Chapter 4

Prepared by:
Lovebella C. Jao
Discussant
Views of Man as Given by Oriental
Philosophers
written by: Magdalena Villaba of UST
1. The Hindu View of Man. According to this view, man
possesses the atman or soul, the highest aspect of what
is understood as the principle of life. It is the innermost
essence of man. Man is seen as consisting of five
sheaths:
a. the self, dependent on food annamayatman – the material layer
known as the physical or corporeal self;
b. the self as vital breath pranamayatman – the biological layer;
c. the other self consisting of will manammayatman – the
psychological layer;
d. the self or consciousness vijnamamayatman – intellectual layer; and
e. the final essence of the self or pure bliss annandamyatman –
approximates the Brahman which is Pure Bliss.
2. Man in Buddhism. According to this view, man is
subject to the law that all things rise, decay and fall.
There is no soul. There is no permanence.
In Buddhism, man is just given for the totality of the
five aggregates that compose the individual: matter,
sensation, perception, mental constructs, and
consciousness. The final goal of man is to attain
enlightenment, to free himself from the bonds of
ignorance.
With this, man is freed from ignorance, and he
reaches Nirvana, through YOGA.
3. Man in Confucianism. Man is regarded as a moral
being and as a social being. For Confucius, a true man is
a noble man, chun-tzu, a superior man and such a man is
said to be a man of jen (human-heartedness), a man of
all round virtue:
In Confucianism, man is expected to posses four
virtues:
a. human-heartedness (jen)
b. righteousness (yi)
c. ritual or propriety (li)
d. wisdom (chic)
4. The Taoist View of Man. Taoism as a philosophy advocates
what is natural and spontaneous, simple and necessary.
According to this philosophy, that by which anything and
everything comes to be, is the “Tao.”
In Lao-Tsu Book, it is said that from “Tao” there comes one.
From one, there comes two. From two,, there comes three; from
three comes all things. The “Tao” is generally understood as the
Power or Principle behind all things. It is oftentimes called the
Non-Being.
According to this philosophy, everything that exists in the
universe needs the whole universe as a necessary condition for
existence.
Things are ever changeable, but the laws governing this
change of things are not themselves changeable.
Two Levels of Knowledge

1. The Lower Level – the finite point of view, when man

sees distinctions like those between right and wrong; and
2. The Higher Level – the higher point of view, when man
sees things in the light of Heaven, that is from the point
of view of the “Tao,” that things though different are
united and become one.
5. Other Attributes of Man
Man has also been described
a. A Knower
Luijpen in the book, Existential Phenomenology, distinguishes two
elements of knowing, the subject and the object. He defines
knowledge as the wonderful mystery of man’s openness to reality, and
the mystery of reality’s being-for-man.
Robert O. Johann in Fidelity to Truth, gives two kinds of truth:
objective and subjective. He believes truth comes from reality, and the
person. To Johann, “the truth is always the Real as disclosed to an
individual who has personally come to grips with it and succeeded in
a measure in articulating his vision.”
b. In dialogue

Dominique Dubarle said that “the first kind of dialogue

aims at intellectual agreement on the basis of evidence
open to all and makes it possible to establish true
knowledge…” To him, ,the second kind of dialogue involves
philosophical, religious and political convictions. It is a
human conversation where spiritual convictions confront
one another.”
 Martin Buber gave the first requirement of a
true dialogue:

to be open to the world

to observe; and
to be aware of everything.
There are three kinds of dialogue according to Buber:
1. Genuine dialogue – where its participants have in mind
the others, and turn to them to establish a mutual
living relationship between them;
2. Technical dialogue – prompted by the need of
objective understanding;
3. A monologue, disguised as a dialogue – where two
men speak each to himself, in which there is no need t
learn or give something.
c. As Lover

Teilhard de Chardin claims that true love desires the

other’s good. All beings are attracted to what is good and
are repelled by what is bad. He believes that living beings
need others like themselves, that sexual love unites spiritual
and carnal love, that “there is no normal man outside of
normal relationships,” and that every man has a duty to
love.
 Erich Fromm considers love as an act. He stresses two
things in his book, The Art of Loving.

1. The theory of love.

The problem of human existence is separation, alienation.
Love is the answer. Love is characterized by care, respect,
responsibility, and knowledge.
2. The practice of love.
The following elements are needed: discipline,
concentration, patience, and supreme concern with the
mastery of the art of love.