-The physical Appetite is the
THE SELF
ACCORDING TO
PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy is defined as the
study of knowledge or wisdom
from its Latin roots, Philo
(love) and Sophia (wisdom).
This field is also considered
“The Queen of All Sciences”
because every scientific
discipline has philosophical
foundations.
Socrates
-A philosopher from Athens,
Greece, and said to have the
greatest influence on
European thought.
-he is known for the writings of
his student Plato who became
one of the greatest
philosophers of his time.
-Socrates had a unique style
of asking questions called the
Socratic Method.
-Socratic Method or dialectic
method involves the search
for the correct/proper
definition of a thing.
- “Know Thyself”.
-self is dichotomous which
means composed of two
things: the physical realm and
the ideal realm.
Plato
-A student of Socrates, who
introduced the idea of a three-
part soul/self that is composed
of reason, physical appetite,
and spirit or passion.
- Reason enables humans to
think deeply, make wise
choices and achieve a true
understanding of eternal
truths. Plato also called this as
divine essence.
must doubt everything even
basic biological needs of
human being such as hunger,
thirst, and sexual desire.
- And the spirit or passion is
the basic emotions of human
being such as love, anger,
ambition, aggressiveness, and
empathy.
-Plato also illustrated his view
of the soul/self in “Phaedrus”
in his metaphor.
St. Augustine
-last of the great ancient
philosophers whose ideas
were greatly Platonic.
-Augustine has been
characterized as Christianity’s
first theologian.
-Like Plato, Augustine
believed that the physical
body is different from the
immortal soul.
-soul he even characterized
that “the soul makes war with
the
-According to St. Augustine,
human nature is composed of
two realms:
a.God as the source of all
reality and truth.
b. The sinfulness of man.
-He also stated that real
happiness can only be found
in God.
Rene Descartes
-A French philosopher,
mathematician, and
considered the founder of
modern philosophy.
-Descartes, famous principle
the “cogito, ergo sum— “I
think, therefore I exist”.
-He explained that in order to
gain true knowledge, one
own existence.
-He also maintained that the
soul and the body are
independent of one another,
and each can exist and
function without the other.
-He identified the physical self
as part of nature, and the
conscious self (mind, soul) is
a part of the spiritual realm,
John Locke
-An English philosopher and
physician and famous for his
concept of “Tabula Rasa” or
Blank Slate that assumes the
nurture side of human
development.
-The self, according to Locke
is consciousness.
-In his essay entitled On
Personal Identity (from his
most famous work, Essay
Concerning Human
Understanding) he discussed
the reflective analysis of how
an individual may experience
the self in everyday living.
He provided the following key
points:
1. To discover the nature of
personal identity, it is
important to find out what it
means to be a person.
2. A person is a thinking,
intelligent being who has the
ability to reason and reflect.
3. A person is also someone
who considers themself to be
the same thing in different
times and different places.
4. Consciousness as being
aware that we are
thinking—always
accompanies thinking and is
an essential part of the
thinking process.
5. Consciousness makes
possible our belief that we are
the same identity in different
times and different places.
-For Locke, personal identity
and the soul or substance in
which the personal identity is
situated are two very different
things.
-The bottom line of his theory
on self is that self is not tied to
any particular body or
substance. It only exists in
other times and places
because of the memory of
those experiences.
David Hume
-He was a Scottish
philosopher and also an
empiricist.
-His claim about self is quite
controversial because he
assumed that there is no self!
In his essay entitled, “On
Personal Identity” (1739) he
said that, if we carefully
examine the contents of [our]
experience, we find that there
are only two distinct
entities"impressions" and
"ideas".
-Hume considered that the
self does not exist because all
of the experiences that a
person may have are just
perceptions and this includes
the perception of self.
None of these perceptions
resemble a unified and
permanent self-identity that
exists over time.
-He further added that there
are instances that an
individual is limited in
experiencing their perception
like in sleeping.
-As an empiricist, Hume
