UNIT 2: THE PHILOSOPHY OF UNDERSTANDING THESELF

GEd 101: Understanding the Self

PHILOSOPHY St. Augustine

Philosophy is defined as the study of knowledge or St. Augustine has been characterized as
wisdom from its Latin roots, philo (love) and sophia Christianity’s first theologian and one of the great
(wisdom). ancient philosopher.

Various thinkers for centuries tried to explain the He concluded, “That the body is united with the
natural causes of everything that exist specifically soul, so that man may be
the inquiry on the self
entire and complete,
SELF ACCORDING TOPHILOSOPHY
According to St. Augustine, the human nature is
Socrates composed of two realms:

A philosopher from Athens, Greece and said to have
the greatest influence on European thought.
Socrates had a unique style of asking questions
called Socratic Method.
Socratic Method or dialectic method involves the
search for the correct/proper definition of a thing.
(Price, 2000)
The foundation of Socrates philosophy was the
command to “Know Thyself”.
1. God as the source of all reality and truth
2. The sinfulness of man. The cause of sin or evil is
an act of mans’ freewill.
He also stated that real happiness can only be
found in God.
RENE DESCARTES
Founder of modern philosophy.
“cogito, ergo sum—“I think, therefore I exist”

According to Socrates, self is dichotomous which ◦ He explained that to gain true knowledge, one

means composed of two things: must doubt everything even

1. The physical realm own existence.

2. The ideal realm ◦ He identified the physical self as part of nature

PLATO ◦ The conscious self can exercise free will in the

choices it makes
A student of Socrates, who introduced the idea of a
three part soul/self that is composed of : JOHN LOCKE

1. Reason (Charioteer) An English philosopher; known for “Tabula Rasa” or

Blank Slate
2. Appetite (Black Horse)
The self, according to Locke is consciousness. He
3. Spirit/Passion. (White Horse)
emphasized the ff:
1. To discover the nature of personal identity, it is The conscious self is governed by reality principle.
important to find
2. The unconscious self is governed by pleasure
out what it means to be a person. principle.

2. A person is a thinking, intelligent being who has Freud proposed how mind works, he called this as
the abilities to provinces or structures of the mind.

reason and to reflect. The three levels of the mind are:

3. A person is also someone who considers 1. Id. This is primarily based on the pleasure
themself to be the same principle

thing in different times and different places. 2. Ego. The structure that is primarily based on the

4. Consciousness as being aware that we are reality principle. This

thinking mediates between the impulses of the id and

5. Consciousness makes possible our belief that we restraints of the superego.

are the same identity in different times and 3. Superego. This is primarily dependent on learning
different places the difference

DAVID HUME between right and wrong, thus it is called moral

He was a Scottish philosopher who believes that principle.

there is no self! According to Freud, there are two kinds of instinct

He believed that self is composed of only two that drive individual behavior – the (a) eros or the

distinct entities: life instinct and the (b) thanatos of the death
instinct.
"impressions" and "ideas“.
GILBERT RYLE
Hume considered that the self does not exist
because all of the experiences that a A British analytical philosopher; famous in the field
of Linguistic Analysis which focused
person may have are just perceptions
According to Ryle, the self is best understood as a
Human created an imaginary creature which is not
pattern of behavior
real (“Fictional self)
He opposed the notable ideas of the previous
SIGMUND FREUD
philosophers; he termed it “category
Father and Founder of Psychoanalysis.
mistake.”
The dualistic view of self by Freud involves the
IMMANUEL KANT
conscious self and
A German Philosopher who made great contribution
unconscious self.
to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, and
ethics.
Kant maintained that an individual self makes the
experience of the world comprehensible

It is the self that makes consciousness for the

person to make sense of everything.

For Kant, it is man’s duty to move towards

perfection. Kant emphasized that people should
always see duty as a divine command

(Price, 2000)

PAUL & PATRICIA CHURCHLAND

Churchlands’ terms as belief, desire, fear, sensation,

pain, joy— actually misrepresent the reality of
minds and selves

Patricia Churchland claimed that man’s brain is

responsible for the identity known as self.

Paul Churchland is one of the many philosophers

and psychologists that viewed the self from a
materialistic point of view

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY

A French philosopher and phenomenologist.

According to him, the division between the “mind”

and the “body” is a product of confused thinking.

The self is experienced as a unity in which the

mental and physical are seamlessly woven together.

According to him, the world and the sense of self

are emergent phenomena in the ongoing process of
man’s becoming