UNIT II: AN EMBODIED SPIRIT COEXISTING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT
Maurice Merleau- Ponty
“The body is our general medium for having a world”
Albert Einstein
“A human being is a part of the whole called us universe,
a part limited in time and space…”
CHAPTER 1: THE SELF IN QUESTION
Lesson 1: Discovering the Self: “Who Am I?”
Karl Jaspers
Man is always more than he knows about himself
A. Human Being’s Understanding of Himself/ Herself
The question deals with his/her concrete and
specific historicity, a question that encompasses
his/her self-being.
Jose Rizal
He believes that because human being is endowed with
reason, he/she wonders and questions everything
including his/her existing.
Karl Jaspers
“Human being is more than what he/she knows about
himself/herself”
Ordinary and obvious questions do not need critical and
logical analysis.
Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
He claims that disharmony among persons occur when
one does not recognize the light of reason of the other
person.
Immanuel Kant
He claims that human person has the responsibility of
respecting other people in the same way he/ she respects
himself/herself.
Human being cannot just put his/her answers in a
schema or formula, for his/her being goes
beyond schemas or formula.
Karl Jaspers
He believes that the being of human person is a lost in a
context of a total determination.
“Who am I?”  leads him/her into the depth of
his/her being. This task summons him/her to
leave the ordinariness of the given time and
context in his/her existence.
Check Point: Manifest Truth (MT) or False (F)
1. According to Karl Jaspers, human being is self-
regulating will being.
2. Jose Rizal affirms that human reason makes a
person wonder about his/her existence.
3. Guilt does not lead human being to a greater
knowledge of himself/herself.
4. Immanuel Kant believes that human being is lost
in total determination.
5. Karl Jaspers claims that human being is more
than what she/he can know of himself/herself.
B. Human Being’s Encounter with Existential Limit
Situations
In existence, human being is always in concrete
situations, and he/she is always confronted with
various situations.
Karl Jaspers
These are boundary situation which are inescapable and
inevitable breaks of the ordinary patterns of human
existence, such death, sufferings, conflicts, tragedy,
sickness, failures, communication, struggles, and guilt.
These situations lead human being to a deeper
consciousness and experience of his/her limitations and
finitude.
Human refection is no longer in the peripheral
level of existence but a greater horizon of human
realities.
The one who is formulating questions is now the main
content of the question. Human being is not only the one
questioning, but at the same time, he/she is now the
question.
Thus, in this context of limit and search for deeper and
existential answers of his/her fundamental questions
concerning his/her self-being.
TOL: “Sickness and pain are opportunities to know more
about your “self” as a human being.” Do you agree with
the statement?
RZ: We observe in our society that there are many people
who are suffering because of sickness or poverty or
death. What is your realization every time you encounter
these people in our society?
Lesson 2: Various Ways in Dealing with the Question
“Who Am I?” in the Course of History
Rene Descartes
I am something real and really existing, but what am I? ...
a thing which thinks.
A. Duality of Body and Soul
The soul, though conceived in many ways, is that
aspect of our being that is not material. Our body
shows our corporeality but we are more than our
body because we have a soul or a spirit.
The soul or the spirit is philosophically discussed as mind
since mental capabilities and abilities are distributed to it.
For dualists, the mind (mental) is not to be mistaken for
the brain (physical) since the mental is a unique
phenomenon that cannot be reduced to the non-mental
or physical.
Plato is one of those who argued for the dualism of body
and soul.
The human soul, he theorized, exists prior to the body
and even after the body is long gone.
This doctrine is connected to his theory of Forms where
the material realm (the world where we know) is
separate from the eternal realm of forms or essences (the
world of ideas).
 Knowledge is to be found in the realm of ideas or
essences which are eternal and true.
 The soul that humans possess preexisted in the
world of forms and ideas.
 This is why the soul is immortal and learning is mere
remembering or recollecting what the soul once
knew when it was in the realm of forms.
Rene Descartes also recognized dualism and expressed
this in his Meditations. He arrived at the conclusion
(second meditation) that he exists because doubt
requires a doubter.
