MAN AS KNOWING Subject and Object

Flow of the Whole Chapter. Subject knows the object. – active voice

 Phenomenology of Knowledge by William A. Luijpen OSA Object is known by the subject. – passive voice
 Fidelity to Truth by Robert O. Johann
 Cognitional Structure by Bernard Lonergan SJ
I. EXPLICITATION: Expression of Knowledge
Pre-reflective Consciousness. What is it really to know what
These three contributors/authors discussed these in depth and we
knowing is without being able to express this knowledge?
shall also hereafter discuss them in depth.
 ONE KNOWS WHAT IT IS TO KNOW BUT UNAWARE
PHENOMENOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
OF HIS ACT OF KNOWING
What is it to know?  WE TEND TO FOCUS ON THE OBJECT OF KNOWING
(What is knowing?) BUT OMIT THE ACT OF KNOWING ITSELF.
How can we know that we know what we know?  When we know something, it ends there.
(What is Truth?)
 When we know knowing (what it is to know), we are equipped
with infinite potentials to know vast amount of knowledge.
Objective
 When we know how to explicitate, we can disclose what the
1. Know knowing things themselves have to tell us.
 Consciousness is called reflective when I pass from being-in-
2. Verification of knowledge: Truth the-presence to placing-myself-in-the-presence.
WHAT IS KNOWING? WHAT IS TRUTH?  Thus, it is called pre-reflective consciousness for nothing was in
the mind before. This is the preliminary stage to knowledge.
- “Knowing” in the phenomenological approach leads us to the Knowledge is when one places-himself-in-the-presence
primordial insight of the intentionality of consciousness:
- CONSCIOUSNESS IS CONSCIOUSNESS OF SOMETHING Being-in-the-presence = not yet knowledge, thus it could not yet be
OTHER THAN CONSCIOUSNESS ITSELF. expressed.
- What is this something? The phenomena. The appearance. Placing-myself-in-the-presence = consciousness of knowledge.
- HUMAN KNOWING IS THE DIALECTICAL UNITY OF One is able to express
THE SUBJECT’S OPENNESS TO REALITY AND THE
SELF-GIVENNESS OF REALITY IN AN ENDLESS BUT Importance of Pre reflective Consciousness - It should be clear that
UNIFIED SERIES OF PROFILES AND AGAINST THE philosophical thought begins with it and even at first is nothing else
HORIZON OF OTHER POSSIBLE OBJECTS. than expressing what we may now call in the most general way “life.”
 Life being-in-the-world is a conscious-being-in-the-world. all the implicit assumption regarding knowledge which are current
among specialists in positive sciences.
Unlike things, most especially inanimate ones, they are mere beings-in-
the-world without consciousness. |THE INTERCOURSE OF MIND AND REALITY

|Life: irreflechi PROCESS: Perception

As being in the world, life is still irreflechi (thoughtless, unthinking) RESULT: Knowledge

Philosophizing = Grasping for LIFE I HAVE TO PLACE MYSELF IN PERCEPTION AS IT IN REALITY

OCCURS AND GIVE EXPRESSION TO IT. THIS IS POSSIBLE
Knowledge as Explicitation BECAUSE THE PERCEPTION-OF-SOMETHING IS NOT
CONCEALED FROM ME, FOR I AM CONSCIOUS OF IT.
In Explicitation there is nothing to be demonstrated. All I can do is
indicate. I can only “catch” that to which I am present and give PERCEPTION IS PERCEIVING CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE
expression to it. WORLD, BUT AT THE SAME TIME PERCEPTION-
CONSCIOUSNESS.
Upon transcending from the state of being-in-the-presence to
placing-myself-in-the-presence, explicitation is possible. Subject knows the object – Active voice

Circular Procedure PERCEIVING CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE WORLD

The so-called circular procedure of explicitation is the expression of Object is known by the subject – Passive voice
what man himself is in his essential structure—namely, a being PERCEPTION-CONSCIOUSNESS
which in its being-in-the-world always aims at its “TO BE” itself, a
being whose “to be” is consciousness of being. It is from this THE PERCEPTION OF SOMETHING BELONGS TO, WHAT
consciousness, which he himself is, that the philosopher has to start. WE HAVE CALLED PREVIOUSLY, THE “IRREFLECHI,” OF
There is no other starting point outside the consciousness of his WHICH I POSSESS A “LIVED EXPERIENCE.” REFLECTION ON
existence there is nothing but concealedness with respect to both the PERCEPTION MEANS THAT I PLACE MYSELF IN THE
subject pole and the object pole. PRESENCE OF PERCEPTION TO WHICH I AM PRESENT, THAT I
“CATCH IT, AND GIVE EXPRESSION TO IT.
II. Phenomenology and the Nature of Knowledge
A. INTENTIONALITY
Knowledge is the object of our inquiry. We want to discover its
true nature. To attain this goal, it is necessary, however, to place Consciousness is never wrapped up in itself
“between brackets” all kinds of theories about knowledge. Both
Consciousness is never the consciousness of consciousness itself but
idealistic and empiricist theories are provisionally set aside as well as always of that which is not consciousness itself.
Consciousness is consciousness of something other than consciousness PROFILE
itself.
-The aspect that is seen on the thing from the viewpoint of a subject.
Consciousness is intercourse with reality
UNITY
The object of consciousness is always the reality.
-The totality of the entire field of perception.
Perceiving consciousness is a being-with-reality, and without
reality, something which the mind would perceive, perception is not HORIZON
perception but dreaming or imagining. -The background where the thing lies.
B. NOESIS AND NOEMA REAL PERCEPTION
||Consciousness is not pure passivity -IF IT IS SEEN FROM A VIEWPOINT CONSEQUENTLY SEEING A
PROFILE FROM THE THING, CONSIDERING THE ENTIRETY OF
Without perceiving consciousness, things are nothing-for-man.
THE FIELD WHERE IT IS PLACED AMONG THE HORIZON IT
||Dialectic unity of Noesis and Noema LIES.

Noesis = The perceiving/act of consciousness = Subject =Knower III. IMAGE OF KNOWLEDGE

Noema = The perceived = Object =Known ||SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE WORLD-FOR-MAN

KNOWLEDGE is, on the one hand, the wonderful mystery of Man becomes himself when the world is for man.
man’s openness to reality and, on the other, is the mystery of reality’s-
“Man realizes himself, achieves his being-a-person, answers his
being-for-man
vocation, advances toward his destiny, when through his creative
I FIND THINGS; THEY ARE GIVEN TO ME. cultural activity, he makes the world a dwelling place for man.”

||Phenomenology MAN, who has SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS places-oneself-in-the-

presence, therefore, has the ability to know.
PHENOMENOLOGY IS A PHILOSOPHY OF ENCOUNTER
WORLD is a WORLD-FOR-MAN when man is “himself”—when we
C. VIEWPOINT, PROFILE, UNITY, and HORIZON: say himself, we mean to say he is truly conscious not only of himself
CONDITIONS OF REAL PERCEPTION but also of the world outside his consciousness thus making this world
a “part” of himself and therefore, could rightly be regarded as
VIEWPOINT
“HOME”
-The place, perspective, or attitude where the subject perceives
The result is SUBJECTIVITY OF OBJECTIVITY= WORLD WHAT IS THE SUBJECT-I? It is known through a retroverting act.
BECOMES A “SUBJECT” IN LIGHT OF A KNOWER THUS
THE ORIGIN AND TERMINUS
BECOMING PROPER TO MAN.
When I wash myself
The object that is known “exists” dependently on the When I correct myself
knowing of the subject (man). When I hate myself
I MYSELF
The subject that knows “exists” dependently on the known,
the object (revealing). ORIGIN: IT IS IN THIS “I” THESE ACTIVITIES FIND THEIR
ORIGIN
X Object only TERMINUS: IT IS IN THIS “I” THESE ACTIVITES FIND THEIR
END.
X Subject only
● The origin of acts is the same identical I, but, let us admit the
√ Subject + Object = Being fact of the plurality of termini, i.e., the receiver or the goal of the
THE WORLD IS CONSCIOUS BECAUSE ITS PART, MAN, IS action that I do to myself is not my “self” but a part of me.
CONSCIOUS RECONCILIATION OF PLURALITY OF TERMINI
Image of knowledge THEY ARE NOT PURELY A PLURALITY, FOR HEAD,
 Creative Cultural – for through it, there arises a world-for- MISTAKES, MISDEEDS, CAPACITIES, ETC, ARE
man, a world having a possibility of affective value and MINE
meaning for man TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF EGO
 Immanent act – by which knowledge primarily perfects  SUBJECT-EGO – Identical with itself
subject itself. o I AM MYSELF

|| SUBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE  QUASI-OBJECTIVIVE EGO – these are the plurality of the

self, i.e., the parts of the whole. They are called quasi-object for
WHO EXACTLY IS THE SUBJECT OF MY KNOWLEDGE?
they do not show the same distantness from the subject as it is
“I” shown by the objects of my world. They are almost-object, as it
were object, because they are not identical with the subject-ego,
Although we can know objectively or intersubjectively, this “I” is not a without, however, being object
supra-individual EGO o I HAVE MYSELF
If so, truth-for-me is also truth-for-you.
I and you coincide in a supra-individual subject
 HAVING YOURSELF IS HINGED WITH HISTORICITY AND Real Perception (Sense Knowing)
FACTICITY
The subject-I is not Nothingness. It is a positive reality, from which It is real perception when these are present:
facticity and history derive their unity and are  The viewpoint
 Profile
my Body, my World, and my history.
 Unity
The subject of knowledge is an EMBODIED SUBJECTIVITY,  Horizon
capable of knowing the having and being of the NOEMA.
Real Understanding (Spiritual Knowing)
IV. SENSITIVE AND SPIRITUAL KNOWING
 Temporality
||SENSITIVE AND SPIRITUAL KNOWING ARE INSEPARABLE  Facticity
 Historicity
Have you looked but have not seen?
Have you heard but have not listened? GRASPING THE COGNITIVE ASPECT: THE ABSOLUTE.
Have you uttered but have not spoken?
Have you sensed but have not perceived?  We mean: understanding transcends the relativity which affects
perception.
 It is perfectly impossible to isolate certain facets of knowing  In this sense, understanding escapes relativity (the merely
from one another and, therefore, it is not permissible to present sensed object) and is absolute.
sensitive and spiritual knowing as separable. Sense Knowing: grasps the thisness, here, and now.
 Man does not have PURELY SENSITIVE seeing which is
not impregnated with spiritual consciousness or Grasps the ACCIDENTS||MATTER||POTENCY
understanding.
Spiritual Understanding: grasps the essence, the nature, the

quiddity of something.
||SENSITIVE AND SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE ARE NOT
Grasps the SUBSTANCE||FORM||ACT
REDUCIBLE TO EACH OTHER
My spiritual understanding is never disconnected from sensitive
 SENSE KNOWING IS NOT SPIRITUAL KNOWING
knowing
 SPIRITUAL KNOWING IS NOT SENSE KNOWING
 SENSE KNOWING AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING We can know that we know what we know when there is synergy
ARE INSEPARABLE BUT ARE NOT REDUCIBLE TO of sense knowing and spiritual understanding
EACH OTHER
V. Concept  Abstract concept is nothing without understanding, and
understanding is nothing without intelligible meaning of the
 The concept is the being, understanding the world. noema, expressed in the concept and embodied in the world.
Immutable Concepts b. The Concept is Not a Schematic Image
 For Plato, Immutable Concepts are in the world of Ideas, and are  Sensitive consciousness is explained in this way, things that
not moving since it denotes perfection. exist are not just a mere concept exists through the abstraction
a. The Concept is Abstract of the mind, hence radically immanent or exists in the sensible
 Platonic idealism usually refers to Plato's theory of forms or world.
doctrine of ideas. It holds that only ideas encapsulate the true  As such the images we have seen in our mind are not mere
and essential nature of things, in a way that the physical form abstraction that comes out of nowhere, rather exists in the
cannot. reality.
 Abstraction happens when a mind comes to think from
c. The Concept is Universal
something, and transcends to a not just imaginative sense but
with intellective thought.  The concept is universal is applicable to many, predicable of
 Abstraction can be said as the affirmation of the existence from many subjects. As an example, “John, Peter, and Mary, pertain
the sensible world or reality. to a determined region of realities because they are human
beings, and therefore, the concept “man” can be predicated of
Abstraction Divides them” - Manuel Dy, Philosophy of Man (Manila: Ateneo De
Manila Press, 2019) p. 139.
 Its beingness defines that something or someone is unique from  The abstractness and universality are concept’s faculty that
exclusively proper to the world of Ideas.
others. Men are all rational, hence each rational men have
 The act of knowing requires “modes” that a man is able to
uniqueness with which gives identity from other rational beings.
understand something (i.e., individual, variable, etc.) that
necessitates comprehension.
Abstraction Unifies

 Precisely because understanding is abstractive, it brings unity

VI. THE JUDGMENT
into the plurality of individual objects.
 Judgment is united with a certain content of knowledge.
A Misrepresentation  The analogy of saying, “He is intelligent” “It is heavy” is a form
of judgment that seems unnoticeable. “Intelligent” is simply an
adjective that is added to the subject (pronoun) - “He, It” but
this shows judgment already.
  As the author says, “I gave expression to the terminus Truth as Unconcealedness
encountered by my act of knowing and this expression is called
to judge” (Ibid. p. 140).  The unconcealedness of things is presupposes that man has
 In this sense, judgment is the comprehension in the concept broken through and transcended thing like being in himself-that
predicated on the subject. In traditional terminology, concept is man is a certain “light” for himself.
called “predicate”, and the content of knowledge with which the  This “light” is a “natural light” of man’s subjectivity, brought
predicate is united as its further determination is called a him to unconcealed himself “letting be” of the meaning of
“subject”. things.
 Man’s transcendence - is a mysterious event. The “coming to
The Necessity of Many Judgments pass” of man’s essence is man’s standing in truth of things and
of the world.
 The necessity of having many judgments is to really know the
good and truth, Phenomenological thought presents the Objectivity and Objectivism, Subjectivity and Subjectivism,
unveiling reality. Relativity and Relativism
 We need many judgments to avoid implicit judgment, to avoid
broadness of assumptions.  Truth needs to be “originated”, yet truth is an “origination” by
man through the “activity” of “coming to pass” or “letting be” to
The Verbal Copula “Is” understand the very meaning of “thing in itself”
 Objectivity is coming from man; the knower is the one who
 Is – is something, is a being.
objectify the object (objectivity)-the process objectifying the
 Is helps to express what in the beingness. This is something
object is called, objectivism. Subjectivism is a judgment or
expressing thought.
expression coming from the knower as well, and the process of
 “Is” is frequently used in a sentence, this word might be very
subjectivity is called, subjectivism. Relativity is the insight of
short hence, it has a great purpose. individual to a certain object, and the doing of relativity is
 “The judgment is not only expressing the subject’s called, Relativism.
comprehension in a concept, but also places the subject under
the predicate’s extension, and declares that the subject and the The Historicity of Truth
predicate are identical in the terminus of the encounter “(Ibid p.
141).  Truth has historicity because at the first place it exists in the
time and space.
 The knowledge before is a disclosure of meaning, however,
because of the past, present, and future makes it truth. There is
VII. PHENOMENOLOGY OF TRUTH
historicity of truth because there is a disclosure of truth, and
 Phenomenological Truth is what is already revealing to us, because of history we gain the truth.
things as it is.  This “coming to pass” then involves time. “In the ‘now,’ the
subject reaches beyond the ‘past’ of his ‘seeing’ toward the
 realization of a future ‘seeing’” (Ibid p. 145). The past, present  Truth is what is useful to believe and has practical value in our
and future therefore carries the history of unconcealedness. lives.” – William James
 “True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate,
The Transhistoricity of Truth
corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot.”
 “There is no truth which does not have a future, for every truth
opens up new gaps” (Ibid p. 146).
 “The recognition of historicity does not justify historicism, that
is, the view that a truth is true today because today is today, and
that tomorrow it will no longer be true because tomorrow will
be tomorrow” (Ibid p. 146).
 The phenomenologists reject “absolute truth” on the basis of
truth’s historicity.
 For the idealism, “absolute truth” is the denial of the
relationship to history, the denial of every relativity, and,
consequently, is a form of absolutism. Similarly, the realism
also rejected the “absolute truth.”
The “Moment” of Absoluteness in the Life of Truth

 The immutability of truth, likewise, is not excluded by its

historicity. Truth’s historicity excludes that truth is “finished”
But the historicity of truth does not mean that today’s truth will
be tomorrow’s untruth.
The Criterion of Truth

 The indisputable, the true, is the unconcealed for the subject – as

–cogito. The criterion of truth is therefore necessitates evidence.
 “What is traditionally called ‘evidence’ is the ‘experience’ of
truth as unconcealedness, the standing in unconcealedness with
which certainly is fused. ‘Seeing,’ in the broadest sense of the
term decides about the truth” (Ibid p. 148).
The “Fruitfulness” of Truth

 Fruitfulness of truth is verifiably by the workability or

functionness.