Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person (1st Semester)

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF beauty have been the domain of philosophy from its
THE HUMAN PERSON beginnings to the present.
• These basic problems are the subject matter of
CHAPTER 1- DOING PHILOSOPHY the branches of philosophy.
BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY
MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY Metaphysics
• “Philosophy” came from two Greek words: • It is an extension of a fundamental and
 Philo which means “to love” necessary drive in every human being to
 Sophia which means “wisdom” know what is real.
• Philosophy originally meant “love of wisdom.” • A metaphysician’s task is to explain that
• Philosophy is also defined as the science that by part of our experience which we call unreal
natural light of reason studies the first causes or in terms of what we call real.
highest principles of all things. • We try to make things comprehensible by
 Science simplifying or reducing the mass of things
 It is an organized body of knowledge. we call appearance to a relatively fewer
 It is systematic. number of things we call reality.
 It follows certain steps or employs certain • Thales
procedures.  He claims that everything we experience
 Natural Light of Reason is water (“reality”) and everything else is
 It uses a philosopher’s natural capacity “appearance.”
to think or human reason or the so-called  We try to explain everything else
unaided reason. (appearance) in terms of water (reality).
 Study of All Things • Idealist and Materialist
 It makes philosophy distinct from other  Their theories are based on
sciences because it is not one dimensional or unobservable entities: mind and matter.
partial.  They explain the observable in terms of
 A philosopher does not limit himself to a the unobservable.
particular object of inquiry. • Plato
 Philosophy is multidimensional or  Nothing we experience in the physical
holistic. world with our five senses is real.
 First Cause or Highest Principle  Reality is unchanging, eternal,
 Principle of Identity – whatever is; immaterial, and can be detected only by the
whatever is not is not. Everything is its own intellect.
being, and not being is not being.  Plato calls these realities as ideas of
 Principle of Non-Contradiction – it is forms.
impossible for a thing to be and not to be at the Ethics
same time. • It explores the nature of moral virtue and
 Principle of Excluded Middle – a thing is evaluates human actions.
either is or is not; between being and not-being, • It is a study of the nature of moral
there is no middle ground possible. judgments.
 Principle of Sufficient Reason – nothing • Philosophical ethics attempts to provide an
exists without sufficient reason for its being and account of our fundamental ethical ideas.
existence. • It insists that obedience to moral law be
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects of the given a rational foundation.
natural and human world that later became • Socrates
separate sciences—astronomy, physics,  To be happy is to live a virtuous life.
psychology, and sociology.  Virtue is an awakening of the seeds of
• Basic problems like the nature of the universe, the good deeds that lay dormant in the mind and
standard of justice, the validity of knowledge, the heart of a person which can be achieved
correct application of reason, and the criteria of through self-knowledge.
 True knowledge = Wisdom = Virtue
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 Courage as virtue is also knowledge. • Aristotle

• William Edward Burghardt Du Bois  First philosopher to devise a logical
 An African-American who wanted equal method
rights for the blacks.  Truth means the agreement of
 His philosophy uses the same process knowledge with reality.
as Hegel’s dialectic (Thesis > Antithesis >  Logical reasoning makes us certain that
Synthesis). our conclusions are true.
Epistemology • Zeno of Citium
• It deals with nature, sources, limitations,  One of the successors of Aristotle and
and validity of knowledge. founder of Stoicism
• It explains: (1) how we know what we claim • Other influential authors of logic
to know; (2) how we can find out what we  Cicero, Porphyry, and Boethius
wish to know; and (3) how we can  Philoponus and Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and
differentiate truth from falsehood. Averroes
• It addresses varied problems: the reliability, Aesthetics
extent, and kinds of knowledge; truth; • It is the science of the beautiful in its various
language; and science and scientific manifestations – including the sublime,
knowledge. comic, tragic, pathetic, and ugly.
• Sources of knowledge • It is important because of the following:
• Induction  It vitalizes our knowledge. It makes our
 gives importance to particular things knowledge of the world alive and useful.
seen, heard, and touched  It helps us to live more deeply and richly.
 forms general ideas through the A work of art helps us to rise from purely
examination of particular facts physical existence into the realm of intellect and
 Empiricist – advocates of induction the spirit.
method  It brings us in touch with our culture. The
 Empiricism is the view that knowledge answers of great minds in the past to the great
can be attained only through sense experience. problems of human life are part of our culture.
• Deduction • Hans-Georg Gadamer
 gives importance to general law from  A German philosopher who argues that
which particular facts are understood or judged our tastes and judgments regarding beauty work
 Rationalist – advocates of deduction in connection with one’s own personal
method experience and culture.
 For a rationalist, real knowledge is based  Our culture consists of the values and
on the logic, the laws, and the methods that beliefs of our time and our society.
reason develops.
• Pragmatism – the meaning and truth of an
idea are tested by its practical consequences.
Logic
• Reasoning is the concern of the logician.
• It comes from the Greek word logike, coined
by Zeno, the Stoic (c.340–265BC), which
means a treatise on matters pertaining to
the human thought.
• It does not provide us knowledge of the
world directly and does not contribute
directly to the content of our thoughts.
• It is not interested in what we know
regarding certain subjects but in the truth or
the validity of our arguments regarding such
objects.
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 The second reduction eliminates the

