Summary Reviewer in Philosophy
Summary Reviewer in Philosophy
Summary Reviewer in Philosophy
I. Determinism Vs Freewill
that will help us
II.
III.
IV.
Aristotle’ Power of Volition
Sartre’s Individual Freedom
St. Thomas Aquinas Natural Law
fully understand
Objectives:
wrong that is what is right and wrong that is traced to our free will
according to Aristotle. It is
also an intrinsic and an essential property of a human
3
I FREE WILL VS. DETERMINISM she pleases. A person must use his or her freedom to
grow as a person. A person
2. Free will becomes freer when he or she uses freedom well, but
Our free will allows us to decide on things we do becomes less free when he or
depending on the situation. It is our ability to choose she uses it in a bad way. Humans have a natural
between two different possible courses of inclination for what is true and good,
action, independently. Simply put it, free will is our and when a person uses his or her freedom to do acts
ability to choose things that violates human dignity and
according to our moral reasoning. goodness, he or she dehumanizes himself or herself and
effectively negates human freedom.
Physical freedom refers to the absence of any physical Self-reflection is very important in exercising freedom.
restraint. The person has Self-reflection allows us to be more rational in making
the freedom of mobility to go where he or she wants to choices, because sometimes human beings tend to be
go. He or she is not impeded in slaves by their emotions and moods whenever they act
his or her actions by any physical force. Granted that certain things. As free beings, exercising our freedom
the person has natural limitations, responsibly is very important. Thus, it requires us to
physical freedom allows him or her to act and move in reflect on the actions that we are going to make by
determined manner. You cannot considering its possible effects and the benefits it has to
be everywhere at once, but your freedom allows you to the people affected by it.
move one place to another and
to go whenever you want to go. Determinism in this sense is usually understood to be
2. Psychological Freedom incompatible with free will, or the supposed power or
capacity of humans to make decisions or perform
Psychological freedom is also called freedom of choice.
actions independently of any prior event or state of the
The person is free to perform actions that he or she
universe. Philosophers and scientists who deny the
considers right and wise. A person is also free to act or
existence of free will on this basis are known as “hard”
not to act. Psychological freedom is innate and cannot
determinists.
be denied to a person. No
outside force or influence can compel a person to take
III “ARISTOTLE POWER OF VOLITION”
action against his or her will.
The power of Volition (the power to make your own
3. Moral Freedom
choice or decisions) –
Moral freedom refers to using freedom in a manner The imperative quality of a judgement of practical
that upholds human dignity intellect meaningless, apart from will. Reason can
and goodness. Freedom is not an object that a person legislate (control), but only through will can its
legislation be translated into action.
may use in whatever way he or
If there is no intellect, there would be no will.
4
The will of humanity is an instrument of free choice. It is For Aquinas natural law consists of that portion of
within the power of everyone to be good or bad, worthy the eternal law that pertains particularly to people.
or worthless. This is borne out by: His reasoning is that “all things share somewhat of the
•Our inner awareness of an aptitude to do right or eternal law . . . from its being imprinted on them” and
wrong; from this all things “derive their respective inclinations
•The common testimony of all human beings; The to their proper acts and ends.” This is particularly true
rewards and punishment of rulers
of people, because our rational capacity “has a share of
•The general employment of praise and blame.
the Eternal Reason, whereby it has a natural inclination
For Aristotle, a human being is rational (based on facts
to its proper act and end.” And, Aquinas says, “this
or reason and not by emotion). Reason is divine
participation of the eternal law in the rational creature
characteristic. Humans have the spark of the divine. If
is called the natural law,” and again, “the natural law is
there were no intellect, there would be no will.
nothing else than the rational creature’s participation in
For Aristotle, a human being is rational (based on facts
the eternal law.”
or reason and not by emotion). Reason is divine
characteristic. Humans have the spark of the divine. If
there were no intellect, there would be no will. CHAPTER 6 “Intersubjectivity of the Human Person”
Lesson 1:
III “JEAN PAUL SARTRE: INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM” I. Intersubjectivity as an ontology: Social
Dimension of the Self
Sartre's philosophy is considered to be a
A. . Martin Buber’s I-You
representative of existentialism. The human
person is desire to be God. The human person B. Pope John Paul’s I – We Relation
builds the road to the destiny of his/her
Objectives:
choosing; he/she is the creator.
