UNIT 2 HUMAN PERSON AS A SPIRITUAL BEING

Contents

2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Human Being as Living Being
2.3 Human Being as Spiritual
2.4 Existence and Nature of Human Soul
2.5 Let Us Sum Up
2.6 Key Words
2.7 Further Readings and References
2.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

2.0 OBJECTIVES
We live in a world of scientific advancement, a world in which everything is measured through
the mirror of science. We have even reached a stage to create human beings outside the womb
with the advancement of science. As result human beings, their life is seen as an object or
mixture of some molecular compounds. But the truth is human or neither merely living beings
made of some molecular organisms nor merely a rational or sensitive being human are also
spiritual. There is in them an inbuilt spiritual mechanism. So the main objective of this unit is to
discover that spiritual mechanism and open new avenues of meaning to human life as such.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

‘Know thyself’ is a fundamental philosophical quest. It is a quest for meaning of life. This
philosophical tradition insisted that the unexamined life is not worth living. In turn who am I?
Where did I come from, what is the purpose and meaning of my life, what are my relations to the
nature, community and God were some of the perennial fundamental questions raised by human
person. Shakespeare in his work Hamlet speaks this way,
What is a piece of work is man how noble is reason! How infinite in faculty!

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In form, in moving how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!
And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Hamlet (1601) act 2, Sc. 2, 1. 316
Even the Indian classical traditions identified atmavidya with atmasaksthkara – knowing is
becoming. Hence human person is indeed a source of wonder and question.
But down through the centuries this typical nature of wonder was not merely an outward looking
which directed its attention more to the world surrounding man than to man himself rather it
enabled human person in philosophical traditions to discover the truths/mysteries of himself.
That he is the centre and crown of creation, the point where the whole of reality converges, in
whom the whole of existence turns into a subject, becomes logos and gets transformed into self
transparency and self consciousness. That is why the progress of philosophy is expressed above
all in the anthropocentric orientation. Anthropocentrism is more important than any scientific
theory about physical nature. Philosophical thought cannot remain outside of this universal
movement. Therefore in this unit one of our primary concerns is not only to show human person
as a living person, a rational being, a sensitive being, having the operative faculties of intellect
and will but to show how through them that there is a immaterial or spiritual functioning in the
operative system which in turn presupposes an one ego principle the soul. Hence this way of
studying human person brings us to a foundation that Humans are spiritual.

2.2 HUMAN BEING AS LIVING BEING

Concept of life
Most people are unable to give a satisfactory answer to this question, what is life? although the
ordinary person can always distinguish a living being from a non living being. The nature of life
is mysterious; its effects or manifestations are familiar to all. It is by a study of these
manifestations that we try to discover the nature of life itself. From the visible effects we go
back to the invisible cause, from the accidents to the nature.
The most usual criterion of life is movement, in particular self-movement. In other words life is
the capacity for self-movement. That is why in philosophical language we define life as that
which makes a being naturally capable of self –perfective immanent activity. This is the great

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difference between living and non-living being. Human beings as the living beings possess
immanent activities. An immanent activity is one whose effects remain within the subject which
acts. For example the thinking starts in me and its effects remain in me thinking is an immanent
activity; so are growing, seeing, willing etc. Whereas, all the activities of the non-living beings
are purely transitive. A transitive activity is one whose effects pass into another being. When I
throw a ball the effects are passed on to the ball.

Origin of life
Spontaneous Generation: Ancients held the view that a certain number of living being
spontaneously originated from inorganic matter. However today it is generally held that in the
present state of earth every living being derives from a living being. By this we do not claim that
matter – that is, mineral substances – had no share in the first production of life. However, we do
deny that the first living beings were produced by matter and chance alone, by the mere
instrumentality of the physico-chemical factors at work in the inorganic world. For an effect can
never be superior in perfection to its total cause. But if inorganic matter should, by its own
forces, produce life, the effect would be superior in perfection to the cause. Therefore, by itself
alone, inorganic matter cannot produce any living being, and spontaneous generation, in the
sense of absolute emergence, appears impossible.

