The Self From Various

Perspective
PHILOSOPHY
 Outline
1. The Goal of Philosophy – Knowledge or
Wisdom?
2. Definition of Philosophy
3. Branches of Philosophy—Classification and its
definitions
4. The Different Thinking Periods of Philosophy
5. An Approach to Dynamic Philosophical Inquiry
 Goal of Philosophy
The goal of philosophy is to address the
“big questions” which do not fall into
other disciplines:
• How we should act (ethics)
• What exists (metaphysics)
• How we know what we know
(epistemology), and
• How we should reason (logic).
Q: Are knowledge and wisdom the
same?

•What is the difference

between knowledge and
wisdom?
 What is knowledge?
–Knowledge is the general
awareness or possession of
information, facts, ideas, truths,
or principles.
 What is wisdom?
–Wisdom is the accumulated
knowledge of life or a sphere of
activity that has been gained
through experience.
KNOWLEDGE WISDOM

General awareness or Accumulated knowledge

possession of of life or a sphere of
information, facts, ideas, activity that has been
truths, or gained through
principles experience.
 The Goal of Philosophy continued…
• Historically, philosophy has been a catch-all for
academic subjects which don’t fit into the traditional
disciplines of science and the humanities. However, this
doesn’t mean it is disconnected from these areas: in
fact, the relationship of philosophy and science is
almost as close as the relationship between math and
science, and many masters of literature have also
started philosophical movements.
• Many academic disciplines have a corresponding
philosophy behind them: philosophy of science, for
instance, or philosophy of history.
 2.) Definition of Philosophy
• Etymologies:
– Two Greeks words “Philo” and
“Sofia” (sophia)
– Meaning: “to love”, &
“wisdom”; hence, “love of
wisdom”
– Pythagoras invented the word
Philosophy (love of wisdom);
for him philosophers are
fittingly called lovers of
wisdom
 Classical Definition:
The science that by natural
light of reason studies the
first causes or highest
principles of all things.
 Contemporary:

• The critical and rational inquiry into basic

principles
• The branch of knowledge or academic
study devoted to the systematic
examination of basic concepts such as
truth, existence, reality, causality, and
freedom.
 Under this definition, four things are to be considered:
Science
 It is called science because the investigation is
systematic1
Natural Light of Reason
 Philosophy investigates things, not by using any other
laboratory instrument or investigative tools, neither
on the basis of supernatural revelation, otherwise it
becomes theology2
 Under this definition, four things are
to be considered:
Study of All Things
– This sets the distinction between philosophy from
other sciences. All other sciences concern themselves
with a particular object of investigation1.
– In short, a philosopher does not limit himself to a
particular object of inquiry. He questions almost
anything, if not everything.
 3.) Classification of Philosophy
Division Categories Fields Subject Matter
Pure Theoretical Epistemology Knowledge
Cosmology Physical world
Metaphysics Reality, being,
existence
Ontology Particular existing
things
Psychology Mind, consciousness
Theodicy God, divine
doctrines
Practical Aesthetics Art, beauty,
Axiology Values
Ethics Behavior, good life
Division Categories Fields Subject Matter
Logic Thinking, reasoning
Semantics Linguistic meanings
Applied Philosophy of Education
Education
Philosophy of History
History
Philosophy Literature
Literature
Philosophy of Politics Politics
Philosophy of Religion
Religion
 Branches of Philosophy insofar as they
are theoretical
1. Metaphysics – the investigation of ultimate reality
2. Ontology -- the study of existence
3. Cosmology – the study of the universe as a rational
and orderly system
4. Psychology -- the study of human mind and mental
states, and of human and animal behavior
5. Epistemology – the study of origins, validity and limits
of knowledge
6. Theodicy—the study of the nature, being, goodness
and justice of God; the relationship between God and
man; and the doctrines related to divinity.
 Branches of Philosophy insofar as they
are practical
1. Semantics—study of the meaning in language
2. Ethics – the study of moral standards and how they
affect conduct
3. Aesthetics—the study of beauty and the values of
works of art.
4. Axiology –the study of the origin, nature, types and
governing criteria of values and value judgment
5. Logic—systematic study of the relation of ideas, and
things or events.
 4.) The Four Thinking Periods in
Philosophy
Historical Periods Themes Specific Concerns Known Figures

Ancient Classical Cosmo-centric Change and Plato, Aristotle

Permanence
Medieval Theo-centric Faith and Reason St. Augustine, St.
Thomas Aquinas
Modernity Anthropocentric Reason and Senses Descartes, Hume
Post-modernity Absence of a Plurality and Foucault,
center Particularity Habermas
 Ancient Classical Philosophers

Socrates (c. 469 B.C.E.-c. 399 B.C.E.)

