LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO SELF-
(private)
UNDERSTANDING
NAME
 Represents who we are
 Denotes our being
 Not the person itself
 Signifier
 Understanding oneself is essential to understand
behaviors and beliefs that affects ourselves and
others specifically in becoming effective and
successful person in life, work, and relationship.
Self-understanding
(1) provides a sense of purpose;
(2) leads to healthier relationships;
(3) helps harness your natural strength; and
(4) promotes confidence.
 Self and personality characterized the way we
define our existence,also these refers on how we
organized our experiences that are reflected to our
behavior.
- People behave in different ways, but people
also behave fairly stable in different
circumstances.
What is self?
→In contemporary literature (common sense):
└ Seperate - distinct from other selves.
- unique and has own identity.
└ Self- contained and independent - can
exist itself.
- distinct, self-contained
└ Consistency- consistent personality , traits
and characteristics
- does not change.
└ Unitary - center of all experience.
- convergence of emotion & thoughts
that reflect the behavior
- chief
└ Private - never accessible to anyone but the
self.
- .sorts out info within the self
SELF→broad topic→distinguish itself from others
PERSONALITY→ specific topic→combination of
characteristics and quality that form an individual
distinctive character.
PERSONALITY
└ “persona”- derivation
- theatrical masks worn by Romans
in Greek and Latin drama.
└ “per” and “sonare” - to sound through
└ have no single definition
└ it is a relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and
individuality to a person’s behavior (Roberts &
Mroczek, 2008).
Japanese 3 Faces
1. The face you show to the world. (public)
2. The face you show to your close friends and family.
(semi private, extrovert, sociable)
3. The face you never show to anyone.
Determinants of Personality
 Personality refers to the total person in his/her
overt and covert behavior.
Overt- openly covert- tinatago
1. Environmental Factors of Personality.
└ surroundings of an individual compose the
environmental factors of personality.
2. Biological Factors of Personality
└ hereditary factors- genetic make-up of the
person that inherited from their parents.
-namana
└ physical features- overall physical structure
of a person: height, weight, color, sex,
beauty and body language, etc.
- change from time to time, and so
does the personality
└brain- better understanding of human
personality and behavior might come
from the study of the brain. (ESB)
3. Situational Factors of Personality
└ commonly observed when a person behaves
contrastingly and exhibits different traits and
characteristics.
4. Cultural Factors.
└ Culture is traditionally considered as the
major determinants of an individual’s personality.
Personality Traits
 Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic
patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality :
OCEAN
Openness
└ tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values,
feelings, and behaviors.
Conscientiousness
└tendency to be careful, on-time for
appointments, to follow rules, and to be
hardworking.
Extraversion
└ tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to
enjoy others; the tendency to have a
dominant style.
Agreeableness
└ tendency to agree and go along with others
rather than to assert one owns opinions and
choices.
Neuroticism
└ tendency to be frequently experience
negativeemotions such as anger, worry,
and sadness, as well as being
interpersonally sensitive.
WHO AM I?
 Understanding of who you are as a person is
called self-concept and understanding what
your motives are when you act is called
self-understanding.

