School has started. And I'm as busy as a bee. In fact, busier than the Drone and Worker Bees put together. Lots of academic and extra-curricular tasks up my sleeve. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'd be visible in my yearbook stats.
I encountered quite a lot of hassles during the first week of the semester. I kept coming back at the Division office for the hellish adding/dropping process. Adding Trigonometry, dropping Trigonometry, adding a Philosophy minor (Feminism), dropping Feminism, and finally adding Statistics. Whew! After a zillion mock words for our bald coordinator and trips to the finance office, I'm officially done with the hierarchical manifestation of doomsday in progress.
Nevertheless, the first week of my classes went smoothly and that brings me here to talk about one of my favorite topics. *drum rolls* Philosophy.
Our Philosophy core subject for this semester is Philo 103 aka Philosophy of the Human Person. On the first day of class, our teacher asked us to list the characteristics that makes Man Really Human.
We had numerous, and some repetitive, answers like being rational, ability to transcend, change, adapt, innovate, and the ability to ask questions.
Speaking of questions. A lot of questions sprouted. Are these characteristics intrinsic or conventional? If they're conventional, who sets them? Is the inability to achieve them makes you less human? If it's intrinsic, then do we have to learn about it or not?
While my classmates were busy plaguing Ma'am with questions, I was deeply engrossed with my own thoughts. For all the questions raised, I ask, What then is being Human in the first place?
Being HUMAN connotes a lot of things. It can be negative or positive. When connoted in the context of spirituality, being human can mean attachment to earthly things. But then again, this presupposes the idea of dichotomy: the belief on the BODY AND SOUL. I do not agree with this belief. It leads us to the notion that the SOUL is good and the BODY is otherwise. The soul is given premium and the body is viewed as a secondary object. This should not be. Because when we refer to a human being, we refer it as a WHOLE and not as two different entities. The soul of a human being needs a body to dwell on, and the body requires the soul for it to be "alive". So basically, one cannot exist without the other. And treating them as two different entities is quite detrimental for the idea of wholeness and being.
Since the two are connected, the first thought of telling someone human is when he/she looks human of course. If you have enough sense, you would not call a dog HUMAN. But then being human PHYSICALLY is just a part.
The Human Being is rational. It is intrinsic. We are born with the natural capability to think. This is the common trait present in us all. Whatever changes that may cause nuance to this intrinsic trait is a product of the environment where the individual is nurtured. Rationality is permanent. It makes man human in the first sense. Everything else follows after rationality. Ability to choose, sensibility, innovation, creativity, and self-transcendence. Above all the following traits, it is SELF-TRANSCENDENCE that marks the Human Being's step to PERSONHOOD or the fullness of his/her being human. We are given rationality and with this, we have the capability to transcend. In transcendence, we go BEYOND our blindly-determined result. We go beyond our limits. Thus, starts our journey into BEING HUMAN. Nevertheless, it is still our choice whether to transcend or not.
Some people may not show "signs of rationality", but it DOES exist. Maybe, they just chose NOT to use it. But then again, the concept of choosing requires thinking, per se.
BEING HUMAN is a lifetime process. But like all processes, what matters is NOT the endpoint, but the JOURNEY to the endpoint itself. :)
I encountered quite a lot of hassles during the first week of the semester. I kept coming back at the Division office for the hellish adding/dropping process. Adding Trigonometry, dropping Trigonometry, adding a Philosophy minor (Feminism), dropping Feminism, and finally adding Statistics. Whew! After a zillion mock words for our bald coordinator and trips to the finance office, I'm officially done with the hierarchical manifestation of doomsday in progress.
Nevertheless, the first week of my classes went smoothly and that brings me here to talk about one of my favorite topics. *drum rolls* Philosophy.
Our Philosophy core subject for this semester is Philo 103 aka Philosophy of the Human Person. On the first day of class, our teacher asked us to list the characteristics that makes Man Really Human.
We had numerous, and some repetitive, answers like being rational, ability to transcend, change, adapt, innovate, and the ability to ask questions.
Speaking of questions. A lot of questions sprouted. Are these characteristics intrinsic or conventional? If they're conventional, who sets them? Is the inability to achieve them makes you less human? If it's intrinsic, then do we have to learn about it or not?
While my classmates were busy plaguing Ma'am with questions, I was deeply engrossed with my own thoughts. For all the questions raised, I ask, What then is being Human in the first place?
Being HUMAN connotes a lot of things. It can be negative or positive. When connoted in the context of spirituality, being human can mean attachment to earthly things. But then again, this presupposes the idea of dichotomy: the belief on the BODY AND SOUL. I do not agree with this belief. It leads us to the notion that the SOUL is good and the BODY is otherwise. The soul is given premium and the body is viewed as a secondary object. This should not be. Because when we refer to a human being, we refer it as a WHOLE and not as two different entities. The soul of a human being needs a body to dwell on, and the body requires the soul for it to be "alive". So basically, one cannot exist without the other. And treating them as two different entities is quite detrimental for the idea of wholeness and being.
