Human Person, Freedom, Fallacies and Intersubjectivity

Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

  • Objectives:
    • Understand human limitations and possibilities.
    • Assess limitations and possibilities in relation to transcendence.
    • Know the nature of the human person as an embodied spirit.
    • Recognize the ultimate goal of humanity's basic goal in life and in spirit.

What Makes You a Human Person?

  • Human Person:
    • Union of body and soul.
    • An individual with attributes and characteristics that set them apart.
    • Possesses sentience (ability to feel, experience, and perceive).
    • Composed of body, mind, and spirit.
    • Serves as an intermediary (bridge and wall).

Man as an Animal?

  • "Man is a rational animal."

The Concept of Man

  • Dichotomy between body and soul.
  • Unity of body and soul – hylomorphic doctrine.
Hylomorphic Doctrine
  • Greek words:
    • Hyle: Matter (body).
    • Morphe: Forms (soul).
  • The soul acts as the reality of the body.
  • The body is the material entity with the potential for life.

Types of Soul (Aristotle)

  1. Rational
  2. Sentient
  3. Vegetative

The Human Body

  1. Dignified Body
    • Needs to be respected.
    • Value is immeasurable.
    • Not a mere object.
    • Has unique functioning senses.
    • Capable of high intellectual processes.
    • Capable of learning from the past, living in the present, and planning for the future.
  2. Component Part of a Person
    • Medium between the self and the world.
    • Should not be considered payment for business transactions.
    • Should not be considered an object of pleasure.

Ownership of One's Body: Dilemmas

  1. Dilemma 1: Biological origins and parental responsibility.
    • "Nobody owns my body except me alone."
  2. Dilemma 2: Responsibility for actions of others using one's body.
    • "A person should be responsible over what he/she owns."
  3. Dilemma 3: Intoxication and responsibility for actions.
    • "Ownership presupposes full control over what he/she owns."

Man as a Rational Animal

  • Can recognize things through senses and intellect.
  • Capable of giving meaning (ideogenesis).

Concept of Man and Change

  • All extended beings are subject to change and uncertainty.
  • Man has the capacity to create narratives and understand hidden possibilities.

Realities of Life

  1. Life is not routinary or mechanical.
    • Identity is not just maintaining the status quo but realizing change.
  2. Find life's meaning again and again.
    • Never stop grasping the essence of being and life.
  3. Accept things as they are but go beyond ordinary actions.
  4. Strive to free oneself from conformity and avoid imitation.

Overcoming Limitations

  • Conquer limitations and look at possibilities.

Factors to Consider in Evaluating Limitations

  1. Forgiveness
  2. The beauty of nature
  3. Vulnerability
  4. Failure
  5. Loneliness
  6. Love

Hindrances That Limit You

  1. Lack of finance
  2. Lack of stability in the community
  3. Lack of physical and emotional health
  4. Lack of self-understanding
  5. Lack of relational skills
  6. Lack of personal identity
  7. Lack of communication skills
  8. Lack of empowering location
  9. Lack of appropriate training
  10. Lack of meaningful relationships
  11. Lack of confidence

Self-Transcendence

  • Capacity to improve ourselves.
  • Moving beyond comfort zones.
  • PUSH and PULL approach.
PUSH Approach
  • Go beyond animal heritage to become fully human.
  • Engage in practices to break limitations.
  • Go beyond limits.
  • Focus on ego and personality.

Maximizing Possibilities

  1. Be realistic when choosing goals.
  2. Keep your mind flexible.
  3. Don't hesitate to ask for help.
  4. Try to restore balance on the side of good.
PULL Approach
  • Embracing higher possibilities.
  • A deeper and more essential way of living.
  • Having faith.

Freedom of the Human Person

  • Objectives:
    • Understand freedom and its limitations.
    • Recognize freedom as a complex whole.
    • Appreciate freedom of choice.
    • Identify the consequences of choices.
  • Examples and experiences may vary from person to person.

Freedom

  • The ability to do things as you please without hindrance or restraint.
  • A basic human right.
  • It is all about choices.
  • Thinking and actions result from choices.
  • Freedom entails:
    • Self-reflection
    • Self-possession
    • Self-determination
  • Power to act, speak, or think as one wants without constraint.
  • Allows you to do:
    • What you want to do
    • When you want to do
    • How you want to do
    • With whom you want to do things as you please
  • Freedom comes with personal responsibility.

Free Will

  • Ability to select a course of action to fulfill a desire (Stanford University).
  • Power to choose among alternatives independently of natural, social, or divine constraints (Britannica).

Choice

  • The act of choosing from among alternatives of beliefs, lifestyle, or behavior.

