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Actiones
nostras,
quaesumus
Son of God
Domine,
aspirando
praeveni et
adiuvando
The Gospel prosequere: ut
cuncta nostra
according to Mark
oratio et operatio
a te semper
incipiat et per te
coepta finiatur.
Per Christum
Dominum
nostrum.
Amen.
Sancte Iohannes
Baptista de La Salle!
Vivat Iesus in
cordibus nostris,
in
aeternum!
HUMAN FREEDOM
All of us seem to be at
least experientially aware
of freedom in choice.
In fact, it is difficult to comprehend most of human
activities without the immanence of freewill.
“I do this”,
“She thinks that…”
“They choose this”,
“You admit that”
“ I want this…”
“You accept this…”
With just knowing that
we are doing/thinking
something, and that we
are conscious that we
are doing/thinking such,
we can say that there is
in what we think/do an
element of
responsibility we put to
ourselves.
Consequently, we don’t
have anyone than
ourselves to be blamed
or praised because of
our action.
It has often
been
maintained,
therefore, that
this universal
experience of
freedom
provides the
greatest proof
for its own
existence.
Bago ko pa man gawin ang isang
bagay, alam ko na nasaakin ang
desisyong kung gagawin ko ba ito o
hindi. Sa kalagitnaan ng paggawa ko
ng isang bagay,alam ko rin na ang
pagpapatuloy sa gawaing ito
nakadepende sa akin. Pagkataposay kong
gawin ito, alam ko na ako ang gumawa
nito. Kaya’t masasabi ko na mayroon
akong responsibilidad dito.
However, it is this primary universal
experience of freedom that has been called
into question by philosophers, theologians,
psychologists, and even historians.
B.F. Skinner, an extremely influential behavioral psychologist
from Harvard, is one of those who questioned the very
existence of human freedom. He seems to affirm that man is
not free because (a) all present behavior is controlled by
previous behavior and (b) all behavior has motivational causes
which are necessitating causes.
“I am my freedom.”
Man is actually free and
indeterminate because
there is no God to
conceive man as a
definable essence.
Man’s freedom is
overwhelmingly evident to
Sartre because man is able
to detach himself from the
world by his act of
questioning and doubt.
Determinists assume that freedom is
an act that has no cause, the cause
that necessitates someone to act.
They are lead to conclude that since
every act has a cause, then there is
no freedom at all.
Basically, structure or
historicity has no control
over my freedom. There is
no structure that defines
me and no system that
governs me. I am free,
absolutely free.
On the one hand,
absolute determinism
denies man’s ability to
question and to
achieve distance from
necessity. On the other
hand, absolute
indeterminism denies
man’s situatedness or
historicity.
Nevertheless, to be a
human person is to be
situated, to have
historicity, and also to
have the ability to
question, to achieve
distance from necessity.
In our consideration
about the question of
freedom, we must take
into account these two
factors.
Structured Freedom: Human Reality
Sartre and Skinner, as we have seen,
concentrate on levels of human reality to the
exclusion of other levels. One realm covers
man’s historicity and given structure; the other
realm covers man’s transcendence in free
questioning.