5.

1 Realize that “all actions have consequences”

Aristotle
THE POWER OF VOLITION
The imperative quality of a judgment of practical intellect is meaningless, apart from will. Reason can
legislate, but only through will can its legislation be translated into action. The task of practical intellect is to
guide will by enlightening it. Will, in fact, is to be understood wholly in terms of intellect. If there were no
intellect, there would be no will. This is obvious from the way in which will is rationally denominated.
The will of humanity is an instrument of free choice. It is within the power of everyone to be good or
bad, worthy or worthless. This is borne out:
(1), By our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or wrong;
(2) By the common testimony of all human beings;
(3) By the rewards and punishment of rulers;
(4) By the general employment of praise and blame.
 Moral acts, which are always particular acts, are in our power and we are responsible for
them. Character or habit is no excuse for immoral conduct. Attending class is a student’s
responsibility. Should the student cut class, then he/she is responsible for the consequences
of his actions. As a result, he/she must be held responsible for any accident or failure in
grades that will befall on him/her. The student may regret what he/she had done, but all the
regrets in the world will not call it back. The point is, the student should not have cut class in
the first instance. When the matter is sifted down, the happiness of every human being’s
soul is in his own hands, to preserve and develop, or to cast away.

Aristotle: Intellectual Freedom

Action

Will
Reason
St. Thomas Aquinas

Love is freedom
Of all creatures of God, human beings have the unique power to change themselves and the things around
them for the better. St. Thomas Aquinas considers the human being as a moral agent. As discussed in
Chapter Three, we are both the spiritual and body elements; the spiritual and material. The unity between
both elements indeed helps us to understand our complexity as human beings. Our spirituality separates us
from animals; it delineates moral dimension of our fulfillment in an action. Through our spirituality, we have
a conscience. Whether we choose to be “good” or “evil” becomes our responsibility.
A human being, therefore, has a supernatural, transcendental destiny. This means that he can rise above
his ordinary being or self to a highest being or self. This is in line with the idea of St. Thomas that in the plan
of God, a human being has to develop and perfect himself by doing his daily tasks. Hence, if a human being
perseveringly lives a righteous and virtuous life, he transcends his mortal state of life and soars, to an
immortal state of life.
The power of change, however, cannot be done by human beings alone, but is achieved with cooperation
with God. Between humanity and God, there is an infinite gap, which God alone can bridge through His
power. Perfection by participation here means that it is a union of humanity with God. Change should
promote not just any purely private advantage, but the good of the community.
Aquinas gives a fourfold classification of law: the eternal law, natural law, human law, and divine law.
Human beings, as being rational, have laws that should not only be obeyed but also obeyed voluntarily and
with understanding (for instance, in following the traffic rules). The natural law, then, in its ethical sense,
applies only to human beings. The first principle and precept of the natural law is that good is to be sought
after and evil avoided (This is the instruct of self-preservation.) There is inherent in every human being an
inclination that he shares with all other beings, namely the desire to conserve human life and forbids the
contrary. For instance, if there is fire, and its burning heat is felt, then, it is but a human tendency to avoid it.
Since the law looks to the common good as its end, it is then conceived primarily with external acts and
not with interior disposition. For example, if someone does not lie to his parents so they will increase his
allowance, then the reason of his goodness stems not because he does not want to lie because it will
hurt them but because he knows that there is a reward for being so. Same goes with government
officials, who use full media coverage when they help their constituents, so that people would vote for
them. A person thus should not be judged through his actions alone but also through his sincerity behind
his acts.
For Aquinas, both natural and human laws are concerned with ends determined simply by
humanity’s nature. However, since a human being is in fact ordained to an end transcending his nature, it
is necessary that he has a law ordering him to that end, and this is the divine law, or revelation.
It also gives human beings the certitude where human reason unaided could arrive only at possibilities. It
deals with interior disposition as well as external acts and it ensures the final punishment of all evildoings.
Neither of which is possible for human law. This divine law is divided into old (Mosaic) and the new (Christian)
that are related as the immature and imperfect to the perfect and complete. We have, however, now passed
beyond philosophy, since this rests on reason and experience alone; the analysis of the divine law is the
function of theology.
For Aristotle, the purpose of a human being is to be happy. To be one, one has to live a virtuous life. In
other words, human beings have to develop to the full their powers – rational, moral, social, emotional, and
physical here on earth. For St. Thomas, he follows the same line of thinking, but points to a higher form of
happiness possible to humanity beyond this life, and that is perfect happiness that everyone seeks but could
be found only in God alone.
St. Thomas wisely and aptly chose and proposed Love rather than Law to bring about the
transformation of humanity. For Love is in consonance with humanity’s free nature, for Law
commands and complete: Love only calls and invites. Thomas emphasizes the freedom of
humanity but chooses love in governing humanity’s life. Since God is Love, then Love is the
guiding principle of humanity toward his self-perception and happiness – his ultimate destiny.

St. Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Freedom

Actions
(Good or
evil)
Conscienc
e

God’s
Love
Jean Paul Sartre: Individual Freedom

Sartre’s philosophy is considered to be a representative of existentialism (Falikowski, 2004). For

Sartre, the human person is the desire to be God: the desire to exist as a being which has its sufficient
ground in itself (en sui causa). There are no guideposts along the road of life. The human person
builds the road to the destiny of his/her choosing; he/she is the creator (Srathern, 1998).

Sartre’s existentialism stems from this principle: existence precedes essence

• The person, first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world and defines himself
afterwards. The person is nothing else but that what he makes of himself.
• The person is provided with a supreme opportunity to give meaning to one’s life. In the course of
giving meaning to one’s life, one fills the world with meaning.
• Freedom is therefore the very core and the door to authentic existence. Authentic existence is
realized only in deeds that are committed alone, in absolute freedom and responsibility and
which therefore the character of true creation.
• The person is what one has done and is doing, not what he/she dreams, hopes and expects.
• On the other hand, the human person who tries to escape obligations and strives to be en-soi,
(i.e., excuses such as “I was born this way” or “I grew up in a bad environment”) is acting on
bad faith (mauvais foi).