Lesson 1:

What is Philosophy?

1. Etymological definition

• Philos

• Sophia

• LOVE OF WISDOM

• What does it mean to “love of wisdom?”

 Eros

 Philia

 Agape

Philia is the love that seeks the truth, whether the truth or the other, of person or of reality.
Philosophy then, is the love that devotes itself in attaining what is true of reality, like a lover aspiring
and upon possessing clenches it in the heart that which is so precious, the truth (Agdalpen et.al.,
2011)

• What kind of people are the lovers of wisdom?

Three classifications of men during the time of Pythagoras:

 The lovers of pleasure

 The lovers of success

 The lovers of wisdom

The lovers of wisdom was the most superior of all for it pertains to the human endeavor of
seeking the truth for its own sake, hence attaining wisdom

ESSENTIAL DEFINITION OF PHILOSOPHY

• Search for meaning.

• Search for the ultimate meaning of reality

• It is an examination of life upon which one will formulate a fundamental principle as a standard
for a more organized ideas where human life and experience is base upon.

• It is a study that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and reality.

SOCRATES

• He wanted to discover the essential nature of knowledge, justice and goodness.

• His method for discovering what is essential in the world and in people is what is known as
socratic/dialectic method.

SOCRATES' VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

• Socrates' influence was reflected in his famous statement which he fully lived by, “the
unexamined life is not worth living.”

• The true self is not the body but the soul.

• Virtue is inner goodness and real body is that of the soul.

• Real understanding comes from within the person. His socratic method forces people to use
their innate reason by reaching inside themselves to their deepest nature.

• The aim of the Socratic method is to make people think, seek and ask again and again.

PLATO

• His real name is Aristocles.

• He established a school known as “the Academy.”

• Socrates and Plato both believed that philosophy is more than analyses but rather is a way of
life.

• His metaphysics is known as the “Theory of Forms.”

PLATO'S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

• He believed that knowledge lies within the person's soul.

• Even if the materials of the human body and the physical world are imperfect, humans have
immortal, rational soul which Plato believed is created in the image of the divine

• Plato believed that people are instrinsically good.

PLATO'S THEORY OF LOVE AND BECOMING

• ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE: what people in the cave see are only shadows of reality which they
believe are real things and represents knowledge.

• Shadows are not real, only “Forms” are real.

• In knowing the truth, the person must become the truth.

• In Plato's symposium, he postulated that love is the way by which a person can move from a
state of imperfect knowledge and ignorance to a state of perfection and true knowlege.
 • Love is the force that paves the way for all beings to ascend to higher stages of self-realization
and perfection.

• Pursuit for love motivates man and transforms people and societies.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

• Christian Philosophers did not believe that self knowledge and happiness were the ultimate
goals of man but instead man should rely on God's commands and judment of what constitutes
good and evil.

• Faith supreme over reason and logic.

REALMS OF THOUGHT OF ST. AUGUSTINE

• God as the sources of all reality and truth - man is capable of knowing eternal truths through
the existence of the one eternal truth which is God.

• The sinfulness of Man - the cause of sin and evil is an act of man's freewill. Evil, therefore does
not live in God's creatures but rather in man. Moral goodness can only be achieved through the
grace of God.

THE ROLE OF LOVE

1. Love of physical object leads to the sin of greed.

2. Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is the sin of jealousy.

3. Love for the self leads to the sin of pride

4. Love for God is the supreme virtue and only

RENE DESCARTES

• Father of Modern Philosophy

• One of the Rationalist Philosophers in Europe.

• He introduced the “Cartesian Method” and invented analytical geometry.

• In his method, he asked himself “is there anything I can know with certainty?”

DESCARTES’ SYSTEM

• Intuition or the ability to apprehend direction of certain truths.

• Deduction or the power to discover what is not known by progressing in an orderly way from
what is already known.
DESCARTES’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

“I THINK, THEREFORE I AM,”

He believes that to doubt is to think.

• He deduced that a thinker is a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses and
that also imagines and feels.