 In definition, self-concept is generally thought
of as our individual perceptions of our
behavior, abilities, and unique
characteristics—a mental picture of who you
are as a person.
└For example, beliefs such as "I am
a good friend" or "I am a kind
person" are part of an overall
self-concept.
 Self-concept tends to be more malleable when
people are younger and still going through the
process of self-discovery and identity
formation. As people age, self-perceptions
become much more detailed and organized as
people form a better idea of who they are and
what is important to them.
 According to the book Essential Social
Psychology by Richard Crisp and
Rhiannon Turner:
 The individual self consists of attributes
and personality traits that differentiate us
from other individuals.
└Examples include introversion or
extroversion.
 The relational self is defined by our
relationships with significant others.
└Examples include siblings, friends,
and spouses.
 The collective self reflects our
membership in social groups.
└ Examples include British,Republican,
African-American, or gay.
 Self-concept is a collection of beliefs one holds
about oneself and the responses of others. It
embodies the answer to the question "Who am I?".
LESSON 2: THE SELF ACCORDING TO
PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy
 study of knowledge or wisdom from its Latin
roots, “philo” (love) and “sophia” (wisdom)
 “The Queen of All Sciences” because every
scientific discipline has philosophical
foundations.
 The Greek philosophers were the ones who
seriously questioned myths and moved away
from them in attempting to understand reality
by exercising the art of questioning that
satisfies their curiosity, including the questions
about self.
Socrates
 Pre- socratics- group of early philosophers
born before Socrates
- attention to questions about
the origin and the nature of the
physical world has let to their being
called cosmologist or naturalist.
 philosopher from Athens, Greece and said to
have the greatest influence on European
thought.
 More concerned with the problem of the
self.
 First philosopher who engaged in
systematic questioning about the self.
 The true task of the philosopher is to know
oneself.- long life mission
 He was not able to write any of his teachings
and life’s account instead, he is known from
the writings of his student Plato who became
one of the greatest philosophers of his time.
 The Unexamined life is not worth living
└ kapag hindi mo nilimi (examine) ang
iyong sarili, parang hindi makabuluhan na
mabuhay ka
 Socratic Method- method of inquiry and
instruction consisting of series of questionings
the object of which is to elicit a clear and
consistent expression of something supposed
to be implicitly known by all rationasl beings.
└ dialectic method involves the search
for the correct of proper definition of
name.
└engaging person in a discussion.
└ Socrates acts like he don’t know
anything and let the other person to
clarify their ideas and to olve logical
conisitency.
└ex. May kausap ka and you allow her
to share ideas like irrational beliefs.
(asking opinions and thoughts of
others)
 According to Socrates, self is dichotomous
which means composed of two things:
└ physical realm- or the one that is
changeable, temporal, and imperfect.
└ Ex. physical world.(kung ano nakikita
sa paligid)
└ ideal realm - one that is imperfect
and unchanging, eternal, and
immortal.
- includes the intellectual
essences of the universe like the
concept of beauty, truth, and goodness.
- also present in the physical
world.
- One may define someone as
beautiful or truthful, but their definition is
limited and imperfect for it is always
relative and subjective.
  For Socrates, a human is composed of body
and soul, the first belongs to the physical
realm because it changed, it is imperfect,
and it dies, and the latter belongs to ideal
realm for it survives the death.
 The self, according to Socrates is the immortal
and unified entity that is consistent over time.
└ Ex. a human being remains the same
person during their childhood to adulthood
given the fact that they undergone
developmental changes throughout their
lifespan.
NOTE: Socrates also uses the term soul to identify
the self, which means panghabang buhay.
Plato
 Three components of the soul:
└ Reason - enables human to think
deeply, make wise choices and
achieve a true understanding of
eternal truths.
- also called as divine essence.
└ Appetite- basic biological needs of
human being such as hunger,
thirst, and sexual desire.
└physical satisfaction
└ Spirit- basic emotions of human
being such as love,anger,
ambition,aggressiveness and
empathy.
 These three elements of the self works in
every individual inconsistently.
 According to Plato, it is always the
responsibility of the reason to organize,
control and reestablish harmonious
relationship between these three
elements.
└According to Plato itself, he
emphasize that justice in the human
person can only be attained if the three
part of the soul are working
harmoniously with one another.
 illustrated his view of the soul/self in
“Phaedrus” in his metaphor: the soul is
like a winged chariot drawn by two
powerful horses: a white horse,
representing Spirit, and a black horse,
embodying appetite.
└chariot is the reason which is the
component of the soul.
Rene Descartes
 French philosopher, mathematician, and
considered the Father of Modern
Philosophy.
 Descartes, famous principle the "cogito,
ergo sum " I think, therefore I am"
└ established his philosophical
views on "true knowledge and
concept of self.
