This document discusses different philosophers' views on freedom: - For Kierkegaard, freedom results from a "leap of faith" through aesthetic, ethical and theological stages toward a relationship with God. - Sartre saw freedom as an anxiety stemming from our alienation from the world and our responsibility to define our own essence through choice. - Skinner rejected human freedom, arguing behavior is determined by reinforcement and punishment from the environment. - Camus saw an "absurd" conflict between our desire for meaning and life's meaninglessness. He advocated "metaphysical rebellion" through absolute freedom as a way to deal with this.

1. FREEDOM Kierkegaard | Sartre
Skinner | Camus

2. TOPICS
Freedom according to:
Kierkegaard
Sartre
Skinner
Camus

3. OBJECTIVE
S
Evaluate one’s freedom
Understand the distinctions
between different theories on
freedom

4. TO BE OR
NOT TO BE
Perhaps, one of the
most common question
on human life is how
free we are, if we really
are.
You’d go to school, then at
lunch you will eat. Perhaps,
the point that you have the
choice on what to eat
constitutes your freedom.
Maybe, not, because you
have no choice other than to
eat. Can you not eat?

5. FREEDOM:
KIERKEGAAR
D

6. FREEDOM: KIERKEGAARD
Søren Kierkegaard (father of
existentialism) explains anxiety as the
dizzying effect of freedom, of paralyzing
possibility, of the boundlessness of one’s
own existence — a kind of existential
paradox of choice.
existentialism - a philosophical theory or approach
which emphasizes the existence of the individual person
as a free and responsible agent determining their own
development through acts of the will.

7. DIZZINESS
OF
FREEDOM
For Kierkegaard, to
resolve this paradox of
choice, we must have a
leap of faith.

8. LEAP OF
FAITH
Leap of Faith has three
components/ stages:
Aesthetic Stage
Ethical Stage
Theological Stage

9. LEAP OF FAITH
Aesthetic Stage
immersion in sensuous experience
physical and external standards serve as
the basis
an attraction to the beautiful

10. LEAP OF
FAITH
Aesthetic Stage
(Characteristics)
empty-headedness:
you do not think
about it, you just
accept it as it is as
long as it is beautiful
extravagant
expectations; need
for novelty

11. LEAP OF FAITH
But humans are not stupid,
per se. They will eventually
realize the weakness of relying
in sensuous experience.
Thus, the second stage, the
ethical.

12. LEAP OF FAITH
Ethical Stage
consciousness in
terms of the moral
aspects in life.
an individual tries
to discern whether
his action is good
or bad

13. LEAP OF FAITH
It is true that humans
have that capability
to make sense of
what could be right
or wrong—but, how
do we make sure of
it?
Could it be that such
is the limit of human

14. LEAP OF FAITH
Theological Stage
the last stage; the
individual seeks for a
supreme being
freedom is authentic
if it is lived in
consciousness with
the supreme being

15. LEAP OF FAITH
Theological Stage
our choices in theological stage are
also within the bounds of morality…
is this the same with ethical stage?
how different is this theological
stage?

16. LEAP OF FAITH
Theological Stage
Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac
provides the difference

17. KIERKEGAARD’S
CHRISTIANITY
Rejected the sufficiency of the
idea of being born Christian
Christianity is a commitment
which the most of the mob of
‘Christendom’ do not posses

18. the “herd”
phenomenon
Passive
adherence
Empty belief
conjoined with
social membership
Unconditional
religious
commitment
Christianity is a
paradox, which
demands passionate
faith
Belief is one part,
but passion would
be the proper
response for it.
Kierkegaard disliked the
Kierkegaard believes that

19. FREEDOM: SARTRE

20. FREEDOM: SARTRE
For Jean-Paul Sartre anxiety stems from
our alienation from the world.
“So long as I am gearing into the world
practically, in a seamless and absorbed
way, things present themselves as
meaningfully coordinated with the
projects in which I am engaged; they show
me the face that is relevant to what I am
doing.”

21. SARTRE: FACTICITY
When we understand the gap between
the actual meaning of something and
its practical meaning for us, we realize
our own Facticity. Our being ‘thrown’
into existence. Our being condemned
to be free.
At that point we realize that everything
in the world is disgusting, even our
own existence.

