PHILOSOPHY OF THE

HUMAN PERSON
UNDERSTANDING AND DOING
PHILOSOPHY
• SCIENCE that by NATURAL
LIGHT OF REASON, STUDIES
the FIRST CAUSE OR HIGHEST
PRINCIPLE of all things

PHILOSOPHY
• SCIENCE
• systematic investigation
• follows and employs certain steps or
procedures
• organized body of knowledge
• NATURAL LIGHT OF REASON
• uses natural capacity to think
• human reason or unaided reason
• STUDY OF ALL THINGS
• multidimensional or holistic
• not limited to a particular object of inquiry
• FIRST CAUSE OR HIGHEST PRINCIPLE
• Principle of Identity – whatever is is; whatever is not
is not
• Principle of Non-contradiction – impossibility of a
thing to be and not to be at the same time and at the
same respect
• Principle of Excluded Middle – a thing is either is or
is not; no middle ground possible
• Principle of Sufficient Reason – nothing exists
without a sufficient reason for its being and existence
• EMPTYING
• e.g. denotes simplicity and humility
• in spiritual Christian philosophy, poverty
inspirit means compassion
• in physical, Buddhists refrain from the use and
misuse of the senses
• METAPHYSICS
• deals with the first principles of things,
including abstract concepts such as being,
knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and
space
• Abstract theory or talk with no basis in reality

BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY
• ETHICS
• study of the nature of moral judgments
• explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates
human actions
• “To be happy, a person has to live a virtuous life.”
– Socrates
• Virtue – awakening of the seeds of good deeds that
lay dormant in themind and heart of a person
• Courage – it is knowledge as a virtue, and virtue is
wisdom
• EPISTEMOLOGY
• deals with the nature, sources, limitation, and validity
of knowledge
• it explains the following:
• How we know what we claim to know
• How can we find out what we wish to know
• How can we differentiate truth from falsehood
• it addresses the reliability, extent, and kinds of
knowledge; truth; language; and science and scientific
knowledge
1. INDUCTION
• General ideas are formed from the examination of
particular facts
• One organizes in his mind what he learns through
the senses
• Empiricism – views knowledge as something that
can only be attained through the sense experience
and NOT what people make up in their heads

How do we acquire
reliable knowledge?
2. DEDUCTION
• It is more important to find a general law according to
which particular facts can be understood or judged
• Real knowledge is based on logic, the laws, and
methods that develop reason
• Advocated by rationalists (Rene Descartes)
• e.g. Mathematics – realm of knowledge obtained
entirely by reason that we use to understand the
universe
3. PRAGMATISM
• William James and John Dewey believed that the
value in use is the real test of truth and meaning
• The meaning and truth of an idea are tested by its
practical consequence
• LOGIC
• Came from the Greek word, “logike” meaning,
treatise on matters pertaining to human thought
• Concerned about the truth or the validity of our
arguments regarding such objects
• based on claims about propositional structure and
the body of argumentative techniques
• It means: word, thought, idea, argument, account,
reason or principle
• the study of reasoning, or the study of the principles
and criteria of valid inference and demonstration.
• AESTHETICS
• science of the beautiful in its various manifestation
– including the sublime, comic, tragic, pathetic
and ugly
• whatever experience has relevance to art
• It vitalizes knowledge
• makes our knowledge of the world alive and
useful
• It helps one to realize a part of a play, a poem,
or a story to give one a new insight, to help one
see new relationship between the separated
items in one’s memory

Importance of Aesthetics
• It helps us to live more deeply and richly
• helps us to rise from a purely physical
existence into the realm of intellect and the
spirit
• “You must treat a work of art like a great man.
Stand before it and wait patiently until it
deigns to speak.” - Schopenhauer
• It brings us in touch with our culture
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German philosopher,
argues that our tastes and judgments regarding
beauty, work in connection with one’s own
personal experience and culture
• He believes that our culture consists of the values
and beliefs of our time and society. This shows the
importance of “dialogue’ or conversation in
interpreting works of art
• Filipino must eventually take consciousness
of his own particular life and his world, his
society and his gods in the light of Truth, and
thereby realize his proper being. (Reyes 1990)

FILIPINO THOUGHT
1. LOOB: HOLISTIC AND INTERIOR DIMENSIONS
• For Mercado (1992), interiority manifests itself in freedom.
Loob puts one in touch with his fellow beings.
• The Filipino generally believes in the innate goodness of the
human being. Filipino ethics has an internal code and
sanction that flow from within itself.
The Filipino as individual looks at himself as holistic from
the interior dimension unden the principle of harmony. The
Filipino looks at himself as a self, as a total whole—as a
"person," conscious of his freedom, proud of his human
dignity, and sensitive to the violation of these two (Mercado
2000).

Three Dimensions of
Filipino Thought
2. FILIPINO PHILOSOPHY OF TIME
• The Filipino proves that he believes in the gulong
ng palad (literally, "wheel of fortune") and hence,
looks at life as a series of ups and downs
(Timbreza 1992). This philosophy of life makes
the Filipino an unmitigated optimist.
• When the so-called wheel of life is on the
downtrend, he looks to the future with hope
because life's wheel cannot stay down forever.
When one weeps, one will surely smile. The
Filipino looks upon every event, fortunate or
unfortunate, as fleeting or transitory.
• Filipino Time is mistakenly interpreted as always
delayed in the committed time of arrival. This
notion can be misleading since the Filipino
farmers are early risers to go to their field and
waste no time for work. The concept of "siesta
time" or "power naps" is also important for
Filipino culture that must not be necessarily
considered negative.
3. BAHALA NA
• The pre-Spanish Filipino people believed in a
Supreme Being, Batula or Bathala.
• Bathala is not an impersonal entity but rather a
personal being that keeps the balance in the
universe Bathala is endowed with personality
• The Filipino puts his entire trust in this Bathala
who has evolved into the Christian God.
(Mercado 2000)
• Bahala na literally means to leave everything
to God who is Bathala in the vernacular.
• The bahala na philosophy puts complete trust in
the Divine Providence; it contains the element of
resignation
• The Filipino accepts beforehand whatever the
outcome of his problem might be (Mercado
2000). Bahala na (come what may) nonetheless,
is one of the most outstanding Filipino virtues. It
is in one aspect perceived as courage to take
risks.
• Bahala na, on the other hand, if, seen as fatalistic;
sort of leaving everything to God or to chance—
such is the uncertainty of life.
4. FILIPINO THOUGHT AND VALUES:
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS
• Philippine values and system – the Filipino he
does not identify horizontally with his class
that cuts across the whole community but
vertically with its authority figures
distinguished by their wealth, power, and age.
• Utang na loob - Reciprocating debts of
gratitude between coordinates and subordinates
holds the whole group together—
superordinate and subordinate
• Endurance and hard work – it is a means to
economic self-sufficiency to the family to
which one owes a special debt of gratitude for
having brought him life and nurtured him
• Bayanihan - there exists the
belief that whatever good one has done will
redound to one's benefit because a Supreme
Judge will dispense just compensation whether
in this life or in the next (Mercado 2000).
• Filipinos may not be able to formulate or
articulate this philosophy but it is nonetheless
evident in all their transactions and in their
everyday existence. This indigenous philosophy
may be said to be an elan or a spirit that
permeates the Filipino as Filipino, and without
which, feels certain dissatisfaction.
• There was a consensus that Asia does have a
philosophical character all on its own but that it
will not surface unless local philosophers dig to
the roots of their own indigenous culture
(Gripaldo 2000).
• Gripaldo argues that once economically strong,
the Philippines will transcend nationalism to
internationalism. This action is one step toward
globalism where economic choices to be made
are choices not for oneself but for humanity.
• Gripaldo (2000) believes four important items to
be considered
• replacing colonial consciousness with a
nationalist consciousness thereby doing away
with colonial and crab mentality;
• creation of super industrial society;
• utilization of education as the means of
realizing the image of the future as super
industrial society and;
• choosing not just for one's self but for all
humanity, for the nation as a whole.
• Abundance comes from the Latin term,
"abundare" (Aguilar 2010) meaning, "to
overflow nonstop."
• Abundance is out flowing than incoming. It is not
about amassing material things or people but our
relationship with others, ourselves, and with
nature. Aguiliar (2010) asserts that our very life
belongs to God.