merely empirical contents of consciousness and
focuses instead on the essential features, the
meanings of consciousness.
• Phenomenologists are interested in the
contents of consciousness, not on things of
CHAPTER 2- WAYS OF DOING
the natural world as such.
PHILOSOPHY
Existentialism: On Freedom
METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING
• Existentialism is not primarily a
• Philosophizing is to think or express oneself philosophical method nor is it exactly a set
in a philosophical manner. of doctrines but more of an outlook or
attitude supported by diverse doctrines
 discusses a matter from a philosophical centered on certain common themes.
standpoint
 the human condition or the
PHENOMENOLOGY: ON CONSCIOUSNESS relation of the individual to the
• Phenomenology was founded by Edmund world;
Husserl.  the human response to that
condition;
• A method for finding and guaranteeing the  being, especially the difference
truth that focuses on careful inspection and between the being of person
description of phenomena or appearances. (which is “existence”) and the
being of other kinds of things;
• It comes from the Greek word phainómenon
human freedom;
meaning “appearance.”
 the significance (and
• It is the scientific study of the essential unavoidability) of choice and
structures of consciousness. decision in the absence of
certainty and;
• Husserl’s phenomenology is the thesis that  the concreteness and
consciousness is intentional. subjectivity of life as lived,
• Every act of consciousness is directed at against abstractions and false
some object or another, possibly a material objectifications.
object or an “ideal” object. • Existentialism emphasizes the importance
• The phenomenologist can describe the of free individual choice, regardless of the
content of consciousness and accordingly, power of other people to influence and
the object of consciousness without any coerce our desires, beliefs, and decisions.
particular commitment to the actuality or • To be human, to be conscious, is to be free
existence of that object. to imagine, free to choose, and responsible
• Phenomenology uncovers the essential for one’s life.
structures of experience and its objects. • One of the continuing criticisms of
• Husserl’s Phenomenological Standpoint existentialism is the obscurity and the
seeming elusiveness of the ideal of
 The first and best known is the epoche or authenticity.
“suspension” that “brackets” all questions of
truth or reality and simply describes the contents Postmodernism: On Cultures
of consciousness. • Postmodernism is not a philosophy.

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• “Postmodernism” has come into vogue as • An argument (deductive argument) is valid

the name for a rather diffuse family of ideas and sound if it is a product of logically
and trends that in significant respect rejects, constructed premises.
challenges, or aims to supersede
• Validity comes from a logical conclusion
“modernity”.
based on logically constructed premises.
• Postmodernists believe that humanity
• An argument (inductive argument) is strong
should come at truth beyond the rational to
if it provides probable support to the
the non-rational elements of human nature,
conclusion.
including the spiritual.
• A strong argument with true premises is
• Beyond exalting individual analysis of truth,
said to be cogent.
postmodernists adhere to a relational,
holistic approach.
Analytic Tradition Fallacies
• For analytic philosophers, language cannot • A fallacy is a defect in an argument.
objectively describe truth because language
is socially conditioned. • Fallacies are detected by examining the
contents of the argument.
• Analytic philosophy is the conviction that to
some significant degree, philosophical • Common fallacies
problems, puzzles, and errors are rooted in Appeal to pity (Argumentum ad misericordiam)
language and can be solved or avoided by a
sound understanding of language and  An attempt to win support for an
careful attention to its workings. argument or idea by exploiting his or
her opponent’s feelings of pity or
Logic and Critical Thinking: Tools in Reasoning guilt.
• Logic is centered in the analysis and Appeal to ignorance (Argumentum ad
construction of arguments. ignorantiam)
• Critical thinking is distinguishing facts and  What has not been proven false
opinions or personal feelings. must be true and vice versa.
• Critical thinking also takes into Equivocation
consideration cultural systems, values, and
beliefs and helps us uncover bias and  A logical chain of reasoning of a
prejudice and be open to new ideas not term or a word several times, but
necessarily in agreement with previous giving the particular word a different
thought. meaning each time.

• Two basic types of reasoning: Composition

 Inductive reasoning which is based  Something is true of the whole from

from observations in order to make the fact that it is true of some part of
generalizations. the whole.

 Deductive reasoning which draws Division

conclusion from usually one broad
 Something true of a thing must also
judgment or definition and one more
be true of all or some of its parts.
specific assertion, often an
inference. Against the Person (Argumentum ad hominem)

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 It links the validity of a premise to a

characteristic or belief of the person
advocating the premise.
Appeal to force (Argumentum ad baculum)
 An argument where force, coercion,
or the threat of force is given as a
justification for a conclusion.
Appeal to the people (Argumentum ad
populum)
 An argument that appeals or exploits
people’s vanities, desire for esteem,
and anchoring on popularity.

False cause (post hoc)

 Since that event followed this one,
that event must have been caused
by this one.
Hasty generalization
 Making an inductive generalization
based on insufficient evidence.
Begging the question (petitio principii)
 An argument where the proposition
to be proven is assumed implicitly or
explicitly in the premise.

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escape only after spiritual progress through

an endless series of births.
• Humanity’s basic goal in life is the liberation
(moksha) of spirit (jiva).
• Hinduism holds that humanity’s life is a
continuous cycle (samsara) where the body
goes through a transmigratory series of birth
and death, even though the spirit is neither
born nor dies.
• Unless the individual exerts real efforts to
break away or liberate one’s spirit from the
monotonous cycle, there will be no end to
the cycle.
• Ultimate liberation, that is, freedom from
CHAPTER 3- THE PERSON AS EMBODIED rebirth, is achieved the moment the
SPIRIT individual attains the stage of life
emancipation.
TRANSCENDENCE • Hindu’s view of reality places a lot of
emphasis on the attainment of self-
• According to Thomas Merton (1948), there
knowledge.
is no other way to find who we are than by
finding in ourselves the divine image. • The goal of human life as conceived by the
different Upanishads is to overcome
• We have to struggle to regain spontaneous
congenital ignorance.
and vital awareness of our own spirituality.
• True knowledge (vidya) consists an
• Transcendental and transcendence convey
understanding and realization of the
the basic ground concept from the words’
individual’s real self (atman) as opposed to
literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or
lower knowledge that is limited to an
going beyond, with varying connotations in
interpretation of reality based solely on the
its different historical and cultural stages.
data offered by sense experience.
THREE MAIN SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHIES ON
• One concept common to all expressions of
TRANSCENDENCE
Hinduism is the oneness of reality.
Hinduism
• When we realize this unity with the
• At the heart of Hinduism lies the idea of absolute, we realize our true destiny.
human beings’ quest for absolute truth, so
• Also common to all Hindu thought are the
that one’s soul and the Brahman or Atman
four primary values: wealth, pleasure, duty,
(Absolute Soul) might become one.
and enlightenment.
• Human beings have dual nature: the
• To understand enlightenment, one
spiritual and immortal essence (soul) which
must understand the law of karma,
is considered real; and the empirical life and
the law of sowing and reaping.
character.
• The wheel of existence turns until
• Hindus generally believe that the soul is
we achieve enlightenment.
eternal but is bound by the law of Karma
(action) to the world of matter, which it can Buddhism

