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PHILOSOPHY OF MANPHILOSOPHY OF MANPHILOSOPHY OF MANPHILOSOPHY OF MAN
By Archie R. MagaraoBy Archie R. Magarao
WHO AM I?• If man knows himself, he will have a
better choice of life.• It is essentially knowing oneself.• We aspire for wisdom: enlightened
knowledge= practical knowledge which has something to do with doing.
• “Madaling maging tao, pero mahirap magpakatao.”
WHO AM I?• “All of us are human beings but not
everyone is a human person.”• Humanity versus personhood.• Humanity is common to all men.• Personhood is unique to every man.• What is personhood?
Gabriel Marcel• Existentialist Philosopher• “Being and Having”• Man= body (object) + subject• Man is an embodied subjectivity
not just a mere object.• Every human person is therefore a
subject and must be treated as a subject not as object.
Marcel’s Primary and Secondary Reflections
• Primary Reflection: I have a body. (Abstract)
• Secondary Reflection: I am my body. (concrete)
• Marcel’s theses:– Existence is co-existence– Reflection is intimately related to human
experience– To be oneself is “to have” and “to be.”
Movements of reflection
1. Looking back: retrospection2. Looking through3. Looking within: introspection
•“I just don’t have a body, but I am my
body,”-Gabriel Marcel
LEVELS OF EXISTENCE1. Personal Existence: I, My
I
WE
YOU
• Even if we join in union or in a community we still have our individuality.
• Heightens our capacity for “solitude”
• Born alone Die alone
Meeting People
• “Yet people around us will make us happy but never pin your life on them for they will leave you afterwards for they have their own life too.”
– MarcelHow much of yourself is yourself?
How much of yourself is other’s self?
2. Co-existence• We all exist with others.
– Being through others: existence through others
– Being with others: considering others– Being for others: living for others
– “We are not just here for ourselves but also for others.”
Soren Kierkegaard• Father of Existentialism• Reacted against the “crowd
mentality”• Individual existence= individual
uniqueness=individuality• He focused on “existence.”
What is existence?• “To stand out” from the crowd.• Concrete expression of one’s being.• Inward movement• “extare” (Kierkegaard): to stand out
against inauthentic existence.• Inauthentic existence=crowd
mentality forgetting to decide for oneself and forgetting your self.
Kierkegaard cont.• In life there is no middle ground.• It is an either/or existence.• Sticking in the middle means
inauthentic existence; it is a fear of taking responsibility.
Kierkegaard’s Stages of Existence
• Aesthetic stage– Sense is one’s priority, pleasure,
wants– Experience of objective uncertainty,
which is external to oneself.
Kierkegaard’s Stages of Existence
• Ethical Stage– Following norms– “Less decision, more imposition –
“ought”
Kierkegaard’s Stages of Existence
• Religious stage– “discernment”: it requires not just an
intellectual accent but doing a “leap of faith”.
– “Leap of Faith”: either-or: everything is at stake
– How much did you wage?– Submitting oneself to God absolutely.
– “yes” to God: commitment, discernment: should be done every
now and then.
Kierkegaard on Truth• Truth is subjective: it is found in the
self > fiat of Abraham• It is inwardness not an outside
mov’t.• Introspection: looking within• Increasing self-knowledge• Making oneself as a way of other’s
self-knowledge.
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE• A most leading existentialist thinker
second to Martin Heidegger.• “Existence precedes essence.”• man is not born with fixed essence.• Man is devoid of any definition.• Man is devoid of any nature.• MAN CONSTITUTES HIS BEING!
– He defines his nature, essence, individuality.
Jean-Paul Sartre• Man only has a constitutive essence not
a definitive essence (Essentialists). An atheist existentialist philosopher.
• “I define myself, I constitute my essence.”
• When I constitute my essence, I therefore exist.
• Life has not value if I I have a definitive essence because definitivity means determination.
• Question: If I am determined, how can I be fully responsible for myself?
• If I am determined, I am not the author If I am determined, I am not the author of my life and I am not I control of it. I of my life and I am not I control of it. I cannot therefore be myself if I am cannot therefore be myself if I am determined. What is the meaning of my determined. What is the meaning of my life then if I am already determined?life then if I am already determined?
• Human nature cannot be defined in Human nature cannot be defined in advance because it is not thought out in advance because it is not thought out in advanceadvance
• People as such merely exist, and only People as such merely exist, and only later do we become our essential selves. later do we become our essential selves.
• To say that existence precedes essence To say that existence precedes essence means that people exist, confront means that people exist, confront themselves, emerges in the world and themselves, emerges in the world and define themselves afterwards.define themselves afterwards.• First, we simply are and then we are First, we simply are and then we are
simply that which we make ourselves.simply that which we make ourselves.
