LESSON 1: PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
What is Philosophy?
● Philosophy is all about; finding
answers to serious questions about
ourselves and about the world we
live in:
● Questioning existing knowledge
and institutions to get closer to the
truth.
What will you get out of Philosophy?
The skills are:
● Critical thinking
● Argument skills
● Communication
● Reasoning
● Analysis
● Problem solving
Which allow you to:
● Justify your opinions
● Spot a bad argument, no matter
what the topic is
● Explain to people why they are
wrong and you are right
● Philosophy basically teaches you to
think
Pythagoras - the first to use the term
“Philosophy”.
Philosophy means “Love of Wisdom”
Philo is a greek word means “Love”.
Sophia is a greek word means “Wisdom”.
Origin of Philosophy and Logic
● Search for the truth
● Search is to look for something
● Search for meaning (importance,
significance, value, relevance)
● Philosophy ask a lot of questions
Philosophy and the Self
Ancient Greek Philosophers:
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
Socrates
- “Know Thyself”, Philosophers
agree that self-knowledge is a
prerequisite to a happy and
meaningful life.
- “An unexamined life is not worth
living”.
- Every man is dualistic
- Composed of body and soul
- 2 important aspects of his
personhood: body; imperfect and
impermanent, soul; perfect and
permanent
Socrates 2 dichotomous realms
Physical realm
- changeable, transient, and
imperfect.
- the body belongs to this realm.
Ideal realm
- unchanging, eternal, and immortal.
- the soul belongs to this realm.
● Socrates was the first thinker to
focus on the full power of reason
on the human self: who we are,
who we should be and who we
will become.
● The soul strives for wisdom and
perfection, and the reason is the
soul’s tool to achieve an exalted
state of life.
● Our preoccupation with bodily
needs such as food, drink, sex,
pleasure, material possessions
and wealth keep us from attaining
wisdom.
 ● A person can have a meaningful
and happy life only if he becomes
virtuous and knows the value of
himself that can be achieved
through constant soul-searching.
● For him, this is the best achieved
when one tries to separate the body
from the soul as much as possible.
Plato
- “The soul is immortal”
- A student of Socrates
- Philosophy of the self can be
explained as a process of
self-knowledge and purification
of the soul.
- He believed in the existence of the
mind and soul.
- mind and soul are given in
perfection with god.
Soul has three parts
1. Rational Soul
- reason and intellect
- devine essence that enables us to
think deeply, make wise choices
and achieve a true understanding of
eternal truths.
2. Spirited Soul
- emotion and passion
- basic emotions such as love, anger,
ambition, empathy, and
aggressiveness.
3. Appetitive Soul
- basic needs
- includes our biological needs such
as hunger, thirst, and sexual
desire.
These 3 elements of ourselves are in a
dynamic relationship with one another,
sometimes in conflict.
When conflict occurs, Plato believes that it
is the responsibility of our Rational to sort
things out and exert control, restoring a
hormonious relationship among the three
elements of ourselves.
Plato believes that genuine happiness can
only be achieved by people who
consistently make sure that their Rational
is in control of their Spirits and Appetites.
Aristotle
- “The soul is the essence of the
Self”
- A student of Plato
- The body and soul are not two
separate elements, but are one
thing.
- The soul is simply the form of the
body, and is not capable of existing
without the body.
Aristotle: Kinds of Soul
1. Vegetative
- includes the physical body that can
grow.
2. Sentient
- includes the sensual desires,
feelings and emotions.
3. Rational
- is what makes man human. It
includes the intellect that makes
man know and understand things.
Examples:
● Vegetative Soul - Plants
(Reproduction, Growth)
● Sentitive Soul - Animals (Mobility,
and Sensation)
● Rational Soul - Human (Thought,
Reflection)
St. Augustine
- “I am doubting, therefore I am”
- Integrated the ideas of Plato and
Christianity.
- Augustine’s view of the buman
person reflects the entire spirit of
the medieval world.
- The soul is united with the body so
that man may be entire and
complete.
- Believed humankind is created in
the image and likeness of God.
- “Knowledge can only come by
seeing the truth that dwells
within us”. The truth of which
Augustine spoke refers to the truth
of knowing God.
Rene Descartes
- “I think therefore I am”
- The act of thinking about self - of
being self-conscious - is in itself
proof that there is self.
Descartes 2 distinct entities
1. Cogito
- the thing that thinks
- mind
2. Extenza
- the extension
- body
John Locke
- “The self is consciousness”
- The human mind at birth is tabula
rosa or blank slate.
- He felt that the self is constructed
primarily from sense experiences.
- Locke theorized that when they are
born, all babies know absolutely
nothing.
- He argued that the inside of a
baby’s brain was empty - ready to
learn everything through
experience.
THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
CONSCIOUSNESS
● necessary to have a coherent
personal identity or knowledge of
the self as a person.
● what makes possible our belief, is
that we are the same identity in
different situations.
David Hume
- “There is no self”
- Self is simply a bundle or
collection of different perceptions,
which succeed each other with an
inconceivable rapidly and are in a
perpetual flex and movement.
- The idea of personal identity is a
result of imagination.
- There is no self.
Immanuel Kant
- Self is not just what gives one his
personality, but also the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all
human persons.
- The self constructs its own reality
creating a world that is familiar and
predictable.
- Through our rationality, the self
transcends sense experience.
Gilbert Ryle
- “The self is the way people
behave”
- Self is not an entity one can locate
and analyze, but simply the
convenient name that people use to
refer to all the behaviors that
people make.
- The self is that way people behave.

Paul Churchland
- “The self is the brain”
- The mind does not really exist.
- It is the brain and not the
imaginary mind that gives us our
sense of self.
- The self is the brain.
