1 PHILOSOPHY: "MAN AS AN EMBODIED SPIRIT"
Man is made up of body and soul, of corporeal and spiritual substance. The body is the visible and tangible aspect of man; as such the activities of the body can be easily identified. We can readily refer to our five senses – taste, touch, sight, smell and hearing to affirm our bodily nature. Our body also possesses material dimensions such as shape, size, texture, color, weight. On the other hand, the soul is not visible and tangible which makes the activities of the soul hard to identify.
Though the presence of soul is not as obvious as the body, we could take from the non-physical activities of man that which is of the soul or spiritual. The presence of invisible thoughts and feeling, the occurrence of a basic decision, and the presence of conscience attests to the presence of a soul in man. Though these things are hidden and unseen, they point to a world whose presence is certain. The deep feelings shared through words and sensible expressions, the palpable changes occurring in everyday life rooted in decisions made, and the direction and guidance of conscience makes concrete the presence of the soul.
Thomas Aquinas identifies the soul as the 'principle of life.' As such, it is the beginning and foundation of human life without which or the absence of which will be the death of man. The body cannot be the principle of life for it would suppose that everything that has a body would be alive. Our experience proves otherwise, that not all bodies are alive. Moreover, it is the one that enables us to receive and perceive all the non-tangible things. 'Whatever is received is received according to the condition of the receiver.'
In the first activity, some of the listed items could be easily identified as the body's and some are of the soul's. Other items however would elicit second thoughts whether they would belong to the body or to the soul, hence a third option is made that is they would be of both the body and the soul. This happens as we think of man in two ways. First, man is presented in our minds or rationality where we make man an object of our thought and understanding. Here, man is something we can think about, divide into parts, study the relationships of parts and wholes, and make concrete representations of what we found out. Second, man is presented to us in our lived experience that is in the way we experience our human life. Our daily experience of life presents a manifold data that becomes a treasury of our knowledge of our selves, others, and the world. Our reason has the capacity to divide or analyze its contents. In our mind, we separate the body and the soul. But our experience extends further and remains faithful to such experience that identifies the activity as of the body and the soul.
Some philosophers would treat the body and the soul separately, highlighting which to them is more important. In the ancient period, Plato would say that man is a soul because it is his essence. The human body is simply an imprisonment for his free and pure soul which is freed at his death to see the absolute truth. Aristotle would regard man as a unified body and soul like the unity of sugar, coffee and milk in an espresso. In so far as this is the world of matter, then all things are made up of matter and form. In the medieval period, Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo both assert the higher importance of the soul like the charioteer and the horse where the charioteer is not one without a horse. Rene Descartes of the modern period highlights the distinction between the body and the soul by declaring his man as a thinking being (res cogitans) and an extended being (res extensa). Although he recognizes the unity, he still finds it ambiguous hence being unreachable by human mind with certitude.
Gabriel Marcel would speak of man neither as a body alone nor a spirit alone, even of an aggregate union of body and soul but of man as an embodied subjectivity. Man's embodiment is not treating the body as an object to be analyzed, systematized and conceptualized, but a subject that performs the concrete experience; hence it does not make sense to separate the body and the soul.
Although man is made up of body and soul, these two distinct realities in man's life cannot be separated as long as man is in this world. The separation of the body and soul while we are yet here on earth is possible only in the level of analysis. Looking at the body and the soul separately like an aggregate would invite priority of one over the other. One becomes more privileged as being mundane or spiritual. The body is sacrificed for the sake of the spirit, if it is more important; or the soul is sacrificed for the sake of the pleasure of the body. This would have further implications on the choices one make and the possibility of abuse of one and the neglect of other. Neglecting one over the other is not being faithful to its actual experience.
Man is a body. Physical science would present man as a biological body that is made up of different parts. These parts made up the body system – circulatory, digestive, endocrine, immune, lymphatic, nervous, muscular, reproductive, skeletal, respiratory, urinary, and integumentary. Each system has functions to perform necessary for human survival. Social science's structural functional theory would look at the body in the same way. It is a part of the social system occupying a particular status and performing specific function. This is man's body, a body-object.
Just like the sciences, this body I have is also a body-object similar to the bodies of the sciences. This body I possess, a body, is an objectified body in relation to me and others. We treat it similar to other objects liked and disliked. I color the hair, cut the nails, brush the teeth and so many other things I do with it. Other persons could objectify it as well – admire, love, hate, keep and dispense. At other times, I may use this body like an instrument I have. The feet take me to places I want to be, the eyes makes me see the sceneries and movies I want to see. However, the body I have is not only a body-object because the body I have and I are inseparable.
