Philosophy – LOVE OF WISDOM

- Greek word “philos” or “phileim” (to love or to desire) and “Sophia” (wisdom)
- the sum of all men’s beliefs and views about the world which guide their action
- the love or pursuit of wisdom, the search for basic principles
- a rational critical thinking of a more or less systematic kind about the conduct of life, the
general nature of the world, and the justification of belief.

According to PINION – philosophy is the science of things by their ultimate principles and
causes, as known by natural reason alone.

Pythagoras - a Greek mathematician and philosopher who coined the word “love of
wisdom”.

- According to him, men and women of the world could be classified into 3 groups: 1.
those that love pleasure 2. those that love activity and 3. those that love wisdom.
-
Philosophy - is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with
existence,
knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.
- It is the sum of all men’s beliefs and views about the world which guide their actions

Philosophy is the rational attempt to formulate, understand, and answer fundamental questions.

PHILOSOPHY
- A person is a being that has certain capacities or attributes. It is a composite of
characteristics that make up an individual a “SELF”

MEANING OF PERSON

LAW – human person refers to a corporation, organization, partnership, association or

other entity construed to be governed by a particular law

GRAMMAR – a person is any of the three groups of pronouns corresponding verb infliction
FIRST PERSON – the SPEAKER
SECOND PERSON – the individual addressed
THRID PERSON - the individual or thing spoken of

In CHRISTIANITY : TRINITY
- The Father
- The Son
- The Holy Spirit

St. Thomas of Aquinas

- HUMAN PERSON is An individual substance of a material nature

HUMAN – is defined as a RATIONAL BEING endowed with composite characteristics as distinct

from lower animals
- physical, mental, moral, spiritual and emotional

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994)

THREE DISTINCT WORLD
1. PHYSICAL WORLD OF NATURE
- Properly belongs to natural/physical science
2. INTERNAL WORLD OF IDEAS, THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS
3. SOCIAL WORLD OF INTER-SUBJECTIVITY

DOING PHILOSOPHY

Partial Perspective – human person in relation to self: his will and freewill as a unique individual
(psychology) limited in his capacity to do good (ethics) and to know (epistemology) and his place in
society (political philosophy)

Holistic Perspective – human person is seen as a whole or its entire functioning system, not a collection
of parts

Three Reasons why human person relates himself to society

1. Survival
2. Bonding together with other groups is GREGARIOUSNESS
3. Specialization

5 Determinants on how human person relates himself to the world

1. Genetics – play only small role in the human person’s relation with the world
2. Self-image - a human person with a negative self-image will expect the worst, damage
relationship and find others similarly negative
3. Life-experiences – affect his relationship with the world
4. Attitudes and Choices – has limited control over his experiences but complete control over his
attitudes
5. Friends and Associates – human person must relate himself to the environment. Friends
shape human person

Human – defined as rational being endowed with composite characteristics

Persona (Latin) Prosopon (Greek) – referred to the mask worn by actors on stage.

Truth - define as an accepted statement and agrees with the facts and reality
Opinion - statement of belief or feeling
Fact - statement of actuality or occurrences, based on direct evidence, actual experiences or
Observation

Geographical Truth – Pyramids are in Egypt

Moral Truth – Raping children is a sin and a crime
Mathematical Truth – 1+1= 2
Fictional Truth – Odysseus wife is named Penelope

Einstein –
- Reality is merely an illusion until it reveals the TRUTH

Facts:
Statement of actuality or occurrences. A fact is based on direct evidence, actual experience or
observation

Opinions:
Statement of belief of feeling. It shows one’s feelings about a subject. Solid opinions, while based on
facts are someone’s view on subject and not facts themselves
Method - a general or established way or order of doing anything

Methods or Tools of Philosophy

 1. Conceptual Analysis – it analyses concepts. Science analyses facts through observation,
experimentation and sense experiences.
2. Logical Analysis – method of determining whether the assertion offered as reason for accepting
the assertion justify that acceptance in the way the speaker intended,
3. Method of Systematic Doubt – Cartesian Doubt (RENE DESCARTES) / methodological doubt or
indubitable (certainty true, not able to be doubted)
4. Phenomenological Method – EDMUND HUSSERL (transcendental phenomenology)
- Describe ourselves and the world around us on the basis of subjective experience/lived
experience
5. Philosophical Dialogue – it brings the philosophers into contact with many ideas in a short
period of time, especially when there are more than two opinions being argued
6. Historical Method – there is value in explaining the implications of an arguments in a society
7. Comparative-Descriptive Method – this is a valuable learning tool, since we often come to
understand concepts in relations to what we already know
8. Comparative-Constructive Methods – very useful method for creating new ideas
9. Deconstructive Method – useful in specific situations. It allows the thinker to challenge his own
cultural preconceptions

According to St. Thomas Aquinas – A human being is by nature a finite embodied spirit, in search of
the infinite, in social solidarity with its fellow being.

Embodied Spirit - living animating core within each of us, the driving force behind all that we think, say
and do.

