GE 1: Understanding the Self
Chapter 1 DEFINING THE SELF
Lesson 1: The Self from Various Philosophical
Perspectives
Our names represent who we are. Our names signify
us.
The Greeks – the earliest thinkers in the history of
the philosophy; the Greeks were the ones who
seriously questioned myths and moves away from
them attempting to understand reality and respond
to perennial questions of curiosity, including the
question of the self.
Socrates and Plato
arche – explains the multiplicity of things in the
world
Socrates
- concerned with the problem of the self
- the first philosopher who ever engaged in a
systematic questioning about the self
- “The unexamined life is not worth living”
- worst that can happen to anyone: to live but
die inside
- every man is composed of body and soul
o body – imperfect impermanent aspect
o soul – perfect and permanent
- every human person is dualistic
Plato
- supported the idea that man is a dual nature of
body and soul
- three components of the soul: the rational
soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive
soul.
o rational soul – forged by reason and
intellect has to govern the affairs of the
human person
o spirited soul – in charge of emotions
should be kept at bay
o appetitive soul – in charge of base desires
- “Justice in the human person can only be
attained if the three parts of the soul are
working harmoniously with one another.
- when the ideal state is attained, then the human
person’s soul becomes just and virtuous
Augustine
- view of the human person reflects the entire
spirit of the medieval world when it comes to
man.
- man is of bifurcated nature
- An aspect of man dwells in the world and is
imperfect and continuously years to be with
the Divine and the other is capable of reaching
immortality
Thomas Aquinas
- man is composed of two parts: matter and
form
o matter or hyle – common stuff that makes
up everything
o form or morphe – essence of a substance
or thing
o the soul is what animates the body; it is
what makes us human
Descartes
- Father of Modern Philosophy conceived of the
human person having a body and a mind.
- he claims that there is so much that we should
doubt
- cogito ergo sum “I think, therefore I am.”
- The fact that one thinks should lead one to
conclude without a trace of doubt that he
exists.
- two distinct entities, cogito – the thing that
thinks which is the mind. extenza – extension
of the mind, which is the body.
Hume
- a Scottish philosopher, as an empiricist who
believes that one can know only what comes
from the senses and experience
o Empiricism – the school of thought that
espouses the idea that knowledge can only
be possible if it is sensed and experienced.
- the self is nothing but a bundle of impressions
- if one tries to examine his experiences, he
finds that they can all be categorized into two:
o impressions – are the basic objects of our
experience or sensation
o ideas – copies of impressions
 - Self, according to Hume, is simply a bundle or
collection of different perceptions, which
succeed each other with an inconceivable
rapidity and are in a perpetual flux and
movement.
Kant
- things that men perceive around them are not
just randomly infused into the human person
without an organizing principle that regulates
the relationship of all these impressions
- apparatuses of the mind
Ryle
- “I act, therefore I am.”
- For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior
that a person manifests in his day-to-day life.
- the “self” is not an entity one can locate and
analyze but simply the convenient name that
people use to refer to all the behaviors that
people make
Merleau-Ponty
- a phenomenologist
- the mind and body are so intertwined that they
cannot be separated from one another
- one cannot find experience that is not an
embodied experience
Lesson 2: The Self, Society, and Culture
The self in contemporary literature and even
common sense is commonly defined by the
following:
- separate – self is distinct from others, always
unique and has its own identity
- self-contained and independent – in itself it
can exist, its distinctness allows it to be self-
contained with its own thoughts,
characteristics, and volition
- consistent – it has a personality that is
enduring and therefore can be expected to
persist from quite some time, consistency also
means that a particular self’s traits,
characteristics, tendencies, and potentialities
are more or less the same.
- unitary – it is the center of all experiences and
thoughts that run through a certain person, it is
like the chief command post
- private – each person sorts out information,
feelings and emotions, and though processes
within the self
Marcel Mauss
- according to Mauss every self has two faces;
personne and moi
o Moi – refers to a person’s sense of who he
is, his body, and his basic identity, his
biological givenness
o Personne – composed of the social
concepts of what it means to be who he is
Mead and Vygotsky
- the way that human persons develop is with
the use of language acquisition and interaction
with others
Gender has to be personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture and the society.
Lesson 3: The Self as Cognitive Construct
“I am who I am”
self – the sense of personal identity and of who we
are as individuals
William James
I – the thinking, acting, and feeling self
Me – the physical characteristics as well as the
psychological capabilities that makes you who you
are
Carl Rogers
I – the one who acts and decides
Me – what you think or feel about yourself as an
object
Identity – composed of personal characteristics,
social roles, and responsibilities, as well as
affiliations that define who one is
Self-concept – what basically comes to mind when
you are asked about who you are
Self-schema – our organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are
Frontal lobe of the brain as the specific area in the
brain associated with the processes concerning the
self.
Sigmund Freud – the Id, the Ego, and Superego
three reasons why self and identity are social
products:
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
2. We actually need to affirm and reinforce
who we think we are
3. What we think is important to us may also
been influenced by what is important in our
social or historical context.
self-awareness – when we are aware of out self-
concepts
two types of self that we can be aware of:
1. private self – your internal standards and
private thoughts and feelings
2. public self – your public image commonly
geared toward having a good representation
of yourself to others
actual self – who you are at the moment
ideal self – who you like to be
ought self – who you think you should be
self-consciousness – self awareness can be too
much and that we are concerned about being
observed and criticized by others
deindividuation – the loss of individual self-
awareness and individual accountability in groups
One of the ways in which our social relationship
affects our self-esteem is through social
comparison
- downward social comparison
- upward social comparison
Narcissism – a trait characterized by overly high
self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness
Lesson 4: The Self in Western and Eastern
Thoughts
Confucianism – code of ethical conduct, of how
one should properly act according to their
relationship with other people; thus, it is also
focused on having a harmonious social life.
o Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate
purpose of life but the characteristics of
chun tzu – a man of virtue or noble
character, is still embedded in his social
relationships
Taoism – living the way of Tao or the universe.
o living a balance life with society and
nature, being open and accepting to
change, forgetting about prejudices and
egocentric ideas and thinking about
equality as well as complementarity among
humans as well as other beings.
Buddhism – the self is seen as an illusion, born out
of ignorance of trying to hold and control things, or
human centered needs; thus, the self is also the
source of all these sufferings.
Western Eastern
Looking toward the sees the other person as
self a part of yourself
Distinct from the other Talk about social roles
person or social situations
Highlight personal Would rather keep a low
achievement profile
individualistic Collectivistic
Loose associations or Look after the welfare of
even loyalty to their their groups and values
groups cooperation
equality hierarchy