THE EMBODIED SUBJECT

MODULE 3
THE CONCEPT OF A HUMAN BEING

LESSON 1
WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING?
PLATO

• a human being is composed of body and soul, but he

argues that the human is essentially his soul. Prior to
humman being’s existence in this physical world (of the
senses) the soul is residing in the world of ideas, so that
the original condition of human beings is that of a soul.
• as we acquire bodies during birth in the physical world,
we are subjected to different kinds of limitations, including
forgetfulness of the truths that we have encountered in
the world of ideas.
PLATO
• beacause of our bodies, we are inhibited from grasping
truths.
• the body is the source of our errors
• the body, together with everything in the world of senses,
is therefore considered as having less or even no value at
all.
• the body prevents us from knowing reality and often
submit to its limitations, as when we trust more our
senses than our reasons and eventually realize that we
were deceived y our senses.
PLATO
• considers the body as a prison of the soul, which prompts
him to set the ideal of liberating the soul from the body.
• the soul is immortal while the body is mortal.
• so, when we die, our body will decay but our soul will
return to the world of ideas.
• A HUMAN BEING IS ESSENTIALLY HIS SOUL
PLATO’S ANALOGY OF THE STATE TO THE
INDIVIDUAL

STATE INDIVIDUAL FUNCTION VIRTUE

Rulers Head Rational Wisdom

Soldiers Chest Spirited Courage

Wokers Stomach Appetitive Moderation/Temperance

 PLATO’S ANALOGY OF THE STATE TO THE
INDIVIDUAL
• According to Plato, the human society is nothing more
than a enlarge human being. Just as a society is
composed of three types of citizens (rulers, soldiers, and
workers), so is the human soul divided into three parts
(reasoning- head, spirited- emotions, and appetite-
desires)
ARISTOTLE

• believes that human beings are composed of body and

soul.
• Aristotle considers things as composed of two co-
principles which he calls matter and form
• Form is the principle which actualizes a thing and makes
a thing what it is,
• Matter is viewed as thepotentiality to receive the form.
ARISTOTLE

• in short, form is viewed as act while matter is viewed as

potency.
• it should always be noted that matter and form are not
complete realities, but only co-principles of a thing
(substance)
• and as co-principles, matter and form do not exist in
themselves separately.
 ARISTOTLE
• the form refers to the soul while matter refers to the body.
• since matter and form - body and soul - are co-principles, the
soul cannot exist apart from the body.
• the soul can never be found existing independently of the body.
Even the soul is considered asa non-material part of a body,
still it cannot have an independent existence as Plato claims.
• So, if human being dies, the form of a human being, soul
ceases to be and the remaining thing is just the body. And this
body, no longer holds the form of man.
• Human being is always a composite of body and soul.
ARITOTLE’S THREE FUNCTIONS OF THE SOUL

• 1. Nutrition- the nutritive function is that which we shared

with plants.
• 2. Sensation- 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.
• 3. Intellection- it is the intellective function which not only
separates us from all other beings,but also defines us as
human beings.
RENÈ DESCARTES

• for Descartes, the existence of the soul (the thinking

thing) 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.
• it is important to note how Descartes thought of the soul
as distinct from the body, and how he identified the
foundation of certainty to something which does not
include a body- the thinking thing.
PLATO, ARISTOTLE, AND DESCARTES

• human beings as composite of body and soul, and as

having an essential characteristic of rationality.
• the dualistic view of manconsiders man as having two
essential elements: body and soul
• the soul which gets the upper hand while the body is
treated with dislike for reasons like ‘source of error’,
restricting, corruptible.
ESSENTIALIST PERSPECTIVE

• claims that there must be an essential characterisitc that

a being must posses for it to be called as such. and in the
case of human beings, it is rationality.
THE EMBODIED SUBJECT
LESSON 2
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY REFLECTION

• reflective activity- is a consequence of a disturbance in

the chain of our daily routine.
• existential break- reflective activities sakes us and forces
us to pause and think about wha happened .
• Primaryi reflection- occurs when we inquire about things
in a distant and object manner.
• Secondary reflection- the inquirer is involve in his inquiry.
the inquirer is forced to face himself.
GABRIEL MARCEL’S EMBODIMENT

• the body is must not be simly dismiss in an inquiry in

concerning “who I am”. And even the body is also
included in the inquiry in questioning for the body is
cannot be treated as a mere body only because the body
is always the starting point. the slef is cannot be
separates from the body and i will be vry unnatural to
proceed with an inquiry about the self (my self) without
regarding the own body. the embodied subject faces his
own self, through his body, whenever he inquires about
what being human is
MARTIN HEIDEGGER’S BEING-IN -THE-WORLD
• calls human beings DASEIN - a German word literally
means being there.
• it tells us that our very being is to be there, to be in the
world-being-in-the-world. “To be in the world” means that
our experiences are always situated in our world.
• we cannot detach ourselves from our situation and we will
always look and understand the world according to our
being-in-the-world.
• being-in-the-world means that we live with things, with
people, and within a particualr place and time.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER’S BEING-IN -THE-WORLD
• Heidegger’s concept of being-in-the-world informs us of
the very nature of who we are, that is, that we were
shaped by everything around us. Who we are is not a
product of a distant flection 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
aprticipating subjects that deal with things and people
everyday. Andm wheather we like it or not, this encounter
with things and people everyday contribute to who we
are.
LIMITATIONS AND
TRANSCENDENCE
LESSON E
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE’S FACTICITY

• refers to the things in our lives that are already given.

• it is not limited to the givens that we have acquired in our
birth but also refers to all the details that surround us in
the present as being-in -the-world in the her and the now;
and this will include our environment, our language, our
past decisions, our past and present relationships, and
even our future death.
• all the facts that we currently have are part of our
limitations.
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE’S FACTICITY

• the reality of embodied being: that we shall always have

limitations by the facticity of our existence.
SPATIAL-TEMPORAL BEING

• imposing a limit on us as it sets out to be our

preconditions of our understanding.
• our being situated in a particular time and place shall
prescribed the way we look at and understand things.
• our spatial-temporal being situation limits us from
obtaining a purely objective perspective, or some else’s
perspective.
SPATIAL-TEMPORAL BEING

• we may think that we understand someone when we put

ourselves into their shoes. But we need to ask ouselves if
we can really set aside our biases and use the
perspective of another person; or if we can really be
purely objective.
THE BODY AS INTERMEDIARY

• the body as intermediary, allows us to experience the

world in a limited manner, and we can only say that our
world will always be a world according to my body.
TRANSCENDENCE

• the act of rising above something to a superior state

• transcendence comes from the Latin prefix trans-
meaning “beyond”, and the word scandare, meaning “to
climb”.
• when you achieve transcendence, you have gone beyond
irdinary limitations.
TRANSCENDING LIMITATIONS
• life becomes difficult because of the limitations. However,
it is also these limitations that makes our lives more
interesting and challenging.
• a. facticity- our facticity challenges us to be creative with
our life options.
• b. spatial-temporal- it is a challenge on how to make our
lives more interesting and meaningful; and a challenge to
make the most out of our time in this life. being reminded
of our spatial character invites us to values the peole and
things around us.
TRANSCENDING LIMITATIONS
• c. body as intermediary- we are taught to be respectful
of one’s’ concealment, responsible, to be patient,
sensitive, understanding, and a lot of other values.
• there are times that we don’t want everyone to know what
we think and feel. Thus, the body as intermediary may
pose some limitations to us; but these limitations serve as
our advantage as well.