REVIEWER IN PHILOSOPHY

By: Princess Joy Muncada

ABM12-10 Room 201

CHAPTER V Lesson 1: The Concept of a Human Being

Pre-Socratics – were concerned about the origins of the cosmos.

Plato’s Division of Worlds

 World of ideas
 World of the senses

Body – considered as having less or even no value at all

- Prevents us from knowing reality and we often submit to its limitations, as we trust more our senses
than our reason and eventually realize that we were deceived by our senses.

3 parts of soul’s division in Plato’s concept of human being

 Reasoning
 Spiritedness
 Appetites

The Republic – The result of conversation of Plato where characters decided that the ideal society is made up
of three types of citizens based on his three types of soul division.

3 types of citizens
 Workers
 Soldiers
 Rulers

Head – the ruler’s counterpart in the human body which symbolizes the reasoning part.
Chest – The soldier’s counterpart in the human body which symbolizes the spirited part.
Stomach – The worker’s counterpart which symbolizes the appetitive part.

Corresponding virtues of Head, Chest and Stomach

 Wisdom for reasoning
 Courage for spiritedness
 Moderation for appetites

Form – is the principle which actualizes a thing and makes a thing what it is.
- Viewed as act.
- Refers to the soul.
Matter – is viewed as the potentially to receive the form.
- Viewed as potency.
- Refers to the body.

3 parts of soul in Aristotle’s concept of Human Being

 Nutrition
 Sensation
 Intellection

Nutritive Function – which we share with plants.

Sensitive Function – which we share with other animals.
Intellective Function – which not only separates us from all other beings, but also defines us as human beings.
Certainty – does not guarantee truth.
Dualistic Perspective – it is the soul which gets the upper hand while dislike for reasons like ‘source of error’,
restricting, corruptible etc.
Essentialist Perspective – claims that there must be an essential characteristic that a being must possess for it
to be called as such.

Lesson 2: An Embodied Subject

Two ways of Reflection by Gabriel Marcel

 Primary reflection
 Secondary reflection

Reflective Activity – a consequence of a disturbance in the chain of our daily routine.

Primary Reflection – occurs when we inquire about things in a distant and objective manner.
- This level of reflection will proceed with an investigation of the problem at hand that will not involve
the subject making the inquiry.
- Has the character of detachment in terms of the inquiring subject in relation to the object of the
inquiry.
- Is the level of inquiry exercised by a lot of philosophers concerning the issue of being human.
Scientific Inquiry – aims for objectivity and therefore sets the object of the study in a distance.
Secondary Reflection – cannot occur without involving the inquirer into his inquiry.
- Inevitably links the inquirer to the subject of his inquiry.
- Cannot proceed without involving the inquirer himself in the inquiry.
Reflection – is exercised because it is worthwhile for the inquirer.
To be in the world – means that our experiences are always situated in our world.
Being-in-the-world – means that we live with things, with other people, and within a particular place and
time.
- Means to be with things.
- Also means to be with other people.
- Means that we are situated in place and time.

Lesson 3: Limitations and Transcendence

Facticity – refers to the things in our lives that are already given.
- Not limited to the givens that we have acquired in our birth.
- It refers to all the details that surround us in the present as being-in-the-world in the here and now.
- We cannot simply change it, what we can do is change our attitude towards them.
- We use this as an excuse for our difficulties and failures.
- Challenges us to be creative with our life opinions.
Finitude – the most obvious limitation on the level of temporality.
Historicity – means that we are history-making creatures, and we are not limited to what nature has initially
given us.
Spatial-Temporal – we are bounded by space and time; space that we occupy
Transcendence – attitude towards our situation; facts of life.
Intermediary – bridge to the world; communication and connection.
Blaise Pascal – said that ‘’The present is never our goal: the past and present are our means: the future alone
is our goal.
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina – also known as Padre Pio was said to have defied physical laws many times when he
made himself present in two places at the same time on different occasions.
Bilocation –A miraculous act of being in two places at the same time.

Plato
- a Greek philosopher from where one of the earliest theories regarding human nature came from him.
- Considers the world of ideas as the world of perfections.
- For him, human being is composed of body and soul.
- He argues that the human is essentially his soul.
- Looks at the body with contempt because it is the source of our errors.
 - Even considers the body as prison of the soul, which prompts him to set the ideal of liberating the
soul from the body.
- For him, the ideal relationship among the parts is for the reasoning part to rule over the appetitive
and the spirited part.
- His idea of a good life is a life ruled by reason.
- Makes the gap between the body and soul more pronounced.
- His ideas are heavily influenced by Christianity.
- According to him, the human society is nothing more than an enlarged human being.

Aristotle
- was Plato’s most famous student.
- Considers things as composed of two co-principles which he calls matter and form.
- Matter and form are not complete realities, but only co-principles of a thing (substance).
- Matter and form do not exist in themselves separately.
- It is clear for him that to be a human being means to practice its highest function, and we therefore
say that human beings are rational animals.
- Tries to dissolve the gap between soul and body.
- Hired by Philip II, King of Macedon, to serve as tutor to his son, Alexander the Great.

