INTRODUCTION TO THE

PHILOSOPHY OF THE
HUMAN PERSON
WEEK 2 – 3

HANNA REGINE VALENCERINA, LPT

KRYTPON | HELIUM | RADON | XENON
 What is Philosophy?
• Philosophy begins with wonder.
• We wonder about why we are here; about who we really
are; about whether God exists and what She or He is like;
why pain, evil, sorrow, and separation exist; whether there
is life after death; what true love and friendship are; what
the proper balance is between serving others and serving
ourselves; whether moral right and wrong are based on
personal opinion or on some objective standard; and
whether suicide, abortion, or euthanasia is ever justified.
GROUP 1
 Nature of Philosophy
• The word philosophy was coined from the
Greek “philein’ which means to love and
“sophia” which means wisdom.

GROUP 1
 Nature of Philosophy
• Philosophy is technically defined as: "scientia rerum
per causas primas sub lumine rationis naturalis“
• The science of beings in their ultimate reasons,
causes, and principles, acquired by the aid of human
reason alone
• Or the science which by natural light of reason
studies the first causes of highest principles of all
things
GROUP 1
 Philosophy is a science..
• It is not based on mere opinions or
theories or hypotheses, but is certain
knowledge derived from reasoned
demonstration of causes and reduced to a
system.

GROUP
2
 Science of being:

• Science of all things, this includes

man, world, God and everything that
exists.

GROUP
2
 Science of reason:

• a reason is that by means of which, a

thing is known and can be understood

GROUP
2
 Cause
• A cause is that which contributes in some
positive manner toward the production
of thing.

GROUP
2
 Principle

• A principle is that from which

something proceeds

GROUP
2
 Philosophy vs. other sciences
• The other sciences give the proximate
causes of things, while
• Philosophy searches for the ultimate
reasons and causes and principles.

GROUP
2
 Philosophy FACTS
• Although philosophy begins with wonder and
questions, it does not end there.
• Philosophy tries to go beyond the answers that we
received when we were too young to seek our own
answers.
• The goal of philosophy is to answer these questions
for ourselves and to make up our own minds about
our self, knowledge, society, religion, and morality
GROUP
2
 • Philosophy is a knowledge acquired by the aid
of human reason alone.
• This means that philosophy does not base its
knowledge on authority, but solely on the
reasoning power of human mind.

GROUP
2
 Main Branches of Philosophy
1. Logic – is the science of inferential thinking and
correct reasoning. This covers the study of ideas
and terms, judgement and proposition, reasoning,
and syllogism.
Syllogism is a form of deductive reasoning where you
arrive at a specific conclusion by examining two other
premises or ideas.

GROUP
3
 2. Cosmology - is the science which considers the
ultimate principles and causes of mobile beings in
general.
This includes the essential principles of natural
bodies, matter and form, change, motion, time, place,
space, causality and finality and generation and
corruption.

GROUP
3
 3. Metaphysics -is the science which deals with
the nature of being, its attributes, constituent
principles and causes. This includes the concept
of being, its analogy and fundamental
attributes, problem of evil, act and potency,
essence and existence, substance and accidents.
- the study of what is really real.
GROUP
3
 4. Axiology – the study of value, the
investigation of its nature, criteria, and
metaphysical status.
More often than not, the term ‘value theory’ is
used instead of “axiology” in contemporary
discussions even though the term “theory of
value” is used with respect to the value or price of
goods and services in economics.
GROUP
3
 5. Ethics – the study of values in human behavior or
the study of moral problems:
example:
(1) the rightness and wrongness of actions,
(2) the kinds of things which are good or desirable,
and
(3) whether actions are blameworthy or praiseworthy
GROUP
3
 6. Æsthetics - the study of value in the arts or the
inquiry into feelings, judgments, or standards of
beauty and related concepts.
Philosophy of art is concerned with judgments of
sense, taste, and emotion

GROUP
3
 General division of philosophy:

1. Speculative philosophy – is that which

exists solely for the sake of knowledge, its
object is the truth
2. Practical philosophy – is that which
seeks to procure by some kind of activity,
the good of man. Its object is the good.
GROUP
3