Introduction to the Philosophy of a Human Person PDF

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF A HUMAN PERSON SUBJECT 32-33 Table of Contents MODULE 10 MODULE 6 Introduction to the Philosophy of a Human Person 2nd Quarter Examinat...

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF A HUMAN PERSON SUBJECT 32-33 Table of Contents MODULE 10 MODULE 6 Introduction to the Philosophy of a Human Person 2nd Quarter Examination Chapter 5. Freedom of the Human Person 5.1 Our Ordinary Sense of Freedom 1-3 5.2 Freedom and Limitation 3-5 5.3 Autonomy, Accountability, and Responsibility 5-7 Activities 8-9 MODULE 7 Chapter 6. Intersubjectivity 6.1 On Dialogue 10-13 6.2 On Love 13-16 Activities 17 MODULE 8 Chapter 7. The Individuality of the Human Beings and their Social Context 7.1 The Human Person and the Society 18-19 7.2 Philosophizing about the Social 19 7.3 The Social as a Generator of Identity 19-21 7.4 The Necessity of Discourse 21-22 Activities 23 MODULE 9 Chapter 8. The Human Person in their Environment 8.1 Our Ordinary Conception of Death 24-26 8.2 Being-toward-Death 26-27 8.3 Authenticity in the Face of Death 27-29 Activities 31  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Second Quarter 5. FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN with. They might say, “I want to wear face mask especially when I’m outside because at the end of the day, I will go home to my family and I don’t want to be Module PERSON the carrier of the virus. I don’t want them to get sick because of me.” Though health At the end of this module, you are expected to: experts say the evidence is clear that masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-  Evaluate and exercise in choice, 19 and that the more people wearing masks, the better, there are still people who  Realize that choices have consequences and some are choosing to ignore the science. Some of them might say, “The people living on things are given up while others are obtained in the streets do not wear masks and they do not get sick. Might as well I’ll be Week:______ making choices, and healthier than them even when I don’t wear a face mask on public places.” Still,  Show situations that demonstrate freedom of these same people end up wearing a mask because they do not want to get caught choice and the consequences of the choices. by the police and pay a fine. Clearly they still have a choice not to do so. In this case, we can see that some people do what they do not because they want to do KEY QUESTIONS them, but because they feel that they have to do it.  Is autonomy an illusion?  Is there limitation to our freedom? Think about barkers on jeepney  Are we really free? terminals who shout almost the  whole day to call out passengers. Do 5.1 Our Ordinary Sense of Because of the pandemic going on, and you think they want to do what they Freedom after months of quarantine, wearing do or they do it because they have face masks has become almost a habit to to? On the other hand, some people us and is now a part of our everyday living. While some people are really conscious are lucky enough to do what they do about health protocols and do wear their masks orderly and properly when they because they want to do them. are outside, others are only wearing masks because it is a policy− they do not like Imagine Cong Velasquez and Viy the hassle of paying a fee and they are Cortez earning a huge amount of money from doing what they love− vlogging. Isn’t obviously not taking the spread of virus it everybody’s dream to earn money from doing what he/she wants to do in the seriously. There are even people who go first place? Either case, what we see is that practical human actions are always out to protest against wearing face derived from certain motives. Unlike what we observe in the rest of the natural coverings. world (minerals, plants, animals), human life is not simply determined by external physical events or base, uncontrolled instincts. We have the capacity to plot the Undoubtedly, those who prefer to wear trajectory of our lives based on certain principles and values that we use as guides their masks may want their decisions− for formulating the reasons behind our actions. Given the examples above, we they might think it is their responsibility to realize that human actions do not simply happen by chance or necessity. The protect not only themselves from the virus decision of the people to want or not want to wear a mask is not simply a result of but also the people they are interacting 1  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) a random series of events. Rather, it is the result of a prior motivation to either be would like to be. Your present motives are never from the past and the future. a law abider or not. The decision of the jeepney barker to shout almost the whole Simply put, if we hold that the human being is free, we must also accept the day is based on the motivation to earn money for his family. The jeepney barker presupposition that his/her freedom is directly corollary of his/her awareness or does not do his job because; he does it because he consented to the fact that he consciousness of both his/her past decisions and future plans. Every time we make has to do it even if he does not want to. a choice, we are both looking to our past and projecting our future. This means that our motives for action are dynamic. Our reasons for making certain decisions at Therefore, however you may feel about the things that you are doing, whether you certain times in certain situations are a function of our entire life project. We do like doing them or hate doing them, it is undeniable that these things are only not make a decision in a vacuum. Freedom is always exercised in a particular happening because you allowed your motives to shape your decisions. If you are context. reading this book despite the fact that you hate reading about the philosophy, you cannot make the excuse that this book is forcing you to read it. Your decision to This is why it is very difficult for us to rid ourselves of the feeling of being free. From read this book is the only reason why this book is being read by you now, whether the moment you wake up in the morning, until the moment you close your eyes to you hate reading it or not. Even if you say that your teacher is the one forcing you sleep, you always have a sense that you can do something about any situation that to read, his/her authority over you necessitates your consent. In other words, you you face every day. For instance, it is not outside the possibility for you to choose can always say, “No.” But you might retort, “If I refuse to follow his/her not to take a bath before coming to school. Of course, most of us do take baths instructions, then I might be punished.” In this case, you might think that you are because cultural propriety dictates that we must not inconvenience others with being held hostage in the classroom with this book against your will, and that you bad hygiene. However, when we really think about it, even at the moment when have no choice but to do as he/she commands. But don’t you? Are you really being our hand is about to turn the faucet on, we remain free to refrain from doing it and forced by authority to do something against your will? If the latter is true, it means we realize that we can choose to go straight to school without bathing. So, if you that at the end of the day, you always find yourself free in the face of any situation. are here in this class smelling fresh, it is because you chose to clean yourself up Your motives shape your life. before sitting with your classmates Whatever underlying reason you may have for bathing before coming to school (propriety, parents telling you to do so, everyday The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once