needing the help of methodical and skeptical approach to learning about nature.
•Bacon emphasized the importance of analyzing experience in an organized way, for example experimentation while Descartes,
seeing the success of Galileo in using mathematics in physics, emphasized the role of methodical reasoning as in mathematics and
geometry.
•Descartes specifically said that error comes about because the will is not limited to judging things which the understanding is limited
to, and described the possibility of such judging or choosing things ignorantly, without understanding them, as free will.
•Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, considered the freedom of human will is to work toward individual salvation and constrictions
occur due to the work of passion that a person holds.
•Augustine calls will as “the mother and guardian of all virtues”.
Types Of Freedom
Physical Freedom- Absence of physical restrain on the body
Moral Freedom- absence of moral restraint, of an obligation, of a law
Psychological Freedom- or the freedom of choice
FREE WILL
1. Argument for common consent
2. Psychological Argument
3. Ethical Argument
Determinism
Is a psychological concept that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and actions is casually determined by
an unbroken chain of prior occurrences or forces which compels us to act as we do.
•Philosophers and Psychologist who denies the existence of free will re called “Determinist”
1. Argument for Biology
2. Argument from psychology (Psycho- Social )
BFSKINNER - Conditioning or learned behavior because of stimuli.
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EVIDENCE OF THE WILL
üWe are conscious of the fact that some tendency in us is held in the check by the higher tendency- that higher tendency is the will
üwe see sometimes some object which repulsive to our body
üThe phenomenon of voluntary attention or the ability to focus our attention
WILL BY JOHN CAVANAUGH EXCERPTS FROM HUMAN FREEDOM
1. Will is an intellectual tendency or a tendency towards an intellectually known Good
2. All the good that for me is all conditioned, limited, and qualified all my choices is operative or functional in my behavior. We
known what is good because we learn I from others or by experience.
3. If the will operate in a manner that which always choose the good.
4. Our freedom to choose is influence by our past experienced that shape our character and behavior Feeling free is important
consideration about existence of will.
WILL BY THOMAS AQUINAS EXCERPTS FROM HUMAN FREEDOM
1. Believe that the soul exist and it has 3 POWERS
•Intellect
•The will
•Passion or feeling
2. Intellect and will are engage in a dynamic, complex interaction to the final action of the will. And it happen in a blink of an eye.
Will cannot operate without the influence of intellect
Free will
Determinism
Human Act and Voluntariness
HUMAN ACT action which he is properly master because he does them with full knowledge and of his own will
ACT OF MAN actions of man without being master of them through intellect and will. This is not concern with morals since they are
not voluntary.
Modifiers of Human Act
1. Vincible and Invincible Ignorance
2. Fear
•Grave Fear
•Slight Fear
3. Concupiscence or Passion
•Antecedents
•Consequent
4. Violence
5. Habits
Paradox of Choice
The more option that we have in deciding. The more difficult it is to pick
Determinants of Morality
•Object, Ends, And Circumstances
•Meas, Ends and Intention
NATURAL LAW is a system of law that purports to be based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independent of
positive law.
ETERNAL LAW is comprised of those laws that govern the nature of an eternal universe. It is the moral law; the law of nature. It is the law which
God in the creation of man infused into him for his direction and preservation. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law.

Inter-subjectivity
Inter-subjectivity or being with others
One manifestation of this relation with others is accepting others ad their difference
Legal Morality
•Theory in which the law can be legitimately used to prohibit behaviors that conflicts the society collective moral judgement even
when those behavior does not result in any physical or psychological harm
•It is permissible for the state to use its coercive power to enforce society’s collective morality.
Principle of Paternalism
•To act like a parents to a chhild Act for the good of another without that’s persons consent.
•The end is good or benevolent but the means is bad or coercive
Principle of Harm