Sartre emphasizes the importance of free Realize that:
individual choice, regardless the power of other I. 1. Realize that intersubjectivity requires accepting
people to influence and coerce our desire, differences and not to imposing on others;
beliefs, and decisions. 2. Appreciate the talents of persons with disabilities and
To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to those from the underprivileged sectors of society and
imagine, free to choose and be responsible for their contributions to society;
one's life. 3. Explain that authentic dialogue means accepting
others even if they are different from themselves;
4. Perform activities that demonstrate the talents of
IV St. Thomas Aquinas Natural Law persons with disabilities and those from the
underprivileged sectors of society.
Natural Law --------------------------------------------------------------------------
?
of species, and, because people are rational, the
inclination toward the search for truth. The basic moral
truth is simply to “do good and avoid evil.”
5
- The ability to Dictionary, it is
make choices the quality or
and perform state of being
those choices. free.
- The ability to It is our capacity
be what we want to choose of what
and to decide and we wanted and
create oneself. an inner
Two concepts awareness of
that will help us what is right and
fully understand wrong that is
freedom: traced to our free
will according to
1. Freedom Aristotle. It is
itself also an intrinsic
According to and an essential
Merriam
6
property of a and to decide and
human person create oneself.
which basically Two concepts
means, it is a part that will help us
of our human fully understand
nature. freedom:
What is
1. Freedom
Freedom
itself
? According to
- The ability to Merriam
make choices Dictionary, it is
and perform the quality or
those choices. state of being
- The ability to free.
be what we want It is our capacity
to choose of what
7
we wanted and
It is the condition of man, a subject, among other
men, who are also subjects also it refers to the
shared awareness and understanding among
an inner persons.
awareness of
Differences and Not to Impose on Others
Aristotle. It is
of
also an intrinsic ■ They also think that one must not lose the sight
old one’s self in concrete experience.
human person
▪ For Wojtyla, the social dimension is represented
by “We relation”
which basically
▪ In his encyclical letter, “Fides et ratio”, he criticized
the traditional definition of human as
“rational animal”.
nature.
▪ For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the
human agent.
Intersubjectivity
8
Participation explains the essence of the human - asthmatic or cystic fibrotic persons
person. Through participation, the person is able to
- Diabetic
fulfill one’s self. The human
▪ Negative attitude of the family and community
person is oriented toward relation and sharing in
toward PWDs may add to their poor academic
the communal life for the common good.
and vocational outcomes. Parents need to reach
Martin Buber
the point of constructive action. They can
▪ His work “I and thou” (Ich and Du) (1923), he
decide to restructure certain aspects of their
conceives the human person in his/her wholeness,
lifestyle in order to accommodate the
totality, concrete existence and relatedness to he
communicative as sensitivity, through positive and
world.
supportive attitudes towards PWDs, is also
Buber’s I-thou philosophy is about the human
an important component.
person as a subject, who is a being different from
B. On Underprivileged Sector of Society
things or from objects. The human person
experience his wholeness not in virtue of his ▪ On Underprivileged Sector of Society
relation to one’s self, but in virtue of his relation to
The notion of poverty s not one-dimensional; rather
another self.
it is multidimensional. A number of different
▪ The human person as subject have direct and
concepts and measures of poverty relate to its
mutual sharing of selves. This signifies a person,
various dimension. Each of these has the common
subject-subject relation or acceptance, sincerity,
characteristics of representing deprivation that
concern, respect, dialog, and care. The human
encompasses:
person is not just being-in-the-world but being-with-
Income
others ,or being-in-relation.
