SHS

Introduction to the Philosophy of

the Human Person
Quarter 1 – Module 7
The Human Person as an
Embodied Spirit

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Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person
Quarter 1-Module 7: The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

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Regional Director: Gilbert T. Sadsad

Assistant Regional Director: Jessie L. Amin
Regional EPS: Sheila C. Bulawan
Division EPS: Presyl A. Bello

Development Team of the Module

Writer: GERRY A. BAJARO - Oro Site HS, SDO Legazpi City
Editor: JESSIE MARIE MATA MORCOSO - Pawa HS, SDO Legazpi City
ALVIN A. SARIO, PhD - University of Santo Tomas, Legazpi
Reviewers: JESON D. BALINGBING - Pag-asa NHS, SDO Legazpi City
ROMEO A. TUSI - Pawa HS, SDO Legazpi City
ROMMEL U. QUIÑONES - Homapon HS, SDO Legazpi City
Illustrator: VIAN GABRIEL SPES B. QUINONES - Grade 7, Philippine
Science HS, Goa, Camarines Sur
Layout Artist:
Cover Photo: GERRYMIE FLOREL I. BAJARO - Grade 11, Philippine
Science HS, Goa, Camarines Sur
 KERBY
INTRODUCTION
Limits and transcendence. You are a human
person. You are able to sensibly experience the world – look
at your beloved’s beautiful face, smell the sweet scent of the
flowers, feel the warmth of your friend’s embrace, taste the
delicious meal prepared especially for you, listen to the
sound of soothing music as it is played to you - and
everything the material world offers. At the same time, you
are able to appreciate your supportive friends, wonder at
new learnings and discoveries, and understand what is being
talked about. You also hope for some things to be better and
desire for more of all the beautiful things in the world. What a
wonderful life it is!

On the other hand, you have a share of the not so wonderful moments in
life like sadness, pain, suffering, and the likes. Sometimes you fail in having what
you hope you would have or fail to do what you have promised. After all, you
would say ‘I am only human.’ What does it mean to be human? Is it simply having
a body? Or more than the body?

Allow yourself to have an encounter in this module with that which is most
obvious to your being human – that of having a body, which offers you both your
limitations and possibilities for transcendence.

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

VOCABULARY
Now, here are some words you have to remember:
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.

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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.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1 Self-description. It is the first day of school! The

usual "get to know each other activity" is made. Imagine
that your teacher asks you to find a partner and introduce
yourself to him/her. Since you are a new student and no
one in your class is neither a friend nor acquaintance, you
have your seatmate as a partner. With this situation, list
down 10 words that describe you best so that your
seatmate can know you better.

1. ____________________ 6. ____________________
2. ____________________ 7. ____________________
3. ____________________ 8. ____________________
4. ____________________ 9. ____________________
5. ____________________ 10. ____________________

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 Look at your descriptions. Notice how many are descriptions of your body
or your physical characteristic and how many are not bodily descriptions? Does it
surprise you? Take the next activity.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

Body or Soul. Inside the box are activities you usually do.
On your notebook, draw a heart and a cloud. Inside the heart, write
the activities you consider as activities of the BODY. Inside the
cloud, write the activities you deem as activities of the soul. Then
briefly answer the succeeding questions.

Reading newspaper Breathing Sleeping Walking

Playing online games Singing Dancing Studying
Remembering lessons Praying Thinking Loving
Writing love letters Dreaming Texting Crying
Listening to music Knowing Hoping Eating

BODY SOUL

Processing questions:
1. Which activities do you recognize as activities of the body? Why? Explain
your answer.
2. Which activities are activities of the soul? Why? Explain your answer.
3. Are there activities that may belong to both body and soul? What makes
them activities of both body and soul?
4. How are you able to decide which ones fall into the category of activities of
body/ soul or body and soul?
5. Is it easy to identify or categorize each activity as belonging to body/soul
or both? What makes it easy or difficult?

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 3
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?

