• systematic investigation • uses natural capacity to

• follows and employs certain think

steps or procedures • human reason or unaided
• organized body of knowledge reason
PHILOSOPHY
• SCIENCE that by NATURAL LIGHT OF
REASON, STUDIES the FIRST CAUSE
OR HIGHEST PRINCIPLE of all things
• multidimensional or holistic
• not limited to a particular
object of inquiry
 FIRST CAUSE OR HIGHEST PRINCIPLE
† Principle of Identity – whatever is is; whatever is not is
not
† Principle of Non-contradiction – impossibility of a thing
to be and not to be at the same time and at the same
respect
† Principle of Excluded Middle – a thing is either is or is
not; no middle ground possible
† Principle of Sufficient Reason – nothing exists without a
sufficient reason for its being and existence
 Relation to,
† Philosophy is based
the on,
mother
or discipline out of
which the otherappearing in
science emerge.
myths or
† According to Warner, philosophy emerged as
mythology
something revolutionary since their
mythological explanation about the nature of
the universe would be set aside favor of a more
coherent and rational one.
 THALES, FATHER OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
• 650 B.C., Thales of Miletus, started to diverged from the
mythological tradition and sought to answer questions
like “ What is the underlying substance that reality is
made of?”
• For the first time, in the history of philosophy, a man
dared to go against tradition and tried to answer
questions.
 FACTOID
† As early as 630 B.C., Thales was already doing
Philosophy. But do you know that the term
Philosophia was first used by Pythagoras and his
followers around 531 B.C.? It came form the root
word PHILO means love and SOPHIA meaning
wisdom.
 METAPHYSICS
 deals with the first principles of things,
including abstract concepts such as being,
knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and
space
 Abstract theory or talk with no basis in reality
(e.g. movie Lucy)
 EPISTEMOLOGY
– deals with the nature, sources, limitation, and validity of
knowledge
– it explains the following:
• How we know what we claim to know
• How can we find out what we wish to know
• How can we differentiate truth from falsehood
– it addresses the reliability, extent, and kinds of knowledge;
truth; language; and science and scientific knowledge
How do we acquire reliable
knowledge?
1. INDUCTION
– General ideas are formed from the examination
of particular facts
– One organizes in his mind what he learns
through the senses
– Empiricism – views knowledge as something that
can only be attained through the sense
experience and NOT what people make up in
their heads
2. DEDUCTION
– It is more important to find a general law according
to which particular facts can be understood or judged
– Real knowledge is based on logic, the laws, and
methods that develop reason
– Advocated by rationalists (Rene Descartes)
– e.g. Mathematics – realm of knowledge obtained
entirely by reason that we use to understand the
universe
3. PRAGMATISM
– William James and John Dewey believed that the
value in use is the real test of truth and meaning
– The meaning and truth of an idea are tested by
its practical consequence
• LOGIC
– Came from the Greek word, “logike” meaning, treatise on matters
pertaining to human thought
– Concerned about the truth or the validity of our arguments regarding
such objects
– based on claims about propositional structure and the body of
argumentative techniques
– It means: word, thought, idea, argument, account, reason or
principle
– the study of reasoning, or the study of the principles and criteria of
valid inference and demonstration.
• AESTHETICS
– science of the beautiful in its various
manifestation – including the sublime, comic,
tragic, pathetic and ugly
– whatever experience has relevance to art
Importance of Aesthetics
• It vitalizes knowledge
– makes our knowledge of the world alive and
useful
– It helps one to realize a part of a play, a
poem, or a story to give one a new insight, to
help one see new relationship between the
separated items in one’s memory
• It helps us to live more deeply and richly
– helps us to rise from a purely physical
existence into the realm of intellect and the
spirit
– “You must treat a work of art like a great
man. Stand before it and wait patiently until
it deigns to speak.” - Schopenhauer
• It brings us in touch with our culture
– Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German philosopher,
argues that our tastes and judgments regarding
beauty, work in connection with one’s own
personal experience and culture
– He believes that our culture consists of the
values and beliefs of our time and society. This
shows the importance of “dialogue’ or
conversation in interpreting works of art
 GUIDED LEARNING
• Share in class the experiences you have at times you
did not use reason in your life but rather, you relied
more on emotions or opinions of the other people.
What did you learn from the experience?
GUIDED LEARNING
–Share in class the experiences you have
at times you did not use reason in your
life but rather, you relied more on
emotions or opinions of the other
people. What did you learn from the
experience?
 INTRODUCTION: METHOD OF PHILOSOPHIZING

