THE SELF FROM THE VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES

PHILOSOPHY - study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence

especially in an academic discipline.

SOCRATES
 Father of Western philosophy
 Socratic Method

HUMAN NATURE
 He believes that man is composed of body and soul.
 Soul is the person's core identity, his/her unique spirit that
makes one distinct.
 “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

THE HUMAN MIND

 Man is uniquely defined through his ability to think and
question his own existence.
 Man is a rational being , thus he distinguish virtue,
knowledge from ignorance.
 He believed that the goal of life is to be happy.
 The virtuous man is a happy man and that virtue alone is the
one and only supreme good that will secure his/her
happiness.

PLATO
 Greek philosopher; he became a pupil and friend of Socrates.
 He founded the Academy
 His philosophical method was “collection and division”

HUMAN NATURE
 He also believed that man is composed of body and soul
 He believed that soul exists before birth and after death.

TRI-PARTITE SOUL
 Rational (Reasoning) : our divine essence that enables us to
think deeply, make wise choices and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths.
 the element that forbids the person to enjoy the sensual
experiences
 the part that loves truth hence, should rule over the other
parts of the soul through the use of reason.
  Appetitive (Sensual) : Our basic biological needs
 Spirit/Passion (Feeling) : Our basic emotions
 The element that is inclined toward reason but understands
the demands of passion; the part that loves honor and victory
 According to Plato, each of us is driven by three different parts
of our soul.

ARISTOTLE
 an Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist who is still
considered one of the greatest thinkers in politics, psychology
and ethics.
 When Aristotle turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s Academy.
 Aristotle’s background in biological subjects made him more of
an empiricist as compared to the mathematician Plato’s
rationalism.

HUMAN NATURE
 insisted that the human being is a composite of body and soul
and that the soul cannot be separated from the body.
 Aristotle’s philosophy of self was constructed in terms of
hylomorphism.
 SAINT AUGUSTINE

 aka Augustine of Hippo

 a bishop of Hippo Regius in Northern Africa
 an ancient Christian theologian who played significant role
in the development of early Western philosophu.
 a Neoplatonist

HUMAN NATURE
 He took from Plato the view that the human self is an
immaterial soul that can think.
 The most important part of mind is not the intellect but the
will.
 The most important of a person is the inner person.
 The orientation of the will determines whether we love
lower goods or higher goods
 Good persons are those whose will and reason are
subordinated to faith in God and devotion to God's will.
 Faith is a gift of grace that we cannot command but only
receive when it comes.
 God's grace may work on us when we are studying Scripture
but much study of Scripture in no guarantee of receiving it.

RENE DESCARTES
 French philosopher and considered as the founder of
modern Western philosphy.
 Mathematician and scientist; a leader in the seventeenth-
century scientific revolution.
 His method was called hyperbolical/metaphysical
doubt/methodological skepticism.

HUMAN NATURE
 He claimed that there is an essential distinction between the
mind and body.
 “I think, therefore I am” (cogito ergo sum)
 Being human means being certain of one's self as an
individual.
 He believed that being human starts with the self
 The essence of your self-you are a “thinking thing”

THE SOUL THE BODY

It is a conscious, thinking substance that is It is a material substance that changes through
unaffected by time. time.

It is known only to itself (only you know
your own mental event and others cannot
correct your mental states).
It is not made up of parts. It is both
conscious and aware of itself at the same
time.
It can be doubted; the public can correct
claims about the body.
It is made up of physical, quantifiable, divisible
parts.
 JOHN LOCKE

 British philosopher and physician who laid the groundwork

for an empiricist approach to philosophical questions.
 The mind is a tabula rasa

NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE NATURE OF SELF

 He is an archetypal advocated of the empiricist view of
knowledge.
 He believed that humans by nature are good.
 Behavior is learned, people are either influenced to do good
or bad.
 He believed that everything we know comes from the
experience of the senses.
 For Locke, a person's memories provide a continuity of
experience that allows him to identify himself as the same
person over time.

IMMANUEL KANT

 German philosopher whose comprehensive and systematic

work in epistemology (the theory of knowledge), ethics, and
aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy,
especially the various schools of Kantianism and idealism.

HUMAN NATURE
 The “self” is transcendental.

TWO COMPONENTS OF THE SELF:

1. Inner self includes rational reasoning and psychological state.
2. Outer self includes the body and physical mind where
representation occurs.

THE SELF ORGANIZES INFORMATION IN THREE WAYS:

1. Raw perception input
2. Recognizing the concept
3. Reproducing in the imagination