GNED

2 ytivitca
08: 09/25/21

UTS

s
e
ta
rcoS

JULIANNA NICOLE MEDINA

BAPS 1 - 2
 ilosoph
Ph ic
al
P
e
r
s
p

e
tc
i
v
e
fo
My concept of self originated when I was laying
down on my bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering

fleS eht
about the multifaceted world that I live in. I am a
young girl whose life has mostly been defined by
the roles that I play. I recognize them well and try
my best to keep up with the expectations of those
who are around me. I suddenly realized... “What if I
am stripped away of my roles? What does that
make me? Am I still me without them? How will I
be able to recognize my authentic self without the
roles that I am accustomed to portray?”; those
were the questions that ran through my head as I
continued to think. It was confusing. I was not
happy with the result, if there ever was, because all
I am left with are unanswered questions.

However, I do believe that there are three parts of

Plato
the self. The mind that makes rational decisions,
the body that is capable of identifying our physical
necessities in order to survive (our desires), and
the soul that is responsible for our emotional
state.

This takes us to our first philosopher, Socrates and

Plato. Socrates states that the body is imperfect
and impermanent and is still able to maintain the
perfect and permanent soul. To which he
mentioned that “The unexamined life is not worth
living” due to the fact that in order to be able to
distinguish man from other animals is their ability
to ruminate; where to be is to be conscious which
equates to being fully aware and thoughtful.
era ohW"

Plato on the other hand, mentioned that there are

three components to the soul as written in his
magnum opus, The Republic (Plato 2000.) He
further explains this by saying that these
components are the following: the rational,
spiritual, and appetitive soul. The rational soul is
formed through reason and intellectual affairs, the
spiritual soul which is in control of the emotions
‘kept at bay’, and the appetitive soul which reminds
us of our desires and sexual intercourse that is
well-balanced.

While there are similarities within our concepts of

the self, differences were deemed unavoidable.
Socrates believes that every person is dualistic,
whereas I recognize the three facets of the human
concept of the self. Plato named the three aspects
of the soul. I did mention the soul in my concept,
but the determining factor is that I personally think
the soul is directly related to the emotional state of
a person and the body is responsible for our
desires if it is not influenced by the mind and the
soul. It is because our body identifies hunger cues,
sexual attraction, among others.
"?ew
A
ir
ts
lto
e
Moving forward, St. Thomas Aquinas said that the man is
composed of two parts; the matter and form. It is a
concept of which he adapted from another philosopher
Aristotle. Matter or hyle (Greek) refers to the parts of what
makes up everything in the universe. Form (morphe in
Greek) is defined as the essence of a substance, what
makes an existing thing as is. To put it simply, what makes
us human is our soul, the very essence of our being. As I
have divided the way of being into three, (the mind, body,
and soul), he was able to explain that what we are is
dependent on the basis of our soul. I believe that the self
can be likened to a code which can be translated into text.
Although it is unfamiliar to the human eye when initially
seen, unless a person is driven and willing to invest time
on studying the full text, then one can only be alive but
not truly live. The components that I have surmised were,
in my humblest opinion; is my adaptation of St. Thomas
Aquinas’ “what makes us, us.”

The final philosopher which I will mention is Rene

Descartes. He also believes that a human person is of
body and mind. In one of his famous works, “cogito ergo
sum”, which is translated as “I think, therefore I am,” the
cogito is identified as the mind since it is what creates the
idea of ‘thinking.’ It is believed that the body is nothing but
an extension of the mind. The mind and the body here are
interconnected and one cannot be without the other. We
further expand this by saying that what he may have
theorized such as the self, may be interpreted into a way
that the self only comes into actualization when inference
takes place. It is mentioned in his works Discourse (1637)
(je pense, donc je suis), and one that we already
mentioned (cogito ergo sum) or the Principles. It is why he
encourages doubting, because doubting is a way of
thinking. And when we think, only then can we be
ourselves.
era ohW"
The mind, body, and soul are all interrelated as well,
since it is the driving force that helps us realize our
‘true being.’ The mind creates thoughts, generates
‘thinking’, on the bases of intellect and logical
reasoning. The soul then considers the emotional
factors that may or may not influence our method of
reasoning, while the body is what I would consider
the ‘mediator.’ It recognizes the desires of the body
(as what the soul is concerned with) while it pays
attention to its basic necessities per instructions of
the mind.

In conclusion, this leaves us thinking that the way of

being may not be directly identified like what we may
expect. But the way that we can interconnect these
concepts with ours, as well as the other philosophers
who continued their pursuit of knowledge to the end,
leads us to come to a conclusion that the self can
only be partially understood through an extensive
study of a person’s being all throughout his life. This
leaves the question “Who are we?” but one may not
realize that there is no true meaning to the self, as
there are many truths to how we may be able to
realize our being.
ohW"