TOPIC 1: What is man?

Cosmogonies & Anthropogonies

Myth: A way to explain the origins. It is not a fairytale, but a narrative genre
about some primitive ages.

Visions of human being

Negative vision
- Ancient civilizations: humans are slaves of gods.
- Thomas Hobbes: “Homo homini lupus” (“Man is a wolf to man”).
Positive vision
- The religion of the Hebrews: man is the most important creature on Earth.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Man is “the noble savage”.
A third way
- Man is good but with a certain disorder between his instincts and his reason.
There is a double tendency and human beings must struggle in life to reach their
own perfection (completeness).

What does science say about man? Is this true?

1. Family = HOMO
2. Order = Primates
3. Class = Mammalia
4. Phylum = Chordata
5. Kingdom = Animalia

Are we superior animals?

In 1625, Hugo Grotius wrote:
“Man is, to be sure, an animal, but an animal of superior kind, much removed
from all other animals than the different kinds of animals from one another”.

What is man?
“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is miracle. The
other is as through everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein.

Are we perfect beings?

Full of limitations and imperfections … Are we a mistake of nature?
Philosophical definition of human being
Aristotle had defined a man as a rational animal (ho anthropos zoon noetikon)

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity,
answered “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then
he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about
the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not
live the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he
dies having never lived.”

There are decisions that not only determine better or worse conditions of life
but make each of us better or worse as a person.
TOPIC 2: First Principles of Philosophy

What is philosophy?
Philosophy is the study of the most general and abstract features of the world
and categories with which we think.
“The knowledge of last causes and first principles.”

Parmenides & the concept of Being

“The history of ontology begins with Parmenides. He asks what we mean when
we speak of “being” and notes characteristics that necessarily belong to a being.
Regardless of how much the Greek philosophy that follows objects to
Parmenides’ concept of being, ultimately it cannot avoid his influence.”

Zeno of Elea
Greek philosopher and mathematician, whom Aristotle called the inventor of
dialectic. Zeno is especially known for his paradoxes that contributed to the
development of logical and mathematical rigor and that were insoluble until the
development of precise concepts of continuity and infinity.

Tortoise Paradox
Zeno was famous for the paradoxes whereby, in order to recommend the
Parmenidean doctrine of the existence of “the one” (i.e., indivisible reality), he
sought to controvert the common sense belief in the existence of “the many”
(i.e., distinguishable qualities and things capable of motion).

Infinite and Immateriality

To something that exists in reality we call “entity”.
Some entities are physical but also non physical. A non-physical thing allows
humans a very especial power, the capacity to get in touch with unrealities.
How can we think something that does not exist? Can we be imaging the
infinite?
This is the ambit of human “intelligence”. We have some properties to “deal”
not only with material things but also immaterial (pure objects or non-realities).

Principle of Identity
“A being is what it is”
For Aristotle this is a first principle not only of knowledge but also of reality.
It proclaims the primal mystery of being and demands the subordination of the
mind to reality.
It is the axiom of a being's irreducible diversity. Having arrived at this first
principle, Aristotle believes that it is a judgment that is held with absolute and
changeless certitude.

Principle of Non-Contradiction
“Being is not non-being”
“It is impossible for the same thing to belong and not to belong at the same time
to the same thing and in the same respect (with the appropriate qualifications)”.

Principle of the Sufficient Reason/The Reason of Being

“Being is intelligible to the human intellect and it can be explained”
The principle of sufficient reason states that nothing is without a ground or
reason why it is. A good explanation means that the cause requires a
proportional and reasonable effect.
This principle allows the possibility to think with order in a logical way, and do
not give “magical jumps” (explanations) in our reasoning process.

Philosophical categories
When something exists (an “entity”), we can determine a number of
characteristics of that entity called “categories”. A category is a classification of
different aspects that we can detect in the entity.
A classical division of categories comes from Aristotle, that divided all entities in
“substance” (the metaphysical support of an entity) and “accidents” (the
properties of the entities that accompany to the substance).
A real flower could be in many ways: a yellow flower, a big flower, in my garden,
my flower, an old flower, etc.
When a flower exists, exists as an entity. That entity we can divide in a number
of properties (color, position, weight, place, time,..) but these properties require
a metaphysical support: the “substance”.
Each entity is compound by a “substance” and a number of “accidents”.

What is the difference between the substance and the accidents?

