Introduction to the

SHS
Philosophy of the
Human Person
Quarter 1 – Supplementary
Learning Material (3-4)
The Human Person
as an Embodied
Spirit

GOVERNMENT PROPERTY | NOT FOR SALE

 What I Need to Know

This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
understand the Human Person as an Embodied Spirit. It will also discuss the
limitations of the human person then will shift to how one might be able to go beyond
those limitations.

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Evaluate own limitations and possibilities for their transcendence

2. Recognize how the human body imposes limits and possibilities for
transcendence

What I Know

Before moving forward with our lesson, let us check what you already know.

Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on the
space provided before the number.

_____1. Considered as the union of body and soul.

A. animal B. vegetable C. cadaver D. human person
_____2. He said that the soul is the prisoner of the body.
A. Aristotle B. Plato C. Socrates D. St. Thomas Aquinas
_____3. He believes that the soul cannot exists apart from the body. A. Aristotle
B. Plato C. Socrates D. St. Thomas Aquinas
_____4. He said the rational soul can exist without the body, but it cannot do anything
without it.
A. Aristotle B. Plato C. Socrates D. St. Thomas Aquinas
_____5. It refers to the things in our lives that are already given.
A. Facticity C. Spatial-Temporal Beings
B. Philosophy D. Body as Intermediary
_____6. It is the acceptance that we will not live forever.
A. Facticity C. Spatial-Temporal Beings
B. Philosophy D. Body as Intermediary
_____7. It is the recognition that we can experience the world because of our body.
A. Facticity C. Spatial-Temporal Beings
B. Philosophy D. Body as Intermediary

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_____8. One of the divisions of the soul for basic needs like food, growth, and
reproduction.
A. Vegetative Soul C. Rational/Intellectual Soul
B. Sensitive Soul D. Irrational Soul
_____9. One of the divisions of the soul for movement, sensation, and perception.
A. Vegetative Soul C. Rational/Intellectual Soul B.
Sensitive Soul D. Irrational Soul
_____10. One of the divisions of the soul responsible for thinking and reason.
A. Vegetative Soul C. Rational/Intellectual Soul
B. Sensitive Soul D. Irrational Soul

Lesson
Human Person: Being
1 Limited and Transcendent

This lesson will discuss about the human person’s weaknesses and imperfections.
Being able to identify and talk about those weaknesses and imperfections may be
able to help us go through them and even beyond them.

What’s In
Looking Back
Read each statement carefully and identify what type of fallacious reasoning is
stated. Choose the letter of your answer from the box and write it on the space
provided before the number.

A. Ad Hominem D. Hasty Generalization

B. Appeal to Pity E. Slippery Slope
C. Bandwagon F. Red Herring

_____1. There are lots of children getting hungry so finish your food.
_____2. If we teach Denise how to ride the bike, she’ll be asking for a motorbike
next.
_____3. Students from University of the Philippines are activists.
_____4. If you will not adopt the puppy, they will put it to sleep.
_____5. All my friends are into Keto Diet. I better start it now to also lose weight.
_____6. Who would believe an ex-convict like you?

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Why do we need to evaluate an argument?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

What’s New

Try This!
1. Describe the rainbow to a blind person.
2. Describe happiness.
3. Reach the tip of your nose with your tongue.
4. Hold your breath for more than two minutes.

How did you come up with your answers? Were you able to come up with the right
words? Were you able to do it? Now, what does the activity tell us? Do you find it
difficult? If your answer is yes, no need to worry. Why? It is because you are a
human person, and you have limits. You won’t be able to reach the tip of your nose
with your tongue (unless you are gifted with a long one), you won’t be able to stay
underwater for a long time because you won’t be able to hold your breath for long.
You cannot even see your own neck (which I guess you are trying right now as you
are reading this). As we go along, we will be able to find out what are those limitations
and how do we go about those limitations

What is It

Do you believe in ghost? If you believe in ghost, you believe that man has a spirit.
You believe that the spirit leaves the body the moment a man dies. The spirit
wanders around going through doors, windows and other objects, gliding from one
place to another. You believe, then, that man has a body and spirit. The spirit gives
life to the body, the body gives limitation to the spirit. With this in mind, you believe
that a human person is an embodied spirit.

1. Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

The three great philosophers of all time namely Plato, Aristotle and St. Thomas
Aquinas believe in the idea of the human person as a composite of body and soul.
They believe that the soul animates the body, thus concluding that the human
person is an embodied spirit.

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A. Plato
Plato believes that a human person is composed of body and soul. He argues
that the soul preexisted the body becoming a witness to everything in the
world of ideas. Now, the moment the soul is born in the physical world
acquiring a body becoming a human person, he/she is subjected to different
kinds of limitations including forgetfulness of the truths that he/she
encountered in the world of ideas. The body inhibits the human person from
grasping truths. He further argues that the soul is the prisoner of the body
which gives him the idea of liberating the soul from the body. The soul is
immortal while the body is mortal. So the moment the human person dies,
the body decays, and the soul returns to the world of ideas.

B. Aristotle
Just like his teacher Plato, Aristotle also believes that a human person is
composed of body and soul. The soul is the part of the body that animates it.
The soul gives life to the body. However, Aritstotle differs from Plato when it
comes to the relationship of the soul to the body. For Aristotle, things are
composed of two co-principles which he calls matter and form. Form is the
principle which actualizes a thing and makes a thing what it is, while matter
is viewed as the potentiality to receive the form. It should always be noted
that matter and form are not complete realities, but only co-principles of a
thing. And as co-principles, matter and form do not exist in themselves
separately. For example, a wood has matter and form. If we burn the wood,
it will turn into ash because the wood has the potency to become ashes. The
wood is different from ash. This is because the form of wood is different from
the form of ash. It is matter which facilitates chance from wood to ash,
because it is the potential of the wood to receive the form of an actual ash.
Again, there will never be a moment when matter or form will exist
independently of each other because they are only principles and do not
possess existence on their own. Aristotle claims that the form refers to the
soul and the matter refers to the body. And since matter and form – body and
soul – are co principles, the soul cannot exists apart from the body. The soul
can never be found existing independently of the body just like the form of
wood cannot exist independently of its matter. So if a human being dies, the
form of the human being which is the soul, ceases to be and the remaining
thing is just the body, and this body no longer holds the form of man. Now
the body holds a new form, that of a corpse. For Aristotle then, a human
being is always compose of body and soul.
Aristotle also claims that the soul has three functions: nutrition, sensation,
and intellection. Human being share the nutritive function with plants, and
the sensitive functions with animals. The human soul as an animating
principle is far greater than the animating principle of plants and animals
because of the higher function of intellection. It is this intellective functions
which separates us from all other beings, but also defines us as human
beings. So a human being who just uses his nutritive and sensitive functions
can hardly be called a human being. Without using his intellective function,
the quality of being human is always questionable. So for Aristotle, to be
human being means to practice its highest function which is intellection.

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 C. St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas knows and accepts Aristotle’s assertion. He further
farther argues that there are three divisions of the soul: Vegetative Soul,
Sensitive Soul and Rational/Intellectual Soul. The vegetative soul is for basic
needs like food, growth and reproduction. The sensitive soul is for movement,
perception and sensation. The rational/intellectual soul which is responsible
for reason and thinking. The human person possesses all three kinds of
souls. The rational/intellectual soul being the highest form of soul enables
the human person to be self-aware, to gain knowledge and have the power to
be independent of the body. Though the soul may work the rational soul can
exist without the body, but it cannot do anything without it.

2. Limitations of the Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

At your age, you may have already noticed that there are lot of things that you are
not able to do particularly because of your body. Just like what had been asked of
you to try out at the beginning of this lesson. Those things are your limitations which
are categorized into three: facticity, spatial temporal beings, and body as
intermediary.

