Name of the Student:

Subject: Introduction to the Philosophy Teacher: Richie Mangampo - Mishra

Module 3 Duration: 1st Week of December 2020 Quarter: 2nd S.Y. 2020- 2021
Grade & Section: G11/12 – (Synchronous/Asynchronous) LRN No. :
Core Subject Title: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person
Core Subject An initiation to the activity and process of philosophical reflection as a
Description: search for a synoptic vision of life. Topics to be discussed include the human
experiences of embodiment, being in the world with others and the
environment, freedom, inter-subjectivity, sociality, being unto death.
Module No. and Title Module 5: Freedom of the Human Person
Module Description: In this module, the learners are expected to be able to understand what
true freedom is. The learners are also expected to understand that true
freedom comes with responsibility.
Lesson No. and Title: Lesson 1: The Meaning of Freedom
Lesson 2: Freedom and Responsibility
Module Targets and At the end of this Module, you should be able to:
Objectives: Lesson 1:
5.1. Realize that “all actions have consequences.”
5.2. Evaluate and exercise prudence in choices
5.3. Realize that:
a. Choices have consequences
b. Some things are given up while others are obtained in making
choices
5.4. Show situations that demonstrate freedom of choice and the
consequences of their choices
Lesson 2: 6. Discuss freedom and responsibility as two sides of a coin

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this lesson, the learners are expected to:
-Demonstrate understanding of the interplay between freedom and
responsibility
Reference Books: - Corpuz, Brenda et al. 2016. Introduction to the Philosophy of the
Human Person, Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Inc.
- Ramos, Christine Carmela R., 2016. Introduction to the Philosophy
of the Human Person, 1st Edition. Quezon City: Rex Printing
Company, Inc.
- Calano, Mark Joseph, et al., 2016. Philosophizing and Being
Human: A Textbook for Senior High School. Quezon City. Sibs
Publishing House, Inc.

Module Completion 1 week only

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 MODULE 5
Freedom and the Human Person

LESSON 1: THE MEANING OF FREEDOM

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY:
Submit your answer via Google Classroom
on or before December 7, 2020.

1. Write down top 10 list of things that you

would do if you were granted absolute
freedom for a day. (Absolute freedom literally
means no form of hindrance or impediment
would prevent you from doing what you want).
2. Imagine that all leaders of the world
would put up a global election asking everyone
if they wanted absolute freedom to be granted to everyone. Would you give a yes-vote or a no-
vote?

Introduction
We recall in the previous lesson how modern thinking made the human person more
aware of his/her capacity to transcend the cycle of nature. With this capacity comes a degree of
control over one’s life and environment. We have also seen how heightened awareness of this
capacity also highlighted the human being’s position of power and domination over nature.

In the last few centuries, we have seen how hunger for power turned into fierce
competition over positions of domination. As such the domination over nature extended further
to the systematic domination of fellow human beings. The atrocities in the recent century’s
World Wars and the continuing massive killings we read about today are a clear attestation to
this.

The question arises on how it has come to this point. How can it be possible for a species,
so intelligent and creative, to use his/her powers and capabilities towards the destruction of
his/her own kind? This is especially baffling because the said species is aware that in allowing or
contributing to the death of others, he or she also destroys himself or herself in the process.

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 In this Module, we learn that a possible answer to this question can be seen in
humankind’s gross misunderstanding of the concept of human freedom. Freedom is largely
interpreted as the capacity to do whatever one wants without hindrance and limitation.

Freedom is misunderstood as doing anything I want. Genuine freedom, however, is one

that is always coupled with responsibility.

ANALYSIS: Thoughts to Ponder

Reflect upon these questions:

1. When was the time you felt most free?

2. When was the time you felt unfree?
3. Should freedom be absolute?
4. If freedom should be limited, what would be its limits?

