LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES
OF THE HUMAN PERSON
➢ Our limitation is a safety mechanism,
that our body will not allow us to
transcend unless we are prepared
too.
➢ A limitation is a restriction or a
defect, or the act of imposing
restrictions,
➢ When you are only allowed to walk
to the end of the block, this is an
example of a limitation.
➢ When there are certain things you
are not good at doing, these are
examples of limitations.
HUMAN TRANSCENDENCE
➢ "Transcendent experiences" are
events that bring us out of our
ordinary minds, making us feel
connected to the world around us.
THOMAS MERTON, 1948
➢ According to him, a Trappist monk,
there is no other way for us to find
who we are than by finding in
ourselves the divine image.
➢ We have to struggle to regain
spontaneous and vital awareness of
our own spirituality.
➢ He talks about a continual
movement away from inner and
outer idols and toward union with
the desert God of his Christian faith.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
TRANSCENDENCE IN PHILOSOPHY
➢ Transcendence refers to the very
highest and most inclusive or holistic
levels of human consciousness,
behaving and relating, as ends
rather than means, to oneself, to
significant others, to human beings in
general, to other species, to nature,
and to the cosmos.
➢ Self-transcendence brings the
individual in "peak experiences" in
which they transcend their own
personal concerns and see from a
higher perspective.
➢ These experiences often bring strong
positive emotions like joy, peace,
and a well-developed sense of
awareness.
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
PYRAMID
HUMAN BODY IMPOSES LIMITS AND
POSSIBILITIES FOR TRANSCENDENCE
1. Hinduism: Reincarnation and Karma
• Hindu beliefs are the transmigration
of souls, reincarnation or
“metempsychosis”
• Essential Hinduism is based on the
belief in karma and has its first
literary Expression in Upanishads.
• Everything in this life, say the Hindus,
is a consequence of actions
performed in previous existence.
• Only by building up a fine record, or
“karma”, can final salvation be
achieved.
• This doctrine is very old one.
• For Jains, there is nothing mightier in
the world than karma; karma
tramples down all powers, as an
elephant to a clump of lotuses
(Puligandla 2007).
• The Buddhists took it over in large
part when they broke away from
Brahmanism.
• Jains teaches that the path to
enlightenment is through
nonviolence and reducing harm to
living things (including plants and
animals) as much as possible.
• Like Hindus and Buddhists, Jains
believe in reincarnation.
• This cycle of birth, death, and
rebirth is determined by one's
karma.
• Jainism, traditionally known as Jain
Dharma, is an ancient Indian
religion.
• It is one of the oldest Indian
religions.
• The three main pillars of Jainism are
ahiṃsā, anekāntavāda, and
aparigraha.
• Jains take five main vows: ahiṃsā,
satya, asteya, brahmacharya, and
aparigraha
❖ Karma:
▪ The force created by a person's
actions that is believed in
Hinduism and Buddhism to
 determine what that person's next
life will be like.
▪ Another causality characteristic,
shared by karmic theories, is that
like deeds lead to like the effects.
▪ Thus, good karma produces good
effects on the actor, while bad
karma produces bad effects.
▪ This effect may be material, moral,
or emotional—that is, one's karma
affects both one's happiness and
unhappiness.
❖ Reincarnation:
▪ That after death a person's soul is
reborn in another body.
▪ Certain religions hold this belief as
a central tenet, including
Hinduism and Buddhism.
▪ As being reborn or the rebirth of
the soul.
2. Buddhism: Nirvana
• Nirvana means the state in which
one is absolutely free from all forms
of bondage and attachment.
• It means to overcome and remove
the cause of suffering.
• It is also the state of perfect insight
into the nature of existence.
• The Buddhist see one who has
attained nirvana as one who is
unencumbered from all the fetters
that bind human beings to
existence (i.e. wealth).
• He has perfect knowledge, perfect
peace, and perfect wisdom.
• When Buddha was asked whether
one who attains nirvana exists or
ceases to exist after death, he
simply refused to answer the
question and instead maintained
complete silence.
• The question is seen as
inappropriate that any attempt to
answer it can only lead into the
quagmire of idle metaphysical
speculations and futile philosophical
disputes.
