LAGUNA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

San Pablo City Campus

Brgy. Del Remedio, San Pablo City

PHILOSOPHY:
CONCEPT AS A PERSON

Prepared By:
Alibudbud, Joebett C.

Submitted to:
Mr. Alfredo Layco Jr.

BS-OA III-A
Modern Philosophers and Their Concept as a Person
1. Rene Descartes
 Descartes was born on March 31, 1956 in La Haye, Touraine, and France. He is the father of
modern rationalism. He is called as soldier of fortune, a scientist, scholar, pilgrim, traveler and a
firm adherent of Roman Catholic faith. His devised method for reaching the truth known as the
method of systematic doubt.
Rene Descartes is generally considered the father of modern philosophy. He was the
first major figure in the philosophical movement, known as rationalism, a method of
understanding the world based on the use of reasons as the means to attain knowledge.

Concept as a Person
Descartes asserts that a human would still be human without hands or hair or face. He also
asserts that other things that are not human may have hair, hands or faces, but human would
not be human without reason, and only humans possess the ability to reason.

Hum an beings were composites of two kinds of substances, mind and body. A mind is a conscious or
thinking being. It understands, wills, senses and imagines. A body is a being extended in length,
width and breadth. Minds are invisible, where bodies are infinitely divisible. It is entirely immaterial and non-
spatial.

The I of the I think, therefore I am is the mind and can exist without being extended. Mind and body are of different nature, but
they casually interact. The human mind causes motions in the bodies by moving a small part of the brain. Motions in the same
part of the brain produces sensations and emotions.

Bodies differ from how they appear through senses. Colors, sounds, tastes, smells, heat and cold are merely sensation exist in
thought. There is nothing in bodies resembles them.

The properties of the bodies are those, which are capable of being quantified, viz, extension and its modes, shape, size and
motion.

He sees God as the link between the rational world of the mind and the mechanical world of the intellect. The existence of god is
possible by the presence in our minds of the idea of an all-perfect being. This cannot be the product or the creation of four minds
since we are an imperfect being. Thus, God put this idea of an all-perfect being into our minds. This is something innate in our
minds. It does not have mental existence only but it tells us that God really exists.

Beliefs based on sensory data are not certain. He applied methodic doubt in ascertaining whether his existence is real. Senses
might be an illusion created by malicious deceiver. Thus, senses cannot be trusted.

He established the superiority of understanding acquiring knowledge. Mathematics contributed to an overall mathematical order
to the universe that was independent of senses.

Though reasoning there is a claim that cannot be doubted: which one contemplates ones existence, it is not possible to have the
slightest doubt that one does in fact exist (Cogito, ergo sum I think, therefore, I am). The I in this claim is not physical person,
but an immaterial mind. With the self as the starting point, he then explored the more complicated truths on the existence of God
and the existence of the external world.

Cartesian dualism is the view that the world consists of two fundamental types of entities: physical bodies and immaterial minds.
Only minds can think. The cogito can only be used to show that a mind exists.
 2. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
A German philosopher, is famous for his work in theory of knowledge and in metaphysics. He believed that ethics was the
most important subject in philosophy. He even used ethical arguments to establish the
existence of God after showing that all proofs derived from so-called pure reason are
invalid. He argued that moral law requires that men should be rewarded proportionately to
their virtues. Since in everyday life men who are not virtuous may often be happier and
perhaps more successful that men who are, such rewards evidently are not assured in his
life. He, therefore, believes that there must be another existence where man are so
rewarded , this leads him to that conclusion that there is a Supreme Being (God) and an
eternal life.

Concept as a Person
On morality, Kant feels that a man is acting morally only when he suppresses his feelings
and inclinations and does that which he obliged to do.

The god man is a man of good will, i.e., a man who acts from a sense of duty. Kant puts
it in a famous phrase nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it,
which can be called good without qualification, except a Good Will. He also pointed out
that a man should always act as if every action were to become a universal law. Thus, no man should steal, or lie.

All human relations should be based on trust.