70 years old

Plato (c. 428 BCE–c. 348 BCE)

Aristotle (c. 384 B.C.E.-c. 322 B.C.E.)
80 years old
62 years old
 Medieval Philosophers

St. Augustine of Hippo (Nov. 13, 354-Aug. 28, 430)

76 years old

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

49 years old
 Modern Philosophers

Rene Descartes (Mar 31, 1596-Feb 11, 1650)

54 years old

David Hume (1711-1776)

65 years old
 Post-modern Philosophers

Michel Foucault (Oct. 15, 1926-Jun 25, 1984) Jurgen Habermas (June 18, 1929--?)
58 years old 88 years old & still going
THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY:
THE FOUR THINKING
PHILOSOPHICAL PERIODS
 Ancient-Classical Period
• The ancient-classical period was roughly
around 6th BCE (Before Common Era) to
4 ACE (After Common Era).
• In our study of philosophy, these are the
two interrelated themes that somehow
shaped the thinking milieu/context of
the ancientclassical time: Change and
Permanence.
• Prior to the time of Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle, the main concern of the
thinkers was to settle the origin of the
universe1
• Since the early philosophers were no
longer satisfied with myths and the
gods/goddesses as explanatory
principles, they resorted to reason in the
hope that a rational explanation can be
provided to the question of the origin of
the world
• This rational explanation began with an observation
of the world: there is a seeming interplay with
change and permanence1
• With these sets of experience with nature, the
question on change and permanence naturally came
to mind2
• Since that was the intellectual context, the three
philosophers inherited the interest towards change
and permanence
• They too assessed the meanings of change and
permanence and conditions that made it possible for
change and permanence to exist.
• Given that change and permanence were observed
from nature, the ancient-classical period in
philosophy is aptly referred to as cosmo-centric3
 Socrates
• Known for his method of
inquiry in testing data called
“Socratic method”1
• Socrates was described to
have gone about in Athens
questioning everyday views
and popular Athenian beliefs2
• Some of Socrates’ ideas were:
1. The soul immortal
2. The care of the soul is the task
of philosophy
3. Virtue is necessary to attain
happiness
• Socrates believed that philosophy had a very
important role to play in the lives of the people.
• “the examined life is not worth living”
• According to him, self knowledge would open
your eyes to your true nature; which contrary to
pop culture, is not about what you own, how
many “likes” you get in your social media posts, or
how successful you are in your career
• Socrates believed that you as a person should
consciously contemplate, turn your gaze inward,
and analyze the true nature and values that are
guiding your life.
• He added self-knowledge would open your eyes
to your true nature; which contrary to pop
culture, is not about what you own, how many
“likes” you get in your social media posts1
• Socrates said existence is of 2 kinds:
1. Visible – changes
2. Invisible – remains constant
• In the Socratic dialogue, Plato wrote what Socrates said
about the body and the soul: “when the soul & body are
together nature assigns our body to be slave and to be ruled
and the soul to be a ruler and master”
• However, Socrates said that the body was a reluctant slave,
and the soul gets dragged toward what is always changing.
This would leave the soul confused
• Socrates also believed that the goal of life to be happy. One
does become happy if man is virtuous1.
• According to Socrates, even death is trivial matter for the
truly virtuous because he/she has realized that the most
important thing in life is the state of his/her soul and acts
taken from taking care os the soul through self-knowledge
 Plato
• Plato’s philosophical method
was what he identified as
“collection & division”
• In this method, the
philosopher would “collect” all
the generic ideas that seemed
to have common
characteristics and then
divided them into different
kinds until the subdivision if
ideas became specific.
• He is best known for his
theory of forms that asserted
the physical world is not really
the “real” world because the
ultimate exists beyond the
physical world .
• Plato is perhaps the single most important
influence of the Western concept of “self”.
• According to Plato, the “soul” is indeed the most
divine aspect of the human being1
• The three parts of the soul according to plato are:
1. The appetitive (Sensual) – the element that enjoys
sensual experiences, such as food, drink, and sex
2. The rational (reasoning) – the element that forbids
the person to enjoy the sensual experiences; the
part that loves truth, hence should rule over the
other parts
3. The spirited (feeling) – the element that is inclined
toward reason but understands the demands of
passion; the part that loves honor & victory
 Allegory of the Cave
• Plato, in his Allegory of the Cave, proposes that