Spirit – consist of our mind, will and emotions. It is our personality, thoughts, attitudes and what makes
us unique.
- It is the immaterial part of a human being regarded as immortal

Soul – is the real person inside us, it is our life force, and it gives life to the body.
- The part of us that never dies, that is eternal, infinite and limitless
- Has no feeling and cannot think

Monica Shy and Mary Malvar

- Every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude.

According to Huxley
- Human person is an embodied spirit (a soul) whose nature has numerous bodily, affective,
cognitive, volitional and gender capacities.

St. Thomas of Aquinas

- He stated that a human being is by nature a finite embodied spirit, in search of the infinite, in
social solidarity with its fellow human being.

Aristotle
- A human person is a personal being, possessing its intellectual nature as joined in a natural unity
with a material body.
- This UNITY called “man” is a Rational Being
- A human being is a biosocial being and represents the highest level of development of all living
organisms on earth, the subject of lab, of the social forms of life, communication and
consciousness
Possibilities for transcendence
The Concept of Dread
- Dread is not Fear or Anxiety, this means that man is simply thrown into the world and is left alone to face
what he can do because he did not will for it.
- He must start from nothing in order to achieve something

The Concept of Being-Others-Related

- His existence as a “Dasein” (man) is not alone-existence forever. He has to establish relationship with
others

The Concept of Concern

- Human person’s relatedness to entities is basically things which he encounters in the world

The Concept of Guilt-Feeling

- something that is lacking or missing in a person

According Heidegger, human person is a guilty creature

The Concept of Conscience

According Babor (2001), conscience enables man to find himself again, because it is a voice, a voice calling
Dasein to own himself as a self who fallen into the everydayness.

The Concept of Resoluteness

- It is man’s to be called by conscience
- It is resoluteness that the human person resolved to accept himself and make up his mind to exist in
the way he call his own and understand himself

The Concept of Temporality

- Imposes limits to one’s human body
- Human Person’s life is temporal

The Concept of Death

- Death is the final direction of man’s existence
- Death is one of human person’s possibilities but it is always a possibility that surely happens

Heidegger and Kierkegaard

- Both existentialist
- Stressed the difference existing and living
- Man must not only live but also to exist

It is a must that the human person must find meaning in his existence . He must be conscious of his
distinctive existence so that he can strike a sense, purpose and direction in his existence.

Heidegger
- The Human Person is the only kind of being that exists.
- Only man has existence because he is the only kind of being who knows that he exist

According to Heidegger
- if the human person “falls to others”, he will lose his own identity

According BABOR him, conscience enables man to find himself again, because it is a voice
calling the man to own himself as a self who is fallen into everydayness

Existence
- not full, not whole and not perfect but such limitations can become possibilities, that life is
going to be full, to be whole, to be complete and be perfect
“Man can go beyond what is actually his limitations”

JJean-Paul Sartre
- An Atheist who believed that God’s existence or non- existence cannot affect man’s freedom.
He emphasized that man is intrinsically free and therefore responsible for himself.

Soren Kierkegaard
- Father of existentialism
- According to him, there are no real human beings in the present age because the individual
“man” has taken refuge in a bigger collective group or masses
- The human person must struggle to exist by disconnecting himself from the “crowd
existence”. One’s existence can only become significant, when one realizes his personal
freedom, his subjectivity, commitment and responsibility.
-
Karl Jasper
- Human person is one who is related to others in an essential manner so that he really exert
as himself.
- Human person is not a self-sufficient separate entity, but is constituted of the things he
makes his own.

Victor Frankel
- He is known for Logo Therapy. This means that the human person is searching for the
meaning of his existence that he strives to find the meaning of his life and existence which
serves as a motivation that makes him the will to live
- Shown that human person can develop an ability or skill to handle whatever limitations,
shortcomings, hardships, sufferings and frustrations which the person encounters in his
daily life.
- Believed that by doing a good deeds, a person can make his life meaningful
- Another way of finding the meaning of life is through the value of LOVE.
- LOVE is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Love can save the human
person from meaninglessness in life.

HUMAN PERSON’S IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT

Humans - considered as the most polluting species on Earth

Anemometer - It is an instrument used to measure the speed of the wind

Chemical Fertilizers - the main cause of water pollution in our environment

Diffusion Tube - It is a device used by expert to measure air pollution

Rain Gauge - It is an instrument used to measure the amount of fluid precipitation over a period of time

Reforestation - It is an act of renewing the forest in the environment

Wind Vane - used to measure the direction of the wind

Pope John Paul II - “men cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention
both to the consequences of such interference in other areas and to the well- being of future
generation”.

4 CARDINAL VIRTUES
1. JUSTICE – giving what is DUE to other and even the environment

2. TEMPERANCE OR FRUGALITY
- can best be understood as restraint or self-control in the use of resources

3. PRUDENCE – mother of all virtue

- Intellectual habit that wisely assesses the means necessary to accomplish the end
at which you are aiming
- Paramount in addressing climate change

4. FORTITUDE OR BRAVERY – commonly described as courage, (courage – can give us the

perseverance to struggle for justice in the face of discouragement)
- The vocation of working for any positive environmental change challenges us to
cultivate an attitude of hupo.