Scientists: They agree that life did not always exist on our earth. They estimate that it began
about a billion year ago. According to chemical evolution the earth’s early atmosphere had large
quantities of hydrogen containing compounds like ammonia, methane and water. Energy from
such sources as sunlight, lightning and volcanoes produced reactions among these compounds
and they produced simple biological molecules combined and formed more complex molecules.
These complex molecules became organized into the first living organisms.

Evolution Theories: The theories of evolution especially the pioneering research by Lamarck,
Darwin and De Vries shows that the various living species in existence today are the result of a
long process of gradual change governed by a few basic rules such a natural selection and
environmentally induce mutation.

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Religion: Religion generally traces the origin of life to the creative power of God/gods.
According to Rig Veda everything originated as a result of the sacrifice of the Purusa (Rv .X.
90). Bible claims that God directly created everything out of nothing (gen1). Having briefed the
concept of life and its origin in human persons now let us study how a human person works in
pursuit of knowledge or how does one operative himself in the process of knowing.

Check Your Progress I

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) What is the distinguished character of human beings as living beings?

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2) Spontaneous generation, in the sense of absolute emergence, appears impossible, why?
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2.3 HUMAN BEINGS AS SPIRITUAL

In the study of human beings one cannot be merely satisfied with the saying that human is a
living being, made up of some organic components, having a rational appetite etc., The
philosophical investigation into the knowledge process of human discover to us the realm of
spiritual functioning in the operative dimensions of human persons. Hence he or she is spiritual
in nature and in its essence and function. To discover this truth let us turn to the operative
functions in human beings

Operative Dimensions of Human Beings

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Sense Knowledge

It is that which is obtained through senses. Not all organisms have the same number of senses.
Unicellular living beings possess only the sense of touch, while the higher mammals and humans
are endowed with a great variety of senses. Traditionally they have been enumerated as the five
senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. These senses examine material objects in their
singularity and provide us with knowledge about particular and individual thing.
Content of sense knowledge
Our senses know their objects only insofar as they affect us, not as they are in themselves. Our
intelligence knows them, at least to some extent, noumenally, as they are in themselves
independent of our knowledge of them. In ordinary mental activity the senses and the
intelligence always work together. The intellect gives us universal and abstract knowledge
which we apply to individual objects by means of our senses. In addition to external senses we
can also speak of the internal senses, which are not directly in contact with external reality but
refer to it indirectly, through the agency of the external senses. There are four internal senses:
the Central sense, Imagination, Memory and the Estimative power. Whether these senses are
really distinct, or only four aspects of one power, is undecided.

Central Sense (Common Sense):

It is where all the data of the externals senses are collected and integrated. Three main functions
are generally ascribed to the central sense: first it makes the animal and human on the sense level
aware of the activity and the objects of its external senses. Second the central sense
distinguishes between the different sensations deriving from the various senses. And finally the
central sense integrates the data of the external senses and refers them to their common object.

Memory and Imagination

Memory is the function which retains, reproduces and recognizes the representations of objects
formerly perceived. It represents to the consciousness data obtained in the past, conserving their

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temporal connotation. It is the faculty of the past. Imagination concerns the data gathered by the
common sense and reproduces it even when the objects are absent. It can also reassemble them
in a manner different from how they are found in reality. There are three different kinds of
memory - motor memory, mental memory and pure memory. Motor memory is the memory of
the living body in motion. Walking, talking, writing, reading, using tools are different
manifestations of motor memory. Mental memory stores its acquisitions in the form of
knowledge, consisting in memory images, ideas, judgments or conclusions. This kind of
memory frequently operates in conjunction with motor memory. Pure memory is the result of
the spontaneous inscription in our mind of some event we have experienced. This kind of
memory just “remembers,” whereas motor memory “learns how to” and mental memory
“memorizes.”