• The cognitive aspect of human nature is his basis for existence of the self.

THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM

• The soul/mind as a substance that is separated from the body.

• All bodily processes are mechanical.

• Its like a machine that is controlled by the will and aided by the mind.

JOHN LOCKE

• He published a book on the scope and limits of the human mind which played a significant role
in the new era of thought known as the “Enlightenment.”

• He was interested on the workings of the human mind, particularly the acquisition of
knowledge.

• He believed that knowledge results form ideas produced a postteriori or by objects that were
experienced.

• “Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses.”

LOCKE’S VIEW ON HUMAN NATURE

Moral good depends on confromity or non conformity of a person's behavior towards some law. There
are three laws according to Locke:

• LAW OF OPINION – where actions that are praiseworthy are called virtues and those that are
not are called vice.

• CIVIL LAW – where right actions are enforced by people in authority

• DIVINE LAW – set by God on the actions of man. This is deemed to be the true law for human
behaviour. The Divine Law is eternally true and the one that man should always follow.

DAVID HUME

He was credited for giving empirism its clearest formulation.

THE HUMAN MIND

• IMPRESSIONS are immediate sensations of external reality.

 • IDEAS are recollections of impressions

PRINCIPLES ON HOW IDEAS RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER

• The principle of Resemblance

• The principle of Contiguity

THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

According to Hume, the idea of cause and effect arise only when people experience certain
relations between objects thus it cannot be a basis of knowledge.

HUME’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

• The part of human nature is what other philosophers called the soul; Hume termed it “the self.”
He concluded that man does really have an idea of the so called self because ideas rely on sense
impressions and people have no sense of impression of a self.

• In looking for the self, Hume only discovered sense impressions. He believed that just like
causality, the self is also a product of the imagination.

HUME’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

• He also stated that there is no such thing as “personal identity” behind perceptions and feelings
that come and go. So for Hume, there is no permanent/unchanging self.

IMMANUEL KANT

• His studies on Asian philosophies had a strong influence on him but it was the French
Philosopher Rousseau that made him realize and enabled him to formulate his philosophical
idea.

• The philosophy of Hume “awakened” and motivated him to be the founder of German idealism.

• He wrote three books: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of
Judgement.

KANT’S VIEWS OF THE MIND

• The mind is not just a passive receiver of sense experience but rather actively participates in
knowing the objects it experiences.

• Instead of the mind conforming to the world, it is the external world that conforms to the mind.

• Instead of disregarding the philosophies of Rationalism and empiricism he combined them and
defined knowledge as a result of human understanding applied to sense experience.

KANT’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELF

• The bundles of sensory impressions imply a unity of the self without which there would be no
knowledge of experience. When the self sees an object, it tends to remember its characteristics
and applies on it, the forms of time and space.
• Kant explained that transcendental is used because people do not experience the self directly
but as a unity of all impressions that are organized by mind through perception.

• In the matter of God, Kant stated that the Kingdom of God is within man. God is manifested in
people's lives, therefore it is man's duty to move towards perfection.
Lesson 1.2:

SIGMUND FREUD

• Austrian neurologists whose psychodynamic theory has characteristics of philosophical thought.

• His revolutionary ideas of the probable factors that determine human behavior pave the way for
science to look into the workings of the unconscious mind.

• In Freud clinical practice, therapy involves several techniques that would help the person
recognized repress thoughts and thus bring him back to emotional stability.

• He made use of methods like free association and dream analysis.

STRUCTURES OF THE MIND

• At Freud's Psychodynamic Theory would tell that the workings of the mind or one's mental life
impacts strongly on the body resulting in either emotional stability or psychological
dysfunctions.

• He presented the topography of the mind. He made use of the typical iceberg to show how the
mind works based on his theorizing.

• He explained that the subconscious serve as repository of past experiences, repressed

memories, fantasies and urges.

