Philosophical

Perspectives
of the Self
Class Objectives

Today we will be:

Studying different philosophical
perspective of uderstanding the self
Philosophy:
Philosophy is derived from the Greek words “Philos” and “Sophia” which literally
means “Love for Wisdom”.

It is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries that

involves in answering questions regarding the nature and existence of man and
the world we live in.
Socrates
He could be considered as the first martyr of
education, knowledge and philosophy.
The philosophy of Socrates underlies in the
importance of the notion “knowing oneself” for him,
men’s goal in life is to obtain happiness and such goal
motivates us to act towards or avoid things that
could have negative repercussions in our lives. As
such, by fully knowing oneself a person will be able to
achieve happiness.

Socrates
Socrates also posited that possession of
knowledge is a virtue and that ignorance is a
depravity, that a person’s acceptance of ignorance
is the beginning of acquisition of knowledge.
Socrates believe that the answer to our pursuit in
knowing ourselves lies in our own abilities and
wisdom, and that the only way for us to
understand ourselves is through internal
questioning or introspection.
Socrates
By continuously asking and evaluating who we are we
as a person will also be able to understand our
strengths and weaknesses, the things that we like and
dislike, how we want people to treat us and how we
want ourselves to be treated, so by knowing these
things we can act in accordance to what we know we are
and live our lives following our knowledge of ourselves.
PLATO
Plato is historically known to be the father of the
academy, a place where learning and sharing of
knowledge happens, that later became one of the
pillars and basis of what schools and education is now
in the present.
He wrote “the Republic” where he said that the world
can only be led by a Philosopher king, a person who
is virtuous as well as intelligent.
 PLATO
Plato presented the idea the ones’ soul is divided
into 3 different parts that has different views leading
to different behaviors, these parts of the soul are
known as the Appetitive, Spirited, and Rational Soul.

Plato's 3 parts of the Soul

Appetitive Soul
Plato’s idea of the appetitive soul is the part of the person
that is driven by desire and need to satisfy oneself.
This satisfaction both involves physical needs and
pleasures and desires.
PLATO
Plato's 3 parts of the Soul
Spirited Soul – this part of the soul can be attributed to
the couragous part of a person, one who wants to do
something or to right the wrongs that they observe.
Spirited soul are very competitive and is very active,
his competitiveness drives one to expect positive
results and winning.
Rational Soul – The last part of the soul could be said is
the driver of our lives, this is the part that thinks and
plan for the future “the conscious mind” it decides what
to do, when to do it and the possible results one could
have depending on their actions.
St. Augustine
St. Augustine follows the idea that God
encompasses us all, that everything will be better
if we are with God.
St. Augustine follows the idea that God
encompasses us all, that everything will be
better if we are with God.
His idea of a man and how to understand
who we are as a person is related to our
understanding of who we are and how we
question ourselves
St. Augustine
He believes that our notion of ourselves and our
idea of existence comes from a higher form of
sense in which bodily senses may not perceive or
understand, and the more one doubts and
question his life means that, that person is
actually living.
 RENE DESCARTES
Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher known to be
the father of modern philosophy because of his
radical use of systematic and early scientific method to
aid his ideas and assumptions.

His ideas sets him apart is on his belief in modern dualism or the
existence of body and mind and it’s implication to one’s existence
were presented with the evidences from experiments as well as
philosophical reasoning.
Descartes is known for the statement “Cogito Ergo Sum” which means in
English as “I think therefore I am”.
According to him a person is comprised of mind and body,
 John Locke
He is an English Philosopher and Physician. He is
considered to be the father of Classical liberalism some
of his works on this subject matter paved the way to
several revolutions to fight the absolute powers of
monarchs and rulers of his time that led to the
development of governance, politics and economic
system that we now know.

His work on the self is most represented by the

concept “Tabula Rasa” which means a Blank Slate. He
believed that the experiences and perceptions of a person
is important in the establishment of who that person can
become.

