Towards Man's Flourishing Through The Filipino Famliy Values in Karol Wojtyla's Philosophy

TOWARDS MAN’S FLOURISHING
THROUGH THE FILIPINO FAMILY VALUES

IN KAROL WOJTYLA’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE:
A PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION
________________________________
A Junior Thesis Respectfully Presented to

the Administration and Faculty of the
MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS COLLEGE SEMINARY
Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City
________________________________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts Major in Philosophy
________________________________
Submitted by:
Sem. Leopoldo S. Zacarias Jr.

F.Y. 2016-2017
APPROVAL SHEET
This junior thesis entitled, “Towards Man’s Flourishing through the Filipino
Family Values in Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love: A Philosophical
Reflection,” is prepared and submitted by Sem. Leopoldo S. Zacarias Jr., for the
fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, Major in Philosophy,
has been examined and recommended for the acceptance and approval for Oral
Examination.
Rev. Fr. Jim S. Cerezo

Adviser
Approved by the Tribunal of Oral Examination on the 10th of March, 2017 with
the grade of_______.
Rev. Fr. Jeremias B. Cera

Chairman
Rev. Fr. Jim S. Cerezo Rev. Fr. Melchor Joseph C. Braga

First Reader Second Reader
Accepted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of

Arts, Major in Philosophy.
Rev. Fr. Jeremias B. Cera

Dean of Studies
F
…I dedicate this work to my dad, mom,

Jeff, Mars, Kristian Ray,
[most especially to] Yam…
and also to every I and ‘other’
who acts responsibly
and finds fulfillment in their own actions…
F
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A grateful heart remembers.

As I finish this simple and humble study, I remember those people who have
encouraged and inspired me to put into creation this thesis work. I remember them for
without their never-ending support for me this thesis work would never have come into
existence. Indeed, my grateful heart remembers.
To MY FAMILY, Dad, Ma, manong Jeff, Mars, and ading Tianray…
To MY PRIEST FORMATORS, Fr. Mario, Fr. Dexter, Fr. Jasper, Fr. Raffy,
Fr. Jijune, Fr. Matt, Fr. Jim and Fr. Jerry…
To MY THESIS ADVISER, Fr. Jim…
To MY SPIRITUAL TATAYS, Fr. Armand and Fr. Jerry…
To MY PROOF READERS AND EDITORS, kabalens Ian, Eart, Jan, Jeymar,
Hajji, Anton, Gerald, and Patrick…
To MY CLASSMATES, CLASS SARCIMUS, Ariel, Jonathan, Patrick,
Christian, Mark Alan, Jhed, Laurence, Arsenio, Aris, Jose, Rowel, and Jay
To CLASS KAIROS, CLASS CHIAROSCURO, AND CLASS KALINGA…
To MY MUYUNGAN, MUYUNGAN CORINTHIANS, Christian, Karl,
James, Michael, Jeymar, Val Morry and Mark …
To MY PRAYER PARTNER, Johnniel…
To MY INA-ANAKS, Timothy, Kenneth, and Dell…
To MY SEMINARY PROFFESSORS…
To THE SEMINARY PERSONNEL…
To THE JOHANNINE PRINTING PRESS STAFF…
To MY PHILOSOPHER-SAINT, Saint John Paul the Great…
To MAMA MARY, our Mother…
And ultimately, to the TRIUNE GOD…
MARAMING SALAMAT PO! I love you from the bottom of my heart.

May God bless us all!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Approval Sheet
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Chapter Page
1. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
1.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
1.2. Statement of the Problem ........................................................................ 4
1.3. Scope and Limitations............................................................................. 6
1.4. Relevance of the Study ........................................................................... 8
1.5. Definition of Terms............................................................................... 10
1.6. Review of Related Literature ................................................................ 12
2. PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
2.1. Wojtyla’s Notion of Man ...................................................................... 17
2.2. Man as an Acting Person ...................................................................... 18
2.3. The Consciousness of Man ................................................................... 19
2.3.1. Mirroring Function of Consciousness........................................ 20
2.3.2. Reflexive Function of Consciousness ........................................ 21
2.4. The Consciousness of Man and Self-knowledge .................................. 22
2.5. Emotionalization of Consciousness ...................................................... 23
2.6. Man as a Dynamic Being ...................................................................... 24
2.6.1. Man-acts..................................................................................... 26
2.6.2. Something-happens-in-man ....................................................... 26
2.7. Self-determinism ................................................................................... 28
2.7.1. Self-possession........................................................................... 29
2.7.2. Self-governance ......................................................................... 29
2.7.3. Horizontal Transcendence ......................................................... 30
2.7.4. Vertical Transcendence .............................................................. 31
2.8. Self-determination and Fulfillment ....................................................... 32
2.9. Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation ........................................................ 35
2.10. The Attitudes in Participation............................................................ 36
2.10.1. Authentic Attitude...................................................................... 37
2.10.1.1. Attitude of Solidarity ..................................................... 37
2.10.1.2. Attitude of Opposition ................................................... 38
2.10.2. Inauthentic Attitude ................................................................... 38
2.10.2.1. Attitude of Conformism ................................................. 39
2.10.2.2. Attitude of Noninvolvement .......................................... 39
2.11. Participation and Alienation .............................................................. 40
2.11.1. Individualism ............................................................................. 40
2.11.2. Totalitarianism ........................................................................... 41
2.12. Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love ................................................... 42
2.13. Utilitarianism as an Alienation to Love ............................................ 43
2.14. The Three-fold Dimensions of Love ................................................. 44
2.14.1. Metaphysical Dimension of Love .............................................. 44
2.14.1.1. Love as Attraction .......................................................... 44
2.14.1.2. Love as Desire................................................................ 45
2.14.1.3. Love as Goodwill ........................................................... 45
2.14.1.4. Love as Reciprocity ....................................................... 46
2.14.1.5. Sympathy and Friendship .............................................. 46
2.14.1.6. Love as Betrothed Love ................................................. 47
2.14.2. Psychological Dimension of Love ............................................. 48
2.14.2.1. Analysis of Sensuality.................................................... 48
2.14.2.2. Sentiment and Love ....................................................... 49
2.14.3. Ethical Dimension of Love ........................................................ 51
2.14.3.1. Experience and Virtue.................................................... 51
2.14.3.2. Affirmation of the Value of the Person.......................... 52
2.14.3.3. Membership of One Another ......................................... 53
2.14.3.4. Choice and Responsibility ............................................. 54
2.14.3.5. The Commitment of Freedom........................................ 54
2.14.3.6. The Education of Love................................................... 55
2.15. Responsibility and Choice of Commitment ...................................... 56
2.16. Love and the Dignity of the Human Person ...................................... 56
3. FILIPINO FAMILY VALUES

3.1. The Family ............................................................................................ 58
3.1.1. Nuclear ....................................................................................... 62
3.1.1.1. Family of Orientation.......................................................... 62
3.1.1.2. Family of Procreation ......................................................... 63
3.1.2. Extended .................................................................................... 63
3.2. The Filipino Family .............................................................................. 64
3.3. Values ................................................................................................... 66
3.4. The Filipino Values............................................................................... 67
3.4.1. Values Present in the Filipinos .................................................. 68
3.4.1.1.Value of the Family ............................................................. 69
3.4.1.2.Value of Parental Responsibility ......................................... 70
3.4.1.3.Value of Human Fellowship ................................................ 71
3.4.1.4.Value of Diplomacy ............................................................. 74
3.4.1.5.Value of Personal Dignity .................................................... 75
3.5. Values as Inherent to the Filipino Family ............................................. 76
3.6. The Filipino Family as the Spring of Values ........................................ 77
3.7. Devaluation of Filipino Values and Culture ......................................... 78
3.7.1. Family’s Consent ....................................................................... 78
3.7.2. Parental Irresponsibility ............................................................. 79
3.7.3. Indifference ................................................................................ 80
3.7.4. Go-with-the-flow ....................................................................... 81
3.7.5. A Proud Person .......................................................................... 82
3.8. Straightening and Strengthening Filipino Family Values ..................... 83
4. THE FLOURISHING OF THE SELF

4.1. Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophy in Filipino Family Values ....................... 84
4.2. Love as the Foundation of Action ......................................................... 86
4.3. Love: The Remedy to the Eroding Filipino Values .............................. 87
4.3.1. Love vis-à-vis the Value of the Family...................................... 88
4.3.2. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Parental Responsibility.................. 90
4.3.3. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Human Fellowship ........................ 91
4.3.4. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Diplomacy ..................................... 93
4.3.5. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Personal Dignity ............................ 95
4.4. The Fulfilled Self .................................................................................. 97
5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL REFLECTION

5.1. Summary ............................................................................................... 99
5.2.Conclusion ........................................................................................... 106
5.3.Personal Reflection .............................................................................. 107
Bibliography
Prayer of Saint John Paul II for Families
1
Chapter 1
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
1.1 Introduction
Man puts into action his intentions. He incarnates the meaning and initiatives that
emanate from his core and from his consciousness.1 Accordingly, what he experiences
is the consequence of his actions. Hence, the experiences of man in life make him into
what he is now and what he will be in the near future. Life, then, is made according to
man’s actions – his own choices and decisions.
As man progresses in life, he learns from his experiences. He takes into account
the things he encounters in life and makes them as his guides for his actions. Therefore,
as man goes through life, he grows; he becomes something greater from his old self; he
transcends from his own being at the present moment and moves on to something greater
in the coming reality. Life, then, is a process wherein the human being uses it as
springboard to a far greater reality – the fulfilment of the self.

1
Jove Jim Aguas, Person, Action and Love: The Philosophical Thoughts of Karol Wojtyla
(Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2014), xvi.
2
Man is born into this world which has been inhabited and interpreted by others,
by his fellow men.2 Man, as he encounters the world through birth, is already surrounded
by a lot of people – his parents, his siblings, his relatives and few more family friends
and associates. Likewise, as infant, man then finds himself as being dependent on the
people around him, in this case, his family. Thus, man enters into a personal relation with
his fellow men, his family.
Through this relationship with the other, man reveals his self to others and to
himself by his lived experiences and actions.3 Consequently, as man reveals his self to
others and to himself, the people around him – the other, simultaneously, reveal their
own selves to him and to their fellow men. Henceforth, as man lives with other men, he
finds himself learning from other men’s being. Man grows in learning not just from his
own being but the being of others, his family, as well.
Moreover, as man grows with other men, he also imbibes certain qualities, values
from his family – the other – that he will take with him as he encounters and advances
through life. These values will shape and mold him with how he will perceive life as it
should be. Thus, as man passes through life, he matures and gains wisdom from his
experiences and the experiences of others as man participates in other’s lived
experiences.

2
Ibid., xx.
3
Ibid., 40.
3
There is a saying that goes “everything begins at home.” Man first learns how to
walk at home, to talk with his family, to share his experiences with his parents and
siblings, and most especially to love and be loved by his family and his own relatives.
Hence, such maxim, “family will always come first,” is seen from everything that man
first experiences; the family is always there. The family is part in his growing years; in
his experiencing years. As a result, the family, in a way, influences man’s own decisions
in life due to their teachings, either directly or indirectly, to him; it affects his ways to
see and handle the situations he encounters in life.
As man goes on in his life, he attains his fulfilment – his flourished self that will
mainly spring from the values inculcated by his family. In addition, the learnings and
wisdoms that man have acquired in life will be continued soon by everyone that he meets
and becomes a companion in his life-journey. Nevertheless, the family is always the
foundation, the significant facet on which man attains fulfilment in life. The values
influenced by the family becomes his building-blocks on how he would take life as it is.
And so, man needs to learn these values, qualities in his relationship with his family to
reach his fulfilment as a human being because everything begins in the family; and hence
the proper values must also start in the family
In this thesis, the researcher considers Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love
as an aid towards the flourishing of man in life, his self-fulfillment. The philosophy of
Wojtyla shows how man uses the values taught to him by the family in order to transcend
unto his flourished self. Through the values imbibe by man in his relationship with the
family, it would affect his life, with how he attends to the people around him and how
4
he handles the challenges he encounters in life. With the problem exposed and the
philosopher selected, this research is to be known as a study towards man’s flourishing
in the context of Filipino family values.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
In philosophy, it is believed that questions are more important than answers. As
such, questions will always be the starting point in which we are able to proceed with
the path of philosophizing about ideas, notions and views regarding reality. This is so
because one cannot first have the answer without presenting any problems, queries to be
the point of departure of investigation. For this reason, the researcher believes that it is
of utmost importance to start this research by laying down the main problem – along
with its sub-questions to provide support and help in understanding more the core
question – of this opus.
The family values play an important role in every man’s action and doing.
Moreover, the family values tend to have a major influence in the decisions of every man
with his own life. Thus, the central theme of this humble thesis would be: What is Karol
Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love and how can it be an avenue to help man towards
the flourishing of the self in the context of Filipino Family Values?
To carefully and logically address the issue of the problem, the researcher
provides this sub-problems:

5
1.2.1. What is Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love?
Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love begins with his philosophy regarding
man, the acting person. Henceforth, in order to provide an answer to this sub-question,
the thesis-writer would like to expose his philosophy regarding man so as to be able to
discuss his Phenomenology of Love in which such notion, also, pertains to the acting
person. For the purpose of this thesis-study, the researcher will also provide other ideas,
in relation to the subject matter of this thesis, of Saint Pope John Paul II for his
philosophy are encompassing.
1.2.2. What are Filipino Family Values?
In order to provide answer to this sub-question, the researcher will be presenting
substantially what the family is in general. Hereafter, the researcher would also like to
expose the family in the Filipino context. Likewise, as the family is discussed, the thesis
writer will be showing that values are inherent to the Filipino family. In addition, in order
to help the readers understand the Filipino family values, the researcher will cite and
provide common Filipino values that are present in the Filipinos which makes him
distinct from other people of different culture and customs. Hereafter, the researcher will
also present a personal observation and insight on the misapplication of Filipino values.
6
1.2.3. How can Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love be an efficient
means to attain man’s self-fulfillment within the Filipino family values?
This chapter will be the confluence of Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love
in the Filipino family values. The aforementioned question above is that which will
greatly shape this thesis study.
1.3. Scope and Limitation
The writer is aware and acknowledges that by creating this thesis, it may give
rise to possible questions. And so, since the subject matter of this thesis is quite
extensive, the author would like to lay some boundaries in the field of study.
The researcher believes that Filipino families are extended in nature. However,
the researcher would like to limit and focus only on the basic members of the family
namely, the father, mother and the child and/or children so as to give emphasis to the
family as the “basic unit of the society.”4 Similarly, the researcher would also like to
omit from this work those people who are raised through single parenthood, divorced
and separated parents for the reason that it would help bring the message of this thesis
work come to light. However, the thesis writer does not disregard those people concerned
as family, but, this limitation helps the researcher to avoid complications from this thesis
work as well.

4
John Paul II, Letter to Families (Rome: Vatican Press, 1994), 64.
7
The philosophy, which the researcher examines and uses in the study of this
thesis, has many aspects and covers wide range facets. Thus, the researcher limits it to
Wojtyla’s phenomenology of love. However, his concept of man as an acting being, and
his theory of participation will be discussed for the reason that his phenomenology of
love and his concept of man as an acting being and his theory of participation are
encompassing.
In terms of library sources, the researcher would also like to give a limitation to
the primary sources used by the thesis-writer. The books of Wojtyla, which is the
foundational sources of this thesis-work, entitled: Acting Person and Love and
Responsibility are translated books from Polish to English. Hence, this limitation would
help the researcher avoid misunderstood concepts, notions and ideas of Wojtyla with
regards to the translation of the books from the original Polish text to the English
interpretation.
Lastly, the researcher would also like to restrict the following Filipino values
presented in Chapter 3 of this opus titled, “Filipino Family Values,” to be of those of
Florentino T. Timbreza. Moreover, the researcher knows that there are many values
within the culture of the Filipinos, yet, however, the researcher would only cite five from
these Filipino values. This is for the reason that the researcher believes that these are still
instilled and prevalent within the Filipinos of today’s generation. Nevertheless, the
researcher does not mean to neglect the other ‘Filipino’ values not presented in this thesis
work to be of the Filipinos. Hence, the researcher believes that these values still remain
to be within the Filipino culture and ethnicity.