The three levels of the mind are structured by the following components:

1. Id

2. Ego

3. Superego

4. Freud in his 1920 book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle presented two kinds of instincts that drive
individual behavior. These are eros or the life instinct and thanatos or the death instinct. The
energy of eros is called libido and includes urges necessary for individual and species survival
like thirst, hunger, sex. There are cases, however, wherein man's behavior is directed towards
 destruction in the form of aggression and violence. Such according to Freud are manifestation of
thanatos.

FREUD'S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

• Freud's psychoanalysis sees man as a product of his past lodged within his subconscious. Man's
behavior by his pleasure seeking life instinct and his destructive death instinct is said to be born
with his ego already in conflict. Man then lives his life balancing the forces of life and death-
opposing forces that make mere existence a challenge.

GILBERT RYLE

• He was an English philosopher whose ideas contradicted Cartesian Dualism.

• In his book, “The Concept of the Mind,” he urges that dualism “involves category mistakes and is
a philosophical nonsense.”

• The category mistake involved in the mind-body problem is how a non-material substance
known as the “mind” can influence a physical, material body.

• he stated that many of philosophical problems were caused by the wrong use of language.

RYLE'S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND KNOWLEDGE

• Ryle thought that freewill was invented to answer the question of whether an action deserves
praise of blame.

• He touched the two types of knowledge: “KNOWING-THAT and KNOWING-HOW.

PATRICIA and PAUL CHURCHLAND

• Gave the term neurophilosophy.

• They sought scientific theorizing with philosophy and guide philosophy with scientific inquiry.

• Man's brain is responsible for the identity known as the self. The biochemical properties of the
brain according to the philosophy of neuroscience is really responsible for man's thought,
feelings, and behavior.

CHURCHLANDS VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

• Human nature is complicated. Man is endowed with more than just physical or neurological
characteristics. Despite research findings, neurophilosophy states that the self is real, that it is a
tool that helps the person tune-in to the realities of the brain and the extant reality. it can
malfunction, but can also allow human beings to do amazing things.

• Man is a work of art, constantly evolving and at the same time being molded by experiences of
the world.

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY

• He is a French Phenomenological Philosopher.

 • He wrote books on perception, art and political thought.

• The center of his philosophy is the emphasis placed on the human body as the primary site of
knowing the world.

MERLEAU-PONTY VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELF

• He developed the concept of body-subject and contended that perceptions occur existentially.
Thus the consciousness, the world and the human body are all interconnected as they mutually
perceive the world.

• The world and the sense of self are emergent phenomena in the ongoing process of man's
becoming.

• Base from Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty described the nature of man's

perceptual contact with the world. Phenomenology provides a direct description of the human
description of the human experience while perception forms the background of the experience
which serves to guide man's conscious actions.

• Perception is not purely the result of sensations nor it is purely interpretation. Rather
consciousness is a process that includes sensing as well as interpreting/reasoning.

• Merleau-Ponty has been known as a philosopher of the body. He made use of the concept of
the body schema in discussions that ranged across a number of cognitive and existential issues.
Lesson 3:

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTHROPOLOGY

• It is a field of Social Sciences that focusses on the study of Man.

• This does not pertain only to one aspect of man (i.e. his mind or his environment) but rather on
the totality of what it means to be human.

• The field looks into man's physical/biological characteristics, his social relationships and the
influences of his culture from the dawn of civilization to the present.

• The four subfields of Anthropology: Archeology, Biological Anthropology, LInguistics, and

Cultural Anthropology, suggest that human beings are similar and very different at the same
time. For instance, people have the same need for food, water and shelter but they differ in the
ways/means of how to acquire these for their satisfaction. It is through these studies that
people learn about themselves and about others around them.

ARCHAEOLOGY

• Archaeologist are scientists who study artifacts (tools and objects past people have made) in
order to discover how the people lived their lives.

• Their focus is the past and how it may have contributed to the present ways of how people
conduct their daily lives. As a result, what archaeologists have so far discovered are the unique
ways in which human beings adapted to changes in their environment in order for them to
survive.

