St.

Augustine: Love and Justice

• Also known as Aurelius

Augustinus
• Was a Latin Church Father
and was one of the most
important figures in the
development of
Christianity
• City of God and On the
Trinity – famous works
 Called Saint Augustine of Hippo.
 One of the Latin Fathers of the church
 One of doctors of the church
 One of the most significant Christian thinkers
 An influential theologian.
 Influenced by Plato’s ideas
Saint Augustine of Hippo
• Known as a great formulator of Christian Doctrine.
• Father was a government official
• Mother was Monica, a Christian who is now a Saint.
• His son’s name is Adeodatus
• He had a good schooling
• Became a priest and Bishop of Hippo (northern Africa)
• He called the man “the Great Mystery”

“ The life of every man is the story of constant struggle and conflict
between 2 forces – that of good and evil”
Are children born inherently good or inherently
bad?
Self According to St Augustine
 He adopted Plato’s view that the self is an immaterial (but rational) soul.

 He asserted that these forms were concepts existing within the perfect and
eternal God where the soul belongs.

 St Augustine’s concept of the self…

Inner
Immaterial “I”
Had inner self and self-awareness
 Augustine believed that the humans have the body and soul.

Body possessed senses such as…

Imagination
Memory
Reason
Mind

Through which the soul experience the world

 The aspect of soul according to St. Augustine

1. It is able to be aware of itself.

2. It is able to recognize itself as a holistic
one.
3. It is aware of its unity.
 Augustine pointed out that a person is similar to God
as regarded to the mind and its ability.
 Correct use of the mind leads to real Happiness.
St. Augustine: Love and Justice as the
Foundation of the Individual Self

• St. Augustine believes that a virtuous life is a dynamism of love.

• It is a constant following of and turning towards love while a wicked

life is a constant turning away from love.

• Loving God means loving one’s fellowmen; and loving one’s

fellowmen denotes never doing any harm to another as golden
principles emphasize.
Rene Descartes: “ Cogito ergo sum”…
“ I think, therefore I am”

 A French philosopher,
mathematician, and scientist.
 Father of modern philosophy.
 First thinker to emphasize the use
of reason to describe, predict,
understand natural phenomenon
based on natural phenomena and
empirical evidence.
The Self-according Rene Descartes

Descartes claimed about the self

1. It is constant; it is not prone to
change; 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.
Dualism

 To explain, dualism is the concept that reality or existence is divided

into two parts.

This division is between the mind and the physical body.

In other words, the mind is separate from the empirically studied,
physical attributes of the body.
Distinction bet. The soul and body according to
Rene Descartes
The Soul The body

1. It is a conscious, thinking substance that 1. It is a material substance that changes

is unaffected by time. through time.

2. It is known only to itself (only you know 2 It can be doubted; the public can
your own mental event and others cannot correct claims abut the body.
correct your mental states.)

3. It is not made up of parts. It views the 3. It is made up of physical, quantifiable ,

entirely of itself with no hidden or divisible parts.
separate compartments. It is both
conscious and aware of itself at the same
time
 Sense of Self

• Descartes states that the self is a thinking entity distinct from the
body.

• Although the mind and the body are independent from each other
and serve their own function, man must use his own mind and
thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment and develop
himself.
Activity: Complete the statement
• By group, complete the statement …..

• I think therefore, I _____________.

• Example:

• I think therefore, I learn.

Then, 1 member of the group has to explain something about your

completed statement.
John Locke: Personal Identity
 John Locke is a philosopher and a physician.
 One of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers.
 A philosopher during age of enlightenment/ age of reason.
a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in
which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were
synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and
that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and
politics.
World view – general philosophy or view of life
 world view is the way people see and understand the world,
especially regarding issues such as politics, philosophy, and
religion.

 Many artists express their world view in their work.

Activity
 The Self According John Locke
“The identity of the same man consists…in nothing but a participation of the same
continued life, by constantly fleeting (passing) particles of matter in succession
vitally united to the same organized body.”

 Locke expanded the definition of the self.

The self includes…
 Memories of the thinking thing and consciousness.
Provide a continuity of experience that allow a person to identify himself as a
person overtime.
Since the person is the same “self” in the passing of time he is …
Accountable for past behaviour
Accountable for behaviour he can remember.
 According to Locke, personal identity (the self) "depends
on consciousness, not on substance" nor on the soul. ...

 On the other hand, identity of humans is based on their

consciousness.

 Locke believe that knowledge results from ideas by objects

that were experienced.
 The processes involves sensation (objects are experience through the
senses) and reflection (relationships exists between objects)

• Locke contended that ideas are not innate but rather the mind at
birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate) which means that knowledge is
derived from experience (include memories of the thinking thing).

• Nothing exist in the mind that was not first in the senses.
 Animals and plants are identified by
participation in the same continued life, bodies
by their material composition.

