Transcript of philosophy of man

Laurence Mcquarrie F. Marbella

Philosophy of Man
photo credit Nasa / Goddard Space Flight Center / Reto Stckli
Course Title: Philosophy of Man
Course Code: PHIN01A
Course Credit: Three (3) Units
Pre-requisites: None
Course Description:
This academic discipline is a synthesis of the historical development of Western and Eastern philosophies on
the subject of the human person. It presents a wide diversity of speculative and practical knowledge concerning
the individuals relationship with ones self, the society, and the Divine Being, as well as the meaning of Life.
As such, it contains elements of moral philosophy, psychological philosophy, social philosophy, and philosophy
of religion.
Course Intended Learning Objectives (CILOs)
At the end of the course, the students are able to:
1.Value themselves highly as rational beings capable of doing good.
2.Appreciate social diversity in the light of their unique individuality.
3.Respect God as the Necessary Being and the Source of all that is good.
4.Understand the meaning of life.
Student Outcomes (SOs) addressed by the Course:
1.Recognized their potentials and limitations as human persons.
2.Harnessed their potentials for personal development.
3.Created new ways of expressing their faith in God.
4. Shed light to the value and meaning of life of every man.
I. LPU vision / mission / Core Values

II. Introduction to Philosophy

A. What Is Philosophy?
B. Philosophy vs. Sophistry
C. Who Study Philosophy?
D. Why Study Philosophy?
Topics
III. The Different Branches of Philosophy

A. Philosophy of Thought
1. Logic
2. Epistemology

B. Philosophy of Reality
1. Metaphysics
2. Theodicy
3. Cosmology
4. Philosophy of Psychology

C. Philosophy of Morality
1. Ethics
2. Aesthetics
3. Social Philosophy
4. Philosophy of Religion
IV. Ancient Philosophy of Man

A. The Sophists
1. Thales
2. Anaximander
3. Pythagoras

B. Socrates on importance of knowledge

1. Happiness of man

C. Plato

1. Pleasure in Life
2. Composition of man
3. Philosophy of Man
4. Ethics
V. Medieval Philosophy of Man

A. Saint Augustine

1. Works and Influence on Christian Philosophy

2. Doctrine of Grace and Original Sin in relation to creation.
3. The Tale of two Adams.
4. Concept of Evil in relation to the origin of evil and free will as well as how men are being deceived.
D. Aristotle

1. Evolution of society
2. Philosophy in General
3. Works and Influence on Christianity
4. Comparison of thoughts with Plato and Socrates
5. Ethics

E. Epicurus

1. Ethics
2. Happiness
B. Saint Thomas Aquinas

1. Philosophy in general
2. Nature of God
3. Five ways to prove Gods existence
4. Attributes of God
5. God as necessary and contingent Being
6. Nature of the Human Person
7. Threefold Natural Inclination of the Human Person
8. Happiness of the Human Person
9. Determinants of Morality
10. Moral Principles
11. Natural Rights of the Human Person
14. Natural Duties of the Human Person
Start to Prelims
(13hours)
Prelims to Midterms
(13hours)
Midterms
to Semifinals
(13 hours)
Semifinals to Finals
(13 hours)
VI. Eastern Philosophy of Man
A. Buddhism
1. History
2. Buddhist Philosophy and Religion
3. Buddhism on Ethics
B. Hinduism and Islam

C. Confucianism on ethics

D. Pilosopiyang Pinoy

1. Ang Pagiging Tunay na Tao at Makatao

2. Mga Prinsipyo sa Buhay

3. Meaning of Life in relation to Filipino thoughts and way of living.

1.Regular Attendance
2.Major Examinations (Prelims, Midterm, Semi-Finals)
3.Quizzes / recitation / class presentation of academic essay / classroom activity outputs / reflection paper)
4. Final academic essay
Course Requirements:
Grading System
A.Mid Term Grade

Preliminary Examination 30.00%

Class Performance 30.00%
Mid Term Examination 40.00%
Mid Term Grade Total 100.00%
B.Final Grade

Mid Term Grade 40%

Class Performance 15%
Semi-Finals 20%
Final Paper 25%
Final Grade Total 100%
1.Open-door policy is given premium. Should you have any questions or if you are in need of assistance, please
feel free to talk to your instructor. You can visit the faculty room during consultation hours and send a message
via email / moodle.
Classroom Rules and Policies
2.Everyone is expected to come to class prepared by reading the assigned topics for discussion. Reading and
accomplishing tasks are non-negotiable in this course.
3.A positive learning environment is aspired, hence, everyone is expected to observe respect and proper
decorum (e.g. maintain cleanliness, proper use of mobile phone and other electronic devices, avoid loud
conversations, show attentiveness and active participation).
4.We follow the provisions on the student handbook. It should be emphasized that absences and tardiness are
strongly discouraged. Although tardiness and absences are not components of your grade, if you incur the
maximum number (as per the student handbook), you will automatically be placed on FDA.
5.Plagiarism and any form of dishonesty are not allowed and will be dealt with accordingly
6.Less rules and restrictions are ideal for a meaningful learning, however, if the needs may arise, other policies
will be discussed by the instructor.
I. Philosophy: An Attempt at its Definition, Nature, and Historical Outline
The word Philosophy can be looked at from two aspects: its etymological and its real definitions
Definition of Philosophy
Etymologically
Greek words: (Philos or Philein and Sophia) "which means love of wisdom" this nominal definition originated
from Phytagoras who thought man, among others, as a lover of wisdom.
Real definition
Philosophy is a search for meaning
The Purpose of Philosophy
Aristotle viewed Philosophy as "thinking which aims at maximum connected truth about all available
experiences". the definition implies exploration of connections or interrelatedness of all experiences.
In modern and contemporary times, philosophy is understood as the study of the nature of being and thinking,
more specifically, of the human experience. it is the science of all things. these things are concrete, real,
contingent realities which are not subsistent but owe their existence upon other cause. these realities are
empirical facts, evidences and complete body of knowledge or truth that are systematically arranged.
the medieval-scholastic definition considers philosophy as "the science of the ultimate cause of things".
One may find satisfaction and deligtht in philosophical thinking or reasoning when he/she is able to:
Discover one's self
Understand one's self
Recognize one's otherness
Accept self as part of nature, of the world
Understand the eschatology of human life; and
With the help/aid of reason, believe in the existence of Infinite wisdom who is God
LIFE
Evaluation and Integration: Journal Writing:
"My Philosophical Insight"
1. What new meaning of philosophy do you considering the context and content given?

2. what value of philosophy can add on to your intellectual life as students?

