INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY - One of the largest areas of

philosophy.
The Meaning of Philosophy - Referring to an idea, doctrine
or posited reality outside of
• Philosophy came from Greek words human sense of perception.
“philo” and “sophia” meaning "To - In modern philosophical
Love" and "Wisdom". terminology it refers to the
• Philosophy means to love of studies of what cannot be
reasoning wisdom as its primary reached through objective
goal. studies of material reality.
• Technically, Philosophy is defined - Uses broad concepts to help
as the science that natural light define reality and our
of reason studies the highest understanding of it.
principles of things. - Dealt with existence and how
they exist.
Salient Features of Philosophy
• Metaphysics DEALT with:
✓ Philosophy is a Science - Ontology (existence)
✓ It employs Natural Light of Reason - Modality (necessity and
✓ Philosophy has an inclination to possibility)
Study All Things - Identity (persistence)
✓ Philosophy employs First Cause of - Mereology (parthood)
Highest Principle - Personal identity
- Time (travel and reality)
Composition of the First Cause or Highest - Cause and effect
Principle - Universal and Properties
- Free will and Determinism
• Principle of Identity - Existence and Subsistence
- In this principle it means that - Materialism vs Idealism
"everything what it is". For • Metaphysis DON’T DEALT with:
example, a seed is not a seed - Ethics and morality
when it appears like not a seed. - Knowledge
• Principle of Non-Contradiction - Justification
- This principle states that it is - Belief
an impossibility for a - Logic
particular thing to be and not - Beauty and Aesthetics
to be at the same time at the - Theories of Meaning
same respect. - Theories of Mind
• Principle of Excluded Middle - Methods of Science
- This principle explains that - Theories of Math
everything must be "either be or - Rationality
not be" or "either is or is not".
For example, anger is different
from happiness.
➢ Ethics
• Principle of Sufficient Reason - Deals with the evaluation of
- This principle states that there human actions and the nature of
is sufficient reason for the moral virtue.
being and existence of - Accounts for the nature of our
everything. moral judgements and it also
attempts to investigate our
fundamental ethical ideas.
BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY - Greek word ethos meaning
“custom/character”.
➢ Metaphysics - Studies the righteousness or
- Metaphysical philosophy accounts wrongness of a human action.
on investigating the unreal
entities in terms of the real Ethics in Greek
world that were experienced Tradition
through our senses.
- “Good life”
- Derived from the Greek word meta
ta physika meaning “after the - “Happiness”
things of nature”. - “Being happy”
 Ethics in Judeo-Christian of deciding which ethical or
moral actions are appropriate in
- Righteousness before God a given situation.
- Love of God and Neighbor
Casuist
- “Doing what is right”
- Adherent of applied ethics
- Example abortion, euthanasia or
Ethics vs Morality
. attempt to resolve the
Theory of right “practice”, conflicting issues
action and for righteousness - Guiding individuals in their
the greater or wrongness of choice of actions
good human action Different Field of Casuist
Systematic “Prescriptive” - Business Ethics
study of the - Biomedical and Environmental
underlying Tell us what
we ought to do Ethics
principles of - Social Ethics
morality Exhorts us to
follow the ▪ Normative Ethics
right way - Do good at all times
▪ Meta Ethics
Terrance McConnel (1994) - What is good?
• Morality is characterized as an *A police officer shoots a terrorist who
end-governed rational enterprise is about to blow up a crowded shopping
whose object is to equip people with mall.
a body of norms that make for
peaceful and collectively Meta Ethics – The act of the police
satisfying coexistence by officer is normally wrong.
facilitating their living together Normative - It is the right thing to do
and interacting in a way that is in this kind of situation.
productive for the realization of
the general benefit. Casuists - The police officer is just
doing his best to fulfill his duty.
Religious leaders may ask their followers
to be good at all times.

• Keep alive the values and to improve ➢ Epistemology

the moral quality - Study of knowledge
- A study of what the necessary and
sufficient conditions knowing a
Ethics Morality
particular statement
Is a science Is a practice - Example Value of Theory and
of morals of ethics Logic

Two Types of Ethics What is Knowledge?

