Liberty, Human Existence, and Moral Values: A Philosophical Exploration

Posted on Aug 27, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Liberty and Human Existence

Will and Values

The individual possesses a will, capable of perceiving and internalizing values. Values are not subjective; individuals do not determine the inherent worth of things.

Value:

Value is that which disrupts indifference, prompting an individual to form an assessment due to its contribution to personal fulfillment and its ability to address certain needs.

  • Vital Values (corporeal, economic, useful)
  • Spirit Affecting Values (truth, beauty)
  • Ethical and Religious Values (encompassing the whole person)

Freedom and Ethical Values

Certain principles influence the entirety of a person, leading to the development and fulfillment of their true humanity. These are moral values, which transform an individual into a good person, someone who has realized the essence of their humanity.

Moral values represent freedom.

Assuming Values

Being a person, self-aware and free, is the supreme value. Freedom empowers individuals to embrace and enact values.

Concept of Psychological Freedom

Freedom signifies the absence of constraint.

Freedom Abroad

There are no impediments, pressures, or disabilities. These pertain to the exercise of inner freedom, not its existence.

  1. Physical Freedom: The ability to move from one place to another.
  2. Moral Freedom: Being free of obligations related to the moral order.
  3. Civil Liberty: The absence of restrictive positive laws.
  4. Social Freedom: The lack of social determinism.
  5. Ascetic Freedom: The enjoyment derived from controlling one’s instincts and passions.

Inner Freedom

It is the power of individuals to act or not act, to choose one course of action over another. Individuals possess the capacity for self-determination.

The Fact of Freedom

Determinism

Determinism asserts that individuals are not free in any of their actions. Consistent materialism and Pantheism deny psychological freedom.

Proof of Freedom

We have the experiential awareness of being free.

  1. While determinists argue against freedom, they often behave as if they were free.
  2. The act of deliberation clearly indicates that the decision rests in our hands.
  3. In moral decisions, we experience a sense of responsibility.
  4. In interactions with others, we assume they are free.
  5. The entirety of human communal life is characterized by relationships that are inherently free.

The Conditions of Freedom

Our freedom exists within a broader context of actuality. Actuality is a given, imposed, not subject to the discretion of the spirit.

  1. The Material World: Presents a critical situation.
  2. Bodily Condition: Can significantly impact the realization of our freedom.
  3. Inheritance: Imposes numerous limitations on our freedom.
  4. The Body: The site of the dynamics of involuntary emotional life.
  5. Cultural Conditions: The transmission of culture occurs in a largely unconscious manner.
  6. Personal History: With its choices and opinions, guides existence in a particular direction.

Constitutive Feature of Person

The person manifests primarily as a unique, unrepeatable being, equipped for and intended for inner communion with others. They exist bodily in the world to engage with others in history, both personally and communally, freely committing to values, in relation to other people and before God.

Absolute Value of the Person

Personalist anthropology affirms the absolute value and self-worth of the individual. The individual is an end in themselves and can never be treated as a means to an end.

  1. Our dignity resides in self-consciousness and self-determination, which elevate us above the subhuman world. Individuals possess self-ownership.
  2. The person has absolute value simply by virtue of existing.
  3. Many have perceived personalism as aligned with conservative ideologies.

The absolute value of the person encompasses three core principles:

  1. Value of the Individual: Each of us is unique, irreplaceable, and singular.
  2. Orientation to the Other: This counteracts any potential individualistic and abstract interpretations of personalism.
  3. Structures: These condition the individual and social conduct of individuals.
    • Interpersonal relationships are emphasized in contrast to an inflated focus on world domination. The meaning of human existence is interconnected with the existence of others.
    • The individual is multidimensional yet open to transcendence. Created by God, the person is directed towards God.

Moral Person

Animals enter the world equipped with a set of instincts they blindly obey. Humans, on the other hand, possess very few instincts.

Endowed with freedom, each individual must create their own way of life. Morality resides within the realm of human activity.

Being determined to act is a fundamental aspect of anthropological ethics.

Foundations of Human Morality

  1. The Person, Standard of Morality: When discussing morality, we enter the domain of good and evil. Morality cannot be grounded in realities external to the person. Ethics is independent of any authoritarian imposition. Moral values are imposed on the subject from within and evoke a requisite experience. The supreme value is the person.
  2. The Person as the Center of Moral Values: The person is a reality that cannot be objectified. In addition to being valuable, the person enriches and becomes more worthy of appreciation through their positive engagement with values. The key to good and evil lies within the person, the center and standard of moral values. Consciousness applies rules while considering values and attempting to grasp the circumstances in which individuals live. It is an active, personal, practical judgment we make with our intelligence regarding the goodness or badness of our actions, past or present.
  3. Ultimate Foundation of Morality: If God does not exist, everything is permitted. This does not diminish moral precepts and prohibitions. God is the root and source of morality.
  4. Moral: Static or Dynamic?: While individuals evolve, their essential nature as human beings remains constant.

Human Moral, Christian Moral

God’s plan of salvation encompasses all of time; humanity was created for divine friendship. Individuals have been loved and created by God to be deified and saved in Jesus Christ.

The content of God’s Law does not fundamentally alter the rules that develop between natural law and the law of grace. Biblical standards are referred to as the Commandments of God.

The specific rules found in the Old Testament are not directly and immediately revealed by God.