St. Dominic Academy of Pulilan, Inc.

PAASCU Accredited
Pulilan, Bulacan

LEARNING MODULE IN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

S.Y. 2022-2023
Semester/Quarter: FIRST

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”
John 8:32

OPENING PRAYER: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Loving Father, I thank You for another day. Thank You for letting us witness another day and behold the
beauty of Your creation. Sorry for the times I forget how wonderful I am as one of Your created ones.
Together with all the faithful, we humbly ask you to restore Your creation who is now suffering because
of COVID-19. Heal our land, Lord, we implore You. Gathering all my personal intentions, I ask this in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and
ever. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

NAME: ______________________________________
GRADE AND SECTION: ________________________

LEARNING MODULE NO: 2 (Weeks 2 and 3)

TIME FRAME: September 12-23, 2022
LESSON TITLE: Methods of Philosophizing

GOOD DAY, LET’S GET STARTED!

I. INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

Review:
From the previous learning module, we have discussed the beginnings of philosophy as well as its
meaning—it is love of wisdom. Then we have tackled about the value of philosophy in helping us to look
at things in a more critical way. This will bring us to view things as whole. We have also discussed that
holistic thinking, or looking at things as a whole will help us to make sense of our lives.

The quest for knowledge had made the mind of man preoccupied. Many scholars of the past up until
the present day spend their most precious time looking for the pearl under the depths of a bottomless sea.
This precious jewel is the truth. Now, we will join them in their quest and have ourselves a little of their
adventure and try to behold at the beauty and value of the most prized gem of all time—truth.

For better understanding, please watch:

PHILOSOPHY –Epistemology: Introduction to Theory of Knowledge [HD]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Y3utIeTPg

Guide Questions:
1. Based on the video, what are the different theories of truth?
2. Why do you think truth is worth pursuing?

II. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In this module, you will be able to:
 Enumerate the three stages of apprehension of concepts for knowledge to be possible
 Recollect one’s standards of truth
 Exhibit the difference in formal and empirical knowledge by giving examples

III. LESSON PROPER

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In this learning module, we will answer the question, ‘how do we know?’ We will discuss the stages
in apprehension of concepts for knowledge to be possible, and the ways of validating knowledge
claims by discussing analytic and empirical statements. Finally, we will discuss why it is important to
know truth from falsity.

THIS MATERIAL IS GOOD ONLY FOR THE SCHEDULED TIMEFRAME. ADDITIONAL

INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE GIVEN ONLINE.

You may now start to explore the discussions in this module and remember to answer all the activities
given.

IV. EXPLORATION: HOW DO WE KNOW?

There are actually three stages in the apprehension of concepts for knowledge to be possible: these are
perception, abstraction and judgment. Now, let us discuss them one by one.

STAGES in the apprehension of concepts for knowledge to be possible

1. Perception
The first stage in the apprehension of knowledge to be possible is perception. This stage emphasizes
our similarities with the animals in terms of our basic
Question: How come Beethoven was able to senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
compose songs even though he was deaf?
Answer: Beethoven was not born deaf. He was able
Animals also perceive their surroundings around
to compose songs using the external percepts of them as we do. Dogs can see its surroundings using
sounds he already acquired before he became deaf. their sense of sight. Cats can smell the odor of a fish.
However, these animals just use mere senses and
does not develop abstract ideas of those objects
since they do not possess rationality. Because of this distinction, perception is classified into two. Let us
see.
There are two types of perception: external perception and internal perception.

a. External perception happens when we perceive things using our five senses. When we
perceive things any or all of our five senses, we will have a percept. Now, percepts are the product
of the process of external perception.

Let us take for example, a cookie. Let us see what are the possible percepts using the five senses:
Object: Cookie

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Sight Hear Touch Taste Smell
 It is brownish.  It produce  It is rough.  It tastes good.  It smells good.
 It is circular and crunchy-like  It is solid.  It is sweet.  It smells like
flattened. sounds when I  It can be  It is crunchy. bread.
 It is has break it and hot/cold.
chocolate chips. chew it.

How about you? Can you identify an object and give the possible external percepts that can be derived
from it?

EXERCISE #1
On your notebook, give an object and its possible external percepts. You can leave the column where a
percept is not possible.