the world of senses is a domain filled with so
much change.
• In fact, he describes this world as the realm that
is always in transit---always subject to change1.
• Where can we find permanence? Plato proposed
that we should look into the world of ideas. If we
start contemplating on the world of ideas, he
hopes that we can gradually condition or train
our minds to think of permanent things2.
 Medieval Period
• This phase in the history of philosophy
approximately stretches from 400 ACE to 1500 ACE.
• There are two identifiable sub-periods in the
Medieval Age:
– The early stage of Medieval thinking: St.
Augustine
– The later stage of Medieval thinking: Thomas
Aquinas
• Generally, medieval philosophy is labeled as
Theocentric1
– For instance, a philosopher cannot simply talk
about human nature without connecting it to
the reality of God.
– The creation of the world, as another example2
• These are lines of reasoning that permeated the
thinking horizon of philosophers in the medieval
age.
• The concern for God also explains why medieval
thinking explored these two interests: faith and
reason1
• In the early phase of medieval thought, there
was a radical separation between faith and
reason2
• Although reason desires to know, it also expects
that it cannot comprehend what lies behind the
door of faith
• Simply put, the domain of faith is substantially
different from the workings of reason3
• This is generally the thinking trend in the early
phase of medieval philosophy.
 St. Augustine
• Influenced by Plato’s ideas1
• Giving the Theory of Forms a
Christian perspective,
Augustine asserted that
these Forms were concepts
existing within the soul
belonged
• He held that the soul held
the TRUTH and was capable
of scientific thinking
• His concept of the “self” was
an inner, immaterial “I” that
had self-knowledge and self
awareness.
• He believed that the human being was both a soul
and body, and the body possessed senses, such as
imagination, memory, reason, and mind through
which the soul experienced the world
• He also reasoned that human beings through the
senses could sense the material, temporal objects as
we interacted with the material; the immaterial but
intelligible1 god would onloy be clear or obvious to
the mind if one tune into his/her immaterial self/soul
• The aspects of the self/ soul according to him are:
1. It is able to be aware of itself
2. It recognizes itself as a holistic one
3. It is aware of its unity
• He believed that the human being who is both soul
and body is meant to tend to higher, divine, and
heavenly matters because of his/her our capacity to
ascend & comprehend truths through the mind
• He connected the ascension of the soul with his
assertion that everything related to the physical
world belongs to the physical body, and if a
person concerns himself/herself with this physical
world then he/she will not be any different from
animals.
• He pointed out that a person is similar to God as
regards to the mind and its ability; that by
ignoring to use his or her mind1 he/she would
lose his/her possibility to reach and lasting
happiness
• For the later medieval period, St. Thomas
Aquinas presented a unique position1
• This is a notion which he expressed in his five
cosmological arguments of God‘s existence
(Summa Theologiae).
1. First Way – Argument from Motion
2. Second Way – Causation of Existence
3. Third Way – Contingent and Necessary Objects
4. Fourth Way – The Argument from Degrees and
Perfection
5. Fifth Way – The Argument from Intelligent
Design
 First Way - The Argument From
Motion
• St. Thomas Aquinas, studying the
works of the Greek philosopher
Aristotle, concluded from common
observation that an object that is in
motion (e.g. the planets, a rolling
stone) is put in motion by some
other object or force1
• Follow the argument this way:
– 1. Nothing can move itself.
– 2. If every object in motion had a
mover, then the first object in motion
needed a mover.
– 3. Movement cannot go on for infinity.
– 4. This first mover is the Unmoved
Mover, called God.
• Aquinas is starting from an a posteriori
position1
• Aquinas argues that the natural condition is
for things to be at rest. Something which is
moving is therefore unnatural and must have
been put into that state by some external
supernatural power.
 Second Way - Causation of Existence
• This Way deals with the issue of
existence.
• Aquinas concluded that common sense
observation tells us that no object creates
itself1.
• Aquinas believed that ultimately there
must have been an UNCAUSED FIRST
CAUSE (GOD) who began the chain of
existence for all things.
• Follow the argument this way:
1. There exists things that are caused
(created) by other things.
2. Nothing can be the cause of itself
(nothing can create itself.)
3. There cannot be an endless string of
objects causing other objects to exist.
4. Therefore, there must be an uncaused
first cause called God.
 Third Way - Contingent and Necessary Objects
• Sometimes referred to as the modal