A. Facticity
“Kamukha ka pala ng tatay mo pero ang mata mo ay sa nanay mo.” Maybe
you have heard your relatives or your parents’ friends saying this from
time to time. And maybe sometimes you wish you have a different facial
feature. That is because when you were born, you were not able to choose
your parents, your family, your community and even your name. You were
never asked when and where you would like to be born. Jean Paul Sartre,
a French philosopher, calls that facticity. Facticity refers to the things in
our lives that are already given. All the facts that we currently have are
part of our limitations. Say for example, you want to be a basketball player
but you were born with a rheumatic heart. You want to finish your studies
and become a doctor but you were born in a poor family. We shall always
have limitations by the facticity of our existence.
Simone de Beauvoir, another French philosopher states that facticity
signifies all of the concrete details against the background of which human
freedom exists and is limited. For example, these may include the time and
place of birth, a language, an environment, an individual's previous
choices, as well as the inevitable prospect of their death. For example:
currently, the situation of a person who is born without legs precludes
their freedom to walk on the beach; if future medicine were to develop a
method of growing new legs for that person, their facticity might no longer
exclude this activity.

B. Spatial-Temporal Being
Being temporal beings, the most obvious limitation is our death. We
recognize our death and accept that we will not live forever. We have
limited time and we will die someday. On the level of being spatial
individuals, we are limited by our bodies to be present in two or more
places at the same time. We are set to be at one place at a time that is

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 why we need to choose where we want to be in case we are invited to attend
a friend’s birthday party or a family reunion. That is why Martin Heidegger
calls human beings Dasein, a German word which literally means “being
there”. This tells us that our very being is to be there, to be in the world.
“To be in the world” means that our experiences are always situated in our
world. We cannot detach ourselves from our situation and we will always
look and understand the world according to our being-in-the world. In
short, being-in-the-world means that we live with things, with other
people, and within a particular place and time.

C. The Body as Intermediary

Our body serves as an intermediary or mediator between us and the
physical world. We can experience the world because of our body. It is
because of my body that I experience the world as my world and not the
world of others. Martin Heidegger states that our bodies come into contact
with things and shape the way we look at the world. And this is the reason
why we prescribe different meaning to the things around us. This imposes
limitation concerning communication and expression. We communicate
with words but sometimes words are not enough to really convey our
message. Sometimes, we cannot put into words what we want to really
say. However, there are also times when we want to hide ourselves from
others. We don’t want others to see what we really think and feel. The
body in this case is like a veil that covers the reality of a person.
3. On Transcending Limitations

You may think that these limitations are restricting how you live your life. But think
again, these limitations make your life more interesting and meaningful. Let us look
again at each limitation and maybe we can find a way to overcome them, or perhaps
we may see that there is no need to overcome them at all.

A. Facticity
We cannot simply change our facticity, but what we can do is change our
attitude towards them. Sartre also believes that as consciousnesses we’re
always transcending our facticity. As conscious beings we are going
beyond our immediate circumstances towards a future potential state of
being. So while we are determined by our facticity, we’re also determining
our facticity by transcending it. A person with rheumatic heart may just
accept that he cannot play basketball, or a person will not be able to finish
school because of being poor. This is what happens when we let our
facticity define who we are, we treat our facticity as if life has destined us
to it. We should not look at them as if they are our fate. Our facticity
challenges us to be creative with our life options. You may not be able to
play basketball, but maybe you can become a coach or a basketball
television analyst. You may not be rich, but you are intelligent to have
scholarship and/or become a working student. We receive certain givens
when we are born. And it is up to us how we will make us of those givens.

