JOHN F.

KAVANAUGH

HUMAN
FREEDOM

MAN IS DETERMINED
BY HIS HISTORICITY.
B.F. SKINNER

MAN IS SO FREE,
SO INDETERMINATE,
THAT HE CANNOT BE
DEFINED.
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

TO BE HUMAN
MEANS TO HAVE
POTENTIALITIES; TO
BE INSERTED INTO
AN ENVIRONMENT
AND HISTORY.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
REFLECTION AND QUESTIONING
ALL OF US SHARE IN THE ABILITY TO QUESTION OUR HISTORICITY AND
PAST. BY OUR QUESTIONING, WE HAVE ACHIEVED A DISTANCE FROM
AND A CERTAIN CONTROL OVER THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT.
I CAN REFLECT UPON MYSELF I CAN ACT UPON THIS
KNOWLEDGE CONSIDER MY HORIZONS, POTENTIALITIES AND
WHAT I MIGHT TO MAKE OF MYSELF. HENCE, I AM ABLE TO ACHIEVE
SELF-POSSESSION AND DETERMINATION.
IN THE DISTANCE OF SELF-REFLECTION I AM ABLE TO TAKE MYSELF,
MY ENVIRONMENT, MY NEEDS, AND MY VALUES AND SAY, WAIT A
SECOND- I DO NOT HAVE TO DO THAT. BY THE VERY ACT OF
CALLING SOMETHING INTO QUESTION I AM LIBERATING MYSELF
FROM THE CHAINS OF NECESSITY.
FREEDOM

PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
REFLECTION AND QUESTIONING

FREEDOM

Achieving a distance from blind necessity with respect to

external stimuli, values, etc.
Achieving a distance from myself seeing & questioning
myself in relation to present needs and conditions.
Achieving self-possession.
Achieving self-determination what I am.

FREE CHOICE:
A METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WILL

WILL

is an intellectual tendency or a tendency toward an

intellectually known good.
It is the good quality of the thing by which the will
is drawn or moved
The only object which could necessitate my will
would be a good that is unconditionally good in
an unqualified sense;
In many of my choices, however, the goods from
which I select as the good for me in this
decision are all conditioned, limited, and
qualified.
Freedom on choice is operative in my behavior.

THE POSITION OF
TOTAL DETERMINISM
SKINNER VS. KAVANAUGH
1. Genetics, biological & physical
structures influence ones behavior part
of the total person which is involved in
choosing.
2. The environmental structures
psychological development, culture,
ecclesiastical factors wherein the self is
situated in.

1. Man can still channel & improve his

awareness of external forces that
demands impingement upon him/her.

3. The awareness of external forces that

demands impingement upon individual,
thus creating needs & values.

3. Man can achieve distance from

external demand and forces; can
hesitate, reflect, challenge and
deliberate; can talk about them.

2. Man can question his environmental

structures; can revolt against them;
can undergo psychological experience
to restructure them

THE POSITION OF
TOTAL DETERMINISM
In summary, determinism has a great deal in helping us
understand how ones historicity influences ones
behaviour. However, as a total explanation of human
behaviour, it fails to account for the data of questioning,
self-reflection and intelligent inquiry; cannot succeed in
validating its own position nor the value of scientific
investigation.

THE CASE FOR

ABSOLUTE FREEDOM
I AM MY FREEDOM

- ones identity is freedom itself.

Man is absolutely free because there is no God to

conceive man as a definable essence.
The position of Sartre is opposed to that of Skinner.
For Kavanaugh, to be me involves the structure of what
being me is; and whenever I may go or flee, I will carry
myself with me.

THE CASE FOR

ABSOLUTE FREEDOM
SARTRE VS. KAVANAUGH
1. Man is not tied down by his facticity
and the world in which he finds
himself... Freedoms meaning is a
struggle with and negation of what is
given.
2. Man is not tied down by his past or
by the choices of the past...
3. There is no definable limitation to my
identity, since I choose it and make my
own essence

To be me involves the structure of what

being me is; and whenever I may go or
flee, I will carry myself with me.

STRUCTURED FREEDOM:
HUMAN REALITY
Freedom of man involves both extremes.
Absolute determinism (Skinner) either omits the data of
transcendence and questioning or tries to reduce it to
external forces. Absolute indeterminism (Sartre)
ignores mans history and structure or tries to wish it out
of existence.

STRUCTURED FREEDOM:
HUMAN REALITY
Structure is not only compatible with freedom, it is fundamental
to all human growth, evolution, and process Freedom is exercised
only within the structure of ones humanity and history.
1. Structures are the offerings of the world to which I come
2. It is also the internal constitution of being a man with human
potentialities.
3. My own freely created life project is also a structure

In sum, man is freedom within structure.

ON FREEDOM AND ANXIETY

Freedom can be a lonely & terrifying thing It is not a reward or
a decoration that is celebrated with champagne (Camus).
There is no escape from freedom. In a way we are condemned to
be free (Sartre).
In our exercises of freedom, we are alone No one else can do it
for us and our choices are irrevocable, since the present moment is
never to be repeated. We cannot undo what we have chosen.

ON FREEDOM AND ANXIETY

Freedom is the source of human ambiguity (Frankl). It is
terrible and it is beautiful.

Mans meaning is not only to possess himself

freely. His identity is not fully achieved until,
having possessed himself, he gives himself to
other.