On the dignity of man. Kants philosophy of the rational being revolves around the worth of the human person. Because of mans
gift of reason and free will, man becomes the master of his actions and the architect of his own life and destiny. Kant provided a
rational and philosophical basis for the human worth and dignity.

He views man as the only creature who is endowed with superior intelligence, who governs and directs himself and his actions,
and consequently, achieves his objectives.

Man possesses the free will to act on matters to promote his interest; but in the exercise of his free choice to attain the ends, man
should not use the means to further his selfish motive.

In explaining the theory of knowledge, he assumed that man, by his pure, unaided, speculative reason, cannot distinguish reality
as it is, but as it appears through sense experience. Man cannot in his knowledge of things around him, go beyond sense
experience. Reality is universal.

3. Karl Marx (1818 1883)

Karl Marx was born in Trier, in the German Moselle Valley. He studied philosophy at the University of Berlin. He was
greatly influenced by the works of the great German idealist, G.W.F. Hegel. He soon abandoned Hegelian Idealism, however, to
become a political agitator and revolutionary. Expelled from the several European countries for his subversive activities, he
finally settled, in London in 1849, where he lived the rest of his life. He wrote his monumental work Capital.
 Karl Marx wrote very little directly on the subject of ethics. His writings on his history,
economics and politics offer a perspective on the nature of society that has embodies a
conception of justice highly critical of the practices as well as most of the theories of the
modern civilization. His writings have provided the intellectual foundations for social
experiments on a vast scale on the 20th century, which have had profound effects on the
quality of life experienced by billions of the people since his day.
Karl Marx adopted the atheism of the left Hegelian and made Feuerbachs critics of
religion his own. Best known for composing the communists Manifesto and Capital which
became the basis of the communists movements.

Concept as a Person
Man makes religion; religion does not make man. But the essence of man is not abstracted intrinsic in each single individual. In
its actuality it is the ensemble of social relationship.

Man is the human world, the state and society. This state and society produce religion. Human being are part of the larger social
order.

Marx thus move beyond the previous mechanistic materialism and provides an equivalent for it with historical materialism. Marxs
materialism is simultaneously humanism. Thus, man is the Supreme Being for the man.

Religion is the sign of the unjustly severe creatures, the mawkishly emotional utterance of a heartless world, and the soul of
soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. Opium in a sense that is eases suffering; a spiritual intoxicant that prevents us
from seeing the reality. Religion intoxicates the mind of man and prevents msn from viewing life as it is.

Marxist picture of man, according to which man or humanity is its own Creator and owes its existence only to itself. According to
Marx, man in his own redeemer. For man, the root is man himself. The criticism of religion ends with the doctrine that man is the
Supreme Being for man. Work is an ultimate form of human self-fulfillment and thereby exhibits the primacy of man, the worker
over things, even over capital.

Christianity views man not simply as an ensemble of social relations but as persons who, no matter how thoroughly integrated he
is into society, possesses as an intrinsic value and dignity and is, in turn the source, subject and object of all social institutions.

According to communism- man is not the source of evil- this comes only from the strictures of capitalism. As soon as they have
been destroyed the communist will make a new man and a true humanism will be possible.

4. Max Scheler (1874-1928)

Schelers censure on Kants presupposition on striving and willing as not guided by the moral law.
Schelers refute the law of nature even man strives for pleasure and nothing else.
a.The objective law wherein the course of conation always has a tendency to go for a state of less pleasure to one
of greater pleasure.
b.The law of the intention of conation wherein pleasure is intended in conation. It is an absolute and a
relative law, an objective natural law and a law of the intention of all striving for.

Concept as a Person
The inadequacy of reason and sensibility for the whole of emotional life, being irrational, must on
this premise be assigned to sensibility.
 The emotional had consequently been construed either as dependent on the psycho-physical organization of man or a function
of the psycho-physical variations through the evolution and history of life.