Object: ___________________________

Sight Hear Touch Taste Smell

b. Internal perception, on the other hand, happens when you use your imagination and
memory. Using those percepts, you could just close your eyes and use your imagination and
memory to recreate the precept into an image or phantasm, which is the product of this process.

Internal perceptions are possible due to external perceptions.

Since it may not be possible to come up with an idea of
something which you haven’t encountered yet, external
perceptions are key elements for the development of internal
perceptions. For example, it would be impossible to imagine a
tree if you haven’t seen one yet. In the same light, it would be
difficult for a blind man to imagine a dog if he is not able to
perceive a dog yet.

If the first stage classifies us as similar to animals due to our five senses, the second stage differentiates
us from them.

2. Abstraction
This second stage distinguishes us from the animals. Charles Coppens, S.J. described this process as
a simple apprehension of concepts. “Simple apprehension is the act of perceiving the object intellectually,
without affirming or denying anything concerning it. To apprehend is to take hold of the thing as if with the
hand; an apprehension, as an act of the mind, is an intellectual grasping of an object.” In other words, this
process involves the use of the intellect where we grasp what is universal among the different particulars
that we have observed from perception.

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Since we are rational beings, we possess reason or intellect. The faculty of reason
(or the ability to think) enables us to form concepts. Animals does not possess the
faculty of reason. Therefore, only human beings can abstract things. It is the mind
or the intellect that is responsible for the formation of concepts. You need not have
an image of ‘beauty’ or ‘love’ to be able to form these abstract concepts. You may
form an image of a blindfolded lady holding a weighing scale as a representation
of justice, yet the concept of ‘justice’ is more than the image or phantasm that is
used to represent it. Moreover, the formation of these abstract concepts requires
maturity on the part of the perceiver. A two-year old child may not be able to give an adequate answer to
the question, “What is love or democracy or justice?”

Concepts exist only in the mind. Our mind is capable of constructing concepts as
general terms, like a concept of a bicycle, or even abstract ideas of love and justice. It is the concept that
is capable of existing in our mind, and not the object itself. For example, the concept of a milk tea exists
in our mind and not the milk tea itself. You cannot put the milk tea inside your head; only the concept of
milk tea does. Therefore, the mind can only cater the concept of the object, and not the object itself.

This process is not yet complete. Concepts are said to be the building blocks of knowledge. You already
have the blocks, but you need to put the blocks together in their proper places for knowledge to be
possible. In other words, they have no truth value at this point yet. To complete the process, we need the
third stage, which is judgment.

3. Judgment
This is the third stage in the apprehension of concepts for knowledge to be possible. In this stage, we
are going to make a knowledge claim by taking at least two concepts and put them together in order to
make a statement or a proposition that could either be true or false. Thus, you are either affirming or
denying something about the concept, or even manifesting agreement or disagreement between these
concepts. For example, we can take the concept ‘blue’ and ‘sky’ and put them together and make the
statement: the sky is blue. This constitutes making a knowledge claim that is either true or false about the
world, that is, you could check whether or not the claim is true depending on the weather that day.

This process is called judgment and the result of this process is called a statement or a proposition. It
completes the act of the mind for knowledge to be possible. Think of this: if concepts are considered as
the building blocks of knowledge, you need the statement to cement them together in order to build a
house, while in this case, an argument. This reflects the process of reasoning. From this state onwards,
the accumulation of knowledge and information and the construction of arguments are now possible.
Now, that we have discussed the three stages in apprehension of concepts for knowledge to be possible,
let us now talk about how propositions are expressed. This way of articulating such claims are called
sentences.

Sentences
Sentences are made up of the concepts that are put together. Now, we are familiar with the four types
of sentences. They are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. Declarative sentences
meant to express a statement. Interrogative sentences meant to ask a question. Imperative sentences
meant to issue a command. Exclamatory sentences meant to express surprise. Now, although sentences
can express claims, they have no truth value. There is no point in asking ‘what time is it?’ because it does
not make a single claim about the world. As well as saying ‘I want an ice cream’, or uttering ‘Ouch!’ These
sentences do not give any claim that can be classified as true or false. They are merely uttered as verbal
means of communicating with others. However, the sentence ‘today is Monday’ would give us a claim
whether today is Monday or not. Thus, it is declarative sentence that has the element of truth or falsity,
since there is a knowledge claim being made in a statement. We can call these sentences which carries
knowledge claims in them as statements.