1st Way of existing:• Being-in-itself (l’en-soi): I exist,
just the same way anything else is, as simply being there.– Cannot be otherwise; already defined
by one’s own essence; cannot be other than oneself. Ex. A tree will always be a tree.
2nd way of existing:• Being-for-itself (le pour-soi):
existing as a conscious subject.– Can be otherwise; one’s essence is “to
be”– There is an ability for existing.– There is transformation.– There is choice.– There is freedom.– Man is pregnant with possibilities.
Sartre’s Absolute Freedom
• “If man wants to be free and fully human, he has to eliminate God.”
• God is a limiting concept.– By Sartre’s making God as a concept, he never
even established God’s reality of existence. – He believed that if there is no God, then there
will be no given human nature precisely because there is no God to have a conception of it.
Sartre on Freedom• Humanity: pre-given• Personhood: what you make out of your
humanity: the meaning you create in your humanity.
• ABSOLUTE FREEDOM = ABSOLUTE RESPONSIBILITY
• “Man is condemned to be free.” –Sartre• What is man’s essence? To exist.
Hence, to be free.
ALBERT CAMUS• Absurdist philosopher. French
thinker• Two divisions of Camus: early and
later Camus• Novels: myth of Sisyphus, the
Plague
Early Camus• “There are only two movements in life:
upward and downward or you go up and you down.”
• Life is a routine. Life is therefore predictable.
• If life is a routine and predictable, therefore life is absurd (meaningless).
• If life is absurd, then you better end up your life.
Later Camus• “Yes, life is absurd but it is in the
absurdity of life that we find meaning.” –Albert Camus
• There must be meaningful in life that is why we continue living.
• The absurdity of life pshes us to look for meaning in life. The absurdity reveals the meaning of life itself.
• “The pursuit of life itself is meaningful.”
PHENOMENOLOGYOF FREEDOM
What is freedom?
freedom• Freedom: being bound to one’s
essence.• What is one’s essence? One’s
faithfulness to what one chooses and commits.
• One’s exercise of freedom should produce peace not guilt.
• Freedom is not freedom to do what one wants. Freedom is doing or acting on what one chooses and decides.
• One is not free when one acts against one’s choice.
• Since, freedom is choosing, one certainly chooses only what is good provided that such good is not an apparent good.
2 movements of freedom:
• Freedom from: freedom from deviations; free from certain limitations…
• Freedom to: (affirmative action) freedom to do something in relation to one’s choice.
• Freedom is not just a state of being but my being itself.
• “I am my freedom ‘cause I am freedom.” = one’s identity = freedom
• “you destroy my freedom and you destroy me.”
• Freedom means growing and deep self-knowledge.
• The person’s level of freedom is determined by the person’s level of self-knowledge.
• Human growth = freedom
• I know myself because I am free. I am growing ‘cause I am free. I am freedom.
• FREEDOM TO DO THE GOOD.
• “In freedom, I take up a present and in doing so I draw together my past and transform it, changing its meaning, freeing and detaching myself from it only to be committed to a future. But my choice is always based on a certain givenness, my nature and history. The significance of my nature and history which I am does not limit my access to the world, but on the contrary is my means of entering into communication with it. It is by engaging myself with the present that I can move forward, by living the world that I understand others. “Nothing determines me from outside, not because nothing acts upon me, but, on the contrary, because I am from the start outside myself and open to the world. (Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception,456).– Dr. Manuel Dy, professor emeritus of Ateneo
University
• 1st: Freedom is the source which makes human behavior possible.
• 2nd: Freedom itself is the dynamic drive that propels the human being towards the liberation of his total being from any form of alienation.
• 3rd: Freedom is made possible by being co-conditioned by a sense of justice.
PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
• WHAT IS LOVE?
Stages of love• Attraction stage: usually physical
attraction. What meets the eyes.• Why do like me? You are sexy, etc.
– Erotic factor– There is an appeal– An appeal is an invitation.– If there is an invitation, there will be a
response.– A response may be “yes” or “no”
-from the beginning the loving-relationship is determined by the OTHER!
Getting to know stage• A consequence of responding to the
invitation or appeal.• It is the stage where one enriches the
knowledge about the Other.• There is progression in knowing the
other person.• Why do you love me? Ans. You are kind,
loving, caring, etc.• LOVE IS DETERMINED BY YOUR
KNOWLEDGE OF THE PERSON/ BELOVED.
• “You have to grow in knowledge of the person you are loving.=before deciding
to love the person you first know the person.”
Getting to know stage cont…
• “wanting to know but also wanting to accept what you know.”
• Love is not blind. You cannot just blindly accept something which you will later on make an issue.
