Jonathan A.
Porciuncula
Student number: 202011490
PRELIM EXAMINATION
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF (UTS)
In your own words, state what is the meaning of self for each of the following
philosophers. After doing so, explain how your concept of self is compatible with how
they conceived of the self.
Philosopher Their ‘Self’ Meaning
The famous Socrates is known for
S the Socratic Method where widely
used in different universities and
O colleges. For Socrates, once you
accept that you don’t know
C anything, that’s when you start
being curious and then gathering
R knowledge and understanding
about the things exist in your
A surroundings. Once you accept
that you clearly do know nothing,
T it gives you more free space to
gather every bit of knowledge and
E intelligence that you can get.
Socrates also believed that your life
S is not worthy of living if you do
not understand or know who you
are.
Plato is the student of Socrates and
P called as the Father of Academy
because he built a school at Greece.
L Plato’s definition of the self is
different from Socrates. He
A believed that it is divided into
three souls: Appetitive, Spirited,
My own meaning of ‘Self’
In my definition of ‘Self’, in some
parts of Socrates we do have
some similar. It is true that to
gain knowledge, people need to
accept that they don’t know
everything. Knowledge is
unlimited, no one can get all that
without continuous gaining it. If
those philosophers or intelligent
people did not recognize that
there are still things that they
don’t know, then maybe they will
not be eager to know things. This
is what my one point of the
meaning of the ‘self’.
Acknowledging that you know
nothing to gain everything.
In Plato’s definition, it is far
different from Socrates but it
gives a lot of broader idea. My
idea of the self is only similar to
him in some parts, the three
different souls but it is embodied
only in one person. All people
 Rational. He also connects it to the
T three class of people in his time:
Peasant, Soldier, Leaders/Kings.
O For him in appetitive soul, it is the
physical pleasure that people can
get, their desire for physical
possession or feelings. On the
hand, spirited soul is like the
courageous part of a person and
lastly, the rational is the thinking
of a person.
For Rene Descartes, his definition
D of the self is almost the same with
E St. Augustine, that the man is
divided into two, their body and
S the soul or what he called the
material and immaterial substance.
C The material substance is the
A physical self and the immaterial is
something that can’t be seen like
R the thinking of a man. The one
who we see everyday is our body,
T but without the thinking, we
E cannot do the things that we need
and want to do.
S cannot live without him.
John Locke is the first ever
Empiricist. Empiricists are the
people who believed that all of the
L people’s knowledge came from
their experience. Locke also states
O that the time that we are born, we
know nothing and experience
C became our pencil to grow our
knowledge. He also said the five
K senses, and I believed these are
sense of touch, sight, hearing, taste,
E smell.
have these three souls and it
depends on them on how they
will handle it, this is my opinion.
I am not in favor of his
identifying these three souls into
three different class of people. It
became unbiased for me. I think
back then it may be applicable
but in today’s society it is not that
is why I disagree with him.
In his definition, I am inclined
with his. I am a Christian and I
have my own religion. It is not
only important to live as it is
without God by our side.
Without thinking that we have
that something bigger and
greater than us, maybe we cannot
have something that we are
afraid for. For me, God is one of
the true meanings of the self. We
can find our purpose by
following his will because he is
the master of our life and we
I always hear the quote
‘Experience is the best teacher’
and I know now where it came
from. Locke’s definition is a little
bit contradiction to Socrates
where knowledge came from
acquiring it. In Locke, my
meaning of self is similar to his
but I do not completely believe
that we only can get knowledge
by experiencing it. We learn form
other’s mistakes by watching it,
we learn to our teachers and

‘I act therefor I exist’ is the famous
line of Gilbert Ryle. His definition
of the self is completely different
R from Descartes. For him, self if the
Y behaviors and actions of the
person and not it’s mind. For what
L we see the person is, he is
portraying his self based on his
E behavior. On the other hand,
Descartes believes that the true self
of the man is based on immaterial
substance which is the mind.
friends by listening and
observing and not necessarily
need to experience it.
I am completely disapproving
with this theory. All people have
unique personality based on
where they are. You are different
in front of your family, of your
friends, in church, and even in
school. We cannot judge them in
their true form based on one time
personality only. IF we cannot go
understanding them, then we
cannot say that they are in their
true form.