Understanding the Self: Self Concepts

Jasmine Frances C. Sotto

BSED 1A – ENGLISH
 INTRODUCTION

What is Self-Concept? Self-concept refers to how you see yourself in terms of your actions,

abilities, and distinguishing features. Beliefs like "I am a nice friend" or "I am a kind person,"

for example, belong to an overall concept of myself. There are philosophers that have their

own concept about the self and I’ll try to explain them all.

According to Socrates, the sense of one's own self reveals man's character and rationale.

Socrates thought that, a man's thought is a result of his. Socrates questioned how we value

what individuals are saying without comprehending each other's thinking process. Socrates'

argument was based on the fact that a man's potential is a result of the self within him. He

highlighted that a person must trust in himself and not follow the wagon influence of society.

We are in situations when serious consideration is necessary, but we often accept what

people say about the matter. Socrates believed that rational reasoning would be more

productive than accepting a structured manner of doing things.

Socrates highlighted that the human spirit is eternal and the result of various views. The

human soul, according to Socrates, lives in two states: transformation and constancy. The

evil in the human mind is a result of the benefits perceived. A person will act on his or her

perceived thinking based on what good the action is going to bring about.

His acts and statements weigh the strength of a person; this is the defining premise on

which we need to stand. Socrates claimed that philosophy may be studied by anybody, not
just the elites. The ability to make a statement without regard for what others think or say is

a product of oneself.

Three theories about the “Self”.

Plato believes that the true self of a human being is the "rational soul," or the reason

or intellect that constitutes the person's soul and is separate from the body. Plato sees the

self as an acquaintance. Therefore, Plato is intrinsically related to the idea of self and

wisdom. This is because the notion of Plato of the self is practically built on his reflection on

the rational soul's nature as the highest form of cognition. However, the human being,

according to Plato, is made up of both body and soul. The man is a dualism of body and

soul, in other terms. The body is the human person's material and destroying part, whereas

the immaterial part is the soul. According to Plato, the soul is a separate entity from the

body. Plato considers the soul to be the self.

Rene Descartes. Descartes contends that either a mind or a human being can

properly regard the self and that the attributes of itself vary according to this. For example,

the self is seen simply as a mind, whereas the self is considered compositely as a human

being. The mind or soul for Descartes is superior to the body because it is in the mind that

"mental condition" happens. For Descartes, this is because the mental states, like thinking,

imagining and analyzing, are vital for our lives as humans and not the physical states of the

bird, such as pain, hunger and thirst. To put it another way, Descartes believes that the
mind is what makes us human. The "mind" is thus the "true self" for Descartes. Extension is

central to Descartes' conception of the body as a material object. In reality, in the material

world, everything can be comprehended and explained in terms of size, shape and motion

according to Descartes. Therefore, Descartes's being a "body" means having size, sharing,

enduring and moving and being changing.

Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, believes that it is the self that allows us to

experience an intelligible universe since it is the self that actively organizes and synthesizes

all of our thoughts and experiences. The Self uses conceptual categories in the form of the

consciousness to establish a reality that is stable and objective, and can be scientifically

explored, by calling transcendental deduction of categories. Kant argues that the self is an

organizing principle that creates a coherent and intelligible experience, and that it employs

our mind's categories to filter, order, relate, organize, and synthesize perceptions into a

whole. In other words, the ego builds up its own reality and deliberately creates a world

known, predictable and, most importantly, mine. Because the self-controls experience by

allowing for unified experiences, the self is the result of a reason, a regulative principle. The

mind may grasp components of reality that are not restricted to scenes, allowing the self to

transcend experience. Through reason, people may understand abstract notions that have

no physical object or sense experience.

 Conclusion

Plato, Descartes, and Kant had made a breakthrough to the conceptualization of the self.

But what is the importance of knowing the “self”? After doing this synthesis, I have come up

in a realization that self-awareness allows you to be unaffected by other people's opinions.

Independence and self-awareness are also linked to confidence. Knowing who you are and

what you stand for in life might help you feel more confident. To be yourself, you must first

understand yourself.

Nothing outside of yourself can tell you who you are or how you should live your life.

You will realize this if you know yourself, that life is so simple, that you control your own

fate. Knowing who you are is always more essential than knowing who others are. If you

know yourself, you will discover that you have all you need. Each of us possesses all of the

world's power. It's buried deep within, waiting to be discovered.

 References

Socrates | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (n.d.). Https://Iep.Utm.Edu/Socrates/. Retrieved

September 22, 2021, from https://iep.utm.edu/socrates/

Immanuel Kant’s Metaphysics of the Self. (n.d.). Https://Study.Com/Academy/Lesson/Immanuel-

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%20all,Inner%20self%2C%20there%20is%20apperception.

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self.html#:~:text=According%20to%20him%2C%20we%20all,inner%20self%2C

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Cockburn, D. (n.d.). Descartes: The Self and the World. Descartes: The Self and the World.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230509108_1

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (n.d.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-knowledge/supplement.html