PHILOSOPHY: TRANSCENDING &

AIMING FOR A LIFE OF ABUNDANCE
• Abundance is not what we gather but what we
scatter.
• Abundance is equated with materialism
• When we raise our empty hands and surrender
and offer oneself is abundance
• Only if we have empty hands can we receive
full blessings
• Abundance is not what we keep but what we
give away.
• One must pursue one's desires and inner self.
• To be able to have, we must first let go.
• To be able to acquire, we must first control
ourselves.
• There is karma in our thoughts, words, and
actions.
• Abundance is not what we hold but what we
share.
• Aguilar (2010) reminds us that money should
not matter much, for every moment is a
blessing, even if one does not have money.
• Abundance comes to the one who has money
and heart, money and values, money and
relationships, money and deeper happiness.
• Abundance is a choice
• As we aspire for our dreams, we should try our
best to be positive in our thoughts, motives,
and efforts.
• Abundance is more of an effort of the heart
than mind alone (Aguilar 2010).
• Abundance, therefore, is a choice which
translates to commitment, determination, and
perseverance.
• Abundance is to evolve into a higher being
• To live in abundance means evolving to a
higher being in following one's mission; a
deliberate or conscious desire to act upon what
can make us and others happy.
• To live in abundance means evolving to a
higher being in following one's mission; a
deliberate or conscious desire to act upon what
can make us and others happy.
METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING
PHILOSOPHIZING
• to think or express oneself in a philosophical
manner. It considers or discusses a (matter) from
a philosophical standpoint.

INTRODUCTION: METHOD OF
PHILOSOPHIZING
• Founded by Edmund Husserl
• Focuses on careful inspection and description of
phenomena or appearances, defined as any object
of conscious experience, that is, that which we
are conscious of (Johnston 2006).

A. Phenomenology: on
Consciousness
• Husserl’s Logical Investigations: argued against
psychologism
• Psychologism - the thesis that truth is dependent
on the peculiarities of the human mind, and that
philosophy is reducible to psychology
• Husserl continues to develop phenomenology – a
method for finding and guaranteeing the truth
• Phenomenon – came from the Greek word, “pawépevov,
phainömenon,” meaning, “appearance.”
• Immanuel Kant used tis word to refer to the world of our
experience
• According to Husserl, where the trouble starts, when one
supposes that what one experiences is not or might not be
the truth (Solomon & Higgins 2010).
• It does not imply a contrast between the appearance and
some underlying reality, between the phenomenon and a
linoumenon" or "thing-in-itself."
PHENOMENOLOGY
• the scientific study of the essential structures of
consciousness
• entails a method or a series of continuously
revised methods which consciousness does its
work of knowing the world
• Husserl’s phenomenology is intentional
• Every act of consciousness is directed at some
object or another, possibly a material object or an
“ideal” object
• A phenomenologist can distinguish and describe
the nature of the intentional acts of consciousness
and the intentional objects of consciousness both
of which are defined through the content of
consciousness
• The phenomenologists describes a highly varied
sorts of experiences and phenomena
• Example:
• Time consciousness, mathematics, and logic;
perception and experience of the social world;
our experience of our own bodies; and moral,
aesthetic, and religious experiences (Solomon
& Higgins 2010)
• The following are several series of
phenomenological “reductions” formulated by
Husserl, which eliminate certain aspects of our
experience from consideration in order to achieve
phenomenological standpoint.
1. EPOCHE OR SUSPENSION
• In General Introduction to Pure
Phenomenology, the phenomenologist
“brackets” all questions of truth or reality and
simply describes the contents of consciousness
• The ideas were borrowed from early Skeptics
and Descartes
2. INTUITION
• This eliminates the merely empirical contents
of consciousness and focuses instead on the
meanings of consciousness
• Some intuitions are eidetic, revealing the
necessary truths
SUMMARY
• Phenomenologists are interested on the contents
of consciousness
• The first one is our ordinary everyday viewpoint
and the ordinary stance of the natural sciences,
describing things and states of affairs
• The second is the special viewpoint achieved by
focusing not on things but our consciousness of
things
• (Solomon and Higgins 2010)
EXISTENTIALISM
• Not primarily a philosophical method
• More of an outlook or attitude supported by diverse doctrines
centered on certain themes:
• The human condition or the relation of the individual to the world;
• The human response to that condition;
• Being, especially the difference between the being of person
existence) and the being of other kinds of things;
• Human freedom;
• The significance and unavoidability) of choice and decision in the
absence of certainty and;
• The concreteness and subjectivity of life as lived, against
abstractions and false objectifications

B. Existentialism: On
Freedom
• Satre emphasizes the importance of free
individual choice regardless of power of other
people to influence and coerce our desires,
beliefs, and decisions
• He argued that consciousness is always free to
chose and free to negate
• He tells us that one is never free of one’s
situation but one is always free to negate that
situation and to try to change I
• To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to
choose, and responsible for one’s life
• (Solomon and Higgins 2010)
• Socrates concerned himself with the authenticity
of the self – the genuineness of thoughts and
actions, the good of the soul, and sought virtue,
being true to oneself
• St. Augustine was concerned with the spiritual
nature of the “true” self as opposed to inauthentic
demands of desire and the body
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau was adamant about the
essential goodness of the “natural” self in
contrast to the “corruption” imposed by society.
• (Baird & Kaufmann, 1997)
• Postmodernists believe that humanity should come at
truth beyond the rational to the non-rational elements
of human nature, including spiritual
• They believe that humanity should realize the limits
of reason and objectivism in order to arrive at truth
• They adhere to relational and holistic approach
beyond exalting individual analysis of truth
• They value our existence in the world and in relation
to it

C. Postmodernism: ON
Cultures
MODERNITY
• Came from the Latin word, “modo”, meaning,
“just now.”
• Literally means, “after just now” (Appignanesi
and Garratt, 1995)
• Associated with other posts: postcolonialism,
poststructuralism
 MODERN POSTMODERN
REASONING From foundation upwards Multiple factors of
multiple levels of
reasoning
Web-oriented
SCIENCE Universal optimism Realism of limitations
PART/WHOLE Parts comprise the whole The whole is more than
the parts
GOD Acts by violating “natural Top-down causation
laws” or by “immanence”
in everything that is

LANGUAGE Referential Meaning in social context

through usage

Contrast of Modern and

Postmodern Thinking
• Language cannot objectively describe truth
• Language is socially conditioned. Truth is socially
constructed. We understand the world in terms of
linguistic and social constructs. – Ludwig
Wittgenstein
• Analytic philosophy is the conviction that to some
significant degree, philosophical problems,
puzzles, and errors are rooted in language and can
be solved or avoided by a sound understanding of
language and careful attention to its workings.

D. Analytic Tradition
• Logic is centered in the analysis and construction of
arguments
• Logic and critical thinking serve as paths to freedom from
half-truths and deceptions
• Critical thinking
• distinguishing facts and opinions or personal feelings
• Takes into consideration cultural systems, values, and
beliefs
• Helps uncover bias and prejudice and open to new
ideas not necessarily in agreement with previous
thought

E. Logical and Critical

Thinking: Tools in Reasoning
1. INDUCTIVE
• Based from observations in order to make generalizations
• Often applied in prediction, forecasting, or behavior
2. DEDUCTIVE
• draws conclusion from usually one broad judgment or
definition and one more specific assertion, often an
interference
• Example:
• All philosophers are wise. (Major premise)
• Confucius is a philosopher. (Minor premise)
• Therefore, Confucius is wise. (Conclusion)

Two basic types of

reasoning
• If the two premises are constructed logically, then
the conclusion must follow logically, the
deductive argument is valid
• This does not necessarily mean that the
conclusion is true or false.
• Validity comes from a logical conclusion based
on logically constructed premises (Reed-2010).

Validity and Soundness of

an Argument
• Inductive arguments cannot prove if the premises
are true which will also determine the truth of the
conclusion.
• Inductive reasoning proves only probable support
to the conclusion.
• An inductive argument that succeeds in providing
such probable support is a strong argument.
• While an inductive argument that fails to provide
such support is weak, a strong argument with true
premises is said to be cogent.

Strength of an Argument
• Example
• Jay: Do you think Congressman Gerry will be
re-elected?
• Yna: I doubt it. His district has become more
conservative in recent years. Also, 63% of the
registered voters in his district are in the
opposition
• This argument is both a statistical argument and a
predictive argument, which are two common
patterns of inductive reasoning. Also, the
conclusion does not follow necessarily from the
premises.
FALLACY
• Defect in an argument other than its having false
premise
• To detect fallacies, it is required to examine the
argument's content.

