The Human Person As An

Embodied Spirit
LESSON 3
• The question about what a person essentially
is remains to be a puzzle.

• Humans are the most mysterious sentient

(with 5 senses) beings to ever walk on earth.

• The true nature of humans must be

investigated and subjected to an extensive
philosophical inquiry.
• Over the course of time, various thinkers have
given people theories and explanations on the
true nature of humans which led them to
conclusion that there is something in them
that transcends beyond their mortality. They
say that there is an “inner self” in every
human that gives him/her that sense of
discernment: one that gives him/her the
power or will and intellect. This led to
conclude that a person is an embodied spirit
– a being possessed with a soul.
 The Notion of the Soul
1. Pre-Socratic Thought (HERACLITUS)

• he believed in the existence of the soul as an

infinite part of a human being. He believed
that soul is associated with fire, and there is
something in store for the soul the moment
it leaves the body
 The Notion of the Soul
1. Pre-Socratic Thought (PYTHAGOREANS)

• philosophers who believed that numbers are

the first principle, contending that a human
being is a composite of body and soul
• soul existed before the body, until such time
when the soul committed sins, and it was
jailed inside the body as a punishment
 The Notion of the Soul
1. Pre-Socratic Thought (PYTHAGOREANS)

• this belief became the driving force of the

Pythagoreans to work for the purification of
the soul to liberate it from being jailed inside
the body and to achieve this goal, one had to
engage in highly intellectual activities
• they also taught the transmigration and
immortality of the soul
 The Notion of the Soul
2. Socratic Dualism (SOCRATES)

• believed that human nature is determined by

one’s soul
• soul is the center of moral life
• knowledge paves the way for the perfection
of the soul
• believed that knowledge is the mainspring of
all virtues (good/moral character)
 The Notion of the Soul
2. Socratic Dualism (SOCRATES)

• advocated concept of self mastery

• self-mastery gives person a freedom that
leads to happiness
• notion of daimonion or a divine voice inside
one’s being that is claimed to be guiding
his/her actions
 The Notion of the Soul
3. Plato’s Dualism (PLATO)

• believed in the idea that a person is his/her

soul
• soul came to be prior to being joined in the
body
• soul goes through a cycle of reincarnation or
transmigration
 The Notion of the Soul
3. Plato’s Dualism (PLATO)

• the soul is able to obtain knowledge through

remembrance of forms
• his sense of dualism is anchored on the
relationship between reincarnation and the
means of obtaining knowledge through
recognition of forms
 The Notion of the Soul
Plato’s 4 arguments for dualism

a.Life and death (the cyclical argument)

 transmigration/reincarnation
 if life leads to death, then death leads to life
b.Knowing is reminiscing (the recollection
argument)
 all knowledge is a form of remembrance on
the part of the soul
 The Notion of the Soul
Plato’s 4 arguments for dualism
c. Incorruptibility of the soul (the affinity
argument)
 soul is immortal
d. Argument from opposites
 soul and body are different from each other,
opposites and irreconcilable
 body is the tomb of the soul
 one does not experience the true meaning of
life as he/she is stuck in the body
 The Notion of the Soul
4. Aristotle’s View on the Soul (ARISTOTLE)

• soul is a form that actualizes matter into a

composite being
• soul is part of the body that animates it
• soul is what gives life to the body
• body and soul are inseparable
• every soul has only one body
• as the body is corrupted, so does the soul
 The Notion of the Soul
5. St. Thomas Aquinas and the Nature of the
Soul
• humans possess all three kinds of soul
 vegetative – dependent upon matter (food,
home, etc.)
 sensitive – used for sensation and
locomotion
 Intellectual/rational (highest form) –
responsible for thinking/reasoning
 The Notion of the Soul
5. St. Thomas Aquinas and the Nature of the
Soul
 Intellectual/rational (highest form) – gives a
person power to be self-aware, to be able to
gain knowledge of universals, and the power
to be independent from the body – a soul
that transcends beyond the corporeal
qualities of a human
 The Notion of the Soul
5. St. Thomas Aquinas and the Nature of the
Soul
 though the soul may work independently of
the body, it (soul) still needs the body to
manifest its power
 without the body, the soul is an incomplete
substance as it cannot exercise its natural
qualities
 The Human Mind: The Link between
the Body and the Soul
• The human mind is said to be the connection
between the body and the soul as it possess
potentialities and faculties which are
metaphysical in nature.
• The human mind is a powerful entity in itself.
• It could enable anyone to do things beyond
imagination.
• The mind is a mystery that is yet to be
uncovered in the human body.
 The Human Mind: The Link between
the Body and the Soul
• The human mind is said to be the connection
between the body and the soul as it possess
potentialities and faculties which are
metaphysical in nature.
• The human mind is a powerful entity in itself.
• It could enable anyone to do things beyond
imagination.
• The mind is a mystery that is yet to be
uncovered in the human body.
Some Identified Faculties of the Mind:
1. Perception – faculty of apprehension by the
senses
• one’s point of view
Some Identified Faculties of the Mind:
2. Reasoning – enables a person to form
conclusions and render judgments based
from facts and premises
Some Identified Faculties of the Mind:
3. Imagination – ability to visualize
• forming of images in the mind
Some Identified Faculties of the Mind:
4. Will/Willpower – internally motivated action
• Inner drive in a person that enables him/her
to do anything
Some Identified Faculties of the Mind:
5. Memory – one’s ability to retain, revive, recall
and recognize information
• there is no limit to the amount of
information it can store
 3 Types of Memory:
a. Sensory – enable a person to recall
perceptions
b. Short-term – gives a person the ability to
remember information without practice for a
short period of time
c. Long-term – most useful type of memory, as
this is the one that undergoes training,
practice and mastery
 success of a person is attributed to long-term
memory