UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Philosophy
- came from Greek word “philosophia”, literally means "love of wisdom".
- It is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence,
knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.
- Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the ultimate causes, reasons, and
principles of everything.

Pythagoras (c. 570–495 BCE)

- probably coined the term philosophy.
- Historically, "philosophy" encompassed any body of knowledge.
- Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and
systematic presentation.

3.1. SOCRATES - An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

Socrates

- was born, as far as we know, in Athens around 469 B.C. Our knowledge of his life is sketchy
and derives mainly from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon (c.
431 - 355 B.C.), and the plays of Aristophanes (c. 456 - 386 B.C.).
- According to Plato, Socrates' father was Sophroniscus (a sculptor and stonemason) and his
mother was Phaenarete (a midwife). His family was respectable in descent but humble in
means.
- He appears to have had no more than an ordinary Greek education (reading, writing,
gymnastics and music, and, later, geometry and astronomy) before devoting his time almost
completely to intellectual interests.

Views about Self

- The self is synonymous with the soul - soul is self

- He believes that every human possesses an immortal soul that survives the physical body
- First to focus on the full power of reason on the human self: who we are, who we should be,
and who will become.
- Suggest that reality consist of two dichotomous realms: physical realms (changeable,
transients, and imperfect) and ideal realms (unchanging, eternal, and immortal)
- Explains that the essence of the self-the soul- is the immortal entity
- Suggest that man must live an examined life and a life of purpose and value
- The individual person can have a meaningful and happy life only if he becomes virtuous and
knows the value of himself that can be achieved through incessant soul-searching.

OWN:

- Nagsuggest na know thyself

- Socrates is a product of platos writing
- Kung hindi mo kilala ung sarili mo never kang magiging masaya
- What is self and the qualities that define it?
 - 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 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
- Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life.
- Goodness or beauty is the most important of all.
- 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 best achieved when one tries to separate the body from the soul as much as
possible.

3.2. PLATO - The Self Is An Immortal Soul

Plato

- was born in Athens some time between 429 and 423 B.C.
- He was possibly originally named Aristocles after his grandfather, and only later dubbed
"Plato" or "Platon" (meaning "broad") on account of the breadth of his eloquence, or of his
wide forehead, or possibly on account of his generally robust figure.
- PLATO STUDENT NI SOCRATES

His father

- was Ariston (who may have traced his descent from Codrus, the last of the legendary kings of
Athens);

his mother

- was Perictione (who was descended from the famous Athenian lawmaker and poet Solon,
and whose family also boasted prominent figures of the oligarchic regime of Athens known as
the Thirty Tyrants).

Views about Self

- The self is synonymous with the soul

- His philosophy explains as a process of self knowledge and purification of the soul

He introduce the idea of a three-part soul/self :

Reason

- the divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choice, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truth

Physical Appetite

- includes basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire

Spirit or passion
 - includes basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness and empathy

Theory of Forms :

- the world of forms (non-physical ideas) – real and permanent and the world of sense (reality)
– temporary and only a replica of the ideal world

OWN:

○ Almost same as Socrates with some add-ons

○ The self consists of three parts: reason, spirit or passion, and physical appetite.
○ Reason is the divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a
true understanding of eternal truths.
○ The spirit or passion includes basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness,
and empathy.
○ The physical appetite includes our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual
desire.

3.4. Aurelius Augustinus - The Self Has An Immortal Soul

Aurelius Augustinus,

- as claimed by the Catholic Church as St. Agustine ( born November 13, 354, Tagaste,
Numidia (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) and died August 28, 430, Hippo Regius. Bishop of
Hippo from 396 to 430, one of the Latin fathers of the Church and perhaps the most
significant Christian thinker after St. Paul.
- Augustine’s adaptation of classical thought to Christian teaching created a theological system
of great power and lasting influence. His numerous written work, the most important of which
are Confession and The City of God, shaped the practice of biblical exegesis, and helped lay
the foundation for much of the medieval and modern Christian thought.

