CHAPTER IV: The Philosophy of Man

Human Nature: An Overview

People may differ in many aspects. They may differ in size, color of skin, race, socioeconomic status, and
many more. Despite these differences, they are all human beings with divergent concepts and views
about human nature.

Man According to some Western Philosophers

In the words of Thales, “man born from other animals- quickly find nourishment for themselves; man
alone needs a lengthy period of sucking, so that had he been originally as he is now, he could never have
survived.

Socrates gave the idea that man’s body comes from his world of matter, but his reason comes from
Universal Reason or Mind of the World. He is more concerned of man as moral being.

For Plato, man is a knower and a possessor of an immortal soul.

Aristotle viewed man as a rational and a social animal. To him man is not the center of the univers. He is
only a part of it.

Augustine called man as the “great mystery.” For him the ultimate felicity of man is in the
contemplation of truth – which properly belongs to man alone – and in the contemplation of Wisdom,
who is God.

Thomas Aquinas believed that man is a creature of God. According to him, man is a composite of body
and soul. The soul has the elements of reason and will.

Mirandola, man may make himself what he wishes to be. According to him, man is a “three – chief
zones of the created universe: the immaterial angels, the material but incorruptible heavenly bodies,
and corruptible earthly bodies.”

Teilhard de Chardin said that man is the only significant link between the physical order and spiritual
one. Without man, the universe will be howling wasteland contemplated by an unseen deity. In
addition, he said that man is a special phenomenon. He is a being who knows and knows what he
knows.

According to Jean Paul Sartre and Gabriel Marcel, man is a “being-in-the-world.”

To Martin Heidegger, man is a “being there,” part of these world and part of the next. Everything
around him is bounded by human situation and he is surrounded by other men – and beyond this –
nothing – no heaven, no God. He believes that man is responsible not only for himself but for all men, as
well.

Engelber Van Croonerburg gave the following thoughts about man:

1. Man has the experience of his own existence. It is only through man’s own being that he comes
in contact into the reality of the world. The experience of the self is the experience of one’s own
existence.
 2. To exist is to standout. He is a being-in-the-world. Through man’s existence, he is raised above
the abyss of his nothingness. He lives in the demarcation line between the past and the present.
He is fundamentally related to his body.
3. Man is related to his body. If man says “I have my body,” it does not mean that the “I” is equal
to his body. He is more than his body.
4. Man is being in the situation. Many elements of his situations are not his own making. No man
has ever chosen who is parents would be. However, there are elements in his life where he can
make choice; he can make friends, he can develop interests.
5. Man is more than his life. He lives his life. He becomes master of his life. His vocation is “the
perfection of life and personality to the full measure to which he has been destined.”
6. Man possesses his own values. His authentic growth takes place in the here and now of the
concrete situation. The values he has are on the subject level and thus, enhances his own
existence.
7. Man is creative. He is a homo viator, and as such, needs to transform his life to a continuous
growth – to authenticity. He has the ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment.
8. Man can experience pain and suffering. But he can also find meaning in them. Man is subject to
pain and sufferings. He has to accept these pain and sufferings and attempt to find its
significance in his life.
9. Man is a being unto death. Death gets its full meaning only in relation to life of which it is the
end. Man’s view of life influences his understanding of death.
10. Man experience joy and pain. As accepted by philosophers, the unfolding of the human
personality is a mixture of joy and pain. Life is a combination of successes and failures, joy and
sorrow. This is due to the nature of man- a result of his material and spiritual beings.
11. Man has super-temporal dimension. Man knows that with the emergence of his spirit, his real
self will find highest expression.

Man according to the Oriental Philosophers

1. The Hindu view of man. According to this view, man possesses the atman or soul, the highest
aspect of what is understood as the principle of life. It is the innermost essence of man. Man is
seen as consisting of five sheaths:
a. The self, dependent of the food annamayatman– the material layer known as the physical
or corporeal self;
b. The self as vital breath pranamayatman– the biological layer
c. The other self-consisting of will manamayatman– the psychological layer
d. The self or consciousness vijnamamayatman - intellectual layer; and
e. The final essence of the self or pure bliss annandamayatman–approximates the Brahman
which is Pure Bliss.
2. Man in Buddhism. According to this view, man is subject to the law that all things rise, decay,
and fall. There is no soul. There is no permanence.
In Buddhism, man is just a given for the totality of the five aggregates that compose the
individual: matter, sensation, perception, mental constructs, and consciousness. Each
aggregates taken separately is not man. The final goal of man is to attain enlightenment, to free
himself from the bonds of ignorance. To do this, man must realize the impermanence of things
and that man is not the five sheaths.
 With this, man is freed from ignorance, and he reaches Nirvana, the extinction of desires
through YOGA or deep meditation.
3. Man in Confucianism. Here, man is regarded as amoral being and as a social being. For
Confucius, a true man is a noble man, chuntzu, a superior man and such a man is said to be a
man of jen (human heartedness), a man of all around virtue.
In Confucianism, man is expected to possess four virtues:
a. Human heartedness (jen) – consideration for others, loving others, doing to others, what
you wish others do to you;
b. Righteousness (yi) – doing what one ought to do; doing obligatorily acts without personal
utilitarian end in view; to do the right and proper thing in relation to circumstances without
regard to personal profit;
c. Ritual or propriety (li) humbling oneself to pay respect to others, or putting others first and
oneself, second;
d. Wisdom (chic) – understanding the three virtues: human heartedness (jen) righteousness
(yi), and ritual propriety (li).
4. The Taoist view of man. Taoism as a philosophy advocates what is natural and spontaneous,
simple and necessary. According to this philosophy that by which anything and everything
comes to be, is the “Tao.”
In Lao-Tsu book, it is said that “Tao” is generally understood as the Power or Principle behind all
things. It is oftentimes called the Non-being.
According to this philosophy, everything that exists in the universe needs the whole universe as
a necessary condition for existence. When a man is born he has the properties that he should
necessary have.
According to Taoism, there are two levels of knowledge:
a. The lower level – the finite point of view when man sees distinctions like those between
right and wrong;
b. The higher level – the higher level point of view, when man sees things in the light of
Heaven, that is from the point of view of the “Tao” that things though different are united
and become one.

Taoism states that every man can be a sage, one with the “Tao,” the perfect man, the happy
man.

5. Other Attributes of Man. Man has also been described as (a) knower (b) in dialogue, in
communication, and (c) a lover.
Describing man as a knower, Robert O. Johann, in Fidelity to Truth, gives two kinds of truth:
objective and subjective truth. Objective is the truth of the object; subjective is the truth of the
subject. He believes truth comes from reality, and the person. To Johann, “the truth is always
the Real as disclosed to an individual who has personally come to grips with it and succeeded in
a measure in articulating his vision.

Talking of man in dialogue, Martin Buber gave the first requirement of a true dialogue:
 To be open to the world;
 To observe; and
  To be aware of everything.

There are three kinds of dialogue according to Martin Buber:

1. Genuine dialogue – where its participants have in mind the other, and turn to them to establish
a mutual living relationship between them;
2. Technical dialogue – prompted by the need of objective understanding;
3. A monologue, disguised as a dialogue –where two men speak each to himself, in which there is
no need to learn or give something.

Dealing with man as lover, Erich Fromm considers love as an act. He stresses two things in his book, The
Art of Loving.

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