Transcending and Embodiment

The gradual shift from the mediaeval period to the renaissance in the history of
philosophy has always been one of the landmarks of humanity, since western philosophy has
crawled out from the monopoly of scholasticism towards the rebirth of reason, hence it is by this
we have been introduced to the word “Renaissance.” There are two renaissance art pieces that
gives us understanding of the notion of transcendence, id est, the work of Michaelangelo’s “The
Last Judgement,” and Sandro Botticelli’s “The Abyss of Hell.” In Michaelangelo’s fresco in the
Sistine Chapel in Rome, one would see majestic and regal illustration of Christ’s second coming.
It is believed by Christians as it is written in the last part of the Book of Revelation that Christ
would come in the last day and judge each and every one of us. The painting illustrates Christ at
the center with the Virgin Mary at his side. All the naked bodies represent souls of which are in
their purest form. Dramatic illustrations depict souls either being rewarded or punished, and
depictions of souls transcending from their physical form to their spiritual form. In stark contrast
from Michaelangelo, Sandro Botticelli depicts a map of hell from Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno.”
One could see in this illustration of Botticelli, the layers of hell wherein an individual is destined
to according to the sins he committed while he was still living. One of the most interesting signs
Dante encountered while descending towards the abyss of hell was the signage at the gates of
hell saying, “Abandon all hope to those who enter.”

Two of these renaissance art works points to the world beyond us, heaven and hell. The
concept of transcendence is lynched on the belief of these realms because of the natural tendency
of human beings to believe that there is something beyond this lifetime. It has to be primarily
understood that the concept of transcendence is common in theodicy and theology, and in
philosophy it is grounded in the discipline of metaphysics. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, after
having studied everything that is known in his environment started to contemplate the things
beyond his environment, and in studying the things beyond his environment he stipulates that
philosophy as the mother of all sciences is the primary tool to investigate the things beyond the
world that is not grounded in the touchstone of our experience. As complicated as it seems, there
was only one question that bothered the Greeks since the time of Thales and other pre-Socratic
philosophers, and this question has occupied the entire era of the ancient period. The question
was simply, “ti to ov?” (What is being?). The question was long forgotten until Martin
Heidegger in his work titled, “Sein und Zeit” asked again the question and has claimed that “The
being of a being is not a Being.”

To understand what this means, and to understand what really is the concept of
transcendence in philosophy, we have to go back and see what really “being” means in the lenses
of Greek philosophers. Plato’s work titled “Phaedrus” already mentions the soul of which bears
reason already knew all things before it was embodied. The metaphysical and epistemological
underpinnings of Plato’s work already give us the idea of transcendence. All the more in his
work titled “The Republic” wherein in Chapter 5-6, Plato narrates the allegory of the cave,
wherein there is much more real world than the world of which we live in. In the work of
Aristotle titled “Metaphysics” he stipulates that the question of what “Being” is, is no other than
the question of what substance is. The work of Porphyry titled “Isagoge” introduces a tree to
Aristotle’s categories. The Tree of Porphyry illustrates the metaphysical grades of being that
illustrates the kinds of beings that exists and the nature of their existence. Being is defined here
as “That which is.”

“That” refers to the essence of a being and “is” refers to the existence of a being. When
you think about the essence of a being, it is composed of matter and form; when you think about
its existence you think about its logical or real existence. A being’s essence is composed of
matter and form. The matter of a being’s essence is divided into two albeit, Prime Matter and
Secondary matter. Prime Matter is pure potency and Secondary Matter is everything we see,
objects we see in actuality fall under Secondary Matter. The form of the essence of a being is
divided into two albeit, Substantial Form and Accidental Form. When you think about substance
we explain it using the tree of porphyry.

The tree of porphyry starts with being. Being is either corporeal or incorporeal; if it is
incorporeal it is a soul, if it is corporeal it possesses a body. When a being is corporeal and
possesses a body, a body is either organic or inorganic; if it is inorganic, it refers to the stones
and minerals of the earth, if it is organic it refers to bodies that can grow and ingest. Ingestion
and growth which is a property of an organic substance can be referred to two beings albeit,
plants and animals; they are either sentient or non-sentient. The faculty of a being of sentience
can be referred to animals; animals, which are sentient beings, are either rational or irrational.
Irrational animals are referred to brute animals and rational animals are referred to man.