ABSTRACTION:
Does freedom means…
 The ability to choose our own government?
 Being able to live our own personal lifestyle?
 Being safe and secure from evils that threaten us like disease, poverty, and
political expression?
 Does freedom mean the ability to do whatever we choose?
 Or is it the ability to do what we ought to do?

 Let us check the meaning of freedom from the dictionary

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freedom)

free·dom | \ ˈfrē-dəm \
Definition of freedom
1: the quality or state of being free: such as
a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous freedom from care
d: unrestricted use gave him the freedom of their home
e: EASE, FACILITY spoke the language with freedom
f: the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken answered with freedom
g: improper familiarity
h: boldness of conception or executionhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freedom
2a: a political right
b: FRANCHISE, PRIVILEGE

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 *Reflect upon this excerpt from Robert Frost’s Poem

“The Road not Taken”

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the road less travelled by
And that has made all the difference.
- - Robert Frost

2 types of Freedom:
1. Negative Freedom - refers to “the absence of coercion, block or interference.”

*Interference means something that is intentionally imposed on a person. It may come

in the form of “physical coercion” such as kidnapping or imprisonment, or verbal coercion such
as the issuing threats to another person. One is free in the negative sense, when she does not
experience either forms of coercion.

2. Positive Freedom – a kind of freedom that requires active effort on the person who
is said to be free. Hence, a person who is deemed to be free in the positive sense is one who is
able to tame many different headed-monster that is within oneself, so that all may follow a
single direction.

Example:

a. I want to attend the barrio fiesta and yet it is examination time so I need to study for
the exams. I am free when I give up the fiesta for the sake of a more important goal.

b. But, I am not free when deep in my heart I know I should study for the exams and not
be absent and yet I go to the fiesta and enjoy and do not study for the exams.

A person who is free (possesses positive freedom) has control or mastery of herself and
so has the strength to do what is good. Policies, rules and regulations are there to ensure the
good of every person. Thus a person who is free is hardly aware of rules and regulations that
others think limit a person’s freedom. A person who is free is not allergic to rules and regulations.
Rules and regulations help her to grow in freedom since freedom is the power or the strength to
master herself to do well.

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 In this module, our focus will be on freedom in the positive sense particularly from an
existential perspective.

Existentialism: Freedom is exercised through Choices

We have learned from the lesson on the domains of truth that existentialism teaches real
or truth is not a floating idea but should be directly linked to a person’s life It should be
visible in action.

Existentialists argue that freedom should not only be conceived as an idea or a notion.
Freedom is something that is exercised through our choices. When a person exercises her
freedom, she becomes real.

This is illustrated in the developmental psychology on the development of person towards

maturity.

From infancy to childhood, a person is not yet

be said to be completely free. Parents as there
to constrain his/her freedom as the child The adult learns
wanders and explores the world. he/she is not a
puppet that only
moves thru the
A child’s action is hands and decisions
not yet a product of others
of his/her choices.

When a child grows into a mature adult, the

Most of the child choices are driven situation changes. The adult now realizes that
by external motivation, either he/she can steer the direction of his/her life
rewards or punishment story through his/her choices.

This shows that a person is not “born free” rather, he/she is “born to be free.”
He/she is meant to grow in freedom. There is a tendency for young adults to feel lost like
a driftwood in a boundless sea. Because one realizes that one’s life direction is mostly up
to him/her choices. One tends to be paralyzed in the face of so many possibilities.

To some extent, this explain why some people rest content being a cog in a
machine, that is, to be simply defined by one’s function in a system. A system is a general
term for an organized whole comprised of an individual parts whose functions are
interdependent. A cog is just a small part. Separate from the machine, a cog has no use.
It is useful only when it functions as a part of the machine. Each part of the system, like a
cog, has a specific function and is required to act according to its function.

