MODULE 1

The Philosophical Perspective of the Self

Philosophy is derived from the Greek words “Philos” and “Sophia” which literally means “Love for
Wisdom”. It is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries that involves in
answering questions regarding the nature and existence of man and the world we live in. As such, it is
imperative to look into the various explanations from different philosophers their notion of what the “Self” its
nature and how it is formed in order to have a better picture on how people develop their behaviors, attitude
and actions and to be able to identify and understand who we are and how we came to be.

Welcome to the first module of Understanding the Self. Here, you will journey through the different
works of notable philosophers in unraveling their own tenets and points of view towards self-understanding.
This topic will lead us to various philosophical ideas on discovering our own being. What SELF meant to the
various philosophers from classical ages to the modern times coming from different schools of thought.
Knowing our self will make us more effective in knowing others and achieving our own goals, through this
course we will have an idea of who we are deeper, our strengths, weakness, capabilities and other things that
composes us, our totality, the things that makes up our” SELF”

We hope that by the end of this module, you may be able to develop the following competencies:
(a) Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various philosophical
views.
(b) Examine the different influences, factors and forces that shape the self.
(c) Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across the different perspectives.
(d) Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of one’s self and identify by
developing a theory of the self.
INTRODUCTION
Do inanimate beings like stones, woods; plants and animals have selves?

Some points of argument

Self could either be:
- non-living being (inanimate beings like stones, woods, etc.)
- non-conscious living irrational beings (like plants)
- conscious living irrational being (brutes/lower animals)
- conscious living rational being (human)

PHILOSOPHY AND THE SELF

PHILOSOPHY is called the mother of all disciplines because

all fields of study began as philosophical discourses. Ancient
philosophers attempted to explain natural and social
phenomena, coming up to their own definitions of how the
world works and what factors contribute to such phenomena. It
was also inevitable to come up with various conceptions of what
it means to be human,- and the different definitions of the self.

In the context of Philosophy, the SELF refers to the condition

of identity that makes one subject of experience distinct from all
others. It is sometimes understood as the unified being
essentially connected to consciousness, awareness and agency
(rational choice). Various philosophers introduced specific characteristics and meanings of self, which over
time transformed from pure abstractions to explanations that hold scientific proofs.

THE GREEK RATIONALIST TRADITION

SOCRATES
An Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living
He was the first philosopher who engaged in the systematic questioning
about the self. According to him, a philosopher’s task is to “know thyself”
through the process of Introspection because “The unexamined life is not
worth living.” Knowing of oneself is through the use of Socratic Method - the
dialogue between the soul and itself.

Socrates believe that the answer to our pursuit in knowing ourselves

lies in our own abilities and wisdom, and that the only way for us to
understand ourselves is through internal questioning or introspection.
This method of questioning oneself, where the person assumes the role of
both the teacher and the student is known to the world as the Socratic
Method or Socratic Conversation. Examining one’s self is the most important task one can undertake, for it alone
will give us the knowledge necessary to answer the question ‘how should I live my life’. He posited that “Once we
know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves, but otherwise we never shall.” Thus, through self-
knowledge, we will discover our true nature. Socrates famously maintained that our true self is our soul.

Socrates also posited that possession of knowledge is a virtue and that ignorance is a depravity, that a
person’s acceptance of ignorance is the beginning of acquisition of knowledge. So, one must first have the
humility to acknowledge one’s ignorance so as to be able to know what he is lacking and what he needs to know.

Self Knowledge Ultimate Virtue Ultimate Happiness

He believed that MOST MEN WERE NOT REALLY FULLY AWARE OF WHO THEY WERE and the virtues that they
were supposed to attain in order to preserve their SOULS for the afterlife. The worst that can happen to anyone
is to live but die inside. By continuously asking and evaluating who we are we as a person will also be able to
understand our strengths and weaknesses, the things that we like and dislike, how we want people to treat us
and how we want ourselves to be treated, so by knowing these things we can act in accordance to what we
know we are and live our lives following our knowledge of ourselves.

