BLOCK 3

The physical body is the one immediate obvious aspect that we are all aware of. But it is not only
the body that constitutes the whole Nature of Human Person, but there is something within.
Beyond this visible and tangible body there are certain spiritual aspects that make this material
body into a complete one. Although there are a number of functions that our body performs and
are common to all animals including human beings, it is the spiritual nature that makes human
beings different and unique from other beings. Human beings are able to reflect and think, affirm
and deny, whereas the animals cannot. Humans are blessed with two important faculties namely
the spiritual intellectual faculty and the spiritual appetitive faculty. The intellect is a faculty
which by its very nature strives actively towards truth or knowledge or intelligibility. The will is
conceived as a rational appetency or power to strive for an intellectually perceived good and to
shun an intellectually perceived evil. These two faculties reside in a spiritual coordinating
principle: the soul.
This block contains four units that take us to the very subject matter of the course, i.e., who we
are, our bodily make up and spiritual make up.
Unit 1 deals with Human Person as a Bodily being. We begin understanding Human Person as a
Bodily being and what its rich dimensions are. We shall also have a recap of how great
philosophers interpreted the bodily nature of humans. Different topics included in this unit are
phenomenology of Human Body, functions of bodiliness, inter-relationship between soul and
body.
Unit 2 deals with another aspect of Human Person as a Spiritual being. Human person is a
combination of matter and spirit. The body signifies the matter and the spirit is due to the
spiritual faculties of intellect and will. Intellect is the faculty of intelligibility and knowledge and
will is the appetitive faculty. Intellect knows and the will chooses.
Unit 3 highlights the nature and functions of the Human Intellect and Knowing. The human
intellect is an immaterial or spiritual cognitive faculty. A faculty is that by means of which
human beings perform mental or conscious activities, and a mental faculty is concerned with the
mental operations. We delve into some of the proofs that affirm the existence of intellect, its
functions, an understanding of human knowing, and the formation of ideas and judgement.

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Unit 4 familiarizes us with another spiritual faculty of the human person: Human Will and
Freedom. Will is the capacity to choose between the good and the evil that is known by the
intellect. The end of the will is always good. We also reflect on some of the proofs for the
existence of will, relationship between intellect and will, acts of will, freedom and the possibility
of freedom.
The first thing that strikes us in our discussion on the nature of the human person is the physical
body. But we know that even the animals have a body and many physical functions are common
to both. It is the spiritual or immaterial functions of the human person, that makes a human
different and unique from all other beings. This block forms the core of the whole course.