QUARTER 1- INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 11

LESSEON 1: DOING PHILOSOPHY

I. The Nature and Functions of Philosophy
DEFINITION OF PHILOSOPHY
Traditionally philosophy is defined as love of wisdom because it came from two
Greek words philos (love) and Sophia (wisdom). You might find it strange to connect love to
philosophy. You might think of philosophy as a purely intellectual discipline which has
nothing to do with love. You might believe love is romance, poetry, intense passion in which
you are willing to lay down your life. But you will see that philosophy can also be pursued
passionately. In fact some people like Socrates died for truth. It is this centrality of love to
philosophy that we call people who engages in philosophy as philosophers (lovers of
wisdom).
ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY
Greece is the birthplace of philosophy in the West. To be more precise it is the
ancient Greek city of Miletus in the Western coast of what is now Turkey that gave birth to
philosophy. It is in this city that the first philosopher in the West, Thales, lived. Thales is
the Father of Philosophy in the Western civilization. He lived between 624 and 546 BCE a
contemporary of the Lydian king Croesus and the statesman Solon (Stumpf and
Fieser,2008).
What made Thales a philosopher is his desire to know the ultimate stuff that makes
up the different things we perceived. You see when we look at the world we encounter
different things: people, trees, clouds, mountains, rivers, etc. Now Thales believed that
despite the different things we encounter there is one underlying stuff or substance in
which everything is composed. He believes that there is One in the Many. Thales was the
first individual who tried to reduce the multiplicity in to a unity (Jones,1969).
But his explanation of natural phenomena is devoid of gods and goddesses of the old
religion of Greece. It is completely rational. It represents a departure from the mythological
religion of Greece. Thales approach highlights the difference between religion and
philosophy. Religion rests on faith while philosophy rests on reason.
PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVITY
Thales greatest contribution to philosophy is not his identification of water as the
ultimate stuff of the universe. His greatest contribution is the problem he posed “What is
the ultimate stuff of the universe?” and his approach in solving that problem. Studying
Thales makes us realize that philosophical activity is characterized by three things:
First in terms of scope philosophy involves the widest generalizations (Rand, 1982).
While people concern themselves with shoes and clothes, the latest gossip about their
favorite celebrities, their crushes, philosophers concern themselves with big issues
pertaining to the truth, , the good, the just, the beautiful, and the existence of practically all
things. While scientists concern themselves with scientific knowledge, historians with
knowledge of the past, economists with knowledge of supply and demand, philosophers
concern themselves with the nature of knowledge as such (which embraces all types of
knowledge previously mentioned and more).
Second philosophy is all about fundamentals. A fundamental is the root cause that
explains almost everything in a given context. To understand this imagine that knowledge
is like a building with levels. Now the higher level depends on the lower levels (Peikoff,
1991). If somehow the lower level crumbles then all the higher levels that rest upon it will
collapse. A fundamental is like the lower floor that supports everything above it. That kind
of support is exactly what philosophy provides. If somehow philosophical ideas like
consciousness and existence disappear then knowledge of any kind will not make any sense
because there will be nothing to know (existence) and no one to know (consciousness).
Third philosophy is driven by the desire to integrate things in to a one coherent
whole. As the celebrated philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said “The true is the
Whole (Peikoff, 1991).” If you notice Thales wants to reduce the multiplicity of things into a
single stuff. He desires to find the One in the many.