8
1.4. Relevance of the Study
The writer envisions that this thesis is significant in these four areas:
1.4.1. To the Researcher – This research is relevant to the writer because he
believes that he has a full life ahead of him. The writer, being in his formative
years, is still trying to make something out of his life. Thus, this opus is
meaningful for him as it is his stepping-stone and help as he develops and matures
in life. The writer also considers that through this thesis, it could give assistance
to people, most especially to the researcher himself, to establish a good and
harmonious relationship with their respective families; and that, as he builds
proper values within the family, he may find fulfilment in his own self and soon
to everyone around him.
1.4.2. To Philosophy – Philosophy gives more attention on the problems rather
than the solutions. Philosophy has its own task to search for the ultimate causes
and principles by the use of human reason alone.5 Nowadays, the trend of
philosophy is directed to the understanding of the human person and its
beingness. Philosophy now tries to answer and searches for the very meaning of
human existence, its authenticity and fulfillment. Therefore, the author believes

5
Franklin Q. De Guzman, Introduction to Philosophy, (Class lecture on the First Semester
Formation Year 2012-2013), Mary Help of Christians College Seminary, Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City.
9
that this research has a significant value to philosophy for it contributes to the
search for the genuineness and fulfillment in the existence of the human being in
the context of Filipino family values.
1.4.3. To Seminary Community – Seminarians come from different families.
They are called from different backgrounds; different environments and different
beliefs. In relation to this, the response of the seminarian to his holy vocation
corresponds to his intentions and plans in life. His intentions, actions and beliefs
are rooted from the teachings which his own family has inculcated in him. In a
way, the family has the responsibility in the response of the seminarian to the call
of God. Consequently, as man is able to attain his fulfilment within the family,
he will likely respond better to the call to the ministerial priesthood. He will have
a good decision regarding his entering in the seminary if he really is called by the
Lord. Thus, this thesis has a significant value to the seminary community for it
gives him a better mindset and focus to the view and vocation to priesthood.
1.4.4. To the Universal Church – This research gives importance to the
universal church for the reason that the church calls every one to establish and
create a meaningful relationship with their respective families. Moreover, this
research will help one to attain one’s fulfillment in the values instilled by the
family. These values must be the foundation of man in his relationship with his
10
family. Hence, this thesis would contribute a noteworthy value for one may find
its own fulfilment in the values taught by one’s family in life and, more so, will
make the person cling more to his own family which the church encourages
everyone to build.
1.5. Definition of Terms
Some terms will have to be defined to better facilitate the receptivity of the
readers of the thoughts contained within this work, especially with regard to the more
unfamiliar concepts in this thesis-study.
Action – is identical in the meaning with human action.6 Human action as such
is equivalent to conscious acting. Hence, action is pertained to a human
act which is deliberate and free-willed. 7
Participation – is the person’s transcendence in the action when the action is
being performed “together with others.”8 Moreover, participation is
conceived as a possession of man in which man retains his personalistic
value while performing an action together with others.9

6
Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company 1979), 27.
7
Cf., Ibid.
8
Ibid., 269.
9
Cf. Ibid.
11
Self-fulfillment – Self-fulfillment concerns itself with the sphere of felicity.10
Moreover, the sphere of felicity is to be sought in what is internal and
intransitive in the action, in what is identifiable with the fulfillment of
the ego as the person. The fulfillment of the ego is to be acknowledged
with the union of freedom of action with what is good and true.11
Family – is a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption;
constituting a single household; interacting and communicating with
each other in their respective social roles of husband and wife, mother
and father, son and daughter, brother and sister; and creating and
maintain a common culture.12 The thesis-writer uses the word family to
pertain to the Filipino family.
Value – is something good in nature and that which is something desirable and
worth having for people.13 Moreover, values is something that which
guides man’s behavior in life and that which makes man distinct to
other people.14 The thesis-writer uses the word value to pertain to the
Filipino values.

10
Ibid., 174.
11
Cf. Ibid., 175.
12
Belen T.G. Medina, The Filipino Family, 2nd Edition (Quezon City: University of the
Philippines Press, 2001), 13.
13
Cf. Florentino T. Timbreza, Filipino Values Today (Mandaluyong: National Book Store, 2012),
1.
14
W. LaVerne Thomas, Sociology: The Study of Human Relationships, 5th Edition (Austin: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1995), 27.
12
1.6. Review of Related Literature
In the creation of this work, the researcher has read and used the following books
for it contributes to the ideas concerning the subject matter. The researcher finds that
these books have substantial information to help him answer his problems and create a
proposition regarding the issue on man’s fulfilment in life regarding the Filipino family
values.
Simpson, Peter, On Karol Wojtyla. California:

Wadsworth/Thomson, Inc., 2001.
Simpson, in his book On Karol Wojtyla, has given a thorough analysis on Karol
Wojtyla’s philosophical works by providing insights into the background, development,
and the philosophy in its general whole. Simpson has presented the philosophies of
Karol Wojtyla and, in addition, has included a biography and works of the late Pope as
well. Furthermore, he has discussed the philosophical position of Wojtyla regarding his
whole notion about the acting person, love and responsibility and his philosophical
theology; and as such, presented the impetus of why the core of all his works is the
person.
On Karol Wojtyla has given a concise comprehension of the thoughts of the late
Pope. Moreover, the researcher believes that Peter Simpson was able to clarify and
elaborate other difficult terminologies and other complicated expressions of the late Pope
in a very simplistic way that is easy to be understood by the readers.

13
Wojtyla, Karol, trans. Andrzej Potocki, The Acting Person.

Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1979.
The Acting Person is one of the main philosophical works of Karol Wojtyla. This
book was written and published after his first major philosophical book entitled Love
and Responsibility. Nevertheless, this book helps in decisive ways to illuminate the
theses and the arguments of Love and Responsibility.15 Hence, the book is said to be the
first of the two because the ideas and concepts presented in the Acting Person are
complemented by Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility. Furthermore, the Acting Person is
the official translated textbook of “Osoba i Czyn” which was the original manuscript
written in Polish by Karol Wojtyla in the year 1969.16
The book presents such notions on the phenomenology of the human person with
which Wojtyla attests that the person is the object and subject of action – hence called
the Acting Person. Furthermore, the Acting Person also includes Wojtyla’s Theory of
Participation which delved in the topic of the individual person living in the community
of others. Ergo, the book stresses such significance on the individual being living and
acting together with others in the community and, moreover, on the human person in the
process of performing, and manifesting himself through, action.

15
Peter Simpson, On Karol Wojtyla, (California: Wadsworth or Thomson Learning, Inc. 2001),
46.
16
Cf. “Original Polish Text of the Acting Person” Retrieved February 20, 2017 from
https://www.amazon.com/Acting-Person-Analecta-Husserliana/dp/9027709696.
14
Wojtyla, Karol, Love and Responsibility. Ignatius Press, San

Francisco, 1993.
Love and Responsibility is the other philosophical work of Karol Wojtyla which
he had written and published before the Acting Person. This book offers a striking and
informative illustration of how the phenomenology of the Acting Person issues in
definite ethical principles and practices.17 Moreover, Love and Responsibility basically
presents an ethics of marriage in the eyes of Karol Wojtyla. Hence, from this book
springs his concept on the phenomenology of love. Also, the book is described as a
defense of the traditional Church teachings on marriage from a philosophical
standpoint.18
Love and Responsibility is a book written by Karol Wojtyla before he entered the
papacy. This book was originally published in Polish in 1960 and in English in 1981.
The thoughts of Wojtyla, discussed in this book, touch many good other issues which is
relevant to other topics as well.
Aguas, Jove Jim, Person, Action and Love: The Philosophical

Thought of Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II). Manila: University
of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2014.
Jove Aguas has thoroughly studied the philosophies of Wojtyla particularly in
his philosophy of man and the acting person. Through this book, Person Action and
Love, Aguas works at illuminating the complex and difficult philosophical ideas of Karol
Wojtyla. As such, this book written by Jove Jim Aguas helps the reader to overcome

17
Simpson, On Karol Wojtyla, 46.
18
“Love and Responsibility” Retrieved February 20, 2017 from
http://www.theinfolist.com/php/SummaryGet.php?FindGo=Love%20and%20Responsibility.
15
Wojtyla’s sometimes dense prose, giving lucid explanations of the key concepts of
subjectivity, human action, and the human person.19 Thereupon, this book will be very
important in understanding the given concepts of Wojtyla in his philosophical works,
namely his Acting Person and Love and Responsibility. The book of Jove Aguas will
help shed light on the concepts of Wojtyla which are essential to understanding the
powerful accounts of love, sexuality, and human dignity.
Dr. Aguas, in his book, Person, Action and Love, was able to clarify in a simpler
way the notions of Karol Wojtyla. He was able to explain difficult concepts of the late
Pope.
Timbreza, Florentino T., Pagpapahalaga ng Pamilya. Manila:

Logos Publications, Inc., 2010.
Pagpapahalaga ng Pamilya is a book of Florentino Timbreza which offers an in-
depth analysis on the importance of Family in the Filipino context. Moreover, this book
of Florentino Timbreza highlights the family as the foundational source on the building
of the character and disposition of man. Hence the family is stressed as an intimate factor
on the personality of man. This book is divided into two parts: first is the family in
general - this covers the family as the basic unit of any society, the family and the culture
of family, the family and the values of the family, and more – and the second is the
responsibility of parents towards their children – the responsibility of molding the

19
“Aguas' book on person, action and love” Retrieved February 22, 2017 from
http://rccesiust.com/publications.
16
character of the child, the responsibility of disciplining the child, the authority of the
parent over the child and so on.
This book basically exemplifies the Filipino family, its values as a family and the
parental responsibility over their children. Hence, this book has helped in elaborating the
concept of family in the Filipino setting and, all the more so, in explaining the value of
the family in the individual Filipino’s life.
Timbreza, Florentino T., Filipino Values Today.

Mandaluyong: National Book Store, 2012.
Filipino Values Today is another book of Florentino Timbreza which focuses
mainly on the values of the Filipinos. More importantly, this book concentrates on the
values in the long generations of Filipino history. Hence, Filipino Values Today contains
much information regarding the cultural heritage of the Philippines. This book takes the
readers back to the past and revisits the treasures of the legacies and traditions from the
forbears of the Filipinos. Therefore, the ethnicity of the Filipino nation is much
emphasized in this book.
Nonetheless, this book presented and discussed the meaning of value; its purpose
of being needed by the people and how it is transmitted from one person to the other and
a lot more. Thus this book, Filipino Values Today, discusses the definition of values in
general then goes to the Filipino context in particular.

17
Chapter 2
PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
This chapter elaborates the most profound sense of love from the wisdom of the
late Saint Pope John Paul II. Moreover, this part of the opus answers the first sub-
question, what is Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love? To better understand his
phenomenology of love, the writer discusses Wojtyla’s notion of man and his theory of
participation. Such is since his concept of love cannot be disassociated from his notion
of the human person – because it is the person who loves and is loved – and from his
theory of participation for love concerns itself to the giving of the self to the other person;
in participating for the common good of all.
2.1. Wojtyla’s Notion of Man
According to Wojtyla, man is the subject that is experiencing himself.20 This is
so because he believes that it is through action that man reveals his own self; and that in
action he is also the subject who experiences himself as a person. Similarly, man cannot
be encapsulated in words but in what he calls the Experience of Man – the experience

20
Wojtyla, The Acting Person, 57.
18
that which flows from his actions.21 As Wojtyla wrote in his The Acting Person:
Action, as the late Pope considers, gives us the best insight into the inherent essence of
the person and allows us to understand the person most fully. We experience man as a
person, and we are convinced of it because he performs actions.22
His thought of the acting person is grounded on the premise that operari sequitur
esse – action follows being. Operari sequitur esse indicates, in the metaphysical sense,
to the fact that an action or the activity depends on the existence of such being.23
However Wojtyla takes this scholastic adage in the epistemological sense in which, he
says, “if a thing’s acting does depend on its being then, by the same token, a thing’s
acting must be the way to know its being.”24
2.2 Man as an Acting Person
Man is capable of action because of his capacity and potentiality of doing so.
And as such, it is only man’s deliberate acting that we call an “act” or “action.”25
Accordingly, man’s ‘deliberate’ acting points to a power – the free will – as the basis of
action. For that reason, the free will gives man the authority of either doing or not doing
an act. The free will is man’s voluntariness of doing an action. Equally, it is in this
concept of free and deliberate act or action that the concept of consciousness is implied.

21
Cf. Dean Edward A. Mejos, “Against Alienation: Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation”
Kritike 1, no. 3 (June 2007): 72 Retrieved December 18, 2016 from
http://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_1/mejos_june2007.pdf.
22
23
Cf. Simpson, On Karol Wojtyla, 23.
24
Ibid.
25
19
Additionally, the term “human act” or “action” contains a definite interpretation of action
as conscious acting.26 Thus, it is in the deliberate, free-willed act that we call an act or
action a human act; and it is in this human act that we, ourselves, is conscious of our own
acting.
From conscious acting, Wojtyla goes to the “consciousness of acting.” He states,
“man not only acts consciously, but also has the consciousness that he is acting and even
that he is acting consciously.”27 By this, the late Pope wants to emphasize that it is the
consciousness that allows the subject to establish a relation with its own self. Without
consciousness, the human subject can never establish a relation with its own self; it can
never have an experience of itself; it can never know itself.28
2.3 The Consciousness of Man
For Wojtyla, “consciousness constitutes a specific and unique aspect in human
action.”29 It is in the consciousness of the human person through which we can look
deeper into his inmost self. Consequently, consciousness is the point of access into the
30
interiority of the human person. Nevertheless, consciousness is different from
cognition. Cognition has an intentional character and it is performed in order to

26
Ibid., 26.
27
Ibid., 28.
28
Aguas, Person, Action and Love, 55.
29
30
Cf., Aguas, Person, Action and Love, 51.
20
investigate, objectivize and comprehend its intentional object.31 Consciousness,
however, does not have any intentional or objectifying character like cognition.
Consciousness only makes us aware of the things resulted from such cognition.
Consciousness’ essential function consists in mirroring the objects that are
already known to the subject.32 Correspondingly, consciousness is an understanding of
what has already been understood.33 Consciousness makes us aware of something by
mirroring to us the outcome of the cognitive faculties and processes. However,
consciousness is not the same as cognition because consciousness only makes aware of
things while cognition makes us know things. As a result, consciousness and cognition
is closely similar and connected yet it is not the same.
For Wojtyla, consciousness has two-functions. They are as follows:
2.3.1. Mirroring Function of Consciousness
The mirroring function of consciousness reflects all the acts and experiences that
the self does or undergoes. This function simply keeps alive the acts and experiences for
awareness. As a person acts, he is aware that he is acting and that he is acting
consciously; accordingly, the mirroring function or, as the late Pope calls it also, the
reflective function mirrors it to the consciousness. Such mirroring makes aware of the

31
This is the classic phenomenological view, wherein there is a penetrative apprehension of the
elements of the intended object which lead to the objective constitution or the object.
32
Cf. Aguas, Person, Action and Love, 56.
33
Ibid.
21
act or action itself and, more importantly, accompanies man in making aware of what he
does. Once the action is finished, consciousness still continues to reflect it, though it no
longer accompanies it.34 Therefore, mirroring or the reflective function makes the
consciousness aware of the action being done by the human being; and even if the action
has been finished, it still continues to make aware of what has been done.
The mirroring or reflective function makes man aware of the action whether it is
still in the process of acting or has been done by the human being. Consequently, through
this function, we experience an inner view of our actions and experiences wherein it
allows us to see our actions as something that comes and proceeds from within
ourselves.35
2.3.2. Reflexive Function of Consciousness
Once the mirroring, the making aware of one’s own act is done, consciousness is
then completed by the reflexive function of consciousness. The reflexive function
concerns itself in making the mirrored act be directed back upon the subject so much so
that the reflected acts are experienced as the subject’s own acts; and that it is the same
subject who makes and creates his own actions. The reflexive trait or reflexiveness
denotes that consciousness, so to speak, turns back naturally upon the subject, if thereby
the subjectiveness of the subject is brought into prominence in experience.36 It makes the

34
Ibid., 60.
35
36
22
subject of the reflected acts aware that he is the subject and that the reflected acts are his
own.37
Consciousness is only but an aspect of the human person. Man is neither absorbed
nor overshadowed by his consciousness. Yet, it is in consciousness that the specific
distinctness and unique concreteness of the human person is revealed. It is in this aspect
of man that man is revealed through acting which is a conscious acting.
2.4. The Consciousness of Man and Self-knowledge
Consciousness is distinct from self-knowledge. Self-knowledge consists in the
understanding of one’s own self and is concerned with a kind of cognitive insight into
the object that I am for myself.38 Self-knowledge concerns itself in cognizing one’s own
self and acts. It tends to grasp cognitively the person’s ego and sees it as an object.
Thereupon, self-knowledge gives man the objective existence of the self and not merely
something constituted in and by the consciousness.39 Moreover, self-knowledge brings
forth the self and its acts into objective focus for the self and so they are recognized as
ontological and objective realities.40
Nevertheless, it is through self-knowledge that I becomes aware that the “I”
subjectively constitute my ego. Wojtyla continues:

37
38
39
40
23
Hence not only am I conscious of my ego (on the ground of self-knowledge) but owing
to my consciousness in its reflexive function I also experience my ego, I have the
experience of myself as the concrete subject of the ego’s very subjectiveness.41
2.5. Emotionalization of Consciousness
All that comes to the consciousness originates from both sensible and emotional
experiences of man. From the sensible experiences, which are those cognitively assessed
by man’s reasoning and rational faculty, to the emotional ones, consciousness is able to
reflect it to the subject which is the self. And therefore, emotions too, as Wojtyla
accounts, play a role in the function of consciousness.
Emotion can influence consciousness owing to the fact that man is not only a
thinking and conscious subject but also a feeling subject.42 Equally, emotion is able to
affect man and alter his act or action in man’s capacity of free-will and voluntariness for
the reason that emotions “are not only reflected in consciousness but also affect in their
own specific way the image that is formed in consciousness of various objects, including,
man’s ego and his action.”43 This influence of emotions in the consciousness is known,
as Wojtyla calls, as emotionalization of consciousness. Wojtyla stated:
Emotionalization of consciousness begins when the image of the meanings of the

particular emotive instances and of objects they are related to fades in consciousness, so
that feelings may outgrow their current understanding by man.44

41
42
43
44
Ibid., 53.
24
Hence, this emotionalization of consciousness happens when emotions are made
aware to the consciousness and, more so, make modifications to the actions; and thus a
change of intentionality of man due to emotive instances experienced by man.
2.6. Man as a Dynamic Being
Man, in order to act, must first exist. Man cannot act if he does not exist in reality.
Accordingly, existence is given an essential priority over action for an action cannot be
done if the doer of the action does not exist in reality. Action is an aftermath of the
existence of man. The existence of acting flows from and is subsequent to the existence
of man; it is its consequence or effect.45 Therefore, the action of man depends on man’s
existence.46
In that same manner, though action comes after existence, Wojtyla believes that
it is through action that one may know its being, ergo its existence. Action, for Wojtyla,
does not presuppose the person, rather action reveals the person; and better, the person
is manifested through his action.47 As a result, act or action, – which is a deliberate act;
hence a human act – as pointed by Wojtyla, is the human dynamism of man with which
will lead us to know a person most fully. Action as such will lead the way to bring into
view the whole reality of the human person.48

45
Ibid., 82.
46
47
Rolyn B. Francisco, Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation (Manila: St. Pauls, 1995), 22.
48
Cf. Wojtyla, The Acting Person, 82.
25
Henceforth, man and action are inseparable. It is in the existence of man that man
can act or make action. Nonetheless, it is in action, a human action which includes man’s
capacity to exercise his free will, that man is manifested and known. Ergo, it is a fact in
reality that man acts.
However, human dynamism is not only confined to one’s conscious experience.
Human dynamism also includes those that which does not pass or accompanied by the
consciousness wherein it simply happens in man. Correspondingly, not all action is a
conscious act of man. There are those human activities that simply happens in man or
simply manifests without the awareness of consciousness. Still, human dynamism has a
commonality of subject wherein both originates from the same man who acts and,
equally, exists. Such human dynamism, then, is interpreted by the concept of act whether
it is a conscious act or that which simply happens in man without the accompaniment of
consciousness in acting.
Wojtyla distinguishes these two fundamental types of human activities, they are:
man-acts and something-happens-in-man.