Rene Descartes
- widened the gap between the body and soul even more as he sets out to prove that the only thing in
this world which cannot be doubted is the existence of the thinking self.
- In the Meditations on First Philosophy, he argues for the real distinction between the body and the
soul.
- He began with doubting everything that had previously been considered as knowledge.
- Argued that we should doubt everything that is delivered to us by our senses.
- ‘’I think, therefore I am’’.
- Did not prove existence of man when he pronounced ‘’I think, therefore, I am’’. Because man or
rational animal is vague concept.
- For him, the existence of the soul is more distinct and clear than the existence of the body, leaving us
with the idea that man is more certain of the existence of his soul than the existence of his body.
- Ultimately proved the existence of his own body and all external things as well.
- A mathematician and he developed a coordinate system that is now used in diff branches.

Gabriel Marcel
- considers two ways of reflection named primary and secondary reflection.
- Believes that this traditional essentialist and dualistic manner of thinking is proper to scientific
inquiry but not to philosophical inquiry.
- Made an analogy of the ownership of our body to that of someone owning a dog.
- Admits that there may be certain limitations to the analogy of my dog and my body, especially the
idea that the dog is still something external and detached to me, while my body is not and can never
be detached from myself.

Martin Heidegger
- A German philosopher who calls human beings ‘’Dasein’’, A German word which literally means being
there.
- His starting point allows us to see the existential import of being-in-the-world in relation to the
question of who we are.
- His concept of being-in-the-world informs us of the very nature of who we are, that we are shaped by
everything around us.

Chapter 7: Lesson 1 Types of Societies

Aristotle – declared in his first book Politics and said ‘’Man by nature is a political animal’’.
- According to him, human beings are naturally directed into forming groups primarily because of
their basic needs for subsistence.
Society – allows the individual members to flourish and live a good life not only by helping them acquire
certain goods and services.
- Allows human to be the moral and practice human virtue.
Pre-industrial societies – refers to the different types of societies that existed before the 18 th century or
before the Industrial Revolution.
- characterized as having limited forms of production, with limited division of labor and social
stratification.
Communication – is limited due to restrictions imposed by distance, and interaction is limited to the members
of the same social group.

Pre-industrial Societies is consist of:

 Hunting and gathering
 Pastoral
 Horticultural
 Agrarian

Hunting and Gathering Societies

 Are the simplest type of society
 Longest running type of society, occupying about 90 percent of human society.
 This society survives by hunting and gathering their food.
 Men are usually the hunters, while women are the gatherers.
 The hunter-gatherers do not establish permanent houses or villages because they have to constantly
move as they consume the resources of their current environment.
 This type of society consists of few members, perhaps around 30 or less.
 They are very dependent on the natural resources and features of their environment.
 They usually live in cases, but they also built shelters made out of rocks, branches and leaves.
 Their clothing are from materials made of animal skin and plants.
 The social structure is generally egalitarian, and decisions are arrived at by consensus
 There are no superior members in this case primarily because they cannot accumulate possessions.
 The perishable nature of what they own compels them to immediately consume what they have
acquired.
 Their technology is very limited.
 Their devices are usually for hunting big and small animals, gathering plants, and making clothes.
 It was the domestication of fire which is considered the greatest advancement of human beings in
this period.
 It paved the way to both technological and social revolutions.
 The use of fire allowed them to harden wooden spheres.
 They were able to cook, giving them more options from previously less digestible food.
 They were able to have some control over the day-night cycle because of the extended light provided.
 The extended night over fire helped in strengthening their relationship.
 It have been a factor in the development of human language.

Pastoral Societies
 Resulted as some hunter-gatherers discovered that the animals they have hunted could be tamed and
bred.
 They started pasturing the animals they have domesticated.
 Men are assigned to herd the larger stocks like cattle while women took care of the smaller stocks
like goat.
 It still constantly move because they need to find new areas where the animals can get their food.
 They provided the members of the society with sufficient food supply.
 Its members ranges from 50 to 200.
 It has allowed the other members of the society to turn their attention into other matters aside from
securing food.
 There were those who able to focus on craftworks and produced tools, weapons, and jewelries.
 The production of different goods paved the way for trading.
  There is a centralization of wealth and power to those families who inherited the properties of their
ancestors.

Horticultural Societies
 Some hunting and gathering societies also discovered that there are plants which they can cultivate
and nurture.
 Although this type of society cultivated plants, it is far from an agrarian or agricultural type primarily
because of the difference in technology and land area.
 Men are usually involved in clearing the land to be tilled, while women are responsible for taking
care of fruits and vegetables.
 They were able to establish semi-permanent to permanent houses
 They share many similarities with the pastoral society in terms of development.
 They produce sufficient food supply that enabled the other members of the society to turn their
attention to activities other than tending plants.
 This also led to the production of other goods that were made available for trading.
 They share the same fate with the pastoral society as trading led other families to have more
possessions than others.
 The owning of more wealth and properties than others made some families superior to others.
 Inequality was also established here just like in pastoral societies.

Agrarian Societies
 The invention of new materials and methods for cultivating plants and animals gave rise to this.
 The most important innovation related to the development of agricultural lands is the invention of
the plow.
 In here, aside from cultivating lands, people started raising farm animals.
 It has several innovations hat increased the production of goods, such as the invention of the wheel.
 Another great advance is the use of animals for different purposes.
 Some farm animals served as food supply, but some served as manpower for farming.
 Animals were used to pull wagons and plows, increasing power and speed of labor and production.
 Some animals were also used as pack animals which became very helpful in traveling and trading.
 Other innovations include the use of wind power for sailboats, the invention of writing and numerical
notation and the invention of the calendar.

