LESSON 1

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

PHILOSOPHER’S PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

What is Philosophy? It is a study of getting knowledge through inquiries and rational

thinking that bear on responding questions regarding the state and nature of an individual and
the universe we live in. From the Greek words “Philos meaning love and Sophia” meaning
wisdom.

SOCRATES

First Martyr of philosophy knowledge of education.

He is being charged with corruption of minors. He was made
to choose between death and exile with the drinking of
Hemlock.
He died as a martyr that fought against ignorance
and narrow mindedness. His philosophy underlies the value
of the impression of knowing oneself.
He believed men’s goal in life is to acquire happiness.
He said happiness motivates us to act towards or avoid
things that could have negative effects in our lives. Like, by
fully knowing oneself a person will be able to achieve
happiness.

Image credits to Encyclopedia Britannica

He believed that every man is dualistic, composed of body and soul. According to him, all
individuals have an imperfect and impermanent aspect which is the body. The universe is
composed of physical and mental things that are the basis of the concept of duality in the self. The
body is a physical thing that is not perfect and temporary. It might be physically nice and perfect
today but changes through the years.
The soul is a mental thing and is permanent. It lives and evident in the body today hence, it
separates when we die. Even without the physical body, the soul can exist since it is mental.
PLATO
Plato is a student of Socrates. He wrote various
literature that tackles politics, human nature, and constituted
the concept of virtue and intelligence. Father of Academy a place
where sharing and learning of knowledge happens and later
became one of the pillars and foundation of what schools and
education is now in the present.
Preceded the concept of Socrates in knowing thyself,
according to him, a person who is a follower of truth and wisdom
will not be enticed by vices and will always be
correct/moral/ethical.
He believed that the soul is divided into 3 different
parts that have different views, leading to different behaviors.
Image credits to Encyclopedia Britannica
He supported the idea of duality and added that there are 3 concepts of the soul.
1. Appetitive soul is the part of the person that is motivated by want and need to satisfy
oneself. This satisfaction involves physical needs and pleasures and desires, objects and situations.
2. Spirited Soul is a brave part of a person. The one who desires to do something or to right
the wrong that they observe. This is very competitive and is very active. Competitiveness drives one
to anticipate positive results and winning.
3. Rational soul is the drive of our lives. The part that thinks and plans for the future. It
decides what to do when to do it and the possible results one could have depending on their actions.

ST. AUGUSTINE
A Saint and a philosopher of the church. He
follows the concept that God embraces us all, he said
that everything will be better if we are with God. For
him God and his teachings affect several aspects in life.
He relates our existence to God being modeled in his
likeness though being alive means that we are still far
from God and has yet to be true with him.

Image
credits to pinterest.com

The soul can be immortal through communion with the divine. He viewed that dual nature
of self in the circumstance where one is not perfect and immortal. The soul is capable of immortality
through the communion with the Christian God. While in-universe, the body will live in virtue,
longing to be with God.
 RENE DESCARTES
Is a French Philosopher not able to be the
father of modern philosophy because of his radical use
of a systematic and early scientific method to help his
assumptions? He believes in modern dualism or the
existence was presented with the evidence from
experiments as well as philosophical reasoning.
He is famous to be the advocate of methodical doubt.
He defined the roles of the mind and body to the belief
of one’s existence and sense of self. He is also known for
the statement “cogito ergo sum” [I think therefore I
am].
Image credits to Encyclopedia Britannica

He viewed the dual nature of self where the mind is a thinking thing that makes a man, and
the body is a mere machine. Cogito is the mind enabling our fundamental existence. The body
is just an extension of it. He proved that this statement is completely true.
According to him “I am thinking” and “I exist” is a combination of “ cogito ergo sum”
‘I think therefore I am ‘.

JOHN LOCKE
Is an English philosopher and physician.
Considered to be the father of classical liberation and
his works made up of the way to various revolutions to
fight the utter powers of monarchs and rules of his time
that led to the improvement of governance, politics, and
economic system that we know today.