26
2.6.1. Man-acts
Man-acts is the active participation of the consciousness in action. It is the
conscious activity of man and, for that reason, a deliberate action. Hence, deliberate man-
acts are distinct forms of human action with man as the conscious agent.49
In addition, man-acts or that “I-act” is the performance of an action by man
through which he shows his dominion over himself and his actions.50
2.6.2. Something-happens-in-man
Something-happens-in-man is the unconscious activity in man with which man
is not aware of. Something-happens-in-man are those that simply happen or operate in
man even when man is not conscious of them.51 Therefore, something-happens-in-man
is the passiveness of man in action.
The difference of the conscious acting that of man-acts and those that which
simply occurs in man, known as something-happens-in-man, is distinguished from one
another by the concept of efficacy. The concept of efficacy is known as the experience
of man being the actor in the process of acting.52 Likewise, having the experience of
being the actor in man’s acting indicates that man is the origin and source of his own
action. As such, all the things he does, those actions that which he is conscious of, are

49
Francisco, Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation, 24.
50
Cf. Mejos, “Against Alienation: Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation,” 72.
51
52
Cf., Wojtyla, The Acting Person, 66.
27
his own property and, more so, his responsibility. And by the same reason, action is an
activity created by man.
The concept of efficacy is applied only to man-acts because of man’s awareness
in action, his conscious acting. Man has the experience of being the actor in man-acts
because such action requires man’s consciousness. As a result, the concept of efficacy is
not manifested in something-happens-in-man since it does not make man aware of the
things happening in him because of such passivity in himself. Nonetheless, although
man-acts and something-happens-in-man are different and mutually opposed to each
other, they condition and determine each other.53 And, much more, both are still property
of the human person since he is the origin and source of action. Likewise, such human
activities, both man-acts and something-happens-in-man, are personal.
Man as a dynamic being, which consists of both his man-acts and something-
happens-in-man, makes him into who he is now and who he will be in the coming reality.
And as such, man changes according to his being a dynamic being. Both activities proper
to man will make something of him, and at the same time they, so to speak, make
somebody of him.54 Similarly, man changes with the influence of his actions, so to say,
his conscious acting, and that which happens in him. It is in man’s passiveness in action
that man undergo change particularly that of somato-vegetative level. Likewise, it is in
man’s conscious acting that makes manifest what and who he really is.55 It is through his

53
54
55
Ibid., 98.
28
conscious acting that, together with man’s efficacy, man’s freedom and voluntariness is
expressed. Therefore, through conscious acting man determines his own fulfillment as a
person.
2.7. Self-determinism
Self-determinism is expressed in the relationship of man and his will. Human
action, which is an activity constituted by man’s freedom and voluntariness, and,
likewise, man’s efficacy in action, manifests self-determinism for the reason that human
action exercises man’s capacity to act or not to act in accordance to his will.
Consequently, according to Wojtyla, “every authentically human “I will,” is an act of
self-determinism.”56 Since the self is the agent of his actions, he determines the act and
in the process determines himself.57 Ergo, self-determinism is not exhibited in those
activity which simply happens in man.
Wojtyla believes that self-determinism is only possible when these factors are
manifested in human action:

56
Ibid., 106.
57
Aguas, Person Action and Love, 83.
29
2.7.1. Self-possession
Nemo dat quod non habent (You cannot give that which you do not have).58 This
maxim can be related to that which who has possession of a thing can only give away
such thing because it is their own property. Such possession can only be determined upon
by its owner. Therefore, Wojtyla states that only the one who has possession of himself
and is simultaneously his own sole and exclusive possession can be a person.59 For only
the things that are man’s actual possessions can be determined by him; they can be
determined only by the one who actually possesses them.60
2.7.2. Self-governance
In relation to self-possession, self-governance presents that those who has
possession of himself can govern himself. The person, as Wojtyla deliberates, is, on the
one hand, the one who governs himself and, on the other, the one who is governed.61
Because of self-determination, every man actually governs himself; he actually exercises
that specific power over himself which nobody else can exercise or execute.62
Such self-governance and self-possession necessarily involve the fact that the
person is both subject and object of his action: I as subject possess and govern myself as

58
Dexter Z. Cariño, Latin, (Class lecture on the First Semester Formation Year 2013-2014), Mary
Help of Christians College Seminary, Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City.
59
60
Ibid., 106.
61
Cf. Ibid.
62
Ibid., 107.
30
object.63 Therefore, self-determinism expresses that the person is the one and only
subject and object of action.
Furthermore, Wojtyla asserts:
In self-determination – every act of “I will”, the ego becomes the object of action in
which places the person into the experience of awareness that he is the one who is
determined by himself and that his decisions make him become somebody.64
Additionally, in the act of self-determinism, which brings to light man’s capacity
to be free and his power to exercise his will, reveals man’s transcendence in action – and
more so as a person. Wojtyla presents two kinds of transcendence of action in man, they
are:
2.7.3. Horizontal Transcendence
The horizontal transcendence indicates that in every act of willing man steps out
of the limits of the subject towards something outside of himself, towards an external
object. This presents man’s transcendence in his action. The person goes out of his limits
as a subject towards the direction of the external object which he wills and freely acts to.

63
64
31
2.7.4. Vertical Transcendence
The other kind of transcendence which Wojtyla wants to put emphasis on is that
of the vertical transcendence which is manifested from the act of self-determination. The
vertical transcendence in action is manifested in man through his capacity to exercise
freedom in the process of acting, and not only in the intentional direction of willing
toward an external object like that of the horizontal transcendence.65 The vertical
transcendence, which springs from man’s self-determinism; and is based on man’s
willing and his capacity to exercise freedom, is also related to man’s choices and
decisions in action.
Willing is connected to the act of choosing. It is for the reason that nothing may
become the object of the will unless it is already known.66 Once the external object is
known to man, that is, understood rationally, the external object is subject to man’s
willingness and, as such, subject to his own choices and decisions of either acting or not
acting upon the external object in reality. Correspondingly, willing something is always
directed towards an appropriate object which may be a good or a value.67
Man always will for something that which is good and/or has value. In the act of
choosing and deciding, man always directs his action to the good and or to the one who
has value. Moreover, within the circumstance wherein man is caught in the process to
selecting two or more goods, the decision of man is suspended and the choice of man

65
Cf. Ibid., 119.
66
Ibid., 135.
67
32
will be a decision to turn toward one value and renounce all the other objects with their
respective values for the sake of that one value.68 The good and or the object that has
value will always be based on the truth.
According to Wojtyla, the ability to decide and to choose is connected within the
dynamism of the will that is in reference to “truth.”69 Truth is what releases the will from
determination by the object and enables the person precisely to be self-determining in
his acts with respect to all possible object.70 Thus, man wills something that which is
good, that which has value and that which holds the truth. Man, as he acts upon his will,
chooses the good, that which has value and that which is true, and hence determines who
he really is. Human actions will determine and reveal who man really is.
2.8. Self-determination and Fulfillment
The existential and essential cohesion of the person and the action is best and
most adequately expressed by the fulfillment resulting from performance of an action.71
To fulfill usually means “to perform.”72 Fulfillment results from the performance of
action. In the performance of an act, man, himself, because of efficacy, becomes an actor
and activates his being insofar as he acts.73 Thus, every act is a fulfillment of his being.74

68
Ibid., 95.
69
Ibid., 96.
70
71
72
Ibid.
73
Cf., Simpson, On Karol Wojtyla, 29.
74
Ibid.
33
In the process of acting, the person is seen as the agent of the action while the action
itself is seen as the consequence of the efficacy of the agent.75 As such, the person, on
the one hand, is the subject of the action because the person is the one who performs the
act.
On the other hand, the person is seen as the object of the act because of the
person’s efficacy in action. Because of efficacy, the action acquires the simultaneous
characteristics of “outerness and innerness, of transitiveness and intransitiveness.”76
Every action is directed towards an external object or set of objects and because of self-
determination, an action, even if it is directed towards an external object outside of man,
penetrates the ego, the subject, as its primary object of action. Thus, in every action, in
every fulfillment of man in his performance of action, man actualizes himself as a human
being because he is the one who acts and experiences his actions as a person.
As already noted, an action of man is willed in reference to the truth. Man acts
towards that which is good and or has value. Man fulfills himself in action in the
performance of action which is directed towards the good. Nonetheless, failure to act
towards the good experiences non-fulfillment. Hereafter, when man denies himself to
act towards the good and/or that which has value he experiences guilt and sin and
hereafter experiences non-fulfillment as a person. More so, to experience fulfilment and
non-fulfilment; to be either good or bad reveals man’s freedom. Freedom brings forth

75
76
Ibid.
34
the importance of conscience for it emphasizes the deep relationship of man to the truth
and the good.
Self-determination and fulfillment is also related to morality because man acts in
accordance to that which is directed towards the good and, conversely, man experiences
non-fulfillment as a person when his acts are directed towards that which is bad.
Goodness and badness will define who man really is. Morality will define man into who
he really is as a person, as a human being who acts.
Similarly, morality is associated with conscience. Conscience, in morality, plays
an important part in action for it brings man towards the truth. Moreover, conscience is
dependent on a specific mode of “truth.” This dependence to truth is the basis of self-
dependence of a person as well as a basis for man’s transcendence in the action.77
Likewise, this dependence to “truth” brings about a sense of duty so much so that
man acts with respect to this good.78 This duty makes man to pursue towards that which
is good and that which has value. Nevertheless, because of man’s freedom, the obligation
and duty to act towards the good depends on the innerness of man, the threshold erected
by the conscience, which tests the truthfulness of the good presented in the value.79 The
duty of man to act towards the good still depends on man’s willing which is based on
man’s innerness, his core and, because of this, man still has the ability to choose the
good over the bad and vice versa.

77
Ibid.
78
Ibid., 156.
79
Ibid., 167.
35
The task of man to act towards the good and or the bad also comes with the task
of being responsible to his actions. Responsibility is related with efficacy. If the person
is a doer of an act, then he is responsible for such an act. This responsibility however, is
rooted in man’s duty and obligation.80 Hence, when a man is obliged to love one another
and he does not love then it is man’s responsibility when he hurts other people. The
relationship of responsibility with efficacy implies obligation.81 More so, man is not only
responsible for his own actions, he is also responsible to the people around him because
he lives in the world of persons. Man is always responsible towards somebody. He is
responsible to people because he, himself, is foremost, responsible for his own self as a
person, as a somebody living with other people.
2.9. Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation
Man, as Wojtyla believes, is, by nature, a social being. The nature of man as a
social being is rooted from his nature of being an acting person. Man as a social being
signifies the reality of his existing and interacting with others.82 Moreover, it is a fact
that each individual lives together with other individuals and, simultaneously, engaged
in performing actions together with them. In participating and acting together with other

80
Cf. Ibid., 170.
81
Ibid.
82
36
men, the structure of the person is revealed.83 Thus not only does the nature of man
revealed in his actions but, when there is participation with other men. 84
Participation does not only mean that man acts together with others but rather it
means that man joins and partakes in the humanity of other people.85 Hence, they are not
only other human beings we live and act together in reality but they are also our brothers,
sisters, and all the more so, our neighbors.
Man participates in the humanity of others when he is able to transcend from his
action and attains fulfillment in performing action together with others. It is the
transcendence in action which manifests that the person has not become altogether
absorbed by social interplay but stands out as having retained his very own freedom of
choice and direction.86 Therefore, participation allows man to transcend from his actions
while maintaining his personalistic value – man’s worth – as a person while participating
in the humanity of others.
2.10. The Attitudes in Participation
Wojtyla considers certain attitudes of participation that either contributes or
hinders the person’s realization to share in the humanity of others in the community.

83
Cf. Aguas, Person, Action and Love, 164.
84
Cf. Ibid.
85
Cf. Ibid., 163.
86
37
Wojtyla presents two kinds and they are the authentic and inauthentic attitudes. Under
each attitude lies the different kinds of authentic and inauthentic attitudes.
2.10.1. Authentic Attitude
The authentic attitude is composed of two kinds of attitudes that are proper to
community and or society namely: the attitude of solidarity and the attitude of
opposition. These attitudes respect the personalistic value of the action so much so that
such attitudes utilize the actualization of the transcendence of the person in action.
Wojtyla believes these as essential elements in a community of human persons.87
2.10.1.1. Attitude of Solidarity
Wojtyla conceives the attitude of solidarity as a “natural” consequence of man’s
social nature: man exists and acts together with others.88 As such, solidarity is the
readiness of man to accept and realize his share in the community and to do so in view
of the benefit of the whole.89 Correspondingly, solidarity, in line with the authentic
attitude, is proper to community for it encourages man to give his full support to the
community in a way that man participates and acts together with others.

87
88
Ibid.
89
38
2.10.1.2. Attitude of Opposition
The other kind of authentic attitude is the attitude of opposition. Opposition, as
Wojtyla accounts, is not contradictory to solidarity for a person who honestly pursues a
common good may even oppose some means toward achieving it.90 Moreover,
opposition is perceived as an authentic attitude for the reason that man voices out his
disagreement in the community to shows man’s determination to seek his own place.
Also, opposition, at the same time, provides a constructive role within the
community.91 Opposition presents an attitude that seeks not to destroy but rather help
build their community into a better, fuller and more effective communal life.92 Therefore,
the attitude of opposition is not considered an inauthentic attitude for it enables man to
stand from the crowd – the community – maintaining his own stature and value as a
person while participating in the humanity of the whole society.
2.10.2. Inauthentic Attitude
In a different manner, Wojtyla also presented two inauthentic attitudes that
refutes the proper attitudes that must be acted upon within the community. This
inauthentic attitude is contrasted to the aforementioned attitude above. Ergo, inauthentic
attitude destroys participation.

90
91
Cf. Wojtyla, The Acting Person, 286.
92
Cf. Ibid.
39
2.10.2.1. Attitude of Conformism
Conformism is an inauthentic attitude for it only promotes an attitude of
compliance with the decisions of the community. Likewise, conformism makes the
action of man passive in the community. Through the attitude of conformism, man
deprives himself of acting in the direction of his own will. Even more so, conformism
withdraws man on the grounds of personal conviction, decision and choice. 93 As a result,
conformism is an inauthentic attitude for it makes man, in a way, inactive to the whole
community so much so that it tends toward servility, absence of solidarity, and avoidance
of opposition.94
2.10.2.2. Attitude of Noninvolvement
Noninvolvement is the deliberate absence from active concern and participation
in the community.95 It is an inauthentic attitude for it makes man disregard any interest
in the community and or society. And so, noninvolvement places man in withdrawal to
any kind of concern for the common good of all. Thus, noninvolvement makes man not
care for the community and hence limits him in participating in the whole humanity of
others.