Industrial Societies
 The accumulation of information and the continuing innovations and technological development of
the agrarian societies paved the way to industrial societies.
 Led to the advancement in water transportation that allowed people to discover many places and
things, and conduct trade with more people.
 Water transport navigation was improved with the invention of the stern rudder and the acquisition
of the compass.
 The creation of larger ships also allowed people to have extended periods of travel.
 Further advancement in agricultural techniques include crop rotation and selective breeding.
 The technical information about farming were disseminated.
 Establishment of the printing press allowed faster and easier spreading of information.
 The source of energy came from the several inanimate alternative sources like oil, petroleum, natural
gas and electricity.
 The advent of the steam engine marked the arrival of this type of society.
 Developments in more technical fields such as aviation, nuclear power, electronics and computers
took place.
 The increasing mechanization in farming boosted efficiency of production and decreased the need for
human workers.
 People eventually moved from agricultural lands to the cities for work and opportunity.
 The arrival of new machineries led the manufacturing and production sectors to overcome the
agricultural sector.
 Factories became the central working place of most people.
 The influx of people to urban areas looking for work caused a surplus of labor force.
  Wealth and power were controlled by even fewer people---the capitalist, while the masses belonged
to the working class.
 The capitalist took advantage of the abundance of available labor and became oppressive to the
working class, where people are asked to work for many hours while being paid a very low wage.
 The workers were generally forced to accept their working condition because they will easily be
replaced by other workers if they refuse to agree.
 Technology swiftly evolved resulting to even more efficiency in production.

Post-Industrial Societies
 Was made popular by the American Sociologist Daniel Bell, who characterized today’s emerging type
of society as knowledge and service-oriented.
 The manufacturing sector is the protagonist of the industrial societies.
 The service sector is primarily a knowledge-based sector where people provide their specialized
knowledge that aids in developing productivity, sustainability and performance.
 What the service sector provides are intangible goods which may be in a form of advice, experience
or discussion.
 The service sector ranges from entertainment to education, healthcare to information technology,
and banking to telecommunications.
 In industrial societies, Capital refers to the machines
 In post-industrial societies, knowledge is the capital.
 Innovations through knowledge then is the key to success, and not just mere production.
 Education provides people with the needed knowledge for the service sector, while technology
greatly aids the facilitation and the implementation of the acquired knowledge.

Lesson 2 Consumer Society

Advertising – was already present even before the invention of print media.
- Paints a picture that the ultimate goal in life is to have.
Henry Ford- founder of the Ford Motor Company, was one of the pioneers in providing workers with better
working conditions and wages.
Fordism – a manufacturing technique or system or the technique of Henry Ford to create a way by which he
can mass produce affordable cars through standardization, and the establishment of better working
conditions and compensation for laborers.
Commodity – is an item available in the market—a product.
Use value – refers to the worth of the commodity based on its utility.
Exchange Value – refers to the worth which a commodity can be traded for.
Sign Value – is an element added by the manufacturers into their products.
- Adds little to nothing to the traditional notion of use value of a commodity.
- Functions as a signifier of status, culture, identity, and lifestyle.
- Refers to the manufactured culture created by the advertising industry about the product.
Sign Consumption – People are no longer consuming commodities but only the signs of these commodities.
- Is not limited to commodities with established product logos.
- Dictates how our free time should be consumed—that it should be spent with our loved ones in the
comfort of their resorts etc.
Guy Debord – called us the ‘’society of spectacles’’.
- Argued in his book, The Society of the Spectacles, that our society has been reduced to sign or image
relations.
- Claims ‘’The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by
images.’’
- For him, human life and human relations are no longer authentic because of the domination of the
images and signs in the consumer society.
Popular Culture – used by the advertisers to promote their commodities in the market.
Planned Osolescence – wherein products must be declared obsolete within a certain period of time to give
way to its better version.
Pope Francis – declares ‘’We cannot be indifferent to those suffering from hunger, especially children, when
we think of how much food is wasted everyday in many parts of the world immersed in what I have often
termed the throw-away culture’’.
Lesson 3 Technological Society

Netizens/Cyber citizens – members or citizens of virtual society from where anyone with access to the
internet can be a part of this society.
Virtual Worlds – exist like parallel universe where every person lives another life simultaneously with this
life.
Virtual Societies – have a huge impact on the lives of people in the technological society.
The Thing – Heidegger’s 1950 lecture which problematizes the concept of nearness, and looked for the
possible answer by looking at a thing which is near.
Martin Heidegger – According to him, even after we have abolished distance of time and space, we are still not
near to a lot of things, this is because nearness does not consist in shortness of distance.
- For him, our modern technology is a kind of revealing in the form of challenging.
- For him, technology is that which paved the way for modern science, and not the other way around.
Nearness – is one of the main problem that the technological society has given us today.
Technology – from the Greek word ‘’Technikon’’, which means ‘’that which belongs to ‘’techne’’
- An approach to reality that applies technique for calculations, prediction and control.
Techne – not only applied to the activities and skills of a craftsman, but also to fine arts of the mind.
- Related to knowledge as a mode of revelation.
Modern Technology – challenges nature and demands it to provide us with energy that we can store and
transmit.
- Has the character of securing and regulating.
- It transforms nature into something which we can store.
- Something which is standing by and is immediately available when ordered—a standing-reserve.
Enframing – reduces everything into measurable and calculable forces, to be transformed into the character
of a standing-reserve.
Jacques Ellul – author of The Technological Society, sees the same problem of technology as the preoccupation
with numerical calculations.
- For him, it is not only human persons who are reduced into calculable, predictable and controllable
beings.