The substance cannot change, except if we destroy it (i.e. a flower is a flower,
but if I burn it, will disappear as flower and become ashes).
The accidents can change in a number of varieties: the entity “flower” can have
the “red” color, “that own me”, “in my office”... to this aspects of the entity that
we call “categories”.
The "categories" unify the specific aspects of an entity. There are 10 categories:
a) One is the substance (that support all the others as an specific thing without
changing) b) And there are nine accidents (than can change without become
another thing)
Aristotelian categories
Substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, posture, state, action and
passion.
TOPIC 3: Human Nature
Philosophical Anthropology
Essencial: metaphysical foundations (matter, form, soul, faculties...)
Human Nature: Point of view of the “capacities or potencies”.
Existential: the reflection on human drama (freedom, love, destiny, suffering,
happiness, morality...)
Human Person: Point of view of the “dynamism and action”.

Part I Essential Aspects (Human Nature)

Science
Explain life from the CELL. The human being arises from the union of the
woman's egg and the male sperm.
Due to the characteristics of the modern scientific method, science can only
study the “material” and “empirical” aspects of reality. Use explanations and
mathematical models.
Philosophy
Explain life from metaphysical principles, in an area of knowledge called
Ontology, which deals with the study of what is “real”.
The ontology admits “material” and “immaterial” realities.
With respect to life, there are two terms that are used to explain what the
human being is. These are two concepts that point to realities (they are not
symbolic, they really exist): BODY AND SOUL.
Soul = Principle of Life
Requirements for life:
1. Self-nutrition
2. Self-development
3. Reproduction
The relation between body and soul in the constitution of human being.
1. Monisms (There is only a soul (immaterial principle) or there is only a body
(material principle).
2. Dualisms ( Soul and body are two different realities that accidentally unite
until death. Then there is only the soul. Therefore, the human being is his
soul.)
3. Substantiality Soul- Body ( Spiritual soul (substantial form) and body
(matter) join in one unique substance (hylomorphic unity). Upon
separation, death occurs.)

Man = Rational Animal

- Rationality
- Spirituality
- Inmateriality
o Inorganicness
o Timelessness
o Lack of spatiality

“Man is not the most intelligent being because he has hands, but he has hands
because he is the most intelligent.”

The CORPOREAL brings us closer to plants and animals.

RATIONALITY bring us closer to angels (Theology) and God (Philosophy and
Theology).

Fundamental Capabilities
- Inteligence
 - Will
- Afectivity

TOPIC 4: Human Capacities

Intelligence = Logos
Intellect (Intellectus)
- First principles
- Wisdom
- Synderesis
 o Identity
o No contradiction
o Sufficient reason
Reason (Ratio)
- Theoretical reason
o Concept
o Proposition
o Argument
- Practical reason
o Deliberation
o Judgement of means
o Order or command

Consciousness is an act of intelligence. It consists of the waking state, in which

we notice external reality and our own subjectivity.
Types of consciousness:
- Spontaneous awareness: being awake.
- Original consciousness: natural claims.
- Reflective consciousness: process of reflection.
- Conscience: warning of moral aspects.

Moral Conscience
Conscience is the knowledge of ethical principles and ideals, which tend to a
final unit or goal.
It is a judgment on human activity before the act, during the act and after the
act.
The conscience follows the principles of synderesis (Natural Law) and also of the
Positive Law. This means that the conscience not only obeys the objective good,
but also what we understand as good and bad.
If a man acts against the dictates of his conscience, he feels bad inside. It is about
the punishment of his conscience indicating that he has done wrong ...

Form & Object

Training means "con-forming", that is, getting hold of the shape of things in
order to understand them.
Object is what I can intentionally apprehend with my intelligence.

Process of Knowledge
Subject: person that can know
Object: the known thing (form without matter)
Thing: existent being
1. Capacity for intentionality: intelligence can encounter reality.
2. Capacity for abstraction: intelligence can appropriate the forms of things.
3. Capacity of reflection: intelligence can “think thoughts”.

Structure of Human Act

I. VOLUNTAS UT NATURA
Elicit acts of the will with respect to the END (this type of act presupposes a
prior capture of intelligence and its aspect of good:
a) Simple Volition (rational inclination)
b) Intention (volitional inclination)
c) Joy (pleasure to achieve a good)
II. VOLUNTAS UT RATIO
Elicit acts of the will with respect to the MEANS to achieve good:
a) Consent (voluntary acceptance)
b) Choice (decision between several possibilities)
c) Use (carry out the act)

What is Affectivity?
Affectivity is a psycho-physical movement of sentient beings that can also be
spiritual in rational being, characterized by an inner reaction toward good or bad
objects or circumstances.

Desire - Concupiscible Power

A power through which the soul is simply inclined to pursue those things that
are suitable according to the senses and to avoid those things that are harmful,
and this is called DESIRE or the CONCUPISCIBLE POWER.