I am my body. I and my body are one and the same. When I think, it is not only my brain that thinks but it includes all data given by my body. This occurs not in succession like manner as first being fed with the bodily sensations and then processed by the brain, after which I think, but it comes continuously and interrelated. When I feel, it is the totality of all systems in me taking its due course, such that when I am angry, the body expresses the feeling like contractions of the muscle, tightening of the lip, etc. It is through my body that I experience myself, others and the absolute. There are many things that I can do because of my body. Other persons understand me, what I mean, wish, and want because these are expressed by my body. This is the body I work, play, and study with. This body also allows me to interact with my friends and all other individuals I form relationships with. What I have with my body is not a static experience but one that changes and develops through my life. Without such they would surely find difficulty in ascertaining what I mean. I cannot separate myself from my body. I cannot reduce myself to my body, nor negate my body.
My experiences as an embodied subjectivity may be limited by my body. There are many things I cannot do simultaneously because I am only limited by one body existing at a definite time, space, and nature. I cannot be here studying at the classroom and be at canteen at the same time because my body allows me to be only at one place at a time. I cannot also be awake and asleep at the same time because my body allows me only one action at a time. I cannot hold more than my hands can handle.
My biological configurations also limit me, like I cannot bear a child however I like because I am a man. I cannot run around Mayon in a marathon because my frail structure limits me. I cannot also be best in math because of the limitations of the capacity of my brain. Even if I want to be an NBA player, I cannot because my height is only a little more than the can of sardines. Even if I always want to be healthy, my body experiences weakness and sickness. When my body feels tired and exhausted even if my spirit is willing, at this moment, I have to stop what I am doing and submit myself to the laws of nature.
I am also limited by time and space. My birth date was set some time ago and I continue to age as days and years go by until I reach the time of death. I was born in a family, in a place, to a parent and community I did not choose but are already given to me. As I grow up, I cannot do and have everything I want because of time. Time once lost, can never be regained. What I was not able to do yesterday, I cannot anymore do today because yesterday is done and gone. My body occupies a certain space only, extended as far as the tip of my fingers, toes and head. My body cannot in its entirety express the content of my interiority. It can only express them as much as it could.
It is true that there are many limitations offered by my being embodied with this body, however, there are always opportunities for transcendence, that is, going beyond these limitations. Transcendence begins with the acceptance of our facticity that is of our being 'here and now' from which we view things and people. Many things are given to us. Our current conditions – body, mind, community, and relationships cannot be changed, but these given would also be the same matter we could work on. We become true to our interiority and allow our body to express faithfully that which is interior. "Ipakita kung ano ang niloloob natin." The body may have limitations, but our spirit is free.
We take a stand and recognize that our being here is also coupled with being there and not yet. We have our choices to make. We cannot have everything once and for all but in a series of before, now and after, recognizing that now contains both the past and the future. Hopes and dreams testify to the possibility of going beyond these limitations.
'We are a product of historical events that contain possibilities, and being conscious of these, we can make history. Historicity is both destiny and responsibility.
An embodied life is lived bodily and spiritually. My sense of my embodiment is made concrete by performing bodily tasks which are not done by our body alone but also with our spirit. Because of my body I experience the world as my world thus my belonging to it. I am one with the world. I was born in this world that provides, nourishes, keeps me as a human being and this is the very same world where my life would end. It is also by my body that I experience the difference between me and the world. I am not the world and the world is not I. I can live my life in this world in many different ways. Because of my body I experience other persons with whom I can relate as another person. Who am I as I see and define myself I expressed and recognized by others through my body. The meanings I live and create with the persons I am with are shared as I show my interiority to them through the body.
The body expresses my interiority although it cannot in its entirety express my subjectivity. The body has limitations of nature, time and space. Hence, we must be by all means try to express truly what is. The possibility of transcendence is assured by recognizing where, when, why, what, and who we are – our facticity.
Our lived life is that of an embodied subject. Jose Cruz presents embodiment as making incarnate a meaning which proceeds from the inner person of man and make it visible or present through a proper body structure or gesture. Our body with all its grandeur is also coated with limitations. It can only express our interiority only in so far as we become faithful to it. The body may hide the meaning we intend. It could show or hide what we truly are within.
Living our human life we find out that we are temporal and historical. We have a sense of a past, present and future. We were born, we live and eventually we die. But this does not happen in a void. It happens in a concrete place and condition. We are situated in a specific time and place. As such everything that occurs in the world of things and persons we make our meaning with.