• The Buddha did not want his
disciples to concern themselves
with purely speculative problems.
• Buddha’s silence is due to his
awareness that nirvana is a state
that transcends every mundane
experience and hence cannot be
talked about; for all talk is possible
only within the perceptual-
conceptual realm.
• Nirvana is beyond the sense,
language, and thought.
• Another false conception regarding
nirvana is that one who attains it,
cuts himself/herself off from the
world of toil, tears, and turmoil and
spends his/her life in a state of total
inactivity and indifference to the
world around him.
• Far from living a passive life, the
Buddha from the day of his
enlightenment until death is always
surrounded by people.
• Who has attained enlightenment is
a non-attachment?.
• The nirvanic man is the true follower
of the Buddha, in that, he always sits
absorbed in meditation nor is
always involved in activity.
• He is living testimony that the
middle way is indeed the way to
enlightenment.
3. St. Augustine and St. Thomas
Aquinas: Will and Love
• Physically we are free, yet morally
bound to obey the law.
• The Eternal law of God Himself.
• According to this law, humanity
must do well and avoid evil, the
existence of moral obligation in
every human being.
• Christian life is not easy.
• No human being should become
an end to himself.
• We are responsible to our neighbors
as we are to our own actions.
THE BODY AS LIMITATION AND
TRANSCENDENCE
➢ The Human Body to describe the
living body.
➢ A dignified body Inherent with it is a
dignity that needs to be respected
Its body parts have unique function
through its senses It has a mind
capable of high intellectual
processes.
➢ It is the body of a unique person who
was once with us (past).
➢ It carries with him the memory of the
past.
➢ It is the body of a living person who is
and will be with us in our struggle for
life (present and future).
➢ Body is the medium between the self
and the world.
➢ The body is not a mere object
tagged with material value.
➢ There is a symbiotic relationship
between the body and the soul.
➢ "My Body": Is your body a priority?
❖ Three conditions to meet before you
can claim ownership of your body:
(Dy, Philosophy of Man)
 a) Nobody owns my body except me
alone. It is mine and mine alone.
b) A person should be responsible
over what he/she owns.
c) Ownership presupposes full control
over what he/she owns.
➢ "My Body": Is body an instrument?
➢ Our body is not an object, more so, it
cannot be an instrument because
an instrument is a plain object.
➢ Instrument means something being
used to enhance or reinforce a part
of your body.
HOW THE HUMAN PERSON BODY
IMPOSES LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES
FOR TRANSCENDENCE
1. The Concept of Dread
• Man is simply thrown into the world
and is left alone to face what he
can do because he did not will for
it.
• He is thrown in his life- his physical
appearance, parents, cultures,
civilizations, among others.
• He must therefore start from nothing
in order to achieve something.
2. The Concept of Being Others-Related
• He has to establish relationships with
others— in the world.
• That does not mean that he has to
depend on others to realize his
existence or resign his freedom and
possibilities.
3. The Concept of Concern
• Human person’s relatedness to
entities is basically things which he
encounters in the world.
• He is always “together” with others.
• Human existence is always an
existence of relationships.
• The world cannot exist without the
human person.
4. The Concept of Guilt-Feeling
• In Philosophy, guilt-feeling is
something that is lacking or missing
in a person.
• As such, a human person is a guilty
creature (pointed out by
Heidegger).
• Thus, he has no will.
• His will is missing, and this prevents
the person from deciding things.
• This makes the human person guilty
of his existence.
5. The Concept of Conscience
• Conscience plays a primary role in
recovering from being “lost or
fallen” into this world.
• According to Babor, conscience
enables man to find himself again,
because it is a voice, a voice
calling the Dasein (man).
6. The Concept of Resoluteness
• Resoluteness is man’s readiness to
be called by conscience.
• It is resoluteness that the human
person resolved to accept himself
and makeup his mind exists in the
way he can call his own and
understand himself.
7. The Concept of Temporality
• Temporality imposes limits to one’s
human body.
• The reason is that all human
activities always happen in the time
and through-time.
• The human person projects his
possibilities. This projection happens
in the ecstasies of time-the past,
present, and the future— which are
the fundamental outward striving of
man.