habit, trying to impress a crush), all these reasons transform into your own wrote, “Man is condemned to be free.” The personal choices from the moment you turn the faucet on. In other words, the human person cannot be free because he/she reasons we use for justifying our actions come from us. Even if our parents threaten is always in the process of creating us with punishment every time we disobey their order to always bathe before him/herself. We are conscious beings that are coming to school, it is entirely up to us either give in to their wishes or to disobey self-aware. Unlike animals that have no vision them. It is in these kinds of situations where we usually feel that we are free. of an ideal self that they wish to become, Confronted with an array of choices and possibilities, you realize that you are in human beings are always aware of what they command of what happens next. This is the feeling of autonomy. do in the present and its relation to their past decisions and future plans. We know where we Autonomy, if applied politically, pertains to the right of a country to govern itself, stand reference to the kind of person that we free from the coercion and intervention of other nations. Applied to individuals, it Jean Paul Sartre 2  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) points to one’s ability to choose in accordance with one’s own motivation. It is the person weighs his/her options in a situation, he/she simultaneously looks back and state condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life according to reasons, looks forward. Freedom is therefore dynamic. It is always in constant conversation values, or desires that are authentically one’s own. Autonomy is originally an with the past, the present, and the future. ancient notion derived from the ancient Greek word autos, meaning ‘self’, and nomos, meaning ‘rule’. But, there are thinkers that deny the existence of autonomy. One of them is the American behavioral psychologist, B.F. Skinner (1904-1990). Skinner held that Autonomy is therefore human actions are responses to external stimuli and that all actions are explainable equivalent to freedom. To be by these outside forces, thereby eliminating the role of freedom in human autonomous is to have the behavior. His position is based on the premise that freedom to act in accordance human behavior is determined by everything that with one’s own values, beliefs, has happened in the past as well as by events that and principles. This is the take place in a person’s environment. This position, explanation behind our and those like it, is called determinism. For him, feeling of being free. We feel human behavior can be programmed through free because we can sense in conditioning, Various systems of reward and any situation, we hold our punishment may be installed in order to modify destiny in our own hands. patterns of behavior. Hence, behavior that Even a prisoner enjoys this Cebu Dancing Inmates produces positive or favorable results tend to be sense of autonomy. Though he/she is physically incarcerated against his/her will, repeated, while actions that result in punishment of he/she maintains the capacity to determine how he/she copes with the situation. negative results tend to not be repeated and He/she can choose to simply give in to despair and wait for death, or he/she can eventually die out. B.F. Skinner choose to use his/her time in prison to develop other aspects of his/her personhood. Take for example those prisoners in our country that learn handicraft 5.2 Freedom and Limitation There are certain facts about yourself or dancing while being locked in jail. that you have no control over. First, you did not choose to exist as a human being. Being human means that you do not In summary, we can say that we ordinarily equate freedom with our autonomy. We possess the natural ability to fly as birds do or breathe like marine animals. Because feel free when we face situations that call to our decisions because it is at these of the human body that you have (and are, and are not just), you are also bound to moments that it becomes clear to us that external factors are subordinate to our grow old, contract diseases, get sick and eventually die. Secondly, you did not will. Even in situations where we might feel that our freedom is curtailed or limited choose to exist as you because you did not choose who your parents are. You have (e.g. being told by someone what to do, being held in prison, not having money, or a certain type of personality probably inherited from your parents or maybe being ill), we maintain the capacity to govern our own motives for action. As self- because they raised you in a particular way. Your body type, your height, and skin aware, conscious, and autonomous, the human person makes decisions in the color are all a function of the people that are in your family that came before you. present in light of his/her past choices as well as his/her projected future. When a Even the friends that you keep are, to a great extent, determined by the choice of 3  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) residence of your parents. as a human being, your consciousness and freedom allowed you to experience Your personality traits are flight and submersion. therefore largely determined It is therefore assumed that you are always in control of your actions, just like how by various human the cars involved in accidents do not go to prison. Only the driver can be charged interactions that are beyond with reckless driving, not the vehicle itself. Owning a car does not force us to learn your control. Finally, you did how to drive, and when we do know how to drive, it is our decision to drive faster not choose the time of your or slower, in a highway or through a narrow street; and not the pedestrians. You birth and the culture of the do. It is you because you maintain self-awareness. society you were born into. Before you existed, numerous However, there are moments in events have already shaped the way people thought, sang, ate. Dressed, and lived our lives when we do not want to with each other in your society. Because of this, you have no say in the socio- take responsibility for our cultural habits that have formed you. Your religious beliefs are a result of the actions. It is not uncommon for various migration and colonization events that your society has experienced in the us to use our past as an excuse past. And because you were born in this era, you are able to use different every time we get in trouble for technological instruments and gadgets which were not available to people who the decisions we have made. We lived before your time. Put simply, you did not choose to be born a specific time in act as if we had no choice history, nor did you choose your species. You are a Filipino teenager living today, because our past, our situation, and this happened without your consent. Chutney from Legally Blonde determined our decisions. For example, when a student is caught cheating in an examination, he/she may make You are therefore a product of natural, interpersonal, and socio-historical events. the excuse that he/she only did it because he/she does not know anything about As a product, you are given specific tools to work with in life. You had no say in the that exam and yet, he/she don’t want to fail the subject. Though the teacher might initial contents of your “toolbox” for living. However, since you are conscious and answer that it is because he/she is not always present. He/she might reason out self-aware (which is part of being human), you have the ability to decide on what that he/she cannot afford to be present always because of his/her poverty. In fact. to do with the tools that have been provided for you. True, there are things about he/she might say that it is not at all uncommon for him because his/her classmates you that you can no longer change. Nevertheless, within the boundaries of these cheat all the time too and that he/she grew up in an environment which tolerated limitations, you are equipped with the freedom to design and create yourself in cheating. He/she therefore makes the argument that he/she must not be blamed accordance with your will. For example, even if you were not born with the for what he/she did; instead, it is the people around him/her that should be held capacity to fly, your highly developed nervous system allows you to take inspiration accountable. At first glance, this may actually seem like a sound argument. Some from nature and invent machines that can allow you to “fly,” like airplanes, may be persuaded to take the side of the student out of pity. However, is the helicopters, and space shuttles. Even with the boundaries of your physical nature argument logically valid given our definition of autonomy? 