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RENE DESCARTES: I think, therefore I am.

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF THROUGH


 He conceived of the human person as having a body
PHILOSPHY and a mind.
The Self  He claims that there is so much that we should doubt
It is understood as a unified being essentially connected to since much of what we think and believe is not
consciousness, awareness, and agency. infallible, they may turn out to be false.
 Autonomous self  The self then for Rene is also a combination of two
 Self-interested self distinct entities, the COGITO, the thing that thinks,
 Ecological self which is the mind, and the EXTENZA of the mind,
Autonomous self which is the body.
It is an Autonomous being capable of envisaging courses of JOHN LOCKE: The Self is consciousness.
action that transcend any ecological relationship.  For him our human mind is a Tabula Rasa also known
Self-interested self as a mind self at birth is a blank slate.
It is a perspective wherein our autonomy is best expressed in  Conscious awareness and memory of previous
our quest to fulfill our own desires. A self is focused on its own experiences are the keys to understanding the self.
interest, passions, and desires. DAVID HUME: The self is the bundle theory of mind.
Ecological self  He is an empiricist who believes that one can know
It is where the self-undertake actions that conform to the only through the senses and perception.
society we live in. The self adhere to the ethics of our society  For Hume, they can all be categorized into two:
and the self adjust his/her identity based on the dynamics of impressions and ideas.
the society.  According to Hume, the self is a bundle or collection
Philosophy of self of various perceptions, which succeed each other
Is the study of the many conditions of identity that make one with an inconceivable rapidity and are in a perpetual
subject of experience distinct from other experiences. flux and movement.
IMMANUEL KANT: Respect for self
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SELF: VARIOUS
 Every man is thus an end in himself and should never
PHILOSOPHERS
be treated merely as a means – as per the order of the
SOCRATES: Know yourself Creator and the natural order of things.
“Every man is composed of body and soul.”
 Time and Space are ideas that one cannot find in the
“AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING”
world but are built in our human mind. Kant calls
 He was the first philosopher who engaged in a these the apparatuses of the mind.
systematic questioning about the self.
 Without the self, one cannot organize the different
 He considers man from the point of view of his inner impressions that one gets in relation to his own
life. existence.
 The core of Socratic ethics is the concept of virtue and SIGMUND FREUD: Psychoanalytic of Self
knowledge.  He asserts that the human psyche (personality) is
PLATO: The Ideal Self, the perfect self structured into 3 parts. These structures – ID (internal
“Love in fact is one of the links between the sensible and the desires), EGO (reality), and SUPEREGO (conscience) –
eternal world.” all develop at different stages in a person’s life.
 There are three components of the soul:  Freud also argues that the development of an
a.) rational soul individual can be divided into distinct stages
b.) spiritual soul characterized by sexual drives.
c.) appetitive soul. GILBERT RYLE: The mind-body dichotomy
 Man in this life should imitate his former self, he  For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a
should live a life of virtue in which true human person manifests in his day-to-day life.
perfection exists.
 Ryle says that the self is not an entity one can locate
ARISTOTLE: The soul is the essence of the Self
and analyze but simply the convenient name that
 He defined man as a rational animal for we have free people use to refer to all the behaviors that people
will and intellect. make.
 We should use our decisions wisely and this will PAUL CHURCHLAND: The self is the brain.
definitely lead us to self-actualization.  He advocates the eliminative materialism or
physiology of the body and brain which explains that
ST. AUGUSTINE: The Self has an immortal soul.
all of us have a brain but if it is gone, there is no self
 St. Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the
at all.
entire spirit of the medieval world when it comes to
 Our brain is not inseparable from our body.
man.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: Phenomenologist
 The body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to
 He insisted that body and mind are intertwined with
anticipate living eternally in communion with God.
one another. One cannot find any experience that is
 He believes that a virtuous life is the dynamism of
not an embodied experience.
love. Loving God means loving one’s fellowmen, and
 One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the
loving one’s fellowmen denotes never doing any
world.
harm to another.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF: SELF, SOCIETY, AND THE SELF IN SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
CULTURE SOCIOLOGY
Social constructionist perspective is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes
It is concerned about understanding the vibrant relationship and consequences of human behavior.
between the self and external reality – merged view of “the SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
person” and “their social context” where the boundaries of is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication
one cannot easily be separated from the boundaries of the theory that examines the development of a jointly constructed
other. understanding of the world that forms the basis for shared
 The self should not be seen as a static entity that stays assumptions in reality.
constant through and through.  The theory centers on the notion that meanings are
 The self has to be seen as something that is in developed in coordination with others rather than
unceasing flux, in a constant struggle with external separately within each individual.
reality, and is malleable in its dealings with society. * The Looking Glass Self Theory By Charles Horton Cooley
 The self is always in participation with social life, and According to Cooley, individuals develop their concept of self
its identity is subjected to influences here and there. by observing how they are perceived by others, a concept of
Self and culture Cooley coined as the “looking-glass self.”
 Remaining the same person and turning a chameleon > The Self as a Product of Modern Society
by adapting to one’s context seems paradoxical.  Your personal and social identity is never static.
However, the French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss  Real changes in personal identity emerge out of the
has an explanation for this phenomenon. creative interplay between social circumstances and
 Every self has two faces: Moi and Personne events and the way you as an individual respond to
 Moi – a person’s sense of who he is, his body and his them.
basic identity, his biological givenness – a person’s  Everyone is influenced by society, and it makes its
basic identity. inedible mark on us.