• The discoveries of archaeologists made people realize the most important aspect of human
nature which is survival. All around the world, peope have struggled to survive and up to the
present, human behavior, according to School of Functionalism continues to adapt in order to
survive. In this aspect, human beings are similar. The manner however that they choose to
survive differs. Some men would use power and strength, declare wars, conquer and even try to
annihilate races, while others would offer their services, knowledge, resources and even their
lives just to ensure that a few deserving human beings would survive.

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

• Biological Anthropologist focus primarily on how the human body adapts to the different earth
environments.

• They look at the probable causes of disease, physical mutation and death.

• They also want to know how human beings might have evolved from their early forms (based on
discovered fossilized remains).

• They also do comparative studies on human beings both dead and living and other primates
(apes and monkeys).
• These scientists are interested in explaining how the biological characteristics of human beings
affect how they lived their lives.

• By studying people in different places around the globe, these scientist have discovered that
while human beings do vary in their biological make-up and behavior, there are a lot more
similarities among them than there are differences

LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

• Human survival is primarily linked to their ability to communicate. This is another capability that
resulted from big human brains. The brain comes equipped with specialized areas specifically for
the purpose of communication. In addition, an essential part of human communications is
language.

• Language identifies a group of people. The words, sounds, symbols, writings and signs that are
used are reflection of group's culture.

• Linguistic anthropologists' interest focuses on using language as a means to discover a group's

manner of social interaction and his worldview. These scientists want to discover how language
is used to create and share meanings, to form ideas and concepts and to promote social change.

• They also study how language and modes of communications change overtime.

• In the contemporary society, other forms of languages have evolved which represent the
subculture of a particular group. Example of these are the terms used in social media and the
language of the LGBTs.

• Looking at language from the perspective of an anthropologist shows how it is reflective of the
time and mode of thinking of the people using it. Language adapts to the existing conditions in
the society. As societies change and technologies develop so do the symbols and meaning
people attach to objects and events as expressed through the language that they use and their
manner of communicating.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

• Culture is described as a group of people's way of life. It includes their behaviors, beliefs, values,
and symbols that they accept (usually unconciously) that are socially transmitted through
communication and imitation from generation to generation.

• Cultural anthropologist are interested in knowing what makes one group's manner of living
particular to that group and forms as essential part of the members' personal and social identity.
Whether the individual admits it or not, he is a product of his culture.

• According to the Theory of Cultural Determinism, human nature is determined by the ideas,
meanings, beliefs, and values learned as members of society. This is tantamount to saying that
who or what a person is maybe determined by the kind of culture he is born into and grow up
in. With the different cultures that exist not only in a society but all over the world,
anthropologists suggest that there is no universal or right way of being human. The right way is
always based on one's culture. Since cultures vary, there is no one way of understanding human
nature.
 • This theory has positive and negative implications. On the positive, the theory suggests that
human beings can be shaped/formed to have the kind of life they prefer. On the negative,
Cultural Determinism may mean that people have no control over what they learn. They blindly
accept the learning their cultures expose them to. Human beings are seen as helpless and do
only what their culture instructs them do. This places human nature under the mercy of his
culture.

• Cultural diversities are manifested in different ways and at different levels of depth. Symbols are
considered the most superficial level of culture and values and values belong to the deepest
level or are considered the core of culture.

• The following are the ways in which culture may manifest itself in people.

1. Symbols are the words, gestures, pictures or objects that have a recognized/accepted meaning
in a particular culture. Symbols can be shared or copied by other cultures who find them also
fitting for their own culture.

2. Heroes are persons from the past or present who have characteristics that are important in a
culture. They may be real or fictitious and are models for behavior.

3. Rituals are activities (maybe religious or social) participated in by a group of people for the
fulfillment of desired objectives and are considered to be socially essential.

4. 4. Values are considered to be the core of every culture. Values are unconscious and can neither
be discussed nor be directly observed but can only be inferred from the way people act and
react to circumstances and situations.

