Lecture 1

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

The Self from Various

Perspectives
How well do you know yourself? Are you aware of your
talents? Skills? Weaknesses? Strengths?

Who am I?
 “WHAT DIES
THOUGH IT
LIVES, AND
LIVES THOUGH
IT DIES?”
The SELF from
Various
Philosophical
Perspectives
- study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and
existence, especially in an academic discipline.

- a particular theory that someone has about how to live or

how to deal with a particular situation.
 • Academic discipline concerned with
investigating the nature of significance of
ordinary and scientific beliefs

• Investigates the legitimacy of concepts by

rational argument concerning their implications,
relationships as well as reality, knowledge, moral
judgment, etc.
 Much of philosophy
concerns with the
fundamental nature of
self.
The Greeks were the ones
who seriously questioned
myths and moved away
from them to understand
reality and respond to
perennial questions of
curiosity, including the
question of the self.
 The following are discussions of
different perspectives and
understandings of the self according to
its prime movers. From philosophers of
the ancient times to the contemporary
period.
THE PRE-SOCRATICS

Were concerned with answering questions

such as
• what is the world really made up of?
• why is the world the way it is?
• what explains the changes that happen
around us?
 # 1

• Do you agree that there is a difference between

the body and the soul?
• Do you think you have both?
• What’s the difference between the two?
SOCRATES

• Greek renowned philosopher

• Never wrote anything; got infos about him
through his student Plato and historians
• Went to crowd to preach
• underwent a trial for ‘corrupting the minds
of the youth’
• sentenced to death by drinking poison
hemlock
• concerned with the problem of the
self
• “the true task of the philosopher is
to know oneself”
• Uses Self-introspection and
Socratic dialogue/method
• “the Unexamined life is not worth
living”
• The state of your inner being
determines the quality of your soul.
• ‘the worst thing that can happen to anyone is to live but
die inside’
• “Every person is Dualistic” – body ( visible) and soul (
invisible) but focuses mostly to the quality of the soul.
• The goal of life is to be happy.
• The virtuous man is a happy man.
• “I know that I do not Know”
• Death is not an issue, as the Soul is already transformed.
The Theory of Forms
Symbolic representations of the story:
• The Cave - the human experience, we are born ignorant- we can’t
know everything.
• The Shadow – mere reflection of reality
• Chains Prisoners- limiting our selves, seeing one-side perspective
• Puppeteers – control the shadow or reality
• The person who escaped – philosophers or educated
• The Sun – the enlightenment , education
• The outside of the Cave – the reality
 PLATO

• The Theory of Forms – we are living in two

worlds.
The physical world – mere replica of the real world
The ultimate reality – forms or real world ( abstract
concept)
PLATO

• 3 components to the Soul:

– reason & intellect to govern affairs spirited soul
– emotions should be kept at bay appetitive soul
– base desires (food, drink, sleep, sexual needs,
etc.) •
• when these are attained, the human person’s soul
becomes just & virtuous.
 PLATO – desire to achieve JUSTICE

• completely virtuous person is the one whose soul is in

harmony, because each of its three parts—Reason, Spirit, and
Appetite—desires what is good and proper for it and acts
within proper limits.

• Reason understands and desires the good of the individual (the

human good) and the Good in general.
 # 2
• What happens to a person whose 3 components
of the soul are imbalanced?
ARISTOTLE

• Aristotle, insisted that the human being is a

composite of body and soul and that the soul
cannot be separated from the body.
• Aristotle famously contends that every physical
object is a compound of matter and
form. (Hylomorphism)
• Empirical approach
• rejected Plato's theory of Forms but not the
notion of form itself. For Aristotle, forms
do not exist independently of things.
• He also felt Plato’s theory could not adequately
explain three notions. These notions were as
follows:
1. Forms cannot explain changes or the
extinction of things.
2. Forms do not explain knowledge of things.
3. Forms do not explain the existence of a
thing.
• Moral behavior is the mean between two
extremes - at one end is excess, at the other
deficiency. Find a moderate position between
those two extremes, and you will be acting
morally.
• The golden mean applies only for virtues.
• the ultimate goal, happiness (Greek:
eudaimonia), which must be desired for
itself.
(ST.) AUGUSTINE

• ‘spirit of man’ in medieval philosophy

• following view of Plato but adds Christianity
• man is of a bifurcated nature
• part of man dwells in the world (imperfect) and
yearns to be with the Divine
• other part is capable of reaching immortality
• body – dies on earth; soul – lives eternally in
spiritual bliss with “God”
 # 3
• Do you believe in the concept of the soul coming
to heaven after death?
• What makes us people different from animals?
MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Rene DESCARTES
• Father of Modern Philosophy
• human person = body + mind
• “there is so much that we should doubt”
• “if something is so clear and lucid as not to be
doubted, that’s the only time one should believe.”
• the only thing one can’t doubt is existence of the self
• “I think, therefore I am”
• the self = cogito (the thing that thinks) +
extenza (extension of mind/body)
• the body is a machine attached to the
mind
• it’s the mind that makes the man
• “I am a thinking thing . . . A thing that
doubts, understands, affirms, denies,
wills, refuses, imagines, perceives . ”
 # 4

• DO YOU AGREE WITH THE STATEMENTS

ABOUT THE SELF (body & soul) SO FAR?
• What seems to be questionable in their conjectures
John Locke

