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THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
PHILOSOPHY
PHILO – LOVE
SOPHIA - WISDOM
 Love of knowledge (love of wisdom)
 Traced back all the way to 600 BCE
in Athens, Greece.
 The Greeks chose to seek natural
explanations to events and
phenomena around them instead
of seeking for supernatural
explanations from the gods.
GREEK PHILOSOPHERS OF MILETUS
 They observed changes in the
world and wanted to explain these
changes by understanding the law
of nature.
 Their study of change led them to
the “idea of permanence”.
Nothing is permanent, the only
thing constant is change.
 Athenians settle the arguments by
discussion and debate. (5th Century
BCE STATE DEMOCRATIC)
 People skilled in doing this were
called Sophists. (First teachers of
the west.)
SOCRATES (470-399 BCE)
 Mentor of Plato
 A stonemason with sharp mind
 Wanted to discover the essential
nature of knowledge, justice, beauty
and goodness.
Wisest of all men by the Oracle of Delphi.
 After much contemplation, he
realized what the oracle actually
meant. People are ignorant of what
knowledge is most important: How to
live right and how to make their soul
good.
 He knew the importance of this but
also aware of his ignorance of it.
He did not write anything. His thoughts were
only known through Plato’s writing. (The
Dialogues)
 It was through Plato’s writing where
it was learned that Socrates was a
brilliant debater and was idolized by
many Athenians.
 This angered sophists who brought
him to trial and he was sentenced to
death. (Poison Hemlock)
SOCRATIC METHOD
 Socrates’ method for discovering
what is essential in the world and in
people.
 It involves the search for the correct
or proper definition of thing.
 He was the first philosopher who ever
engaged in a systematic questioning
about the self.
 Socrates did not lecture, he
instead would ask questions and
engage the person in a
discussion.
 He would begin asking as if he did
not know anything.
 Using this method, the questioner
should be skilled at detecting
misconceptions and at revealing
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them by asking the right
questions.
 The goal is to bring the person
closer to the final understanding.
 The result is a definition that
cannot be refuted anymore by
Socratic reasoning.
 The aim of the Socratic Method is
to make people think, seek and
ask again and again. Some may
be angered and frustrated, but
what is important is for them to
realize that they do not know
everything, that there are things
that they are ignorant of, to accept
this and to continue learning and
searching for answers.
 Socratic Method: Question and
Answer; Leads students to think
for themselves.
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
(The Apology)
 He believed that his mission in life
was to seek the highest knowledge
and convince others who were willing
to seek his knowledge with him.
 To get in touch with the soul.
(SOUL – TRUE SELF)
 For him, virtue is inner goodness, and
real beauty is that of the soul.
 According to him, real understanding
comes from within the person.
PLATO (428 – 348 BCE)
 Real name is Aristocles.
 He was nicknamed “Plato”
because of his physical built
which means wide/broad.
 Was born in Athens to one of
Greece’s Aristocratic Families.
 Left Athens for 12 years after the
death of Socrates.
 Believed that philosophy is more
than analysis but rather is a way
of life,
 When he returned, he
established a school known as
“The Academy”.
Plato’s Metaphysics (philosophical study on
the causes and nature of things) is known
as the Theory of Forms.
 This was discussed in one of his
Dialogues, (The Republic)
 They are not objects
encountered with the senses but
can only be grasped
intellectually.
Characteristic of the Plato’s Forms
 The Forms are ageless and therefore
eternal
 The Forms are unchanging and
therefore permanent
 The Forms are unmoving and
indivisible
Plato’s Concept of Dualism refers to the
existence of two realms:
 The Realm of Shadows:
 Composed of changing,
‘sensible’ things which are lesser
entities and therefore imperfect
and flawed.
 Changing, imitation, flawed and
imperfect
 The Realm of Forms:
 Composed of eternal things
which are permanent and
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perfect. It is the source of all
reality and true knowledge
 Ideals, permanent and perfect
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
 Dialectic Method is important
 Knowledge lies within the person’s
soul
 Human Beings are microcosms of
universal macrocosm.
 Even if the materials of the human
body and the physical world are
imperfect, humans have the
immortal, rational soul which Plato
believed is created in the image of
the Divine.
 People are intrinsically good
sometimes however judgments are
made in ignorance. (Plato’s equates
ignorance with evil.)
THREE COMPONENTS OF THE SOUL
1. The Reason - is rational and is the
motivation for goodness and truth
2. The Spirited - is non-rational and is
the will or the drive toward action
3. The Appetites - are irrational and
lean towards the desire for
pleasures of the body
ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
 What people see are only shadows
of reality which they believe are real
things and represents knowledge
 What these people fail to realize is
that the shadows are not real for
according to Plato, “only the Forms
are real”
Love according to Plato:
 Is the way by which a person can
move from a state of imperfect
knowledge and ignorance to a
state of perfection and true
knowledge.
 Is the force that paves the way
for all beings to ascend to higher
stages of self-realization and
perfection.
 begins with a feeling or
experience that there is
something lacking. This then
drives the person to seek for that
which is lacking.
 The way of knowing and
realizing the truth
 A process of seeking higher
states of being
 The pursuit that motivates man
and transforms people and
societies
 The greater the love, the more
intellectual component it will
contain
 Lifelong longing and pursuit seek
even higher stages of love which
lead to the possession of
absolute beauty.
“To love the highest is to become
the best.”
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ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354 – 430