 For humans, he creates this distinction

1. Man (our biological make up, similar to
animals)
2. Person (a “Self”, or what our identity consists
of)
 Sense of Self

• John Locke holds the personal identity (the self) is a mater of

psychological continuity.
• For him, personal identity is founded on consciousness (memory),
and not on substance of either the soul or the body.

• Personal identity is a concept about oneself that evolve over the

course of an individual’s life.
• It may include aspects of life that man has no control over, such as
where he grew up or the color of the skin, as well as the choices he
makes like how he spends his time and what he believes.
David Hume: The Self is the Bundle Theory of
Mind
All knowledge is derived from human senses.
Activity

• Hume termed human nature as self.

• Looking for the self, he only discovered sense of
impression, a product of imagination.
• He stated that there is no such thing as personal identity
because perceptions and feelings may come and go.
David Hume: The Self is the Bundle Theory of
Mind
• Hume compared self to nation whereby a nation retains its being a
nation not by a 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 mixed and a loose cohesion of various personal
experiences. There is no constant impression that endures through
out your life.
David Hume: The Self is the Bundle Theory of
Mind
 A Scottish philosopher, economist, historian during the age of
enlightenment.
 He does not believe in the existence of self.
 He stressed that your perception are only active as long as you are
conscious.
 Once your perception is removed in the case of being asleep, you can
no longer sense yourself then you also cease to exist.
 Its like a light bulb that may be switch on or off.
Nature Vs. Nurture
Nativist view / Nativism
• Introduced by Rene Descartes
and Plato
• Innate Ideas already exist at
birth
• Innate ( inborn)
• Man is born with all necessary
potential to become functional
and complete
Empiricist view / Empiricism
• John Locke / George Berkeley
and David Hume
• Ideas are acquired through
sensory experiences and
interaction with the
environment.
• Environmental
• Tabula rasa – blank slate
 Self could not be verified through observation
 Self is the series of incoherent impressions received by the senses.

A mixed and a loose cohesion of various personal experience.

So for Hume, there is no permanent/unchanging self.
2 Mind’s Perception
1. Impression – They enter the senses with most force. They are directly
experience.
Activity

2. Ideas – Less forcible and less lively counterparts of impressions.

- Mechanisms that copy and reproduce sense data formulated
based upon the previously perceived impressions.
- are recollections of the impressions.
 Sense of Self

• For Hume, man has no “clear and intelligible” idea of the self.
• No single impression of the self exist; rather, self is just the thing to
which all perceptions of a man ascribed.
• Even if there were impression of the self that may constitute identity,
it may vary and always change.
• A person can never observe oneself without some other perceptions.
• Thus, “self” is just a bundle or collection of different perceptions.
Immanuel Kant: Respect for Self
 Central figure in modern philosophy
 He contributed to
1. Metaphysics-Study of Existence, What’s out
there?
2. Epistemology-Study of Knowledge, How do I
know about it?
3. Ethics-Study of Action, What should I do?
 Kant proposed that human mind creates the
structure of human experience.
Immanuel Kant: Respect for Self
• REASON is the final authority of morality. Morality is achieved only
when there is absence of war because of the result of enlightenment.

• APPERCEPTON – is the mental process by which a person makes

sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she
already possess.

• You perceive the outside world because of your ideas and your
knowledge of your ideas. He insisted that you perceive the outside
world because there is already an idea residing within you.
Self according Immanuel Kant
1.Self is transcendental (independent of experience).
 Means the self is related to a spiritual or nonphysical realm.

2. The self is not in the body

it is outside body
does not have the qualities of the body.
Bodies qualities are rooted to the “self”
Knowledge bridges the self and material things together.
Components of the Self
1. Inner Self
 Interprets and coherently expresses what the senses gather.
 aware of alterations in your own state.
Includes rational intellect and psychological state such as …
Moods
Feelings
Sensations
Pleasure
pain
 Components of the Self

2. Outer Self
 Includes our senses and physical world.
 It gathers information from the external world through the senses, which the
inner self interprets and coherently expresses.
 The common boundary between the external world and the inner self.

 Kant argued that mind is not just a passive receiver of sense experience but
rather actively participates in knowing the object it experience.
2 Basic type of knowledge
• Posteriori – knowledge arises from and depends on sense experience.

• Priori – knowledge which arises from the operations of the mind and
is independent
As rational beings, we do not merely act based on instinct or conditioning,
rather we freely choose to act them.

“Do you agree with the statement of Kant that “we can be held
responsible only for those things we can control”.

Cite an example to justify your answer.

“Man is born free but everywhere is in chain”.

• What are the important rules you live by?

• What were the most important rules in your family?
• What rules have you rejected as you have gotten older?
 Sense of Self

• A person should not be used as a tool, instrument or device to

accomplish another’s private ends.

• Thus, all men are persons gifted with the same basic rights and
should treat each other as equals.

• Instead of mind conforming to the world, it is the external world.