Chapter 8 Lesson 1: Definitions of Death

Death – the advent of life extending machines.

- The practice of organ transplant.
- (Organ Donation Act of 1991 or Republic Act 7170) – the irreversible cessation of all functions of the
entire brain including the brain stem.
- The irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.
- (religion) a transition from an earthly life to the life of the soul
- (existentialist) is the transition from being to non-being.
Brain Death – where death is redefined from its traditional cardio-pulmonary bases to a neurological brain.
Criminal Law – the most important law concerning death.
Pope John Paul II – states that ‘’with regard to the parameters used today for ascertaining death-whether the
encephalic signs or the more traditional cardio-respiratory signs-the Church does not make technical
decisions’’.
Transition – a shift from the earthly life to the life after(earthly) death.
Afterlife – conceived as the core of the human person and it typically has the characteristic of immortality ;
this is usually attributed to the soul.
Soul – will be directed to a place that is proportionate to its moral status during its earthly life.
- This belief is common among Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam)
Reincarnation – what happens to the soul after death from where it goes rebirth because life is seen as a cycle
of birth and rebirth.
Karma- The type of rebirth from which it is the moral quality of human actions.
Existentialism - The religious definition of death that focused on the afterlife was criticized by many thinkers
in the philosophical tradition called ____.
Lesson 2: Death as an Ethical Issue

Suicide – an alarmingly increasing phenomenon in the Philippines.

- Generally considered a morally impermissible act.
- Is against the law of nature, and it is therefore wrong.
- Taken as a selfish act which gives no regard to what one’s family, community, or country will
experience once the person kills himself.
- Often a refusal of love for self, the denial of a natural instinct to live, a flight from the duties of justice
and charity owed to one’s neighbor, to various communities, or to the whole of society.
- Killing oneself

3 types of arguments on why suicide is wrong

 Theological argument – these are God-centered arguments.
 Arguments from natural law – this arguments states that everything naturally loves itself.
 Socio-political arguments

Self-preservation – our natural disposition

Main proponents of Natural Law

 St. Thomas Aquinas
 Immanuel Kant

Vatican – declares ‘’intentionally causing one’s own death, or suicide, is therefore equally as wrong as murder;
such an action on the part of a person is to be considered as a rejection of God’s sovereignty and loving plan’’.
- Declares ‘’it is necessary to state firmly once more that nothing and no one can in way permit the
killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo etc’’.
- Declares ‘’the right to life is no less to be respected in the small infant just born than in the mature
person’’.
Eunthanasia – The practice of killing someone who is very sick or very badly injured to prevent further
suffering.
- Its purpose is to make the very ill or severely injured person take the easier course of death than to
suffer for a longer period.
- Is from the Greek word ‘’euthanatos’’ which means easy death.
- Mercy killing.
-
3 types of arguments for Eunthanasia
 Medical-legal argument – this set of argument has many different aspects, and we shall try to limit it
to the most popular ones.
 Theological argument – which basically claims that euthanasia is administered killing, and God does
not allow killing.
 Psychological Arguments – this argument explains that if euthanasia is permitted, the dying person
may feel pressured to opt for euthanasia because the patient may feel guilt in considering himself a
burden to his family and to the medical personnel taking care of him.

Abortion – an act which intends to bring about the death of a fetus for the sake of the woman who carries it.
- The main argument against it is based on the right to life.
- Considered as plain murder of an innocent being; and for that it deserves the gravest condemnation.
- A termination of life.
Killing – considered as one of the worst crimes because being killed with still a valued future robs the person
with his entire future goods, as opposed to being beaten or robbed.

Lesson 3 Death as an Existential Issue

Friedrich Nietzsche – a German existential philosopher who was one of those who passionately persuade
people to abandon any idea of a world which is not this world.
- pointed out, the otherworld strongly influences the lowly and the weak to give up and hope for the better
life in the other world.
 - who proclaim the renunciation of the earthly life in exchange for an otherworldly life are the real
preachers of death.
-Who is also one of the notorious critics of Christianity, claims that concept of an afterlife in the other world
serves to comfort
- is against the otherworld because this leads those who experience difficulties in this life to give up and
hope for a better life in another world instead.
Soren Kierkegaard – a Danish philosopher who criticized Christianity for reducing faith into philosophy.
- Considered as the father of existentialism.
- He has different temperament concerning the otherworld.
- He is more concerned about how people treat the elements in the otherworld as if everything is a
matter of knowing.
Paul Tillich – Christian existential thinker claims that ‘’Anxiety is the existential awareness of non being’’.
Martin Heidegger – claims that ‘’Being-toward-death is essentially anxiety’’.
- Puts it ‘’As soon as a human being comes into life, he is old enough to die’’.
-
Two ways of facing anxiety brought about by death
 Accepts it
 Escapes from it

Idle talk – the kind of talk which the herd or masses conduct and it has a character of triviality.
- Takes us away from reflecting on our own concerns because we get immersed into their concerns.