1. Normative Ethics (prescriptive) - Defined as justified and true

- Provide guidelines on how we are
going to behave.
- Seeks to set norms or standards
that regulate right and wrong or
good and bad conduct.
2. Meta Ethics (descriptive)
- Aims to understand the nature
and dynamics of ethical
principles it asks questions
about the origin of moral facts
as well as the way in which
acquire moral beliefs (Sumner,
1994).
3. Applied Ethics
- Actual application of ethical or
moral theories for the purpose
belief
- “To know something you must
believe it, it must be true and
must have some justification for
it”
Edmund Gettier contradicted it…
“He pointed out that there are instances
where you have justified true belief which
is not knowledge”.
Is Knowledge Possible?
Contextualism – depends on what you mean
“by know”
 Epistemism – Yes decision making can make or
unmake us.
Pyrrhonian/Skepticism – I don’t know

Academic/Skepticism – No
➢ Aesthetics
- Concern itself with the notion
Does Knowledge Require Experience? of beauty, whenever we created a
devise or equipment, we
Empiricism – Yes consequently aim to improve it.
- It can also be used to explain
Rationalism – No
matters regarding culture and
arts. It is in these fields where
beauty can best be explained.
Is Justification “Internal”? - The benefits of getting
aesthetical knowledge mostly by
Internalism – Yes
the students are to vitalizes
Externalism – No the knowledge making the world
more useful and alive and it keep
*(Justification is the action of showing in touch with the culture.
something to be right or reasonable)

METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING
How Far Particular Belief Justified?
What is an Opinion?
Foundationalism - Proof from axiomatic
belief - Opinion is a personal claim,
belief or personal stance.
*(Axiomatic means self-evident) - Statement of fact has objective
Coherentism – Agreement with other belief content and is well supported by
available evidence.
- Statement of opinion whose
content is either subjective or
• Epistemology is the part of not supported by any available
philosophy which engages in evidence (John Corvino, 2015)
questioning your deeply held - Opinion refers to what a person
beliefs and shows you what can and thinks about something but is
cannot be justified. lacking evidence

*Another problem will arise…

➢ Logic “It is true that…”
- Another branch of Philosophy
which does not concern itself in - Using that phrase will
what we know regarding certain automatically make the statement
subjects. is true.
- Logic does not provide us
Take note: Not all those who claim they
knowledge of the world directly.
are telling the truth are revealing the
- Serves as tool to guide one’s
truth…
arguments or discourses so as to
keep them valid and true. (We see people in social media claiming
- Aristotle was the first that their position on an issue is correct
philosopher who used a logical and true, we may deceive if we are not
method where he claimed that verify whether this claims are indeed true
truth exists where there is or not)
agreement between reality and
knowledge. Truth is the main question in Philosophy.