Estimative Power

Human also possesses an estimative power. That power involves some kind of judgment, but a
judgment which uses no ideas, which is singular, concrete and pragmatic. In human this power is
called the cognitive power. Its scope is wider than that of the estimative power in animals. The
cognitive power in human is the bridge between the intellect and the senses. It is, so to speak,
the extension of human’s spiritual powers into the field of sense knowledge. The phantasm,
human’s highest form of sense knowledge, is formed in the cogitative power under the
unconscious guidance of the agent intellect. By means of this power human applies one’s
abstract concepts and universal judgments to the concrete objects and individual situations of
experience. This in turn gives a scope for spiritual function in human person.

Co-operation between External and Internal Senses

Every act of knowledge supposes the unification of its raw data. What kind of unificaion must
the subject impose upon the form which is passively received in the sense faculty? The
unification is a unification of space performed by means of time. But time itself needs
unification. Time will be unified only if each passing moment is not entirely lost but persists
somehow in you. This is the function of memory, which retains something of every moment of

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the past. So time, which unified space, is itself unified by memory. Therefore every sensation or
perception supposes the co-operation of memory. The external senses suppose the continual co-
operation of the internal senses.

Human Intelligence
Human is both an animal and a spirit. As an animal one possesses a cognitive function which
makes one able to adapt oneself to new circumstances and to learn from experience. As a spirit
one is endowed with a cognitive function akin to the angelic intellect, which makes one capable
of reflecting on one’s own intellectual activity and of being conscious of oneself as a subject.
Human intelligence is neither of these two functions but may be considered a combination of
both. In human intelligence the material element is represented by the power of learning from
experience, whereas the formal element consists in the purely spiritual function of self-
reflection. Because of its formal element, human intelligence is totally different from its animal
counterpart. Human is capable of formally knowing universals and relations, while the animal
discovers them only materially if at all. Thinking is the typical activity of human intelligence.
The senses perceive, memory recalls, imagination pictures objects before the mind; intelligence
alone thinks. How does this entire process work and what exact is the nature of our human
intellect?
Our intellect is not material in the way a stone is material; it cannot be seen or touched or
photograped like a stone. Our intellect is immaterial: this means, it is intrinsically independent
of matter. The brain is that portion of matter which has the closest relation to the operations of
our intellect. We claim, therefore, that our intellect is not intrinsically dependent on our brain,
that our brain is not a cause of the operations of our intellect, that it does not think. Since we
cannot study our intellect directly, we must turn to its internal operations and show that they are
immaterial. For, as a being is, so it acts. If the operations of our intellect are immaterial, their
cause, our intellect, must likewise be immaterial.
Operations of the intellect: idea, judgment and reflection.
In order to understand the spiritual operations of the intellect better one need to compare it with
those of the senses, both external and internal, and show that there is a radical difference between
them and also reasons for difference.

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Ideas: Sensations are always of single objects or single groups of objects. I see this cat, I hear
this plane, I touch this table, I see this crowd. Images likewise always refer to a single object or
group of objects. I cannot imagine a tree which is at the same time a coconut tree and a teak, big
and small, with leaves and without leaves. The clearer my image is, the better I realize that it
applies only to one individual object or group of objects. My ideas, on the other hand, are
universal. They apply to each and every individual of a species. Not only are my ideas
universal, I am also aware of their universality. Hence there is an essential difference between
sensations and images, on one hand, and ideas, on the other hand. The root differece is in the
materiality of my senses as opposed to the immateriality of my intellect. Therefore my ideas are
not intrinsically dependent on matter and my intellect, which produces them, is strictly
immaterial or spiritual.
Judgments: Judgment is the center of human’s knowledge by which one affirms or denies
something of something. When human knows an object, one does so in a judgment. The
judgment becomes evident as soon as we consider the dynamism, the movement, the activity, the
striving of our intelligence. But a concept as such is a static representation. It cannot be the
foundation of our intellectual life, that the foundation must consist in some activity. The
judgment, the affirmation, is such an activity. Sensations and images are always of contingent
objects or actions. That means that the objects which I perceive or imagine do exist, but do not
exist necessarily; they might also not exist. But in all judgments there is an element of
necessity. Even a judgment referring to a contingent event contains a core of absolute necessity.
Even here the radical difference between them emerges from the materiality of sensation and
imagination, as opposed to the immateriality of the judgment. Therefore the judgments produced
by my intellect are not intrinsically dependent on matter, and my intellect itself is strictly
immaterial or spiritual.
Reflection: One of the most remarkable properties of my intellect is its power of reflecting
perfectly on its own activity. I think that I think, I am aware of being aware, I am conscious of
being conscious. The intellect not only performs an activity, but it knows that activity while it is
going on. The senses too possess the factor of reflection but it is of no perfect self-reflection. My
eye sees, but it does not see that it sees. My imagination imagines, but it does not imagine its
own imagining. But one can see a kind of imperfect reflection in central senses whereas the
intellect is capable of more perfect self-reflection. Even here the difference is based upon the