cosmological argument
• This Way defines two types of objects in
the universe: contingent beings and
necessary beings.
• A contingent being is an object that
cannot exist without a necessary being
causing its existence.
• Aquinas believed that the existence of
contingent beings would ultimately
necessitate a being which must exist for
all of the contingent beings to exist2
• Follow the argument this way:
1. Contingent beings are caused.
2. Not every being can be contingent.
3. There must exist a being which is
necessary to cause contingent beings.
4. This necessary being is God.
 Fourth Way - The Argument From
Degrees And Perfection
• St. Thomas formulated this
Way from a very interesting
observation about the
qualities of things1.
• This is referred to as degrees
or gradation of a quality.
• From this fact Aquinas
concluded that for any given
quality2 there must be a
perfect standard by which all
such qualities are measured.
• These perfections are
contained in God.
 Fifth Way - The Argument From
Intelligent Design
• By looking into the world, we can easily notice that
there is an inherent system or principle which
governs the existence of things2
• St. Thomas proposes in the argument from design
of the universe that there must be a Divine
Architect who planned the structure of the world—
God.
• By concluding that God is the over-all architect of
the universe, St. Thomas successfully depicts the
strong bond between reason and faith: that an
understanding of God begins with how we
experience and comprehend the world through the
human faculty of reason.
• Aquinas states that common sense tells us that the
universe works in such a way, that one can
conclude that is was designed by an intelligent
designer, God3 In other words, all physical laws and
the order of nature and life were designed and
ordered by God, the intelligent designer.
 Modernity
• This period is described as anthropocentric1
• Unlike the medieval stance which promoted the role of
God in relation to faith and reason, the modern
position is more inclined to elevate man to the
pedestal as the main concern of its reflections and
ruminations.
• The concept of faith took a side step and paved way to
reflections and investigations on the extent, limitations
of the capacities of the human species2
• Spanning from the 16th early 19th century, the
uniqueness of this philosophical time-frame rests on its
discussion on the relationship between reason and
senses.
• Spanning from the 16th early 19th century,
the uniqueness of this philosophical time-
frame rests on its discussion on the
relationship between reason and senses1
• With this discourse between reason and
senses, two thinking camps have been formed
to address the questions that we have
presented.
 1st Camp: Rationalization
• For this thinking tradition, it is reason which
should be cultivated since reason aims at the
principles behind things, events and issues.
• If the role of reason is magnified, we gradually
decipher the causes behind every phenomenon
encountered in this world.
• Consequently, the senses should be trusted.
• A discussion that makes use of information
derived from the senses will only end up in
contradictions1
 René Descartes (1596-1650)
• French philosopher and mathematician, a
founder of the “modern age” and perhaps
the most important figure in the intellectual
revolution of the seventeenth century in
which the traditional systems of
understanding based on Aristotle were
challenged and, ultimately, overthrown.
• His conception of philosophy was all-
embracing: it encompassed mathematics
and the physical sciences as well as
psychology and ethics, and it was based on
what he claimed to be absolutely firm and
reliable metaphysical foundations…
hyperbolic/ metaphysical doubt
(Methodological doubt)1: ―Let the demon
deceive me as much as he may, he can
never bring it about that I am nothing, so
long as I think I am something….I am, I exist,
is certain, as often as it is put forward by me
or conceived in the mind.
• Elsewhere, Descartes expresses this cogito
argument in the famous phrase ―Cogito
ergo sum (I am thinking, therefore I exist‘)2
• He asserted that everything perceived by the
senses could not be used as proof of existence
because human senses could be fooled1
• In turn, by doubting his own existence, he
proved that there is a thinking entity that is
doing the act of doubting
• He claims about the “self” are:
1. It is constant; it is not prone to change; and it is not
affected by time
2. Only the immaterial soul remains the same
throughout time
3. The immaterial soul is the source of our identity
• He asserted that this thinking entity could exist
without the body because it is an immaterial
substance.
• Nevertheless, this immaterial substance (self)
posseses a body and is so intimately bound/
joined by it that the “self” forms a union with its
body1
 SOUL BODY
It is conscious, thinking It is a material substance that
substance that is unaffected by changes through time
time

