The Human Person By Eddie Babor Pdf Download
Brandi Baylon
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About: Eddie R. Babor, Ll.B., Ph.D., is Full Professor and Director of Publications at the Holy Name University in Tagbilaran City, Bohol. He is the immediate past president of the Philosophical Association of the Visayas and Mindanao (PHAVISMINDA). He wrote several textbooks in philosophy such as The human person: Existing but not real, Ethics: The philosophical discipline of action, Logic: The philosophical discipline of correct thinking, Bioethics, A philosophical and critical journey into the life sciences: A guide to a health care provider. He also authored articles in various philosophical journals.
So, when we say that the human person is an embodied spirit, we specifically mean that the human person is the point of convergence between the material and spiritual entities, that is, between the body and soul. We cannot talk, therefore, of the human person without the union of body and soul, just as we cannot talk of anything without the union of (as Aristotle would have us believe) matter and form.
Now, to understand the specificity of the human person as an embodied spirit is important because aside from the fact that it enables us to know our potentialities and limitations, it also exposes us to a thorough and deeper understanding of ourselves as a unique creature united by body and soul. With this caveat in mind, let us now proceed to an engagement with one of the most famous philosophers in this particular scholarship, namely, Aristotle.
For Plato, the nature of the human person is seen in the metaphysical dichotomy between body and soul. This dichotomy implies that there is an inherent contradiction between the body and the soul. On the one hand, the body, according to Plato, is material; hence, it is mutable and destructible. On the other hand, the soul is immaterial; hence, it is immutable and indestructible.
According to Plato, the appetitive part of the soul drives the human person to experience thirst, hunger, and other physical wants, while the spiritual soul drives the human person to experience abomination, anger, and other emotional feelings. Lastly, it is the rational part of the soul that enables the human person to think, reflect, analyze, comprehend, draw conclusions, and the like.
Hence, again, for Plato, desire, spirit, and reason make up the soul. Desire motivates, spirit animates, and reason guides. And for Plato, if reason can successfully guide desire and spirit, then the human person will attain a well-balanced personality.
As the principle of life, the soul causes the body to live; indeed, it is the soul that animates the body. If the soul is the animator of the body, the body acts as the matter to the soul. Hence, Aristotle believes that the soul is the form to the body, while the body is the matter to the soul. For Aristotle, everything that exists is composed of matter and form, and matter and form are indeed inseparable. Hence, we cannot talk about any object if either of these entities is not present. In the context of the human person, Aristotle believes that body and soul are inseparable. Body and soul, therefore, constitute the human person as a whole.
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