IS THERE SUCH A THING AS
HUMAN FREEDOM?
Chapter 2 continued
Not all philosophers agree on the
question of human freedom
• If INTENTION is the heart of an
action
• Then the heart of an action is
something we cannot see.
• Intention has been traditionally
identified as a spiritual,
(transcendent) quality
The Catechism on Freedom
• Freedom characterizes properly human
acts. It makes the human being
responsible for acts of which he (or she)
is the voluntary agent. (#1745)
• Freedom is the power to act or not to
act, and so to perform deliberate acts of
one’s own. Freedom attains perfection
in its acts when it is directed towards
God the sovereign Good.(#1744)
Freedom is not real
•Naturalism (Physical
Determinism)
•Religious Determinism
•Social Determinism
Naturalism
• Coined by G.E. Moore, Principia Ethica
in 1903
• Built on Hume’s challenge to principle of
causality
• Key ideas:
– Material universe a unified system
– Everything follows physical, biological
processes
– Concrete evidence a must, empirical/
scientific experiment  what is true
It’s all in the genes
• A direct assault on human freedom
• DNA  who you are  genetic predisposition
 your choices/promises/actions
• Freedom is now a delusion
• Naturalism now causes us to deny the
possibility of ethics and morality
– How can you be responsible for actions if you
have no control over them?
Neurons  Actions
• Genetic predispositions
• would lead us to wonder:
– are people really guilty of crimes?
– Are we COMPELLED to behave in certain
ways?
– About “free will,” guilt, innocence other
mitigating factors
• If causal connection: we’d no longer be
agents
Yet…
• We need our body to act
• Your spirit is an embodied spirit,
• Spiritual capacities,
• Free will,
ARE IN SOME WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR
BODY
Naturalism cannot account for human freedom
or the moral drive.
Mind – Brain Distinction
•
•
•
•
Rene Descartes
“I think, therefore I am.”
“Cogito, ergo sum.”
Descartes created a split between
thinking and the world of matter: a
thinking mind with no link to the
body. (Body / Mind split)
Thomas Huxley
• The brain a machine like
everything else in nature
• Mind only a passive
reflection of the brain’s
activity.
Catholic Tradition
• DOES NOT deny:
– Discoveries of science
– Connections between mind & brain
• The human mind is more than physical
functions
– Provides capacity for freedom, choice,
action
– The heart of our capacity to receive God’s
self-revelation in faith, understand, live a
life of loving service
The human person
A being at once physical
and spiritual. (CCC #362)
Soul our “innermost
aspect” of “greatest value”
Soul signifies our “spiritual
principle”
Our spiritual tradition
• Emphasizes the heart
–Depths of one’s being
–Where one decides
• For
• Or against
• GOD (CCC #368)
Religious Determinism
• PREDESTINATION
–God predetermined the course
• Of the world
–History
–Each person
–PROVIDENCE
• God’s influence 
John Calvin
• French Reformer, 1509-1564
• Believed in Predestination
• Freedom & ethics not a part of
doctrine of predestination
• CATHOLIC TEACHING DISAGREES!
–Human freedom & God’s providence
do not conflict!
Puritans
• Offshoot of Calvinism
• Sin  totally depraved humans
– >live entire lives deserving eternal damnation
– Cut off from God, helpless to save themselves
– Don’t believe that God wants to save all
• God elects some, rejects others.
Catholic Tradition
• we are free because of God’s
providence
• Salvation: God’s initiative of love,
that requires & makes possible
our cooperation
St. Augustine (354-430)
• 1st great theologian to write
about free will and its connection to
grace
• He WAS a Manichaean (he
converted)
–No free will
–Body / matter are evil
–Spirit / soul are good
Augustine continued
• Taught against Pelagianism
– PELAGIUS
• Free will has total power
• Acc. To Augustine, Pelagians gave free will
too much power
• “It is certain that we will when we will;
but God brings it about that we act, but
that without God’s help we neither will
anything good nor do it.”
Social Determinism
• Outside influences  behaviour
• Examples:
–Parents
–Culture
–Psychological state
–Traumatic experiences
–One’s: history, social background, race,
gender…
Sigmund Freud
• Unconscious determines behaviour
• Repressed memories & desires  unconscious
impulses
• Behaviour patterns are “neurotic”, one’s
dreams actually resurfacing memories &
desires
• Not free until you connect with repressed
memories
• UNCONSCIOUS determinism
More Freud
• SUBLIMATION
– Channelling behaviour in less neurotic, more
creative ways in right action
• Two basic instincts:
– Life (Eros)
– Death (Thanatos)