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• Another major Eastern tradition which • right mindfulness in choosing

sprang from the life experience and topics for thought; and
teaching of Siddhartha Gautama or the
• right meditation, or
Buddha, the highborn Prince of the Sakya
concentration to the point of
clan in the kingdom of Magadha, who lived
complete absorption in
from 560 to 477 B.C.
mystic ecstasy
• Gautama’s life was devoted to sharing his
• The eightfold path enjoins us to develop
“Dharma” or Law of Salvation – a simple
wisdom, urges us to practice virtue and
presentation of the gospel of inner
avoid vice, and tells us to practice
cultivation of right spiritual attitudes, coupled
meditation.
with a self-imposed discipline whereby
bodily desires would be channelled in the • The way to salvation lies through self-
right directions. abnegation, rigid discipline of mind and
body, a consuming love for all living
• The teaching of Buddha has been set forth
creatures, and the final achievement of that
traditionally in the “Four Noble Truths”
state of consciousness which marks an
leading to the “Eightfold Path” to perfect
individual’s full preparation for entering the
character or arhatship, which in turn gave
Nirvana (enlightened wisdom) of complete
assurance of entrance into Nirvana at
selflessness.
death.
• First steps that one can take after reading,
• Four Noble Truths
hearing, and pondering Buddhist teaching
• Life is full of suffering. and establishing some confidence in it:
• Suffering is caused by passionate • Refrain from destroying life;
desires, lusts, and cravings.
• Refrain from taking what is not
• Only when the causes of suffering given;
are obliterated will suffering cease.
• Refrain from a misuse of the senses;
• Eradication of desire may be
 Refrain from wrong speech (do not
accomplished only by following the
lie or deceive); and
Eightfold Path of earnest endeavor.
 Refrain from taking drugs or drinks
• right belief in and acceptance
that tend to cloud the mind
of the “Fourfold Truth”;
• Buddhist practice the four states of sublime
• right aspiration for one’s self
condition: love, sorrow of others, joy in the
and for others;
joy of others and equanimity as regards
• right speech that harms no one’s own joy and sorrows.
one;
• After Buddha’s death, a need was felt for
• right conduct, motivated by putting the sayings of Buddha into writing,
goodwill toward all human or at least for getting them fixed in the oral
beings; tradition.
• right means of livelihood, or • First Council at Rajagaha (ca. 477
earning one’s living by B.C.) – about 500 disciples gathered
honorable means; and together recited and chanted the
precepts now found in the Tripitaka.
• right endeavor, or effort to
direct one’s energies toward • Second Council at Vesali (ca. 383 or
wise ends; 377 B.C.) – it was found desirable to

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make changes to ease the burden of • rational being.

Buddhist discipline.
• The lowest form of knowledge is that of
• Third Council (245 B.C.) – serious sensation yet as we ascend higher to
effort was made to reform and knowledge of rational principles, it is the will
reorganize the Order and embarked which directs the mind’s eye to truth, first
upon a program of expansion. invading to the mind itself, then upward to
the eternal Truth.
• Buddha insisted on freedom of thought and
intellectual independence in following his • For Augustine, “man is a rational substance
teaching. constituted of soul and body.”
Christianity • The progress in knowledge and wisdom is
not only speculative, it is more
• In the beginning, Christians do not see the
fundamentally practical and moral.
need to prove God’s existence.
• For St. Thomas Aquinas, human beings
• Looks at the reasonableness of belief in
have the unique power to change
God’s existence.
themselves and things for the better.
• Asks whether or not the existence of God
• Aquinas considers the human being as
provides the best explanation of the
moral agent who is both spiritual and body
existence of the world, as we know it.
elements.
• Later, Christian missionaries felt the need to
• The unity between both elements indeed
argue philosophically for the existence of
helps man to understand his complexity as
God when they were confronted by various
human beings.
naturalistic philosophy.
Limitations and Possibilities for Transcendence
• For Augustine (354–430 CE), philosophy is
amor sapiential (the love of wisdom) whose Forgiveness
aim is to produce happiness.
• It frees us from our anger and bitterness
• Wisdom is substantially existent as the caused by the actions and/or words of
Divine Logos, hence, philosophy is the love another.
of God.
• On the other hand, the hardness of our
• For Augustine, Christianity, as presenting heart is reinforced by whole series of
the full revelation of the true God, is the only rational arguments.
full and true philosophy.
Beauty and Nature
• Knowledge of God begins with faith and is
• There is perfection in every single flower.
made perfect by understanding.
• A hug, sunrise and sunset, eating together
• Faith supplements and enlightens reason
as a family are experiences of miracles
that it may proceed to ever richer and fuller
which can be truly moments of grace that
understanding.
touch us deeply and spontaneously lift our
• There are three levels of existence which hearts.
has been established, not by turning
Vulnerability
outward through sensation to the external
world, but by turning inward to the soul • To be vulnerable is to be human.
itself:
• We need to acknowledge the help of other
• mere being; people in our lives if we want to be true with
• living being; and
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ourselves and live with meaning and

direction.
Failure
• Failures force us to confront our
weaknesses and limitations and to
surrender to a mystery or look upon a
bigger world.
• Acceptance of our failures makes us hope
and trust that all can be brought into good.
Loneliness
• It is our choice to live in an impossible world
where we are always “happy” or to accept a
life where solitude and companionship have
a part.
• Our experience of loneliness can help us
realize that our dependence on other people
or gadgets is a possessiveness that we can
be free from.

Love
• To love is to experience richness, positivity,
and transcendence.
• Love can open in us something which takes
us beyond ourselves.

