Lesson 1: Philosophical Perspectives of The body is also vulnerable to basic emotions and

actions.
the Self * emotions and actions are controlled by the soul *
Philosophical Perspective on the Self Death is the release of the soul from the body.
- Philosophy as a subject presents various philosophers
offering multiple perspectives on just about any topic The SOUL control these emotions and actions through
including the self. proper judgement and reason.

PHILOSOPHERS Plato

Socrates - An ancient Greek Philosopher

- Student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle
- No historical background if he really existed - 428 – 347 B.C.E.
- 469 – 399 B.C.E.
- There were no known writings Idealism:
- Plato highly regarded him Empirical Reality
- He is credited for his many contributions to
western philosophy - Empirical means verifiable by observation or
experience
“gnothi seauton” - Experiental world is fundamentally unreal and is
- Know Thyself: Translation of an ancient Greek a mere appearance
aphorism
- Socrates pointed out that if an individual knows “The things that surrounds you, are they real? Or
who he or she is, all the basic issues and just illusions?”
difficulties in like will vanish and everything will
Ultimate Reality
be clearer
- It is constitutive of abstract universal essenses
Self-knowledge
of things
- means knowing one’s degree of understanding
about the world and knowing one’s capabilities According to Plato,
and potentials IDEAS are OBJECTS of the intellect known by
- self is achieved and something to work on reason alone and are OBJECTIVES REALITIES that
exist in a world of their own.
Technique in asking questions
- Who am I? “Man in this world” is an illusion; “Idea of a man” is
- What is the purpose of my life? the real man.
- What am I doing here?
Ex: “Car” – illusion; “A fast car” – real (there is an
- What is justice?
essence and idea)
Possession of knowledge is virtue and ignorance is
He also argued that the soul is eternal and consitutes
vice
the ENDURING SELF, because even after death, the
- one must first have the humility to acknowledge
soul continues to exist.
his or her ignorance so as to acquire knowledge
* Plato and his student has the same belief in The
“ we need to accept the fact that we don’t know
Self , dualist idea (soul continues to exist even the
everything including everything ourself”
soul is already dead *
Socrates is dualist
St. Augustine
“our body and soul are two separate entities”
* monoist, body and soul are one * - He was canonized by popular acclaim, and later
recognized as a Doctor of the Church in 1298 by
What is that, when in a body, what makes it living?
Pope Boniface VIII.
Man has SOUL which is divine, immortal, intelligible,
TIME and MEMORY
uniform, indissoluble and ever self-consistent and
invariable. - Time
- something that people measure within their
The ruler of the body is the soul. The soul makes the
Memory
body alive.
- not a feature of property of the world, but a
* when we die, the body dies, but the soul
property of the mind
continues to live *
* sandayal? - triangle that is used to
The body which is human, mortal, multiform, read/measure time *
unintelligible, dissoluble, and inconsistent.
He believed that
* exact opposite of the soul *
- Times present of things past, present and future
 coexist in the soul
* everything that happned in the past, the things
that’s happening right now, and the future that you
think will happen to you, coexist in our soul *
- Time present of the things past is Memory
* kung ano ang natatandaan mo, that is a part of
you *
“infancy amnesia”
- Time present of things present is Direct Experience
- Times present of things future is Expectation
Introspection
- Means awareness of one’s own mental
processes
- For St. Agustine, the method of introspection is
Memory as an entity through which one can
think meaning fully about temporal continuity
* when we reminisce, we introspect *
The idea of that Past and Future could be seen as
equivalent as entities that exist
* but when this time of Past and time Future are no
longer part of our Mind and Consciousness, it
means that they wil no longer exist *
The past and time future are not real in themselves
but they are only real as long as they exist in the
mind or conciousness.
The existence of the past and future for St. Augustine
is only possible through memory and expectations.
Instrospection became one of the important idea in
psychology which pertains to the inquiry of the
soul then of the mind, consciousness and thought.
This confirms that superiority of humans over other
organisms since humans have self-consciousness.
St. Augustine argued that as far as the consciousness
can be extended backward to any past action or
forward to actions to come, it determines the
identity of the person.
* kung anoman ang mga bagay na natatandaan mo
noon, at mga gustong gawin sa darating na araw,
these things actually define you as a person /
represents you as a human being *
Rene Descartes
- A French philosopher and mathematician
- 1596 – 1650 C.E.
- Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore I am”
- Fun Fact: He allegedly never left bed before 11
A.M. But invented analytic geometry and the
Cartesian Coordinate System, and discovered
some basic laws of optics. He was atutor of
Queen Christiana of Sweden.
* sometimes our senses, according to Descartes, we
need to question ourselves if it is something real *
The existence of anything that you register from your
senses can be doubted.
One can always doubt about the certainty of things
but the very fact that one doubts is something that
cannot be doubted.
Only humans have the Hubris (exessive pridee) – of
thinking such irreverent questions on existence and
purpose of life.
Humans have satisfied themselves with their own
answers to their own thinking.
Humans have the audacity and impertinence to try to
figure out the meaning of life and are actually self-
aware of their own existence.
He believed that the self is:
“A thinking thing or a substance whose whole
existence or nature is merely thinking.”
Mind and Body
- For descartes, the self is nothing else but a mind-
body dichotomy.
- Thought (mind) always preceds action (body).
- Humans are self-aware and they are the masters of
their own universe.
- Western Philosophy is largely influence by
Descartes.
Paul Churchland and Patricia Churchland
- Paul was born on 21st of October 1942 in
Vancouver, Canada.
- Patricia was born on 17 of July 1943 in Oliver,
British Columbia, Canada.
- Canadian-American philosophers whose work
has focused on integrating the disciplines of
philosophy of mind and neuroscience in a new
approach that has been called
Neurophilosophy.
Eliminative Materialism
“ A radical claim that ordinary, common sense
understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and
that some or all of the mental states posited by
common sense do not actually exist.”
Folk Psychology
Or Common Sense is something that is FALSE.
Most people think that we have a stream of
consciousness that contains images and
conceptions of things about which we have beliefs
and attitudes.
Is it also a fold belief that our sense of the world and
of ourselves is a direct representation of how the
world is formed.
* In our case, we believe more of what we have when
it comes to ideas of common sense. This couple do
 not believe in those kinds of things, they do not
accept the opinion of other people when it comes
to common sense that would be able to know
more about the world, we know more about
ourselves as human being if we are going to rely to
common sense. *