F. Fallacies
1. APPEAL TO PITY (ARGUMENTUM AD
MISERICORDIAM)
• A specific kind of appeal to emotion in which
someone tries to win support for an argument or
idea by exploiting his or her opponent's feelings of
pity or guilt.
2. APPEAL TO IGNORANCE
(ARGUMENTUM AD IGNORANTIAM)
• Whatever has not been proved false must be true,
and vice versa
3. EQUIVOCATION
• A logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word
several times, but giving the particular word a
different meaning each time.
• Example:
• Human beings have hands; the clock has hands.
He is drinking from the pitcher of water; he is a
baseball pitcher.
4. COMPOSITION
• This infers that something is true of the whole
from the fact that is true of some part of the whole.
• The reverse of this fallacy is division.
5. DIVISION
• One reasons logically that something true of thing
roust be of all or some of its parts.
6. AGAINST THE PERSON (ARGUMENTUM
AD HOMINEM)
• attempts to link the validity of a premise to a
characteristic or belief of the person advocating
the premise
• questions of personal conduct, character, motives,
etc., are legitimate if relevant to the issue
7. APPEAL TO FORCE (ARGUMENTUM AD
BACULUM)
• An argument where force, coercion, or the threat
of force, is given as a justification for a
conclusion.
8. APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE
(ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM)
• An argument that appeals or exploits people's
vanities, desire for esteem, and anchoring on
popularity
9. FALSE CAUSE (POST HOC)
• Since that event followed this one, that event must
have been caused by this one.
• This fallacy is also referred to as coincidental
correlation, or correlation not causation
10. HASTY GENERALIZATION
• One commits errors if one reaches an inductive
generalization based on insufficient evidence.
• The fallacy is commonly based on a broad
conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a
small group that fails to sufficiently represent the
whole population.
11. BEGGING THE QUESTION (PETITIO
PRINCIPII)
• This is a type of fallacy in which the proposition to be
proven is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the
premise.
• Example:
• Erica: "How do you know that the bible is divinely
inspired?" Pedro: "Because is says right in the third
chapter of II Timothy that 'all scripture is given by divine
inspiration of God.'“
• Celibacy is an unnatural and unhealthy practice, since it
is neither natural nor healthy to exclude sexual activity
from one's life.
ANALYZE SITUATIONS THAT
SHOW THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN OPINION AND
TRUTH
Applying Logic and
Fallacies in Determining
Truth from Opinion
• At the beginning of the Tractatus, Ludwig
Wittgenstein speaks of the picture that we can
form of reality
• We represent the existence and non-existence of
state of affairs
• Tractatus identifies the relationship between
language and reality and to define the limits of
science.
• It is in the possibility of agreeing or disagreeing
with reality, thus being true or false, that the
meaning of the picture lies.
• Wittgenstein describes spoken and written
language, that is, propositions, as one of' these
pictures and defines its meaning in terms of its
capacity for being true or false.
• The limits of what can be said are defined by the
logical rules
• The limits of my language mean the limit of my
world
• The logic of language shows how elements fit
states of affairs and how state of affairs in wider
constellations can be linked together
Realize the Methods of
Philosophy that Lead to
Wisdom and Truth
• For Double (1999), philosophy is a question
which have three major characteristics:
• Philosophical questions have answers, but the
answers remain in dispute.
• Philosophical questions cannot be settled by
science, common sense, or faith.
• Philosophical questions are of perennial
intellectual interest to human beings
CRITICAL THINKING
• The methodology that philosophers used to address
philosophical questions
• It is the careful, reflective, rational, and systematic
approach o questions of very general interest
• It means understanding of philosophy and refraining from
merely giving claims but through careful thought, one
reasons through argumentations
• One tries to become a "philosopher" because one
possesses and cherishes above the rest of humanity the
"love of wisdom" which is a part of all human nature
• One more reflectively and critically brings to light and
examines the largest and widest implications of the life of
all human beings
• For Maboloc and Pascua42008), critical thinking is a
lifelong process of self-assessment that further consists
of:
• defining, analyzing, and devising solutions;
• arriving at reasonable and informed conclusions;
• applying understanding and knowledge to new and
different problems;
• willingness to change one point of view;
• continually examining and re-examining ideas; and
• willingness to say "l don't know."
• The attributes of a critical thinker include:
• Looks for evidence to support assumption and beliefs
• Adjusts opinions
• Looks for proof
• Examines problem
• Rejects irrelevant and incorrect information
• Only if one is able to be viewed based on arising
evidence and continually re-examining ideas, can
a more holistic perspective of truth be arrived at.
• We are human beings possessed with reason
• Though emotions can be more persuasive, in the
long run, correct reasoning will prove to be the
most solid foundation.
THE HUMAN PERSON AS AN
EMBODIED SPIRIT
• According to Thomas Merton (1948), a Trappist
monk, there is no other way for us to find who we
are than by finding in ourselves the divine image
• We have to struggle to regain spontaneous and vital
awareness of our own spirituality.
• Merton talks about a continual movement away
from inner and outer idols and toward union with
the desert God of his Christian faith.

TRANSCENDENCE IN THE
GLOBAL AGE
• Transcendental and transcendence convey the
basic ground concept from the word's literal
meaning, of climbing or going beyond, with
varying connotations in its different historical
and cultural stages.
• We have a soul that is capable of coming to life
and experiencing profound and hidden values
which the flesh and its senses can never discover
alone
• Spirituality in us is identified with the divine
image in our soul
• At the heart of Hinduism lies the idea of human
beings' quest for absolute truth, so that one's soul
and the Brahman or Atman (Absolute Soul)
might become one.
• For the Indians, God first created sound and the
universe arose from it. As the most sacred sound,
The Aum (0m) is the root of the universe and
everything that exists and it continues to hold
everything together.

A. Hinduism
• Human beings have a dual nature: spiritual and
immortal essence and the other is empirical life
and character
• It is the soul that is ultimately real
• The existence of the body is nothing more than
an illusion and even an obstacle to an individual’s
realization of one’s self
• A human being's soul can be said to be
temporarily encased in his body. For this reason,
humanity's basic goal in life is the liberation
(moksha) of spirit (jiva).
• Hinduism holds that humanity's life is a
continuous cycle (samsara).
• The spirit is neither born nor does it die and the
body goes through a trans migratory series of
birth and death
TRANSMIGRATION OR METAPSYCHOSIS
• a doctrine that adheres to the belief that a person's
soul passes into some other creature, human, or
animal.
• If the person has led a good life, the soul goes
upward the scale.
• The soul of an evil person, on the other hand, may
pass into the body of an animal.
ULTIMATE LIBERATION
• freedom from rebirth
• achieved the moment the individual attains that
stage of life emancipation, from which inevitably
arises a total realization by the individual of
spiritual nature and the transient character of the
body.
MOKSHA
• an enlightened state wherein one attains one's
true selfhood and finds oneself one with the One,
the Ultimate Reality, the All-comprehensive
Reality: Brahman.
• Ultimate moksha leads the spirit out of the monotonous
cycle of life and death (samsara) to a state of
"nothingness" where the bliss of being one with
Brahman compensates for ail the sufferings the
individual underwent in his erstwhile existence in the
physical
world (Andres 1994).
• The Hindu view of humanity’ reality places emphasis
on the attainment of self-knowledge
• The goal of human life as conceived by the different
Upanishads is to overcome congenital ignorance
• The concepts of Brahman and Atman (soul, self) are
central ideas in all the Upanishads, with "Know your
Atman" as their thematic focus.
• Siddhartha Gautama
• Out of the life experience and teaching of
highborn Prince Gautama of the Sakya clan in the
kingdom of Magadha, who lived from 560 to 477
B.C., sprang the religious philosophy we know as
Buddhism, turning away from Hindu

B. Buddhism
• Gautama's life was devoted to sharing his
"Dharma" or Law of Salvation
• It is a simple presentation of the gospel of inner
cultivation of right spiritual attitudes, coupled
with a self-imposed discipline whereby bodily
desires would be channeled in the right
directions.
• Gautama was convinced that the way of escape
from pain and misery lay in the transformation of
one's mind and that liberation could come only
with a sloughing off of all vain clinging to the
things of this life, Buddha set about sharing his
discovery with anyone who would listen
• life is full of suffering;
• suffering is caused by passionate desires, lusts,
cravings;
• only as these are obliterated, will suffering cease;
• such eradication of desire may be accomplished
only by following the Eightfold Path of earnest
endeavor.

