Lesson 1:
activities
ERIC FONER
- A historian explored the meaning of freedom
by identifying the following elements:
POLITICAL FREEDOM
- Political participation
- Help set social rules
- There isn’t any system of government that
seeks to end all rules
CIVIL RIGHTS
- Civil liberties or freedom
- Do not eliminate social and political
constraints
- Rights for individuals only exist to the extent
that other people respect those rights
- Property rights do not create freedom
- They are limits on infringement on property
rights
- Rights impose mutual limits on infringement
of rights
- Rights do not place us above the law
- Rights do not make us free to do whatever
we want
- Rights go hand in hand with responsibility
ECONOMIC FREEDOM
- Major element: Right or ability to make
choices
- Simply having choices does not make us free
- In making economic choices, we are not
above the law
- We are not supposed to lie, steal, or kill in
the name of our rights to serve our economic
interests
- Nothing is the market is free
- We must pay a cost for all economic
DR. ERIC TAYLOR
- Identified the three essential elements of
HUMAN FREEDOM which are necessary to a
fulfilling happy life:
1. PHYSICAL FREEDOM
- Translates into the freedom to be physically
healthy, have control over our bodies, to move
about and manipulate our world from physical
pain and suffering and the freedom to
experience physical pleasure, such as eating,
sleeping, dancing, exercising
- Without physical health, we become
prisoners of our bodies and their limitations
- Is taken away from us when we experience
stress, hunger, thirst, or exposure to the
elements
- We suffer the discomfort and pain of physical
ailments
2. PSYCHIC FREEDOM
- Involves freedom from negative mindsets
and emotions that can arise from our life
experiences beginning in childhood
- Can be taken from us by our patents, peers,
influential people, natural disasters, political
conflicts, poverty, and our toxic popular
culture in the form of neglect, abuse, trauma,
unfulfilled needs, and unhealthy
circumstances
- We lose our freedom when we adopt values
(e.g. I must look perfect), attitudes (e.g. I
cannot fail) and beliefs (e.g. I am not worthy
of love) that makes us unhappy, prevents us
from fostering our physical and mental health,
act as roadblocks to our dreams and goals,
and interfere with out establishing healthy
and nurturing relationships
- The loss
3. RELATIONAL FREEDOM
- Refers to the benefit of building strong knowledge of good and evil,” for it is
connections, healthy relationships and shared called to accept the moral law given
experiences in the circle of our family, friends, by God. In fact, human freedom finds
community, country and work its authentic and complete fulfillment
precisely in the acceptance of that
- Involves the understanding that when we
law.
take responsibility for ourselves and others
• God, who alone is good, knows
(and they for us) we gain freedom because we
perfectly what is good for man, and by
feel safer and more secure, valued, and
virtue of his very love proposes this
supported
good to man in the commandments.
- We are more able to live a fulfilling life, take VS, 35
healthy risks, and strive towards our dreams
because we do not feel alone in our journey
and know that there are others who have our
backs

I. BIBLICAL FOUNDATION OF THE USE OF

FREEDOM

- In the Book of Genesis we read: “The Lord

God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may
eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of
it you shall die’” (Gen 2:16-17). V, 35.I.

- Which means that God had given us the

freedom to make choices but they are not
absolute because its exercise must be guided
by God’s laws

- In the text, it is mentioned that when man

violates God’s commandments, which is
considered as sin, there are consequences,
and in this case, it is death

a. THE IMAGERY OF TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF

GOOD AND EVIL SYMBOLIZES

- The power to decide what is good and what

is evil does not belong to man, but to God
alone

• Man is certainly free, in as much as he

can understand and accept God’s
commands. And he possesses an
extremely far-reaching freedom, since
he can eat “of every tree of the
garden.”
• But his freedom is not unlimited: it
must halt before the “tree of the