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I. Introduction
A. The Act of Philosophizing
- this course, Philosophy of Man or Philosophy of Human Person, is not simply a study of the
different philosophies of man, i.e. the different ideas or theories of the philosophers on man, or
human person.
- it aims primarily to initiate the students, to lead them to philosophize about themselves, about who
they are - human persons. As Fr. Roque Ferriols in the first text that we will use in our course
remarks: this course "does not teach what philosophy is but to try to give you a chance to
philosophize."
- The first thing that we will clarify in our course is what it means to philosophize. Or more
properly, what one does when one philosophizes since the act of philosophizing is easier to do
than to define like all other activities, e.g. basketball, dancing, etc.
- In order to get familiar with the act philosophizing,
- first, we will put it in the context of our day to day activities and experience.
- We will try to realize that philosophizing is at the heart of our common experiences and
activities.
- And we will use the article of Fr. Roque Ferriols, Insight, to help us realize this.
- In this article, Insight, Fr. Ferriols illustrates and explains to us that philosophizing has to
do primarily with having an insight and doing something about it. And having an insight
is one of most common experiences and activities that we have.
- then, we will use the article, The Philosophical Enterprise by John Kavanaugh to point out
that the act of philosophizing is deeply personal act. Through this article, we will try to grasp
that:
- I, myself, must get involved in this activity.
- I must not remain as a spectator, distant observer and inquirer, an audience or just letting
others do it for me.
- My personhood is at stake in the act of philosophizing: my liberation and my growth as a
human person.
- Lastly, we will discuss the place and importance of studying the different philosophers in the
deeply personal act of philosophizing. With the article of William of Luijpen, The
Authenticity of Philosophy, we hope to correct any attitude or view that considers the study of
philosophers' ideas as substitute for one's own philosophical activity.
iii. Number
- to count things, to know the number of things is another illustration of having an insight.
- How do I come to count things, how do we come to know number?
- First, I must consider the things I count in a particular way, under particular aspect.
- E.g.:
- I "see" a Toyota, Mercedez Benz, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi. Or I "see" a dog,
cat, a mosquito.
- I must look at them as car, in order to count them as four, I must consider
them as animal to count them as three
- If I consider them as Toyota or as dog, I can only count one.
- perceiving things under certain aspect without denying or affirming is what we
call as abstraction
- abstraction is a form of insight
- Then, I prescind from the fact that they are cars or animals, but simply as four.
- Here, I do not only abstract certain aspects of the things I count, but I have
abstracted from the things in themselves as dogs, animals, cars, etc.
- Here we have a higher level of abstraction, a second degree of abstraction
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- Thus, the simple insight into the meaning of four is seen to involve a rather
complicated preparation involving at least two abstractions.
- According to Aristotle, there are three levels of abstraction:
- First Degree of Abstraction: we consider things as dogs, cats, car, wood, etc. (Natural
Sciences)
- Second Degree of Abstraction: we consider things in terms of number (Mathematics)
- Third Degree of Abstraction: we consider things as Being (Metaphysics)
- These two extreme situations or illustrations and the case of counting things show that having
an insight is part of our day to day experience, something that happens in our ordinary life,
from the most trivial to the most serious or even tragic event of our life.
- And insight has to do with seeing deeply with our mind into the deeper aspects of reality, of
things that are presented in our senses, in our experience.
- The point is that we could see something more if we just learn to think, try to think over our
experience, and not simply experience.
- As the fox would say to the Little Prince, "what is essential is invisible to the eye."
i. Metaphor
- use of something familiar, ordinary to articulate, clarify, and deepen what is not familiar
and ordinary.
- E.g.
- Juan and Homer use the ordinary, familiar phenomenon/experience of the fall and
return of leaves to articulate, clarify and deepen his insight on the rhythm of life and
death of the generations of men and women
- Metaphor is very important because:
1. it fixes the insight in the mind
2. it sharpens the insight in the sense that:
- it clarifies the insight
- it makes us understand the insight more deeply
3. it enables us to understand the ordinary and familiar more deeply.
ii. Analysis
- We use analysis also to articulate, clarify and deepen our understanding of the insight
- analysis:
- breaking down into parts
- breaking down the insight into the different elements or dimensions which constitute
it.
- E.g.:
- If I want to clarify the point of a joke, to understand it, to be able articulate and
deliver it more effectively, I could break down the joke into different parts and see
how each part is related to one another:
1. Knock, Knock
2. Who's There?
3. Mary Rose
4. Mary Rose who?
5. Me Relos ka ba? Anong oras na?
- And I would discover, it would be made clear to me:
- that the point of the joke is this: Mary Rose and Me Relos which sound different
are made to sound alike by mispronouncing "me relos" into "me reros" as a
Japanese would.
- one of the tools in analyzing an insight is conceptual analysis
- an insight as an idea is made up of constitutive ideas. E.g.:
- idea of a man contains the idea of rational, animal,
- idea of triangle contains the idea of 3 sides, 3 angles, 180 degrees
- when I break down the idea into its constitutive ideas and see their relationship, then
I do conceptual analysis:
- e.g. idea of the rhythm of life and death
- could be understood in terms of biological aspect (i.e. in terms of physical
growth and decay)
- could also be understood with regard to the cycle of life and death of the
human spirit
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b. Philosophizing as the Discipline of Questioning
- to understand the act of philosophizing, we must find out and understand first what
drives, moves, leads one to philosophize as sheer human exigency, i.e. very necessary to
human existence.
