ETHICS

INTRODUCTION
PART 2

LESSON 4 FREEDOM
LESSON 4: FREEDOM

Why Only Human Beings Can be Ethical?

- According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the

fundamental difference between animal ethics
and human ethics is that animals behave
instinctively while human behavior is rational.
(BBC circa 2014)

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LESSON 4: FREEDOM

Why Only Human Beings Can be Ethical?

Instinctive behavior – is a hard-wired, inborn,

characteristics response to specific environment
stimuli; an example is the altruistic behavior of a
social animals. An example of this would be the
suicide attacks of worker honeybees in defense
of their colony against intruders.

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LESSON 4: FREEDOM

Why Only Human Beings Can be Ethical?

Rational behavior – is a decision-making process where the

person acts in ways that best achieve his or her needs in
accordance with their set preferences, priorities, and
principles. The human person in his or her decision-making
process is free to decide what to do and free to act on his or
her own decisions. Thus, only human beings can be ethical
because only humans have the capacity for free moral
judgment.

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LESSON 4: FREEDOM

Why is freedom crucial in your ability to make moral decisions?

- Freedom is the foundation of moral acts. For a person

to be called a moral person, he or she must be free. (Free to
follow what the moral thing to do) It is important to note that
even following rules freedom is essential. Rules makes a
person recognize that apart from personal rights, other
people’s rights are equally important. When talking about
your ultimate goal or purpose in life, only a free person can
understand his or her ultimate end or goal.

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LESSON 4: FREEDOM

The Human Person as a Free Being

Human being

- It is a person endowed with characteristics that

are material, spiritual, rational, and free.
- A human being is a being with inborn properties
that he or she uses to direct his or her own
development toward self-fulfillment. (An Aristotelian
idea of being connotes actuality; existence; an actual
condition or circumstance)

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Philosophical Insights on Freedom

Freedom is a gift

- Freedom is the ability to make significant choices, and

according to Gabriel Marcel, it is a gift given to us by God.
(Hernandez, 2009)
- it is truly a gift from the Creator and not from your
government or any man. It is your God given right and you
have to claim it because you're entitled to it. We're free, not
because we have fought and freed ourselves, but because
that is how He designed us to be.

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Philosophical Insights on Freedom

Freedom is complementary to Reason

- The point of Aristotle makes here is that

reason must be used to see which of the choices
leads to goodness, and which to harm. Reason
is essential to know which choice to make, and
in making the choice for goodness, leads a
person to freedom.

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Philosophical Insights on Freedom

Freedom is absolute (in a person’s level)

- In Sarte’s view, the human person is “absolutely

free”. Freedom sets the human person apart from other
creatures.
- As a human being, we are free to make choices. We
are free to decide. And we are free to use freedom to attain
higher goals higher that satisfying basic needs.
- Jean Paul Sarte said “you are free” because he
believed a person always has a choice. Thus, according to
Sarte, you must choose. His idea was that freedom is the
capacity to choose, that even not choosing is a choice.
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LESSON 4: FREEDOM

Philosophical Insights on Freedom

Freedom demands responsibility

- Lao tzu’s idea was that in any society, the

exercise of one’s freedom is not absolute. The
person is free to do anything, but it is not without
consequence of one’s action.
- Responsibility, as a moral quality serves as a
voluntary check and balance of one’s freedom.
Without proper balance limitless freedom is a
dangerous as an extremely controlling social group.

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