TRUE OR FALSE FOR CHAPTER V

Lesson1
 It is in the world of ideas where eternal truths reside.
 The things in our physical world are not real.
 As we acquire bodies during birth in the physical world, we are subjected to different kinds of
limitations.
 The soul is immortal while the body is mortal.
 When we die, our body will decay but our soul will return to the world of ideas.
 A human being is essentially his soul.
 Society is simply an enlarged person.
 If our lives are ruled by our stomach- our appetites, then it would be difficult for us to live a good life
because we will be enslaved by our appetites.
 A life ruled by feelings and emotions will not be a good life.
 As the rational part knows what is good, it must be able to control and direct its appetitive and
spirited parts.
 Like Plato, Aristotle also believes that human beings are composed of body and soul.
 There will never be a moment when matter or form will exist independently of each other because
they are only principles and do not posses existence of their own.
 Even if the soul is considered as a non-material part of the body, still it cannot have an independent
existence as Plato claims.
 The human soul as an animating principle is far greater than the animating principle of plants and
other animals because of the higher function of intellection.
 The concept of function must be further explained in considering what a human being is.
 We say that goodness of something is tied up with its function.
 In human being, its good refers to the practice of his function.
 A human being who just practices his nutritive and sensitive functions can hardly be called a human
being.
 The only thing which he can’t doubt was that he doubts, which is a form of thinking.
Lesson 2
 It is what an existentialist calls existential break that shakes us and forces us to pause and think
about what had happened.
 Most of our inquiries will make use of primary reflection, especially those done in the field of the
sciences.
 The one raising the inquiry is intricately involved with the question.
 The inquirer is forced to face himself.
 Both primary and secondary reflection stem out of an existential break—a disturbance in our daily
routine.
 Addressing personal inquiries does not automatically translate into secondary reflection.
 Philosophers have inquired about human beings in a detached manner.
 The solution of traditional inquiry about what human being is, will always yield an abstract answer
because the process is either inductive or deductive, or both.
 We cannot detach ourselves from our situation and we will always look and understand the world
according to our being-in-the-world.
 When a philosopher considers the problem of the relationship of the body and soul for instance, it
was not about his own body or soul, but simply a body and a soul.
 Most of the theories concerning human beings looked at the body with disfavor.
 Not everything that we are is our body.
 Our experience tells us that we have operations that go beyond the body.
 Having a body implies ownership.
 Ownership does not simply refer to mere possession; rather it means a special way of treating the
body, not just a mere body but as my body.
 Owning a body entails certain conditions and responsibilities toward it—just as owning a dog entails
certain conditions and responsibilities.
 Our being situated in the world inevitably links us to people.
 Who we are is not a product of a distant reflection and theorizing.
 An embodied subject is someone who is intimately connected with the world and not some detached
inquirer.
 Our experience tells us that we are related to the world as participating subjects that deal with things
and people every day.

Lesson 3
 All the facts that we currently have are part of our limitation.
 The fact that we are born and that we exist in a particular place and time already sets limitation on us
that may be considered on different levels.
 We recognize our mortality and accept that we will not live forever.
 It is our being embodied that prevents us from doing a lot of things.—because our body is not yet
prepared for certain activities.
 On the level of our being spatial individuals, we are limited by our bodies to be present in two or
more places at the same time.
 On the level of understanding, we consider our spatial-temporal situation as imposing a limit on us as
it sets out to be our preconditions of our understanding.
 No matter how hard we try to look at the world in an objective manner, our spatial-temporal
situation will be there to taint it. We will always have our own spatial-temporal condition at the
backdrop of our understanding.
 The body as intermediary is another difficulty that arises out of an embodied subject.
 Our body then serves as an intermediary between us and the physical world.
 Our bodies set a limitation for understanding one another because on the one hand, it may never
fully disclose what we would like to express.
 The presence of several limitations imposed by being an embodies subject may influence us to think
that our life is very restricting.
 People never realized their historicity because they are clouded by their own spatial-temporal
limitations.
 Our being limited due to spatial concerns also imposes difficulty for us embodied beings because we
cannot be at a place where we want to be at an instant.
 Being reminded of our spatial character invites us to value the people and things around us.
  Having a body which links us to the world appears to be a source of limitation because we can never
directly and fully experience the world.
 As an embodied subject, we directly experience the world.
 Having a body that conceals our emotions also serves as our protection and solace.
 The body as intermediary may pose some limitations to us as well as advantages.

TRUE OR FALSE FOR CHAPTER VII

Lesson 1
 The human person as an embodied subject is born in a pre-existing social condition.
 One’s being-in-the-world consists in having a social background.
 All the things which are present during the birth of the human person shall be part of the person’s
social context.
 Being part of the society, the human person is inevitably shaped and influenced by his social
conditions.
 When one claims that human persons are by nature social, it is not limited to the idea that we
naturally tend to form groups to survive, thrive and live a good life.
 The social nature of the human person also means that who we are cannot be detached from our
social conditions.
 Our society influences the definition of who we are, and how we relate to other human persons.

