3.

FREEDOM
A. NATURE OF FREEDOM

Man knows that he is free and continuously experiences this

capacity to choose when he must make a judgment.

In life, we are always confronted with the need to make the right
choice. In order to decide, he needs to reflect and to study the
advantages and disadvantages of each position. In the last analysis,
he is making a decision about and for himself.

It is the person himself who is faced with the need for freedom, and
he himself who must freely decide.

Characteristics of Freedom

Freedom makes our way of acting human.

a) It enables man to attain maximum greatness, but also his worst

degradation

b) Freedom is the property of the human person, not just the will is
free, and rather the whole person is free.

c) Freedom permits the human person to direct his own acts towards
attaining a given goal that he has chosen due to the fact that he has
intellect and will.

Through the intellect the person knows the possible goal, and
through the will, the person can choose to act and take the action
towards attaining the goal.

d) Freedom is the result of the fact that man has intellect and will; with
the intelligence he can know the truth and love the good, he can
then direct himself towards achieving the goal.

Conclusion:

Freedom lies in the will. It is not enough to know the goal in order to
love it; the will must determine itself to love it. An essential aspect of
freedom is being directed towards the good.

Definition:

Freedom is the positive inclination towards the good.

NOTE:

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The person always chooses something good, but this does not mean that
he chooses well; is possible to choose evil. Evil is not loved in itself. The
free desire for something evil consistsin loving something good in a
disorderly way, that is without due orientation towardsthe goal.

B) THE DIMENSIONS OF FREEDOM

There are four dimensions of freedom

a) Fundamental freedom or constitutive freedom

b) Freedom of choice

c) Moral freedom

d) Social freedom

These concepts do not exist isolated from each other, rather the four
levels of freedom mutually rely on each other.

a) Fundamental freeedom

Is the deepest and most profound level. This freedom is not the
property of human acts, but rather it is the property of the whole
person in body and soul, with intellect and will.

The whole persom moves towards what is good moved by himself,

(freely). He is choosing what he wants to posses, make his own.

We can say that when a person chooses something freely, he is

choosing himself, the type of person he wants to be.

Due to this constitutive freedom, as human beings, we can develop

our personality, and become the type of person we want to be.Each
choice is a choice about us as persons

Freedom is not and cannot be absolute. Man’s freedom is real, finite

and limited. Human Feedom can grow, but is always finite because
no one can choose his way of being.

b) Freedom of Choice

Manifests itself when a series of possible choices presents

themselves. Freedom only makes sense if a decision is made, if one
of the possibilities is chosen.

Therefore freedom must choose.

Definition: The freedom to choose is the capacity to decide to act, or

not to act and how to act, in order to actually determine ourselves,
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 moving ourselves towards a good which will bring us closer to self-
fulfillment.

This freedom has two aspects:

i) The fact of exercising choice (I decide to choose)

ii) Actually choosing something specific (I choose this)

Therefore the freedom of choice makes the person the actual source
of specific acts of the will. Therefore we have to actually choose in
order to actually act in a free way.

c) Moral Freedom

Consists in actualisationof fundamental freedom over time, that is in

living one’s life and charting a particular way and identity – that of
being oneself. The actualisation of our freedom consists in a series
of decisions that designs one’s life and the incorporation into our
lives of the results of those decisions.

When this moral freedom continues to grow, it leads to fulness of

man’s freedom in his person and in his acts. Therefore we can say
that the moral freedom determines the personal dignity of the
individual. This dignity can grow if the person carries out good free
acts; he also becomes a better person through his acts.

For a person to develop his moral freedom, and to grow as a person

he needs to carry out habitually free and good activity, as moral
freedom is gained through good, free acts.

d) Social Freedom

This should permit the possibility of each person carrying out their
own life project in that society.

Definition: Social freedom “consists of the possibility of living one’s

ideals, that is the life project of the person, a family or institution, in
a particular environment. These life projects must be permitted and
must be possible.”

But human freedom is limited, partly because it produces

consequences in the social sphere. Any time we act, our conduct has
repercusions for ourselves and for the people around us. Social
freedom has to be considered together wiyh social responsibility.

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C) SELF DETERMINATION

We have seen that every choice brings with it a determining of the

person. When deciding the subject is choosing how to be a peron. In
free activity, the act is caused by the agent himself, because he
understands that this is the right action for him and he wants to
carry it out. Fot this reason we can speak of self-determination since
the subject decides on and determines his own actions.

Therefore, the will is the faculty of personal self-determination. If

there is no true act of the will there is no self determination. As the
person determines himself through his acts, the good of the person
is at stake.If the act chosen is good, it will contribute to the real
filfillment of the person. If the act chosen is bad, it will lead the
person further away from his realisation as a real good person.

Factors that Hinder Knowledge and Modify the Will (Freedom)

i) Lack of awareness or lack of full consent

Awareness or consent is the moral act in which the person realizes

what he is going to do, or what he is doing, along with the morality
of his action. There can be:

- Full awareness or consent

- Partial awareness or consent

- Absence of awareness or consent – the person does not

realize what he is doing therefore he is not responsible for his
actions.

ii) Ignorance

Ignorance implies a lack of knowledge in the person who ought to

have it - here we only take into account the lack of knowledge of
something that is obligatory to know.

There are three types of ignorance:

- Invincible ignorance. Dominates the conscience so much that it

cannot be overcome with reasonable means. The person does not
even suspect that his opinion is wrong.

- Vincible ignorance: - The person can overcome the ignorance but

has not taken enough interest to do so

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 - Affected ignorance; - Occurs when the person has no interest to
find out his obligations, try to forget them with the intention on of
avoiding them.

Here the person acts in bad faith, and because of this, affected
ignorance has greater moral gravity.

iii) The influence of the passions

In human behaviour, the person does not only act with his intellect
and will, but his passions are involved as well – desires, feelings,
emotions, etc.

The perception of any object by the senses gives rise to a reaction

towards it, which predisposes the will want or reject these goods.
These movements or reactions of the senses are known as passions.

The passions have to be subordinated to the intellect and will: the

will has to direct them to loving what is really good, and to reject
what is bad or not right for the person.

iv) The moral habits

Social conditions may influence the person, making it easier or more

difficult for him to acquire virtues, but they do not destroy people’s
freedom.

When the person uses his free will, he has the capacity to counter
this influence.

v) Violence

Violence is usually defined as that which proceeds from an external

principle, and is resisted by the person who suffers from it.

The internal act of the will can never be forced because through it,
the person intrinsically moves himself towards the goal that he
wants.

Violence affects the commanded acts, which are provoked against

the will of the person; they cannot be morally imputable to the
subject as they go against his will.

vi) Fear

Fear is a state of soul or an emotional disturbance caused by the

threat of an imminent danger that is difficult to avoid.

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 This fear influences freedom and occurs when a person acts
because he wants to avoid an evil that he fears, if not he would not
act.

In extreme cases the subject is not responsible for the act.

In mild cases, one is still responsible.

vii) Mental illness

Mental illness deprives a person of the use of reason or weakens

their will, therefore moral responsibility is reduced