- Health
▪ Buber cites the I-It relationship. This I-It
- Education
relationship is a person to thing, subject to object
- Empowerment
that is
- Working Condition
merely experiencing and using: lacking ▪ The most common measure of the
directedness and mutuality) underprivileged is income poverty, which is defined
in terms
Appreciate the Talents of Person with
Disability (PWDs) and those from the of consumption of goods and services. There is
Underprivileged Sectors lack of goods and services. The world bank
of society and Their Contributions categories poverty in two levels: poor and
extremely poor.
A. On PWDs:
There are growing recognition that income poverty
▪ There are many categories of PWD or person with
is not the only important measure of
disabilities. To mention some, There are:
deprivation. Poor health is also an important aspect
- hearing impaired
of poverty. Globally, millions die due o AIDS,
9
Ebola virus, tuberculosis and malaria as well as about.Humanity is progressively attuned to
numbers of infant deaths from largely communication about Being.
preventable causes of diarrheal diseases. Health ▪ Dialog – It is a deep and genuinely relationship
deprivation had become focal point for the between persons.
Classification of entities.
▪ Conversation –is more than an idle talk but a
dialog. Dialog is a conversation that is attuned to
each other and to whatever they are talking
10
I. Forms of Society
A. Agrarian
B. Industrial
C. Virtual
Objectives:
What is
Freedom
?
- The ability to
make choices
and perform
those choices.
- The ability to
be what we want
CHAPTER 7 “HUMAN PERSON IN THE SOCIETY”
and to decide and
Lesson 1 create oneself.
11
Two concepts an inner
that will help us awareness of
fully understand what is right and
freedom: wrong that is
traced to our free
1. Freedom will according to
itself Aristotle. It is
According to also an intrinsic
Merriam and an essential
Dictionary, it is property of a
the quality or human person
state of being which basically
free. means, it is a part
It is our capacity of our human
to choose of what nature.
we wanted and
12
What is 1. Freedom
Freedom itself
? According to
- The ability to Merriam
make choices Dictionary, it is
and perform the quality or
those choices. state of being
- The ability to free.
be what we want It is our capacity
and to decide and to choose of what
create oneself. we wanted and
an inner
Two concepts awareness of
that will help us what is right and
fully understand wrong that is
freedom: traced to our free
13
will according to
which produces none of its own food, and the
horticultural society, which produces food in small
gardens rather than fields.
and an essential
using sophisticated machinery powered by fuel. For
example, the Japan is an industrial society
because a huge portion of its economy is tied to
which basically
the fast and efficient manufacturing of
standardized products. The same goes if one avails
a car, there is a chance that the car was mass
nature.
progress from a manufacturing-based to a
service-based economy. Emphasis on information,
technology, and services because manufacturing is
Society
a characteristic of the corporate form.
The human person exists to relate with others. The Post industrialization is most evident in countries
person is by nature a social being because he or and regions that were among the first to experience
she has a tendency to go out of himself or herself the Industrial Revolution, such as the United States,
to form bonds and relationships with others.
western Europe, and Japan. Daniel Bell, an
American sociologist, first coined the term ‘post-
A society is a group of individuals involved in
persistent social interaction, or a large social group industrial’ in 1973 in his book “The Coming of
sharing the same geographical or social territory, Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social
typically subject to the same political authority and Forecasting,” which describes several features of
dominant cultural expectations. this kind of society. Post-industrial societies are
characterized by:
A. Agrarian form of society a. a shift from the production of goods to the
type of society is a further evolution of the production of services;
pastoral and horticultural society. An agrarian b. the replacement of manual laborers with
society focuses its economy primarily on technical and professional workers (computer
agriculture and the cultivation of large fields. This engineers, doctors, and bankers) as the direct
distinguishes it from the hunter-gatherer society, production of goods is moved
14
elsewhere; child recently diagnosed with cancer, or to cheer for
c. the replacement of practical knowledge with our favorite sports team. People join a VC to gain
theoretical knowledge; freedom of expression and to interact with others
d. focusing to the theoretical and ethical without being concerned with country boundaries,
implications of new technologies, which helps ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation, religious
society avoid some of the negative features of beliefs, or political views.