4  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Being autonomous means that a person is the conscious and creative source of the consequences of our actions and those that become affected by our choices? his/her decisions. In being so, a person is always accountable for what he/she Would not thinking about consequences get in the way of our autonomy? How are chooses and does because his/her actions emanate from his/her will. In light of we to understand the relationship between freedom and responsibility? this, we can say that the decision to cheat comes from the student and nobody 5.3 Autonomy, Accountability, and Your freedom affects others. Your else. He/she is responsible for his/her actions. Although his/her upbringing may Responsibility decisions affect other people’s have his/her decision to commit this, it cannot be maintained that he/she could lives whether you are aware of not have resisted the temptation to steal. Even if he/she was in an environment these effects or not. The consequences of your choices affect not only you, but who may have tolerated his/her cheating, his/her autonomy gives him/her the everyone else that is directly or indirectly involved in the context of your decision. capacity to question the morality of the people on his/her environment. There are certainly times that we justify our actions by argument; we try so hard In other words, the student could have decided to not become a cheater even if to sound right. For example, when you decide not to participate in the class he/she is in an environment which tolerated stealing. People remains masters of discussion via google meet (though you’re under MDL but has access on the their own actions even in the face of historical and environmental stimuli because internet) and spend your entire day playing computer games instead. You may human beings have the ability to distance themselves from the immediate demand think to yourself, what is the harm in having fun playing with your friends? You can of any situation through questioning, which is a product of self-awareness. People think of a lot of reasons that may justify your doing such as : you do not need to go are never out of choices. Having less option does not mean that we are less free. to class because you have already studied what your teacher will be teaching you For instance, even if there is only one brand of soap sold in the grocery store, it anyway. You are not hurting anyone. You believe that it is better to spend does not mean that we have no other choice but to buy it. We can always choose something you like, than waste your time doing something that you do not. Lastly, not to use soap you bought, precisely because you have opted not to buy it or your friends do it, too. So why can’t you do the same? These may seem relatively perhaps go to another grocery store to seek out other brands. In the same manner, valid especially if you analyze them simply within the context of freedom as the student was always free not to cheat. Even if there is no teacher around, and autonomy. This just goes back to the perspective that every person has a right to his/her classmates are all cheering him/her to cheat, it does not mean that he/she choose whatever he/she wants to do with his/her because people are autonomous was not free to disobey them. We always have a choice. We can always change our beings. If you are willing to live with the consequences of your actions, then it is minds about the things that we experience. Our past and our context do not fully perfectly fine to live your life however you want to. In other words, you feel that it determine what we do in our lives. is perfectly justifiable for you to use your freedom in whatever you like, because Now, although it has already been clarified that our autonomy makes us your life is yours, and nobody can tell you what to do with it; not your parents, not accountable for our actions, does this fact give us the right to do whatever we want your school, not your religion. And besides, you are ready to face the consequences as long as we are ready to face the consequences of our actions? In the case of of cutting class anyway: you are willing to lose the time that should have been for student who cheated, can it be said that his/her action is free and responsible as the new learning, and you are even ready to face your parent’s anger if they knew. long as he/she is willing to be in detention if he/she gets caught? Does being Using this argument, however, can you truly say that you are being responsible in responsible for our actions automatically makes us free and responsible persons? using your freedom? Can you say that doing whatever you please correspond to a Does freedom begin and end with one’s ability to choose for oneself? What about genuine understanding of human freedom? 5  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) What do you think will happen to you and the lives of those around you if you made necessitate taking steps that go beyond your personal assessment of the various choices solely on the basis of your personal preference and caprice? What do you factors that need to be considered in forming a decision. think will happen to your life and the lives of those around you if you made Coming up with a responsible decisions without taking into consideration both the short term and long term choice may involve seeking consequences of your actions? advice from more Some students may say that cutting one class for another day of playing online experienced people. The games is essentially harmless. However, what if this becomes a habit? What necessity of taking so many assurance do you have that this one seemingly harmless decision will not spell the things into account before beginning of a lifelong habit of avoiding work to seek pleasure? making a choice may paralyze you into either making Thinking that you are in control the whole time and repeating “But it’s my right, haphazard decisions borne and I know the consequences,” does not take away the fact that every time you do out of stress or letting other it, you do it consciously, affecting people around you every single time. And if that people make decisions for becomes the case, what kind of life would you have lived? Would you be proud to you out of fear of unintended consequences. At the end of the day, external live this kind of life? Would your family and friends take pride in the fact that they circumstances cannot be used an excuse to insulate yourself from responsibility, are related to someone who blindly gives in to the pleasure of the present at the whether partially or wholly Since you are autonomous, how you choose to deal expense of more important things in the future? with situations is entirely up to you. Neither is simply wanting something enough There is more to