Scribd
Upload
52 views

CM 1 Part 1

The document discusses the philosophical views of the self throughout history from ancient philosophers like Socrates and Plato to medieval thinkers like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Socrates was the first to systematically question the nature of the self and believed that through knowledge and virtue one could gain mastery over oneself. Plato added that the soul has three components - rational, spirited, and appetitive - that must be balanced. Augustine viewed humans as having both an imperfect bodily part and a perfect soul capable of reaching divine immortality. Thomas Aquinas argued humans are a composite of matter and essence, with the soul being what makes us human.

Uploaded by

Jhenny MT
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
52 views

CM 1 Part 1

The document discusses the philosophical views of the self throughout history from ancient philosophers like Socrates and Plato to medieval thinkers like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Socrates was the first to systematically question the nature of the self and believed that through knowledge and virtue one could gain mastery over oneself. Plato added that the soul has three components - rational, spirited, and appetitive - that must be balanced. Augustine viewed humans as having both an imperfect bodily part and a perfect soul capable of reaching divine immortality. Thomas Aquinas argued humans are a composite of matter and essence, with the soul being what makes us human.

Uploaded by

Jhenny MT
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 17

Understanding the Self

Course Material 1

THE
PHILOSOPHICAL
VIEW OF SELF
The history of
philosophy is replete
with men and women
who inquired into the
fundamental nature of
the self. Alone with the
question of the primary
substratum that defines
to the multiplicity of
things of the world, the
inquiry on the self has
preoccupied the earliest
thinkers in the history of
philosophy.
The different
perspective and views
on the self can be
best seen and
understood by
revisiting its prime
movers and identify
the most important
conjectures made by
philosophers from the
ancient times to the
contemporary period
Socrates
•Born in 470 BC in
Athens, Greece.
•Credited with being one
of the founders of
Western Philosophy.
Socrates was more concerned with another subject, the problem of the self. He was
the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self.
“ Unexamined life is
not worth living”
-Socrates-
Most men, in his reckoning, were really not fully
aware of who they were and the virtues that they
were supposed to attain in order to preserve their
souls for the afterlife. Socrates thought that this in
the worst that can happen to anyone; to live but die
inside.
The famous line of
Socrates, “Know
yourself” tells each
man to bring his
inner self to light. A
bad man is not virtuous
through ignorance; the
man who does not
follow the good, fails to
do so because he does
not recognize it.
The core of Socratic ethics is the concept of virtue and knowledge.
Virtue is the deepest and most basic propensity of man. Knowing
one’s own virtue is necessary and can be learned of all wisdom; an
individual may gain possession of oneself and be one’s own master
through knowledge.

The-Mirror.webp
For Socrates, every man is composed of
body and soul. This means that every
human person is dualistic, that is, he is
composed of two important aspects of his
personhood. For Socrates, this means all
individuals have an imperfect aspect to
him, and the body, while maintaining that
there is also a soul that is perfect and
permanent.
Plato
 Plato is Socrate’s student,
basically took off from his master
and supported the idea that man
is dual nature of body and soul.

 In his magnum opus, The


Republic (Plato 2000), he added
that there are three components
of the soul, the rational, spirited
and appetitive soul, working
Born 427 BC harmoniously with one another.
-Lived in Athens
-Follower of
Socrates
- Died 347 BC
3 Components of the Soul

Rational Soul- reason and intellect to


govern affairs

Spirited Soul- emotions should be


kept at bay

Appetitive Soul- base desires ( food,


drink, sleep , sexual needs , etc..,

3 Components of the Soul


When these are attained , the human person’s soul becomes just
and virtuous.
(St.)
AUGUSTINE Augustines view of the human
person reflects the entire spirit of
the medieval world when it comes to
man.

• ‘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
•BORN: November 13, 354
•DIED: August 28, 430
•Studied philosophy
immortality
•Rhetoric teacher • body - dies on earth; soul lives
•Converted to later christianity
in life eternally in spiritual bliss with
•Monk, priest, bishop of Hippo “God”.
what is the "self" according to
Augustine?
Augustine's sense of self is his relation to
God, both in his recognition of God's love
and his response to it—achieved through
self-presentation, then self-realization.
Augustine believed one could not achieve
inner peace without finding God's love.
Do you believe in the
concept of the soul
coming to heaven
after death?

What makes us people


different from animals?
Thomas Aquinas
• Born in 1225 a
• Died on March
7,1274
• Father of natural
law theory
• A philosopher and
theologian
• One of 33 doctors
of the Catholic
Church
(St.) Thomas Aquinas
-the most eminent thirteenth century scholar and
stalwart of the medieval philosophy, appended
something to Christian view.
•Man = matter + form

•Matter – “common stuff that makes up everything in


the universe”

•Form- “essence of a substance or thing” ; ( what


makes it what it is)

•The body of the human is similar to animals/ objects,


but what makes a human is his essence.

•“the soul is what makes us humans”

You might also like