The Human Person As An

Embodied Spirit
(Recognize Own
Limitations and
Possibilities)
 At the end of the session, learners are
expected to recognize own limitations and
possibilities
PPT11/12-If-3.1
 Establishing a Purpose for the Lesson:
1.Describe the taste of water.
2. Describe the color blue to a blind person.
3. How will you describe how wonderful the
world is to a blind person?
4. Can the tip of your elbow reach your chin?
What makes/causes
a human persons’
limitations?
 Theories of Human Composition

1.Monism. This theory holds that man is

composed of one basic substance or principle as
the ground of reality. In other words, the reality
of man consists of a single element, whether
matter or spirit.

2. Dualism. This theory holds that man is made

up of two irreducible elements- matter and spirit.
a. First View. Man’s matter and spirit are two independent entities and they
interact with each other. As two independent elements, it is possible for the
spirit and the body to either temporarily or permanently separate at a
particular period of time.

The temporary condition may be when the person becomes unconscious or in

a clinical state of comatose; or permanent, when the person dies and the
physical body decomposes. This view was supported / advocated by St.
Thomas Aquinas, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

According to Karl Rahner: We are a unity of body and soul. Body and soul are
equally real, true, radical, substantial, and original. They are neither uniform
nor deducible from each other. There is no existential cleavage between them.
Yet they can be distinguished from each other. Soul is the form of the body.
We can never encounter mere body and never encounter pure soul.
 b. Second View. Man is matter-spirit.

c. Third View [Biblical View]. Man is made up of

body, soul, and spirit.

The body is the external, physical part of man which he

uses for seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and
smelling. Through the body, he is able to have physical
contact with his environment.
The body is the external, physical part of man which he uses for seeing, hearing,
touching, tasting, and smelling. Through the body, he is able to have physical
contact with his environment.

The soul, which is regarded as a distinct entity from the body and the spiritual
part of man is something that cannot be seen and constitutes the inner part of
man, i.e., the mind and the will.

According to Aristotle: There are living things and non-living things. The
soul is the characteristic activity of living things. The body is alive if it has a soul.

The spirit is the innermost part of man. It is a “supernatural” and “incorporeal”

being with which man communicates with God. It is the essential part of man’s
nature, the heart of human life.
 Man is not only body, but he is something infinitely
higher. Of all the animal creations of God, man is the
only animal who has been created in order that he
may know his maker. Man’s aim in life is not to add
from day to day to his material prospects and to his
material possessions but his predominant calling is
from day to day to come nearer to his maker
[Mohandas Gandhi, 1948].
To recognize our own limitations and possibilities
it is right to know where we are, what is our
world.

According to Plato reality is made up of two

worlds namely, the world of Forms and the
world of Sense where human beings
participate in both of these different worlds.
The world of Sense which is proposed and believed
by Heraclitus, is the world we see, experience, the
world of objects; a world of change, it is made up of
matter and is bound to decomposition.

Heraclitus proves this through the statements “Cold

things grow hot, the hot cools, the wet dries, the
parched moistens.” and “We both step and do not
step into the same rivers. We are and we are not.”
 The world of Forms which is proposed by
Parmenides who influenced Plato in this type of world
is a world that is eternal, perfect and unchanging.
Parmenides proved the world of Forms by his
statement “ We can speak and think only of what
exists. And what exists is uncreated and imperishable
for it is whole and unchanging and complete. It was
not or nor shall be different since it is now, all at once,
one and continuous.
 For Plato, reality is eternal and unchanging,
it is the real world, the world of forms. Everything
in the world of senses is but an imitation or a mere
shadow of the ideal.
Human beings participate in both the senses and
the ideal world because they have a material body
and immaterial soul, synthesis of change and
permanence.
 Human beings is a body and soul,
according to Plato, body is evil for it
is inclined to temporal things; objected
to temporal satisfaction and happiness.
 As stated by Origen, a Christian theologian and
philosopher that is also a Platonian “all rational
beings were once pure intellects in the presence of
God, and would remain so forever had they not
fallen away through Koros (satiety).”
Because of koros (sin) or our transgression and
disobedience to God we are punished by being
given a body.
To be free it is a human task to gradually recollect the ideas the
soul used to know through education in order for it to be
released from being imprisoned in our body and be able to
return to its place in the world of forms, for the soul is superior
and exists eternally even after the body evanesces gradually.