provides an honest
description and analysis of his
own experience, within which
there is no self to be found.
-Hume explained that the self
that is being experienced by
an individual is nothing but a
kind of fictional self.
Sigmund Freud
-A well-known Australian
psychologist and considered
the Father and Founder of
Psychoanalysis.
-His influence in Psychology
and therapy is dominant and
popular in the 20th to 21st
century.
-The dualistic view of self by
Freud involves the conscious
self and unconscious self.
a. The conscious self is
governed by reality principle.
b. The unconscious self is
governed by pleasure
principle.
-Freud proposed how mind
works, he called this as
provinces or structures of the
mind.
-conscious awareness which
characterizes the person in
dealing with the external
world.
The observable behavior,
however, is further controlled
by the workings of the
subconscious/unconscious
mind.
-Subconscious serves as the
repository of past
experiences, repressed
memories, fantasies, and
urges.
The three levels of the mind
are:
1. Id. This is primarily based
on the pleasure principle.
2. Ego. The structure is
primarily based on the reality
principle.
3. Superego. This is primarily
dependent on learning the
difference between right and
wrong, thus it is called moral
principle.
-Two kinds of instincts that
drive individual behavior:
* Eros or the life instinct-
the energy of eros is called
libido and includes urges
necessary for individual and
species survival like thirst,
hunger, and sex.
*Thanatos of the death
instinct-
human behavior is directed
towards destruction in the
form of aggression and
violence, such are the
manifestations of Thanatos.
Gilbert Ryle
-A British analytical
philosopher.
-According to Ryle, the self is
best understood as a pattern
of behavior, the tendency or
disposition for a person to
behave in a certain way in
certain circumstances.
-He opposed the notable
ideas of the previous
philosophers (category
mistake)
-When we speak about the
self as something
independent of the physical
body.
Immanuel Kant
-A German Philosopher who
made a great contribution to
the fields of metaphysics,
epistemology, and ethics.
-Greatest philosopher of the
modern period.
-It is the self that makes
consciousness for the person
to make sense of everything.
-the self is the product of
reason.
-Transcendental apperception
happens when people do not
experience self directly,
instead as a unity of all
impressions that are
organized by the mind through
perceptions.
Paul and Patricia
Churchland
-that the concepts and
theoretical vocabulary that
people use to think about the
selves—using such terms as
belief, desire, fear, sensation,
pain, and joy— actually
misrepresent the reality of
minds and selves.
-He claims that the self is a
product of brain activity.
-Neurophilosophy
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
-A French philosopher and
phenomenologist.
-He took a very different
approach to the self and the
mind/body “problem.”
- According to him, the
division between the “mind”
and the “body” is a product of
confused thinking.
- the consciousness, the
world, and the human body
are all interconnected as they
mutually perceive the world.
-According to him, the world
and the sense of self are
emergent phenomena in the
ongoing process of man’s
becoming.
-Perception is not purely the
result of sensations nor it is
purely interpretations.
Rather consciousness is a
process that includes sensing
as well as
interpreting/reasoning.
THE SELF
ACCORDING TO
PSYCHOLOGY
-Psychology is a
scientific study of mental
processes and human
behavior.
- It aims to describe,
analyze, predict, control
human behavior in
general.
Self is an essential
construct in psychology
because it fulfills the
goals of the discipline in
studying human and the
reason for their action.
The Self as Cognitive
Construction
-The cognitive aspect of
the self is known as self-
concept.
- Self-concept is defined
as self-knowledge, a
cognitive structure that
includes beliefs about
personality traits, physical
characteristics, abilities,
values, goals, and roles,
as well as the knowledge
that an individual exists
as individuals.
- As humans grow and
develop, self-concept
becomes abstract and
more complex.
According to the
psychologist Dr. Bruce A.
Bracken in 1992, there
are six specific domains
that are related to self-
concept these are:
1) the social domain or
the ability of the person to
interact with others;
2) the competence
domain or the ability to
meet the basic needs;
3) the affect domain or the