* for the Churchland’s, it is NOT about the Common

Sense *

For the Churchland’s, self is nothing else by the BRAIN,

or simply, the self is contained entirely within the
physical brain.

In Patricia Churchland’s book entitled: “Touching a

Nerve: The Self as a Brain” (2013).

In her book, she mentioned that to understand

the self, one must study the brain, not just the
mind.

* body and mind are two different things *

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

- 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961

- He was a French Phenomenological
Philosopher.
- The constitution of meaning in human
experience was his main interest.

* Phenomenological – experiences of people *

He distinguished the body into two types:

- Subjective Body (intangible)

(as lived and experienced)
- Objective Body (tangible)
(as observed and scientifically investigated)
Lesson 2: The Self from the Sociological
and Anthropological Perspective
George Mead's Social Self
- For Mead, who is a sociologist, argued that the self is
not biological but social.
- Self is something that is developed through SOCIAL
INTERACTION.
- Self is also developed as one grows and ages.
- Self is constructed by directly engaging in the world
through interaction and through reflections on those
interactions.
••••••••••
Self
Mead explained that self has two parts:
Self-awareness
- Conscious knowledge of one's own character,
feelings, motives and desires.
Self-image
- The idea one has of one's abilities, appearance
and personality.
He proposed the idea that the self develops through
social interaction; that social interaction involves
the exchange of symbols (such as language); and
that understanding of symbols involves being able
to take the role of another. In order for interaction
to prosper, each person involved must correctly
interpret the meanings of symbols and intentions
of others. It can only succeed by the existence of
common symbols, but actually accomplished
through the process of role playing.
Role Playing
- It is the process in which one takes on the role of
another by putting oneself in the position of the
person with whom he or she interacts.
- Through role playing, the individual develops a
concept of self.
- By putting oneself in the position of others, one is
able to reflect upon oneself.
3 Stages of Development
Imitation or Preparatory Stage:
- a child imitates the behavior of his or her parents
like sweeping the floor
Play Stage:
- the child playing the roles of others such as acting
as a teacher, soldier, carpenter, etc.
Game Stage:
- the child comes to themselves from the
perspective of other people.
George Mead's Social Self "I" and "Me" Self
For Mead, all humans experience internal
conversation. This conversation involves the I and
Me, which he called phases of self. For him, self is
essentially a social process going on between the I
and Me.
The I is the phase of the self that is unsocialized and
spontaneous. It is the acting part of the self, an
immediate response to other people. It represents
the self that is free and unique. It is the subjective
part of the self.
The Me is the self that results from the progressive
stages of role playing or role-taking and the
perspective one assumes to view and analyze one's
own behaviors. It is the organization of the
internalized attitude of others. It represents the
conventional and objective part of the self.
••••••••••
Generalized Others
Mead described it as an organized community or
social group which gives to the individual his or her
unity of self.
The attitude of the generalized other is the attitude of
the entire community.
••••••••••
Sociological
Charles Horton Cooley's Looking Glass Self
The Looking Glass Self
- The Looking-glass Self is a social psychological concept.
- In this view, the self is developed as a result of one's
perceptions of other people's opinions.
- People are the way they were at least partly because
of other people's reactions to them and to what they
do.
- When people pick up feedbacks from others they
incorporate it into their sense of self.
The self is built through social interaction which involves
three steps:
1. People imagine how they must appear to others
2. They imagine the judgement on that appearance
3. They develop themselves through the judgement
of others
- People imagine not only how others see them and
their actions but also how others judge what they
see, whether with approval, doubt or hostility.