introducing new technologies, concerning
environment and energy; DIGITAL SOCIETY AND THE INFORMATION AGE
e. the development of recent scientific disciplines—
that involve new forms of information technology, Digital technologies have wildly affected our
cybernetics, or artificial intelligence—to evaluate interactions and activity in the 21st century. They
the theoretical and ethical implications of new have significantly changed our way of learning,
technologies; working and socializing. In this modern world
f. an emphasis on the university and polytechnic we rely with the use of modern technology
institutes which produce graduates who innovate which has led to considering the possible outcome
and lead the new technologies contributing to a for the society,
postindustrial society; and concerning how we would take part in interaction,
g. the changing values and norms which reflects and how we can use these digital tools and
the influences on the society. In an instance, communication channels.
outsourcing of manufactured good changes how
members of a society see and treat foreigners and Having our heads of digital society in our minds, we
immigrants. Also, those individuals previously first have to think of the information society;
occupied in the manufacturing sector find which are correlated with the progress and
themselves with no clearly defined social role. development of digital information and
communication technologies to the internet at
Post-industrial society: emerged by the least. Information society plays a vital role with
establishment of societies based on knowledge, regards to the circulation and control of made-
information, and the sale of services. up ideas which affects political, economic, social
and cultural aspects. So, what does this mean for
Virtual society arises where people organize the everyday citizen?
themselves through communication technology
and Internet. This society is composed of members These informative societies have paved many
with higher educational attainment, better training, opportunities reaching bigger audiences like
and specialized roles. never before. With a wider scale of the world’s
demography, primarily Westerners, have access to
C. Virtual society arises where people organize sources and technologies which enables them to
themselves through communication technology connect with enough activities whether
and Internet. This society is composed of members economic,
with higher educational attainment, better training, social, political, or educational. We can manipulate
and specialized roles. the phasing of learning (e.g. free sources) or
-as an online gathering of individuals who share businesses (e.g. online selling) without a large
interests, fears, and personal opinions. For sum of money used as a capital and we can share
example, we may join a VC to support a presidential our ideas and perspectives to the international
candidate, to provide support to a family with a audiences as we connect beyond.
15
We have said that being a digital citizen requires
What do we mean by digital citizenship? active participation online, not just access and use.
In their book “Being Digital Citizens” (2015) Isin and
Now, one of the main terms in the modern world is Ruppert suggest that if we constitute ourselves as
the ‘digital citizen’. What does this actually digital citizens, we have become subjects of power
mean? A digital citizen is a person who is in cyberspace. We are enacting ourselves on the
knowledgeable and responsible enough to internet, considering and understanding the
effectively use different social platforms in the opportunities presented by this medium, such as
internet. They often engage in useful topics and anonymity, communication, and influence. In short,
issues that will help build a better society, politics we can use digital technologies to engage and
and government. If we will dig deeper, digital participate on many levels in society
citizenship might look simple. We might think that it and political life.