3. How will you apply your new learning? To what specific area of your course can you apply this new
learning?
4. What benefits can you derive from this new learning?
III. The Different Branches of Philosophy
IV. Ancient Philosophy of Man
VI. Eastern Philosophy of Man
Philosophy of Thought
is the science and art of correct thinking and reasoning
Logic-
Epistemology-
is the study of human knowledge
B. Philosophy of Reality
Metaphysics
is the science of ultimate principles and properties of real beings. it is the study of being as being.
A. General Metaphysics
a. Ontology- is the science of being in its most general aspects
B. Special Metaphysics
a. Cosmology- the study of inanimate physical beings
b. Rational/Philosophical Psychology- the study of life principle, particularly that of man.
c. Theodicy- The study of essence and existence of God based mainly on reason.
Philosophy of Morality
Ethics
is the study of the nature and morality of human acts.
Aesthetics
The study of beauty, its nature and appreciation
Social/Political Philosophy
the study of man and his place in society
an inquiry into the ultimate foundation of state, the ideal form of government, and its basic power
The study of man is known as philosophical anthropology. it is an endless inquiry in his attempt to understand
himself and the world he lives in, his dignity, truth, freedom, justice, love, death. and his relations with pthers
and with God. the ancien philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes etc. explored the
permutation of inquiry into man and his dimensions as person and as existent being in the world. they searched
for the meaning and relevance of life and concerned with a total world picture.
A. The Sophists
A. Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Thales (624-546 B.C.)
Thales of Miletus flourished around 580 B.C., since early antiquity is considered as the founder of the Ionian
School of Philosophy.
Thales asserted that the world originated in water and sustained by water and that the earth floated on water.
water is an essential element of life, versatile, common and powerful enough to account for every physical
phenomenon.
Thales also asserted that "all things are full of gods"
The world is animated
Inanimate objects possess psyche, the principle of self motion
Concerning the nature of the universe
The Following are the contribution of Thales
1. He made the Haly's river passable for King Croesus by diverting its waters.
2. He discovered the solstices and measured their cycle
3. He discovered the five celestial zones (arctic, antarctic, equator and the tropics), the inclination of the zodiac,
and the sources of the moon's light.
4. He explicated the rise of Nile as due to etesian winds.
5. In geometry, he discovered proofs for the propositions that the circle is bisected by its diameter, that the
angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal, that two triangles are identical when they have one side and
the angles formed by it with the other sides equal, and taht in two intersecting straight lines the opposite angles
at the intersection are equal.
6. He also measured the height of the pyramids and the distance of ships at sea.
Anaximander (610-546 B.C.)
Anaximander belongs to the Milesian (Ionian) School of Greek philosophy with Thales and Anaximenes.
the primary element was indeterminate
Apeiron (Gk. a- not; peirar or peiras- limit, boundary' hence, it means unlimited, boundless).
the indefinite or indeterminate (apeiron) is all-enfolding, all controlling (steers all), divine and immortal.
This material cause was not water but infinite, eternal and ageless.
Anaximander's contributions are the following:
1. Cosmology
the production of the opposited and their separating off are important in his cosmogony "penalty and retribution
of the opposites in accord to the assesment of time".

