THE EMBODIED

SUBJECT
A. THE CONCEPT
OF HUMAN BEING
 PLATO
• DIVISION OF WORLDS
– WORLD OF IDEAS/FORMS
• Considered as the world of perfection
• Eternal truths resides
- WORLD OF OPINION/SENSES
• Things are not real but mere imitations of the real
• Considered as the physical world

Ex. DOG (Everyone has an idea of a dog but we differ if

we compare it.
 PLATO
• The real DOG is in PLATO’s WORLD of IDEA.

HUMAN BEING
• Composed of BODY and SOUL
SOUL
• Prior to human being’s existence in the physical
world the soul is residing in the world of ideas.
• The original condition of human beings is that of
a soul.
 PLATO
BODY
• We acquire bodies during birth in the Physical
world
• We are subjected to the different kinds of
limitations
– Forgetfulness of the truths we have encountered in
the world of ideas.
• Source of our errors
• Considers as a prison of the soul
 PLATO
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.
Thus human being is essentially
his soul.
 PLATO
STATE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
STATE INDIVIDUAL FUNCTION VIRTUE
RULERS HEAD RATIONAL WISDOM
SOLDIERS CHEST SPIRITED COURAGE
WORKERS STOMACH APPETITIVE MODERATION/
TEMPERANCE

SOUL’S DIVISION & THREE TYPES OF CITIZEN

 ARISTOTLE
• PLATO’S FAMOUS STUDENT
• Believes that human being is composed
of BODY & SOUL
• They differ on how soul is related to the
body (Plato and Aristotle)
• Considers things composed of two Co-
Principles which he calls MATTER &
FORM
 ARISTOTLE
HYLOMORPHIC DOCTRINE
• Hyle – Matter
• Morphe – Form
• Everything is composed of matter and form
FORM
• Determines matter
• Act
• The principle that actualizes a thing
• It is what makes the corporeal substance to
be what it is.
 ARISTOTLE
MATTER
• Pure Potency
• Capable of receiving actual determination or
perfections
MATTER & FORM COEXIST
EX. TREE-PAPER-ASHES ,CLAY

