Mark Renzo Salazar

11A2 - Ruth

Based on what you have learned, answer the following questions:

1. Explain Sartre’s belief: “Human being is free, the human being is freedom”.
The idea of being human; living as a human, is also the concept of freedom. That we humans
are free ever since we’ve obtained a grasp of reality, solely because we exist; being free has
always been one of our attributes. We are born as creatures who have the capability to be
rational and intellectual in all aspects, thus we are granted to make our own choices and fate,
which is an indication that being human is “a freedom”, unlike any other living thing that coexists
with us. In conclusion, we are free, as we exist, and in our existence, we are given the ability to
pave our own path.

2. Can the world with all its power, grandeur, and glory satisfy to the fullest measure our desire
for perfect and everlasting happiness? Explain your answer.
No, because perfect and everlasting happiness is only an ideal concept, we can never satisfy
ourselves with all power, grandeur, or glory that occurs in this world. Our happiness is
something immeasurable; limitless, maybe thinking about how it could be perfect is possible to
happen, but once we’ve reached the peak of that idea, we are back at aiming for more. Besides,
power or glory is a social construct, you will not gain any of it if you are not objectively qualified
to possess such characteristics; having it depends on other peoples’ perspective of you, which
means you need to seek validation first, and seeking validation cancels out your freedom to be
happy. Therefore, humans are insatiable when it comes to their desire to be happy; power,
grandeur, nor glory, can please an individual.

3. Explain: For Aquinas, laws are the product of freedom in the context of love for humanity.
Freedom results in the creation of laws as we are responsible for the good and evil actions we
do that affect our surroundings. According to Thomas Aquinas, god created and planned us to
transcend our mortal state of life into an immortal one, and in order to do that, we have to live an
ethical and decent life by doing our responsibilities, such as obeying laws. Laws are rules and
measures of act whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting, it should be obeyed
and understood by an individual, because if not, we are bound to face a rightful punishment. He
states that humans live in both spiritual and material dimensions, wherein our spiritual beings,
we possess a quality called “conscience”; the awareness that something is good or evil, and we
have the freedom to either choose from the two. Thus, our actions and the effects of it lie upon
our hands, we have to be good in order to live a virtuous life and show love for humanity, so that
we could transcend.