THE HUMAN PERSON

@HANNAELISEGIBODEGUZMAN
“Don’t be certain in life because
human mind is always unpredictable.”
 Human nature is what makes a person what he/she really
is, or what she can do during his/her lifetime. It may be
viewed in three levels:

1. Somatic
- In somatic level refers to the bodily substance animated
upon conception. This substance assumes the potentiality
to grow and develop into a living human flesh which is
capable of sensation.
 Human nature is what makes a person what he/she really
is, or what she can do during his/her lifetime. It may be
viewed in three levels:

2. Behavioural
- the behavioural level refers to the mode of acting of every
human being. He/ she has universal way of acting or
conducting himself/herself properly.
- This is anchored on the principle that every human being
has a behaviour distinctly unique from other grades of being.
 Human nature is what makes a person what he/she really
is, or what she can do during his/her lifetime. It may be
viewed in three levels:

3. Attitudinal
- attitudinal level refers to his/her mental reaction to a given
a stimulus. It manifests the human person’s drive to live a life
he/she wants conditioned upon personal responsibility and
accountability.
The Human Person as an
Embodied Spirit
 Your respective body is a reality. Does it move because of
the pumping of its heart and the thinking of the brain? Can
the body exist without soul or spirit?
 Isthe soul, spirit? Or vice-versa? Can it exist without the
body?
 Is the spirit in the heart or in mind of the human person? Or,
is it in the whole human body?
 There are three philosophical systems or doctrines
with regard to the elements or substances constituting
the human persons. These systems or doctrines are:

1. Dualism
- Is the doctrine that all the phenomena of the
universe can be explained by two separate and
distinct substances such as mind and matter.
- human person is a composite of two elements:
body and spirit
The dualist doctrine is subdivided into two views:
radical
moderate
 RADICAL DUALISM

There is a radical difference between the body and spirit.

The dualist endowed a value in favour of the spirit at the
expense of the body.
 The spirit is placed in a priveleged position,.
 The SPIRIT is seen as the important principle of human goodness
 TheBODY is place under unprivileged position and is considered as
the wellspring of human evil and prison cell of the SPIRIT.
 Accordingto Plato, a human was exiled into this world of matter and
imprisoned in the body.
 Moderate Dualism

Emphasizes the unity of the two elements.

Aristotle propounded that the human person’s
existence realistically is a constitution of body and soul,
mind and matter, sense and intellect, passion and
reason.
 St. Augustine and St. Thomas would disagree with the two
mentioned dualistic views on the composition of human
person.
 Using the Scripture as basis, they believed that human
person is a tripartite being: body, soul, spirit.
 BODY is his/her outer part, which one can be sensibly
perceived.
 SOUL is the inner part of human person. It consists of three
parts: MIND, EMOTION, and WILL.
 SPIRIT is the innermost part of human person by which
he/she can commune with God.
The spirit is the essential part of human person’s nature, the heart of all
human life.
God is spirit.
Human person is spirit, and therefore greater than the material universe.
The spirit is an immortal being, eluding the test of biologist or chemist
(Lockyer, 1964 as quoted by Ardales).
 There are three philosophical systems or doctrines
with regard to the elements or substances constituting
the human persons. These systems or doctrines are:

2. Monism
 Is the doctrine that the universe can be explained by one
substance such as matter, mind, or some other single thing or
force.
 Itimpliedly holds that he/she is only of one simple element or
substance.
 The monistic view is split into two camps: the idealist and the
materialistic.
 Idealistmonism upholds the idea that human person
is purely spiritual.
According to George Berkley, claimed that matter has no
real existence independent from the mind, for without the
mind, there is no matter.
 Materialist monism argues that only the body is real.
The body is the human person itself. The idea of spirit is
only an illusion.
According to Karl Marx, claimed that the human person is
purely a material entity, a cog of a machine.
 There are three philosophical systems or doctrines with regard to the
elements or substances constituting the human persons. These
systems or doctrines are:

3. The New Monism

 Started with the idea that human person is a unitary being with
material existence that has a mysterious dimension that belongs to
the realm of the spiritual.
 The humanistic thinkers see him/her as a total otherness.
 What is privileged in the new monism is neither the spirit nor the
body, but the totality of human person.
 Filipino Philosophical Perspective

 The Filipino Philosophy of the human body is found

to be non-dualistic.
 It is holistic.
 The body is one.
 The term for the spirit in Filipino is “DIWA”. Diwa is
the essence of life.
 DIWA

 is the essence of life.