Man is composed of two important aspects of his personhood. All individuals have an imperfect,
impermanent aspect, the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent.

As one of history's famous critical thinkers, Socrates laid the foundations of western philosophy. To know
more about Socrates and his works, please refer to the multimedia link below:
Socrates: The Father Of Western Philosophy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyIKayNXTPY
The Ideas of Socrates by the Academy of Ideas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvY3VWe4O4k

PLATO
The measure of a man is what he does with power

Plato is a student of Socrates who supported the idea of the dualistic nature of
man – body and soul. He attested that the man is a soul using a body. The
body connotes man’s material, sensible world while the soul, on the
contrary, connotes the ideal world that exists apart from the body.
The IDEAL WORLD (Intelligible world) is the true world of reality. The
SENSIBLE WORLD (World of Matter) is a world of becoming; it is a world
of constant change. Plato views the superiority of the human soul over the
human body. Hence, the real man for Plato is his soul and not his body.

Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based

eudaemonistic conception of ethics. That is to say, happiness or
well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues (aretê: ‘excellence’)
are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it.

Wisdom
 Virtue Happiness

Knowledge

Justice in the human person can only be attained IF THE THREE PARTS OF THE SOUL ARE WORKING
HARMONIOUSLY WITH ONE ANOTHER (the Republic). To know more about the three parts of the soul, take a
look at this picture.

In the Phaedrus, Plato (through his mouthpiece, Socrates) shares the allegory of the chariot to explain
the tripartite nature of the human soul or psyche.
The chariot is pulled by two winged horses, one mortal and the other immortal.
The mortal horse is deformed and obstinate. Plato describes the horse as a “crooked lumbering animal,
put together anyhow…of a dark color, with grey eyes and blood-red complexion; the mate of insolence and
pride, shag-eared and deaf, hardly yielding to whip and spur.”
The immortal horse, on the other hand, is noble and game, “upright and cleanly made…his color is
white, and his eyes dark; he is a lover of honor and modesty and temperance, and the follower of true glory; he
needs no touch of the whip, but is guided by word and admonition only.”

The chariot, charioteer, and white and dark horses symbolize the soul, and its three main components.
The Charioteer represents man’s Reason, the dark horse his appetites, and the white horse his spiritedness.
 Appetitive Part – part of the soul that drives man to experience thirst, hunger, and other physical wants.
It is the seat of physical pleasures. It seeks power, wealth, and even sexual satisfaction. It is located in the
stomach.

Spiritual Part – part of the soul that makes man assert abomination and anger. It is the seat of emotions
(i.e. anger, fear, hatred, jealousy). It is located in the chest.

Rational Part – it is the seat of reasoning. It is the rational part of the soul that enables man to think, to
reflect, to draw conclusions, and to analyze. This part of the soul is located in the head. For Plato this part of the
soul is the most important and the highest. It naturally desires to acquire knowledge and wisdom. It is this part
that rules over the other parts and not to be overruled. It is this part that specifically distinguishes man from the
brutes. Man can control his appetite and self- assertion of spirit through reason.

Plato was one of the world's earliest and possibly greatest philosophers. He matters because of his
devotion to making humanity more fulfilled. Know more about his Philosophy by watching the link of the video
entitled “Plato by The School of Life” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDiyQub6vpw

ARISTOTLE
Aristotle's philosophical speculation of self exists as a process of
hylomorphism in which self holds two realms of existence the physical
realm which is the human body substance holding tight to the
body substance physical functions, however, not of necessity
quantumly constant, and, the metaphysical realm, which for Aristotle
existed as the entelechy vital force, or, soul, of the self's ability to
actually exist itself.

