Understanding
the
Self
CLAUDETH U. GAMIAO
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How well do I know myself?
• What are my character traits?
(values, abilities, skills)
• What makes me similar or different
from others?
• What are my aspirations in life?
PART I
The SELF from Various Perspectives
PART II
Unpacking the Self
PART III
Managing and Caring for the Self
Philosophical
Perspective of the
Self
This chapter presents an overview of the philosophical
perspective of the self to assist students identify one’s
own self – to gain self-knowledge.
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GAMIAO, C.U.
Philosophy – “love of wisdom”.
-pertains to the desire for truth by
formulating never ending questions to
provide answers to every inquiry about the
nature of human existence.
The PHILOSOPHICAL framework for the
understanding the self was first
introduced by the ancient Greek
Philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle.
Most of the Philosophers
disagree on their views of the
self, but most of them agree–
that SELF-KNOWLEDGE is a
prerequisite to a and
Socrates: The Self Is An Immortal Soul
Self is synonymous with the SOUL
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• He believed that every human possessed an
immortal soul that survived the physical body.
• Socrates was the first thinker to focus on the full
power of reason on the human self: who we
are, who we should be, and who we will
become.
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• Socrates suggested that the self consists of two
dichotomous realms:
Physical Realm – is changeable, transient,
and imperfect. The physical world in
which we live belongs to the physical realm.
For Socrates, our body belongs to the
physical realm.
Ideal Realm – is the unchanging, eternal,
perfect realm which includes the
intellectual essences of the universe,
concepts such as truth, goodness, and
beauty. The soul belongs to the ideal realm.
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• The soul strives for wisdom and perfection, and
reason is the soul’s tool to achieve this
exalted state.
• As long as the soul is tied to the body, the quest
for wisdom is inhibited by the imperfection of the
physical realm, where it wanders and is confused.
• Socrates thus suggests that man must live an
examined life and a life of purpose and value.
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• The individual person can have a meaningful
happy life only if he becomes virtuous and knows
the value of himself that can be achieved through
incessant soul-searching.
• He must begin at the source of all knowledge and
significance – the self.
• He believed that self-knowledge was essential.
“Know thyself”
• These words were famously inscribed above the
forecourt at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
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Introspection – is a method of carefully examining
one’s thoughts and emotions – to gain
knowledge.
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Plato: The Self Is An Immortal Soul
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• Like Socrates, Plato believed that the self is
synonymous with the soul.
• Plato’s philosophy can be explained as a process
of self-knowledge and purification of the
soul.
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• Plato introduces the idea of a three-part
soul/self:
Reason – is the divine essence that
enables us to think deeply, make wise
choices, and achieve a true understanding of
eternal truths.
Physical Appetite – includes our basic
biological needs such as hunger, thirst ,
and sexual desire.
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Spirit or passion – includes basic emotions
such as love, anger, ambition,
aggressiveness, and empathy.
• When conflict arise among the three elements of
self, Plato believes that it is the responsibility
of our Reason to sort things out and exert
control.
• Genuine happiness can only be achieved by
people who consistently make sure that their
Reason is in control of their Spirits and
Appetites.
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• Plato’s Concepts of the Two Worlds:
World of Forms – nonphysical ideas. It is
real and permanent.
World of Sense – reality. It is temporary.
• The sensible world is dependent on the ideal
world wherein the concept of the soul belongs.
• Since the soul is regarded as something
permanent, man should give more importance
to it than the physical body which resides in
the world of sense.
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Aristotle: The Soul is the Essence of the Self
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• Aristotle believed that the soul is merely a set of
defining features and did not consider the
body and soul as separate entities.
• Anything with life has soul.
• The soul is the essence of all living things, thus,
the soul is the essence of the self.
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• Three kinds of soul as introduced by Aristotle:
Vegetative – includes the physical body
that can grow.
Sentient – includes sensual desires,
feelings, and emotions.
Rational – is what makes man human. It
includes the intellect that makes man know
and understand things.
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• Aristotle suggests that the rational nature of the
self is to lead a good, flourishing, and
fulfilling life.
• The pursuit of happiness is a search for a good
life that includes doing virtuous actions.
• Aristotle posits that part of the rational soul is
characterized by moral virtues such as justice
and courage.
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St. Augustine: The Self Has an Immortal
Soul
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• St. Augustine believed that the physical body was
radically different from and inferior to its
inhabitant, the immortal soul.
• He came to view the body as “spouse” of the
soul, both attached to one another by a
“natural appetite.”
• He believed that the body is united with the soul,
so that man may be entire and complete.
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• He believed that the soul is what governs and
defines the human person.
• He was convinced that the self is known only
through knowing God.
• Self-knowledge is a consequence of knowledge of
God. He espouses the significance of
reflection, as well as the importance of
prayers and confessions to arrive at a justification
for the existence of God.
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• Knowledge can only come by seeing the truth
that dwells within us.
• Augustine’s Philosophical Principle:
“I am doubting,
therefore I am.”
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Rene Descartes: I Think Therefore I am
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• The keystone of Descartes’ concept of self:
Cogito ergo sum
“I think therefore I am”
• The act of thinking about the self – of being self-
conscious – is in itself proof that there is a self.
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• The essence of the human self : A thinking entity
that doubts, understands, analyzes,
questions, and reasons.