PHILOSOPHIZING
• to think or express oneself in a philosophical manner. It
considers or discusses a (matter) from a philosophical
standpoint.
 Phenomenology: on Consciousness
• Founded by Edmund Husserl
• Focuses on careful inspection and description of
phenomena or appearances, defined as any
object of conscious experience, that is, that
which we are conscious of (Johnston 2006).
• Husserl’s Logical Investigations: argued against
psychologism
• Psychologism - the thesis that truth is
dependent on the peculiarities of the human
mind, and that philosophy is reducible to
psychology
• Husserl continues to develop phenomenology –
a method for finding and guaranteeing the truth
• Phenomenon – came from the Greek word,
“pawépevov, phainömenon,” meaning,
“appearance.”
• Immanuel Kant used tis word to refer to the world of
our experience
• According to Husserl, where the trouble starts, when
one supposes that what one experiences is not or
might not be the truth (Solomon & Higgins 2010).
• It does not imply a contrast between the appearance
and some underlying reality, between the
phenomenon and a linoumenon" or "thing-in-itself."
PHENOMENOLOGY
• the scientific study of the essential structures of
consciousness
• entails a method or a series of continuously
revised methods which consciousness does its
work of knowing the world
• Husserl’s phenomenology is intentional
• Every act of consciousness is directed at some
object or another, possibly a material object or
an “ideal” object
• A phenomenologist can distinguish and describe
the nature of the intentional acts of
consciousness and the intentional objects of
consciousness both of which are defined
through the content of consciousness
• The phenomenologists describes a highly varied
sorts of experiences and phenomena
• Example:
– Time consciousness, mathematics, and logic;
perception and experience of the social
world; our experience of our own bodies; and
moral, aesthetic, and religious experiences
(Solomon & Higgins 2010)
• The following are several series of
phenomenological “reductions” formulated by
Husserl, which eliminate certain aspects of our
experience from consideration in order to
achieve phenomenological standpoint.
1. EPOCHE OR SUSPENSION
– In General Introduction to Pure
Phenomenology, the phenomenologist
“brackets” all questions of truth or reality and
simply describes the contents of
consciousness
– The ideas were borrowed from early Skeptics
and Descartes
2. INTUITION
– This eliminates the merely empirical contents
of consciousness and focuses instead on the
meanings of consciousness
– Some intuitions are eidetic, revealing the
necessary truths
SUMMARY
• Phenomenologists are interested on the contents of
consciousness
• The first one is our ordinary everyday viewpoint and the
ordinary stance of the natural sciences, describing things
and states of affairs
• The second is the special viewpoint achieved by focusing
not on things but our consciousness of things
• (Solomon and Higgins 2010)
 B. Existentialism: On Freedom
EXISTENTIALISM
• Not primarily a philosophical method
• More of an outlook or attitude supported by diverse doctrines centered on certain themes:
– The human condition or the relation of the individual to the world;
– The human response to that condition;
– Being, especially the difference between the being of person existence) and the being of
other kinds of things;
– Human freedom;
– The significance and unavoidability) of choice and decision in the absence of certainty and;
– The concreteness and subjectivity of life as lived, against abstractions and false
objectifications
• Satre emphasizes the importance of free individual choice regardless
of power of other people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs,
and decisions
• He argued that consciousness is always free to chose and free to
negate
• He tells us that one is never free of one’s situation but one is always
free to negate that situation and to try to change I
• To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to choose, and responsible
for one’s life
• (Solomon and Higgins 2010)
• Socrates concerned himself with the authenticity of the self – the
genuineness of thoughts and actions, the good of the soul, and
sought virtue, being true to oneself
• St. Augustine was concerned with the spiritual nature of the “true”
self as opposed to inauthentic demands of desire and the body
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau was adamant about the essential goodness
of the “natural” self in contrast to the “corruption” imposed by
society.
• (Baird & Kaufmann, 1997)
• Postmodernists believe that humanity should come at truth
beyond the rational to the non-rational elements of human
nature, including spiritual
• They believe that humanity should realize the limits of
reason and objectivism in order to arrive at truth
• They adhere to relational and holistic approach beyond
exalting individual analysis of truth
• They value our existence in the world and in relation to it
 MODERNITY
• Came from the Latin word, “modo”, meaning, “just now.”
• Literally means, “after just now” (Appignanesi and
Garratt, 1995)
• Associated with other posts: post colonialism, post
structuralism
 MODERN POSTMODERN

REASONING From foundation upwards Multiple factors of multiple

levels of reasoning
Web-oriented

SCIENCE Universal optimism Realism of limitations

PART/WHOLE Parts comprise the whole The whole is more than the
parts
GOD Acts by violating “natural Top-down causation
laws” or by “immanence”
in everything that is