Maurice Merleau Ponty
- “The self is embodied
subjectivity”
- The mind-body bifurcation that
has been going on for a long time
is a futile endeavor and an invalid
problem.
- All knowledge of ourselves and our
world is based on subjective
experience.
- The self can never be truly
objectified or known in a
completely objective sort of way.
- The self is embodied subjectivity.
LESSON 2: SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
Sociology - A social science that studies
human societies, their interactions, and the
processes that preserve and change them.
Charles Cooley
- He is perhaps best known for his
concept of the looking glass self,
which is the concept that a person’s
self grows out of society’s
interpersonal interactions and the
perceptions of others.
- The concept of the “looking
glass-self” is undoubtedly his most
famous, and is known and accepted
by most psychologists and
sociologists today.
- The term “looking glass-self” was
first used by Cooley in his work,
Human Nature and the Social
Order in 1902.
Steps in looking glass-self
1. You imagine how you appear to the
other person.
2. You imagine the judgement of the
other person.
3. You feel same sense of pride,
happiness, guilt, or shame.
George Herbert Mead
- Mead’s theory of the self is
completely social. Yourself
develops through interacting with
others, through reflecting on that
interaction, to thinking how others
are perceiving you, and that helps
you generate an image of your self.
- Mead theorized that the self has
two parts: Self-awareness and
Self-image.
DEVELOPMENT OF SELF
● PREPARATORY STAGE:
Language develops self by
allowing individuals to respond to
each other through symbols,
gestures, words, and sounds.
● PLAY STAGE: Play develops self
by allowing individuals to take on
different roles, pretend and express
expectations of others. Play
develops one’s self-consciousness
through role-playing.
● GAME STAGE: Games develop
self by allowing individuals to
understand and adhere to the rules
of the activity. Self is developed by
understanding that there are rules
in which one must abide by in
 order to win the game or be
successful.
- His theory of the social self
includes the concepts of “I” and
“me”.
Erving Goffman
- We use “impression
management” to present ourselves
to others as we hope to be
perceived. DRAMATURGY
- Each situation is a new scene and
we perform different roles
depending on who is present.
- In his theory of dramaturgical
analysis, he argued that people live
their lives much like actors
performing on a stage.
AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION
● FAMILY - families introduce
children to the expectations of
society. Socialization is different
based on race, gender and class.
● SCHOOL - in school, teachers and
other students are the source of
expectations that encourage
children to think and behave in
particulat ways.
● PEERS - peer culture is an
important source of identity.
Through interaction with peers,
children learn concepts of self, gain
social skills, and form values and
attitudes.
● MEDIA - the average of young
person (age 8-19) spends almost 7
hours per day immersed in media
in various forms, often using
multiple media forms
simultaneously. Television is the
dominant medium, although half of
all youth use a computer daily.
● RELIGION - children tend to
develop the same religious beliefs
as their parents. Very often those
who disavow religion return to
their original faith at the same
point in their life, especially if they
have strong ties to their family of
origin and after they form families
of their own.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
OF THE SELF
What is Psychology?
- Psychology is the study of mind
and behavior. It encompasses the
biological influences, social
pressures and environmental
factors that affect how people
think, act and feel.
1. Sigmund Freud - the importance
of unconscious.
○ He was considered as the
“father of psychoanalysis”
○ He postulated that there are
three layers of self within
us all.
Id - “makahayop”
● the first part of the self to develop
● the seat of all our desires and wants
● it has no awareness other than it
wants what it wants
● it is the pleasure principle
● it doesn’t care about morals or
societal norms
Ego - “makatao”
● the part of us that functions on
reality
● the ego regulates how many of the
id’s urges will be expressed
● the ego is able to discern what is
right or wrong based on the context
● it is the reality principle
Super-Ego - “makadiyos”
● sometimes referred to as the “voice
of god”
● it strives for perfection
● its main concern is to decide and
act in accordance to what is
morally and socially acceptable
standards.
2. William James - concept of self
● He theorized the components of the
self, which he divided into two
categories: “me” and “I”
● The “me” is a separate individual,
a person refers to when talking
about their personal experience.
● The “I” is the part of the self that
knows who they are and what they
have accomplished in life.
● “I know it was me who ate the
cookie.”, the “me” is the empirical
self, the one who does the acting,
whereas the “I” is the self that is
capable of thinking and reflecting.
● 3 sub-categories of ME: a material,
social, and spiritual self.
○ The material self consists
of what belongs to a person,
such as the body, family,
clothes, or money.
○ The social self marks who
you are in a specific social
situation.
○ The spiritual self is who
we are at our core,
including our personality,
values and conscience.
IDEAL SELF VERSUS REAL SELF
● The real self is who we actually
are. It is how we think, how we
feel, look and act.
● The ideal self is how we want to
be. It is an idealized image that we
have developed over time, based
on what we have learned and
experienced.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
ALIGNMENT
● If the way that I am (real self) is
aligned with the way that I want to
be (the ideal self), then I will feel a
sense of mental well-being, or
peace of mind. If the way that I am
is not aligned with how I want to
be, the incogruence, or lack of
alignment, will result in mental
distress or anxiety.
Multiple vs. Unified Selves by David
Lester
The unified self is a means of referring to
the “composite” persona, or to the “self”
that contains all of the personas that exist
within a person’s. Multiple selves (or
multiple personas) refer to the different
ways that individuals interact with the
different situations and circumstances in
their lives.
Donald Winnicott - true self versus false
self
● Winnicott suggests that the self is
composed of the true self and false
self. Accoding to him, the function
of the false self is to hide and
protect the true self.
Why is it important to know yourself?
● Happiness
● Less inner conflict
● Better decision-making
● Self-control
● Resistance to social pressure
● Tolerance and understanding of
others
● Vitality and pleasure