• In Philosophy, temporality is
traditionally the linear progression of
past, present, and future.
8. The Concept of Death
• The human person’s temporal
existence will find its end on death.
• He has to admit that he is subject to
death because death because
death is the final direction of man’s
existence.
• Death is one of the human person’s
possibilities, but it is always a
possibility that surely happens.
• Death is our inevitable possibility for
nobody to die for another.
• Death is present in all human
beings.
• It does not come only in old age
but is intrinsically present in
everyone.
• Because death is a possibility, the
human person has to anticipate it
by accepting it as a dread.
 LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES OF
THE HUMAN PERSON ACCORDING TO
PHILOSOPHERS
1. Jean-Paul Sartre
• He is an atheist who believed that
God’s existence or non-existence
cannot affect man’s freedom.
• He emphasized that man is
intrinsically free therefore
responsible for himself.
• Since human person is thrown in life
and the world, he is condemned to
freedom pressures him to be
responsible for everything he does
and responsible for his own
existence.
2. Soren Kierkegaard
• He is the father of Existentialism.
• According to him, there are no real
human beings in this present age
because the individual “man” has
taken refuge in a bigger collective
group or masses.
• Man is a rational being but because
he has placed himself in the crowd,
he lost his personal life and has
forgotten to exist.
• The human person must struggle to
exist by disconnecting himself from
the “crowd existence”.
• He must detach himself from the
crowd to make his existence
significant.
• One’s existence can only become
significant, when one realizes his
personal freedom, his subjectivity,
commitment and responsibility.
3. Karl Jaspers
• He recognizes the existence of God.
• A human person is one who is
related to others in an essential
manner so that he really exerts
himself.
• The “others” play a vital role in
men’s self-existence.
• The human a person, for Jasper, is
not a self-sufficient entity, but is
constituted of the things he makes
his own.
• Therefore, the human person’s
making of himself is not an end in
itself, but a means to an end.
4. Viktor Frankl
• He is known for his Logotherapy.
• This means that the human person is
searching for the meaning of his
existence; that he strives to find the
meaning of his life and striving for
the meaning of existence which
serves as motivation that makes him
the will to live.
• He believes that by doing good
deeds, a person can make his life
meaningful.
• It is he alone, and not others, who
can satisfy his existence
meaningfully by assigning a task or
responsibility to himself.
• Another way of finding the meaning
in life is through the value of love.
• Love pulls the human person to do
certain possibilities that others
cannot.
• He said that love is the ultimate and
highest goal to which man can
aspire.
• Love can save the human person
from meaninglessness in life.
EXERCISE PRUDENCE IN HUMAN
FREEDOM
➢ All human people want to be
happy.
➢ We want to pursue good in a way
that will make us happy.
➢ This means we have to learn how to
act well which in turn involves an
acquisition of virtue.
➢ Virtue is all about doing the right
thing, and if we do the right things,
we will become happy.
➢ What is the first thing we need if we
want to do the right thing? (we need
to know what the right thing to do is).
➢ This is where prudence comes into
the picture.
➢ Prudence is the first cardinal virtue
because it is the ability to look at a
concrete situation and know what
ought to be done.
➢ It is the ability to make right
judgements.
➢ Gives us the knowledge of what
must be done when it must be done,
and how it must be done.
➢ The mind of the prudent acquires
knowledge, And the ear of the wise
seeks knowledge. — Proverbs 18:15
THE FOUR CARDINAL VIRTUES
a. Prudence
b. Justice
c. Fortitude
d. Temperance
HOW PRUDENCE IN HUMAN FREEDOM
WORKS
➢ Prudence is the art of taking moral
principles and applying them to
concrete situations.
➢ Prudence tells us what to do and
when to stop.
❖ Prudence demands two aspects:
1. Knowing the principles.
▪ Knowing what the goods of
human nature are, and that we
must work towards them and
never against them.
▪ It is never prudent, regardless of
the situation, to act against those
moral principles.
▪ There is no such thing as a
prudent abortion, because it
always violates the good of
innocent human life.
