Lesson 4

• Human Person


  Refers to the individual and all his attributes and characteristics that set him or her apart from other human beings
• Sentience


  • The ability to experience and perceive things
• Body as a bridge


  Connects the human person with other human beings
• Body as a wall


  Separates the human person from the rest of the world
• Plato's view


  Postulated the dichotomy between the body and the soul
• Aristotle's view


  Believes that the body and the soul are in a state of unity - something he termed as hylomorphic doctrine
• Hylomorphic


  Derived from two Greek terms: Hyle (means "matter") and Morphe (means "forms")
• Aristotle's concept of the soul


  The soul acts as the real actuality of the body while the body is the material entity that possesses the potentiality for life
• Four orders of things in this world (Aristotle)


  • Non-living bodies
  • Plants
  • Animals
  • Men
• Types of soul (cited by Aristotle)

  • Rational Soul
  • Sensitive Soul
  • Vegetative Soul
• Rational Soul


  Ranks the highest; capable of thinking, reasoning, reflecting, and deciding
• Sensitive Soul


  Feeds itself, it grows, it reproduces, and it has feelings
• Vegetative Soul


  Capable of feeding, growing and reproducing itself (soul possessed by plants)
• Man as a rational animal


  Can recognize things around him through his senses and intellect
• Ideogenesis


  The intellectual process to give the things he observed its meaning
• St. Thomas Aquinas' view


  Body and the soul are two distinct entities of totally different natures having completely distinct causal powers
• Thomistic view


  The universal element that is common in all living beings is the soul
• Alasdair Macintyre's view


  There are three aspects of human existence that should be present in order to have a successful ethical theory: 1) we are dependent, 2) we are rational, and 3) we are animals
• Macintyre's concept of "telos"


  The human life is conceived as a unity, and for virtue to be such, it has to be practiced even in a small area
• Rene Descartes' view


  All extended beings including man's body are subject to change and therefore, uncertain
• Descartes' "methodic doubt"


  He subjected every extended being into doubt and claimed that whatever it is that should pass the test for it to be held as certain and real
• Descartes' realization


  Even if almost everything can be doubted, there is one thing that cannot be doubted
• Man as "Capable Human Being"


  Man has the capacity to come up with a narrative to stress that there are still a lot of things in life left undone, and he has to use his capabilities and understand his hidden possibilities
• 3 things in our quest of a narrative


  • Not to see life as something routinary or mechanical
  • Find life's meaning again and again
  • Accept things in life as they are, but we must also go beyond the ordinary lived human actions
• Hinduism's view


  Believes that a human being's soul can be temporarily encased in the human body, and that humanity's basic goal in life is the liberation of the spirit or jiva
• Hinduism's belief


  Life is full of sufferings, and these are caused by passionate desires; eradication of such desires may be achieved by an 8-fold Path of earnest endeavor
• Christianity's view


  Holds that there are 3 aspects of a personal unity which is made up of: 1) Body, 2) Mind, and 3) Soul; the body serves as the host and in return, the soul moves it with the assistance of the mind
• Framework of the human limitations and possibilities

  • Physical
  • Immaterial
  • Free possibility of transcendence
• Physical reality


  Refers to the human body; we are corporeal or beings with bodily forms
• Limitations of physical reality


  • Natural Limitations (biological and environmental)
  • Social Limitations (customs and traditions)
• Immaterial reality


  The immortal essence of a living thing theorized as the soul
• Aristotle's view of the soul


  The soul is the core essence of the human person, it is part of the body, it exists to animate the body, and since the body is mortal, his concept of the soul is also mortal which also dies
• Factors to Consider in Evaluating Limitations (FTV-FLL)

  • Forgiveness
  • The Beauty of Nature
  • Vulnerability
  • Failure
  • Loneliness
  • Love
• Forgiveness


  This frees us from anger and bitterness
• The Beauty of Nature


  There is perfection even in simple things like flowers and a grain of seed
• Vulnerability


  Acknowledge that we need the help of others is to live life without meaning and directing
• Failure


  Makes us confront our individual weaknesses and limitations
• Loneliness


  Rooted from our sense of vulnerability and awareness of our limitations (e.g. fear of death)
• Love


  Love is an obligation and responsibility
• Two Sources or Approaches to Transcendence


  • The Push Approach
  • The Pull Approach