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Philosophical Perspective - Module 1
Philosophical Perspective - Module 1
This topic on the philosophical perspective of the self (which will utilize 3 hours) will then allow
you to reexamine its key movers for you to be able
to identify the most imperative assumptions made
www.thoughtco.com by philosophers from the ancient to the contemporary times.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. cite highlights in the life of the philosophers that influenced their concepts and principles;
2. identify and differentiate the philosophers’ perspectives of self; and
3. create your own concept/ theory of the self.
The way you choose to spend your life contributes to the development of your identity and self-
understanding. Your past is a contributory factor to who you are today, but who you will be
tomorrow greatly depends on your perspective about
yourself.
He believed in dualism that aside from the physical body (material substance), each person has
an immortal soul (immaterial substance).
The body belongs to the physical realm and the soul to the ideal realm. When you die, your
body dies but not your soul. There is a life after the death of your physical body. There is a
world after death.
According to him, in order for you to have a good life, you must live a good life, a life with a
purpose, and that purpose is for you to do well. Then there you will be happy after your body
dies.
The 3 components may work together or in conflict. If human beings do not live in accordance
with their nature/function, the result will be an injustice.
The self seeks to be united with God through faith and reason and he described that humanity is
created in the image and likeness of God, that God is supreme and all-knowing and everything
created by God who is all good is good.
“Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I Am) is the keystone to his concept of the self. The
essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of oneself.
Consciousness means being aware that you are thinking; this what makes your belief
possible that you are the same identity at different times and in different places. The essence
of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as thinking, reasoning, reflecting identity.
We construct the self. The self exists independently of experience and the self goes beyond
experience.
According to him, there are thoughts, feelings, desires, and urges that the conscious mind
wants to hide, buried in your unconscious, but may shed light to your unexplained behavior.
His concept, “the self has embodied subjectivity” explained that all your knowledge about
yourself and the world is based on your subjective experiences and everything that you are
aware of is contained in your consciousness.
For him, your body is your general medium for having a world.