93
Cf. Ibid., 289.
94
Cf. Francisco, Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation, 70.
95
40
2.11. Participation and Alienation
As the theory of participation allows man to share in the humanity of others while
maintaining one’s own worth, his personal value as a person, there are restrictions which
deprives the actions of man and, consequently, denies them of their personalistic value
as persons as well. These restrictions destroy participation and deprive man to attain self-
fulfillment through participating in the humanity of others. These restrictions are
problems and hindrances to a person’s actualization as a person through his actions.96
Wojtyla calls these restrictions as alienations that negate the person as a subject.
The late Pope, there are two systems that abolishes participation, namely:
individualism and totalitarianism.
2.11.1. Individualism
Individualism expresses in the person the supreme and fundamental good, to
which all interests of the community or the society have to be subordinated.97
Furthermore, individualism arises from a lack in the person who is the subject and agent
of the acting.98 The individual takes more importance on his own self rather than the
community or the society. It makes man focus more only to the self rather than to the
community and to the good of the community.99 Ergo, in individualism, acting together

96
97
98
99
41
with others in the community is viewed as a limitation for the individualist sees the
community as an imposed necessity to which he must submit, a necessity essentially
devoid of any positive human property that enables the person to fulfill himself in acting
together with others.100
2.11.2. Totalitarianism
Totalism or totalitarianism, on the other hand, is the full contrast of
individualism.101 In a totalitarian system, society protects the group from the
individual.102 Thus, while individualism considers the community a limitation to the
person, totalism deems itself that the individual is seen as an enemy of the society and
of the common good.103 Totalism or, as Wojtyla also calls it, reversed individualism
unconditionally subordinates the individual to the community or the society.104
Alienation denies the person of his natural right and ability to participate.105 And
so, both individualism and totalism restricts participation for it isolates both the
individual and the community of others from fulfilling their own selves in action. As a
result, these two limitations to participation deprives every ‘I’ to have the right to act
which entails freedom to act in order for the person to fulfill himself in the performance

100
Cf. Francisco, Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation, 78.
101
102
103
104
105
42
of action under the norms of ethical order.106
2.12. Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love
As man lives with other men in reality, so must the human person act in
accordance to his own will directed to self-fulfillment and towards the fulfillment of
others as well. Man, then, must not be treated as a means, an instrument towards an end.
Rather, man must be seen as an end in himself. Man must treat a person as a person,
giving him the personalistic value that he must have. Ergo, in action man must not only
sought for the fulfilment of himself as a person but equally to his fellow being whom he
lives and acts with in reality.
As Wojtyla states:
A person must not be merely the means to an end for another person. This is precluded
by the very nature of personhood, by what any person is. For a person is a thinking
subject and capable of taking decisions: these, most notably, are the attributes we find
in the inner self of the person. This being so every person is by nature capable of
determining his or her aims. Anyone who treats a person as the means to an end does
violence to the very essence of the other, to what constitutes its natural right. Obviously
we must demand from a person, as a thinking individual, that his or her ends should be
genuinely good, since the pursuit of evil ends is contrary to the rational nature of the
person.107
The only proper way to treat a person as a person is with love. Wojtyla continues,
“love, in the full sense of the word is a virtue, not just an emotion, and still less a mere

106
107
Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1993), 26-27.
43
excitement of the senses.”108 The measure of love is not with the intensity of the emotions
or attractions, but rather to the degree to which they feel responsible for one another.109
All the more so, love treats the person as an independent being with his own self-
determination and his own self-chosen ends.110 Therefore, love is proper only to the
human person; no one can love except the human person because virtue, such as love, is
only applicable to the human being.111
2.13. Utilitarianism as an Alienation to Love
Love is the only possible way to treat a person as a person. Love is the sole
possible means to treat a person as a value and end in himself. Utilitarianism limits the
person to love the other as who he or she is. Utilitarianism emphasizes the value of the
person according to its usefulness to give pleasure and likewise sees the human person
as only a means towards an end of the other. It only recognizes pleasure as the sole means
towards happiness and so, because of this, it degrades the person to a mere level
component towards the end of another. Therefore, utilitarianism becomes an alienation
towards the proper treatment of an individual that is to love him or her by valuing the
person as an end in himself.

108
John Paul II, “John Paul II on Love and Responsibility,” A Publication of the Love &
Responsibility Foundation (2002). Retrieved December 31, 2016 from
http://www.jp2.info/JP2_on_Love-Responsibility.pdf.
109
Jason Evert, Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves (Totus Tuus Press, United States of
America), 106.
110
111
44
2.14. The Three-fold Dimensions of Love
Since the capacity of man to love depends on his conscious willingness to seek a
good directed to all – himself and his fellow other,112 Wojtyla acknowledges three
dimensions of love which are all connected with the dynamic structures of the human
person. This three-fold dimension of love is the proper approach to move man to love
the other as an end in him or herself. The three-fold dimensions of love are as follows.
2.14.1. Metaphysical Dimension of Love
Love in its metaphysical dimension, according to Wojtyla, presents a general
analysis where elements found in any love are studied.113 It probes to the different types
of human love where it starts from the basic kind of love to the more personal level.
2.14.1.1. Love as Attraction
Love as an attraction is to be regarded as a good by the other person. This
attraction is something cognitive as well as emotive and has an individual character
according to the peculiarities of the individuals involved.114 As such, this attraction is an
awareness that a person is a value, and not merely attractive because of certain qualities

112
Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, 29.
113
114
Ibid.
45
which he or she possesses.115
2.14.1.2. Love as Desire
Love as desire is a need of the individual to be a good regarded by the other.116
Desire as a kind of love emphasizes that man is a limited and not a self-sufficient being
and, thus, needs other being. The I needs another being to find a good that which it
lacks.117 Love as desire completes the lack of good in the human person through which
the person discovers this good in the other person. This kind of love is felt as a longing
for some good for its own sake and not reduced to only desire as desire itself.118
2.14.1.3. Love as Goodwill
Love is not love if it is only based on attraction and desire. Moreover, it must go
beyond attraction and desire for it to be called love. Pope John Paul II states ,“it is not
enough to long for a person as a good for oneself, one must also, and above all, long for
that person’s good.”119 Desire and goodwill are naturally incompatible yet there is still a

115
116
117
Cf. Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, 81.
118
119
46
close connection between the two; if a person wants another person to be a good for
himself, he must want that person to be a real good.120 Simpson explains:
One must go beyond longing for the other person as a good for oneself and must also,
and above all, long for that other person’s own good. Goodwill is this longing and it is
the purest form of love. It contains no ulterior selfish motive and is inherently
altruistic.121
2.14.1.4. Love as Reciprocity
Reciprocal love is love that is mutually shared. Love, then, does not exist in the
individual persons but rather exists between them. Reciprocal love is something common
to both parties; it is not just in the man nor in the woman but rather it is in both of them;
they share the same common love for one another. Because of reciprocal love, both unite
to form a single objective whole, a single entity.122 Ergo, love as reciprocity enables man
and woman to share the same love for one another.
2.14.1.5. Sympathy and Friendship
Sympathy is a feeling of experiencing the undertakings of and/or with another. It
makes the person sense the experience of the other person. Sympathy makes a person
‘stand’ in the shoes of the other.
Friendship, on the other hand, is a mutual commitment of wills.123 It is a full

120
121
122
123
47
pledge of the will to another person with a view of that person’s good.124 Thus, friendship
is an act of choice whereas sympathy is merely the feeling of the other’s experience and
so carries an element of passivity that is, it is not controlled by the will or, as such, any
choice of man.
Nevertheless, sympathy is an early emotional stage of love. Sympathy, in the
strictest sense, is not yet love, however, it is the beginning of love. And so, in order for
sympathy to reach the level of a genuine love, it must develop into friendship. Love
cannot be merely a matter of ‘consuming’ sympathy.125
Sympathy should be transformed into friendship so that it would bring people
close together so much so that the individual “I’s is changed into a single “we”. Thus,
friendship should be supplanted with sympathy and sympathy should turn into love.
Love must not be stuck in the level of feeling but, more importantly, it must evolve into
the level of friendship where it sees that man recognizes the value of the person and fully
commits to be responsible for that person’s good.
2.14.1.6. Love as Betrothed Love
Love is not just an aspiration, but rather a coming together, a unification of
persons.126 Furthermore, it is the giving of the self to another. As such, it differs from all

124
Ibid.
125
126
Ibid., 95.
48
forms of love because in betrothed love the person gives one’s own ‘I’ to another person.
Henceforth, betrothed love exceeds beyond the level of attraction and friendship.
Wojtyla explains:
The fullest, the most uncompromising form of love consists precisely in self-giving, in
making one’s inalienable and non-transferable ‘I’ someone else’s property. This is
doubly paradoxical: firstly in that it is possible to step outside one’s own ‘I’ in this way,
and secondly in that the ‘I’ far from being destroyed or impaired as a result is enlarged
and enriched.127
2.14.2. Psychological Dimension of Love
The world of human sensuality and emotions influence man’s every activity as a
person hence, the psychological dimension, in any case, concerns itself on the psyche
where the particular form and differences of the sexual vitality in man and woman, bodily
and emotional, are studied.128
2.14.2.1. Analysis of Sensuality
Sensuality implies an experience of a particular value bound up with the object
of such sensory awareness.129 This particular value that sensuality directs itself to is the
sexual value which is associated to the human body of the opposite sex. Now, as
sensuality is directed to the human body, it becomes a possible object of exploitation
which has a utilitarian and or a consumerist disposition. For this reason, sensual reaction

127
Ibid., 97.
128
129
49
– either internally, that is, of the mind and imagination or externally, that is, of the senses
and cognition – which focuses on the body and sex becomes possible objects for us that
threatens to devalue the person.130
Nevertheless, as Wojtyla states, “this orientation is not primarily an evil thing but
a natural thing.”131 All the more so, sensuality is sort of a raw material for a true, conjugal
love.132 Still, it must not be stuck up to the level of sensuality alone. In order for it to
reach the level of true love sensuality demands integration.133 Sensuality must then be
integrated with the value of the body and the sexual value of the person and, furthermore,
to love. For this reason, it must become an integral part of the fully formed and mature
attitude to the person.134 Therefore, sensuality must not stop on the level of desire, rather,
man must be able to supplement the element of sensuality with other nobler elements of
love for him to reach the level of a genuine, conjugal love.
2.14.2.2. Sentiment and Love
Sentiment is different with sensuality. While sensuality, on one hand, concerns
itself with the sexual value of the human body alone, sentiment, on the other hand, sheds
its light on the whole value of the person as a person. Sentiment or sentimentality is an
emotional susceptibility to the sexual value connected with the whole person of the other

130
131
Ibid., 106.
132
Ibid., 108.
133
Ibid.
134
Ibid.
50
sex. Wojtyla explains, “this susceptibility (which is different from sensual excitability)
to the sexual value residing in a ‘whole person of the other sex’, to ‘femininity’ or
‘masculinity’, should be called sentiment.”135 In sensuality, it is the body with its sexual
value that stands out, but in sentiments, the value is attached to the whole person of the
other sex and not confined to the body alone.136 Sentimentality is not a desire of a person
to use the other as an object for pleasure rather, it manifests one’s desire for nearness,
for proximity and simultaneously for exclusivity or intimacy.137
However, love is not pure sentimentality. Like sensuality, if love remains to mere
sentimentality, it will not be love in the complete sense of the word.138 There is a danger
that love may fall to disillusionment when love remains into mere sentimental love.
Sentimental love, as it concentrates on emotional values may influence man into thinking
of variety of values that the beloved possesses, values, however, that are not really
present in the beloved person. Such values only exist in the mind of the person
sentimentally in love. Hence, such situation may lead one to the discrepancy between
the real values and the “imaginary” values which one thinks that the beloved possesses.
Therefore, love may fade or turn to hatred once the person sentimentally in love learns
that what he or she longs for her beloved, the ideal values that he or she “possesses” is
not true in reality.
The growth of love, for love to be a pure, genuine love, consists in integrating

135
Ibid., 110.
136
137
138
Ibid., 113.
51
the different processes that simultaneously happening within the human person – both
the sensuality and sentiments into action particularly that of a conscious act of the person.
Heedless to it, sensuality and sentimentality can lead to problems if they are not fully
integrated into the self-determination of the person.139 True love does not just happen in
the person but involves an experience of being an efficient cause of the act of love; it
involves the act of the will, it springs from the human spirit.140
2.14.3. Ethical Dimension of Love
The last dimension which is the ethical part delves on the fact that love between
persons has a moral character and is ultimately to be seen as a virtue, the greatest of
virtues.141 The following is included, as Wojtyla considers, in the ethical dimension of
love:
2.14.3.1. Experience and Virtue
Wojtyla asserts, “human existence is made up of a whole series of situations each
of which is supposed to furnish of itself a norm of action.”142 Similar to this, as Wojtyla
continues, is the life and love of man and woman as a couple where it is composed too

139
140
141
142
52
of a number of situations which in themselves decide its value. The value of the love
between the man and the woman must be based on the virtue of one another for the other.
Therefore, love as experience should be subordinated to love as virtue, so much so that
without love as virtue there can be no fullness in the experience of love.143
2.14.3.2. Affirmation of the Value of the Person
Every individual, a man or a woman, primarily possesses his or her own value as
a person and only his or her own sexual value comes after. One’s value as a person is of
more importance than one’s own sexual value. According to Wojtyla, “the sensual and
emotional reaction to a ‘human being of the other sex’ must be somehow adjusted to the
knowledge that the human being concerned is a person.”144 Furthermore, the opposite
sex is a person and the proper way to treat a person is to value one’s own worth as a
person. Therefore, the fundamental ethical characteristic of love is the affirmation of the
person as a person otherwise it is not love at all.145
Wojtyla continues:
It is only when it directs itself to the person that love is love. It cannot be called love
when it directs itself merely to the ‘body’ of a person, for we see here only too clearly
the desire to use another person, which is fundamentally incompatible with love. Nor yet
is love really love when it is merely an emotional attitude to a human being of the other
sex.146

143
Ibid., 120.
144
Ibid., 123.
145
Ibid.
146
Ibid., 123-124.
53
2.14.3.3. Membership of One Another
Love, in its full nature, is fully revealed in the giving of self as a gift by the person
who loves to the beloved other. This giving of self is seen, as stated in the metaphysical
analysis of love, by betrothing oneself to his or her beloved person. Furthermore, this
giving of self as a gift to the beloved person does not diminish and impoverish the person,
but rather, enlarges and enriches the existence of the person as a person.147 By betrothing
oneself to a beloved person, Wojtyla states that, “the lover ‘goes outside’ the self to find
a fuller existence in another.148 Similarly, Wojtyla continues:
Two persons belong to each other — this is the only full and satisfactory description of
‘betrothed love’, which finds its fulfillment in marriage. In the absence of these
characteristics love is by definition impossible, and mere ‘use’ takes its place.149
Only in the union of persons through marriage does love find its proper
expression. In the same manner, the most proper expression in showing the love of the
person to the beloved in marriage is sexual intercourse it is for the reason that sex is only
proper to people who are under the sacrament of matrimony. Thus, the unification of the
two persons must first be achieved by way of love, and sexual relations between them
can only be the expression of a unification already complete.150

147
Cf. Ibid., 126.
148
Ibid.
149
Ibid.
150
Ibid., 127.
54
2.14.3.4. Choice and Responsibility
In loving a person, there always exists a particular responsibility. This
responsibility entails that a person must be responsible for one’s own love. Wojtyla
claims, “responsibility for love clearly comes down to responsibility for the person,
originates in it and returns to it.”151 There exists a more true love if there is a greater
feeling of responsibility for the other person.152 Hence, in choosing a person, a beloved,
one must not base its love solely or primarily in one’s sexual values but rather it must be
based on one’s value as a person and, more importantly, to the extent of having full
responsibility to the beloved as one’s own. Wojtyla continues:
Love is put to the test most severely when the sensual and emotional reactions
themselves grow weaker, and sexual values as such lose their effect. Nothing then
remains except the value of the person, and the inner truth about the love of those
concerned comes to light. If their love is a true gift of self, so that they belong each to
the other, it will not only survive but grow stronger, and sink deeper roots. Whereas if it
was never more than a sort of synchronization of sensual and emotional experiences it
will lose its raison d’etre and the persons involved in it will suddenly find themselves in
a vacuum.153
2.14.3.5. The Commitment of Freedom
Since love entails responsibility to the other person, the beloved, it involves a
commitment which limits one’s freedom.154 At first glance, a limited freedom on the part
of the person may seem negative and unlikable, but when love is at the center of one’s
‘handing’ of the self to the other person it becomes something positive, more notably, a

151
Ibid., 130.
152
Cf. Ibid., 131.
153
Ibid., 134.
154
Ibid.,135.
55
pleasant and productive thing. Hence, freedom exists for the sake of love.155 If love is
not the core of one’s giving of self to the beloved, freedom would seem to be limited;
the human person would then feel empty and unfulfilled. By this, Karol Wojtyla wants
to emphasize that in loving a person, love is more important than freedom. Furthermore,
he elaborates, “man longs for love more than for freedom — freedom is the means and
love the end.”156
2.14.3.6. The Education of Love
Love is always built on trust and experience; it is never ready-made. Much more,
love is always a becoming, its dynamic and hence what it becomes depends upon the
involvement of both persons and the depth of their commitment to one another.157 Love
always depends on the participation of both persons not in the form of emotions and
desires, but of the complete giving of self to each other in view of their own very value
as a person. Such love can only be attained by the work and participation of persons and
more importantly by the work of Divine Grace.158

155
Ibid.
156
Ibid., 136.
157
Cf. Ibid., 139.
158
Cf. Ibid., 140.
56
2.15. Responsibility and Choice of Commitment
Love has as its subject and object the human person. Love is always directed
towards the subject which is man himself and the object which is another human person,
the beloved. This love must always be based on the biological and psychical and, more
importantly, on the spiritual level of love that is, taking full responsibility of the other
person.
As love is mainly a gift of self to the other person, one must take responsibility
in attending and caring for the value of the person. Wojtyla would say, “the greater the
feeling of responsibility for the person, the more true love there is.159 Therefore, in
choosing another person as a spouse, one must not base his or her choice on the sexual
values of the person rather it must be based solely according to the value of the person
as a person. The worth of the person must be the primary reason in choosing him or her
as one’s spouse and hereafter does the sexual value of the person follows.
2.16. Love and the Dignity of the Human Person
A pure and genuine love for the other person entails that man is able to give his
own self to the beloved as a gift of self. This giving of self is completed in the
performance of the sexual act between man and the woman.160 Such an act expresses the
full responsibility and commitment of man to his beloved and vice versa. Once that love

159
Ibid., 131.
160
57
is perceived in this way, according to Wojtyla, then love raises the dignity of the human
person with its personalistic value in its entirety. The dignity, the personalistic value in
its fullness, of the human person who loves and is loved is lifted, appreciated and all the
more, respected.
58
Chapter 3
FILIPINO FAMILY VALUES
This chapter exposes the family in the Philippine setting. It presents the values
which the family inculcates in man which impacts his way of looking at life. In order to
answer this sub-problem – What is Filipino Family Values? – the thesis-writer exposes
first the family in general then particularizes to the Filipino family. Hereafter, the thesis-
writer focuses on the Filipino values which makes the individual man apt in continuing
the journey of life. After which, the researcher will present a discussion regarding issues
on the Filipino values.
3.1 The Family
Everybody comes and originates from somebody or something.161 Nobody exists
in the world or is created in the world out of thin air. Animals, fishes and even the winged
creatures in the air come from their own genus or species. The same goes for human
beings who live in reality. Human beings originate from their family; their parents who,

