Friday, June 15, 2012

THE GROWING PERSON IN THE WORLD


XAVIER UNIVERSITY – ATENEO DE CAGAYAN UNIVERSITY













THE GROWING PERSON IN THE WORLD










A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE
PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT










BY: KRISTY LEAH HERNANDEZ






CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY
OCTOBER 2010





Self-Identity in Change of a Growing Person


            Who am I? Where did I come from? And to where am I heading? These are basically the questions each and every one of us is facing each day. As human person living in this world, one inquiry the researcher would like to have an answer is how does a person remain himself even with the changes that are occurring to him?

            The human person in this world is confronted with many questions that make him think to be able to know the answers. As experienced, as one grows there is change in this person yet this person totally remains the same. When one had committed a mistake, this person will surely move on by changing towards something good.

            From the words of the late Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter, “Driven by the desire to discover the ultimate truth of existence, human being seek to acquire those universal elements of knowledge which enables them to understand themselves better to advance in their own self-realization”[1] which as the researcher understands, because the human person is a rational being then their desire to know themselves better and by that the researcher understand that there is a process of growth involved in the person.

            “To change is to grow; to remain the same is to die”[2] where one can say that to grow is to change and it is healthy for one to change for him to be able to say he grows. While one undergoes change, the self remains the same and its identity never loses itself. “The self is the living synthesis of both self-identity and process”[3] and that one can affirm the self is all throughout united with the changes it undergoes.

            As a changing being, what then becomes of this being’s substance? The researcher had stated from the top that even though being changes, self-identity remains the same. Substance as Aristotle had said is “Therefore that which id primarily not in a qualified sense but with qualification, must be substance.”[4] As the researcher understands it, being never loses its substance throughout the change.

            To grow in this world, one must be able to realize that he must be open to changes that will instill growth in him. For us human beings, we are fully satisfied with saying to grow; there are some changes in ourselves to actualize the said growth. Self-Identity then is the becoming of being, where this must be achieved through change. As growing individuals we are faced with the challenges presented to us by this world and there is a need for us to reflect on these changes metaphysically to understand the ground of this change.

            One must accept the fact that to be able to know and discover himself, one must undergo the process of change but as the researcher had stated the self is the living synthesis of what self-identity and its process is. This is to say, for us to grow, changes in our life must be done without losing who you really are and what you really should become.

            This question of where we are heading, there is an implied reality that purports, that there is really is a substance higher or somewhere in the universe to say that one really exists.
















CONCLUSION

            Beings undergoing change within them are growing beings. Thus, self-identity never loses itself in a being it is because it is united with the being. Self-Identity is a proof of what the person has become throughout the changes that this being has undergone. To grow in this world is to change and to be the same at the same time.





























BIBLIOGRAPHIES


            Que, Nemesio S.J., ed. 2001. Central Problems of Metaphysics. Manila: Office of the Reseach and Publications.


 Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). 14 Sept 1998. Papal Archive.The Holy See.http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0216/_INDEX.HTM


Aristotle, Introduction to Metaphysics. (New York: Penguin Books).



           




[1]                Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). 1998.
[2]               NemesioQue, ed., Central Problems of Metaphysics. (Manila: Office of the Reseach and Publications, 2001). 48.
[3]               NemesioQue, ed., Central Problems of Metaphysics. (Manila: Office of the Reseach and Publications, 2001). 49.

[4]               Aristotle, Introduction to Metaphysics. (New York: Penguin Books).

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