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debates or researches can be framed and

reframed.
 Anthropocentric model – humans
are superior and central to the
universe.
 Ecocentric model – the ecological or
relational integrity of the humans
provides meaning of our morals and
values.
• Our limited understanding of our
environment opens for a need for
philosophical investigation of nature,
applying aesthetic and theological
dimensions, as well as appreciating our
philosophical reflections with the concept of
nature itself.
DISORDER IN THE UNIVERSE
• The domination of humanity is linked to the
domination of nature based on the
anthropocentric model.
• An unfair or unjust utilization of the
environment results to ecological crisis.
CHAPTER 4 - THE PERSON IN THE
• Researches exposed the environmental
ENVIRONMENT
consequence of international politico-
THE ENVIRONMENT economic specialization for specific
countries and global regions as well as the
• Philosophers in both East and West were implications for both abuses of natural
asking questions about the universe we live resources and of the generation of waste
in and our place in it. and emissions.
• Eastern sages probed nature’s depths • The Ecocentric model puts the ecosystem
intuitively through the eyes of spiritual first and assumes that the natural world has
sages. intrinsic value.
• Greek thinkers viewed nature through • Nature is not valued for the future survival of
cognitive and scientific eyes. human species per se, but is invaluable in
• Pre-Socratic philosophers represent the first itself.
intellectual and scientific attempt to • Human made changes threaten the health
understand the origins of the universe. of nature.
 A change from the mythical • Unlike changes in the evolutionary process,
explanation of the origins of the human interventions have swift and even,
cosmos to a more rational violent effect on nature.
explanation.
• The damage is not inevitable but a
• There are different views or concepts on consequence of human choices, thus,
nature or the environment from which humanity needs to develop an “ecological

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conscience” based on individual • The beautiful encourage us to believe that

responsibility. nature and humanity are part of an even
bigger design – an ultimate goal in which
• The right to live and blossom should not just
every aspect of the sensible world has its
be for human beings but must be valid to all
place in a larger purpose – that draws our
forms of life because humans are
thoughts toward a supersensible reality.
dependent to other forms of life.
• Kant believes that the orderliness of nature
PUTTING ORDER INTO DISORDER
and the harmony of nature with our faculties
Ancient Thinkers guide us toward a deeper religious
perspective.
• Early Greek philosophers, the Milesians,
regarded Nature as spatially without • Understanding our relationship with the
boundaries, that is, as infinite or indefinite in environment can also refer to the human
extent. beings with ecology and nature.

• Anaximander employed the term • Herbert Marcuse believes that there can
“boundless” to mean that Nature is only be change if we will change our attitude
indeterminate―in the sense that no towards our perception of the environment.
boundaries between the warm and cold or
• For George Herbert Mead, human beings
the moist and dry regions are originally
do not have only rights but duties as well.
present within it.
• How we react to the community we live in
• Evolution of the world begins with the
and our reaction to it, change it.
generation of opposites in a certain region
of Nature that eventually burst and formed Caring for the Environment
the universe.
• Theories that show care for the environment
• Pythagoras described the universe as living aside from the ecocentric model: deep
embodiment of nature’s order, harmony, ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism.
and beauty and our relationship with it in
terms of biophilia (love of other living things)
and cosmophilia (love of other living Deep Ecology
beings).
• Ecological crisis is an outcome of
• Chinese cosmic conception, on the other anthropocentrism.
hand, is based on the assumption that all
that happens in the universe is a continuous • Deep ecologists encourage humanity to
whole like a chain of natural consequences. shift away from anthropocentrism to
ecocentrism.
• The universe does not proceed onward but
revolves without beginning or end. Social Ecology

• Happiness lies in his conformity with nature • Ecological crisis results from authoritarian
or tao. social structures.

Modern Thinkers • Social ecologists call for small-scale

societies, which recognize that humanity is
• Immanuel Kant expresses that beauty is linked with the well-being of the natural
ultimately a symbol of morality. world in which human life depends.
• We must ignore any practical motives or Ecofeminism
inclinations that we have and instead
contemplate the object without being • Ecological crisis is a consequence of male
distracted by our desires. dominance.

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• In this view, whatever is “superior” is entitled  Not deceiving others, but also not
to whatever is “inferior.” being deceived by others; one may
be called innocent but not naïve.
• For the ecofeminists, freeing nature and
humanity means removing the superior vs.  Freedom that is not arbitrariness but
inferior in human relations. the possibility to be oneself, not as a
bundle of greedy desires, but as a
• The three theories mentioned value the
delicately balanced structure that at
care, conservation, preservation of nature,
any moment is confronted with the
and humanity.
alternatives of growth or decay, life
• The search for the meaning of life must or death.
explore not just our own survival but calls
 Happiness in the process of ever-
for a new socio-ecological order.
growing aliveness, whatever the
• Erich Fromm believes that humanity ought furthest point is that fate permits one
to recognize not only itself but also the to reach, for living as fully as one
world around it. can is so satisfactory that the
concern for what one might or might
• For Fromm, human beings have biological not attain has little chance to
urge for survival that turns into selfishness develop.
and laziness as well as the inherent desire
to escape the prison cell of selfishness to  Joy that comes from giving and
experience union with others. sharing, not from hoarding and
exploiting.
• Which of these two contradictory strivings in
human beings will become dominant is  Developing one’s capacity for love,
determined by the social structure currently together with one’s capacity for
existing in society. critical, unsentimental thought.
 Shedding one’s narcissism and
accepting that tragic limitations
inherent in human existence.
Prudence and Frugality towards the • The ideals of Fromm’s society cross all
Environment party lines; for protecting nature needs
• Fromm proposed a new society that should focused conservation, action, political will,
encourage the emergence of a new human and support from industry.
being that will foster prudence and
moderation or frugality toward environment.
• Functions of Fromm’s envisioned society:
 The willingness to give up all forms
of having, in order to fully be.
 Being fully present where one is.
 Trying to reduce greed, hate, and
illusions as much as one is capable.
 Making the full growth of oneself and
of one’s fellow beings as the
supreme goal of living.

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• The imperative quality of a judgment of

practical intellect is meaningless apart from
will.
• Practical intellect guides will by enlightening
it.
• If there were no intellect, there would be no
will.
• Will is an instrument of free choice.
• Moral acts, which are always particular acts,
are in our power and we are responsible for
them.
• Human beings are rational and reason is a
divine characteristic, thus, humans have the
spark of the divine.
St. Thomas Aquinas
• Human beings have the unique power to
change themselves and the things around
them for the better.
• Human beings are moral agent: both
spiritual and material.
• Through our spirituality, whether we choose
to be “good” or “evil” becomes our
responsibility.
• Human being has a supernatural,
transcendental destiny
• If a human being perseveringly lives a
righteous and virtuous life, he transcends
CHAPTER 5-FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN his mortal state of life and soars to an
PERSON immortal state of life.

