c.

Aristotle

The mind (self) is Tabula Rasa

PHILOSOPHY
- the self in a philosophical paradigm
Ancient Philosophy (1000 BC to 500 AD)
- comparison of the mind to a blank writing tablet occurs in
Aristotle’s De anima (4th century BCE; On the Soul)
The Process of Completion is through experiences
- knowledge is acquired through the senses

The Ancient Triumvirate Self is composed of matter and form

- in a continuous process of developing and becoming
a. Socrates
The Post-Aristotelians
- maintains the dualism between body and soul
o “Know thy self”
- more ethical in ideas; moral norms - attainment of happiness
- man must live and stand according to his nature
- man must look at himself
a. Stoicism- apathy or indifference to pleasure
o “An unexamined life is not worth living”
b. Hedonism - eat, drink, & be happy; for tomorrow, you’ll die
c. Epicureanism - moderate pleasure
o Invitation to introspection
- Platonic theory of reminiscence
Medieval Philosophy (500 AD to 1350 AD)
o Knowledge is within, inherent in man; not outside
o Wisdom is learning to reflect
Theo-centric
o Dualistic Reality : Body and Soul

o From the scientific investigation on nature and search for

Two Aspects of Reality
happiness to the question of life and salvation in another
Physical World Spiritual World
realm, in a better world (i.e., the afterlife)
- changeable, transient, - unchanging, eternal,
o Influence from ancient thought: the (human) self endures
imperfect, world of perfect world of
through time
senses/matter ideas/form
o More imposing than informing, because it was trying to
aim at paganism and barbarism
Our Soul (Self)
o There was an aim to merge philosophy and religion
- a unified, indissoluble, immortal entity that remains the
(Christian, Jewsih, Muslim)
same over time
- that is in the very likeness of the divine
St. Augustine
- strives for wisdom and perfection
- theologian; philosopher
- reason is the soul’s tool to achieve such state
- integrates Platonic ideas with tenets of Christianity
b. Plato
o Platonic Realm of Idea = Christian
Philosophy of a Transcendent God
3-Part Soul/self (Psyche)
o The self strives to achieve union with God
- the three are in a dynamic relationship with each other:
through faith and reason
in agreement or in conflict
- but it is the responsibility of the Reason to restore
St. Thomas Aquinas
harmony among the three
- self-knowledge is dependent on our experience of
the world around us (objects in our environment)
o Reason
- we don’t encounter ourselves as isolated minds or selves, but
- the divine essence that lets us think deeply (wisdom),
rather always as agents interacting with our environment
make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding
- the labels we attribute to ourselves are taken from things we
of eternal truths
encounter in our environment (gardener, artist, kind, loving)
o Physical Appetite
- accounts for the basic biological needs such as
“The things that we love tell us what we are”
hunger, thirst and sexual desire
o Spirit/Passion
o Experiencing that something exists doesn’t tell us what it is
- accounts for the basic emotions such as love, anger,
o Knowing and learning about a thing requires a long process
ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy
of understanding; same with the mind and the self - with
experience and reason
Harmony : Justice in the individual, social & political levels
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Modern Philosophy (14th Century - early 19th Century)
- genuine knowledge has to be based on independent
rational inquiry and real world experimentation, rather
than dependent on knowledge handed down by authorities
Anthropocentric
o Period of radical, social, political, intellectual developments
o Thinkers began to reject the scholastics’ (medieval
thinkers) excessive reliance on authority
a. Rene Descartes
e. Sigmund Freud
- “Father of Psychoanalysis”
- the self is multi-tiered/multi-layered:
o Conscious – refers to those thoughts and feelings that
we are aware of
o Preconscious – experiences that are unconscious but
could become conscious with little effort
o Unconscious – contains all drives, urges or instincts
that are beyond our awareness but motivate our
feelings, thoughts and behavior

o “Cogito ergo sum” f. Gilbert Ryle

- “I think, therefore, I am” - no more dichotomy by denying the inner selves,
- thinking process; the self is a thinking thing which can immortal souls, states of consciousness, or
exist independently of the body unconscious entities

o Dualism o The self is defined in terms of behavior that is

presented to the world
o The self is a pattern of behavior, the tendency or
disposition for a person to behave in a certain way in
certain circumstances

g. Paul Churchland

b. John Locke o Neurophilosophy

- identity exists in consciousness
- the self endures because of memory
- conscious awareness and memory of previous
experiences are the keys to understanding the self
c. David Hume
- grounded in neuroscience; assoc. of brain & mind
- physical brain gives us sense of self; identity
Contemporary Philosophy (Late 19th Century)
- political and industrial Revolution
- scientific advancements and growth of materialism

o There is no self! o Theory of Evolution

- the self is a “bundle or collection of different
perceptions, which succeed each other in an
inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and
movement”
o Impressions – basic sensations of experiences
o Ideas – copies of impressions
d. Immanuel Kant
- everything starts with perception. and sensation
- not randomly infused into the human person
- there is a mind that organizes
o A priori concepts
- fundamental organizing rules or principles built into
the architecture of the mind, which categorize,
organize and synthesize sense data into the familiar
fabric of our lives, bounded by space and time
- they are innate
- more humanist as a response to the so-called alienation
of the human person
a. Edmund Husserl
- we experience our self as a unity which the in
mental & physical are seamlessly woven together
b. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
o “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
o “There is no duality of substance but a dialectic of living
being in its biological milieu”
- mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be
separated