Four Noble Truths

• right belief in and acceptance of the "Fourfold Truth";
• right aspiration for one's self and for others;
• right speech that harms no one; (4) right conduct,
motivated by goodwill toward all human beings;
• right means of livelihood, or earning one's living by
honorable means;
• right endeavor, or effort to direct one's energies toward
wise ends;
• right mindfulness in choosing topics for thought; and
• right meditation, or concentration to the point of complete
absorption
in mystic ecstasy

Eightfold path
• 1st and 2nd enjoin us to develop wisdom
• 3-5 urge us to practice virtue and avoid vice
• 6-8 tell us to practice meditation
• We do this essentially by following three short
axioms: cease to do evil, learn to do good, and
purify your own mind. (Velasquez, 1999)
• The way to salvation, lies through self-abnegation,
rigid discipline of mind and body, a consuming
love for all living creatures, and the final
achievement of that state of consciousness which
marks an individual's full preparation for entering
the Nirvana (enlightened wisdom) of complete
selflessness.

• In this state, the effects of the Law of Cause and

Effect (Karma) are overcome; the Cycle of Rebirth
is broken; and one may rest in the calm assurance
of having attained a heavenly bliss that will stretch
into all eternity.
• Refrain from destroying life;
• Refrain from taking what is not given;
• Refrain from a misuse of the senses;
• •Refrain from wrong speech (do not lie or
deceive); and
• Refrain from taking drugs or drinks that tend
cloud the mind

Thoughts to ponder
• The Buddha insisted that no one accepts his
teaching merely out of reverence for him, but that
each human being subjects the teaching to
rigorous reflection and analysis and accept it only
after all doubts and perplexities are overcome
(Puligandla 2007).
• God exists as a theistic hypothesis
• This means that we shall ask whether or not the
existence of God provides the best explanation of
the existence of the world, as we know it.

C. The Biblical God and

Humanity
• St. Augustine (354-430 CE), philosophy is
“Amor sapiental,” the love of wisdom aim is to
produce happiness
• Wisdom is not just an abstract logical
construction; but it is substantially the Logos.
• It is the love of God; it is religious
• For St. Thomas Aquinas, human beings have the
unique power to change themselves and things
for the better
• He considers the human being as moral agent
• We are both spiritual and body elements; the
spiritual and material.
• Our spirituality separates us from animals; it
differentiates moral dimension of our fulfillment
in action.
• Through our spirituality, we have a conscience.
• Whether we choose to be "good" or "evil"
becomes our responsibility
• Experiences of felt sense of being in tune with
the mystery of our own being and the mystery of
life that transcends us (Edwards, 1983)

Evaluate Own Limitations

and the Possibilities for
Transcendence
• When we forgive, we are freed from our anger
and bitterness because of the actions and/or
words of another.
• The hardness of our heart is reinforced by whole
series of rational arguments

A. Forgiveness
• For every perfection in every single flower; for a
hug, for every sunrise and sunset; for a chance to
eat together as a family
• We need to offer praise as experiences touch us
deeply and the human heat is spontaneously
lifted

B. The Beauty of Nature

• To be invulnerable is somehow inhuman. To be
vulnerable is to be human.
• We need to acknowledge the help of other people
in our lives
• Moments of poverty and dependence on others
are not a sign of weakness but being true with
ourselves.

C. Vulnerability
• Our failures force us to confront our weaknesses
and limitations
• Acceptance of our failures makes us hope and
trust that all can be brought into good.
• Even if we have sinned, there is hope and
forgiveness.

D. Failure
• The commonality of our loneliness can be rooted
from our sense of vulnerability and fear of death.
However, 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
• With our loneliness, we can realize that our
dependence on others is a possessiveness we can
be free from

E. Loneliness
• To love is to experience richness, positivity, and
transcendence
• Life is full of risks, fears and commitment, pain
and sacrificing and giving up thing/s we want for
the sake of the one we love.
• In a Buddhist view, the more we love, the more
risks and fears there are in life (Aguilar 2010)

F. Love
Recognize the Human
Body Imposes Limits and
Possibilities for
Transcendence
• According to Hindus, Everything in this life is a
consequence of actions performed in previous
existence. Only by building up a fine record, or
"karma," can final salvation be achieved.
• For the Jains, there is nothing mightier in the
world than karma; karma tramples down all
powers, as an elephant to a clump of lotuses
(Puligandla 2007).

A. Hinduism:
Reincarnation and Karma
NIRVANA
• The state in which one is absolutely free from all
forms of bondage and attachment
• It means to overcome and remove the cause of
suffering
• the state of perfect insight into the nature of
existence
• One who has attained nirvana has perfect
knowledge, perfect peace, and perfect wisdom
(Aguilar, 2010)

B. Buddhism: Nirvana
• The Buddha’s silence is due to his awareness that
Nirvana is a state that transcends every mundane
experience and hence cannot be talked about.
• One attains wisdom, one desires nothing for
himself but always works for the well-being and
liberation of his fellow humans.
• Nirvana is beyond the sense, language, and
thought (Puligandla 2007).
• Wisdom consists in treading the Middle Way –
avoiding the extreme of asceticism; inactivity;
and indifference on the one hand and that of
frantic activity and mindless pursuit of pleasure
on the other.
• The nirvanic man is the true follower of the
Buddha. (Puligandla, 2007)
• For St. Augustine, physically we are free, yet
morally bound to obey the law
• The Eternal law is God Himself, statin g that
humanity must do well and avoid evil, hence, the
existence of moral obligation in every human
being

C. St. Augustine and St. Thomas

Aquinas: Will and Love
• Through prayer, modesty, fasting, and other
sound measures that the Church recommends, or
God provides, can purity of heart, mind, and
body be maintained and daily lived (Johnston
2006).
• For St. Augustine, though we are physically free,
one does not have a right to do anything if it is
not morally right or if one will hurt another.
• God has given us a choice to discern between
right and wrong though we are often ignorant in
this manner unless we are wholly sincere, honest,
and pure (Johnston 2006).
HUMAN PEOPLE IN THE
ENVIRONMENT
1. ANTHROPOCENTRIC MODEL
• the belief that considers human beings to be the
most significant entity of the universe and
interprets or regards the world in terms of human
values and experiences.
• humans are superior and central to the universe

Concepts on the
Environment
• It suggests that humans have greater intrinsic
value than other species. A possible result of this
attitude is that any species that are of potential
use to humans are a “resource” to be exploited.
• It is the belief that humans are the height of the
natural evolutionary progression of species and
of life.
2. ECOCENTRIC MODEL
• a philosophy or perspective that places intrinsic
value on all living organisms and their natural
environment, regardless of their perceived
usefulness or importance to human beings.
• According to Payne (2009), classrooms cannot
set aside the importance of aesthetics as well as
the environment that suggests valuing
• 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.
• Not only should we value the concepts of other
people but to consider carefully, the moral,
ethical, political, cultural and ecological realities
of where we are situated in.
• The domination of humanity is linked to the
domination of nature based on the
anthropocentric model.
• An unfair or unjust utilization of the environment
result to ecological crisis.
• Human arrogance toward nature is justifiable in
order to satisfy human interests.
• Humans adopt an exploitative attitude whenever
nature is merely considered as an instrument for
one's profit or gain.