It is known only to itself (only It can be doubted; the public

you know your own mental can correct claims about the
event and other cannot correct body
your mental state)
It is not made up of parts. It It is made up of physical,
views the entirety with no quantifiable, divisible parts
hidden or separate
compartments. It is both
conscious and aware of itself at
the same time
 John Locke
• 1Lockebelieved that the
“self” is identified with
conscious and this “self” to
include the memories of
that thinking thing.
• He believed that the “self’ is
identified with
consciousness2
• A person’s memories
provide a continuity of
experience that allows
him/her to identify
himself/herself as the same
person overtime
• This theory of personal identity allows Locke
to justify a defense of accountability
• Accordingdg to him since the personis the
same “self” in trhe passing of time, he or she
can be heldf accountable for past behaviors.
However, Locke insisted that person could
only be held accountable for behaviors she/he
can remember3
 2nd Camp: Empiricism
• This position is not willing to surrender the role of the
human senses in favor of the faculty of reason in
knowledge production.
• The empiricist camp holds that knowledge of the world is
impossible without the sense impressions.
• A very simple example can be presented to the fore: What
is color red?
• With this simple example, empiricism claims that the
information provided by the senses should not be
underestimated.
• In point of fact, the capacity of the senses should be
harnessed or developed so we can better know the world.
 David Hume (1711-76)
• Scottish philosopher and historian
who may be aptly considered the
leading neo-skeptic of the early
modern period.
• Hume suggests that “impressions”
(of which there are two kinds: of
sensations and of reflection) are
more forceful or vivacious than
ideas, but some ideas1 do sometimes
take on enough force and vivacity to
be called impressions, and belief also
adds sufficient force and vivacity to
ideas to make them practically
indistinguishable from impressions.
• In the end we find that impressions
are clearly distinguished from ideas
only insofar as ideas are always
causally dependent on impressions.
• Hume strove to create a total naturalistic
science of man that examined the
psychological basis of human nature. Against
philosophical rationalists, Hume held that
passion rather than reason governs human
behaviour.
• Hume argued against the existence of innate
ideas, positing that all human knowledge is
ultimately founded solely in experience
 Conceptual Points
• Feelings & reason
• Religion
• Common Sense
• Ethics
1. Feelings & Reasons
• The key thing that we need to get right in life is feeling rather than
rationality
• Whatever that we aim for reason is the slave of passion
• We are more motivated by our feelings than by any comparatively
feeble results of our analysis and logic
• Few of our convictions are driven by rational investigation of the
facts
• Reason helps a little but decisive factors are bound with our
emotional lives
• Hume was deeply attentive to curious way but the very often
reason is from rather than to our convictions
• We find an idea of nice and threatening and on that basis alone
declare a true or false. Reason comes in later to support the original
attitude
• Hume didn‘t believe however that all feelings are acceptable and
equal that‘s why he firmly believed in the education of passion
2. Religion
• Is not rational to believe in God, he think there were no
compelling reasons for the existing of God
• Humes believe that a vindictive God is a cruel
superstition
• Central point: Religious belief is not the product of
reason
• We should not treat people who disagree religion as a
rationale being who made error in reasoning, that
should be put right but rather should be left in peace.
• Trying to have a rational argument about religion is the
height of fooling and arrogance
3. Common Sense
• Hume is skeptic, doubting common sense ideas of
the day1.
• There is no core self
• I can never catch “myself” at anytime without the
perception. Never observed anything but
perception
• We are not really in the need to find people
reason tell us and we are that we seem to be
when we look at ourselves in the mirror or
casually use the word “I”
4. Ethics
• Morality is not having moral ideas, its having
trained in the early years , the art of decency
through emotions
• Being good is doing good habits of feeling
• Bundle theory – wherein he described the “self”
or person (which Hume assumed to be the
“mind”) as a bundle or a collection of different
perceptions that are moving in a very fast and
successive manner; therefore, it is in a “perpetual
flux”
• Hume’s theory began by denying Descartes view
of the immaterial soul and of its experiences
• Empiricists like Hume believed that human
intellect & experiences are limited1
• He concluded that the “self” is merely made up of
successive impressions
• Hume divided the mind’s perceptions into 2
groups stating that the difference between the 2
“consists in the degrees of force and liveliness
with which they strike upon the mind”
1. Impressions – the perceptions that are most strong.