▪ There is no such thing as prudent
contraception, because it always
goes against the good of the
marital relationship.
▪ There is no such thing as prudent
pornography, because it goes
against the good of human
relationship.
2. Know how to apply the principles
to the concrete situation.
▪ The first part is to know the goals;
to know how to choose the
means for obtaining the goal.
➢ Thomas Aquinas was an Italian
Dominican friar, philosopher,
Catholic priest, and Doctor of the
Church.
➢ An immensely influential philosopher,
theologian, and jurist in the tradition
of scholasticism.
➢ Thomas Aquinas: "The prudent man
considers things afar off, as they
tend to be a help or hindrance. To
that, which has to be done at the
present time. It is clear that those
things which prudence considers
stand in relation to the end."
➢ With prudence, we look at every
decision in light of the ultimate goal,
that is, goodness and happiness.
➢ Prudence is a lot like going on
vacation. The first thing you have to
do before going on a vacation is
figuring out a destination. Where do
you want to go? Those goals are our
destination. But then you have to
figure out the best way to reach the
destination. After all, how you pack
and prepare for the trip depends on
where you’re going. As we make all
our individual decisions, we need to
keep our ultimate goal in mind.
That’s prudence: selecting the right
means us towards human freedom
and happiness.
STEPS IN A PRUDENTIAL ACT
1. Deliberation
• This is the stage where we gather all
the relevant information, starting
with a consideration of moral
principles.
• While deliberating, we must also
give a careful examination of the
concrete situation, to be sure that
we have understood it as fully as
possible.
• Gather all relevant information,
starting with consideration of the
moral principles.
• This includes awareness and
acceptance of the authoritative
teaching of the church.
• Since Church teaching gives us true
principles, it’s important to see if
they teach anything definitively
about the issue at hand.
• If the Church says that a certain act
is immoral, then you don’t need to
deliberate about that act anymore;
you know not to do it.
• Prudence is about truth, the truth of
what is and what must be done.
• It is the truth that sets us free; we
have to know what is true before
we are free to do what is good.
• Failure to deliberately is called
rashness or thoughtlessness.
• This is when someone just rushes
headlong into everything, without
ever taking a moment to think it
over.
• It is very dangerous to “act without
thinking” to not consider carefully
enough before action.
2. Judgement
• After deliberating, we must weigh
all the evidence fairly, and then
figure out the best course of action.
• Judgment separates the relevant
information from the irrelevant
information, and then applies it to
the problem at hand.
• You can’t just think about
something forever; you have to
come to some sort of conclusion.
• Failure to make a judgment is
called indecision.
• Procrastination, beating around the
bush, fiddling around are some
ways of expressing this common
vice.
• Thinking about the issue without
actually arriving at a practical result
does no one any good.
3. Execution
• Once we judge the right thing to
do, we have got to act.
• If you figure out the proper action,
but then fail to perform it, what’s
the benefit?
• You do not have the virtue of
prudence until you actually do
what you have judged to be right.
• Failure to carry out what you
believe to be the proper decision is
called irresoluteness.
• Plenty of people make hoards of
decisions, and never manage to
keep any of them.
• A helpful exercise might be to
analyze these three stages of
prudential act and see where it is
that you most often fail in your life?
• Are you thoughtless, indecisive,
inconstant and undependable?
• Once you identify your weakness,
you can make the conscious
decision to work on that area of
prudence, and so hopefully
improve in this fundamental virtue.
CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES
➢ "Men have become free forever,
knowing good from evil; act for
themselves. They are free to choose
captivity and power of the devil." —
2 Nephi 2:26-27
➢ The choice between soup and salad
is a fairly benign one, but it
demonstrates a characteristic of
human nature: we don’t like to be
forced into decisions we are
capable of making for ourselves.
➢ God gave us our agency and will
always respect our freedom to make
choices.
➢ While we are “accountable” for our
choices for our choices and there
will always be consequences for
those choices both good and bad,
God has never approved of using
force.
➢ In fact, God fosters the spirit of
freedom, and He knows that the
human spirit requires freedom to
effectively serve and believe in Him.
