WHO ARE YOU?

PHILOSOPHIZING THE MAN / HUMAN PERSON

PREPARED BY:
GERONE JAN P. BALADHAY, LPT
TEACHER 1 - SUBJECT TEACHER
WHO ARE YOU?
ESSENTIALISM
“essence precedes existence”
a type of determinism; it proposes that man’s “essence” or
purpose / meaning, and life is already predetermined or
planned even before he was born (exist)
man has an internal guide in finding what this purpose is
and governed by free will must choose paths according to
this planned design of his/her life
it proposes there are genuine moral truths and standards
EXISTENTIALISM
“existence precedes essence”
It proposes that man is born a clean slate or tabula rasa,
without any purpose or meaning, only as man grows up and
faces life choices, aided by his own reasoning and will, could
he/she find or even create his/her purpose and meaning in
life.
It proposes that we acknowledge and own up to our
freedom, take full responsibility for our choices, and act in
such a way as to help others realize their freedom.
NIHILISM

“existence is there, but essence does not”

it denies the existence of genuine moral truths
and asserts the ultimate meaninglessness of life
or of the universe. (not to be confused with
Absurdism)
“What is man then?”
WHAT IS MAN
IN HISTORY?
Thales of Miletus
debated as the first philosopher
a pre-Socratic philosopher he is cited as
reference (the other was Socrates) for
the statement: “The most difficult thing
in life is to KNOW THYSELF”
Socrates
known as the Father of Western Philosophy
for him, man is composed of a physical body and an
immaterial soul that has the ability to think and
question his own existence.
he was referenced in Plato’s Apology the statement:
“the unexamined life (of man) is not worth living.”
Plato
the philosopher of Idealism
and a student of Socrates
The founder of the Platonic
Academy, a philosophical
school in Athens.
Plato and the Ideal World of Forms
He proposes man is an intangible “soul” using a
tangible body a principle he relates to his Theory of
Forms or the Ideal World of Forms
Plato and the Ideal World of Forms
Theorizes that the “YOU” in the
physical world which we often see
as our “own reality” is not our
TRUE SELF or the IDEAL SELF,
but just a reflection. This goes to
everything including plants, other
animals, rocks, etc. the only thing
that is unique in us is our
awareness because of the soul.

The REAL, IDEAL “YOU” is in the

IDEAL WORLD OF FORMS
Plato and the Ideal World of Forms
As a mere reflection, we are
imperfect, hence a soul
that needs a body in order
to perceive and process
thinking. The imperfection
is brought by forgetting
what is the GOOD or the
IDEAL SELF / FORM
Plato and the Ideal World of Forms
The only way to go back to the
GOOD or the IDEAL SELF is
through anamnesis or
remembering. By remembering
what the IDEAL SELF is related to
(truth, beauty, unity, kindness, etc.)
can we participate genuinely such as
being honest, helping others, being
creative and hence bring us back to
become the IDEAL SELF or the
IDEAL WORLD OF FORMS.
Aristotle
the philosopher of
Rationalism and a student
of Plato, he becomes a
teacher of Alexander the
Great

The founder of the Lyceum.

Aristotle
-He proposes man is a rational
animal, simply by our unique
characteristic of logical
reasoning which we can use to
attain virtue (fundamentals that
make excellent character) and
achieve Eudaimonia - happiness
in the form of flourishing in life.
Aristotle
He proposes also that man is a
political animal, NOT that man
should be active in politics, but
political in a sense that man
influences others he or she
engages with to have the same
logical reasoning, virtues, and
achieved together Eudaimonia
Plotinus
said that man is essentially a soul employing a body as an
instrument of its temporary embodied life.

Thomas Aquinas
a Dominican priest and theologian
agrees with Plato and Aristotle’s notion that man is a soul and a
body created in God’s image with the purpose is to know and
love God - the ultimate goal of human existence.
Augustine of Hippo
affirms that man is created in the image and liking of God /
Imago Dei.
He proposed that man’s only hope of fulfillment is found in
God alone. “My heart will not rest, until it rest in Thee”
David Hume
said man is composed of the body and mind. While the body
may be viewed as something relatively static, the human person
or mind is for him something essentially dynamic, an ongoing
process.
Martin Heidegger
man is Dasein, being-in-there or being-in-the-world.
His/her essence lies in his existence that is why he/she must live
authentically, meaning man must make choices with a shift in
attention and engagement, a reclaiming of oneself, from the
way we typically fall into our everyday ways of being.
It is about how we approach the world in our daily activities.
Jean-Paul Sartre
he proposed that man is condemned to be free because he has
the ability to make free choices yet doomed to face its
consequences whatever options may lie; what is important is
that man makes the choice for himself and not because of its
ends or motivations.
“banking on Sartre’s existential philosophy,
Albert Camus proposed that our meaning or
purpose in life is clearly defined and
knowable by the very reasons that stops us
from taking away our life in the first place.”
Albert Camus
pioneer of absurdism (Absurdism defines human conditions as
essentially absurd because humans are always looking for
meaning, but are completely unable to find meaning because
no such meaning exists.)
-he proposed that man is anyone who is fully cognizant of this
I/world absurdity and does not shy away from it.
Friedrich Nietzsche
known for his works on analyzing Nihilism and criticizing it as
a philosophical thought.
he proposed that man is a rope stretched between the animal
and the Übermensch (superman)-a rope over an abyss. Man
must be able to overcome his animalistic tendencies and in
crisis become superman in order to survive and must not fall
into nihilistic tendencies.
“What causes man to fall into nihilistic
tendencies?”

“Why do we even see meaninglessness as an

option in life?”
Friedrich Nietzsche
he believes that man often falls to nihilistic tendencies because
of “suffering.”
he believes that only with one’s will to power to overcome the
nothingness of nihilism can he defeat nihilism
Arthur Schopenhauer
known for his pessimistic philosophy, pessimistic vision
follows from his account of the inner nature of the world as
aimless blind striving. Because the will has no goal or purpose,
the will's satisfaction is impossible.
man is a “suffering being”
So, why do suffering exist?
Is suffering necessary in life?
Arthur Schopenhauer
because of man’s rationality that he suffers. The more he
knows, the more he is succumbed to the pains of knowing
what he knows.
Arthur Schopenhauer
because of man’s rationality that he suffers.

TO WILL SOMETHING
IS TO EXPERIENCE A
THE WILL IS THE LACK OR DEFICIENCY IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO THEREFORE, TO BE
ESSENCE OF LIFE AND THUS TO FULLY AND FINALLY ALIVE IS TO SUFFER
SUFFER. SATISFY THE WILL CONTINOUSLY
(WILLING ENTAILS
SUFFERING)
How can Nihilism be overcome?
TAKE A BREATHER!
Let’s reflect on this muna.

Notice the evolution of the focus of man? Ancient philosophy just wants to
understand man as a mind, soul, body problem, introducing reasoning and reality
as its core. Medieval thinkers, theocentric as they then center man’s relationship
with God.

When the age of enlightenment came, man’s focus shifted to free will, his
autonomy, and later on, man’s meaning is centered on various aspects such as
language, the other, power, etc. What can we learn from these changing patterns?
THE HUMAN PERSON
AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT
Consider the human body, with everything in it, including internal
and external organs and parts — the stomach, nerves and brain,
arms, legs, eyes, and all the rest. Even with all this equipment,
especially the sensory organs, it is surprising that we can
consciously perceive things in the world that are far away from us?
You open your eyes in the morning and see a cup of coffee waiting
on the kitchen table. There it is, a foot away, and I your not
touching it, yet somehow it is making itself manifest to me.

How does it happen that I see it? How does the visual system
convey to my awareness or mind the image of the cup of coffee?
One would physiologically explain
Light enters my eyes from the cup of coffee, and this light impinges
on the two retinas at the backs of the eyes.
Next, the two retinas send electrical signals past the optic chiasm
down the optic nerve.
These signals are conveyed to the so-called visual cortex at the back
of the brain.
The visual cortex becomes active, and you the coffee cup.
You become conscious of the cup
the mystery of the Mind-Body Problem
One quick moment there are just neurons firing away, and no
image of the cup of coffee.

The next, there it is; you see the cup of coffee, a foot away.
How did your neurons contact you or your mind or
consciousness, and stamp there the image of the cup of coffee?
The mind-body problem concerns the relationship between
these two sets of properties. It asks the following questions-

1. The ontological question: what are mental states and what

are physical states? Are mental states and physical states
entirely distinct?
2. The causal question: do physical states influence mental
states? Do mental states influence physical states? If so,
how?
3. The problem of consciousness: what is consciousness? How
is it related to the brain and the body?

4. The problem of intentionality: what is intentionality? How is

it related to the brain and the body

5. The problem of the self: what is the self? How is it related to

the brain and the body?

6. The problem of embodiment: what is it for the mind to be

housed in a body?
Cartesian Dualism
Argues that there are two kinds of
substances: mental (res cogitans) and
physical (res extensa).
Rene Descartes states that the
mental can exist outside of the
body, and the body cannot think.
Mind and body are two separate
substances.
“The difficulty is not merely that mind and body are
different. It is that they are different in such a way that
their interaction is impossible.” - Meditations in
Philosophy, Rene Descartes
Theories of Dualism
Interactionism
proposes that the mind and the body are thought to be separate
entities that interact; this means that our mental states can affect
our physical conditions and vice versa.

Parallelism
suggests that although there is a correlation between mental and
physical events there is not any causal relationship. If one thinks
of his hands raised, it parallels an action and the person’s hand is
actually raised.
Theories of Dualism
Epiphenomenalism
position in the philosophy of mind according to which mental
states or events are caused by physical states or events in the
brain but do not themselves cause anything.

Example: Fear seems to make the heart beat faster, but according to
epiphenomenalism, the biochemical secretions of the brain and
nervous system (such as adrenaline)—not the experience of fear—is
what raises the heartbeat.
Ghost in the Machine

Philosopher, Gilbert Ryle, argues that it

is a category mistake to suppose that the
mind is something inside the body, a
“ghost in the machine.”
Monism
maintains that both mental and corporeal phenomena are
merely different manifestations of what is really one and the
same Reality.
Baruch Spinoza upholds that since reality (which includes the
body) are caused by our mind’s cognition of it, hence mind alone
is the material to which our body is caused.
Mind and body are not separate.
Theories of Monism
Physicalism / Materialism (MATTER > Mind)
Everything that exists – including the mind and mental states –
is either a physical thing or supervenes on physical things.

Idealism (Matter < MIND)

Idealistic monists believe that the mental realm (not the physical
realm) is primary. The physical world may not be real at all, but
may be an illusion created by our minds.