DISORDER IN THE UNIVERSE

• Current researches by Zimmerman (1 994), Elgin
(2009), and Pettman (2012) exposed the
environmental consequence of international
politico- economic specialization for specific
countries and global regions
• Research also shows the implications for both
abuses of natural resources and of the generation
of waste and emissions.
• Studies reveal that the higher the income, there is
a substantial change in consumption patterns,
which result to higher Carbon Footprint
1. Construction
2. Shelter
3. Food
4. Clothing
5. Mobility
6. Manufactured goods
7. Services
8. Trade

Categories of Carbon
Footprint
 2011 Per Capita
2011 Total Carbon
Carbon Dioxide
Dioxide Emissions
2011 Total Emissions from the
from the
Emissions Country Country Consumption of
Consumption of
Rank Energy (Metric Tons
Energy (Million
of Carbon Dioxide
Metric Tons)
per Person)
1. China 8715.31 6.52
2. United States 5490.63 17.62
3. Russia 1788.14 12.55
4. India 1725.76 1.45
5. Japan 1180.62 9.26
6. Germany 748.49 9.19
7. Iran 624.86 8.02
8. South Korea 610.95 12.53
9. Canada 552.56 16.24
10. Saudi Arabia 513.53 19.65
• It is the impact of human activities measured in
terms of the area of biologically productive land
and water required to produce the goods
consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated
• It is the amount of the environment necessary to
produce the goods and services necessary to
support a particular lifestyle

Ecological Footprint
• It capita is a nation's total Ecological Footprint divided by
the total population of the nation.
• To live within the means of our planet's resources, the
world's Ecological Footprint would have to equal the
available bio capacity per person on our planet – 1.7 local
hectares

Ecological Footprint per

Capita
 Biocapacity
Ecological Population
Biocapacity deficit or
Rank Country Footprint (millions of
(gha/person) reserve
(gha/person) people)
(gha/person)

1 Luxembourg 15.82 1.68 -14.14 0.52

2 Aruba 11.88 0.57 -11.31 0.1

3 Qatar 10.8 1.24 -9.56 2.05

4 Australia 9.31 16.57 7.26 23.05

5 United States 8.22 3.76 -4.46 317.5

6 Canada 8.17 16.01 7.83 34.84

7 Kuwait 8.13 0.55 -7.58 3.25

8 Singapore 7.97 0.05 -7.92 5.3

United
9 7.93 0.56 -7.37 9.206
Kingdom
Trinidad and
10 7.92 1.56 -6.36 1.34
Tobago
 Biocapacity
Ecological Population
Biocapacity deficit or
Rank Country Footprint (millions of
(gha/person) reserve
(gha/person) people)
(gha/person)
179 Rwanda 0.87 0.54 -0.32 11.46
Congo,
Democratic
180 0.82 3.07 2.25 65.7
Republic of
the
181 Malawi 0.81 0.66 -0.15 15.91

182 Burundi 0.8 0.32 -0.48 9.85

183 Afghanistan 0.79 0.5 -0.3 29.82

184 Pakistan 0.79 0.35 -0.44 179.16

185 Bangladesh 0.72 0.38 -0.35 154.7

186 Haiti 0.61 0.27 -0.34 10.17

187 Timor-Leste 0.48 1.78 1.3 1.11

• The Ecocentric model in contrast, puts the
ecosystem first and assumes that the natural
world has intrinsic value.
• Humans have a responsibility toward the land.
However, because of the anthropocentric attitude,
humanity claims ownership or authority over
land.
• For the ecocentric model, instead, love, respect,
admiration for nature, and a high regard for its
value is essential.
• Accordingly, humanity needs to develop an
"ecological conscience" based on individual
responsibility.
• Ecologists Challenge us to adopt a lifestyle that
involves simple living that honors the right of all
life forms to live, flourish, and create a rich
diversity of human and nonhuman life.
• For ecologists, the right to live and blossom
should not just be for human beings but must be
valid to all forms of life. This belief stems from
an awareness of our dependence to other forms of
life, not a master-slave relationship.
• In 2004, indigenous grandmothers, representing
tribes from the Arctic Circle, Nepal, and Tibet,
held a meeting to be able to preserve their
community. They have committed themselves to
form an alliance that will embrace prayer,
education, and healing for our Mother Earth, for
all her inhabitants and for the future generations.
• The 2007 United Nation's Declaration grants the
indigenous people "the right to conservation,
restoration, and protection of the total
environment and the productive capacity of their
lands, territories, and resources, as well as the
assistance for this purpose from States and
through international cooperation. “The
relationship of the indigenous people with the
environment is, thus, spiritually and materially
strengthened (Ramiscal 2013).
THOUGHTS ABOUT NATURE
AND THE UNIVERSE
• The Milesians, regarded Nature as spatially without
boundaries, that is, as infinite or indefinite in extent
• Anaximander, employed the term "boundless“ conveying
the thought that nature is indeterminate in the sense that
no boundaries the warm and cold or the moist and dry
regions are originally present within it (Solomon &
Higgins, 2010)

A. Ancient Thinkers
Pythagoras
• described the universe as living embodiment of nature's
order, harmony, and beauty
• He sees our relationship with the universe involving
biophilia (love of other living things) and cosmophilia
(love of other living beings).
• The Chinese cosmic conception is based on the
assumption that all that happens in the universe is
a continuous whole like a chain of natural
consequences
• All events in the universe follow a transitional
process due to the primeval pair, the yang and the
yin.
• The universe does not proceed onward but
revolves without beginning or end.
Immanuel Kant
• In his third critique, Critique of Judgment, he
expresses that beauty is ultimately a symbol of
morality (Kant, 1997)
• According to Kant, we must ignore any practical
motives or inclinations that we have and instead
contemplate the object without being distracted
by our desires (Goldblatt & Brown 2010).

B. Modern Thinkers
• The beautiful encourage us to believe that nature
and humanity are part of an even bigger design.
• Kant believes that the orderliness of nature and
the harmony of nature with our faculties guide us
toward a deeper religious perspective. It is a
sense of cosmic harmony.
George Herbert Mead/Herbert
Marcuse
• Understanding our relationship with the
environment can also refer to the human beings
with ecology and nature
• For Herbert Marcuse, humanity had dominated
nature. There can only be change if we will
change our attitude towards our perception of the
environment
• for Mead, as human beings, we do not have only
rights but duties. We are not only citizens of the
community but how we react to this community
and in our reaction to it, change it.
SHOW THAT CARE FOR THE
ENVIRONMENT CONTRIBUTES TO
HEALTH, WELL BEING , AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• Ecological crisis is an outcome of
anthropocentrism
• The controlling attitude of humankind is
extended to nature, wherein humanity is part of
nature.
• Deep ecologists encourage humanity to shift
away from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism

A. Deep Ecology
• Ecological crisis results from authoritarian social
structures
• It is a reflection wherein few people overpower
others while exploiting the environment for profit
or self-interest.
• Social ecologists call for small-scale societies,
which recognize that humanity is linked with the
well-being of the natural world in which human
life depends.

B. Social Ecology
• Argues that ecological crisis is a consequence of male
dominance
• Whatever is "superior" is entitled to whatever is "inferior
• Male traits as in the anthropocentric model are superior as
opposed to female traits as in the ecocentric model.
• Domination works by forcing the other to conform to
what is superior.
• Nature must be tamed, ordered, and submit to the will of
the superior.
• For the adherents of this view, freeing nature and
humanity means removing the superior vs. inferior in
human relations.

C. Ecofeminism
• It values the care, conservation, preservation of
nature and humanity.
• Erich Fromm (2013), believes that it is about
time that humanity ought to recognize not only
itself but also the world around it
• As human beings, our biological urge for survival
turns into selfishness and laziness.
• The human desire to experience union with
others is one of the strongest motivators of
human behavior and the other is the desire for
survival. Both of which, follows that the social
structure, its values and norms, decides which of
the two becomes dominant.
• Cultures that foster the greed for possession are
rooted in one human potential. Cultures that
foster being and sharing are rooted in the other
potential
• Fromm (2013) proposed a new society that
should encourage the emergence of a new human
being that will foster prudence and moderation or
frugality toward environment.

DEMONSTRATE THE VIRTUES

OF PRUDENCE AND FRUGALITY
1. The willingness to give up all forms of having,
in order to fully be.
2. Being fully present where one is.
3. Trying to reduce greed, hate, and illusions as
much as one is capable.
4. Making the full growth of oneself and of one's
fellow beings as the supreme goal of living.

Functions of Fromm’s
Envisioned Society
5. Not deceiving others, but also not being
deceived by others; one may be called innocent,
but not naive.
6. Freedom that is not arbitrariness but the
possibility to be oneself, not as a bundle of greedy
desires, but as a delicately balanced structure that
at any moment is confronted with the alternatives
of growth or decay, life or death.
FREEDOM FROM THE HUMAN
PERSON
Freedom
• It is identified with the aspects of intellectual,
political, spiritual and economic
• To be free is a part of humanity’s authenticity
• understanding freedom is part of transcendence
• It consists of going beyond situations such as
physical or economic.
REALIZE THAT ALL ACTIONS
HAVE CONSEQUENCES
• The imperative quality of judgment of practical
intellect is meaningless, apart from will.
• Reason can legislate, but only through will can
its legislation be translated into action.
• The task of practical intellect is to guide will by
enlightening it.
• Will is to be understood wholly in terms of
intellect for there is no intellect if there is no will
• The will of humanity is an instrument of free
choice

A. Aristotle
• inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or
wrong;
• the common testimony of all human beings;
• the rewards and punishment of rulers; and
• the general employment of praise and blame.