*(This can only take place when mental - Many theories have dealt this
ideas correspond to the objective world, question and one of this is the
and this is where logical reasoning comes Correspondence Theory
in.)
(This theory maintains that both the
- Reasoning is very important in knower’s mind and the thing is being
our everyday lives while perceived must correspond to each other.)
 ➢ Socratic Method (The Art of Asking his/her premises or reason
Questions) (upstream)
- Named after Socrates – teacher - With the conclusion and
of Plato. consequences (downstream)
- This method of asking open-ended 7. Use option to give the person a
questions that are committed to choice.
finding the truth. 8. You may also match your style with
- It takes a form of dialogue, and personalities of the person you are
it is like a cross-examination. inquiring.
- It may often disappoint us when
we discover something we did not
intend to say. ➢ Dialectical Method
- This method seems to be annoying - Can be traced back to Socrates
because the questions seem to be or Plato method
unending. - Derived from Greek word
Why did Socrates develop this method? “dialego” means to discuss or to
debate.
- Socrates wisdom proceeds his - Method of studying and
awareness of his own ignorance understanding the real
and asking questions development and change
intelligently is a way to - Does not concerned about winning
resolve our own ignorance and or losing but seeking ideas that
will lead us to find the truth. arise from conflict.
- Philosophers may have
How to Apply Socratic Method (Peter differences in using this method
Kreeft, 2014) but they are all agree on the
1. Establish a Socratic Relationship relevance of this method in
- You are not the teacher but you searching for the truth or
are listener discovering new idea
- You are not the one who knows
what is right, but you are the
one who needs to be shown what ➢ Phenomenological Method
is right. - Comes from Greek word
2. Get the person’s belief, contention phainomenon meaning appearance
or conclusion. and logos which means study or
- What is the person really reason.
saying. - Investigates the essence of
3. Understand how the person uses the nature of the things that appear
terms that he uses to avoid to a person.
ambiguity. - Husserl’s phenomenological
- What does the person really method is the most original
mean. where it emphasizes the person’s
4. Ask the reasons or supporting lived experience to get the true
evidence. meaning of reality.
- Take note that you have to - According to Edmund Husserl,
maintain the attitude of a phenomenology is the science of
person who wants to be led by the the essence of consciousness.
master or teacher to clarify the
claim. How to Apply the method of Husserl’s
- Use the phrase “Why do say that”. phenomenology?
5. Once the person has given the claim, a. Bracketing
terms, and reason, make sure to show - Also called epoche’ meaning
your understanding of them by abstain.
rephrasing them in your own words. - Person’s belief, experiences and
- In this way the person feels that learning are bracketed or set
you are on the same track. aside to see thing in itself.
6. When the person sees that you are
in his side with the next level: *Sample is the onion where you need to
exploration. peel off the outer layers to get the
- Explore the person’s original innermost part.
argument that is either go with
In Philosophy this refers to the unpacking and the period when the author
of a certain reality. wrote something.

b. Eidetic Reduction
- This is the movement from fact
to essence, a transcendental
reality that refers to the
immateriality of things,
thoughts, feelings and memories.
*What is a Chair?
A chair may be green, white, or brown.
*There is an interplay between the
subject, object and the truth/meaning…
This process only means that in seeking
the truth of what the person has said, one
must aim for what the person has intended
to say, considering the history and
cultural background.

A chair is hard. The subjective part may come from the

interpreter because he/she is the one who
A chair is used for sitting. reveals the meaning.
Does it have 4 legs? Then the interpreter’s meaning is
Is it fundamentally used for sitting? objectively taken from the text itself and
how the author of text is trying to
Is it made of wood? convey.
*(The more the person investigates the
chair the more that the person will find
the essence of the chair) THE HUMAN PERSON AND THE
ENVIRONMENT

➢ Hermeneutics
- The term hermeneutics is
associated with Greek God,
Hermes (messenger between gods
and humans).
- Comes from the word hermeneia
which means interpreting or
interpretation. Thales Anaximander Anaximenes
- This process refers to the
understanding of a particular
reality.
- It offers a toolbox for
efficiently treating problems of
the interpretation of human
actions, texts and other
meaningful material.

What is Schleiermacher's system?