the earth is cylindrical in shape and its depth is 1/3 its breath. it is immobile (the earth does not rest on water) in
the center of the universe by way of its equilibrium.
the earth may someday become dry. concerning the formation of the heavenly bodies: the sun is equal to earth.
the circles and spheres carry the heavenly bodies. an eclipse occur when the apertuce of the sun or moon is
blocked. concerning the meterogical phenomena: the winds, thunder and lighting- all these have to do with
winds
2. Zoogony
the 1st living creatures were born in moisture and enclosed in thorny barks. As their age grow, they came forth
into the drier part and the bark was broken off
3. Anthropology
Anaximander held the theory of evolution of animals. Man was born from animals of another species (man
came into being inside fishes)
Phythagoras and the Pythagoreans
(Samos: 570-500)
Phythagoras was an ancientt thinker who was more concerned with the mythical problems of purification and
immoratality. Pythagoras and his followers turned to science and mathematics.
1. Mathematics is the best purifier of the soul. Mathematical thought could liberate men from thinking about
particular things and lead their thoughts, instead, to the permanent and ordered world of universe.
Some famous Philosophers from Ancient to Contemporary Period:
A.Pre-Socratic Period
1.Thales
2.Heraclitus
3.Anaximander
4.Anaximenes
5.Pythagoras
6.Zeno
7.Parminedes
8.The Sophists
B.The Greeks
1.Socrates
2.Plato
3.Aristotle
C.The Medieval Period
1.Augustine
2.Bonaventure
3.Boethius
4.Thomas Aquinas
5.John Duns Scotus
D.Early Modern Period
1.Rene Descartes
2.Nicolo Machiavelli
3.Thomas Hobbes
4.Benedict Spinoza
5.John Locke
6.David Hume
7.Immanuel Kant
E.The 19th Century
1.Jeremy Bentham
2.Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
3.Arthur Schopenhauer
4.John Stuart Mill
5.Soren Kierkegaard
6.Friedrich Nietzche
7.Karl Marx
F.The Contemporary Period
1.Jean Paul Sartre
2.Gabriel Marcel
3.Edmund Husserl
4.Martin Heidegger
5.Teilhard de Chardin
6.Karl Jaspers
7.Martin Buber
8.Robert Johann
9.Henri Bergson
10.Alfred North Whitehead
11.William Luijpen
12.John Dewey
Mathematics is also a source of therapeutic result for certain nervous disorders as well as elements affecting
mans inner life.
They intertwined this mathematical theory in music.
Music with its notes expresses something that is numerical terms. They see the length of the strings of a
musical instrument in proportionate to the actual interval of the sounds they produce.
According to Pythagoras, if everything is in balance and it accords to its proportion, then, it produces harmony.
All things are numbers
He discovered the square of the hypotenuse as equal to the squares of the other two sides of a right-angled
triangle. The correlation between numbers and magnitude provided immense consolation to those who were
seeking evidence of a principle of structure and order in universe.
The Greek Period
B. Socrates on importance of knowledge.
Socrates (469-399 B.C.) =Ethics and Religion
He abandoned art and advocated education, conceiving that he had a divine commission, witnessed by oracles,
dreams and signs, not to teach doctrines, but, to convict men of ignorance mistaking itself for knowledge, and
by so doing to promote their intellectual and moral improvement.
Historically, ethic grew out of religion
But in the Golden age of Athens, people began to search for a national and rational explanation of things and it
was inevitable that the religious sanction for moral conduct would be in question.
Euthypro was written by plato. The dialogue is generally considered by scholars to represent the thought of his
master Socrates who himself wrote nothng but devoted his energies to questioning his fellow Athenians about
the deepest problems of human existence in his perennial examination of life, without which he thought life not
worth living.
Unfortunately, the questions Socrates asked his fellow citizen embarrassed and enraged many of them, mainly
because they could not offer satisfactory answer. Socrates become increasingly unpopular (particularly with
influential Athenians) and
Impiety towards the gods
Corruption of minds of the young people.
Piety ,justice, courage and temperance are the names which wisdom bars in different spheres of action:
To be Pius is to know what is due to god
to be just is to know what is due to men
to be courageous is to know what is to be feared and what is not
to be temperance is to know how to use what is good and avoid evil
for Socrates, he sought to discover the truth and good life. He visualizes the value of the soul, the importance
of knowledge and wisdom if the soul is properly tended. Thus knowledge leads to ethical action. Knowledge
and virtue are one. Thus a wise man knows what is right and will also do what right.. to live virtuously.
Plato (427-347 B.C.) = Ring of Gyges
Plato is the most famous discipline of Socrates, was born into an aristocratic family.
He was planning career in politics when the execution of his teacher Socrates convinced him that society could
not be saved by political means alone but rather by the kind of wisdom displayed by Socrates.
So he abandoned his political career in order to devote his life to Philosophy.
He believed that philosophers have a duty to society, to help their fellow citizens in their search for wisdom; he
established a school in Athens, the Academy.
Platos Academy continued in existence for over 900 years until closed by Christian Emperor Justinian in 529
because it was a pagan institution.
It ranks as one of the great centers for learning in western history
Plato wrote The Republic. It is one of the most influential books in the history of Western Civilization. It talks
about the ring of gyges, in which the issue whether humans are naturally just or unjust is raised.
Philosophy of Man: Plato has shown his interest in man as knower and as possessor of an immortal soul. Much
has been ,made of his theory of knowledge and of his Academy, the first European University
Plato believes that virtue is knowledge, and the source of knowledge is virtue. It is not abstract but concrete
knowledge, not theoretical but practical knowledge
Man must know what is good so that he may do so. He elaborated this by illustrating the four cardinal virtue
such as: wisdom, courage, or fortitude, temperance and justice.
Man is a knower and a possessor of an immortality of the soul. Plato believed that the body dies and
disintegrates. The soul continues to live forever after the death of the body. The soul migrates to the realm of
the pure forms
The Theory of forms the real nature of any individual things depends on the form in which it participates the
forms differ from the ordinary things we see. Ordinary things change, but their forms do not. These unchanging
and perfect forms cannot be part of everyday world., which is changing and imperfect. Forms exist neither in
space nor time. They can be known only by the intellect in space nor time. They can be known only by the
intellect, not by senses. Because their stability and perfection, the forms have greater reality than ordinary
objects observed by the senses. Thus, true knowledge is knowledge of forms.
The Theory of Knowledge- knowledge is attainable. It must be certain and infallible. Knowledge must have as
its object that which genuinely real as contrasted with that which is an appearance only. Knowledge is not
derived from sense experience. The objects of sense experience are changeable phenomena of the physical
world thus have some degree of probability.
The selection ends with Platos conception of the form of God as the supreme Reality, concluding with his
with his famous Allegory of the Cave. The myth of the cave describes individuals chained deep within the
recesses of a cave. Bound so that vision is restricted, they cannot see one another. The only thing visible is the
wall of the cave upon which appear shadow cast by models or statues of animals and objects that are passed
before a brightly burning fire. Breaking free, one of the individuals escapes from the cave into the light of day.
With the aid of the sun, that person sees for the first time the real world and returns to the cave with the message
that only things they seen are shadows and appearance and that the real world awaits them if they are willing to
struggle free of their bonds, the shadowy environment of the cave symbolizes the transition to the real world,
the world of full and perfect being, the world of forms, which is the proper object of knowledge.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C)
Aristotle was born in 384 B.C., in the town of Stagria in Macedonia,
His father was physician to the royal court of Philip of Macedonia.
He enrolled in Platos Academy
He also taught there until the death of Plato.
He went to Asia Minor to married the niece of the local king.
He returned to Macedonia to become tutor to the heir to the throne (Who later became Alexander the Great).
He founded a school in Athens called the Lyceum.
Aristotle was also interested in the field of biology, botany zoology, and science in general.
Nichomachean ethics is one of two major Aristotelian treaties of ethical theory
Man for Aristotle is a rational animal. He is not the center of the universe. The focal point is the cosmos. Man
is only a part of the universe.
Aristotle believed that mans actions and endeavor are motivated by the possession of good.
For Aristotle the very goal of human life is happiness. To attain this moderation or the avoidance of extremes.
As he would put it; Virtue is a habit (moral virtue) or trained faculty of choice (intellectual virtue), the
characteristic of which lies in moderation or observance of the mean relative to the person concerned, as
determine it. Aristotle stressed that virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean i.e., an
intermediary between two extremes. He illustrates that moderation comes in the middle or mean between two
vices, one on the side of excess, the other on the side of defect.
These vices fall short or exceed the due measure in feeling and action; it finds and choose the mean, middling,
or moderate amount: there are two types of virtues:
Intellectual virtues such as philosophical wisdom, understanding and prudence (practical wisdom). This is
acquired by teaching and requires foresight and sophisticated intelligence
Moral virtues- are liberality, temperance, courage, justice, friendship and truthfulness. Goodness of character is
formed by habit. One becomes good by doing good. Repeated acts of justice and self-control result in a just, self
controlled person who not only performs just and self-controlled actions, but does so from a fixed character.
For Aristotle , knowledge comes from senses. Reality consists of matter and form. Matter is a continuing
process of developing or becoming.
Aristotle placed the biological sciences at the forefront of knowledge. He explained why something exists.
He agreed with Plato about the universe as an ideal world, differing with him on the relation of form and
matter. These were inseparable.
He proposed that the union of matter and form became the principle by which growth could be explained in
terms of motion.
Motion change are the realization of form in matter.
He describes the four causes:
Material Cause- what an object is made from, its matter.
Formal Cause- how matter is organized or structured
Efficient Cause- how something came to be what it is.
Final Cause- the purpose or characteristic activity of the
Aristotle (384-322 B.C)
God for Aristotle is the unmoved mover
Teleological Aristotles science, he believed that all things did have a natural and distinctive activity. This
activity is the purpose, function, or end. The Greek understood this activity as the objects telos.
Aristotle differentiated the types of natural objects: those that are alive and those that are not. The principle of
life, known as the psyche which was later translated as the soul, is the characteristic activity of living things.
The body is alive if it has a soul.
Aristotle described three fundamental activities of life:
nutrition,
sensation, and
thinking
Some living things possess only one (the nutritive soul). Others possess two (the nutritive soul and appetitive
or sensitive), and others possess all three types (the nutritive soul and appetitive or sensitive and thinking)
This theological framework was further developed by Thomas Aquinas on the 13th century. Aquinas
synthesized Aristotles science by interpreting it as an evidence of a divine plan operating in nature. Nature
itself has a purpose, and the harmonious functioning of nature reveals the goodness of Gods plan. Nature
obliges all to perfect their nature by means of actions that promote self-development and fulfillment. All find
their happiness and fulfillment by acting in accord with not just nature but also reason, grace and virtues.
Exitus et reditus principle: all things came from God and return to God.-the natural law is situated in the
treaties on law as a means of returning to God.
It is anchored with the notion of law of general as an ordinance of practical reasons with eternal law, which is a
way of saying that God is the ultimate source of moral value and moral obligation. The proximate norm of
morality is Authentic human existence.
The natural law is the human way of knowing the ultimate norm of morality- eternal law, or what God requires
and enables. It knows this by reflecting critically on the proximate norm of morality. what it means to live
fully human life in community with others striving for human wholeness.
The eternal law enables us to develop our unique qualities. It is known by reason and our natural inclinations,
and its moral requirement stems not only from reason and the human will, but also from the reality of our
human nature itself.
Our abiding and stable nature is rational, free, spiritual, and intelligent. Actions are good or bad to the extent
they promote these natural qualities
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)
Epicurus was born in Samos (Asia Minor)
His philosophical theory is called atomistic materialism, deduced from Democritus.
According to this theory, the universe is composed of matter (in the form of atoms) in motion in empty space
All physical bodies, including human beings, are the result of combinations of these atoms.
Because the soul is composed of atoms, death means its dissolution, so immorality is impossible. Thus, when
the body disintegrates, so does the soul.
Epicurus regarded his atomic theory as the key to his moral theory. Death is not to be feared because it is
simply the dissolution of the atomic structure, which makes up the soul. Thus, one ceases to exist and no pain
will be experienced after death.
Epicureanism advocated Hedonism (from the Greek word pleasure)
Pleasure is the only good in life. Pleasure per se, is not the summum bonum or the supreme good; it is pleasure
as interpreted by prudence. Man should follow the dictates of prudence so that his life will be well-ordered, and,
consequently, wholesome and natural.
Epicurus regarded pleasure as the beginning and end of the blessed life.
Epicurus, a psychological and an ethical hedonist, believed not only that we ought to act in such a way as to
produce the greatest amount of pleasure (rthical hedonism), but also that we are constituted psychologically that
we inevitably take pleasure in all our acts (psychological hedonism)
Epicurus conception of the good life, however, was mainly negative. He stressed the avoidance of pain rather
than the pursuit of pleasure and gave us an analogy of health ad disease. Pleasure is like health, which
preserves, and pain, like disease, which destroys.
In this period, philosophy was made the handmaid of theology. It is characterized by a transition in
philosophizing to the contemplation of God. It also focused on the natural law tradition.
V. Medieval Philosophy of Man
St. Augustine (354-430)
St Augustine is probably the greatest of all the Christian philosophers and theologians.
Born near Carthage in North Africa of a pagan father and a Christian mother, he was attracted as a youth first
to the Manichaean religion, a variation of the Zoroastrianism that had spread through the Roman Empire, and
later to the mysticism of the neo-Platonist, whose influence is discernible throughout his writings. After being
educated both in Carthage and Rome he took a position in Milan as a professor of rhetoric. There he came under
the influence of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who succeeded in leading him into the Christian fold. After his
conversion, Augustine devoted the remainder of his life to the strengthening of the church, especially in North
Africa.
In 395 he was appointed bishop of Hippo (Near Carthage), a post he retained until his death. In spite of his
heavy clerical duties he wrote voluminously, authoring to 113 books, 218 letters and some500 sermons,
particularly in philosophy and theology.
His literary output covers the entire sphere human thought and ranges from the psychological complexity of
the confessions, to the political insights of the City of God, to the stridently polemical.
He was especially concerned with the combating of the three great heresies:
Pelagianism
heresy originating in the 5th century
It derived its name from the British Monk Pelagius (355-425). Pelagianism is a series of heretical propositions
concerning grace, ultimately negating both the supernatural order and the necessity of grace, ultimately for
salvation.
Among its other tenets were:
1. Adam still would have died even if he had not sinned;