HUMAN BEING
FORMS – SOUL
BODY- MATTER
The soul cannot exist apart from the body
 ARISTOTLE
If human being dies, the form of a human being
(soul), ceases to be remaining just the body as
cadaver.
SOUL FUNCTION
PLANTS NUTRITIVE
ANIMALS SENSETIVE
HUMANS INTELLECTION
 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 THING.
• He began with doubting everything that
had previously considered as
knowledge.
 RENE DESCARTES
• Claiming that the senses are the
sources of previously established
knowledge and that senses are not
reliable.
• Argued that we should doubt everything
that is delivered to us by our senses.
• You can still be mistaken that what you
are experiencing is not actually
happening as in the case of a dream.
 RENE DESCARTES
• It is wise to consider that everything delivered by
the senses is false including the existence of our
body.
• The only thing which he can’t doubt was that he
doubts, which is a form of thinking.
• He may doubt his bodily existence but he cannot
doubt that his thinking.
• And thinking requires a subject – the thinker.
• Famous line : COGITO ERGO SUM – I THINK THEREFORE I
AM.
 RENE DESCARTES
• The subject I does not refer to a man or rational man
• He did not prove the existence of man with his line
but the “I” is simply a thing that thinks.
• For him, the existence of the soul ( Thinking Thing) is
more distinct and clear than the body. Leaving as to
the idea that man is more certain of the existence of
his soul than his body.
• Later he ultimately proved the existence of his body
and other external things.
 GABRIEL MARCEL
• One cannot simply discard body as what Descartes.
• In his inquiry, he started with existential fact that he
has body which is different form the rock, animals.
• We are different in look, smile, way of speaking.
• We are defined by our distinctive body features and
we are usually identified through faces in ID.
• On the question who am I, it is linked to our body.
• However not everything is our body, there are point
to our existence as more than just bodies
Ex. Anger, fear – we don’t get angry at just the body but
the person . We are then more than just body.
 GABRIEL MARCEL
• Having body implies ownership
• He made an analogy of the ownership of our body to
that someone owning a dog.
• Nobody can claim ownership to our body other than
ourself.
• We own our body because we live with it and no one
else, thus we are responsible for it.
• Ownership does not simply refer to mere possession
but rather 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.
 GABRIEL MARCEL
• Thus, one cannot dismiss the body in the inquiry
concerning who I am.
• The body shall be the starting point.
• The embodied subject necessarily faces his own self
through body whenever he inquires about what being
human means.
 MARTIN HEIDEGGER
• He called human Beings DASEIN, a German Word which
literally means being there.
• 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.
• His starting point allows us to see the existential
import of being-in-the-world in relation to the
question of who we are.
 MARTIN HEIDEGGER
• Who am I can dislodged from the concrete situation
which includes the things and the people around,
culture, language and everything that is present in the
situation.
• Thus, BEING-IN-THE-WORLD MEANS THAT WE LIVE WITH
THINGS, WITH OTHER PEOPLE, AND WITHIN A PARTICULAR
PLACE AND TIME.
• Even if you decide to isolate yourself and live alone in
the mountains, you are still related to things: tress,
rocks, and everything that is present in the mountains.
 MARTIN HEIDEGGER
• As embodied subjects, our bodies have a direct and
concrete relation to the things around us, which
ultimately influences who we are and contribute to the
definition of who we are.
Ex. Water- Farmer, swimmer, fire fighter, chemist
• Our bodies come into contact with the things and
shape the way we look at the world.
Ex. Bible – reader vs. devout Christian
• Being-in-the-world also means to be with other
people, the moment we are born – our parents.
 MARTIN HEIDEGGER
• Our being situated in the world inevitably links us to
people, which these links are real and transformative.
• However, we may lose our identity if we let ourselves
be taken over by the group.
• Being-in-the-world means that we are situated in
place and time.
• We are immersed in particular culture, language, and
social structures.
• We are born in a particular era that allows us to see
the world within the lens of that era.
Ex. Oldies- “Noong unang panahon…”
 MARTIN HEIDEGGER
• Being-in-the-world informs us the very nature of who
we are, that is, that we are shaped by everything
around us. 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 everyday.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
• An embodied subject, whose being in the world, will
have its limitation the moment it is born.
• We are born in a particular time and place, and we did
not choose them.
• There are a lot of things which are already in and with
us when we are born: our gender, our color, our race,
our social status, our genes, and others, this is what he
called FACTICITY.
• Facticity refers to the things in our lives that are given
already.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
• Facticity is not limited to the givens that we have
acquired in our birth. It is also refers to all the details
that surround us in the present as being-in-the-world
in the here and the now; this will include our
environment, our language, past decisions, our past
and present relationships and even our future death.
• All the facts that we currently have are part of our
limitation.
Ex. Language – Filipino/English (Limitation)
Father – Vasectomy (Limitation)
The reality of an embodied being is that we shall always
have limitations by the facticity of our existence.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
SPATIO-TEMPORAL BEINGS
• Different levels of Limitation
On the Level of TEMPORALITY
• The most obvious is our finitude.
• We recognize our mortality and accept that we will
not live forever. We have limited period of stay in this
world. We will die someday, and that is a fact.
• As temporal beings, we deal with the past, present,
and the future.
Ex. Youth – THERE ARE SO MANY NOT YET (Food, beverages,
movies, clothes, places)
We are being restricted by people – parents
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
• We want time to speed up because our youth prevents
us from doing what adults seem to enjoy.
• On the other hand, you will realize that our body is not
yet prepared for certain activities.
• But their advanced age will also experience
limitations, advanced age will prevent them from
doing things which they used to do. THERE ARE SO
MANY NO LONGER.
Ex. No longer for them – Food, beverage, places, activities
• Thus, in both instances, it is the body which sets this
limitation.
Ex. Very young girl vs. Very old woman on Reproduction
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
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. We are set to be in one
place at a time.
Ex. Manila – Cebu at the same time, OFW Relatives
• As an embodied being, we are subjected to the
physical laws of universe and simple admit that we
are restricted by our spatial nature.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
On the Level of UNDERSTANDING
• We consider our spatio-temporal situation as
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
prescribe the way we look at and understand things.
• Think of our age, culture, and past experiences as
optics that we wear every time we look at the world.
• So our spatio-temporal situation limits us from
obtaining a purely objective perspective, or someone
else perspective.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
THE BODY AS INTERMEDIARY
• Our body serves us our intermediary between us and
the physical world.
• It is because of body that we experience the world
(lying on the shore, sitting beside the window of a
plane)
• It is also because of my body that I experience the
world as my world and not of others.
• I can always imagine myself as a rock star but I will
never really know how it is to be a rock star unless I
become one myself.
• Body limits the experience of the world
 JEAN PAUL
THE BODY AS INTERMEDIARY
SARTRE
• The body as intermediary limits me in communicating
people.
• Through the body I can communicate with other people
through words or bodily gestures.
• But we cannot tell other people what we have in mind or
what we feel by the use of sheer will. We have to use
words or bodily expressions.
• Word are often instrument to convey what we want to
express, be it an idea or emotion. We are constrained by
our language.
Ex. I LOVE YOU (can these words capture what we want to
express.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
THE BODY AS INTERMEDIARY
• When we communicate with others, we mostly like
want others to understand us fully.
• However, there are also times when we wish to hide
ourselves from others.
• The body is like a veil that covers reality of a person.
• Our bodies set a limitation for understanding one
another; it may never fully disclose what we would
like to express; it hides certain thoughts and feelings
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
TRANSCENDING LIMITATIONS
• The presence of several limitations imposed by
being an embodied subject may influence us to think
that our life is very restricting.
• Life becomes difficult because of these limitations.
• However, it is also these limitations that make our
lives more interesting and challenging
A. FACTICITY
• We cannot simply truly change our facticity but what
we can do is change our attitude towards them.
• We sometimes use our facticity as an excuse for our
difficulties and failures.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Ex. Cannot Travel Abroad , Finish School (poor)
• We treat our facticity as if life destined us to it. What
is important is to see that we are free to define who
we are and who we are to be. This is what we may call
our historicity.
• Historicity means that we are history-making
creatures, and we are not limited to what nature has
initially given us.
• Facticity challenges us to be creative with our life
options. Our task then is to set our possibilities and
maximize these possibilities.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
B. SPATIO-TEMPORAL
• We are more concerned about the future and or the
past that is why we never appreciate the present.
• If we are reminded from time to time how wonderful the
present is, then perhaps being a temporal creature
does not really mean imposes limitations, but simply
sets a challenge.
• It is a challenge on how to make our lives more
interesting, but simply sets a challenge.
• 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.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
C. BODY AS INTERMEDIARY
• Having a body which links us to world appears to be a
source of limitation because we can never directly and
fully experience the world. However, having a body as a
way to experience the world is a wonderful thing.
• We are challenged to make more creative ways of
conveying our messages to others by not restricting
our means of words.
 JEAN PAUL SARTRE
B. SPATIO-TEMPORAL
• We have to experience loneliness and anxiety as we
wait for our bodies to arrive at a place where we want it
to be. Since we know that we can only be at one place at
a time.
• When you are in a particular place, make the most out
of that moment. Unfortunately, it is the things and
people in our immediate surroundings that we most
often neglect. Thus, being reminded of our spatial
character invites us to value the people and things
around us.
 B. THE HUMAN
RESPONSIBILITY:
FROM THE “I” to
“OTHER”
• According to Levinas, Beings refer to all that exist in the
world
• According to Levinas, there are two different ways of
thinking by “ THE LAW OF THE I”, a thinking that starts
from myself, goes out to the other, and returns to myself
and the “THE LAW OF THE OTHER”, a thinking that moves
from the I to the other without returning to the I.