➢ He told Adam and Eve not to eat
the forbidden fruit, but He also said,
nevertheless, thou mayest choose
thyself. (Moses 3:17)
➢ Many choices in life don’t seem
significant.
➢ But those choices set in motion a
series of events which shape your life
and the lives of your children and
grandchildren after you.
➢ Sometimes people make unwise
choices which aren’t momentous in
themselves, but they lead to
tragedies.
➢ Since seemingly small decisions can
have such momentous
consequences, how can we protect
ourselves from making wrong
choices?
➢ The story of Lot’s Choice (Gen. 13:5-
18) teaches crucial lessons about
life’s choices.
GOD'S PRINCIPLES OF CHOICE
1. Choices often result in eternally
significant consequences. Genesis
13 is the first mention of wealth in the
Bible. Wealth can be a blessing, but
we need to recognize something
that isn’t said very often in our
prosperous culture: Wealth is a
dangerous blessing! Increased
wealth always results in increased
potential either for evil or for good.
To whom much is given, much shall
be required (Luke 12:48). When your
income increases, so does your
accountability to God.
2. We must choose in line with God's
principles. It’s possible to gain the
whole world and lose your soul.
There is much more in life than the
outward and material. We must
base our choices on God’s Word,
not on the assumptions of our
culture. Those principles encompass
the whole Bible and take a lifetime
to learn thoroughly.
FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES THAT
ENCOMPASS THE WHOLE BIBLE AND
TAKE A LIFETIME TO LEARN
THOROUGHLY
1. Make choices which value
relationships over rights.
Note verse 8: “Please let there be
no strife between you and me, ...
because we are brothers.” Coming
just after the statement about the
 Canaanites and Perizzites being in
the land, this may point to Abram’s
concern about how their strife would
affect the witness to the pagans
around them. How can God’s people
bear witness for Him if the world sees
them fighting among themselves?
Abram had a right to choose
whatever land he wanted and let Lot
take the leftovers. He was the older,
the chief of the clan. God had
promised the land to Abram, not to
Lot. (Note, by the way, that even
though Abram and Lot both had the
freedom to choose, God’s sovereign
purpose to give the land to Abram
overruled their choices.) But Abram
graciously yielded his rights and
trusted God to give him his portion.
What mattered to Abram was, “We
are brothers.” He valued his
relationship with Lot over his right to
choose the best land.
So much strife could be avoided
in the family and in the church if we
would put a premium on our
relationships, set aside our rights, and
let the Lord take care of us. The next
time you are about to quarrel with
someone (and quarrelling is a choice
we make!), stop and think about
whether the quarrel is rooted in godly
principle or in selfishness. Sometimes
we need to confront sin or take a
stand for the truth, even though it
causes conflict. But be careful! It’s
easy to justify selfishness by calling it
righteous anger. The general rule is,
“Let us pursue the things which make
for peace and the building up of one
another” (Rom. 14:19).
2. Make choices which value
Godliness over greed.
By faith, Abram had already
renounced everything visible and
opted for the unseen promises of
God. So, he had no need, as Lot did,
to choose by sight. There is a
deliberate contrast between verses
10 and 14. In verse 10, Lot lifted up his
eyes and chose the land which
looked the best to him. He took off for
the good life and left Abram literally
in the dust, in dusty Canaan, where
there had just been a severe famine.
In verse 14, as Abram is standing there
wondering if he did the right thing
(and perhaps Sarah was asking him
the same question), God tells him to
lift up his eyes and look in every
direction. All the land he can see will
be his. Perhaps as Abram was looking
around, his eyes fell down to the dusty
soil on which he was standing. So the
Lord says, “Do you see all that dust?
I’ll make your descendants as the
dust of the earth, so that if anyone
can number the dust of the earth,
then your 7 descendants can also be
numbered.”
Lot chose by sight and ended up
spiritually and financially bankrupt.
He escaped. Sodom with the clothes
on his back and fades out living in a
cave. The things he saw and got
didn’t bring him the lasting happiness
he expected. Abram chose by faith,
not by sight, and ended up spiritually
and financially blessed, seeing and
possessing by faith the whole land of
Canaan, although he died owning
only a burial plot. Lot lived for greed
and came up empty. Abram lived for
God and came up full.