 Is life’s moving spirit, inner strength and guiding
pinciple.
 It is what gives life, LIFE.
 Its closest Filipino term is “buhay”
 It’s animating spirit is “buháy”
The Human Person in
his/her Environment
  KAPALIGIRAN BY ASIN

 D:\Desktop\muzickssss\Kapaligiran.mp3
 Thehuman person is a child of the universe, a part of nature
and small world. The big universe, the cosmos and the planet
earth are our universal and global community here and
beyond.
 Asa part and member of this community, human beings are
one with its physical environment.
 The choice is ours to make NOW: to care and preserve the
environment for sustainable development, or to destroy
the ecological balance and perish with it.
 “thestate shall protect and advance the right of the people
to a balanced and helpful ecology in accord with the
rhythm and harmony of nature”(Section 16, Article II).
 CASE: FROM RAGS TO RICHES by J.R.
Joven

Guide Questions:
1. Did John enrich himself at the expense of others, of the environment?
2. How about the purchase of agricultural land for his housing projects,
did it affect or not the thrust or drive for sustainable development?
3. Did John demonstrate the virtues of prudence and frugality towards
environment particularly in terms of land conversion from agriculture to
industrial or commercial purposes?
 ENVIRONMENT

Is referred to “all of the surrounding things,

conditions and influences affecting the
growth or development of living things”.
It is the natural world within which groups of
families, people, animals and plants live.
 It is derived from the French word “environner” which
means “to encircle or surround”.
 It means the circumstance or conditions that surround
an organism or group of organisms, or the complex of
social or cultural conditions that affect an individual or
community.
PRUDENCE – careful thought in acting and planning

FRUGALITY – an avoidance of waste.

It implies clean and simple human living and a lifestyle tinged with an attitude
of contentment for what one has for the day but prudently mindful of
tomorrow’s contingency, the needs of others and the next generation.
Human Living
HANNAELISEGIBODEGUZMAN
Live life in its fullness in
genuine relationship with
others.
 Freedom of the Human Person

 Freedom of choice is the basic characteristics of a

person.
 This capacity to choose distinguishes him/her from
all other animals.
 He/She is a rational animal (Aristotle)
 What is human freedom?

 The existence of human freedom is affirmed by human acts

that are consciously, voluntarily and willfully chosen and
done such as a sense of openness, responsibility and of
decision making.
 GROWING UP IN A SLUM AREA by R.
Joven

Guide Questions:
1. How would you assess Pedro’s exercise of his freedom?
2. Who is to blame for his messy adolescent life, the parents,
community, government or himself?
3. Is there still hope for Pedro to mend his ways? How?
4. Putting yourself in the shoes of Pedro, what would you want in life
and do to rightfully enjoy real human freedom?
 What is human freedom?

 Freedom is the absence of coercion, intimidation or

constraint imposed upon a subject by another person,
institution, thing or circumstance.
 There are dimensions of human freedom:
Freedom from
Freedom for
 Freedom from

 Means and implies restraints, which are interior or exterior.

 The interior obstacles are ignorance, disordered, passions,
desires, anger, fears, personality defects, bad habits,
prejudices or psychological disturbances.
 The exterior forces are the violent force or threats of
violence.
 Freedom for

Means and implies growth as a full person.

There are two levels of the individual person’s
freedom for, namely:
 Human Person

 The
freedom of choice by which he/she directs his/her
moral acts.

