Lesson 4: Human Person in the Environment

Two Frameworks:
a. Anthropocentric model- human is the center of environment.
b. Eco-centric model- nature is the center of environment.
Theories to show care for the environment:
a. Deep Ecology
 Controlling attitude of humankind is extended to nature
 Is an outcome of anthropocentrism
 Deep ecologists encourage humanity to shift away from anthropocentrism to eco-centrism
b. Social Ecology
 Results from authoritarian social structures
 Destroying nature is a reflection wherein few people overpower others while exploiting the
environment for profit or self-interest.
c. Ecofeminism
 Is a consequence of male dominance
 Male traits as n the anthropocentric model are superior as opposed to female traits as in the eco-
centric model.
Philosophers who discussed about Human Person:
1. Immanuel Kant
 Generally considered one of the three or four greatest philosophers in the
Western tradition.
 He lived his entire life in Konigsberg, Prussia which is today the city of
Kaliningrad in Russia.
 Critique of Practical Reason
 Metaphysics of Morals in two parts, the Doctrine of Right (law) and the
Doctrine of Virtue (personal conduct and character)
 Hypothetical imperatives tell us how to act in order to achieve a specific goal
and the commandment of reason applies only conditionally.
 Categorical imperatives. It may be defined as a way of evaluating motivations
for action it is also defined as the Golden Rule. Reason recognizes these
categorical imperatives which are the basis of ethics.
2. Herbert Marcuse
 Was a German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist,
associated with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.
 He Critiques of “Capitalist” society.
 In 1933, he published his first major review of Marx’s Economics and
Philosophic manuscripts of 1844”.
 He viewed the integration of Eros and logos to be the liberation of society.
3. George Herbert Mead
 An American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist.
 Also well- known for his concept of the “I” and the “me”
  The ME represents the expectations and the attitude of others. It is the organized
set of the attitude of others that the individual assumes. The “I” is the response to
the ME or the person’s individuality.
SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM THEORY & PRAGMATISM
a. COMMUNICATION AND MIND- Mead describes how the individual mind and
self-arises out of the social process (Mind, Self, and Society, 1934).
b. SELF AND OTHER- Mead argues that individual selves are the products of
social interaction and not the preconditions of that interaction.
c. ACTION- for Mead, mind arises out of the social act of communication.
4. Anaximander
 Lived in Miletus, City of Ionia
 A pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher
 Known for his contribution on Metaphysics, Astronomy, Geometry, and
Geography
 APEIRON- which may be translated either as “limitless, boundless, indefinite”,
or “unable to be got through, what cannot be traversed from end to end”.
5. Pythagoras
 Was an Ionian Greek philosopher.
 The first Theologian.
 First man to call himself a “Philosopher” or a lover of wisdom.
 He is also referred to as the Father of Numbers or the First Pure Mathematician.
 Help a man in raising a burden, but do not assist him in laying it down for it
is a sin to encourage indolence.
 Doctrine of rebirth or transmigration.
 Men are classified into three: lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers
of gain.
 Doctrine of vegetarianism.
6. Erich Fromm
 Known for challenging theories of Sigmund Freud
 Known as Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst, a social behaviorist, a philosopher, a
Marxist
 Born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany on March 23 1900.
ART OF LOVING (1956)
 “This book wants to show that love is not a sentiment which can be indulged in
by anyone, regardless of the level of maturity reached by him... The attainment of
the capacity to love must remain a rare achievement.”
THE ART OF BEING (1989)
 “The full humanization of man requires the breakthrough from the possession-
centered to the activity-centered orientation, from selfishness, and egotism to
solidarity and altruism.”