Understanding the Self

Ma. Aira G. Fernan, Rpm

 Self from the Various Perspective
• Socrates
• Plato
• St. Augustine of Hippo
• Rene Decartes
• John Locke
• David Hume
• Immanuel Kant
 Self from the Various Perspective
• Sigmund Freud
• Gilbert Ryle
• Patrcia and Paul Churchland
• Maurice Merleau-Ponti
 Philosophy

• started in Athens of Ancient Greece at

around 600 BCE
• “philos” – love, “sophia” – wisdom
• THE LOVE OF WISDOM
GREEK PHILOSOPHER OF Miletus
• Seek for natural explanations rather that supernatural
explanations

Sophist
-first teacher
-skilled debaters
 Socrates
• One of the big three
• Mentor of Plato
• Named by Delphi Oracle as “wisest of all men”
• True Self = Soul
 Socratic Method
• Also called dialectic method
• Socrates' method for discovering what is essential
in the world and in people.
• involves the search for the correct/proper definition
of a thing that cannot be refuted.
• Goal: bring the person to the final understanding
 View of Human Nature
• According to him “the unexamined life is not
worth living”
• Real understanding comes from within the
person
 Plato

• Real Name: Aristocles

• Named Plato because of physical built
• Also one of the big three
• The Dialogues – contains writings where
Socrates as protagonist on most of them.
• The Academy
 Theory of Forms
• Forms
–What are Real
 Characteristics of theory of forms
1. The forms are ageless and therefore eternal
2. The forms are unchanging and therefore
permanent
3. The forms are unmoving and indivisible
 Plato's Dualism
Physical realm
- it is composed of changing, 'sensible' things which
are lesser entities and therefore imperfect and flawed.

The Realm of the Forms

- is composed of eternal things which are permanent
and perfect. It is the source of all reality and true
knowledge.
 View of Human Nature
• Use Socrates' dialectic method and
• Consider Socrates' dialectic method as tool in discovering
knowledge
• He considered human beings as microcosms of the
universal macrocosm.
i.e everything in the universe can also be found in
people.
• Believes that people are intrinsically good and becomes
evil through ignorance of what is good.
 Three Component of Soul
The reason
- rational and is the motivation for goodness and truth
The Spirited
- non-rational and is the will or drive toward action
-initially neutral but can be influence/pulled in two
directions.
The Appetites
- are irrational and lean towards the desire for
pleasures of the body
 Allegory of the Cave

Plato’s_Allegory_of_the_Cave_-_Alex_Gendler.3gp
Theory of Being
-In knowing the truth, the person must
become the truth.

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
knowledge.
 St. Augustine of Hippo

• Did not believe that self- knowledge and

happiness were the ultimate goals of
man but instead man should rely God's
commands and his judgement of what
constitute good and evil.
 View on Human Nature

1. God is the source of reality and truth

2. The sinfulness of man
 The Role of Love
1. Love of Physical objects lead 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 the God is the supreme virtue and
only through loving God can man find real
happiness.
* ALL THINGS ARE WORTHY OF LOVE BUT
THEY MUST BE LOVED PROPERLY*

*IF MAN LOVES GOD FIRST EVERYTHING

WILL FALL INTO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE*
 Rene Descartes
• Known as the “father of the modern Philosophy”
• Considered as one of the Rationalist Philosophers of
the Europe

• He introduced catesian method and invented analytic

geometry
 Decartes System
• He discovers that the human mind has two powers:
1. Intuition
- Ability to apprehend direction of certain truths
2. Deduction
- the power to discover what is not known by
progressing in an orderly way from what is already
known
- truths are arrived at using step by step
process
 View about Human Nature
• “I think, therefore, I am”

The Mind-Body Problem

*Body
- like a machine that is controlled by the will and
aided by the mind.
 View about Human Nature
• According to him, truths can be discovered priori
Priori
- things that are innate in the human mind
• he believes that philosophy should progress from simple
ideas to complex ideas. this would be possible the
information of new sights.
 John Locke
• at the age of 57, he published a book that talks
about the scope and limitation of human mind.
• He believes that knowledge result from ideas
produce a posteriori
–objects that were experience
–2 forms
»sensation
»reflection
 John Locke
• Posteriori
– objects that were experience
2 forms of Posteriori
»sensation
»reflection
• According to him, ideas are not innate but rather
“tabula rasa”
• “Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the
senses
 View on Human Nature
• Morality has to do with choosing or willing the
good
• Moral good depends on conformity and non
conformity of persons behavior toward some law
3 Laws according to Locke
1. Law of Opinion
2. Civil Law
3. Divine Law
 David Hume
• Born in edinburgh Scotland
• Before, he relied on scientific method
 The Human Mind
2 Types of Perception
1.Impression
- Immediate sensations of external reality
2. Ideas
- Recollections of impression
 Principles of Association
• the principle of resemblance
• the principle of contiguity
• Principle of Cause and Effect
 Principle of Cause and effect
• The ideas of cause and effect arise only when people
experience certain relations between objects, thus it cant
be basis for knowledge
 Immanuel Kant
• lived in Konisberg, East Prussia
• greatly influenced by the philosophy of David Hume
• German Idealism
• Books:
✓ Critique of Pure Reason
✓ Critique of Practical Reason
✓ Critique of Judgment
 Immanuel Kant
• knowledge is the result of human understanding applied
to sense experience
• Transcendental apperception
• God is within man
- people should always see duty as a divine command
- Man's duty is to move towards perfection
 Sigmund Freud
• Austrian Neurologist
• Pioneering figure in Psyhology
• Repressed thoughts and memories have enough psyhic
energy to impose its control on person's consciousness
• Hysteria
– hidden and unexpressed thoughts, and repressed memories

Libido- sexual instinct

 Structures of the Mind
• ID
– Pleasure Principle
• Ego
– Reality Principle
• Superego
– Morality
• Thanatos
– Death Instinct

• Eros
– Life Instinct
 Gilbert Ryle
• English Philosopher
• Freewill
• Types of Knowledge
✓ knowing-that
✓ knowing-how
 Patricia and Paul Churchland
• Neurology – study of the nervous
system, its structure, physiology, and
aberrations
• Man's brain is responsible for the identity self
• The biochemical properties of the brain is
responsible for mans thoughts feelings and
behavior
 Patricia and Paul Churchland
• Brain is responsible for the identity known as the
self
✓ Normal Brain = acceptable social behavior
✓ Compromised Brain = aberrant behavior
patterns
 Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• French Phenomenological Philosopher
• influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin
Heidegger
• Body-Subject
–the consciousness the world, and human body are
interconnected as they mutually perceived the world
 Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• The Phenomenology of Perception
–The world is a field of perception and human
consciousness assigns meaning to the world
–Man cannot separate himself to the perceptions
of the world(no body=no perception)
• Philosopher of the Body
–focus on the relationship between self-experience
and the experience of other people