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BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY
Since philosophy’s concern is vast, we have to divide it into different branches. Each
branch will focus on a specific area of philosophy. To understand the branches of philosophy
let us return to the three central philosophical questions we explored earlier.
First the question, Where am I? By the time we reached adulthood we believe we
know the answer to this question. In fact we believed that the answer is obvious that we
don’t bother to look closely at the question itself. Where am I? Well let’s say I’m in Manila.
You don’t need philosophy to answer that one. But if you ask a series of where questions
(Where is Manila? Where is the Philippines? etc.) which at first seems childish you
eventually end up with the universe. And here we have to stop asking the where question
(Where is the universe is an absurd question. The universe does not exist in a place). What
kind of place is the universe? Is it governed by laws? If so what laws? The study of the
universe as a whole is the province of metaphysics. Metaphysics is further subdivided into
ontology which studies existence as such and philosophical anthropology which deals with
the fundamental and essential characteristics of human nature (Gotthelf and Salmieri,
2015).
The second question, How do I know it? concerns the nature of human knowledge
and the way to obtain it. How do we obtain knowledge? Do we obtain knowledge by
revelation, intuition, instinct or reason? Can we achieve certainty or are we doomed to
suffer perpetual doubt? Is knowledge based on the things we perceive or from something
else? This is the concern of epistemology which can be defined as the “branch of philosophy
that studies the nature and means of human knowledge.” We need epistemology to guide us
in knowing since we make mistakes from time to time.
The first two branches of philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, are called
cognitive branches. These branches provide a description of being (existence) and knowing.
They are the foundations of understanding any philosophical system.
The next three branches of philosophy (ethics, politics and aesthetics) can be
classified as the normative branches of philosophy because they are concerned with the
standard of the good. If the cognitive branches are concerned with what “is” the normative
branches are concerned with what “ought” to be.
The most basic normative branch of philosophy is ethics or morality (I used this two
concepts interchangeably). It is concerned with the last of the three questions central to
philosophy: What should I do? Ethics can be regarded as the technology of philosophy (I owe
this analogy to the philosopher Ayn Rand) because it tells us how human beings ought to
function as a human being. But in order to describe how human beings ought to act we
must first know what a human being is. These last is provided by metaphysics and
epistemology. (This is especially true of philosophical anthropology a sub-branch of
metaphysics which studies the metaphysical nature of man (see discussion above).
Metaphysics and epistemology are the foundations of ethics.
What then is ethics or morality? According to Ayn Rand ethics or morality is a
branch of philosophy that provides a human being with a “code of values to guide man’s
choices and actions - the choices and actions that determine the course of his life (Rand,
1964).” It is concerned with the values man ought to pursue, the interrelationships of those
values and the means to obtain them (virtue).
The last two normative branches of philosophy, politics and aesthetics, are derived
from ethics. Ethics is concerned with the good for human being as a human being. If we
apply ethics in a social context then it becomes politics. The concern therefore of ethics is
broader than politics. It studies the “good” for human beings in any setting (whether society
is present or not). An individual who is alone in an island still has to follow ethical
principles if he wishes to survive (Peikoff, 1991).
So what then is politics? Again following Rand’s definition politics is a branch of
philosophy “which defines the principles of a proper social system.” According to Rand
“proper” means proper for human beings which presupposes that one knows what a human
being is. Since knowledge about human being is provided by the cognitive branches of
philosophy, the foundation of politics ultimately rests on metaphysics and epistemology.
The last of the normative branch, aesthetics studies the nature of art. It is concerned
with the nature and the objective judgement of beauty.

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II. Philosophical Tools and Processes

Philosophy as a science is also a systematized body of knowledge but unlike other
sciences which employs observation and experimentation to prove their theories, philosophy
uses reason to arrive at a certain knowledge or truth. At the onset Greek philosophers gave
us a hint on how to use our intellect to understand realities around us. The tools that they
frequently utilized are the following:
1. Philosophical Questions. Philosophy was born because of ignorance. If one is
ignorant, he asks questions and if he keeps on questioning the more knowledge
he acquires. Once a person stops questioning, he cease to become a philosopher.
In our daily struggles, one needs to ask questions simple, serious and deep
questions that we have to grapple with. A philosopher is like a child who has an
inquisitive mind who never stops asking questions and finding answers.
2. Logical Reasoning. In philosophy reasoning is the process of thinking about
something in a logical way in order to form a conclusion or judgment. It has been
the method institutionalized by the triumvirate Greek philosophers specially
Aristotle. Philosophy is about answering questions. Reasoning is the method we
use in doing philosophy. However, although it is necessary for any competent
engagement with philosophy, it is not the end all and be all of philosophy. All
branches of philosophy employ reasoning in explaining their arguments. For
example the concept of right or wrong which is the domain of Ethics based their
arguments in human reason alone in contrast with theology which is dependent
from the Bible as the source of its moral teachings. Reasoning however is the
domain of one branch of philosophy which is Epistemology.

