Philosophy is defined as the study of knowledge or wisdom from its Latin roots,

philo (love) and sophia (wisdom). This field is also considered as “The Queen

of All Sciences” because every scientific discipline has philosophical

foundations.

Various thinkers for centuries tried to explain the natural causes of everything

that exist specifically the inquiry on the self preoccupied these philosophers in

the history. The Greek philosophers were the ones who seriously questioned myths

and moved away from them in attempting to understand reality by exercising the art of questioning that

satisfies their curiosity, including the questions about self. The following lecture will present the
different

philosophical perspectives and views about self.

Socrates

 A philosopher from Athens, Greece and said to have the

greatest influence on European thought.

 According to the history he was not able to write any of

his teachings and life’s account instead, he is known from 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 Socratic Method.

 Socratic Method or dialectic method involves the search

for the correct/proper definition of a thing. In this method,

Socrates did not lecture, he instead would ask questions and

engage the person in a discussion. He would begin by acting as if

he did not know anything and would get the other person to clarify

their ideas and resolve logical inconsistencies (Price, 2000).

 The foundation of Socrates philosophy was the Delphic

Oracle’s that command to “Know Thyself”. Here, Socrates would like to emphasize that knowing

or understanding oneself should be more than the physical self, or the body.
 According to Socrates, self is dichotomous which means composed of two things: The physical

realm or the one that is changeable, temporal, and imperfect. The best example of the physical

realm is the physical world. The physical world is consisting of anything we sense – see, smell,

feel, hear, and taste. It is always changing and deteriorating. The ideal realm is the one that is

imperfect and unchanging, eternal, and immortal. This includes the intellectual essences of the

universe like the concept of beauty, truth, and goodness. Moreover, the ideal realm is also present

in the physical world. One may define someone as beautiful or truthful, but their definition is

limited and imperfect for it is always relative and subjective. It is only the ideal forms themselves

that are perfect, unchanging, and eternal.

 For Socrates, a human is composed of body and soul, the first belongs to the physical realm because

it changed, it is imperfect, and it dies, and the latter belongs to ideal realm for it survives the death.

Socrates also used the term soul to identify self.

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

 The self, according to Socrates is the immortal and unified entity that is consistent over time. For

example, a human being remains the same person during their childhood to adulthood given the

fact that they undergone developmental changes throughout their lifespan.

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.

o The Reason enables human to think deeply, make wise

choices and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.

Plato also called this as divine essence.

o The physical Appetite is the basic biological needs of

human being such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.

o And the spirit or passion is the basic emotions of human

being such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness and

empathy.

 These three elements of the self works in every individual

inconsistently. According to Plato, it is always the responsibility

of the reason to organize, control, and reestablish harmonious

relationship between these three elements.

 Plato also illustrated his view of the soul/self in “Phaedrus” in his metaphor: the soul is like a

winged chariot drawn by two powerful horses: a white horse, representing Spirit, and a black horse,

embodying appetite. The charioteer is reason, whose task is to guide the chariot to the eternal realm

by controlling the two independent-minded horses. Those charioteers who are successful in setting

a true course and ensuring that the two steeds work together in harmonious unity achieve true

wisdom and banquet with the gods. However, those charioteers who are unable to control their

horses and keep their chariot on track are destined to experience personal, intellectual, and spiritual

failure.

St. Augustine

 He is considered as the last of the great ancient

philosophers whose ideas were greatly Platonic. In melding

philosophy and religious beliefs together, Augustine has been

characterized as Christianity’s first theologian.

 Like Plato, Augustine believed that the physical body is

different from the immortal soul. Early in his philosophical

development he described body as “snare” or “cage” of the soul

and said that the body is a “slave” of the soul he even characterized

that “the soul makes war with the body”. Later on he came to view

the body as “spouse” of the soul, with both attached to one another
by a “natural appetite.” He concluded, “That the body is united

with the soul, so that man may be entire and complete, is a fact we

recognize on the evidence of our own nature.”

 According to St. Augustine, the human nature is

composed of two realms:

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

1. God as the source of all reality and truth. Through mystical experience, man is capable of

knowing eternal truths. This is made possible through the existence of the one eternal truth

which is God. He further added that without God as the source of all truth, man could never

understand eternal truth. This relationship with God means that those who know most about

God will come closest to understanding the true nature of the world.