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materiality of the senses, as opposed to the immateriality of the intellect. But question here is
what are we speaking about when we say immateriality of the intellect? Does the process of
knowing needs no support of matter? Or What is the relationship of senses in the process of
intellect? These would be some radical question that will enable us to understand the process of
intellect better.
Senses and intellect
No process of the intellect can ultimately deny the possibility of the role of sense the perception
with the corresponding images provides an intelligible expression, an affirmed concept or idea.
Without an image no impression will be formed in the intellect. As the picture becomes visible
only when the beam of light, having passed through the film, hits the screen, so the impression
becomes conscious, is transformed into an idea, only when in actual contact with the image it is
actively impressed upon the possible intellect. This explains why we can become aware of our
ideas only by turning to the corresponding image. However the intellect, on the other hand,
although needs the collaboration of the senses, transcends the domain of the senses and can reach
supra-sensory reality. It is capable of complete self-reflection. The point of view of the intellect
is not relative, but absolute because it is the point of view of a spirit.
Human Will: Existence and nature
The existence of sense appetite, of the many drives by which human strives towards pleasure and
away from pain, is strongly emphasized by modern psychologists. But quite a number of them
deny that human has a rational appetite, a will, essentially different from and superior to the
sense drives. Others admit the existence of the will but deny its freedom. Therefore, in this
section, we will demonstrate the existence of the will and existence of the will is really
demonstrated only when we have established that human’s highest tendency is freedom.
The philosophical demonstration of will is rather simple. It rests on the supposition that if
human possesses an immaterial cognitive faculty, one must also possess an immaterial appetitive
faculty. An empirical confirmation of this philosophical argument is derived from everyday
experience. Every act of real self-control is an implicit manifestation of the will. In such an act
we are conscious of the fact that some tendency in us is held in check by a higher tendency. That
higher tendency is the will. As the intellect knows that it knows, the rational appetite wills its
own willing. It can move itself, it can command itself to will and also command other faculties
to perform their actions. It commands the intellect to think, the memory to remember, the eye to

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see and the leg to move. We must remember that the intellect and the will are not distinct
autonomous realities but only distinct power of one undivided autonomous reality which is the
human being.
Argument for the Freedom of the Will

Against the determinists who say that every human action is a definite and determined. There
were some who argued for the freedom of will. We shall consider four arguments, which may be
called: (1) the argument from common consent, (2) the psychological argument, (3) the ethical
argument, (4) the philosophical argument.
Argument from Common Consent. The great majority of humans believe that their will is free.
This conviction is of the utmost practical importance for the whole of human life. Therefore, if
there is order in the world, the majority of humankind cannot be wrong in this belief. Hence the
will is free.
Psychological Argument. We have said that most people naturally hold that the will is free.
Why do they cling to that conviction? Because they are directly and indirectly aware of the
freedom of their own decisions. They are directly aware of their freedom in the very act of
making a free decision; they are indirectly aware of it because of the many instances of
behaviour which can only be explained by admitting the freedom of the will.
Ethical Argument If there is no freedom, there is no real responsibility, no virtue, no merit, no
moral obligation, no duty, no morality.
Philosophical Argument: Every kind of knowledge evokes a corresponding kind of striving as
my knowledge is always knowledge of (after) ‘something’. In knowledge my mind freely tends
or strives towards the object of my knowledge. This follows from the fact that knowledge and
striving are the two fundamental immaterial functions or aspects of a rational being.