LANGUAGE Referential Meaning in social context

through usage
 D. Analytic Tradition
• Language cannot objectively describe truth
• Language is socially conditioned. Truth is socially constructed. We
understand the world in terms of linguistic and social constructs. –
Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Analytic philosophy is the conviction that to some significant degree,
philosophical problems, puzzles, and errors are rooted in language
and can be solved or avoided by a sound understanding of language
and careful attention to its workings.
E. Logical and Critical Thinking: Tools in Reasoning
• Logic is centered in the analysis and construction
of arguments
• Logic and critical thinking serve as paths to
freedom from half-truths and deceptions
• Critical thinking
– distinguishing facts and opinions or personal feelings
– Takes into consideration cultural systems, values, and beliefs
– Helps uncover bias and prejudice and open to new ideas not
necessarily in agreement with previous thought
 Two basic types of reasoning
1. INDUCTIVE
– Based from observations in order to make generalizations
– Often applied in prediction, forecasting, or behavior
– Example:
• She looks mad, therefore she might get angry if we tell the problem to her.
• There are no starts in the sky, hence, it might rain.
2. DEDUCTIVE
– Draws conclusion from usually one broad judgment or definition and one more
specific assertion, often an interference
– Example:
• All philosophers are wise. (Major premise)
• Confucius is a philosopher. (Minor premise)
• Therefore, Confucius is wise. (Conclusion)
 Validity and Soundness of an Argument
• If the two premises are constructed logically,
then the conclusion must follow logically, the
deductive argument is valid
• This does not necessarily mean that the
conclusion is true or false.
• Validity comes from a logical conclusion based
on logically constructed premises (Reed-2010).
 Strength of an Argument
• Inductive arguments cannot prove if the premises are true
which will also determine the truth of the conclusion.
• Inductive reasoning proves only probable support to the
conclusion.
• An inductive argument that succeeds in providing such
probable support is a strong argument.
• While an inductive argument that fails to provide such
support is weak, a strong argument with true premises is
said to be cogent.
• Example
– Jay: Do you think Congressman Gerry will be re-
elected?
– Yna: I doubt it. His district has become more
conservative in recent years. Also, 63% of the
registered voters in his district are in the opposition
• This argument is both a statistical argument and a
predictive argument, which are two common patterns of
inductive reasoning. Also, the conclusion does not follow
necessarily from the premises.
 F. Fallacies
FALLACY
• Defect in an argument other than its having
false premise
• To detect fallacies, it is required to examine the
argument's content.
1. APPEAL TO PITY (ARGUMENTUM AD
MISERICORDIAM)
– A specific kind of appeal to emotion in
which someone tries to win support for
an argument or idea by exploiting his or
her opponent's feelings of pity or guilt.
2. APPEAL TO IGNORANCE (ARGUMENTUM
AD IGNORANTIAM)
– Whatever has not been proved false must be
true, and vice versa
3. EQUIVOCATION
– A logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word
several times, but giving the particular word a
different meaning each time.
– Example:
• Human beings have hands; the clock has
hands. He is drinking from the pitcher of
water; he is a baseball pitcher.
4. COMPOSITION
– This infers that something is true of the whole
from the fact that is true of some part of the
whole.
– The reverse of this fallacy is division.
5. DIVISION
– One reasons logically that something true of
thing roust be of all or some of its parts.
6. AGAINST THE PERSON (ARGUMENTUM AD
HOMINEM)
– attempts to link the validity of a premise to a
characteristic or belief of the person advocating
the premise
– questions of personal conduct, character,
motives, etc., are legitimate if relevant to the
issue
7. APPEAL TO FORCE (ARGUMENTUM AD
BACULUM)
– An argument where force, coercion, or the threat
of force, is given as a justification for a
conclusion.
8. APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE (ARGUMENTUM AD
POPULUM)
– An argument that appeals or exploits people's
vanities, desire for esteem, and anchoring on
popularity
9. FALSE CAUSE (POST HOC)
– Since that event followed this one, that event
must have been caused by this one.
– This fallacy is also referred to as coincidental
correlation, or correlation not causation
10. HASTY GENERALIZATION
– One commits errors if one reaches an inductive
generalization based on insufficient evidence.
– The fallacy is commonly based on a broad
conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a
small group that fails to sufficiently represent the
whole population.
11. BEGGING THE QUESTION (PETITIO PRINCIPII)
– This is a type of fallacy in which the proposition to be
proven is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise.
– Example:
• Erica: "How do you know that the bible is divinely
inspired?" Pedro: "Because is says right in the third
chapter of II Timothy that 'all scripture is given by
divine inspiration of God.'“
• Celibacy is an unnatural and unhealthy practice, since
it is neither natural nor healthy to exclude sexual
activity from one's life.
Applying Logic and Fallacies in
Determining Truth from
Opinion
• At the beginning of the Tractatus, Ludwig Wittgenstein speaks
of the picture that we can form of reality
• We represent the existence and non-existence of state of
affairs
• Tractatus identifies the relationship between language and
reality and to define the limits of science.
• It is in the possibility of agreeing or disagreeing with reality,
thus being true or false, that the meaning of the picture lies.
• Wittgenstein describes spoken and written language, that
is, propositions, as one of' these pictures and defines its
meaning in terms of its capacity for being true or false.
• The limits of what can be said are defined by the logical
rules
• The limits of my language mean the limit of my world
• The logic of language shows how elements fit states of
affairs and how state of affairs in wider constellations can
be linked together
Realize the Methods of
Philosophy that Lead to
Wisdom and Truth
• For Double (1999), philosophy is a question
which have three major characteristics:
– Philosophical questions have answers, but
the answers remain in dispute.
– Philosophical questions cannot be settled by
science, common sense, or faith.
– Philosophical questions are of perennial
intellectual interest to human beings
 CRITICAL THINKING
• The methodology that philosophers used to address philosophical questions
• It is the careful, reflective, rational, and systematic approach o questions of
very general interest
• It means understanding of philosophy and refraining from merely giving claims
but through careful thought, one reasons through argumentations
• One tries to become a "philosopher" because one possesses and cherishes
above the rest of humanity the "love of wisdom" which is a part of all human
nature
• One more reflectively and critically brings to light and examines the largest
and widest implications of the life of all human beings
• For Maboloc and Pascua 42008), critical thinking is a lifelong process
of self-assessment that further consists of:
– defining, analyzing, and devising solutions;
– arriving at reasonable and informed conclusions;
– applying understanding and knowledge to new and different
problems;
– willingness to change one point of view;
– continually examining and re-examining ideas; and
– willingness to say "l don't know."
• The attributes of a critical thinker include:
– Looks for evidence to support assumption
and beliefs
– Adjusts opinions
– Looks for proof
– Examines problem
– Rejects irrelevant and incorrect information
• Only if one is able to be viewed based on arising
evidence and continually re-examining ideas,
can a more holistic perspective of truth be
arrived at.
• We are human beings possessed with reason
• Though emotions can be more persuasive, in
the long run, correct reasoning will prove to be
the most solid foundation.
Freedom
• It is identified with the aspects of intellectual,
political, spiritual and economic
• To be free is a part of humanity’s authenticity
• understanding freedom is part of transcendence
• It consists of going beyond situations such as
physical or economic.
REALIZE THAT ALL ACTIONS
HAVE CONSEQUENCES
 A. ARISTOTLE
• The imperative quality of judgment of practical intellect is
meaningless, apart from will.
• Reason can legislate, but only through will can its legislation be
translated into action.
• The task of practical intellect is to guide will by enlightening it.
• Will is to be understood wholly in terms of intellect for there is no
intellect if there is no will
• The will of humanity is an instrument of free choice
 Will is borne out by:
• inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or
wrong;
• the common testimony of all human beings;
• the rewards and punishment of rulers; and
• the general employment of praise and blame.
• Moral acts are in our power and we are
responsible for them. Character or habit is no
excuse for immoral conduct.
• For Aristotle, a human being is rational.
• Reason is a divine characteristic
• Humans have the spark of the divine
• REASON, WILL, AND ACTION DRIVE EACH
OTHER
 B. St. Thomas of Aquinas: Love is Freedom
• Of all creatures of God, human beings have the
unique power to change themselves and the things
around them for the better
• St. Thomas Aquinas considers the human being as a
moral agent, being both a spiritual and body
elements; the spiritual and material
• The unity between both elements indeed helps us to
understand our complexity as human beings.
• Our spirituality separates us from animals; it delineates moral
dimension of our fulfillment in an action
• Through our spirituality, we have a conscience.
• Whether we choose to be "good" or "evil" becomes our
responsibility.
• A human being, therefore, has a supernatural, transcendental
destiny, rising above his ordinary self to a highest self
• If a human being perseveringly lives a righteous and virtuous life,
he transcends his mortal state of life and soars to an immortal
 Fourfold Classification of Law
• the eternal law,
• natural law,
• human law, and
• divine law.
Natural Law
• applies only to human beings
• good is to be sought after and evil avoided (instruct of
self-preservation).
• There is inherent in every human being an inclination
that he shares with all other beings, namely, the desire
to conserve human life and forbids the contrary.
• The law looks to the common good as its end, it is then
conceived primarily with external acts and not with
interior disposition.
• For Aquinas, both natural and human laws are
concerned with ends determined simply by
humanity's nature
• However, human being is ordained to an end
transcending his nature, it is necessary that he
has a law ordering him to that end, and this is
the divine law or revelation.
Divine Law
• deals with interior disposition as well as external acts
and it ensures the final punishment of all evildoing
• gives human beings the certitude where human reason
unaided could arrive only at possibilities
• divided into old (Mosaic) and the new (Christian) that
are related as the immature and imperfect to the perfect
and complete.
Eternal Law
• the decree of God that governs all creation
• It is "That Law which is the Supreme Reason
cannot be understood to be otherwise than
unchangeable and eternal.
• For Aristotle, the purpose of a human being is to
be happy
• To be one, one has to live a virtuous life – to
develop to the full their powers—rational,
moral, social, emotional, and physical here on
earth.
• For St. Thomas, human is to be happy that is
perfect happiness that everyone seeks but could
be found only in God alone
• St. Thomas wisely and aptly chose and proposed Love
rather than to bring about the transformation of
humanity
• Love is in Consonance with humanity's free nature, for
Law commands and complete; Love only calls and invites.
• He also emphasizes the freedom of humanity but chooses
love in governing humanity's life
• Since God is Love, then Love is the guiding principle of
humanity toward his self-perception and happiness his
ultimate destiny.
 C. St. Thomas of Aquinas: Spiritual Freedom
• He establishes the existence of God as a first cause
• Of all God's creations, human beings have the unique
Power to change themselves and things around them
for the better
• As humans, we are both material and spiritual, have
conscience because of our spirituality.
• God is Love and Love is our destiny
 D. Jean Paul Sartre: Individual Freedom
• The human person is the desire to be God
• the desire to exist as a being which has its
sufficient ground in itself (en sui causa)
• The human person builds the road to the
destiny of his/her choosing; he/she is the
creator (Srathern 1998). (Cause of itself)
Activity 1
You have made some importance
life decisions in your life in the
past.make a time –line of major
decisions in your life and below
the line then write down the
consequence of those particular
decisions.
 Life Decisions

|_________________|___________________|
| | |
12 years old 14 years old 16 years old
 Principle of Sartre’s Existentialism
• The person, first, exists, encounters himself and
surges up in the world then defines himself
afterward. The person is nothing else but that
what he makes of himself.