Lesson 2
 Through the industrial age, the culture of consumption slowly creeps into different societies across
the world.
 Before the arrival of the workers—as consumer, workers generally do not have enough purchasing
power.
 With the purchasing power in the hands of the workers, advertising started to become aggressive
and manufacturers used mass media to further promote consumption.
 Through advertisements, manufacturers are now putting their capital on creating a culture that will
induce people to consumer their products.
 The practice of consumption today is changed by adding the element of sign value in a commodity.
 Early forms of transaction are done by trading items or barter.
 The market price is usually determined by the use value, exchange value and the supply and demand
of the commodity.
 If demand is high, the supply remains constant, price increases.
 If demand is low, and supply remains constant, price decreases.
 If demand is constant, and the supply is low, price increases.
 Advertisements attempt to transfer meanings into commodities that will make those commodities
appealing, and therefore increase the likelihood of being purchased.
 Through the use of advertisements, the commodities will acquire a certain reputation and prestige
for the sign that it carries.
 The use value now of a commodity is no longer just the literal worth of the commodity based on its
utility; rather, the use value now dominated by signs which functions as subconscious indicators of a
culture, identity, lifestyle and status according to the dictates of the manufacturers.
 Consuming a particular commodity then creates a feeling of belongingness to the established culture
and identity of the sign.
 Consumers are then buying commodity not because of the traditional functionality utility that it
serves, but because of the prestige and status that the signs symbolize.
 The proliferation of signs in the consumer society reduces human relations to sign relations.
 People are more focused on having than in actual living. And through having one starts appearing.
 It is the possession of certain goods with signs that will enable the consumer to be seen and be
recognized in the consumer society.
 The gauge used in determining the quality of life had been reduced to what one has acquired –of
having.
 Manufacturers are not only manufacturing products, but they are also manufacturing needs.
 Life’s meaning is no longer being, but having.
  What we have now is equivalent to who we are.
 People who have are valued while people who do not have are not.
 People have become discriminating to those who cannot give because they do not contribute to one’s
having.
 Excessive production and consumption transformed our societies into thrown-away societies.
 Our society is characterized by an attitude of thrown-away.
 Products today are especially designed not to last long
 The longevity of a product does not necessarily refer to the functionality of the product.
 The consumer society is really based on a thrown-away mindset.
 We cannot underestimate the effect of the thrown-away society to its members.
 The people within the throw-away society develops a throw-away mindset, and everything becomes
disposable.
 The most disturbing effect of the throw-away society is how everything becomes disposable—
including human beings.
 The excessive consumption practices result to an increase of our garbage and waste disposal, which
poses an environmental threat.
 Our own personal acts whenever we resist the thrown-away culture will be our greatest contribution
to the change that must be established in our society.

Lesson 3

 The creation of the Internet has dramatically changed the ways human beings interact with one
another.
 The disembodied and faceless human interaction among human persons is the first of its kind in the
virtual worlds.
 Through the social network, we are updated with what is happening with our family and friends.
 Many people are obsessed with virtual worlds.
 Having a body limits our interactions with people.
 The dissatisfaction and frustrations of the human person with bodily limitations drive the person to
prefer a disembodied human relation.
 The disembodied interaction among people is aggravated by modern technological devices.
 Interacting with actual embodied subjects, face-to-face, is becoming more and more difficult today.
 The virtual society and technological devices today are starting to reshape the human person and
human interactions and relationship.
 To see and understand the world as a standing-reserve drives us to treat everything in nature as
potential for human use.
 The essence of technology then is not technological; rather it is a way of thinking that represents
nature as something to be harnessed for our purposes –to entrap nature as a calculable coherence of
forces.
 The aim of modern physical science is to measure and calculate nature so that we can predict it, and
eventually, so that we can control it.
 Technology then poses a threat to the human person, not so much because of the negative effects of
technology.
 The essence of technology made it possible for people to treat other human beings as calculable,
measurable, predictable, and controllable objects which can be transformed into forces that are
standing by in case of a need.
 The essence of technology is more than the technological devices and machineries that we have
today.
 The effects of the enframing and calculative thinking is perhaps more profound than the effects of the
technological, because this kind of thinking is not only applied to technology.
 The enframing and calculative thinking has become the predominant way of considering our entire
world.
TRUE OR FALSE FOR CHAPTER VIII

Lesson 1
 The constant technological advancement in the field of medicine make the concept of death difficult
to define.
 Death is no longer just the absence of heartbeat and breathing.
 Legal accountability concerning death as a result of negligence or abuse will be hard to pursue.
 The death of the person shall be determined in accordance with the acceptable medical practice and
shall be diagnosed separately by attending physician.
 Only physicians can declare if someone is already dead
 Physicians must have done everything to preserve the life of the patient, which is consistent with the
physician’s professional oath.
 Some of the legal-medical definition of death that focuses on the functions of the brain are coming
from religious perspectives which criticized the very rational-based foundation of human life.
 Not every religion though rejects the medical definition of death that is based on brain activity.
 Some religious perspectives recognize the authority and independence of medical authorities
concerning the criteria for death.
 We have to note that even with religions, there will always be differences of views and opinions
concerning specific issues.
 The differences of perspectives, beliefs, and practices among religions are extensive that it prevents
us from establishing a single definition of death
 Death for most, if not all, religion is not simply a biological and medical incident where the brain or
the vital organs stop functioning.
 All the medical and scientific explanations about death are considered trivial in comparison to the
real meaning of death.
 It is now the elements and characteristics of the life beyond the earthly life that becomes the point of
contention among religions.