Views about Self

- He believes that the physical body is radically different from the inferior to its inhabitant, the
immortal soul.
- He viewed that body as the spouse of the soul, both attached to one another by a natural
appetite. The soul is what governs and defines man
- Believe that the body is united with the soul, so that man may be entire or complete
- In his work, Confessions, humankind is created in the image and likeness of God
- He convinced that self is known only through knowing God
- For him, “knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us”
- Self-knowledge is a consequence of knowledge of God

RENE DESCARTES - I Think Therefore I Am

Rene Descartes
 - was born in the town of La Haye en Touraine (since renamed Descartes) in the Loire Valley
in central France on 31 March 1596. His father, Joachim Descartes, was a busy lawyer and
magistrate in the High Court of Justice, and his mother, Jeanne (née Brochard), died of
tuberculosis when René was just one year old. René and his brother and sister, Pierre and
Jeanne, were therefore mainly raised by their grandmother.
- From 1604 until 1612, he attended the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flèche,
Anjou, studying classics, logic and traditional Aristotelianism philosophy. His health was
poor and he was granted permission to remain in bed until 11 o'clock in the morning, a
custom he maintained for the rest of his life.

Views about Self

- “I think therefore I am” is the keystone of Descartes's concept of the self.

- The act of thinking about the self- of being self-conscious- is in itself proof that there is a self
- The essence of the human self – a thinking entity that doubts understands, analyzes,
questions, and reasons.

Two-dimension of the human self: the self as thinking entity and the self as physical body

- Thinking self (soul) as a non-material, immortal, conscious being, and independent of

physical laws of universe
- The physical body is a material, the mortal, non-thinking entity, fully governed by physical
laws of nature
- The essential self – the self as thinking entity – is distinct from the self as a physical body

JOHN LOCKE - The Self Is Consciousness

John Locke

- was born on 29 August 1632 in the small rural village of Wrington, Somerset, England. His
father, also named John Locke, was a country lawyer and clerk to the Justices of the Peace in
the nearby town of Chew Magna and had served as a captain of the cavalry for the
Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the English Civil War. His mother, Agnes
Keene, was a tanner's daughter and reputed to be very beautiful. Both parents were Puritans,
and the family moved soon after Locke's birth to the small market town of Pensford, near
Bristol.
- In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster School in London (sponsored by the
local MP Alexander Popham) as a King's Scholar.

Views about Self

- The human mind at birth is a tabula rasa or a blank slate

- The self of personal identity is constructed primarily from sense experiences – what people
see, hear, smell, taste, and feel
- Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the
self.
 - The essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as thinking, reasoning, and
reflecting the identity
- He contends that consciousness accompanies thinking and makes possible the concept people
have the self.
- The power of reason and introspections enables one to understand and achieve accurate
conclusion about the self (or personal identity)

DAVID HUME - There Is No Self

David Hume

- was born on 26 April 1711 in a tenement on the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh, Scotland. His
father was Joseph Home (an advocate or barrister of Chirnside, Berwickshire, Scotland), and
the aristocrat Katherine Lady Falconer. He changed his name to Hume in 1734 because the
English had difficulty pronouncing "Home" in the Scottish manner.
- He was well-read, even as a child, and had a good grounding in Greek and Latin. He attended
the University of Edinburgh at the unusually early age of twelve (possibly as young as ten),
although he had little respect for the professors there and soon threw over a prospective career
in law in favor of philosophy and general learning.

Views about Self

- He suggests that if people carefully examine their sense experience through the process of
introspection, they will discover that there is no self
- What people experience is just a bundle or collection of different perception

If carefully examine the content of experience, they will find distinct entities:

Impression - basic sensations of people such as hate, love, joy, grief, pain, cold and heat. These are
vivid perceptions and are strong and lively

Ideas - are thoughts and images from impression so they are less lively and vivid

- Humes argues that it cannot be from any of these impressions that the idea of the self is
derived and consequently, there is no self
- The idea of personal identity is a result of imagination

IMMANUEL KANT - We Construct The Self

Immanuel Kant

- was born on 22 April 1724 in the city of Königsberg (then the capital of Prussia, now
modern-day Kaliningrad, Russia). He spent his entire life in and around his hometown, never
traveling more than a hundred miles from Königsberg. His father, Johann Georg Kant, was a
German craftsman and harness maker from Memel, Prussia; his mother, Anna Regina Porter,
was born in Nuremberg but was the daughter of a Scottish saddle and harness maker.
 - He was the fourth of eleven children (five of whom reached adulthood). He was baptized as
"Emanuel" but later changed his name to "Immanuel" after he learned Hebrew

Views about Self

- It is the self that makes experiencing an intelligible world possible because it is the self that is
actively organizing and synthesizing all of our thoughts and perceptions
- He believes that the self is an organizing principle that makes as unified and intelligible
experience possible
- The self constructs its own reality, actively creating a world that is familiar, predictable, and
most significantly, mine
- The self is a product of reason, a regulative principle, because the self regulates experience by
making unified experiences possible
- Through rationality, people are able to understand certain abstract ideas that have no
corresponding physical object or sensory experience

SIGMUND FREUD - The Self Is Multi-layered

Sigmund Freud

- was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method treating
psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
- Freud was born in Frieberg, Moravia in 1856, but he was four years old his family moved to
Vienna where he was to live and work until the last years of his life. In 1938 the Nazis
annexed Austria, and Freud, who was Jewish, was allowed to leave England.
- After his marriage in 1886, which was extremely happy and gave Freud six children – the
youngest of whom, Anna, was to herself become a distinguished psychoanalyst.