2. The fall of Adam injured only Adam and not the entire human race

3. A new born child is in the same state as Adam prior to the fall;

4. The human race will not die as a result of Adams sin, but it will not rise on the last day because of Christs
redemption.;

5. The law of the Jews (or Israel) will permit individuals to reach heaven in the same day as the Gospel
Augustine disagreed with Pelagius concept of an individuals essentially good moral nature and his
understanding of the person as a free and autonomous individual who can achieve sanctity through unaided
human effort.
D-U-R-A-U-W Approach
Epistemology is the study of the grounds and nature of knowledge itself. Epistemological studies usually focus
upon our means for acquiring knowledge; thus modern epistemology generally involves a debate between
rationalism and empiricism, or the question of whether knowledge can be acquired a priori or a posteriori.
These two fields are often treated separately, but they are close enough that they are presented together here.
Logic is the study of methods of reasoning and argumentation, both proper and improper. The Philosophy of
Language involves the study of how our language interacts with our thinking.
In Western philosophy this field has become the study of the fundamental nature of all reality - what is it, why
is it, and how are we to understand it. Some only regard metaphysics as the study of "higher" reality or the
"invisible" nature behind everything, but that isn't actually true. It is, instead, the study of all of reality, visible
and invisible.
What do I do?
"What is?"
"How do we know?"
Philosophical Field
Theoretical philosophy
Theoretical philosophy is sometimes confused with Analytic philosophy, but the latter is a philosophical
movement, embracing certain ideas and methods but dealing with all philosophical subject matters, while the
former is a way of sorting philosophical questions into two different categories in the context of a curriculum.
theoretical philosophy subjects
Epistemology
Logic
Philosophy of mathematics
Philosophy of science
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of mind
Metaphysics
Ontology
Practical philosophy
Practical Philosophy is also the use of philosophy and philosophical techniques in everyday life. This can take a
number of forms including reflective practice, personal philosophical thinking and philosophical counselling.

Examples of practical philosophy subjects are:

Ethics
Political philosophy
Decision theory
Philosophy of law
Philosophy of religion
Feminist philosophy
Aesthetics
Value theory
Reflective practice
Philosophical counselling
the beginning of philosophical inquiry is traced to the Greek colony of Militus in about 600 B.C. From then on,
philosophy grew and developed into various fields which mat divided into two major categories, the theoretical
and the practical.
types directs itself to knowing things as they are without thinking of application.
its ultimate aim is knowledge of truth
in theoretical philosophy the person contemplates or reflects about the truth of nature as well as the relations of
things.
concern to things which are material or perceptible and useful.
its goal is not just finding the truth but acting on it, applying knowledge gained for the benefit of mankind
Merely knowing the moral beliefs of a particular group of people is theoretical in character, but translating these
beliefs into laws with which behavior of the individual or the social group members is defined is practical
Tabulated form
2. Donatism- schismatic sect that originated in North Africa during the early 4th century
The donatists devrived their name from Donatus, the 2nd schimatic bishop of Carthage.
The members of the Donatsis sect originated out of the rigorists within the African Christian community , who
were opposed to the so-called traitors, those Christians who had handed over the scriptures to Roman officials
during the terrible persecutions under Emperor Diocletian. Their focus became centered on Caecilian, bishop of
Carthage, who was consecrated in 311 by Felix of Aptunga. The rigorists refused to accept Caecilian on the
grounds that Felix had been a traitor, thereby making him no longer able to administer the sacraments validly.
For Augustine, the true minister of the sacrament of Christ and thus the unworthiness of any other minister does
not in any way affect the efficacy of a sacrament.
3 Manichaeism- religious sect founded by Persian named Mani or Manes in the 3rd century.
Augustine was a member for 9 years.

The followers of Mani believed that there was an eternal struggle between good and evil, between darkness
and light. When darkness intruded upon the realm of the light, there occurred an intermingling of the mortal
with the divine, a mixture trapped in matter. The light was found in the brain.

Humanity was practice strict asceticism in order to begin the process of relating the trapped light.

Those who became hearer hoped to achieve rebirth as the elect those blessed few who had overcome the need
for the transmigration of the soul. Jesus, they felt, was the Son of God, but he had come to earth to save his own
soul because of Adam. Jesus, Buddha, and other holy figures were sent to help humanity in attaining spiritual
freedom.
AUGUSTINES CONTRIBUTIONS
AUGUSTINES CONTRIBUTIONS
1. Augustine is considered as the greatest and foremost of the Fathers:
a)Augustine;s teaching marks a distinct epoch in the history of Christian thought and opens a new phase in the
unfolding of the church
b)Down the centuries Popes praised his wisdom and depended on his teachings. As a humble and unobtrusive
teacher, he does not feel superior to others.
2. Augustine is a world historical figure whose legacy is a fundamental features of both ancient and modern
civilization.
a)He gathers and condenses on his writings the intellectual treasures of the ancient world and transmits them to
the new generations anchoring between ancient heritage and modern civilization.
b)He analyzes, classifies, combines and synthesized the vast contributions of the primitive world/primitive
Christianity to nurture the growth and structure of the movements of his own age consciousness by leaving his
own stamp upon them.