Check Your Progress II

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) Explain - Estimative power as the extension of human spiritual power

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2) What is the function of Brain in Human intelligence?
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3) Briefly explain the relationship between the Senses and the Intellect

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4) Is human Will Free, Explain?

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2.4 EXISTENCE AND NATURE OF HUMAN SOUL

Existence of the Soul

In the preceding sections we have demonstrated that human possesses an immaterial intellect and
a free will. The intellect is not human, nor is the will: both are powers through which human
operates. Technically we call them faculties (accidents) – that, the immediate principles of
mental operations. Since these faculties are not the person self, they must exist in the person.
But since they are immaterial, they cannot exist in the person’s body, which is material. Hence

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there must be in the human person, besides one’s body, some other component in which one’s
spiritual faculties inhere. We call this component the soul. Therefore our first provisional
definition of the soul might be: that component of human in which the intellect and the will
inhere; or, that component which manifests itself in human’s thinking and willing.

Nature of the Soul

Human Soul is Spiritual /immaterial

Spiritual means intrinsically independent of matter. A being is spiritual if it does not require
matter as co-cause of its operations and of its existence. But we have demonstrated that the
intellect and the will, through which the soul acts, are intrinsically independent of matter. But as
a being is, so it acts. Therefore the human soul is also intrinsically independent of matter, it is
spiritual.

Human Soul is Simple

The human soul is simple in the sense that it is not composed of matter. There are no substance
and accidents in the soul. Being immaterial, human soul is not only undivided but also
individsible. The human soul is not only a substance that which exists in itself but also a
subsistence. Because it exists by itself. Human body and other material things are not the
substratum that supports and sustains the human soul in existence.

Human Soul is Immortal

Immortal means not subject to death or to destruction, destined to exist forever. A being’s
essence can be destroyed directly by decomposition, indirectly by loss of essential support. A
being’s existence is destroyed by annihilation. The human soul cannot be destroyed by
decomposition. Only composite, or material, beings can be decomposed. The human soul
cannot also be destroyed by loss of essential support. There is loss of essential support when a
being which is intrinsically dependent on matter for its operations and for its existence loses the
support of that matter. For our soul is not intrinsically dependent on matter for its specific

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operations. Therefore it cannot be destroyed by loss of essential support. The third way in which
a being can be destroyed is by annihilation. Since God creates the soul as a being destined to
exist forever. His will is immutable. Therefore He does not annihilate a being which he creates
as a being destined to exist forever. Therefore human soul is immortal.

Check Your Progress III

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) Define - Human Soul

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2) Human soul is spiritual – Explain
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2.5 LET US SUM UP

In this unit, ‘Human person as spiritual’ we have tried to establish the view that if our operations
are spiritual then our faculties are also spiritual, if the faculties are spiritual then the one ego
principle the soul is also spiritual and if the soul is spiritual, the human need to be spiritual. This
term spiritual here refers to immaterial, whether completely immaterial, without even extrinsic
dependence on matter, or incompletely, with some extrinsic dependence on matter. In the first
case we have a pure spirit and in the second a spirit in matter. This discovery of the spiritual
nature is very vital for human existence, for it opens the horizons of self-knowledge, self-
volition, self-consciousness and self-position. It is the Ego or I the prime focus of

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anthropological foundation. This spiritual nature keeps human moving beyond finite objects
and quest for truth and goodness. This power of transcendence is what adds new meaning and
opens new avenues to the reality of life as humans.

2.6 KEY WORDS

Anthropocentrism- Person Centered

Immanent- effects remain within the subject which acts.
Simple - not composed of matter, not divided

2.7 FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES

Bogliolo, Louis. Philosophical Anthropology. Shillong: SHTC, 1984.