Will is borne out by:

• Moral acts are in our power and we are
responsible for them. Character or habit is no
excuse for immoral conduct.
• For Aristotle, a human being is rational.
• Reason is a divine characteristic
• Humans have the spark of the divine
• REASON, WILL, AND ACTION DRIVE
EACH OTHER
• Of all creatures of God, human beings have the
unique power to change themselves and the things
around them for the better
• St. Thomas Aquinas considers the human being as
a moral agent, being both a spiritual and body
elements; the spiritual and material
• The unity between both elements indeed helps us
to understand our complexity as human beings.

B. St. Thomas of Aquinas:

Love is Freedom
• Our spirituality separates us from animals; it
delineates moral dimension of our fulfillment in
an action
• Through our spirituality, we have a conscience.
• Whether we choose to be "good" or "evil"
becomes our responsibility.
• A human being, therefore, has a supernatural,
transcendental destiny, rising above his ordinary
self to a highest self
• If a human being perseveringly lives a righteous
and virtuous life, he transcends his mortal state of
life and soars to an immortal
• The power of change, however, cannot be done
by human beings alone, but is achieved through
cooperation with God.
• Between humanity and God, there is an infinite
gap, which God alone can bridge through His
power.
• Perfection by participation here means that it is a
union of humanity with God.
• Change should promote not just any purely
private advantage, but the good of the
community.
• the eternal law,
• natural law,
• human law, and
• divine law.

Fourfold Classification of
Law
Natural Law
• applies only to human beings
• good is to be sought after and evil avoided
(instruct of self-preservation).
• There is inherent in every human being an
inclination that he shares with all other beings,
namely, the desire to conserve human life and
forbids the contrary.
• The law looks to the common good as its end, it
is then conceived primarily with external acts
and not with interior disposition.
• For Aquinas, both natural and human laws are
concerned with ends determined simply by
humanity's nature
• However, human being is ordained to an end
transcending his nature, it is necessary that he has
a law ordering him to that end, and this is the
divine law or revelation.
Divine Law
• deals with interior disposition as well as external
acts and it ensures the final punishment of all
evildoing
• gives human beings the certitude where human
reason unaided could arrive only at possibilities
• divided into old (Mosaic) and the new
(Christian) that are related as the immature and
imperfect to the perfect and complete.
Eternal Law
• the decree of God that governs all creation
• It is "That Law which is the Supreme Reason
cannot be understood to be otherwise than
unchangeable and eternal.
• For Aristotle, the purpose of a human being is to be
happy
• To be one, one has to live a virtuous life – to
develop to the full their powers—rational, moral,
social, emotional, and physical here on earth.
• For St. Thomas, human is to be happy that is
perfect happiness that everyone seeks but could be
found only in God alone
• St. Thomas wisely and aptly chose and proposed
Love rather than to bring about the
transformation of humanity
• Love is in Consonance with humanity's free
nature, for Law commands and complete; Love
only calls and invites.
• He also emphasizes the freedom of humanity but
chooses love in governing humanity's life
• Since God is Love, then Love is the guiding
principle of humanity toward his self-perception
and happiness his ultimate destiny.
• He establishes the existence of God as a first cause
• Of all God's creations, human beings have the
unique Power to change themselves and things
around them for the better
• As humans, we are both material and spiritual,
have conscience because of our spirituality.
• God is Love and Love is our destiny

C. St. Thomas of Aquinas:

Spiritual Freedom
• The human person is the desire to be God
• the desire to exist as a being which has its sufficient
ground in itself (en sui causa)
• The human person builds the road to the destiny of
his/her choosing; he/she is the creator (Srathern 1998).

D. Jean Paul Sartre:

Individual Freedom
• The person, first, exists, encounters himself and
surges up in the world then defines himself
afterward. The person is nothing else but that what
he makes of himself.

• The person is provided with a supreme opportunity

to give meaning to one's life. In the course of
giving meaning to one's life, one fills the world
with meaning.

Principle of Sartre’s
Existentialism
• Freedom is, therefore, the very core and the door
to authentic existence. Authentic existence is
realized only in deeds that are committed alone,
in absolute freedom and responsibility and
which, therefore, the character of true creation.

• The person is what one has done and is doing, On

the other hand, the human person who tries to
escape obligations and strives to be en-soi is
acting on bad faith (mauvais foi).
• Sartre emphasizes the importance of free
individual choice, regardless of the power of
other people to influence and coerce our desires,
beliefs and decisions. To be human, to be
conscious is to be free to imagine, free to choose
and to be responsible for one’s life
Law of Nature (lex naturalis)
• a precept or general rule established by reason,
by which a person is forbidden to do that which
is destructive of his life or takes away the means
of preserving the same; and to omit that by which
he thinks it may be best preserved.

E. Thomas Hobbes
• "The fundamental law of nature seeks peace and
follows it, while at the same time, by the sum of
natural right, we should defend ourselves by all
means that we can.”
• The laws of nature are unable to achieve the
desired end by themselves alone; that is, unless
there is coercive power able to enforce their
observance by sanctions
• Plurality of individuals should confer all their
power and strength upon one human being or
upon one assembly of human beings, which may
reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto
one will (Garvey 2006).
• Hobbes developed social in favor of absolute
monarchy
• Hobbes thinks that to end the continuous and
self-destructive condition of warfare, humanity
founded the state with its sovereign power of
control by means of a mutual consent
• Rousseau interpreted the idea of social contract
in terms of absolute democracy and
individualism.
• Rousseau and Hobbes believe that human beings
have to form a community or civil community to
protect themselves from one another, because the
nature of human beings is to wage war against
one another, and since by nature, humanity tends
toward self-preservation, then it follows that they
have to come to a free mutual agreement to
protect themselves

F. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Rousseau believes that a human being is born
free and good. But human has become bad due to
the evil influence of society, civilization,
learning, and progress. human being lost his
original goodness, his primitive tranquility of
spirit.
• In order to restore peace, he has t return to his
true self. He has to see the necessity and come to
form the state through the social contract
whereby everyone grants his individual rights to
the general will.
• The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
constituted, as an instance of a social contract
• This is an actual agreement and actually "signed"
by the people or their representatives (Solomon
& Higgins 1996).
• There must be a common power or government
which the plurality of individuals (citizens)
should confer all their powers and strength into
(freedom) one will (ruler).
• In the spirituality of imperfection, we learn to
accept that life, our environment, is both "evil"
and ' 'good."
• B.F. Skinner believes that morality is a
conditioned response impressed on the child by
society

Evaluate and Exercise

Prudence in Choices
• To be responsible is when one feels responsible
• There must be added awareness that humans did
it "independently," "of his own initiative“; having
knowledge about acting on one's own desires -
consciousness of freedom
• Plato believes, the soul of every individual
possesses the power of learning the truth and
living in a society that is in accordance to its
nature
• We are responsible, whether we admit it or not,
for what is in our power to do; and most of the
time, we cannot be sure what it is in our power to
do until we attempt.
Choices Have Consequences
and Some Things Are Given Up
while others Are Obtained in
Making Choices
• Twentieth century gave rise to the importance of
the individual
• Aristotle, Rand believes that thinking is
volitional
• A person has the freedom to think or not
• Individual rights were upheld in capitalism that is
the only system that can uphold and protect them.
• Individualism is lined in family dependency because
Easterners believe that the individual needs the
community and vice versa.
• In Filipino's loob, for instance, the individual is the
captain of his own ship on a sea that is not entirely
devoid of uncertainties.
• Filipinos' holistic and interior dimensions stress a
being-with-others and sensitivity to the needs of
others that inhibits one's personal and individual
fulfillment.
• It encompassed "give-and-take" relationship among
Filipinos. As such, repaying those who have helped
us is a manifestation of utang na loob or debt of
gratitude
• Self-sufficiency (kasarinlan) should recognize
human worth and dignity.

• The use of intermediaries or go-betweens, the

values of loyalty, hospitality, pakikisama
(camaraderie), and respect to authority are such
values that relate to persons.