FREEDOM • The power of change, however, can only be

done by human beings through cooperation
• To be free is a part of humanity’s with God.
authenticity.
• Perfection by participation means that it is a
• Understanding freedom is part of humanity’s union of humanity with God.
transcendence.
• Change should promote not just any purely
• Freedom consists of going beyond private advantage, but the good of the
situations such as physical or economic. community.
ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES • Fourfold classification of law: the eternal
Aristotle law, natural law, human law, and divine law.
• The natural law, in its ethical sense, applies
only to human beings.

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• The first principle and precept of natural law  The person, first, exists, encounters
is that good is to be sought after and evil himself and surges up in the world
avoided. then defines himself afterward.
• A person should not be judged through his  The person is provided with a
actions alone but also through his sincerity supreme opportunity to give
behind his acts. meaning to one’s life.
• Natural and human laws are concerned with  Freedom is the very core and the
ends determined simply by humanity’s door to authentic existence.
nature.
 The person is what one has done
• Divine law or revelation is a law ordering and is doing.
humans to transcend his nature.
 The human person who tries to
• It gives human beings the certitude escape obligations and strives to be
where human reason unaided could en-soi (i.e., excuses, such as “I was
arrive only at possibilities. born this way” or “I grew up in a bad
environment”) is acting on bad faith
• It deals with interior disposition as
(mauvais foi).
well as external acts
• Sartre emphasizes the importance of free
• It ensures the final punishment of all
individual choice, regardless of the power of
evildoings.
other people to influence and coerce our
• Eternal law is the decree of God that desires, beliefs, and decisions.
governs all creation.
Thomas Hobbes
• It is “that Law which is the Supreme Reason
• Law of Nature (Lex Naturalis) – a general
and cannot be understood to be otherwise
rule established by reason that forbids a
than unchangeable and eternal.”
person to do that which is destructive of his
• For St. Thomas, the purpose of a human life or takes away the means of preserving
being is to be happy, same as Aristotle, but the same and to omit that by which he
points to a higher form of happiness thinks it may be best preserved.
possible to humanity beyond this life, the
• Hobbes first law of nature is to seek peace
perfect happiness that everyone seeks but
which immediately suggests a second law
could be found only in God.
which is to divest oneself of certain rights to
• St. Thomas wisely and aptly chose and achieve peace.
proposed Love rather than Law to bring
• The mutual transferring of rights is called a
about the transformation of humanity.
contract and is the basis of the notion of
Jean Paul Sartre moral obligation and duty.

• The human person has the desire to be • One cannot contract to give up his right to
God: self-defense or self-preservation since it is
his sole motive for entering any contract.
 The desire to exist as a being which
has its sufficient ground in itself (en • The laws of nature give the conditions for
sui causa). the establishment of society and
government.
• The human person builds the road to the
destiny of his/her choosing. • These systems are rooted from human
nature and are not God-given laws.
• Sartre’s existentialism stems from the
principle “existence precedes essence.”
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• True agreement has to be reached for a • To restore peace, bring his freedom back,
contract to be valid and binding. and returned to his true self, he saw the
necessity and came to form the state
• The third law of nature is that human beings
through the social contract whereby
perform their covenant.
everyone grants his individual rights to the
• This law made all covenants valid. general will.

• This is also the foundation of justice. • There must be a common power or

government which the plurality of individuals
• Human beings seek self-preservation and (citizens) should confer all their powers and
security but are unable to attain this end in strength (freedom) into one will (ruler).
the natural condition of war unless there is a
coercive power, a single person or an
assembly, able to enforce their observance
by sanctions.
• The plurality of individuals should confer all
their power and strength upon one human
being or an assembly of human beings
which may reduce all their wills, by plurality
of voices, unto one will.
• A commonwealth by institution is
established through the covenant of every
member of a multitude with every other
member.
• A commonwealth by acquisition exists when
the sovereign power has been acquired by
force.
• Sovereignty is inalienable. It is affected by
neither of the two commonwealths.
• The subjects are absolved from their duty of
obedience to the sovereign if the latter
relinquishes his sovereignty and if he can
no longer protect his subjects.
• If the sovereign is conquered in war and
surrenders to the victor, his subjects
become the subjects of the latter; If he no
longer possesses effective power, the
subjects return to the state of nature, and a
new sovereign can be set up.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Human being is born free and good but now
is in chains and has become bad due to the
evil influence of society, civilization,
learning, and progress which resulted to
dissension, conflict, fraud, and deceit.

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• Labels could be negative or limiting but we

could go beyond the labels because as
humans we are holistic.
• We can redesign the labels to something
new and exciting.
THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF THE SELF
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla believed in
the notion of concrete experience/existence
of the human person and that one must not
lose the sight of one’s self in concrete
experience.
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla view the
human person as total, not dual nor a
composite of some kind of dimensions.
• For Wojtyla, the social dimension is
represented by ‘We relation’ and for Buber,
the interpersonal is signified by the ‘I-You
relation.’
• Buber conceives the human person in
his/her wholeness, totality, concrete
existence and relatedness to the world.
• Wojtyla maintains that the human person is
the one who exists and acts (conscious
acting, has a will, has self-determination).
• For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the
human agent and participation explains the
essence of the human person.
• The human person is oriented toward
relation and sharing in the communal life for
the common good.
• Buber’s I-thou philosophy is about the
human person as a subject, a being
different from things or from objects, who
have direct and mutual sharing of selves.
• In contrast, the I-It relationship is a person
to thing, subject to object relationship.
CHAPTER 6-INTERSUBJECTIVITY
INTERSUBJECTIVITY TALENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF PWDS
AND UNDERPRIVILEGED
• We are part of society yet we are still
different individuals living in this society with On PWDs
different appearances or points of view.