5. Values involve human tendencies/preferences towards good or bad, right or wrong.

In summary, the field of anthroplogy is yet another way by which a person can view himself. To be
added to his repertoire of perspective, anthropology makes the person aware that what he is may be
determined by his past and present condition, his biological characteristics, the way he communicates,
the language that he uses and the manner in which he chooses to live his life.
 Lesson 4:

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGY

• It is the field of social sicences that deals with the description, explanation, prediction and
control of behavior.

• Psychology furthers believes that the world of material things including people exists
independently of the perceiving human mind.

WILLIAM JAMES

• He is an American Philosopher and Psychologist.

• He is known for his Theory of the Self.

• He wrote the book 'Principles of Psychology' where his theory of the self is explained.

THE 'ME' AND THE 'I'

William James in his studies of human thoughts concluded that thoughts have five
characteristics:

1. All human thoughts are owned by some personal self.

2. All thoughts are constantly changing or are never static.

3. There is a continuity of thoughts as it focus shifts from one object to another.

4. Thoughts deal with objects that are different from and independent of consciousness itself.
Consciousness can focus on particular objects and not others.

James believed that the self is made up of two parts: the ME and the I self. The ME self can be
considered as a separate object or individual that the person refers to when discussing or
describing their personal experience.

Example: The gifts were sent to ME.

The person is smiling at ME.

The I self is the self that knows and recognizes who they are and what they have done.

Example: I borrowed the book from the library.

I won the game.

 James called the ME self as the empirical ME and the I self the pure Ego or the thinking self. the
ME self is further divided into three components namely: the material self, the social self and
the spiritual self.

1. The material self consists of the things or objects that belong to the person or entities that a
person belongs to. Examples of these are the person's body, his family, clothes, books and even
his money. The body is the core of the material self and everything that is attached or associated
to it identifies the person. For instance, you can identify the person by the style of clothes he
wears, the type of books he reads, the culture of his family and the amount of money that he
has. The more attached and identified the person is to his material things, the more he will be
affected if any of them changes. For example, a death in the family or being a victim of fire cause
changes in the material self.

2. The Social self refers to who the person is in a particular social situation. Changes in behavior
usually result from the different social situations the person finds himself in. James believed that
people have many social selves because of the many social situations they find themselves in.
For example the person changes how he presents himself when he is at home, in school or with
his friends. The person chooses the self that would smoothly adapt to the social situation in
order for him to fit in.

3. The Spiritual self refers to the self that is more concrete or permanent when compared to the
material and social selves. This self is the most subjective and intimate part of the self. It include
aspects like the individual's personality, values, and morals that are usually stable and constant.

The spiritual self is always engaging in the process of instrospection (self-observation). This is
the method that includes reflecting or looking inward to study and understand the how and why
of the self. According to James, this looking inward is more important than satisfying the needs
of either the material or the social self. If there is a conflict in the spiritual self then it will be very
difficult for the person to have peace of mind.

The I self is what William James called the Pure Ego. The Pure Ego is similar to the person's soul
or mind. Since this is considered to be a non-substance the I self cannot be studied objectively.
The Pure Ego comprises the totality of the person's identity. It takes into account the past,
present and future selves of the individual. This perception of identity arises from a continuous
stream of human consciousness (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William James).

OTHER SELVES IN PSYCHOLOGY

• The field of psychology is rich in concepts and ideas about human behavior. The concept that is
the self has been studies quite extensively. As such, psychologists and other scientists in the
social sciences presented their versions and ideas about the self.

GLOBAL AND DIFFERENTIATED SELF MODELS

The global self represents the overall value that a person places upon himself. This affects how
he views and feels about himself. It is inevitable for a person to born and to grow up in the
presence of other people. The groups of people that he interacts with everyday of his life
strongly influence him. These people are who he turns to when he needs advise, someone to
 talk to or just to be with. He turns to them for support and seeks their approval in the journey of
finding himself. His global self is the product of all experiences that he had in the society which
accounts for the kind of person he presently is.

MURRAY BOWEN

• He developed the Family Therapy and Systematic Therapy.

• In his observation of family, he came up with the concept of a differentiated self.

