Escuela San Gabriel de Colegio de San

Gabriel
Arcangel Foundation, Inc. Arcangel of Caloocan
Phase 10, Package 6, Block 1, Lots 1-5, Bagong Silang, Caloocan City
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GRADE 11/12 INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN
PERSON
Module 2: Philosophy and the Human Person

Let start with a simple activity using the following entry point to find out if you
have some idea about philosophy.

Mother and I
In the empty box before each item, put a check mark (√) on the experience
that you think expresses moments of being in the world of philosophy. Leave
blank the items/s which you think are not.

1. Your mother asked you to go to the market and you asked her what
items you need to buy.
2. Your mother asked you to go to the market and you asked how
much is the budget to take with you.
3. Your mother asked you to go to the market and you asked why it is
wise to buy in the wet market than in supermarket.
4. Your mother asked you to go to the market and you asked her why
your family is buying meat when a vegetarian’s life is more ideal.
5. Your mother asked you to go to the market and you asked yourself,
“ Why do people have to buy things when God created nature
where these goods come from?”

Duration: 1 Week

Introduction
Philosophy is not only for philosophers. Every person has the capacity to
find the value of philosophy in his/her own life. However, without a formal
introduction to the discipline , you may not be aware that you have been
engaging in philosophy. Notice, for example, the favorite household
conversation that we invoke against anything and anyone whom we disagree
about: “Pilosopo ka!”
Most Essential Learning Competencies
Philosophy is rational, methodological, and systematic.

Specific Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should have learned to:
 Explain the branches of philosophy
 Show an understanding of the history of philosophy.
 Distinguish a holistic perspective from a partial point of view

Learning Tools
A. Printed Learning modules, handouts or worksheet will be shared to students.
B. Online learning modules or platforms will be use for online discussion.
C. Photos downloaded from google.
D. Other sources:
 Ariola, Mariano M. LL.B. ; Ed.D., 2016. Introduction to the Philosophy of the
Human Person. Unlimited Books Library Services & Publishing Inc.
 Caraan, Aleli M., Yasol-Naval, Jeanette L., 2016. Introduction to the
Philosophy of the Human Person. Diwa Learning Systems Inc.
 Maboloc, Christopher Ryan, 2016. Introduction to the Philosophy of the
Human Person. The Inteligente Publishing, Inc.
 https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/education-and-platos-allegory-of-
the-cave-bf7471260c50

Motivation

Brainteaser

I exist only when there’s light,

but direct

light kills me. What am I?

Answer: _____________________

THE MAJOR BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

Ethics
Ethics, which is derived from the Greek term ethos, meaning “moral
philosophy,” is concerned about human conduct. As a normative study, it deals
with norms or standards of right and wrong applicable to human behavior. It is
considered as prescriptive as it prescribes what people ought to do rather than
describes what people do. A philosopher engaged in ethics is concerned in
finding out what norms or standards of human behavior lead to ends or goals
which are desirable or undesirable. His or her evaluation and analysis are
directed toward knowing whether there are higher human ends that may be
considered as the chief end of man. What constitutes this end is analyzed
through the nature of a human being and his or her moral and social virtues in
relation to others.
Aesthetics
Aesthetic comes from the Greek word aisthetikos which means “sensitive”
or “perceptive.” In this branch of philosophy, the philosopher is concerned with
the analysis of aesthetic experience and the idea of what is beautiful. The
analysis is directed toward the nature of aesthetic judgement, standards of
beauty, and the objectivity of these standards in response to the questions raised
about the meaning of aesthetic experience.
Epistemology
Epistemology comes from the Greek word epistēmē which means
“knowledge”; thus, this branch of philosophy deals with various problems
concerning knowledge. Among the major concerns in epistemology are the origin
of knowledge--whether empiricism (given by experience) or rationalism (given by
the mind prior to experience) and the verification or confirmation of knowledge.
Other highly specialized problems in this branch of philosophy include the
distinction between belief and knowledge, the nature of truth, the problems of
perception, the external world, and meaning and other minds.
Logic
Logic is the branch of philosophy that looks into whether there are rules or
principles that govern reasoning. As a study of reasoning, logic incorporates the
analysis of the methods of deduction and induction to provide the rules on how
people ought to think logically. Knowing the rules of logic gives a person the
techniques to create sound arguments and avoid fallacious reasoning. Logic also
increases one’s ability to reason correctly and distinguish irrational reasoning.

Metaphysics
 Metaphysics literally means “after physics.” Early Greek philosophers
claimed that it is the study of the nature of reality. This branch of philosophy
analyzes whether everything is material, and if life, energy, and mind are its
different manifestations. Metaphysicians reflect on the subject of appearances
(how something looks by how it appears) and reality (that which actually is).