161
This phrase implies that God made and created everything in the world. However, the thesis-
writer wants to emphasize that the rest of the people, animals and things in reality which are created after
God had made the first beings in the world are made by the created beings of God.
59
because of their love for one another, are capable of transmitting life. No human being
is ever born without a parent and a family; no person is able to create himself with just a
snap of a finger. As Pope John Paul II reiterates, “a person normally comes into the world
within a family, and can be said to owe to the family the very fact of his existing as an
individual.”162 Hence, the family is [always] a distinctly human reality.163 The family is
always a reality from which the individual man originates himself.
Furthermore, the family is an essential and universal institution known to be the
backbone of the nation.164 This is for the reason that the family will evolve into a
community; then the community will turn eventually into society.165 Vis-à-vis, family,
then, is basically the primary unit of any society or nation.166 A family is traditionally
composed of a father, a mother and a child or children. These particular individuals form
the fundamental unit of a given community or society.
Today, however, many seem to view family as those that which belong to single
parenthood, cohabiting arrangements, domestic partnerships of homosexuals, families
constituted by second marriages and married couples without children.167 Nevertheless,
Florentino Timbreza states,
“Ang pamilya ay binubuo ng mga magulang at ng kanilang mga anak, halimbawa, ang
ama at ang ina, at kahit isa man lamang na anak. Kung walang anak (tunay man o isang

162
John Paul II, Letter to Families, 4.
163
Karol Wojtyla, Person and Community, trans. Theresa Sandok (USA: Peter Lang, 1993), 315.
164
Kennedy B. Diaz, “Towards Effective Communication in the Family through Martin
Buber’s Concept of Genuine Dialogue in the Filipino Working-Family Context.” (A.B. thesis, Mary
Help of Christians College Seminary, 2016), 40-41.
165
Ibid.
166
Cf. Florentino T. Timbreza, Pagpapahalaga ng Pamilya (Manila: Logos Publications, Inc.,
2010), 16.
167
Cf. Medina, The Filipino Family, 13.
60
ampon) ang mag-asawa ay karaniwang hindi itinuturing na isang pamilya. Kaya ang
pamilya ay isang grupo ng mga indibidwal na itinuturing na bilang iisa.” (The family
is composed of parents and their children, for example, the father and mother, and even
only one child. If there is no child (biologically or adopted) the parent is usually not
considered a family. That is why a family is a group of individuals that treat each other
as one)168
Accordingly, the present-day view of a family is conversely, in the strictest sense,
not counted as one. It may seem that a group of people who treat each other intimately
and closely is a family but, still, as Timbreza accounts for, it is not. A family still precedes
to be known as a group of people essentially composed of a father, mother and a child or
children.
Another, the family is known to be a group who is very close and intimate.169
This is because it is in the family that an individual first learns how to walk and talk, to
eat and drink, to play and pray and a lot of other things. All the more, it is in the family
that an individual experiences the most significant happenings in life – birth, puberty,
marriage and death.170 For this reason, the family is the source of the individual man’s
ideals, aspirations and basic motivations.171 Therefore, the family may be said to be the
principal influential feature in a man’s life.
Sir Edward Taylor wrote, “culture is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society.”172 As such, the family is likewise the major

168
Timbreza, Pagpapahalaga ng Pamilya, 13.
169
170
Ibid.
171
Ibid.
172
Manuel B. Garcia, Francisco M. Zulueta and Cynthia T. Caritativo, Sociology: Focus on
Filipino Society and Culture (Manila: National Book Store, Inc., 1984), 247.
61
agent in the transmission of culture.173 This is because the family is the first society of
an individual. Man firstly learns culture from his own family, his first society. As
Timbreza claims as well, “ang pamilya ay siyang pangunahing galamay ng kultura na
itinatag ng tao, kabilang na rin ang pamayanan, paaralan, pamahalaan, relihiyon, at
ang midya.” (The family is the primary branch of culture which the people has
constructed, including the community, school, government, religion and media.)174
Henceforth, the family is the main contributor for an individual to be exposed to
the larger social group. This is for the reason that the family, as man’s first society, is the
facet on which the individual man learns culture and is able to spread culture to other
people and soon to the larger society or nation. Therefore, the family aids man in making
himself be part of the whole of reality. The family, then, is the stepping stone of man,
his link towards the larger community. And so, the family is the most important agent of
socialization in almost every society for the family has as its role the principal socializer
of individuals.175
The family is commonly classified into two basic types: nuclear family and the
extended family.

173
Medina, The Filipino Family, 3.
174
175
Cf. Thomas, Sociology: The Study of Human Relationships, 112.
62
3.1.1. Nuclear
Nuclear family is considered the basic building block in the family structure from
which all other forms evolve.176 Nuclear family is a unit that includes two married
parents of opposite genders and their biological or adopted children living in the same
residence.177 In addition, this type of family disregards those people that are not under
the rite of marriage and, moreover, those whose ‘parents’ are of the same gender. The
nuclear family is characterized into two kinds: the family of procreation and the family
of orientation.
3.1.1.1. Family of Orientation
Family of orientation consists of the individuals, his parents and all his
siblings.178 Likewise, family of orientation is the nuclear family into which the person is
born.179 Ergo, family of orientation emphasizes the individual and the parents, the family
as a whole, in which they grew up.

176
177
“What is nuclear family?” Retrieved January 13, 2017 from
http://family.lovetoknow.com/definition-nuclear-family.
178
179
Thomas, Sociology: The Study of Human Relationships, 295.
63
3.1.1.2. Family of Procreation
Family of procreation is when an individual in a family marries and a new family
is formed.180 Family of procreation consists of the individual, his spouse and all his
children.181 Hence, the family of procreation is the family which the individual has
established through his marriage to the other person of the opposite sex.
3.1.2. Extended
Extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear type of family. This
type of family are those whose grandparents, aunts and uncles and other immediate
relatives also live in the household of the nuclear family or live nearby.182 In that same
manner, this type of family consists of three or more generations of a family sharing the
same residence.183 Similarly, those people classified under nuclear families whose
houses are together, beside, and/or more importantly, within a particular place is also
considered as an extended family. Hence, it is also an extended family when a number
of nuclear families are linked together by virtue of the kinship bond between parents and
children and/or between siblings.184

180
Ibid.
181
182
Cf. “What is extended family?” Retrieved January 12, 2017, from
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/extended-family.
183
184
64
3.2. The Filipino Family
Belen Medina asserts:
The family as the basic unit of Philippine society is very significant to the Filipino. It
demands his interest and loyalty more than any other institution in the larger society. Its
influence is far-reaching for it pervades every aspect of his life, be it social, political,
religious, or economic.185
Because of this, the Filipino family is considered to play a very significant aspect
to any Filipino individual.186
There is a saying to many Filipinos that goes “family always comes first.” A
Filipino individual always prioritizes his parents and family whenever endeavors take
place in his life. An appropriate illustration would be those Filipino families whose
family members are working abroad. A member of a family usual goes abroad to work
and save money for his family. He187 sacrifices everything to work overseas so that he
could aid his family in their needs and much more, give them support for the future to
come.
Such maxim, “family always comes first,’ is present in the Filipino individual as
it points out that he is willing to sacrifice everything – his time, energy, loved ones – so
as to help and assist his family back home. Why is this so? It is because Filipinos are
known to be clannish and family oriented.188 They tend to base their decisions and
actions on their family-views, perspectives and, with greater reason, their welfare.

185
Ibid., 12.
186
Cf. Timbreza, Pagpapahalaga ng Pamilya, 25.
187
The researcher intends to use ‘he’ and ‘his’ to denote both sexes.
188
Rei Lemuel Crizaldo and Ronald Molmisa, Pinoy Big Values (Manila: OMF Literature Inc.,
2014), 24.
65
Consequently, it is undeniable that the community [of a Filipino individual] is organized
around the family.189 As Timbreza insinuates, “hindi matitimbangan ang
pagpapahalaga ng Filipino sa isang maayos, masaya’t mapayapang buhay
pampamilya.” (One cannot weigh the value of an orderly, happy, and peaceful family
for a Filipino.)190 Therefore, a Filipino family is characterized by a strong sense of unity
and all the more so by family-centeredness and attachment. 191
Another particular saying goes like this, “the family is there from womb to the
tomb.”192 This assertion emphasizes that the family is always present in the significant
happenings and instances of the Filipino individual’s life. Much more, this statement
exhibits that the family is there for the individual during his birth, through the significant
occasions of his life such as circumcision and marriage, up to his deathbed.
So the saying essentially indicates that the family is present in every moment and
aspect of a Filipino’s life – from his cradle to his grave.193 For this reason, Filipino
individuals give so much value to their family because they are always there for him. As
a result, family success is the measurement of a successful life for the Filipinos.194 As
Timbreza acknowledges, “the greatest success is family success, whereas the worst
failure is family failure.”195 Additionally, it may be said that the family is the main

189
190
191
Florentino T. Timbreza, Filipino Philosophy Today (Quezon City: National Books Store,
2008), 288.
192
Rafael T. Cruz, Introduction to Psychology, (Class lecture on the First Semester Formation
Year 2014-2015), Mary Help of Christians College Seminary, Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City.
193
Ibid.
194
Timbreza, Filipino Philosophy Today, 288.
195
66
influential feature in the life of a Filipino individual because the Filipino family is the
gauge of his fulfillment in life.
Since the Filipino family is the measurement of an individual’s fulfillment in life,
the family, then, has the responsibility to teach and imbibe to the Filipino individual the
values that one must carry with him as he continues through life. These values will shape
an individual to become more apt in facing life and, moreover, will make him distinct
from other people in reality.
3.3. Values
Values held by a group [that includes the family] help to determine the character
of its people and the kinds of material and nonmaterial culture they create.196 Value, then,
is something that helps one determine its culture and, more so, its people. Ergo, it can be
argued that people are their own values.197 It is so because people become who they are
insofar as they act, behave, think, and make decisions according to their value system.198
People have their own values because through these, they are made distinct to
other people in reality. Correspondingly, it can be said that values are those that which
we treasure and hold on to in life.199 These come in the form of that which we see as
something desirable, worth having, worth possessing, worth keeping, and worth doing

196
197
Timbreza, Filipino Values Today, IX.
198
Cf. Ibid., 4.
199
Cf. Joey Bonifacio, The Values-Drive Heart: Weighing in on what really Matters (Makati:
Church Strengthening Ministry, Inc., 2016), 12.
67
insofar as it is engaged to something good.200 Thus, value is something worthy of
ownership, worthy of being cherished by the person because values are primarily
manifestations of who they are in reality.
In addition, values actually guide man’s behavior and action as he relates himself
in most situations in life.201 It is through values that man is influenced to doing things.
In the same manner, values make man look at reality in a different picture; see conditions
in a whole new perspective. Values are those that which enable man to grasp reality
according to that which he believes good and true. Thus, values, in some measure, stand
as intimately related to the search for meaning in the life of man.202 And as such, it can
be said that it is within the ambit of values that man is able to pursue his own authenticity
and fulfillment as a human being.
3.4. The Filipino Values
Every society has its own culture and every culture bears the people’s philosophy
of life and values.203 Values, for Filipinos, are the objects of the people’s interest, desire,
preference, concerns and aspiration.204 Further, Filipino values take the form of an ideal,
philosophy of life, personal honor, human relations, principle, or a precept by which the
people live, act, think, reason, evaluate, decide and behave.205 As a result, values are, in

200
Cf. Timbreza, Filipino Values Today, 1.
201
Garcia et al., Sociology: Focus on Filipino Society and Culture, 277.
202
Cf. Tomas D. Andres, Positive Filipino Values (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1989), 15.
203
204
Ibid., 285.
205
Timbreza, Filipino Values Today, 13.
68
a way, a way of life to people – their ethnicity. Cultural values are the shared assumptions
of what is right, good or important.206 Consequently, Filipino values are that which the
Filipinos see and accept as their own culture, and that, it is something good and worthy
of possession and title.
3.4.1. Values present in the Filipinos
Ang mga pagpapahalaga ay yaong mga kanais-nais na mga huwaran ng pag-
uugali at pamumuhay na nakapaloob sa kultura ng lipunan (Values are those that which
are desirable for the ideal character and lifestyle that is within the culture of a society).207
Culture for the Filipinos is the point of origin of values. Accordingly, the culture of any
society represents generalizations of the behavior of all or some of the members of that
society.208 Hence, the culture of any society, that is, by way of conduct and demeanor,
defines the society’s values – as part or as a whole – that they see as something good and
desirable.
The following are values present within the Filipino individual and as such,
makes him distinct from the many other people from different culture and society and
hence a different value inculcated within the individual. The researcher will present a

206
Garcia et al., Sociology: Focus on Filipino Society and Culture, 277.
207
208
Ralph L. Beals and Harry Hoijer, An Introduction to Anthropology, 2nd Edition (New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1959), 230.
69
particular value and afterwards he will be deriving and citing precepts and principles
from the Filipinos themselves in their own native tongues.
3.4.1.1. Value of the Family
Filipinos are well known for their family-centeredness.209 For a Filipino,
everything – all events and occasions within the Filipino individual’s life – revolves
around the family. In like manner, for a Filipino, happiness and unhappiness, success
and failure, are centered on the Filipino family.210 Therefore, Filipinos labor so hard and
sacrifice so much only to maintain an orderly, peaceful, successful, and happy family.211
For the Ilocanos:

“Ti timpuyog ti pamilia isu’t mangted ti kired ken pigsa. Daytay balay a dua ti
agtagikua, asideg ti pannakarbana. Uray awan ti kukuam, no la ket naurnos ti pamiliam.
Uray awan ti pirak no adda la ket ragsak.” (Family harmony provides fortitude and
strength. A house with two owners crumbles so easily. Even though you don’t have
property as long as you have a harmonious family. Even though there is no money as
long as there is happiness.)212
The family who has a united and wholesome relationship with one another will
provide lasting inspiration and motivation to the Filipino individual. As Timbreza states,
“with our own family behind us, no problem is too difficult to resolve and no suffering
is too painful to bear.”213 As long as an individual has his own family to back him up in

209
210
211
212
Timbreza, Filipino Philosophy Today, 289-290.
213
70
life, he can endure the challenges life has to offer. On top of that, the Filipino does not
need wealth and property as long as he has his family with him.
The Boholanos believe that the family breeds either fortune or misfortune: “Ang familia
nga nagatanum ug kaayohan nag-ani ug kapalaran; ang nagatanum ug kadautan,
nagana ug lonlon kasakitan.” (The family that sows goodness reaps fortune; the one
that sows evil reaps suffering.)214
This shows how the family believes that whatever an individual commits or omits
in his actions has the equal consequence that one gets in return. Henceforth the family,
as the primary teacher to the Filipino individual, must teach proper discipline and values
to a Filipino so that he may grow up as a good person. Nonetheless, if the family fails to
do so, the individual may foster a bad personality and therefore may grow as a bad
person.
3.4.1.2. Value of Parental Responsibility
Parental responsibility is invaluable in Filipino culture.215 Parental responsibility
entails the proper upbringing, nurturing, rearing up, training, and disciplining of one’s
own children in order for them to grow with sufficient knowledge about life.216 This
responsibility holds the parents to be in charge in the proper education of the children.
Correspondingly, when the Filipino child grows up responsible and obedient as an adult,
the parents are to be accountable and, conversely, so also when the child individual
grows up negligent and reckless. The parents are always held liable to their own children.

214
Cf. Ibid., 103.
215
216
71
Very common among the Tagalogs is the preaching “Ang kahoy na liko’t baluktot/
Hutukin mo hanggang malambot/ Kung malaki na’t tumayog/ Mahirap na ang
paghutok.” (A curved and crooked tree should be straightened while it’s still soft; once
it grows big and tall, it will be difficult to stretch it.) Sharing the same idea, the Ilocanos
say “Lintegen tay kawayan no rabong pay, no natangkenanen dikanton malippay.”
(You should straighten the bamboo while it’s still a shoot, once it is full-grown you can’t
bend it anymore.) “Ang gawa sa pagkabata,” continue the Tagalogs, “dala hanggang
sa tumanda.” (One’s ways during childhood are borne until old age.) “Kung ano ang
pinagkabataan ay siyang pagkakatandaan.” (Whatever kind of childhood one has gone
through determines what kind of an adult one shall become.)217
What an individual carries in his adult life begins when he is still young and as
such the parents must always educate their children so that they may be apt in facing the
future endeavors they have to affront in the future. Furthermore, as an individual gaze at
his family for inspiration in life, the parents must take their obligation to do their part in
making the Filipino individual fit for the challenges of life. Ergo, parental responsibility
is a value being held by the Filipinos because for them, the parents are the role models
and examples that they imitate and learn from.
3.4.1.3. Value of Human Fellowship
Human fellowship is known to the Filipinos as pakikipagkapwa-tao. All people
live a shared life in a shared society within a shared world and as such this common life
that all people have and partake with lies the value of human fellowship.218 Through
human fellowship, people can better realize that human life is more meaningful and
worth living only in the presence and help of others, in communion with others and for
the benefit of others.219 Accordingly, human fellowship stresses that no man is an island.