Denied the world of Forms and said the form exists within the object.
The soul exists only in the body. When the body dies, the soul dies
with it. For Aristotle the body and soul are in a STATE OF UNITY.
The BODY is MATTER to the soul and the SOUL is the FORM to the
body. Body and soul therefore, are inseparable. They constitute man as a whole.
Man is a RATIONAL ANIMAL. RATIONAL SOUL – exists only in man. The rational soul ranks the highest of
all kinds of souls. Besides, it is capable of thinking, reasoning and willing.
 The self is "soul" force pro formed into a conscious awareness of itself developing, of necessity,
multitudes of qualities of metaphysical mental awareness. Physically the self assumes earthly reality practical
and pragmatic earthly reality functions such as sense experience, which sense experience, lacking conscious
awareness (not yet discovering self/soul), form into sense perceptions, sense impressions, and sense opinions of
earthly reality, which, not of self/soul necessity, tell truth.

Psychologically and intellectually earthly reality self moves into cognitive/self/soul psychological
disequilibrium and psychological dissatisfaction. Only human Mind Life (soul) absolutely, of necessity, innately "a
priori" knows truth. Physical earthly reality never knows truth because of the multitudes of sense perceptions,
sense impressions, sense opinions of earthly reality that never agree. Metaphysical human Mind Life (soul), of
self/soul existence necessity, absolutely everlastingly knows truth.

Medieval ages

ST. AUGUSTINE
Man cannot hope to find God unless he first finds himself
A Saint and a Philosopher of the church, St. Augustine follows the idea
that Godencompasses us all, that everything will be better if we are with
God. His work’s focalpoint is on how God and his teachings affects
various aspects in life, he follows thebelief that everything is better if we
devote ourselves in mending our relationship withGod.

He posited that main is a creation of God. Therefore, man is

responsible for the existence of evil, not God, for God cannot will it
because He is the ABSOLUTE GOODNESS. A part of man dwells in the
world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the
DIVINE. Man is capable of reaching perfection only if man keeps
himself good. Through evil man is lost from God. But man can only
 be saved by God, not by man himself. It is God alone who can redeem man. Man cannot will to be saved;
his salvation depends on the grace and mercy of God.

It is therefore man’s nature, his freewill that makes man imperfect. For Augustine, 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. This
is the physical reality that is the world, whereas the soul can also stay after death in an eternal realm with the all-
transcendent God.

He further adds that the goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss with the
Divine by living his life on earth in virtue. He believes that our notion of ourselves and our idea of existence
comes from a higher form of sense in which bodily senses may not perceive or understand, and the more one
doubts and question his life means that, that person is actually living. St. Augustine while integrating the
teaching of the church in his philosophy and establishing our sense of self with God which we cannot achieve
with our bodies since the limitation of our senses in truly understanding the essence of our existence and role in
the world is limited. So people is in need to establish their relationship with god through being virtuous, but at
the same time, to be able to stand by on what we think is true, who we think we are that are from our own
understanding and solely defined by us alone although people may say differently, by continuously questioning
and finding the truth will we be able to find the best answer to who we are and what our role is in the world.

The philosopher and theologian Augustine had fascinating things to say about success and failure. Learn
more about him by watching the video entitled “Augustine by The School of Life” via this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAxUBeVfsk

RENAISSANCE

RENE DESCARTES
I think therefore I am

Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher known to be the father

of modern philosophy because of his radical use of systematic and
early scientific method to aid his ideas and assumptions. Though
his works were often compared or said to be similar to the concept
of St. Augustine which could be traced back to the works of Plato,
what his ideas sets him apart is on his belief in modern dualism or
the existence of body and mind and it’s implication to one’s
existence were presented with the evidences from experiments as
well as philosophical reasoning, he also known to be the
proponent of the “Methodical Doubt” which simply meant of a
continuous process of questioning what we perceive and accepting
the fact that doubting, asking questions are a part of ones’ existence. As such he has defined the roles of the
mind and body to the notion of one’s existence and sense of self.