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

I. What Have I learned So Far?

Direction: Identify the branch of philosophy in which each given questions is
likely to be asked and answered.
_____________________ 1. What is the nature of reasoning?
_____________________ 2. What is the nature of induction and how is it
similar to or different from scientific knowledge?
_____________________ 3. What is the nature of God?
_____________________ 4. Does God exist?
_____________________ 5. What is the mind? Does it really interact with the
body?
_____________________ 6. Is the self possible?
_____________________ 7. Can there be an absolute truth?
_____________________ 8. Is the conception of beauty relative?
_____________________ 9. Is morality relative?
_____________________ 10. What can be known if the origin of knowledge is
experience?
II.Thinking Out Loud
Direction: Write an essay about yourself entitled,“ What is the purpose of my
existence? Use additional paper for your answer. (10 points).
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BRIEF HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Pre-Philosophical Period
Even before the birth of natural philosophy, people had already attempted to
explain the origin of things and the events or occurrences in nature. Such
attempts are evident in the folklores, myths, and legends that the ancient peoples
----the ancient Babylonians, Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, and the Greeks most
notably----believed in. However, these stories are characterized by religious
elements or supernatural powers and not by natural or rational explanation.
Pre-Socratic Period
(Miletians)
Philosophy is said to have begun in the
Iconic colonies of Asia Minor around 6th century
BC through Tales of Miletus (Turner, 1903;
Russel, 1945). Thales, who is known as the first
Greek philosopher and the father of philosophy,
Thales of Miletus
is regarded as the first to engage in the inquiry
of searching for causes and principles of the natural world and various
phenomena without relying on supernatural explanation and divine components.
By observing nature, he believed that the earth floats on water, while is
considered as the first ultimate substance.
Another Miletian is the philosopher Anaximander who also wondered about
the beginning of the universe and where it came from. More systematic than
Thales, Anaximander claimed that the universe was formed from the boundless
(Greek apeiron) which is both the first principle (arche) and the substance
(stoicheion) of the universe. On the other hand, Anaximenes, another Miletian,
argued that air was fundamental element. Through the process of rarefaction or
compression, the air surrounds Earth in a more or less compressed state.
(Heraclitus of Ephesus and Xenophanes of Colopon)
Heraclitus and Xenophanes continued the Miletian claim of a single, proper
substance. They also offered a cosmological account, but they expanded their
focus on the human subject and investigated the nature of inquiry itself in the
physical explanations they provided. Heraclitus claimed the “unity of opposites” in
characterizing the cosmos and went further as to express that to understand
these characterizations is to inquire of the logos. Xenophanes, on the other hand,
claimed that there is a single god. He did not subscribe to the idea of an
anthropomorphic god, whom many people believed in his time. Xenophanes
suggested that if gods are “human-like,” then horses, oxen, and lions would have
equine, bovine, and leonine gods as well.
(Socrates and Socratic Schools)
This period was dominated by three famous philosophers, Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle. The philosophers in this period mainly had to answer the problem
of how to save the intellectual and moral life of the nation, which was threatened
by materialism and skepticism.
Socrates
Socrates left no writings at all and yet
he has greatly influenced western philosophical
tradition through Plato’s Dialogues. Socrates
Is best known for the elenchus, or the Socratic
Method. It is a method of question and answer
which aims to provoke the one being asked to Socrates (469-399 BC)

think for himself or herself and to clarify his or her conceptions about what is
asked. Socrates is also regarded as the one who urged self-examination and
claimed that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
Plato
Plato’s philosophy is a completion and extension
of the philosophy of Socrates. Socrates taught that
knowledge through concepts is the only true
knowledge----to which Plato concluded that the
concept, or idea, is the only true reality. Thus, for
Plato,philosophy is the science of the idea, or, as we
Plato (427-347 BC)
should say, of the unconditioned basis of phenomena.
Plato’s philosophical ideas are found in his Dialogues which are accounts
of what he is concerned with as influenced by his teacher, Socrates. The
Republic, one of Plato’s most famous works, discusses his social and political
philosophy and his belief that the Greek city-states, to flourish, must be led by
philosopher kings, and that justice is best manifested if persons would do what is
suited to each of his or her soul. Plato’s works also encourage humanity to seek
what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful in the intellectual realm beyond
the appearances because the senses are often deceitful. He also urged that
humans detach themselves to what is corporeal because the soul without the
limitation of the body can better recognize the eternal form of truth, beauty, and
goodness. Such beliefs reveal Plato’s views on ethics, epistemology,
metaphysics, asthetics, and social and political philosophy.