Impulse – Irascible Power

A second faculty through which the soul resists opposing things that pose
obstacles to what is suitable and that inflict harm, and this is called IMPULSE or
the IRASCIBLE POWER.
Hence, the object of the irascible power is said to be the difficult (arduum),
because the irascible power tends toward overcoming setbacks and winning out
over them.

Emotions of the Desire

Love: inclination towards a good.
Hate: inclination away from an evil.
Desire: motion to a possible future good.
Avoidance: motion away from a possible future evil.
Pleasure/Joy: possession of a good.
Pain/Sadness: possession of an evil.

Emotions of the Impulse

Hope: inclination towards a difficult future good as possible to attain.
Despair: inclination away from a difficult future good as impossible to attain.
Fear: inclination away from a difficult future evil as impossible to overcome.
Daring: inclination towards a difficult future evil as possible to overcome.
Anger: reaction to a present or past evil as something to be avenged

Hierarchy of Tendencies
Emotions (Passions)
- Are intense.
- Are brief.
- Produce some sort of organic change (somatization).
Feeling ( Sentiments)
- Are intense if they are accompanied by passion but cannot be.
- Last a long time, even a life time (e.g. friendship).
- May not manifest themselves with organic changes. One can love a person
a lot, but on many occasions not feel anything, no type of affection. But
the feeling is present.

Process of emotions
1. Trigger object and its circumstances
2. Emotion or Mood disturbance
3. Organic Changes or Physical Symptoms.
4. Behavior or Expression.

Having heart implies experiencing feelings or passions, likes and dislikes.

The human person should not eliminate feelings, but order or subdue them to
reason

THEME 5: Human Person

Person: “Individual substance of rational nature”.

1. Each person is unique and unrepeatable.
 2. There are three types of “persons”: God, men and, from theology, also
angels.
3. The fact of being a manifest person:
1. Incommunicability (each one is unique).
2. Subjectivity (it has an inner "world").
3. Ontological dignity (has a special value).

Characteristics of the Person

- Self-consciousness
- Freedom
- Love
- Intimacy
- Donation
- Intersubjectivity

Intimacy
Our intimacy is, for each one, an unfathomable mystery in which we go diving,
an enigma that always escapes us into the future.
What we know of our intimacy we discover as we live, by checking our deepest
desires, our joys and sorrows, our successes and mistakes...

Two sides of personal identity

The “self” that we are because we have been defining our personality through
the content of my existence. It is “what I am”.
The “self-conscious”, that which I am in every moment, which manifests itself in
the form of free spontaneity. The one that is presented to me in the present and
can react from moment to moment. My free and spontaneous “me”.
Confrontations between my “me” and “what I am”
The contradictions between one and the other emerge in the person:
a) as temptations to escape from what I am, to flee from obligations in order to
display my spontaneity;
b) as a feeling of resignation to the need to deny the spontaneity of my “self” in
order to fulfill those obligations.

Identity and Identification

I identify myself in and with others: in my family, in my friends, in society; I
identify with my life, with what I have; in short, with what constitutes the true
content of my existence.
This identification consists in finding oneself - recognizing oneself - in that life,
in those people. That life and those people represent my unequivocal signs of
identity.

Crisis of identity
There is a distance between the current consciousness that I have of my life and
what is hidden at the bottom of my personality and I want to discover (personal
truth).
Not knowing what I want or not finding what I am looking for arises as a not
knowing who I am or not having become who I am: as an identity crisis.
Am I clear what I want to do with my life?
THEME 6: Human Dignity

What is Dignity?
Dignity is the inalienable value of every human being because he is a person.
Every human being has particular features and perfection in the manner of his
being, which can be expressed with the word “person”. The person due to his
rational features has a very special value. It is an ontological and existential
value.

The Conquest of Human Dignity

For many centuries a lot of human values remained hidden. Even nowadays
many people reject the idea of the respect and dignity of humans.
We can remember some steps in the conquest of these values:
- Abolition of slavery
- Rights for women
- Care of children
- Respect for the beginning and the end of human life
- Respect for life in general
- Religious freedom

Types of Dignity
ONTOLOGICAL
Every human being is a person and always has a dignity per se from the
beginning of conception.
MORAL
According to their acts, a human person can have more or less dignity in a moral
sense.

Conversion
A person who has had a bad life, who has committed great moral mistakes, has
the possibility of conversion. This is because we have something that is a good
that we express with the word “person”. This is one of the aspects of our
ontological dignity. Due to this we have to respect the weakest human beings.

