Thesis Statements in Philosophy of Man

i. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, a lifelong search for truth – an abstract transcendent
truth which encompasses human persons. Hence, the search for truth is both personal
and communal. Philosophy is the foundation of all subjects, a framework, an approach
to questions rather than answers to questions. Philosophy is a practical discipline in
that it is all-consumed with better understanding ideas which affect our daily lives.
Philosophy, ultimately, aims that we might be better at living.

ii. The history of western philosophy is started by the search for the ultimate stuff.
Ancient Greeks focused the search on the cosmos. The emergence of Abrahamic
religions such as Christianity paved the way for monasteries and emphasized more on
the theos as the provider of meaning. The rise of humanism and modernity gave more
focus on man’s capabilities. The history of western philosophy tells of the transition of
man’s worldview from cosmocentric to theocentric to anthropocentric. Eastern
philosophy, on the other hand, focuses on the self, that which makes one human and,
ultimately, lead to a state of self-transcendence. It is more religion than philosophy.

iii. The ultimate question of philosophy of man is the identity of the self, “Who am I?”. It is
based on the Platonic maxim that each human being must “know thyself” and on
Socrates’ pronouncement that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. In philosophy
of man is the attempt both to examine one’s life and, eventually, gain a profound
knowledge of one’s self.

iv. Existentialism, as a philosophical movement in the 19th and 20th century, highlights
the despairing mood of human existence. It emphasizes man as the giver or
discoverer of meaning to his own life and to the world by stressing man's existence,
authenticity, freedom and responsibility. Phenomenology is a way of seeing, of
grasping the world from man's lived experience. As a method, it makes use of epoché
and transcendental reductions to describe man's experience.

v. Man's being-in-the-world is neither a bodily life alone nor a spiritual life alone. It is the
life of an embodied spirit.

vi. Human existence is fundamentally social in that there is a shared responsibility for the
other, a need for others to enter into the world of meaning and make it our own, and
an acknowledgement of being-together – of co-existence – as the fundamental value
which gives authentic fulfilment in life. The human person is a member of a family that
is a mystery which belongs to the reality of presence. The family is the incarnation of
the pact between man and life, the mystery of fidelity and hope. The contemporary
idea of a sustainable society begins with a recognition of the fallen nature of the
human heart and the resulting brokenness of human relations resulting in crises in our
lives, families, nations, and now the life-sustaining ecosystems that form our common
home.
vii. Work transcends the simple act of exerting energy, effort and time. It is the fulfillment
of man’s creative act that is gifted by the Divine. Through work, man is made to be in
the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself. Work is one of the
characteristics that distinguishes man from the rest of creation. Only man is capable of
work, and by work occupies his existence on Earth.

viii. There are certain lessons that can be drawn from the experience of love. The
encounter of love is the call of the other to transcend the fascination of one’s self. It is
through the experience of the other that I am given the chance to free myself from my
own self. Thus, love is an activity of giving, the disinterested giving of the self to the
other whereby I enhance the other's unique value and, in so doing, enrich my own.
Thus, love of the other as other does not counter to self-love but presupposes it.

ix. Man is a being-towards-death. Death is not to be faced with an act of evasion, but
should be seen as the culminating point of man’s life, the point where he finally
reaches a fulfillment, a totality. In death, man comes to grip with his wholeness and
brings to completion the commitment of his whole self to the whole of reality. Death,
thus, is the ultimate test of love and the condition of freedom, the freedom to say yes
or no to his openness to God.

x. There are two attitudes towards God. The religious experience is the divination of the
person and the personification of the Divine that can be borne out of a person to
person experience. Ultimately, the goal of all philosophy is for the human person to
experience the Divine in others and to become a catalyst of the Divine experience for
others.