NAME: JENEL JEN A.

VILLAFUENTE GRADE LEVEL & SECTION: ABM 11- YEN

“REFLECTION JOURNAL”

Philosophy is life. It is a search for meaningful existence. It is mapping out our

way towards meaningful and significant existence. It aims to clarify our human
understanding of anything, including ourselves. It is from these claims that this
workbook, A Reflection Manual on Philosophy of Man is intended: to make that way of
life realizable in the context of college students. The method in philosophizing and in the
understanding of the human person is activity-driven that involves understanding by
doing.

Since philosophy is art itself, the tools for understanding include seeing, reflecting and
acting. Since the workbook is thematic, each theme involves the three tools: seeing
involves the observations, the phenomena, or the raw experiences that provoke some
inquiries in understanding better our humanity; reflecting includes integrating and
clarifying the experiences within philosophical insights regarding the human person; and
acting entails the creating of personal insights regarding the judgment drawn from
seeing and reflection. The act part involves a personal contribution to the enrichment of
understanding the human person.

Philosophy is also the love and pursuit of wisdom. As such, the method employed in this
workbook is phenomenological in the sense that it intends to present being as the
underlying reality in human consciousness. It presents a description of the phenomenon
of the human world, yet hermeneutically analyzed within the context of philosophical
reflections. The study of the human person is critical and reflective on the human
person's nature and unique existence. It provides foundations for a deeper
understanding of what and who the human person is, and what it means to be fully
human.

The workbook is geared to accomplish several general objectives: First, it aims to

introduce the students to the different perspectives about the human reality; it also aims
to enable the students to cultivate the habit of critical thinking and free inquiry on the
human person; (It is also) to integrate the student's learning of the human person in
other disciplines and at the same time to enable the students to attain a profound
understanding about their human experiences. The students are also given the
opportunity to analyze and reflect on philosophical insights through reading
philosophical texts; and, finally the workbook aims to develop in the students the skills
of critical thinking through writing their philosophical insights about the human person.

By using the workbook, students are geared to attain these competencies:

understanding various views on the human person and their implications; an informed
perspective on the human person; improved verbal and written skills in constructing
arguments; and a disciplined approach, through research, in discussing issues
hounding human existence.

The workbook thematically addresses the human project regarding: human becoming,
freedom, transcendence, egoity, embodiedness, cognition, having, sociality, language,
alienation, conscience, commitment, belief and religion, love, art and creativity, suffering
and death, being and hope; all of which are geared towards a better understanding of
our humanity. After each topic, discussion questions are provided to deepen our seeing-
reflecting-acting process. For many people studying philosophy, the fact that it is
meant to give us new “way of life” is still apparent. Philosophy can change
your life, and there’s something strange about learning about morality or
reasoning and yet refusing to be ethical or reasonable. Philosophers pride
themselves in making moral progress and becoming more reasonable. That
doesn’t mean philosophers are ethical or reasonable. It means that they
should at least be more so than they would otherwise be. If they never studied
philosophy, then they would know less about being ethical and reasonable,
and they would therefore have no choice but to be less ethical and
reasonable.
This is where philosophy gets personal. We don’t just want to know why
murder is wrong and why other obvious moral statements are true. We want
to know what decisions we should be making throughout our lives. We want to
know how a moral and reasonable person would live her life, so that we can
be moral and reasonable no matter what our personal goals are, and no
matter what our unique situation is in life. We therefore should take a look at
ourselves and think about how being moral and reasonable applies to us as
unique individuals. Some of our findings will be general and apply to many
other people, but some of our findings could be completely unique due to our
personal relationships, commitments, and goals.
I will discuss various ways that philosophy has changed my life that I think
could apply to other people. Philosophy’s main focus concerns what it means
to be reasonable. This in turn helps us attain better beliefs and actions. Our
actions can not only be more ethical, but they can also be more reasonable in
the sense that there can be more effective ways of achieving our goals. I will
discuss how philosophy has affected my thinking, beliefs, and actions.
 For many people studying philosophy, the fact that it is meant to give us new
“way of life” is still apparent. Philosophy can change your life, and there’s something
strange about learning about morality or reasoning and yet refusing to be ethical or
reasonable. Philosophers pride themselves in making moral progress and becoming
more reasonable. That doesn’t mean philosophers are ethical or reasonable. It means
that they should at least be more so than they would otherwise be. If they never studied
philosophy, then they would know less about being ethical and reasonable, and they
would therefore have no choice but to be less ethical and reasonable.

This is where philosophy gets personal. We don’t just want to know why murder is
wrong and why other obvious moral statements are true. We want to know what
decisions we should be making throughout our lives. We want to know how a moral and
reasonable person would live her life, so that we can be moral and reasonable no
matter what our personal goals are, and no matter what our unique situation is in life.
We therefore should take a look at ourselves and think about how being moral and
reasonable applies to us as unique individuals. Some of our findings will be general and
apply to many other people, but some of our findings could be completely unique due to
our personal relationships, commitments, and goals.

I will discuss various ways that philosophy has changed my life that I think could apply
to other people. Philosophy’s main focus concerns what it means to be reasonable. This
in turn helps us attain better beliefs and actions. Our actions can not only be more
ethical, but they can also be more reasonable in the sense that there can be more
effective ways of achieving our goals. I will discuss how philosophy has affected my
thinking, beliefs, and actions.