Aristotle
Aristotle’s philosophy is often described as as
opposition to the Platonic philosophical tradition.
Aristotle believes that the perceptual and cognitive
faculties of people are dependable; such belief
places humans in direct contact with the world
which is to be studied and therefore engaged
in substantive philosophy. For Aristotle, human beings philosophize because
they wonder about the world, and as they do, more things of their experience
appear puzzling. His method focuses on analyzing phenomena or
experience and proving credible opinions about these experiences to arrive at
adequate proof. Aristotle believed that the aim of philosophy is truth, and the
endowment of senses will lead a person in direct contact with the world, and
therefore allow him to analyze whether what appears upon close scrutiny and
analysis is correct. Like Plato, Aristotle’s philosophy is also extensive in its topics
of concern such as human anatomy, biology, physics, knowledge, and ethics.
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are considered the three of the greatest
philosophers in the history of western philosophic thought.
Medieval Period: Scholasticism
The medieval period in the history of philosophy is described as the
confluence of faith and reason. Philosophers in this period used philosophy as a
handmaid of theology. Concerned with providing God’s existence and
understanding what is man in relation with God, scholasticism directed its inquiry
on how reason can be used to provide proofs that God exist. They also
attempted to reconcile Greek philosophy and Christian theology. Among the
recognized main philosophers during this period are St. Anselm, who is known
for his ontological argument for the existence of God in Proslogion; St. Agustine,
who promoted “the argument by analogy” against solipsism or the philosophical
idea that only one’s own existence is the only thing that is real; and St. Thomas
Aquinas, who is famous for his influential work Summa Theologica which
explains his views on the creation and government of the universe, the origin and
nature of man, and human destiny, among others, through Catholic theology.

Modern Period: Rationalism, Empiricism, and Kant’s Philosophy

The modern tradition in the history of philosophy is recognized to be
concerned about problems or issues on knowledge. It is often described as
dominated by two schools of thought----rationalism and empiricism----and ends
with the synthesis made by Immanuel Kant. The reflections and analysis are
directed toward answering the questions on the nature of knowledge and the
verification and types of knowledge claims to be known by humans.
Rationalism
The rationalists René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz believe that reason is the sole source of knowledge. Verification of truth
is through the Correspondence Theory of Truth and types of knowledge are
limited to analytic or formal knowledge of mathematics and logic.

Empiricism
Empiricists believe that aside from reason , experience is also a source of
knowledge. The five senses connected to the world can be used to determine
what can be known; hence, truth is based on what corresponds to reality, and
empirical claims about the world is also accepted as knowledge.

Immanuel Kant and Synthetic a Priori Knowledge

In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant examined the extent to which human
reason is capable of a priori (formed beforehand) knowledge. His goal is to
criticize reason by reason itself to establish a secure and consistent basis for
science, religion, and morality.
The rationalists, empiricists, and Immanuel Kant provided different
perspectives on one specific concern---the nature of knowledge and knowledge
claims. Each school of thought espouses a conception of knowledge based on its
origin which gives knowledge seekers a wider perspective and increased
understanding of an important area in the life of humans.

Contemporary Period: The Analytic and the Continental Tradition

The most difficult period to characterize is the philosophical tradition which
dominated western thought in the 20 th century. Because of various conceptions
and concerns, historians of philosophy would often distinguish between the
analytic and the continental tradition in its broadest sense.

Analytic Tradition
This school of thought, which dominated English-speaking countries, is
concentrated on logical analysis of language to solve the problems which
beset philosophy. The philosophers under this tradition espouse a method
of verification which only accepts as meaningful and true those which can be
investigated by science. Among the philosophers who propose analysis in
philosophy are Bertrand Russell, George Edward Moore, and Ludwig
Wittgenstein. However,their conception differs from one another. Russell’s
conception involves an analysis of meaningfulness of descriptions as opposed to
names that designate or denote a subject. For Moore, on the other hand,
analysis is decomposing complex concepts into their simple constituents.
Meanwhile, Wittgenstein believes that the task of philosophy is to carefully
analyze ordinary language use, known as linguistic analysis.

