Philosophy Finals Handout
believed to give:
Ontological
-Philosopher’s Explanation
Ontology (branch of Metaphysics)
-What entities exist or can be said to exist?
Human Person
-A man, woman, or child of the species Homo
sapiens (Oxford Dictionary)
What makes human the highest form of being?
 Superior Mental Ability
 Power of Articulate Speech
 Upright Stance
Three Aspects of Human Nature
1. Somatic
-Body, material, composition, or
substance of a human person
2. Behavioral
-mode of acting
*Can we predict human behavior? -Yes
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
-he suggested that human behavior may
be manipulated or controlled.
 Behaviorism -emphasizes that
behavior is mostly LEARNED.
3. Attitudinal
-inclinations, feelings, ideas,
convictions, and prejudices
-may define a person’s future actions
and what he/she values as right and
wrong
Theories on Human Nature
Theory -assumptions
1. The Human Person as an Immortal
Soul
-Plato’s Notion of Human Being
-Human person has a soul
Soul (synonyms: Spirit/Psyche)
-the force within a person that is
 Life
 Energy/power
3 parts of Soul
1. Reason: intellect
2. Passion: emotions
3. Appetite: Physical Desires
 Originally, man was a pure soul
 Not tied to a body
 Body=Prison
Man in the Present State:
1. A soul imprisoned in a body (SOMA
SEMA)
2. Soul is the essence of man
Man’s body is an unfortunate
accident and does not belong to
his essence
Man’s body belongs to the
world of things
2. The Human Person as Composite of Body
and Soul
-Aristotle’s notion of human being
-De Anima/Aristotle’s Psychology
-Man is one substance whose Matter is
his Body and whose Form is his Soul
-Natural Body is “ensouled”
 Substance
-concrete particular things
-consists of matter and form
 Matter
-that which a thing is made of
 Form
-that which determines a thing to be
what it is
 He body cannot be separated
from the soul because the soul is
the form of the natural body.
 Without the soul, the body does
not have a life
3. The Human Person as “Thinking
Thing”
-Rene Descartes’ notion of human being
 -The mind is a thinking thing and that
the body is a non-thinking thing
-Descartes asserted that human person
can exist without the body
-Human nature is pure mind and having
a body is an accident
-this assertion presents an idea that you
can have recognition of what you are
through thinking alone
Jean Paul Sartre
-French Philosopher
-Profoundly sensitive to ontological
problems
 “Being and Nothingness: A
Phenomenological Essay on
Ontology”
-one of the best-known books
on Existentialism
Existentialism
-Philosophical tradition that focuses on
the centrality of the human person’s
existence
-Human Person has no fixed nature
-Human Person’s reality is his/her
FREEDOM (absence of necessity,
coercion or constraint in choice or
action)
-Free Will
Being
-general notion which some
philosophers use to refer to the Greek
word Ousia or Entity
2 Types:
1. Being-in-itself
-being of MATERIAL OBJECTS
-have no capacity to know
-have no consciousness
2. Being-for-itself
-being of MAN
-have capacity to know
-have consciousness
Human Condition
-Inevitable positive or negative events of
existence of a human being
-reveals the nature of the human person
For example, growth and development, conflict
and disagreement, accident, death, emotionality
The Human Person in Relation to the
Environment
Environment=natural world/nature
*Natural=not made or caused by humankind
Nature: Seascapes and Landscapes
Natural Landscape
-The original landscape that exists before it is
acted upon by human culture
Examples:
Mountain =large landform that stretches above
the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in
the form of a peak and is generally steeper than
a hill.
Valley =low area of land between hills or
mountains, typically with a river or stream
flowing through it.
Plateau =a large flat area of land that is higher
than other areas of land that surround it.
Canyon =a large valley with very steep sides and
usually a river flowing along the bottom.
Hill = a particular section of flat terrain without
a massive summit
Human Landscape (Cultural Landscape)
-the human-modified environment
Human Impacts on Natural Environment
-The growth of technology has increased our
ability to change the nature
Pollution =accumulation of harmful substances
on the ground, water, and air.
Land Pollution =degradation of earth’s surface
and soil, directly or indirectly as a result of
human activities.
Deforestation =the removal of a forest or strand
of trees where the land is thereafter converted to
a non-forest use.
Building of Dams
Desertification =destruction of the productivity
of land (usually through mining)