How can we know whether we
are under the influence of greed?
Charles Simeon, a godly 19th century
British pastor, offered three helpful
criteria for evaluating ourselves
(Expository Outlines on the Whole
Bible [Zondervan], XII:469-471). First,
we may judge ourselves by the
manner in which we seek the things
of this world. If we find ourselves
thinking more about the things of this
world and how to get them than
about God; or if the thought of
having them brings us more pleasure
than our thoughts about God; or if we
are willing to violate our conscience
or neglect spiritual duties to pursue
those things, then we are governed
by greed.
3. Make choices which value
fellowship with God over the
approval of the world.
As Christians, we always face a
tension: If we pull out of the world too
far, we lose our witness because
there is no contact. But if we blend in
with the world, we lose both our
fellowship with God and our witness
to the world. Jesus was the friend of
sinners, but He was never tainted by
their sin because He put a premium
on fellowship with the Father and He
never sought the approval of the
world. He was in the world with a
clear sense of His mission, to glorify the
Father and to seek and to save the
lost. If we want to line up with Abram
rather than with Lot, we’ve got to be
 people of the tent and the altar,
pilgrims and worshipers, here to bear
witness. We must put fellowship with
God above the approval of the world
in all our decisions.
4. Make choices which value God's
eternal promise over immediate
pleasure.
As believers we are to live by faith
in the promises of God. When we
face decisions, we take God into
account and make those decisions in
line with His promises and principles,
not the immediate gratification of the
flesh. We deny ungodliness and
worldly desires in light of the blessed
hope of Christ’s return (Titus 2:11-13),
trusting that His promises concerning
eternity are true. The Lord Jesus said,
“Seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness and all these things
will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33,
emphasis mine). Most of us want to
seek the other things first and add the
kingdom of God later in our spare
time. The next time you face a
decision that involves a major
commitment of your time or a move
to a different locale, make the
decision based on how it will affect
your own and your family’s
commitment to the kingdom, not on
financial factors alone. If the extra
hours and the move will bring you
more money, you need to ask, “Why
do we want more money? Is it so we
can give more to missions?” If the
bottom line is that you want more
money because you want more
things, then you’re not seeking first
God’s kingdom.
MAKE CHOICES BASED ON GOD'S
PRINCIPLES
➢ Relationships over rights; godliness
over greed; fellowship with God over
the world’s approval; and faith in
God’s promises over immediate
pleasure from the world.
➢ Because if you have God and His
promises, you have everything.
➢ So, seek Him first, and all else is yours.
➢ Oftentimes it can be difficult if not
impossible to make what you think at
that moment will be the right choice.
➢ One of the biggest factors that will
hold people back is that too often
than not we are not completely
clear on what type of result or
outcome we want from a situation.
➢ Think about it, if you don’t really
know what kind of result you want it
is going to be pretty hard to know
what choice is going to be the right
one.
➢ So, what do you do?
➢ You get a clear understanding,
before you make any choice.
➢ Think about its effects in the long
term, and short term.
➢ Knowing exactly what you want is
very powerful.
SITUATIONS IN WHICH
PRUDENCE CAN BE EXERCISED
IN ONE'S CHOICE
➢ Prudence as the "Father" of all
virtues.
➢ Prudence was considered by the
ancient Greeks and later on by
Christian philosophers, most notably
Thomas Aquinas, as the cause,
measure and form of all virtues.
➢ It is considered to be the Auriga
Virtutum or the charioteer of the
virtues.
➢ It is the cause in the sense that the
virtues, which are defined to be the
“perfected ability” of man as a
spiritual person (spiritual personhood
in the classical western
understanding means having
intelligence and free will), achieve
their “perfection” only when they are
founded upon prudence, that is to
say upon the perfected ability to
make right decisions.
➢ For instance, a person can live
temperance when he has acquired
the habit of deciding correctly the
actions to take in response to his
instinctual cravings.
➢ In matters of conscience, first
thoughts are best. In matters of
prudence, last thoughts are best. —
Robert Hall
BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER
➢ The environment selects which is
similar to natural selection.