John Locke
John Locke does not disregard the experiences of the
person in the identification and establishment of
who we are as a person. He stated that a person is
born with knowing nothing and that is susceptible to
stimulation and accumulation of learning from the
experiences, failures, references, and observations
of the person.
 John Locke
The process of the mind to absorb information and
accumulate knowledge may imply that as a person to be
able to be whom we want to be, with the right
stimulations, enough experiences, as well as awareness
that by primarily knowing nothing will enable one to
be open to any kind of learning and does not limit
any possibilities for growth implies that the
opportunity for one person to develop to anything
he wants to be is limited only to the environment,
experiences, and the choices of the person.
David Hume
A Scottish Philosopher David Hume, focused his
work in the field of Empiricism, Skepticism, and
naturalism.

Being an Empiricist which believes in concrete

evidences and observable experiences that
mold a person, his notion on the self
contradicts to the ideas of the philosophers
before him which said that at the notion of self,
one’s identity and behaviour does not exceed
the physical realm and that the “Self” is only the
accumulation of different impressions.
David Hume
According to him, there is no permanent
“self”, that since our impressions of things
based from our experiences and from such
impressions we can create our ideas and
knowledge.

the idea that Hume reiterated when saying

that there should be no permanent concept of
the self.
 David Hume
When a person is asked the question “who you
are? “That person tends to answer different
impressions such as good, happy, optimistic,
contented, sad, etc. generally they apply to who
you are now but at the same time these
characteristics might change from time to
time. If the neighbour you knew your entire life
to be happy and have a positive outlook
suddenly looked sad and discontented can we
say that the person you seeing is not your
neighbour anymore?
Immanuel Kant
a German Philosopher that is known for his works
on Empiricism and Rationalism. Kant responded
to Hume’s work by trying to establish that the
collection of impressions and different contents
is what it only takes to define a person.
Immanuel Kant
Kant argued that the awareness of different emotions
that we have, impressions and behaviour is only a part
of our self. He said that to fully understand who we are,
a certain level of consciousness or sense that uses our
intuition which synthesizes all the experiences,
impressions and perceptions of ourselves will pave the
way to define and know who we really are.
Immanuel Kant
Kant argued that the sense called “Transcendental
Apperception” is an essence of our consciousness that
provides basis for understanding and establishing the
notion of “self” by synthesizing one’s accumulation of
experiences, intuition and imagination goes.

Which means that this idea goes beyond what we

experience but still able to become aware of it.
Immanuel Kant
the idea of Kant about Self, we can say that we are not
only an object that perceives and reacts to whatever
it is that we are experiencing, we also have the
capabilities to understand beyond those experiences
and be able to think and have a clear identification who
we are and establish a sense of self that is unique and
distinct from others.
Sigmund Freud
He is an Austrian Psychologist and Physician, he is also
known as the father of psychoanalysis and is known for
his work on human nature and the unconscious.

Freud believed that man has different constructs of

personality that interacts with each other and along with his
concept of the different levels of consciousness provides an
idea how a person develops a sense of self.
 Sigmund Freud
3 Aspects of Personality

1.ID
It also known as the child aspect of a person, The ID’s
attention is on satisfaction of one’s needs and self-
gratification. It is driven by the pleasure principle.
 Sigmund Freud
3 Aspects of Personality

2. SUPEREGO
The conscience of the one’s personality, Superego has the inclination to
uphold justice and do what is morally right and socially acceptable
actions. The superego is involved in the notion of right or wrong that is
imparted to us by our parents or people that tool care for us during childhood.
 Sigmund Freud
3 Aspects of Personality

3. EGO
Sometimes known as the Police or the mediator between id and
superego. It operates within the boundaries of reality, primary function is
to maintain the impulses of the ID to an acceptable degree. Govern by the
reality principle.
 Sigmund Freud

Levels of Consciouness
Freud also introduced the idea that the
accumulation of the experiences of a person helps
build his personality although such information are not
stored in a single area where we can access them at
any time.
 Sigmund Freud
Levels of Consciouness

1 . CONSCIOUS MIND
Where minority of our memories are being stored and the
memories that are in the conscious is easier to be tapped or
accessed.