The tree of Porphyry explains the metaphysical grades of being. The lowest form of
being is that which occupies space; rocks and minerals. Next to those who occupy space are
those who have the faculty of growth and ingestion; plants. Beings next to plants are animals that
are sentient. Brute animals are sentient but there is a higher being next to brute animals albeit,
man. Man is on the top of the metaphysical grades of being because man occupies space, has the
faculty of growth and ingestion, has the faculty to feel that indicates sentience and has reason
which distinguishes him from other beings below the metaphysical grades. Nevertheless, a being
is not only corporeal, a being is also incorporeal which means that spirits and souls are also
beings that has reason that transcends human reason which makes the incorporeal on top of the
metaphysical grades of being.

S
pi
ri
Mtsan
Anim als
Plants
Rocks and M inerals
Being is that which is
 Being:
That which is

That Is
Essece Existence

Logical or Actual
Matter Form
Existence

Prime Matter Secondary Matter Substance Accidence

1. Quality
Pure Potency
Actual Existing Objects Corporeal Incorporeal 2. Quantity
(Nothingness)
3. Action
4. Passtion
5. Habit
6. Relation
7. Time
8. Space
Organic (Plants) Inorganic Spirit and Souls 9. Posture

Sentient Non-Sentient
Stones and Minerals
(Animals) (Plants)

Rational Irrational

Man Brute Animals

With this view of “being” coming from the ancient era of philosophy, we have then come
to understand that the metaphysical grades of being illustrates for us a certain kind of
transcendence, from the lowest to the highest form of being. The view of being a composite of
matter and form as described by Aristotle was only a precursor to further ideas of succeeding
philosophers. The understanding of human beings as a hylomorphic being persisted until the
middle ages wherein Thomas Aquinas adopted Aristotle’s train of ideas. It was until the
Renaissance when the idea of Reñe Descartes overshadowed the idea of Hylomorphism. Reñe
Descartes’ idea of the “Cogito” paved the way for the dualism of which could be traced back
from Augustine of Hippo. While Plato and Augustine believed that the body is the prison of the
soul, Descartes on the other hand claimed that our consciousness, could exist without the
physical, hence there is a separation between mind and body. It has to be noted that Reñe
Descartes’ reification of the physical was passed down until the postmodern period. The end of
the modern period was signaled by the work of Immanuel Kant. The transcendental philosophy
of Immanuel Kant is more of epistemological transcendence whereby he resolved the problem of
rationalism and empiricism. Moreover, Kant’s work titled “Kritik der Reinen Vernuft” in the
part where he explains transcendental logic, he claims that no matter how we strive to understand
the subject, we could only arrive at the phenomenon, and never at the noumenon.

Immanuel Kant’s idea has sparked succeeding philosophers into further understanding
human beings such as in the guises of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, and many more. For Edmund Husserl, he believed that the crisis faced by the
European sciences was brought about by the renaissance idea of the cogito. The idea of the
cogito objectifies the world around us, making these as merely things of which are disposable
and dispensable. Hence, Edmund Husserl developed a method called phenomenology of which is
popular today in the field of philosophical and scientific research. For Husserl, he believes that
we could arrive at the phenomenon by what he calls transcendental reflections of which
investigates the core of the lived experience of people. With this, Maurice Merleau-Ponty tried to
take from Husserl in order to counter the Cartesian objectification of the subject. This then would
let us arrive to the idea of Merleau-Ponty on the embodied subject. The idea of the embodied
subject proposes that the mind and body from the very start of existence are never demarcated at
all. The Mind-Body is simply one of which is a stark contrast to the ideas of the preceding
philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Descartes.