B. Spatial-Temporal Being

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 Surely, we will die, and that is something which bothers a lot of people. So
we want to make the most out of it. We plan for the future. In doing so,
we forget the more important thing, the present. Give the present its due
worth and just simply appreciate it. Remind ourselves from time to time
how wonderful the present is. As what Heidegger said that we always
operate at a particular place and this will direct the way we see the world.
We will always look at the world according to our place and time. We are
defined by them. The moment you spend with your family and friends.
This too will help you in choosing where you want to be, in a friend’s
birthday party or a family reunion. Being reminded of our spatial-temporal
character invites us to value the people and things around us.

C. Body as Intermediary
Having a body may prevent us from truly disclosing what we really want to
express. This challenge us to be more creative in our expressions. Just
like in saying “I love you”, sometimes it is not enough to express how you
feel. So you find more creative ways of conveying the message. Sometimes
you give flowers or chocolates or both. Moreover, having a body that
conceals our emotions also serve as our protection and solace. There are
times that we don’t want everyone to know what we think and feel. And as
what Heidegger said, as being-in-the-world, we are naturally related to the
things and people around us, which shape the way we see the world and
ultimately contribute to the definition of who we are.

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 or COVID19 pandemic showed us more of our limited
state. Nobody will choose to be born at a time where there is a life threatening
pandemic. We are limited and even restricted to the confinement of our homes. We
cannot be with our loved ones. One is confronted with the possibility of death once
he/she is infected with the disease. We are having a hard time finding a cure or a
vaccine to battle the deadly virus. And we each have our own experiences or view
about this. Though, the challenge of this pandemic put out the best in us. Lots of
stories are being told of how each in their own way are being creative in finding ways
to go through or even beyond this experience.

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 What’s More

Activity 1.1
Complete the chart below. Make sure you ask or consult your parents or any adult
who have witnessed your development.

Age Things that I can do Things that I cannot do

0-3

4-7

8-11

12-15

16 up

How do you feel after completing the table? Why did you feel that way?

Activity 1.2
Give five examples per category of your own limitations.

Facticity Spatial Temporal Being Body as Intermediary

1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2.

3. 3. 3.

4. 4. 4.

5. 5. 5.

Look at you answer again. Do you think you can find a way to overcome these
limitations? How?

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 What I Have Learned

1. The human person is a composite of body and spirit. The spirit animates the
body while the body gives limitation to the spirit.
2. The limitations of the human person as an embodied spirit can be categorized
into three: facticity, spatial temporal beings and body as intermediary.
3. These limitations make the life of the human person more interesting and
meaningful.
4. There is always a way where the human person can go through or beyond
those limitations.

What I Can Do

Complete the chart by writing your present limitations with reference to your answer
in the previous activities.

The Revitalized Me

Limitation Plan Toward Transcendence

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

From where do you think you can find the strength to put these plans into action?

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 Assessment

Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a
separate sheet of paper.

A. TRUE or FALSE. Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if not.
Write your answer on the blank before the number.

_________1. Some element of our facticity can never be changed.

_________2. We should never change our facticity because it is our destiny to have
them.
_________3. Our limitations challenge us to be creative and responsible.
_________4. It is physically impossible to be at the same place at the same time.
_________5. Owning a body means that we have the freedom to do anything we want
to do with it.
_________6. Words makes us free from our limitations.
_________7. We always want our feelings and thoughts to be disclosed to everyone.

B. Identification. Identify the category of limitation. Write F if it is Facticity, S if

it is Spatial Temporal Beings and B if it is Body as Intermediary on the space
provided before the number.

_____1. We have a limited life span.

_____2. We cannot choose our biological family.
_____3. We cannot teleport to another place in an instant.
_____4. Words limit our communications with others.
_____5. We cannot be in two places at the same time.
_____6. We cannot change our past decisions.
_____7. We face certain death in the future.
_____8. We are bound by space and time.

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 Additional Activities

Make a collage of yourself using pictures of your parents and relatives from whom
you think you got your bodily features. Make sure that you photocopied those
pictures so as not to destroy them.

They Look Like Me

Where you able to identify yourself from the collage? What does your collage tell
about yourself? How do you feel about it?

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