 FIRST LEVEL implies freedom to choose to act, in this

or that way to do good or evil.
 The fundamental freedom of his/her very self.

 SECOND LEVEL refers to the consistency of choosing to

do good, which gradually makes him/her a free loving
person.
 HUMAN PERSON IS FREE !!!

However, we consider exterior factors which tend to

negate human freedom.
 Human freedom s restricted by the ascriptive traits of a
person. A person does not have the power to make choices
such as:

To choose to be born with a different sex.

To have different ethnic identity or race.
To choose to remain youthful.
To choose to be a PBA player when one is
too short for it.
 The physical limitations are real. These deny and take away
the power and ability to determine to what one wants in life.
 The psychological limitations are the subjective obstacles or
factors that control the mind such as fear, envy or laziness.
 Sociallimitations are components or elements of an
organizational culture such as norms, values, language, beliefs,
symbols, traits and fashions, fads and crazes
The Intersubjectivity of the
Human Person
“NO MAN IS AN ISLAND” – JOHN DOONE
 Human person is a metaphysical paradox :
An individual yet universal

To be human, he/she is not to isolate himself/herself as an individual but to be a

“person – who – always – exists – with – others – in – the – world” in
harmonious intersubjective relation or interaction with others.
 Poverty and Personhood (Adapted from A
Consideration of Personhood)

Guide Questions:
1. As you critically reflect on the selection, what thought came into
your mind about the problem of poverty?
2. If you are not a victim of poverty, what feelings have been evoked
in you for those marginalized?
3. What if you are an indigent child or a person with disability (PWD),
what will your attitude toward self compared to other children so
blest with bounty and privileges in life?
 According to Martin Buber, there are two ways of relating with
others: the I – IT mode and the I-THOU mode
 I – IT relationship

 The human person treats his/her fellow human persons as objects, tool
or instrument
 This treatment falls under utilitarian mechanism
 He/she uses others, like machine, to achieve purpose or interest.
 He/she reduces them into a thing of utility
 Only what is useful is good.
 I in the I – IT relationship is not the wholesomeness of the human
person but only a part of him/her that is interacting with others (Buber)
“ Man is an end himself, and
should not be treated as an
instrument or a tool
- EMMANUEL KANT
”
 I – THOU Relationship

 The human person considers his/her fellow humans as subjects and ends in
themselves.
 There is an atmosphere of openness, commitment, reciprocity, personal
involvement, care and love.
 The lover and the beloved, who are both subjects, care for each other.
 One or the other is valued, in itself, as a human person with dignity.
 The human person has to relate with others in full human way.
 Law is not necessary
 The human person is a rational animal, her animality tends to
relate strongly in an I-IT mode. Once this predominates, there
will be chaos, anarchy and individualism. Everyone begins
to take law into his/her hands. The law of the jungle comes
in, so that only the strongest and the fittest survive and rule.
It is a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye situation.
 FILIPINO PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVE
 In the I-THOU mode, the human person learns to become fully human
(humanness)
 This humanness is akin to “taong nagpakatao” in Filipino perspective
 To bring our “pagkatao” in fulness, we promote “pagpapakatao”.
 Filipinos have another life giving experience which is “pakikipagkapwa”
(shared being)
 It is a sacred act for good and noble purpose.
 The idea of “kapwa” is the basis for Filipino groupism.
 They demonstrate this pakikipagkapwa in basic sense of :
Justice, Fairness, Empathy, generosity, mutual assistance and hospitality
HUMAN PERSON IN THE
SOCIETY
 For your information….

Human person by nature is a political being. (Aristotle)

The paradox is that human person creates society, but
society also creates the human person; that there can be no
society without human persons, just as there can be no
human persons without society.
Human person is a member of a family.
Family -> Clan -> Tribe -> Nation -> State
State – a society or “community of persons more or less
numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of
territory, independent of external factor and possessing an
organized government to which the great body of
inhabitants render habitual obedience”
 Does the human person, the citizen, exist for the State
or does the State exist for its citizenry?
 Is the human person a creature of the State or is the
State a creature of its citizenry?
Various philosophical theories, systems, or
beliefs attempted to offer solutions or
answers to the foregoing queries:
 1. THE PANTHEISTIC THEORY

Pantheism – belief that God and the universe are the same, or the
doctrine that God is an expression of the physical forces of nature.
For Plato – God is the eternal idea, the Unity in diversity, the
Universality underlying individuality.
 2. DIVINE RIGHT THEORY

Asserts that the State is a divine institution.