o The self actively organizes all the sensations & thoughts

into a picture that makes sense to each one of us
o Self as subject, not object

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SOCIOLOGY b.
- the self as a product of modern society among other
constructions
The Self in the Sociological Perspective
c.
o The self is a relatively stable set of perceptions of who we
are in relation to ourselves, others, and to social systems
o The self is socially constructed in the sense that it is
shaped through interaction with other people
o As with socialization in general, the individual is not a
passive participant in this process and has a powerful
influence over how this process and its consequences
develops
Superego (Social Self)
- idealistic principle
- incorporates the values and morals of society
which are learned from one's parents and others
Ego (Psychological Self)
- reality principle
- only region of the mind that is in contact with
reality; it operates to fulfil the reality principle
- constantly tries to reconciles the irrational wants of the id
and the superego with the realistic demands of the world

The Looking Glass Self

- by Charles Horton Cooley
o When the scale is out of balance, it is the responsibility
o A person’s self grows out of a person ́s social interactions of the ego to mediate conflict between id and superego
with others o Weak ego will lead to anxiety
o The view of ourselves comes from the contemplation of o To protect ego from anxiety, use defense mechanisms
personal qualities & impressions of how others perceive us
o Actually, how we see ourselves doen’t come from who we Ego Defense Mechanisms
really are, but rather from how we believe others see us
o Repression
- when the ego is threatened, it unconsciously forgets
or block unpleasant feelings
o Displacement
- redirecting unacceptable urges to less threatening
people or objects
Johari Window o Regression
- by Joseph Luft & Harrington Ingham - the ego may revert back to an earlier stage during
- technique used to enhance the individual’s perception on times of stress or anxiety
self and others o Projection
- attributing the unwanted impulse to another person
Known to the self Not known to the self o Sublimation
Known to others Open/Area Blindspot - suppression of unwanted impulses by substituting it
Not known to others Hidden/Facade Unkown with a creative cultural accomplishment

PSYCHOLOGY
- the self based on psychoanalytic approach and cognitive
construction

Structure of the Self

- by Sigmund Freud

a. ID (Biological Self)
- pleasure principle; natural part of the self
- animalistic nature of man
- pleasure seeking part of the personality

o The ID represents the basic need of man

- if it is not satisfied, it could result to stress and
tension; if it is angered or provoked, it could destroy
not only himself but also his surroundings
- if satisfied, it could give you warmth, comfort and joy

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The Self as a Cognitive Construction
Symbolic Interactionism (George Herbert Mead)
“I and the Me” self
- two aspects of self awareness :
o The “me” is the socialized aspect of the person
o The “I” is the active aspect of the person
Imaginary Audience
- adolescents are thought to believe that others are always
watching and evaluating them; that they are special & unique
Self-Concept
- mental representation
o What we look like
o How we feel in different types of situation
o How we behave towards others
o What do we do at work
o What are the roles we have in the family or society
Real and Ideal Self (Carl Rogers)
- a person's ideal self may not be consistent with what actually
happens in life and experiences of the person
- hence, a difference may exist between a person's ideal self
and actual experience
- Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-
actualization they must be in a state of congruence
Self as defined by Social Comparison (Leon Festinger)
a. Temporal Comparison
- considering your present condition in relation to how you
were in the past
b. Social Comparison
- evaluating yourself in comparison to others; using others
as a basis for evaluating your attributes
Depending on the level of someone’s motivation, he/she may
have the tendency to compare himself/herself with others
either in an upward or downward kind of comparison
a. Upward Social Comparison
- when we compare ourselves with those who we believe
are better than us; a highly motivated person tends to
engage in upward comparisons
- focuses on desire to improve our current level of ability
- studies have shown that if given a chance, people choose
to make upward comparisons instead of downward ones
b. Downward Social Comparison
- when we compare themselves to others who are worse
off than ourselves; often centered on making ourselves
feel better about our abilities
- a person who is unhappy or is unmotivated usually
engages in this to feel better about himself/herself
Two Modes of Social Comparison
a. Passive downward comparison
- happens when a person takes into consideration the
previous condition in making comparison
b. Active downward comparison
- happens when a person compares himself/herself with
others by demeaning or causing harm to them
- by derogating the target or causing harm to him/her, this
person generates a situation in which the target is worse
off than him/her, therefore giving him/her the chance to
make a downward comparison
Self-Evaluation and Self-Enhancement
Motivation
- plays a role in this model and is manifested by self-
evaluation and self-enhancement
a. Self-evalutaion
- occurs when someone looks for positive traits in himself/
herself based on the best person he/she compares
himself/herself with
b. Self-enhancement
- occurs when the person questions which aspects of
himself/herself need to be improved to reach the level of
goodness of the person he/she is comparing himself/
herself with
Self Esteem
- used to describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or
personal value; in other words, it refers to how much you
appreciate and like yourself
- often seen as a personality trait, which means that it tends to
be stable and enduring
Reference Group
- group to which an individual or another group is compared
- sociologists call any group that individuals use as a standard
for evaluating themselves & their behavior a reference group
The Creation of Identities
- one’s identity must balance the need to be similar to one’s
reference group with the need to be a unique individual
o Children become aware of the need for a group identity
and are often afraid or acting differently
o Teens often seem torn between the need to assert their
own individual identity and the need to conform to their
reference group
o New identities are forged in relation to work, parenthood,
economic status, and aging
#NoWayButUp
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