Who is the Human

Person?
Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person
Lesson 4
Lesson Objectives:
•Recognize own limitations and possibilities;
•Evaluate my own limitations and
possibilities for transcendence
WHO IS A
HUMAN
BEING?
Human Being, defined.
•A man, woman, or child of the species
Homo sapiens distinguished from other
animals by superior mental development,
power of articulate speech, and upright
stance.
-Oxford Dictionary
Ontology
•The area of metaphysics concerned
with the study of the nature and
relations of being.
Three Aspects of Human Nature
1. Somatic
2. Behavioral
3. Attitudinal
Three Aspects of Human Nature

1. SOMANTIC
•Refers to the body, material composition or
substance of a human person.
•“A human person consists of his or her
physical body only.”
Three Aspects of Human Nature

2. BEHAVIORAL
•Refers to the human person’s mode of
acting.
•“Any condition or event that may be shown
to take effect on behavior must be taken
into account.” – B.F. Skinner
Three Aspects of Human Nature

2. BEHAVIORAL
According to B.F. Skinner:
The human behavior may be manipulated or
controlled. (…) If the nature of the human
person is behavioral, the human person acts in
accordance to his or her condition as a human
distinctly unique from any other beings,
irrespective of culture, religion, or race.
Three Aspects of Human Nature

3. ATTITUDINAL
•Refers to the human person’s inclinations,
feelings, ideas, convictions, and prejudices
or biases.
•Attitude – is a person’s mental reaction to
stimuli or a person’s tendency to act.
Theories on Human Nature
1. Human Person as an Immortal
Soul
2. Human Person as a Composite of
Body and Soul
3. Human Person as a “Thinking
Thing”
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as an Immortal Soul

• The human person has a soul.

Socrates’s assertions on Plato’s dialogue in

“Phaedrus”:
“Every soul is immortal, for that which moves itself
is immortal, while what moves, and is moved by
something else stops living when it stops moving
(…)”
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as an Immortal Soul

•The human person has an immortal
soul that is the source of
movement.”
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as a Composite of Body and Soul

According to Aristotle in his work De Anima (1969):
“All the capacities possessed by all living things.”

SOUL-BODY RELATIONSHIP
Three kinds of substance (Aristotle):
• Matter
• Shape or form
• Product of both (composite of form and matter)
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as a Composite of Body

and Soul
THREE KINDS OF SUBSTANCE:
1. MATTER
- The human person is material that is an
affirmation of the somatic aspect of human
nature: the human body has organs that are so
well organized and ready for their different
functions for nutrition and growth.
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as a Composite of Body

and Soul
THREE KINDS OF SUBSTANCE:
2. SHAPE OR FORM / SOUL
-Having a soul, is the source of a human person’s
being alive, which enables him or her to do
actions or activities that are suited to being a
human person.
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as a Composite of Body

and Soul
THREE KINDS OF SUBSTANCE:
3. PRODUCT OF BOTH (COMPOSITE OF FORM
AND MATTER)
- The soul is what makes the natural body, which
is a potentiality that becomes an actuality.
- “Without the soul, the body does not have life.”
Theories on Human Nature
Human Person as a “Thinking Thing”
•Descartes asserted that the mind is a
thinking thing – distinct and extended; and
that his reality is how distinct he is from
the body, and he can exist without it.
•Descartes believes that the nature of man
is pure mind and having a body is an
accident.
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as a “Thinking Thing”

• [T]here is a great difference between the mind and the body,
inasmuch as the body is by its very nature always divisible,
while the mind is utterly indivisible. For when I consider the
mind, or myself in so far as I am merely a thinking thing, I am
unable to distinguish any parts within myself; I understand
myself to be something quite single and complete….By contrast,
there is no corporeal or extended thing that I can think of
which in my thought I cannot easily divide into parts; and this
very fact makes me understand that it is divisible. This one
argument would be enough to show me that the mind is
completely different from the body…. (AT VII 86-87: CSM II 59).
Theories on Human Nature

Human Person as a “Thinking Thing”

According to Rene Descartes in Meditation VI:
•The mind is indivisible, while the body is
divisible into parts.
•Mind-Body dualism
Human Condition
•The inevitable positive or negative
events of existence as a human being.
•Through human condition, a person
realizes how it is to be human.
Man as Freedom
•Existentialism – is a philosophical
tradition that focuses on the centrality
of the human person’s existence.
•Themes: existence, authenticity,
anxiety, freedom, life’s absurdity and
man’s situatedness.
Man as Freedom
According to Jean Paul Sartre:
•The human person has no fixed nature –
that his or her reality is his or her
freedom.
•The human person has free will and
he/she has to exercise this capacity
because it is only in choosing that the
human person’s existence becomes
authentic.
Man as Freedom
According to Jean Paul Sartre:
•Consciousness – the knowing being in his
capacity as a being.
•Consciousness transcends itself to reach
an object.
Man as Freedom
Two types of Being (according
to Sartre in his book, Being and
Nothingness):
1.Being-in-itself
2.Being-for-itself
Man as Freedom
Two types of Being (according to Sartre in his
book, Being and Nothingness):
1. Being-in-itself:
-Is completely constituted or “what is.”
-Also known as the being of material
objects.
-Without consciousness, they are explicitly
made or an actuality that is solid or
opaque.
Man as Freedom
Two types of Being (according to Sartre in
his book, Being and Nothingness):
2. Being-for-itself:
-The consciousness is only a presence when
your consciousness is directed to it.
-The being-for-itself is the presence of
consciousness to itself.
Man as Freedom
•Nothingness – not merely a mental
state but an experience. (Sartre)
•The nothingness is the absence that
was revealed.
Human Nature as Freedom
Concept of bad faith:
•Freedom is not about wanting to do
things but the being-for-itself acting
upon autonomous choices.
•Blaming others is not a possibility for a
human whose actions were guided by
his or her freedom.