INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

NAT REVIEW

DOING PHILOSOPHY (DAY 1)

• Filos – LOVE
• Sofia – WISDOM
• PHILOSOPHY – love for wisdom
• Philosophy arises from wonder – curiosity
• 2 types of Greek Philosophers
- Pre-Socratic Philosophers
- Socratic Philosophers
• Pre-Socratic Philosophers
- The Milesians
- Pythagoras
- Heraclitus
- Parmenides
- Zeno of Elea
- The Pluralists
- The Atomists
- The Sophists
• Socratic Philosophers (THE BIG THREE)
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle

• THE MILESIANS – Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes

- most interested in figuring out what single substance forms the basic materials of the world.
- Thales of Miletus – natural objects and phenomena
- Anaximander – drew the 1st map of the world
- Anaximenes – air by means of condensation and rarefaction
▪ Condensation – rocks, soil, water
▪ Rarefaction – rocks, soil, water, air, fire(sun)
• PYTHAGORAS – Greek Philosopher and mathematician who discovered the Pythagorean Theorem
- Musica Universalis – Universal Music
- “Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence”
• HERACLITUS – the dark one; Heraclitus’s philosophy developed out of pessimistic observations regarding change
- “Nothing could last and nothing could stay the same forever.”
• PARMENIDES – Ontology – dealing with the nature of being.
- “We can speak and think only of what exist”
• ZENO OF ELEA – zeno’s paradox – movement across space should not be possible
- “But what has been said once can always be repeated”
• THE PLURALISTS – EMPEDOCLES and ANAXAGORAS
- They refuted the Milesians’ theories and argued that matter was made of many different substances.
▪ EMPEDOCLES – medicine
▪ ANAXAGORAS – mind (infinite and self-power)
• THE ATOMISTS – LEUCIPPUS and DEMOCRITUS
- all matter could be broken down into indivisible units called atoms
▪ LEUCIPPUS – theory of atom
▪ DEMOCRITUS – everything composes of atom
 • THE SOPHISTS – PROTAGORAS and GORGIAS
- rejected idealism in favor of personal gain; public speakers
▪ PROTAGORAS – homo mensura – man is the measure of all things
▪ GORGIAS – rhetorician; existence
• SOCRATES – a Greek philosopher from Athens; famous in his claim that he didn’t know anything
- “True knowledge exist is knowing that you know nothing.”
• PLATO – Socrates’ favorite student; He founded the Academy as a place for philosophers to teach
- “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle”
• ARISTOTLE – spent 20 years at Plato’s Academy but later left and build his own school, the Lyceum; Splitter
- “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all”

METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING (DAY 1)

• Methods of Philosophizing – to think or express oneself

How did the Great Philosophers do it?

- Art of Philosophizing – skills and imagination

- Empathy – share the feelings of another

• LOGICAL ANALYSIS – factual statement; uses deductive reasoning – logical arguments such as facts/truth
- Ex. All spiders have eight legs, black widows are a type of spiders, therefore black widows have eight legs
• CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS – understand the meaning of idea or concept
- Ex. Research, Case Study, etc.
• DECONSTRUCTION – way of understanding how something was created
- Ex. Movies, Novels, Sign in a fast-food restaurant
• PHENOMENOLOGY – experience/1st time experience
- Ex. Happenings
• PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL – usually arise from the educated elite of society
- Ex. Public Speakers
• PHILOSOPHY AS DIALOGUE – Spoken dialogue is much more effective
- Ex. 2-way communication
• COMPARATIVE-DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH – Comparing-Describing – establish a formal procedure to conclude that one is
better than the other.
• COMPARATIVE-CONSTRUCTIVE – Comparing-Improving – extremely important to the process of truth seeking
• INTEGRATING PHILOSOPHY INTO OTHER EXPERIENCES – use this to inform our everyday decisions in life.
HUMAN PERSON AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT (DAY 2)
• HUMAN BEING - represents the highest level of development of all living organisms on earth
• EMBODIED SPIRIT - the driving force behind all that we think, say and do
• TRANSCENDENCE - existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level (ex. loving someone)

“WE HUMANS ARE EMBODIED SPIRIT”

LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR TRANSCENDENCE

1. Take a personality test
2. Find what makes you feel strong
3. Find what you spend the most money on
4. Ask your friends what your best and worst qualities are
5. Ask your family what you loved as a child
6. Write in a journal
7. Look for talent in others
8. Take stock of your book/music/movie collections

IDENTIFY ONE’S UNIQUE SKILLS AND TALENT

1. Listen to others

2. Determine what is easy

3. What you enjoy most

4. Shut up already

5. Just ask
HUMAN PERSON IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT (DAY 2)
• “No Man is an Island” (John Donne) - we interact not only with our fellow human beings, but also with other living and non-
living elements in our environment
• ENVIRONMENT PHILOSOPHY - discipline that studies the moral relationship of human beings with the environment

2 FRAMEWORKS

1. Anthropocentric Model
2. Ecocentric Model

• ANTHROPOCENTRIC – human centered

SOME EFFECTS OF ANTROPOCENTRIC MODEL

- Air Pollution (usok- pabrika, tambutso, etc.)

- Strong Typhoons (matinding bagyo)
- Soil Erosion (pagguho ng lupa)
- FAMINE (starvation – taggutom)
- GLOBAL WARMING

• ECOCENTRIC – nature centered

- Nature
- Wild
- Earth

• DPSIR Process - Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response

- developed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and is used to assess and manage environmental problems

• Driving forces - Anthropic activities and processes that cause pressures

• Pressures - Direct stress from the anthropic system on the natural environment
• State - Conditions and tendencies in the natural environment
• Impacts - Effects on the anthropic system due to changes in the state of the natural environment
• Responses - Actions of the anthropic system to solve environmental problems

Our environment is created for every human, so you as good as one being must take good care of nature!

Remember LIFE is all about BALANCE.