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The Human Person as an Embodied Spirit

Learning Activity Sheet in Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person

I. INTRODUCTION
Limits and transcendence. You are a human person. You are able to sensibly experience the
world – look at your beloved’s beautiful face, smell the sweet scent of the flowers, feel the warmth of
your friend’s embrace, taste the delicious meal prepared especially for you, listen to the sound of
soothing music as it is played to you – and everything the material world offers. At the same time, you
are able to appreciate your supportive friends, wonder at new learnings and discoveries, and
understand what is being talked about. You also hope for some things to be better and desire for more
of all the beautiful things in the world. What a wonderful life it is!

On the other hand, you have a share of the not so wonderful moments in life like sadness, pain,
suffering, and the likes. Sometimes you fail in having what you hope you would have or fail to do what
you have promised. After all, you would say ‘I am only human.’ What does it mean to be human? Is it
simply having a body? Or more than the body?

Allow yourself to have an encounter in this learning activity sheet with that which is most
obvious to your being human – that of having a body, which offers you both your limitations and
possibilities for transcendence.

II. LEARNING COMPETENCIES WITH CODE

At the end of this learning activity sheet, you should be able to:
 recognize how the human body imposes limits and possibilities for transcendence. (PPT
11/12-If-3.1); and
 evaluate own limitations and possibilities for their transcendence PPT11/12 - ig – 3. 2

III. ACTIVITIES
Please read and answer the Learning Activities provided in this worksheet. Happy Learning!

ACTIVITY 1. BODY OR SOUL

Directions: Inside the box are activities you usually do. Draw a heart and a cloud. Inside the heart, write
the activities you consider as activities of the BODY. Inside the cloud, write the activities you deem as
activities of the soul. Then briefly answer the succeeding questions.

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 SOUL
BODY

Processing Questions:
1. Which activities do you recognize as activities of the body? Why? Explain your answer.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2. Which activities are activities of the soul? Why? Explain your answer.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. Are there activities that may belong to both body and soul? What makes them activities of both
body and soul?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4. How are you able to decide which ones fall into the category of activities of body/ soul or body
and soul?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Activity 2. HEALTHY SELF-TALK

Directions: Your task is to reflect and complete the chart below.

Things I can do… Things I cannot do…

Do you like the activity? It’s a simple way of knowing yourself. The things you are capable of doing and
things that you can’t do. It’s about recognizing your limitations and possibilities.

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Activity 3. MY LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR TRANSCENDENCE
Directions: Assess your limitation and the possibilities for transcendence. Complete the chart below by
rewriting your present limitations and make an action plan towards transcendence.

MY LIMITATIONS

MY PLANS TOWARDS
TRANSCENDENCE

Activity 4. HOW DO PHILOSOPHERS REGARD THE BODY AND THE SOUL?

Directions: Fill in the chart how each philosopher regards the body and soul.

Philosopher Idea of Body and Soul

Thomas Aquinas
Plato
Aristotle
St. Augustine of Hippo
Rene Descartes
Gabriel Marcel

Activity 5. My Transcendence Quote

Directions: Give your reaction to the quotation. What can you say about the quotation below? Do you
agree with this? Express your answer on the box provided.

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 Whicdn.com, 2020. https://data.whicdn.com/images/283673904/original.jpg.

Write your answer here…

IV. Deepening

What does it mean to be human?

 It is as simple as having a body and soul.

BODY
 The body is your material aspect as a human person that makes it visible and tangible.
 Our five senses – taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing – make it possible for us to be sensed.
 It is also the body that possesses material dimensions such as shape, size, texture, color,
weight.

SOUL
 The soul is not visible and tangible which makes the activities of the soul hard to identify.
Though the presence of soul is not as obvious as the body, we could take from the non-physical
activities of man that which is of the soul or spiritual.
 The presence of invisible thoughts and feeling, the occurrence of a basic decision, and the
presence of conscience attest to the presence of a soul in man.
 Though these things are hidden and unseen, they point to a world whose presence is certain.
 The deep feelings shared through words and sensible expressions, the changes occurring in
everyday life rooted in decisions made, and the direction and guidance of conscience make
concrete the presence of the soul.