THE AUTONOMY OF THE SELF

• It is an act of giving priority to the dominating “I” over
the “Other”.
THE HETERONOMY OF THE OTHER
• Levinas says we need to experience the “other” as
“Other”. He considers that what is most important is not
the self but the other.

• To talk about the “Other” is to always consider the

ethical responsibility of the “self” to the “other”.
 C. MAN AS
“CAPABLE HUMAN
BEING”
• Human life is a “Task in the making”, and work-in-
progress”. Hence, the narrative of our life must use the
capacity of both to understand its hidden possibilities –
leading to the concept of narrative identity.
• Narrative identity is the dynamic way of interpreting
identity.
THREE THINGS TO BE HIGHLIGHTEDN IN OUR LIFE IN QUEST OF
THE NARRATIVE
1st not to see life as something routinary or mechanical.
(Identity is not just keeping the same, but changes in time
and always in the making)2nd To find “meaning” of what’s
happening in our life again and again.
2nd To find “meaning” of what’s happening in our life again
and again.
(Means to put into a deeper level in order to grasp the real
essence of being)

3rd To accept things in life as they are, but one should go

beyond these lived human actions.
(The challenge is to live life to the fullest. Struggle is
inevitable in life, but to experience the reality of life is for
human to grow and go beyond the lived experience in
order to find its essence.
THE FORMATION OF THE HUMAN
• The aim of self-formation is to make each human
becomes what God wants him to be – by way of God’s
providential plan, universal calling to holiness,
significant human beings becoming an instruments of
God’s grace and the community.
• Self-formation is “the formation of the self” – to realize
the plan of God.