 The belief in an afterlife presupposes that there is something in the human person which persist
after death.
 Not every religion with a belief in an afterlife subscribes to the soul and to its immortality.
 What happens to the soul after death vary from religion to religion.
 A person’s soul who has a good moral standing on earth will be directed to heaven; those are bad will
be directed to hell; and those who are in between will be directed to purgatory.
 Islam will be directed to either hevan or hell depending on their faith.
 Judaism also subscribes to a place similar to paradise where souls go if they have a good moral status
in their earthly life.
 At this point, what is important to understand is the religious belief that what happens after death is
that the soul will be directed to a place that is proportionate to its moral and spiritual status on earth.
 Upon death, the soul will take another form proportionate to one’s moral status prior to death.
 The soul’s rebirth does not necessarily have to take a human body; it may be a lower form, an animal,
or even a ghost, as in the case of Buddhism.
 A bad moral standing leads to a lower from of rebirth, and a good moral standing will lead to a higher
form of rebirth.
 The goal of Dharmic religions is to liberate the soul from the cycle of birth and rebirth., the manner of
which differ in these religions.
 The definition of death as transition really changes the way people look at death, and at the same
time, the way people look at life.
 The afterlife is ultimately based on rewards and punishments.
 A person will go to heaven or reincarnate with a better status if one did bad.
 In fact, many religions will claim that we should not focus on our life on earth because this is just
transitory.
 The definition of death as transitory really affects the way people will live as human perons on earth.
 The existentialists are against the idea of the afterlife as the central aspect of death primarily because
it takes away the focus of the person to what is actual and concrete- to human existence.
 The attention being given by the living to the afterlife tries to rob the actual world of its meaning and
value.
  Our existence is a question of ‘’to be, or not to be’’.
 ‘’To be---to exist’’ means to have possibilities; while ‘’not to be---not to exist’’ means to lose all the
possibilities.
 The afterlife is not a concern for an existentialist, because its existence is not concrete.It is based on
faith.
 We cant empirically validate the existence of heaven or hell, or of the reincarnating soul.
 Anxiety brought by death is not simple fear of dying.
 The religious definition of death is also a common way of evading death by bringing up the idea of the
soul’s immortality, the hope of resurrection, and the belief in reincarnation.
 The challenge of the existentialist is to face the real possibility of non-being- the possibility that when
we die, everything is over, that is, that we simply cease to be; that we are no longer.
 Knowing and facing the possibility of our non-being redirects us to being.
 If we accept death as the possibility of our non-existence, then we are inevitably led back to what is
actual, concrete, and present.
 Mistakenly declaring death could have medical and civil liabilities.
 The doctor es expected to have exhausted all possible ways to preserve the life of the patient before
declaring him/her dead.

Lesson 2
 God gave us life and He intends it to be preserved.
 We are like soldiers of God who are entrusted with life, assigned on Earth, and we shall not leave our
posts until we are properly relieved.
 As human beings we are not born with an inclination to terminate our lives, but an inclination to
preserve.
 Taking away one’s life therefore is wrong because it is injurious to one’s family, community and
society.
 One argument claims that eunthanasia contradicts the role of physicians.
 To initiate the termination of life will be against any physician’s fundamental moral and professional
commitment, which is to take care of patients and to protect their lives.
 If physicians are given license to terminate life, their profession will never be worthy of trust, and
patients will fear their doctors instead of feel safe in their care.
 If euthanasia is allowed, then it will be seen as a cheaper and easier alternative than taking care of
the dying for a prolonged period.
 It is God who gave us life, and it is only God who can take it away.
 Permitting euthanasia devalues God’s gift of life together with the dignity of human life.
 Because of the unborn status of the subject of abortion, the controversy usually revolves around the
debate whether the subject in the womb is already a person, or not.
 Most pro-abortion arguments will argue for the acceptability of abortion because they do not
recognize the fetus, or the embryo.
 Every person has right to life. The fetus is not yet a person.
 The right to life must not be discriminating.
 In reality, respect for human life is called for from the time that the process of generation begins.
 Death in the context of suicide, euthanasia, and abortion are all deaths resulting from killing.
 No human person with a sound mind will perhaps regard a man whimsically killing a bystander who
happens to be obstructing his way, to be acceptable.
 The temporal concept of a future is of extreme importance to the embodied being’s concept of life.
 Life is almost equivalent to the future.
 The loss of a future which we value is that which is unfortunate.
 Those who argue for the permissibility of euthanasia for instance, will claim that there is no
misfortune in death where the future consists of unconscious, will claim that there is no misfortune
in death where the future consists of unconscious, undignified or painful existence.
 The misfortune of killing is the loss of a valued future, and not just any kind of future.- especially a
miserable future.
 Killing is rationally justified if there is no valued future ahead.
 A gun is often seen as implement of death and a weapon that kills if put in the wrong hands.
 The moral justification of commiting suicide or the intentional termination of one’s life is always a
debatable issue.
Lesson 3
 The otherworldly realm is not the focal point of philosophy.
 We live in a world where we are immersed with actual concrete realities: our own bodies, other
human bodies, mountains, trees, oceans and everything actual.
 The concern for human finitude and temporality is intensified.
 Eliminating the afterlife and any form of the otherworld- which is where we are supposed to find real
happiness, peace, and contentment- challenges us to look for the meaning of life within the limits of
our temporality.
 Any form of otherworldly realm is nothing but a fiction and a distraction from human affairs.
 The otherworld makes them accept their lowly condition here on earth and gives them hope that
they will have a better life after death—in the afterlife.
 What happens after we die—whether there is a God who will reward or punish us, or whether we
shall be reincarnated, or whether we will be resurrected—is not something which reason can
ascertain but only faith.
 The problem that Kierkegaard saw in Christianity during his time is that it has eliminated faith by
eliminating risks.
 Risks were eliminated by granting certainty on matters of faith.
 If the things that we believe in, turn into something that we know, then we eliminate risks.
 When we eliminate risks, we eliminate faith.
 When we eliminate faith, we eliminate the true passion of (Christian) living.
 Christianity in Kierkegaard’s time prioritized knowledge over faith.
 Many existential thinkers consider death as the root of anxiety.
 Tillich and Heidegger clarify that anxiety that death brings is not equated to our fear of dying.
 Although anxiety and fear may be coming from the same roots, they are different.
 It is not the abstract knowledge of non-being which produces anxiety but the awareness that non
being is a part of one’s own being.
 Fear has specific object, while anxiety does not have a specific object acc to. Tillich.
 The fear of dying then has an object, and that may refer to the manner buy which one dies--- perhaps
one is afraid of dying by drowning.
 Anxiety brought by death has no specific object.
 Non-being object cannot be an object of fear because it is nothing.
 The escape from the anxiety of death is a result of what Heidegger calls idle talk.
 Death is present in everyday idle talk.
 The recognition of death as our own possibility can help us realize the importance and value of our
life.
 Until death is not yet taking place, one is forced to wait and endure the sufferings of this world.
 Recognizing the temporal nature of our being, and therefore the possibility of our own death,
 we throw ourselves back into being-in-the-world
 There is no need to wait for an afterlife to live a life.
 The afterlife is uncertain and there is a sense of urgency that I must live this life-for this may be my
only life.
 Death reminds us to live. It invites us to see the value of what we have and of what we are.