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Statements
Philosophers considered it a necessary tool of analysis to classify two meaningful types of statements
based on two sources that could be accepted and verified. Thus, they came up with two meaningful types
which could be traced on the empiricist tradition of David Hume which can be found in his article, Skeptical
Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding. These statements about relations of ideas and
matters of fact are originally known as Hume’s Fork. These were the two meaningful types of statements
and they are known as analytic and empirical statements.

Analytic Statements
The truth or falsity of the knowledge claim being made by an analytic statement could be found within
the statement itself. One would know right away that the statement is true upon examination of key terms
contained within the statement. Let us say for example, ‘my uncle is pregnant’. We can immediately
conclude that this statement is false by looking at the key terms within the sentence itself. The term uncle
indicates a male, while the term pregnant is only proper to a female. However, affirming the statement
‘my uncle is pregnant’ will lead to absurdity and contradictions because you would be denying its definition.

Definitions and their derivatives, like ‘A kitten is a young cat’ are

considered as tautologous statements whose truths are contained
within itself. That is, the predicate could be seen as being contained NOTE: Tautology – the saying
in the subject. It also mean that you have not given additional of the same thing twice over in
information that is contingent or dependent on the state of affairs in different words. It can also
the world, aside from what is being used and is accepted as a mean a synonym of the word.
definition, but it would be a different matter to claim that ‘The cat is
on the mat’ since it is considered as an empirical statement. Now, before we discuss what is an empirical
statement?

Empirical Statements
Empirical statements are different from analytic statements because their truth or falsity does not
depend on the definitions and tautologies, but on the state of affairs being claimed. Empirical statements
rest on its correspondence with facts or with the current state of affairs being claimed. For example, the
statement ‘it is raining outside’ is an empirical statement because its truth or falsity of statement would
now depend on whether or not that state of affairs being described actually obtains at the moment. In
other words, you can tell whether it is true or false if you look outside and see if it is raining outside.

Moreover, the denial of an empirical statement would not lead to absurdity and contradiction. The
denial of the statement, ‘The cat is on the mat’, will not be absurd or contradictory because you are not
appealing to definitions in making a claim; you are adding information in the world about the kitten.
Furthermore, you will not be able to discover the truth of the statement by mere analysis of the key terms
contained in the sentence. You have to look whether the state of affairs being claimed actually
corresponds with the empirical world.

These two types of statements lead to the traditional distinction between two general types of
knowledge as formal and empirical knowledge. This distinction has become the basis for the distinction
of the disciplines in the sciences as the formal science of mathematics, logic, geometry, etc. and the
empirical sciences of biology, chemistry, physics, the social sciences, and others. Now, before we discuss
what formal and empirical knowledge is, let us have a short activity.

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EXERCISE2 #2
On your notebook, kindly give five analytic statements and five empirical statements, Write them on the
space provided.

Analytic Statements Empirical Statements

Formal Knowledge
This type of knowledge corresponds to formal sciences whose main concern is the validation of their
knowledge claims within the formal system in their respective disciplines. Now, this could be logical,
mathematical, linguistic, or any formal system whose method of validation depends entirely on the
particular system being used. For example, a mathematical equation of adding 1 and 4 apples is
equivalent to 5 without having the actual objects at hand, which in this case, the apples. By applying the
methodology of mathematics, which is addition, 1 + 4 will always be equals to 5. Again, the truth and
falsity of a knowledge claim depends on the system of the discipline we are talking about. Another
example, the statement ‘one can create color green by combining colors blue and yellow’ as true
according to the law of color. However, empirical knowledge is different from empirical knowledge.

Empirical Knowledge
This type of knowledge corresponds to different disciplines in the empirical sciences, ranging from the
hard sciences, of physics, chemistry, biology, and others to the soft sciences of sociology, political
sciences, psychology, and others. Empirical knowledge emphasizes the use of data or the content from
experience and its correspondence with the state of affairs to establish the truth or falsity of their
knowledge claims from these empirical sciences which give information about what the world is.
Unlike the formal knowledge, empirical knowledge is not governed by a formal system or structure for the
validity of their knowledge claims. Instead, they are concerned with the process of verification from
experience, to establish whether or not the hypothesis have been confirmed by as many instances as
possible using data coming from experience.

