Understanding The Self

Learning Outcome:
1. Recognize the Social, Environment and other Life factors
of understanding the self.

2. Explain the role of Philosophy in understanding the self.

3. Discuss the different concept of the self from the

philosophical perspective

4. Differentiate the various concepts of the self and identify

its similarities.
 S.E.L.F.
Social, Environment, and other
Life Factors
 Nature vs. Nurture
● Nature, a person develops his/her characteristics
biologically (something that has developed starting from the
birth of the child)

● Nurture, a person develops his/her characteristics through

the external factors, such as the environment and the
society (family, friends, relatives, etc.)
 Identity vs. Self
● Identities are “qualities, characteristics, beliefs, opinions,
etc., that make a person unique from others.”

● Self is the “person of himself/herself,” meaning, it is what

the others didn’t see in you, because this is personal
character; this is what makes up a person.
 Dimensionalities
Of the Self/Identity
● Social factors - factors in the development of a person
which includes all the person around us, that might create
an impression to you or affects your actions and thoughts in
life.

● Environmental factors - factors in the development of a

person that includes the environmental structure, events,
and such, which might give an impact on how a person
could grow in all the aspects of his/her life.
 Dimensionalities
Of the Self/Identity
● Hereditary factors - factors in the development of the
person that includes biological changes and events, such
as growth in height, puberty that usually affects the physical
characteristics of a person.

● the Person-volition factors - are the inclination of a

person creates a social construct which sets him apart to
others.
 SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES

Philosophical Perspective:
 PHILOSOPHY
● “Philia” “Sophia”, “Love of Wisdom”

● It is a science that studies beings in their

ultimate causes, reasons and principles
through the aid of human reason alone.
SOCRATES: “KNOW THYSELF”

● “The unexamined life was not worth

living”
● The Soul is immortal.
● Human life does not end at one’s
death.
● believed that human beings won’t
solve our problems by policy,
economics, or technology, until our
PSYCHE changes from the inside
out.
● Dichotomous Realms.
■ The Physical Realm – changeable, transient and
imperfect.
■ The Ideal Realm – unchanging, eternal and immortal.

● Socratic Method - A method of carefully examining our

thoughts and emotion – to gain self-knowledge.

“Knowing that we know nothing.”

Self-knowing and Self-care by studying our values.

(Socrates & Plato, APOLOGY 29D-E)
 PLATO: THE RATIONAL SOUL

● The true self is the Soul.

● The Self is a knower.
● “self is fundamentally an intellectual
entity whose nature exists
independent from physical world.”
● Human life does not end at one’s
death.
● The human person is a dichotomy of;
■ Body – material and destructive.
■ Soul – immaterial and indestructible.

● The 3 parts of the Self:

■ Reason – enable us to think deeply make wise choices
and achieve true understanding.
■ Spirit or passion – includes basic emotions such as
love, anger ambition and empathy.
■ Physical Appetite – our basic biological needs such as
hunger, thirst and desire.
 ARISTOTLE: THE RATIONAL
ANIMAL
● The self is hylomorphic: the self is
essentially BODY and SOUL; The
Self is a unified creature.
● All living being have souls.
● The Soul and its form allow humans
to perform activity of life.
● The human person is simply an
animal that think.
● The Soul dies along the body.
● Three Requirements for something to be called a “living
being”
■ GROW
■ REPRODUCE
■ FEED IT SELF

● Three Kinds of Souls:

■ Vegetative – the physical body.
■ Sentient/Sensitive – the feelings, emotions and sensual
desires.
■ Rational – includes intellect, to know and understand.
ST. AUGUSTINE: KNOWING GOD,
IS KNOWING ONESELF
● Human mind is an image of God;
capable of remembering its creator
● The mind has the capacity to become
wise, to know, remember and love God.
● The Soul governs and defines the human
person or the self.
● The Soul has an immortal Soul.
“Communion with the God”
● The Soul is an important element of man.
 DESCARTES: “I THINK,
THEREFORE I AM”

● Essence of the self – a thinking entity

that doubts, understands, analyzes,
question and reasons.
● The Mind is the only thing that one can
be certain of.
● Whenever we think, we exist.
● The act of thinking about the self – of
being self-conscious – is in itself proof
that there is a self.
● The (2) dimensions of the self;
■ The Thinking Self – is the nonmaterial mind, immortals
independent of physical laws of the universe.
■ The Physical body – is the material body, moral,
non-thinking entity, full governed by physical laws of
nature.

The mind and body are both substances. Therefore, mind and body
are completely distinct and that they are independent from each
other
 LOCKE: THE SELF IS
CONSCIOUSNESS
● The Self is a blank Slate or Tabula Rasa.
● Self if constructed primarily from sense
experiences – or more specifically, what
we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
● Using the power of reason and
introspection enables people to
understand and achieve conclusions
about self.
● In essence, the self is a collection of
memories organized by consciousness.
 HUME: THERE IS NO SELF

● People experience a collection of

different perception, impressions,
sensations, ideas, thoughts, and images.
● There is no past nor future, only the
present stimulation provided by the
environment.
● The Idea of personal identity is a result of
imagination.
 KANT: WE CONSTRUCT
THE SELF
● The Self construct its own reality creating a
world that is familiar and predictable.
● The self is actively organizing and
synthesizing all our thoughts and
perceptions
■ Internal World – thoughts, feelings
■ External world – events, situations,
happenings outside our control
● Through our rationality, the self transcends
sense experience.
 CHURCHLAND : THE
SELF IS THE BRAIN

● All we have is the brain and so if

the brain is gone there in no self.

● The physical brain and not the

imaginary mind, give us our
sense of self.
MERLEAU-PONTY : THE
SELF IS EMBODIED
SUBJECTIVITY

● All knowledge of ourselves and

our world is based on subjective
experience.