3. Inspirer of religious thought

a)With Augustine the center of dogmatic and theological development shifted, moving from the East to the
West. The practical, realistic spirit of the Latin race supplants the speculative idealistic spirits of the East and
Greece.
b)Augustine was the inspiration of Scholastics an d Mysticism: from Gregory the Great to the Fathers of Trent,
his Theological authority, unquestionably the highest, dominates all thinkers. The representation of
scholasticism- Anselm, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and the representatives of mysticism- Bernard, Hugh
of St. Victor and Tauler- both appealed to his authority, nourished themselves upon his writings and were
penetrated with his spirit.
c)Modern trends of thought depended on him for truth and profound religious sentiment.
d)Councils have drawn extensively on the teaching of Augustine.

e)Great thinkers turned extensively to Augustine as the highest possible authority in teaching. Even Thomas
Aquinas is a disciple of Augustine in the field of theology, philosophy, spirituality, and political thought.
f) As a great theologian of Trinity, of redemption, of Christ, and history, he is the developer of scholarly
theological method, who continues an ardent desire for understanding with a firm adherence to the authority of
faith, a keen sense of mastery which is constant subordination of knowledge to love. He profound religious
experience that teaches us to pray, communicates a passionate love and speaks word of hope.
Augustine leads in the unfolding of dogmas
a)The entire Christian dogma is indebted to Augustine for new paradigms, which is better justify and explicate
revelation, for new perspectives of the greater clarity and precision such as the fall, the atonement, grace and
predestination.
b)He was the first person in the consciousness of the Church to advance anthropological and soteriological
doctrines with clarity and consciousness.
c)The Augustinian of Christian philosophy: of the interior and eternal summons us to the interior life and offers
a ground for transcendence; of the person as a deep abyss and image of God, who receives from God gifts of
being, knowledge, and love that can be preserved only in God; of human beings as weak sinners who long for
freedom and salvation that Christ alone can give them; of relationship between time and eternity, reason and
faith, nature and grace, etc.
d)He is not only the Doctor of Grace; he is also the Doctor of the Church. He is the Doctor of the Good and the
Doctor of Charity.
e)Theology is indebted to him for a host of concise formula
f)His extensive system on doctrine such as grace, original sin, and the fall would serve as the impetus for a host
of theologians and interpreters
g)He is considered a pivotal figure in history of Christian thought chiefly for his immense role in reconciling
Platonism with Christianity.
h)His philosophical outlook is thus essentially Platonic. He advances the notion of eternal truth that correspond
to Platos subsistent ideas, but for Augustine, since truths subsist in the intellect of God. The pursuit of these
truth is the ultimate pursuit of person. The central motivation, though, is not reason, but love, which forms the
center basis of life. The object of desire is the blessed life of the Christian in finding God
Philosophy to Augustine is insufficient in itself in discovering this blessed life. It does offer to the Christian
means to improve the understanding of the faith and hence is a positive asset in the rational approach to the love
of God.
In his book The Confession, Augustine considers man as the great mystery. The place of rationalism is clear in
the famous maxim credo ut intelligm (I believe in order to understand), an expression of the preeminence
given by Augustine to faith over reason
St Augustine directly concerned with ethical questions. It is apparent that his religious beliefs shaped his
thought.
First he inquired in the fashion of Aristotle, concerning the chief or the highest good of human life, which we
ordinarily call happiness. He reject body as the basis of this good, arguing instead that it must be attributed to
the soul. Then through a series of steps, he reaches the conclusion that this good is virtue, which the soul attains
through seeking and following God.
St Augustine also confront the question with which Christian philosophers have struggled ever since raised it.
If God created the universe and everything in it and God is both omnipotent and perfect, why does evil exist?
Many answers have been given to this question that of St. Augustine is one of the most ingenious.
1.Ideas Inculcated to Augustine (childhood)
Existence of a provident God as some Great being not evident to sense
Christ the Savior
Idea of eternal life
Intellectual influence upon Augustine
Elements contributed to Augustines intellectual, moral, spiritual and psychological growth: Manichaeism
(373-383), Skepticism, Stoicism, Neoplatonism, Ambrose and Simplicianus
Manichaenism- strange medley of dualism and aterialism, ascetism, and licentiousness, theosophy, and
rationalism, free thought and superstition.
Factors: Attraction to Manichaeism
1.Promises of liberal philosophy
2.Scripture difficulties
3.High moral pretensions
4.Dualistic principles of good and evil
5.Rational application of scientific nature in materialist paradigm (contradiction of light and darkness)
Stages of Skeptism (Augustine experienced skepticism in 3 stages:)
1.Academic philosophy and skepticism
2.Neo-Platonic Influence
3.Stage of anguish and struggle
Distaste: Manichaeism
1.Petrifying emptiness of Manichean philosophy
2.Neo-Platonic Influence
3.Inferiority in polemics by falsifying the Scriptures
4.No science at all
Neo-Platonic Influences
Neo-platonic philosophers viewpoints were religious, sharply mystical, with theurgic orientation and other
worldly.
1.Exhortation to interiority: the soul must detach itself from all outward things and turn completely inward:
2.The theme of principle of participation: All things come from God and are at once a participation in him and
an imitation of him Man, therefore, not only exist but is capable of understanding and loving. God is present as
creator, enlightener, and bestower of happiness.
a)Platonic Theories commended for use in dogma
Concept of Philosophy
Platonic Theories commended for use in dogma
Concept of Philosophy
a.The very notion of Philosophy as a love of wisdom
b.The object of philosophy, which is the greatest thing that there is in the world:
God and the soul, our origin and nature.
The soul is made up of matter and form.
Man is a rational substance made up of soul and body
The body is good in itself and he takes pleasure in describing its beauty
The soul which is united to the body, is the spiritual soul
The complete nature of man is made up of spirit, soul, and body.
It is one single reality which thinks (the spirit) and which animated the body and is the principle of all
physiological phenomena. The spiritual soul confers not only the sensitive and vegetative life on the body, but
also its very corporeal subsistence and being: the body subsists through the soul and exists by the very fact that
it is animated.
The soul gives form to the body so that the latter is body insofar as it exists.
The soul keeps its superiority and continues the inner man as the body makes up the outer man. The soul also
keeps its proper entity; it never becomes the body, nor does the body ever become spirit.
The soul cannot emanate from the divine substance for that would be blasphemy against the immutability,
simplicity and holiness of God since all the deterioration of human souls along with the changes they undergo
would be imputed to Him.
No soul, not even those of Adam and Eve, could spring from the natural evolution of the universe or from the
bodily seed and soul of any animal even with divine intervention, for its spirituality would thus be destroyed.
Nor is the soul created in such a way that a corporeal being or irrational animal was converted into its nature.
b)The purpose of wisdom, which leads us to true happiness
c)The esteem and enthusiastic love of this wisdom, which is a true treasure of the soul.
d)The essential distinction between intellection, a knowledge of eternal truths, which alone merits the name of
wisdom and discursive knowledge of temporal things, which constitutes science
e)The necessity of curbing the imagination to arrive at true understanding and perception of incorporeal objects
(the insight on the ability to conceive a being without a body)
f) The degrees which one rises to the contemplation of eternal truth
g)The divine characteristics of the eternal and unchangeable truth.
Theodicy
First, the notion of God considered by Himself in His infinite attributes, i.e., incomprehensible, ineffable
simplicity of one in whom being, knowledge, love and life are all identified.
Second, the synthesis of the triple role of God: God is the principle of things through a threefold influence. He
is the source of the being of things, as their creator, the source of the moral goodness of things through His
grace.
Augustines argument about Gods existence merge into Platonic argument for the reality of the universals as
eternal and immutable truths, whiter these be of mathematics or of transcendent values of justice and truth.
There is a realm of reality, beyond and above the mind of man, which it mutable. Plato attributed
changelessness to the higher world of Beings.
Nature of the Created World
Knowledge of the good and the evil beings.
The goodness of all beings is good in themselves because of their matter and their origin. They are good in
their destiny, since every being praises God.
Evil is not a being, but a privation, a limitation. It exists only in something good for which represents a loss
and corruption.
Good cannot exist without evil but evil cannot exist from something that is good.
For Augustine, the root of evil is in the souls inability rather than, with Plotimus, in the body and in matter.
The souls weakness was for him the immediate, if not necessarily the all-sufficient, cause of sin.
He saw the instability of the soul as inherent in very fact of being created out of nothing and is contingent,
liable to be driven off course. Even its immortality it possess not by its own inherent nature but by the gift and
will of the creator.
Creation out of nothing means there is an element of non-being and a tendency to non existence.
Augustine wrote that if even the matter of the body is not annihilated at death, so also the sinful soul retains
some trace of the divine image and form. Even the fallen soul remains Gods image capable of knowing God.
Cosmology
The theory of rationes seminales. Platos theory of form (or ideas), eternal absolute:
Whatever in this world we call just good or beautiful or true is so in so far as it derives from the respective
absolute. The forms are the objective, constant and universally valid reality. These universals are perceived not
by the five bodily senses, but by an austerely mathematical process of pure mental abstraction.
These universal are highly causative: individual existents cannot be accounted for in isolation, but only as
members of a prior class. The universal is more real than any particular instances
Rational Psychology
The thought about incorporeal beings
Foundation and formulation of moral philosophy
The theory of happiness in the contemplation of God and fundamental laws of perfection:

The truly wise man is he who imitates God, knows and loves Him. To become like God one must detach
himself from all temporal and transient things.

Neoplatonic exhortations to suppress the passions and the physical senses took Augustine back to Ciceros
warning that sexual indulgence does not make for mental clarity. Porphyrys tract on vegetarianism taught that
just as priets at temples must abstain from sexual intercourse in order to be ritually pure at the time of offering
sacrifice, so also the individual soul needs to be equally pure to attain to the vision of God.
b.) rejected Neoplatonic Theories
1. Ignorance of fundamental dogmas
a)The incarnation is missing in their philosophy
b)They have no knowledge of grace as the source of all virtue
2.History of creation
a)Augustine refuted six major errors in their cosmogony
a)Their lower gods were types of demiurges, which they ranked between God and creatures, whose function
was to produce the souls of the animals.
b)The creative principle was only one of three hypostases of which they composed their triad. For Augustine,
creation is the work of three persons
c)God produced the world by generations or emanation.
d)Creation is necessary. For Augustine, it is an act of the free will of God. Quoting from Plotinus: the order,
design, beauty, and even the very mutability and flux of the world and the fact that existence is not necessary.
For Augustine, god is not just someone or something that happens to exist; He is Being itself and the source of
all finite beings.
e)Creation is eternal. They wished the soul to be coeternal with God. For Augustine, time begins with creation.
It is limited and is essentially finite. No creature is coeternal with God. For Augustine,, time begins with
creation. It is limited and is essentially finite. No creature is coeternal with the creator .
f)Neoplatonic creation entails a dynamic pantheism. Augustine rejects pantheism forcefully.
Psychology
Augustine rejected first , metempsychosis (successive migrations of the same soul into different human bodies
or even animals); second, the Platonists attributed all the vices of the soul to the influence of the body. For
Augustine, the soul had its own imperfections.
Personal lives
Idolatry and polytheism practiced by the Platonists.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Life and Works
Thomas Aquinas was born in Italy of a noble family
He was the most important intellectual figure of high medieval civilization.
He studied at the famous Abbey of Monte Cassino then at the University of Naples.
In 1243 he joined the Dominican Order, much to the displeasure of his parents.
They imprisoned him in the family castle where he remained for two years until his mother relented, passing
him a rope by which he let himself out a window and down the castle wall.
Escaping he rejoined the Dominicans and set out for Cologne, to study under Albertus Magnus.
Then he studied at the University of Paris. He became a successful teacher.
He wrote selections on ethics on his two important books called The Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa
Theologica
Thomas Aquinas believed in the following:
Every agent acts for an end.
Every agent acts for a good.
All things are directed to one end, which is God.
Mans happiness does not consists in wealth, worldly power, and goods of the body
Human happiness is not seated in the senses. Mans happiness is not in this life.
If mans ultimate happiness consist not in external things, which are called goods of chance; nor in goods of
the body; nor in goods of the soul, as regards the sensitive faculty; nor as regards the intellectual faculty, in the
practice of moral virtue nor as regards the intellectual virtue in those which are concerned about action, namely
art and prudence;
Thomas Aquinas concluded that mans ultimate happiness consists solely in the contemplation of God who is
the truth.
The starting point of Aquinas philosophy or the worldview it espouses is a Supernatural Being. His structural
outline of reality begins in God, who is in the beginning Central to Aquinas is the one essence of God and His
three persons.

He develops his philosophy on whether God exists, How God exists, and How God operates.
It then proceeds to the act of creation and consideration of creatures, centering on man, who alone is created in
the image of God.
In Aquinas philosophy, nature and super nature constitute a whole. Man must not only be explicitly open to
nature but also to supernature, to the invisible. Man must move on to return to God through his life of moral and
religious choice, and culminate in the way or means to the end: Christ and His Church. Thus the overall scheme
of Aquinas, like that of the universe, is an exitus- redditus, an exit from and a return to God, who is both Alpha
and the Omega.
God us the ontological heart that pumps the blood of being through the arteries of creation into the body of the
universe, which wears a human face, and receives it back through the veins of mans life of love and will. His
worldview is dynamic it is like blood in a body.
For St. Thomas, essence-ultimately is a manner (mode way) of existence . Essence esse is the ultimate
actuality and is also the nature essence of God.
In him alone, essence and existence are identical. Gods essence might be said to be the sufficient formal cause
of itself. Since this essence is identical with his being. If the existence of a thing differs from its essence, this
existence caused by another. The essence or nature of a horse does not determine whether either one exists.
Therefore something else must cause its existence. Since this something else is not it own essence or existence,
it must be another being which works as an efficient cause. Everything except God needs a cause of its
existence. God need no cause of his existence because his existence is his essence. A triangle needs no cause of
its 3 sidedness because that its essence.
Existence is that which makes every form or nature actual. In God, there is no potentiality. That, which has
existence but is not existence is a being by participation. There can be no accident in God. A subject is
compared to its accidents as potentiality to actuality; for a subject is in some sense made actual by its accidents.
But there can be no potentially in God Essence is actual qua form determines the matter in the order of formal
causality (e.g. horseness makes animal to be horse rather than lion), but the resulting essence may exist (a
horse does) or may not exists. (a unicorn does not), therefore it is still potential to existence
Being can mean two things. It may mean the act of essence, or it may mean the composition of a proposition.
The first meaning of being is actual, ontological, objective, reality e.g. David exists
The second meaning is the logical meaning of being of an affirmative copula in proposition. E.g. Tom is the
hero of Tom Sawyer.
Every being that is not God is Gods creature. Being is not a genus because there is nothing outside it. A genus
(animal) has specific difference (e.g. rational) distinct from its generic sense.
God is not in a genus. The existence of man and a horse is not the same, as also of this man and that man.
Creatures have attributes, God is His attributes (God is life). Since God is in no genus, no general class at all but
transcends all genera. He therefore transcends all creatures more than any creature in one genus can transcends
any creature in another genus. He is also immanent because He is transcendent. He is not a genus, but is the
principle source of all genera. (See Summa Theologica, Question 3)
For Thomas Aquinas there is only one source of truth and that is God (active, dynamic, willing). No science or
set of science can prove everything. For every proof presupposes some principles and data is divine
revelation.ie. scriptures (article of faith, the truths revealed to us by God in scriptures and summarized in the
creeds of the church)
Sacra Doctrina is a science because it argues from principles known in higher science, namely of God and the
blessed. It is both theoretical and practical. Even as God by the one knowledge knows himself and his work. It
is superior to all others because it has its degree certitude from the light Gods knowledge. It is wisdom in the
most exact sense. Sacra doctrina develops conclusions about God as highest cause as to what is known to
himself alone and communicated to others through revelation. It has God as subject. It has a defensive function.
It engages in deputation with anyone denying its principles. No other science is higher. Its proper authorities are
those of the canonical scriptures.
It Employs metaphor rightly as God comes for all beings in a way suited to their nature. It highly interprets its
book in many senses. God is the author of the Sacred Scripture in whose power it lies to adopt not only words
but also things to bear meaning.
Significance of Thomas Aquinas
He makes a clear distinction between philosophy and theology. In his theory of knowledge, he held that there
are no innate ideas, but all knowledge must proceed first from the sense. He makes use of reason in the service
of faith. Reason and faith, mystery and problem, nature and super nature blend them together into reality. There
are 8 reasons:
1.He holds the truth, that simple and unfashionable purpose of philosophy. the study of philosophy is not the
study of what men have opined, but what is the truth.
2.He uses his common sense reason in sniffing out the right poison amid a hundred wrong ones. He is as
reasonable in ethics as Aristotle and Confucius.
3.He is a master of metaphysics and technical terminology technical sophistication (practicality)
4.As a lover of truth, he loves simplicity and clarity of style for the benefit of many people, no rhetoric, and no
appeal to the irrational, nothing but lucidity.
5.Depth (profundity)- of theory and practice
6.Clarity and profundity (orthodoxy), he clearly points out its solidity and excellence above all other teachings.
You must go to St. Thomas to understand Theology and Philosophy.
7.He was crucial for the medieval era (medievalism). He fulfilled more than anyone else the essential medieval
program of marriage of faith and reason, revelation and philosophy, the biblical and the classical inheritances.
He represents the medieval; par excellence (Cosmic unity)
8.Modernity- lack of our timeless truth. We need Thomistic syntheses.
Thomas Aquinas stands out with the following character traits:
1.Wisdom- the threefold wisdom of St. Thomas is the basis for quasi-experimental knowledge of God, the
loving and blessed contemplation of God.

