INTRODUCTION TO THE

PHILOSOPHY OF THE
HUMAN PERSON
Presented by:
Danilo C. Siquig Jr.
 Core Subject Description
 An initiation to the activity and process of
philosophical reflection as a search for a
synoptic vision of life. Topics to be
discussed include the human experiences
of embodiment, being in the world with
others and the environment, freedom,
intersubjectivity, sociality, being unto
death.
 Course Objectives
At the end of the course, the student should be able
to:
1. Reflecton their daily experiences from a holistic
point of view
2. Acquire critical and analytical thinking skills
3. Applytheir critical and analytical thinking skills to
the affairs of daily life
4. Become truthful, environment-friendly and service
oriented
5. Actively
committed to the development of a more
humane society
 Requirements
1.Recitation
2.Attendance
3.Activities
4.Assignments
5.Quizzes
6.Reflection Papers
7.Performance Task
 Reflection Papers
1. Short bond paper
2. 1” margins on all sides
3. Verdana
4. 1.5 spacing
5. Personal pronouns (I, ME, MY)
 Nature of philosophy
The word philosophy was coined from
the Greek “philein’ which means to love
and “ Sophia” which means wisdom.
Pythagoras and Heraclitus, called
themselves philosophers or lovers of
wisdom only. ( because accordingly only
the gods are wise.
 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.
Philosophy is a science:

Itis not based on mere opinions or

theories or hypotheses, but is
certain knowledge derived from
reasoned demonstration of causes
and reduced to a system.
Science of being:

Science of all things, this

includes man, world, God
and everything that exists.
Science of reason:

A reason is that by means

of which, a thing is
known and can be
understood
cause

A cause is that which

contributes in some positive
manner toward the
production of thing.
principle

A principle is that
from which
something proceeds
Philosophy vs. other sciences

The other sciences give the proximate

causes of things, while
Philosophy searches for the ultimate
reasons and causes and principles.
Major branches of philosophy
1. Logic – is t he science of inferential thinking and correct reasoning.
This covers the study of ideas and terms, judgment and proposition,
reasoning and syllogism.
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.
3. Psychology – is the science of animate mobile beings as such:
especially man, his nature attributes, and operations. This covers the
concept of life and its operations, the soul, sensation and appetition,
intellection and volition
4. 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.
5. Theodicy – is the science of the nature, existence, essence,
attributes and operations of god.
6. Epistemology – is the science which examines the truth
value or validity of human knowledge
7. Ethics – is the science of the morality of human acts as
ordained to the final end.
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.
 Socrates
Man and Virtue

Since knowledge is inborn, virtue likewise is natural endowment,

not an artificial convention or habit of action to be acquired by
education.
Virtue may indeed be taught, but this is to be understood not as
introducing something foreign to the mind but rather as merely
awakening the seeds of good deeds that perhaps lie dormant in the
mind and heart of mind.
Since virtue is inborn in the mind and self knowledge is the source
of all wisdom, then the only way to acquire virtue is simply to
know what is in the mind, in the self.
 Virtue then depended on knowledge could be defined as
true knowledge of one’s self. “knowledge is virtue,
ignorance is vice’
 True knowledge according to Socrates includes with it
the application of this knowledge. This means that
knowledge should not be merely theoretical or
speculative, it should be practical.
 True knowledge is wisdom which in turn means virtue.
EVIL – is the result of ignorance, the opposite of
knowledge. A man does evil because he does not know any
better, or that his knowledge is imperfect or inadequate.
 PLATO
Man in his present earthly existence, is only an imperfect copy
of his real original self, the perfect man, in the realm of ideas.
By knowing and constantly recalling his former self and his
perfections and by constant imitation of his ideal exemplar by
the practice of virtue, man can regain his perfection which he
lost during his long earthly exile and his imprisonment in the
body as punishment for sin.
Man’s perfection consists in constant recollection and imitation
of his former perfect self.
 Idealism was fathered and fostered by Plato, emphasized on
the idea behind the things that we see. The individual things
that we perceive, exist in space-time. These are not real
since they change, pass in and out of existence. It is the idea
behind these changeable, individual and finite things that
alone is real.
 The individual men that we know and see are, in this sense
not real since they come and go. They re only the external
manifestations, the reflections and replicas of the unseen
universal, immutable an eternal idea.
 Originally, man existed as a pure mind, an ideal man, with all
his pristine genuine perfections as a perfect man in the realm
of ideas.