Ex. Birthdays, Numbers and Names

 Sigmund Freud
Levels of Consciouness

1 . PRECONSCIOUS MIND
Pre-conscious, the middle part of the entirety of our
consciousness, the memories stored in this area can still be
accessed but with a little difficulty.

Example: Lessons after a week.

 Sigmund Freud
Levels of Consciouness

1 . UNCONSCIOUS MIND
Unconscious, this area is where majority of our memories since
childhood are deeply stored. It is very difficult to tap the memories
in the unconscious, it would need a trained professional and several
special techniques in order to make some memories resurface.
Sigmund Freud
ICEBERG THEORY
Sigmund Freud
Freud believed that we are a by-product of our
experiences in the past. And that are actions are
driven by the idea of resisting or avoiding pain, and
are molded from our need for pleasure or being
happy.
Gilbert Ryle
Gilbert Ryle with his Behavioristic approach to self,
said that self is the behaviour presented by the
person, his notion of dualism is that the behaviour
that we show, emotions and actions are the reflection
of our mind and as such is the manifestation of who we
are.
Ryle does not believe that the mind and body, though
some say can coexist, are two separate entities which
is said to be evident in the unexplainable phenomenon
or abilities of the mind where the soul is considered.
Gilbert Ryle
To him, once we encounter others, their perceptions of
what we do, how we act, and the way we behave
will then result to the understanding of other people
and establishing of who we are.
Ryle is saying that the things that we do, how we
behave and react and all other components like the
way we talk, walk, and look is generally who we are as a
person.
Paul Churchland
Canadian philosopher whose focus is on the idea that
people should improve our association and use of words in
identifying the self. He has this idea that the “self” is
defined by the movements of our brain.
The main philosophy of Churhland built the idea of
“eliminative materialism”.

Basically, eliminative materialism opposes that people’s

common sense understanding of the mind is false and
that most of the mental states that people subscribe to,
in turn, do not actually exist, this idea also applies
on the understanding of behaviour and emotions.
Paul Churchland
This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he believed
that to fully understand one’s behavior, one should
understand the different neurological movement of the
brain that pertains to different emotions, feelings, actions
and reactions and how such brain movements affect the
body.
Paul Churchland
With this in mind we can eliminate the ambiguity of
subjective and baseless identification of the mind,
behavior and self in general, because by understanding
the different neural pathways, how they work, and
what implications are those movements are to people, will
we not only have proof that there is a measurable
classification on one’s behavior it can also be said that the
constant movement of the brain can be the basis of who
the person is,

Churchland and his wife in the statement “The Brain as

the Self”.
 Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-
Ponty
a French philosopher that is known forhis works on existentialism and
phenomenology.

His idea of the self, regarded that the body and mind are
not separate entities, but rather those two components
is one and the same. His idea that follows the gestalt
ideation where the whole is greater than the sum of its
parts in which pushed his idea on the unity of the
function of the mind and body,this idea is called the
Phenomenology of Perception.
 Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-
Ponty
His idea of Phenomenology of Perception according to Merleau-Ponty is
divided into three (3) division,

1. Body - both receives the experience as well as integrates such

experiences in the different perception.
1. The Perceived World - both receives the experience
as well as integrates such experiences in the different
perception.
3. The people and the world
- enable one to not only be able to integrate the other
objects in the world but also to be able to experience
the cultural aspect and relate to others.
 Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-
Ponty

His idea of perception follows the idea of Gestalt

psychology which gives important on the whole than the
sum of its part. For him, perception guides our action based
from what our experiences are, the body perceives while
our consciousness provides the meaning or interprets the
various perception we have in the world and the self could
be established by the perceptions we have in the world,
whereas one’s action, behaviour and language used could
be said to be the reflection of our united perception of the
world.