Understanding the Self

2nd SEMESTER | A.Y. 2022-2023

Alyssa Ashley C. Tuballes

WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL 2. Spiritual world: unchanging, eternal, perfect;

PERSPECTIVES ON THE SELF The World of Ideas/Form
 Our souls (self) strive for wisdom and perfection,
Philosophy and reason is the soul’s tool to achieve such state.
 Etymology: Greek  The soul is a unified, indissoluble, immortal entity
 Philos – love that remains the same over time, and that is in the
 Sophia – wisdom very likeness of the divine.
 “love of wisdom”
 The study of the basic/ fundamental principles of life,  Plato:
knowledge, reality, existence, morality, human nature,  3-part soul/self (psyche)
etc., using logic and reason 1. Reason: the divine essence that lets us think
 As an academic discipline, it does not provide ultimate deeply (wisdom), make wise choices, and
answers, despite the ultimate nature of philosophical achieve a true understanding of eternal
ideas truths.
 Opens the minds of people 2. Physical Appetite: accounts for the basic
 Encourages individuals to ask questions and to seek biological needs such as hunger,
answers for themselves thirst, and sexual desire
 Encourages students to philosophize 3. Spirit/Passion: accounts for the basic
emotions such as love, anger, ambition,
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY aggressiveness, empathy
 These are in a dynamic relationship with each
An Approach that can be Employed other: in agreement or in conflict. But it is the
 Grounds the ideas to the context of the philosophers responsibility of the Reason to restore harmony
 Shows the development of philosophy alongside with the among the three.
development of human discovery and knowledge  Harmony: Justice in the individual, social and
 Grounds contemporary ideas political levels.
 Can provide an objective presentation of philosophical
ideas  Aristotle:
 Can be a ground/basis for other approaches  The mind (self) is a TABULARASA (a blank tablet)
 The self consists of matter and form; matter is in a
Ancient Philosophy
continuous process of developing and becoming.
(1000 BC to 500 AD)
 The process of completion is through experiences
 3 Periods:
as knowledge is acquired through the senses (and
 Pre-Socratics (The Milesians)
this knowledge is true).
 The Ancient Triumvirate
 But this self comes from a First Cause, the source
 Post-Aristotelians of all changes although unchangeable in Itself.
 The goal of the human self is reached in happiness
Pre-Socratics
through moderation or balance of things.
 Cosmo-centric: There is a fundamental
principle/thing that underlies everything
The Post-Aristotelians
else, including the human self:
 Maintains the dualism between body and soul
 Thales: Water
 More ethical in their ideas (moral norms attainment of
 Anaximander: Apeiron – “Boundless Something”
happiness)
 Anaximenes: Air
 Stoicism: apathy or indifference to pleasure
 Others: Democritus (atom), Heraclitus (fire), Anaxagoras
(nous/mind), Pythagoras (numbers)  Hedonism: “Eat, drink and be happy, for tomorrow,
you will die.”
The Ancient Triumvirate  Epicureanism: moderate pleasure
 Socrates:
 Did not write anything, but his ideas were Medieval Philosophy
echoed by his student, Plato, in his Dialogues (500 to 1350)
 Theo-centric
 “Know thyself.”
 From the scientific investigation on nature and search for
 “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
happiness to the question of life and salvation in another
 Each person has an immortal soul that realm, in a better world (cf. afterlife)
surpasses the death of the body. (dualistic  Influence from ancient thought:
reality=body & soul)
 The (human) self-endures through time.
 Two Aspects of Reality:  Rather imposing than informing because it was trying to
1. : changeable, transient, and imperfect; World aim at paganism and barbarism.
of Senses/Matter  There was an aim to merge philosophy and religion
 Understanding the Self
2nd SEMESTER | A.Y. 2022-2023
Alyssa Ashley C. Tuballes

