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UTS - Chapter 1, Lesson 1

This document summarizes different philosophers' views on the self, including: Socrates believed the self has a perfect soul and imperfect body; Plato said the soul has three parts; Augustine thought the soul anticipates eternal life with God; Descartes viewed the self as having a body and mind; Hume believed the self is a bundle of impressions and ideas; and Merleau-Ponty saw the mind and body as intertwined. The document examines perspectives on the self from philosophers across history and cultures.

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Krishna Faith P. Delara
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119 views

UTS - Chapter 1, Lesson 1

This document summarizes different philosophers' views on the self, including: Socrates believed the self has a perfect soul and imperfect body; Plato said the soul has three parts; Augustine thought the soul anticipates eternal life with God; Descartes viewed the self as having a body and mind; Hume believed the self is a bundle of impressions and ideas; and Merleau-Ponty saw the mind and body as intertwined. The document examines perspectives on the self from philosophers across history and cultures.

Uploaded by

Krishna Faith P. Delara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHAPTER 1

DEFINING THE SELF:


PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY

LESSON 1: The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives

Specific Learning Outcomes


At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self;
2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the
various philosophers across time and place;
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical
schools; and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class.

SOCRATES

• He was more concerned with the problem of the self.


• He was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a
systematic questioning about the self.
• According to him, “The true task of a philosopher is to
know oneself.
• Affirmed that the unexamined life is not worth living.
• To Socrates the worst that can happen to anyone is to live
but die inside.
• To him, everyone is composed of body and soul.
> Body – imperfect and impermanent https://www.greeka.com/greece-
history/famous-people/socrates/
> Soul – perfect and permanent

PLATO

• Socrates’s student.
• Supported the idea that man is dual in nature of body and
soul.
• he added that there are three components of the soul.
> Rational Soul -forged by reason and intellect and has to
govern the affairs of the human person.
> Spirited Soul – in charge of emotions.
> Appetitive Soul – in charge of base desires like eating,
etc.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.or • When this ideal state is attained, then the human person’s
g/contributors/plato soul becomes just and virtuous.

AUGUSTINE

• He believed that an aspect of man dwells in the world and


is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine
and the other is capable of reaching immortality.
• Believed that the body is bound to die on earth and the
soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual
bliss in communion with God.
• The goal of every human person is to attain this
communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on
earth in virtue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aug
ustinian_theodicy

(Chapter 1, Lesson 1)
THOMAS AQUINAS

• Believed that man is composed of two parts:


> Matter or hyle – refers to the common stuff that makes
up everything in the universe.
> Form or morphe – essence of a substance or thing.
https://ophope.org/spirituality/4- • To Aquinas, the soul is what emanates the body; it is what
lessons-from-saint-thomas- makes us humans.
aquinas-that-still-apply-to-our-

RENE DESCARTES

• Father of modern Philosophy. • he thought that the


• Conceived of the human person as having a body and a only thing that one
mind. cannot be doubted.
• In his famous treatise, The Meditations of First
Philosophy, he claims that there is so much that we should
doubt. https://www.biography.com/schol
ar/rene-descartes

DAVID HUME

• a Scottish Philosopher
• an empiricist who believes that one can know only what
comes from the senses and experiences.
> Empiricism – the school of thought that espouses the
idea that knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed
and experienced.
• believed that the self is nothing else but a bundle of
impressions.
> Impressions – are the basic objects of our experience or
sensation
- vivid because they are products of our direct experience
with the world.
> Ideas – are copies of impressions.
-not as lively and vivid as our impressions.
• According to Hume, the self is simply a bundle or
https://www.britannica.com/topic collection of different perceptions, which succeed each
/problem-of-induction
other with an inconceivable rapidity and are in a perpetual
flux and movement.

IMMANNUEL KANT

• To him, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the


impressions that men get from the external world. He
calls these the apparatuses of the mind.
• Suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man
that synthesizes all knowledge and experience. Thus, the
self is not just what gives one his personality. In addition,
it is also a seat of knowledge acquisition for all human
persons. https://gohighbrow.com/philosop
hy-of-immanuel-kant/

(Chapter 1, Lesson 1)
GILBERT RYLE

• Blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-physical


self; what truly matters is the behavior that a person
manifests in his day-to-day life.

• “Self” is not an entity one can locate and analyze but


simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all
the behaviors that people make. https://www.jstor.org/stable/454
4910

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY

 The mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be


separated from one another.
 One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied
experience. All experience is embodied; one’s body is his
opening toward his existence to the world.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/454  The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences
4910 are all one.

Reference:

Book:
Alata, E.J., Caslib, B.N.,Jr., Serafica, J.P., Pawilen, R.A.(2018).Understanding the Self(First Edition).Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store, Inc.

Photo Credits:

https://www.greeka.com/greece-history/famous-people/socrates/
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/contributors/plato
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustinian_theodicy
https://ophope.org/spirituality/4-lessons-from-saint-thomas-aquinas-that-still-apply-to-our-lives-today/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/problem-of-induction
https://gohighbrow.com/philosophy-of-immanuel-kant/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4544910
https://literariness.org/2017/05/28/key-theories-of-maurice-merleau-ponty/

(Chapter 1, Lesson 1)

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