Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Lesson 1: Philosophical Perspectives on The Self
As a broad field about knowledge, thinking,
reasoning, nature, as well as how we should live, among
others, it is also inevitable that the study of philosophy
would lead for the philosophers to reflect on themselves
and ask, “Who am I? What characterizes this ‘self’ that l
say lam?" Here are several philosophers and their ideas
that we can also reflect on.
Greek thinkers prior to Socrates, like Thales,
Pythagoras, and Heraclitus, among others, focused on
the composition and processes of the world around
them. Unsatisfied with mere mythological and
supernatural explanations, these so-called PreSocratic
philosophers turned to observation, documentation, and
reasoning.
SOCRATES AND PLATO
Socrates
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher
considered to be the Forerunner of Western Philosophy.
He was in particular:
1. A scholar
2. A teacher
3. A philosopher
who influenced countless thinkers throughout
generations.
His method of questioning, famously known as
the Socratic Method laid the groundwork for Western
systems of logic in particular and philosophy in general.
Plato was considered to be Socrates' greatest
student. In fact, it was Plato who wrote his philosophy. As
you all know, Socrates did not write anything. It was Plato
who systematically articulated Socrates's philosophy
through his famous dialogues, which also chronicled
Socrates's life.
Socrates was fully convinced that philosophy
must obtain practical results for the greater wellbeing of
society. For him, the very first step towards the
realization of this goal: is the acquisition of wisdom
through: Knowing Oneself.
HOW DOES SOCRATES VIEW THE SLEF?
- The key to understanding Socrates's concept of the self
is through the philosopher's take on the: Soul
- But Socrates's concept of the Soul should not be viewed
from the vantage point of Christianity
BUT WHAT DOES SOCRATES ACTUALLY MEAN BY SOUL?
Most colors of philosophy agree with Mr.
Frederick Copleston, a famous historian of philosophy.
He is the one who believes that when Socrates
speaks of the soul, the philosopher refers to: a thinking
and willing subject.
- Soul is the intellectual and moral personality of
humans.
- "The soul is the essence of the human person."
- The "soul" or "the self" is the responsible agent
in knowing and acting rightly or wrongly.
- The soul is the person's true self.
- When we turn inward in search for self-
knowledge, we would eventually discover our
true self.
- The self is our inner being.
GOOD LIFE - this is the ultimate goal of Socrates's
philosophy.
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socratic Dictuum:
"Knowing what is right is doing what is right."
Plato
For Plato, the concepts of “self" and "knowledge"
are inextricably in link. Plato's concept of the self is
practically constructed on the basis of his reflections on
the nature of the rational soul as the highest form of
cognition.
For Plato, the human person is a dichotomy of
body and soul, or it is composed of body and soul.
Body - is the material and destructible part of the
human person.
Soul - is the immaterial and indestructible part.
Plato argues that the soul is an entity distinct
from the body.
Indeed, for Plato, the SOUL is the SELF.
- The body and the soul can be separated.
- Plato believes that the soul is just residing in the
body temporarily.
- The idea that when the human person dies, the
soul departs from the body, leaving the body to
decompose.
- Since the soul is immaterial and indestructible,
it cannot die, it is eternal.
THE SOUL, CONCEIVED OF AS SELF, HAS THREE PARTS:
1. Rational Soul - it is located in the head which enables
the person to think, reflect, analyze, and do other
cognitive functions. SUPERIOR to the Spiritual and
Appetitive Soul as it serves as their moral and rational
guide.
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Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
2. Spiritual Soul - it is located in the chest wherein it
enables the person to experience happiness, joy,
sadness, anger, and other emotional feelings.
3. Appetitive Soul - it is located in the abdomen that
drives the human person to experience pain, hunger,
thirst, and other physical wants.
ST. AUGUSTINE
St. Augustine (354-430 CE) is considered as one
of the most significant Christian thinkers, especially in the
development of the Latin Christianity theology.