Image credits to psychology.wikia.org

For him, the self is most delineated by the idea “Tabula Rasa” [blank slate] He believed that
the experiences and perceptions of an individual are necessary for the establishment of who that
person can become. He said that a person is born with knowing nothing and that is capable to input
learning from the experiences, failures, references, and observation of the person.
He viewed that consciousness is the center of the self. According to him the personal
identity and psychological continuity define who we are which means if we have memory versions
of ourselves through time, then we can still define ourselves as such.
DAVID HUME
He is a Scottish Philosopher, he focused his
work in the field of empiricism, skepticism, and
naturalism. Self is a collection of different impressions
and does not exceed the physical kingdom. He said there
is no permanent self because impressions of things are
based on our experiences where we can make our
concepts and knowledge. Hence, it might improve or
totally be replaced.

Image credits to Encyclopedia Britannica

He anchored his definition of the self on the empiricist school of thought. He cited that
the self is nothing but a collection of impressions. He defined experiences as either impressions or
ideas. According to him, impressions are products of our direct experiences while ideas are copies
of our impressions.

IMMANUEL KANT
A German philosopher that is famous for his works on
empiricism and rationalism.
He establishes that the compendium of impressions
and different contents is what it only takes to describe a person.
Knowing of different emotions that we have such as
impressions and behavior is only a portion of yourself.
Image credits to philosophers.co.uk

He defined the self as an organizing principle that combines experiences. According to him,
the mind permits us to recognize not only things that are present in this universe but also those
that are not present but are experienced anyways, that he called the “apparatuses of the
mind”

SIGMUND FREUD
He is the father of psychoanalysis. He is famous for his
work on human nature and the unconscious. He also believed that
man has different constructs of personality that interacts with
each other. He also conceptualizes the various levels of
consciousness that give an idea of how a person develops a sense
of self.
Man has three [3 ] aspects of Personality.

Image credits to Encyclopedia Britannica

image credits to simplypsychology.org

 He detailed the idea of a multi-layered self. There are three levels of consciousness:
Conscious- mind includes mental abilities that we are presently aware of.
Preconscious- activities that are not currently active but stored in our memory.
Unconscious- activities that are totally unaware of,
The three levels of awareness: Id [driven by pleasure principle] Ego [ reality] Superego
[conscience]

“Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory on Instincts Motivation, Personality and Development”

open the link and watch the video presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vFf5CS27-Y

GILBERT RYLE
He gained first-class honors at Queen’s College,
Oxford, and became a lecturer at Christ
Church College in 1924. His first book, The Concept of
Mind (1949), is considered a modern classic. He
challenges the traditional difference between body and
mind as delineated by René Descartes. According to him
the Traditional Cartesian dualism, commit a serious
confusion when searching beyond the human body. It
views the mind as an additional mysterious thing not
subject to observation or to mechanical laws, rather
than as the form or organizing principle of the body.

Image credits to Encyclopedia Britannica

He contradicts the duality idea of the self, particularly the non-physical self. The self is just
a brand we call all the behaviors we make as individuals.

A Canadian philosopher who focuses on the

idea that people should improve our association and use
of worth in distinguishing the self.
The self is defined by the motility of our brain.
His work turns around folk psychology or common
sense psychology. The main philosophy is the idea of “
eliminative materialism “ [debates that people’s
common sense understanding of the mind is false and
PAUL CHURCHLAND

the mental states that man are into are not existing;
applies the understanding of behavior and emotions]

Image credits to wordassociation1.net

He was a materialist who believed that nothing but a physical entity exists. His manger the idea of a
non-physical mind as the place of consciousness. He supported the self-based on brain states rather than in
mental states.

MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MERLEAU-PONTY

A French phenomenological philosopher,
powerfully influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin
Heidegger. He is famous for his works on existentialism
and phenomenology. Self-regarded that the body and
mind are not separate entities instead those two
elements are one and the same. He creates the concept
of the phenomenology of perception [unity of the
function of the mind and the body ] which is divided into
three division:

Image credits to pinterest.com

The body that both obtains the experiences as well as incorporates like experiences in the different
perceptions.
The Perceived world is the accumulation of the perception and merged by the experiences of the
body.
The people and the world enable one to not only be able to integrate the other objects in the
universe but also to be able to experience the cultural aspect and associate to some.