is just about using the internet safely. However, we
also need to consider and understand that this The virtual society and the technological devices
citizenship can get complicated, especially if we today are starting to reshape the human person
are going to criticize and show interest in sensitive and human interactions and relationships. More
topics as we start to become a digital citizen, using and more interactions are done in the virtual world
digital media to actively participate in society and than in the actual world. People are more thrilled
politics. to see their virtual selves than their actual
selves. They are more themselves online than
If we look a little closer at the field of ‘citizenship offline. And this leads one to ask, “Who am I?” in a
studies’ this will lead us to a better understanding more complex manner. People seem to start
of what digital society really means. A citizen is manipulating personalities as they exhibit different
defined as an individual character who is viewed behaviors in different worlds. People fall in love in
as a member of a society while citizenship virtual worlds. Someone breaks up with a partner
considers an individual’s behavior in terms of through a text message. Human relations seem to
rights, obligations and functions of said citizen. start losing an important element in living –
Being a citizen of a state requires tons of commitment. Virtual worlds and disembodied
obligations and duties such as work, taxation and relations lack commitment. We can always step
obedience of laws. On the other hand, citizens also back and retreat in a virtual world. We can always
have their rights, it includes civil rights such as create a new self when our avatars die or when it
freedom of speech and expression, to stand for has become undesirable. We can always ignore
what we believe in, and rights to a private life; message. Virtual realities remove risks; and
political rights, or the right to vote and social rights because we do not want to risk, we patronize the
to health care and welfare. In this course we will virtual world. Commitment is hard. To commit is to
tackle these rights as we look at real definition of risk. In the virtual world, one’s anonymity
what it means to be a citizen in the modern society lessens, if not completely removes risks. When
and how legislation and the government shape our we are confronted with real social problems like
ability to be democratic citizens who can stand for war and famine, discrimination harassment and
the truth. corruption; we let the world know that we condemn
these evils and express participation in the
abolition of these problems. How? By a futile click
What does this all mean then in the digital age? to like. People in the modern technological society
ultimately make no real commitments
16
well, but alone with their devices too. Interacting
with actual embodied subjects, face-to-face, is
becoming more and more difficult today. It is
THE DISEMBODIED SUBJECT indeed more difficult to relate to other embodied
The dissatisfaction and frustration of the human subjects than to relate with things.
person with bodily limitations drive the person to
prefer a disembodied human relation. At the outset, The practice of selfie is another move towards
it must be clarified that the term disembodied disembodied human relations. People used to
subject does not mean that in the technological approach other people to take their photos. But the
society, human persons are no longer living with regained popularity of selfie gave people the idea
their bodies. However, in a manner of speaking, that they do not need the other to take photos.
people are slowly putting aside their bodies in And the invention of the monopod aggravates
relating with others because the technological the condition. The monopod allows us to take
society offers an alternative which apparently group selfies without missing a member of our
resolves human of an embodied subject. Face-to- group. It has solidified the person to take our
face interaction is too stressful and difficult while photos. Maybe we will just disturb the person by
virtual interactions are relatively easier. asking him to take our photo. But maybe we are
Consequently, we find many cases where people more afraid of being rejected than by the idea of
prefer communicating using virtual world, even if bothering the other.
the person involved is someone seen on a regular
basis. Moreover, the disembodied interaction The virtual society and the technological
among people is aggravated by modern devices today are starting to reshape the human
technological devices. The different gadgets that person and human interactions and relationships.
are produced today support disembodied human More and more interactions are done in the
relations. The scene which the technological virtual world than in the actual world. People are
society creates is very familiar to us: we see a more thrilled to see their virtual selves than their
family, or friends, gathered around a table or in a actual selves. They are more themselves online
room, but with very minimal actual embodied than offline. And this leads one to ask, “Who am
human interaction. Everyone is glued to their I?” in a more complex manner. People seem to
devices – cellphones, tablets, laptops, or any start manipulating personalities as they exhibit
device and they are all probably interacting with different behaviors in different worlds. People fall in
their virtual societies. One is busy with other love in virtual worlds. Someone breaks up with a
things other than the persons within the room or partner through a text message. Human relations
in the closest proximity. The kind of human seem to start losing an important element in living
interaction, which was commitment. Virtual worlds and disembodied
still present just two decades ago, is obviously relations lack commitment. We can always step
altered now. And however much we try and remind back and retreat in a virtual world. We can always
ourselves to refrain from being alone with our create a new self when our avatars die or when it
devices while being with others, we always fall back has become undesirable. We can always ignore
into interacting with our gadgets. We prefer to message. Virtual realities remove risks; and
interact with our phones with the unfinished because we do not want to risk, we patronize the
game that we are playing, with the new music and virtual world. Commitment is hard. To commit is
movies we downloaded, or with our friends who are to risk. In the virtual world, one’s anonymity
probably in the situation – with other people as lessens, if not completely removes risks. When
17
we are confronted with real social problems like A. Plato Contemplation Theory of Immortality
war and famine, discrimination harassment and
B. Aristotle’s Realizing Potential (Moral Virtue Theory)
corruption; we let the world know that we condemn
these evils and express participation in the
abolition Objectives
of these problems. How? By a futile click to like.