He that exists is a thing that thinks – a mind or a
reasoning being. By “thinking being”, Descartes claims is
that which doubts, which understands, which conceives,
which affirms, which denies, which wills, which rejects,
which imagines also, and which perceives.
When we ask “Who am I?” we reflect or introspect. We
are looking within or deep inside ourselves (at our soul or
mind).
Our selves is not just who we are on the outside but is
much more about who we are inside.
V for Vendetta (2005)
This movie can help you make sense of Plato’s theory of
forms for it presents the power of ideas cannot be killed.
Buildings, however, are but symbols. When people have
forgotten what governments are for, the destruction of a
symbol will remind them and give them hope.
Mulan (1998) - The theme song “Reflection” from this
movie may be related to the mind-body problem in
philosophy.
The distinction of the mental and the bodily, for one,
raises the question of how interaction takes place
between brain and mind and the body.
People who are not born physically complete do not
necessarily have broken souls, so to speak. Whatever
tragedy happens in your life, your soul and your body will
have their responses and you can count on either of the
two to help you endure and survive. What a gift is to ve
human!
Check Point: Express Truth (ET) or False (F)
1. Mercy and kindness are properties and
expressions of the human soul.
2. Plato believes that the soul has been existent
long before the existence of the body.
3. Rene Descartes claims that thinking is not the
expression of our existence, but only the
existence of the soul.
4. The mind or soul can be easily reduced to
material thing.
5. Plato is the father of modern philosophy.
B. Unity of Body and Soul
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
He gives five proofs for God’s existence as well as an
explication of His attributes. He argues for actuality and
incorporeality of God as the unmoved mover and
describes how God moves through his thinking and
willing.
He claimed that body and soul are not two identities that
interact with each other but are one being made up of
matter and form.
Being cannot remain a being if matter and form
are not united.
This kind of thinking is like saying that the whole is the
sum total of its parts. Remove a part and it is no longer
whole.
Christians believe that human created a body and soul by
God. Human is an embodied soul. We have a body but we
are more than our body.
Christians speak of the salvation of souls and at the same
time look forward to Judgement Day when souls will be
united again with their bodies.
C. Human Consciousness and Existence
A special branch of philosophy called Philosophy of Mind
deals with the puzzle about the mind-body problem.
Humans naturally engage in thought as they interact with
the world. Nonetheless, the complexities of thought
could not be explained by nature.
John Locke
His notion of inner sense that was better understood as
the reflection or introspection, Locke was the first to
point out that all thoughts are conscious. Moreover, our
consciousness is the criterion for personal identity.
Immanuel Kant
He is also interpreted by philosophers of mind as
providing the basis for rationalist approach. The self is a
rational agent who can know their own thoughts and
attitudes, and be responsible for them.
The phenomenologist expounds on intentionality of
consciousness while the existentialist explores the
feelings that are awakened by consciousness.
It is clear that our mind presents phenomena that are
distinct from those experienced by our body.
We have reasons to believe that who we are cannot
simply be reduced to our corporeality and yet we do not
fully know or even understand the workings of our
mind/soul.
Identify the concept or person being which each
statement describes.
_______________ 1. One of the philosophers who
subscribed to dualism following Plato’s notion of form
and body.
_______________ 2. They believe that human being is
created body and soul by the Creator
_______________ 3. The first philosopher who points
out that all thoughts are conscious.
_______________ 4. A special branch of Philosophy that
deals with the complexities of thought.
_______________ 5. A mental activity that focuses on
human existence which may bring terror and despair.
D. Human Faculty of Reason
The rationalists and empiricists discovers both agree that
there is a human faculty called reason.
However, the rationalists discover truths by sitting and
thinking while the empiricist discover truth using their
senses or by observing the world.
The rationalists seek knowledge by grasping necessary
truth and necessary connections—truths that do not
depend on man.
The empiricists also seek for truths outside of man by
looking at sense data.
There are also skeptics in between.
Reason contrasted by some from faith; while others
would claim the reason includes the heart.
