REFLECTION PAPER

Module 1 is about the Philosophy of the Self and we see the values, identity, roles
and needs of a person, psychologically speaking. The self is seen in different perspective
and one of those is that philosophy of the self refers to the condition that makes us an
individual. The concept of self can examine in five ways and one of this are self-
knowledge that refers to knowledge and understanding of one’s own learning and
capabilities. The 2nd one is self-activity, it is an independent and self-determined action of
one person. It is the quality or state of being active. Self-independent is the 3rd concept
of self and it refers to the inner self and focuses on internal attributes. It also related to a
person’s sense of worth and self-esteem. The 4th one is self-identity that determines the
individual’s uniqueness, since we all know that everyone is different from each other and
there’s no such thing as the same. The last one self-image and it refers to your feeling
about yourself, achievements and values in life.

The philosophy of the self is known in two different aspects and that is the eastern
philosophy of self and the western philosophy of the self also. The eastern philosophy of
the self is the views of the self that is emanated from the Asian continent and postulated
by the thinkers of the eastern regions. Hindu philosophy of self believes that the self is
made up of two aspects which is atman and brahman. Atman means essence, breath or
soul. It is a study of real self of the individual and is considered as eternal, imperishable
and beyond times. They believe that true self lies in the inner core of human identities
and this inner core is identical with God. It is also separated into two layers which is the
inner and the outer layer. The inner layer involves self with self-God and the outer layer
involves common sense according to Dalal in 2010. On the other side, brahman is
considered as the highest universal principle because it is considered as the ultimate
reality in the universe. One of the definitions of brahman is it is pervasive, genderless,
infinite and an eternal truth which doesn’t change yet cause of all the changes and
according to Lochtefeld in 2002 it is a unity behind diversity which means in every
differences and unlikeness there we will see the helping hands and unity of each and
everyone. The Buddhist philosophy of the self understands the nature of self which is a
combination of five aggregates of existence known as “Five Skandhas of the five heaps”
and those five are form, sensation, perception, mental formation and consciousness.
Form is the 1st skandhas, followed by sensation which is made up of feelings such as
emotional, physical and our senses. The 3rd is the perception and it takes the most of
thinking that includes conceptualization, cognition and reasoning. Mental Formation is the
4th skandhas and it includes habits, prejudices and predispositions. In mental formation,
attention, faith, consciousness, pride, desire, vindictiveness and other mental state both
virtuous and non-virtuous is also part. The last skandhas is the consciousness and it is
about the awareness and sensitivity of an object without conceptualization. This also
explains as a base that ties the experience of life together according to plot in 2000. The
next philosophy is the Confucian philosophy of the self, it is the achieved state of moral
excellence rather than a given human condition and it is achieved in life. The concept of
Confucianism is linked with the area of virtues and it states that every person is born in
four beginnings and it is the heart of compassion, heart of righteousness, heart of
propriety and heart of wisdom. According to Hobson in 2005, the self can never be startle,
if the virtue stops then everything is lost then and to be a human means to develop and
keep pursuing the virtues.

The next aspect of the philosophy of the self is the western philosophy. The
western philosophy encompasses all views of the self that emanated from European and
American continent. The first is the Socrates being the moral philosopher. He believes
that to understand the self is to know thyself. This means that we should know and
understand our own to know our self, if we do not understand the attitudes then we don’t
know ourselves also according to Socrates, the man must stand and live according to
his/her nature and has to look or examine himself/herself. After Socrates is Aristotle who
is known as the father of the western philosophy. According to him, self is made up of the
soul which is the essence of living is not separated from the body. Aristotle also points
the three kind of soul which are vegetative, sensitive and national. Rene Descartes is also
one of the western philosophers and he states that self is a thinking person. “Cogito ergo
sum” is a word from Rene and this means “I think, therefore I am”. David Hume is a
philosopher also who states that the self is nothing more than mental perception which is
available in our memory. This perception relies in our previous experiences and all
perceptions is divided into two distinct kinds which is impression and ideas. John Locke,
also a western philosophers state that the self can be understood by examining one’s
mind. Locke also says that self is thinking intelligent being that has reason and reflection
that defines personal identity. As per Sigmund Freud, the self has three layers and those
are id, ego and superego. Id works on pleasure principle such as our sexual and
aggressive drives while ego seeks to please the id drives in realistic way and it regulates
our action. The last one is the superego that works on the morality principle and it seeks
what is right and wrong. The last philosophy is the Sikolohiyang Pilipino and Virgilio
Enriquez is the father of this psychology. He claims that Sikolohiyang Pilipino is the
psycho philosophical view of the self.