- As a result, Looking-glass Self is made up of feelings
about other people's judgement of one's behavior.
- This concept provides an idea on how the self develops
in relation to the perception of others.
••••••••••
Postmodern View of the Self
Postmodernism
- It is not a philosophy but more of a report on the
mindset of western culture in the latter half of the
20th century.
- For French philosopher Michel Foucault, the self is also
seen as a product of modern discourse that is
socially and historically conditioned (David, 2002).
4 Basic Postmodernist Ideas about the Self
Anderson (1997) addressed the issues of change and
multiple identities through these 4 basic postmodernist
ideas:
1. Multiphrenia which refers to the many different
voices speaking about "who we are and what we
are."
2. Protean, a self capable of changing constantly to fit
the present conditions.
3. De-centered, a belief that there is no self at all since
the self is constantly being redefined or constantly
undergoing change.
4. Self-in-relation which means that humans do not
live their lives in isolation but in relation to people
and to certain cultural contexts.
- For Mead, the self is shaped by outside forces, that is
why for him there is no "I" self
- The self is socially constructed.
- For postmodernists, people have no fixed identities
which are separable from their surroundings and
which remain the same even though certain
characteristics and conditions may change.
- In traditional society: a person's status is determined
by his or her role
- In modern society: by his or her achievement
- In postmodern society: by fashion or style since it
changes and people adapts to these changes or is
left with identity in question.
- For Foucault, the self is a text written from moment to
moment according to the demands of a multitude of
social contexts.
The postmodern social condition is dominated by two
realities:
 The rise of new I media technologies
 The dominance of consumerism
Lyon (1997) argued that the predicament of the self in
postmodern societies is complicated by the advent of
electronic-mediated virtual interactions of cyberselves
and the spread of information technology.
Green (1997) posited that the self is "digitalized" in
cyberspace.
Email and Memory
"Every little piece of information that you post on the
Internet - the message you write, the websites you visit,
the files you download, the email address you contact,
the book, tapes, CDs, and airplane tickets you order on
the Internet and the credit card numbers you give -all
these become raw data from which someone out there
can piece together an identity, a virtual version of who
you are."
••••••••••
Anthropological
Cultural Identity and National Identity
Culture is derived from the Latin word cultura or cultus
meaning care or cultivation. As an individual
interacts with people and makes sense of how they
function in the context of their social and cultural
background, they learn that they have both personal
identity and collective identity.
Personal identity
- the way they see themselves as an individual.
Collective identity
- the way they see themselves as a member of a
certain
Identity refers to who the person is," or the qualities
and traits of an individual that make him or her
different from others.
There are many ways to distinguish people:
- By geographical context or based on where they
come from.
- People from the West are different from the people
from the East.
Cultural Identity refers to the identity or feeling of
belongingness to a certain culture group.
It is an individual's perception about himself or herself
anchored on:
 Race Relational Self
Gender - reflects cognitions that are related to one's
Language relationships.
Nationality
Collective Self
Ethnicity
- reflects cognitions that are related to one's
Religion
group.
The cultural categories that shapes one's overall cultural
Each self is important and meaningful to human
identity prove how one's cultural identity is meant to be
experience.
multidimensional.
••••••••••
Cultural Identity Theory
- It explains why a person acts and behaves the way Identity Struggles
he or she does.
- A single person can possess multiple identities, - Regardless of the truthfulness of how people perceive
simultaneously making him or her part of many you, it provides opportunity for self-reflection.
cultural groups. - Your response to how people describe you will depend
•••••••••• on your own perception of yourself.