Basic elements of Love

Basic Elements of Love Excerpts from Erich Fromm Book “The Art Of Loving(1956)”
•it is hardly and necessary to stress the fact that the ability to love as an act of giving depends on the character development of the
person.
•Care is the most evident in mothers love to his child
•One labor should be a voluntary act. A form of responsibility solely not because you need to but you want to
•To be responsible is to be ready to respond
•Responsibility could easily deteriorate into domination and possessiveness. Acting for someone’s concern can lead excessive control
and exploitation.
•It should be fee to awe and fear. It should have Respect
•Respect is only possible if independence is achieved
•Knowledge that is concern in the process of love is not peripheral rather it penetrates to the core
Basic Elements of Love that present in all kinds of love are:
•Care
•Responsibility
•Respect
•Knowledge

Human Person in Society

“Man is a social animals”
Society is a group of people involves persistent interaction, sharing common groups, common political and cultural expectations
Social Philosophy is the Philosophical approach of questioning social behaviors
Sociology- Auguste Comte the Father of Sociology
Pre Industrial society- earliest stage, Life is centered in sustaining/production of basic necessity esp. food.
Industrial Society- Start the use of machine for the production
Post Industrial Society - modern society, highly advance technology used by all aspect of society, form communication to other
service related sectors
Theory’s Of Society
Plato - The Republic
•Society should be ruled by a “Philosopher King”
•Society should be divided into 3 social class
1. Ruling Class
2. Guardian Class/ Military
3. Producing Class
•Plato believed that this society will be functional and efficient and will evolve into a society without class struggle and competition-
Shall develop in to a non- selfish and peaceful society
Aristotle- Man is a Social Being
•Society exist not for life only but for a good life.
•Compromise Thru Politics

St Thomas Aquinas
•Also believed that man is a social being. And man should live within the community with one common goal and common good
under one ruler.
•Society is willed by God
•The society is under the authority of Church
Nicollo Machiavelli
-It is much safer to be feared than love because.. love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is
broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
Nicollo Machiavelli- Machiavellism
•Society needs absolute monarchy/power
•Any means of evil is acceptable as long as it Is effective in controlling the society
John Locke
•A moral justification agreement made by individual to which an organized society is brought to existence
•Hobbes and Locke believes that the state rises because of voluntary agreement or SOCIAL CONTACT, made by individuals who
recognized that only the establishment of sovereign power could safeguard them from the insecurity of the state of nature

Death
Death is a cessation of life
Different Views on Death, Depending on believes
Ancient View
•death is cause by God, disease, calamity, curse, demons, evil spirit and other entities
•Death is viewed as painful. After is Believed to be a torture
Biological View
•Death is the end of man considered to be a living organism. It is the cessation of Life
•The irreversible loss of mental and physiological function
Phychological View
•more concern on a person view and behavior towards death.
Theological View
•Death is natural in almost all of the different views of various religion
Islamic View
•the present life is only preparation for the next realm of existence. Death is merely a movement fro one world to the other
Hinduism View
•Death is natural process
•Believe in Reincarnation and rebirth
Buddhism View
•Death is inevitable for a person who thinks about worldly pleasure and attitudes
•It breaks from materialistic world
Judaism View
•There is much Dogma about the afterlife. Judaism is primarily focus on the life here rather that the life after
•The soul may of to heaven or may be destroyed if the soul is wicked.
Philosophical View
•All of the concepts of death and its connection with the whole existence are based on a one sided incomplete view
•We view death depending on situation
Filipino View on Death
Filipino Culture about Death is a mixture of American, Spanish, and Indigenous Filipino belief and practices
•Early Filipino before the Spanish Period is very Animistic
•Indigenous Filipino Believes in “Atang”- feast of bereavement. Food that is favorite of the deceased person
•Burying with personal items
Grief is a Physical, Emotional, Pshchological and spiritual reaction to loss. It is natural, normal and necessary. And it may cause a variety of
reaction.
•Feeling tired and irritable
•Appetite Change
•Feeling Anxious
•Feeling Empty
•Feeling out of control
Stages of Grief
•Denial
•Anger
•Bargaining
•Depression
•Acceptance