1.
People in the modern technological society
ultimately make no real commitments.
20
Plato
Potential
The Unmoved Mover is the straw that stirs
Aristotle’s philosophy. When we talk about
“potentiality” and “actuality” we are talking about
fulfilling our nature in our quest to discover who we
are and why we are here.
For Aristotle, everything has an inherent purpose
and our job it to discover ours. The Unmoved Mover
is the force in all living things that makes this
happen.It can accomplish this because the
Unmoved Mover is pure actuality. It is the
completely actualized entity, and it exists in each
living thing alluring it to actualize its potential. It’s the
little spark of divinity in each of us that needs to turn
into a raging fire. It entices every living thing to live
out its potential. This is its similarity to quantum
evocation.Aristotle thought that the more we
actualize our potential, the more we embody the
Unmoved Mover (or God), becoming more “Godlike”
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in the process.The downside of Aristotle’s Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher.
philosophy is the happiness he is referring to is just
He is best known for his 1818 work The World as
an “earthly happiness.” Once we die, we die and
that’s it. We don’t get to take it with us. Will and Representation, which characterizes the
phenomenal world as the product of a blind
noumenal will. Building on the transcendental
Happiness. idealism of Immanuel Kant, Schopenhauer
developed an atheistic metaphysical and ethical
It is a term we throw about without much
thought these days… my guess is that, system that rejected the contemporaneous ideas of
actually, you think you know what is meant by German idealism. He was among the first thinkers
saying someone is happy. in Western philosophy to share and affirm
significant tenets of Indian philosophy, such as
According to Aristotle, happiness consists in asceticism, denial of the self, and the notion of the
achieving, through the course of a whole world-as-appearance. His work has been described
lifetime, all the goods — health, wealth, as an exemplary manifestation of philosophical
knowledge, friends, etc. — that lead to the pessimism.
perfection of human nature and to the
enrichment of human life. This requires us to ON DEATH AND LIFE AS DYING
make choices, some of which may be very The concept of death is a fundamental
difficult.. adjunct of Schopenhauer's metaphysics of
appearance and Will. Schopenhauer interprets
VIRTUE ETHICS death as the aim and purpose of life. He maintains
that to live is to suffer, that the triumph of death is
VIRTUE ETHICS is an ethical view originating in inevitable, and that existence is a constant dying.
ancient Greece which says that ethics is Yet Schopenhauer also insists that death is the
fundamentally about learning to live well. According denial of the individual will or will-to-live; that birth
to Aristotle, the good life is when a man is living a and death as events in the phenomenal world are
virtuous life; a kind of life which is oriented toward alike unreal; that death is not complete annihilation;
our proper end, our purpose. and that suicide, though not morally objectionable,
CHAPTER 8: Human Person are Oriented is philosophically pointless because it affirms the
Towards their Impending Death will-to-live. The paradoxes in Schopenhauer's
reflections on the nature of death must be
Lesson 2: understood in order to appreciate what he means
by the empirical will in its relation to Will as thing-in-
A. Schopenhauer itself in his unique brand of post-Kantian idealism.
B. Heidegger
A. Schopenhauer on Death
22
Being-towards-death fulfillment of human existence (Existenz).
For Jaspers, philosophical illumination is
In Heidegger's view, it is the encounter with death achieved in the experience of limit
that most profoundly highlights the question of situations, such as conflict, guilt, and
Being. “Only humanity ‘has’ the distinction of suffering, that define the human condition.
standing and facing death, because the human In its confrontation with these extremes
being is earnest about Being (Seyn): death is the mankind achieves its existential humanity.
supreme testimony to Being (Seyn)” (GA 65: 230). He is one of the most important figures
“Death opens up the question of Being” (GA 65: of existentialism.