2. The sinfulness of man. The cause of sin or evil is an act of mans’ freewill. Moral goodness

can only be achieved through the grace of God.

 He also stated that real happiness can only be found in God. For God is love and he created humans

for them to also love. Problems arise because of the objects humans choose to love. Disordered

love results when man loves the wrong things which he believes will give him happiness.

Furthermore, he said that if man loves God first and everything else to a lesser degree, then all will

fall into its rightful place.

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” established his philosophical views on

“true knowledge” and concept of self.

 He explained that in order to gain true knowledge, one

must doubt everything even own existence. Doubting makes

someone aware that they are thinking being thus, they exist.

The essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of

being aware of our selves: being self-conscious in this way is

integral to having a personal identity. Conversely, it would be

impossible to be self-conscious if we did not have a personal

identity of which to be conscious. In other words, the essence

of self is being a thinking thing.

 The self is a dynamic entity that engages in metal operations – thinking, reasoning, and perceiving

processes. In addition to this, self-identity is dependent on the awareness in engaging with those

mental operations.

 He declared that the essential self or the self as the thinking entity is radically different from the

physical body. The thinking self or soul is a non-material, immortal, conscious being, independent

of the physical laws of the universe while the physical body is a material, mortal, non-thinking

entity, fully governed by the physical laws of nature.

 He also maintained that the soul and the body are independent of one another and each can exist

and function without the other. In cases in which people are sleeping or comatose, their bodies

continue to function even though their minds are not thinking, much like the mechanisms of a clock.

 He identified the physical self as part of nature, governed by the physical laws of the universe, and

available to scientific analysis and experimentation, and the conscious self (mind, soul) is a part of

the spiritual realm, independent of the physical laws of the universe, governed only by the laws of

reason and God’s will. And because it exists outside of the natural world of cause-and-effect, the

conscious self is able to exercise free will in the choices it makes.

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

John Locke

 An English philosopher and physician and famous in 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

abilities to reason and to 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.

 Although Locke and Descartes believed that a person or the self is a thinking intelligent being who

has the abilities to reflect and to reason, Locke was not convinced with the assumptions of Plato,

St. Augustine and Descartes that the individual self necessarily exists in a single soul or substance.

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".

 Impressions are the basic sensations of our experience, the

elemental data of our minds: pain, pleasure, heat, cold,

happiness, grief, fear, exhilaration, and so on.

 On the other hand, ideas are copies of impressions that

include thoughts and images that are built up from our primary

impressions through a variety of relationships, but because they

are derivative copies of impressions, they are once removed

from reality.

 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.

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

 He further added that there are instances that an individual is limited in experiencing their

perception like in sleeping. Similarly, when someone died all empirical senses end and according

to him, it makes no sense to believe that self exists in other forms. As an empiricist, Hume provide
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. Human created an imaginary creature which is not real. “Fictional self” is created to

unify the mental events and introduce order into an individual lives, but this “self” has no real

existence.

Sigmund Freud

 A well-known Australian psychologist and considered as

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.

 The conscious self is governed by reality principle. Here,

the self is rational, practical, and appropriate to the social

environment. The conscious self has the task of controlling the

constant pressures of the unconscious self, as its primitive

impulses continually seek for immediate discharge.

 The unconscious self is governed by pleasure principle. It

is the self that is aggressive, destructive, unrealistic and

instinctual. Both of Freud’s self needs immediate gratification

and reduction of tensions to optimal levels and the goal of every individual is to make unconscious

conscious.

 Freud proposed how mind works, he called this as provinces or structures of the mind. By illustrating

the tip of the iceberg which according to him represents 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. It

demands immediate satisfaction and is not hindered by

societal expectations.

2. Ego. The structure that is primarily based on the reality

principle. This mediates between the impulses of the id

and restraints of the superego.

3. Superego. This is primarily dependent on learning the

difference between right and wrong, thus it is called

moral principle. Morality of actions is largely

dependent on childhood upbringing particularly on

rewards and punishments.

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

 According to Freud, there are two kinds of instinct that drive individual behavior – the eros or the life

instinct and the thanatos of the death instinct. The energy of eros is called libido and includes urges

necessary for individual and species survival like thrist, hunger, and sex.in cases that human behaior is

directed towards destruction in the form of aggression and violence, such are the manifestations of

thanatos.