However, failure to recall everything the soul used to know, the

soul has to undergo another imprisonment and this process will
continually occur until the soul is ready to go back to its place
in the world of forms.
 The Human Body in Imposing Limits and
Possibilities

Bodily Limitations:
• Mental and emotional disorders (e.g. anxiety, intellectual disability)
• Disabilities (amputated leg, deafness)
• Failures and experiences (failing a subject)

Social and Environmental Limitations:

• Socioeconomic status
• Location of neighborhood (e.g. armed, disorganized, or violent
neighborhood)
• Negative influences (e.g. drug user)
The Human Body in Imposing Limits and Possibilities

Overcoming Limitations:
• Bodily limitations can be tested by trying on new experiences
and working on challenges with increasing levels of difficulty. The
human body, if given enough exposure to any situation, can
attain a goal with efficiency.
• Social and environmental limitations are more difficult to
overcome than bodily limitations because they involve the
influence of other people and the external world. However, with a
proper mindset, clearly defined goals, and motivation to rise
above challenges, one may successfully overcome his or her
limitations.
 I have a body just like how I
have things. There is a
difference between having a
body and having things for I am
my body.
Evaluating Learning:
Make a check list of your limitations in the following
aspects:
1. Physical
2. Mental/intellectual
3. Social
4. Spiritual

*This is to be submitted on the 4th session of this week.

“We can’t cross the
same river twice.”
–Heraclitus
 *Why can’t a man cross the same river
twice?
-The water in the river is flowing, hence
the man is crossing on a different but
same river.
-The man himself was changing thus the
same man crossing was a different man.
 Man as the Living or Metaphysical
Paradox
(Compiled Notes on Philosophy of the
Human Person)
 Man as Finite and Infinite; Mortal and Immortal
Man is finite and infinite, mortal and immortal. “Man is flesh [and] spirit in
divided union” [Felix Montemayor].

Flesh and spirit are antithetical realities: the first is a tangible and material
substance while the second is just the opposite. The flesh signifies material
bodily, tangible substance. The spirit or the soul signifies the immaterial, non-
bodily, invisible, reality in man. Yet the two seemingly contradictory
concepts are realized and united intimately in man. Hence they are one yet
divided, conjoined yet disjoined. Hence, man paradoxically speaking, is the
“divided union”—the disjunction-conjunction of opposites. [Felix
Montemayor]
 Man as Individual and Universal
As a living existential reality, man is invested with individuality, i.e., with
individuating, differentiating, accidental characteristics, such as height, weight,
complexion, sex, size, and all those qualities by which he is physically and personally
identified. As a human being he shares the same human nature with all other men, and is
therefore a universal human entity.

Man as Changing and Permanent

The most undeniable fact about man is that he constantly changes. Yet equally
undeniable and indisputable is that he remains unchanged by change. He remains the
same before, during, and after the change. For example, in the Law of Obligation and
Contracts, the same person who borrowed money, say 10 years ago, is the same person to
pay despite the many changes that took place in him in the interval—physical,
physiological, psychological, etc. [Montemayor, 1995]
 Explain paradoxically:
Patawad ako ay makasalanan
sapagkat ako ay tao lamang.
*Why will you blame your pagkatao for your
faults?
*Can you use your pagkatao to surpass these
faults? Explain.
Man has limits but filled
with potentialities.
 Our bodies are
constantly changing and
exhibit various
characteristics.
Man as a Biological
Being
(Compiled Notes on
Philosophy of the
Human Person)
 Man as a Biological Being

Man and His Body

There’s no greater dynamism in life than life itself. The odds of life’s existing are rare, but
once it starts it’s very difficult to stop. And we are part of that dynamic process of life: cells
dividing and finding new ways to beat the odds. [Tim Allen, Don’t Stand too Close to a
Naked Man]

Being a part of the physical order of nature, man develops size, weight, shape and color
and other biological attributes followed naturally by other living things. He is able to
reproduce. “He occupies space and moves through time” and is “subject to the laws of
gravitation”.