freedom than autonomy. The responsible use of one’s freedom of a reason to do it you yourself are aware of the consequences of acting upon does not begin and end with maintaining a sense of control over your decisions. wants, and the effects these have to not only you, but to those that are related to Autonomy is a given. Human freedom, in its authentic sense, involves in a deeper you. sense of responsibility, not just for yourself and your actions, but to those that may Each one of us will live and die with the choices that we have made in this life. be potentially be affected by them. Understood in this way, freedom is no free ride. These choices, once we make them, become part of who we are and of history as Although your usual understanding of freedom is freedom from rules and a whole. We do not just answer to ourselves. Belonging in a community also makes constraints and thereby entitles you to do whatever you want, we are beginning to us answerable to other people’s needs. In other words, being prudent in your see that being free is no easy task. There are always effects to consider, pros and decisions reflects how you value your life project as well as the life project of other cons to weigh. Being free, in the genuine sense of the word, means that one’s people. Critical reflection and analysis of the values at stake and the possible decisions must always be justifiable as proportionate responses to the demands of repercussions of our decisions is part and parcel of being free. every situation. This means that being free includes your capacity to weigh the To end, we must remember that every decision that we make becomes part of value of your actions in relation to their potential repercussions. Every situation, history. They become reality and we can no longer wish them away in case we especially those which involve others, calls for rational deliberation. This may happen to not like the consequences. Once they are real, they become part of the historical chain of events that become part not just of your life, but of other 6  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) people’s life as well. What is done, is done: ‘Touch move’. Everything we have chosen to do in our lives have since become part of the fabric of reality and history. We cannot undo the things that we have already done. We may regret doing them or perhaps ask forgiveness for our mistakes, but it does not change the fact that what happened had already happened. If we become dissatisfied with the results of our choices, this requires a new decision on our part. In order for one to change the course of history, one must make new decisions in the present. REFERENCES Books What is Freedom? – Chapter V, pp. 79 – 92, Philosophizing and Being Human; A Textbook for Senior High School (2016) 7  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Directions. On the space provided below, write down at Directions. Search for any movie line that suggests and/or ACTIVITY 1 least three instances in your life when you felt most free. It ACTIVITY 2 about freedom. Paste five screenshots of movie lines on a can be a memory from your childhood or a more recent separate sheet of paper. Examples are given below. experience. After this, write down at least three instances in your life when you felt most unfree. It can also be an old or a recent experience. Reflect on these events and articulate the common factors that make you think that these experiences are examples of human freedom as well as those experiences that exhibit instances when people are not free. I felt most free here: - Fight Club (1999) - - I felt unfree here: - - - 8  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Directions. On a separate sheet of paper, write a reflection ACTIVITY 3 paper with a title of “The things I regret the most”. This reflection paper should, of course, talk about the decisions you have made in your life that you now regret. You may explain why you did what you did back there, and why you regret it now in the present. The reflection paper should contain 500 words, with proper margin and indention. Submit it on the scheduled date given by the instructor. This activity will be graded based on this rubric: DESCRIPTION/INDICATION CRITERIA 10 7 5 3 Content The insights The insights The insights The insights were discussed were discussed are unclear, are irrelevant clearly and clearly but the and the output to the given concisely. output is too is too wordy. concept. wordy. Grammar and The insights The insights There are The output has Vocabulary were explained were explained minimal errors too many using proper using correct in grammar errors in grammar and spelling of and spelling of grammar and correct spelling words. words. spelling. of words. However, there are some errors in grammar. Mechanics The task The task The task The task outcome outcome outcome outcome showed that showed that showed that showed that the student the student the student did the student did followed all followed most not follow the not follow any the of the instructions instruction instructions instruction correctly. correctly. correctly. correctly. Some parts are either missing or unclear. 9  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Second Quarter 6. INTERSUBJECTIVITY The Jewish philosopher on dialogue, Martin Buber At the end of this module, you are expected to: (1878-1965), offers a distinction between the social Module  Realize that inter-subjectivity requires accepting and the interhuman. The social refers, on the one differences and not imposing on others, hand, to the life of a group bound together by  Explain the authentic dialogue means accepting common experiences and reaction. The social points t others even if they are different from themselves, group or communal existence. Certain animals and operate under this category like gorillas, sheep, and Week:______  Performs activities that demonstrates an whales, among others. On the other hand, the appreciation for the talents of the persons with interhuman refers to the life between and among disabilities and those from the underprivileged persons, who are non-objectifiable. It refers to the Martin Buber sectors of the community. interpersonal, that is, a life of dialogue; it is the relationship between the I-Thou. For Buber, joining a rally just for the sake of accompanying a friend is social, KEY QUESTIONS whereas meeting a grade school classmate in the rally and catching up is  What really is our relationship to others? interhuman. Whereas the example provided a shared experience, Buber clarifies  What does it mean ‘to love’? that the interhuman can happen even to persons with opposing views like two  Why is sacrifice interrelated with love? competing politicians or like two boxers in a boxing match, who treat each other as partners in a lived event rather than regarding each other as a useful subject. 