Since the two are connected, the first thought of telling someone human is when he/she looks human of course. If you have enough sense, you would not call a dog HUMAN. But then being human PHYSICALLY is just a part.
The Human Being is rational. It is intrinsic. We are born with the natural capability to think. This is the common trait present in us all. Whatever changes that may cause nuance to this intrinsic trait is a product of the environment where the individual is nurtured. Rationality is permanent. It makes man human in the first sense. Everything else follows after rationality. Ability to choose, sensibility, innovation, creativity, and self-transcendence. Above all the following traits, it is SELF-TRANSCENDENCE that marks the Human Being's step to PERSONHOOD or the fullness of his/her being human. We are given rationality and with this, we have the capability to transcend. In transcendence, we go BEYOND our blindly-determined result. We go beyond our limits. Thus, starts our journey into BEING HUMAN. Nevertheless, it is still our choice whether to transcend or not.
Some people may not show "signs of rationality", but it DOES exist. Maybe, they just chose NOT to use it. But then again, the concept of choosing requires thinking, per se.
BEING HUMAN is a lifetime process. But like all processes, what matters is NOT the endpoint, but the JOURNEY to the endpoint itself. :)
13 comments:
what makes man really human?
it's making his mind work more often.
haha, ambot.
ayun nga, sa wakas unli ka na, pero ako naman ang hindi. haha
thanks for praying for my skema.
have you noticed the mullock i've been growing? hehe
free ka thursday? mcdo ta. :)
Ganun ka pa rin, Ate Bam (and Ate Karla). Always having deep thoughts about the strange things in life... LOL.
Me too, I wish all that I am doing will be given credits when I graduate. Grabe pa ako magtrabaho sa teacher!!!
Eh, I still think calling someone else human, and what makes you human is just a classification, like in science. But I guess this is Philosophy and not science. Well what I think make us humans, is the fact that we have the knowledge and power to stop our instincts, without force.
And the fact that we're really stubborn sometimes...
X-x I don't feel like thinking but you made me think. I slept yesterday at 5AM woke up 9AM. Head hurts @_@
hi bam,
ang ganda ng post mo, very meaningful....
HUMAN?...depende na sa tao kung ano ang isip nya nito....human or unhuman....
thnks for sharing and thanks sa visit ha? balik minsan. ok?
ay oo nga, links din kita, ....ask muna ako sa naggawa ng blog ko kasi nagbago, hindi ako marunong ng mag-list...lol..
pero add kita ha? para madali lang to visit you here....ok?
tc there and have a nice sunday there n family......bye
wow! this entry is really sensible!
I also believe that all humans are rational. It's one of our natural characteristics. ayaw lang tlga gamitin ng iba!
Dalaw ka ulit bam! :D ingat!
u could be a good philosopher someday.hehe!
it always to depends on us. we always have the right to decide and choose want we want as well as to think wat is right.
take care bam.mwahugs..wag masyado mgpakabusy.take it easy.
ehem. you are making me think. im still digesting this.. hehehe. tc
@ Tina and Hikaru: hehe.. kelangan talaga i-exercise ang neurons. hehe. :)
@ Ychel: kelangan maging busy. huhuhu.. pero di ko pa rin naman nakakaligtaan magnet paminsan-minsan. haha! :)
@ Treserby: sinabi mo pa. :) ikaw nga. mukhang umaariba sa lovelife. :)
read moga's book. yung "what makes man truly human?" :) have you? it's so eye-opening :)
kawawa ang human, s/he does not really become fully human. unlike the dogs, monkeys and cats, they become the fullest of themselves.
@ Karla: yun ang lesson namin. Kaya nga naisip kong isulat tong post na to. Human beings NEED to develop themselves so that they will become FULLY human.
hi Bam, this reminds me of my Philo class wayback uhmm... never mind. hehe. nwei, the class was focused entirely on it. and we used the book by Moga, a jesuit (jesuit nga ba un? di ako sure) priest. and yes, its title is WHAT MAKES MAN REALLY HUMAN. hehe. i suppose your teacher read that na. there are several things to consider for you to be called as a human, several things that might trigger your mind and say "oo nga naman, ano ba ako? animal or human" haha. the book was written well, he gave examples, at parang nagsasalita lang cya infront of you. my sister had fun reading it, i just don't know if she read it by heart. my copy is with Ryan, i dunno either if he's reading it or not. dami ko ng books na nasa kanya. buhay nga naman. pati sign language book, ewan if he's really reading it.
relax ka lang... still gearing up my schizo tendencies para sa version 2.0 ng blog ko. hehe.
yep, rian/ryan is the same guy.
was trying to add you sa friendster, kaya lang di ko alam email add mo and/or surname. hehe... nwei, add me up nalang. :)
it's 'munckins' neveu and my location is france (european territory). :)
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