Lesson 1
SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES
Socrates
● Socrates (468-399 BCE) provided a change of perspective
by focusing on the self. His life and ideas, documented by
his students, the historian Xenophon and the philosopher
Plato, showed how Socrates applied systematic questioning
of the self.
● Socrates believed that it is the duty of the philosopher to
know oneself. To live without knowing who you are and
what virtues you can attain is the worst that can happen to
a person. Thus he noted that an "unexamined life is not
worth living."
● Socrates saw a person as dualistic, that is, every person is
composed of body and soul. There is an imperfect and
impermanent aspect of every one of us, which is our
physical body, and then, there is also the perfect and
permanent, which is our soul
Plato
● Plato (428-347 BCE) further expounded on the idea of the
soul by stating that it has three parts of components: the
appetitive soul, the rational soul, and the spirited soul.
● The appetitive soul is the one responsible for the desires and
craving of a person; the rational soul is the thinking,
reasoning, and judging aspect; and the spirited soul is
accountable for emotions and also makes sure that the
rules of reason is followed in order to attain victory and/ or
honor.
Soul Components:
APPETITIVE, RATIONAL, SPIRITED
KYLA ELYSHA MARIE P. RONDAN
St. Augustine
● St. Augustine (354-430 BC) is considered as one of the
most significant Christian thinkers, especially in the
development of Latin Christianity theology.
● His idea of the "self" merged that of Plato and then the new
Christian perspective, which led him to believe in the duality
of a person.
● He believes that there is this imperfect part of us, which is
connected with the world and yearns to be with the divine,
and there is a part of us that is not bound by this world and
can therefore attain immortality. ● What makes a person a person is therefore the mind, and
● The imperfection of the body incapacitates it from thriving the body is just some kind of a machine that is attached and
in the spiritual communion with God, thus, it must die for controlled by it. In his words, "but what am I? A thinking
the soul to reach the eternal realm. however, this thing. It has been said. But what is a thinking thing? It is a
communion of the soul with God can only be attained if the thing that doubts, understands (conceives), affirms, denies,
body lives in this world with virtue. wills, refuses; that imagines also, and perceives.
John Locke
René Descartes ● John Locke was an English Philosopher, political
● René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French mathematician, theorist, and physician. His works as a physician
scientist, and philosopher. He claimed that the person is provided him with an idea that deviated from the
composed of the cognito or the mind, and the extenze or the duality of the body or soul son's mind is a blank slate or
body, which is the extension of the mind. He argues that a tabula rasa at birth. It is through experiences that this
person should only believe the things that can pass the test blank state is filled, and personal identity or "self" is
of doubt formed. This "self" cannot be found in the body nor the
● (Descartes 2008). In his "Discourse on the Method" and soul but in one's consciousness (Nimbalkar 2011).
"Meditations of First Philosophy," he therefore concluded ● Note, however, that consciousness is not the brain itself.
that the only thing that a person cannot doubt is the It is something the goes beyond the brain and thus, for
Locke, the consciousness and the "self" that comes with
existence of his/her "self". Because even doubt about the self
it can be transferred from one person or body to
proves that there is a thinking or doubting self. Thus, his
another.
famous qoute "cogito, ergo su” “ I think therefore I am”
David Hume
BSN 1-F

● Scottish philosopher and an empiricist who believes
that all concepts as well as knowledge come from the
senses and experiences.
● The "self" , according to Hume, is a "bundle or
collection of different perceptions, which succeed each
other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a
perpetual flux and movement.
● 2 categories
Impressions - Real or Actual experiences or sensations.
Ideas -Copies of impressions or representations of the
world and sensations, like love and faith
Immanuel Kant
● One of the most influential philosophers in Western
Philosophy, Kant contributed to the fields of
metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics among others.
He believes that there must necessarily be something in
us that organizes these sensations to create knowledge
and ideas.
● Kant is a rationalist who thinks that reason, not mere
experience, is the foundation of knowledge. It is the self
that organizes and synthesizes our experiences into
something meaningful for us.
Lesson 1
SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES
Maurice Jean Merleu-Ponty
● French existentialist and phenomenologist.
● Mind and body are interconnected with each other and
therefore cannot be separated.
● Our body is our connection to the external world,
including other people, thus all experiences are
embodied. This also includes the thoughts and emotions
of a person.
Paul Churchland
● He proposed the use of "eliminate materialism" or
"eliminativism", which claims that the old terms we use
to describe the mind are outdated, if not mere "folk
psychology".
● Neuroscience somehow shows a connection of what we
call mental states.
● The self is actually located in the brain, and that the
actions of the mind or the self are processes of the brain

Gilbert Ryle
● Proposed that we should instead focus on the observable
behavior of a person in defining the "self"
● One can describe one's self as good but do not otherwise
in real life.
● We get to know others by observing their behavior and
inferring about their "selves". We can apply the same
observation and reflection on ourselves.

KYLA ELYSHA MARIE P. RONDAN BSN 1-F