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 Example:
a. In the employment system of a business
company, each employee is expected to act according to
his/her function or role in that system. If the employee does
not fulfill his/her function, the whole system gets affected.
Hence, the system is interested in its individual parts so as it
fulfill the demands for efficiency.

b. In the political sense, a dictatorial form of

government where a tyrant puts everyone in place by
controlling everyone’s action through the use of coercion. In
a dictatorial government, one rarely finds an individual voice.
c. In a cultural sense, to be a cog in a machine could mean to be a blind follower
of religion. This means that one simply does what authorities of a religious
congregation/sect without reflection or examination.

In all these examples, we have seen how the system in the life of a cog in a machine
imposes its weight on it by demanding that it fulfills its function well.

To assert your individuality and freedom would mean to move beyond the
dictates of a machine. We know that when a part does not act according to what the
machine specifies as its function, the whole machine is compromised. For this reason,
systems have a mechanism of eliminating individual freedom.

Existentialists argue that the human person must take care not to get lost in
anonymity, in a crowd. Existentialism highlights the word exist. To “exist” – ex stare – is
to stand out from facelessness and anonymity. Existence is more than mere biological
living. One who truly exists is one who owns up to his/her existence. The moment that
he/she does, he/she takes responsibility and steers the direction of his/her own life.

The main tenet of existentialism is that we are the authors of our lives. In every
story with its own plot twists, it is the author who creates those turning points. If we take
responsibility over our lives, then we can say those plots are not the products of fate or
destiny, but of own own choices.

Freedom as Choosing for Oneself that Leads to Personality Consolidation

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish philosopher was one of the first to

articulate one of the difficult insights on freedom in the existentialist sense. Freedom is
related to our capacity to choose. According to Kierkegaard, “in choosing, the
personality is consolidated.”

Jean Paul Sartre argues that there is no essence that precedes existence. Essence
can be understood as a pre-given nature of a person. Existentialists argue that every
individual begins from birth as zero, nothing. A person begins to be somebody only as

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 he/she begins to be the author of his/her life acts, when she starts making choices for
himself/herself. He/she becomes his/her real self as soon as she exercises his freedom.
We are nobody until we start making our choices. We become what we choose to
be. Existence precedes essence.

Going back to Kierkegaard, when we allow dominant forces or personalities

around to choose for ourselves, the most important aspects of our lives – our career
path, faith or religion, whom to marry, to marry or not to marry, whom to befriend, part
of our lives we become inauthentic.

Freedom therefore, means exercising our capacity to make decisions, choose our
life path and direct the course of our lives through our own steering.

Freedom for existentialists is concrete freedom. It is not just words. It means it

can be acted upon. Hence, the task of the human person who wants to be real or
authentic is to take care of this capacity to be free. My task is to define my essence not
to be imprisoned by a pre-defined essence of a human person. My presence is not pre-
defined. “Existence precedes essence,” said Sartre.

Assessment Task: Answer these questions thru the Google Classroom.

1. Relate this excerpt to Kierkegaard’s personality consolidation:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,

“Your thoughts become your words,
“Your words become your actions,
“Your Actions becomes your habits,
“Your habits become your values,
“Your values become your destiny.” – Mahatma Gandhi

2. From the Little Prince by Antoine Exupery – The little prince visited several planets
when he left his small planet. One of those planets that he visited was inhabited by an
alcoholic. The alcoholic was drinking liquor, no stop. Below is the conversation between
them:
Little Prince: What are you doing?
Alcoholic: “I am drinking!”
Little Prince: “Why are you drinking?”
Alcoholic: Because “I like to forget!”
Little Prince: “Forget what?”
Alcoholic: “That I am a drunkard!”

Question: Is the alcoholic free? Or is he enslaved by his vice of alcoholism?

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 3. Illustrate this with a concrete example: Choices have consequences. In making
choices, some things are given while others are obtained.

4. Exercise prudence in your choice/decision. What should you do in this situation

assuming that you are the teacher?