 Personne – composed of the social concepts of what > Self in Society and Society in Self
it means to be who he is.  We are self-directing beings capable of independent
The self and the development of the social word. thought and behavior.
 More than his givenness (personalities, tendencies &  We are all unique individuals because we have unique
propensities), one is believed to be in active experiences.
participation in THE SHAPING OF THE SELF. > The Emotional Self
 Men and women in their growth and development  Emotions and the motivations to which they give rise
engage actively in the shaping of THE SELF. have frequently been denied an important role in our
 The unending terrain of the metamorphosis of THE day-today conduct by even the most sophisticated of
SELF is mediated by LANGUAGE. social theorists.
 “Language as both a publicly shared and privately  The emotional or feeling side of our nature goes hand
utilized symbol system is the site where the individual in hand with our reflective intelligent and calculating
and the social make and remake each other”. side.
*GEORGE HERBERT MEAD AND LEV VYGOTSKY* CORE AND SATELLITE NEEDS OF SELF
For Mead & Vygotsky the way that human persons develop is
with the use of language acquisition and interactions with
others - without a family biologically and sociologically a
person may not even survive or became a human person.
GENDER AND THE SELF
 GENDER is one of those loci of the self that is subject
to alteration, change, and development.
 From the point of view of the social sciences and the
self, it is important to give one the leeway to find,
express, and live his identity.
> Approval of Self and Others
THE SELF IN SOCIOLOGICAL AND If love in all its varieties is a key focus for other feelings and
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE emotions, then the need for approval closely mirrors.
SELF-CONCEPT  The constant searching for approval is based on the
refers to all understanding and knowledge of self. fear that the other’s love will be withdrawn and that
 Psychological you will be left helpless and unloved.
 Physical
 Social attitudes
 Ideas
 Beliefs THE SELF IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
ANTHROPOLOGY
The study of the origin and development of human societies
and cultures.
CULTURE • Three levels of Awareness
is the set of unwritten norms of conduct that guide the 1. The Conscious - consists of what someone
behavior of a group. is aware of at any particular point.
 Edward Taylor defined the culture that it is a 2. The Preconscious - contains information
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, that is just below the surface of awareness.
art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities 3. The Unconscious - contains thoughts,
and habits acquired by man. memories, and desires that are buried deep
MATERIAL AND NON-MATERIAL CULTURE in ourselves, well below our conscious
Material culture awareness.
refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that II. TRUE SELF AND FALSE SELF
people use to define their culture. Dr. Donald W. Winnicott (1896 - 1971)
Non‐material culture refers to the nonphysical ideas that He was a pediatrician who was amongst the first cohort to
people have about their culture, including beliefs, values, train as a psychoanalyst in the late 1920s.
rules, norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions. • Self is categorized as “True Self’ and “False Self”
How Culture Affects the Self? 1. True Self - it has a sense of integrity, of
According to developmental psychologist Catherine Raeff connected wholeness that harks to the
(2010), culture can influence how you, your friends, your early stage.
colleagues, and the families you serve view: 2. False Self - When the person has to comply
1. Relationships with external rules, such as being polite or
2. Personality Traits otherwise following social codes.
3. Achievements • Two Kinds of Falsev Self
4. Expressing Emotions 1. Healthy False Self - When the false self is
TWO ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF SELF functional both for the person and for
EGOCENTRIC - a concept of the self where the self is seen as society then it is considered healthy.
an autonomous and distinct individual. Unhealthy
SOCIO-CENTRIC - According to this view, there is no intrinsic 2. False Self - A self that fits in but through a
self that can possess enduring qualities. feeling of forced compliance rather than
loving adaptation is unhealthy.
THE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
III. IDEAL SELF AND REAL SELF
PSYCHOLOGY is derived from the Greek "psyche" which Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
means mind, soul, or spirit (Greek Symbol: Ψ), and logos He was a radical and inspirational psychologist and thinker
which means knowledge, discourse, or study. Psychology is who developed a characteristic and unique way of
the study of the mind. understanding the human psyche and its functioning.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF is the study of either the cognitive • Personality is composed of Ideal SelfConcept and
and affective representation of one’s identity or the subject Real Self-Concept
of experience. 1. Ideal Self-Concept - This is the person who
we would like to be.
I. THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION
2. Real Self-Concept - The knowledge
William James (1842-1910)
attitudes, and perceptions people have
He was one of the first to postulate a theory of the Self in The
about themselves as they are.
Principles of Psychology
IV. UNIFIED SELF AND MULTIPLE SELF
• The Self has two aspects: “I Self” and “Me Self.”
David Lester (1966 - present)
1. The “I Self” reflects what people see or
He is known for researching suicide and has been called "the
perceive themselves doing in the physical
world's pre-eminent suicide researcher. "
world.
• Self is categorized as Unified Self and Multiple Self
2. The “Me Self” is a more subjective and
psychological phenomenon, referring to 1. Unified Self - it is the integration of the subselves
into one, however, integration is a task for the
individual’s reflections about themselves.
later part of life.
• Components of the “Me Self”
2. Multiple Self - it contains different modes of the
1. The Material Self
self, “appear, one after another and sideby-side
2. The Social Self
in the consciousness.”
3. The Spiritual Self
V. AGENTIC SELF AND PROACTIVE SELF
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
He is the father of psychoanalysis and was a physiologist, Albert Bandura (1951 - present)
medical doctor, psychologist, and influential thinker of the The proponent of the personality theory known as THE
early twentieth century. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY SOCIAL COGNITIVETHEORY
• Three elements of Personality • Self is identified as Agentic Self and Proactive Self
1. Id - driven by pleasure. 1. Agentic Self - it is defined as the aspect of
2. Ego - based on the reality principle. human personality that is determined by future
3. Superego - the aspect of morality that assessments of one's goals, objectives, and
holds all of our internalized moral actions.
standards and ideals. 2. Proactive Self - Make things happen, instead of
waiting for them to happen to you.

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