A.D)
 Aurelius Augustinus
 A Christian philosopher who initially
rejected Christianity for it seemed to
him then that Christianity could not
provide him answers to questions
that interested him
 Bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia,
Roman North Africa
 Wanted to know about moral evil
and why it existed in people
4. Love for God is the supreme virtue
and only through loving God can
man find real happiness
- If man loves God first and
everything else to a lesser
degree then all will fall into its
rightful place.
“Real Happiness can only be
found in God.”

VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE:

 Christianity sees man as sinners
who reject/go against a loving God’s
commands.
 Christian Philosophers held faith
supreme over reason and logic.

TWO REALS OF HUMAN NATURE:

1. God as the source of all reality and
truth
- Without God as the source of all
truth, man could never
understand eternal truths.
- Those who know most about
God will come closest to
understanding the true nature of
the world.
2. The sinfulness of Man
- The cause of sin or evil is an act
of Man’s Freewill
- Moral Goodness can only be
achieved through the grace God.

DISORDERED LOVE - When man loves

the wrongs things.
1. Excessive love of physical objects
leads to sin of greed
2. Love for other people is not lasting
and excessive love for them is the
sin of jealousy
3. Excessive love for the self leads to
the sin of pride

All things are worthy of love but they

must be loved properly.
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RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650) Philosophy should progress from

 French Philosopher, Mathematician simple ideas to complex ideas.
& Scientist (He Applied scientific &
mathematic methods in Philosophy)
 Father of Modern Philosophy
 One of the prominent rationalist
Philosophers of Europe
 Introduced Cartesian method and
invented Analytic Geometry.

Is there anything I can know with certainty?

 Nothing satisfied him, there were
always differences in the facts, ideas
and opinions.
 In his search for an answer, he had
three dreams. These dreams
instructed him to construct a system
of knowledge using just the powers
of human reason.

TWO POWERS OF HUMAN MIND

1. Intuition - he ability to apprehend
direction of certain truths
2. Deduction - the power to discover
what is not known by progressing in
an orderly way from what is already
known. Truths are arrived at using a
step by step process.

Descartes deduced that a thinker is a thing

that doubts, understands, affirms, denies,
wills, refuses and also imagines and feels
(Price, 2000)
 Hence, I Think; therefore I am

Descartes believed in Apriori,

 Truths that can be discovered. Ideas
discovered this way do not rely on
some experiences because they are
innate in the Human Mind.

Mind-Body Problem
 Descartes believed in the concept of
dualism, in which he believed that
the mind/ soul was separated from
the body.
 The body, according to Descartes, is
like a machine that is controlled by
the will and aided by the mind.