HED 1101

PHILOSOPHICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

SENSITIVE
APPETITES
ONE PERSON MANY POWERS MANY ACTS
LEVEL OF LIFE TYPE OF POWER NAME OF POWER ACTS/OPERATIONS OF THE POWER
VEGETATIVE Vegetative Powers Nutrition, growth, Nutrition, growth, reproduction.
LIFE reproduction
Locomotive power Locomotion To move from point A to B

Knowing Powers: Touch, Taste, Smell, To get data from stimuli in the environment.
External senses Hearing, Sight
Common sense/ To perceive/to unify data from external senses.
Perception

SENSITIVE Imagination To imagine/to store & unify perceptions.

LIFE Knowing Powers:
Internal senses Memory To store & recall sense experiences.
Estimative sense/ To evaluate perceptions as beneficial or harmful.
Cogitative sense
Concupiscible To feel/respond to an easy good known through the
Appetitive Powers appetite senses.
(Sensitive Appetites)
Irascible appetite To feel/respond to a difficult good known through the
senses.
Knowing Power Intellect To know: concepts/ideas, judgments & reasoning.
INTELECTUAL
LIFE Appetitive Power Will To love: to choose a good known by the intellect.
Intended Learning Outcomes
• By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
• Discuss the concept of appetite from a
philosophical perspective.
• Distinguish between the concupiscible and
irascible appetites.
• Discuss the acts of the concupiscible and irascible
appetites: human emotions.
• Explain how to manage human emotions.
 What comes to mind
when you hear the word, ‘appetite’?
Appetite =
to seek/to desire to meet…
…Vegetative needs …All other needs
• Food and drink • For enjoyment
• Reproduction • To own property
• Growth • For power
• Exercise • For esteem- self & others
• Sleep • To be loved & to love
• Air • To be creative
• To know
• Etc.
 Human behavior…

To meet
Many Many
One person many
appetites actions
needs
Appetite means…to seek…to desire…an impulse…
Definition of Appetite
• In philosophy we define an appetite as:

The inclination of a thing towards that which

is in accordance with its nature.
 Appetites
• Natural appetite: an unconscious tendency
– By nature, all things are inclined to be & to act as they are.
– E.g.
• A stone has a n. appetite for the center of the earth.
(In living things, it is the inborn tendency to fulfilment)
• A plant has a n. appetite for growth> sunlight
• A human being has a n. appetite for happiness

• Elicited appetite: a conscious tendency

– an inclination that follows knowledge of a good.
– E.g.
• Sensitive appetites
• Rational appetite
SENSE APPETITIVE POWERS

(SENSITIVE APPETITES)

An Introduction
Readings
• Lombo & Russo- 9.1 & 9.2

• Mimbi- Chapter 5.1 to 5.5

PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
YEAR 1
CAT 1
Question 1
What do Philosophy and Covid-19 have in common?
You can gerrit, I can gerrit, anybody can gerrit!
Also Known As…
•Sensitive appetitive powers

•Sensitive appetites

•Sense appetites

•Animal appetites

•Sense tendencies

•Sensitive tendencies
What is a Sensitive Appetite?
• An inclination towards a particular good that is
known through our senses.

– Inclination: a tendency towards something; the

capacity to be attracted/aroused by something

– A particular good: an object/goal that is useful or

pleasurable in relation to us

– The good is known through the senses: the inclination

follows sense knowledge
Inclination…tendency…
Towards a particular good…
Known through the senses…

External senses Internal senses

• Perception

• Imagination

• Memory

• Cogitative sense
Types of Sensitive
Appetites
• Arousal due to an easy good =
Desire = Concupiscible Appetite

• Arousal due to a difficult good =

Impulse = Irascible Appetite
Types of Sensitive Appetites

Concupiscible appetite

• The inclination to seek what is pleasurable

and to avoid what is unpleasant as known
by the senses

Irascible appetite

• The inclination to meet any obstacles on the

path to achieving pleasure or to flee from
danger as known by the senses
 Sensitive Appetites:
A comparison between Animals and Man
 Animal Instinct

Sense Automatic
Stimulus Sensitive Appetite
knowledge Response
 Human Sensitive Appetite/
Human Sensitive Tendency

use of Free
Sense
Stimulus
knowledge
Sensitive Appetite Intellect huma
& Will n Act
 Sense Appetitive Powers:
A comparison between Animals and Man
Animal Instinct Human Sensitive Appetite
• A closed stimulus-response circuit • An open system; the intellect &
will intervene before action
• Is employed to meet vital needs • Is employed to meet vital needs
and other higher needs

• Uses pre-determined responses to • Is followed by varied responses to

attain the good attain the good

• Is set by nature • Can be molded; man can develop

good habits to govern his SAs

(The plasticity of Human Sensitive Tendencies)

Characteristics of S. Appetites
• SAs manifest a drive/deficit/need…

• …for an object that is perceived as a good

or a value that meets the need.

• SAs are operative powers

– Meaning- they are experienced as acts
• The acts of the SAs are called feelings
Question (10 marks)
Using the concepts learnt in PA, critically analyze the
following advertisements
HUMAN EMOTIONS

The acts of the sense appetitive powers

Readings
• Lombo & Russo- 10.3 to 10.7.1

• Mimbi- 10.2 to 10.4

PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
YEAR 1
CAT 1
Question 1
What do Philosophy and Covid-19 have in common?
You can gerrit, I can gerrit, anybody can gerrit!
Recall: The human person

One Many Many

Person Powers Acts
Recall: Sense Knowledge
• An act of the knowing powers of sensitive life.
– Activation of the external & internal senses.
• E.g.