• Filipino generally believes in the innate goodness

of the human being.
INTERSUBJECTIVITY
• the middle ground between objectivity and total
subjectivity
• encompasses multiple subjects and multiple
viewpoints, that are in themselves subjective, but
the combination of multiple viewpoints that point
to the same “truth” allows subjectivity to not be
completely subjective

Intersubjectivity
Realize that Intersubjectivity
Requires Accepting Differences
and Not to Imposed on Others
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla believed in the notion of
concrete experience/existence of the human person and
also think that one must not lose the sight of one's self in
concrete experience
• For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the human agent
• Participation explains the essence of the human person,
enabling to fulfill one’s self
• The human person is oriented toward relation and sharing
in the communal life for the common good.
• St. Augustine of Hippo said, "No human being
should become an end to him/herself. We are
responsible to our neighbors as we are to our own
actions."
• The human persons as subjects have direct and
mutual sharing of selves
• The human person is not just being-in-the-world
but being-with-others, or being-in-relation
Appreciate the Talents of Persons
with Disabilities (PWDs) and those
from the Underprivileged Sectors
of Society and Their Contributions
• Negative attitudes of the family and community
toward PWDs may add to their poor academic
and vocational outcomes
• decide to restructure certain aspects of their
lifestyle in order to accommodate the
communicative as well as the educational needs
of their child with disability
• Community sensitivity, through positive and
supportive attitudes toward PWDs, is also an
important component (Mapp 2004).

A. On PWD’s
• The notion of poverty is multi-dimensional
• Each of these dimensions has the common
characteristic of representing deprivation that
encompasses:
• Income; Health; Education; Empowerment;
Working condition

B. On Underprivileged
Sectors of the Society
• Jean Jacques Rousseau said that women should
be educated to please men.
• he believes that women should be useful to men,
should take care, advise, console men, and to
render" men's lives easy and agreeable
• Mary Wollstonecraft believes that women must
be united to men in wisdom and rationality.
Society should allow women to attain equal
rights to philosophy and education given to men

C. On the Rights of Women

THE HUMAN PERSON IN
SOCIETY
Recognize How Individuals Form
Societies and How Individuals Are
Transformed by Societies
• Philosophically, our totality, wholeness, or
"complete life," relies on our social relations
• Aristotle said that friends are two bodies with one
soul.
Different Forms of Societies and
Individualities (Agrarian,
Industrial, and Virtual)
• sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages (Solomon &
Higgins 1990)
• The way of life in the Middle Ages is called feudalism –
came from the Latin word, “feudum,” meaning “property
or possession”
• All peasants - men, women, and children worked to
support their lord
• Peasants had to pay taxes to their lord, in money or
produce.
• They had to give a tithe to the Church

A. Medieval Period (500-

1500 CE)
• Feudalism began to pass as commerce and towns
grow until it reached rising interests in artistic
and intellectual achievement in the Renaissance
period
• Amid the turmoil of the Middle Ages, the Roman
Catholic Church stood for the common good
• By the 13th century, the Church was the strongest
single influence in Europe.
• In all the schools, philosophy was taught in the
Latin language
• “Modern philosophy" is an attack on and a
rejection of the Middle Ages (Solomon &
Higgins 1996).
• It is an attack on the church that ruled those ages
and dictated its ideas.
• It is an attack on the very notion of authority

B. Modern Period (1500-

1800)
• Martin Luther initiates reformation with his 95 theses
at Wittenberg
• There was rejection of medieval but the
establishment of the "Protestant ethic" and the
beginnings of the modern capitalism
• European philosophers turning from supernatural to
natural or rational explanations of the world
• Discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and
Newton influenced the thinking of philosophers.
• Something about the terrible state of the world and
the seemingly interminable religious quarreling,
intolerance, and disorder that made modern
philosophy itself divide
• Rationalism was the predominant feature of the 17th
century
• The development of its philosophy could be traced from
the writings of Descartes (born in 1596) to Leibniz (who
died in 1716).
1. Naturalism
• nature is full of facts which conform fatally to
exact and irreversible law
• human beings live best under a strong,
benevolently dictatorial civil government.
• They adored the rigidity of geometrical methods;
they loved the study of the new physical science
2. Age of Empiricism
• turned curiously back to the study of the
wondrous inner world of humanity's soul
• Reflection is now more an inner study, an
analysis of the mind, than an examination of the
business of physical science
• Human reason is still the trusted instrument, but
it soon turns its criticism upon itself. It
distinguishes prejudices from axioms, fears
dogmatism, scrutinizes the pieces of evidence of
faith, suspects, or at best has consciously to
defend, even the apparently irresistible authority
of conscience
3. Critical Idealism
• it is the inner structure of the human spirit that
merely expresses itself in the visible nature about
us
• Also, during this period, the consequences of
Copernican revolution were many. Galileo,
convinced of the correctness of this new way of
seeing the world, invented the telescope. From then
on, the development of modern astronomy was
assured (Johnston 2006)
• It comprises the multilateral interactions among
global systems, local practices, transnational
trends, and personal lifestyles.
• The introduction of new inventions in science
eventually led to Industrial Revolution – a
movement in which machines changed people's
way of life as well as their methods of
manufacture

C. Globalization and
Technological Innovations
• the invention of machines in lieu of doing the
work of hand tools;
• the use of steam, and other kinds of power vis-a-
vis the muscles of human beings and of animals;
and
• the embracing of factory system.

Significant changes that brought about

the Industrial Revolution
• Computer is an assuming an increasingly central
place in scientific research and data processing
• Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer
science or “The study and design of Intelligent
agents” where an intelligent agent is a system that
perceives its environment and takes actions that
maximizes its chances of success
• Technology is exploited, it becomes easier for
those already wealthy to maintain their advantage
• For the first time in history, a universal pattern of
modernity is emerging from the wide diversity of
traditional values and institutions, and peoples of
all nations are confronted with the challenge of
defining their attitudes toward fundamental
changes that are worldwide in scope.

Explain How Human Relations Are

Transformed by Social Systems
• "Know thyself" is the main idea of Socrates of good
living
• "Knowledge is virtue; ignorance is vice”
• Ignorance, as opposite of knowledge, is the source of
evil.
• Humanity commits evil because people do not know any
better.

A. New Knowledge
• the Republic is to define "justice”
• Plato divided the citizens into three classes: (1) the
common people (artisan class); (2) the soldiers
(warriors); and (3) the guardians (rulers).
• As life has become more complex, the legal system
has also grown to the point where almost all human
activities come in contact with the law in one form or
another
• This integration of policy making has brought people
within states into an unprecedentedly closer
relationship and has resulted in a greater complexity
of social organization.

B. Policy Making
• mechanization of labor that has resulted in mass
production, the rapid growth in per capita productivity,
and an increasing division of labor.
• A greater quantity of goods has been produced during the
past century in the entire preceding period of human
history

C. Economic Sphere
• The process within each of the individual
societies has also been profoundly affected by the
point in time at which modernization has been
undertaken and by the pressures exerted by the
worldwide influence of the early modernizers.

D. Social Realm
• The more society is influenced by technology, the
more we need to consider the social, ethical and
technological, and scientific aspects of each
decision and choice (Germain 2000).
• The ability to evaluate the products of science and
technology in relation to culture and value, as well
as the aspiration of a nation, is important and needs
to be nurtured and developed through social and
cultural education

E. Technology
• The present era, humanity does not live
according to the natural cycles regulated by
natural rhythms anymore (Germanin 2000).
Instead it is govern by “second nature" that is an
artificial environment characterized by the results
of technology.
• Technology is the replacement of nature
• Human beings have separated themselves from
their cosmic relation and other realities
• modernization seems to be dominated by a
materialistic truth as opposed to a non-
materialistic one
• People have lost spiritual contact with other
people, with their environment, surrounding
nature, and with anything that has transcendental
characteristics.
• Science and Technology had become an ideology
• Science and technology is, in fact, in a broader
sense, the culture itself
HUMAN PERSONS ARE
ORIENTED TOWARD THEIR
IMPENDING DEATH
Recognize the Meaning of
One's Life
• Socrates has two different ways of teaching
• expository method that answers the student's direct or
implied questions, fills the void ignorance with
information, proceeds by analogy and illustration, or
clears the ground for exposition by demonstrating that
some of the beliefs hitherto held by the student are
irreconcilable with other beliefs or assumptions.
• His "tutorial" or well-known Socratic method is: (1) to
assess by questions the character of the student; and (2)
to set him problems, exhort him to reduce each
problem to its constituent elements, and criticize the
solutions that he offers.

