THE SELF FROM DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
PRE-SOCRATIC PERIOD St. Augustine Self is inner/ immaterial and the soul belong to perfect and eternal
Socrates and Plato The soul is immortal
Greek Miracle Rational, Scientific, Philosophical… way of thinking
Socrates “True knowledge exist in knowing that you know nothing”
 First philosopher to engage in systematic questioning about self
 Gadfly
 Unexamined life is not worth living
Socratic method exchange of question and answer,
remember omniscient self
Socratic wisdom you know nothing
 Reality is dualistic (1. Changeable, 2. Unchanging)
body belongs to physical realm
soul belongs to ideal realm
 Reason frees our soul from corruption
 4 main ideas
1. Care for your soul
2. Knowledge of virtue is necessary to become virtues
3. Evil acts are committed out of ignorance
4. Committing injustice is worse than suffering injustice
Plato Supported Socrates concept of dualistic nature
 Tripartite Structure of the Soul
Reason/Rational soul makes wise decision
Passion/Spirited soul emotions
Physical/Appetitive soul biological needs
 Five Classification of Societies
Meritocracy: talented rules
Anarchy: total lack of government
Timarchic: honor and fame
Oligarchy: money
Democracy: poor seize power
Extras (greek thinkers): Thales- water
Heraclitus- fire
Pythagoras- mathematics
MIDDLE AGES
God.
Aspects of soul: Aware of itself
Aware of its unity
Recognizes itself as Holistic
 Platonism and Christianity were natural partners
 Man is of bifurcated nature (body and soul)
 Ultimate reality: transcendent God
St. Thomas Aquinas Synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity
 Rejected Plato’s radical dualism
 Supported Aristotle’s metaphysical views
 The soul is what animates the body and makes us human or in other
words soul is just soul (unnatural state unless it enters a body)
Rene Descartes “Cogito, ergo sum” “doubt, as much as possible, all things”
 Founder of Modern Philosophy, father of western philosophy
 Concern with understanding the thinking process
 Your self-identity is dependent on your awareness of doing them.
 Believes body is secondary to personal identity
o The thinking self (soul) is immortal and nonmaterial.
Independent of the physical laws of the universe.
o The physical body is mortal and material. fully governed
by physical law of nature.
John Locke The self is consciousness
 What makes a person existing is now is the same as yesterday are the
thoughts, experience or actions of earlier self.
Immanuel Kant We construct the self
 The self isn’t an object located in your consciousness with other
objects- your self is a subject, an organizing principle that makes a
unified and intelligible experience possible.
 Two Kinds of Consciousness
1. Consciousness of oneself and one’s psychological state in inner self.
2. Consciousness of oneself and one’s state by performing acts of
apperception.
 Apperception mental process by which a person makes sense of an
idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she possess.
  Two Components of Self.
1. Inner self
2. Outer Self
 3 Ways the Self Organizes Information
1. Raw perception input
2. Reproducing in the imagination
3. Recognizing concept
 We each have fundamental organizing rules or principle built into the
architecture of our minds
Gilbert Ryle The self is how you behave
 Self is from behaviors and actions.
 Wrote the Concept of Mind (1949) where he rejected the notion that
metal states are separable from physical states.
 There is no soul hidden inside a body, distant self is not real. Self is a
name to a behavior.
 Behaviorism the self is defined in terms of behavior presented to the
world.
 Body is public, Mind is private.
Merleau-Ponty The self is embodied subjectively
 Rejected dualism and says that mind and body intrinsically connected
 Phenomenologist/ Phenomenology A philosophical approach that
attempts to give a direct description of our experience as it is in itself,
without taking into accounts its psychological origins or casual
explanations.
 Phenomenological Approach Describe the phenomena of the lived
experience by describing what your immediate
David Hume There is no self
 Self can only exist after death because it can only be formed till then.
 Rationalism is the theory that reason rather than experience.
 The self (mind) is a collection of different perceptions therefore is in a
perpetual flux.
 Divided the mind’s perceptions into two;
1. Impression is directly experienced (pain, pleasure…)
2. Ideas are mechanisms that copy and reproduce sense data formulated
from previously perceived impressions. (thoughts, images…)
 The self is a light bulb that can be switched on and off like sleeping.
 Empiricism is the school of thought that espouses the idea that
knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced.
THE SELF, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE
SELF IS DEFINED AS
1. Separate
2. Self-contained
3. Independent
4. Consistent
5. Unitary
6. Private
Culture is a set of learned behaviors and beliefs that characterized/bind
people together.
Society is the way people organized themselves/ it is the structure that
provides organizations.
According to Marcel Mauss, every self has two faces;
1. Moi is a person’s sense of who he is. Person’s basic identity.
2. Personne is composed of the social concepts of what it means to
be him in terms of religion, nationality...
Vygotsky identified several aspects that would aid in the development of a human
person;
1.Guided Participation: cognitive growth results from children’s involvement in
structured activities with other who are more skilled than they are
2. Scaffolding: Style in which the mentor/teacher gauge the amount of assistance
they offer to match the learner’s needs.
3. Private speech: comments that are not intended for others but are designed
instead to help regulate the child’s own behavior
Language has tremendous effect in our crafting of self.
Mead and Vygotsky human develop with the use of language acquisition
ad interaction with others.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Sexual orientation is about who you’re attracted to. (bisexual, pan,.)
Gender Identity is who you are (male, female, genderqueer, etc.)