Our bodies are constantly changing. They exhibit defect, vulnerability, change, and decay.
They bear the intimations of our mortality. The way we perceive and feel about our own
bodies contribute significantly to the way we perceive and feel about the world.
 Man as More than his Body

Man as an Embodied Subject

The statement “man is an embodied subject” implies that our

bodies are not accessories. Our bodies are essential to our being
integrated persons. Our bodies are symbols of interiority and are
subject to the laws of the material world. Bodily existence also means
that we must accept our genetic endowment, which sets the baseline
for certain possibilities and limitations to our physical, intellectual,
and psychological capacities. [Maria Imelda Nabor-Nery, Philosophy
of Man, 2007]
“Man is not only body, but he is something infinitely higher. Of all [the] animal
creation[s] of God, man is the only animal who has been created in order that
he may know his maker. Man’s aim in life is not to add from day to day to his
material prospects and to his material possessions but his predominant calling is
from day to day to come nearer to his maker”. [Mohandas Ghandi, 1948].

The word “have” in the sentence “I have a body” means possession. Now this is
different from “I have a book”, although both statements refer to possession.
First because I cannot dispose of my body in the way I can dispose of my book;
second, I is not equal to “my body”, I am more than my body. [Engelbert J. Van
Croonenberg; Corazon Cruz, 1987]

Man is “himself”, while a thing is “another’s”. Man calls himself “me”; and
he calls his possessions “mine”.
 Man as a Biological Being

Man and His Body

“Animal nature, however perfect, is far from representing the human being
in its completeness; and in truth, is but humanity’s handmaid, made to serve
and obey”. [Pope Leo XIII]

“Man is of the earth, but his thoughts are with the stars. Mean and petty his
wants and desires; yet they serve a soul exalted with grand glorious aims—with
immortal longings—with thoughts which sweep the heavens and wander
through eternity. A pigmy standing on the outward crust of this small planet,
his far-reaching spirit, stretches outward to the infinite, and there alone finds
rest.” [Thomas Carlyle, English Essayist (1785-1880)]
What makes you different
with other animals in terms
of physical activities?
*How do our bodies concretely
contribute to our limitations?
*How do our bodies concretely
contribute to our possibilities?
Man is physiologically the same
with other animals but has lot
of things that make a
difference when man uses his
physicality.
 Augustine and the Seashell

Marian Horvat

The great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo spent over 30 years working on his treatise
De Trinitate [about the Holy Trinity], endeavoring to conceive an intelligible explanation for the
mystery of the Trinity.

Augustine meets a boy on the beach

He was walking by the seashore one day contemplating and trying to understand the mystery of the
Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy running back and forth from the water to a spot on the seashore.
The boy was using a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean and place it into a small hole in the
sand.

The Bishop of Hippo approached him and asked, “My boy, what are doing?”

“I am trying to bring all the sea into this hole,” the boy replied with a sweet smile.

“But that is impossible, my dear child, the hole cannot contain all that water” said Augustine.
 Augustine and the Seashell

Marian Horvat

“But that is impossible, my dear child, the hole cannot contain all that water” said Augustine.

The boy paused in his work, stood up, looked into the eyes of the Saint, and replied, “It is no more
impossible than what you are trying to do – comprehend the immensity of the mystery of the Holy
Trinity with your small intelligence.”

The Saint was absorbed by such a keen response from that child, and turned his eyes from him for a
short while. When he glanced down to ask him something else, the boy had vanished.

Some say that it was an Angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson on pride in learning. Others
affirm it was the Christ Child Himself who appeared to the Saint to remind him of the limits of
human understanding before the great mysteries of our Faith.

Through this story, the sea shell has become a symbol of St. Augustine and the study of theology.
 *What does the story
convey about the human
mind?
• The freedom of the soul from the body, its imprisonment is
transcendence.
• Transcendence is the existence that is present beyond
normal or physical level.
• Transcendence means that: “I am my body but at the
same time I am more than my body. The things that I do,
all those physical activities and attributes which are made
real through my body, reveals the person that I am”.
Three main spiritual
philosophies:
Hinduism is the belief in karma and reincarnation.

