Unit 1: The Self From Various Perspectives

Philosophical Perspective
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

1. discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various
disciplinal perspectives;
2. compare and contrast how the self has been exemplified across different
perspectives;
3. examine the different influences, factors and forces that shape the self; and
4. demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of one’s
self and identity by developing a theory of the self.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

How old are you?

For that number of years

of existence, have you
ever asked yourself the
question,

“What is the self?”

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

 Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” (c. 33, 506 BCE)
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Defining SELF
 
- a person's essential
being that distinguishes
them from others,
especially considered as
the object of
introspection or reflexive
action. –Oxford
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

SELF = “distinct individuality” and/or “identity”

of a person

Individuality - total character peculiar to and

distinguishing an individual from others
Ex. Abilities, biases, goals

Identity – the distinguishing character or

personality of an individual
ex. race/ethnicity, gender
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the

ultimate causes, reasons and principles of everything. It goes
beyond the scientific investigation by exploring all areas of
knowledge such as religion, psychology, politics, physics, and
even medicine.

Views on the self can be best understood by revisiting its

prime movers and identify the most important conjectures
(opinions, conclusions) made by philosophers.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

SOCRATES (470-399 B.C.) The Soul is Immortal

He explored his philosophy of immortality in

the days following his trial and before his
sentence to death was executed.

According to him, an unexamined life is not

worth living. This statement is reflected in his
idea of the self.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Body - Imperfect and Impermanent

Soul - perfect and permanent

“SELF is synonymous with the soul.”

Socrates was the first to focus on the full power of reason on
the human self,
 
“who we are, who should we be, and who we will become.”
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective
2 dichotomous realms:

1.Physical Realm (material substance) - changeable, transient

and imperfect.
2.Ideal Realm (immaterial substance) - unchanging, eternal,
and immortal.

The soul belongs to the ideal realm. Socrates explains that the

essence of the self, the soul, is the immortal entity.

The soul strives for wisdom and perfection, and reason is

the soul’s tool to achieve this exalted state.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Socrates thus suggests that man must live an examined

life and a life of purpose and value.

Socratic Method: Question and Answer

A method of hypothesis elimination, based on asking

and answering question to stimulate critical thinking
and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

PLATO (428/427-348/347 BC) THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL

Plato is one of the most important Greek philosophers.
He founded the Academy in Athens. His works on
philosophy, politics and mathematics were very
influential and laid the foundations for Euclid's
systematic approach to mathematics.

He is a student of Socrates.

He believed that the self is immortal.

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Tripartite Soul

1. REASON (Ruling Class) - the divine essence that

enables you to think deeply, make wise choices and achieve
an understanding of eternal truths;
2. SPIRIT (Military Class) - your basic biological needs
such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire and;
3. APPETITE (Commoner) - your basic emotions such as
love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

"Human behavior flows from three main sources:

desire, emotion, and knowledge."
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Synthesis of Plato & Christianity

He was a great explorer in his youth and young

adulthood; he spent great times with his friends and up
to the extent of fathering an illegitimate child.

His explorations led to his conversion to Christianity

wherein he spent the remainder of his day serving the
bishop of Hippo and writing books and letters
including his idea of the self.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

At first, he thought the body as the “slave” of the soul but

ultimately, regarded the body as the “spouse” of the soul both
attached to one another.

He follows the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with the

newfound doctrine of Christianity.

The absolute and immutable is the living God, the creator of

the entire universe.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

His first principle was, “Cogito, Ergo Sum”

“I doubt, therefore I am.”

- dualistic view of the "self": the physical body and the

nonphysical soul are two different entities.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Rene Descartes(1596-1650) Modern Perspective on the Self

Father of modern philosophy

Descartes was a scientist in his professional

life and during his time, scientists believed
that after death the physical body dies, hence
the self also dies.

The self is a thinking thing, distinct from the body.

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Thinking self (soul) - nonmaterial, immortal, conscious

Physical body - material, mortal, non-thinking entity

"Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum" (I doubt therefore I

think; I think therefore I am)

- the act of thinking about the self – being self-conscious - is

proof that there is a self.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

John Locke (1634-1704) The Self is Consciousness

The human mind at birth is a tabula rasa (“blank slate”).

Personal identity is made possible by self-

consciousness. In order to discover the nature of
personal identity, you have to find out what it
means to be a person.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Consciousness means being aware that you are

thinking; this what makes your belief possible that
you are the same identity at different times and in
different places.
Personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity

Personal identity (or the self) is founded on consciousness.

Identity over time is fixed by awareness of the past.

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

"Our concept of personal identity must derive from

inner experience."

- Conscious awareness and memory of previous

experience are the keys to understanding the self.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

David Hume (1711-1776) There is No Self

He was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher
whose teachings centered on self-awareness and
physical impressions in human behavior. 

He is a renowned 18th-century Scottish empiricist. 

For him, there is no “self” only a bundle of

perceptions passing through the theatre of
your minds.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

David Hume, true to his extreme skepticism, rejects the

notion of identity over time. There are no underlying
objects. There are no “persons” that continue to exist
over time. Just impressions.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

This idea can be formulated as the following argument:

1. All ideas are ultimately derived from impressions.

2. So, the idea of a persisting “self” is ultimately derived from

impressions.

3. But, no impression is a persisting thing.

4. Therefore, there cannot be any persisting idea of “self.”

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Impressions - are everything that originate from our senses.