• The person is provided with a supreme

opportunity to give meaning to one's life. In the
course of giving meaning to one's life, one fills
the world with meaning.
• Freedom is, therefore, the very core and the door
to authentic existence. Authentic existence is
realized only in deeds that are committed alone,
in absolute freedom and responsibility and which,
therefore, the character of true creation.
• The person is what one has done and is doing, On
the other hand, the human person who tries to
escape obligations and strives to be en-soi is
acting on bad faith (mauvais foi).
• Sartre emphasizes the importance of free
individual choice, regardless of the power of
other people to influence and coerce our
desires, beliefs and decisions. To be human, to
be conscious is to be free to imagine, free to
choose and to be responsible for one’s life
 E. Thomas Hobbes
Law of Nature (lex naturalis)
• a precept or general rule established by reason,
by which a person is forbidden to do that which
is destructive of his life or takes away the means
of preserving the same; and to omit that by
which he thinks it may be best preserved.
• "The fundamental law of nature seeks peace and follows it, while
at the same time, by the sum of natural right, we should defend
ourselves by all means that we can.”
• The laws of nature are unable to achieve the desired end by
themselves alone; that is, unless there is coercive power able to
enforce their observance by sanctions
• Plurality of individuals should confer all their power and strength
upon one human being or upon one assembly of human beings,
which may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one
will (Garvey 2006).
• Hobbes developed social in favor of absolute
monarchy
• Hobbes thinks that to end the continuous and
self-destructive condition of warfare, humanity
founded the state with its sovereign power of
control by means of a mutual consent
 F. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Rousseau interpreted the idea of social contract in terms of
absolute democracy and individualism.
• Rousseau and Hobbes believe that human beings have to form a
community or civil community to protect themselves from one
another, because the nature of human beings is to wage war
against one another, and since by nature, humanity tends
toward self-preservation, then it follows that they have to come
to a free mutual agreement to protect themselves
• Rousseau believes that a human being is born free
and good. But human has become bad due to the evil
influence of society, civilization, learning, and
progress. human being lost his original goodness, his
primitive tranquility of spirit.
• In order to restore peace, he has t return to his true
self. He has to see the necessity and come to form the
state through the social contract whereby everyone
grants his individual rights to the general will.
• The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
constituted, as an instance of a social contract
• This is an actual agreement and actually
"signed" by the people or their representatives
(Solomon & Higgins 1996).
• There must be a common power or government
which the plurality of individuals (citizens)
should confer all their powers and strength into
(freedom) one will (ruler).
 Evaluate and Exercise Prudence in Choices
• In the spirituality of imperfection, we learn to
accept that life, our environment, is both "evil"
and ' 'good."
• B.F. Skinner believes that morality is a
conditioned response impressed on the child by
society
• To be responsible is when one feels responsible
• There must be added awareness that humans did it
"independently," "of his own initiative“; having knowledge
about acting on one's own desires - consciousness of
freedom
• Plato believes, the soul of every individual possesses the
power of learning the truth and living in a society that is in
accordance to its nature
• We are responsible, whether we admit it or not, for what
is in our power to do; and most of the time, we cannot be
sure what it is in our power to do until we attempt.
 A. Deep Ecology
• Ecological crisis is an outcome of
anthropocentrism
• The controlling attitude of humankind is
extended to nature, wherein humanity is part of
nature.
• Deep ecologists encourage humanity to shift
away from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism
 B. Social Ecology
• Ecological crisis results from authoritarian social
structures
• It is a reflection wherein few people overpower others
while exploiting the environment for profit or self-
interest.
• Social ecologists call for small-scale societies, which
recognize that humanity is linked with the well-being
of the natural world in which human life depends.
 C. Ecofeminism
• Argues that ecological crisis is a consequence of male dominance
• Whatever is "superior" is entitled to whatever is "inferior
• Male traits as in the anthropocentric model are superior as opposed to
female traits as in the ecocentric model.
• Domination works by forcing the other to conform to what is superior.
• Nature must be tamed, ordered, and submit to the will of the superior.
• For the adherents of this view, freeing nature and humanity means
removing the superior vs. inferior in human relations.
• It values the care, conservation, preservation of
nature and humanity.
• Erich Fromm (2013), believes that it is about
time that humanity ought to recognize not only
itself but also the world around it
• As human beings, our biological urge for survival
turns into selfishness and laziness.
• The human desire to experience union with others
is one of the strongest motivators of human
behavior and the other is the desire for survival.
Both of which, follows that the social structure, its
values and norms, decides which of the two
becomes dominant.
• Cultures that foster the greed for possession are
rooted in one human potential. Cultures that foster
being and sharing are rooted in the other potential
 TRANSCENDENCE IN THE GLOBAL AGE
• According to Thomas Merton (1948), a Trappist
monk, there is no other way for us to find who we
are than by finding in ourselves the divine image
• We have to struggle to regain spontaneous and
vital awareness of our own spirituality.
• Merton talks about a continual movement away
from inner and outer idols and toward union with
the desert God of his Christian faith.
• Transcendental and transcendence convey the basic
ground concept from the word's literal meaning, of
climbing or going beyond, with varying connotations in
its different historical and cultural stages.
• We have a soul that is capable of coming to life and
experiencing profound and hidden values which the
flesh and its senses can never discover alone
• Spirituality in us is identified with the divine image in
our soul
 A. HINDUISM
• At the heart of Hinduism lies the idea of human beings'
quest for absolute truth, so that one's soul and the
Brahman or Atman (Absolute Soul) might become one.
• For the Indians, God first created sound and the universe
arose from it. As the most sacred sound, The Aum (0m) is
the root of the universe and everything that exists and it
continues to hold everything together.
• Human beings have a dual nature: spiritual and immortal
essence and the other is empirical life and character
• It is the soul that is ultimately real
• The existence of the body is nothing more than an illusion and
even an obstacle to an individual’s realization of one’s self
• A human being's soul can be said to be temporarily encased
in his body. For this reason, humanity's basic goal in life is the
liberation (moksha) of spirit (jiva).
• Hinduism holds that humanity's life is a
continuous cycle (samsara).
• The spirit is neither born nor does it die and the
body goes through a trans migratory series of
birth and death
TRANSMIGRATION OR
METAPSYCHOSIS
• a doctrine that adheres to the belief that a person's
soul passes into some other creature, human, or
animal.
• If the person has led a good life, the soul goes
upward the scale.
• The soul of an evil person, on the other hand, may
pass into the body of an animal.
ULTIMATE LIBERATION
• freedom from rebirth
• achieved the moment the individual attains that
stage of life emancipation, from which inevitably
arises a total realization by the individual of
spiritual nature and the transient character of
the body.
MOKSHA
• an enlightened state wherein one attains one's
true selfhood and finds oneself one with the
One, the Ultimate Reality, the All-
comprehensive Reality: Brahman.
• Ultimate moksha leads the spirit out of the monotonous cycle of life
and death (samsara) to a state of "nothingness" where the bliss of
being one with Brahman compensates for ail the sufferings the
individual underwent in his erstwhile existence in the physical
world (Andres 1994).
• The Hindu view of humanity’ reality places emphasis on the attainment
of self-knowledge
• The goal of human life as conceived by the different Upanishads is to
overcome congenital ignorance
• The concepts of Brahman and Atman (soul, self) are central ideas in all
the Upanishads, with "Know your Atman" as their thematic focus.
• Siddhartha Gautama
• Out of the life experience and teaching of
highborn Prince Gautama of the Sakya clan in
the kingdom of Magadha, who lived from 560 to
477 B.C., sprang the religious philosophy we
know as Buddhism, turning away from Hindu
• Gautama's life was devoted to sharing his "Dharma" or Law of
Salvation
• It is a simple presentation of the gospel of inner cultivation of right
spiritual attitudes, coupled with a self-imposed discipline whereby
bodily desires would be channeled in the right directions.
• Gautama was convinced that the way of escape from pain and
misery lay in the transformation of one's mind and that liberation
could come only with a sloughing off of all vain clinging to the
things of this life, Buddha set about sharing his discovery with
anyone who would listen
 Four Noble Truths
• life is full of suffering;
• suffering is caused by passionate desires, lusts,
cravings;
• only as these are obliterated, will suffering cease;
• such eradication of desire may be accomplished
only by following the Eightfold Path of earnest
endeavor.
 Eightfold path
• right belief in and acceptance of the "Fourfold Truth";
• right aspiration for one's self and for others;
• right speech that harms no one; (4) right conduct, motivated by
goodwill toward all human beings;
• right means of livelihood, or earning one's living by honorable
means;
• right endeavor, or effort to direct one's energies toward wise ends;
• right mindfulness in choosing topics for thought; and
• right meditation, or concentration to the point of complete
absorption
in mystic ecstasy
• 1st and 2nd enjoin us to develop wisdom
• 3-5 urge us to practice virtue and avoid vice
• 6-8 tell us to practice meditation
• We do this essentially by following three short
axioms: cease to do evil, learn to do good, and
purify your own mind. (Velasquez, 1999)
• The way to salvation, lies through self-abnegation, rigid
discipline of mind and body, a consuming love for all living
creatures, and the final achievement of that state of
consciousness which marks an individual's full preparation for
entering the Nirvana (enlightened wisdom) of complete
selflessness.
• In this state, the effects of the Law of Cause and Effect
(Karma) are overcome; the Cycle of Rebirth is broken; and
one may rest in the calm assurance of having attained a
heavenly bliss that will stretch into all eternity.
 Thoughts to ponder
• Refrain from destroying life;
• Refrain from taking what is not given;
• Refrain from a misuse of the senses;
• •Refrain from wrong speech (do not lie or
deceive); and
• Refrain from taking drugs or drinks that tend
cloud the mind
• The Buddha insisted that no one accepts his
teaching merely out of reverence for him, but
that each human being subjects the teaching to
rigorous reflection and analysis and accept it
only after all doubts and perplexities are
overcome (Puligandla 2007).
 C. The Biblical God and Humanity