➢ We must take into account what the
environment does to an organism
not only before, but also after it
responds.
➢ Skinner maintains that behavior is
shaped and maintained by its
consequences.
➢ Behavior that operates upon the
environment to produce
consequences (operant
conditioning) can be studied by
arranging an environment in which
specific consequences are
contingent upon it.
➢ The second results are practical; the
environment can be manipulated.
➢ The feeling of freedom, according to
Skinner, becomes an unreliable
guide as soon as would-be
controllers turn to non-aversive
measures, as they are likely to do to
avoid the problems raised when the
controller escapes or attacks.
➢ For example, a skillful parent learns
to reward a child for good behavior
rather than punish him for bad.
➢ Control becomes necessary in the
issue.
➢ B.F. Skinner has defined Learning
Behavior through an operant theory.
➢ According to him, "The behavior of
an individual is influenced by the
consequences."
➢ It is the form of conditioning which
explains the relationship between
behavior and their consequences or
rewards (Reinforcements and
Punishments).
TWO PRINCIPAL TERMS THAT
INFLUENCE OPERANT CONDITIONING
a. Reinforcements (Positive or
Negative)
• Increase the rate of behavior.
• Example: in Positive reinforcement,
one gets rewarded for a certain
kind of behavior; with this, the
probability of continuing good
behavior increases.
b. Punishments (Positive or Negative)
• Decrease the rate of behavior.
FREEDOM
➢ The question of freedom arises.
➢ Can an individual be free?
➢ To Skinner, our strength for freedom is
not due to a will to be free.
➢ As Aristotle/Sartre, but to certain
behavioral process characteristic of
the human organism, the chief
effect of which is the avoidance of
or escape from “aversive features of
the environment.
➢ Skinner thinks that the problem is to
free human beings not from control
but from certain kinds of control, and
it can be solved only if we accept
the fact that we depend upon the
world around us and we simply
change the nature of dependency.
➢ Skinner proposed that to make the
social environment as free as
possible of aversive stimuli, we do
not need to destroy the environment
or escape from it.
➢ What is needed, according to
Skinner, is to redesign it.
➢ Life is full of paradoxes nobody could
nor should control it.
➢ Nobody could not or should control
it.
➢ We have to be open to life, learn to
accept and live with paradoxes.
➢ Learning with contradiction is not the
same as living in contradiction.
➢ In the spirituality of imperfection, we
learn to accept that life, our
environment, is both “evil” and
“good”.
➢ In recognizing life’s open-endedness,
we learn to be flexible and
adaptable.
➢ Skinner believes that morality is a
conditioned response impressed on
the child by society.
➢ Despite this view, creating a static,
such as a controlled environment, is
not applicable in the realities of
everyday life.
➢ Skinner is right, however, in pointing
out the influence of the environment
especially in the socialization of
children.
➢ There should not be a re-engineering
of the environment, but a total
transformation of how we view our
environment, beginning with our
own orientation.
 BUDDHISM
➢ How do we view life?
➢ It is merely a life concerned with
power that according to Buddha, is
the cause of despair.
➢ Or should it be a life of cooperation,
vision and concern with other living
beings?
➢ Theory of freedom has negative and
positive tasks.
➢ Our lives should not be capable of
reaching different levels of heights
and ideals.
➢ This means making wise decisions
based on principle and managing
your practical affairs in a shrewd and
discreet manner.
➢ Studies have shown that people who
lead a more prudent, conscientious
life can also end up having a longer,
healthier life.
➢ You can make more of an effort to
practice this cardinal virtue by being
prudent at home, at work, or at
school.
➢ Practicing prudence means
practicing counsel, judgement, and
decisiveness.
➢ You can be prudent at home by
offering counsel to family members
who are arguing and using good
judgement to try to settle any
disputes.
➢ Use problem solving methods like
active listening, rational analysis, and
talking through issues to help your
family members reach a
compromise.
STEPHEN YELON (1996)
➢ He accepted that behavioral
psychology is at fault for having
overanalyzed the words “reward”
and “punishment”.
➢ We might have miscalculated the
effect of the environment on the
individual.
➢ There should be a balance in our
relationship with others and the
environment.
