The Human Person

Kristine Dulnuan
Juana Sophiya Ariza Garcia
Lyka Lalu
Aldrin Ergs Nabong
Christabel Rolle
Prince Christian Jeric Soliman
Micah Tolibas

Objectives:
1. Explain the nature of the human
person.
2. Differentiate the needs and values
based from different persons’ point
of view.
3. Define terms related to conscience.

The Notion of a Person
History
In ancient Rome…
“persona” in Latin
“prosopon” (πρόςωπον) in Greek
“the face” or the masks worn by actors on
stage
The masks represent the different “persona”.

What is a person?
“The person is seen as more than an
isolated individual body, but as a
dynamically interior person able to grow
deeply in oneself through the others with
whom he or she communicates, therefore
seeing the person in terms of relation to
other persons.”
- Maritain

What is a person?
• “any entity that has the moral right of
self-determination.”
• the kind of being that has the moral
right to make its own life-choices and to
live its life without being provoked
interfered by others

What is a person?
• the individual’s uniqueness which cannot
be interchanged and therefore cannot be
counted
• a being that has certain capacities or
attributes constituting personhood, which in
turn is defined differently by different
authors in different disciplines and by
different cultures in different times and
places

LAW:
A person is a human being or a corporation
recognized in law as having certain rights
and obligations.
PHILOSOPHY:
A person is a being characterized by
consciousness, rationality, and a moral sense,
and traditionally thought of as consisting of
both a body and a mind or soul.

Personhood
-the status of being a person
-a controversial topic in philosophy
and law
- closely tied to legal and political
concepts of citizenship, equality, and
liberty

Needs and Values of Human Persons
Needs: Maslow‘s Hierarchy of Needs

1. Human beings initially set their priorities according to
their existential needs such as food, clothes and sleep.
If the existential needs are not met survival is
threatened and life itself is in danger.
2. If the existential needs are satisfied the need for safety
is awakened: The desire for protection from the risks
to life such as war, sickness, accident, environmental
catastrophes etc. take centre ground.

3. The next level in the priority pyramid according to
Maslow concerns the social needs: The human being
wants to be with like-minded people, he wants to be
accepted and loved.
4. The following level is concerned with self-regard and
the esteem of other people: The human being wants to
strengthen his self-confidence and for this purpose
seeks regard and recognition from other people.

5. The top objective is the need for self-realization: The
human being wants to be able to be himself and to
permanently be able to experience inner peace,
happiness and harmony.

The Human Act: Its Characteristics
• Knowledge
• Freedom
• Willfulness

Knowledge
• a familiarity with someone or something, which
can include facts, information, descriptions,
or skills acquired through experience or education
• theoretical or practical understanding of a subject
• can be implicit (as with practical skill or
expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical
understanding of a subject)
• can be more or less formal or systematic

Knowledge
• In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called
epistemology.
• The philosopher Plato famously defined
knowledge as "justified true belief." However, no
single agreed upon definition of knowledge exists,
though there are numerous theories to explain it.
• Knowledge acquisition involves
complex cognitive processes: perception,
communication, association and reasoning; while
knowledge is also said to be related to the capacity
of acknowledgment in human beings

Freedom
• the state of being free at liberty rather than in
confinement or under physical restraint
• exception from external control, interference,
regulation, etc.
• the power to determine action without restraint
• political or national independence
• personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery

Willfulness
• said or done on purpose; deliberate
• obstinately bent on having one's own way.

Definition of Conscience
Latin words:
cum (with) and scientia (knowledge)
thus meaning “with knowledge”

• an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of
the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong
• tends to be defined as the feeling that may make a
person believe that certain actions, or failures of
actions, are inherently wrong
• Philosophers, religious leaders, psychologists and
a variety of others have tried to determine the
source of such emotions, and many arrive at
different answers.

• In many religions that worship the
Judeo/Christian/Islamic god, conscience is a God-
given facility; something that people have with us
from birth.
• In psychological terms conscience is often
described as leading to feelings of remorse when a
human commits actions that go against
his/her moral values and to feelings
of rectitude or integrity when actions conform to
such norms.

“Conscience is a man's compass”.
- Vincent van Gogh

Conscience as a “Practical Judgment”
• A practical judgment means an operative,
efficacious, active judgment. But a truly
efficacious, active judgment must be the root and
starting point of our action. In a word, such a
judgment must necessarily result in action, unless
impeded by a contrary, practical judgment. We
must note carefully that the operation of an
intelligent being is always physically begun and
determined by a judgment.

• Conscience is entirely separate from action, and that we
can act even against the dictate of conscience.
Conscience, therefore, does not necessarily lead to
action; it is not a judgment on which action depends, or
to which action is physically joined. Conscience is not
an operative judgment, and properly speaking cannot be
called a practical judgment.
• It has been called a practical judgment because the
word practical has been taken in a broad sense. Instead
of being understood solely of something active or
pertaining to action (its true meaning), practical now
indicates something referring to, or ordered to, action.

• As a practical moral judgment, conscience takes the
form: “I ought to do X.” Aquinas points out that when I
make such a judgment, I should follow it. But acting on
my conscience is not enough. Like any other kind of
judgment—business, artistic, scientific or athletic—we
base our moral judgments not only on principles but on
evidence, data and information. A judgment made
without data, evidence or information is a foolish one
indeed. Thus, Aquinas thought it is as important to
inform one’s conscience properly as it is to follow it. If I
refuse to look at evidence or information in forming my
moral judgment, I am actually refusing to act morally.

Different Kinds of Conscience:
Antecedent and Consequent Conscience
Judgment is passed before an action is
performed or only after the action is
done.

Right and Erroneous Conscience
Right - judge what is
really good as good
and evil what is really
evil.
Erroneous - judges what
is bad as good and
vice versa.

Certain Conscience
Subjective assurance of
the lawfulness or
unlawfulness of certain
actions to be done or to
be admitted.

Doubtful Conscience
Suspends judgment on
the lawfulness of an
action and therefore( it
is possible) the action
should be omitted.

Scrupulous Conscience
Constantly afraid of
committing evil.
This conscience is a
result of a stubborn
character.

Lax Conscience
Conscience that tends to follow the
easy way and to find excuses for
mistakes.

Scrupulous Conscience
Disturbed conscience
trying to restore good
relations with God by
means of sorrow and
repentance.

The Human Person

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