They enter t5he senses with most force. These are
directly experienced; the result from inward and
outward sentiments
2. Ideas – less forcible & less lively counterparts of
impressions. These are mechanisms that copy &
reproduce sense data formulated based upon the
previously perceived impressions
• Hume asserted that the notion of “self” could not be verified
through observation
• He argued that if you can directly know, then what you know are
mere objects of what your senses are experiencing1
• For Hume, the “self” was nothing but a series of incoherent
impressions received by the senses2
• Hume compared the “self” to a nation; whereby a nation retains its
“being a nation” not by some single core or identity but by being
composed of different, constantly changing elements, such as
people, systems, culture, and beliefs
• In the same manner, the “self” according to Hume is not just one
impression but a mix and loose cohesion of various personal
experiences3
• Hume did not believe on the existence of “self”
• Hume’s self is a passive observer similar to watching one’s life pass
before the eyes like a play or a screen; whereby the total
annihilation of the self comes at death
 Immanuel Kant
• Views “self” is
transcendental, which
means the “self” is related
to a spiritual or nonphysical
realm
• The self is not the body,
and it does not have the
qualities of the body
• Despite being
transcendental, Kant
stressed that the body and
its qualities are rooted to
the “self”1
• Two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality):
• Consciousness of oneself & one’s psychological
states in inner sense, and
• Consciousness of oneself and one’s states by
performing acts of apperception1
• He point out that what truly exist are your ideas
and your knowledge of your ideas2
• The material world is not just an extension, and
that you are merely seeing objects3
• These ideas are what connect you to the external
world
• He defended the diverse quality of state of the
body & soul (self) presenting that “bodies are
objects of outer sense; souls are objects of inner
sense”
• Two components of the self:
1. Inner self: The “self” by which you are aware of
alterations in your own state. This includes your
rational intellect and your psychological state,
such as moods, feelings, and sensations,
pleasure, and pain.
2. Outer self: includes your senses and the physical
world. It is the common boundary between the
external world and the inner self, It gathers
information from the external world and the
inner self. It gathers information from the
external world through the sense, which the
inner self interprets & coherently expresses
• Kant proposed that the “self” organizes
information in 3 ways:
1. Raw perceptual input
2. Recognizing the concept, and
3. Reproducing in the imagination
• Kant’s “self” has unified point of self reference.
You are conscious of yourself as the subject,
and you are conscious of yourself as a common
subject of different representations1
 Post-Modernity
• Literally, post-modernity means ‘after modernity‘1
• Unlike other periods in the history of philosophy, the
post-modern milieu does not have a singular center or
concern.
• More to the point, it has centers since it aims at
providing more value and space to the particulars
instead of the universals.
• Convinced that the human mind cannot once and for
all achieve these universal and over-arching
explanatory principles, the post-modern philosophers
are highly interested to look into what the specific
locations/contexts can contribute in the table of
discussion1
• The academe in turn, is expected to
mainstream those ideas that come from the
farmers, fisher folks, street vendors and the
everyday experiences of the people.
• This is the unique sensibility which the post-
modern vantage point is willing to explore.
 Sigmund Freud
• His most important contribution,
particularly in psychology, was
psychoanalysis, a practice devised
to treat those who are mentally ill
through dialogue
• The vast majority of European
philosophers before Freud
regarded human beings as having
an “essence” to which the
self/soul is ascribed
• The “self” was an entity in itself
characterized as the subject1 of
the physical and mental actions
and experiences.
• The notion is that the self is
essence & subject points to the
idea of an entity that is unified,
single, undivided, and unaffected
by time
• Freud, however, did not accept the existence of any
single entity that could be put forward as the
notion of “self”.
• His work in the field of psychoanalysis was
groundbreaking because it answered questions
about the human psyche in a way that no one else
had before him1
• In his earlier structural division of the psyche, Freud
distinguished 3 levels of consciousness:
1. Conscious, which deals with awareness of present
perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories, and
fantasies at any particular moment;
2. Pre-conscious/ subconscious, which is related to data
that can readily be brought to consciousness; and
3. Unconscious, which refers to data retained but not
easily available to the individual’s conscious awareness
or scrutinity
• Central to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was
the proposed existence of the unconscious as:
1. A repository for traumatic repressed memories;
and
2. The source of anxiety-provoking drives that is
socially or ethically unacceptable to the
individual
 Psychoanalytic Theory
• To explain his model, Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to
describe the 3 levels of the mind
• Freud further structured the psyche/ mind into 3 parts:
1. ID – operates on the pleasure principle. Every wishful impulse
should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the
consequences1
2. Ego – operates according to the reality principle. It works out
realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands2. The ego considers
social realities & norms, etiquette, & rules in deciding how to
behave3
3. Superego- It incorporates the values and morals of society. The
superego’s function is to control the id’s impulses4
• The superego consists of 2 systems:
1. Conscience – if the ego gives in to the
id’s demands, the superego may make
the person feel bad through guilt
2. Ideal self – it is an imaginary picture of
how you ought to be. It represents
career aspirations; how to treat other
people; and how to behave as a
member of society
• According to Freud’s structure of the
mind, the ego and the superego
function in different level
consciousness
• There is a constant movement of
memories & impulses from one level
to another
• The id, on the other hand, is
unaffected by reality, logic, or the
everyday world as it operates within
the unconscious part of the mind
 Ego defense mechanisms
Defense Mechanism Definition
Compensation Covering up a real or
perceived weakness by
emphasizing a trait one
considers more desirable
Denial Refusing to acknowledge the
existence of a real situation
or the feelings associated
with it
Displacement The transfer of feelings from
one target to another that is
considered less threatening
or that is neutral
(Chapter 2 of Townsend; Videbeck , page 46; Student Guide pages 14 to 16)
Example
A physically handicapped
boy is unable to participate
in football, so he
compensated by becoming
a great scholar
A woman drinks alcohol
every day and cannot stop,
failing to acknowledge that
she has a problem
A client is angry with his
physician, does not express
it, but becomes verbally
abusive with the nurse
 Defense Mechanism Definition
Rationalization Attempting to make excuses
or formulate logical reasons
to justify unacceptable
feelings or behaviors
Reaction Formation Preventing unacceptable or
undesirable thoughts or
behaviors from being
expressed by exaggerating
opposite thoughts or types of
behaviors
((Chapter 2 of Townsend; Videbeck , page 46; Student Guide pages 14 to 16)
Example
John tells the rehab nurse
“I’ll drink because it’s the
only way I can deal with
my bad marriage and my
worse job.”
Jane hates nursing and
attends nursing school to
please her parents.
During career day, she
speaks to prospective
students about the
excellence of nursing as a
career
Defense Mechanism Definition Example
Regression Retreating in A 2-year-old boy is
response to stress to hospitalized and he
an earlier level of only drinks from a
development and the bottle, even though
comfort measures his mom says that he
associated with that has been drinking
level of functioning from a cup for 6
months
Identification An attempt to A teenager who
increase self-worth by required lengthy
acquiring certain rehabilitation after an
attributes and accident decides to
characteristic of an become a physical
individual one therapist as a result
admires
(Chapter 2 of Townsend; Videbeck of his
, page 46; Student Guide pages 14 experiences
to 16)
 Defense Mechanism Definition
Intellectualization An attempt to avoid
expressing actual emotions
associated with a stressful
situation by using the
intellectual processes of
logic, reasoning, and
analysis
Introjection Integrating the beliefs and
values of another individual
into one’s own ego
structure
(Chapter 2 of Townsend; Videbeck , page 46; Student Guide pages 14 to 16)
Example
S’s husband is being
transferred with his job to
city far away from her
parents. She hides the
anxiety by explaining to
her parents the
advantages associated
with the move
Children integrate their
patents’ value system into
the process of conscience
formation. A child says to
a friend, “Don’t cheat. It’s
wrong.”
 Defense Mechanism Definition Example
Isolation Separating a thought A young woman
or memory from the describes being
feeling tone or attacked and raped
emotion associated without showing any
with it emotion
Projection Attributing feelings Sue feels a strong
of impulses sexual attraction to
unacceptable to her track coach and
one’s self to another tells a friend, “He’s
person coming on to me!”
Repression Involuntarily blocking An accident victim
unpleasant feelings can remember
and experiences nothing about the
from one’s accident
awareness
(Chapter 2 of Townsend; Videbeck , page 46; Student Guide pages 14 to 16)
 Defense Mechanism Definition
Sublimation Rechanneling of drives or
impulse that are personally
or socially unacceptable into
activities that are
constructive
Example
A mother whose son was
killed by a drunk driver
channels her anger and
energy into being the
president of the local
chapter of Mothers
Against Drunk Drivers