• God exists as a theistic hypothesis

• This means that we shall ask whether or not the
existence of God provides the best explanation
of the existence of the world, as we know it.
• St. Augustine (354-430 CE), philosophy is “Amor
sapiental,” the love of wisdom aim is to produce
happiness
• Wisdom is not just an abstract logical
construction; but it is substantially the Logos.
• It is the love of God; it is religious
• For St. Thomas Aquinas, human beings have the unique power to
change themselves and things for the better
• He considers the human being as moral agent
• We are both spiritual and body elements; the spiritual and material.
• Our spirituality separates us from animals; it differentiates moral
dimension of our fulfillment in action.
• Through our spirituality, we have a conscience.
• Whether we choose to be "good" or "evil" becomes our
responsibility
 Evaluate Own Limitations and the Possibilities
for Transcendence

• Experiences of felt sense of being in tune with

the mystery of our own being and the mystery
of life that transcends us (Edwards, 1983)
 A. Forgiveness
• When we forgive, we are freed from our anger
and bitterness because of the actions and/or
words of another.
• The hardness of our heart is reinforced by whole
series of rational arguments
 B. The Beauty of Nature
• For every perfection in every single flower; for a
hug, for every sunrise and sunset; for a chance
to eat together as a family
• We need to offer praise as experiences touch us
deeply and the human heat is spontaneously
lifted
 C. Vulnerability
• To be invulnerable is somehow inhuman. To be
vulnerable is to be human.
• We need to acknowledge the help of other
people in our lives
• Moments of poverty and dependence on others
are not a sign of weakness but being true with
ourselves.
 D. Failure
• Our failures force us to confront our weaknesses
and limitations
• Acceptance of our failures makes us hope and
trust that all can be brought into good.
• Even if we have sinned, there is hope and
forgiveness.
 E. Loneliness
• The commonality of our loneliness can be
rooted from our sense of vulnerability and fear
of death. However, it is our choice to live in an
impossible world where we are always "happy"
or to accept a life where solitude and
companionship have a part
• With our loneliness, we can realize that our
dependence on others is a possessiveness we
can be free from
 F. Love
• To love is to experience richness, positivity, and
transcendence
• Life is full of risks, fears and commitment, pain
and sacrificing and giving up thing/s we want for
the sake of the one we love.
• In a Buddhist view, the more we love, the more
risks and fears there are in life (Aguilar 2010)
 Recognize the Human Body
Imposes Limits and
Possibilities for Transcendence
 A. Hinduism: Reincarnation and Karma