Thomistic metaphysics (Sophia in Aristotle) shapes and systematize his scientific structure and influences his
construal of nature and the supernatural. It is not merely patterns of ideas but a conviction that the human mind
is able to discover being and the laws of relations of being is experienced reality.
Supernatural theology
The gift of wisdom- the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit.
2.Charity- Thomistic charity shapes and directed his entire life and endeavors toward a divine service of God. It
is the supernatural virtue of love of God and neighbor.
3.Peace is a fruit of charity- love of God and neighbor. It is the souls inner tranquility, balance and harmony,
moderation and clarity of judgment flowing from wisdom and charity. Such harmony, symmetry, order of the
interior and exterior of life as in multiplication of virtues within the integration of wisdom, charity and of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit shape the soul of St. Thomas of Godlike beauty.
Thomas Aquinas proposed five ways to prove the existence of God
a.The Argument from Motion (There must be a Prime Mover). This unmoved mover (God) first put things in
motion. It tells us that: first, nothing can move itself; second, if every object in motion had a mover, then the
first object in motion needed a mover; finally, this first mover is the Unmoved Mover, called God.
b.The Argument from Causality (Every effect must have a cause).
There must be an uncaused First Cause (God) who began the chain of existence for all things. This causation of
existence tells us that: first, there exists things that are caused (created) by other things; second, nothing can be
the cause of itself (nothing can create itself; third, there cannot be an endless string of objects to exist; finally,
thus, there must be an uncaused first called God.
c.The Argument from Necessity, or Contingency (All beings are possible but one must necessary if there are to
be any beings at all). There are two types of objects in the universe; contingent and necessary beings. A
contingent being is an object that cannot exist without a necessary being causing its existence. This being called
necessary beings, is God. This argument tells us that; First, contingent beings are caused; second, not every
beings can be contingent; third, there must exist a being which is necessary to cause contingent beings finally,
this necessary beings is God.
d.The Argument from Gradation, or Exemplarity (Our ideas presuppose some standard of perfection). Thomas
alluded to the qualities of things. He referred to the degrees or gradation of a qualities of things. Any given
quality (e.g. goodness, beauty, knowledge) there must be a perfect standard by which all such qualities are
measured. These perfections are contained in God.
e.The Argument from Design (The consistent and coherent operation of the whole universe demands some
intelligent and purposeful designer). It has something to do with the observable universe and the order of nature.
All physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by God, the intelligent designer.
Natural Law is a specific kind of knowledge, not about bad, but about human beings and human nature.
Aquinas then moves on to the Specific norms of natural laws based on the natural inclinations:
a.The first inclination to the good is common to all created reality. It is the tendency to preserve in this being.
Preserving and protecting life as a basic value belongs to the natural law on the basis of this inclination.

b.The second inclination to the good is generic to animals. Insofar as humans are animals, what nature has
taught all animals belongs to the natural law. Included here is the tendency toward the protection and education
of offspring.

c.The third inclination to the good is specific to humans. Whatever pertains to reason belongs to the natural law.
Non-Hedonists such as Plato who held that the good life is a mixed life. It is an equilibrium containing several
elements. Other pluralists believed that there are for things that are intrinsically good: virtous disposition,
knowledge, pleasure, and the just proportion of pleasure to the virtuos.

An Appetite, for St. Thomas is a tendency towards a known good or away from a known object (evil).
2 kinds of appetite (based on the 2 kinds of knowledge)
Passion is the state of affection or state of being affected by things we perceived through sensation.
Concupiscible appetites- involve ease and facility in acquiring or avoiding its desired objects
Irascible appetites- involve great difficulty and exertion in acquiring or avoiding its known object.
The Knower and the Known- for Thomas, the knower (whether by sense or by intellect), before knowing, only
potentially knows, or is intermediate with regards to the known. To be in potency to a determination means
both to lack the determination and to be capable of acquiring it. The knower does not have form as matter has
form.
The knower receives the form of the known not subjectively. The form received in the knower is the form of
another: of the known. Knower have nothing save their own form only, but a knower is naturally apt to have the
form also of another thing. In those things, which participate knowledge, form is found in a higher manner than
in those, which lack it. In those things which lack knowledge there is found only form determining each thing to
one be their own which is the natural be of each thing. In things having knowledge each thing is determined to
its own natural being by natural form which is receptive of the forms of other things: just as sense receives the
form of all-sensible, and intellect of all understandable. Thus forms exist in a higher manner in things having
knowledge, above the manner of natural forms.
The knower receives the form of he known not physically. Through the received form neither is the knower
physically determined, so as to undergo some physical change or acquire some physical constitution other than
it previously did not have, nor is any physical corruption in the knower entailed. The form received in the
knower is the form of another: of the known. Intelligible form united to intellect does not constitute some
nature, but perfects it to understand.
The knower receives the form of the known not compositively. From the union of the received form with the
receiving knower there results no compound from knower and form, which would be some third. Neither the
received in the knower remains the form of another: of the known. The form of another thing cannot be (in
knower) according to its natural be, for it would follow the united together with something it would constitute
some nature, but perfects it to understand. Matter receives form that it be constituted in the being of some
species. But not thus does intellect receive form.
The knower, in knowing, has a form. But it is, and remains, the form of the known, not of the knower. The
knower in knowing is self-perfective. Human know is an activity of the knower, which presuppose
undergo. The knower is knowing, can perfect itself only from another (the known). In every knowledge, what
the knower knows is known as object. Knowledge requires an object with which the knower determines itself.
(the knower does not produce the object: it supposes it. The knower knows the object as it merely as it is in the
knower.)
Man is not a compound of body and soul, but a body that is what it is (namely, a human body) by reason of its
union with the soul.