The idea of mind-body gives us the understanding that the totality of our lives is not merely the
physical existence of which we have but also our consciousness of which allows us to will,
desire, and act. Human beings as embodied subjects should therefore be treated as subjects and
not merely as objects of use. As what Immanuel Kant stipulates in his categorial imperative that
we have to treat others not as a means and objects to our goal, but as a goal in themselves. While
there are unlimited actions we could desire, we are however limited to enact them because of our
corporeal limitations, and even our socio-economic limitations. Our corporeal limitations are
fortunately never a hindrance for our existential transcendence. Corporeal limitations are merely
existential tragedies of which we have to overcome. In overcoming these existential tragedies
marks our affirmation and possibly, existential transcendence.

It is interesting to mention the various existential tragedies of which we are speaking of at

this time. Florentino Timbreza summarizes these existential tragedies of which roots from the
paradoxes of life. In Timbreza stipulates that life is a great paradox, and because of this paradox,
we are confronted by inevitable tragedies. It is tragic to think about the moment that we are born
we already started dying, and when we were born, we already started suffering. We did not have
any knowledge of our existence, and since we did not have any knowledge about it, we neither
choose to be born nor choose to die willingly. We only come into a full realization of our lives
not at the beginning of our existence but towards the end of our existence. Moreover, what is
more tragic is that it is either we die first while our loved ones see us die, or we see our loved
ones die before our very eyes. These goes on to show that our lives are meant to suffer and die.
Martin Heidegger said it best when he said that we are all beings towards death. Life from this
point is therefore meaningless and futile. Nevertheless, philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche,
and Albert Camus for example, give us ideas on existential transcendence.

Friedrich Nietzsche who was infamous in saying that “God is dead” is one of the most
central figures of existentialism. For Nietzsche, he believed that becoming an ubermensch
requires your will in affirming your existence despite your tragic circumstances. Suppose that we
are given the chance to live again, would we rather choose another life or choose to relive the
same one without any modifications at all? If we have chosen the latter, it only goes on to show
our affirmation of life, since we choose the same suffering over and over again, of which only
shows that we are only satisfied and fulfilled with it. When we have chosen the former, it means
that there are some things in our lives of which gives us unfulfillment that leads us to want to
change it. Willing the same things under eternal recurrence for Nietzsche affirms our existence,
and that choosing the same tragedy over and over again in our lives makes us own it for
ourselves. By owning and willing these tragedies as our own, we are able to transcend from
ourselves and become ubermensch. When these tragedies do not kill us, for Nietzsche, it only
makes us stronger.

Similarly, Albert Camus alluded our lives like Sisyphus who was punished by the gods.
We are made to roll the boulder on top of the hill like Sisyphus. The boulder of which we roll are
as heavy as our dire circumstances. We could only be set free from our dire misery when we
have rolled them on top of the hill, nevertheless like Sisyphus, we would then roll back at the
bottom of the hill and begin rolling them endlessly back and forth. This as what Camus claims as
the absurdity of life. Rolling the boulder on top of the hill is absurd, since we already know that
we would not achieve into putting the boulder on top. For Camus, however, we could always
draw out meaning from life’s absurdity no matter how miserable it is. Camus claims that we
rather draw meaning from rolling the boulder on top of the hill than putting the boulder on top of
the hill. Our attention should therefore be focused on the experience of how we deal with such
misery we face. We might fail to put an end of our misery, yet we have to keep on trying, since
ceasing would only make our lives more absurd. Shakespeare once said, “It is better to have tried
and failed than not to have tried at all.”

In summary, looking at the history of philosophy gives us the idea of how we arrived to
the concept of being an embodied subject from Plato to Merleau-Ponty. The ancient period offers
us a concept of our human beings endowed with reason and consciousness. This reason and
consciousness have been the gauge of determining our nature of being man. However, while
reason and consciousness have been put into the pedestal, our physical existence was put in the
back seat of the discussion until the time of Merleau-Ponty of whom suggested that we are mind-
body in totality. Transcendence from this form is not necessarily being able to transform into a
human being capable of everything, rather, being capable of affirming one’s existence through
the misery, and absurdity of life.