III. Philosophical Reflection

In the midst of our present crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, consistently, the
government kept on reminding us the ‘essentials’ of things and concerns that are necessary
during the quarantine period whether under ECQ, GCQ, or MECQ. In our case, we changed
our competencies and emphasized the most essential ones. This is the essence of
philosophy. It tries to separate the essences of things versus accidentals and necessary
versus contingent. It is concern of what is the substance and ultimate causes of things.
When we venture into philosophizing we see the greater perspective of all things and
see the ultimate purpose or reasons for our existence. Most of us are so engross with
individual trees and we miss the whole forest as the saying goes. We are always predispose
to attend to the details of the problem rather than look at the situation as a whole. This is
true in our understanding of the objects, events, realities and situations around us.
Reflection is the process that would aide in understanding the holistic point of view of what
is going on around us.
Reflection is an activity that requires a person to examine his or her thoughts,
feelings and actions and learn from experience. (Abella, 2016). . Philosophers always search
for the essence of things and the ultimate reasons for our existence. Its trajectory is to see
the bigger picture about everything. This process is called philosophical reflection.
According to Gabriel Marcel, philosophical reflection is the act of giving time to think about
the meaning and purpose of life. He mentioned two types, namely: Primary Reflection-
which is the ability to think logically. The ability of the mind to construct and evaluate
arguments. It examines its object by abstraction, by analytically breaking it down into its
constituent parts. It is concerned with definitions, essences and technical solutions to
problems. The second type is Secondary reflection. According to Marcel this type of
reflection enables us to look deeper into our experiences and see the bigger picture of
reality. It integrates the fragmented and compartmentalized experience into a whole. It is
the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes,
not merely as a collection of parts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism In effect we see the
broader perspective of life.
Reflection is not exclusive for philosophy in fact it is employed in any endeavour,
research or disciplines. In research it is called methodological approach. Moral theology
employs the STOP sign as guidepost of moral decision making. S= Search out the facts. It is
necessary that all means should be exhausted to better understand the issue. T=Think,
reflect and analyse the facts, its negative or positive effects, advantages or disadvantages.
O= How it affects others. We should always consider others in every decision that we make.
Every action that we take has always a social dimension. It affects ourselves, others and

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community where we belong. Lastly P= stands for Pray. We are human beings with
limitations. If our best effort are not enough, then there is no way but look up for divine or
God for enlightenment and guidance. Praying is a unique tool of theology which is in the
realm of faith but philosophy’s reasoning helps in undergoing a theological reflection as St.
Anselm said, “its faith seeking understanding.” St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the great
theologian of the church quoted in latin the relationship between philosophy and theology;
‘philosophia ancilla theologiae’ or philosophy is the handmaid of theology the former is
there to serve theology. Reason is also important in theology not just faith. Whether in
philosophy, sociology or other sciences, reflection is very useful in understanding our daily
experiences to broaden our perspective of life.
In order to reflect philosophically we need to use a framework. A framework is a
conceptual map consisting of our views and beliefs which affects the way we view the world
(Abella 2016). The framework were going to used is called AQAL. It is an acronym that
stands for All Quadrants All Levels first formulated by an American
philosopher/psychologist Ken Wilber. Wilber first introduced AQAL to the world in his book
Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.

 According to Wilber everything can be analysed using a vertical line.

