INTRODUCTION TO THE

PHILOSOPHY OF THE
HUMAN PERSON
Doing Philosophy
LESSON OBJECTIVES
Discuss the meaning,
significance and branches of
Philosophy
Realize the value of
philosophy’s nature and its
significance in our daily life
through self-reflections, and
decision-makings
Write a philosophical reflection
about quote or statement.
History and Nature of Philo
sophy
What is PHILOSOPHY?
• Philosophy is already present at around
630 B.C.

• As recorded, the Philosopher Thales of

Miletus was already doing philosophy.

• “What is the underlying substance that

reality is made of?”
• “How do things come to be, change,
and pass away?”
• “Is there something that remains
amidst all these changes?”
• Philosophy originally meant “love of
wisdom.”
• “ang pagmamahal sa karunungan”

Have you ever loved? Or felt that you

have been loved?

• Philosophy is also defined as the science

that by natural light of reason studies
the first causes or highest principles
of all things.
 Science
 It is an organized body
of knowledge.
 It is systematic.
 It follows certain steps or
employs certain
procedures.
  Natural Light of Reason
 It uses a philosopher’s
natural capacity to
think or human reason
or the so-called
unaided reason.
  Study of All
Things
 It makes philosophy distinct
from other sciences because it
is not one dimensional or
partial.(Holistic/tumitingin sa
kabuuan)