Descartes is known for the statement “Cogito Ergo Sum” which means in English as “I think therefore I
am”. According to him a person is comprised of mind and body, the body that perceives from the different senses
and the mind that thinks and question or doubt what the body has experienced. For him, the body and its
perceptions cannot fully be trusted or can easily be deceived, For instance there are times that we feel that a
dream is real before actually waking up or having different perception of size based on an objects distance from
the viewer. Descartes explained that because we cannot always trust our senses and in turn what we perceive as
who we are or the essence of our existence, we as a rational being should focus on the mind and explained that
the more we think and doubt what we perceived from our senses and the answer that came from such thinking
or doubting leads to better understanding of ourselves. He also implies that being in a constant doubt regarding
one’s existence is proof that a person actually exists.

SUBSTANCE, according to him, is something that could exist independently. The mind and soul can exist
without the body. Establishing the distinction of soul from the body can make people believe in the afterlife and
soul’s immortality.

The SELF is a thinking thing. The thinking self is the soul. It is the non-material, immortal, conscious
being, independent of the physical laws of the universe. While the physical body is the material, mortal, non
thinking entity and fully governed by the physical laws of nature.

"I think, therefore I am" - almost everyone has heard of René Descartes' famous cogito argument. But
what is this argument about? What does it show, and why are so many philosophers excited about it - even
today, more than 350 years after Descartes first presented this argument? In this Wireless Philosophy video,
Stephan Schmid (Humboldt) explores these questions. Find the link to watch the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iGjiSbEp9c

JOHN LOCKE
Man is born with a Blank Slate

John Locke is an English Philosopher, Physician, He is

considered to be the father of Classical liberalism some
of his works on this subject matter paved the way to
several revolutions to fight the absolute powers of
monarchs and rulers of his time that led to the
development of governance, politics and economic
system that we now know.

His work on the self is most represented by the concept

“Tabula Rasa” which means a Blank Slate. He believed that
the experiences and perceptions of a person is important in
the establishment of who that person can become. Unlike
what the other Philosophers view on human experiences
and senses, John Locke does not disregard the experiences
of the person in the identification and establishment of who we are as a person. He stated that a person is born
with knowing nothing and that is susceptible to stimulation and accumulation of learning from the experiences,
failures, references, and observations of the person.

According to the Memory Theory of the Self , Locke posited that CONSCIOUSNESS- is what defines
one’s SELF. X is the same person as Y if and only if X shares at least one experiential memory with Y. The person
today is the same person as yesterday through the memories he has of the past. The accumulated experiences of
the person yesterday.

Considering this, the process of the mind to absorb information and accumulate knowledge may imply
that as a person to be able to be whom we want to be, with the right stimulations, enough experiences, as well
as awareness that by primarily knowing nothing will enable one to be open to any kind of learning and does not
limit any possibilities for growth implies that the opportunity for one person to develop to anything he wants to
be is limited only to the environment, experiences, and the choices of the person.

What makes you the same person as the little kid growing up a number of years ago? Is the identity of a
person tied to the persistence of a body or a soul or something else entirely? Can we even give any explanation
at all of the persistence of a person? In this Wireless Philosophy video, Michael Della Rocca (Yale University)
explores some of the puzzles and problems of personal identity that arise from the revolutionary work of the
philosopher John Locke. View this video entitled “History: Locke on Personal Identity” with the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=462Y898PVn8.

This short but info-packed video tells you everything you need to know about John Locke, the 17th
Century Philosopher. It focuses on three key areas which he thought and wrote about, namely epistemology
(theories of knowledge), political philosophy and religious toleration. This talk places Locke firmly within the
period of the Enlightenment, and shows how he influenced other philosophers such as Kant, Hume and
Rousseau, as well as documents like the US Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Take a look at
this video entitled “John Locke - a 5-minute summary of his philosophy” with the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-a4ueSsa3Y.