Nation - Some people can be confrontational or non-

- is a group of people built on the premise of shared
customs, traditions, religion, language, art, history
and more.
National Identity
- refers to the identity or feeling of belongingness to
one state or nation.
Rupert Emerson (political scientist)
- defines National Identity as "A body of
people who feel that they are a nation."
National Identity
- is socially constructed. It is influenced and shaped
by material and non-material cultures.
confrontational towards how others identify them.
- People's actions in every situation vary depending on
physiological and psychological states.
- An individual can be unsympathetic because of
particular individual issues, but people, sometimes,
fail to consider any justification for why one can be
unsympathetic.
- This term is introduced by Anthony Wallace and
Raymond Fogelson.
- It characterizes the discrepancy between the identity a
person claims to possess and the identity attributed
to that person by others.

Material Culture Non-Material Culture

These represents all the Embodies the shared
people who are part of a understanding of a group
nation. of people which includes:
National Flag Norms
Emblem Beliefs
Seal Traditions

National Identity requires the process of Self-

categorization

Self-categorization
- one must identify himself or herself with an in-
group and differentiate himself or herself from the
out-groups.

Individual Self, Relational Self and Collective Self The

Three Fundamental Selves

Individual Self
- reflects the cognitions related to traits, states
and behaviors that are stored in memory.
Lesson 3: The Self from the Psychological Social Self: connotes the image of an individual in
the eyes of the people around him or her which
Perspective determines his or her reputation in society.

William James's Self Theory Pure Ego: is the most puzzling aspect of the self.

William James According to James, these sub-categories are related in

a hierarchical way:
He is an American philosopher and psychologist, divided
an individual's perception of the self into two
categories - Me and I. For James, a human being has
the capacity to be a thinking subject and the object
of his or her thinking at the same time. As a thinking
subject, an individual is both conscious of his or her
environment and conscious of his or her existence.

The continuous stream of An individual turns

consciousness internal to
an individual constitutes
the I which is responsible
for the thinking and
makes awareness anc
self-awareness possible.
himself or herself into a ••••••••••
Me when he or she
makes himself or herself
the object of his or her Cart Roger's Self Theory
own thinking.
Carl Rogers

He is an American psychologist and among the founders

of the humanistic approach to psychology.
Self
Rogers' believes that the SELF does not exist at birth. It
James claims that in understanding the self, the self can is developed gradually during childhood wherein one
be contextualized in 3 categories: differentiates the self from NON-SELF.

He proposed that by means of FREE CHOICE and

ACTION, one can shape himself or herself based on
what he or she wants to be.

