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INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON LECTURE #2

IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING PHILOSOPHY

 Philosophy provides us with the motivation and the intellectual abilities required to explore life’s most
challenging issues.
 Studying philosophy in a serious and reflective way will change you as a person.
 Studying philosophy will help you develop the understanding and insight you will need to make
intelligent choices and fulfill your potential as an individual.

PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION
Philosophy is, first of all, reflection. It is stepping back, listening to yourself and other people (including
the great philosophers), and trying to understand and evaluate what it is that you hear, and what it is that you
believe.

Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more
about their fundamental nature, purpose and essence.

Break is a discontinuity, or a jarring disturbance, in our everyday life.

Two Types of Reflection

 Primary Reflection refers to the process directed at deriving clear concepts about reality. We discover,
from an objective point of view, the various elements of a thing – its shape, color, or function.
 Secondary Reflection is the realization of the unity of the situation and the individual which provides
us with a holistic view of reality.

Partial vs Holistic View

 Partial - existing only in part; incomplete.
 Holistic - relating to or concerned with complete systems rather than with individual parts

Phenomenology - It is the study of experience and the ways in which things present themselves in and
through experience.

Reduction - The term ‘reduction’ as used in philosophy expresses the idea that if an entity x reduces to an
entity y then y is in a sense prior to x, is more basic than x, is such that x fully depends upon it or is constituted
by it. (The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Types of Reduction
1. Epoche – the bracketing or suspending of the natural attitude toward an object
2. Eidetic Reduction – the reduction of experience to its essence
3. Transcendental Reduction – the reduction of an object to the very activity of one’s consciousness.

ACTIVITY:
On a whole sheet of paper, write a philosophical reflection on a concrete experience that:
• Moves beyond simple description of the experience to an analysis of how it contributed to your
attainment of holistic perspective;
• Provides evidences of learning from the experience;
• Demonstrates your ability to question your own biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, and/or
assumptions; and
• Has a minimum of 300 words.

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