LESSON 1: PHILOSOPHICAL these emotions and actions through

PERSPECTIVES OF THE SELF proper judgement and reason.

PLATO
SOCRATES
- An ancient Greek Philosopher
- No historical document if he really existed.
- Student of Socrates and teacher of
- 469-399 B.C.E.
Aristotle
- The were no known writings.
- 428-347 B.C.E.
- Plato highly regarded him.
- He is credited for his many contributions to He insisted that the empirical reality we all
western philosophy. experience in the experiential world is
fundamentally unreal and is only a shadow or a
Gnothi seauton
mere appearance while ultimate reality is real
- Know Thyself: Translation of an ancient as it is eternal and constitutes abstract universal
Greek aphorism. essences of things.
- Socrates pointed out that if an individual
Example: The dog in this world is unreal but the
knows who he or she is, all the basic issues
essence of the dog is real.
and difficulties in life will banish and
everything will be clearer. - All things that exist in the physical world
are therefore unreal as they are immaterial
Techniques in asking questions:
blueprints of objects in the physical world.
✓ Who am I? The concrete objects in this world are
✓ What is the purpose of my life? mere copies of there abstract universal
✓ What am I doing here? essences.
✓ What is justice? - Plato added that ideas are objects of
intellect known by reason alone and are
Self-knowledge objective realities that exists in a world of
their own. In terms of the concept of the
- Means knowing one’s degree of
self, Plato was one of the first Philosophers
understanding about the world and
who believed in an enduring self that is
knowing one’s capabilities and potentials.
represented by the soul. He argued that
- Self is achieved and something to work on.
the soul is eternal and constitutes that
Possession of knowledge is virtue and enduring self, because, even after death,
ignorance is vice. the soul continues to exist.
One must first have the humility to
ST. AUGUSTINE
acknowledge his or her ignorance so as to
acquire knowledge. Memory and Expectations
Socrates is a dualist - The existence of past and future for St.
Augustine is only possible through memory
- He raised the question, “what is it that in
and expectations.
the body, makes it living?”. He believed
- Introspection became one of the
that man has soul, which is divine, immoral,
important idea in psychology which
intelligible, uniform, indissoluble, and ever
pertains to the inquiry of the soul then of
self-consistent and invariable. He argued
the mind, consciousness and thought. This
that the ruler of the body is the soul. For
confirms the superiority of humans over
him, the soul pre-existed the body, and
other organisms since humans have self-
soul is what makes the body alive. If the
consciousness.
soul gives life to the body, it makes the
- St. Augustine argued that as far as the
body and soul dependent on each other.
consciousness can be extended
However, their striking difference shows
backward to any past action or forward to
that they are two different substances
actions to come, It determines the identity
united in the body as the soul gives life to
of the person.
it. For the body, according to Socrates, is
human, multiform, unintelligible, dissoluble,
and inconsistent. Death is the release of
the soul from the body. The soul controls
 Rene Descartes
- A French philosopher and mathematician.
- 1596-1650 C.E.
- Cogito, ergo, sum- “I think, therefore I am”.
- Fun fact: He allegedly never left bed never
11 A.M. But invented analytic geometry and
the Cartesian Coordinate System, and
discovered some basic laws of optics. He
was a tutor of Queen Christina of Sweden.
Cogito, Ergo, Sum
The existence of anything that you register from
your senses can be doubted. One can always
doubt about the certainty of things but the very
fact that one doubts is something that cannot
be doubted. Only humans have the Hubris
(excessive pride)- of thinking such irrelevant
questions on existence and purpose of life.
Humans have satisfied themselves with their
own answers to their own thinking. Humans
have the audacity and impertinence to try to
figure out the meaning of life and are actually
self-aware of their own existence.
Self
He believed that the self is:
“A thinking thing or a substance whose whole
essence or nature is merely thinking.”
The self is real and not just an illusion. He also
reassured that the self is different from the
body. Hence, self and body exist but differ in
existence and reality. The self is a feature not of
the body but of the mind and thus a mental
substance rather than a physical substance.
Mind and Body
For Descartes, the self is nothing else but a
mind-body dichotomy. Thought (mind) always
precedes action (body). Humans are self-
aware and they are the masters of their own
universe. Western philosophy is largely influence
by Descartes.
Paul and Patricia Churchland
Paul was born on 21st of October 1942 in
Vancouver, Canada. While Patricia was born
on the 16th of July 1943 in Oliver, British
Columbia, Canada. They are Canadian-
American philosophers whose work has
focused on integrating the disciplines of
philosophy of mind and neuroscience in a new
approach that has been called
Neurophilosophy.
Eliminative Materialism
“A radical claim that ordinary, common sense
understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and
that some or all of the mental stated posited by
common sense do not actually exist.”
Folk Psychology
Or common sense is something that is FALSE.
Most people think that we have a stream of
consciousness that contains images and
conceptions of things about which we have
beliefs and attitudes. It is also a fold belief that
our sense of the world and of ourselves is a
direct representation of how the world is
formed.
Self
For the Churchland’s, self is nothing but the
BRAIN, or simply, the self is contained entirely
within the physical brain. In Patricia
Churchland’s book entitled: “Touching a Nerve:
The Self as Brain” (2013). In her book, she
mentioned that to understand the self, one
must study the brain, not just the mind.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Born in 14th of March 1908 and died last 3rd of
May 1961. He was a French Phenomenological
Philosopher. The constitution of meaning in
human experience was his main interest.
Body
He distinguished the body into two types:
✓ Subjective Body- as lived and
experienced.
✓ Objective Body- as observed and
scientifically investigated
For him, these two are not different bodies. The
former is the body as-it-is-lived.
Self as Embodied Subjectivity
- it sees human beings neither as
disembodied minds (existing without body)
nor as complex machines.
- For Merleau-Ponty, we are living creature
whose subjectivity (consciousness) is
actualized in the forms of their physical
involvement with the world.
- The body is a general medium for having a
world and we know it is not through our
intellect but through our experiences.
Subject (a self) Essentially Requires a Body
Consciousness cannot simply be immaterial but
must be embodied. Rather that using “I THINK”,
we use “I CAN” which you can go somewhere
else as a being possessing a body. Mind and
Body are essentially correlated. Consciousness
is both perceiving and engaging.
“I am my body”