A. Socrates
• Happiness according to Socrates, “ To be happy,
one has to live a virtuous life.”
• Virtue an awakening of the seeds of good deeds
that lay dormant in the mind and heart of a
person
• Knowing what is in the mind and heart of a
human being is achieved through self-knowledge
– practical knowledge
• Practical Knowledge means that one does not
only know the rules of right living, but one lives
them.
• happiness is impossible without moral virtue
• unethical actions harm the person who performs
them more than the people they victimize.
Although it is not totally clear

Socrates’ major ethical

claims:
• Socrates, thus, saw someone steeped in vice as
lacking the freedom, self-control, and intellectual
clarity that are needed to live happily

• The immoral person literally becomes a slave to

his desires.
• Contemplation in the mind of Plato means that
the mind is in communion with the universal and
eternal ideas.
• Human beings, therefore, are in constant
contemplation of the truth, since the things we
see here on earth are merely shadows (or
appearance) of the real truth (reality) in the world
of ideas; the good, since here on earth, the body
is inclined to evil things; the beauty, since the
things we see here on earth are not fair or foul to
others

B. Plato
• The body, for Plato, causes us turmoil and
confusion in our inquiries. Thus, to see the truth,
we must quit the body—the soul in itself must
behold things in themselves. Then, we shall attain
the wisdom we desire. Knowledge, however, can
be attained after death; for if while in the
company of the body, the soul cannot have pure
knowledge

Plato's Theory of
Immortality
• Aristotle's account of change calls upon actuality and
potentiality (Hare et al. 1991)
• For Aristotle, everything in nature seeks to realize
itself— to develop its potentialities and finally
realize its actualities
• A child strives to be an adult; a seed strives to be a
tree. It is the potentiality to be changing. Aristotle
called this process Entelechy, a Greek word “to
become its essence”
• Entelechy means that nothing happens by chance.
Nature not only has a built-in pattern, but also
different levels of being

C. Aristotle
• For the world of potential things to exist at all,
there must first be something actual (form) at a
level above potential or perishing things (matter).
• At the top of the scale is the Unmoved Mover
(God); pure actuality without any potentiality;
something that is actual motion and which is
moved by nothing external
• For Aristotle, the Unmoved Mover is eternal, immaterial,
with pure actuality or perfection, and with no potentiality.
• Eternal, it is the reason for and the principle of motion to
everything else
• The Unmoved Mover has neither physical body nor
emotional desires. Its main activity consists of pure
thought (Nous).
• Unmoved Mover thinks only of perfection, we can think
about perfection. However, because we are imperfect we
cannot think of perfection itself.
• According to Aristotle, the most pleasant activity for any
living creature is realizing its nature; therefore, the
happiest life for humans is thinking about the Unmoved
Mover (Price 2000).
Meaning of Life (Where
Will This Lead To?)
• Tragedy, according to Nietzsche, grew from his
unflinching recognition and the beautification,
even the idealization, of the inevitability of human
suffering (Johnston 2010)
• Our true existence is not our individual lives but
our participation in the drama of life and history
• Realizing one's "higher self” means fulfilling one's
loftiest vision, noblest ideal. On his way to the goal
of self-fulfillment

A. Friedrich Nietzsche
• The individual has to liberate himself from
environmental influences that are false to one's
essential beings, for the "unfree man" is "a
disgrace to nature'.'
• The free human being still has to draw a sharp
conflict between the higher self and the lower
self, between the ideal aspired to and the
contemptibly imperfect present
• Unless we do "become ourselves," life is
meaningless.
• total reality = phenomenal realm (highly
differentiated world of material objects in space
and time) + noumenal realm (single,
undifferentiated something that is spaceless,
timeless, non-material, beyond the reach of
causality) which is inaccessible to experience

B. Arthur Schopenhauer
• The noumenon cannot cause the phenomenon ––
so Schopenhauer concludes: the noumenon and
phenomenon are the same reality apprehended in
two different ways: the noumenon is the inner
significance, the true but hidden and inaccessible
being, of what we perceive outwardly as the
phenomenal world.
• Schopenhauer's ethics: humans are separate
physical objects in space and time, temporary
manifestations in the phenomenal world, of
something noumenal –– this implies that in the
ultimate ground of our being we are the same
something –– so the wrongdoer and the wronged
are in the last analysis the same –– this explains
compassion.
• Schopenhauer contends that all of life is suffering
caused by desire
• Our desires lead us to harm each other ultimately,
amounting harm to ourselves.
• The person who wickedly exerts his will against
others suffers too (Solomon & Higgins 1996)
• Human existence is exhibited in care
• Care is understood in terms of finite temporality,
which reaches with death.
• Death is a possibility that happens

C. Martin Heidegger
• Possibility. Humanity gets projected ahead of
itself. Entities that are encountered are
transformed merely as ready-to-hand for
serviceability and out of them. Humanity
constructs the instrumental world on the basis of
the persons' concerns.

Threefold structure of
care:
• Facticity. A person is not pure possibility but
factical possibility: possibilities open to him at
any time conditioned and limited by
circumstances. A person's situation as a finite
entity is thrown into a world where he/she must
project his/her possibilities not disclosed by
theoretical understanding but by moods.
• Fallenness. Humanity flees from the disclosure
of anxiety to lose oneself in absorption with the
instrumental world, or to bury oneself in the
anonymous impersonal existence of the mass,
where no one is responsible. Humanity has fallen
away from one's authentic possibility into an
authentic existence of irresponsibility and
illusory security. Inauthentic existence, thus, is
scattered and fragmented.
• Heidegger claims that only by living through the
nothingness of death in anticipation do one attain
authentic existence
• Death is non-transferable. An individual must die
himself alone (being-unto-death)
• Heidegger believes that death is not accidental,
nor should be analyzed. It belongs to humanity’s
facticity
• For Sartre, the human person desires be God; the
desire to exist as a being that has its sufficient
ground in itself (en sui causa).
• For an atheist, since God does not exist, the
human person must face the consequences of
this.
• The human person is entirely responsible for
his/her own existence.

D. Jean-Paul-Sartre
• En-soi (in itself) — signifies the permeable and
dense, silent and dead. From them comes no
meaning, they only are. The en-soi is absurd, it only
finds meaning only' through the human person, the
one and only pour-soi. the world only has meaning
according to

• pour-soi (for-itself) the world only has meaning

according to what the person gives to it. Compared
with' the en-soi, a person has no fixed nature. To put
it in a paradox: the human person is not what he/she
is.

Sartre’s dualism
• For Sartre, there is no way of coming to terms
with the other that does not end in frustration.
This explains why we experience failure to
resolve social problems from hatred, conflict and
strife
• resolutely opposed Nazism.
• He concluded that caution must be exercised in
assigning collective responsibility since this
notion has no sense from either the judicial,
moral, or metaphysical point of view (Falikowski
2004)
• His philosophy places the person's temporal
existence in the face of the transcendent God, an
absolute imperative
• Transcendence relates to us through limit-
situation (Grenzsituation).

E. Karl Jaspers
• Freedom reveals itself as a gift from somewhere
beyond itself.
• Freedom without God only leads to a person’s
searching for a substitute to God closer to
oneself, usually, he himself tries to be God.
• Jaspers asked that human beings be loyal to their
own faiths without impugning the faith of others
• Philosophy's starting point is a metaphysical
"disease.
• secondary reflection – process in which the
search for a home in the wilderness, a harmony in
disharmony, takes place

F. Gabriel Marcel
• Primary Reflection – this method looks at the
world or at any object as a problem, detached
from the self and fragment. This is the foundation
of scientific knowledge. Subject does not enter
into the object investigated. The data of primary
reflection lie in the public domain and are equally
available to any qualified observer

Marcel's Phenomenological
Method
• Secondary Reflection – Secondary reflection is
concrete, individual, heuristic, and open. This
reflection is concerned not with object but with
presences. It recaptures the unity of original
experience. It does not go against the date of
primary reflection but goes beyond it by refusing
to accept the data of primary reflection as final.
• This reflection is the area of the mysterious
because we enter into the realm of the personal.
What is needed in secondary reflection is an
ingathering, a recollection, a pulling together of
the scattered fragments of our experience.