• Brahman is Self-Hood Hinduism lies the idea of human being's

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.
• The Aum (Om) is the root of the universe and everything that
exists and it continues to hold everything together, the most sacred
sound in which the universe arose from and was the first thing God
created.
 Four primary values of Hindus:
wealth, pleasure, duty and enlightenment

• Wealth and Pleasure are worldly values, but when kept

in perspective they are good and desirable.
• The spiritual value of duty, or righteousness, refers to
patience, sincerity, forgiveness, love, honesty and similar
virtues.
• The spiritual value, though, is enlightenment, by which
one is illuminated and liberated and most importantly,
finds release from the wheel of existence.
Buddhism is the life experience and
teaching of Prince Siddhartha Gautama
(Buddha -he who achieves his aim), a
tradition that focuses on personal spiritual
development, solutions lay in his own mind
and is famous for its belief in Nirvana; a
place of perfect peace and happiness.
• Buddhism, contained in the teachings of its founder, Siddhartha
Gautama or Buddha. The teaching of highborn Prince Gautama of
the Sakya clan in the kingdom of Magadha, lived from 560 to 477
B.C, sprang the religious philosophy we know as Buddhism.

• Turning away from the Hindu polytheism and palace pleasures,

searching for answers to the riddle of life's sufferings, disease, old
age and death. Gautama's life was devoted to sharing his
"Dharma" or Law of Salvation; a presentation of the gospel
of inner cultivation or right spiritual attitudes.
 Buddha set about sharing his discovery with anyone who would listen to him:
Four Noble Truths leading to the Eightfold Path to perfect character of arhatship Gautama taught:

Four Noble Truths: Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Life is full of suffering. 1. Right understanding/belief in the acceptance of the
"Fourfold Truth"
2. Suffering is caused by 2. Right intent/aspiration for one's self and others;
passionate attachment 3. Right speech that harms no one;
to desires, lusts, 4. Right action/conduct, motivated by goodwill toward
all human beings;
cravings; 5. Right means of livelihood, or earning one's living by
3. Suffering can be honorable means;
ended by overcoming 6. Right endeavor, or effort to direct one's energies
towards wise ends;
attachment to desires 7. Right mindfulness, in choosing topics for thought, and
4. To end suffering is the 8. Right meditation, or concentration to the point of
Noble Eightfold Path complete absorption in mystic ecstasy.
• The way to salvation, lies through self-abnegation, rigid
discipline of mind and body, a consuming of love for all
creatures, and the final achievement of that state of
consciousness which marks an individual's preparation for
entering the Nirvana (enlightened wisdom).

• The Law and 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 out into all eternity.
Sangha, or Order of Monks and later the nuns also monks,
nuns, laymen, laywomen). With single-heart purpose, this
brotherhood of believers dedicated itself to a life of self-
purification, in total loyalty to the Buddha,

The Dharma and Sangha. Committed itself to a life of

poverty whose sole aims was the evangelization.
The Buddhist practice four states of sublime condition:
love, sorrow of others, joy in the joy of others and
equanimity as regards one's own joy and sorrows.
Christianity is the religion based upon the
teachings and miracles of Jesus where there is only one
God. Suffering leads to the Cross, the symbol of reality
of God's saving love for the human being and Evil is
being disobedient, contradicting the nature of God and
distancing to God.
• For Augustine (354-430 CE), philosophy is amor sapiential, the love of wisdom;
its aim is to produce happiness.

• Wisdom is not just an abstract logical construction; but it is substantially

existent as the Divine Logos. Hence, Philosophy is the love of God; It is then
religious. Teaching of Christianity are based of love of God.

• For Augustine's Christianity, the revelation of the true God, is the only full and
true philosophy.

• All Knowledge leads to God, so that faith supplements and enlightens reason
that it may proceed to ever richer and fuller understanding.
• St. Thomas of Aquinas, another medieval philosopher, of all creatures,
human beings have the unique power to change themselves and the things
for the better.
• His philosophy is best grasped in his treatises Summa Contra Gentiles and
Summa Theologica. Considers human as moral agent, the spiritual and
material and that choosing between 'good' or 'evil' is our responsibility.
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

1. What is referred to as the freedom of the soul from the body?

A.Freedom
B.Overcoming limitations
C.Transcendence
D.Imprisonment

2. Which of the following spiritual philosophies deals with the belief in

karma and reincarnation?
A.Buddhism
B.Islam
C.Christianity
D.Hinduism
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.
3. In Buddhism, what is considered as the way to salvation?
A. Self- abnegation
B. Rigid discipline of mind and body
C. Consuming of love for all creatures
D. All of the above.