TOL: Do you agree or not agree with the thought that
“When the body dies, the soul also dies with the body”
RZ: What is the importance of the union between body
and soul in making choices for your future existence?
Chapter 2: Human Being: A Limited Being
Lesson 3: Reflection on “My Body”
Karl Jaspers
We see man’s body in its comparable expression. It
belongs to man himself has its own unique specificity, its
nobility and beauty.
A. The Relation Of I And The Body
The capacity of human being to think or even to feel is
the very basis of consciousness of the “I” of its existential
existence; that is tangibly exists as a thinking substance.
Gabriel Marcel
The possibility of such encounters unfolds through “my
body”
“My body” is the main basis for reflection and self-
consciousness.
“My body” senses the “I”-existence and the existence
outside of itself. This principle basis of reflection is a
communicative manifestation of an essential relationship
between “My body” and existence or the world.
“My body” is the manifestation of my existentiality, of
who I am.
The two ways or levels of experience in reflecting on “my
body”:
First level of reflection, the body is seen as a separate
entity from the self. In other words, my body is just a
mere body, as a mere object apart and outside of myself
(Gabriel Marcel on primary reflection)
“My body” possesses an aspect of mystery.
Another way or level of reflection on “my body” is when I
considered it as a “mystery”.
My body is intertwined with my subjectivity, of what I am
and of who I am. My body becomes the manifestation of
uniqueness, my self-identity and my self-being. As I
express my self-being through my body, the body also
expresses its being through my self-being.
B. I Have My Body
I Have a Body versus I Am My Body
In existentialist though, Marcel popularized this two ways
of looking at once body: as an object of possession and as
a subject of unity. It is the I made flesh. A meaningful
existence cannot discard the view of “I am my body”.
The claim “I have my body” implies possession. This does
not only show authority, but also great responsibility.
Since my body is not a separate entity from my self-being
and it manifests my self-being, my response to my body is
not manipulation but active concern and care.
C. I Am My Body
The union between my body and I is not just a mere
relationship of two organisms or entities. For Marcel, this
union means existential existence to my body and to
myself.
My body cannot exist alone apart from me; and that I
cannot exist apart from my body.
My relationship with my body is not the same with my
relationship with other things that I own or possess. For
Marcel, all these are channels to manifest myself, my
capacity, my power, or even my faculty of thinking, but
they are all apart from me.
My body as a material reality acts and does things with
inherent power.
Check Point: Manifest truth (MT) or False (F)
1. Gabriel Marcel claims that the body has its own
uniqueness, nobility, and beauty.
2. Karl Jaspers believes that my encounter with the
world happens through my body.
3. Gabriel Marcel was the one who said that the
central basis for reflection on I-existence
relationship is my body.
4. “I have a bod” unveils the true union between I
and my body.
5. John Locke upholds that my body is like other
things that can be manipulated.
D. Transcendence And My Body
The relationship between my body and I reveals an
encounter with other subjectivity or I.
My body becomes more intermediary with another
subjectivity or with the other I.
In my relationship with Trancendence, I can only relate
with this Being through my body . I only encounter the
Transcendence because my body encounters it.
E. Myself And The World
My existence is existential.
My constatnt realtion with the world through my body,
the world becomes my world. World is present to me, I
am present in the world through my body in a particular
and unique way.
I isolate or widraw myself or my personal presence
engaging my body with my personal activities. And the
world is also concealed from me through my body in a
particular milieu in a particular way,
TOL: Some people claim that they can do whatever they
want to with their bodies. Such claim becomes a basis of
some women to commit abortion. What is your position
about this issue?
RZ: Since the body cannot be separated from your self-
being, how do you take care and respect it?
Lesson 4: Finitude and Historicity of the Human Being
Wilhelm Dilthey
It is a characteristic of the expression of lived experiences
that its realtion to the spiritual or human content
expressed in it can only be made available to
understanding within limits.
The human being always attempts to overcome
his/her experience of finitude, his/her finiteness.
A. Human Being in Time
Human being is constituted by his/her past, present and
his/her future. His/her present was, is and will be part of
his/her historicity. The past was once his/her
present;his/her present was once his/her future.