These are basic sensations of people that we experience aside
from love, joy, happiness, sadness; it also includes pain, cold
weather, and even heat

Ideas - are just feeble images of thinking and reasoning based on

our impressions. These are your thoughts and images from
impressions, and are less lively and vivid.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) We Construct the Self

He is one of the most influential philosophers in the history
of Western philosophy. His contributions to metaphysics,
epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics have had a profound
impact on almost every philosophical movement that
followed him.
Although Kant recognizes the legitimacy in Hume’s
account, he opposes the idea of Hume that everything
starts with perception and sensation of impressions,
that’s why he brought out the idea of the self as a
response against the idea of Hume.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

For Kant, there is unavoidably a mind that systematizes the

impressions that men get from the external world.

Therefore, Kant believed that the self is a product of reason

because the self regulates experience by making unified
experience possible.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Consciousness is the central figure of the self.

Two kinds of consciousness:

Internal self - composed of psychological states and informed

decisions; remembering our own state, how can we combine the new
and old ideas with our mind
External self - made up of ourselves and the physical world where
the representation of objects
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

“Unity of consciousness”

- a phrase invented by Kant to describe the fact that the thoughts

and perceptions of any given mind are bound together in a unity
by being all contained in one consciousness.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) The Self is Multilayered

He is the Father Of Psychology.

Freud developed theories about the mind

and its functioning and founded
psychoanalytical treatment for psychological
problems based on those theories. He
devoted his life to learning, helping patients,
and developing theories to further the
understanding of the human psyche.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Sigmund Freud was the founder of Psychoanalysis.

- It is a method of studying the mind and treating psychiatric and

emotional disorders based on revealing and investigating the role
of the unconscious mind.

“THE SELF IS MULTI-LAYERED”

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

- View of the self is

multilayered:

divided among the

1. conscious,
2. preconscious, and
3. unconscious;
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

1. Unconscious Level or ID - early stage of the self and it's the center of all
human wants and desires that you must satisfy, indifferent to the moral laws
of the society. It is always a collection of preference that a person must
meet. (PLEASURE PRINCIPLE)
2. Conscious Level or the EGO - you have to act according to reality; the
balances, the desire of the people, and how to present. To know what is right
and wrong is based on the context. (REALITY PRINCIPLE)
3. Pre-conscious Level or the SUPEREGO - can be very cruel and
punishable, and looking at the perfection of things we felt embarrass and
guilty when we have fallen short of the high expectations from us. This
mediates the ID and EGO.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective
An example of the id is a toddler that wanted a second helping of a dessert
and whined until it was given to them.

An example of the ego is someone who works out and is very sweaty. They
need to change their clothes and want to change in the car. They knew that
anyone could see them changing their clothes, so they decided to find
another place to do so.

An example of the superego is a cross country runner, during a race, who

knew they could cut their time and come in first if they took a short cut. No
one was watching but the runner would feel guilty, so they decided not to
take the short cut.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) The Self Is How You Behave

He was a 20th Century British philosopher, mainly
associated with the Ordinary Language Philosophy
movement. He had an enormous influence on the
development of 20th Century Analytic Philosophy,
particularly in the areas of Philosophy of Mind and
Philosophy of Language.

“The self is the way people behave”.

The self is basically our behavior.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

His concept of the self is provided in his philosophical statement,

 
“I Act therefore I Am.”

Philosophical Behaviorism - the belief that all mental phenomena

can be explained by reference to publicly observable behavior.

According to Ryle, the “Soul” refers to the way one behaves.

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Paul Churchland (1942) The Self is the Brain: Physicalism

He is a Canadian philosopher known for his

studies in neuro-philosophy and the philosophy
of mind.

Churchland’s theory is anchored in the

statement, “the self is the brain.”
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Eliminative Materialism - states how the way we

commonly think and talk about the mind is so mistaken that
mental concepts should be abandoned and brain processes be
focused on instead.

The physical brain and not the imaginary

mind give us a sense of self.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

 Maurice Merleu-Ponty (1908-1961) The Self is Embodied Subjectivity

Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French philosopher

whose view of the self-contradicted other views.
Explore Merleau-Ponty's theory on the self as
embodied subjectivity and the ideas of subject,
rationalism, and empiricism. 

Subjectivity or subject – A subject is a

real thing that can take real action and
cause real effects.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

"We know not through our intellect but through

our experience."

All your knowledge about yourself and the world is based on

your subjective experiences and everything that you are
aware of is contained in your consciousness.

He also said that your body is your general medium

for having a world.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Aristotle  384-322 BCE

He was a Greek philosopher who pioneered systematic,
scientific examination in literally every area of human
knowledge and was known, in his time, as "the man
who knew everything" 

The best way to gain knowledge

was through "natural philosophy",
which is what we would now call
science.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

His concept of the self is that

humans are rational animals.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

3 types of soul according to Aristotle:

 
1. Vegetative Soul – includes physical body that can grow
2. Sentient Soul – includes sensual desires and feeling and
emotions
3. Rational Soul – makes a man a human being and it
includes intellect which allows man to understand new things
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

END OF TOPIC 1.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Philosophical Perspective

Activity: Theory of my Own Self

• Reflect on the different philosophical perspectives. Answer in paragraph.

1. Which of the philosophy of the self relates to your own belief and
explain how each view impact your self-understanding? (Choose 3)
 
2. Which among the philosophies discussed can you identify with?
Create your own theory of the “self.”