His theory focuses on the nature of the self and the

conditions that allow the self to freely develop.
The feelings and emotions aroused in the individual Real Self and Ideal Self
(self-feelings)
- because of his or her knowledge and appraisal
of his or her empirical existence in the world.

Constituents of the self

- refer to the further sub-categories of the self
including the material self, social self, spiritual
self and pure ego.

The actions the self prompts (self-seeking)

- the effort of every individual to preserve and
improve oneself based on one's self-knowledge
and resulting self-feelings.
William James's Self Theory
REAL SELF
- Is who an individual actually is, intrinsically.
- It is the self that feels closest to how one identifies
with.
- The real self is one's SELF-IMAGE

William James IDEAL SELF

Constituents of the self refer to further sub-categories
of the self
Material Self: consists of one's body, clothes, family,
home and other material possessions that he or
she values and regards as his or her own.
- Is the perception of what a person would like to be
or thinks he or she would be.
- It is the IDEALIZED IMAGE that has develop over
time based on the influence of the environment and
the people one interacts with.

Spiritual Self: includes one's thoughts, beliefs and Congruence: an agreement between the selves,
feelings
 which happens when the ideal self is closer to the indivisible entity that cannot be broken down into
real self. parts.

- People with congruent selves are more likely to attain
SELF-ACTUALIZATION compared to those with
incongruent selves
- SELF-WORTH is high when the real self and ideal self
are close to each other.
Gestalt Psychology
- It is guided by the principle that:
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
- This particular school of thought is interested in
looking at the entirety of the self - the mind, body,
physical attributes, behaviors and more.

Self-Concept Humanistic Psychology

- Is defined as the totality of complex, organized and - It is guided by the principle that:
dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes and
"Human beings, as humans, supersede the sum of their
opinions that each person holds to be true about his
parts."
or her personal existence.
- It is a social product, developing out of That cannot be reduced to components. It puts more
interpersonal relationships and striving for emphasis on the influence of the environment on one's
consistency. experiences rather than internal thoughts and desires
that define one's personality
EXISTENTIAL SELF CATEGORICAL SELF - Both Gestalt and humanistic psychology focus on the
totality of the self.
- It begins when an - It starts after a child
individual recognizes his recognizes his or her - The former believes that understanding the self relies
or her existence as a existence as a separate on social behavior while the latter believes that the
separate entity from entity and becomes self is best understood based on how others
others and realizes that aware that he or she is perceive it.
he or she will continue to an object in the world.
exist over a period of
time and space. - An individual starts to
Differentiated Models
categorize himself or
- It usually starts from herself in terms of age, - Look into a human being through examining its
infancy up to early sex, height and weight. parts for it is divisible or can be broken into
childhood. components.

Sigmund Freud
Three Components of Self-concept
Rogers (1951) believed that the self is composed of
concepts unique to every individual:
SELF-WORTH or SELF-ESTEEM:
- Is what one thinks about oneself. This develops
in early childhood stage resulting from the
interaction of the child with his or her mother
and father.
SELF-IMAGE:
- Is how one sees himself or herself, which is
important for good psychological health. Includes
the influence of body image on inner personality.
IDEAL SELF:
- Is the person that one wants to be. It consists of
one's dreams and goals in life, and it is
continuously changing.
••••••••••
Global versus Differentiated Models
Global Models
- Look into a human being in his or her totality, as an
- He was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of
psychoanalysis.
- For Freud, the psyche is composed of three parts -
the id, ego and superego.
ID
- it exists since birth, pertaining to instinct.
- it serves as a storeroom of wishes anc
obsessions related to sexual and aggressive
desires.
- it operates on the hedonistic or pleasure
principle - seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
- it is driven by the so calle libido (sexual energy).
- If it is dominant an egoistic, boorish, and
barbaric brute emerges
EGO
- it operates according to the reality principle.
- This structure's role is to maintain equilibrium
between the demands of id and superego in
accordance with what is best and practical in
reality.
- It is developed by the individual's personal
experiences and adheres to principles of reason
and logic.
 - If ego is successful, it turns out a brilliant - This capability is termed by Bandura as HUMAN
creative and emotionally balanced individual. AGENCY.