MAN IS PRESENTED IN TWO WAYS

1. Man is presented in our minds or rationality where we make man an object of our thought
and understanding.
- Man is something we can think about, divide into parts, study the relationships of
parts and wholes, and make concrete representations of what we found out.
2. Man is presented to us in our lived experience that is in the way we experience our human
life.
- Our daily experience of life presents manifold data that becomes a treasury of our
knowledge of ourselves, others, and the world. Our reason has the capacity to divide
or analyze its contents.

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 In our minds, we separate the body and the soul. But our experience extends further and
remains faithful to such experience that identifies the activity as of the body and the soul.

SOME PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR IDEA OF THE BODY AND SOUL

 Thomas Aquinas - identifies the soul as the ‘principle of life.’ As such, it is the beginning and
foundation of human life without which or the absence of which will be the death of man. The
body cannot be the principle of life for it would suppose that everything that has a body would
be alive. Our experience proves otherwise, that not all bodies are alive. Moreover, it is the one
that enables us to receive and perceive all the non-tangible things. ‘Whatever is received is
received according to the condition of the receiver.
 Plato - said that man is a soul because it is his essence. The human body is simply an
imprisonment for his free and pure soul which is freed at his death to see the absolute truth.
o The nature of the human person implies that there is an inherent contradiction between
the body and the soul.
o The body according to him is material, thus, it is mutable and destructible.
o On the other hand, the soul is immaterial; so it is immutable and indestructible. He also
believes that the body and soul are separable.
o The body’s existence is dependent on the soul while the soul’s existence is independent
of the body.
o THERE ARE THREE PARTS OF THE SOUL:
1. Rational Soul. Its function is to guide the spiritual and appetitive soul.
Highest of all parts of the soul.
2. Spiritual Soul. It contributes to the motion and activity of the whole person.
3. Appetitive Soul. It drives the human person to experience thirst, hunger, and
other physical wants.
 Aristotle - regard man as a unified body and soul like the unity of sugar, coffee, and milk in an
espresso. In so far as this is the world of matter, then all things are made up of matter and
form.
o He disagrees with Plato. According to him the body and soul are in unity. They are
inseparable. The soul is the reason why the body lives, it animates the body and it acts
as the matter to the soul. Also for him, body and soul constitute the human person.
 Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas - both assert the higher importance of the soul like
the charioteer and the horse where the charioteer is not one without a horse.
 Rene Descartes of the modern period highlights the distinction between the body and the soul
by declaring his man as a thinking being (res cogitans) and an extended being (res extensa).
Although he recognizes unity, he still finds it ambiguous hence being unreachable by the human
mind with certitude.
 Gabriel Marcel would speak of man neither as a body alone nor a soul alone; not even of an
aggregate union of body and soul but of man as an embodied subjectivity. Man’s embodiment
is not treating the body as an object to be analyzed, systematized, and conceptualized, but a
subject that performs the concrete experience; hence it does not make sense to separate the
body and the soul.

 Although man is made up of body and soul, these two distinct realities in man’s life cannot be
separated as long as man is in this world.
 The separation of the body and soul, while we are yet here on earth is possible only in the level
of analysis.

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  Looking at the body and the soul separately like an aggregate would invite priority of one over
the other. One becomes more privileged as being mundane or spiritual.
 The body is sacrificed for the sake of the spirit, if it is more important; or the soul is sacrificed
for the sake of the pleasure of the body. This would have further implications on the choices
one makes and the possibility of abuse of one and the neglect of the other.
 Neglecting one over the other is not being faithful to its actual experience.
 To be human is to have a body. Physical science would present man as a biological body that is
made up of different parts. These parts made up the body system – circulatory, digestive,
endocrine, immune, lymphatic, nervous, muscular, reproductive, skeletal, respiratory, urinary,
and integumentary. Each system has functions to perform necessary for human survival.
 Social science’s structural- functional theory would look at the body in the same way. It is a part
of the social system occupying a particular status and performing specific function. This is man’s
body, a body-object.