Suppression The voluntary blocking “I don’t want to think

unpleasant feelings and about that now. I’ll think
experiences from one’s about that tomorrow.”
awareness
Undoing Symbolically negating or Joe is nervous about his
cancelling out an experience new job and yells at his
that one finds intolerable wife. On his way home he
stops and buys her
flowers.

(Chapter 2 of Townsend; Videbeck , page 46; Student Guide pages 14 to 16)

 Psychosexual Development
• Oral (0-18months)
– Pleasure through the mouth1
– Beahviors: dependency, eating, crying, biting
– Develops body image, aggressive drives
– Too much or to little satisfaction can lead to oral fixation1a
• Oral receptive – have stronger tendency to smoke, drink, overeat
• Oral aggressive – having the tendency to bite nails or use curse words or
gossip
• Anal (18-3 y.o.)
– Pleasure through anus2
– Behaviors: control of holding on or letting go
– Develops concept of power, punishment, ambivalence, concern
with cleanliness or being dirty
– Fixation:
• Anal retentive – an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control
• Anal expulsive – where the person may become messy and disorganized
• Phallic (3-6 y.o.)1
– Pleasure through genitals1a, erotic attachment of parent of
opposite sex2
– Behaviors: touching of genitals
– Develops fear of punishment by parents of same sex, guilt,
identification3
– A fixation could result in sexual desires (overindulging &
avoidance) & weak or confused sexual identity according to
psychoanalysts
• Latency (6-12 y.o.)
– Pleasure through school work, social relationships and
knowledge4
– Behaviors: sense of industry and mastery
– Learns to control over aggressive, destructive impulses
• Genitals (12-20 y.o.
– Pleasure through genitals with orgasm5
– Behaviors: becomes independent, responsible for self
– Develops sexual identity, ability to love and work
 Gilbert Ryle
• He wrote The Concept of
Mind (1949) where he
rejected the notion that
mental state are separable
from physical states.
• He called the distinction
between mind & Matter a
“category mistake”
because of its attempt to
analyze the relation
between “mind” & body as
if the 2 terms of the same
categories
• Ryle’s points against Descartes’ theory are:
1. The relation between mind & body are not isolated
processes.
2. Mental processes are intelligent acts, and not distinct
from each other
3. The operation of the mind is itself an intelligent act
• According to Ryle, the rationalist view that mental
acts are distinct from physical acts and that there is
a mental world distinct from the physical world is a
misconception
• Ryle described this distinction between mind and
body as “the dogma of the ghost in the machine”
where he explained there is no hidden entity or
ghost called “soul” inside a machine called “body”
• Ryle criticized the theory that the mind is a place
where mental images are apprehended, perceived,
or remembered.
• He asserted that sensations, thought, and feelings
do not belong to a mental world separate from the
physical world.
• Knowledge, memory, imagination, and any other
abilities or dispositions do not reside “within” the
mind as if the mind were a space in which these
could be stored or located
• If Ryle believed that the concept of a distinct “self”
is not real, where do we get our sense of self? Ryle
asserted that it is from our behaviors and actions1
 Paul Churchland
• His philosophy stands on a
materialistic view or the belief
that nothing but matter exists1
• Thus, in Churchland’s view the
immaterial, unchanging
soul/self does not exist because
it cannot be experienced by the
senses
• Churchland insisted that the
idea of a mind or soul is not in
consonance with the physical
changes that have occurred in
the hereditary characteristics of
the human species over
successive generations
• Specifically, his idea is called eliminative
materialism or the claim that people’s common-
sense understanding of the mind (or folk
psychology) is false, and that certain classes of
mental states which most people believe in do not
exist
• To prove his point, Churchland pointed out that in
mental conditions, such as depression, it is
technically wrong to say that the person is “out of
his mind”1
• Moreover, he pointed out that in a severe head
injury, the victim’s personality changes occur
• He pointed out that is the mind were a separate
entity, then the victim should have retained his/her
personality despite the damage to the brain2
 Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• He emphasizes the body as the
primary site of knowing the world,
thus his idea of “self” is an
embodied subjectivity
• Embodied means to give a body to
(usually an immaterial substance
like a soul)
• Subjectivity in philosopy, is the
state of being a subject an entity
that possesses conscious
experiences, such as perspectives,
feelings, beliefs, and desires
• Moreover, a subject acts upon or
affects some other entity, which in
Philosophy is called the object1
• He rejected the Cartesian mind-body dualism and
insisted that the mind & body are intrinsically
connected
• By emphasizing the primacy of the body in an
experience, he also veered away from the established
notion that the center of consciousness is the mind
• He asserted that human beings are embodied
subjectivities, and that the understanding of the
“self” should begin from their fundamental fact1
• He argued that the body is part of the mind is part of
the body2
• According to him, the body acts what the mind
perceives as a unified one.