The soul is envisaged as the substantial form of the matter which is a human body. The union between the two
is a substantial: one. If the form is not a human soul, then the body is not a human body. The soul could act
independently of the human body: first, the activity of knowing is independent of matter; second, the activity of
reflection. Man, through his soul is aware that he is aware or knows that he knows.
Man is said to be the image of God by reason of his intellectual nature. Man posses a natural aptitude for
understanding and loving God. This aptitude contains the very nature of the mind, which is common to all men
creation- this is found in all men. Man is the most perfectly like God according to that in which he can best
imitate God in his intellectual nature. Man actually and habitually knows and loves God. This image consists in
the conformity of grace. Re-creation- this is found only in just. Man knows and loves God perfectly this
image consists in the likeness of glory. Likeness- this is found only in the blessed.

Man is by nature a social or political animal. What is given about human life is that we are born in to the
community of the family and are dependent on it for years in order to survive the moral consists in behaving
well in this given setting.
A. Buddhism
The Buddhist tradition can be traced back to the year 563 B.C.E, the birth of Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism is
a teaching of Buddha who was born a prince of Kapilavathu (Himalayas Mountains near Nepal) in 623 B.C. He
married and had a son. He gave up his life of courts glamour and luxuries because of the sight of an old man,
sick man, dead man and mendicant monk. He entered the homeless life of monk to seek the truth and find a way
to salvation.
Buddhism is a practice of finding peace within oneself. It is formulated to win happiness during the present life
as well as in the next. The influence of karma, the mechanism that determines how persons act will impact the
next incarnation, impelled the Buddhists to practice finding the good within everything. Their ultimate goal is
enlightenment. Buddhism acts as a philosophy that regulates a persons place in the world.
The Buddhist teaching on God is the sense of an ultimate Reality, a noble silence. If there is a causeless cause
of all causes. An ultimate reality, a boundless light, an eternal Noumenon behind phenomena, I must be infinite,
unlimited, unconditioned, unknowable in our present state and without attributes.
Buddhism denies the existence of an immoral soul in man. The enlightenment dwells in life does not belong to
one form of life. Man can become Buddha, enlightened by the principle of enlightenment within. The process is
to become what you are to develop to the full innate Buddha mind by destroying the ignorance produced, desire
maintained illusion of self which binds us from life to life on the wheel of becoming.
The Doctrine on Dependent Origination- is the central teaching of the Buddha. There is nothing in this world
that does not come with the sphere of the causal laws. Causality informs us concerning the arising and passing
away of things in this world. All his other tenets area taken from it as corollaries.
Ignorance- is the root cause of all suffering, of the cycle of birth and death. Ignorance tells us that one is in
bondage. Knowledge is only method that can destroy ignorance. Knowledge corresponds to the knowledge of
truth, and of the impermanence of things in this world.
The theory of Karma- is based on Patticasamutoada for it is implication of the law of causation. Karma alludes
to the fruits of ones action. Our present life is due to the impressions of the karmas of the past life. The past
shapes the future. This is grounded on a cause-effect relation. Man has a role to play. If he would like to
develop his present situations, he must preserve to do so. He must will it to be so. By good works they can have
better life.
The Doctrine of Transmigaration- one experiences a cycle of birth and death. Things of this world are
impermanent and transitory. Anyone who is ignorant about the things of this world clings to the things of this
world believing erroneously that the worldly things are permanent. The goal of men is geared towards perfect
happiness, lasting bliss. Whatever you turn in this world is fleeting, even what you would think as that which
could give you happiness, so you get frustrated and as a consequence, you suffer. Every moment you suffer, you
are said to die. Death is not separation of soul from the body or physical death. It emphasizes an end of certain
aspect. The end of one is the beginning of another. The beginning of a new aspect is known as birth in the
birth-death cycle called samsara the very foundation is ignorance. Knowledge must destroy ignorance. The
possibility of attaining knowledge is through moral purification using the middle path. In Buddhism, this is the
only way to Nirvana. Both are only aspects of the same reality. Dependent origination, deduced from the
standpoint of relativity is samsara, while deducing it from it the standpoint of reality; it is nirvana. Reality is
the absolute. The absolute self appears a relative and acts as the binding thread offering unity and meaning to
the relative. In an empirical world dominated by the intellect, anything is relative, conditional, dependent,
subject to birth and death and impermanent. Since it is relative, it is only an appearance. It is neither absolutely
real nor two extremes: reality and nothingness. In this viewpoint, the Buddha calls his doctrine the Middle Path.
The Doctrine of Momentariness- adheres to the fact that since all things are relative, dependent, conditional and
finite, they are momentary (impermanent) the emergence of a thing depends upon a cause. With the
removal/absence of the cause, the thing cease to be it is thus, momentary. Everything in this world is relative,
impermanent and momentary.
The No-Soul Theory or No-Ego Theory- the individual ego is ultimately false. To say that everything is
momentary or impermanent is to believe that the ego our soul is also momentary and is, therefore, relative and
false.
Existence in Buddhism is described in the following ways:
1All things of this world are impermanent (Anicca)
2All things of this world are non-substantial (Anatta)
3All things of this world are unsatisfactory- suffering (Dukkha)
Buddhas Epistemology 3 folds of knowledge
1Retro-cognition- the capacity to perceived ones own past life/history. It depends on memory. The memory of
past existence is gained through the acts of intensive concentration as in the unfolding/enhancing of other
faculties.
2Clairvoyance- in Buddhism, this is the knowledge of the deceased and he survival of other beings that wander
in the cycle of existence in accord with their behavior (karma). Clairvoyance and retro-cognition intensifies one
to verify the phenomenon of rebirth.
3 Knowledge of the destruction of the defiling impulses with retro-cognition and clairvoyance and with the
addition of telepathy furnishes an insight into the four noble truths. In Buddhism, reason and perception are
acceptable source of information. Buddha maintains that there are other valid sources of knowledge. The
fulcrum of argumentation is on the limitation of knowledge as meant to impede people from believing on
speculative paradigms. Truth consists in the knowledge of things as they are.
Buddhism: ethics there is an integration of knowledge and conduct: theory and practice of Buddhism.
Understanding man and nature is not an end in itself but means to an end. Freedom is the ultimate purpose of
knowledge such as freedom from the world tormented by decay, birth and death. To attain freedom from
suffering, a disciple must do all that is to be done by gradual and ordered way such as:
first by gradual process of thinking:
Second, by gradual working out;
finally, by gradual practice.
The usage of this gradualness process reinforces the person to realize that even the immortal person is capable
of attaining the state of moral perfection culminating in gaining freedom. Virtuous or moral behavior is a
composite of two poles: first, the negative sphere- is simply evading evil such as evading killing or hurting
living creature; second, the positive sphere- is simply enhancing the good such as compassion for all beings.