Man and Historical Action

Complied by : Dr. Ocon

 At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

• classify the different points of intersection of line of events in his/her life;

• value his/her “structure” according to the different crosspoints of his/her life;
• appreciate his/her personality through digging the past.
 POINTS OF INTERSECTION
'Journey' is a way for us to explore the crossing, the intersection
of our lives between each other. - Jenova Chen
 Man is a crosspoint or point of
intersection of certain lines of
events on varied levels.
These are point of intersection of
natural events,
physical line of events,
interpersonal,
social,
historical, and
individual.
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THE INTERSECTION OF NATURAL EVENTS

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• After a period of evolution, the first forms of life on this earth
probably came around 2.5 billion years ago
• Then a bit later, around 700. million years ago, would be the
emergence of what they call the first chordates.
• Mote recently, about 500 million years ago, would be the
appearance of the vertebrates
• Probably about 250,000 years ago is the appearance of
the first man
• It took the natural processes about 50 billion years to form
the nervous system, the brain which is in you, the body
which is you
 THE PHYSICAL POINT OF EVENTS

The earth, the natural processes took that long a time ago to
form man’s brain, to final polarize and organize matter that is in
him; and then came his consciousness – man became a
phycho-biological organism.
In this crosspoint, man is composed of natural, chemical, and
physical elements, and at
the same time, a point of
intersection of physical
world of events.

Man becomes a conscious

crosspoint of a conscious
point of intersection.
 To be conscious means

• Man is a cross-point of physical events and he is

conscious of himself as a cross-point
• Because he is conscious, he is conscious himself of his
limitations and his possibilities
• As a body, you are a source of activity; and being
conscious, you have a certain power to be creative

Insofar as man is a conscious point of intersection of world lines of

events; he has the power to control these lines of events up to a
certain point within a certain limitations
 THE CROSSPOINT AT INTERPERSONAL LEVEL

• The human psychological personality is a crosspoint of

various personal relationships – Freud/Erickson
• Man emerged as the fruit of intersection
• Man’s personality, to a great extent, was determined by
the relationships you had and have. Thus personality is a
fruit of intersecting personal lines coming together.
• The differences of people are not only determined by the
differences of their physical bodies, but rather on what
constitutes the different types of point of intersection of
personal line of events.
• This crosspoint is not on the physical sense anymore but
on personal sense implying that man is a product of
certain network or web of personal lines.
 THE SOCIAL POINT OF INTERSECTION

• Man is a social product

• You are deja vu, you are already there,
• You are of a certain quality, a certain type for better or for
worse, precisely because you are a point of intersection
of social events.
• These social points of intersection create social habits
and practices we call “CULTURE”.
 HISTORICAL POINT OF INTERSECTION

• Man is a historical product

• You are born of a certain age, of a certain period of history,
not earlier, not later.
• Historical lines of events are beyond one’s control.
• As crosspoint of historical events, “we are what we are”;
we are given a set of data
• As historical products, we have to start from a certain setr
of data given
• History is what makes what we are now
• As we become conscious of ourselves as historical
products, we also become aware of the historical
possibilities that we have.
THE INDIVIDUAL’S POINT OF INTERSECTION (SELF)

• This is a point of intersection resulting to a unique

individual with ideals, ultimate goals, and purpose in life.
• Human personality which takes an existential framework
whereby his own person is included in some kind of
permanent whole, permanent totality through
transcendental or spiritual viewpoint.
• Though may be set by ideals of the past and perhaps, in
the beginning blindly following them, in certain point of
time, one becomes conscious of these ideals and finally
make them more authentic, more personal and dependent
on one’s own deliberate decision.
• Man becomes conscious as a PERSON OF MEANING.
 As a crosspoint between the call of meaning and
your own response, you are given to yourself; and
yet you will be what you make of yourself.
Insofar as a man is a point of intersection of
all these various kinds of events in all these
various levels, you and l can be
characterized, in one sense, by what we
might call destiny or fate; on the other
hand, you and I are also characterized by a
certain creativity and, therefore, a certain
task or responsibility.
Seen as destiny, I am a set of limitations.
Seen as a task, I am a set of possibilities.
DESTINY but also TASK
Reference: Dr. Ramon Reyes from talk delivered to the Fifth Annual Student Leaders
Seminar Development in the Seventies, Tagaytay City, March 19-24, 1073