Pythagoras Heraclitus
- Sometimes called romanticist
hermeneutics.
- The aim is to capture the truth Introduction
of the text.
- The truth is taken from how the The earliest philosophers already
author originally meant inquired about the underlies all things
something. in this world, Philosophers like Thales
arrived at the idea that the origin of all
How to achieve getting the original things came from water, then followed by
meaning? Anaximander to Anaximenes to Pythagoras
and Heraclitus and Parmenides gave
- Starts from the subjective
answers to such question but one common
interpreter (or the reading
thing about their answers and that is they
himself).
were all centered on the essence of the
- Consider the historical and the
world where human person was living in.
cultural context to grasp the
original authorial intention. The world is very important to the
- The reader should check the human person. It is where he/she is born,
author’s historical background
raised and lived the life that he chooses
to live. Nevertheless, the development of
things designed to make life easy for
him/her has also created negative impacts
on the things that support life, not only
the live of human but also the lives of
other beings that are essential to support
life on earth.
As the world becomes entrenched
with the economic and technological
advancements of the present, the natural
environment has been put at the receiving
end of such developments.
Nature’s wrath is indeed very
destructive. Humans can do something to
mitigate nature’s destructive force. This
follows that humans should do their share
to preserve the environment so that Mother
Nature could protect and sustain them.
Human beings have always exploited
Mother nature. This kind of attitude is
referred to as Anthropocentrism, a belief
that only human being matter (Routley and
Routley 1982).
In this belief, everything else
matters only because it has some kind of
utility or instrumental value for human
beings. But while the environment is often
seen only in relation to its role in
ensuring humankind’s long-term survival,
human beings are nonetheless expected to
give appropriate moral consideration to
the environment.
➢ Anthropocentrism and Deep Ecology
- The notion of Anthropocentrism
stems from Judeo-Christian
tradition which maintains the
human are the chief stewards of
God’s creation, while non-human
being has no intrinsic value
since they are only valuable
depending on their utility to
human beings.
- This concept has a long-standing
influence on how humans have
exploited Mother Nature and left
traces of destruction all over
the world.
- The extent of human beings’
abuse of the natural environment
has been questioned by various
sectors of our society. One of
the radical responses to
Anthropocentrism is Deep
Ecology.
- Deep Ecology is a new ecological
philosophy that considers
humanity an integral part of
nature.
- The ideology stresses the
interdependence of nature,
human, and non-humans as well as
the environment and its natural
processes.
- Ecological science is considered
only with facts and reasoning
and cannot address ethical
questions about how human beings
can live (Naess, 1973).
- “Human being needs ecological
wisdom by concentrating on deep
knowledge, deep questioning and
deep involvement”.
- Deep ecology seeks to establish
an integrated structure where
each gives rise to and supports
each other.
- Society needs to find a middle
ground between Anthropocentrism
and Deep ecology, in such as
human beings need to use the
things found in nature.
HUMAN PERSON AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Introduction to Philosophy to the Human
Person
Philosophers are trying to answer
the underlying things in this world. Like
Thales, where he believed that the idea
of the origin of all things came from
water. Same thing with Anaximander,
Anaximenes, Pythagoras and Heraclitus has
also other version regarding where all
things came from. But one thing is common
about what they found out and that is "
the essence of the world where the Human
Person was living in".
The world is very important to the
Human person, it is where he/ she is born,
raised and lived the life that he chooses
to live. And this development that makes
life easy for him/her has also created
negative impacts on the things that
support life.
As the world becomes entrenched
with economic and technological
advancement, the natural environment a
been put at the receiving end of such
developments.
To live to the life to the fullest
and ensure the future generations can also
experience the same it is our
responsibility to take care of our natural
environment because when Human do this the
relationship between human and nature
have been reciprocal since time
immemorial.
 Nature wrath is very destructive;