217
218
219
Cf. Ibid.
72
Life is better with a companion and a co-journeyer. In addition, it underlines that
everybody is a fellow human being, a friend with whom one becomes who they are
because of the other fellow.
As the Tagalogs say, “isang uri ng karunungan ang gawaing pakikibagay” (Getting
along well with others is a unique kind of wisdom). “Hindi siya nakatuntong ng
paaralan subalit marunong makisama” (He has not gone to school but he knows how
to get along well with others). It is clear that the people perceive human fellowship as
an important gauge of true wisdom and that knowledge lies in one’s ability to treat others
as fellow human beings, as persons, and not as things.220
Human fellowship for the Filipinos is illustrated and shown by their sensitive and
emotional character, truthfulness and honesty and reciprocity and understanding.221
Human fellowship is highlighted in the Filipinos’ sensitive and emotional personality.
Filipinos prefer to be hurt externally rather than internally; they tend to avoid any
derogatory, shameful and humiliating situations.222 And so, emotional and
psychological insults and offences are inexcusable adversaries of pakikipagkapwa-tao.
As the Ilocanos say, “no saanmo a kayat tay tao, dika latta pabpabainan.” (If you don’t
like a person, you should not shame or embarrass him.) And, furthermore, for the
Tagalogs, “di man pakaibigin, huwag lang pahiyain.” (You may not love an individual
but you should not insult him).223
Another expression of pakikipagkapwa-tao for the Filipinos is truthfulness and
honesty. The Tagalogs believe, “Ang pagsasabi ng tapat ay pagsasama ng maluwat.”
(Telling the truth means lasting companionship.) Equally, “paa na ang madulas, ang

220
Ibid., 111.
221
See., 112-113.
222
Ibid., 112.
223
Cf. Ibid., 111.
73
dila lamang ay huwag.” (It’s alright for the foot to slip but the tongue should not.) And,
also, the Ilocanos say, “tay ulbod a tao, mailunlunod uray inton kaano.” (A liar will be
condemned forever and ever.)224 Thus for Filipinos, human fellowship is put into its
pinnacle when Filipinos express truthfulness and honesty. Candor leads to an everlasting
friendship and companionship.
In addition to what has been said, human fellowship for the Filipinos is actualized
by reciprocity and understanding. Give and take relationship gives emphasis to Filipinos’
value for human fellowship. It presents that what you want others do to you, you must
also do to them.225 By illustration, the Tagalogs believe, “kapag ikaw ay nagparaan ay
pararaanin ka naman.” (If you give others their right of way, you will be granted yours,
too.) The same with Maguindanaos, “matawa peddabang engay ka, engayan ka.” (You
should give way and you will be given way, too.) The Titurays say, “feimo gob dumuweh
inoke fe imonoh so beem.” (You shall give and you shall be given in return.) And also,
for the Ilocanos, “no adda mangtedka, ta kastanto met no sika.” (Give if you have
something to give, and it will be done unto you, too.)226

224
Cf. Ibid., 112.
225
This statement is the golden rule or also known as the law of reciprocity. It is a maxim of
altruism seen in many human religions and human cultures. This statement is also seen in the Bible being
said by Jesus Christ under the passage Luke 6:13.
226
74
3.4.1.4. Value of Diplomacy
As the Filipinos value human fellowship, they too value diplomacy. Diplomacy
for the Filipinos is known as mahusay na pakikitungo, mahusay na pakikibagay or
magaling makipagkasundo.227 Filipinos are known to be attached to the value of
pakikisama or to smooth interpersonal relations.228 This is so because Filipinos by nature
are conciliatory, accommodating, and diplomatic. They value peace and reconciliation,
harmony and brotherhood, and love for one another.229 Therefore, Tagalogs say, “ang
salitang matamis, sa puso’y nakakaakit, pampalubag ng galit sa taong naiinis.” (A
sweet word is soothing to the heart; it will appease an angry person’s hatred.)
Additionally, they believe that, “mas malakas ang bulong kaysa sigaw.” (A whisper is
louder than a shout.) In like manner, Bicolanos say, “ang sulting mahinay maca
lucmay.” (Gentle words soften the heart.) Also, for the Ilonggos, “mahunok nga
palabton naga palayo sang caaguig, apang ang matigas nga pulong pasaka sang
casingcal.” (A gentle way of speaking will appease animosity, while harsh words just
fuel it.)230
Filipinos believe that, through diplomacy, one can establish a harmonious
relationship with another. By a nice conversation, one can build trust. Similarly, no one
can create a good atmosphere by spreading negative vibes. As a result, Filipinos believe
that diplomacy leads to a good attachment and relationship with other people.

227
228
Cf. Garcia et al., Sociology: Focus on Filipino Society and Culture, 279.
229
230
Cf. Ibid., 87-88.
75
3.4.1.5. Value of Personal Dignity
Dignity is literally translated as “karangalan” in the Filipino language. Personal
dignity is associated with good reputation and honor. Further, personal dignity or
“karangalan” is correlated with having a good name, good reputation: “puri,
kapurihan, dangal and mabuting pangalan”.231 Nonetheless, the closest Filipino term
for the English concept of personal dignity is “pagkatao”.232 Personal dignity or
“pagkatao” is essentially related with self-esteem, self-worth, self-image, and self-
respect.233
Timbreza asserts, “for the Filipinos, personal dignity is the most important wealth
of all.”234 Filipinos treasure their own “pagkatao;” they value their dignity more than
they value wealth and luxury. Everything there is in the world will always fade but one
clean name will never wither. Therefore, Filipinos believe that riches and social fame
can be bought and lost; but one’s good character is lasting and priceless.235
The Tagalogs give an unequivocal precept on personal dignity, “di man nagmana sa
ari, pero nagmana sa ugali.” (One may not have inherited wealth but inherited good
manners.); and that “ang kalinisang-puri ay hindi nabibili.” (Moral integrity cannot be
bought.) For them, it is better to inherit good character than to inherit properties or
possession but devoid of self-respect and honor. One can buy splendiferous belongings,
good, estates, palatial mansions etc. but personal honor is priceless. The same virtue is
shared by the Boholanos, “ang maayong cagawian labaw sa bulawan.” (Good name is
more valuable than gold.) and that “ang tonay na kagyomon iyo ugaling marhay.” (Real
beauty consists in good manners). 236

231
“Karangalan” Retrieved January 10, 2017 from https://www.tagalog-
dictionary.com/search?word=dangal
232
233
Ibid.
234
Ibid., 64.
235
Ibid., 64-65.
236
Ibid., 62.
76
3.5. Values as Inherent to the Filipino Family
Florentino Timbreza states:
“Nakapaloob sa kultura ng lipunan ang mga pagpapahalaga, at dahil sa ang pamilya ay

galamay ng kultura, ito ang tagadala ng mga pagpapahalaga sa pamamagitan ng mga
magulang. Bilang mga tauhan ng pamilya na siyang instrumento naman ng kultura, ang
mga magulang talaga ang tagadala ng mga pagpapahalaga.” (Value is within the culture
of society, and because the family is the root of culture, they are the carriers of values
through the parents. As such, being the members of the family and instruments of culture,
237
the parents are the bearers of values.)
Parents are the primary means of transferring culture to the Filipino individual
through example, illustration, and explanation. In like manner, cultures are learned; they
are not, like racial characteristics, genetically transmitted.238 Thus, it can be said that
values too are not that which an individual inherits from his parents but, rather, values
are what he learns from them.
Looking at a bigger picture, once the individual has grown as an adult, he then
takes responsibility of handling down the Filipino culture of values to the next
generation. And, after which, the people of next generation, as they become an adult
human being someday, they will also take the task of passing it to the next generation of
Filipino people. As a result of this, a cycle of transmission takes place from one
generation to the next. Vis-à-vis, everything boils down in the family as the primary
transmitter of cultural values and principles.

237
238
Beals and Hoijer, An Introduction to Anthropology, 240.
77
Additionally, people can discern the very significant role being played by parents
and elders in the transmission and inculcation of values into their offspring.239 Thus,
value is intrinsic to the family insofar as the transmission of culture and, more so, values
are concern. Hence Filipino values can be termed as Filipino family values for the reason
that it is from the family that an individual learns such values through the culture of the
family and the society.
3.6. The Filipino Family as the Spring of Values
Mayroong katutubong karunungan na pamanang-yaman ng ating kultura na
nagsasaad ng ganito: “Turan mo sa akin kung ano ang iyong pamilya at turan ko kung
sino ka.” (There is an inherited folk wisdom treasure in our culture of that goes like this:
tell me your family and I will tell you who you are.)240 The person is distinguished as a
person through his own family. Accordingly, they are made distinct through their own
set of values and cultures. A person is a good person when his family has instilled in him
proper and appropriate values. Nevertheless, a person becomes a bad person when the
family fails to teach him properly. Therefore, through one’s family they are made known
and distinguished from the rest of the people; and they are seen as good or bad people in
the eyes of their fellow individuals in reality.

239
240
78
3.7. Devaluation of Filipino Values and Culture
In today’s modern generation, Filipino values are slowly fading away. Gradually,
the culture of values is eroding. Worst, the values instilled in an individual Filipino by
his family is, steadily, being misapplied, misused and abused by our fellow Filipinos.
One by one, these values are crumbling. Further and soon, without even knowing it, the
culture of values, the pride and distinct factors of the Filipinos, will be long gone and
forgotten.
By now, the culture of modification and change has come in our midst. Our
culture is slowly being eaten up by the new trends of the time. Much more, the Filipino
individual is sluggishly changing. Man, from being fulfilled in life through the values he
has learned from his family, is slowly attaining an unfulfilled self. Why? It is because
the Filipino values are being misinterpreted and misunderstood.
At this juncture, the researcher will delve in a philosophical reflection on the
misinterpretation and misapplication of the Filipino values. Moreover, the researcher
will present a devaluation of the Filipino values particularly the aforesaid values present
in the Filipinos.
3.7.1. Family’s Consent
As the Filipinos are well known for their attachment and close affection for their
family, the family sometimes becomes a hindrance for the fulfilment of a Filipino
79
individual. This is for the reason that the individual basically situates his decisions and
choices in life with and through the family’s consent. As a result, man, then, becomes an
unfulfilled Filipino because he fails to attain a certain distinction of being an individual
that must act according to his own determination and will. Man misses to act as a genuine
individual because of lack of determinism. Therefore, in a way, man limits and restricts
himself to flourish by gauging his fulfilment in life through family success and failures.
3.7.2. Parental Irresponsibility
Much of the weight in the value of parental responsibility is being laid upon the
shoulders of the parents of the Filipino individual. The value of parental responsibility
places the parents in being accountable for the upbringing of all their children.
Correspondingly, parental responsibility unceasingly holds the parents answerable for
the Filipino individual’s actions. Thus, it is a fact that parents and elders in the family
must teach and discipline their children while they are still in their formative years so
much so that they will not get accused of educating the individual wrongly.
However, the value of parental responsibility sometimes becomes an obstruction
to the fulfillment of parents. For what reason? It is because the value of parental
responsibility confines the bounds of obligation and duty to the parents per se. When a
Filipino adult exhibits a negative habit and personality, many people accuse the parents
for not handling them in their growing years. As a result, the parents are oftentimes
degraded; many times they are humiliated and dishonored. Nevertheless, it can be said
80
that an undesirable habit does not always spring up during one’s childhood years.
Furthermore, there are times that negative personality – drug addiction, gambling,
stealing and the like – is taught and caused by other people as the individual continues
his life. Thus, the value of parental responsibility limits the fulfilment of the parents in
achieving a flourished self because they always get blamed of their children’s
imperfections and shortcomings.
3.7.3. Indifference
Pakikipagkapwa-tao is a value that greatly distinguishes Filipinos from the many
other cultures in reality. And as such, they are recognized to be sensitive to the feelings
of others, for their truthfulness and honesty and their understanding for the situations of
their fellow individuals. Nonetheless, there are times that the value of human fellowship
impedes the actualization of an individual.
In many instances, pakikipagkapwa-tao fails to bring man to their fulfilment
because there are times that human fellowship makes the Filipinos indifferent. Filipinos
become indifferent in a way that they fail to correct other’s mistakes and failures. They
become afraid to face the truth; to bring the reality to other people. Thus, the value of
human fellowship, from some point of view, turns a blind eye to correct another
individual’s errors. Pakikipagkapwa-tao significantly expresses the Filipino’s way of
being friendly and sociable to other people. Yet, there are times that pakikipagkapwa-
81
tao refrains the Filipino to tell the truth, correct what must be corrected, and to do what
is truly good as a kapwa. Hence, human fellowship fails man to attain fulfilment.
3.7.4. Go-with-the-flow
The value of diplomacy, or pakikisama in the language of the Filipinos, presents
that through smooth interpersonal relations one can establish good relationships with
other people. Filipinos value rapport in their culture. They value interpersonal relations
so much that they enable themselves to exhibit an atmosphere of ‘everything-is-okay’
feeling to other people even though they are already experiencing pain and suffering.
Similarly, Filipinos sacrifice so much that they enable their selves to do what
others want them to do for the sake of their relationships to other people. And as such,
they act for the sake of action.
Furthermore, Filipinos commit an act even though they do not want to do it
because of peer pressure and for this reason, they act according to the will of others.
Thus, in such a way, the value of diplomacy fails to bring man to fulfilment.
Peer pressure hinder the actualization of man because he only acts for the sake
of his colleagues and as a consequence does not act genuinely together with others. It is
true that the value of diplomacy is prevalent in the Filipinos. It makes them distinct to
other people in reality. However, pakikisama does not always give the certainty that man
attains fulfilment from it. Value of diplomacy sometimes brings one to fulfilment
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through smooth interpersonal relations with other people but there are times that it, when
not properly observed and applied, prevents the fulfilment of man because it limits man
in his actions and that in performing responsibly through his actions.
3.7.5. A Proud Person
The value of personal dignity focuses on the individual’s own name, character,
credibility and more. Further, personal dignity guides the individual to choose and value
more his self than to other things. For the Filipinos, they value “pagkatao” because they
believe that once the name of an individual is stained, it is difficult or, worse, can never
be regained again; a soiled identity will never be pure, it may be fixed but it will never
be the same again.
As a result, Filipinos take much attention of their own name and title, character,
personality and credibility. They take good care of their identity because it is difficult to
restore a tainted name. As a result, they greatly value their “pagkatao” so much so that
it is never damaged or tainted by anything that may ruin their name. However, the value
of “pagkatao” at some point makes man proud of himself because too much dignity on
oneself may lead to pride.
Pride makes man have an inflated sense of his own personal status and or
accomplishments.241 Pride makes one arrogant; it directs man to be full of himself. Thus,

241
“The negative side of Pride” Retrieved January 30, 2017 from
https://lauraedg.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/the-negative-side-of-pride-2/.
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when “pagkatao” leads one to being proud of himself, “pagkatao” or personal dignity
limits and restricts man to fully attain his own fulfilment in life because of such egotism.
3.8. Straightening and Strengthening Filipino Family Values
Values are those that which people value in life; it is that which makes one stand
out from the crowd and determine one as a person. Moreover, values, in itself, bring one
to his own fulfilment in life. This is for the reason that values guide man in his actions,
decisions, behaviors and thinking and as such makes him truly human. However, when
values are misapplied, devalued and, hence, eroded, they limit the person to attain their
actualization as human beings. Values, when applied in the wrong perception and
purpose, restricts one to fully act according to his own will and attain his own self
fulfilment.
In our modern day era, the Filipino values which are taught by the family are slowly
fading and changing by new perspectives and purposes. Because of this, Filipino values
are weakening and may now be subject to annihilation. As such, people is now gradually
becoming more and more unfulfilled in life. People steadily fails to find meaning in life.
Nevertheless, people must prevent it from happening. People must straighten and
strengthen again their views and outlooks in life so much so that the values that which
to be inculcated in them must be fixed and re-attuned to the proper discipline of values
particularly on the Filipino values.

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Chapter 4
THE FLOURISHING OF THE SELF
Having discussed the philosophy of Karol Wojtyla in chapter two and the Filipino
family values in chapter three, the researcher will now attempt and present the synthesis
of the two chapters. In this particular chapter, the researcher will use the philosophy of
Wojtlya, particularly his phenomenology of love, as an avenue towards the flourishing
of the self – the fulfilment of man – through the Filipino family values focusing on the
given and cited Filipino values and its issues in chapter three.
4.1. Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophy in Filipino Family Values
Man is recognized according to the values he expresses in his acting together
with others. Man, in his acting together with others, makes manifest the Filipino family
values instilled in him by his loved ones, his family. Action then plays an important part
in conveying the Filipino values. Moreover, it is in action that man is fully revealed and
that, through action, man’s values are fully actualized. Through acting, man becomes a
good or an evil person in reality.