awareness of the
emotional states;
4) the physical domain or
the feelings about looks,
health, physical condition,
and overall appearance;
5) academic domain or
the success or failure in
the school; and
6) family domain or how
well one function within
the family unit.
William James and the Me-
Self and I-Self
- William James is a well-
known figure in
Psychology who is
considered as the founder
of functionalism.
-He brought prominence
to U.S. psychology
through the publication of
The Principles of
Psychology (1890) that
made him more influential
than his contemporaries
in the field.
- James made a clear -self-image
distinction between ways
-Ideal-self
of approaching the self –
Multiple versus Unified
-the knower (the pure or
Self
the I – Self). Self).
- According to Multiple
The function of the
Selves Theory, there are
knower (I-Self) according different aspects of the self
to James must be the exist in an individual.
agent of experience.
- self is a whole consist of
-the known (the parts, and these parts
objective or the Me – manifest themselves when
Self). need arise.
While the known (Me-Self) - Gregg Henriques proposed
have three different but the Tripartite Model of
interrelated aspects of Human Consciousness.
empirical self (known - self is consist of three
today as self- concept): related, but also separable
domains these are the
- the Me viewed as experimental self, private
material, self, and public self.
-the Me viewed as social,
-experiential self or the
theater of consciousness is
-the Me viewed as
a domain of self that defined
spiritual in nature. as felt experience of being.
Real and Ideal Self -private self-
consciousness system or
Carl Rogers
the narrator/interpreter is a
- Carl Rogers is best portion of self that verbally
known as the founder of narrates what is happening
and tries to make sense of
client-centered therapy
what is going on.
- and considered as one
-public self or Persona, the
of the prominent domain of self that an
humanistic or existential individual shows to the
theorists in personality. public, and this interacts on
how others see an
-central to Roger’s individual.
personality theory is the
notion of self or self- -Unified being is essentially
concept. connected to consciousness,
awareness, and agency.
This is defined as “the
organized, consistent set
of perception and beliefs True versus False Self
about oneself”.
Donald Winnicott
The self-concept includes
- Donald Winnicott was a
three components:
pediatrician in London who
-self-worth
studied Psychoanalysis with
Melanie Klein,
- a renowned personality
theorist and one of the
pioneers in object relations
and development of
personality in childhood.
- According to him, false
self is an alternative
personality used to protect
an individual’s true identity
or one’s ability to “hide” the
real self.
- The false self is activated
to maintain social
relationship as anticipation
of the demands of others.
- false self can be a healthy
self if it is perceived as
functional for the person and
for the society and being
compliant without the feeling
of betrayal of true self.
- unhealthy false self
happens when an individual
feels forced compliance in
any situation.
- true self has a sense of
integrity and connected
wholeness that is rooted in
early infancy.
- The baby creates
experiences of a sense of
reality and sense of life
worth living.
-Winnicott claimed that true
self can be achieved by
good parenting that is not
necessarily a perfect
parenting.
The Self as Proactive and
Agentic
Albert Bandura
- Albert Bandura is a
psychologist and Professor
Emeritus of Social Science
in Psychology at Stanford
University.
- He is known for his theory
of social learning by means
of modeling.

- He is famous for his

proposed concept of self-
efficacy.

- His personality theory, The

Social Cognitive Theory

- This theory emphasized

that human beings are
proactive, self-regulating,
self-reflective, and self-
organizing.

- Self as proactive means

an individual have control in
any situation by making
things happen.

- They act as agent in doing

or making themselves as
they are.

- selfhood. Agents assume

some degree of ownership
and control over things, both

internally (I control my own

thoughts) and

externally (I make things

happen in the environment).

- According to Bandura
(1989), self-efficacy beliefs
determine how people feel,
think, motivate themselves
and behave.

- Such beliefs produce these

diverse effects through four
major processes.

-cognitive

-motivational

-affective and

-selection processes.