Man strives first for goods, not for the pleasure in goods. It is only in goods that values become real. In a good, a value is an
objective and real consequently. Stated differently, goods and things have the same originality of given ness. Realm objects are
at first neither pure things nor pure goods but complexes i.e, things insofar as they are of value. Goods are truely permeated
by values. The unity of a value guides the synthesis of all other qualities of a good. Any formation of a world of goods is guided by
an order of ranks of values.

Good and evil are the values of the person. That which can be called originally good and evil, i.e., that which bears the non-
formal values of good and evil prior to and independent of all individual acts, is the person, the being of the person himself.

For Scheller, the objective order of values is reflected in every mans heart. The human heart is the seat of ordo amoris and as a
consequence, a kind of microcosm of the whole objective world of values.
Mans love is an ordered counterpart of the hierarchy of values.

Man is first and foremost a loving being (ens amans) before he is ever a knowing (ens cogitans) or willing being (ens volens).
The prototype and apex of all personal love are located in mans participation in divine love.

The emotive sphere of man possesses a fundamental order for Scheler, an order that resounds emotionally the order of
objective values present to conciousness i.e., that which includes the emotional.

The Principle of Relativity of moral values to life: Man retains the value that biological ethics also contributes to him. If by life
one construed only an earthly organic whole, natural laws put restrictions upon life.

Man is the most valuable being in nature insofar as this proposition has an objective sense and is not the result of mere
anthropomorphic self-love. These cannot be justified from the standpoint of biological values.

The value of human life was not given to completion as the highest value. That human life is not the highest goods corresponds
to humanitys common ethos but the intention, and a possible intention of annihilation, which is essential for murder, is missing.
The essence of sacrifice includes devotion to a positive and valuable being.

For him, there would be no murder in cases of a pathological defect in this kind of construal. The killing of a man is not murder: it
is only its presupposition. In cases of murder the value of the person in a being man must be given in intention, and a possible
intention of action must aim at its annihilation.

Scheler negates life as the highest value.

5. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Kierkegaard was born on May 15, 1813 in rural area in the province of Jutland but moved to Copenhagen spending much
of his time in the cafes, associating with the intellectual elite of the city. He was a close friend of Denmarks greatest literary
figure, Hans Christian Andersen. But behind his social facade, Kierkegaard lived in inner life of almost indiscernible torment, guilt,
and despair feelings that are revealed in their starkest forms in his voluminous writings and regarded as the hallmarks of
existentialism - concepts like anxiety, dread, guilt, absurdity, paradox, nothingness and so on.
 Concept as a Person
Man is an individual who lives his own life, who dies his own death and who alone
faces God on judgements day. Thus, the crowd or the mod cannot dictate to the
individual. The individual alone decides the truth. We do not live in a system; we lived
in a world. The entities of this world are not abstract, but concrete. They are not
inclined to general trend, not indispensable but contingent.

So, for Kierkegaard, existence has only three meanings; the realm of the
contingent, the realm of human reality and the realm of ideal selfhood. The
individual person must be the center of existence. He must be the bearer of the
supreme values of rational cognition and freedom.

Existence emphasizes the paradoxical nature of mans living experience its

freedom, grief, fear, despair, anxiety over death. His concern with subjectively
opened the way to a new kind of philosophical perception and attention of the value of the human individual. He attacked the
essentialist view of the subject as a mental vessel of knowledge detached from the surrounding world. The subject is existing
person interacting with other person and things. His knowledge is in developing stage of his existence.

Here we grasped subjectively the mode of awareness. This mode awareness is practical. An individual must be aware of his
existential being, committed and engaged. To be committed is to be human. To regard human person as an object is to abstract
from all commitment. It is dehumanizing the person, reducing him to a level of thing. Things bring us before nothing. Dread is an
incipient experience arousing an awakening. This experience shocks us in all our normal habits and relation.