Gilbert Ryle

 A British analytical philosopher. He was an important

figure in the field of Linguistic Analysis which focused on the

solving of philosophical puzzles through an analysis of

language.

 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 and even claimed that those were results of

confused conceptual thinking he termed, category mistake.

 The category mistake happens when we speak about the

self as something independent of the physical body: a purely

mental entity existing in time but not space

Immanuel Kant

 A German Philosopher who made great contribution to

the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Kant is

widely regarded as the greatest philosopher of the modern

period.

 Kant maintained that an individual self makes the

experience of the world comprehensible because it is

responsible for synthesizing the discreet data of sense

experience into a meaningful whole.

 It is the self that makes consciousness for the person to

make sense of everything. It is the one that help every individual

gain insight and knowledge. If the self failed to do this

synthesizing function, there would be a chaotic and insignificant

collection of sensations.

 Additionally, the self is the product of reason, a regulative

principle because the self regulates experience by making

unified experience possible and unlike Hume, Kant’s self is not the object of consciousness, but it
makes the consciousness understandable and unique.

 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. Kant concluded that

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

all objects of knowledge, which includes the self, are phenomenal. That the true nature of things is

altogether unknown and unknowable (Price, 2000).

 For Kant, the kingdom of God is within man. God is manifested in people’s lives therefore it is

man’s duty to move towards perfection. Kant emphasized that people should always see duty as a

divine command (Price, 2000).

Paul and Patricia Churchland

 An American

philosopher interested in the

fields of philosophy of mind,

philosophy of science, cognitive

neurobiology, epistemology, and

perception.

 Churchlands’ central

argument is that the concepts and

theoretical vocabulary that people

use to think about the selves—

using such terms as belief, desire,

fear, sensation, pain, joy—

actually misrepresent the reality

of minds and selves. He claims

that the self is a product of brain

activity.

 The behavior of the self can be attributed to the neuropharmacological states, the neural activity in

specialized anatomical areas.

 Neurophilosopy was coined by Patricia Churchland, the modern scientific inquiry looks into the

application of neurology to age-old problems in philosophy. The philosophy of neuroscience is the

study of the philosophy of science, neuroscience, and psychology. It aims to explore the relevance

of neurolinguistic experiments/studies to the philosophy of the mind.

 Patricia Churchland claimed that man’s brain is responsible for the identity known as self. The

biochemical properties of the brain according to this philosophy of neuroscience is really

responsible for man’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

 Paul Churchland is one of the many philosophers and psychologists that viewed the self from a

materialistic point of view, contending that in the final analysis mental states are identical with,

reducible to, or explainable in terms of physical brain states. This assumption was made due to the

physiological processes of the body that directly affecting the mental state of the person. The advent

of sophisticated technology and scientific research gives hope to understand the connection

between the physical body and the mind/brain relationship that integrated in the self.

 Being an eliminative materialist, he believes that there is a need to develop a new vocabulary and

conceptual framework that is grounded in neuroscience. This new framework will be a more

accurate reflection of the human mind and self.

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

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 self is experienced as a unity in

which the mental and physical are seamlessly woven

together. This unity is the primary experience of selves

and begin to doubt it when an individual use their minds

to concoct abstract notions of a separate mind and body.

 Developed the concept of self-subject and

contended that perceptions occur existentially. Thus, 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.

 Phenomenology provides a direct description of the human experience which serves to guide man’s

conscious actions. He further added that, the world is a field of perception, and human

consciousness assigns meaning to the world. Thus man cannot separate himself from his

perceptions of the world.

 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.

References/Sources:

Arcega, A M., Cullar, D. S., Evangelista, L. D. & Falculan, L. M. (2018). Understanding the Self. Malabon

City: Mutya Publishing House Inc.

Gazzingan, L. B. et al. (2019). Understanding the Self. Muntinlupa City: Panday-Lahi Publishing House,

Inc.

Alata, E.J.P., Caslib, B.N., Serafica, J.P.J., Pawilen, R.A. (2018). Unsertanding the Self. Rex Book Store

Inc., Sta Mesa Heights, Quezon City, Philippines