• According to Hindus, Everything in this life is a

consequence of actions performed in previous
existence. Only by building up a fine record, or
"karma," can final salvation be achieved.
• For the Jains, there is nothing mightier in the
world than karma; karma tramples down all
powers, as an elephant to a clump of lotuses
(Puligandla 2007).
 B. Buddhism: Nirvana
NIRVANA
• The state in which one is absolutely free from all forms of
bondage and attachment
• It means to overcome and remove the cause of suffering
• the state of perfect insight into the nature of existence
• One who has attained nirvana has perfect knowledge,
perfect peace, and perfect wisdom (Aguilar, 2010)
• The Buddha’s silence is due to his awareness
that Nirvana is a state that transcends every
mundane experience and hence cannot be
talked about.
• One attains wisdom, one desires nothing for
himself but always works for the well-being and
liberation of his fellow humans.
• Nirvana is beyond the sense, language, and
thought (Puligandla 2007).
• Wisdom consists in treading the Middle Way –
avoiding the extreme of asceticism; inactivity;
and indifference on the one hand and that of
frantic activity and mindless pursuit of pleasure
on the other.
• The nirvanic man is the true follower of the
Buddha. (Puligandla, 2007)
 C. St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas:
Will and Love

• For St. Augustine, physically we are free, yet

morally bound to obey the law
• The Eternal law is God Himself, statin g that
humanity must do well and avoid evil, hence,
the existence of moral obligation in every
human being
• Through prayer, modesty, fasting, and other sound measures
that the Church recommends, or God provides, can purity of
heart, mind, and body be maintained and daily lived (Johnston
2006).
• For St. Augustine, though we are physically free, one does not
have a right to do anything if it is not morally right or if one will
hurt another.
• God has given us a choice to discern between right and wrong
though we are often ignorant in this manner unless we are
wholly sincere, honest, and pure (Johnston 2006).
• Abundance comes from the Latin term,
"abundare" (Aguilar 2010) meaning, "to
overflow nonstop."
• Abundance is out flowing than incoming. It is
not about amassing material things or people
but our relationship with others, ourselves, and
with nature. Aguiliar (2010) asserts that our very
life belongs to God.
• Abundance is not what we gather but what we
scatter.
– Abundance is equated with materialism
– When we raise our empty hands and
surrender and offer oneself is abundance
– Only if we have empty hands can we receive
full blessings
• Abundance is not what we keep but what we
give away.
– One must pursue one's desires and inner self.
– To be able to have, we must first let go.
– To be able to acquire, we must first control
ourselves.
– There is karma in our thoughts, words, and
actions.
• Abundance is not what we hold but what we
share.
– Aguilar (2010) reminds us that money should
not matter much, for every moment is a
blessing, even if one does not have money.
– Abundance comes to the one who has money
and heart, money and values, money and
relationships, money and deeper happiness.
• Abundance is a choice
– As we aspire for our dreams, we should try
our best to be positive in our thoughts,
motives, and efforts.
– Abundance is more of an effort of the heart
than mind alone (Aguilar 2010).
– Abundance, therefore, is a choice which
translates to commitment, determination,
and perseverance.
• Abundance is to evolve into a higher being
– To live in abundance means evolving to a
higher being in following one's mission; a
deliberate or conscious desire to act upon
what can make us and others happy.
– To live in abundance means evolving to a
higher being in following one's mission; a
deliberate or conscious desire to act upon
what can make us and others happy.
• GUIDED LEARNING

Draw a timeline. This exercise aims to examine the wackiest and worst times;
in search of meaning behind your life. Consider your childhood, formal education
experiences, and other.

Happiest Times Worst Times

List the activities, people, locations, and conditions in List the activities, people, locations, and conditions in
your life you were most happy. your life you when you felt dissatisfied.

What did you learn about the experience? What did you learn about the experience?
1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.
• the middle ground between objectivity and total
subjectivity
• encompasses multiple subjects and multiple
viewpoints, that are in themselves subjective,
but the combination of multiple viewpoints that
point to the same “truth” allows subjectivity to
not be completely subjective
 Realize that Intersubjectivity
Requires Accepting Differences
and Not to Imposed on Others
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla believed in the notion of
concrete experience/existence of the human person and also
think that one must not lose the sight of one's self in
concrete experience
• For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the human agent
• Participation explains the essence of the human person,
enabling to fulfill one’s self
• The human person is oriented toward relation and sharing in
the communal life for the common good.
• St. Augustine of Hippo said, "No human being
should become an end to him/herself. We are
responsible to our neighbors as we are to our
own actions."
• The human persons as subjects have direct and
mutual sharing of selves
• The human person is not just being-in-the-world
but being-with-others, or being-in-relation
Appreciate the Talents of Persons
with Disabilities (PWDs) and those
from the Underprivileged Sectors
of Society and Their Contributions
 A. On PWD’s
• Negative attitudes of the family and community
toward PWDs may add to their poor academic and
vocational outcomes
• decide to restructure certain aspects of their lifestyle
in order to accommodate the communicative as well
as the educational needs of their child with disability
• Community sensitivity, through positive and
supportive attitudes toward PWDs, is also an
important component (Mapp 2004).
B. On Underprivileged Sectors of the Society

• The notion of poverty is multi-dimensional

• Each of these dimensions has the common
characteristic of representing deprivation that
encompasses:
– Income; Health; Education; Empowerment;
Working condition
 C. On the Rights of Women
• Jean Jacques Rousseau said that women should
be educated to please men.
• he believes that women should be useful to
men, should take care, advise, console men, and
to render" men's lives easy and agreeable
• Mary Wollstonecraft believes that women must
be united to men in wisdom and rationality.
Society should allow women to attain equal
rights to philosophy and education given to men
 Recognize How Individuals Form
Societies and How Individuals Are
Transformed by Societies
• Philosophically, our totality, wholeness, or
"complete life," relies on our social relations
• Aristotle said that friends are two bodies with
one soul.
Different Forms of Societies and
Individualities (Agrarian,
Industrial, and Virtual)
 A. Medieval Period (500-1500 CE)

• sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages (Solomon &

Higgins 1990)
• The way of life in the Middle Ages is called feudalism
– came from the Latin word, “feudum,” meaning
“property or possession”
• All peasants - men, women, and children worked to
support their lord
• Peasants had to pay taxes to their lord, in money or
produce.
• They had to give a tithe to the Church
• Feudalism began to pass as commerce and towns grow
until it reached rising interests in artistic and intellectual
achievement in the Renaissance period
• Amid the turmoil of the Middle Ages, the Roman
Catholic Church stood for the common good
• By the 13th century, the Church was the strongest single
influence in Europe.
• In all the schools, philosophy was taught in the Latin
language
 B. Modern Period (1500-1800)
• “Modern philosophy" is an attack on and a
rejection of the Middle Ages (Solomon & Higgins
1996).
• It is an attack on the church that ruled those
ages and dictated its ideas.
• It is an attack on the very notion of authority
• Martin Luther initiates reformation with his 95 theses at Wittenberg
• There was rejection of medieval but the establishment of the
"Protestant ethic" and the beginnings of the modern capitalism
• European philosophers turning from supernatural to natural or
rational explanations of the world
• Discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton influenced
the thinking of philosophers.
• Something about the terrible state of the world and the seemingly
interminable religious quarreling, intolerance, and disorder that
made modern philosophy itself divide
• Rationalism was the predominant feature
of the 17th century
• The development of its philosophy could
be traced from the writings of Descartes
(born in 1596) to Leibniz (who died in
1716).
1. Naturalism
• nature is full of facts which conform fatally to
exact and irreversible law
• human beings live best under a strong,
benevolently dictatorial civil government.
• They adored the rigidity of geometrical
methods; they loved the study of the new
physical science
2. Age of Empiricism
• turned curiously back to the study of the wondrous inner
world of humanity's soul
• Reflection is now more an inner study, an analysis of the
mind, than an examination of the business of physical science
• Human reason is still the trusted instrument, but it soon turns
its criticism upon itself. It distinguishes prejudices from
axioms, fears dogmatism, scrutinizes the pieces of evidence
of faith, suspects, or at best has consciously to defend, even
the apparently irresistible authority of conscience
3. Critical Idealism
• it is the inner structure of the human spirit that merely
expresses itself in the visible nature about us
• Also, during this period, the consequences of
Copernican revolution were many. Galileo, convinced of
the correctness of this new way of seeing the world,
invented the telescope. From then on, the development
of modern astronomy was assured (Johnston 2006)
 C. Globalization and Technological Innovations

• It comprises the multilateral interactions among

global systems, local practices, transnational
trends, and personal lifestyles.
• The introduction of new inventions in science
eventually led to Industrial Revolution – a
movement in which machines changed people's
way of life as well as their methods of
manufacture
 Significant changes that brought about the
Industrial Revolution

• the invention of machines in lieu of doing the

work of hand tools;
• the use of steam, and other kinds of power vis-
a-vis the muscles of human beings and of
animals; and
• the embracing of factory system.
• Computer is an assuming an increasingly central place in
scientific research and data processing
• Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science or
“The study and design of Intelligent agents” where an
intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment
and takes actions that maximizes its chances of success
• Technology is exploited, it becomes easier for those already
wealthy to maintain their advantage
Explain How Human Relations Are Transformed by Social
Systems

• For the first time in history, a universal pattern

of modernity is emerging from the wide
diversity of traditional values and institutions,
and peoples of all nations are confronted with
the challenge of defining their attitudes toward
fundamental changes that are worldwide in
scope.
 A. New Knowledge
• "Know thyself" is the main idea of
Socrates of good living
• "Knowledge is virtue; ignorance is vice”
• Ignorance, as opposite of knowledge, is
the source of evil.
• Humanity commits evil because people do
not know any better.
 B. Policy Making
• the Republic is to define "justice”
• Plato divided the citizens into three classes: (1) the common
people (artisan class); (2) the soldiers (warriors); and (3) the
guardians (rulers).
• As life has become more complex, the legal system has also
grown to the point where almost all human activities come in
contact with the law in one form or another
• This integration of policy making has brought people within
states into an unprecedentedly closer relationship and has
resulted in a greater complexity of social organization.
 C. Economic Sphere
• mechanization of labor that has resulted
in mass production, the rapid growth in
per capita productivity, and an increasing
division of labor.
• A greater quantity of goods has been
produced during the past century in the
entire preceding period of human history
 D. Social Realm
• The process within each of the individual
societies has also been profoundly affected by
the point in time at which modernization has
been undertaken and by the pressures exerted
by the worldwide influence of the early
modernizers.
 E. Technology
• The more society is influenced by technology, the
more we need to consider the social, ethical and
technological, and scientific aspects of each decision
and choice (Germain 2000).
• The ability to evaluate the products of science and
technology in relation to culture and value, as well as
the aspiration of a nation, is important and needs to
be nurtured and developed through social and
cultural education
• The present era, humanity does not live
according to the natural cycles regulated by
natural rhythms anymore (Germanin 2000).
Instead it is govern by “second nature" that is an
artificial environment characterized by the
results of technology.
• Technology is the replacement of nature
• Human beings have separated themselves from their cosmic
relation and other realities
• modernization seems to be dominated by a materialistic truth as
opposed to a non-materialistic one
• People have lost spiritual contact with other people, with their
environment, surrounding nature, and with anything that has
transcendental characteristics.
• Science and Technology had become an ideology
• Science and technology is, in fact, in a broader sense, the culture
itself
Recognize the Meaning of
One's Life
 A. Socrates
• Socrates has two different ways of teaching
• expository method that answers the student's direct or implied
questions, fills the void ignorance with information, proceeds by
analogy and illustration, or clears the ground for exposition by
demonstrating that some of the beliefs hitherto held by the student
are irreconcilable with other beliefs or assumptions.
• His "tutorial" or well-known Socratic method is: (1) to assess by
questions the character of the student; and (2) to set him problems,
exhort him to reduce each problem to its constituent elements, and
criticize the solutions that he offers.
• Happiness according to Socrates, “ To be happy, one
has to live a virtuous life.”
• Virtue an awakening of the seeds of good deeds that lay
dormant in the mind and heart of a person
• Knowing what is in the mind and heart of a human being
is achieved through self-knowledge – practical
knowledge
• Practical Knowledge means that one does not only know
the rules of right living, but one lives them.
Socrates’ major ethical
claims:
• happiness is impossible without moral virtue
• unethical actions harm the person who
performs them more than the people they
victimize. Although it is not totally clear
• Socrates, thus, saw someone steeped in vice as
lacking the freedom, self-control, and
intellectual clarity that are needed to live
happily