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• Reactions of parents of PWDs: shock, Education, Empowerment, Working

bewilderment, sorrow, anger, guilt, feeling of condition
impotence, fear of the future.
• The most common measure of the
• Realization and grief can blind parents to underprivileged is income poverty.
their child’s uniqueness.
• Another important measure of deprivation is
• Categories of PWD or persons with poor health.
disabilities: hearing impaired, diabetic,
• Human rights are also relevant to issues of
asthmatic, or cystic fibrotic persons.
global poverty in its focus on shortfalls in
• A study shows that mothers of asthmatic basic needs.
children scored consistently more positively
On the Rights of Women
than any other groups of mothers; fathers of
asthmatic and cystic fibrotic children had • Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712) said that
higher parent attitudes and were more women should be educated to please and
sociable than the other fathers; and parents be useful to men.
of hearing impaired youngsters had the
highest problematic scores. • For Mary Wollstonecraft, women must be
united to men in wisdom and rationality.
• Parents of cystic fibrotic kids reported the
most special problem areas as well as the • Women should be allowed to attain equal
highest levels of family importance. rights to philosophy and education given to
men.
• Parents of hearing impaired children have
more behavior management issues. • Women must learn to respect themselves
and should not allow others to determine
• A study in North America shows that 50% of their value in terms of their physical beauty
deaf children read less than the normal alone.
children.
• Women should oppose the gender role
• A spirited perceptive child will notice assigned to them by the social order
everything going on around her but will be (reinforced by dominant patriarchal
able to process that information quickly and institutions like the family, education, the
will be able to select the most important law, and the media) and instead advance
information to listen to. the alternative image of the woman aspiring
for liberation.
• An ADHD child will find it difficult to focus or
complete a task, despite her best efforts. • Women actively participate in movements
that not only seek empowerment for their
• Negative attitudes of the family and
sector but for other marginalized groups as
community toward PWDs may add to their
well.
poor academic and vocational outcomes.
Authentic Dialog
• Community sensitivity, through positive and
supportive attitudes toward PWDs, is also • According to Martin Heidegger, humankind
an important component. is a conversation, which is more than just an
idle talk but a dialog.
On Underprivileged
• A dialog is a conversation that is attuned to
• Poverty is not one-dimensional but
each other and to whatever they are talking
multidimensional.
about.
• Each of these dimensions has the common
• Conversation attempts to articulate who and
characteristic of representing deprivation
what we are, not as particular individuals
that encompasses: Income, Health,
but as human beings.
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• For Buber, a life of dialog is a mutual • We now live in a society where transfer of
sharing of our inner selves in the realm of information is fast and efficient that we can
the interhuman. easily link and connect with other people
through social media.
• An authentic dialog entails a person-to-
person, a mutual sharing of selves, • Social media and social networking sites
acceptance, and sincerity (I-thou relation). might lead to depression and disconnect
users instead of connecting them.
• As Soren Kierkegaard has put it, we tend to
conform to an image or idea associated with
being a certain type of person rather than
being ourselves.
• The modern age remains an era of
increasing dullness, conformity, and lack of
genuine individuals.
• Our totality, wholeness, or “complete life”
relies on our social relations.
• Aristotle said that friends are two bodies
with one soul.
• For Buber, the human person attains
fulfillment in the realm of the interpersonal,
in meeting the other, through a genuine
dialog.
• For Wojtyla, through participation, we share
in the humanness of others.
SOCIETIES AND INDIVIDUALITIES
Medieval Period (500-1500 CE)
• The early Medieval Period is sometimes
referred to as the Dark Ages but it was
nonetheless a time of preparation.
• Many barbarians had become Christians but
most were condemned as heretic due to
their Arian belief.
• Christianity’s influence widened when the
great Charlemagne became King of the
Franks.
• The way of life in the Middle Ages is called
feudalism, which comes from medieval Latin
feudum, meaning property or “possession.”
• Peasants built their villages of huts near the
CHAPTER 7- THE HUMAN PERSON IN castles of their lords for protection in
SOCIETY exchange of their services.
INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY

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• With the growth of commerce and towns, sciences set standards for philosophic
feudalism as a system of government began inquiry which led to the growth of modern
to pass and shaped a new life in Europe. philosophy.
• Amid the turmoil of the Middle Ages, one • The widespread use of money and the
institution stood for the common good—the consequent spread of commercialism and
Roman Catholic Church—whose spirit and growth of great cities also influenced the
work comprised the “great civilizing growth of philosophy.
influence of the Middle Ages.”
• Modern philosophy itself divides readily into
• The Middle Ages employed pedagogical periods.
methods that caused the
• The first period was one of what we may
intercommunication between the various
call naturalism:
intellectual centers and the unity of scientific
language.  This period belongs almost wholly to
the 17th century.
• The practically unlimited trust in reason’s
powers of illumination is based, first and  Nature is full of facts which conform
foremost, on faith. fatally to exact and irreversible law.
Modern Period (1500-1800)  Human beings live best under a
strong, benevolently dictatorial civil
• The title “modern philosophy” is an attack
government.
on and a rejection of the Middle Ages that
occupied the preceding thousand years. • The characteristic tendencies of the second
period is frequently called the Age of
• Modern period is generally said to begin
Empiricism:
around the backdrop of:
 The second age of modern
 Christopher Columbus’ landing in
philosophy turned curiously back to
the “new world” which altered not
the study of the wondrous inner
only the geography but the politics of
world of humanity’s soul.
the world forever.
 The human being became the most
 Martin Luther’s protest which caused
interesting in nature.
several centuries of upheaval in
Europe, change the nature of  The attention is turned more and
Christian religion, and eventually, more from the outer world to the
change conceptions of human mind of human being.
nature.
 The second period is a sort of a new
• Reformation brought not only the rejection humanism where reflection is now
of medieval philosophy but also the more an inner study, an analysis of
establishment of the “Protestant ethic” and the mind, than an examination of the
the beginnings of modern capitalism. business of physical science.
• During the Renaissance period leadership • The third period, generally known as critical
in art and literature reached their peak idealism, was brought by Immanuel Kant’s
which resulted in the revival of ancient philosophic thoughts.
philosophy and European philosophers
turning from supernatural to natural or  Humanity’s nature is the real creator
rational explanations of the world. of humanity’s world.