These three expressions of presence unveil the
temporality of human being.
B. Historicity of Human Being
The human being is a historical being. He/she is the
matrix himself/herself of the realities of the past, present,
and the future,
Tanging Yaman
The role of family relationship is crucial in forming a self-
image and character of a person.
It is an exoerience of remembering; but in the act of
remembering, the past becomes alive in the present.
Human being is the vessel of encounters among the
kinds, levels, and dimensions of realities in human
existence.
The interpersonal events and experiences of the past,
present, and future are harmonized in human being.
For Marcel, such situations help human being establish
his/her unique being.
The society possesses system of categories or structure
categories like language, beliefs, worldviews, and even
collective character or consciousness that aid human
being in creating and actualizing his/her self-identity and
personhood.
 List three vital expression of presence that affect a
human being’s decision and historicity
 Enumerate two boundary situations that a human
being encounters in existence.
Chapter 3: Harmony with Nature
Aldo Leopold
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity
belonging to us. When we see our land as a community to
which we belong. We begin to use it with love and
respect.”
The human being and the evolution of his/her
consciousness as a thinking being have been unfolding in
a concrete context, the environment: our physical
community.
The environment enables human being “to exist and act
together with others” (Karol Wojtyla 1979, 276)
Human action reveals the inward being of human being.
Karol Wojtyla believes that human action “ought to be
helpful in the cognitive actualization of the potentiality”
of human being
As human beings acts, it affects the movements and
activities including the consciousness of the environment.
Karol Wojtyla
He believes that man is a dynamic subject, who is able to
fulfill himself by fulfilling acts
Lesson 5: Human Being’s Encounter with the
Environment
Aldo Leopold
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong
when it tends otherwise.
A. Human Being’s Perspectives on Environment
Human being sees and considers the environment as an
erratic and disorderly thing that needs to be analyzed,
reformed and reshape through the cultural tools of
science and technology in the service of the human self.
B. Human Being’s Approaches on Environment
This kind of relationship between the human self and the
environment has led the emergence and development of
the various approaches to Nature such as instrumental
approach, axiological approach, anthropological
approach, utilitarianism, natural law ethics, virtue ethics,
and Buberian approaches.
Instrumental Approach
In this approach to environment, human being affirms the
protection of environment as long as it possesses value or
importance for human being. The problem with this
approach is that when a human being can no longer
recognize the value of environment.
Axiological Approach
In this approach to environment, human being recognizes
the intrinsic value of the environment. Beauty can be
seen the external expression of such intrinsic value.
Anthropological Approach
The primary concern of human being is to unveil his/her
being as human or what being human ought to be.
Human being does not recognize that the environment
has its own consciousness and inherent system.
Utilitarianism
This approach focuses on the consequences of human
action, whether it is wrong or right. Our action is ethically
right when it produces greatest happiness for the greater
number of people, otherwise the action is ethically
wrong.
Natural Law Ethics
There is goodness in human nature to do good in which is
rooted in the goodness of God; the God who created
everything according to His Divine plan. This goodness of
God in human being can be seen and manifested through
the expression of the human intellect and reason.
TOL: Craft your stand about this claim: “Since we,
humans, are the apex of creation, we have all the right to
control and manipulate the environment for human and
economic development?”
RZ: You observed that almost all people in your country
are lacking in awareness on how to manage their waste.
There are no waste containers on the main streets, and
people throw their waste into the river. What will you do
to make the people become aware of their responsibility
to respect and take care of the environment?
Virtue Ethics Perspective
The development of our virtue of care and respect for the
environment habitual performance of caring and
respecting non-human beings.
C. Sacredness of Environment
The recognition of the sacredness of environment is
based on the creation of all things. The environment as
part of creation poses an affirmation of a Creator, who is
the uncaused and cause, who caused everything that
exists (Buenaflor 2006).
Human being should recognize its sacredness; it is a
manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, divinity, and
perfection.
Leonardo Mercado
Mercado asserts that human being can encounter the
Divine in the environment.
Lesson 6: The Influence and Effects of Human Activity
toward Environment
David Abram
A human community that lives in a mutually beneficial
relation with the surrounding earth is a community, we
might say, that lives in truth.
A. The Spirit of Stewardship
Human being is part of creation. According to Timbreza,
human being has the responsibility to take care, protect,
and cultivate his/her potentialities faculties, and
functions.
As part of creation, human being’s choice and action the
unfolding of phenomena in the environment. The
potentialities of the environment may be realized
through human action.
The Lorax
Human being must take care of the environment so that
the environment will take care of him/her.
B. Human Being as the Summit of Creation
Rationality makes human being different from other
created things. The capacity to think unveils the inherent
nature of human being as the peak of creation for he/she
is created after the image and likeness of the Divine
Creator (Gen 1:6)
Emmanuel Levinas
He believes that human beings action is for the good for
the “other”, and not for his/her own good.
St. Augustine
Also known as Augustine of Hippo, he is considered as
one of the most important figures in the development of
Christianity.
Emmanuel Levinas
He is an existentialist who puts morality a “Human Face”.
It means that human face is more primordial than any
claims to philosophical arguments and doctrines, and that
before we hear the voice of any reason and
commandment, we see the other person when we
encounter his/her human face, and we see mutuality in it.
As a being with intelligence and reason, human being
must use environmental resources with love and care.
This is a responsibility, and it shall be infinite.
TOL: Do you agree with the statement, “Ang basurang
itinapon mo ay ibabalik sa ‘yo” or not? Explain.
RZ: As you are walking around your community, you
observe that there are many young people throwing
garbage along the road. You are convinced that this
practice of the young people would have a negative result
on the environment, what would you do to help stop
such practice of young today?
Lesson 7: The Complementarity between Human Being
and Environment
Marcus Aurelius
What is good and just for man is to live in harmony with
nature.
A. The Spirit of Noncoexistence
The noncoexistence between human being and the
environment when one is being objectified by the other
one makes the other as an object.
A human being does not recognize the consciousness and
systems that set natural movements and occurrences in
the environment.
The problem with noncoexistence between human
beings and environment is not coming from the
environment, but from the human being.
Another source of the problem of noncoexistence
between human beings and environment is when a
human being focuses on development and progress at
the expense of the environment.
B. The Spirit of Coexistence
The spirit of coexistence between human being and the
environment is shown every time human being
recognizes his/her dependence upon the latter.
Human being should recognize the inherent
consciousness and wisdom that pervade the whole
creation.
CP:
1. What happens when man does not consider the
environment as a community?
2. According to Fr. Mercado, what consequence of
seeing forests or rivers as brothers or sisters?
TOL: What is your opinion concerning the conversion of
agricultural lands into subdivisions, recreational parks,
malls, high rise buildings and condominiums, and the
like?
RZ: The life of indigenous people depends on the richness
of their agricultural lands. If you were the leader of the
country, how would you help them protect and sustain
their agricultural lands without depriving them of the
advantages of technological development?
Lesson 8: Dialogical Relation between Human Being and
Environment
David Abram
We experience the sensuous world only by rendering
ourselves vulnerable to that world.
A. Environment as an Object of Human Being’s
Existence
In I-it relation human beings sees the environment
through the lens of his/her own needs and perception.
Human being alone is active and the environment is
considered as a mere object to be experience and used;
the environment is seen as mere commodity.
Human being does not recognize an experience
environment as a bio-community where he/she belongs,
lives, and where his/her character is built. The progress of
modern technology has contributed to the widespread of
the I-it attitude towards the environment. The
relationship between human being and environment
becomes superficial and manipulative.
B. Environment as an Subject of Human Being’s
Existence
Human being in the I-Thou relation treats the
environment as a Thou, as a subject and not a mere
object, in its wholeness.
The “basic word I-Thou can be spoken with one’s whole
being” (Bubber 1970, 54)
Human relates with a Thou (You) to attain self-realization.
In this relation, human being touches the Thou of the
environment which leads to the touch of “breath of the
human life” (Bubber I-Thou)
Moreover, for Bubber, in this kind relationship between
human and the environment, characterize by a genuine
dialog, human existence is fully realized.