His idea of the "self" merged that of Plato and the then
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. The
imperfection of the body incapacitates it from thriving in
the spiritual communion with God, thus, it must die for
the soul to reach the eternal realm. However, this
communion of the soul with God can only be attained if
the body lives in this world with virtue.
Augustine's life and thought had a profound
impact on the development of Christian theology and
Western philosophy. Here is a brief background on his life
and contributions:
- Early Life and Education
- Conversion to Christianity
- Theological Writings
- Doctrine of Original Sin
- Influence on Western Philosophy
- Legacy
RENÉ DESCARTES
René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French
mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. He claimed
that the person is composed of the cogito or the mind,
and the exteriza or the body, which is the extension of
the mind. He argues that a person should only believe the
things that can pass the test of doubt (Descartes 2008).
In his "Discourse on the Method" and "Meditations on
First Philosophy," he therefore concluded that the only
thing that a person cannot doubt is the existence of his
or her "self." Because even doubt about the self proves
that there is a thinking or doubting self. Thus, his famous
quote "cogito ergo sum."
What makes a person a person is therefore the
mind, and the body is just some kind of machine that is
attached and controlled by it. In his words, "But what
then, am I? A thinking thing. It has been said. But what is
a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands
(conceives), affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines
also, and perceives" (Descartes 2008).
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IMMANUEL KANT
Immanuel Kant (born on April 22, 1724) was a
prominent German philosopher and one of the most
influential philosophers in Western philosophy.
He synthesized early modern rationalism and
empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and
twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise
a significant influence today in metaphysics,
epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and
other fields.
Kant is a rationalist who thinks that reason, not
mere experience, is the foundation of knowledge.
Rationalists believe that certain truths and knowledge
can be known through the exercise of human reason,
deduction, and logical analysis.
THE THREE CRITIQUES OF IMMANUEL KANT
1. THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON It examines the nature
and limits of human knowledge, seeking to answer
fundamental questions about the possibility and scope of
metaphysical and philosophical knowledge.
It consists of 2 parts:
1.1. The Transcendental Aesthetic
- Kant argues that space and time are not
objective features of the external world but
rather forms of human intuition. He asserts that
space and time are a priori conditions of human
perception, and they structure our sensory
experience.
1.2. The Transcendental Analytic
- This is the core of Kant's critique. Here, he
introduces his distinction between analytic and
synthetic judgments and the concept of
"transcendental deduction."
2. THE CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON Kant seeks to
establish the foundation for moral principles and ethical
decisionmaking through a critical examination of human
practical reason. He argues that moral principles are
grounded in rationality and are not dependent on
empirical observations or personal desires.
3. THE CRITIQUE OF JUDGMENT This is a philosophical
work that explores the nature of human aesthetic and
teleological judgments.
It consists of two parts:
3.1. Critique of Aesthetic Judgment
- It discusses how we make judgments about the
beauty and aesthetic value of objects.
3.2. Critique of Teleological Judgment
- This explores how we make judgments about
purpose or design in the natural world.
Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
He argues that when we observe living
organisms or natural phenomena, we tend to
attribute purpose or design to them, even
though we can't prove that they were actually
designed.
RYLE, CHURCHLAND, AND MERLEAU-PONTY
The debate on the duality of a person's self, of
mind and body, of consciousness and substance, internal
and external, has been revised and adapted for a long
time that several modern-day philosophers had to take
drastic actions, so to speak. This action is the rejection of
that duality.
Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976)
Gilbert Ryle was a British philosopher known for
his work in the philosophy of mind and language. He is
best known for his influential critique of Cartesian
dualism and for his development of the concept of "the
ghost in the machine." Ryle's main work on this topic can
be found in his book "The Concept of Mind," published in
1949.
Critique of Cartesian Dualism: Ryle was a strong critic of
Cartesian dualism, which was proposed by René
Descartes and posits a fundamental separation between
the mind and the body. By seeing the mind as a separate
entity within the body, similar to a "ghost in the
machine," Ryle claimed that this dualistic viewpoint
caused a category mistake, or conceptual error in
thinking.