Sex refers to person’s anatomy.
Cisgender (straight) refers to people whose gender identity and biological
sex align.
Gender Expression the way we show our gender to the world.
Gender expansive/gender queer is for someone somewhere on the gender
spectrum outside the sex and gender.
Gender stereotypes: Beliefs and images about males and females that are
not necessarily true.
Formation of Gender Identity  Levels of Mental Life
1.Gender labeling: young children’s understanding that they are either boy or A. Unconsciousness drives and instincts beyond awareness.
girl and naming themselves accordingly. Age 2-3 Unconscious thought manifest in;
2.Gender stability: preschool years. Begin to understand that gender is stable. Freudian Slip- Slip of tongue but you really meant it
Boys become men; girls become women. However, they may also believe that girls
Dreams- guides to consciousness/ desires
with short hair will become a boy, and boys who play dolls will become a girl.
Interpreting dreams
3.Gender constancy: 5-7. Most children understand that maleness and
the manifest content (conscious description)
femaleness do not change over situation or according to personal wishes. Gender is
unaffected by their clothes or toys. the latent content (the unconscious meaning)
B. Preconscious: Something that can be taken out or remembered in
THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT the back of our mind.
“The self is the sense of personal identity and of who we are as C. Conscious: stem from either the perception of external stimuli (our
individuals”- Jhangiani and Tarry,2014 perceptual conscious system) or from the unconscious and
DIFFERENT IDEAS OF THE SELF preconscious
WILLIAM JAMES (1980)  Dynamics of Personality motivational principle that explains the driving
TWO CONCEPTS OF SELF force of people’s action.
a. The “I”- is the thinking, acting, and feeling self Drive: constant motivational force that originates in id, controlled
b. The “me”- is the physical characteristics as well as psychological by ego.
capabilities that makes you who you are. Sex/Eros- libido
Aggression/Thanatos- unnamed
THE CONSTITUTION OF SELF
1. The material Self; inner self/ body DEFENSE MECHANISM
2. The social Self; friends
3. The Spiritual Self; psychic disposition 1. Repression- forcing unwanted, anxiety-loaded experiences into the
unconscious.
SIGMUND FREUD; PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH 2. Reaction Formulation- repression of one impulse and the ostentatious
expression of its exact opposite.
 Started the psychodynamic approach
3. Displacement- redirect their unwanted urges
 People are motivated by unconscious needs. To seek pleasure and reduce
4. Regression- reverts to earlier, more infantile modes of behavior.
anxiety.
5. Projection- seeing in others those unacceptable feelings or behaviors that
 Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s behavior as the results
actually reside in one's own unconscious.
of the interaction between the Id, Ego, and Superego.
6. Sublimation- elevation of the sexual instinct's aim to a higher level, which
 Proposed 3 components of the personality;
permits people to make contributions to society and culture.
 Id: pleasure principle and contains our basic instincts.
7. Rationalization- self-justifying explanations
(HUNGER, SEX, AGGRESION)
8. Denial- refuse to accept or acknowledge an anxiety-producing piece of
 Ego: reality principle and is responsible for reconciling the
information.
unrealistic demands of the id and the superego.
 Superego: idealistic principle. has two subsystems—the
conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience results from
punishment for improper behavior whereas the ego-ideal
stems from rewards for socially acceptable behavior.
FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT 4. Creativity: creative thinking and risk-taking are features of a
person’s life.
 Personality and problems are results of early experiences in life. 5. Fulfilled life: a person is happy and satisfied with life, and always
 Five stages in which we all experience pleasure. looking
I. Oral Stage- first 18 months of age  The self-concept includes three components:
II. Anal Stage- 1 to 3 years of age 1. Self-worth (or self-esteem) comprises what we think about
III. Phallic Stage- 3 to 6 years of age Phallus (Penis) ourselves.
Oedipus Complex- desire to replace mom/dad 2. Self-image: How we see ourselves, which is important to good
IV. Latency Stage- 6 years till puberty develops social psychological health
interaction skills/ distractions 3. Ideal-self: This is the person who we would like to be
V. Genital Stage- puberty onwards sexual reawakening Unconditional Positive Regard- accepts and loves the person for what he
 FIXATION defense mechanism when stages are under or over-gratified. or she is.
ERIK ERIKSON Psychosocial Stages of Development Conditional Positive Regard- positive regard, praise, and approval, depend
upon the child.
 Extended Freud’s infantile development stages into adolescence, SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY we learn by comparing aspects of ourselves
adulthood, and old age. - Downward Social Comparison comparing to those lower than us
1. Basic trust vs. Basic mistrust - Upward Social Comparison comparing to those higher than us
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Narcissism overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
5. Identity vs. Identity/ Role confusion
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
8. Integrity vs. Despair

ALFRED ADLER Our drive is either for success or superiority

 People are born with weak inferior bodies

CARL ROGERS (1959): HUMANISTIC APPROACH

 Self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” (i.e., who they would
like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image).
 Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person:
1. Open to experience: both positive and negative emotions
accepted.
2. Existential living: Being able to live and fully appreciate the
present, not always looking back to the past or forward to the
future (i.e., living for the moment).
3. Trust feelings: feeling, instincts, and gut-reactions are paid
attention to and trusted.