HUMAN PERSON AS

AN
EMBODIED SPIRIT

ANCIENT AND
CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT
1.What are the significant differences between the way
tribal Filipinos before Spanish colonization dressed from
the way we do now?

2. If some Filipinos would dress this way in our city today,

what do you think will be the general reaction of other city
dwellers? Why?

3. Do you think the attitude of Filipinos, and other people in

general, towards the body has changed through history?
What has changed?
• The evolution the way people have dressed
up is not entirely about fashion, or
development of art, but also about how the
attitude of persons towards their bodies
have changed through time.
• In our brief overview of the philosophy of
embodiment in history, we will see how in
some periods the body has been glorified in
the same level as the spirit, and how in
others it has been denigrated (to make
something less importance) as a source of
corruption and sin.
• In the earlier periods there was a less a sense of
shame regarding the naked body. This is more or
less in line with the ancient tribal perspective where
the body is seen as one with the cosmos.
• You will see this in the integrated view of the ancient
Chinese view the body, which is more or less close to
the way pre-colonial Filipinos understood the body.
The post colonial Filipinos were very much influenced
by our Western European (Spanish colonial) heritage.
You will notice the propensity towards covering the
body and the skin in this period.
• As we see the next slide, this reflects the pre-modern
period in western history, beginning from Plato’s view
of the body down to medieval philosophers such as
Augustine
1. ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY:
PLATO AND ARISTOTLE
In Plato’s eyes, man has an immortal soul and
perishable body.
The soul has tripartite nature:
1. Soul or immortal rational part which existed before it
came with body
2. Courageous or spirited part
3. Appetitive part.
According to Plato, the appetitive part
of the soul drives the human person to
experience thirst, hunger, and other
physical wants, while the spiritual
soul drives the human person to
experience abomination, anger, and
other emotional feelings. Lastly, it is
the rational part of the soul that
enables the human person to think,
reflect, analyze, comprehend, draw
conclusions, and the like
As we can see, the rational soul, which
is the highest of all parts of the soul,
guides the other two parts, namely, the
appetitive and the spiritual. “What else
could perform this guiding function,
from Plato’s point of view, than the
rational part of the soul
• Think of a desperately thirsty man in the desert. He sees
a pool of water and approaches it with all the eagerness
that deprivation is able to create. But when he reaches
the pool, he sees a sign: ‘Danger. Do not drink. Polluted.’
He experiences conflict within. His desire urges him to
drink. But reason tells him that such signs usually indicate
the truth, that polluted water will make him very ill or may
kill him, and that if he drinks he will probably be worse off
than he doesn’t. He decides not to drink. In this case, it is
the rational part of the soul that opposes his desire. His
reason guides him away from the water.
The principle then that drives
the person to drink is called
“appetite”, while the principle
that forbids the person to drink
the water because it is polluted
is called “reason”.
In Book IV of Republic, Plato writes that
soul, “is the giver of life to the body, the
permanent changeless and divine element
as oppose to changing, transitory and
perishable body. This make a human being
“a soul using the body.”
The life of being for Plato is a continuous
ascent towards the world of ideas, a journey
in which he should try to free itself from its
imprisonment in the body (Plato, 1992)
2. MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN
PHILOSOPHY: ST. AUGUSTINE:
The novelist Luis de Wohl portrayed the
life of St. Augustine in his book entitled
The Restless Flame. Indeed, St.
Augustine was restless until he found
rest in God. In his Confession, he
attributes this restlessness with the
distractions of body’s urges and
appetites.
For Augustine, man consist of soul and
body, a soul in possession of a body”
which does not constitute two person
but one man. The human soul is an
immaterial principle” which animates
(give life to )the body”
3. THE MODERN PERIOD AND THE
PRIMACY OF MIND OVER THE BODY
Descartes, in the process of doubting,
suspended the truth of knowledge learned
through the body as he established that the
body cannot be trusted.
With Descartes, the divide between the body
and the soul became ever more
pronounced. This is through his formulation
of the concept of res cogitans (thinking
thing) and res extenza (extended thing).
 The former refers to the soul and the latter
refers to the body. As the term indicate, the body is
viewed simply as an extension or a machine of the
mind.
The impact of this divide between the body
and soul can be seen the way this paradigmatic
thinking has organized modern life. After
Descartes has shown the foundation of all
certitude is the cogito, the thing that thinks
whose existence cannot be doubted, a certain
priority has given to the self as a thinking being.
This also means that the greater importance is
given to the mind’s activity-thinking.
Descartes notion of this divide between the
body and soul coincides with the rise of
experimental science. With the rise of science
that intervenes with nature comes an attitude of
detachment in the thinking being. There is a
tendency for us to live in a more detached
way from our experiences.
Examples:
• Medical professionals are expected to
detached themselves from their patients so
they can perform their jobs in a more efficient
way.
• Business people are warned not to let their
emotions be affected by the way they run their
companies so they can ensure that the systems
go running no matter what.
Detachment and shrewdness are highly lauded
qualities in our modern world. Detachment is a
disposition that works well with the mind. Emotions
are commonly understood as belonging to the
scope of the bodily functions. Since this is the
common perception on emotions, people who
factor in emotions in their activities and decisions
are viewed to be less rational, and thereby cannot
be taken seriously.
Impact of the priority given to the mind
over the body
Today we put more premium activities of the mind
rather than that of the body. Take for example the
case of classifying white-collar from blue-collar
jobs. We say that people who work as
accountants, doctors, lawyers or IT professionals
should get paid more than janitors, drivers, farmers
and the like. This judgment regarding manual labor
is influenced by this long-held hierarchy we make
between the soul/mind and the body.
4. PHENOMENOLOGY- (from Greek phainómenon "that
which appears" and lógos "study")
Edmund Husserl – founder of phenomenology.
Known for his famous adage “back to the things
themselves”
-a common denominator among known
phenomenologist is their dismay on how
philosophy has become far remove from everyday
life. People have become too abstractive in their
thinking, they have forgotten hoe to live and be
immersed in the everyday life.
• One of the effects of this detached way of living is the
growing lack of sensitivity among persons. People
have become more and more indifferent to injustices
such as violations of people’s rights

• Gabriel Marcel describes this experience as living in

a broken world, described through the metaphor of
a broken watch. Everything is in place- the glass, the
numbers, the hands- but if you put it close to your
heart you wont hear it ticking. This is our world is like
today. We have developed roads, buildings, systems.
Everything seems to be in place but people like the
watch, that no longer ticks, have somehow forgotten
how to feel(Marcel 1960)
Marcel 2 radical way relating to the body
The Body as an object
“I have a body” - we relate to the body in the same we
relate to things we own. “This is my body. I can do
whatever I want with it” like property we use it for needs
and wants. We even abuse it.
For Marcel , we don’t just say I have a body but also “I
am my body”
The Body as subject
Other objects are subjected to what he calls the tragedy of
having. All things we have are bound to separate from us
no matter how hard we try to unite with it.
Body, however is not something we can lose. It is our very
being. I am my body.