Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region V – Bicol
Schools Division of Legazpi City
Homapon High School
Homapon, Legazpi City

VIDEO LESSON PLAN IN

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN PERSON

Title: HUMAN PERSON AS EMBODIED SPIRIT

Semester: 1st Quarter: 1 Week: 3

Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC)

Content Standards
The learner understands the human person as an embodied spirit

Performance Standards
The learner distinguishes his/her own limitations and the possibilities for
his/her transcendence

Learning Competencies
3.1 Recognize how the human body imposes limits and possibilities for
transcendence PPT11/12-If-3.1

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. recognize how the human body imposes limits and possibilities for
transcendence. (PPT 11/12-If-3.1)
2. present some Philosopher’s position on the body and spirit
3. identify the limitations of the human body and its possibilities for
transcendence

Vocabularies:
BODY is the physical or material make up of yourself.
SPIRIT is the non-material aspect of yourself.
EMBODIMENT means to make something bodily, as with actions as making
bodily what is in the mind of the person.
EMBODIED SPIRIT is the human person that is not only a composite of body
and spirit but a totality with all his capabilities and
potentialities.
LIMITATION refers to the dimensions of your body and what it cannot do.
TRANSCENDENCE refers to your ability or capacity to surpass the
limitations imposed by your body.
Pre-Test
General Instruction. Please prepare a paper as your sheet where you would write
your answers to the quizzes or questions posted.
TRUE or FALSE. On your paper, write T if the statement is true, F if the
statement is false.
1. Human beings have body and soul.
2. Crying can express my loneliness entirely
3. I am one with the world because of my body.
4. I make the future present whenever I make plans.
5. I use my body in the same way I use my instruments.
6. The joy of receiving flowers proves that there is body and soul.
7. The things I can feel and understand depends on my capability.
8. The body is seen more often as an object rather than a subject.
9. Faith and hope allows me to go beyond the limits of here and now.
10. Sweating when anxious shows unity of what is inside and outside me.

ACTIVITY 1 Aye! and Nay!

Below is a list of simple tasks you have to perform. On your paper,
write ‘aye’ if you were able to successfully perform the task and write ‘nay’ if
you were not.
1. Touch your toes.
2. Say ‘I love you.’
3. Do a cartwheel.
4. Raise your brows alternately
5. Whistle with your eyes closed.
6. Make a jump higher than 1 meter.
7. Let the tip of your tongue touch the tip of your nose.
8. Touch the ceiling with your feet not leaving the ground.
9. Write ‘I love you’ in a straight line with your eyes closed.
10. Slide the coin from your forehead to your mouth without hands.

Processing questions:
1. How many of the tasks were you able to do successfully?
2. Which are the ones you were able to do? Not do?
3. What makes you able/not able to do the task?

Learning Content

What does it mean to be human? It is as simple as having a body and soul.