He accepts the idea of mental states but he
also suggests that the use of the mind is
inseparable from our bodily, situated, physical
nature.
LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM THE
SOCIOLOGICAL AND
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
GEORGE MEAD’S SOCIAL SELF
- For Mead, who is a sociologist, argued that
the self is not biological but social.
- Self is something that is developed through
SOCIAL INTERACTION.
- Self is also developed as one grows and
ages.
- Self is constructed by directly engaging in
the world through interaction and though
reflections on those interactions.
SELF
Mead explained that self has two parts:
Self-awareness- conscious knowledge of one’s
own character, feelings, motives and desires.
Self-image- the idea one has of one’s abilities,
appearance and personalities.
He proposed the idea that the self develops
through social interaction; that social
interaction involves the exchange of symbols
(such as language); and that understanding of
symbols involves being able to take the role of
another. In order for interaction to prosper,
each person involved must correctly interpret
the meanings of symbols and intentions of
others. It can only succeed by the existence of
common symbols, but actually accomplished
through the process of role playing.
Role Playing
- It is the process in which one takes on the
role of another by putting oneself in the
position of the person with whom he or she
interacts.
- Through role playing, the individual
develops a concept of self.
- By putting oneself in the position of others,
one is able to reflect upon oneself.
3 Stages of Development
1. Imitation or Preparatory Stage- a child
imitates the behavior of his or her
parents like sweeping the floor.
2. Play Stage- the child playing the role of
others such as acting as a teacher,
soldier, carpenter, etc.
3. Game Stage- the child comes to
themselves from the perspective of
other people.
“I” and “Me” Self
For Mead, all humans experience internal
conversation. This conversation involves I and
Me, which he called phases of self. For him, self
is essentially a social process going on between
I and Me.
The I is the phase of self that is unsocialized and
spontaneous. It is the acting part of the self, an
immediate response to other people. It
represents the self that is free and unique. It is
the subjective part of the self.
The Me is the self that results from the
progressive stages of role playing or role-taking
and the perspective one assumes to view and
analyze one’s own behaviors. It is the
organization of the internalized attitude of
others. It represents the conventional and
objective part of the self.
Generalized Others
Mead described it as an organized community
or social group which gives to the individual his
or her unity of self.
The attitude of the generalized other is the
attitude of the entire community.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S LOOKING GLASS
SELF
• The looking glass self is a social
psychological concept
• In this view, the self is developed as a result
of one’s perceptions of other people’s
opinions.
• People are the way they were at least
partly because of other people’s reactions
to the and to what they do.
• When people pick up feedbacks from
others, they incorporate it into their sense
of self.
 The self is built through social interaction
which involves three steps:
1. People imagine how they must appear
to others.
2. They imagine the judgement on that
appearance.
3. They develop themselves through the
judgement of others.
• People imagine not only how others see
them and their actions but also how others
judge what they see, whether with
approval, doubt or hostility.
• As a result, Looking-glass Self is made up of
feelings about other people’s judgement
of one’s behaviors.
This concept provides an idea on how the self
develops in relation to the perception of others.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
Postmodernism- it is not a philosophy but more
on the mindset of western culture in the latter
half of the 20th century.
For French philosopher Michel Foucault, the self
is also seen as a product of modern discourse
that is socially and historically conditioned.
(David, 2002)
4 basic Postmodern Ideas about the Self
Anderson (1997) addressed the issues of
change and multiple identities through these 4
basic postmodernist ideas:
1. Multiphrenia which refers to the many
different voices speaking about “who
we are and what we are.”
2. Protean- a self capable of changing
constantly to fit the present conditions.
3. De-centered- a belief that there is no
self at all since the self is constantly
being redefined or constantly
undergoing change.
4. Self-in-relation- which means that
humans do not live their lives in isolation
but in relation to people and to certain
cultural contexts.
• For Mead, the self is shaped by outside
forces, that is why for him, there is no “I” self.
• The self is socially constructed.
• For postmodernists, people have no fixed
identities which are separable from their
surroundings and which remain the same
even though certain characteristics and
conditions may change.
• In traditional society, a person’s status is
determined by his or her role.
• In modern society: by his or her
achievement.
• In postmodern society: by fashion or style
since it changes and people adapt to these
changes or is left with identity in question.
• For Foucault, the self is a text written from
moment to moment according to the
demands of a multitude of social contexts.
• The postmodern social condition is
dominated by two realities:
a. The rise of new media technologies.
b. The dominance of consumerism.
Lyon (1997) argued that the predicament of
the self in postmodern societies is complicated
by the advent of electronic-mediated virtual
interactions of cyberselves and the spread of
information technology.
Green (1997) posited that the self is
“digitalized” in cyberspace.
Email and Memory
“Every little piece of information that you post
on the internet—the message you write, the
websites you visit, the files you download, the
email address you contact, the book, tapes,
CDs, and airplane tickets you order on the
internet and the credit card numbers you
give—all these become raw data from which
someone out there can piece together an
identity, a virtual version of who you are.”
CULTURAL IDENTITY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
Culture is derived from the Latin word cultura or
cultus meaning care or cultivation.
As an individual interacts with people and
makes sense of how they function in the
context of their social and cultural background,
they learn that they have both the personal
identity and collective identity.
✓ Personal Identity- the way they are
themselves as an individual
✓ Collective Identity- the way they see
themselves as a member of a certain
group.
Identity refers to “who the person is”, or the
qualities and traits of an individual that make
him or her different from others.
There are many ways to distinguish people: differentiate himself or herself from the out-
groups.
• By geographical context or based on
where they come from.
• People from the west are different from
the people from the East. THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL SELVES