however, human can do something about it.
By doing their part to preserve the
environment so that Mother Nature could
protect and sustain them. The natural
environment is essential in the human's
survival.
Environmental
Philosophy/Environmental Ethics is a influence on how human beings treat the
discipline in philosophy that studies the
moral relationship of human beings with
the environment and its non-human
contents.
Major Views regarding the relationship of
human and the environment:
1. Anthropocentrism
2. Biocentrism
3. Ecocentrism
▪ Anthropocentrism
- Is the kind of human attitude
where it exploits Mother nature.
In this belief where everything
else matters only because it
some kind of utility or
instrumental value for human
being but while the environment
is often seen as a relation to
its role in ensuring human long-
term survival, man being
nonetheless expected to give
appropriate moral consideration
to the environment through acts
of respect and care,
responsibility as well as
concern for Mother Nature.
▪ Biocentrism
- Believes that are not the only
significant species on the plant
and all those organisms have
inherent value and should be
protected. Meaning every species
has a value and should be
protected as well.
▪ Ecocentrism
- Places great value on ecosystem
and biological communities. This
view believes that humankind is
part of a greater biological
system/community and that we
have a significant role as
steward or a guardian of nature.
Anthropocentrism and Deep Ecology
- The notion of Anthropocentrism
stems from Judaeo-Christian
tradition which stated that:
- Human - during Judaeo-Christian
Anthropocentrism stem is the
chief stewards of God creation.
- Non-human beings - have no
intrinsic value since they are
only valuable depending on their
utility to human beings.
This concept has a long-standing
natural environment. Human beings' abuse
of the natural environment and left traces
of destruction and one of the radical
responses to Anthropocentrism is the Deep
Ecology.
Deep Ecology is the new ecological
philosophy (ecosophy) that considers
humanity an integral part of nature. The
ideology is that the interdependence of
nature, humans, and nonhumans as well as
the environment and its natural
processes.
Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher
stated that ecological science is
concerned only with facts and reasoning
and cannot address ethical questions
about how human beings can live, therefore
human beings need ecological wisdom thru
deep knowledge, deep questioning, and
deep involvement.
In deep Ecology it seeks to
establish an integrated structure where
each gives rise to and support each other.
Naess called this ecosophy an evolving yet
consistent that embodies ecological
wisdom and harmony of being, thinking and
acting in the world.
Society need to meet at the middle
between anthropocentrism and deep Ecology
where as much as human beings need to use
the things in nature they also need or to
know to put limits on its use the things
found in nature.
Enlightened Anthropocentrism
Utilization of nature's good to
protect the needs of future generations.
But because of unrestricted freedom
humans then exploit Mother nature.
• 4 Principles that governed by
Anthropocentrism that define human
being relationship with natural
environment.
1. Human beings must be recognized
by their moral obligation to the
present generations of human
beings.
2. The present generation must
consider the well,-being of
 future generations and be aware it is not enough to abate the rapid
that the stability and health of deforestation of the Philippine Forest.
the future generations are Same thing with our marine ecosystem
directly affected by the suffered the same fate such as illegal
decisions that the present fishing methods (use of dynamites and
generations Make concerning the poisons, indiscriminate throwing of trash
environment. in the sea). Even the emergence of state-
3. People must understand and of the-art fishing vessels with sonar
consider the full value of the technology and mechanized nets that reach
various ecological services the seabed have depleted a significant
provided by the ecosystem. part of Philippine fisheries due to the
4. People must recognize that destruction of corals.
nature has an aesthetic value.
*(Aesthetic value – meaning Since the natural environment has
those value that are being judge been grossly exploited for years, it is
whether something is beautiful time for humans to take care of it. There
or not.) is a need to care for nature since
experience has proven that nature's wrath
The Enlighten Anthropocentrism is fatal when unleased. And to address
therefore entails moral deliberation and this problem, people have found ways to
sustainable actions that are grounded on care for the natural environment and one
