Philosophy Grade 12

1. The Human Person: Limitations
and Possibilities
Salandron,James Harry

2. The term human refers to the species, homo sapiens or modern human
beings. The terms person refers to a human being with entitlements and
responsibilities. The term human person now considers the term human as
describing the term person. The mention of the term man in this lesson simply
respects the previous philosophers' meaning systems for better contextual
understanding.
From the convergence of scientific and philosophical discussions about the
human person, several perspectives have come to the fore:
a) biological
b) psychological
c) socio-economic
d) and theological.
General perspective on the human person

3. General perspectives on the human person
To better understand this lesson, it is necessary to provide definitions
to important terms.The term "man",in the past few decades has
changed connotations.The usualmeaning of man referred to either a
generic notion of man, male or female, or man as referring to the entire
human race. Feminism, by presenting substantial evidence in the past,
argues that the use of the word "man"to denote every humanbeing is
incorrect for it promotes domination of man over the woman.This
realization led to the use of the politically correct term: use man for
male, woman for female and humankind,instead of mankind, refer to
the entire human race.

4. General perspective on the human person
The biological perspective presents the human person as an entity with a
flesh and blood living like any other organism and subject to the laws
governing the earth and the universe.The human person lives, grows,
matures,and dies. S/He belongs to a species of bipedal primates to the
mammalian family with erect body posture, highly developed hands and
brain capable of abstraction and clear and distinct forms of communication.
Another view is the psychological perspective which looks at the human
person as possessing a mind (psyche) within the corporeal body that is
rational or with the capability to process information that leads to analysis
and thought abstractions about the self, other living beings and the rest of
the world.The perspective also states that the humanperson has feelings
and manifests observable behaviors that may be controlled or otherwise.

5. General perspective on the human person
The socio-economic perspective presents the human person as a body
entity who interacts and lives in relation to other human persons.
Closely connected with this interaction between and among human
beings develop the economic view which deals with the capacity to do
productive engagements to meet the dictates of human needs and
wants.

6. General perspective on the human person
Lastly, the theological perspective looks at the human person as
somebody in relation to a supernaturalbeing.This relation of the
human person to a supernaturalbeing sheds light and greatly
determines human dealings with other humans,and the rest of the
elements in the world.The human person is always portrayed as finite
being emanating from and destined toward the same naturalbeing.
It is important to note that in spite of the attempts to rationalize or
spiritualize the nature of the human being, the fact remains that the
human person is always within a corporeal body. These perspectives
manifest a reality that the human person is with tangible and intangible
constitutive elements which philosophers pondered upon.

7. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Plato
Plato (429-347B.C.E.) was one of the greatest influencers of the
Western thought. Reflecting on the reality around him, he postulated
the theory of forms indicating the or thinking existence of two worlds:
the intelligible world and the sensible world.The latter refers to the
physical world subject to the senses like a particular tree, grass, soil, or
body. The sensible world is subject to constant change; hence, it is
imperfect.The intelligible world is non-physical or invisible and consist
of forms or the essence of thinks like the "treeness" of tress,
"grassness" of grass, "soilness" of soil, "bodiness" of body, etc.; it is
unchanging permanent and perfect. According to Plato, the sensible
world is just a copy of the intelligible world. Plato puts higher regard to
the intelligible world over the sensible world.

8. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Following his theory of forms, Plato postulated his notion of human
being as having body(sensible) and soul(intelligible). The body is the
physical aspect while the soul is the essence that determines one's
thinking, feeling, and behaving.The soul, the essence of the human
being, comes from the intelligible world and it is infused into human
body upon birth.The soul's acquisition of the body, the human manifest
various kinds of limitations both in the intellectual and non-intellectual
components of human existence. Plato considers the body of person as
a prison cell of the soul as the body hinders the soul full access to the
intellectual world resulting in various limitations of the soul-the human
being.

9. PLATO'S THEORY OF FORMS
IntelligibleWorld
▪ Invisible: things beyond the
sensible world
▪ Contains universal things or
forms
▪ Unchanging, permanent,and
perfect
▪ Exists beyond the physical
world
▪ Apprehended by the soul
SensibleWorld
▪ Sensible: things in the world
▪ Contains particular things
▪ Subject to change, temporal
and imperfect
▪ Exists in the physical world
▪ Apprehended by the senses

10. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
A good human being for Plato is the one with the synergy of the three
components with the reasoning function as taking the primaryrole
over the two functions.The head and corresponding component and
function adopts the virtue of wisdom, which determines what is good
from bad, to regulate the spirit or human emotions to imbibe the virtue
of courage to regulate the negative tendencies of emotions and for the
appetitive function to take the virtue of moderation to regulate the
excessive tendencies of human desire.

11. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
The humanperson or the soul, according to Plato has three
components: reason, spirit, and appetite. Reason is located in the
head of the human person and its function is reasoning or thinking.
The spirit component is located in the chest and its function is
spiritedness or the regulation of emotions like joy, anger, and the
like. The appetite is located in the stomach with the appetitive
function or the regulation of desires like the wanting for fame,
wealth, and the like.

12. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Aristotle
Aristotle (384-322B.C.E) was another luminaryof ancient Greek
philosophy and influenced many disciplines in the past to the present.
Specific to the human being, Aristotle postulated that the human being
is made of body and soul.According to Aristotle, the body and soul do
not exist from each other but are co-principles that form a unified
person.The body is material and has potency to accommodate form
while the soul is the form that actualizes the potency and provides
essence.The soul is the essence of the human person.

13. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Furthermore,the soul is the principle of life. Though varied according to
functions such as the vegetative, sensitive, and rational, every living
entity, not only the humanbeing, has a soul.The vegetative function
that facilitates growth among all living things, say a seed of a plant
grows to a huge tree and a puppy grows to a matured dog.The
sensitive function facilitates the exercise of the sense of all animals.
Animal behaviors manifest their feelings of something. Lastly, the
rational function facilitates thinking proper only to the human being.
For differentiation purposes, plants only have the vegetative function.
The animals only have the vegetative and sensitive functions. Human
beings have all three functions.What separates the human being the
from rest is rationality. This notion prompted Aristotle to say that, "Man
is a rational animal."

14. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Applying the same idea of the body and soul as co-principles and that
they from a unity, death puts an end to the said union. In the case of
the human person, one ceases to exist as a human being. At the point
of death, Aristotle reiterates that one sees no man but simply a
lifeless body.

15. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Thomas Aquinas
Like Plato and Aristotle, Aquinas looks at the human person who
possesses body and soul.The human being is a union of body and soul.
The body is the physical component of the person, something material,
corruptible and subject to the flux of time.The body is animated or
given life by the soul.The soul of the human being is different from the
vegetative soul proper for plants.The sensitive soul is proper for non-
rational animals.The rational soul is immaterial and constitutes the
substantial form of the body. Hence, the substance or essence of the
human person is not dependent on the body.

16. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Concretely, the absence of the limbs of a person does not reduce
his/her humanity.The soul needs the body as the material medium for
its operation, particularly for perception.The function or faculties of the
soul are intellect and will. When the body dies, the body corrupts while
the soul remains to exist on its own. Death is a temporary separation of
the human body from the soul. In God's time, the two will become one
again. In summary,the general perspectives provide descriptions of the
human person like biological, psychological, socio-economic and
spiritual indicate limitations and possibilities. These perspectives lead
to a reality that factually gives limits to human capabilities. This same
message was also echoed by the selected and discussed philosophers,
who forwarded the notion of the human person as comprising body and
soul.The body, being material, corporeal, and corruptible emphasizes
reality of humanlimitations.

17. The human person from the eyes of some
philosophers
Even in the sphere of the immaterial soul proper to the human being,
due to the soul's union with the body, limitations like
forgetfulness, confusion, and doubt are observable. In spite of this
reality of humanlimitation, it is also evident that it is from the same
limitations that the possibility of going beyond said limitation is
realizable.To put it more concretely, Rey, who may be a person with
body and soul and conditioned by his physical constitution having been
born without hands, is limited. However, Rey accepted the said
limitation and challenged himself not to be discouraged. By doing so,
he has compensated the absence of hands by utilizing his feet and
mouth. He could function like any other human beings, though
differently, and could even perform better than people with complete
hands.To end, the human being truly has limitations but he/she is also
a bundle of possibilities

18. Thanks for listening.

19. Matching Type. Match the item in Column A with the correct item in Column B.
1. It refers to a human being with entitlements and
responsibilities
2. The modern human being with entitlements and
responsibilities
3. The perspective that treats the human person just like any
living organism like plants, animals and virus subject to natural
laws of the earth
4. It presents the human person as a body entity who interacts
and develop economic relations to other human persons
5. He postulated the theory of forms
6. Unchanging, permanent, and perfect
7. It refers to the one imprisoned in the human body It refers to
8. Subject to change, temporal and imperfect
9. Who said that "Human component that is material, corruptible,
and subject to the flux of time"
10. He say that "Man is a rational animal."
a. Socio-economic
b. Person
c. Soul
d. Rational
e. Human person
f. Aristotle
g. Intelligible World
h. Sensible World
i. Biological
j. Thomas Aquinas
k. Plato
l. Psychological