This document discusses the relationship between freedom, morality, and culture. It addresses the following key points: 1. According to philosophers like Kant, freedom is the foundation of moral acts, and good moral actions increase freedom while bad actions create enslavement to sin. 2. Freedom involves the power to act without restraint, but it is still bounded by rules in order to maintain order within societies. 3. Culture strongly influences moral development through social and cognitive factors. Cultural relativism posits that no single culture is superior and cultures should be understood on their own terms rather than by external standards.

1. FREEDOM & MORAL
ACTS

2. Content
a. The Foundation of Moral Act
b. Freedom and Free will
c. Human Act vs. Acts of Human

3. The Foundation of Moral Act
Freedom as the foundation of Moral Act
According to Immanuel Kant we can make sense of
moral appraisal and responsibility only by thinking
about human freedom.
Good moral actions make us freer; bad moral
actions make us a slave to our sin.

4. Freedom and Free will
FREEDOM
According to Oxford Languages, Freedom
is the power or right to act, speak or think
as one wants without hindrance or
restraint.
a measure or condition that keeps someone or something
under control or within limits.

5. QUESTION
Since Freedom is the power or right to act,
speak or think as one wants without hindrance
or restraint, does it mean that FREEDOM is
NOT bounded with rules?
To help us analyze this question, let us take a
look at the scenario in the next slide.

6. SCENARIO 1:
Suppose there exists a
city NOT bounded
with RULES. Can you
roam around freely in
that City? Can you
exercise your
FREEDOM in that
City?

7. Is FREEDOM NOT bounded
with rules?
QUESTION

8. FREE WILL
According to Oxford Languages, Free
will is the idea that we are able to
have some choice on how we act
and assumes that we are free to
choose our behavior.

9. Human Act
vs
Acts of Human

10. Human Acts
Human acts are actions done intentionally, free
and deliberate of a person.
These are actions that a man properly master
for he does them with full knowledge of his own
will.
All human act are subjected to morality.

11. Acts of Human
Natural involuntary actions.
Acts of person without the proper use of
reason.
Actions which are performed without the
intervention of the intellect and the free will.

12. Jumping into river
to save a person
drowning without
knowing to
swim/not.
Determine if it is ‘Human Act’ or
‘Acts of Human’
 ACTS OF HUMAN

13. Before jumping
into river, he
judges his ability
to swim and save.
If not, asks right
person to do it.
 HUMAN ACT
Determine if it is ‘Human Act’ or
‘Acts of Human’

14. CULTURE & MORALITY

15. Culture
• Culture is the patterns of learned and shared
behavior and beliefs of a particular social,
ethnic, or age group. It can also be described
as the complex whole of collective human
beliefs with a structured stage of civilization
that can be specific to a nation or time period.
Humans in turn use culture to adapt and
transform the world they live in.

16. Give one example of culture.
Culture

17. The influence of Culture in
Moral Development
Moral development is strongly influenced by
interpersonal factors, such as family, peers,
and culture.
Intrapersonal factors also impact
moral development, such as cognitive
changes, emotions, and even
neurodevelopment.

18. DYNAMICS OF
CULTURE

19. CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Is the ability to understand a culture
on its own terms and not to make
judgment using the standards of one’s
own culture.
The goal of this is promote
understanding of cultural practices that
are not typically part of one’s own
culture. Using the perspective of cultural
relativism leads to the view that no one
culture is superior than another culture
when compared to system of morality,
law, politics, etc.

20. Cultural relativism is considered to be more
construct and positive conceptions as
compared to ethnocentrism. It permits to
see an individual habits, values and morals in
the context of his or her cultural relevance
not by comparing it to one’s own cultural
values and by deeming these the most
superior greater of all.
is judging another
culture solely by the
values and standards
of one's own culture
CULTURAL RELATIVISM

21. Cultural relativism is widely accepted in modern
anthropology. Cultural relativism believes that all
culture are worthy in their own right and are of
equal value. Diversity of cultures, even those with
conflicting moral beliefs, is not to be considered in
terms of right and wrong or good and bad. Today’s
anthropologist consider all cultures to be equally
legitimate expressions of human existence, to be
studied from a purely neutral perspective.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM