UNIT # 2

Humanity and Personhood

• In this unit, you should be able to:
• ● understand the significance of the philosophical methods;
• ● use these methods in examining your life and role in the
world; and
• ● develop your own views and decisions.
How does Philosophy affect my life?
• Socrates’ method of asking questions, providing an
answer, asking further questions, and soon is known
as the Socratic method or the Socratic Dialogue. The
Socratic Dialogue, which is considered as a form of
dialectics, is a two-way process that works between
two parties discussing a central idea. It is an active
process that allows people to exchange their views,
beliefs, and arguments to arrive at the truth they
would believe.
• During the Modern period, the German idealist,
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel presented another
form of a dialectical method similar to the Socratic
Dialogue, and is continuously developing. He
presented it in three levels – a thesis, an antithesis,
and a synthesis.
• The thesis is one’s prevailing idea or situation. It is our
current perception of the world and all its aspects that
affect us. It is a proposition that claims to be true. The
antithesis is the idea that opposes the thesis. These
are the problems we encounter in the situations we
find ourselves in. Through a constant dialogue, the
problems (antithesis) are resolved which results to
synthesis.
• The synthesis is the product of struggle between the
thesis and antithesis. Eventually, the synthesis
becomes the new thesis which would find itself an
antithesis and produce a synthesis. It is a cycle that is
in constant flux and is continuously evolving.
• Thesis: The Earth is flat and the Sun revolves around it.
(Prevailing idea)
• Antithesis: The Earth is not flat and the Sun does not revolve
around it. (Opposing idea)
• Synthesis: The Earth is round, revolves around the Sun, and
rotates in its own axis. (New thesis)
• The synthesis is now the new thesis, which would find itself to
have an antithesis and a synthesis as the history of the world
progresses.
How do I find the meaning of my life?
• Introspection, or the examination of oneself
through the analysis of the meaning of one’s life,
was given emphasis on his philosophy. According
to Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth
living.”. He prompted people to think about
things that matter most in life – courage, love,
the soul, etc.
• For Existentialists, Freedom and
Responsibility go hand-and-hand. They are
interwoven with each other. You are free to
make your own choices on the situation you
currently face, and you are solely
responsible for it.
• Its most famous proponent, Jean-Paul Sartre, was a French
philosopher who is widely known for his words, “Existence
precedes essence.” He referred to “essence” as meaning or
purpose. Contrary to a religious perspective wherein man
already has a purpose assigned to him by a supreme being
even before he existed in the world, Sartre’s view is that man
does not have a purpose yet when he is born. Man existed
first, without meaning or purpose, and as he goes through
his life, he creates the meaning and purpose for himself.
•For the Existentialists, it is the individual,
not the society who can provide
meaning in his own life. Freedom,
responsibility, and authenticity are the
virtues that Existentialism has focused
on.
• Authenticity, on the other hand, is the virtue of being
true to oneself, to your own desires and character.
• Existentialists upholds authenticity, as being true to
oneself can we get to know ourselves and provide
meaning to it. Existentialists believed that people who
pretend and are not honest with themselves and their
actions are acting on bad faith.