• EDUCATION MAKES THE MAN

- Locke posits an "empty" mind—a tabula rasa—
that is "filled" by experience.
• THEORY OF THE SELF.
- That is, the "associations of ideas" made when young are
more significant than those made when mature because they
are the foundation of the self
• Locke's emphasis on the role of experience in the
formation of the mind and his concern with false
associations of ideas has led many to characterize his
theory of mind as passive rather than active
• Locke examines the nature of the human mind and the
process by which it knows the world. Repudiating the
traditional doctrine of innate ideas, Locke believed that
the mind is born blank, a tabula rasa upon which the world
describes itself through the experience of the five senses
• Locke based his ethical theories upon belief in the
natural goodness of humanity. The inevitable pursuit
of happiness and pleasure, when conducted
rationally, leads to cooperation, and in the long run
private happiness and the general welfare coincide.
• David Hume – “ all knowledge is derived
from human senses. “

• Fierce opponent of Descartes’ Rationalism.

• Along with John Locke and George Berkeley in the
movement of Empiricism.
• Emphasizes the role of experiences and evidences
esp sensory experiences in forming concepts.
• David Hume
• Bundle theory – he described the “self” or person as
bundle or collection of a different perceptions that are
moving in a very fast and successive manner, it is a “
perpetual flux.”
Divided into two:
1. Impressions – perceptions that are strong.
2. Ideas- less forcible and less lively counterparts; these
are mechanisms that copy/reproduce sense data
formulated based upon the previously perceived
impressions.
• David Hume
• Hume compared the “self” to a nation –
being a nation is not by some single core,
identity but by being composed of different
and changing elements, such as people,
systems, culture, and beliefs.
• Hume insisted that there is no one one
impression but a mix and a loose of
cohesion of various experiences– one
constant impression that endures
throughout your life.
• Immanuel Kant
• Contributions to metaphysics, epistemology,
ethics and aesthetics
• Human mind creates the structure of the
human experience.
• The self is transcendental which means
that the self is related to nonphysical or
spiritual realm.
• Apperception - the mental process by which
a person makes sense of an idea by
assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she
already possesses.
• Immanuel Kant
• ” The self is not in the body.” The self is outside
the body and it does not have the qualities of the
body. “
• Kant stressed that the body and its qualities are
rooted to the “self”
• The self is transcendental which means that the
self is related to nonphysical or spiritual realm.
• Apperception - the mental process by which a
person makes sense of an idea by assimilating it
to the body of ideas he or she already possesses.
• Two Kinds:

• ” consciousness of oneself and one’s

psychological states in inner sense,
• “consciousness of oneself and one’s states
by performing acts of apperception.”
• Two Important of the “ Self ” :

• Inner Self – which you are aware of alterations in your

own state. This includes your rational intellect and your
psychological state such as your mood, feelings and
sensations, pleasure and pain.
• Outer Self – it includes your senses and the physical
world. It is the common boundary between the external
world and the inner self. It gathers information from the
external world through the sense, which the inner self
interprets and coherently expresses.
• Kant :

• “ You are conscious of yourself as the subject,

and you are conscious of yourself as a
common subject of different representations.”
• Sigmund Freud :

• “ Wish fulfillment is the road to the

unconscious.”
• Sigmund Freud :

• contribution to psychoanalysis.
• Premise that the self is composed of both
conscious and unconscious.
• Behavior is motivated by unseen forces,
controlled by the conscious and the rational
thought.
• Three Levels of Psyche:

1.Conscious – awareness of the present

perceptions, feelings, behaviors, thoughts,
memories.
2.Pre-conscious – related to data that can
be readily be brought to consciousness.
3.Unconsciousness- refer to data retaine but
not easily available of the individual’s conscious
awareness.
• Existence of Unconscious:
1. Traumatic experiences
2. Source of anxiety-provoking drives
that is socially or ethically
unacceptable.
 • Gilbert Ryle
- Rejected the notion
that mental states are
inseparable from
physical states.
• Ryle’s point against Descastes

- The relation between mind and body are not

isolated process,
- Mental processes are intelligent acts, and are not
distinct from each other.
- The operations of the mind is itself an intelligent
act.
• Ryle’s point against Descartes

- The relation between mind and body are not

isolated process,
- Mental processes are intelligent acts, and are not
distinct from each other.
- The operations of the mind is itself an intelligent
act.
• Ryle’s point against Descartes

- “The dogma of the ghost in the machine”

- The sense of self is found in the concepts of our
behaviors and actions.
- The actions define your own concept of self.
• Paul Churchland
- The physical brain and NOT the
imaginary mind gives us our sense of
self.
- The Immaterial soul or self does not
exist because it cannot be
experienced by the senses
- Concept of elimination materialism.
- Concept of depression- neuro basis
• Maurice Merleau- Ponty
- The self is embodied subjectivity.
- SUBJECT- entity that possesses
conscious experiences such as
perspectives, feelings, beliefs and
desires.
- Rejected the Cartesian mind-body
dualism
- Insisted that the body and mind is
intrinsically connected.
• Maurice Merleau- Ponty

- Human beings are embodied

subjectivities.
- The body is NOT a mere “ house”
where the mind resides.
- It is through the lived
experiences of the body that you
perceive, are informed and
interact with the world.
To be continued…