• Story about human freedom is not yet complete.

• Choosing our life direction is only the first part

of the story and not the hardest part.
• The more challenging part of this freedom is the
responsibility that comes with it.
• Without responsibility, the exercise of freedom
by asserting one’s own personal choices is no
different from acting like a selfish teenager.
• Kierkegaard speaks of this kind of freedom of
self-choice as one that can only be completed
when it is performed before another person (in
his case, it was before an adjudicating God who
will demand of him to account for all his actions
on the Last Day.)
• Our commitment to the choices that would
direct our life path is strengthened by knowing
that there is someone out there gazing at us,
checking whether or not we are consistent with
our choice
• Kierkegaard who has set out a direct and radical
relationship with God, the process of realizing
oneself is grounded in the recognizing gaze of
the great Judge.
• The exercise of freedom is a social act.

• It is not simply about the assertion of one’s

preferences −− live and let-live −− but it is the
assertion of one’s preferences with a view to
the consequences this has on oneself and on
others.
• A responsible exercise of freedom takes the
following question in mind:

 Am I aware of the consequences of my choices as

soon as I act on them?
 Will I be able to answer to the grievances of those
who will be hurt by these consequences?
 Will I be able to face people with a dignified and
resolved stance when I am chastised, criticized for
my choice?
 Will I be prepared to give a reasonable answer to
their questions?
 If I have not even thought of the
consequences of the choice I make, then I am
being reckless. If I run away from the
consequences and refuse to face people in the
aftermath of those consequences, then I have
failed in consolidating my personality. In other
words, I remain to be nothing.
• Comes from two words:
response and ability

• Responsibility is the ability to respond.

Respond to a need or to a call for help, for
understanding, for love, for forgiveness.
Freedom is not freedom unless there is another
who recognizes it.

I may be free to do everything I want when I am

alone in another planet, but if there is no one to
recognize it, what is the point of asserting it?
The recognizing gaze of another exerts a gentle
pressure on me to solidify my choices into a
lifelong commitment of acting on it (Habermas,
1992)

Studies have shown the effectiveness of making

promises of conversion when it is done before a
witnessing body (Baumeister and Tierney, 2012)
 Exercise of freedom is an embodied action.
 Freedom is not just an idea we talk about.
It is something we enact.
 Because it is we, our embodied selves, who are
enact it, the action becomes visible to others.
 Person as embodied spirit that human action is
visible action because of bodies.
 Love is visible action through our bodies
(hugging, giving a helping hand).
 Freedom as visible through the action of our
bodies thus makes it difficult for the actor to
simply escape facing the consequences of his
actions.
 Someone who does not want to be held
responsibility for his actions would do those
actions in the dark.
A criminal plans his crime well so as
not to leave traces of himself as
responsible for the crime.
 This act is act of cowardice.
 According to the existentialists like Kierkegaard
and Sarte, cowardice is the opposite of freedom.
 Freedom can only be genuine when one takes
responsibility for it.
It is responsible when it is done socially,
declared in broad daylight before witnesses.
Freedom, Commitment and
the Strengthening of Oneself
• The ordinary eye may say, “sayang!” But the
reflective philosophical mind, who understands
the true meaning of freedom, now knows that
something was lost in the process. In fact, an
important thing was gained- oneself as a free
and mature being.