"The Ghost in the Machine": Ryle used the expression
"the ghost in the machine" to characterize the false
dualism concept that the mind is an immaterial entity in
control of the physical body. He said that this point of
view produced philosophical misunderstanding and that
the mind and body are not two separate entities but
rather integral parts of an individual's being.
Observable behaviorism and linguistic description: He
argued that the mind and body are not separate
substances but should be understood in terms of
observable behavior and language, emphasizing the
importance of a more integrated view of human
existence.
Paul Churchland
Paul Churchland is a Canadian American
philosopher known for his work in the fields of
philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and cognitive
science. He is associated with the philosophy of
eliminative materialism, which challenges traditional
dualistic views of the mind and body.
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Eliminative materialism: Here in which Churchland
supports, holds that our understanding of beliefs,
desires, and awareness that is based on common sense
is fundamentally flawed and may need to be abandoned
or significantly changed.
He contends that when neuroscience and cognitive
science become better understood, we may discover that
many of these conventional ideas about the mind are not
supported by physical reality.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Merleau-Ponty is a French
phenomenologist (1908–1961) is renowned for his
contributions to existentialism and the philosophy of
perception. Merleau-Ponty presented a nuanced
viewpoint that attempted to close the gap between
conventional dualism and monism by focusing on the
connection between perception, the body, and
consciousness.
Phenomenology of Perception": The most important
publication by Merleau-Ponty was "Phenomenology of
Perception" (1945). In this work, he examined how our
senses help us experience the world around us and made
the case that perception is a crucial aspect of how we
interact with it. He emphasized the embodied aspect of
perception and criticized the notion of a tight division
between the mental and the physical. He held the view
that our perception of the world is a combination of the
body and the mind.
Embodiment: The term "embodiment," which highlights
the part the body plays in how we perceive and
comprehend the world, was first introduced by Merleau-
Ponty. He suggested that human perception is profoundly
anchored in our bodily experiences and interactions with
the environment rather than being a simply mental
activity. By emphasizing the significance of the body in
influencing our conscious experiences, this viewpoint
challenges conventional dualism, which divides the mind
and the body.
JOHN LOCKE
Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher,
political theorist, and physician. His works as a physician
provided him with an idea that deviated from the duality
of the body or soul.
A person's mind is a blank slate or tabula rasa at
birth. It is through experiences that this blank slate is
filled, and a personal identity or "self" is formed. This
"self" cannot be found in the soul nor the body but in
one's consciousness (Nimbalkar 2011).
Note, however, that consciousness is not the
brain itself. It is something that goes beyond the brain
and thus, for Locke, the consciousness and the "self" that
comes with it can be transferred from one person or body
to another (Nimbalkar 2011).
Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
DAVID HUME
Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher
and an empiricist who believes that all concepts as well
as knowledge come from the senses and experiences.
Based on such perspective, he argued that there
is no self beyond what can be experienced.
We do not know others because we have seen or
touched their souls; we know them because of what we
can actually observe.
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” (Hume and Steinberg,
1992).
Simply, the self is a combination of experiences
of a person. We can categorize these experiences into
impressions and ideas.
- Impressions are real or actual experiences or
sensations, like feeling the rough edges of a
stone or tasting a sweet ice cream.
- Ideas are copies of impressions or
representation of the world and sensations, like
love, faith, or even an association that this
certain event is caused by something in the past
could possibly create another reaction in the
future.

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Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Lesson 2: The Self, Society, and Culture
For a long time, philosophers have debated over
the "self" from a mind-body perspective. The advent of
the institutionalization of the other social sciences, like
history, anthropology, sociology, political science, and
psychology, among others, as academic and research
fields have widened this perspective of the self. As most
of these branches of social science study society and
culture, the "self" was also seen as a part of social
processes.
Abstraction
There is a common saying in the social sciences,
especially in sociology and anthropology: “Human beings
are, by nature, social beings.” That is, each of us does not
exist in a vacuum. We interact with people and even the
most introverted of us would have to relate and
communicate with a few.