It’s ruler holds his/her office by divine rights.
His government is directly answerable to God alone
All power and authority come from God
 3. SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
 The existence of State originated from a contract freely entered into by its citizens
 HOBBES’ INTERPRETATION :
humans are materialistic and pessimistic, thus a state’s ability can only be guaranteed by a
sovereign authority
imply advocacy for ABSOLUTE MONARCHY:
ruler of the State possesses absolute power.
citizens surrender all their rights to the State to end their inherent evil impulses
 ROSSEAU’S INTERPRETATION:
theorize that when human beings form a social contract to live in society, they
delegated authority to a government; however they retained sovereignty and power to
withdraw that authority when necessary.
ABSOLUTE DEMOCRACY – direct democracy; political decisions are made
by citizens meeting together
INDIVIDUALISM – emphasizes the paramount importance of individual
freedom
 4. THE CHRISTIAN THEORY
 Human person is rational
 He/She is being by others, with others and for others
 He/She is involved in concrete relationship with his/her family, neighborhood,
friends, co-workers and God
 His/Her social nature is the root existence of a State which comes about as a result
of people’s will/consent
 Human person is a person with inherent rights, human dignity and destiny that
transcends the State
HUMAN PERSONS AS
ORIENTED TOWARDS
THEIR IMPENDING DEATH
DEATH IS A PART OF THE CYCLE OF LIFE.
“ I DON’T MIND DYING; I JUST
DON’T WANT TO BE
THERE WHEN

”
IT HAPPENS
– WOODY ALLEN
 DEATH

 Is the end of a long beginning of human life

 Losing life to find life, a death to the “self” in order to be born again
 A state where humanity has no certain answer what would be the real score after
losing this physical and material reality.
 ACCORDING TO HEIDEGGER:

 Death is already in the past, but “ not yet ” in the future, it is the “already” and the
“not yet” in human existence
 It is an impending possibility and an inevitable reality
 Describes the Human Person as an embodied paradox, a living dead.
 Meaning of death as the possibility of “measureless impossibility” of human
existence
 But there is one thing left after death:

the longing of immortality and hoping to answer all

vague questions concerning the mystery of human
existence
DEATH

Death is not the end of life; but a beginning of the

cycle of life
There is no life if there is no death.
Life without death is a fairytale.
“ BEREAVEMENT
- deprived of someone by death

”
SHARING…..
 FILIPINO PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVE
The Ilocanos from the South have two terms for soul:
“Al-alia” – means “ghost”, specter, apparition, spirit.
- the companion of the body, come to the beside of a dying
person, stays in the area after death and appears to relatives in dreams
“Karkarma” – means soul, vigor, energy, strength, power, ghost
- it stays with the individuals and leaves the body through the
nose only only when the person dies.
For the Tagalogs, soul is the “kaluluwa” of the deceased person.
For the Mangyans of Mindoro, the Cebuano, the Visayan and
Bicolanos, it is “kalag”, the soul after death.

As Filipino to Christian and Muslims the concept of death is the

beginning of an eternal life in the spiritual beyond with God or
Allah.
 Self-awareness on Life and Death

1. What sort of being am I?

2. What is the meaning of my living and existence?
3. Am I aware of my finity or temporality in this physical world?
4. What do I do now in anticipation of the imminent possibility of death?
5. What definite direction should I take while still alive?
6. Is there eternal life after death?
Prepared by:
Hanna Elise Gibo de Guzman
MAED SCIENCE I
SHS Teacher, DWCC Pinamalayan