Self from Western Thoughts

Module Objectives

At the end of this Module, you are expected to:

1.understand the different Western Philosophical Perspectives on Self;

2.compare and contrast how the Self has been represented across by various Western philosophers;
and

3.share to the class aspects of the self from the western perspective by observing proper online
communication.

Formative Assessment
To start with, view the 2 images below. These pictures actually reveal certain ideas. Using the given
statements below which give some clues, complete the words in the puzzle that describe the
“thoughts” about people in general or SELF in particular.
Clues

• It refers to the physical or material organism of a person or animal.

___ O ___ ___

• It is said to be the immaterial part of a human being.

___ ___ ___ L

• It refers to the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects as manifested
in their growth and adaptation to environment.

___ ___ ___ F

• It is the state when there is total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions.
D ___ ___ ___ ___

• It is man’s state of being worldly or earthly or human.

___ ___ ___ T ___ ___

• It is man’s state of being eternal or perpetual.

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ T ___ ___

DISCUSSION
Before anything else, let us try to understand what PHILOSOPHY is.

Philosophy is derived from two Greek words “philo” meaning LOVE and “sophia”, meaning
WISDOM. Thus, it implies love for wisdom or knowledge (www.philosophybasics.com). Its long
history is an attempt to understand the complexity of the universe and humanity.´´In the succeeding
discussion, there will be several speculations on Self by different philosophers that may lead us to
contradicting and maybe confusing concepts on Self. These thoughts on Self were uncovered in
different historical periods of philosophy: Ancient philosophy (600 B.C.E. –1000 C.E.); Medieval
philosophy (1000 C.E.–1500 C.E.); Modern philosophy (1500 C.E.–1900 C.E); Contemporary
philosophy (1900 C.E. - present), to which philosophers were categorized.
SOCRATES (470-399BC)

The phrase “KNOW THYSELF” is probably one of the famous expressions that people hear every now
and then. Though, it was not invented by Socrates as it is a motto which is engraved on the
frontispiece of the Temple of Delphi in Greece, he is challenging people to attain sel f-knowledge
before anything else. According to him, this knowledge of oneself can be achieved through
Socratic’s method of inquiry (systematic questioning) where the person uses critical thinking,
reasoning, and logic to discover the truths. Socrates believed that it is man’s life-long mission to
know thy self. And if and when man fails to examine his/her life then it is not worth living. To
Socrates, this is the worst that can happen to anyone: to live but die inside.
On another hand, Socrates characterizes the SELF as having two separate elements: PHYSICAL BODY
and the MENTAL/MIND or SOUL. The body exists in the material field. It has earthly existence. And
mortal as it is, it is transitory or impermanent. The mind or soul, on the other hand is non-material,
absolute and eternal as it resides in the ideal infinite world. It is in constant search for knowledge
and wisdom as a way of achieving perfection because of its capacity for reason.

This dualistic premise about the Self implies an almost opposed relationship between the body and
soul since the latter is viewed as a force that can impede the former’s attainment of perfection,
immortality or divinity (Chaffee, 2016).
PLATO (428-347 BC)

Plato, a student of Socrates, also advocated dualism. He believed that man is a dual nature of body
and soul but he added that there are three components of the soul or self: the rational soul, the
spirited soul and the appetitive soul.

The rational soul (reason) gives man the ability to think deeply, reflectively and critically.

The spirited soul, on the other hand, is man's passion and/or wicked impulses that gives him the
capacity for emotional experiences.
While the appetitive soul is man’s basic survival mechanisms or biological or physical needs.

Plato believes that reason (rational soul) enables us to appreciate the greater and more
important virtues in life and rise above the controlling body's desire (appetitive) or emotional,
immodest impulse (spirit or passion). This further highlights the power of reason to control their
feelings and biological desires and as such makes man more wise, virtuous and enlightened beings
which, to Plato, is the ultimate purpose of man's existence, that is, the eternal transcendent realm.

St. Augustine (354-430 BC)

St Augustine is a medieval religious philosopher who was one of those who strengthened the
philosophical foundations of Christianity. He promoted the belief that the physical body is inferior
to the mind or the soul but is an essential cradle of the latter. The dualistic relationship of the body
and the mind or soul continued though it was described as controversial.

In St. Agustine's speculation, he believed that the body which dwells in the world is imperfect,
corruptible and finite. It can only thrive in the physical reality or the world whereas the soul can stay
after death with the all-transcendent God if man would try to live his life on earth in virtue.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

St, Thomas Aquinas, a 13th century scholar and an advocate of medieval philosophy, adapted some
concepts of Aristotle which believes that man is composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter
or Hyle in Greek, refers to anything that one can find in his environment. The body that we have;
the clothes and shoes that we possess; the house that we own and many others are example of Hyle.

On the other hand, form or morphe is the essence of a substance or thing. So if the body was used
to make it useful or the clothes and shoes was utilized to comfort the person and the house was
built to shelter the family then all these matter (things) are serving its essence or purpose.
Finally, to Aquinas, the soul is what animates the body. It is what makes us human (Alata, 2018).