• In his theory, he observed that there are two forces affecting the person; the first is
togetherness and the second is individuality. A balance should be maintained between these
two forces for: too much togetherness creates friction and conflict and prevents the
development of the person's sense of self; too much individuality on the other hand results in
distant and estrange feelings towards family and other people.

• A differentiated self, though still affected by the presence of others, has the ability to separate
feelings and thoughts. The person recognizes that he has his own personality and therefore
endowed with unique characteristics not found in other members of the group. With this
knowledge he realizes that for him to attain self-fulfillment, he should have the will to separate
himself from the group, live his own life and fulfill his destiny. Being able to free himself from
the influence of others allows him to define himself. By differentiating from unwanted
influences and in the environment, he can be who he truly is rather than take on the identity
that is prescribed by family or society. The differentiated self enables the person to develop and
sustain his unique identity, make his own choices and accept responsibility for his behavior and
still be able to stay emotionally connected with his family and friends.

REAL AND IDEAL SELF CONCEPTS

• CARL ROGERS (1902-1987) was an American psychologists who proposed the personality theory
known as the Person-Centered Theory.

• He stated that the term self concept is used to refer to how a person thinks about or perceives
himself. There are two types of self concept: the real self concept and the ideal self concept.

• THE REAL SELF CONCEPT refers to all information and perception the person has about himself.
This is how he actually is and answers the question, “Who am I?”

• THE IDEAL SELF CONCEPT is the model version has of himself. This idealized view was borne out
of experiences, standards and demands of society and the heroes and models which he chooses
to imitate. In short, the ideal self is what the person aims for himself to be. It answers the
question of who he wants to become or “Who do I want to be?”

• Rogers stated that there should be congruence (sameness, equality) between the real self and
the ideal self in order for the person to be happy and satisfied with his life. If the real self is very
different from the ideal self then the person will experience dissatisfaction and may see himself
as a failure or a loser.
 THE SELF-DISCREPANCY THEORY OF HIGGINS

• stated that people use internalized standards to which they compare themselves. These are
called self-guides which provide directions for how the person should present himself. When the
self is found too deviating/diverting from these guides, the result is self-descrepancy. Self-
descrepancy may cause emotional discomfort to the individual and can manifested as guilt or
worst as indifference.

MULTIPLE AND UNIFIED SELVES

• The Multiple Selves Theory suggests that there exists in the individual different aspect of the
self. It makes sense that the self is a whole made up of parts. These parts of the self may
manifest themselves when situations call for it. A psychologically and healthy individual,
however, is a person who is able to make sense of the sometimes confusing and conflicting
aspects of themselves and integrate them into a single, unified self.

• A unified being is essentially connected to consciousness, awareness and agency. To be

considered a well-adjusted person, success and failures should be accepted and understood.
This is a person who is able to deal with and accept the complexities and the perceived
unfairness that exist inlife. They manifest content with the present state of affairs and continue
to adjust, adapt, evolve and survive as an individual with an integrated, unified multiple selves.

TRUE AND FALSE SELVES

• D.W. WINNICOTT (1896-1971) was an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst who studied child
development.

• He looked into the significance of play in child development.

• It is also through play where he observed children/people as having true and false selves.

• The true self in individuals is one in which the self is seen as creative, spontaneously
experiencing each day of their lives, appreciating being alive, real, integrated and connected to
the whole existence.

• It is furher characterized by a high level of awareness in the person of who he is, what he is
capable of and is not afraid to let others know his weaknesses and imperfections.

• THE TRUE SELF is the individual who recognizes his strengths and accepts his limitations, enjoys
winning and success and learns from mistakes and failures. Never afraid to try over again.

• A FALSE SELF may be manifested as a form of defense. It lacks spontaneity, is dead and empty. It
is the mask that hides the true person for fear of the pain of rejection and failure. False selves
usually surface when the person is forced to comply with existing social norms and standards. At
times false selves enable the person to form superficial but productive social relationships.

• According to Winnicot, true and false selves are present in all individuals. For the two to exist in
a healthy individual, they should be functional for the advantage of both the person himself and
his society. A person that struggles to fit in but still experiences the feeling of being forced to
 comply rather than adapting gracefully to the situation is a person whose self is maladjusted and
unhealthy.