(Christian, Jewish, Muslim)  *No constant and invariable self that exists as a unified
 St. Augustine identity over the course of life.
 Integrates Platonic ideas with the tenets of  The self is a “bundle or collection of different perceptions,
Christianity which succeed each other in an inconceivable rapidity,
 Platonic Realm of Idea/Forms: The Christian and are in perpetual flux and movement.”
philosophy of a transcendent God: the self-strives
to Achieve union with God through faith and
reason. Immanuel Kant
 The finite, temporary world of Plato becomes a  Contests Hume’s idea by alluding to the primary
proving ground for our eternal destinies: such that experience of the world that is not a disconnected stream
the human person becomes whole with both body of sensations.
and soul (more unified view).  A priori concepts: fundamental organizing rules or
principles built into the architecture of the mind, which
Modern Philosophy categorize, organize, and synthesize sense data into the
(14th century to the early 20th century) familiar fabric of our lives, bounded by space and time.
 Anthropocentric = centered on the human person  They are innate.
 Thinkers began to reject the scholastics’ (medieval  Unity of consciousness that makes the world
thinkers) excessive reliance on authority intelligible
 Period of radical social, political, and intellectual  The self actively organizes all the sensations and
developments thoughts into a picture that makes sense to each one of
 Genuine knowledge has to be based on independent us. WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF!
rational inquiry and real-world experimentation, rather  The self is not an object located in the consciousness, but
than dependent on knowledge handed down by rather, it is a subject, an organizing principle that makes a
authorities. unified and intelligible experience possible.
 The self exists independently of and transcends
René Descartes: A Rationalist experiences.
 “Cogito ergo sum.” – “I think, therefore, I am.”  The self is a transcendental unifying principle of
 Human identity: self-awareness consciousness.
 Self: A thinking thing
 Self: can exist independently of the body Sigmund Freud
 But does not deny the association of the body to  Founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology
the self  The SELF is multi-tiered/multi-layered:
 Dualism: thinking (spiritual) self vs. physical body  Conscious (governed by the reality principle; at this
 The spiritual self (governed by the laws of reason and level, behavior and experience are organized in
God’s will) surpasses the physical self (governed by the ways that are rational, practical and appropriate to
laws of nature). the social environment.)
 Yet the intimate connection between the soul and the  Preconscious
body is undeniable (pineal gland).  Unconscious (contains the basic instinctual drives
including sexuality, aggressiveness, and self-
John Locke: An Empiricist destruction; traumatic memories; unfulfilled wishes
 Knowledge originates in our direct sense experience. and childhood fantasies; thoughts and feelings that
 Reason plays a subsequent role in figuring out the would be considered socially taboo.)
significance of our sense experience and in reaching
intelligent conclusions. Gilbert Ryle: A Physicalist
 The self is not necessarily embedded in a single  Behaviorism: No more dichotomy by denying the inner
substance or soul, but exists in space and time, selves, immortal souls, states of consciousness, or
 Every aspect of the physical body is integrated with unconscious entities
personal identity. The body changes. The physical  The self is defined in terms of behavior that is presented
self-changes. to the world.
 But the self-endures because of memory.  The self is a pattern of behavior, the tendency or
 Conscious awareness and memory of previous disposition for a person to behave in a certain way in
experiences are the keys to understanding the self. certain circumstances.

David Hume: Empiricist, Skeptic & Nihilist Paul Churchland: A Physicalist

 There is no self!  Eliminative Materialism: grounded in neuroscience
 Empiricism  The mind/self is the brain
 Impressions – basic sensations of experiences
 Ideas – copies of our impressions Contemporary Philosophy
 Impressions form a fleeting stream of sensations Late 19th century
 Political revolution
 Understanding the Self
2nd SEMESTER | A.Y. 2022-2023
Alyssa Ashley C. Tuballes

 Industrial Revolution
 Scientific advancements and growth of materialism
 Theory of Evolution
 More humanist as a response to the so-called alienation
of the human person.

Edmund Husserl
 The father of Phenomenology
 We experience our self as a unity in which the mental and
physical are seamlessly woven together.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty
 “Lived body”
 An entity that can never be objectified or known in a
completely objective sort of way, as opposed to the “body
as object” of the dualists.
 “There is no duality of substance but a dialectic of living
being in its biological milieu.”

Embodied Subjectivity
 Both Husserl and Merleau-Ponty agree that our living
body is a natural synthesis of mind and biology.
 Phenomenological approach: describe the phenomena of
the lived experience (reducing biases) by describing what
your immediate responses are—physically, emotionally,
cognitively.