C. Human Being’s Ethical Responsibility toward the
Environment
The relationship between the self and the other depends
on how human interprets the other. If the other
interprets the other as an it, the relationship between the
self and the other will be an I-It relationship; and if the
self-interprets the other as Thou, the relationship
between self and the other will be an I-Thou relationship.
I-It and I-Thou relationships come into being when the
human interprets and sees the environment either as it (a
thing) or as a Thou.
In the I-It attitude, the human being does not interpret
the other as having any possibilities beyond those which
he/she has determined for it.
In I-Thou attitude, a human being recognizes that the
environment has the possibilities of its own beyond those
which he/she expects or imposes on it.
Bubber
The main focus of this I-Thou relation, between human
being and the environment, is not deed of posture of an
individual being but the reciprocity of being itself – a
reciprocity that has nothing except being.
TOL: Some people believe that urbanization is inevitable.
Indeed, it is inevitable and continues to unfold because
human beings allow it to happen. But in the name of
urbanization, trees are being cut for subdivision and
malls, hill and ridges are converted into recreational
parks. What is your stand concerning such situations?
RZ: You observed that your place is lacking of trees, and
every time heavy rains come, it flood the whole area. As a
young and concerned citizen, what would you do to
address such concerns of the community?
*Please study The Unit in Review
UNIT III Being-with-others: Life in Society and
Intersubjectivity
Florentino T. Timberza
Love begets love and violence begets violence. If others
hate you love them in return, i.e., if you want to
overcome their hatred. If somebody gets mad at you,
repay with affection.
Homo Socius
Human Socius- humans are social beings. As social beings,
humans are necessarily political. They do not only relate
with one another in communities, but they need to enter
into a political association for their own preservation,
common protection, and good life.
Karl jaspers
“Man is always more than what he knows about himself”
Human are political by nature. They have a natural desire
to live in communities for the sake of self-preservation,
common protection, and good life. Political society (also
called state) is formed out of the natural evolution of
communities, not a product of human conventions.
Aristotle gives three reasons why he considers human as
political beings by nature.
1. Political society is a completion of the natural
development of human communities.
2. Only humans have the capacity for speech
3. The political society comes before the individuals
A. The First Argument
human’s “sense of good and evil, of just and unjust,” and
a being with the sense according to Aristotle, “makes a
family and a state”
Humans, therefore, are political by nature because they
have the natural capacity for speech. The argument may
be stated in syllogistic form.
C. The Third Argument
“…The state is by nature clearly prior to the existence of
the family of the individual…,” states Aristotle (1920,29).
This statement seems to contradict Aristotle’s first claim
that the state is the end of the natural growth of human
communities. As a logician, however, Aristotle is not
talking literally, but paradoxically.
Humans, according to Aristotle, are rational beings. They
are rational because they have the capacity to reason
out.
Reason dictates that humans should live together and
form a society. It is the rational nature of humans that
requires them to form and live in the society.
Gods are said to be perfect beings (and hence self-
sufficient) and do not need a society to survive and live a
good life. Beasts, on the other hand, being irrational
creatures cannot be educated and perfected. As humans
are definitely not gods, they would be uneducated and
unperfected outside the state. Hence, for Aristotle,
humans need to form and live in a political society in
order to develop and to realize their rational nature, and
in order for them to live in a good life, which is their
ultimate purpose.

Men and women have both the natural desires to TOL: Are humans really political by nature? Explain.
propagate their species for they “have a natural desire to
leave behind them an image of themselves,” (Aristotle
1920, 26)
The first human community, therefore, is marriage
between a man and a woman. From this natural
relationship is born the family, which “is the association
established by nature for the supply of men’s every-day
wants,” (Aristotle 1920, 27)
A state or political society, may therefore, be defines as a
self-sufficing community of people existing for the sake of
good life of all its members.
State
It is the self-sufficing community of people existing for
the sake of good life.
B. The Second Argument
Aristotle (1920) states that humans have the capacity for
speech. This capacity does not exist in vain. It implied