22. SARTRE:
FACTICITY
The following is from Sartre’s book
Nausea:
As Roquentin sits in a park, the root
of a tree loses its character of
familiarity until he is overcome by
nausea at its utterly alien character,
its being en soi [in itself].

23. SARTRE: BAD FAITH
For Sartre, whenever that happens, we
usually flee in bad faith.
Examples:
 a café waiter being too ‘waiter-esque’
 a woman in first date being too ‘woman-in-a-
first-date’
 religious automatons, political automatons, etc.

24. SARTRE:
BAD FAITH
By acting in bad faith the
waiter and the woman are
denying their own freedom,
but by actively using this
freedom itself. They
manifestly know they are free,
but refuse to acknowledge it.
This now becomes a paradox:
when acting in bad faith, we
actively deny our freedom;
however, we rely on it to
perform our denial.

25. EXISTENCE PRECEDES
ESSENCE
This can be resolved, though. For
in our freedom, we bear
responsibility for it. In our
realization of being condemned
to be free, we become anything
but free.
This will all be possible for
existence precedes essence.

26. EXISTENCE PRECEDES
ESSENCE
The essence of something is its
supposed actuality, this is
manifested in a plan, or
blueprint, such and such.
But, humans does not have those.
We have no purpose and there is
no such ‘human nature’. [This
includes the non-existence of
man’s creator for Sartre is an
atheist.]

27. SARTRE:
TRANSCEND
ENCE
Thus, in our existence, and
thus in our freedom, we
create our essence. We
create our own values; in
general, we mold what a
‘human’ is.

28. FREEDOM: SKINNER
Burrhus Frederic Skinner is
more famous through his
works in Psychology. He is
known for his Operant
Conditioning.
He also contributed in the
question of freedom. For
him, human freedom is

29. FREEDOM:
SKINNER
“Man's struggle for freedom is not
due to a will to be free, but to
certain behavioral processes
characteristic of the human
organism, the chief effect of which
is the avoidance of or escape from
so-called "aversive" features of the
environment.”

30. SKINNER:
REINFORCE
MENT AND
PUNISHMEN
T
Skinner’s idea on how
we do things as if we
are free are only due to
external factors applied
to us. These can be:
•Positive – reinforcing stimulus is added (giving
kiss for doing homework)
•Negative – aversive stimulus is removed (you
washing the dishes to stop mom’s nagging)
1. Reinforcement –
increasing the
probability of behavior
•Positive – aversive stimulus added (teacher
reprimanding a student picking his nose)
•Negative – reinforcing stimulus removed (mom
caught you watching porn, she cut the internet)
2. Punishment –
decreasing the
probability of behavior

32. FREEDOM: CAMUS

33. FREEDOM:
CAMUS
Albert Camus, much like most
existentialists, is influenced by
Sartre’s works. However,
Camus, denied that he,
himself, is an existentialist.
This roots from the major
difference he has with Sartre.
Camus’ philosophy focused on
the ‘absurd’—the conflict
between the human tendency
to seek inherent value and
meaning in life and the human
inability to find any in a
purposeless, meaningless or

34. CAMUS VS
SARTRE
Remember Sartre saying
‘existence precedes
essence’?
For Camus, it was the opposite. Camus
embraced the idea that man has an
essence—that is, the absurd. This is
highlighted in his essays including The
Myth of Sisyphus.

37. DEALING
WITH THE
ABSURD
So how should we deal
with this?
For Camus, what we need
is a metaphysical rebellion.
•“The only way to deal with an
unfree world is to become so
absolutely free that your very
existence is an act of rebellion.”

38. DEALING WITH THE ABSURD
Metaphysical Rebellion is
another point of schism
between Camus and Sartre.
There is responsibility in
Sartre’s solution to the irony
of freedom; for Camus,
freedom is just freedom that
we should enjoy even if we
don’t.

39. ACTIVITY: CONCEPT MAP
1. Create a concept map.
2. Include at least 10 concepts that we’ve
discussed and show how they are related to
one another. Use the concept freedom at
the center-point.