the fundamental human inclination for possible solution is the environmental
preservation. Human willingness to exploitation called rain forestation.
balance the use of its freedom against
natural tendency to fully exercise it and
maximize what human can get from the
HUMAN PERSON AS EMBODIED SPIRIT
environment where it is based on a deeper
sense of moral and practical urgency. Introduction
Human irresponsible actions towards Understanding a human person is
nature could result in negative and long- arduous (hard to accomplish or achieve).
lasting consequences. Therefore, humans This is having been a perennial problem
should conserve and protect the even the ancient Greek philosophers made
environment because protecting the attempt to explain what constitutes a man
environment is also an act of protecting or what makes a man different from other
themselves. living beings in the world.
The biodiversity in the Philippines What is a human person?
has been one of the richest in the world.
It has been part of the mega-diverse According to Bernardo's, human
countries which collectively claim two- persons need material and non-material
thirds of all global species. The problem aspects. Then what are those materials and
now is that 70% of Philippines forest had non-material aspects of man?
vanished starting from 1930-1988 (Haribon
What is the meaning of embodied spirit?
Foundation, 2016). There are two major
causes of Philippine Forest, and they are What is the meaning of embodied
the: spirit? The first thing to define is the
word "embodied" and that is the quality
• Conversion of primary forest to of being materialized or characteristic
secondary forest by both legal and of possessing a body while the term
illegal logging. "spirit" is described as something
• Removal of secondary forest cover immaterial.
by the expansion of upland *(The embodied refers to the inseparable
agriculture. union of the body and the soul.)
Biodiversity in the Philippines To speak of the human person's union
As a result, farmers have been the of body and soul, we need to understand
most affected sector because their way of some Greek Philosophers.
life is dependent on the natural Plato's Three Functions of the Soul
environment. Philippine government has
not taken this phenomenon lightly; thus, - Plato's view of the human person
massive reforestation has been initiated rests on the dichotomy of the
and with the help of private sectors still body and soul. For him, the body
 is the material while the soul
is immaterial and unchanging. He
also believed that the human
soul is an authentic part
because the body is just its
prison cell. The body's
existence is dependent on the
soul while the soul
independent of the body.
- Plato believed that soul exist
before the body was created
(Plato, Timaeus, in Reginal
Ellen, Greek Philosophy: Thales
of Aristotle, 1996) and it has
three functions (Stumpf
Fieser, 2012):
• Rational function (head)
• Passion function (chest)
• Appetitive function (abdomen)
▪ Rational Function
- Enables human person to think,
analyze, comprehend, and make
decisions.
- This guides the passion and
appetitive functions.
▪ Passion Function
- Performs the actions dictated by
reason and is also responsible
for various feelings, such as
hatred or anger.
▪ Appetitive Function
- Enables the person to experience
cravings or anything that deals
with man's physical wants
(Babor, 2001).
*(According to Plato, if a person allows
his reason to properly guide his passion
and appetite, he/she will have well-
balanced personality (Stumpf & Fieser,
2012))
its always in potentiality (in dictionary
it is defined as the ability to develop
or come into existence). It needs to be
in actuality meaning it is alive. When the
body is alive it will then perform its
function.
is The soul then is the form of the
organized body. For Aristotle he thinks
that anything that lives have a soul.
Aristotle identified three kinds of souls
found in plants, animals and man and they
are characterized as vegetative,
sensitive, and rational.
&
• Vegetative souls
- These are the souls found in
plants. Plants can grow,
reproduce, and feed themselves
and it does not share the higher
types of souls for it cannot feel
and think.
• Sensitive souls
- shares with the vegetative soul,
it has capability of growing,
feeding, and reproducing and
what makes it different from
vegetative is that it has
capable of sensing or feeling.
It also possesses the appetite
where desire, anger and pain are
also experienced (Melchert,
1999).
• Rational souls
- shares with the lower souls and
it has capacity for scientific
thoughts for it can distinguish
various things, it can analyze
and understand the relationship
of things. It can deliberate and
discover the truth of the nature
of things and the guidelines for
human behavior.

UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN PERSON

Aristotle's Three Types of Souls
- He disagreed with Plato about
the soul is separable and he
thinks that soul and the body are
substantially united. There is
no dichotomy between the two.
His explanation is that for its
biological and psychological
aspects. The word soul in Greek
translation is psyche and for
soul is the source of life.
What gives life to a body?
All bodies living or not are a
combination of the primary elements and
the body is not the principle of life for
IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Philosophers focused about human on
its cosmogenic nature where something to
be lacking when we think of its origin
because everything that exist must have a
beginning or a source.
The period following the ancient times is
called the medieval period or the Middle
Ages. And this period is referred to as
the age of Faith and in philosophy this
age marks the period centers proving the
existence of God based on rational
methods. In this period a very much known
philosophers are much known St. Augustine
and St. Thomas Aquinas.
• St. Augustine
- St. Augustine of Hippo had a deep
interest in Philosophy for his
searched for the meaning of
Christian faith. St. Augustine
believes that God created the
world, and this includes the
creation of the immortal soul. A
human being is not only material
and rational, but a soul
embodied in a material substance
meaning the soul is self-
sustaining substance.
- According to Plato, a soul is
immortal which can exist without
a body. Because of soul's self-
subsistence, it is the real
person in man and that makes the
principle of life and makes a man
authentic.
- The authentic of a man is the
soul with him and a human body
moves meaning it is animated by
the soul to perform its
functions. The human body and
its senses outwardly express the
activities of the human soul.
Through our five senses, the
intellect as a special faculty
is enhanced allowing human
beings to understand and realize
that they are more endowed than
other animals.
• St. Thomas
- A notable philosopher known as
defender of the Christian faith
and a Doctor of the Church. He
was greatly influenced by
Aristotle. For him, philosophy
and theology are not two
conflicting disciplines rather
these two are complementary in
the quest for truth. Thomas
believes that man’s nature that
a soul is dependent on the body
same way as the body is dependent
on the soul. The difference
between Thomas Aquinas and
Aristotle was that body and soul
are inseparable. For Aquinas
without a soul the body will not
have its form, the soul will not
have its required sense organ to
gain knowledge. For this reason,
the soul then gives life and
understanding as well as special
physical features. It also
accounts for man's capacity for
sensation and the powers of
intellect and will. Intellect
and will are the highest human
faculties making humans as being
higher than other animals.
*(With those faculties it can geared
towards the attainment of the
contemplation of God. It can aim towards
the union and eternal fellowship with
God.)
St. Thomas’ beatific vision
It is during the cessation of
breath. When the physical body of man
corrupts because of sins, the soul of man
continues to exist. From then, a man can
see face to face God and enjoy the eternal
happiness. This is the gift of God to all
those who follow His precepts and who in
life experienced salvation and redemption
through his son Jesus Christ (Bernados,
2017).
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN
PERSON IN THE MODERN WORLD
The quest for understanding the
human continued to study in modern times.
In this period, there was a paradigm
shift. From being theocentric to
anthropocentric (considering human being
as the most significant entity of the
universe). Modern ideas found it hard the
notion of a God that is beyond human
perception.
• Rene Descartes
- He was the foremost person to
have identified man on top of
other animals. He said that
animals have no souls they
cannot think and are mere
bundles of instincts prepackaged
by God. Descartes as a
rationalist, he praised the
supremacy of the human mind
rather than the human body.
- "I think, therefore, I am" is the
famous dictum of Descartes. This
means that a man can think and a
proof that he exists. This kind
of rationalism maintained that a
human mind is different from the
human body and can exist without
the other's presence. Same thing
with Plato thinks, that a
destruction of human body does
not mean that it is also the
destruction of the mind.
- Descartes’ thoughts on the
concept of "I" led to the idea
of man's autonomy from a divine
 being. If a person allows Three Components of Human
himself to be trampled upon by
another being, conflict arises 1. Mind
that creates doubt. Descartes 2. Soul
believed that an individual is 3. Spirit
responsible for himself. So, Two General Kinds of distinguish of Human
through self-examination and Person
contemplation a human person can
realize that his existence is • Cognitive Self
completely different from - something within and cannot be
others. physically seen.
- deals with its beliefs, desire,
dreams, and intentions.
• John Locke • Physical Self
- The human mind could not attain - something can be seen in their
any knowledge without perceiving personal appearance.
it first. - deals with essential features of
- Locke is an empiricist, he a person such as body, strength,
disagreed with Descartes that and appearance.
human persons are born innate,
Qualities as an embodied spirit of human
fundamental principles and
beings
knowledge. If they were then all
humans should accept certain 1. Self-awareness
universal principles. - This refers to a person having a
- According to Locke, the human clear perception of oneself
mind is a tabula rasa or blank including our thoughts,
slates. Knowledge is acquired emotions, identity, and actions.
only through sensory 2. A human person can connect and
experiences. This means that the interact with another person,
soul begins to know only when animal, or inanimate object.
senses begin to perceive. To 3. We are not determined by others.
point out the relation of the - Because we all have of us have
soul and the body, the soul is interiority (inner character or
always in contact with the body. nature).
The soul's task is to think and 4. Human person has an inherent value
interpret what the physical body and importance.
perceives. Therefore, human - It is called dignity.
knowledge is limited, and humans - No amount of money can equal the
should be aware of such value of human life.
limitations.
- For Locke, human nature
necessarily includes the Transcendence
capacity to think, feel and act.
These features distinguish man • “of all creatures, human beings
from other creatures. have the unique power to change
themselves and things for the
better” (Ramos, 2016)
• It is said by St. Thomas Aquinas, a
HUMAN PERSON: EMBDIED SPIRIT
philosopher and theologian in the
• Human Person Catholic Church in 13th century.
- Humans are classified origin of • Transcendence means that it can
species and Person means birth surpass your limits. Human persons
rights. can transcend their limit through
- Human Person means someone with their physical and mental
an exact origin of his/her abilities.
classification and if we based
the meaning in Biblical
perspective, we came from Adam
and Eve and for science we came
from an Ape under the class of
Mammalia.