6.1 On Dialogue This chapter deals with intersubjectivity, There are various distinctions between an I-Thou relationship and an I-it which in the simplest sense, refers to the relationship. condition of man, a subject, among other men, who are also subjects. We have discussed on the previous chapters how man is a subject, fundamentally involved in an always already meaningful engagement with reality and with others. Phenomenologically, therefore, we cannot speak of man without implying and drawing from his situatedness within the world, and this situatedness always The I-it refers to The I-Thou refers involves other subjects such as he himself is, as you also saw in the previous the world of to the world of chapter. experience and encounters and There are various specific ways by which man relates to others. This chapter sensation where relationships discusses some of the basic modes by which man is a being with others, using there are objects. where there are philosophers who have spent their time thinking bout these modes and exploring persons. the fundamental principles behind them. 10  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) However, this difference, regardless, it is important to note that human life is not to dialogue must be distinguished from the genuine seeming of an actor who is dominated purely by experiences of objects or purely encounters with persons: playing a role or from a person that is imitating a heroic model. What do you think human life is a mixture of both. The important distinction lies in which of the two is the difference? Audiences know that actors are actually playing roles; people predominate any relation. That said, Buber holds that there is a play between one’s know that a person is emulating a role model and that the emulator is seized by a I-it and I-Thou relationships that constitutes the life of the human person. We see, genuine desire by the actuality of the heroic act. This is not the case with a person however, that Buber holds the characteristics of monologue (which we might look who is engaged in seeming. The way of seeming, not the actor or of the emulator at as a mark of an I-It relationship) hinder dialogue (which we might look at as a but of the person who wishes to appear as something that is not himself, hinders mark of an I-Thou relationship). the I-Thou relation and is a lie in relation to existence, to being, not a lie in relation to facts. The first obstacle to dialogue is the way of seeming and it can be Translating Buber’s example to contrasted to the way of being, our own context, let us take a the duality of which is the look at Alden and Yaya Dub, essential problem of the who are two persons whose interhuman. The way of seeming lives are dominated by operates on the level of seeming. Alden as he appears impression It proceeds from to Yaya Dub, Yaya Dub as she what you wish to seem, not to wants to appear to Alden, appear as something other than Alden as he actually appears to yourself for your own interests. Yaya Dub, Yaya Dub as she As such it is a way of approaching the other governed by the image one desires to actually appears to Alden, Tamang Panahon; Alden and Maine impress on the other; in the sense of deliberately playing up or hiding aspects of Alden as he actually appears to Yaya Dub, Yaya Dub as she appears to herself. That yourself to appear as something other than yourself, for your own interests. As Is actually six appearances between and among two bodily beings. (It could be such it is a way of approaching argued, however, that audiences know that both of them are playing roles, so it the other governed by the might be a genuine case of seeming.) image one desires to impress On the contrary, the way of being proceeds not from an image, but from what one on the other; in the sense really is; it is spontaneous, without reserve, and natural. In an I-thou relationship, playing up or hiding aspects of persons relate and communicate with each other as they really are, in truth. This yourself to appear more means that are no needs of masks and perhaps pretensions or the desire to evoke desirable or impressive. This in the other a particular impression. It is a relation based on the truth of what one look of seeming is artificial, or is, and not based on what one desires to be perceived for his own benefit. But, is it contrived. However, this way not natural for the human person to seem? Buber’s answer is no. He explains that of seeming that is an obstacle 11  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) what is natural for the human person is to seek confirmation of his/her being; it is with certain qualities of the person that he can use to win the other to his or her a yes that that is coming from the other in recognition of who he or she is. It is an side. He may be concerned simply with members or followers of his cause. In this acceptance of the other in the way that it is also an acceptance of the self as it is. sense, some aspects of contemporary politics follow this pattern of mostly winning Since this confirmation and yes constitutes difficulties and risks, persons resort to people’s votes by depersonalizing their enemies. Unfolding is different: it the way of seeming because it is quicker and perhaps easier. constitutes finding in the other the disposition toward what I myself recognize as true, good, and beautiful. If I am true, good, and beautiful, it is also the case that The second obstacle to dialogue is called speechifying and it is contrasted to the the other person is true, good, and beautiful in his or her own unique way. All the act of personal making present. Speechifying refers to one’s talking past another; human person needs to do is talk to the person and to see it. An example of it is hearing without listening what one says, which, for Buber, constitutes an unfolding is the ideal educator. The ideal educator cares for his students as unique, impassable wall between partners in conversation. In dialogues, however, persons singular individuals. Both the educator and the students see each other as capable make present the other as the one that he is. The person becomes aware of him of of a unique and personal way. The educator helps the students unfold what is right; her as a person. This recognition allows me to see that this is different from me, it is not imposed. The educator trusts in the efficacy of what is right. (The that he or she is unique, and may even have opposing views from mine. This propagandist, however, does not believe in the efficacy of his or her cause, so he awareness is not the same as consciousness of a thing or animal, which is an object. or she uses remarkable methods to send his or her message across.) This idea of This awareness allows the human person to perceive the other’s wholeness in the Buber has itself influenced an educator, Paolo Freire, who wrote the book entitled sense of his being an embodied spirit. This means seeing further into the person in The Pedagogy of the sense of perceiving the person’s dynamic center. In our times, however, we the Oppressed also exhibit the following tendencies that make dialogue and personal making (1968). According present difficult: analytical thinking (when we break persons into parts, reductive to Freire, there are thinking (when we reduce the richness of the person to a schema, structure, and/or two ways of concept), and derivational thinking (when we derive the person from a fixed teaching; the formula). The direct consequence of these ways of thinking is that the mystery of banking method the human person is leveled down and simplified. As we have seen in the previous and the dialogical chapters, this is necessary for objectivity, but it does not go beyond seeing man as method. On the an object. one hand, the The third obstacle to dialogue is imposition, which this can be contrasted to Paolo Freire banking operates unfolding. In the interaction between persons, these are also the two ways of in a way where the teacher “deposits” information in his student’s minds and he influencing one another. Imposition constitutes holding my own opinion, values, or she “withdraws” it during examination. On the other hand, in the dialogical attitudes, and myself without regard for those of the other. At its most extreme, it method, the teacher taches by learning from his or her students and their unique is telling the other how he or she should act, behave, and respond to things. Again, situations. From there, he or she unfolds what is right. In this methodology, both at its most extreme, an example of someone who imposes is the propagandist. The the teacher and the student are responsible for arriving at what is true, good, and propagandist is not concerned with the unique person he wants to influence but beautiful. 