• Experimentation, observation and  Copernican revolution has also

application of mathematics in the natural affected the attitude of the mind and
thinking in general.
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 Copernican innovation’s questioning • Significant changes that brought about

attitude toward the activities of Industrial Revolution:
nature, spirit of rebellion against
• the invention of machines in lieu of
things accepted solely on the basis
doing the work of hand tools;
of authority and tradition, and search
for new standards of truth has • the use of steam, and other kinds of
affected philosophic mind. power vis-a-vis the muscles of
human beings and of animals; and
 The rapid growth of the increasingly
cosmopolitan cities of Europe, with • the embracing of factory system.
their global reach, their extensive
colonies and their national and • Sweeping changes made some observers
international rivalries, required a new of the contemporary scene proclaim the
kind of philosophy, intensely self- advent of a new kind of society, in which the
questioning but arrogant as well. production of material goods through the
expenditure of mechanical energy no longer
 Enthusiasm for the new science serves as the basis for the technological
ushered in a deep-seated system, where the importance of media
philosophical trend, whose communication in which computer as a
adherents stressed the importance tireless process of energy is a vital link is
of universally compelling science for paramount.
philosophy.
• They see the central functions required for
 This marks the rationalistic human existence or amenities audited and
intolerance that is so widespread in controlled by information transmitted by
the modern world. energy in its electronic form.
GLOBALIZATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL • Globalization, as facilitated by technology,
INNOVATIONS can be beneficial if it will lead to improved
society and intellectual growth; but can be
• Globalization began in the West in the 15th
divisive if it will erode local cultures and
century as an accompaniment to the new
national sovereignty.
ideas of the Renaissance and then the
Enlightenment. • Technology most certainly leads to
globalization but, in the emerging global
• Globalization comprises the multilateral
society, economy, and culture, does not
interactions among global systems, local
encompass all equally.
practices, transnational trends, and
personal lifestyles. HUMAN RELATIONS AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS
• New inventions in science eventually led to • As industry changed, social and political
the industrial revolution in the 18 th century, conditions transformed.
and since then, Western society has taken
off on a journey through the endless world • The revolutionary change in our way of life
of science to bring society into the in modern times, which for several centuries
developed conditions that can be seen was confined principally to the Western
today. people, has in our lifetime come to affect all
of humanity.
• Industrial Revolution came gradually in a
short span of time that grew more powerful • Human relations are transformed by social
each year due to new inventions and systems specifically, on knowledge, laws,
manufacturing processes that added to the economics, and technology.
efficiency of machines. New Knowledge

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• “Knowledge is virtue; ignorance is vice” is societies by rapidly strengthening the

the summary of what Socrates wants to position of some at the expense of others.
teach about how human beings should live
• Societies have also become more
a good life.
interdependent, and the conduct of their
• The origins of the modern age may be seen relations has been transformed.
in the phenomenal growth of knowledge that
• Modernization is seen as part of the
can be traced to the revival of Greek
universal experience, and in many respects,
science.
it is one that holds great hope for the
• The process of intellectual growth still welfare of humanity and yet, it has also
continues and changes in our been in many respects a destructive
understanding in the years ahead may well process.
be greater than those that we have seen in
• The rise of global consciousness, along with
our own lifetime.
higher levels of material interdependence,
Policy Making increases the probability that the world will
be reproduced as a single system.
• One of the most important consequences of
the application of knowledge from Plato’s • Due to the thriving process of science and
Republic to human affairs has been technology, we see a universal civilization
increased integration of policy making. emerging that would reign from New York to
Seoul and from Moscow to Jakarta.
• As life has become more complex, the legal
system has also grown to the point where • The world is becoming more and more
almost all human activities come in contact unified (a single system) but it is not
with the law in one form or another. becoming more and more integrated (driven
by conflict and there is by no means
• This integration of policy making has
universal agreement on what shape the
brought people into an unprecedentedly
single system should take in the future).
closer relationship and has resulted in a
greater complexity of social organization. Technology
Economic Sphere • The more society is influenced by
technology, the more we need to consider
• Technical improvements have made
the social, ethical and technological, and
possible a mechanization of labor that has
scientific aspects of each decision and
resulted in mass production, the rapid
choice.
growth in per capita productivity, and an
increasing division of labor. • Science has greatly influenced the picture
we have of human existence and what is
• The contrast today between the level of
essential to humanity that the difficulty to
living in relatively modern countries and that
the period of rapid change challenges us to
in traditional societies is a clear
discover more about what is fundamental to
manifestation of this.
our existence.
Social Realm
• Human success is measured by success in
• Modern knowledge and the technology it mastering science and technology.
has created have had an immense impact
• Science and technology have become the
on the traditional societies’ way of life.
most distinctive symbol of human
• The complex and interrelated series of autonomy.
changes in humanity’s way of life has
• Science and technology is not a single
changed the power relationships among
phenomenon; Technology is not an object

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but our whole attitude toward the human

world; Science and technology are the
culture itself. CHAPTER 8- THE HUMAN PERSON AND
DEATH
On (Women’s) Friendships
RECOGNIZE THE MEANING OF ONE’S LIFE
• Women’s friendship has a unique quality
that may only exist between women—a Socrates
quality of friendship between women • Socrates believes that knowing oneself is a
offering sympathy, learning, validations, and condition to solve the present problem.
advices.
• For Socrates, for a person to be happy, he
• True friendships allow each other to be has to live a virtuous life.
completely themselves.
• Virtue is not something to be taught or
• Female friends are extremely important to acquired through education, but rather it is
our emotional and physical health. merely an awakening of the seeds of good
• Women may, unconsciously, have negative deeds that lay dormant in the mind and
attitudes toward themselves and other heart of a person.
women. • Knowing what is in the mind and heart of a
• Mothers customarily carry the moral human being is achieved through self-
obligations of providing safe environment for knowledge.
their daughters. • True knowledge means wisdom, which in
• Daughter’s relationship with their mothers turn, means virtue.
could be profound or disabling. • Socrates’ major ethical claims:
• Knowing and accepting ourselves are • happiness is impossible without
important ingredients in establishing moral virtue;
boundaries in friendship.
 unethical actions harm the person
who performs them more than the
people they victimize.
Plato
• For Plato, contemplation means that the
mind is in communion with the universal and
eternal ideas.
• Contemplation is very important because
this is the only available means for a mortal
human being to free himself from his space-
time confinement to ascend to the heaven
of ideas and there commune with the
immortal, eternal, the infinite, and the divine
truths.
• The body, for Plato, causes us turmoil and
confusion in our inquiries.
• To see the truth, we must quit the body—
the soul in itself must behold things in
themselves.