THE SELF AS PROACTIVE AND AGENTIC

• ALBERT BANDURA (1926-present) is the proponent of the personality theory known as the
Social Cognitve Centered Theory.

• In his theory, the person is seen as proactive and agentic which means that he has the capacity
to exercise control over his life.

• The human agency according to Bandura is the essence of being human.

• In his Triadic Reciprocal Causation Paradigm, he explains further how human beings are affected
by the interaction among environmental events, behavior and personal factor.

• In his theory, the basic principle involved in human learning is learning through observation. A
large portion of human behavior resulted from modelling in which the behavior of the model is
consciously acquired for in the mind of the person, this process will help him achieve his goals.
Human natures described by Bandura is plastic and flexible.

• The Social Cognitive Theory suggested that human beings are proactive, self regulating, self
reflective and self organizing. People have the ability to influence their own behavior which may
lead to desired outcomes. This human agency involves the active process of exploration and
manipulation in order to influence the environment and achieve desired consequences.

FEATURES OF HUMAN AGENCY

In the Social Cognitive Theory. Bandura discusses the four features of human agency:

1. INTENTIONALITY refers to the actions performed by the person intentionally or with full
awareness of his behavior. This feature involves planning with awareness of the possible
consequences of actions.

2. FORETHOUGHT refers to the person's anticipation of likely outcomes of the behavior. This
allows him to select from a repertoire of behaviors and determine which one will most likely
lead to positive outcome.

3. SELF-REACTIVENESS refers to the process in which the person is motivated and regulates his
behavior as he observes his progress in achieving his goals. The goals that the person wants to
reach should be clear and specific. It should also be within his ability to achieve. The person
should be realistic, aware of his potentials and capabilities to fulfil his goals.

4. SELF-REFLECTIVENESS refers to the person looking inward and evaluating his motivations,
values, life goals and other people's effect on him. An important aspect of self reflectiveness is
self efficacy which is the person's belief that he is capable of behavior that will produce the
desired positive result.
SELF REGULATION

The person engages in self-regulated behavior when he reactively attempts to minimize the
discrepancies between what he has already accomplished and what he still wants to achieve.
After seeing that he is at the right track in achieving his goal he will also proactively set new and
higher goals for himself.

Self regulation allows the person to set goals that are better and higher than the former,
challenging his capabilities and making him a wiser and self-actualized individual.
 Lesson 5:

THE SELF IN EASTERN AND WESTERN THOUGHT

INDIVIDUALISTIC AND COLLECTIVE SELF

• INDIVIDUALISTIC SELF - sees himself/herself of being capable of living his own life, doing the
things that he would love to do, making his own mistakes and learning from his experiences.

• This is the individual who is aware of his rights and the limitations of his freedom in the extant
society.

• He sets goals and works hard to achieve them.

• He knows that he is the one who will suffer the most if he wastes his chance to live a life that he
and his family can be proud of.

• There are many cultures particularly in the West that encourage individualism. The development
of an individualistic self begins after birth and is observed in the child-rearing practices of
parents in the West. Independence and self-reliance form the development of the self in
Western cultures. In the United States, for instance, offsprings who reach the age of eighteen
years are expected to “move-out” of the house, support himself and make his own decisions.
Though family is important, individual freedom and the ability to stand on his own is expected.

• COLLECTIVE SELF:

• In the culture of the east, the development of a collective self is ingrained into the individual.
The identity of the individual is lost and does not exist except as part of the group. The family
and the society control how the group members should think, act and generally conduct
themselves in society

• It is observed that strong bonds of unity are formed and developed in collectivism. In an
extreme sense, all decisions made are group decisions. When the group decides every member
should follow. Group members depend on each others, individual thinking and decision making
are frowned upon.

THE SELF IN WESTERN THOUGHT

• Descartes emphasized the self through his dictum “I think, therefore I am.” The person/self in
Descartes view exists regardless of his environment. In other words, for Descartes the cognitive
basis of the person's thoughts is proof for the existence of the self.