 A philosopher does not limit

himself to a particular object of
inquiry.
 Philosophy is multidimensional
 First Cause or Highest
Principle
 Principle of Identity – whatever
is; whatever is not is not.
Everything is its own being, and not
being is not being.
 Principle of Non-Contradiction –
it is impossible for a thing to be
and not to be at the same time.
 Principle of Excluded Middle – a
thing is either is or is not; between
being and not-being, there is no
middle ground possible.
 Principle of Sufficient Reason –
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects
of the natural and human world that later
became separate sciences—astronomy,
physics, psychology, and sociology.
• Basic problems like the nature of the
universe, the standard of justice, the
validity of knowledge, the correct
application of reason, and the criteria of
beauty have been the domain of
philosophy from its beginnings to the
present.
• These basic problems are the subject
matter of the branches of philosophy.
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects
of the natural and human world that later
became separate sciences—astronomy,
physics, psychology, and sociology.
• Basic problems like the nature of the
universe, the standard of justice, the
validity of knowledge, the correct
application of reason, and the criteria of
beauty have been the domain of
philosophy from its beginnings to the
present.
• These basic problems are the subject
matter of the branches of philosophy.
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects
of the natural and human world that later
became separate sciences—astronomy,
physics, psychology, and sociology.
• Basic problems like the nature of the
universe, the standard of justice, the
validity of knowledge, the correct
application of reason, and the criteria of
beauty have been the domain of
philosophy from its beginnings to the
present.
• These basic problems are the subject
matter of the branches of philosophy.
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects
of the natural and human world that later
became separate sciences—astronomy,
physics, psychology, and sociology.
• Basic problems like the nature of the
universe, the standard of justice, the
validity of knowledge, the correct
application of reason, and the criteria of
beauty have been the domain of
philosophy from its beginnings to the
present.
• These basic problems are the subject
matter of the branches of philosophy.
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects
of the natural and human world that later
became separate sciences—astronomy,
physics, psychology, and sociology.
• Basic problems like the nature of the
universe, the standard of justice, the
validity of knowledge, the correct
application of reason, and the criteria of
beauty have been the domain of
philosophy from its beginnings to the
present.
• These basic problems are the subject
matter of the branches of philosophy.
• Early Greek philosophers studied aspects
of the natural and human world that later
became separate sciences—astronomy,
physics, psychology, and sociology.
• Basic problems like the nature of the
universe, the standard of justice, the
validity of knowledge, the correct
application of reason, and the criteria of
beauty have been the domain of
philosophy from its beginnings to the
present.
• These basic problems are the subject
matter of the branches of philosophy.
Aesthetics
• It is the science of the beautiful in its
various manifestations – including the
sublime, comic, tragic, pathetic, and ugly.
• It is important because of the following:
 It vitalizes our knowledge. It makes our
knowledge of the world alive and
useful.
 It helps us to live more deeply and
richly. A work of art helps us to rise
from purely physical existence into the
realm of intellect and the spirit.
 It brings us in touch with our culture.
The answers of great minds in the past
• Hans-Georg Gadamer
 A German philosopher who argues that
our tastes and judgments regarding
beauty work in connection with one’s
own personal experience and culture.
 Our culture consists of the values and
beliefs of our time and our society.
Logic
• Reasoning is the concern of the logician.
• It comes from the Greek word logike, coined
by Zeno, the Stoic (c.340–265BC), which
means a treatise on matters pertaining to
the human thought.
• It does not provide us knowledge of the
world directly and does not contribute
directly to the content of our thoughts.
• It is not interested in what we know
regarding certain subjects but in the truth
or the validity of our arguments regarding
such objects.
• Aristotle
 First philosopher to devise a logical
method
 Truth means the agreement of
knowledge with reality.
 Logical reasoning makes us certain that
our conclusions are true.
• Zeno of Citium
 One of the successors of Aristotle and
founder of Stoicism
• Other influential authors of logic
 Cicero, Porphyry, and Boethius
 Philoponus and Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and
Epistemology
• It deals with nature, sources, limitations,
and validity of knowledge.
• It explains: (1) how we know what we
claim to know; (2) how we can find out
what we wish to know; and (3) how we
can differentiate truth from falsehood.
• It addresses varied problems: the
reliability, extent, and kinds of
knowledge; truth; language; and science
and scientific knowledge.
• Sources of knowledge
 Induction
 gives importance to particular things
seen, heard, and touched
 forms general ideas through the
examination of particular facts
 Empiricist – advocates of induction
method
 Empiricism is the view that
knowledge can be attained only
through sense experience.
 Deduction
 gives importance to general law
  Rationalist – advocates of deduction
method
 For a rationalist, real knowledge is
based on the logic, the laws, and the
methods that reason develops.
 Pragmatism – the meaning and truth
of an idea are tested by its practical
consequences.
Ethics
• It explores the nature of moral virtue and
evaluates human actions.
• It is a study of the nature of moral
judgments.
• Philosophical ethics attempts to provide
an account of our fundamental ethical
ideas.
• It insists that obedience to moral law be
Socrates
given a rational
To be happy isfoundation.
to live a virtuous life.
 Virtue is an awakening of the seeds of
good deeds that lay dormant in the
mind and heart of a person which can
  True knowledge = Wisdom = Virtue
 Courage as virtue is also knowledge.
• William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
 An African-American who wanted equal
rights for the blacks.
 His philosophy uses the same process
as Hegel’s dialectic (Thesis >
Antithesis > Synthesis).
Metaphysics
• It is an extension of a fundamental and
necessary drive in every human being to
know what is real.
• A metaphysician’s task is to explain that
part of our experience which we call unreal
in terms of what we call real.
• We try to make things comprehensible by
simplifying or reducing the mass of things
we call appearance to a relatively fewer
number of things we call reality.
• Thales
 He claims that everything we
  We try to explain everything else
(appearance) in terms of water (reality).
• Idealist and Materialist
 Their theories are based on
unobservable entities: mind and matter.
 They explain the observable in terms of
the unobservable.
• Plato
 Nothing we experience in the physical
world with our five senses is real.
 Reality is unchanging, eternal,
immaterial, and can be detected only by
the intellect.
 Plato calls these realities as ideas of
 Activities
1. Share your concepts about the
importance of philosophy. Give examples
of these in politics, sports, law, and daily
life.
2. How do you define “happiness”? Do you
support the view of Socrates: “To become
happy, a person must live a virtuous life”?
Explain
3. Share in class your views about what is
“right” or “wrong.” Share your own
experience in class.