DEEPENING
Let’s explore further...
KERBY

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 second 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

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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.
FATIMA
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.
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.
Gabriel Marcel would speak of man neither as a body alone nor a soul
alone; not even of an aggregate union of body and soul but of man as an
embodied subjectivity. Man’s embodiment is not treating the body as an object to
be analyzed, systematized, and conceptualized, but a subject that performs the
concrete experience; hence it does not make sense to separate the body and the
soul.
Although man is made up of body and soul, these two distinct realities in
man’s life cannot be separated as long as man is in this world. The separation of

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 JASMINE

the body and soul, while we are yet here on earth is possible only in the level of
analysis. Looking at the body and the soul separately like an aggregate would
invite priority of one over the other. One becomes more privileged as being
mundane or spiritual. The body is sacrificed for the sake of the spirit, if it is more
important; or the soul is sacrificed for the sake of the pleasure of the body. This
would have further implications on the choices one makes and the possibility of
abuse of one and the neglect of the other. Neglecting one over the other is not
being faithful to its actual experience.
To be human is to have a body. Physical science would present man as a
biological body that is made up of different parts. These parts made up the body
system – circulatory, digestive, endocrine, immune, lymphatic, nervous,
muscular, reproductive, skeletal, respiratory, urinary, and integumentary. Each
system has functions to perform necessary for human survival. Social science’s
structural- functional theory would look at the body in the same way. It is a part
of the social system occupying a particular status and performing specific
function. This is man’s body, a body-object.
Just like the sciences, this body I have is also a body-object similar to the
bodies of the sciences. This body I possess, a body, is an objectified body in
relation to me and others. We treat it similar to other objects liked and disliked. I
color the hair, cut the nails, brush the teeth and so many other things I do with it.
Other persons could objectify it as well – admire, love, hate, keep and dispense.
At other times, I may use this body like an instrument I have. The feet take me to
places I want to be, the eyes make me see the sceneries and movies I want to
see. However, the body I have is not only a body-object because the body I have
and I are inseparable.
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

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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. ANNA BEA
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
express faithfully that which is interior. “Ipakita kung ano ang niloloob natin.” The
body may have limitations, but our spirit is free.
We take a stand and recognize that our being here is also coupled with
being there and not yet. We have our choices to make. We cannot have
everything once and for all but in a series of before, now and after, recognizing
that now contains both the past and the future. We look back and imagine how
things have been in the past; also make plans for the future, realizable or
seemingly not, hence making them present and available here and now. We
wager in things that are not certain and intangible yet. Believers call it faith, the
‘assurance of things hoped for and convictions of things unseen.’ Hope puts trust
and expectation that certain things will happen. Faith and hope attest to the
possibility of transcending the here and now and testify to the possibility of going

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beyond these limitations. These contribute to the meaning one finds and makes
in life, going beyond the confines of the body.
‘We are a product of historical events that contain possibilities and being
conscious of these, we can make history. Historicity is both destiny and
responsibility.’

APPLICATION
Practice Task 1. How do philosophers regard the body and the
soul? Fill in the chart how each philosopher regards the body and
soul.

Philosopher Idea of body and soul

Thomas Aquinas
Plato
Aristotle
St. Augustine of Hippo
Rene Descartes
Gabriel Marcel

Practice Task 2. 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.

Practice Task 3. Below are five simple sentences. If the sentence presents the
body as an object, write O. If the sentence presents the body as a subject, write
S.
1. I am five feet six inches tall.
2. My eyes show my sadness when I failed the exam.
3. I give you daisies and chocolates to show my love for you.
4. I wear brown shorts and red shirt on your birthday.
5. My hair is dyed brown.
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

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 2. a. 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. Gabriel Marcel suggests the separation of body and soul as embodied
subject.
b. Rene Descartes asserts relationship as similar to the charioteer and
horse.

5. a. The body subject is similar to the body studied in psychology.

b. The body object is similar to the body studied in physiology.

6. 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.

7. a. An examination I am currently taking limits me.

b. Projecting myself in consonance with my dream de limits me.