Stimulus Power Act

Seeing the
A red apple Sight
color- red

Recalling the
A red apple Memory first time you
ate an apple
Feeling/Emotion
• An act of the sense appetitive powers.
– Activation of the sensitive appetites.
(activation of desires & impulses). E.g.

Stimulus Power Act

Concupiscible Feeling of
Let’s go to KFC
Appetite excitement

Let’s go rock Irascible

Feeling of fear
climbing Appetite
 Feelings/Emotions

One Person Many Powers Many Acts

One person
Many Sense Many
faced with
Appetites Emotions
stimuli
 Feelings/Emotions

use of
Sense Sensitive Free
Stimulus Intellect &
knowledge Appetite human Act
Will

Desire/Impulse
Object Behavior
+ EMOTIONS
 Feelings/Emotions

Organic
Emotion Behaviour or
Object alteration
(mental manifestation
(physiological
agitation)
symptoms)

You catch a
pickpocket in
the act of You start to Your heart You attack him
stealing your feel angry rate increases
phone

EMOTIONAL
EXPERIENCE
 Characteristics of the Emotions
• Emotions are transient; they come and go

• Emotional experiences have a passive character

– Emotions just happen; they're not free human acts.
– Hence in philosophy we call them passions

• Emotions do not have a moral character

– Only free/voluntary acts have a moral character
– Hence emotions are neither good nor bad acts
Characteristics of the Emotions
• Emotions indicate the value assigned to an
object by the senses
– An object is felt to be a good or an evil
– They indicate that things are not indifferent to us.
– They are an inner resonance that follows S.
Knowledge

• Emotions are acts of the sensitive appetites,

therefore they intensify the sensitive appetites
– Emotions help or hinder our development as persons
Though emotions do not have a moral value;
It is positive to feel happy about a true good
It is negative to feel sad about a true good
 Likewise;
It is positive to feel sad about a true evil
It is negative to feel happy about a true evil
 Emotions can
help you...

... or hinder you from

developing as a person
 NOTE!
Emotions are a normal dimension of human existence;
they belong to our sentient or psychological condition.
Activity

List 10 different
feelings/emotions
(1min)
Feelings/Emotions
 The Emotions and the Brain
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNY0AAUtH3g
 Types of Feelings/Emotions
• Emotions of the concupiscible appetite
– We experience; Love/Hatred(Like/Dislike)
• When we perceive an object as good or evil

– We experience; Pleasure/Pain(Joy/Sadness)
• When we perceived an object as a present good or evil

– We experience; Desire/Aversion
• When we perceived an object as a future good or evil
 Types of Feelings/Emotions
• Emotions of the concupiscible appetite are
acts of the concupiscible appetite;

• We experience them when we find/perceive an easy

good or its absence(an evil in relation to that good).

• They intensify the concupiscible appetite so that we

are more intensely driven towards or away from a
perceived pleasant or unpleasant object, respectively.
Types of feelings/ emotions
• Emotions of the Irascible Appetite
– We experience; Hope/Despair
• When we perceive that we can or cannot get a difficult
good.

– We experience; Anger
• When we perceive that we are in a situation without a
good/an evil situation.

– We experience; Courage/Fear
• When we perceive that we can or cannot withstand a
danger or an obstacle in the way of a good object.
Types of feelings/ emotions
• Emotions of the Irascible Appetite are acts
of the Irascible Appetite;

• We experience them when we find/perceive

obstacles in the way of a pleasant good.

• They intensify the irascible appetites so that we are

more intensely pushed to meet or to avoid obstacles
on the path to a good/pleasant object.
According to psychology…
According to psychology…
According to psychology…
HUMAN EMOTIONS

Managing Human Emotions

Managing Human Emotions
• We cannot control the emergence, intensity and
duration of our emotions, but…

• …we can steer them using our intellect and will

Managing Human Emotions
• A threefold task:

INTERPRET EVALUATE DIRECT OR CORRECT

a. Interpret the Emotion
(Using the intellect)

• Understand the meaning of your experience

1. Name the emotion e.g.
• I am feeling irritated…
2. Identify the stimulus e.g.
• The alarm sound = time to get up!
• I can’t find my phone
• I have a bad headache
• I received a text from my Ex
– Identify the corresponding need e.g.
• Need for sleep
b. Evaluate the Emotion
(Using the intellect)

3. Evaluate the emotion in relation to;

– Your identity
• You are a student (not President Kingston or the Flash)
– Your circumstances. E.g.
• There is traffic in Nairobi & you don’t own a jet
– The stimulus; is it proportionate? E.g.
• To feel like hitting your alarm against the wall…
– Your goals/other needs
• E.g., to honor your parents, etc.
c. Direct/correct the Emotion
(Using the intellect and the will)
• Accept, modify or reject the emotion
c. Direct/correct the Emotion
(Using the will)
4. Accept ‘reasonable’ emotions [will]
5. Reject ‘disproportionate’ emotions [will]
6. Persevere in rejecting disproportionate
emotions [intellect and will]
7. Avoid the causes of disproportionate
emotion [intellect and will]
8. Find ways to release the energy produced
by negative, irrational emotions [intellect
and will]
Intended Learning Outcomes
• By now you should be able to:
• Discuss the concept of appetite from a
philosophical perspective.
• Distinguish between the concupiscible and
irascible appetites.
• Discuss the acts of the concupiscible and irascible
appetites: human emotions.
• Explain how to manage human emotions.
End of Topic 5 Part 1