• Kant, on the other hand believed that the self is capable of actions that entitles it to have rights
as an autonomous agent. This then inspired the recognition of human rights as important in the
expression of individual freedom.

• The West introduced the ecological self which sees the self as a process that undergoing
development. Human biological and environmental characteristics like race, gender, social
status, education, and culture are factors that influence self development. The self is seen as
dynamic, different and unique in each individual and is constantly exposed to an ever changing
world.
 THE SELF IN CONFUCIAN THOUGHT

• Confucius was the name for which Kong Zhongni of China was known in the West.

• Confucius came to be known as 'Master Kong' and as 'Great Sage and Teacher.'

• HIs philosophy came to be known as Humanistic Social Philosophy. This philosophy's primary
focus is on human beings and the society he finds himself in.

• He considers the society and its communities as the main source of values of both human beings
and the society in general.

• He stated, “that although the way of humans is grounded in the way of heaven and operated in
harmony with the way of nature, it is to the ideals of the human way that people must turn for
guidance in reforming and renewing society.

• The philosophical concept of Confucianism is centered on the ren which can be manifested
through the li (propriety), xiao (filiality) and yi (rightness).

• The ren can be understood as human goodness. It is this which makes human beings different
from the beasts. It involves feelings and thinking which serves as the foundation of human
relationships.

• Ren furthers signifies the Chinese culture's emphasis of feeling or the heart as the most
important instead of the head in human nature.

• Confucious never gave a specific definition for the ren for he believed than ren is a reflection of
the person's own understanding of humanity. It is something found within each person and can
be realized in one's pesonal life and relationships.

• Ren guides human actions and to go against the ren means abandoning what is truly human, for
it is the ren that make life worth living.

Confucius further believed that the ren can only be realized through the li, xiao and yi.

1. Li (propriety). In order to guide human actions, rules of propriety should be followed. Such rules
involved adherence to the rituals of the community. These are the customs, ceremonies, and
traditions that form the basis of li which persisted and is strengthened by human practice
through generations. In connection with the li, Confucius stated, “to master oneself and return
to propriety is humanity.”

Self mastery includes self development. It rejects selfish behavior and instead cultivates
inner qualities of humanity. Self-mastery is characterized by self-control and the will to redirect
impulses and change these to socially accepted expression of human nature. Li conforms to the
norms of humanity.

• 1. Confucius believes that everyone has duties and responsibilities, hence the five relationships.
These are relationships between father and son, ruler and subject, older and younger brothers,
husband and wife , friend and friend. These act and rituals whether religious or cultural highlight
the social and public character of human actions.
• 2. Xiao (filiality). It is the virtue of reverence and respect for family. Parents should be revered
for the life they had given. Children show respect to their parents by exerting efforts to take care
of themselves. Keeping themselves fit and healthy through proper diet and regular exercise are
examples. Reverence for parents and family is futher demonstrated by bringing honor to the
family, making something of himself to earn the respects of others. If, however, the person is
having difficulty giving his family the honor that they deserved, he should just do his best not
digrace the family.

• Relationships that exist in the family reflect how the person relates to others in the community.
The family is a reflection of the process. How the person interacts socially and the values he
emulates can all be traced back to his family environment. This forms the bases of the person's
moral and social virtue.

• 3. Yi (rightness). It is the right way of behaving. Yi is unconditional and absolute. Right is right
and what is not right is wrong. There are no gray areas. Actions must be performed and carried
out because they are the right actions. Obedience to parents, for instance is expected of
children because it is morally right and obligatory to do so. In addition, Confucius emphasized
that actions should be performed because they are right and not for selfish benefits that they
provide. Thus the saying, “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.”

Li, xiao, and Yi are virtues observed in a person whose humanity is developed, morally cultivated
and aware. The cultivation of the ren through li, xiao and yi will lead to a person of virtue.
Virtuous people according to Confucianism, result in a well-rounded, civilized, humane society.