The body is your material aspect as a human person that makes it visible and
tangible. Our five senses – taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing – make it possible
for us to be sensed. It is also the body that possesses material dimensions such as
shape, size, texture, color, weight. On the other hand, the soul is not visible and
tangible which makes the activities of the soul hard to identify. Though the
presence of soul is not as obvious as the body, we could take from the non-physical
activities of man that which is of the soul or spiritual. The presence of invisible
thoughts and feeling, the occurrence of a basic decision, and the presence of
conscience attest to the presence of a soul in man. Though these things are hidden
and unseen, they point to a world whose presence is certain. The deep feelings
shared through words and sensible expressions, the changes occurring in everyday
life rooted in decisions made, and the direction and guidance of conscience make
concrete the presence of the soul.
In the activity, some of the listed items could be easily identified as activities
of the body and some are activities of the soul. Other items however would elicit
second thoughts whether they would belong to the body or to the soul, hence a
third option is made that is they would be of both the body and the soul. This
happens as we think of man in two ways. First, man is presented in our minds or
rationality where we make man an object of our thought and understanding. Here,
man is something we can think about, divide into parts, study the relationships of
parts and wholes, and make concrete representations of what we found out.
Second, man is presented to us in our lived experience that is in the way we
experience our human life. Our daily experience of life presents manifold data that
becomes a treasury of our knowledge of ourselves, others, and the world. Our
reason has the capacity to divide or analyze its contents. In our minds, we
separate the body and the soul. But our experience extends further and remains
faithful to such experience that identifies the activity as of the body and the soul.
Take a look at some Philosophers and their idea of the body and soul.
Some philosophers would treat the body and the soul separately,
highlighting which to them is more important. In the ancient period, Plato would
say that man is a soul because it is his essence. The human body is simply an
imprisonment for his free and pure soul which is freed at his death to see the
absolute truth. Aristotle would regard man as a unified body and soul like the
unity of sugar, coffee, and milk in an espresso. In so far as this is the world of
matter, then all things are made up of matter and form. In the medieval period,
Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo both assert the higher importance of the
soul like the charioteer and the horse where the charioteer is not one without a
horse. Rene Descartes of the modern period highlights the distinction between the
body and the soul by declaring his man as a thinking being (res cogitans) and an
extended being (res extensa). Although he recognizes unity, he still finds it
ambiguous hence being unreachable by the human mind with certitude.
Thomas Aquinas identifies the soul as the ‘principle of life.’ As such, it is the
beginning and foundation of human life without which or the absence of which will
be the death of man. The body cannot be the principle of life for it would suppose
that everything that has a body would be alive. Our experience proves otherwise,
that not all bodies are alive. Moreover, it is the one that enables us to receive and
perceive all the non-tangible things. ‘Whatever is received is received according to
the condition of the receiver.
I am my body. I and my body are one and the same. When I think, it is not
only my brain that thinks but it includes all data given by my body. This occurs not
in succession like manner as first being fed with the bodily sensations and then
processed by the brain, after which I think, but it comes continuously and
interrelated. When I feel, it is the totality of all systems in me taking its due course,
such that when I am angry, the body expresses the feeling like contractions of the
muscle, tightening of the lip, etc. It is through my body that I experience myself,
others and the absolute. There are many things that I can do because of my body.
Other persons understand me, what I mean, wish, and want because these are
expressed by my body. This is the body I work, play, and study with. This body also
allows me to interact with my friends and all other individuals I form relationships
with. What I have with my body is not a static experience but one that changes
and develops through my life. Without such they would surely find difficulty in
ascertaining what I mean. I cannot separate myself from my body. I cannot reduce
myself to my body, nor negate my body.
My experiences as an embodied subjectivity may be limited by my body.
There are many things I cannot do simultaneously because I am only limited by
one body existing at a definite time, space, and nature. I cannot be here studying
in the classroom and be at the canteen at the same time because my body allows
me to be only in one place at a time. I cannot also be awake and asleep at the same
time because my body allows me only one action at a time. I cannot hold more
than my hands can handle.
My biological configurations also limit me, like I cannot bear a child because
I am a man. I cannot run around Mayon Volcano in a marathon because my frail
structure limits me. I cannot also be best in math because of the limitations of the
capacity of my brain. Even if I want to be an NBA player, I cannot because my
height is only a little more than the can of sardines. Even if I want to be healthy at
all times, my body becomes weak and sick at times. When my body feels tired and
exhausted even if my spirit is willing, at this moment, I have to stop what I am
doing and submit myself to the laws of nature.
I am also limited by time and space. My birth date was set some time ago
and I continue to age as days and years go by until I reach the time of death. I was
born in a family, in a place, to a parent and community I did not choose but are
already given to me. As I grow up, I cannot do and have everything I want because
of time. Time once lost, can never be regained. What I was not able to do
yesterday, I cannot anymore do today because yesterday is done and gone. My body
occupies a certain space only, extended as far as the tip of my fingers, toes, and
head. My body cannot in its entirety express the content of my interiority. It can
only express them as much as it could.
There are many limitations offered by my being embodied with this body,
however, there are always opportunities for transcendence, that is, going beyond
these limitations. Transcendence begins with the acceptance of our facticity that is
of our being ‘here and now’ from which we view things and people. Many things are
given to us. Our current conditions – body, mind, community, and relationships
cannot be changed, but these given would also be the same matter we could work
on. We become true to our interiority and allow our body to

Practice Task
Identify the things you consider to be your limitations given by your body.
On the opposite column write the things which you consider how you may
overcome such limitations.

My Limitations How can I overcome

e.g. not physically healthy exercise regularly
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Post Test Let’s assess
True! On your paper, write A if only the first statement is true; B if only the
second statement is true, C if both statements are true, D if both statements are
false.
1. a. Man is made up of body and soul.
b. The body is tangible while the soul is invisible and intangible
2. Whatever is received is received according to the condition of the receiver.
b. Understanding is in the brain, while emotion or feeling is in the heart.
3. a. Receiving flowers from our loved one is a concrete experience of the body.
b. The joy that one feels from flowers received is an intangible proof of the
soul.
4. a. The body subject is similar to the body studied in psychology.
b. The body object is similar to the body studied in physiology.
5. a. Sweating of palms when anxious typically exemplifies oneness of body and
soul.
b. Smiling though the heart is aching is being true to interiority.
6. a. An examination I am currently taking limits me.
b. Projecting myself in consonance with my dream de limits me.
7. a. The body cannot entirely express my subjectivity.
b. The loneliness felt when a person dies can be entirely expressed by crying.
8. a. The past is present in the here and now through imagination.
b. The future is present in the here and now through plans.

Assignment

Draw your body and give its dimensions. If you find it difficult to draw, you
may simply describe or make a list of the dimensions of your body, e.g., medium
built, round face, etc. Then, propose possibilities of transcendence. You may write
as many possibilities you can think of. Imagine the countless possibilities you have!

References:

Babor, Eddie R. The Human Person: Not Real, But Existing. Second edition.
Quezon City: C&E Publishing Inc, 2007
Palmiano, Dariel A. Philosophy of the Human Person. Updated edition. Camarines
Sur: Prince Chariel Publishing House, 2015
Moga, Michael D. What Makes Man Truly Human? A Philosophy Of Man And
Society. Makati City: St. Pauls, 1995
St. Thomas Aquinas, The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I.
Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Second
and revised edition (London: Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1920-1922). 10
vols. https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1978