➢ In our dealing with our fellow human
beings, there is the strong and
obvious temptation to blame the
environment if they do not conform
to our expectations.
JOHN STUART MILL
➢ Following the adage (saying) of
John Stuart Mill.
➢ "Liberty consists in doing what one
desires" Skinner argues that even
though behavior is completely
determined, it is better that a person
"feels free" or "believes that he is
free".
➢ This is controllability.
➢ We cannot change genetic defects
by punishment; we can work only
through genetic measures that
operate on a much longer time
scale.
➢ What must be changed is not the
responsibility of an autonomous
individual but the conditions,
environment, or genetics, of which a
person’s behavior is a function.
➢ A person may cause evil to others
not only by his actions but by his
inaction, and in either case he is
justly accountable to them for the
injury.
THE INTEGRAL PARTS OF PRUDENCE
1. To judge what is "Good" and what is
"Bad".
• There are a number of human
goods to which every human
person is naturally inclined.
• These goods are not known by the
senses, but by the intellect, and so
they are desired not by the sense
appetite, but primarily by the will
(the rational appetite), thus they
are not sensible goods, but
intelligible goods.
2. Memory
• There is more to memory than the
simple recall of facts.
• In the sense used by St. Thomas,
“memory is more an ability to learn
from experience. And so, it involves
an openness to reality, a willingness
to allow oneself to be measured by
what is real”.
3. Docility
• It is open-mindedness, a willingness
to listen to others — it makes
experience fruitful.
• It requires a recognition of one’s
own limitations and ready
acceptance of those limits.
• Proud people who hope excessively
in their own excellence will tend to
make imprudent decisions because
they fail to rely on others by virtue of
their inordinate and unrealistic self-
estimation.
• A person with false docility seeks the
advice of others, but only those
deemed most likely to be in
 agreement with him, or of those of
similar depravity and who are thus
unlikely to challenge the overall
orientation of his life.
• It requires humility in that one must
recognize his limitations and be
ready to accept those limits.
4. Shrewdness
• It is the ability to quickly size up a
situation on one’s own, and so it
involves the ability to pick up small
clues and run with them.
• The shrewd are highly intuitive,
subtle, and discrete.
5. Reasoning
• In other words, it is often possible
that an act that is good in itself may
be inappropriate in the present
situation.
8. Caution
• Good choices can often generate
bad effects.
• To choose not to act simply
because bad consequences will
likely ensue is contrary to prudence.
• But caution takes care to avoid
those evils that are likely to result
from a good act that we
contemplate doing.
• Looks to avoid evil, especially evil
that wears the mask of good.

• Once a person sizes up a particular WHO IS A PRUDENT PERSON

situation, he needs to be able to
investigate and compare
➢ The law does not require a person
alternative possibilities and to
with a fiduciary responsibility to have
reason well from premises to
extraordinary expertise.
conclusions.
➢ However, the prudent-person rule
• He will need to be able to reason
sets a reasonable expectation that
about what needs to be done, that
the person will make rational,
is, what the best alternative or
intelligent decisions.
option is that will realize the right
end.
• It refers to the ability to research, ARISTOTLE
scrutinize, and compare alternative
possibilities and/or solutions and ➢ For Aristotle, prudence or practical
then to apply logical reasoning wisdom is a virtue of thought that is
principles to reach a correct practical rather than theoretical and
conclusion. deliberative rather than intuitive.
➢ It is the intellectual virtue that
6. Foresight perfects reasoning in regard to
decision making in the realm of
• Foresight is the principal part of human action.
prudence, for the name itself
(prudence) is derived from the Latin
providential, which means
“foresight”.
• Foresight involves rightly ordering
human acts to the right end.
• It can be defined as the clear view
of how future contingencies may
bear upon the present occasion or
may depend on how the present
situation is met.

7. Circumspection

• It is possible that acts good in

themselves and suitable to the end
may become unsuitable in virtue of
new circumstances.
• It is the ability to take into account
all relevant circumstances.
• Showing affection to your spouse
through a kiss is good in itself, but it
might be unsuitable in certain
circumstances, such as a funeral or
in a public place.