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SANCTA MARIA MATER ET REGINA SEMINARIUM

Who Am I? Am I My Body? Or I Am a Body

Sem. J. Francois L. Ocaso
March 2018

Philosophy is about generalities, but this question demands particularity: who am I – a

particular person in a particular time and place, related in particular ways to others? The usual
answers are not of much philosophical interest: J. Francois Ocaso, Fr. Cornelio’s Student, 4th year
college student of philosophy. In each of these identities, however, I find two things: a state of
interiority – feelings, thoughts, beliefs and desires with which only I am directly acquainted, and
a social role – a relatedness to other human beings. So the question is two-fold: How does it feel
to be me? And how do I function in a social context? Each of us must answer these questions for
ourselves, but we can share our answers with others. The first-person point of view is an important
starting point. We each have a life-story, of what has been and continues to be important to us,
what the pivotal events were that brought us to the present moment. By comparing stories, we find
such timeless human themes as love and hate, honor and degradation, loyalty and betrayal,
inspiration and despair; and we learn how others have handled themselves in situations without
ourselves having to undergo them. In this way human culture advances far more rapidly than
biological evolution. By taking an ‘objective’ point of view toward our own subjectivity, we can
transcend ourselves. We are not bound by chains of habit or instinct; we can see who we are and
choose to change it. The ability to examine one’s own experience is something that distinguishes
us from other animals. We have, in some measure, the ability to create ourselves. There are limits
to what we can make of ourselves imposed by evolution, biology and culture, but the ability to
know those limits and find ways to work within them gives us the unique ability not only to
discover, but to decide and create the answer to the question ‘Who am I?’

I am a living, breathing organism signified by the words ‘human being’. I am a material or

physical being fairly recognizable over time to me and to others: I am a body. Through my body,
I can move, touch, see, hear, taste and smell. The array of physical sensations available to me also
includes pain, hunger, thirst, tiredness, injury, sickness, fear, apprehension and pleasure. In this
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SANCTA MARIA MATER ET REGINA SEMINARIUM

way I experience myself, others and the world around me. However, there is another aspect of me
not directly visible or definable. This is the aspect of me which thinks and feels, reflects and judges,
remembers and anticipates. Words used to describe this aspect include ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘heart’,
‘soul’, ‘awareness’ and ‘consciousness’. This part of me is aware that I can never be fully known
or understood by myself or by others; it notices that although there may be some unchanging
essence which is ‘me’, this same ‘me’ is also constantly changing and evolving.

So I am a physical body and an emotional and psychological (or spiritual) being. The two
together make me a person. Being a person means that I have virtues and flaws, gifts and needs,
possibilities and defeats. I am basically good, but I am capable of evil. I am neither an angel nor a
monster. Being a person means that I am a social animal, needing connection, recognition and
acceptance from others, while simultaneously knowing myself as isolated and solitary, with many
experiences which are never fully shareable with others. However, I also realize that this
paradoxical condition is a universal experience, and this enables the emergence of empathy and
compassion for others as it affords glimpses of understanding and solicitude, mutuality and
intimacy. Being a person means that I am like all other persons, but also unique. It also means that
I can never provide a genuinely definitive answer to the question. But what I know is that I should
involve my being to others.