SUPEREGO
- It operates according to the morality principle. Four Core Properties of Human Agency
- It ensures compliance with the norms, values
Intentionality:
and standards imposed by society.
is manifested in how an individual forms intentions
- It is developed by means of socialization in
with action plans and strategies to realize them.
various agents like home, school, church and
others. Forethought:
- It has two systems: the conscience and the ideal refers to how an individual positions his or her plans
self. in the future.
- If superego is dominant, a law-abiding, morally
upright, god-fearing and socially acceptable Self-reactiveness:
individual appears. shows that agents are not only planners and fore-
thinkers but also self-regulators. The goals that the
person wants to reach should be clear and specific.
Carl Jung Self-regulation: allows the person to set goals that
are better and higher than the former, challenging
- He was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
his capabilities and making him a wiser and self
who founded analytical psychology.
actualized individual.
- For Jung, the human psyche is divided into three
Self-reflection:
parts; the ego, the personal unconscious and the
signifies that people are capable of self-examining
collective unconscious.
their own functioning.
The Ego
Bandura's theory views the self as a person and not as a
- Is the center of consciousness.
distinct entity responsible for bearing information and
- It is the person's sense of identity and existence
regulating behavior.
- It organizes thoughts, feelings, senses, and
intuition. ••••••••••
The Personal Unconscious
- It refers to all information stored in a person's mind
that are readily accessible to consciously recall.

The Collective Unconscious

- It refers to the unconscious mind shared by all
human beings such as instincts and archetypes.

••••••••••

Albert Bandura's Agentic Theory of the Self

Albert Bandura's Agentic Theory of the Self

- Bandura is a Canadian-American psychologist.

- The social cognitive theory makes use of the AGENTIC

THEORY OF THE SELF.

- To be an agent means to be capable of intentionally

influencing one's own functionality and life
circumstances.

- For Bandura, people are not merely passive entities

molded by environmental forces or driven by inner
influences

- This theory rejects the notion that the selfhood is

culturally influenced or controlled by urges, rather, it
looks upon every human being as capable of
thinking, deciding, foreseeing, and controlling his or
her actions, free to decide for himself or herself
Lesson 4: The Self in Western and
Eastern Thoughts
Individualism versus Collectivism
Individualism
- It is an orientation concerned with the
independence and self-reliance of the individual.
Collectivism
- It is an orientation characterized by belongingness
to larger groups or collectives.
Individualistic cultures
- Puts more emphasis on promoting the incividual
and the immediate family's welfare.
Collectivistic cultures
- Gives more importance to loyalty to the in-group,
which in turn takes care of the 0 individual's welfare.
Western conception of the self is individualistic.
- An independent self that is free from the influence
of culture anc environment and from the
expectations and welfare of society.
- It emphasizes the uniqueness of every individual
and is predicatec on egoism or self-orientedness.
Individualism foregrounds that a human being has a
self, is an individual, and is a person.
Eastern conception of the self is collectivistic.
- It prioritizes the neecs and goals of society over the
needs and desires of every individual.
- It puts more importance on belongingness to a
large group and emphasizes social obligations.
- Individual behavior is guided by adjustments to
social demands and situations.
- It is others-oriented because it encourages people
to be kind, benevolent, charitable, depenc able, anc
sensitive to the needs of others.
Collectivism stresses that an individual has "many
selves" instead of having a one knowable self.
Individualism
- People who belongs to the individualistic culture
might describe themselves in terms of personality
traits and characteristics. Ex. I am generous, kind and
funny.
- Individualism does not promote isolation.
- An individual has the capacity to consider his or her
own best interest.
- Everyone is free to decide wether to take part or not in
solving societal problems.
Collectivism
- People who belongs to the collectivistic culture
would more likely describe themselves in terms of
social relationships and roles. Ex. I am a kind
son/daughter to my parents.
- Collectivism is an idea that man should think, live and
act toward certain goals that benefit the group.
- An individual decides according to the interest of the
group.
Countries with generally individualistic cultures:
- New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Greece, Poland, Italy,
Belgium, Ireland, Spain and Finland
Countries with generally collectivistic cultures:
- Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Indonesia,
Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Portugal
••••••••••
The Self in Four Great Systems of Eastern
Thought
Buddhism
- There is no such thing as the ATMAN (self).
- The ATMAN is impossible to perceive by one's senses
for it does not actually exist in any metaphysical,
material and spiritual level.
- It is regarded as an illusion, an imaginary concept born
as a product of evolved consciousness and misguided
thinking of humans.
- Humans have no real knowledge of a self or a clear
proof of claiming that there is a self - Everything is
just an illusion, a flux of momentary perceptions,
thoughts and feelings. What is perceived by one's
sense becomes one's reality.
- The Buddhist Philosophy refutes the idea of having an
enduring self
- Buddhism does not consider humans as individuals
with a fixed and unified identity. Instead, a human
being is a product of 5 changing processes that
experiences them all:
Physical Body
Feelings
Perceptions
Responses
The Flow of Consciousness
- In Buddhism, the "I", "Me" and "Myself" which are
process of identification are believed to be hidden
from awareness.
- Instead, one can identify with his or her body, feelings,
and thoughts, or with images, patterns, roles and
archetypes. This is when the self arises.