• “NO ONE IS TRIGHT FOR YOU BUT YOU MAKE YOURSELF ROGHT FOR THE OTHER PERSON.”
• Knowing presupposes the decision to love the other.
• LOVE IS NOT ABOUT VIRGINITY. It is turning away from yourself to the other.
• SEX IS NOT THE GREATEST EXPRESSION OF LOVE.
• SACRIFICE IS AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE.
DECISION STAGE• Love is a decision!!!• Love is not mere feeling for feelings
fluctuates.• BECAUSE OF WHAT I KNOW OF THE
PERSON, I, THEREFORE, DECIDE TO LOVE THE PERSON. Ex. Marriage vows: in sickness and in health ‘till death do us part.
• LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL BECAUSE IT IS A DECISION. “You’ve got to love me for
what I am.”
3 mov’ts of love• The MAKING BE of the other: allowing the
growth of the other within the loving relationship; you contribute in the growth of the person. Loving is inspiring to be good. LET ME BE! The person will change if the loving relationship is conducive enough to permit such change.
• The LETTING BE of the other: love is consenting the other’s freedom. It is saying “yes” to the freedom of the beloved. Love is not taking away the freedom of the other.
Love is not selfish.
3 movements of love• The LETTING GO of the other: letting go of the
beloved when the time is right for loving is respecting the beloved’s freedom. Set me free!– Allowing the beloved “to be”.
ADDITIONAL POINTS ON THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE:-When I love the other, I am saying, “I want you to become what you want to be. I want you to realize
your happiness freely.-the other by his love has made me fully but also by
myself, not just by being what I am but also by being what I can become when I am with him. LOVE
IS CREATIVE.
PHENOMENOLOGY OF DEATH (Heideggerian approach)
• What is death? Why are we afraid to die?
Death• The individual person is
completely free at the time of his/her death.
• DEATH IS THE FULFILLMENT OF MAN’S FREEDOM AND BEING.
Martin Heidegger on Death
• The being of man is a being-in-the-world. Man is primordially directed towards the world and has the power-to-be in the world. His being in the world consists in being alongside with things, the ready-to-hand and the present-at-hand, what Heidegger calls “concern” ; and in being with “others”, “solitude”. The being of man is Dasein, “There-being”.
• By being in the world, by being involved in it, Dasein has the power to be. Once thrown in the world, Dasein realizes its own possibilities, it constantly actualizes its potentialities of existence. As such man is always ahead-of-himself; in his being he is always ahead of himself, ahead of what he actually is. Being thrown in the world, he discovers himself there absorbed in the things and people, and constantly realizing his own possibilities for being. This is what Heidegger calls “CARE”.
• Dasein as project always comports itself towards its potentiality for being. There is always something still ‘outstanding’ in man. As long as man exists in the world, his potentiality for being is never exhausted. According to Heidegger, there is always something to be settled yet in man. Man, as long as he IS, has never reached his “wholeness”. Man always has an unfinished character.– Man reaches his wholeness in death. In
death’, man loses his potentiality for being, he loses his ‘there’. There is no more outstanding in man, everything is finished, settled for him. HE IS NO LONGER THERE.
Experience of death• Our first experience of death is the
death of others.• Death is a not-yet which will be.• Death is mine. No one can
substitute me in my death.• I am a being-towards-death,
hence, I have to care.
Everyday being-towards-death-Inauthenticity
• The “they” hides death by saying, “People die… one of these days one will die too, in the end; but right now it has nothing to do with us.”
• The ‘they’ realizes that death is something indefinite that must arrive ultimately, but for the moment, the ‘they’ says, it has nothing to do with us.
• It is something not yet present-at-hand, and therefore offers no threat. The ‘they’ says, “one dies”, but the one is nobody, no one will claim that it is I.
• The they levels off death, makes it ambiguous, and hides the true aspects of this potentiality, the mineness, non-relational, and that which
cannot be outstripped.
Authentic being-towards-death
• The authentic response of man in his awareness of being-towards-death is not of evasion, of covering up death’s true implications, nor of giving new explanations for it.
• Man must face the possibility of his death as his possibility, the possibility in which his very existence is an issue.
• Facing this possibility is not actualizing it for that is suicide and suicide demolishes all the potentialities of man instead of bringing then into a whole totality.• Death is not one that man can have at his
disposal.
• The authentic being-towards-death is anticipation of this possibility: understanding it as the possibility of impossibility of any existence at all for him.
• Death individualizes man.• In accepting death as the possibility,
man frees himself.• Death should not be taken as an
isolated point in life of man. Rather, it is to be taken as the culminating point of his life, the point where he finally reaches a fulfillment, a totality.
