Personalism and Freedom: A Philosophical Perspective
Personnel
A school of thought advocates the dignity of the human individual. According to Ferrater Mora, “Personalism is any doctrine that holds the higher value of the individual against the impersonal.” Emmanuel Mounier is the best-known representative of personalism. To Mounier, the human being is not merely a material object, nor is it a spirit. Nor can a person be divided into two distinct substances: mind-body, or mind-brain. Its design is unitary: the person does not live inside a body but
Read MoreEthical Theories, Happiness, and Human Rights
Ethical Theory
In the moral sphere, we hold elections to elect. We begin to move both our hearts (sentiments, desires, and affections) as our reason (intelligence). If we make decisions, it is because we want things, but we also want to make reasonable choices.
Negative duties are formulated as a prohibition, ordering what should not be done. Positive duties require a particular action to be performed. For example, not killing is a negative duty, while assisting a wounded person is a positive duty.
Read MoreUnderstanding Religious Consciousness and Belief Systems
Enigmas of Man
Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going?
The Religious
1. Personal Appearance
Man tries to discover the absolute ground of reality and of himself and tries to get in touch with him. That is, to try to know what all are and guide their lives accordingly.
2. Social Aspect
Religion has a social aspect that includes:
- A set of common beliefs.
- A group consciousness.
- A common worship.
Levels of Approach to Religion
1. Sociology of Religion
Questions the reality and the social significance
Read MoreKantian Ethics: Duty, Morality, and the Categorical Imperative
A man expresses his freedom when he determines his actions by the idea of duty, by the mandate of reason. Unconditioned morality should be the only autonomous morality, unlike all those that support the validity of moral norms in an extra-human term or the achievement of a goal outside the action itself (the case of happiness). To subordinate the action for this purpose means making it depend on an empirical element, sensitive, not from the inherent nature of man, which is reason. In this, ethics
Read MoreDavid Hume’s Philosophy: Skepticism and Emotivism
David Hume’s Critique of the Concept of “I”
Critics of the concept of “I”: Hume used criticism of the concept of innate ideas and the “I” to develop Cartesian skepticism. The existence of substance as a cognoscente “I” had been considered unquestionable, not only by Descartes. It seemed that the “I” was immediately called an intuition: “I think therefore I am.” Hume also criticized the “I” as a reality different from impressions and ideas. Regarding the existence of the “I” as the subject of ongoing
Kant’s Philosophy: Social Contract, Cosmopolitan Law, and Freedom
Social Contract Theory
Social contract, in various philosophical theories, refers to the covenant, agreement, or contract by which people hypothetically decided to create a civil state (social, legal, peaceful), leaving the natural and semi-wild state they supposedly lived in before. For Kant, the social contract was probably the first moral obligation people adopted long ago, leaving the state of nature and seeking peace, justice, and freedom (moral and legal), which are only possible in a civil
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