12  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Buber’s I-Thou relationship is dialogical; it is turning to the partner in all truth. To reason is the confusion between the initial falling-in-love and the permanent state turn to the other in all truth is the same as imagining the real, that is, accepting the of being-in-love. It seems that the initial, seemingly magical stages are mistaken for wholeness of other. This acceptance includes his or her real potentialities, and the the more stable stages. truth of what he cannot say. To confirm the other does not mean approval of the Dy asserts that the experience of love begins from the experience of loneliness. other, but recognition of the other as other. This means that even if I disagree with This experience is one of the most basic experiences of the human being because the person, I can still accept him as a person, with his own views, attitudes, of self-awareness. Thrown out from a situation that was definite and secure into upbringing, and values- in short, I affirm his or her being. Further, for genuine one that is indefinite, uncertain and open; or realizing just how much different and dialogue to arise, every participant must bring himself or herself sincerely into it. separate one is from everybody and everyone else, the human being experiences They must be willing to say what is really in his or her mind about the subject matter separation- an experience that is painful. This experience of separation might also and listen to positions contrary to their own. This is certainly different from be the source o shame, guilt, and anxiety. This means that deep in the human unreserved speech, where people just talk and talk without listening to hat others person is a need to overcome this loneliness and find “at-onement.” And since it is say, only caring to get their own points across. not easy to face this existential separation, some looks for ways to escape it. More 6.2 On Love often than not, this translates to the use of drugs, rituals, sex, and alcohol, to find one’s self. The common results of these activities, however, are far from ideal; One dominant misconception is these persons might become violent, more alienated, and addicted, involving both that love is a pleasant sensation intense and apathetic conditions of being. The second way of addressing loneliness one “falls into”. According to Erich is by conformity with groups. This refer to one’s tendency to join a group, Fromm’s book entitled The Art of organization, club, or fraternity, which may be calm and routine-dedicated. This Loving (1956) we misunderstand camaraderie, however, must be understood in terms of the difference between love as something that we fall into equating equality with sameness, and these groups might not be where differences because we give more importance and uniqueness among persons are respected. The third way of addressing to being loved than to loving; loneliness is via creative and productive work or activity. This is where we plan, meaning that we focus more on produce, and see the result; it might be from a hobby, a pastime, or even a passion. attracting, rather than giving, love. Dy concludes, however, that the three aforementioned responses are not Another reason is that love is more interpersonal. While they may address the problem of loneliness in the sense of a commonly understood as an fundamental separation from things (by making us part of things- pleasure, object, rather than as a faculty. camaraderie, hobbies), they do not address loneliness understood as a longing for People think that to love is easy at-onement with an other. and that what is difficult to find the right person to love or be loved by, The loving encounter holds the possibility for at-onement with an other while believing that once love as an remaining to be oneself. It should be understood in Buber’s terms of I-Thou, that object is attained then it does not take anything else or anything more. The third in this sense, the meeting of persons is not simply making acquaintances, nor an 13  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) exchange of pleasant remarks, It involves an embodiment of intimacy, of a deeper consent to his or her appeal to meaning. While these meetings can happen with in groups with the same freedom, to accept, to support, commitments, the predominant mechanism in these groups is to impose and and to share in it. The most understand members through roles. The loving encounter, on the other hand, appropriate reply then is presupposes the appeal of the other to my subjectivity, an appeal that is embodied willing the other’s free self- in a word, a gesture, or a glance. The appeal of the other is an invitation to go realization, which includes beyond my self, to transcend it, and to break away from self-preoccupation. Why willing his or her happiness, his is this to ignore that casual remark from the other that can initiate an encounter. or her destiny. This destiny This means that my self-centeredness makes it difficult for me to understand or may or may not include me. even be cognizant of the other’s appeal to me. If I am too preoccupied with myself, Love is paradoxical in this then there cannot be an other. It seems that I need to see beyond what my eyes regard: it is my loving that can, to see the other’s goodness and value. A loving encounter constitutes the concerns myself, and how the attitude that is necessary to break my self-preoccupation. If I am absorbed with other responds to my myself, I will never understand, nor even see, the other’s appeal. In short, if I am subjectivity is beyond my to understand the other’s appeal, I need to get out of my accustomed roles. control- I can only will the other’s becoming inasmuch as What is this appeal of the other? This appeal does not refer to the corporeal or the other autonomously controls it. spiritual attractive qualities, for these qualities can give rise to enamoredness, a desire to be, if not to possess, the other. If the appeal is attractive, then once the So we see that love is not saying, but doing. In the sentence normally used to qualities cease to be attractive, then the love also ceases. As such, the appeal is not express love- “I love you”- love is used as an action word. Since the other person is only explicit request; the other’s appeal to himself or herself and is the call of the not a disembodied subject, to love him or her implies the willing of his or her bodily other as his/her own subjectivity. It is an invitation to be with him, to participate in being. That means that I care for his or her body personal destiny. Love opens his subjectivity. In other words, the other person is himself or herself the request. possibilities for him or her, even if doing so closes others that eventually hamper It is this invitation of the other that liberates me from myself because it shows to his or her self-realization. While I can be mistaken in what I think will constitute his me an entirely different and new dimension of existence, that is, that my self- or her happiness and /or impose my own notion of happiness, love constitutes in realization is completed with the other. The other breaks open the shallowness and the constant awareness of these tendencies and the affirmation of the difference meaningless of my egoism. What is my reply to the other’s appeal? It is not the of the other. This recognition of the otherness of others necessitates patience, outpouring of desirable qualities; for love does not constitute a compatibility of because the rhythm of growth of the other takes time and its pace may be different these qualities. Neither is my reply the satisfaction of his/her request and desire. from mine. That is why in love, there is