Self-knowledge/examination of ones’ self

Understanding the Self ⮞ Knowing oneself can hope to improve your life.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF SELF Two kinds of existence
Defining the self: Personal and Developmental 1. Visible – body
Perspectives on Self and Identity
2. Invisible – soul

PHILOSOPHY
Plato
– comes from the Ancient Greek word (philosophia)
means "love of wisdom." ⮞ Student of Socrates
– is a way of thinking about the self, world, and society. ⮞ Philosophical Method
– It works by asking very basic questions about the – Collection and Division
nature of human thought, the nature of the universe,
and the connections between them. Soul is the most divine part of the body.

3 Parts of the Soul

DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHERS 1. The Appetitive (Sensual)

2. The Rational (Reasoning)

Socrates
3. The Spiritual (Feeling)
⮞ Greek Philosopher
Theory of Forms – physical world is not really the “real”
⮞ His works were handed through his student Plato and world but exist beyond the physical world.
historian Xenophon

⮞ Known for his method of inquiry in testing an idea

(Socratic Method)-asking series of questions. St. Augustine of Hippo
⮞ The Bishop of Hippo
Some of Socrates’ Ideas ⮞ The Latin Father of the Church
1. Soul is immortal ⮞ One of the Doctors of the Church
2. The care of the soul is the task of philosophy
⮞ Influenced by Plato and adopted the view that “self”
3. Virtue is necessary to attain happiness is immaterial (but rational)

Theory of Forms (Christian Perspective)

– Philosophy had a very important role to play in the – These forms were concepts existing within the
lives of the people. perfect and eternal God where the soul belonged.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” 1. Self – inner and immaterial “I” that had self-
knowledge and self-awareness

2. Human is both body and soul.

Rene Descartes
⮞ French philosopher, mathematician and scientist. DISTINCTIONS

⮞ First thinker to emphasize the use of reason to Soul Body

describe, predict and understand natural phenomena
Material substance that
based on observational and empirical evidence. Conscious, thinking
change throughout time
substance that is
– Doubt was a principal tool of disciplined inquiry. unaffected by time
It can be doubted
Made up of physical,
Only known to itself
quantifiable, divisible
Not made-up of parts
parts.
Method

1. Hyperbolical/Metaphysical Doubt

Also known as,

Methodological Skepticism (Cartesian Doubt) – being John Locke

skeptical about the truth of ones’ belief. ⮞ Self – include the memory of the thinking thing.

⮞ A person’s memories provide a continuity of

⮞ “Cogito ergo sum” – “I think, therefore I am” experience that allows him to identify himself as the
same person
1. Everything perceived by the senses could be not be
used as proof of existence because human senses could ⮞ Tabula rasa
be fooled

2. One thing could be sure “Everything could be

doubted.”

Rationalism – reason is the foundation of knowledge. David Hume

⮞ Was a fierce opponent of Descartes, Rationalism

Self are: ⮞ Made Empiricism – origin of knowledge is sense

experience.
1. Constant and not prone to change, not affected by
time.

2. The immaterial soul remains the same.
3. Immaterial soul is the source of identity.
Soul can exist without the body, because it is an
immaterial substance, but possesses a body and
intimately bound.
Bundle Theory – “self” or person (mind) as a bundle or
collection of different perceptions that are moving in a
very fast and successive manner.
⮞ Believed that human intellect and experiences are
limited; therefore, it is impossible to attribute it to an
independent persisting entity.

⮞ Two groups of mind’s perceptions.

1. Impression – These are directly experienced. Enters

through the senses.
2. Ideas – These are mechanisms that copy and
reproduce sense data formulated based upon the
Psychoanalytic Theory
previously perceived impressions.
– Is a personality theory based on the notion that
unseen forces, controlled by the conscious and the
Immanuel Kant rational thought, motivate an individual.

⮞ The human mind creates the structure of human

experience. – Three parts of the psyche/mind
⮞ “Self” is transcendental, which means the “self” is 1. Id – the pleasure principle
related to a spiritual or non-physical realm.
2. Ego – the reality principle
⮞ “Self” is not the body, but it is outside the body.
3. Superego – incorporates the values and morals of the
Knowledge bridges the self and material things
society
together.
– Conscience
Apperception is the mental process by which a person
makes sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of – Ideal Self – imaginary picture of how you ought to be
ideas he or she already possesses.

Two Components of Self

Gilbert Ryle
⮞ He wrote The Concept of Mind (1949) where he
1. Inner Self – This includes your rational intellect and
rejected the notion that mental states are separable
psychological state, such as moods, feelings, and
from physical states.
sensations, pleasure and pain.

2. Outer Self – It gathers information from the external

world through the senses, which the inner self
interprets and coherently.
Self organizes information in three ways.
1. Raw perceptual inputs
2. Recognizing the concepts
3. Reproducing in the imagination
⮞ Ryle’s point against the theory of Descartes are:
1. The relation between the mind and body are not
isolated
2. Mental processes are intelligent acts, and are not
distinct from each other.
3. The operation of the mind is itself an intelligent act.
⮞ Your own action defines your own concept of self.

Sigmund Freud
⮞ His most important contribution was psychoanalysis.

Three levels of consciousness

1. Conscious

2. Pre-conscious/subconscious

3. Unconscious