Lesson 5: Freedom as the Foundation for Moral Acts

For the Lyrics, you may access this link: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/franksinatra/myway.html

1. What's your favorite line from the song, My Way? Why is it your favorite? This Way 

2. Does the song suggest choice or freedom? Why? 

3. If a beast like a dog could sing the same song, could the dog be honestly singing what the song expresses?

Ethics Applies Only to Human Persons 

The song, My Way/Born This Way, implies choice or freedom "I did it my way". Unlike the lower forms of animals, human persons have a choice or freedom, hence morality applies only to human persons. 

Ethics, therefore, applies only to human persons. We cannot say a cat is "unethical" when it eats the food at table intended for you or when a dog urinates on your favorite bag lying on the floor. 

Dilemmas presuppose freedom. Freedom-loving societies have customary ways of training the young to exercise their freedom. Parents regularly give their children opportunities to choose. "Guys; what do you want for breakfast ham and egg or pancake?" Later in life, they come face to face with hard choices. Then dilemmas come along. There is such a thing as a dilemma because there is such a thing as freedom. If there is no ability or power of choice, then any incident simply happens without any interference. There would also be no obligation to do any act in expectation of the responsibility following the act. 

Freedom and Moral Choice

Without freedom it is impossible to make a moral choice. It we are to have free will we must have the ability to make a decision that is unhindered. Kant believed that we must have free will if we are to be held morally responsible for our actions. If God did not give us free will then our decisions cannot be the considered immoral or moral as we would have had to act the way we did. Thus we cannot be held responsible; a good moral action cannot be praised as you whilst an immoral action cannot be punished as once again there was no free choice. In other words, making moral choice is a necessary consequence for being free, a consequence of being a human person.

Because a human person has freedom, he/she has a choice and so is responsible for the consequences of his/her choice. The lower forms of animals have no choice since they are bound by instinct and so cannot be held responsible for their behavior. 

To be Ethical: Own Not Merely Abide by Moral Standards 

Having free will or freedom to choose among alternatives, which implies prior analysis and study, is coming to terms with what you finally affirm or deny. When you arrive at a personal conviction and self- affirmation, you begin to own the moral standard. The moral standard begins to be integrated, internalized. You follow the norm not because it is imposed by others, not because others say so or authoritatively impose it on you. On the other hand, merely abiding by moral standards means applying them as basis to resolve a moral problem without necessarily having internalized them. Merely abiding by them means once the enforcer is not around, the moral standard is not followed.

Or if you do not own or internalize the standard, you will tend to use it for convenience, to evade responsibility, to put the blame on the standard itself when things do not end well. You simply become legalistic, and adopt the maxims, "follow the rule or law, even if the sky falls down"; "the law says so"; the law is hard, but it is the law (dura lex sed lex). You follow the law because others, authorities, regulators say so not because you say so. 

Owning moral standards means internalizing them, making them part of your conviction. Internalized or embodied moral standards are being followed with or without anyone telling you. 

You internalize a rule after using reason to understand. When you are persuaded of its wisdom, it becomes your basis of resolving an ethical problem. You decide to do something not because the law says so but because you yourself say so. 

This may be termed as the embodiment of the moral standard in you. The moral standard becomes one with the moral agent. As the moral agent, this moral standard becomes your natural and immediate basis in your ethical decision making. 

The presupposition is that you have come to own the moral standard after having been convinced of its wisdom, having chosen it among other principles or standards. Any dilemma regarding the standard has been resolved. Under the Chinese Taoist concept of harmony, this is where the thought, the word, and the action become one. This author once visited a Taoist temple and had a chance to ask what a Taoist live by as a principle of life. He replied, "what I think must be the same as what I say, and what I say must be the same as what I do." The result is oneness of thought, word and action, and its effect is an integrated personality, personality made whole. 

Making your mind, word, and action, a unity is not easy. You have in mind the maxim, "honesty is the best policy." As a teacher you always tell that to students. But deep in your heart you know it has been difficult to be honest all the time. There was a joke, of which no one knew the source regarding the motto of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) " Integrity, Courage, Loyalty." This is a signage at the gate of PMA in Baguio City. At that time, some military officials, alumni of PMA, were being investigated for corruption, the "Integrity" disappeared.