A student has been absent due to sickness as contained in her parents’ letter to
you. In your school, the school, the rule is nobody who has been absent, excused or
unexcused, can be admitted in class unless he/she has an admission slip from the Office
of Student Affairs. The sick student comes to class, was not able to obtain an admission
slip from the Office of Student affairs because the personnel in-charge was not there
when the student went. You are giving a quiz. If you send the study out because she has
no admission slip, she will miss the quiz. What should you do?

*Submit your answer via Google Classroom Tab on before December 7, 2020.

LESSON 2: FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

INTRODUCTION:

The story about human freedom is not yet complete. In addition to acting upon
our freedom by exercising our capacity to choose for ourselves, there
is the equally important task of holding ourselves responsible for the
consequences of our choices. Choosing our life direction is only the
first part of the story. The most challenging part of this freedom is
responsibility that comes with it. Without responsibility, the exercise
of freedom by asserting one’s personal choices is no different from
acting like a selfish teenager.

ABSTRACTION:
The exercise of freedom is a social act.
A responsible exercise of freedom takes the following questions in mind:
 Am I aware of the consequences of my choices as soon as I act on them?
 Will I be able to answer to the grievances of those who will be hurt by these
consequences?
 Will I be able to face people with a dignified and resolved stance when I am chastised,
criticized for my choice?
 Will I be prepared to give a reasonable answer to their questions?

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

 *If I refuse to give a reasonable answer to the questions regarding my choices (wala
kayong pake) then I am nothing more than an oversized, selfish 3-year-old who only
wants to get his with things.

Responsibility comes from two words: response and ability. Responsibility is the ability
to respond.

The presence of another as a witness to my actions is what gives it meaning to my

freedom. Freedom is not freedom unless there is another who recognizes it. I may be free to do
everything I want when I am alone in another planet, but if there is no one to recognize it, what
is the point of asserting it?
The recognizing gaze of another exerts a gentle pressure on me to solidify my choices into
a lifelong commitment of acting on it (Habermas, 1992). Studies have shown the effectiveness of
making promises of conversion when it is done before a witnessing body (Baumeister and
Tierney, 2012). The same study has shown that those who make promises of conversion in
private, such as through silent whispers to oneself, are more likely to go back to their old habits.
Freedom can only be genuine when one takes responsibility for it. It is responsible when
it is done socially, declared in broad daylight before witnesses. It is responsible when one
commits oneself to fulfilling it before witnesses. It is responsible when one is prepared to defend
it with good reason.

FREEDOM, COMMITTMENT AND THE STRENGHTENING OF ONESELF

David currently has three girlfriend. He is 27-yearls-old, the age when you are mostly likely
to marry and settle down. But David does not want to get
married. He knows that marriage means finally committing to
only one person. This means he has to choose among the three.
David ends up answering to three women. He is different person
to each woman. He is unsure which side of him is the most
genuine among the three selves he presents to different
persons.

Most people in our society today would find nothing wrong with David’s actions. The truth
is, David is like an empty shell that is all noise deep inside. The macho brave move of shrinking
marriage only masks a deep seated fear. It is the fear of someone who has no solid bearings
deep within him. It is the fear of someone who does not know himself.
If someone evades commitment, we say in Filipino, “ayaw nyang pangatawanan.” The
word pangatawanan, which means “to be responsible” comes from the root katawan, which

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO

means, “body.” Making a choice and committing oneself is to put oneself out there – body and
soul for all the world to see.
When we make choices, it is like we are telling the world, “This is who I am.” The opposite
applies. When we refuse to make choices, we are afraid to show ourselves to the world. When
we are making decisions among a set of choices, we are also creating ourselves!
When the day comes that David finally chooses to commit himself, we say he has finally
learned to consolidate his diffused self into this one choice. This entails the painful process of
letting go of other possibilities and putting our whole mind and body to this choice we made.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING: Submit your answer via Google

Classroom on or before December 8, 2020.
“Freedom is not freedom without responsibility.” Elaborate through essay.

MODULE 5 – FREEDOM AND THE HUMAN PERSON RICHIE MANGAMPO