Unit１ Flashcards
(46 cards)
What is humanism?
The reflection on man and his life
Lat. „humanitas“ -> love of the human condition
What are the big questions of humanism?
What is man?
What are essential qualities of man?
What is the meaning of life?
Why is it hard to define man?
He is the object and subject of the definition
Anthropology
gr. anthropos ->”man”
gr. logos ->”knowledge”
social science that studies human being in integral way
Which term did christian philosophy use to describe the concept of a person?
gr.: hypostasis = subsistence/property
-> Boethius: person is individual substance of rational nature
How does our personhood separate us from other beings?
We’re beings with higher category
-> we have value
-> we are ends
-> we are inviolable
What does “person” refer to?
The most perfect in nature
-> own superior characteristics
-> unique & irreplaceable
Human nature
complex special nature
-> body among bodies but also being capable of immaterial actions
Material monisitc interpretations of man
deny existence of spirit
-> man only material
Dualistic interpretations of man
Two antithetical structures
-> matter-spirit
Interpretation of man as substantial unity of two co-principles
one material and spirit
Which interpretation seems most reasonable?
Substantial unity:
- man corporeal and spiritual
- soul and body only separable in death
- man IS body and soul at same time
-> man as carnal spirit or spiritual flesh
Do we have a body?
No, we are corporeal beings
-> no human body without soul
What are the essential human characteristics?
- Intelligence
- Freedom
- Empathy (ability to relate)
- Transcendence
- Limitation (to space, time, exhaustion)
What are characteristics of the person?
Unrepeatable: each person is unique
Dignity: each person has absolute ontological dignity
Free will: Person is origin and owner of actions
Interpersonality: be someone for another
-> no person without people
What makes up personality?
Temper: hereditary
Character: acquired (with decisions, education, etc.), great plasticity
Biography: 3rd dimension of personality
Which features does the soul possess?
Intelligence: abstract, way of knowing
Freedom: way of acting based on knowledge
How can beings be classified?
inanimate beings: matter
vegetable beings: matter and life
animal beings: matter life and senses
human beings: matter, life, senses and consciousness
The centuries
X-XV: middle ages: poetry
XVI: renaissance
XVII: Baroque: pessimism
XVIII: Century of the light: Rationalism
XIX: 1. Romanticism: passion, sentiments and affectivity
2. Realism: Novels
XX: Journalism and cinema
Trivium
disciplines related to eloquence:
Grammar (helps to speak)
Logic (dialectic: helps to find truth)
Rhetoric (to express)
Quadrivium
disciplines related to mathematics:
Arithmetic (numbers)
Geometry (weighs)
Music (sings)
Astronomy (cultivates stars)
What are trivium and quadrivium?
liberal arts
studies necessary to take care of:
Body (medicine)
Soul (theology)
city (law)
Luthers reform
1517
Copernicus and heliocentrism
1543
Beginning of new era: renaissance
-> transitional stage between medieval and modern habits and thoughts