284). Thus Heidegger's detailed examination of
human mortality was motivated by the question: Karl Jasper on Death
what can death tell us about the fundamental
meaning of Being? Karl Jaspers' existential concept of death
lies at the heart of this book. For Jaspers, a human
Death was a central theme of Heidegger's being is not merely a physical entity, but a being
thought throughout his entire philosophical with a transcendent aspect, which is in some sense
career. ‘deathless’. It is the connection between these two
He considered the knowledge of the aspects of the human being that governs the
existence of death and believed that the structure of his work. This book is primarily
existence of knowledge leads to the concerned to clarify and reassess Jaspers' concept
knowledge of the universe. of death and his claim that one's transcendent self
The immense popularity of Being and ‘knows no death’. In this respect, it is an attempt to
Time owed much to his emphasis that determine what it means for a human being to be
“preparedness for death” is a fundamental ‘deathless’ within the Jaspersian framework.
key to authentic existence – that the
disclosure of authentic Being only occurs The book explores Jaspers' notion of death,
when Dasein confronts its own finitude by seeking to provide a better understanding of human
resolutely accepting that it is always, and existence in this world. In a sense it is a reflection
inescapably, on a journey towards its own on what it means to be human, highlighting the
death. significance of the relationship between man and
death, and his preoccupation with human finitude.
Death is the possibility of the impossibility
We know that we must eventually die, and sooner
of all other possibilities or later we have to confront our own mortality.
There is, however, no certainty as to when and
where we might die.
D. Karl Jasper
Traditionally, the idea of finitude and death
are closely associated, for it is death that marks our
Karl Jaspers, (born Feb. 23, 1883, finitude. Human finitude is a biological fact and is
Oldenburg, Ger.—died Feb. 26, 1969, intrinsic to human nature. But people perceive
Basel, Switz.), German-Swiss philosopher death not only as the empirical limit to existence but
and psychiatrist. As a research psychiatrist, also as a metaphysical issue. The distinction
he helped establish psychopathology on a between biological death and death as a
rigorous, scientifically descriptive basis, philosophical issue is important because an
especially in his General empirical inquiry into death is fundamentally
Psychopathology (1913). He taught different from a metaphysical inquiry.
philosophy at the University of Heidelberg
from 1921 until 1937, when the Nazi regime What I have learned
forbade him to work. From 1948 he lived in
Switzerland, teaching at the University of Human is temporary. Nothing is forever.
Basel. In his magnum opus, Philosophy (3 We have to exercise our freedom in a positive
vol., 1969), he argued that the aim of way. Since we all will face
philosophy is practical; its purpose is the
23
judgement on the comings days and our happiness fear of death is only natural to humans, but
will be determined by how death should be viewed as achievement of life.
we exercise our freedom. happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the
We should always remember to do good rather highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and
than bad. virtues (aretê: 'excellence') are the requisite
Real happiness can be found in a more lasting skills and dispositions needed to attain it the
and important things. republic
Suffering takes place when we feel pain. It can be
experienced physically or ARISTOTLE
mentally. It is generally viewed as an undesirable
condition, and that we
naturally seek pleasure and avoid pain. Humans as He was a Greek philosopher and polymath
we are, we normally during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.
experience pain and we often view it as necessary Student of Plato
to help as grow and
become a strong person and find the deepest
meaning of our lives.
As we approach our death, we experience both Aristotle
happiness and suffering. The according to Aristotle, the purpose and ultimate
two are not really meant to be extreme opposites, goal in life is to achieve eudaimonia
for they can also enrich one
('happiness'). He believed that eudaimonia was
another.
not simply virtue, nor pleasure, but rather it
As intersubjective beings who have a tendency to
was the exercise of virtue Happiness depends
form bonds with others, it is
on ourselves." More than anybody else,
only natural that the meaning of life be found when
we open ourselves to Aristotle
others. This means that although we will eventually enshrines happiness as a central purpose of
die, we have an human life and a goal in itself. As a result, he ,
opportunity to enrich our lives as well as the lives of the topic of happiness than any thinker prior to
others the modern era.
SOCRATES
HEIDEGGER
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of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens
holding equal basic rights and an egalitarian economic
system.
EPICURUS
JOHN LOCKE
SIGMUND FREUD
Veil of ignorance
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