Views about Self

• He holds that the self consists of three layers:

• Conscious self – govern by “reality principle”. Rational, practical, and appropriate to

environment. It is usually taken into account the realistic demands of the situation, the consequences
of various activities, and the overriding need to preserve the equilibrium (balance)

• Unconscious self – govern by “pleasure principle”. Basic instinctual drives including sexuality,
aggressiveness, and self-destruction; traumatic memories, unfulfilled wishes and childhood fantasies;
thought and feelings that would be considered socially taboo.

• Preconscious self – contains material that is not threatening and easily brought to mind.

GILBERT RYLE - The Self Is The Way People Behave

Gilbert Ryle was born on August 19, 1900, in Brighton, England and he died on October 6, 1976. He
is a British philosopher leading figure on the “Oxford Philosophy” or ordinary language, movement.
Ryle gained first-class honors at Queen’s College, Oxford and became a lecturer at Christ Church
College in 1924. Throughout his career, which remained centered at Oxford, he attempted – as
Waynflete Professor of metaphysical Philosophy, and his writing and as editor of the journal Mind –
to dissipate confusion arising from the misapplication of language.

Views about Self

- He believes that the self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, the tendency or
disposition of a person to behave in a certain way in certain circumstances.
- “I act therefore I am”
- The self is the same as bodily behavior
- The mind is the totality of human disposition that is known through the people behave
- He is convinced that the mind expresses the entire system of thoughts, emotions, and actions
that make up the human self.

PAUL CHURCHLAND - The Self Is The Brain

Paul Montgomery Churchland

- was born on October 21, 1942. He is Canadian philosopher is known for his studies in
neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of
Pittsburgh under Wilfrid Sellar (1969), Churchland rose to the rank of full professor at the
University of Manitoba before accepting the Valtz Family Endowed Chair in Philosophy.
- Paul is currently professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of California in San
Diego, CA. His research centers on epistemology, perception, philosophy of mind, philosophy
of neuroscience, and philosophy of science.

Views about Self

- Advocates the idea of eliminative materialism or the idea that the self is inseparable from the
brain and physiology of the body
- The physical brain and not the imaginary mind, gives people the sense of self
- The mind does not really exist because it cannot be experienced by the senses

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY - The Self Is Embodied Subjectivity

Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty

- was born on March 14 1908 and died on May 3, 1961. He was a French phenomenological
philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.
- The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and he wrote on
perception, art, and politics. He was on the editorial board of Les Temps Modernes, the leftist
magazine established by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1945.

Views about Self

- Argues that all knowledge about the self is based on the phenomena of experience
- The ‘I’ is a single integrated core identity, a combination of mental, physical, and emotional
structures around a core identity of the self
- Mind and body are unified
 - Consciousness is a dynamic form responsible for actively structuring conscious ideas and
physical behavior
- Perception is not merely a consequence of the sensory experience, rather it is a conscious
experience. Thus, the self has embodied subjectivity.

Lesson 2: Biblical Perspective of the Self

According to the Holy Bible, the man is composed of three (3) distinct components: body, soul and
spirit. It is written in 1 Thessalonians 5:23

"And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be
preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (ASV)
Understanding the Self

○ The course includes three parts:

○ The self from various perspectives
○ Unpacking the self
○ Managing and caring for the self

Self from Various Perspectives

- Iba iba ung perspective about self. One entity pero magkaiba ng side
○ Philosophical
○ Sociological
○ Anthropological
○ Psychological
○ Eastern and Western Perspective

Understanding the Self

○ "Know thyself"
○ The self is your main companion in living in this world.
○ Who you are, who you want to be, who society wants you to be, and who you can be are some
of the ideas we explore.
○ The self is freaky complex

Philosophy

○ Philia - love; Sophia - wisdom

○ Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the ultimate causes, reasons, and
principles of everything
○ The nature of the self is a topic of interest among philosophers.
○ The philosophical framework for understanding the self was heavily explored by ancient
Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato.