Embodied Spirit

Introduction to Philosophy of Human Person

Reflection
How do we describe a human person?
In philosophy, one difference of a person to a tree is his/her mind. The ability to
think. In measuring a human person, how can we say he or she a human
person? One is by looking at its physical characteristics. The height and parts of
his/her body
• The color of skin
How about if they have different skin color or have a missing body part are they
less of a person because we look at it physically?
Reflection
How about looking their status in the society?
Rich ,In authority ,Intelligent and capable
How about those,
Poor, Beggar and incapable , gullible and sometimes foolish
are these less of a person?
We use our minds differently and have arguments and differences for what we
believe, are these person less because we don’t think the same.
Reflection
In our Filipino language, a person who committed such a heinous crime or
brought damage to someone they are called “hayop ka”, does this because
their actions and being compared to an animal make them less as a person?

A person falls to a vegetative state due to sickness we have the term “lantang
gulay or parang gulay.” compared to a healthy and still capable, does being in a
vegetative state makes a person less?
 Two Approaches
Metaphysical Approach Existential Approach

• Focuses on the kinds of • Focuses on the kind of

Substances and capacities Life, or mode of
That make up a human Existence that is unique
person to a human person
 Two Approaches
Metaphysical Approach Existential Approach

• Examines the essential • Examines the essential

Component of a human features of human life
Person
• Deals with the who of a
• Deals what of human perso
a human person
Tarzan
Using the metaphysical approach, he has the what if a human person, using the existential approach he has
the who of an ape.

-Mabaquiao
Metaphysical Approach in Three Views

• Unspirited View
• Disembodied spirit view
• Embodied Spirit view
Unspirited View
• The human is just his/her body and nothing more
• Humans do not have a spiritual component.

It is all about the physiological component of a person, the anatomy of the human
body and everything can be explain through science.
Emotions – the feeling of in love are bunch of chemical reactions of the brain that
gives you the feeling.
Neural states, Electronic signals – these what your mind have, your thinking,
imagination and knowledge.
Pain – stimulation of the brain.
Disembodied Spirit View
• The human person is essentially just his/her spirit
• The body is a nonessential component of the human person
• The body is dependent on the spirit, but the spirit is not dependent on the
body.

Plato, at least in many of his dialogues, held that the true self of human beings is the reason
or the intellect that constitutes their soul and that is separable from their body.

Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think.
Embodied Spirit View
• Spirit/soul = a set of capacities of abilities that give life to something.
• The human person is the unity of body and spirit
• The body and spirit cannot exist independently of one another.

A soul, Aristotle says, is “the actuality of a body that has life,” where life means the
capacity for self-sustenance, growth, and reproduction. If one regards a living
substance as a composite of matter and form, then the soul is the form of a natural
Animate Objects – A living thing
• A soul makes an object animate (moving on its own), an animal
Anima – Latin word for soul
- the soul, especially the irrational part of the soul as distinguished
from the rational mind.
• What kind of thus is the soul?
Soul is immaterial.
• Are there any essential characteristics of the soul?
Being rational, able to think, desires, practical decisions and emotions
Have connection to the forms, the soul. They are being move.
Animate Objects – A living thing
• A soul seems to need a body for its main activities
• The ways the soul is affected requires a body-
Like for example feeling angry or being afraid. It is not just the soul move by this feeling
without the physical body. If you are afraid other than the feeling inside is the body
reacts like goosebumps to complete the feeling of being afraid.
Affections or emotions – ways the soul is moved.
The soul is, then some principle (or cause) involving matter.
Embodied Spirit

We know that there is more to

who we are than what we
appear to be. Our selves is not
just who we are outside but is
much more about who we are
inside. (Camiloza,63)
Thomas Aquinas
The body and soul are not
two entities that interact with
each other but are one being
made up of matter and form.
(Camiloza,64)
Thomas Aquinas: Body and Soul
• The soul is the form of the body – The soul makes the human person what it is.
• A living thing can only have one soul
• In understanding of Thomas Aquinas plants and animals have soul. Vegetative
and sensory soul
• Some thinkers at his time a higher soul and lower soul co-exist in the same
substance
Animals = vegetative and sensory soul
Man = vegetative, sensory and rational soul
But Aquinas that higher soul and lower soul just exist virtually but don’t separate to
the one soul.
 The Embodied Spirit

Human Person
Spirit (Embodied Spirit) Body