HUMAN

FREEDO
M Manuel B. Dy, Jr.

Prepared by: Mr. Ariel Marapao

 OBJECTIVES
At the end of the session, students are able to:
● Understand the idea of Human Freedom
● Explain the implication of Human Freedom to
Responsibility
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Case for
01 TotalBy:Determinism
B.F. Skinner
02 Absolute Freedom
By: Jean-Paul Sartre

03 Structured Freedom
By: Abraham Maslow
 Understanding the “Will”
The will is a tendency toward an known good. The “good” aspect of the
object attracts my will

The only object which could necessitate my will would be good that is
unconditional

The goods from which I select as “the good for me in this decision”
are all conditioned, limited, and qualified.

Therefore, freedom of choice can be operative in my behavior

 “Would you agree on this?”

“kung ano ang itinanim

siyang aanihin”
01
TOPIC 1
Total Determinism
 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Determinism (noun) is a philosophical thought that

talks about the doctrine that all events, including
human action, are ultimately determined by causes
external to the will.
“Well right now,” saiid Castle. He picked up a book of matches. “I’m free to hold
or drop these matches.”

“You will, of course, do one or the other.” said Frazier. “Linguistically or logically
there seem to be two possibilities, but I submit that there’s only one in fact. The
determining forces may be subtle but they are inexorable. I suggest that as on
orderly person you will probably hold-ah! You drop them! Well, you see, that’s all
part of your behavior with respect to me. You couldn’t resist the temptation to
prove me wrong. It was all lawful. You had no choice. The deciding factor
entered rather late, and naturally you couldn’t foresee the result when you first
held them up. There was no strong likelihood that you would act in either
direction, and so you said you were free. ”

- B.F. Skinner, Walden Two (NY:Mc Millan 1970), p. 258.

Skinner’s position seems to be, then, that man’s behavior is
shaped and determined by external forces and stimuli
whether they be familial or cultural sanction, verbal or non-
verbal reinforcement, or complex systems of reward and
punishment.
CLAIMS OF B.F. SKINNER
A. I have genetic biological and physical structures which
influence my behavior. They are part of the total me which is
involved in choosing.

B. I have environmental structures which are part of me; my

early life and psychological development, the culture, national,
and ecclesiastical frameworks that I find myself situated in.

C. I am keenly aware of external forces and demands which

impinge upon me, sometimes creating needs and even values.
 in other words
Skinner affirms that man is not free.
1. All present behavior is contolled by previous behavior, including the
entire network of environment, psychological, and educational stimuli
whichhave shaped our present characters and personalities.

2. All behavior has motivational causes which are necessiting causes.

Man is determined by his historicity.

would you
agree to his
claims?
 COUNTER CLAIMS
1. The actions of questioning and self-reflection must be either
explained away or ignored.

2. It cannot be assumed that all causal motives are necessitating

causes.

3. If we are all absolutely determined, then we all must be deluded at the

very heart of our primary experience.

4. If all our judgements and choices are “conditioned” and necessitated

by prior reinforcement or external stimuli, this case would have to hold
true for the determinist himself.
What do you think?
02
TOPIC 2
Absolute Freedom
 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Freedom (noun) is the power or right to act, speak,

or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
 Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That
is the first principle of existentialism... If, however, it is true
that existence is prior to essence, man is responsible for what
he is. Thus the first effect of existentialism is that it puts every
man in possesion of himself as he is, and places the entire
responsibility fo his existence squarely upon his own
shoulders.

-Jean Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

(NY:1956), p. 290-291
 CLAIMS OF J.P. SARTRE
A. Freedom’s very meaning is a struggle with the negation of
what is given.

B. Since freedom is involved with the future and freedom is

man’s identity, man is not tied down by his past or by the choices
of the past.

C. There is no definable limitation to my identity, since I choose

my own identity and I make my own essence.
 in other words
Sartre believes that man is so free.
1. The individual has only his future project which he makes entirely of
himself and for which he alone is responsible.

2. Man is indeterminate, that he cannot even be defined.

Man has no history.

would you
agree to his
claims?
 COUNTER CLAIMS
1. I am bound to who I am, and “who I am” includes my history, my
growth, and the total formation of my lifewhich I have led to this
moment.

2. To be me involves the structure of what being me is: and whether I

may go or flee, I will carry myself with me. I cannot annihilate my past,
my identity, nor my potentialities.

“TO DENY STRUCTURE IS TO ASSUME ONE”

What do you think?
03
TOPIC 3
Structured Freedom
 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Structure (noun) is the arrangement of and relations

between the parts or elements of something complex.
Life is a continual series of choices for the individual in which
a main determinant of choice is the person as he already is.
We can no longer think of the person as “fully determined”
where this phase implies “determined only by forces external
to the person.” The person, insofar as he is a real person, is
his own main determinant. Every person is, in part, “his own
project” and makes himself.

-Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being

(Princeton, 1962), pp 151-152
 CLAIMS OF MASLOW
A. Structures embrace historicity, environment, the community
of thought, cultural and moral heritage.

B. Structure is also the internal constitution of being a man. It is

the reason why values and demands emerge from my own
identity as a questioning self, a knower, a lover.

C. My own freely created life project is also a structure. The

structure of being a man is the basis of internally self contituted
values which I share with the world of other selves who have tha
same internal dynamisms.
 in other words
Maslow understands that freedom works with structure.
To be a human person means,

1. to have potentialities which liberate him fnd necessity- to be able to

know, question, and mould himself.

2. to be inserted into an environment and history which help him

actualize these potentialities.

Man cannot be reduced to his historicity, nor can man be

totally divorced from them.
would you
agree to his
claims?
Man is freedom
within structure