Aristotle (384-322 B.

C)

He put emphasis on reason. For

a person who lives his life with the
supremacy of reason he will live
with happiness and pleasure.

Socrates (496-399 B.C)

Known for his “The

unexamined life is not worth
living”. He believes that we
must have to feed goodness to
our soul because, when the
body is dead, our soul is
immortal, he believes for the
after-life.
 The Self According To Ancient Philosophers

Plato (428-348 B.C)

He believes that “The self is an

immortal soul in a mortal perishable
body” the soul and the body must be
present, it is un separable.
The Self According To Medieval Philosophers

St. Augustine
(354-430 A.D)

According to him,
happiness can be found in
God alone and every person
is created into the image for
God. He also believes that the
concept of self is in the context of
his relation to God.

St. Thomas Aquinas

(1225-1274)

Like Aristotle, Aquinas

also believes in the supremacy
of reason, however, there are
some truths that cannot be
known by us people thus, we
need the light of the divine
The Self According To Modern Day Philosophers

Descartes (1596 – 1650)

The self is an immaterial

mind and a material body. He is
known for his “I Think Before I
Am”. He believes that our mind is at
the center of our whole being.

John Locke (1631-1704)

He believes that at birth we

are nothing, our mind is empty. It
simplifies that what we are today is
our impression of what we lean
during our infancy.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

He believes that human person has

an inner and an outer self. He
believes that because
human/person is materialistic, that
is why self is prone to corruption. In
his theory of life, Kasnt values
morality
The Self from a Sociological
Perspective
George Herbert Mead
(1863-1931)

He claimed that the Self is not based on

inherited traits and other biological factors;
rather it is based on continuous adaptation of
our experiences that is developed over time
by our social experiences.

Charles Cooley (1864-1929)

He explains that we develop our sense

of self or image through looking-glass theory,
In this theory we look or we dressed up as we
think others view us. We value other peoples
opinion.
The Self from a Psychological Perspective

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

He believes that the

human psyche could be
divided into three parts: id,
ego, and super-ego. A
pleasure seeking person
dominated by ID, A guilt-
ridden person or interior-
feeling person dominated by
the super-ego, A psychology
person dominated by the ego.

William James (1842-1910)

The Self is the totality of

all that a person can claim his
or hers. He divided the self into
Me and I. I is the thinker that
does the thinking, and Me is
the self-as-object
Contemporary Philosophers

Maurice Merleau Ponty (1908-1961)

According to him body and mind is

inseparable. For him the center of command is our
brain. He also believes the proper usage of
facts/knowledge.

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976)

He believes that the mind is a mysterious

thing that is subjected to observation or to
mechanical laws. The self is consists of body and
the mysterious mind present in the body.

PAUL CHURCHLAND (1942-)

He believes that it is our physical brain not the

mind that give us our sense of self. He said that If a
thing can’t be recognize by our senses then it is not
real, it does not exist.