 He explained that in order to gain true
knowledge, one must doubt everything
even own existence. Doubting makes
someone aware that they are thinking
being thus, they exist
└.if something is so clear and
lucid as not to be even doubted then its
the only time when one should actually
buy a proposition.
└The only thing that one
cannot doubt is the existence of the
self.
 The essence of self is being a thinking
thing.
 The self is a dynamic entity that
engages in mental operations-thinking,
reasoning, and perceiving processes. In
addition to this, self-identity is
dependent on the awareness in
engaging with those mental operations
.
 The Self then for Descartes is also a
combination of two distinct entities,
the cogito, the thing that thinks, which
is the mind, and the extenza or
extension of the mind which is the
body.
└The body is nothing else but a
machine that is attached to the mind.
The human person has it but it is not
what makes man a man. If at all, that is
the mind.
 identified the physical self as part of nature,
governed by the physical laws of the universe,
and available to scientific analysis and
experimentation, and the conscious self (mind,
soul) is a part of the spiritual realm,
independent of the physical laws of the
universe, governed only by the laws of reason
and God’s will.
St. Augustine
 considered as the last of the great ancient
philosophers whose ideas were greatly
Platonic. In melding philosophy and religious
beliefs together, Augustine has been
characterized as Christianity's first
theologian.
 He concluded, "That the body is united
with the soul, so that man may be entire
and complete, is a fact we recognize on the
evidence of our own nature."
 According to St. Augustine, the human nature
is composed of two realms:
 └ God- source of all reality and
truth.Through mystical experience, man
is capable of knowing eternal truths.
This is made possible through the
existence of the one eternal truth
which is God.
- He further added that without
God as the source of all truth, man
could never understand eternal
truth. This relationship with God means
that those who know most about God
will come closest to understanding the
true nature of the world.
└ Sinfulness of man- The cause of
sin or evil is an act of mans' freewill.
-Moral goodness can only be
achieved through the grace of God.
 He also stated that real happiness can only
be found in God. For God is love and he
created humans for them to also love.
Problems arise because of the objects
humans choose to love. Disordered love
results when man loves the wrong
things which he believes will give him
happiness.
John Locke
 English philosopher and physician and
famous in his concept of "Tabula Rasa"
or Blank Slate that assumes the nurture
side of human development.
 Tabula Rasa - the mind in its
hypothetical primary blank or empty
state before receiving outside
impressions.
- the idea here is when you look
at the nature (opposite of nurture;
innates mind, knowledge, behavior and
characteristics that we inherit from our
parents) versus nurture(to develop) of
the human development and of course,
it will fall on the criteria of nurture.
- According to the “Tabula Rasa”,
all knowledge comes from
experience or perception.
 The self, according to Locke is
consciousness. In his essay entitled On
Personal Identity (from his most famous
work. Essay Concerning Human
Understanding) he discussed the
reflective analysis of how an Individual
may experience the self in everyday living.
He provided the following key points:
1.) To discover the nature of personal identity,
it is important to find out what it means to be a
person.
└ According to Locke, the idea of this
is to identify what is the person itself.
2.) A person is a thinking, intelligent being who
has the abilities to reason and to reflect.
└ One that separate us humans from
other creations is because we are
rational being. We can think morally.
Other creations are not fully aware of
what they are doing.
3.) A person is also someone who considers
themself to be the same thing in different
times and different places.
└ According to Locke, he is agreeing in
this idea. Self is consistent that it has a
personality that is enduring and
therefore, can be expected to
persist on quiet some time.
4.) Consciousness as being aware that we are
thinking-always accompanies thinking and
is an essential part of the thinking process
└ According to Locke, if we are using
our senses in our doing, our perception
sensation is present and activated.
Senses is always present and by this,
everyone is to himself.
5.) Consciousness makes possible our belief
that we are the same identity in different times
and different places.
└ Ex: You consider yourself as the
same self who was studying last night,
partying last night, etc.
└ How can you be so sure it is the
same self in all of this situation?
Because of your consciousness.
└It is contradicting if you are drunk
for example.
 The bottom line of his theory on self is that
self is not tied to any particular body or
substance. It only exists in other times and
places because of the memory of those
experiences.
David Hume
 He was a Scottish philosopher and also an
empiricist.
 Empiricism - school of thought that espouses
the idea that knowledge can only be possible
if it is sensed and experienced. Men can only
attain knowledge by experiencing.
└The idea of Empiricism is “To see is
to believe”.
 His claim about self is quite controversial
because he assumed that there is no self! In
his essay entitled, "On Personal Identity"
(1739) he said that, if we carefully examine