Cultural Identity refers to the identity or feeling 1. Individual Self- reflects the cognitions
of belongingness to a certain culture group. related to traits, states and behaviors that
are stored in memory.
It is an individual’s perception about himself or 2. Relational Self- reflects cognitions that are
herself anchored on: related to one’s relationships.
3. Collective Self- reflects cognitions that are
✓ Race related to one’s group.
✓ Gender
✓ Nationality Each self is important and meaningful to
✓ Religion human experience.
✓ Ethnicity
✓ Language

The culture categories that shapes one’s overall Identity Struggles

cultural identity prove how one’s cultural - Regardless of the truthfulness of how people
identity is meant to be multidimensional. perceive you, it provides opportunity for self-
Cultural Identity Theory reflection.
- Your response to how people describes you
- It explains why a person acts or behaves will depend on your own perception of
the way he or she does. yourself.
- A single person can possess multiple - Some people can be confrontational or
identities, simultaneously making him or her non-confrontational towards how others
part of many cultural groups. identify them.
- People’s actions in every situation vary
Nation is a group of people built on the premise depending on physiological and
of shared customs, traditions, religion, psychological states.
language, art, history, and more. - An individual can be unsympathetic
National Identity because of particular individual issues, but
people, sometimes, fail to consider any
- refers to the identity or feeling of justification for why one can be
belongingness to one state or nation. unsympathetic.
- Rupert Emerson (political Scientist)- defines - This term is introduced by Anthony Wallace
National Identity as “A body of people and Raymond Fogelson.
who feel that they are a nation.” - It characterizes the discrepancy between
- is socially constructed. It is influenced and the identity a person claims to possess and
shaped by material and non-material the identity attributed to that person by
cultures. others.

Material Culture- National Flag, Emblem, Seal

- these represents all the
people who are part of a
nation.
Non-Material Culture- embodies the shared
understanding of a group of people which
includes: Norms, Beliefs, Traditions.

National Identity requires the process of Self-

categorization.

Self-categorization- one must first identify

himself or herself with an in-group and