PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

University of San Agustin

AY: 2014-2015: First Semester

CHAPTER 1: INTRAPERSONAL DIMENSION

Lecture 4: The Human Person as Bodily Being

Primary and Secondary Reflection: The Existential Fulcrum

Gabriel Marcel
I Have a Body

The word have is a transitive verb, and the word body is a direct object. To have
means to possess or to own. The word to have is the verb used to signify
possession like when I say I have a house; I have a dog, etc. All things that we
possess (i.e. ball pen, bag, notebooks, and car) are distinct and separate from
ourselves.
Is our body our possession?

Our body is not our possession since it cannot be separated from ourselves. When
we say we have a body it means that our body is just part and parcel of our
personal existence. The body is not something one owns. This body is essentially
ones self.
In external having, possessing and owning in its strong and exact sense have an
imperfect unity with the haver or owner. The object that one owns or possesses
can be lost, stolen, can be damaged, or decayed while the dispossessed possessor
remains. The tragedy lies in our desperate efforts to make ourselves as one with
something which nevertheless is not, and cannot, be identical with our beings; not
even with the being of him who really does possess it. This is even more tragic in
the case of wanting to possess another human person.
Is my body a property?

Owning a body is different from owning or possessing a thing. In the case of the
house, I can do whatever I want with this house since this house is mine. As the
owner of the house, my own being is totally independent upon what I own. But in
the case of the body, there is a big difference. The principle of ownership of the
human body cannot be equated with the manner of ownership of any object.
Nobody owns my body in place of me. If we take a ball pen as example, we cannot
simply throw our body the way we treat this ball pen. Throwing this body will hurt
you and it is against the law of life (suicide). Treating this body as an object is
definitely wrong.

I Am My Body

PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

University of San Agustin

AY: 2014-2015: First Semester

The words I and my body are connected by the linking verb am, which means
that myself and my body are just one and the same. Whatever is done to my
body is done to my total being (total self). That means the good or evil done to this
body is the good or evil done to this self.
For example, when a nurse helps to nourish the body of an undernourished child
back to health, what she does to that body she does to the person of the child.
Similarly when a client uses the body of the prostitute as an instrument of his own
gratification, he has treated the person of the prostitute as an instrument, which is
not a person but a tool. The client dehumanized the prostitute. What has been done
to the body has been done to the total person.

The human persons body is both a possession and a being: I have a body and I am
my body at the same time. The significance of understanding this distinction and
unification of possessing and being make us realize the importance of ones body and
others as well. We live in a world full of bodies and we encounter it daily, but at times we
fail to recognize the unity of the body to the person possessing it. This is clear in the
context of prostitution, labour abuse, murder, medicinal malpractice, physical abuse, etc.
In conclusion, the body of the person is the person him/herself. There is no distinction, only
unity between the body and the person.