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• Knowledge, however, can be attained (if at The Unknown side The side other know
all) after death: for while in the company of
about you but you are
the body, the soul cannot have pure
knowledge. not aware of yourself

Aristotle (Public self)

B. Before you itemize what you want to
• Aristotle’s account of change calls upon achieve, first, ask questions
actuality and potentiality. regarding what you want to achieve.
• Everything in nature seeks to realize itself—
to develop its potentialities and finally
realize its actualities.
• Entelechy means that nothing happens by
chance.
• Nature not only has a built-in pattern, but What you
want to
also different levels of being. achieve

• For the world of potential things to exist,

there must first be something actual (form)
at a level above potential or perishing things
(matter).
• All things in the world are potentially in
motion and continuously changing; there
must be something that is actual motion and MEANING OF LIFE
which is moved by nothing external
(Unmoved Mover). Friedrich Nietzsche

• The Unmoved Mover is eternal, immaterial, • Nietzsche analyzed the art of Athenian
with pure actuality or perfection, and with no tragedy as the product of the Greeks’ deep
potentiality. and non-evasive thinking about the meaning
of life in the face of extreme vulnerability.
• Objects and human beings move toward
their divine origin and perfection as they • Athenian tragedy reminded its audience of
strive to realize themselves. the senseless horrors of human existence
but at the same time provided an
• Reason finds its perfection in contemplating experiential reinforcement of insights that
the Unmoved Mover. we can nonetheless marvel at beauty within
life, and that our true existence is not our
• The Unmoved Mover is the form of the
individual lives but our participation in the
world moving it toward its divine end.
drama of life and history.
• The highest human activity is contemplating
• Morality was based on healthy self-
about the Unmoved Mover.
assertion, not self-abasement and the
Goals One Wants to Accomplish renunciation of the instincts.

A. Know thyself. Write your strengths • Realizing one’s “higher self” means fulfilling
and weaknesses. one’s loftiest vision, noblest ideal.

Negative side Affirmative side • The individual has to liberate himself from
environmental influences that are false to
(hidden self or public (hidden self or public
one’s essential beings and draw a sharp
self) self) conflict between the higher self and the

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lower self, between the ideal aspired to and  Facticity. A person is not pure
the contemptibly imperfect present. possibility but factical possibility:
possibilities open to him at any time
Arthur Schopenhauer
conditioned and limited by
• Schopenhauer begins with the predicament circumstances.
of the self with its struggles and its destiny:
 Fallenness. Humanity has fallen
What am I? What shall I do with my life?
away from one’s authentic possibility
• Schopenhauer utilized Kant’s distinction into an authentic existence of
between the noumenal (the world-in-itself, irresponsibility and illusory security.
which is Will) and the phenomenal (the
• Heidegger claims that only by living through
world of experience and inclination) realms.
the nothingness of death in anticipation do
• Schopenhauer departs from Kant both in one attain authentic existence.
denying the rationality of the Will and in
• Death is not accidental, nor should be
claiming that we can have experience of the
analyzed rather it belongs to humanity’s
thing-in-itself as Will
facticity (limitations).
• For Schopenhauer, there is but One Will,
Jean-Paul Sartre
and it underlies everything.
• the human person desires to be God; the
• Every being in the phenomenal world
desire to exist as a being that has its
manifests the Will in its own way: as a
sufficient ground in itself (en sui causa).
natural force, as instinct or, in our case, as
intellectually enlightened willing. • The human person builds the road to the
destiny of his/her choosing; he/she is the
• Will is ultimately without purpose, therefore,
creator.
cannot be satisfied and this led
Schopenhauer to see the willful nature of • Sartre’s dualism:
reality—a reality that has no point and
 en-soi (in-itself ) – signifies the
cannot be satisfied.
permeable and dense, silent and
• Schopenhauer contends that all of life is dead.
suffering which is caused by desire.
 pour-soi (for-itself) – the world only
• Our desire make us see other people as has meaning according to what the
separate and opposed beings in competition person gives to it.
for the satisfactions we crave leading us to
• The person, first of all exists, encounters
harm each other.
himself, surges up in the world, and defines
• We can alleviate suffering by “putting an himself afterward.
end to desire.”
• Freedom, therefore, is the very core and the
Martin Heidegger door to authentic existence.
• In Heidegger’s analysis, human existence is • The human person who tries to escape
exhibited in care, a finite temporality which obligations and strives to be en-soi is acting
reaches with death. on bad faith (mauvais foi).
• Care’s threefold structure: Karl Jaspers
 Possibility. Humanity constructs the • Jasper’s philosophy places the person’s
instrumental world on the basis of temporal existence in the face of the
the persons’ concerns. transcendent God, an absolute imperative.

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• Transcendence relates to us through limit-

situation (Grenzsituation).
• To live an authentic existence always
requires a leap of faith.
• Authentic existence (existenz) is freedom
and God.
• Human beings should be loyal to their own
faiths without impugning the faith of others.
Gabriel Marcel
• Philosophy has the tension (the essence of
drama) and the harmony (that is the
essence of music).
• Marcel’s Phenomenological Method
 Primary Reflection. This method
looks at the world or at any object as
a problem, detached from the self
and fragment.
 Secondary Reflection. Secondary
reflection is concrete, individual,
heuristic, and open. It is concerned
not with object but with presences
and recaptures the unity of original
experience.
• Secondary reflection is an ingathering, a
recollection, a pulling together of the
scattered fragments of our experience.
• Beyond one’s experience, beyond the circle
of fellow human beings, one turns to the
Absolute Thou, the unobjectifiable
Transcendent Thou.

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