Chardin, Teihard de. The Hymn of the Universe. New York: Harper & Row, 1961.
Desbruslais, Cyril. The Philosophy of the Human Person. Pune: JDV, 1997.
Sumner, Claude. The Philosophy of Man. Adis Ababa: Central Printing Press, 1974.
Donceel, J.F. Philosophical Psychology. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963.

2.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Answers to Check Your Progress I

In philosophical language we define life as that which makes a being naturally capable of self –
perfective immanent activity. This is the great difference between living and non-living being.
Human beings as the living beings possess immanent activities. An immanent activity is one
whose effects remain within the subject which acts. For example the thinking starts in me and its
effects remain in me. Thinking is an immanent activity; so are growing, seeing, willing etc.
Ancients held the view that a certain number of living being spontaneously originated from
inorganic matter. However today it is generally held that in the present state of earth every living
being derives from a living being. By this we do not claim that matter – that is, mineral
substances – had no share in the first production of life. For an effect can never be superior in

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perfection to its total cause. But if inorganic matter should, by its own forces, produce life, the
effect would be superior in perfection to the cause. Therefore, by itself alone, inorganic matter
cannot produce any living being, and spontaneous generation, in the sense of absolute
emergence, appears impossible.
Answers to Check Your Progress II
Human also possesses an estimative power. In human this power is called the cognitive power.
In human is the bridge between the intellect and the senses. It is, so to speak, the extension of
human’s spiritual powers into the field of sense knowledge. The phantasm, human’s highest
form of sense knowledge, is formed in the cogitative power under the unconscious guidance of
the agent intellect. By means of this power human applies one’s abstract concepts and universal
judgments to the concrete objects and individual situations of experience. This in turn gives a
scope for spiritual function in human person.

The brain is that portion of matter which has the closest relation to the operations of our
intellect. We claim, therefore, that our intellect is not intrinsically dependent on our brain, that
our brain is not a cause of the operations of our intellect that it does not think.

No process of the intellect can ultimately deny the possibility of the role of sense the perception
with the corresponding images provides an intelligible expression, an affirmed concept or idea.
Without an image no impression will be formed in the intellect. As the picture becomes visible
only when the beam of light, having passed through the film, hits the screen, so the impression
becomes conscious, is transformed into an idea, only when in actual contact with the image it is
actively impressed upon the possible intellect. This explains why we can become aware of our
ideas only by turning to the corresponding image. But when my intelligence carrying an
impression, in its connection with the lower term of the relation, the multiplicity of the senses, I
call it the understanding. When I consider my intelligence, carrying the impression, in its
connection with the higher term of the relation, the unity of Being, I call it the intellect. Both
understanding and intellect are aspects of the selfsame human intelligence.
Free will is the ability of the will, all conditions for action being present, to decide whether to act
or not to act and whether to act in this manner or in that manner. Freedom (in the widest sense) is
absence of external coercion or force; (in the narrow sense) it is the will which is free from

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intrinsic necessity or determination in at least some of its acts, i.e., will is capable of choice when
all the conditions for acting are present. Therefore human will is free but it does not mean that
will is free in every respect.

Answers to Check your Progress III

1. Since the faculties are not the person self, they must exist in the person. But since they are
immaterial, they cannot exist in the person’s body, which is material. Hence there must be in the
human person, besides one’s body, some other component in which one’s spiritual faculties
inhere. We call this component the soul. Therefore our first provisional definition of the soul
might be: that component of human in which the intellect and the will inhere; or, that component
which manifests itself in human’s thinking and willing
2. Spiritual means intrinsically independent of matter. A being is spiritual if it does not require
matter as co-cause of its operations and of its existence. But we have demonstrated that the
intellect and the will, through which the soul acts, are intrinsically independent of matter. But as
a being is, so it acts. Therefore the human soul is also intrinsically independent of matter, it is
spiritual.

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