3 Stages
Aesthetic Stage
Kierkegaard refuses to become a finished object. He thinks that he is essential unfinished and subjective. This is,
according to him, its dynamic and existential self. For Kierkegaard, he can grasped this self only us a subject. He called this as a
practical awareness. This perspective is not analogical. It is not abstract detached from his inclination and desired but intimately
is integrated with them. It has the power to understand this inclination as preceding. Kierkegaard describe its divergent
manifestation in antinomy ways of life. Thus, the world is viewed as having as alien existence in different to the subjects
aspiration. Objects supply the latter his economic needs at the same time gives him frustration.

Ethical Stage
This mode of life demands a long run commitment by making a conclusive choice. It acknowledged the essence of
humanity as well a burden of meeting its obligation to a universal and moral imperative. The ethical life is firmly affirming a
decisive choice. It is preserving an existential progression and an interruption through the passing references. Natural law is
acknowledged in the world. It is not a self-imposed law. It is strengthens the forced of responsibility.

Religious Stage
To understand Transcendence as law gives us an abstract imagination. Here, personal existence is excluded. Man is
confined to his narrow universe unaided, facing the evil and injustices of concrete life. Here, Kierkegaard asks; if the self is
organically related to the reality and if it true that God is appropriated in the normal development of immediacy and experience.
 EASTERN PHILOSOPHY: Concept as a Person
a) Buddhist Philosophy of Person
The Buddhist tradition can be traced back to the year 563 BCE, the birth of
Siddhartha Gautama (the Enlightened One or the Awakened One). Buddhism is
teaching of Buddha who was born a prince of Kapilavathu. He married and has a
son. He gave up his life of courts glamour and luxuries because of the sight of an
old man, sick man, dead man and mendicant monk. He entered the homeless life of
a monk to seek the truth and find way to salvation.

Buddhism is a practice of finding peace within oneself. It is formulated to win

happiness during the present life as well as in the next. The influence of karma, the
mechanism that determines how a persons act will impact the next incarnation, impelled the Buddhists to practice finding the
good within everything. Their ultimate goal is enlightenment. Buddhism acts as philosophy that regulates a persons place in the
world.

Buddhist View of Man

Man must do good, avoid evil and purify the heart. For Buddha, the hearts of ordinary men are not pure. They are filled
with greed, ill will and delusion. To purify the heart man must: practice self-control and self-restraint, meditating upon ones self
and following eightfold path.
Throughout his life, the Buddha constantly reminded his disciples of the transitoriness of all phenomena. He stressed that
all conditioned things or phenomenal processes, mental as well as material are impermanent or transient and subject to arising
and passing away. That all things rise, decay and fall, is an objectively evident everyday experience. What important is for man to
realize that man is also subject to the same law that governs external beings. The paradigm of reality for the Buddha is action
which is instantaneous and followed immediately by its consequence, not substance as it is in Upanishads. So, fundamental
concept running through Buddhism is that whatever exits changes. Existence here means the capacity of producing everything.
Two Categories of Man and Everything in the World: Name (nama), the term nama is literally means the name but is
usually translated into English as mind, but in Buddhist psychology it is used as collective name refer to the psychological and
mental aspect of human being. The next category is Form (rupa), the term rupa literally, form, is translated into English by the
word matter or body corporeality. This is also collective name to describe the physical aspects of human being.
Thus, nama-rupa taken together, comprise the psycho-physical organism which constitutes a person or a separate or
distinct individual. Buddhism consider nama and rupa as interdependent and belong to each other in an integral manner. This
nama cannot exist without rupa and rupa goes on supported by nama and nama when supported by rupa. This division
of man and other beings in the world into two categories is only the first step in the analysis of self. The next step is the analysis
of mann and the things existing in the world as a stream of five conjoined currents, the five aggregates (skandhas). These are:
matter, sensation, perception, mental constructs, and consciousness. Briefly, it is said that the psychosomatic organism consists
of compound of material stuff (rupa) and emotional, conative, volitional, and cognitive faculties of mind (nama). None of these
elements is permanent, hence, man has no abiding support underlying this stream. There is no soul. When the five aggregates
come together, they take a certain form or shape and what is thus formed is given a name. Thus, we have name and form but
when the elements disintegrate, there is no nama-rupa, no person, and no ego. These physical forms are like foam;
sensations, like bubbles; perceptions, like mirage; mental constructs, like the flimsy trunk of banana plant, and consciousness,
like phantoms (Samyutta Nikaya III).
Buddhism states that when man perceives himself as permanent ego, he is as deluded as the child who takes a
spreading flame for a swift running animal. The end of this illusion is Nirvana, or the blowing out of the imagined ego. Thus the
term person has a validity only in the relative sense, namely: as popular designation and experiences in conventional language
but not in absolute sense. The only actual realities are the psycho-physical phenomena although they have only a momentary
 duration. There is no permanent reality, the only reality is impermanence. Only the ego belongs to the realm of naming, the true
persons cannot be reached by the modes of speech.
The concept of no-soul (anatta) is tied up with the concept of impermanence (anicca) and have a direct bearing on the
concept of suffering (dukkha). The three go together. The word suffering is inadequate translation of the term dukkha. It is word
that desire to exist, to re-exist, to continue to exist which arises as a result of the belief in a permanent self or soul which has
thrown man into the predicament in which he is. This is therefore based on ignorance. It is by ignorance that one desires or thirsts
to exist. Therefore, to eliminate dukkha which is in effect means the elimination of the notion of the self, it is necessary that one
comes to a true understanding of the real nature of the self- that is, that there is no permanent self.
Man is just a name given for the five aggregates that compose the individual but each of the aggregates separately is not
man. Now man has the tendency to look upon things as permanent and yet they are not permanent. Because of this wrong view,
man suffers. He is bound by ignorance, so the final goal of man is to attain enlightenment; to free himself from the bonds of
ignorance. To do this, man must realize the impermanence of things and that man is not the five sheaths. Believing this, man is
freed from shackles of ignorance. He reaches Nirvana, which is the extinction of all desires. Yoga or meditation can achieve
Nirvana.