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

The Dualistic and Rational Self

He is the Father of Modern Philosophy and the first modern rationalist. He believes that the mind is
separate from the body. The mind, that is a thinking but non-extended thing, is completely different
from the body which is a non-thinking thing. Therefore, their existence can be independent from
one another.
Descartes is also known for his principle of "cogito ergo sum", "I think therefore I am." To
Descartes, the self is a combination of two distinct entities, the cogito or thing that thinks (the
mind) and the extenza (the extension of the mind which is the body). This further presupposes that
when a man starts doubting, he is thinking which leads him to conclude that he exists.

Descartes also believes that man's mind has already innate ideas or pure ideas (known as ("priori")
which are prerequisite to learning additional facts ( Ariola, 2018).

John Locke (1632-1704)

The Empiricists’ Self

The philosophy of John Locke generated an alternative to metaphysical and dualistic speculation of
the earlier philosophers. He introduced the concept of empiricism which gives emphasis on
consciousness that provide knowledge and/or identity to the sel f. His thought has set that man has
initially an empty mind, known as TABULA RASA”, and that the self is formed from the accumulated
memory of our experiences which were perceived and reflected by our internal conscious
processes.
David Hume (1711-1774)

Hume is also an empiricist just like Descartes but an extreme one. He rejects the idea of definite
identity. He believes that the idea of essential self that has the potential to exist endlessly in the
realm of the divine is unthinkable. To him, there can never be an omnipresent self that is unchanging
across time and space.

For the self, to Hume, is nothing but a collection of ever-changing perceptions that are passing
through the so called “theater of the mind” (Chaffee, 2016). Therefore, any phenomenon at any
given time is an experience of basic sensation called impressions which eventually build up ideas
or musings. So, the mind is just a vessel for passing sensations and imprints of our experience.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

Brooks (2004) as cited in Ariola, said that Kant promoted the concept of the two-dimensional self:
the inner self and the outer self. The idea is in part a response to the earlier problems on the
location of the non-material soul in space that was claimed by some philosophers. The inner self is
comprised of our psychological state and our rational intellect. The outer self includes our sense
and the physical world. In the inner self, there is apperception or processing of idea and/or
experience wherein it is assimilated to the body of ideas that one already possesses.

Kant termed the inner self as empirical self-consciousness. He believes that man is endowed with
mental faculties or cognitive mechanisms called MIND that actively synthesizes and organizes
(CONSTRUCT) the sensations and impressions to form knowledge from their different experiences.
Gilbert Ryle (1900- 1976)

The philosophy of Gilbert Ryle counters Rene Descarte’s dualistic framing of the self. He presented
the perspective that mind and body are unified where the mind component exits in the private
domain and the body subsist in the public dimension (Bancui, 2013). Ryle further his view by
focusing more on the dimension of self that is observable, the behavior. To behaviorists like Ryle,
self then is defined by the person’s behavior. To him, what truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day-to-day life (Alata,2018).

It is the pattern of behavior or the person’s behavioral disposition in a particular context or

situation that defines the self or the person. People are all just a bundle of behaviors caused by the
physical workings of the body. A person therefore lives through two confirmed histories, one
consisting of what happens in and to his body, the public self, and the other consisting of what
happens in and to his mind, the private self. (Ariola, 2018). “The Self is how you behave.”
Patricia Churchland (1943)

Churchland’s concept of self was born out of the influence of Neuroscience. She holds on to
materialism rather than dualism which was eventually eliminated by neurophysiology. Materialism
is the belief that nothing but matter (brain) exists. It is the physical brain, and not the mind, that is
real. The people’s inner mental states of hope, love, happiness and the like as well as their
experiences of sleeping, dreaming, being able to make decisions, solve problems are but results of
sophisticated patterns of neural activation in certain brain areas. Thus, the mind or the brain in
particular is no longer separated from its host body. The mind is nothing but the brain itself.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)

He is a French phenomenological philosopher who was strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and
Martin Heidegger. Phenomenology is a perspective that focuses on man’s immediate experience,
attempting to describe them as they are. The goal is to clearly describe every event and object
(“phenomena”) as experienced, perceived and understood by the person in his human
consciousness. According to phenomenology, reality is that which the person experience in his
phenomenal field. Those lived experiences that arrived to his senses which the person becomes
conscious and aware of turned out to be the primary component of the self.
 You now reached the end of the lesson. To check whether you retained things that you have read,
you will need to answer the assessment.

References
Alata, Eden Joy, et.al. (2018, 1st ed.). Understanding the Self. Phils. Rex Bookstore

Ariola, Mariano (2018). Understanding the Self. Phils. Unlimited Books Library Services & Publishing
Inc.

Chaffee, John (2016, 5th ed.). The Philosopher's Way: Thinking Critically Abou Profound Ideas. NY.
Pearson

Gilbert Ryle; Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; First published Tue Dec 18, 2007; substantive
revision Wed Feb 4, 2015; retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ryle/

Kant’s View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self; Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; First
published Mon Jul 26, 2004; substantive revision Tue Jan 22, 2013; retrieved
from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-mind/