ANTONIO MIGUEL B.
MAAÑO | 11 – ALCALA
INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 11
SEMESTER 1 – QUARTER 2 | A.Y. 2023 – 2024
I 1. UNDER COMPULSION
FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
HUMAN ACTIONS VS. ACTS OF MAN
ACTS OF MAN
• Performed with full knowledge through free will
• Actions shared by humans and other animals
• Not dependent upon intellect and free will
• Done by a human person but is not proper to him
as a person, but it stems from those faculties
which are peculiar to man – intellect and free will
• Example: Yawning, winking, sneezing
HUMAN ACTIONS
• Performed with full knowledge through free will
• The appropriate actions of human beings
• Voluntary; under the control or direction of the
will (which is proper to man) or from another
human power that may be motivated by the will,
either by an act of intellect or by the sense of
reasoning or emotion
• Consciously and freely; grounded in the nature of
a person that they are intelligent and free
• Example: An act of love or choice, a gesture
commanded by the will
ARISTOTLE’S DISTINCTION OF VOLUNTARY AND
INVOLUNTARY ACTION
VOLUNTARY ACTION
• Acts using knowledge about the situations
1. VOLUNTARY
• Performed from will and reason
• Example: Samantha was feeling exhausted but
has two options: she could either order takeout
and watch TV, or go to the gym for a workout.
Knowing that she wanted to prioritize her health,
she to head to the gym.
2. RELATED TO COMPULSION
• Mixed of voluntary and involuntary
• It is more voluntary if the desire and choice has
been performed and involuntary if it has
considered preferences or alternatives.
• Example: You are asked to perform a crime and
your options are; either you do it and your family
survives or you don’t do it but they will be
murdered.
INVOLUNTARY ACTION
• Acts done under force or coercion and ignorance
where the doer failed to understand the effect
and feels sorry on the result
LECTURER: MR. BEAVEN C. BERMUDEZ
• Circumstances which are beyond the control of
the agent and contributes none to the action
• Example: A person was kidnapped, hence
impossible to resist.
2. THROUGH IGNORANCE OF PARTICULAR
2. CIRCUMSTANCES
• Actions without a complete understanding of the
specific details and consequences
• Example: A man steals and ignorant of the law,
arrow or gun shot by mistake.
HUMAN FREEDOM AND OBLIGATION
• According to John Mothershead, freedom and
obligation are two indispensable conditions for
morality to occur.
• Freedom is present when one is choosing an
action and taking full responsibility for
consequence of his actions. This is anchored to
the individual’s moral and rational capacity to
discern what is right and wrong.
• In several meta-ethical traditions, obligation
follows freedom. Freedom is making choices
with regards to determining what is the right thing
to do in situations and circumstances.
• An action is not in the full extent of morality if a
person does something while his or her freedom
and rationality is altered (if the person’s
environment highly affects his judgement).
INTELLECTUAL CHOICE VS. PRACTICAL CHOICE
INTELLECTUAL CHOICE
• Deliberately selected based on a moral standpoint
• A decision made with consideration for morality
• Normative answers (societal norms) about what
we ought to do from a moral system that we
uphold and its moral principles.
• The answers are usually assumption,
prescriptive, imaginary, and hypothetical because
you are not facing the actual moral situation.
PRACTICAL CHOICE
• Born out of psychological and emotional
considerations
• Made when confronted with the actual situation ,
and usually affected by psychological aspect of
the person embroiled in the moral situation or
dilemma.
• Psychological and emotional stress and lack of
time to deliberate during an actual moral
situation may affect a person’s moral decision.
They could make his practical choice
inconsistent with his intellectual choice.
 II
INTERSUBJECTIVITY
INTERSUBJECTIVITY
• “Inter” – Among and between
• “Subject” – A conscious being
• Sharing of subjective states by two or more
individuals (Scheff, 2006)
• The organic union of the subjective reality and
the objective reality of beings.
• Regarding others as part of ourselves
• Universal; exists when and where human exist
INTERSUBJECTIVITY ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT
PHILOSOPHERS
1. CONFUCIUS (551-479 B.C.E.)
• Ren or “human-heartedness” – A virtue central to
man that can be found in his sociality
• Order and harmony in the world
• Practical humanism and human actions
• Every man should love the other through actions,
not thoughts.
2. MARTIN BUBER (1878-1965)
• A Jewish philosopher who introduced the “I-
Thou” and “I-It” relationships
o A “person-to-person”, “subject-to-subject”
relationship
• We have to treat another person as a subject – a
being different from things or objects.
• Persons have own mind and free will, thus, we
have to respect others as we respect ourselves.
• The “I” is the same with the “Thou” and there
should be mutual relationship between them.
• Acceptance, respect, sincerity, and dialogue are
essential for this relationship.
3. KAROL WOJTYLA/ST. JOSHN PAUL II (1920-2005)
• Human action is the foundation of our being.
• Human reality is also about being with others, so
our actions are also directed towards others. T
• Theory of participation – Man has the capacity to
share himself to others. Man acts and exists with
others, a member of the community of persons.
• His experience with others gives him meaning
and allows him to create meaning with others.
III
HUMAN PERSON AND SOCIETY
THE CONCEPT OF SOCIETY
• Latin word “socius” – Companion
• Latin word “societas” – A friendly association
with others
• The aggregate of people living together in a
more or less ordered community (Oxford
languages).
• A group of people who share a common territory
and culture (Arcinas, 2016).
• All people, collectively regarded as constituting
a community of related, interdependent
individuals living in a definite place, following a
certain mode of life (Ariola, 2012).
• Why do people live in a society (Ariola, 2012)?
o For survival
o Feeling of gregariousness
o Specialization
FUNCTIONS OF A SOCIETY
• It provides a system of socialization.
• It provides the basic needs of its members.
• It regulates and controls people’s behavior.
• It provides the means of social participation.
• It provides mutual support to the members.
PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
• Small, rural, and dependent largely on local
resources
• Economic production was limited to the amount
of labor a human being could provide.
ACCORDING TO PEOPLE’S SUBSISTENCE
1. HUNTER-GATHERER SOCIETY
• Depend on their surroundings for survival by
hunting wild animals and gathering uncultivated
plants
• Nomadic – When there is a scarcity in resources,
they move to another area for survival.
• Usually, their tools are made of stones and wood.
• Examples: Aborigines from Australia, Bambuti
from the Democratic Republic of Congo
2. PASTORAL SOCIETY
• Latin word “pastor” - Shepherd
• Depend on the domestication of animals as a
resource for survival
• The humans’ abilities to breed animals and
cultivate plants develop
• Pastoral groups were able to utilize these animals
for food, clothing, and transportation.
• Examples: Bedouins from the Arabian Peninsula
and North Africa, Saami from Norway, Sweden,
Finland, and Russia
3. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
• Based around the cultivation of plants for survival
• Common in areas with rainfall
• Horticulturalists start to have semipermanent or
permanent settlements because of crop rotation
and polycropping (planting different crops in the
same field).
• Examples: Samoans from Polynesia, Yanomami
from Amazon
4. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
• Depend on farming as a way of life
• First Agricultural Revolution – The transformation
of cultures from hunting-gathering to agriculture
and permanent settlements
• Dawn of civilization – Development of leisures
and humanities
• Their tools are now made out of metal, which
makes farming more effective and long lasting.
• Social classes became visible, and ownership and
preservation developed.
ACCORDING TO ECONOMIC AND MATERIAL SYSTEM
1. TRIBAL SOCIETY
• Tribe - A group of people living in a primitive
setting under a leader
• Example: Khokhar tribe from Punjab
• Characteristics of a tribal society?
o Small
o Narrow extent of communication
o Bound to the spatial and temporal range of
relations in terms of society, law, and
politics
o Possess a moral code, cult, and wide range
of belief system
o Close connections between groups
o The leader has multiple roles.
o United and coherent
o Closed systems of thought
2. FEUDAL SOCIETY
• Operate on a hierarchical system in terms of land
ownership
• The kings and lords protected and granted the
lesser nobles (vassals) with land. In return, these
vassals swore oaths of loyalty and military service.
• These lands were cultivated by the
peasants/serfs.
• The system of feudalism failed and was replaced
by capitalism, a more non-centralized system that
enables technological advancements.
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
• Based on the production of material goods
• Industrial Revolution - The transition from manual
mechanism in the production of goods to using
technological inventions and machineries for
mass production
• Uses advanced technology to drive a massive
production industry that will support a large
population
• Due to a growing population, there should be a
mechanism for fast and efficient manufacturing
of standardized products.
POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
• Information or digital society
• Based on the production of information and
services
• Digital technology – The steam engine of
information societies
• The economy is driven by knowledge.
• Daniel Bell coined the term “post-industrial”.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
• The production of information and services
• A presence of technical and professional workers
• A presence of theoretical knowledge
• Applying theoretical and ethical implications of
new technologies
• The development of recent scientific disciplines
• An emphasis on the university and polytechnic
institutes
• The changing values and norms
DIGITAL SOCIETY
• The progress and innovation of digital information
and communication technologies for the
circulation and control of ideas
• Technologies changed our way of learning,
working and socializing.
• ICT has greatly affected our interactions and
activity in the 21st century. These societies paved
many opportunities reaching bigger audiences.
• These audiences can connect with enough
activities whether economic, social, or
educational.
• Digital citizen – A citizen who is knowledgeable
and responsible enough to effectively use different
social platforms in the internet
o Citizen - A member of a society
o Citizenship - An individual's behaviour in
terms of rights (civil, political, and social)
and it requires fulfilling of obligations and
duties that gives value to the functions of
being a citizen.
DIGITAL AGE
• According to “Becoming Digital Citizens” (2015) ,
we can use digital technologies to engage and
participate in society and political life.
• The virtual society are starting to reshape the
human person, interactions, and relationships.
Virtual words and disembodied relations lack
commitment/risks.
THE DISEMBODIED SUBJECT
• The dissatisfaction and frustration of the human
person with bodily limitations drive the person to
prefer a disembodied human relation.
• People are slowly putting aside their bodies in
relating with others because the technological
society offers an alternative which apparently
resolves human of an embodied subject.
• Interacting with actual embodied subjects, face-to-
face, is becoming more and more difficult today.
III
HUMAN PERSON AND SOCIETY
DEATH
• The permanent irreversible cessation of all
biological functions that sustain a living
organism. The remains of a previously living
organism normally begin to decompose shortly
after death.
• It is an inevitable, universal process that
eventually occurs in all living organisms.
 • One important reality about the human condition
is that we are temporal beings.
• Death is the end of our crucial bodily functions
that signals the end of one’s life. It also refers to
the separation of the body and the spirit.
• Our body is a material wherein it is bound by the
laws of time and space that are subjected to
growth, death, and decay.
• People are born in this life, grow and age, and
eventually die which defines the uniqueness of
human existence.
• Death is an integral part of our life.
• Human beings think about the impact and
inevitability of death throughout much of their
lives. Most children understand by the ages of 5
to 7 that death is the irreversible ending of all life
functions, and that it happens to all living
beings.
HOW SHOULD I LIVE MY LIFE BEFORE IT ENDS?
• Terminus – Full stop or end of a line. For them,
life ends and nothing follows.
• Telos which means “goal, purpose, or fulfillment” .
Death is not the goal of life.
• With the help of self-determination, we can
choose and act to our extent. A person can still
have freedom on how to face the reality of their
deaths. We can choose how to spend our lives
doing good and rational things. One can only
determine the development and conclusion of
their story.
• A man is put on Earth to live a meaningful life
which is to be virtuous and achieve excellence.
• Two experiences can make us reflect on the
meaning of life: happiness and suffering
o Efforts are made to achieve the pursuit of
happiness and are often marked by the
difficulties and discouragement
encountered by the person.
o There are no chances to do the things we
would like to do in this life which makes our
existence unique. We should not give up on
striving for good things.
o Reflection on the reality of death will make
us think about how we may live the best of
our lives while we are still alive. Each of us
strives to leave behind something
remarkable or significant in our lives that
will make people remember us.
o Life is a gift given to every one of us and it
is important to influence others to cherish
their lives as it is also a gift given to them.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL NOTION OF DEATH
In accordance to Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) in his
book Being and Time
1. DEATH IS CERTAIN
• As part of humanness, we are all born (in
Heideggerian sense, we are “thrown”) in the
world. The world is governed by time.
• We are existing in time, thus, as being thrown in
the world, we have beginning and since we are
finite beings, we also have end – death.
• Birth and death are two things we cannot remove
from our existence.
• Whether we like it or not, we will die.
2. DEATH IS INDEFINITE
• Death is impending – it can happen anytime.
• We do not know exactly when. That is why, we
should try to live the best life that we can for we
never know the day of our end.
3. DEATH IS ONE’S PROPERTY
• The death of the person belongs to him. Nobody
can experience his death except himself.
• There can be no proxies or substitutes for a
person in experiencing death.
4. DEATH IS NON-RELATIONAL
• When we die, we die alone. We have no choice but
to face it on our own.
• It also removes all our relations to others. In
contemplating death, we realize our own
individuality and independence from the world.
5. DEATH IS NOT TO BE OUTSTRIPPED
• Death cannot be taken away from a person.
• Even the person himself cannot remove the
possibility of death in his life.
• One cannot make himself live forever. Even
though we see in fiction movies the idea of
immortality, death is a definite reality which we
nothing can be done to be outstripped.
DEATH AND AUTHENTICITY
• We may accept the reality of death as it is, but it
also reminds us that we have to value life while
we have it.
• Since we cannot control it, things that remain
within our control are those which belong to life.
• While still alive, we have choices to take. The
question now is not focused on death but on how
we live in the world.
• Authenticity – Having true and meaningf ul
existence
• According to Soren Kierkegaard, we have to avoid
the crowd – the majority of the society which we
think that should be the pattern of our lives.
o Example: We have to freely choose
marrying even though we see people
marrying. The intention to marry should not
come from the crowd as we usually hear
but it should come from our deliberate
choice.
• Another reason why we fail to lead an authentic
life is fear, we are afraid of the possible
consequences and what others might say, we fail
to pursue what we truly want in life.
• This challenge of authenticity is one of the
important messages of death. As we accept
death, we realize the value of having a true life.
 BIOLOGICAL DEATH those who have done what is evil will rise to be
• Seconds: The brains stops and body temperature condemned.” – John 5:28-29
starts to drop until room temperature. • John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he
• Minutes: Cells begin dying due to lack of oxygen, has his only Son, that whoever believes in him
then starts to break down and leak beginning the should not perish but have eternal life.”
process of putrefaction. • Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism: 1.6 billion
• Hours Buddhists, 1.1 billion Hindus, 27 million Sikhs
o Muscles tense (rigor mortis) due to • Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato: The body dies
calcium build up in the muscle up to 36 and returns in a different form (transmigration).
hours. • Judaism, Christianity, Jainism, and Islam: In
o Muscles relax causing feces or urine to Mark, Luke, and John, the stories of the three
release. people who resurrected by Jesus are recorded:
o Gravity pulls blood down making light-skin Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus,
look pale with reddish splotches. Jesus’ friend.
o Your skin shrinks as it dries out, making
your hair and nails seems like growing.
o Your skin lose color and blood pools at the
lowest point of the body, causing red and
purple bruising.
• Weeks
o Bugs eat you up. Maggots can digest 60%
of a body within a week.
o Your hair starts to fall out.
o You turn purple then black as bacteria
continues to digest your body.
• Months: If your body is left at 50 °F, it will take
about for months for your soft tissues to
decompose until your skeletons is all that is left.

SPIRITUAL/BIBLICAL DEATH
• Ecclesiastes 12:7: Dust returned to the Earth as it
was and the spirit (breath of life) shall return unto
God who gave it.
• What is the state of man when he dies?
o Psalm 145:4: His thoughts perish…
o Ecclesiastes 9:5: Knows nothing…
o Ecclesiastes 12:7: Unto their graves…
o Job 14:11-13: Not awake…
o Thessalonians 4:13: Asleep…
o Psalm 115:17: The dead praise not God…
o Job 4:17: Man is not mortal
o James 4:14: Man’s life is even a vapor, and
then vanished away.
• When I die, will I go to heaven or hell? The Bible
describes death as like “a kind of sleep”. The dead
are asleep in the grave, awaiting either a
resurrection to judgment or eternal life. –
Ecclesiastes 9:5
• Is this the reason why I am a Christian? “But I
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow
not, even as others which have no hope. For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with him. For this we say unto you by the word of
the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto
the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them
which are asleep.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15
• Where do I go when I die? “Do not be amazed at
this, for a time is coming when all who are in their
graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those
who have done what is good will rise to live, and