• Two dimensions of the human self:
The self as thinking entity – (soul)
nonmaterial, conscious being, and
independent of the physical laws of the
universe.
The self as physical body – material, non-
thinking entity, fully governed by the
physical laws of nature.
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• The soul and the body are independent of one
another, and each can exist and function
without the other.
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John Locke: The Self is Consciousness
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• For Locke, the human mind at birth is tabula rasa
or blank slate.
• He felt that the self, or personal identity, is
constructed primarily from sense
experiences.
• Conscious awareness and memory of previous
experiences are the keys to understanding the
self.
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• Locke contends that consciousness accompanies
thinking and makes possible the concept
people have of a self.
• Self-consciousness is necessary to have a
coherent personal (self) identity or knowledge
of the self as a person.
• Using the power of reason and introspection
enables people to understand and achieve
accurate conclusions about the self (or
personal identity).
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David Hume: There is No Self
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• Hume suggests that if people carefully examine
their sense experience through the process of
introspection, they will discover that there is no
self.
• What people experience is just a bundle or
collection of different perceptions.
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• If people carefully examine the contents of their
experience, they find that there are only
distinct entities:
Impressions – the basic sensations of
people’s experience. They are vivid
perceptions and are strong and lively.
Ideas – are thoughts and images from
impressions and so, less lively and vivid.
• People have no experience of a simple and
individual impression that they can call the self
where the self is the totality of a person’s
conscious life. 38
Immanuel Kant: We Construct The Self
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• It is the self that makes experiencing an
intelligible world possible because it is the self that is
actively organizing and synthesizing all of our
thoughts and perceptions.
• The self, in the form of consciousness, utilizes
conceptual categories which Kant calls
transcendental deduction of categories, to
construct an orderly and objective world that is
stable and can be investigated scientifically.
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• The self is an organizing principle that makes a
unified and intelligible experience possible.
• It is metaphorically above or behind sense
experience, and it uses the categories of our
mind to filter, order, relate, organize, and
synthesize sensations into a unified whole.
• The self constructs its own reality, actively
creating a world that is familiar, predictable,
and most significantly mine.
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• The self is the product of reason, a regulative
principle, because the self regulates experience
by making unified experiences possible.
• The self transcends experience because the mind
can grasp aspects of reality which is not
limited to the senses.
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Sigmund Freud: The Self is Multilayered
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• Freud holds that the self consists of three layers:
Conscious – governed by “reality principle”.
It is organized in ways that are rational,
practical, and appropriate to the
environment. It usually takes into account
the realistic demands of the situation, the
consequences of various actions, and the
overriding need to preserve the equilibrium
of the entire psychodynamic system of the self.
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Preconscious – contains material that is not
threatening and is easily brought to mind.
Unconscious – contains the basic instinctual
drives including sexuality, aggressiveness,
and self-destruction; traumatic memories;
unfulfilled wishes and childhood fantasies.
It is characterized by the most primitive
level of human motivation and human
functioning which is governed by the
“pleasure principle.”
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Gilbert Ryle: The Self is the Way People
Behave
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• Ryle believes that the self is best understood as a
pattern of behavior, the tendency or
disposition for a person to behave in a
certain way in certain circumstances.
• Ryle’s concept of the human self thus provided
the philosophical principle:
“I act therefore I am.”
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• Ryle considers the mind and body intrinsically
linked in complex and intimate ways.
• The self is the same as bodily behavior.
• Ryle concludes that the mind is the totality of
human dispositions that is known through the
way people behave.
• Ryle is convinced that the mind expresses the
entire system of thoughts, emotions, and
actions that make up the human self.
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Paul Churchland: The Self is the Brain
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• Churchland advocated the idea of eliminative
materialism or the idea that the self is inseparable
from the brain and the physiology of the body.
• All a person have is the brain and so, if the brain
is gone, there is no self.
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• For Churchland, the physical brain and not the
imaginary mind, gives people the sense of self.
• Since the mind cannot be experienced by the
senses, then the mind does not really exist.
• It is the physical brain and not the imaginary
mind that gives people the sense of self. The
self is the brain.
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Self is
Embodied Subjectivity
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• For Ponty, the unified experience of the self is
the paradigm or model that people should use to
understand the nature of the self.
• The “I” is a single integrated core identity, a
combination of the mental, physical, and
emotional structured around a core identity
of the self.
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• Ponty argued that all knowledge about the self is
based on the “phenomena” of experience.
• When people examine the self at the
fundamental level of direct human experience,
people will discover that the mind and body
are unified, not separate.
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• Everything that people are aware of is contained
within the consciousness.
• Consciousness is a dynamic form responsible for
actively structuring conscious ideas and
physical behavior.
• He is convinced that consciousness, the world,
and the human body are intricately intertwined
in perceiving the world.
• Perception is not merely a consequence of
sensory experience; rather, it is a conscious
experience.
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Write an essay on the philosophical perspective
of the self. Consider the following questions in
writing your essay.
• Explain how each philosophy of the self
impacts your self-understanding.
• Which philosophy relates to your own belief?
• What is your own philosophy of self?
• What is the importance of having a philosophy
of the self?
• Describe who you are, the meaning of your
life, the purpose of your existence, and how to
achieve a happy and successful life.
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• What are your characteristics that can
contribute to your happiness and success?
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