Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person

QUARTER 2 WEEK 2
NOVEMBER 22-25, 2021

MELC:
REALIZED that: A. Choices have consequences.
B. Some things are given up while others are obtained in making choices (PPT12-llb-5.3)

Lesson 2: “ALL ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES”

Freedom
• It is identified with the aspects of intellectual, political, spiritual and economic. To be free is
a part of humanity’s authenticity. Understanding freedom is part of transcendence. It consists
of going beyond situations such as physical or economic.
Realize that all Actions have Consequences
A. Aristotle- The Power of Volition
The imperative quality of judgment of practical intellect is meaningless, apart from will.
Reason can legislate, but only through will can its legislation be translated into action.
The task of practical intellect is to guide will by enlightening it. Will is to be understood
wholly in terms of intellect for there is no intellect if there is no will The will of
humanity is an instrument of free choice.
Will is borne out by:
• inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or wrong;

• the common testimony of all human beings;

• the rewards and punishment of rulers; and

• the general employment of praise and blame.

Moral acts are in our power and we are responsible for them. Character or habit is no
excuse for immoral conduct.
Example: Attending class is a student responsibility. Should the student cut class, then
he/she is responsible for the consequence of his actions. As a result, he/she must be held
responsible for any accident or failure in grades that will befall on him/her. The student may
regret what he/she had done, but all the regrets in the world will not call it back. The point is
the student should not cut class in the first instance. When the matter is sifted down, the
happiness of every human being’s soul is in his own hands, to preserve and develop, or to cast
away.

For Aristotle, a human being is rational. Reason is a divine characteristic. Humans

have the spark of the divine. If there were no intellect, there would be no will. Reason can
legislate, but only through will can its legislation be turned into action. Our will is an
instrument of free choice. Reason, Will, and Action drives each other.
B. St. Thomas of Aquinas: Love is Freedom
Of all creatures of God, human beings have the unique power to change themselves and
the things around them for the better. St. Thomas Aquinas considers the human being as a
moral agent, being both a spiritual and body elements; the spiritual and material. The unity
between both elements indeed helps us to understand our complexity as human beings. Our
spirituality separates us from animals; it delineates moral dimension of our fulfillment in an
action. Through our spirituality, we have a conscience. Whether we choose to be "good" or
"evil" becomes our responsibility.
A human being, therefore, has a supernatural, transcendental destiny, rising above his
ordinary self to a highest self. If a human being perseveringly lives a righteous and virtuous
life, he transcends his mortal state of life and soars to an immortal.
The power of change, however, cannot be done by human beings alone, but is achieved
through cooperation with God. Between humanity and God, there is an infinite gap, which
God alone can bridge through His power. Perfection by participation here means that it is a
union of humanity with God. Change should promote not just any purely private advantage,
but the good of the community.
St. Thomas gives a fourfold classification of law: the eternal law, natural law,
human law, and divine law.
Natural Law applies only to human beings; good is to be sought after and evil avoided
(instruct of self-preservation). There is inherent in every human being an inclination that he
shares with all other beings, namely, the desire to conserve human life and forbids the
contrary.
Since the law looks to the common good as its end, it is then conceived primarily with
external acts and not with interior disposition.
Example: If someone does not lie to his parents so they will increase his allowance, then the
reason of his goodness stems not because he does not want to lie but because he knows that
there is a reward for being so.
For Aquinas, both natural and human laws are concerned with ends determined
simply by humanity's nature. However, human being is ordained to an end transcending his
nature, it is necessary that he has a law ordering him to that end, and this is the divine law or
revelation.
Divine Law deals with interior disposition as well as external acts and it ensures the
final punishment of all evildoing. It gives human beings the certitude where human reason
unaided could arrive only at possibilities. This divine law is divided into old (Mosaic) and the
new (Christian) that are related as the immature and imperfect to the perfect and complete.
Eternal Law the decree of God that governs all creation. It is "That Law which is the
Supreme Reason cannot be understood to be otherwise than unchangeable and eternal.
 For Aristotle, the purpose of a human being is to be happy. To be happy, one has to
live a virtuous life – to develop to the full their powers—rational, moral, social, emotional, and
physical here on earth.
For St. Thomas, human is to be happy that is perfect happiness that everyone seeks
but could be found only in God alone.
• St. Thomas wisely and aptly chose and proposed Love rather than to bring about the
transformation of humanity. Love is in consonance with humanity's free nature, for Law
commands and complete; Love only calls and invites. He also emphasizes the freedom of
humanity but chooses love in governing humanity's life. Since God is Love, then Love is the
guiding principle of humanity toward his self-perception and happiness his ultimate destiny.
C. St. Thomas of Aquinas: Spiritual Freedom
He establishes the existence of God as a first cause. Of all God's creations, human
beings have the unique Power to change themselves and things around them for the better. As
humans, we are both material and spiritual, have conscience because of our spirituality. God
is Love and Love is our destiny.