Continental Tradition
This philosophical tradition dominated the English-speaking countries
outside the analytic tradition during the 19 th and the later 20th centuries. German
idealism, phenomenology and existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-
structuralism, post-structuralism, and French feminism are some of the
movements within this tradition. What is common among theses movements is
their belief that the scientific method is insufficient to provide an explanation of
the world. In the analysis, continental tradition takes into account the conceptions
of the past and the views that any analysis is contextualized in history.
Moreover, movements under the continental tradition focus on the centrality of
human action as a constitutive part, and any analysis under the continental
tradition is directed toward metaphilosophy to seek a reconstruction of what
philosophy is and its role in understanding knowledge, experience, and reality.
The history of philosophy is an account of the different philosophical
perspectives from different periods and for topics which were considered
important to humans. This history gives emphasis that the beauty of the
philosophic disciplines is understanding the world from a variety of perspectives
and reflection and analysis. Thus, a person interested in philosophizing will
scrutinize truths and explanations about the world via analysis, criticism, and
deliberate reflection.

The Perspective of Philosophy of Human

There are two perspective in the study of philosophy. These are the partial
perspective and the holistic perspective.
Partial Perspective of Philosophy - the focus of philosophy is the human
person in relation to self: his intellect and freewill as a unique individual
(psychology) limited in his capacity to do good (ethics) and to know
(epistemology) and his place in society (political philosophy).
In the philosophy of the human person, the human nature is viewed on a
holistic perspective. This means that the human person is seen as a whole or its
entire functioning system, not as a collection of parts-that is, their functioning
cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component parts.

HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE AND PARTIAL POINT OF VIEW

The etymology of philosophy (i.e., “love of wisdom”) gives you a clue on

how to philosophize. When you love, you try to know everything about that which
your love is directed to. At first, you might be interested in knowing the material
or physical manifestations of that thing, but as your love for it grows deeper , you
would want to know more about it. Like being a lover, a philosopher takes into
account every detail ---the partial points of views---in order to make a synthesis
and develop a holistic perspective. Hence, to philosophize is to take part in
activities which do not only give you a partial point of view but a holistic
perspective emanating from reflections and analysis

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

I. Identification. Identify the following.

__________________ 1. He believes that the task of philosophy is to carefully
analyze ordinary language use, known as linguistic
analysis.
__________________ 2. Promoted “the argument by analogy” against solipsism
or the philosophical idea that only one’s own existence
is the only thing that is real.
__________________ 3. The philosophers under this tradition espouse a
method of verification which only accepts as
meaningful and true those which can be investigated
by science.
__________________ 4. His conception involves an analysis of meaningfulness
of descriptions as opposed to names that designate or
denote a subject.
__________________ 5. This period in the history of philosophy is described as
the confluence of faith and reason.
__________________ 6. According to this philosopher , analysis is decomposing
complex concepts into their simple constituents.
__________________ 7. Believe that aside from reason , experience is also a
source of knowledge.
__________________ 8. This tradition focus on the centrality of human action as
a constitutive part, and directed toward metaphilosophy
to seek a reconstruction of what philosophy is and its
role in understanding knowledge, experience, and
reality.
__________________ 9. His method focuses on analyzing phenomena or
experience and proving credible opinions about these
experiences to arrive at adequate proof.
__________________ 10. According to this philosopher, philosophy is the
science of the idea, or, as we should say, of the
unconditioned basis of phenomena

LET’S MEASURE

I. Supply the blank with the correct word or phrase.

1. ____________________, it is a method of question and answer which
aims to provoke the one being asked to think for himself or herself and to
clarify his or her conceptions about what is asked.
2. ____________________, the branch of philosophy that looks into whether
there are rules or principles that govern reasoning.
3. ____________________, which explains his views on the creation and
government of the universe, the origin and nature of man, and human
destiny, among others, through Catholic theology.
4. ____________________, he claimed that there is a single god.
5. ____________________, who is known for his ontological argument for the
existence of God in Proslogion.
6. ____________________, this means that the human person is seen as a
whole or its entire functioning system, not as a collection of parts-that is, their
functioning cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component
parts.
7. ____________________, his goal is to criticize reason by reason itself to
establish a secure and consistent basis for science, religion, and morality.
8. ____________________, who is famous for his influential work, which
explains his views on the creation and government of the universe, the origin
and nature of man, and human destiny, among others, through Catholic
theology.
9. ____________________, which means “knowledge”; thus, this branch of
philosophy deals with various problems concerning knowledge.
10. ___________________, it deals with norms or standards of right and
wrong applicable to human behavior.

II. Critical Thinking

Direction: Search in the internet on “ Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” and answer
the following questions.

1. What do you think is the purpose of the allegory of the cave?

2. How does Plato describe the life of the prisoner?

3. What does the cave represent? What does the fire symbolize?
4. How do the shadows come to be the representation of our knowledge of
objects? Why is the sun the symbol for the light of being?

5. What is education for Plato?