Four Noble Truths

1. Pain and suffering exists
2. The cause of suffering is craving for satisfaction of sensual delights. It is this craving that leads to transmigration and
reincarnation, of rebirths and sufferings.
3. Sufferings end when man stop from his cravings. The soul for Buddhism, is made up of five aggregates and when these
aggregates go, so does man. All composite beings die, and so the moral task of man is die to self and renounce all desires.
4. This path leads to the ending of sufferings is called the eightfold path.

Noble Eightfold Path

1. The Right Viewpoint. This means the proper understanding of four Noble Truths.
2. The Right Aspiration. This means to go beyond the I.
3. The Right Speech. This means choosing the right word to show courtesy and respect for others.
4. The Right Action. This means obeying the percepts of not killing, not stealing, not lying, not having illicit sexual relations and
not taking intoxicating drinks.
5. The Right Livelihood. This means one that does not inflict harm or pain on others.
6. The Right Effort. This means living the proper pace toward enlightenment, towards thoughtful action.
7. The Right Concentration. This means we must control our emotions, our imagination, avoid illusions and self-deception.
8. The Right Contemplation. This means the quieting of all irrelevant thoughts until we come true knowledge, not by reason or
logic, but by intuition and by insight.

b) Confucian Philosophy of Person

Confucianism, major system of thought in China, developed from teachings of Confucius and his disciples:
Mencius and Hzun Tzu. For Confucius, philosophy is a kind of system of ideas and thoughts that talk about the
human behavior, the rules to be followed to become successful in life and about government.

Essential Philosophy
Human kindness. In one way, Confucius was closed to Daoism:

he felt that humans were born in harmony with the natural order
but allowed themselves to indulge in selfish behavior that led
them away from natural harmony with their fellows and with society.
 Social Duties. In a principle he called the Rectification of name, Confucius believed that every social position carried a
natural responsibility to fulfill the duties of that role, particularly in relation to other positions. A superior position carried
duties of firm but kind control, and people in inferior positions were responsible for immediate obedience.
Society. If everyone behaved in the morally appropriate manner their position required, either obedient or with strong but
loving rule, society would function smoothly and in accordance with natural moral principles. A strong legal framework
was seen as a failure, since morally correct individuals were self-regulating.
The ruler. A particular responsibility lay with the ruler, who had to set a correct ethical example for other levels of society
to follow.
Education. Confucius believed that through education and the example of proper standards, the virtuous qualities which
lead man and society back into the natural order could be cultivated so that any individual could become morally correct.
Education in the proper customs of life had to be available to everyone.
The Sage. A person who behaved correctly could become what Confucius called a superior man or sage. A sage
showed his superiority in every area of life, from artistic tastes to respecting the ancestors, and spread virtue to others
because of his example.
The family. Crucial to Confucius, and to all Chinese before and after, was the ideal of the family as the most important
social unit and the basis of all moral behavior. For example, a son might love a particular woman, but would be expected
to marry whomever his father chose as being most likely to advance the family. Confucius held that if children were
taught human kindness within the family circle, they would be able to spread that feeling to wider human relationships.
Role of women. Like most schools of thought, women were relegated to the position of second-class citizen, with no
individual rights. They could win respect only by behaving with proper obedience towards their father/husband/master.
The golden rule. Confucius taught a version of the near-universal golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you.
Neo-Confucianism. Although Confucius views were based on compassion and equal opportunity, the impulse towards
venerating the past and respecting ones superiors later hardened into a rigid culture actually suppressing new thought in
art, science, or philosophy. The Confucian Classics, or book which represented orthodox Confucian thought, became the
sole basis of knowledge and education.

The Confucianist View of Man

The ideal goal of Chinese Philosophy is to form men who carry the twin characteristics of sageliness within kingliness
without. This is to say that in his sageliness within, man accomplishes spiritual cultivation: in his kingliness without, he function in
society. In other words, the ideal should know what is right and correct, and apply this in society. True to the Chinese ideal,
Confucianism is essentially ethical; and this system, ethics cannot be separated from politics. Thus, man is regarded as a moral
being and a social being. For Confucius, a true man is noble man, (chun-tzu), as a superior man and such a man is said to be
man of jen (human heartedness); a man of all around virtue. Man is expected to possess four virtues. These four virtues of
Confucianism are Human heartedness (jen) which consists in consideration for others, loving others, doing to other what you
wish others to do to you; Righteousness (yi) which is doing what one ought to do, and doing acts that are obligatory without a
personal utilitarian end in view, to do the right and proper thing in relation to circumstances without regard with personal profit;
Ritual or propriety (li) which is humbling oneself to pay respect to others. It also means putting others first and oneself
understanding of the others three virtues, namely, Human heartedness (jen); Righteousness (yi) and Ritual and Propriety (li).
Mencius theory of the human nature is intimately tied up with this. According to Mencius, human nature is originally good.
To support his theory, Mencius speaks of the four beginnings that belonged to mans original nature. The first of these is the
feeling of commiseration, which is the beginning of the virtue of human heartedness (jen). Man tends to sympathize with his
fellow men. Next is the feeling of shame and dislike. Man tends to be ashamed of evil and dislike evil. This is the beginning of
Righteousness (yi). Then, there is the feeling of modesty and yielding towards the good. This is the beginning of Ritual or
Propriety (li). Finally the sense of right and wrong (chin). Man is naturally endowed with the knowledge of what is right and what is
wrong; what is good and what is bad. According to Mencius, all men in their original nature possess these four beginnings. This
four beginnings differentiate man from the beast. It is expected that man should develop these four beginnings because it is only
through their development that Man is truly a man. Through the full development of his nature man cannot only know Heaven
(universe) but can also become one with Heaven.
Neo-Confucianism develops the concept that all men and all things are brought into existence by Heaven and Earth.
Nevertheless, man and things are different, namely, that man, apart from his human body, possesses in addition, the nature
Heaven and Earth.
In regard to what fills the area which is Heaven and Earth, man is part of its body; in regard to what directs the
movements of Heaven and Earth, man is part of its nature.
Chang Tsai, a Neo-Confucianist, regard chi (vital gas, etc.,) as the basic element of all things. The entire body of chi
is called the Supreme Harmony or the tao. Within the chI is included the yin and yang. The chI which has the yin quality
tends to be seen, to be submerged, and to fall: while the chi which has the yang quality tends to move, to float on the surface
and to rise. Therefore, along with Heaven and Earth and all things, man is basically one body. But the nature of Heaven and
Earth signifies the directive force there. Since, mans nature is what he derived from the nature of Heaven and Earth, man is part
of his nature.
The nature of man reveals a power to have conscious knowledge and the combination of this nature and conscious
knowledge has a name- the mind. Men have minds and thereby are able to have self-consciousness and understanding. Since
nature along with chI makes the source from which things come, the sage man is conscious of this and understand it. Chang
Tsai says- if a man enlarges his mind, then he is able to identify himself with all things in the world. The man who enlarges his
mind unites it with Heaven. To Heaven belongs the power of transforming and when a man studies and comprehends this, this is
a following up of the work which Heaven has not completed. The mind whose mind is united with Heaven thus his duty in Society.
He gives due respect to elders; tenderly kind to orphans and the weak- thus, he treats Heavens seniors as they should be
treated and Heavens young as they should be treated.
Thus, to the man whose mind is united with Heaven, the study of Nature and the making use of Nature in science are
understanding of the transforming work of Heaven and Earth, a plumbing of the depths of their divinity.
Jen represents oneness of Heaven and Earth, an emotional oneness. The man who has become really and truly Jen
man is the sage and the sage is one body with Heaven and Earth in all things. The contrast between himself in others for him no
longer exists. The tendencies in life in all things are the jen of Heaven and Earth. Any and every sort of things is actually part of
the life of Heaven and Earth and everything comes within the scope of Jen of Heaven and Earth; but it does not follow that any
kind of every sort of thing is conscious being so. The sage man not only comes within the scope of the life of Heaven and Earth,
he is also conscious that really and truly he is so. Thus, by means of reflection there comes the genuine of everything, being in
ones I. As such, there is no longer distinction between the I and the not-I.