LIMITATIONS OF THE HUMAN PERSON

 Human persons are not perfect. This means that there are many physical limitations of his
body. For example, He cannot fly nor the ability to breathe underwater.

 Your experiences as an embodied subjectivity may be limited by your body.

 There are many things you cannot do simultaneously because you are only limited by one body
existing at a definite time, space, and nature.
 You cannot be here studying in the classroom and be at the canteen at the same time because
your body allows you to be only in one place at a time. You cannot also be awake and asleep at
the same time because your body allows you only one action at a time. You cannot hold more
than your hands can handle.

TRANSCENDENCE
 There are many limitations offered by your being embodied with this body, however, there are
always opportunities for transcendence, that is, going beyond these limitations.
 Transcendence is a state of existence above and beyond the limits of material experience. It
originated from the word trans meaning “go beyond” and scandare meaning “to climb”.
 Fulfilling a goal entails transcendence because it opens a state of thinking and feeling that there
is something more in life than just physical and material things.
 Just like Abraham Maslow’s Self-actualization theory, transcendence is a state of being
intrinsically satisfied with life regardless of physical and tangible factors.
 In totality, a man is a physical body, a living soul (the inner-self: mortal), and a spirit (the life-
force: immortal). The spirit takes form through the mortal, physical body to represent its
qualities in the conscious physical world. Each body part has its wordily function that is
communicated in an expressive and understandable form.
 Transcendence begins with the acceptance of our facticity that is of our being ‘here and now’
from which we view things and people.
 Many things are given to us. Our current conditions – body, mind, community, and relationships
cannot be changed, but these given would also be the same matter we could work on. We
become true to our interiority and allow our body to express faithfully that which is interior.
“Ipakita kung ano ang niloloob natin.” The body may have limitations, but our spirit is free.

Limitations for Transcendence Possibilities for Transcendence

 May not occur to everyone  Developing a positive outlook in life
 Does not come at a specified period  Working towards reaching a goal Learning
 Varies across all people from experience

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  Many coincide with the physical limitations
of the body
 Environment, demographics, and society
 Bodily limitations (mental and emotional
disorders, disabilities, diseases, and illness
 Failures and experiences
 Socioeconomic limitations (location of the
neighborhood, abusive relationships, and
negative influences.

OVERCOMING LIMITATIONS
 Bodily limits can be tested by trying on new experiences and working on challenges with
increasing levels of difficulty, if given enough exposure to any situations, can attain a goal with
efficiency.
 Social and environmental limitations are more difficult to overcome than bodily limitations
because they involve the influence of other people and the external world. However, with
proper mindset, clearly defined goals and motivation to rise above challenges, one may
successfully overcome his or her limitations.

HOW DO LIMITATIONS LEAD TO TRANSCENDENCE?

1. Facticity refers to the things in our life that are already given. Example: LIFE
2. Spatial as temporal beings, our most obvious limitation is our finitude, our finite quality, or
state. Example: We are not immortal. As spatial beings, we are limited by our bodies to be
present in two or more places at the same time. We are limited by space (spatial) and time
(temporal). Our spatial-temporal situation sets our preconditions of understanding.
3. The Body as Intermediary means acting as a mediator. Having a body prevents us from
revealing what we want to express.

V. References

Bajaro, G. A. (n.d.). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person Quarter 1- Module 7: The
Human Person as an Embodied Spirit. Legazpi City: Department of Education Region V BICOL.

Hugo, N. B. (n.d.). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person Quarter 1- Module 8: The Body
as Limitation and Transcendence. Legazpi City: Department of Education Region V BICOL.

Lanuzga, D. D. (n.d.). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person Module 3.2: Limitations and
Possibilities of the Human Person for their Transcendence (Part 2). Legazpi City: Department of
Education Region V BICOL.

Lanuzga, D. D. (n.d.). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person Module 3.1: Limitations and
Possibilities of the Human Person for their Transcendence (Part 1). Legazpi City: Department of
Education Region V BICOL.