The phrase "no man is an island" is a metaphor
that emphasizes the interconnectedness of human
beings. It suggests that every individual is connected to
and influenced by others around them, and no one can
truly exist in isolation or be completely independent.
This phrase originated from a poem written by
the English poet John Donne in the 17th century. The full
line of the poem goes, "No man is an island entire of
itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main."
An example of the concept of "no man is an
island" can be seen in everyday life. Imagine a person
who lives alone, rarely interacts with others, and does
not maintain any social connections. Despite their
attempts to be self-sufficient and isolated, they are still
part of a wider society that influences them in various
ways. They may rely on food produced by farmers, use
products manufactured by others, or be subject to the
laws and regulations of their community or country. No
matter how independent they try to be, they are still
connected to and impacted by the larger social
framework.
If we take the idea of the self as a mind and body
duality from the philosophical perspective, we can now
see the mind and body, ergo the self, to be existing,
operating, and developing within a social context.
When we talk about the self, we usually think of
it as a combination of our thoughts and our physical
body. But if we look at it from a philosophical perspective,
we can see that the self exists and grows within a social
context.
Now, let's think about beauty standards today as
an example. Beauty standards are the ideas or
expectations society has about how people should look.
These standards can greatly influence how we perceive
ourselves and others.
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For example, society might emphasize being thin or thick,
having a certain skin color, or specific facial features as
"beautiful."
When we internalize these beauty standards,
they can impact our self-image and self-worth. We might
feel pressured to conform to these ideals, leading to
feelings of inadequacy or insecurity if we don't match up
to them. This shows how the mind-body duality, or our
thoughts and physical appearance, is affected by the
social context in which we live.
It's important to understand that beauty
standards are not fixed or universal. They can vary across
different cultures and time periods. Recognizing this can
prompt us to question and challenge societal norms,
promoting a more inclusive and diverse understanding of
beauty.
As Hughes and Kroehler (2008) puts it: "We are
born into a social environment; we fully develop into
human beings in a social environment; and we live our
lives in a social environment. What we think, how we
feel, and what we say and do all are shaped by our
interactions with other people."
Our lives are inextricably tied to the vibrant
tapestry of social interactions. From the moment we are
born, we navigate this world through our connections
with others. Today, make a conscious effort to positively
impact the lives of others and unleash the immense
power that lies within human connection.
Key Concepts
Every person lives in a society which is defined as
a group of people sharing the same culture and typically
interacting in a definite territory. Each society has a
culture or a way of life for those living in that specific
society.
Culture is commonly divided into material
culture-the attires, tools, weapons, systems, the values,
the norms or expected behaviors, as well as the shared
language and symbols.
Norms are rules on what to do or what not to do
in a certain situation. Values are ideal behaviors or
principles that set the standard of what is acceptable and
admirable from a person who is a part of a society. For
example, you must kiss the hand of your elders (mano) to
show respect. The norm is the "pagmamano" and the
value is respect or "pagkamagalang." When you see
someone who has an accident, the norm prohibits you
from laughing but prescribes you to help. The values that
are promoted there are being considerate and helpful.
Simply put, "society is composed of people" and
"culture is composed of ideas, behavior, and material
possessions" (Kendall 2006). These two coexist and are
interdependent with each other. What do you think
would be the culture of a Filipino society?
Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
To maintain a smooth-functioning society, social
institutions are created, which are sets of ideas, norms,
practices, or mechanisms organized and focused on
addressing the needs of the community (McIntyre 2002).
Social Institutions are the establishment in a
society that makes the society function. They work as the
backbone of society. Without social institutions, a society
cannot achieve fulfillment in terms of economy, academy
or relationships.
Institutions do not have members, rather they
have followers who have to accept the rules and social
norms established through recurring patterns of
behavior.
For instance, family is where children learn social
norms, values and expectations about gender and race.
Another example is the government, which
functions to maintain peace and order, among others.
These institutions have a profound effect on our concept
of "self," because they basically provide a systematic
process of doing things.
For example, you are considered a Filipino citizen
because it is provided by the law, which is under the
processes of the government.
As a person grows into a society, he or she
imbibes the culture of that society through the processes
of socialization.