D. Jean Paul Sartre: Individual Freedom

The human person is the desire to be God the desire to exist as a being which has its
sufficient ground in itself (en sui causa). The human person builds the road to the destiny of
his/her choosing; he/she is the creator (Srathern 1998).
Principle of Sartre’s Existentialism
● The person, first, exists, encounters himself and surges up in the world then defines
himself afterward. The person is nothing else but that what he makes of himself.

● The person is provided with a supreme opportunity to give meaning 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 and the door to authentic existence. Authentic
existence is realized only in deeds that are committed alone, in absolute freedom and
responsibility and which, therefore, the character of true creation.
● The person is what one has done and is doing, On the other hand, the human person
who tries to escape obligations and strives to be en-soi is 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.
E. Thomas Hobbes- Theory of Social Contract
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 (Garvey 2006).

● Hobbes developed social in favor of absolute monarchy.

● 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.
F. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau interpreted the idea of social contract in terms of absolute democracy and
individualism.
● Rousseau and Hobbes believe that human beings have to form a community or civil
community to protect themselves from one another, because the nature of human
beings is to wage war against one another, and since by nature, humanity tends toward
self-preservation, then it follows that they have to come to a free mutual agreement to
protect themselves.

● 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.

● The Constitution and the Bill of Rights constituted, as an instance of a social contract

● This is an actual agreement and actually "signed" by the people or their

representatives (Solomon & Higgins 1996).

● 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).

**END LESSON Q2 – WEEK 2**

 Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person
QUARTER 2 WEEK 2
NOVEMBER 22-25, 2021
Name: _____________________________________________ Date: _________________________
Grade/Section: ____________________________________ Subject Teacher ___________________

ACTIVITY 1:
Direction: Analyze the situations found under the Action Column below and write the consequences of each on
the other Consequences Column.
ACTION CONSEQUENCES
A student studying his or her 1.
lesson
A driver observing traffic lights 2.

Athletes practicing in the gym 3.

A person taking illegal drugs 4.

A student practicing conservation 5.

of natural resources
ACTIVITY 2:
Direction: Read and answer it substantially.
1. What is the understanding of freedom according to Aristotle, Thomas of Aquinas, Jean Paul Sartre, Thomas
Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau? (2PTS EACH)
A. Aristotle
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
B. Thomas of Aquinas
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
C. Jean Paul Sartre
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
D. Thomas Hobbes
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
E. Jean Jacques Rousseau
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What are the good and bad consequences of an action according to these philosophers? (2PTS EACH)

A. Aristotle
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

B. Thomas of Aquinas
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

C. Jean Paul Sartre

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

D. Thomas Hobbes
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

E. Jean Jacques Rousseau

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 3: CASE ANALYSIS:

Direction: The case below is a real case decided by the Supreme Court. Read it and try to determine the
morality of the action below. In a moral standpoint, do you think Ah Chong’s action is morally upright or not?
Defend your answer based on philosophical concepts discussed. Used your pad paper.
Note: You are not required to answer the case based on legal principles, because it is a different thing. Some
actions may be morally upright but illegal and sometimes actions are considered legal but immoral.

US vs. Ah Chong (15 Phil 488)

Ah Chong was a cook in Ft. Mckinley. He was so afraid of bad elements. One evening, before taking his night rest,
he locked himself in his room by placing a chair against the door. Then, he was awakened by someone who was
trying to open the door of his room. He called out twice, “Who is there?” but received no answer. Fearing that the
intruder is a robber, he leaped from his bed and called out again, “If you enter the room, I will kill you.” But at
that precise moment, the chair which he placed against his door has strucked him. Believing that he was going to
be attacked, he seized a knife and stabbed and fatally wounded his roommate.
In a moral standpoint, do you think Ah Chong’s action is morally upright or not? Should he be held liable for
stabbing his roommate?
**END ACTIVITY Q2 – WEEK 2**

Prepared by:
Subject Teacher in Philosophy