Good and Bad People

Each human person has something good and something bad. Nevertheless,
some people can carry out more good actions than bad or vice versa.
Depending on the virtues and vices, we can talk of a "good person" or a "bad
person" in a moral sense. In this way we have more or less “moral dignity”.

Animal Dignity
Animals do not have dignity, but we have to respect their life as a value. We
ought to treat animals with respect depending on circumstances. Only in a
figurative way people also talk about “animal dignity”.

Respect for Non-Living Things

On the other hand, we also ought to take care on non-living things considering
that they allow life. There are things with special importance for the meaning of
human spirituality: the environment and those things that have a special
meaning in human existence (e.g. cultural monuments, cemeteries, etc.).
All of this is not because of the dignity of things, but human responsibility as a
person. Human power assumes responsibilities.
If humans damage the environment and neglect the symbols of their culture and
heritage, they damage themselves.
TOPIC 7: Freedom

The Experience of Freedom

1. We realize and experience a certain power to choose things, not only with
our bodies, but also with external things.
2. In order to act, we have the possibility of choices and our intelligence
shows us different ways to do something. We have to choose one of them.
3. Even if we are physically unable to move, we can reject many things with
our conscience, inside us. And also disagree.
4. We can disobey orders or indications and choose another way to think or
act.

Two Aspects of Freedom

1. Freedom as a power of the Will (rational tendency).
2. Freedom as a property of the Person (involve all capacities as a whole).
Both of them are right, but the second one explains better the unity of human
being and the complexity of human liberty.
Focus on Personal Freedom
The definition of Personal liberty is “the capacity of the human being to choose
the end”. It is also called “moral freedom”.
“Man is determined as a person through his acts, and in this sense the person is
presented as the main protagonist of their own existence. Here lies the self-
autonomy of the person: being in control of my own acts I am able to project
myself, “live my life”.

To Choose the Good Is Important

Why to choose “whatever”, it is not a proper way of freedom? Because freedom
must drive a person toward its proper end. Choosing bad, can damage to
yourself. But, this capacity to choose badly is a sign of freedom, because it is a
possibility, it is our risk and our challenge.
It is a capacity that allows a person to drive and govern their own life. But there
is an important aspect: if you know how to use your freedom, you can increase
that power; otherwise, you can have less freedom and get “licentiousness”.

Main Division of Freedom

1. Physical Freedom (Freedom of Spontaneity)
- You can move from one place to another
- There are degrees depending on the kind of being
- It is called physical freedom
- Animals also have this kind of freedom
2. Moral Freedom (Personal Freedom)
- It is a feature of person
- It has a special dignity
- It has ethical consequences
 - It is classically called “liberum arbitrium”

Physical & Personal Freedom

1. Physical freedom means immunity from physical compulsion or restraint. The
unbridled horse is in this sense free, while the prisoner in a cell is not.
2. Moral freedom signifies immunity from necessities by the agent's nature. In
this latter sense the prisoner is free, but the horse is not.

The Denial of Freedom

There are some theories that reject the idea of freedom. These theories are
called “determinisms”.

Determinisms
Internal circumstances:
When our acts are determined by feeling or genes.
1. Physical
2. Psychological
External circumstances:
There is a slight difference between fatalims, something supernatural and social
determinism where all our acts are determined by other, independently of our
feelings and volitions.
1. Sociological
2. Economical
3. Fateful

Increasing Freedom
The individual increases his freedom over time. There are some conditions to
increase it:
- Knowledge
- Virtues (responsibility)
- Will power
- Personality (maturity)

Conquering Freedom
- Political Freedom
- Freedom of Speech
- Religious Freedom
- Freedom of Education

Limits of Freedom
- Laws
- Physical limitations
- Existence of other people
- Limits of time and space
- Moral limits

Responsibility
The acts must be really mine, really within my power to perform or to omit. If
not, my reason affirms, I cannot be answerable for it.
We have to respond for our choices and acts.

Freedom for…
Freedom is not a goal in itself. It is a “means” to an end. Every freedom is for
something. It is like an “instrument”.
We have freedom in order to reach an end. Freedom is not the end, just a means
to gain goals. We notice our freedom when we can choose. But the possibility
of choosing is only a sign of freedom, it is not freedom itself.
The “election” choice (electio) is an act of the Will, but freedom is more than
mere election or choice.

TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
1. Ordinary Knowledge, experiential or spontaneous
2. Technical Knowledge
3. Philosophical Knowledge
4. Scientific Knowledge
5. Technological Knowledge
6. Artistic Knowledge
7. Theological Knowledge