We cannot think of being a moral person without freedom. Without freedom there is no morality because no real decisions can be made and therefore people cannot assume total responsibility for their actions. No Freedom No real Decisions No Responsibility No Morality

Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God. ~ CCC #1731

Every person has the capacity to take an initiative, to begin something that will have an impact on that person for the rest of his/her life. The agent (a person making a decision) locates his/her freedom in his/her capacity to act. Freedom is the Power…..

the person who acts freely and knowingly, The person who chooses to do or not to do something, (to commit or omit an action) a person who is accountable for his/her own actions (responsible) A person who is able to “intend” to do things The Agent:

When you say, “I intend to go to university next year” you commit yourself. It is more than, “I want to go to university next year.” Intending includes making a judgement without conditions Intending means beginning to discern which subjects you will take and to which universities you will apply Power lies in the INTENTION of the Agent

With the intention of doing certain things, you reshape who you are (even if its just an intention) For ethics it is most important to discover what your commitments, your beliefs about your capacities, your image of the world, your faith, your hopes, your goals, your capacity to keep your word. These things tell you who you are.

We are agents of change in our own lives and in the lives of others. However, this power or capacity to act cannot overshadow our responsibility to others. We cannot assume power over others in the name of freedom. Ex. Individualism can isolate the pregnant woman from her own child; she might consider the child in her womb as nothing more than a part of her own body with which she can deal as she pleases, thereby failing to recognize the human right of the unborn child who is so dependent on her.

Action – what the agent does Your actions shape who you are; Examples: Doing your homework Gossiping with friends Lying to your family Shoplifting Volunteering Ethical theory is concerned with intentional not unintentional actions such as reflexes or sneezing. They are still actions of a person, but they are not moral actions since they are not infused with the power of intention. To act or not to act, to do this or that….

Say you are driving a car at 30 km/h over the speed limit. You lose fall asleep at the wheel and take out somebody’s mailbox. Did you intend for the crash to happen? Were you actions wrong? Can actions, taken on their own, be judged as good, bad or indifferent?

Under certain circumstances, we excuse people who have done wrong. We hold these people blameless or not morally responsible for what they did. Ethicists generally speak of 4 conditions under which we normally excuse people.

We excuse people when we don’t believe they were aware of the unfavourable consequences their actions would produce or because they couldn’t reasonably have known how to prevent the consequences.

We usually excuse people when we think that they cold not help what they did, that they had little choice in the matter. There are 2 types of constraints Internal Constraints come from overwhelming inner urges, desires, cravings or impulses.

External Constraints: refers to outside factors or forces which force someone to act against their will. What you do under threat of violence, in extreme hunger, or under pressure affects the level of your intention and motive.

When in our estimation, the circumstances of an act are beyond the person’s control, we generally excuse their behaviour. Some legitimate circumstantial excuses include: illness, accidents and unexpected duties.

Circumstances (positive or not) reflect how much of the action was really in your ownership Circumstances can increase or decrease your responsibility in an action Circumstances must always be taken into consideration when evaluating actions

We excuse actions when we think that people lack either the ability or opportunity to do the right thing.

Catholic teaching states that we are more than just products of our society, genetics and even our religion. With freedom every individual has a say in what their future will look like. Individuals are free to become themselves despite all the constraints around them.

We have been blessed in the west with the discovery of freedoms that previously had gone undetected. We have begun to understand ourselves as individuals who have a right to dignity and respect. This discovery has protected individuals from authoritarian governments who assumed that they governed by divine right. helped societies to recognize intolerable conditions – such as slavery and child labour relieved the subjugation of women relieved torture and relieved the persecution of those who practice their faith

The maintenance and promotion of human dignity should be the motive that drives our intentions and actions Motive – the reason for an action Providing a reason for the action is to say why it is worth doing Motives are used to help justify the action – you appeal to a value that makes the action right Motive

A good intention and your goodness as an agent may be diminished in “goodness” by the means with which you intend to execute that intention. Example: I intended to get an A on my paper so I decided to download an essay from the internet and submit as my own. Remember “The end does not justify the means” The means qualify the action

An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas

Our freedom has the terrifying capacity to turn away from God. Christians have called this sin. This ability to sin shows that freedom involves the core of human existence. It is at the heart of our relationship with God. Through sin we can say no to the very one who gave us existence. It means in our freedom we can turn against ourselves. Adam and Eve realized this when they first discovered their freedom in their capacity to say no to God. Perfect freedom can only be attained when following the will of God.

Who you are MeansIntentionsActionsMotive

Fact or Fiction?

When you exercise your freedom, the action that results makes a mark or a change in the world. In making these marks or changes you yourself are changed. But to say that you are free means that you are not complete because you always have unrealized possibilities. You are free however because you have possibilities.

There are some philosophers however that will hold that there is no such thing as freedom. The view that human actions are determined by prior events is called DETERMINISM ~ everything that happens, including every human action, is determined by previous events and the laws of nature. Every event has prior conditions that cause it, so each event is at least theoretically predictable if we know all its prior conditions and all the laws governing those conditions.

Determinists argue that human actions are part of this causal chain of nature and so are also determined. Determinists hold that there is only one path leading from the past through the present and into the future. It is not possible for the future to take any path other than the one that prior events and the laws of nature force it to take. Ultimately, if determinism is correct, then all events in the future are as unalterable as are all events in the past. Consequently, human freedom is simply an illusion.

Simple branching timeline. Out of many possible futures, we select one, according to particular choices or decisions made (this obviously implies free will). In a branching many worlds style multiverse, all possible timelines already exist. In a linear timeline there is only one past and one future. Determinists hold that there is only one path leading from the past through the present and into the future.

The laws of causality ensure that everything that happens has to happen. Therefore, no one is responsible for his or her actions. The real causes for our actions lie outside us, in the events and conditions that caused us to act as we did and in the laws that govern our acts. The determinist view of reality is summarized in the following arguments: All events and actions are causally determined by previous events and the laws of nature Casual determinism rules out human freedom and personal responsibility So humans are not free, nor are they personally responsible for what they do

If determinism is true, then it makes no sense to hold individuals responsible for their actions, whether for good or evil. The saint should no more be praised than the criminal should be punished. Neither is ultimately responsible for what he/she did.

According to determinists free choice amounts to little more than human ignorance. We think we are free merely because we cannot predict our own or others’ future behaviour. There could never be any possible proof that we could have acted otherwise since the proof is precisely what never did occur and never will occur.