the contents of [our] experience, we find
that there are only two distinct entities,
"impressions" and "ideas".
 └shows what we think; copies of
impression).
 Impressions are the basic sensations of
our experience, the elemental data of our
minds: pain, pleasure.heat, cold, happiness,
grief, fear, exhilaration, and so on.
└ shows our perception/senses or what
they feel on the experiences
 Ideas are copies of impressions that include
thoughts and images that are built up from our
primary impressions through a variety of
relationships, but because they are derivative
copies of impressions, they are once removed
from reality.
└ shows what we think
 Hume considered that the self does not exist
because all of the experiences that a person
may have are just perceptions and this
includes the perception of self. None of these
perceptions resemble a unified and permanent
self-identity that exists over time.
 Hume explained that the self that is being
experienced by an individual is nothing but
a kind of fictional self. Human created an
imaginary creature which is not real. "Fictional
self" is created to unify mental events and
introduce order into anindividual lives, but this
“self” has no real existence.
└ From our impression of things and
experiences, we can create our ideas
and knowledge which leds the
argument that since our impression
and ideas changes, it may improve or
totally be replaced means that ones
change accord the same phenomena of
will happen to ones idea to he is and
what he can do.
└ According to Hume, self is only the
accumulation of different impressions.
Sigmund Freud
 A well-known Australian psychologist and
considered as the Father of Psychoanalysis.
 His influence in Psychology and therapy is
dominant and popular in the 20th to 21st
century.
 Psychoanalysis - talks about unconscious
mind; affects of unconscious mind.
 The dualistic view of self by Freud involves the
conscious self and unconscious self.
1.) conscious self- is governed by
reality principle. The self is rational,
practical, and appropriate to the social
environment. The conscious self has
the task of controlling the constant
pressures of the unconscious self,
as its primitive impulses continually
seek for immediate discharge.
2.) unconscious self is governed by
pleasure principle. It is the self that is
aggressive, destructive, unrealistic and
instinctual. Both of Freud's self needs
immediate gratification and reduction of
tensions to optimal levels and the goal
of every individual is to make
unconscious conscious.
└Talks about what we want.
└ It includes childhood
memories / experiences even
though you cannot remember it.
 Freud proposed how mind works, he called
this as provinces or structures of the mind.
By illustrating the tip of the iceberg which
according to him represents conscious
awareness which characterizes the
person in dealing with the external world. The
observable behavior, however, is further
controlled by the workings of the
subconscious/unconscious mind.
 Subconscious serves as the repository of
past experiences, repressed memories,
fantasies, and urges.
└ Supression – subconscious; with force
└ Repression – unconscious; avoid
automatically the thing
 The three provinces of the mind are:
1. Id. This is primarily based on the pleasure
principle. It demands immediate satisfaction
and is not hindered by societal expectations.
└ More on unconscious
└ More on pleasure
└ What you want – You will do what
you want
└ Illogical
2. Ego. The structure that is primarily based
on the reality principle. This mediates between
the impulses of the id and restraints of the
superego.
└ Controls/balances id and superego
└ You are aware of what you are
doing
3. Superego. This is primarily dependent on
learning the difference between right and wrong,
thus it is called moral principle. Morality of
actions is a largely dependent on childhood
upbringing particularly on rewards and
punishments.
└ The conscience results from the
punishment from improper
behavior/feeling of guilt.
 independent of the physical body: a purely
mental entity existing in time but not space.

NOTE: The focus of Ryle’s view to self is

what truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day to day self.

---------END-------

 According to Freud, there are two kinds of

instinct that drive individual behavior – the
eros or the life instinct and the thanatos of
the death instinct.

 The energy of eros is called libido and

includes urges necessary for individual and
species survival like thirst, hunger, and sex.

 In cases that human behavior is directed

towards destruction in the form of aggression
and violence, such are the manifestations of
thanatos.
└ Dominates to thanatos instinct to do a
crime.

Gilbert Ryle
 A British analytical philosopher. He was an
important figure in the field of Linguistic
Analysis which focused on the solving of
philosophical puzzles through an analysis of
language.

 Linguistic Analysis – it is to discover

identifiable facts about language.

 According to Ryle, the self is best

understood as a pattern of behavior, the
tendency or disposition for a person to behave
in a certain way in certain circumstances.
└According to Ryle, we are all just
bundle of behaviors caused of the
physical workings of the body. He also
stated that mind and body are not two
separate entities.

 He opposed the notable ideas of the previous

philosophers and even claimed that hose were
results of confused conceptual thinking, he
termed, category mistake.

 The category mistake happens when we

speak about the self as something