Understanding the Self | 1st Semester |

philosophical perspective

What is Philosophy?

● Greek words “philo” (love) and “Sophia” (wisdom) = love of wisdom

● The most general way of thinking about the meaning of our lives in the world and

reflecting deeply on what is true or false, good or evil, right or wrong and beautiful

or ugly.

● The study of the basic ideas about knowledge, truth, right and wrong, religion, and

the nature and meaning of life

● a method, a journey, and intellectual activity of learning how to ask and re-ask

questions until meaningful answers appear.

● Learning where to get data, how to relate materials, double-check all claims, reject

claims, fortify arguments.

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It is the study of how we understand our existence, and how we come to know what

is real, good, and true.

It is an academic discipline and so has branches that focus on specific areas.

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And how do we come to know what is real, true, good and beautiful?

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Philosophy overall aims to question assumptions you make about our lives

and really dig into the details of “why we think what we think and how we

choose to act.” It can get complicated at times, but it can also help a person to

see more clearly that there are other ways of looking at the world than is our

hand.

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The SELF is a topic that is often talked about but largely goes unnoticed.

● Nature vs Nurture

● identity vs Self

The natural basic of the self (biology)

Nurturing factors in the context of one's life

Identity - the qualities, beliefs that makes a particular person different from others

Self -refers to the person that someone normally or the entire person of an individual

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Dimensions of the self / identity

● Personality - individual patterns of thinking feeling and behaving

● Social Factor - an agent of one's being

● Environmental factor - a natural force simultaneously affect one’s character

● Hereditary factor - a process by which certain traits are past generation to

generation

● Person volition factor - refers to the inclination of a person to construct a certain

specific identity that will set him/her apart from others

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Socrates

He is Athenian, classical Greek philosopher, founder of western philosophy, first

moral philosopher of the western ethical tradition of thought.

SOCRATIC PARADOX

● No one desires evil.

● no one errs or does wrong willingly or knowingly.

● Virtue - all virtue - is knowledge - virtue - all virtue

● Virtue is sufficient for happiness

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Lao Tzu

- He is a Chinese taoist philosopher.

- “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom; mastering

others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

Virtuous person- the one whose character is made up of the moral qualities accepted as

virtues.

Virtue - it alone secure one’s happiness

Evil Acts - result ignorance

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Plato

He termed “eudaimonia”, meaning fulfillment.

Special Kind of Therapy

1. Subjecting your ideas to examination rather than acting on impulse

2. Let your lover change you

3. Decode the message of beauty

4. Reform society

SELF CONCEPT

(tripartie theory of soul)

● Rational Soul - Seeks truth, the mind, the real soul

● Spirited Soul - Emotional soul and heart

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 ● Appetitive Soul - physical desires the body

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Aurelius Augustine

Augustin came from an ethnic group from Africa/Algeria, Roman Africa. He was known

as a man of powerful intellect and a stirring orator who took to defend Christianity

against detractors.

First Sin

- Confessed in his book entitled “THE CONFESSION”

Hedonistic Lifestyle

- The belief that pleasure or happiness is the most important goal in life

Soul

- The soul has no partial dimensions.

- is a kind of substance, participating in reasons, fit for ruling body

Libido

- Affected human intelligence and will as well as affection, desires, and sexual

desire

Original sin transmitted to descendants = sin of Adam inherited by all you human

beings

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St. Thomas Aquinas

- He is an Italian medieval thinker, the most influential thinker of medieval

scholasticism.

- Family descendants of Emperors: Frederick I and Henry VI

- He is a prolific writer and he studied Aristotle's work and adopted ideas about a

man’s self-concept

The Matter

- Greek word “hyle”

- Common stuff that makes up everything in the universe

The Form

- Greek word “morphe”

- Essence of the substance or thing

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René Descartes

● Father of modern philosophy

● Conceived of the human person as having body and mind

● Claims that there is so much we should doubt

Self Concept

- I think therefore, I am

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 - The fact that one thing should lead one to conclude without the trace of the doubt

he exists.

SELF - two combination entities:

● Cogito - the thing that thinks (mind)

● Extenza - extension of the mind (body)

Three Types of Ideas

● Fabricated - ideas are inventions made by minds.

● Adventitious - Ideas that cannot be manipulated, like one changed by the mind.

● Innate - Ideas made by God in a person’s mind.

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David Hume

● Scottish Philosopher

● Has a very unique way of looking at man

● the self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body

SELF CONCEPT

Made of impressions and ideas,

- Impressions are the basic objects of our sensation, core of thought

- Ideas are the copies of impressions

Self is the totality of a person’s conscious life

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Immanuel Kant

- Thinking of the self as a mere combination of impressions was problematic for

Immanuel Kant.

- Recognizes the veracity of Hume's account everything starts with perception and

sensation of impressions.

- Kant’s beliefs continue to have major influence on contemporary philosophy,

especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory, and

aesthetics.

- The self has implications in present day cognitive psychology

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Gilbert Ryle

- For Ryle, what really matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-

day life

- The self is how you believe.

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Merleau-Ponty

- A phenomenologist

- The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interests

empiricist and rationalist act as one

- The self is embodied subjectivity

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