DAVID HUME
The self is a bundle of perception
The Scottish Philosopher David Hume, focused his work
in the field of Empiricism, Skepticism, and naturalism. Being an
Empiricist which believes in concrete evidences and observable
experiences that meld a person, his notion on the self
contradicts to the ideas of the philosophers before him which
said that at the notion of self, one’s identity and behavior does
not exceed the physical realm and that the “Self “is only the
accumulation of different impressions.

Hume argues that our concept of the self is a result of our

natural habit of attributing unified existence to any collection of
associated parts. “For my part, when I enter most intimately into
what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular
perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or
hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe
anything but the perception” (Treatise, 1.4.6.3).

That is the idea that Hume reiterated when saying that there should be no permanent concept of the
self. He said when a person is asked the question “who you are? “That person tends to answer different
impressions such as good, happy, optimistic, contented, sad, etc. generally they apply to who you are now but at
the same time these characteristics might change from time to time. If the neighbor you knew your entire life to
be happy and have a positive outlook suddenly looked sad and discontented can we say that the person you
seeing is not your neighbor anymore?

David Hume is one of Scotland’s greatest philosophers. His claim to greatness lies in his appreciation of
ordinary experience, his descriptions of consciousness and his humane, tolerant approach to religious disputes.
Know more about his works by looking for the video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS52H_CqZLE.

IMMANUEL KANT
Humans have inner and outer self
Immanuel Kant, a German Philosopher that is known for
his works on Empiricism and Rationalism. Kant responded to
Hume’s work by trying to establish that the collection of
impressions and different contents is what it only takes to
define a person. Kant argued that the awareness of different
emotions that we have, impressions and behavior is only a part
of our self. He said that to fully understand who we are, a
certain level of consciousness or sense that uses our intuition
which synthesizes all the experiences, impressions and
perceptions of ourselves will pave the way to define and know
who we really are.

Kant argued that the sense called “Transcendental

Apperception” is an essence of our consciousness that provides
basis for understanding and establishing the notion of “self” by
 synthesizing one’s accumulation of experiences, intuition and imagination goes. Which means that this idea
goes beyond what we experience but still able to become aware of. For example the idea of time and space,
we may not be able to observe the movement of time and the vastness of space but we are still capable of
understanding their concept based from what we can observe as their representation.

The things that men perceive are not just randomly infused into the human person without an
organizing principle that regulates the relationships between these impressions. The apparatuses of the
mind organizes the impressions that we get from the external world. Without the self, one cannot organize
the different impressions one gets in relation to his own existence. The apparatuses of the mind the self does
not only give man his personality but it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition or intelligence which
synthesizes all knowledge and experience

With that in mind and following the idea of Kant about Self, we can say that we are not only an object
that perceives and reacts to whatever it is that we are experiencing, we also have the capabilities to
understand beyond those experiences and be able to think and have a clear identification who we are and
establish a sense of self that is unique and distinct from others.

For Kant, the Metaphysical Self explores the nature of being existence with no basis in reality. He further
related that humans have inner and outer self. The INNER SELF includes rational reasoning and psychological
state. The OUTER SELF includes the body and physical mind where representation occurs.

Immanuel Kant was acutely aware of living in an age when philosophy would need to supplant the role
once played by religion. This helped him to arrive at his most famous concept: the ‘categorical imperative.’
Look into his discoveries and philosophy of the self by looking this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=nsgAsw4XGvU