c) Taoist Philosophy of Person

Lao-Tzu philosophy. His philosophy is to remain natural way to live life with goodness, serenity and respect. He believed
a persons conduct should be governed by instinct and conscience. For Lao Tzu simplicity is the key to truth and freedom.
Thus, a man must strive to be a man of Tao- a sage, a perfect man. A sage understands the nature of the things.
 Essential Philosophy
Definition. Partly in deliberate contrast to the other main Chinese School of
thought at the time, the highly analytical Confucianism, and partly because concept of the
Dao is in itself intangible and cannot be easily broken down, Laozi avoided drawing up any
clear-cut, logical outline of his philosophy. He wrote in metaphor and poetic imagery, inviting
readers to contemplate for themselves, rather than instructing them: Look at but
cannot be seen- it is beneath form These depthless things evade definition
Harmony. One of the main observation in Dao de Jing is Cultivate harmony within yourself, and
harmony becomes real. Laozi believed that if people aligned themselves with the Dao, they were
aligning with natural order, so would feel the positive benefits of harmony in their lives. He wrote: The best
of man is like water which benefits all things, and does not contend with them, which flows in places that
others disdain, where it is in harmony with the Way
Non-action. Nature does not try to control, it simply acts spontaneously. Therefore, human should not
try to force events or nature to conform to their desires, but should simply go with the flow and let events
take their course without agonizing over mundane desires. Laozis views on politics particularly
reflected non-action; his advice to rulers was to conquer to people with inaction, to make no
laws or taboos, but to allow people to harmonize with each other naturally. Manage
a great nation as you would cook a delicate fish, i.e. with as little disturbance as possible.
The best rulers are hardly known by their subjects, he wrote, and he advised against being greedy or tyrannical by
pointing out, When people have nothing more to lose, then revolution will result. He highlighted very practical reason for
people to follow the Dao.
Non-violence. Laozi pointed out that if powerful men results to violence, it has a habit of returning to them. He also said
that a wise man will not join an army, for the purpose of a sage is creation, not destruction.
Yin/Yang. Although Laozi did not go into details, his writings hint the concept of yin and yang. These are two opposite yet
complementary forces whose constant movement as they flow around each other, seeking balance and harmony, is one
of the ways in which the Dao functions. Yin is the passive, accepting force in the universe, while yang is the dynamic,
active force, and as they move in constant counter-balance, they give rise to movement in the universe: life and death,
the seasonal cycle, growth and withdrawal.