For example, you went on a pond and saw swan no. 1 which is white. Then, another pond and you
saw swan no. 2 is again white, and another, swan no. 3 is again white, and others. Thus, you concluded,

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based on the observed cases, that all swans are white. However, it is not possible for you to observe all
the swans in the world. Thus, you are not completely certain about our knowledge claim. Yet, it is always
possible that experience could prove you wrong later on. In fact, when everybody thought that all swans
were white, scientist discovered black species of swans in Australia.
V. INTEGRATION

Why is it important to know truth from falsity?

We are still at the verge of the pandemic. The Corona Virus Disease of 2019 indeed caused fear for
most parts of the world due to its transmission. Yet, for some people, this trying times became a chance
for self-recollection and transformation to become a better person. Both the government and the Church
are doing well in rendering services to the people, especially to those who are vulnerable to the disease:
the young and the old. This is the reason why they are not allowed to leave their houses and do
unnecessary errands outside. While the remaining individuals are authorized to attend to important
matters outside their homes while practicing the safety protocols. How about you? Are you taking the
safety protocols seriously? Are you afraid to be infected by the COVID-19? Are you afraid that your loved
ones might be infected? Don’t you know that there is a disease more dangerous and more contagious
than COVID-19? Yes, there is. Do you know what it is? It is the disease of ignorance for the truth and
clinging to falsehood. Recalling back from ancient times, many people have died because they ignored
the truth: either it is not given to them, or they are too lazy looking for it. Truth value is very important
nowadays—indeed always. He/she who knows the truth will have a huge advantage over the world and
is the one who cannot be deceived by anyone. That is why the value of education is very crucial. This
disease spread in a rapid rate and even worsens at the passing of time. This could be a serious problem
since an individual who gets infected with this disease is vulnerable to all kind of peril. Fortunately, this
could be stopped. Diseases have remedy. As for you, don’t let your guard down. ‘Prevention is better than
cure’, as the saying goes. Protect your body from being sick. That goes as well with the spirit by attending
liturgical activities of your religion.

It is important to know truth from falsity because you will be more critical in your day-to-day choices.
By being able to detect falsehood from truth, you can discern good against bad motives. Lastly, you will
gradually learn to value wisdom, and in return, appreciate elders’ advice and guidance.

VI. ASSESMENT/ ACTIVITY

Quiz no. 1 – 2nd week

Quiz no. 2 and 3 – 3rd week

VII. SYNTHESIS/GENERALIZATION
In this learning module, we have discussed the following:
 There are three stages in the apprehension of a concept before knowledge becomes possible:
perception, abstraction, and judgment.
 The first stage of is perception which becomes possible through the use of the five senses.
 External percepts are the products of experiencing the objects that the senses perceive.
 Internal percepts are the products of imagination of the pre-acquired experiences of the objects
that the senses perceived.
 The second stage is abstraction which becomes possible through the use of intellect.
 The third stage is judgment where concepts are combined to formulate knowledge claims.
 Statements expressed through a declarative statement has the element of truth or falsity.
 The truth or falsity of the knowledge claim being made by an analytic statement could be found
within the statement itself.
 Empirical statements are different from analytic statements because their truth or falsity depends
on the correspondence with the state of affairs that are being claimed.
 There are two types of knowledge: formal and empirical knowledge.
 Formal knowledge corresponds to knowledge in the formal sciences whose main concern is the
validation of their knowledge claims within the formal system in their respective disciplines.
 Empirical knowledge uses experience and sense perception in order to establish their knowledge
claims.
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CLOSING PRAYER: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Heavenly Father, We adore You above all else. We bless Your majesty from Your glorious throne
in heaven. You are the Eternal Truth, from the beginning, now and forever. Sorry for the times that we
ignore Your words that enlightens us. Thank you for giving us Your Beloved Son to show us the Truth.
May we live in You forever. Grant this through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with You and the
Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

REFERENCES:
 Sioco and Vinzons, Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person,
pp. 41-45, 56-57,Quezon City: Vibal Group Inc., 2016
 Jove Jim Aguas, Philosophy: Toward an Understanding and
Appreciation of the Human Person, pp. 11-21, Quezon City: Abiva
Publishing House Inc., 2017
 PambungadsaPilosopiya ng Tao (DepEd Teachers’ Guide), 2016 Edition

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