8. a. The body cannot entirely express my subjectivity.

b. The loneliness felt when a person dies can be entirely expressed by
crying.

9. a. The past is present in the here and now through imagination.

b. The future is present in the here and now through plans.
10. a. My belief in God and the afterlife separates me from my current
condition.
b. Faith and hope makes the unseen, seen somehow.

POST-TEST
Now you are almost done with your module. So, let us
see how far your journey with the embodied spirit has taken
you. Given the following statements, write on your journal T if
the statement is true, F if the statement is false. Also provide
a not more than 2 sentences explanation why it is your
answer.

e.g. Time and space limits me. T Because I have a body which is subject to the
limitations of time and space. I am born in a specific period of time and I
will die in time.

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 1. Sweating when anxious shows unity of what is inside and outside me.
2. Human beings have body and soul.
3. Faith and hope allows me to go beyond the limits of here and now.
4. Crying can express my loneliness entirely
5. The body is seen more often as an object rather than a subject.
6. I am one with the world because of my body.
7. The things I can feel and understand depends on my capability.
8. I make the future present whenever I make plans.
9. The joy of receiving flowers proves that there is body and soul.
10. I use my body in the same way I use my instruments.

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!
=)

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Answer Key
Key to Correction
Pre test: 1. T 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F 6. T 7. T 8. T 9. T 10. T
Activity 1. Answers may vary
Activity 2. Answers may vary
Activity 3. Answers may vary
Practice Task 1.
Aquinas - soul as the principle of life
Plato - man is the soul
Aristotle - man is a unified body and soul
St. Augustine - the soul is more important than the body
Descartes - body and soul are different
Marcel - body and soul are one

Practice Task 2. Answers may vary

Practice Task 3: 1. O 2. S 3.S 4.O 5.O
Assessment: 1.C 2. C 3. C 4. D 5. B 6. A 7. C 8. A 9. C 10. C
Post Test. For the explanations, answers may vary but the central thought is
given in the following explanation.
1. T. Anxiety is internal and sweating is one of its external manifestations.
2. T. Body and soul accounts for the material and non-material component of
man.
3. T. Here and now limits physical conditions of man. Faith and hope are not
physical, hence it surpasses the limits.
4. F. Crying cannot express all the loneliness you feel. It is but one
expression.
5. T. The body is material and objects mainly are material.
6. T. The body enables one to identify with the world. One experiences the
world through the body.
7. T. One cannot give one does not have. It depends on the capability.
8. T. Plans are made in the present but it is directed towards the future.
9. T. The body receives the flower and the joy felt is non material, hence it is
of the soul.
10. F. Although I ‘use’ my body when I eat, walk or answer this quiz, still the
body is more than the instrument because I cannot separate my body from
me like the instruments I use.

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REFERENCES

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
Palmiano, Dariel A. Philosophy of the Human Person. Updated edition.
Camarines Sur: Prince Chariel Publishing House, 2015
Espartinez, Alma Salvador S. Becoming a Human Person. 4th edition.
Philippines: Tri-zone Printing Press, 2013
Babor, Eddie R. The Human Person: Not Real, But Existing. Second edition.
Quezon City: C&E Publishing Inc, 2007
Moga, Michael D. What Makes Man Truly Human? A Philosophy Of Man And
Society. Makati City: St. Pauls, 1995

SUPPLEMENTARY
Gabriel Marcel and Karol Wojtyla’s Notions of the Body. Jove Jim Aguas.
Available at
https://www.academia.edu/34236793/Gabriel_Marcel_and_Karol_Wojtylas_Notio
ns_of_the_Body
Gabriel Marcel’s ‘The Mystery of Being’ by Allan Scott. Available at
http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/marcel.html
‘What is Embodiment?’ by John G. Martin, PhD. Available at
https://www.slideshare.net/regardingjohn/what-is-embodiment

VIDEOS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awao8ak1VUY (Tagalog discussion)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzIm-jUbfic (English discussion)
http://m.llivescience.com/37009-human-body.htm

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