The line above divides space into two sides: left and right. The left side represents the
interior, subjective, aspect of everything. The right side represents the exterior, objective,
aspect of everything. The interior (or “loob” in Filipino) if applied to human beings, includes
one’s values, dreams, ideas, emotions, beliefs. It basically consists of one’s inner life. It
cannot be seen or measured but can be experienced directly. The exterior side of everything
are the things that we can see, measure and touch. They include the physical objects
around us including our own bodies. A simple example of this inside/outside distinction is
when a person smiles at you. You see the big smile so it is the exterior aspect of an event.
But at the same time there is a subjective meaning behind that smile: let’s say the person is
happy. This is the interior, subjective, aspect of the event. So you see two strands are
interwoven behind any human event: the objective and the subjective, the interior and the
exterior.

 Another basic distinction was introduced by Ken Wilber using a horizontal line that
divides space into above and below:
Above the line represents what is singular, individual, one. The space below represents
what is plural, collective, many. For example you are an individual but you belong in a
family, community, class (all instances of the collective).

 We created what Wilber calls the quadrants. According to Wilber quadrants are “the
inside and outside of the individual and collective (Wilber 2006).”

There are many ways to describe the quadrants. We can use the simple location of
each of the quadrant. So the interior of the individual is the upper left quadrant (UL), the
exterior of the individual is the upper right quadrant (UR), the interior of the collective is
the lower left quadrant (LL) and the exterior of the collective is the lower right quadrant
(LR).

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But what we are interested is when we apply this to human beings. The inside of the
individual becomes the mind, the outside of the individual becomes the body, the inside of
the collective becomes culture and the outside of the collective becomes society.

Now when we reflect on the nature of any concrete issue like poverty, corruption,
prostitution, global warming we can just put the issue at the center of the quadrant and
analyzed its mental, physical, cultural and social components. This is looking at an issue
from an all quadrant, multiple and holistic perspective.

Let’s take for example the issue of poverty. How do we reflect on the issue using the
AQAL framework? Well we know that poverty has a psychological aspect (UL quadrant) to
it. It affects the way we think, feel and even what we value. But it does not stop there.
Poverty also affects bodies (UR quadrant). It affects our nutrition, our medication and

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immune system. Some children have stunted growth due to poverty. And who could deny
that poverty also affects the culture such as arts, religion and even the way we dress.
Religious feast such as the procession of the Black Nazarene is in part motivated by
poverty. And of course it is obvious that poverty has an economic, political and even
technological components (all parts of the social LR quadrant)

References
BOOKS
Abella, Roberto M.Div., D. Min. Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human
Person. C& E Publishing, Inc., Quezon City, 2016.
Binswanger, H. (2014). How We Know. New York: TOF Publication
Cornejo et al. Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person. Mindshapers
Publishing, Inc.
Gotthelf, A. and Salmieri, G (2016). A Companion To Ayn Rand. MA: John Willey
and Sons
Gracia, Jorge J E Noone: A Companion of Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Oxford
Blackwell.2003. ISBN 9780631216728
Jones, W. T. (1969). The Classical Mind. New York: Hartcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.
Peikoff, L. (1991). Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. New York Dutton.
Rand, A. (1982). Philosophy: Who Needs It. New York. Bobbs-Merrill.
Stumpf, S.E. and Fieser J. (2008). Socrates To Sartre And Beyond. New York,
N.Y.: Mc Graw Hill
Wilber, K. (2001). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (Revised Edition). Boston, MA:
Shambhala.
Wilber, K. (2006). Integral Spirituality. Boston, MA: Shambhala
WEBSITE
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (May 2020) Gabriel Marcel (1889—1973). Retrieved
from https://www.iep.utm.edu/marcel/
PHILO notes WHITEBOARD (2 years ago). Doing Philosophy: Introduction to the
Philosophy of the Human Person. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=reflection+as+a+tool+in+philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (May 2020) Socrates. Retrieved from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/
Wikipedia (May2 020 Holism. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism

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