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Action operates an important role in the structure of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy.
He believes that it is through action that man reveals his own self, his beingness. The
late Pope, Saint John Paul II, points out that action must be the way for man to be
fulfilled. Fulfilment results from man’s performance of action. Furthermore, fulfilment
springs from man who deliberately acts according to his own will; and as such
experiences the action as something as his own. However, fulfilment is not only based
on the willing of man or an individual. Fulfilment must be grounded on man’s
willingness to something which is good. Thus, when the action of man is not deliberate,
and directed towards the good, man fails to achieve fulfilment and hence attains non-
fulfilment.
At present, the Filipino values are slowly eroding. People slowly fail to achieve
a fulfilled self. Why? It is because people slowly misapply and misuse the Filipino values
with a wrong perception and purpose. If these problems continue to be active, then, the
tendency is that more people may lead their selves to non-fulfillment.
Nevertheless, non-fulfilment in the Filipino values can be avoided if everyone
acts genuinely, that is, one acts according to his own will and, more importantly, is
directed towards the good; has proper perspective on the Filipino values; and has correct
application of each of the values. Values are important to people for it is in values that
people act and behave adequately. Correspondingly, everybody must do their best to
apply and actualize these values so much so that they find fulfilment in their selves.
Therefore, as Karol Wojtyla believes, one’s action towards a value must be directed to
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that which is something deliberately willed and as something grounded in the truth so
much so that they lead their selves to their self-fulfillment.
4.2. Love as the Foundation of Action
Every act must be grounded in love. An action founded in love makes the person
perform an act to the degree of having the feeling of being responsible to others and to
himself. Moreover, an action established in love makes the person treats all, that is,
himself and everyone, as an end in their own selves and not just a means towards an end.
When the person acts, he gives himself and his fellow others the personalistic value that
they must have. This personalistic value is the dignity that must be present in every
human person who acts.
When an action is established in love, one is able to seek the good that which is
the object of such an action. When an action takes focus on the good that is present in
the object of an action, man directs himself to self-fulfillment. Such an action enables
man to attain his own dignity for the action which is grounded in love sees to it that the
person is taken as an end in himself and not only a means towards an end. Action, then,
makes man come into realization, his self-fulfillment, for as he claims his own dignity
so he takes his actualization as a human being as well.
Love brings about man as a being capable of determining his own self through
his choices and decisions. Love treats the person as an independent being with his own
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self-determination and his own self-chosen ends.242 Consequently, action, when
grounded in love, makes man – the person who acts – direct his acts and his willing
towards the good. His willing towards the good accentuates his freedom and
voluntariness in action. Thus, when action is grounded in love, action becomes genuine,
that is, something that really comes from man, the person who acts.
4.3. Love: The Remedy to the Eroding Filipino Values
Culture and values are transmitted from one generation to the next. Families take
responsibility in transferring these ethnicities to the next generation. Similarly, the next
generation will pass it down to the succeeding generation, and then a cycle takes place.
Because of this cycle, culture and values become subject for alteration. This is for the
reason that from one generation to the next, minimal changes take place, whether
subjectively or objectively.
Some effects of these changes have become problems and hindrances in
maintaining and attaining a fulfilled self. Still, these problems are inevitable. They are,
so to speak, part of the transmission of culture and values. However, inevitable as they
are, these problems and hindrances can be avoided. How can this be avoided? How can
one overcome these problems? What must be done?
These questions arise in trying to act genuinely; aiming to attain fulfillment for
the self. These problems are answered through Karol Wojtyla’s notion of love. As such,

242
See. Chapter Two of this Thesis, 26.
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every action of man must be based on love so much so that it tries to make man reach
his actualization of being a human person.
4.3.1. Love vis-à-vis the Value of the Family
Love as the foundation of action in the Filipino value of the family makes the
person sees the family as something good, that is, an objective good; As a result, the
individual views the family as a good, a value, in itself.
When love becomes the basis of action, the family becomes an inspiration for the
individual; a persevering factor, that makes the person strive more for life because of the
value contained in the family. The Filipino individual, then, performs actions in such a
way that he finds fulfillment in the family. As he finds fulfillment in his actions, he also
enables his family to attain fulfillment from his actions because of his participation with
his family, that is, his acting together with them. Therefore, not only does the person
base his actions on the family for the sake of fulfilling their expectations for him, but he
aims to fulfill their expectations because the Filipino individual – and the family as well
– obtains fulfillment from them as he acts together with his family.
In addition, when love becomes the basis of action in the Filipino value of the
family, the person sees his actions in accordance to the family views and perspectives in
a way that he finds his actions as an equal exchange for the family’s care and attention
for the individual, hence an act of reciprocity. Equally, the Filipino individual finds his
actions as something to be responsible to and for the family. Ergo, in everything that he
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does in life, the individual makes it a point that he becomes responsible to and for the
family in a way that he acts according to the family, not because the family wants him
to do this or to do that but, rather, because he wants to perform action to and for the
family.
When love becomes the basis of action, the Filipino value of the family makes
man see his own family as someone who carries a certain virtue contained within them.
This is for the reason that, as said in the previous chapter, the family is the primary unit
of any society. The family takes the earliest and longest involvement with any
individual’s life.243 Thus, the family has many experiences with the individual man. Man,
when his actions in the value of the family are grounded on love, he views his own family
as people who carry a certain virtue. This virtue becomes the stepping-stone for
achieving the fullness within the experience of any individual with the value of the
family.
Another, when love becomes the foundation of action in the Filipino value of the
family, man is able to affirm the value of each family member. Man enables himself to
see the person as an end in themselves. It makes man see the family as people who has
dignity in themselves. Therefore, love upholds the value of the family in such a way that
they see them as people with dignity.
Lastly, love, when it becomes the base of an action in the Filipino value of the
family, makes the person affirm that he is a member of the family. Hence, it makes man

243
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feel that he has responsibility over his family. All the actions of man, then, will vary
according to the views and perspective of the family. It will make man be committed in
the family in such way that his actions are patterned according to the family’s culture.
As a result, when the Filipino value of the family is done out of love, man finds
fulfillment in his own self in such a way that his dignity and the dignity of others are
uplifted and appreciated.
4.3.2. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Parental Responsibility
One’s responsibility comes to light when it is done out of love. When love
becomes the basis of action in the value of parental responsibility, the parents acquire a
feeling of concern over their own children. Ergo, the value of parental responsibility
must be based on love so much so that it is directed for the goodwill of their children.
To the parents, the value of parental responsibility must not be viewed as a
hindrance, so to speak, that this becomes a burden put on them. Rather, it must be seen
as something to be acted upon with pure act of love for their children.
When love becomes the basis of action in the value of parental responsibility,
parents see their children as someone who needs assistance and guidance. Likewise, they
become dependent with other people so much so that they try to imitate and pattern their
lives from the actions of their own parents. The parents, when their action is grounded
in love, act in a way that they make themselves see that the child or children that they
have responsibility over are their own, and as such a fruit of their love for one another.
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When the value of parental responsibility is done out of love, the parents focus
their perception to their children as a good in themselves. It makes them appreciate the
personalistic value that their children have as persons. Therefore, the parents, when they
act out of love in the value of parental responsibility, they enable themselves to see that
their obligation over their children is something dignifying because, as they take charge
over their children, they perform actions for their children who has dignity in their own
selves. This is so because each child or individual has their own dignity as a human
being. When the value of parental responsibility is actualized in love, this dignity that
the child carries with him as a human being is manifested and revealed.
The value of parental responsibility, when done out of love, makes the parents
feel responsible for their own children. The parents allow themselves to see their own
children as a member of their family. In that same manner, the parents make themselves
accountable for the upbringing of their children because they affirm the value of their
own offspring, so to speak, they see that their children are part of their home and family.
Moreover, as they feel responsible for the upbringing of their children, they become
committed because of this same love they have for their children. As a result, they act
according to their deliberate and willful decision to give care and love for their children.
4.3.3. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Human Fellowship
The value of human fellowship impedes the fulfillment of man when it makes
him indifferent. Nonetheless, when the action is founded on love, the value of human
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fellowship comes to a different light. It makes man more concerned for the other person
because he now sees the other individual as a good, a value in himself.
When the value of human fellowship is grounded in love, man becomes more
truthful. Man tries to realign his actions in such a way that he becomes more candid for
the other individual. Henceforth, not only does he correct the errors of the other, or the
people around him, for the purpose of correcting, but, for the reason of wanting to be a
good friend to and for the other. Someone who has a genuine concern to the other, a love
that is caring and grounded in truth. As such, man becomes more honest and authentic.
Man, from merely trying to correct his fellow individual, sees his fellow other as a friend
to be corrected upon so much so that he acts for the goodwill of the person.
Practically speaking, in the Filipino perspective, it is a difficult thing to do to
correct the other person; nonetheless, it is much better to be straightforward – as a saying
goes, “the truth will set you free.” Only in facing the truth will the person be set free;
only in becoming truthful will make the other person see his mistakes; and hence, will
make better actions and decisions in life, and, all the more so, learn more from life.
In addition, action becomes more genuine when love becomes the foundation in
the value of human fellowship. Man acts in a way that he views the other person as
someone who carries a virtue in their own selves. This is so because the value of human
fellowship entails that man performs action together with the other. As such, man
experiences him in his entirety because he acts together with him. Similarly, as man
comes into involvement with the other person, – as he acts together with him – he is able
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to see the other person as a value in his own self. Therefore, when man’s actions towards
the value of human fellowship is grounded in love, he is able to affirm the value
contained within the other person. Man then feels that he is responsible for the other
person.
When love is put as the core of the Filipino family value of human fellowship,
man sees to it that he acts in the family so much so that he sees his fellow others – his
parents and siblings – as a friend. Likewise, man tries to make a stand for them. Meaning
to say, man, the Filipino individual, attempts to understand his family’s situations and
undertakings and efforts to make an appropriate action to help and correct his family.
Further, the value of human fellowship enables man to see individuals in the
bigger community as friends as well. This is so because human fellowship empowers
man to treat everyone as a friend. Human fellowship makes man view people whom he
has responsibility over because these people are his friends. Therefore, by placing love
as the center of action in this value, the Filipino individual becomes a “genuine friend”
to his own family and, all the more so, to the bigger society.
4.3.4. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Diplomacy
When love is the center of action in the value of diplomacy, it enables man to be
who they are, so to speak, be who they want to be. Man acts not because of peer pressure
or because of the expectations of the people around him. Rather, he acts in accordance
to what he wants and wishes to do. Consequently, the value of diplomacy, when not done
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out of love but done for the purpose of “pakikisama” per se, will make man perform
actions motivated dominantly by the influence or pressure from others.
Man, at some point, fails to attain fulfillment from his actions because it is not
done deliberately, so to speak, not his own full and active choosing or willing. Hence,
his actions are regarded to be not authentic. Nevertheless, when his actions in the value
of diplomacy are grounded in love, he performs a certain act because he wants to do it.
Man acts because he sees that he is a good in himself and so he acts in such a way that
this good, the value that is contained in him, is uplifted and appreciated. As a result, he
becomes authentic in his doing and performance of actions because he acts according to
his own choosing and willing in accordance to truth and that which is good and upright.
When man grounds his actions in love in the value of diplomacy, he acts, together
with others, genuinely. He acts responsibly to and with other people; and because of this,
man attains fulfillment not only for him but for everyone because he makes it to a point
that the other is a good in their own selves as well. Therefore, he treats them as people
whose value and dignity must be appreciated and respected too.
Also, as man places love as the core of his actions, he sees to it that the other
person or people’s values are affirmed because he enables himself to view them as a
good – a person carrying a virtue in their own selves – because of such experience he
has with them while acting together with them in the context of diplomacy.
In a way, man then enables to concern himself in taking responsibility over the
other person because the other person has a value that needs to be lifted and enriched.
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When love is placed at the center of man’s action in the value of diplomacy, pakikisama
then becomes “genuine pakikisama.” Man not only acts because of peer pressure but he
performs actions because he wants to enrich the value contained in him and his fellow
individuals while acting together with them.
This goes with the family as well. When the Filipino family value of diplomacy
is observed within the family context, a son, daughter, father or a mother acts so much
so that they enriched the value contained within each of the family members. And so,
the son acts in such a way that he leads his parents and siblings towards fulfillment. The
same manner follows with each of family members. Thus, when everyone in the family
practices such action, that is love is put as the main factor in one’s action, everyone acts
in a “genuine pakikisama.” Each of the family members, then, does not act because of
peer pressure but from his own full and active willing and determination.
4.3.5. Love vis-à-vis the Value of Personal Dignity
The value of personal dignity, when done out of love, becomes more and more
rooted in the person’s self. The value of personal dignity, then, becomes more authentic
in the person. Moreover, when the value of personal dignity is rooted in love, the person
enables himself to act in such a way that he becomes more responsible in his performance
of action.
When love becomes the core of the value of personal dignity, it makes man
become more respectable and upright. It makes man value his actions so much so that
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his actions are made responsibly by him for the purpose of improving and safekeeping
his name. When the action of man in the value of personal dignity is rooted in love, it
makes man balance his own pride and his perseverance in keeping his name unsoiled.
Therefore, love enables man to see that he really is a good, a value, in his own self.
When man’s actions towards the value of personal dignity are separated from
love, man’s actions become selfish. His activities become self-centered so much so that
he acts for the sole purpose of making his name be praised and more known to other
people. As a result, man’s actions, when not done out of love, becomes more and more
for the self, that is, more egoistic.
Another, man’s actions fail to fulfill him because of such selfishness. Yet, when
he acts out of love, he finds fulfillment for himself and for others; when his intentions
are acted out from love, man is able to attain contentment and satisfaction. For that
reason, when man’s actions are performed out of love, he is able to achieve self-
fulfillment and, also, he is able to uplift and fulfill others – his fellow individuals – as
well.
As man’s action is founded in love, he is able to see and affirm other people’s
value, that is their personalistic value as a person. Man, then, acts in accordance to other
people as well. Meaning to say, man acts responsibly not only for his own self but for
everyone that he acts together with. Thus, in acting together with others – when man’s
actions are grounded in love – man completes and participates with his own humanity
and the humanity of others. All the more so, man is able to fulfil his own self and his
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fellow individual who are acting together with him; participating in the humanity of
everyone.
4.4. The Fulfilled Self
After all that has been said, the discussions and explanations, the researcher
believes that there can be fulfillment of the self – the flourishing of man– by grounding
man’s actions in love. The concept of love makes the person move into action in such a
way that he makes man act responsibly to himself and everyone around. And as a result,
man’s personalistic value – his dignity – is manifested, enriched and elevated.
Through love, man is able to make himself aware of the personalistic value of
everyone, including himself. Through love in the context of Filipino family values, man
is able to appreciate and uplift the dignity of others by giving appropriate actions towards
everyone. Through love, man is able to respect the humanity of everyone, particularly
his family. Accordingly, man acts in such a way that he finds fulfillment in everything
that he does because of respecting the humanity of everyone. Love allows man to
perform actions genuinely, that is deliberately expressing his own willing and choosing.
It allows man to respect the value contained within every individual, see the person as a
good in himself and never to view them as a means to an end. Love allows man to see
himself and others as a respectable individual.
The researcher believes that love is an avenue to enable him to be satisfied in life;
to make man fulfilled in life in the context of Filipino family values. If everyone bases
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their actions in love, everyone can avoid seeing each value of the Filipino family as a
hindrance towards their fulfillment in life.
Love makes the person move into action. It motivates people to do things. Love
makes people have a reason to live. The researcher sees that every individual can attain
self-fulfillment only if all act out of love.

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Chapter 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
PERSONAL REFLECTION
5.1. Summary
Everybody is entitled to live their life. When man is born into the world, he
always has his full life in front of him. He has a bright future ahead of him. Hence, man
has the capacity to be what he wants to be. However, man, being a baby or a child in the
world, is still dependent on the immediate people around him, that is, his family.
The man-child continues life with his family besides him in his growing years.
Correspondingly, man-child prepares himself in becoming apt in facing life when he
becomes an adult. Thus, when he turns into a man, he becomes independent for himself.
As a result, what he has learned in his childhood years, he takes it with him as he
faces life – its endeavors and challenges. As such, man clings to the values, the learnings,
his parents had taught, inculcated in him during his growing into an adult. Man then
looks on the values he has learned from his family so much so that he uses it as a
springboard towards his fulfillment.
Man manifests and expresses the values he has learned in the family through
action. Action, according to the late Pope, Saint John Paul II, is the portal in knowing
the being of man. It is in action that man reveals his own self as a being. Therefore,
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through action, the values are also shown; the values inculcated by the family are
displayed.
However, man not only acts per se. Man must act deliberately, that is willed and
chosen by him as he performs actions. Because of this, man’s actions become genuine.
His actions become authentic because man has willed it freely. Consequently, his actions
also become his own responsibility so much so that he acts not only for himself but for
everyone around him. This is so because man performs actions together with other
people. Therefore, in action, man becomes responsible for his own self and for the being
of others; and, all the more so, as everybody acts, they become responsible for everyone.
In a similar manner, as man performs actions and becomes responsible for them,
his actions must be directed towards the good. In everything that he does man must act
in accordance to the value contained in the object of such an action. This is for the reason
that in acting towards the good, man achieves and attains fulfillment in action. Likewise,
failure to act towards the good contained in the object of such an action attains non-
fulfillment. Thus, man directs his actions towards the good and becomes responsible for
them so much so that everybody attains fulfillment in the actions of man and in others
as well.
Man, in his performance of action, must also ground his actions in love so much
so that what he does is directed towards the benefit and welfare of others. Through action
founded in love, man is able to see the other person as an end in himself, a value that
should be appreciated and uplifted.