• The immoral person literally becomes a slave to

his desires.
 B. Plato
• Contemplation in the mind of Plato means that the mind is
in communion with the universal and eternal ideas.
• Human beings, therefore, are in constant contemplation of
the truth, since the things we see here on earth are merely
shadows (or appearance) of the real truth (reality) in the
world of ideas; the good, since here on earth, the body is
inclined to evil things; the beauty, since the things we see
here on earth are not fair or foul to others
Plato's Theory of
Immortality
• The body, for Plato, causes us turmoil and
confusion in our inquiries. Thus, to see the
truth, we must quit the body—the soul in itself
must behold things in themselves. Then, we
shall attain the wisdom we desire. Knowledge,
however, can be attained after death; for if
while in the company of the body, the soul
cannot have pure knowledge
 C. Aristotle
• Aristotle's account of change calls upon actuality and potentiality
(Hare et al. 1991)
• For Aristotle, everything in nature seeks to realize itself— to develop
its potentialities and finally realize its actualities
• A child strives to be an adult; a seed strives to be a tree. It is the
potentiality to be changing. Aristotle called this process Entelechy, a
Greek word “to become its essence”
• Entelechy means that nothing happens by chance. Nature not only
has a built-in pattern, but also different levels of being
• For the world of potential things to exist at all,
there must first be something actual (form) at a
level above potential or perishing things
(matter).
• At the top of the scale is the Unmoved Mover
(God); pure actuality without any potentiality;
something that is actual motion and which is
moved by nothing external
• For Aristotle, the Unmoved Mover is eternal, immaterial, with pure
actuality or perfection, and with no potentiality.
• Eternal, it is the reason for and the principle of motion to everything
else
• The Unmoved Mover has neither physical body nor emotional
desires. Its main activity consists of pure thought (Nous).
• Unmoved Mover thinks only of perfection, we can think about
perfection. However, because we are imperfect we cannot think of
perfection itself.
• According to Aristotle, the most pleasant activity for any living
creature is realizing its nature; therefore, the happiest life for humans
is thinking about the Unmoved Mover (Price 2000).
Meaning of Life (Where Will
This Lead To?)
 A. Friedrich Nietzsche
• Tragedy, according to Nietzsche, grew from his
unflinching recognition and the beautification, even
the idealization, of the inevitability of human
suffering (Johnston 2010)
• Our true existence is not our individual lives but our
participation in the drama of life and history
• Realizing one's "higher self” means fulfilling one's
loftiest vision, noblest ideal. On his way to the goal
of self-fulfillment
• The individual has to liberate himself from environmental
influences that are false to one's essential beings, for the
"unfree man" is "a disgrace to nature'.'
• The free human being still has to draw a sharp conflict
between the higher self and the lower self, between the
ideal aspired to and the contemptibly imperfect present
 B. Arthur Schopenhauer

• Unless we do "become ourselves," life is

meaningless.
• total reality = phenomenal realm (highly
differentiated world of material objects in space and
time) + noumenal realm (single, undifferentiated
something that is spaceless, timeless, non-material,
beyond the reach of causality) which is inaccessible
to experience
• The noumenon cannot cause the phenomenon –– so
Schopenhauer concludes: the noumenon and
phenomenon are the same reality apprehended in
two different ways: the noumenon is the inner
significance, the true but hidden and inaccessible
being, of what we perceive outwardly as the
phenomenal world.
• Schopenhauer's ethics: humans are separate physical
objects in space and time, temporary manifestations
in the phenomenal world, of something noumenal –
– this implies that in the ultimate ground of our
being we are the same something –– so the
wrongdoer and the wronged are in the last analysis
the same –– this explains compassion.
C. Martin Heidegger
• Human existence is exhibited in care
• Care is understood in terms of finite temporality,
which reaches with death.
• Death is a possibility that happens
Threefold structure of care:
• Possibility. Humanity gets projected ahead of itself.
Entities that are encountered are transformed merely
as ready-to-hand for serviceability and out of them.
Humanity constructs the instrumental world on the
basis of the persons' concerns.
• Facticity. A person is not pure possibility but factical
possibility: possibilities open to him at any time
conditioned and limited by circumstances. A person's
situation as a finite entity is thrown into a world
where he/she must project his/her possibilities not
disclosed by theoretical understanding but by
moods.
• Fallenness. Humanity flees from the disclosure of
anxiety to lose oneself in absorption with the
instrumental world, or to bury oneself in the
anonymous impersonal existence of the mass, where
no one is responsible. Humanity has fallen away from
one's authentic possibility into an authentic
existence of irresponsibility and illusory security.
Inauthentic existence, thus, is scattered and
fragmented.
• Heidegger claims that only by living through the
nothingness of death in anticipation do one attain
authentic existence
• Death is non-transferable. An individual must die
himself alone (being-unto-death)
• Heidegger believes that death is not accidental, nor
should be analyzed. It belongs to humanity’s facticity
D. Jean-Paul-Sartre
• For Sartre, the human person desires be God; the
desire to exist as a being that has its sufficient
ground in itself (en sui causa).
• For an atheist, since God does not exist, the human
person must face the consequences of this.
• The human person is entirely responsible for his/her
own existence.
 Sartre’s dualism
• En-soi (in itself) — signifies the permeable and dense, silent and
dead. From them comes no meaning, they only are. The en-soi is
absurd, it only finds meaning only' through the human person,
the one and only pour-soi. the world only has meaning
according to

• pour-soi (for-itself) the world only has meaning according to

what the person gives to it. Compared with' the en-soi, a person
has no fixed nature. To put it in a paradox: the human person is
not what he/she is.
• For Sartre, there is no way of coming to terms with
the other that does not end in frustration. This
explains why we experience failure to resolve social
problems from hatred, conflict and strife
 E. Karl Jaspers
• resolutely opposed Nazism.
• He concluded that caution must be exercised in assigning
collective responsibility since this notion has no sense from
either the judicial, moral, or metaphysical point of view
(Falikowski 2004)
• His philosophy places the person's temporal existence in the
face of the transcendent God, an absolute imperative
• Transcendence relates to us through limit-situation
(Grenzsituation).
• Freedom reveals itself as a gift from somewhere
beyond itself.
• Freedom without God only leads to a person’s
searching for a substitute to God closer to
oneself, usually, he himself tries to be God.
• Jaspers asked that human beings be loyal to
their own faiths without impugning the faith of
others
F. Gabriel Marcel
• Philosophy's starting point is a metaphysical "disease.
• secondary reflection – process in which the search
for a home in the wilderness, a harmony in
disharmony, takes place
 Marcel's Phenomenological
Method
• Primary Reflection – this method looks at the world
or at any object as a problem, detached from the self
and fragment. This is the foundation of scientific
knowledge. Subject does not enter into the object
investigated. The data of primary reflection lie in the
public domain and are equally available to any
qualified observer
• Secondary Reflection – Secondary reflection is
concrete, individual, heuristic, and open. This
reflection is concerned not with object but with
presences. It recaptures the unity of original
experience. It does not go against the date of
primary reflection but goes beyond it by refusing to
accept the data of primary reflection as final.
• This reflection is the area of the mysterious because
we enter into the realm of the personal. What is
needed in secondary reflection is an ingathering, a
recollection, a pulling together of the scattered
fragments of our experience.