The Taoist View of Man

Taoism is essentially a philosophy that advocates what is natural and spontaneous, simple and necessary. Base on its
philosophy that by which anything and everything comes to be, is the Tao in the Lao-Tzu Book, it is said: From Tao there comes
one. From one there comes two; from two there comes three; from three there comes all things. The Tao is generally
understood as the Power or the Principle behind all things. It is oftentimes called the Non- Being. The one here spoken of refers
to Being; the two are yin and yang- the cosmic principles or forces yin signifies femininity, passivity, cold, darkness,
softness, etc., and where yang signifies masculinity, activity, warmth, brightness, hardness, etc., The three refers to the Tao,
the yin and the yang. Through the interaction of the yin and the yang, all phenomena in the universe are produced.
Everything that exist in the universe needs the universe as a whole as necessary condition for existence. When a man is
born, he has the properties that he necessary has. All things in the universe, all that exist, cannot cease to exist without some
effect on him. Man has in him yin and yang, and mental faculties which make him superior to beasts and birds. Man should
strive to be a man of Tao- a sage, a perfect man. A sage is one who has a complete understanding on the nature of things. To
understand nature, one has to know the Invariable (abiding) Law of nature. To know the invariable Law of Nature is to be
enlightened.
 The first thing that man must know is the things are ever changeable and changing but the lost that govern things change
of things are not themselves changeable. One of these laws is The Way of Heaven has no favorites; it is necessarily on the side
of the good. Among the lost that govern the changes of things, the most fundamental is that When a thing reaches its extreme, it
reverts from it. This is expressed in the Lao-Tzu Book as Reversal is the movement of Tao.
Taoism maintains that the sage who has a complete understanding of the nature of things thereby has no emotion. This
is to say that he is not disturb by emotions but enjoys peace and soul.
The sage is no longer affected by the changes of the world. In this way, he is not dependent upon external things and
hence his happiness is not limited by them. As such, he is said to have achieved absolute happiness. He is absolutely happy
because he transcends the ordinary distinction of things. He transcends the distinction between the self and the world, the me
and the non-me. There is now an identification of man with the universe. To achieve this identification, man needs knowledge
and understanding of still a higher level.
Taoism speaks two levels of knowledge: the Lower level, which is the finite point of view when man sees distinction like
those between right and wrong; and the Higher level, which is the higher point of view, when man sees things in the light of
Heaven, that is from the point of view of the Tao. From the view point of Tao, things though different are united and become
one. For instance, the distinction between me and non-me are united and become one. Thus, although all the things differ,
they are alike in that day all constitutes something and are good for something. They equally come from Tao. Therefore, from
the view point of the Tao, things though different are united and become one. In order to be one with the Great One (Universe)
the sage has to transcend and forget the distinctions between things. The way to do discard knowledge and is the method use by
Taoist for achieving sageliness within.
One distinction are forgotten, there remains only the Undifferentiated One, which is the great while. By achieving this
condition, the sage is said to have knowledge of a higher level which for Taoist is knowledge which is not-knowledge. This is to
say that at first stage had knowledge, they knew distinction but later transcended this knowledge to go beyond distinctions. This
knowledge beyond distinction is what Taoist called No-Knowledge or knowledge which is not knowledge.
Taoism states every man can be a sage. Therefore, each man, as man, should strive to be one with Tao, for such a
man is the sage, the perfect man, the happy man. The concept of man is the same, that is, become a perfect man. The four
system differ only in the approach towards the attainment of their goal.