MAN: A MYSTERY TO HIMSELF

MAN: A MYSTERY TO HIMSELF

Stella Bassey Esirah

Scientific study of man can neither discover the truth of man nor unravel the mystery of man; this is why one would say that there is a mistake in the mechanistic, scientific description of life.  Determinism is mechanistic and mechanism is scientific because it is based on observation of how the body operates, biologically the brain becomes for the scientists the engine of the body. So they explain man as a control body acting according to impulse and stimuli. Even where this is a true observation of the makeup of the human body, it is not the knowledge of the human person. In fact science can only know the body of man which is observable but can never know that which is not observable in man. Hence there can be a scientific knowledge of the human body but no scientific knowledge of man. The concept of man as we use it here is not in the sense of specie but in the sense of a being that acts through the body. That being is not the body yet that being acts through the body this is why we can say that the human person is not the body alone for example, one can see a child growing but cannot see the actual growth per se. 

Nonetheless, the truth of man is only partially accessible to philosophy because of its speculative nature. There is a principle in man which is distinct from the body. St. Thomas Aquinas discussed this principle by saying that a soul is the life principle of a living body and it is that substance which makes the living body the specific kind of living body it is. Aquinas went further to explain this principle which is not obvious of science but philosophical, he says “The human soul is a non-bodily substance endowed with intellect and will. The human soul has an extrinsic dependence on the body. It can exist and operate per se even if it is severed from the body.” (S.A. Ia2 Q75, p.60) This truth of the soul is not scientific it is philosophical but, philosophy is not enough since divine revelation is required. We say that science is a body established with certitude; but to what extent is this notion true; since there are truths which science has no access to; such as the truth of man, and philosophy also cannot reach absolute certitude about this. The issue of man still cannot be exhausted in philosophy or science because man remains a mystery even though; scholars have made effort to offer an insight into this mystery. 

The soul is the true self and the body is merely the accompaniment of the soul, it is the inner spirit or self, of a person – superior to the body, in which it was temporarily confined during life on earth. The truth of man is not found in science for science only describes the body of man but not the truth of man. But from speculation and reflections, philosophy is able to stumble on such truths about man, though its claims are not empirical. This is why in solving one problem from different contexts of reasoning, whether a posteriori, a priori, or ontological, there continues to be equal reactions put in the same context. This makes all the contexts to equally expand ad infinitum or without limit to the amount of interest raised by the subject concern. This necessitates reactions because of its nature which is subject to speculation and multiplicity of thought and diversity of opinions on the same issue. Opinions or problems are open to many reactions since human thoughts are somehow connected. Hence, in human reasoning there is extension based on this connectivity of points raised as philosophical problems; which could be responded to form different contexts. The problem which aptly describes the nature of philosophy is the problem of man. There has never been unanimous understanding of what man is. This; we can affirm to be the fundamental question of man (The human person) It was the above question which inform Parmenides’ denial of change. That is, it was the problem from infinity to finitude, which made Parmenides reflect on being abstracted from the philosophical problem of man as a human being. In his reflection on being, Parmenides had to deny that change was possible; for nothing comes into being as nothing goes out of being therefore; only being can produce another of its kind. From the above, the fact remains, man is a mystery to himself and to others. 

Man is the only being that has within him, a rational principle of organization, hence the only being that is organized. Thus he has a self-propagating formative power, which cannot be explained through the capacity of movement alone.  This organization in man can be found in all his make ups, body senses, body system, mind system and soul system. That principle of organization is itself internal to man. People hold different opinions regarding what the human person is made up of. But we hold that man is a rational being which gives him/her the capacity to plan, and by planning to order himself/herself, he/she sets his goals which he strives to achieve. 

This is what makes man autonomous and no other specie but the human species with ability for self rule. By this, man becomes the lord of nature, since every other thing in nature including nature itself lacks autonomy. Having an order does not mean ruling oneself so, nature lacks autonomy though it is teleological, man’s place in nature is therefore to serve for a lord in nature that interprets, relates, apply and maintains the order of nature, so that the principle of order in nature will make meaning. Nature itself is readily discovered by man and he intuitively knows what to do to maintain it but man is not able to discover and maintain the order of his own being.

His own teleology is called destiny, moving on the path of human destiny is only possible insofar as man in his autonomy can apply his principle of organization and go on to direct his being through actions that flourish his being. He follows his plan, to achieve his goals, to realize his purpose and to depict in himself a certain degree of authenticity of self discovery. Self discovery is the truth of man that lies within man; this truth within man does not lie in man’s appearance or physical nature as it is in nature that has no interiority since everything in nature is an appearance; such that nature could be said to conceive of only appearances. Whatever science and Philosophy is trying to discover about man, it is not sufficient in knowing the mystery of the human person for; this knowledge belongs to the ultimate being, the creator and cause of human existence and this being is God.     

  

Sr. Dr. Stella Bassey Esirah HHCJ is a lecturer and Head of Department of Philosophy at St. Joseph Catholic Major Seminary, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State