Modern times

GILBERT RYLE
The self is a collection of behavior

Gilbert Ryle with his Behavioristic approach to self, said that

self is the behavior presented by the person, his notion of dualism is
that the behavior that we show, emotions and actions are the
reflection of our mind and as such is the manifestation of who we are.
Ryle does not believe that the mind and body, though some say can
coexist, are two separate entities, which is said to be evident in the
unexplainable phenomenon or abilities of the mind where the soul is
considered.
 To him, once we encounter others, their perceptions of what we do, how we act, and the way we behave
will then result to the understanding of other people and establishing of who we are. His explanation of self is
further exemplified in his “ghost in the machine” view. This view said the man is a complex machine with
different functioning parts, and the intelligence, and other characteristics or behavior of man is represented by
the ghost in the said machine. He gave further explanation using an example imagining that if you are touring a
visiting friend to the university that you are studying and you brought him to the athletic Centre, library,
buildings and classrooms, but then your friends ask “but where is the university? As such is the point of Ryle, all
those places, buildings and offices are the university, which supports his idea that the mind and body is not
necessarily separate entities. So considering that analogy, the idea of Ryle is saying that the things that we do,
how we behave and react and all other components like the way we talk, walk, and look is generally who we are
as a person.

For Ryle, The SELF is NOT AN ENTITY THAT ONE CAN LOCATE and analyze but simply a CONVENIENT NAME
that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make. What truly matters is the BEHAVIOR that a
person MANIFESTS in his day-to-day life.

PAUL CHURCHLAND
The self is the Brain

Paul Churchland a Canadian philosopher whose focus is on the

idea that people should improve our association and use of
words in identifying the self. He has this idea that the “self” is
defined by the movements of our brain. Churchland’s work
revolves around challenging of the notion and terms being
used to explain behavior or to explain how a person feels,
thinks, and act with regards to physiological phenomenon that
is happening in the body as well as definitions brought about by
emotions, this is one of the notion of the concept of Folk
Psychology also known as common sense psychology.

The main philosophy of Churhland built the idea of

“eliminative materialism”. Basically, eliminative materialism
opposes that people’s common sense understanding of the mind is false and that most of the mental states that
people subscribe to, in turn, do not actually exist, this idea also applies on the understanding of behavior and
emotions. This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he believed that to fully understand one’s behavior, one
should understand the different neurological movement of the brain that pertains to different emotions,
feelings, actions and reactions and how such brain movements affect the body. With this in mind we can
eliminate the ambiguity of subjective and baseless identification of the mind, behavior and self in general
because by understanding the different neural pathways, how they work, and what implications are those
movements are to people, will we not only have proof that there is a measurable classification on one’s behavior
it can also be said that the constant movement of the brain can be the basis of who the person is this is
emphasized by Churchland and his wife in the statement “The Brain as the Self”.

Find out more abot Paul Churchland’s Philosophy on the Self by clicking on the link entitled
“Churchland's Materialism” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAybGdBg-T4.

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
The Self is an Embodied Subjectivity
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty is a French
philosopher that is known for his works on existentialism
and phenomenology. His idea of the self, regarded that the
body and mind are not separate entities, but rather those
two components is one and the same.

His idea that follows the gestalt ideation where the

whole is greater than the sum of its parts in which pushed
his idea on the unity of the function of the mind and body,
this idea is called the Phenomenology of Perception.

The idea of Phenomenology of Perception according to

Merleau-Ponty is divided into three (3) division, The Body,
The Perceived World, and the People and the world.

The body both receives the experience as well as

integrates such experiences in the different perception. The
Perceived world, which are the accumulation of the
 perception as integrated by the experiences of the body. And the People and the world that enable one to
not only be able to integrate the other objects in the world but also to be able to experience the cultural
aspect and relate to others. His idea of perception follows the idea of Gestalt psychology which gives
important on the whole than the sum of its part. For him, perception guides our action based from what our
experiences are, the body perceives while our consciousness provides the meaning or interprets the various
perception we have in the world and the self could be established by the perceptions we have in the world,
whereas one’s action, behavior and language used could be said to be the reflection of our united perception
of the world.

References:

Alata, E.J.P., et.al. (2018). Understanding the Self. Rex Bookstore.

Chafee, J. (2013). Who are You? Consciousness, Identity and the Self. In the Philosopher’s Way. Thinking Critical
about Profound Ideas. Pearson.

Demetrio, F. (1991). The Soul. GF Books