- In Buddhist terms, the ANATTA (no-self) is not a denial

of existence.

- It is a conviction that no words can define the essence

- It emphasizes living with harmony with TAO (way or
of this present moment of existence.
path), is a religion and a philosophy at the same
- Buddhism tries to reject that the conception of self as time.
unchanging and separate unto itself
- Tao is nothing but the expression of the unity of the
- The Buddhist version of the creation of human being is universe and of the path which human beings must
taken from the Hinduism's "Story of Creation" in the take to preserve that unity.
Upanishads.
- Tao is the core concept of Taoist beliefs and practices.

- It is referred to as the life force that surrounds and

Confucianism flows through all living and non-living things, and
that balances, orders, unifies and connects them.

- Knowledge of the universe or nature can be attained

by studying the self because Taoists regard the
human body as the miniature of the universe, as an
extension of the cosmos.

- Taoism does not support the philosophical teachings

- It is a way of life that was propagated by Confucius. of Confucius about self and society.

- It regards an individual as a member of a larger whole,

not as a separate being.
Hinduism
- The ethical teachings of Confucius are based on human
relationships as reflected in his concept of Five
Cardinal Relationships or Five Bonds:

The King and His Subject

Father and Son
Husband and Wife
Between Brothers
Between Friends
- According to Confucius, individual identity is defined
by membership in the reference group to which one
belongs.
- This identity is called The Relational Self - While The
Subdued Self is the condition to respond to
perceptions, not of its own needs and aspirations but
of social requirements and obligations.
- To subdue oneself means to practice REN.
Ren: means human-heartedness; the
hallmark of Confucian ethics.
- Ren is a Confucian virtue characterized altruistic
behavior that must be nurtured in every person.
Taoism
The Hinduist view about the self was written in the
Upanishads, "Story of Creation," which tells about the
origin of the universe and of humans.
Story of Creation
In the beginning this was Self alone, in the
shape of a person which was called Purusha.
He looked around and saw nothing but his
Self. He first said, "This is I; therefore, he
became 'I" by name. Therefore, even man is
asked, he first says, 'This is l' and then
pronounces the name which he may have"
From this story of creation, the Self which is
Purusha created a wife out of himself The
wife bore Man and then transformed herself
into a cow, which prompted Purusha to
transform into a bull. Then the wife
transformed into a mare, while Purusha into
a stallion.

These continuous transformations imply the

belief that all creation is made up of the same
self as everything originated from Purusha.
 This also implies that the creator is the same
as the creation

- The ATMAN, which is referred to as the self, spirit, or

soul, is the same self described in the creation. - In
Hinduism, the ATMAN is one with the BRAHVAM
which means the absolute, transcendental power. -
By being identified with the BRAHMAN, the ATMAN
indicates a true self which underlies one's existence.

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