acceptance, and also patience. For Dy, not granting his or her request or desire may constitute love especially if Is love then concerned only with the other, and not at all with myself? Dy’s granting it will do more harm. In short, the reply to other’s appeal is also myself. response to this question is a resounding no. Love is not only about the other, it is Moreover, as a subject, the other is free to give meaning and recreate meaning to also an authentic concern with myself. This does not mean that the emphasis goes his or her life. His or her appeal is an invitation to will his or her subjectivity, to 14  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) back to being loved, but that in love, I place a limitless trust in the other, thereby Loving, although it presupposes knowing, is different from knowing. In knowing, giving and delivering myself to him or her. This kind of trust, in this form of we let reality be, but in loving, we will the other’s free self-realization. We defenseless, is call upon the love of the beloved to accept my offer of love. And somehow make and let others be. In any encounter, there is somewhat the because he or she can accept it, then he or she can also reject it. Furthermore, the creation of the other. This is the same as a teacher making the student a student appeal of the lover to the beloved is not to will to draw advantage from the in the same way the student makes the teacher a teacher. In the loving encounter, affection for the other. The appeal of the lover to the beloved is not compelling, the making of the other is not casuistic because love involves two phenomenology dominating, or possessing the other. Instead, love wills the other’s freedom in the of being-loved. What does other’s own self=becoming. the lover make of the beloved? When I am loved, I This shows an element of experience the feeling of joy sacrifice, which is often and a sense of security, interpreted as the loss of self. because I am accepted as Yes, while I renounce the motive myself and of value to the of promoting myself and lover. In this sense, I feel free abandoning my egoism, I do not to be just myself allowing myself what I can become. Thus, I feel secure because renounce myself. Instead, in the other participates in my subjectivity; I no longer walk alone in the world. So loving the other, I need to love what is created in love is a “we”- which constitutes a new world- our world, one myself, and in loving the other I world. It is worth repeating that the creative influence of the lover is not casuistic come to fulfill my self. This because the beloved must freely accept, or reject, the offer of the lover. Only when means that I need to love myself the beloved says “yes” can the love become fruitful. And thus the “we” created in first when I love the other love is a union of persons and their worlds. Therefore, they do not lose their because in loving, I offer myself identities, unlike in the union of objects and things where the elements lose their as a gift to the other. So the gift identities in a movement of assimilation. In love, however, a paradox exists: the “I” is valuable first to me, otherwise, I am only giving garbage, that is, something of no becomes more an “I” and the “you” becomes more of himself or herself value to the other. In this situation, this very act of loving myself takes the form of simultaneously as both create a “we”. We can clarify and deepen this paradox in being-loved, that is, by others. I come to fulfill myself in loving the other because love by deepening the nature of love as a gift of self, which we have already hinted when my gift of self is accepted (and therefore it can also be rejected), the value of at. my self is confirmed by the beloved, and I experience the joy of giving. Thus, as I give, I also receive. There exists in loving the other the desire to be loved in return. A gift is something I cause another to possess which hitherto I possess myself, the But this desire to be loved back, though powerful, is never the motive in loving the giver. The other has no strict right to own the gift. The giving is disinterested and other. unconditional, I do not give in order to get something in return; otherwise, the giving constitutes an economy of exchange. In love, the giving is not a giving up in the sense of being deprived of something, because the self is not a thing that when 15  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) given is no longer belongs to the giver but to the given. Nor does the giving in love come from a marketing character because I do not give in order to get something Persons are equal in love because persons are free. in return. The giving in love is also not of the virtuous character. I give not in order The equality in love is the equality of being, and not having. In love, to feel good, otherwise it is not a gift but a means. Why then do I give myself in I do not surrender my liberty to the other, I do not become a slave love? Because I experience a certain bounty, richness, and value in me. That is why to the other. In love the two freedoms become one and each we said that the self in love is also a gift, valuable in itself, since if I do not value it becomes more free. The union of several freedoms in love results in a community (where relations are personal) which is different from then what I give to the other is trash. Giving to the other this value to myself, and a society (where they are impersonal). this richness, means to give my will, my ideas, my feelings, my experiences to the other- all that is alive and living in me. But why do I love this particular and specific Love is total. other? Because the persons in love are indivisible. While we might get The value of the other is his or her being a unique self. Therefore, since every attracted to certain qualities of the other, we love them not for person is unique, everyone is loveable. If I am capable of loving this particular those qualities; we love them becasue they are themselves. person for what he or she is, then I am also capable of loving this particular person for what he or she is, then I am also capable of loving the others for what they are. Love is eternal. From this nature of love as disinterested giving of self to the other as other, we can conclude with the essential characteristics of love. Because love is not given only for a limited period of time. We do not make friends on the basis that they are only our neighbors; nor do we sign contracts sayingwe will only be friends for three and a First, love is historical. half years. Because the other is a concrete particular person with his or her Finally, love is sacred. own being and history. I do not love abstract ideals of a man or a Because in love, persons are valuable in themselves. woman, nor do I love because I want to turn the other into my ideal person. Love is concrete. REFERENCES Books We always associate the person we love with concrete places, What is Intersubjectivity? – Chapter VI, pp. 97 – 109, Philosophizing and things, and events; and our love is something that necessitates Being Human; A Textbook for Senior High School (2016) action and care. Our love is remembered when I see the bench where we always sit together, or the park we go to; it is in the many things, places and days we have shared. 