In sociology, socialization is the process of
internalizing the norms and ideologies of society.
Socialization (or enculturation in anthropology)
is a lifelong process of learning, teaching, internalizing,
and living the culture of a society.
Interacting with friends and family, being told to
obey rules, being rewarded for doing chores, and being
taught how to behave in public places are all examples of
socialization that enable a person to function within his
or her culture.
Other things that a person will learn that will
affect his or her "self" are status and roles. Status is our
position in a society or a particular group. You may be the
first child, a teenager, a student, or a president of a
student organization among others. You can also say that
it is your distinguishing title relative to the other
members of the group.
Status can either be ascribed, which is inherited
or given at birth, or achieved, which is personally
acquired for achieving something. An ascribed status is
being a prince for example, while an achieved status is
being elected as a president.
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Theoretical Approaches
Theoretical approaches and frameworks enable
us to combine and use concepts in a meaningful way to
look and understand a part of reality-in this case, the
connection of self, society, and culture.
Under the theory of Symbolic Interactionism for
example, George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) claimed
that the self is created, developed, and changed through
human interaction (Hogg and Vaughan 2010). Basically,
there are at least three reasons why self and identity are
social products (Elmore, Oyserman, and Smith 2012):
1. Symbolic Interactionism- Symbolic
Interactionism is how your experiences add
subjective meanings to symbols and letters. It is
a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings
attached to human interactions.
2. Structural Functional Approach- This
theoretical approach views society as a complex
interconnected system of parts that work
together in harmony. This approach points to the
importance of social structure, any relatively
stable pattern of social behavior.
3. Conflict Approach- The conflict approach calls
attention to the many social inequalities that
underlie social problems in contemporary
society.
Examples for Conflict Approach
1. Education might be an important thing to your
self-concept, because you grew up in a family
that valued education.
2. Money might be important to some, because
they may have grown up in a poor family and
realized how important money is in addressing
certain needs, like medical emergencies.
In the early part of the 20th century, the Culture
and Personality movement was at the center of
anthropology. It looked at how psychological and cultural
influences interact to shape human experience.
Another school of thought is The Culture and
Personality founded by Ruth Benedict (1887- 1948) and
Margaret Mead (1901-1978).
Benedict, one of the first women to make
significant contributions to the study of anthropology,
also worked to make the field more well known.
American anthropologist and folklorist Ruth
Fulton Benedict. She was raised in New York City and
graduated in 1909 from Vassar College.
The most intense and enduring relationship of
her life was with a woman, Margaret Mead, the world’s
best-known and most influential cultural anthropologist.
Tomas del Rosario College | Kristine Santos | BSA – 1A
They argued that a particular group's cultural
norms and socialization process have an impact on one's
personality or sense of self. As a result, understanding a
person's personality can already give us a sense of their
cultural background and social environment, and vice
versa (Dia et al. 2014). This is particularly illustrated in
Mead's masterpiece, "Patterns of Culture," which
examines native American Indian societies.
A culture, like an individual, is a more or less
consistent pattern of thought and activity, according to
Benedict in that book, Patterns of Culture, which
Margaret Mead calls "her view that human cultures are
'personality writ large'" (46). She claimed that each
culture selects only a small number of features from "the
great arc of human potentialities" to become the
dominant personality traits of its members. These
characteristics make up a mutually reinforcing
constellation of aesthetics and values within each
culture.
Meanwhile, Ruth Benedict came to the
conclusion that personal development, particularly with
regard to gender roles and attributes, is not actually
dependent on biological qualities in her well-known
anthropological books "Coming of Age in Samoa" and
"Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies." The
majority of these roles are dictated by cultural norms.
We believe that everyone in this world has a
choice in everything that we will be doing. According to
Clifford James Geertz on 1926-2006 they think that our
culture is a symbolic and interpretation of anthropology
looks and also, he believes that culture has their own
meaning that are MADE, COMMUNICATED and
NEGOTIATED by the people for us to make a sense on our
lives and for us to have an interaction to others.

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