4. Which of the following spiritual philosophies based upon the teachings and
miracles of Jesus where there is only one God. Suffering leads to the Cross, the
symbol of reality of God's saving love for the human being and Evil is being
disobedient, contradicting the nature of God and distancing to God?
A. Hinduism
B. Islam
C. Buddhism
D. Christianity
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

5.Which of the following is not one of the four primary values of Hindus?
A. Wealth
B. Pleasure
C. Enlightenment
D.Selfishness

6. Which of the following spiritual philosophies focuses on personal spiritual

development, solutions lay in his own mind and is famous for its belief in Nirvana; a
place of perfect peace and happiness?
A. Islam
B. Buddhism
C. Christianity
D.Hinduism
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

7. Which of the following theories of human composition holds that man is

composed of one basic substance or principle as the ground of reality? In other
words, the reality of man consists of a single element, whether matter or spirit.
A. Existentialism
B. Dualism
C. Monism
D. Polytheism

8. Who said that “human beings is a body and soul”?

A. Heraclitus
B. Socrates
C. Plato
D.Aristotle
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

9. Which of the following explains: “man as individual and universal being”?

A. “Man constantly changes.Yet equally undeniable and indisputable is that he

remains unchanged by change. He remains the same before, during, and after the
change.”
B. “Man is flesh and spirit in divided union.”
C. As a living existential reality, man is invested with individuality, and as a human
being he shares the same human nature with all other men, and is therefore a
universal human entity.
D. Man is composed of flesh and spirit.
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

10. Why did Felix Montemayor said that “Flesh and spirit are antithetical
realities.”?

A. Because the first is a tangible and material substance while the second is
just the opposite.
B. Because the flesh signifies material bodily, tangible substance while the
spirit or the soul signifies the immaterial, non-bodily, invisible, reality in man.
C. Neither A nor B.
D. Both A and B.
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

11. Which of the following explains Heraclitus’ statement that: “We

can’t cross the same river twice.”?

A.The water in the river is flowing, hence the man is crossing on a

different but same river.
B.The man himself was changing thus the same man crossing was a
different man.
C.Neither A nor B.
D.Both A and B.
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

12. Why do you think man is considered an infinitely higher being of all
God’s animal creation?

A.Man is the only animal who has been created in order that he may
know his maker.
B.Man’s aim in life is to add from day to day to his material prospects
and to his material possessions.
C.“Man is flesh and spirit in divided union.”
D.Man is composed of flesh and spirit.
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer in your answer sheet.

13. Which of the following theories holds that man is made up of two
irreducible elements- matter and spirit?
A. Monism
B. Dualism
C. Polytheism
D. Biblical view

14. Who said that the world of Forms is a type of world that is eternal, perfect
and unchanging?
A. Socrates
B. Parmenides
C. Aristotle
D. Plato
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
PART 1. Write only the letter of the correct answer
in your answer sheet.

15. As our bodies are constantly changing, it exhibits ___________.

A. Defects
B. Vulnerability
C. Decay
D. All of the above
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
Part 2. Write T if the statement is TRUE and F if it is
FALSE.

16. According to Felix Montemayor, flesh and spirit are theatrical realities.

17. Based on the doctrine of Hinduism, the Aum (Om) is the root of the
universe and everything that exists and it continues to hold everything
together, the most sacred sound in which the universe arose from and
was the first thing God created.
 Quiz No. 06 in Intro to Philosophy
Part 2. Write T if the statement is TRUE and F if it is
FALSE.
18. Recognizing that everyone has fears is one of the ways of overcoming
our limitations.

19. Being a part of the physical order of nature, man develops size,
weight, shape and color and other biological attributes followed naturally
by other living things.

20. The second view on human composition states that man is made up
of body, soul, and spirit.