Responsibilities

  • Duty/obligation; something expected/required.

Dimensions of Responsibility

  1. Responsibility for one's actions and their results.
  2. Task and role responsibility.
  3. Universal and moral responsibility.
  4. Legal responsibility.

Consequences

  • Result of action; outcomes of decisions.
  • Immediate and delayed.

Reflecting on Consequences

  • Important questions:
    1. How many lives will be crushed by my decisions?
    2. When cheating, how long before I get caught and what would happen then?
    3. Do I have a better choice?
    4. Is it really worth it?
    5. Will I be proud of my decision?
  • Consider all options and discern which will give the long-term effect of your action.

Exercising Prudence in Choices

  • Understand that choices affect ourselves and others.
  • Think about others’ feelings and emotions.
  • Consider dealing with risks.

Factors Affecting Decisions

  • Emotional attachment
  • Social norms
  • Moral values
  • Easiest option
  • People around you
  • Physical and emotional health
  • Financial problems
  • Confidence and courage
  • Spiritual values

Making Choices

  • Understand who you really are.
  • Know your limitations and capabilities.
  • Be realistic/practical in weighing choices.
  • Consider past experiences, present situation, and future consequences.
  • Stop, Think, Observe, Proceed.
  • Event+Reaction=WhatyougetEvent + Reaction = What you get
  • The choice is yours, no one can decide for you.
  • Use expert opinions and suggestions wisely.
  • Incorporate risk tolerance when making decisions.
  • Accept consequences once a choice has been made.

Written Work: Reflective Essay

  • Choose between a comfortable, predictable life or a risky path.
  • Reflect on the choice in at least 3 sentences, guided by benefits and disadvantages of each option.

Fallacies: Errors in Reasoning

  • Common errors that undermine logic.
  • Illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points lacking evidence.

Types of Fallacies

  1. Appeal to Pity (Argumentum ad misericordiam): Provoking pity or guilt.
  2. Appeal to Ignorance (Argumentum ad ignorantiam): Assuming truth based on lack of disproof.
  3. Equivocation: Using a word with different meanings in a chain of reasoning.
  4. Composition: Assuming truth of the whole from truth of a part.
  5. Division: Assuming truth of parts from truth of the whole.
  6. Against the Person (Argumentum ad hominem): Linking validity to a characteristic of the advocate.
  7. Appeal to Force (Argumentum ad baculum): Using force or threat as justification.
  8. Appeal to People (Argumentum ad populum): Exploiting vanities and desire for esteem.
  9. False Cause (Post hoc): Assuming causation based on sequence.
  10. Hasty Generalization: Making a claim based on too little evidence.
  11. Begging the Question (petitio principii): Assuming the proposition to be proven in the premise.

Intersubjectivity

  • Objectives:
    • Realize intersubjectivity requires accepting differences.
    • Appreciate talents of persons with disabilities and the underprivileged.
    • Perform activities demonstrating these talents.

Intersubjectivity Defined

  • The condition of man among other men, who are also subjects.
  • Shared awareness and understanding among persons.
  • Made possible by the awareness of the self and the other.

Martin Buber

  • Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher known for philosophy of dialogue.
  • "The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing one of its beings."
  • "All real living is a meeting." "All actual life is an encounter."

Social vs. Interhuman Relationship

  • Social: Group bound by common experiences.
  • Interhuman: Life between persons; interpersonal dialogue.
  • Men feel carried by the collectivity, lifting them out of loneliness.

Dialogue

  • Deep and genuine relationship between persons.
  • Two persons acknowledge each other and treat each other as equals.

Ich-Es (I-It) Relationship

  • World of experience and sensation with objects.
  • Beings do not actually meet; the "I" treats the being as an object.
  • Monologue relating to the world in terms of self-interest.

Ich-Du (I-Thou) Relationship

  • World of encounters and relationships with persons.
  • Concrete encounter without objectification.
  • It is a dialogue.
  • "Through the Thou, person becomes an … ?"

Obstacles to Dialogue (Contrasted)

  • Seeming vs. Being
  • Speechifying vs. Personal making present
  • Imposition vs. Unfolding
Seeming
  • Approaching the other governed by the image one desires to impress.
Being
  • Proceeds from what one really is; acceptance of self and other.
Speechifying
  • Talking past another; hearing without listening.
Personal Making Present
  • Fully opening oneself to the other.
Tendencies That Make Dialogue Difficult
  • Analytical thinking
  • Reductive thinking
  • Derivational thinking
Imposition
  • Holding one's own opinions without regard for others.
Unfolding
  • Finding the disposition toward truth, good, and beautiful in the other.
  • Seeing the other as a unique individual capable of self-actualization.