- What drives a person to philosophize is the inescapable dynamism and capacity of the
human person himself to question and to seek answers to questions he himself raises.
- In short, at the root of all philosophizing is the pre-eminent personal affair of question-
asking.
i. Queston-Asking
1. Question-asking is very common, at the heart of our day to day experience
- we could not escape, pass the day without asking question, without being confronted
by a question
- we could not start nor finish the day without some questions
- Why? Because of our desire, our dynamism to:
- To be confronted by things outside of us (Experience)
- Know, understand the things we experience (Understanding): What is it?
- Find out the truth of what we come to understand (Judgment): Is it?
- Make decisions for what we do/act (Decision/Action): What should I do?
2. Different Levels of Question
2.1 Horizontal/Superficial Questions
- questions of survival
- Where will I find money to pay my rent?
- What will I do to save myself from trouble?
- practical questions
- What will I do tomorrow?
- How do I use the computer?
- What shirt, shoes, pant will I wear?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of VFA?
- scientific questions: Questions of facts and making sense of certain, particular
empirical reality
- How does the sun produce its heat and light?
- How does a computer work?
- Are there intelligent life-forms outside of our planet?
- Why is there a rainbow?
2.2 Vertical/Depth Questions
- questions of ultimate purpose and meaning
- questions of significance and meaning that enables us to perceive order and
harmony in the world as a whole, our place in the universe.
- E.g.:
- Where does the world as a whole come from?
- Why is there existence rather than non-existence?
- Why am I here? What is my place in the universe?
- Where am I going?
- question of truth/reality
- Is what I perceive, understand true? What makes it true?
- question of value
- Is it good? What makes it good? What makes us truly happy?
- These are ultimate, fundamental questions in life:
- deeper questions, questions we ask even if our superficial questions are
answered; questions to which the superficial questions bring us ultimately if
we pursue the inner dynamics of questioning
- questions whose answers have bearing on our superficial questions,
questions which are the bases/foundations of our horizontal questions.
Conclusion/Summary:
- questioning, then, is the starting point and the continuing force of all philosophy
- questioning leads one to find answers, and finding the answers he himself must see the truth
of those answers
- but in finding answers to the depth-questions primarily about himself: his identity and action,
he will not reach a point of no return; rather leads him back to new questions, leading to a
new search, new answers, so on and so forth.
- In so doing, he is liberated from those which enslave, he becomes open to his own
possibilities, and takes responsibility of himself as a creative self-project
2. Scepticism
- rejection of all claims of knowledge of reality, all claims as doubtful, not only
philosophical claims, but all claims
- this is itself is a philosophy, a philosophical position/view about knowledge and
reality
- yet a self-contradictory philosophy; thus, an inauthentic philosophy
- claim: all knowledge is doubtful
- yet this claim is also a form of knowledge
- therefore, this claim (that all knowledge is doubtful) is also doubtful
- this shows that the conclusion falsifies the first premise; thus the argument
contradicts itself.
- Any rejection of philosophy (Scientism, Scepticism and others) is itself a philosophy
though a bad one
- To ridicule philosophy, to laugh at philosophy is itself a philosophy
3. Dogmatism
- claims that of the different philosophical systems, one can be the philosophy, is the
philosophy
- thus, one looks for THE philosophy:
- in the past: turns to different philosophies or philosophers in the past
- in the present: turns to every new philosophy or system to whether at last it
present THE philosophy
- in the future: expects that THE philosophy will be formulated in the future.
- This expectation, of course, meets with disappointments, frustrations, and
disillusions. Why?
- Because there was, is and will be never such thing as THE philosophy
iii. Philosophizing is authentic when it one's own life that raises the philosophical questions
- man has to live his own life, determine his own action
- he is responsible for his own life and his actions
- he is only human, a person only when he himself lives his own life and determines
his own actions
- others could not live my life for me nor I could simply live the life of others
- I could not let others determine my life and actions, nor determine others' lives and
actions
- To live my own life, to determine my own action is to live according to my own basic
convictions about:
- Life/Realtiy
- Myself
- Values
- To come to my own basic convictions, I myself have to discover them:
- I myself ask the questions about them
- I myself seek the answers
- I myself have to see the truth of the answers
- Thus, I myself can discover my own basic convictions from within.
iii. What the great philosophers saw/experienced remains fruitful and source of inspiration
- works of great philosophers are considered classical not only because they make us
see/experience what they saw/experience which otherwise we could have been blind of.
- But at the same time they inspire us to see/experience over and beyond what they saw
- They further inspire us to ask questions, further beyond, deeper than they have asked
- To find/seek answers beyond what they found
- To see ourselves the truth of the answers beyond what they themselves saw.
- Yet as every philosopher was struck/awed by a particular aspect of reality, and every
system constructed by a great philosopher is an expression/articulation of some aspect of
reality, there is a danger:
- that a particular aspect of reality might be elevated by him to the rank of reality, pure
and simple, or THE REALITY
- that a particular experience of reality may be proclaimed as the only REALITY and
its articulation and systematization as the SYSTEM, THE PHILOSOPHY.
- When this happens, it becomes antiquated.
Conclusion:
- If constituted philosophy is a speaking word (i.e., an articulation/expression of a
particular experience of reality), then the study of the works of the different philosophers
leads us to:
- Experience the philosophers' particular experiences of reality (APPROPRIATION)
- Experience new and deeper aspect of reality other than what they have experienced
(EXPANSION)
- And one does not simply accumulate knowledge but listens to reality no matter where it
speaks to him.
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