16  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) Directions. Read the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke Directions. Listen to a Filipino love song. What is its ACTIVITY 1 10:25-37 and the prophecy in Matthew 25:32-46 and ACTIVITY 2 conception and misconception of love? answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Write your answer on the space provided below. Title of the Song: Singer/Band/Artist: Conception Misconception 17  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) 7. THE INDIVIDUALITY OF HUMAN BEINGS Our freedom gives us the opportunity to pursue various activities to achieve our Second Quarter AND THEIR SOCIAL CONTEXT goals and attain well-being or happiness. Module At the end of this module, you are expected to: As we live our lives and expand our experiences, we also encounter other people  Recognize how individuals form societies and who are acting in similar ways. However, the pursuit of our goals is made easier by how individuals are transformed by societies the fact that we do not need to do our activities alone, that we can live our life and  Compare different forms of societies and pursue our happiness with other people by other people by our side. individualities; Week:______  Explain how human relations are transformed by Humans, however, are the only beings capable of establishing a SOCIETY, which is social systems an organized group of people whose members interact frequently and have a common territory and culture. Society also refers to a companionship or friendly KEY QUESTIONS association with others, an alliance, a community, or a union  Is there a relationship between human person and society? Society and its various aspects provide supports that ensures the development of  What is society? the human person. For instance, your education first starts at home with your  What is our identity in the society? family members teaching you the rudiments of speech, reading and writing. This  education continues and is further WHAT IS SOCIETY?  developed as you go to school and 7.1 The Human Person and Have you ever pondered how your world has defined you? Have you ever thought the Society interact with other children, your about your place in this world and among the people you interact with every day? teachers, and other people in the school. Have you ever reflected on how your presence has affected the world and people around you? Society also provides you opportunities to further your growth in the coming years. An evident influence of society on individuals is the emergence of specific traits The human person exists to relate with and characteristics unique to a certain society which are manifested by its others. The person is by nature a social members. For example, we Filipinos value our ties with family members. This is being because he or she tends to go out seen in our practice of taking care of our elderly family members. of himself or herself to form bonds and relationships with others. In relation to this, when someone you did not grow up with ask you to describe your community, in terms of what makes it special or what it is like living there, you Throughout a person's life, he or she might refer to the character traits of your neighbors and family members, or experiences a variety of relationships generally of the people. For instance, you might say “People there are shy and do that help shape him or her as a person. not readily intermingle with strangers” or “The livelihood in our community is As we grow into adulthood, our fishing.” Perhaps you might describe it in terms of what is there, like sayote or relationships and responsibilities also tabacco farms stretching for kilometers, or the rows of boats always seen in the change because we play more significant roles in the communities, we live in. seashore, or the pervasiveness of pine trees and the fog. So when asked about 18  ASIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES (AICS) yourself, you might involve descriptions of your communal situatedness, and when society. Things belonging where they belong, doing what they are supposed to be asked about your community, it is your experience of your community that you doing—whether in an individual or in a society (and an individual within a society) describe. is what Plato defines as justice. When ancient philosophers like Aristotle and Plato talk about the human person, 7.2 Philosophizing About the We know that there is a very intimate they always do so in the sense of man as a social being. Recall Plato’s tripartite soul, Social relation between the individual and the which we talk about in Chapter III: the soul has the appetitive part (responsible for social as a whole. For one, we know our baser, physical needs), the spirited part (responsible for our passion for virtues) that we as individuals’ bond together in order to achieve collectively what we and the rational part (responsible for truth of social wisdom). The society also has cannot do alone. Throughout history we always have had tribes, villages, cities, and three parts (this time in the sense of social classes) for Plato, and those parts then come the modern period, nations. In so doing we form larger collective wholes correspond with the parts of the soul. Again in the Republic, Plato talks about how called “societies.” Furthermore, these societies have different types—for instance the appetitive part of the soul correspond to the class consisting of merchants and in terms of the ways by which their social relations and modes of production commoners (those that produce), the spirited part correspond to the class of the develop throughout time. Thinkers like Karl Marx (1818-1883), explain the history soldiers (those that protect), and finally the rational part corresponds with the class of the world in terms of the transformation of societies from the primitive of guardians ( those that rules). The organization of the different classes in the communal, to slave society, to the feudal, to the capitalist, and so on. Discussions society and the organization of of this kind use the network of social structures and institutions as its basic units of the different faculties of the analysis in order to explain social change (with little or no focus on individual hopes, Points for Reflection soul therefore share the same desires, and intensions). The forces that are presents in this realm are also large For Marx, a primitive communal society is characterized characteristics. A well-ordered and impersonal—for instances, the power of states, cultural traditions, market by hunting and gathering materials which are shared man is one whose parts of the forces, and historical upheavals. among its members. With this comes development of soul do what they should do; in agricultural process, leading to the slave society, where However, when discussions regarding the relation between the individual and the the same way that a well- classes of people (slave-owners and slave) form the ordered society is one whose society focuses on dividual intensions and actions, then the discussion is said to be backbone of the means of production. After the slave society comes the feudal society, characterized by other classes do what they should do, micro theoretical. That is, the focus and basic unit of analysis is on the small— classes (rules—kings, lords, among others and subjects) without interfering with individuals and human nature, interpersonal and intersubjective relations, ordinary including the merchants, who generate profit. The fourth disrupting the functions and and everyday experience. In this realm, individual action has more significance: stage of historical material development is the rise of the powers of the other classes. individuals choose and change their value systems, persons act and interact with capitalist society, which economy involving private Furthermore, the functions, one another, and persons have goals and intentions. property obtained through labor. According to Marx, this labor involves the alienation of the worker due to wages powers, and goals of an given in exchange for sustenance, showing how capitalism individual, who is part of lager 7.3 The Social as a Generator Your description about yourself, have reduces the (dignity and creativity of the