UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF
The Self from Various
Perspective
 Think on these Things:
• How would you describe your self?
• What are the qualities that differentiate you from
all other selves?
• In what ways has your self changed during the
course of your life?
• What do you think will happen to your self after
you die?
• If you believe that your self will continue to exist in
some form, will you be able to recognize other
selves who have died?
Philosophical
Perspective of Self
Learning Objectives

• Explain why it is essential to understand the self,

• Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points- of-view
of the various philosophers across time and place;
• Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different
philosophical schools; and
• Examine one's self against the different views of the self.
 Pre-Socratics (Ancient Greek
Philospers)
• to distinguish philosophers before
Socrates
• focused on the “arche” and the cosmos
 Socrates
• The first thinker in the Western World to focus the
full power of reason on the human self.
• The Mentor of Plato
• Crimes: asebeia & corruption of the youth
• Socrates believed that the self is dualistic - composed of body
and soul
⚬ The body is changeable and imperfect
⚬ The soul is immortal and unchanging
• He stated that the body is dragging the soul to where it wanders
and became confused
• Used reason as a tool to be freed from the imperfection of the
physical
Soul - Immortal and
Immaterial

Body - Physical and

Material
 Plato
• The protege of Socrates
• Believed that soul is made up of three (3)
elements: reason, physical appetite,and spirit or
passion
• Plato believes that the three elements of our selves are in a
dynamic relationship with one an- other, sometimes working in
concert, sometimes in bitter conflict.
⚬ Reason: Our divine essence that enables us to think deeply,
make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding of
eternal truths.
⚬ Physical Appetite: Our basic biological needs.
⚬ Spirit or Passion: Our basic emotions.
• When conflict arises within the three, Reason is responsible to
sort things out and become in-charge.
 Reaso
n

Spirit/
Passion

Physical
Appetite
 Augustine
• bishop of Hippo and the 1st Theologian
• influenced by Plotinus with his Neoplatonism
⚬ ashamed of the body being an imperfect
vessel for the immortal soul
• adapted metaphysics to Christian beliefs
• Augustine is convinced that Platonists and Christians are natural
partners.
• He believed that the physical body was both radically different
from and inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul.
• He ultimately came to view the body as the “spouse” of the soul,
with both attached to one another by a “natural appetite.”
• Immortal souls striving to achieve union with God through faith
and reason.
 Thomas Aquinas
• Christian theologian who sought to synthesize
philosophy and religion.
• Influenced by Aristotle’s Metaphysical view that
serves as an intellectual structure of Christianity.
⚬ Matter (hyles) - the common stuff that makes
up the universe.
⚬ Form (morpe) - the essence of a thing
• Aquinas rejected the notion of dualism— that body and soul can
exist independently
• matter and form combine to create formed matter or
substance— that is, all of the familiar things we see in the
universe.
• He believes that life begins with the inseparable union of form
and ‘matter, gradually giving rise to the conscious self as we
know it.
• Also, he believes that every living thing has a soul since the soul
is the principle of life
 René Descartes
• French Mathematician and Philosopher
• Father of Modern Philosophy
• concerned with understanding the thinking
process we use to answer questions.
• wanted to penetrate the nature of our reasoning
process and understand its relation to the human
self.
• “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at
least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
• Cogito, ergo sum - I think, therefore I am
• He also followed Plato’s Dualistic view
⚬ Cogito - the thing that thinks
⚬ Extenza - extention of mind or the physical matter
 John Locke
• English Philosopher and Physician
• For him, all knowledge originates in our direct
sense of experience. - Empirical View
⚬ differs from Descartes that reason is the
primary source of knowledge - Rational
View
⚬ Believes that the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank slate on
which experience writes.
￭ conscious awareness and memory of previous
experiences are the keys to understanding the self.
⚬ Locke denies that the individual self necessarily exists in a
single soul or substance.
￭ Personal Identity - the conscious self
￭ Substance - the physical body
 David Hume
• Scottish Philosopher
• Skeptical of religion, ethics, and history
• He believes that if we carefully examine our
sense experience through the process of
introspection, we discover that there is no self.
⚬ we find that there are only two distinct entities,
“impressions” and “ideas”:
￭ Impression - basic sensations of our experience, the
elemental data of our minds
￭ Ideas - copies of impression; thoughts and images that
are built up from our primary impressions through a
variety of relationship.
⚬ Self - is a bundle or collection of different perceptions,
which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and
are in a perpetual flux and movement.
 Immanuel Kant
• German Philosopher
• Tried to synthesize rationalism and empiricism
• Rejected Hume’s view of self being a collection of
disconnected ideas and fleeting sensation
• called his approach to perception and
knowledge as the Copernican Revolution in
Metaphysics and Epistimology
⚬ criticized Hume’s empirical conclusion of the self
⚬ He believed that we all have fundamental organizing rules
or principle - to which these principles are priori and can exist
independently of these sensations.
￭ Our minds actively synthesize and relate these sensations
in the process of creating an intelligible world.
⚬ unity of consciousness - thoughts and perceptions are
bound together in unity in once consciousness
⚬ You are at the center of your world, and you view
everything in the world from your perspective.
⚬ The self is a dynamic entity /activity, continually
synthesizing sensations and ideas into an integrated,
meaningful whole.
 Siegmund Freud
• Austrian doctor
• Father of Psychoanalysis
• He sees the “I” as a product of multiple
interacting processes, systems and schemes.
⚬ Freud proposed two models: Topographical and Structural
￭ Topographical Model - there are two (2) levels of self:
• Conscious - consists of everything inside of our
awareness, the rational part of self.
• Unconscious - not available to introspection, and
include thought processes, memory, affect, and
motivation, the irrational part of self.
￭ Structural Model - proposed that there are three (3)
provinces of mind:
• Id - primitive; instinctive.
• Ego - “I”
• Superego - moral; above the “I”
 Gilbert Ryle
• Analytic Philosopher
• An important figure in Linguistic Analysis
• Denied the existence of a non-physical body
⚬ blatantly attacking the dichotomy of self
￭ If the mind and body are in reality two radically different
substances, then how precisely do they connect to one
another?
⚬ suggests that the “self” is not an entity one can locate and
analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to
refer to all the behaviors that people make
⚬ mind is a concept that expresses the entire system of
thoughts, emotions, actions, and so on that make up the
human self.
⚬ 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.
 Paul Churchland
• Contemporary American Philosopher
• Eliminative Materialist
• the concepts and theoretical vocabulary we use
to think about our selves actually misrepresent
the reality of minds and selves.
⚬ He believed that “folk psychology” misinterprets the
self/human experiences
⚬ He also believed that we must develop a new structure that
will be bounded by Neuroscience to better understand the
self
 Maurice Marleau-Ponty
• Phenomenologist
⚬ A philosophical approach that attempts to
give a direct description of our experience as it
is in itself, without taking into account its
psychological origins or causal explanations.
• argued that consciousness is a dynamic form
that actively structures our experience.
(Phenomenology of Perception)
⚬ According to his work, Phenomenology of Perception,
Consciousness is:
￭ a self-contained system of Being
￭ a system of Absolute being
￭ dynamic form responsible for actively structuring our
conscious ideas and physical behavior.
⚬ everything that we are aware of is contained within our own
consciousness.
⚬ The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are
all one.