Terms

CHAPTER V
Cosmos – an orderly harmonious systematic universe.
Cadaver – a dead body: one intended for dissection
Function – the special purpose or activity for which a thing exists or is used.
Restricting – to limit the amount or range of something.
Corruptible – perishable or mortal.
Reflections – contemplations or serious thought.
Inquiry – the act of asking questions in order to gather or collect information.
Objective – based on facts rather than feelings or opinions.
Rational – having the ability to reason or think about things clearly.
Embodied – to give body to (a spirit)
Dynamics – a pattern or process of change, growth or activity.
Finitude – finite quality or state.
Spatial – of or relating to space and the relationship of objects within it.
Perspective – the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed.
Intermediary – an intermediate form, product or stage.
Disposition – the tendency of something to act in a certain manner under given circumstances.
Pervasive – existing in or spreading through every part of something.

CHAPTER VI
Dualism – the quality or state of having two different or opposite parts or elements.
Frailty – a state of weakness in reference to the capabilities and certitude of the senses.
Stereotyping – an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a
particular characteristic.
Transcendental – relating to experience as determined by the mind’s makeup.
Intersubjectivity – involving or occurring between separate conscious mind.
Tenable – capable of being defended against attack or criticism.
Isolation – solitariness or seclusion
Dominating – have a commanding influence on, exercise control over.
Autonomous – responding, reacting, or developing independently of the whole.
Manifestation – a perceptible, outward or visible expression.
Subordinating - in a position of less power or authority than someone else.
Mediated - occupying a middle position.
Modes – manners, styles, or ways.
Prevalent – widespread in a particular area at a particular time.
Indigenous – having originated in and being produced, growing, or living naturally in a particular region or
environment.
Profound – very great or intense state, quality or emotion.
Dispositions – a person’s inherent qualities of mind and character.
Reciprocity – responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions.

CHAPTER VII
Subsistence – the action or fact of maintaining or supporting oneself at a minimum level.
Chronology – the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time.
Stratification – arrangement or formation of layers or strata.
Egalitarian – believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
Consensus – general agreement.
Disseminated – spread or disperse of something widely.
Impoverished – make a person or area poor.
Alienation – separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment.
Subsistence – the action or fact of maintaining or supporting oneself at a minimum level.
Prestige – good reputation or high esteem, though in earlier usage, it meant showiness.
Inculcate – instill an attitude, idea, or habit by persistent instruction.
Spectacle – a visually striking performance or display.
Obsolete – no longer active or distinct.
Realms – an area of activity, interest or knowledge.
Etiquette – the rules indicating the proper and polite way to behave.
Inclination – a feeling of wanting to do something.
Selfie - an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digicam especially for posting on social networks.
Patronize – to be a frequent or regular user.
Culminated – to reach the end or the final result of something.

CHAPTER VIII
Cessation – a stopping of some action
Resuscitation – to bring someone who is unconscious, not breathing, or close to death back to a conscious or
activate state again.
Neurological – the scientific study of the nervous system and the diseases that affect it.
Contention – a belief, opinion, or idea that is argued or stated.
Purgatory – a state after death according to Roman Catholic belief in which the souls of people who die are
made pure through suffering before going to heaven.
Reincarnation - the idea or belief that people are born again with a different body after death.
Empirically – originating in or based observation or experience.
Theological argument – are arguments based on a belief in God.
Self-Preservation – a protection of oneself from destruction or harm.
Ingeniously – very smart or clever.
Optimal – most desirable or satisfactory.
Intrisically – belonging to the essential nature of a thing: occurring as a natural part of something.
Relinquished – voluntarily cease to keep or claim, to give up.
Triviality – lack of seriousness or importance; insignificance.