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When man grounds his actions in love, he sees that person is not just a means, an
instrument for an end, but an end in their own selves. Through love in action, man is able
to see and appreciate the dignity of his self and others. Moreover, action, founded in
love, makes man all the more responsible, and fulfilled in his performance of actions.
Hence, man finds fulfillment in the values manifested in his acting.
In Chapter Two titled Phenomenology of Love, the thesis-writer had presented
the philosophy of Karol Wojtyla focusing on his notion of the acting person, his theory
of participation and phenomenology of love. In Wojtyla’s notion of the acting person, he
considers that the action of man “gives us the best insight into the inherent essence of
the person and allows us to understand the person most fully.”244
In man’s performance of action, his essence as a person is revealed. For Wojtyla,
man and action is inseparable for it is inherent in man’s existing that he must act.245
Through action, man determines his own self as a person. It is because in action, man’s
willing is also revealed and, in the same manner, in his willing he determines the act and
in the process determines himself.246 Additionally, man always directs his willing
towards that which is good and hence, attains fulfillment from the good contained within
the actions. Conversely, when man fails to direct his actions towards the good, he attains
non-fulfillment.
Action is man’s actualization of his potentiality of being a social being. This is
because through action, man becomes aware that he acts not only for himself but for

244
245
Bejie B. Samson, “The Seminarians’ Fulfillment in the Seminary Community through Karol
Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation.” (A.B. thesis, Mary Help of Christians College Seminary, 2016), 72.
246
See Chapter Two of this Thesis, 12.
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everyone around him. Man acts together with other men in reality. When man acts, he
does not only think for himself but also think of his fellows who act in reality as well
because everybody in reality participates in the humanity of others. Therefore, the
concept of individualism and totalitarianism is an alienation towards man’s participation
in the humanity of everybody in reality because it limits man in partaking with the
humanity of others. As a result, it hinders man to attain fulfillment from such
participation. Individualism and totalitarianism impede man to join in participating in
the humanity of others.
From the notion of the acting person and the theory of participation, the thesis-
writer then presents the phenomenology of love of Karol Wojtyla. Love, according to
Wojtyla, is the proper means to treat a person. Love is the only way to treat a person as
who he/she is. Love treats the person as an independent being with his own self-
determination and his own self-chosen ends.247 Ergo, love must be the base of any action
of man because only in love does man is able to see the person as an end in himself that
is a person who carries with him as his own personalistic value – his dignity.
In Chapter Three, which named Filipino Family Values, the thesis-writer
presented the family in general then discussed particularly in the Filipino family;
another, the values and then to the Filipino values specifically. The thesis-writer also
presented and discussed five Filipino family values present in the Filipinos in their proper
application and misapplication.

247
See Chapter Two of this Thesis, 26.
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Everybody, in reality, exists because of a family. No one exists outside the family
because no one is created out of thin air. Consequently, everyone is a product of his own
family. Every being in reality is a member of a family. Hence, the family is said to be
the basic unit of any society.
According to Florentino Timbreza, the family is composed of the father, mother
and the child or children either biologically owned or adopted. Moreover, family is
usually classified into two basic types and they are the nuclear and the extended family.
In the Philippine setting, the family is characterized of being the gauge of success
for an individual. This is for the reason that the individual of any Filipino family is known
for having a sense of unity within the family and family-centeredness and attachment.
Therefore, in any Filipino individual the family is always important. If an individual
achieves something in life, it is considered a family success and vice versa when an
individual fail.
The Filipino individual measures his life-success in accordance to the family
views and outlooks. The individual makes it a point that the things he learned from his
family is the foundation of his personality. The values inculcated in him by his family is
the groundwork of his whole character and personhood. Values makes an individual
distinct because his values determine his culture and ethnicity. Moreover, the values
imbibed by his family within him manifests this culture. Values are said to be the
individual themselves.248 This is the reason that what an individual values in life guides

248
See Chapter Three of this Thesis, 9.
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him in his actions, behavior, thinking, and making decisions. Hence, values are the
stepping-stone of man in his activities in life.
Values are inherent to the family insofar as they are the primary transmitter of
culture. The family, being the basic unit of the society, has the responsibility of
transmitting culture to their own offspring. As a result, during the upbringing of any
individual, the family has the task of passing down their culture towards their children.
Ergo, the values, which an individual carry in his life, usually come from the family for
they are the primary transmitter of culture to an individual.
As time passes by, culture is being changed slowly. The values are being altered
gradually with the trends of the time. From proper disposition, perspective and
application of values, they are slowly being misapplied and misused by individuals.
Similarly, from having a fulfillment from the values taught and imbibed by the family to
the Filipino individual, man is slowly attaining an unfulfilled self. Man fails to achieve
the fulfillment he gets from learning and applying values properly in his life. Thus, as
the values are gradually changed, man sluggishly turns from a fulfilled man to an
unfulfilled individual.
In Chapter Four entitled The Flourishing of the Self, the thesis-writer
synthesized Karol Wojtyla’s phenomenology of love in the context of Filipino family
values. The thesis-writer firstly presented how the philosophy of Wojtyla manifests itself
in the context of Filipino family values and that is through action. Action is the main
means for a value to be shown. As such, the philosophy of Wojtyla concerns itself with
the person who acts.

105
Wojtyla believes that action is the main factor for a person to be revealed in
reality. Consequently, action is the dividing line between the philosophy and context of
this opus. It is in action that the values of any individual is revealed and shown in reality.
After which, the thesis-writer discussed that in order for man to be fulfilled in the culture
and values of the people, man must ground his actions on love. Love must be the
foundation of action.
Wojtyla considers love as the proper way to treat other human beings. This is so
because love enables man to see the other as an end in himself and not just a means
towards the ends. When love is the basis of action, it makes an action a fulfilling action
for man because love is directed towards the good and value contained within the object
of an action.
When the concept of Karol Wojtyla’s love is applied in the misapplication of
values, the values are straightened and, all the more so, strengthened. The values come
in a different light; the values that are altered becomes ordered. When love becomes the
foundation of the application and use of values, man attains fulfillment from such an
action. Love becomes the remedy to the eroding values. Thus, when love is put as the
base of action, man gains fulfillment. Man reaches fulfillment in the values acted out of
love, because such action then makes the individual’s and other’s dignity appreciated
and uplifted.
106
5.2. Conclusion
When an action is founded in love, man acts for the good of everybody. He does
not act or perform actions for the purpose of his own self per se. Love, when it becomes
the base of any action, always directs man towards good, a value which is contained in
the object of such an action. Hence, when love is the primary component of an action, it
becomes fruitful. The action then becomes genuine and fulfilling because it guides man
towards the truth. Moreover, the action is fulfilling to the man who acts and to the others
he acts together with because it uplifts and enriches the dignity of the human person.
In the end of this opus, the researcher believes that an action becomes a fulfilling
action for an individual when it is grounded in love. Love stirs a person into action. Love
pushes man into doing good not only for the self but for the people around him. This is
so because love is the only proper way to treat a person because a person must be treated
as a good, a value in their own selves. Conversely, when an individual is not treated as a
good, the individual is degraded from its essence of personhood. The individual fails to
achieve the treatment proper to human beings.
In the context of Filipino family values, the only proper way to apply values in
reality is through love. Love enables man to properly view value as guiding principles
in life. Moreover, love enables man to see values in his performance of actions as
principles that shapes his personality and character. Actions, when grounded in love,
make man be fulfilled in life. When man fails to put love as the base of his actions, he
fails to attain fulfillment because he acts in another motive such as a selfish purpose, or
only for a means towards an end that will benefit himself or the lesser few and not
107
everybody. Thus, only in love does man is able to fulfill his own self in actions and
achieve a flourished self because it is only in love does a person’s dignity as a human
being is enriched and appreciated. It is only in love that a person is apt to act genuinely.
5.3. Personal Reflection
I had lived my life with my family. When I was still a child I usually stay at the
house with my nanny when my parents go for work and my brothers attend their classes
in school. Nevertheless, they have raised me with love and care as I was growing up.
During noon time when I was in the house, my nanny and I would go to the clinic
of my mother to see her and bring her meal for lunch. When I would come to visit her in
the clinic she always kisses me in the cheek and hugs me tightly to express her love to
me. By four o’clock in the afternoon we would normally fetch my brothers in school
together. We usually stop by and eat merienda at the nearby store and walk home. When
night time comes I frequently wait for my father at the front door to greet him, “dad! I
love you! Kamusta ang araw niyo?” As I remember it vividly, this is my ordinary activity
during the whole day.
During the weekends my family stay at home and enjoy the company of one
another. We wake up late and take our breakfast at around ten o’clock in the morning.
After which, we watch the weekend shows in the television. We always find time to have
our bonding together within the week. In the afternoon we either visit the church or wind
away the time strolling the mall or watching movies in the cinemas.
108
I can say that I had a good childhood. I was raised up by a good family and a
loving one at that. Because of such, they have taught me and raised me into becoming a
good person. Moreover, they have inculcated in me the proper teachings, values that I
can carry as I continue my life. For this reason, I can align my actions in our culture and
beliefs and treat other people according to our outlook in life. Therefore, because of a
good upbringing of my family in me, I know how to act and distinguish the good from
the wrong; to see the world in a human perspective because my parents and my siblings
have raised me with love.
Love is the only proper action towards reality. When love is sown at the very
core of a person, he sees the world properly. Why? It is because love aids man to see the
world positively. When love is the main block in making an action, man is able to
flourish from his self. Flourishing or the fulfillment of man happens when he finds
happiness in what he does. Further, when his actions are guided by his voluntariness and
freedom to act, in such a way that man does the good and that which is valuable, he is
able to achieve a fulfilled self. Without love one cannot see the world positively. Much
more, when love is not present in man, he looks at reality negatively. Hence, he fails to
find fulfillment in himself because of such pessimism in life.
The philosophy of Karol Wojtyla, his acting person, the theory of participation
and his phenomenology of love, speaks to us that in everything that we do we must act
with love so much so that we are able to appreciate and uplift the dignity of the human
person. As such, only in appreciating and giving respect to a human being can he be
109
called a human person. The only proper treatment to a person is love because love is the
only way to appreciate and respect the being, the essence, of a human being.
When love is put in the actions of the human person, particularly in the values he
is to apply in life, man is able to acknowledge his own being as a person and his fellow
others as well. Why? It is because such values are directed to the self and to others.
Hence, when love is the way to give respect to people, values are the actualizations of
such recognition of the value and dignity of each person. Filipino family values or values
make us distinct to other people. As such, values make us respect other people. It is in
the values that we manifest in ourselves that we are able actualize the love we are to give
to other people. Love in values is the way to manifest our respect to other people. As the
song goes, “love is the answer to so many questions… Love gives the meaning to my
world.” Love really indeed is the answer for in love we find fulfillment; in love, we are
able to see the world positively; in love, we are able to recognize the value we have in
our own selves. Love really gives the meaning to our world for in love we are able to
make manifest our own being as a person.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. PRIMARY SOURCES:
Wojtyla, Karol. The Acting Person. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company 1979.
____________. Love and Responsibility. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1993.
____________. Person and Community. Translated by Theresa Sandok. USA: Peter

Lang, 1993.
2. SECONDARY SOURCES:
Aguas, Jove Jim. Person, Action and Love: The Philosophical Thoughts of Karol
Wojtyla. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2014.
Andres, Tomas D. Positive Filipino Values. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1989.
Beals, Ralph L. and Harry Hoijer. An Introduction to Anthropology. 2nd Edition. New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1959.
Bonifacio, Joey. The Values-Drive Heart: Weighing in on what really Matters.

Makati: Church Strengthening Ministry, Inc., 2016.
Crizaldo, Rei Lemuel and Ronald Molmisa. Pinoy Big Values. Manila: OMF Literature
Inc., 2014.
Evert, Jason. Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves. Totus Tuus Press, United
States of America.
Francisco, Rolyn B. Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation. Manila: St. Pauls, 1995.
Garcia, Manuel B., Francisco M. Zulueta and Cynthia T. Caritativo. Sociology: Focus
on Filipino Society and Culture. Manila: National Book Store, Inc., 1984.
John Paul II. Letter to Families. Rome: Vatican Press, 1994.

Medina, Belen T.G. The Filipino Family. 2nd Edition. Quezon City: University of the
Philippines Press, 2001.
Simpson, Peter. On Karol Wojtyla. California: Wadsworth or Thomson Learning, Inc.

2001.
Thomas, W. LaVerne. Sociology: The Study of Human Relationships. 5th Edition.

Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1995.
Timbreza, Florentino T. Filipino Philosophy Today. Quezon City: National Books

Store, 2008.
____________. Filipino Values Today. Mandaluyong: National Book Store, 2012.
____________. Pagpapahalaga ng Pamilya. Manila: Logos Publications, Inc., 2010.
3. INTERNET SOURCES:
3.1.With Author:
John Paul II, “John Paul II on Love and Responsibility,” A Publication of the Love &
Responsibility Foundation (2002). Retrieved December 31, 2016 from
http://www.jp2.info/JP2_on_Love-Responsibility.pdf.
Mejos, Dean Edward A. “Against Alienation: Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation”

Kritike 1, no. 3 (June 2007). Retrieved December 18, 2016 from
http://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_1/mejos_june2007.pdf.
3.2.Without Author:
“Aguas' book on person, action and love” Retrieved February 22, 2017 from
http://rccesiust.com/publications.
“Karangalan” Retrieved January 10, 2017 from https://www.tagalog-

dictionary.com/search?word=dangal.
“Love and Responsibility” Retrieved February 20, 2017 from
http://www.theinfolist.com/php/SummaryGet.php?FindGo=Love%20and%20R
esponsibility.
“The negative side of Pride” Retrieved January 30, 2017 from
https://lauraedg.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/the-negative-side-of-pride-2/.
“Original Polish Text of the Acting Person” Retrieved February 20, 2017 from
https://www.amazon.com/Acting-Person-Analecta-Husserliana/dp/9027709696.
“What is extended family?” Retrieved January 12, 2017, from

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/extended-family.
“What is nuclear family?” Retrieved January 13, 2017 from

http://family.lovetoknow.com/definition-nuclear-family.
4. UNPUBLISHED MATERIALS:
4.1.Lectures:
Cariño, Dexter Z. Unpublished Lectures in the course Latin. Formation Year 2013-
2014.
Cruz, Rafael T. Unpublished Lectures in the course Introduction to Psychology.

Formation Year 2014-2015.
De Guzman, Franklin Q. Unpublished Lectures in the course Introduction to

Philosophy. Formation Year 2012-2013.
4.2.Thesis:
Diaz, Kennedy B. Towards Effective Communication in the Family through Martin

Buber’s Concept of Genuine Dialogue in the Filipino Working-Family
Context. Unpublished thesis of the Mary Help of Christians College Seminary,
Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City, 2016.
Samson, Bejie B. The Seminarians’ Fulfillment in the Seminary Community
through Karol Wojtyla’s Theory of Participation. Unpublished thesis of the
Mary Help of Christians College Seminary, Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City, 2016.
Prayer of Saint John Paul II for
Families
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways!…
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
Lo, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
~ Psalm 128:1,3-4
Lord God, from You every family in Heaven and on earth takes its name.
Father, You are love and life.
Through Your Son, Jesus Christ, born of woman, and through the Holy
Spirit, the fountain of divine charity, grant that every family on earth may
become for each successive generation a true shrine of life and love.
Grant that Your grace may guide the thoughts and actions of husbands and
wives for the good of their families and of all the families in the world.
Grant that the young may find in the family solid support for their human
dignity and for their growth in truth and love.
Grant that love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of marriage,
may prove mightier than all the weaknesses and trials through which our
families sometimes pass.
Through the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that the
Church may fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission in the family and
through the family.
We ask this of You, Who is life, truth and love with the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Our Father…Hail Mary…Glory Be…

St. John Paul II, Pray for us.
[L’Osservatore Romano, 5-25-80, 19]

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TOWARDS MAN’S FLOURISHING

THROUGH THE FILIPINO FAMILY VALUES

A Junior Thesis Respectfully Presented to

Sem. Leopoldo S. Zacarias Jr.

Rev. Fr. Jim S. Cerezo

Rev. Fr. Jeremias B. Cera

Rev. Fr. Jim S. Cerezo Rev. Fr. Melchor Joseph C. Braga

Accepted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of

Rev. Fr. Jeremias B. Cera

…I dedicate this work to my dad, mom,

A grateful heart remembers.

MARAMING SALAMAT PO! I love you from the bottom of my heart.

3. FILIPINO FAMILY VALUES

4. THE FLOURISHING OF THE SELF

5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL REFLECTION

man’s actions – his own choices and decisions.

springboard to a far greater reality – the fulfilment of the self.

his fellow men, his family.

own being but the being of others, his family, as well.

experiences and the experiences of others as man participates in other’s lived

see and handle the situations he encounters in life.

the proper values must also start in the family

In this thesis, the researcher considers Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love

philosopher selected, this research is to be known as a study towards man’s flourishing

in the context of Filipino family values.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

In philosophy, it is believed that questions are more important than answers. As

question – of this opus.

the flourishing of the self in the context of Filipino Family Values?

provides this sub-problems:

1.2.1. What is Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love?

Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love begins with his philosophy regarding

philosophy are encompassing.

1.2.2. What are Filipino Family Values?

In order to provide answer to this sub-question, the researcher will be presenting

1.2.3. How can Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love be an efficient

means to attain man’s self-fulfillment within the Filipino family values?

This chapter will be the confluence of Karol Wojtyla’s Phenomenology of Love

greatly shape this thesis study.

1.3. Scope and Limitation

presented in Chapter 3 of this opus titled, “Filipino Family Values,” to be of those of

to be within the Filipino culture and ethnicity.

1.4. Relevance of the Study

1.4.1. To the Researcher – This research is relevant to the writer because he

to people, most especially to the researcher himself, to establish a good and

harmonious relationship with their respective families; and that, as he builds

to everyone around him.

1.4.2. To Philosophy – Philosophy gives more attention on the problems rather

philosophy is directed to the understanding of the human person and its

the context of Filipino family values.

1.4.3. To Seminary Community – Seminarians come from different families.

1.4.4. To the Universal Church – This research gives importance to the

create a meaningful relationship with their respective families. Moreover, this

1.5. Definition of Terms

unfamiliar concepts in this thesis-study.

is equivalent to conscious acting. Hence, action is pertained to a human

act which is deliberate and free-willed. 7

Participation – is the person’s transcendence in the action when the action is

being performed “together with others.”8 Moreover, participation is

conceived as a possession of man in which man retains his personalistic

value while performing an action together with others.9

Self-fulfillment – Self-fulfillment concerns itself with the sphere of felicity.10

Moreover, the sphere of felicity is to be sought in what is internal and