G E d 10 1 :

U N D E R S TA N D I N G T H E S E L F

THE SELF FROM

THE PERSPECTIVE
OF PHILOSOPHY
Lesson 1
A.Y. 2020-2021, Second Semester
Mr. Yron E. De Mateo
1. SOCRATES 7 . D AV I D H U M E
2. PLATO 8. IMMANUEL KANT
3. St. AUGUSTINE 9. GILBERT RYLE
4. RENE DESCARTES 10. MERLEAU PONTY
5. JOHN LOCKE
6. SIGMUND FREUD
PHILOSOPHY

- study of the fundamental nature of

knowledge, reality, and existence, especially
in an academic discipline. 
- academic discipline concerned with
investigating the nature of significance of
ordinary and scientific beliefs and
investigates the legitimacy of concepts by
rational argument concerning their
implications, relationships as well as reality,
knowledge, moral judgment, etc..
P H I L O S O P H Y I S A B O U T:

 What is morally right and wrong? Why?

 What is good life?
 Does God exist?
 What is the mind?
2. Questioning existing knowledge and intuitions to get closer to the
truth
PYTHAGORAS

The first to use the term “philosophy”

 “PHILO” “SOPHIA”
Greek word for love Greek word for wisdom

PHILOSOPHY
 SOCRATES
•  succeeded made people think about who
they are, who they should be and who they
will become
• He is known for his Socratic Approach.
• “the unexamined life is not worth living”
• “Know Thyself”
- Philosophers said that self-
knowledge is a pre-requisite to happy and
meaningful life.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 PLATO
Philosophy of the self can be explained as a process
of self-knowledge and purification of the soul.
• 3 components to the soul
1. rational soul – reason & intellect to
govern affairs
2. spirited soul – emotions should be kept
at bay
3. appetitive soul – base desires (food,
drink, sleep, sexual needs, etc.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 S T. A U G U S T I N E
• man is of a bifurcated nature
Two Aspects:
1. part of man dwells in the world (imperfect)

and yearns to be with the Divine

2. other part is capable of reaching
immortality
• body – dies on earth; soul – lives eternally
in spiritual bliss with “God” (#lifegoalz)

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 According to St. Augustine, the human nature is composed of two realms:

1. God as the source of all reality and truth.

2.The sinfulness of man.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
MODERN PHILOSOPHY
 RENE DESCARTES
• “I think therefore I am”
• Father of Modern Philosophy
• Hyperbolical Doubt
- Doubts the existence of his own physical
body

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 • the body is a machine attached to the mind
• “I am a thinking thing. . . A thing that doubts,
understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, imagines,
perceives.”

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 JOHN LOCKE
• Locke contended that ideas are not innate but
rather mind at birth is a ‘tabula rasa’ (blank slate)
• Knowledge results from ideas produced a
posteriori or by objects that were experienced.
• Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in
the senses.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 Three laws according to Locke:
1. Law of Opinion – where actions that are
praiseworthy are called virtues and those that are not
are called vice.
2. Civil Law – where right actions are enforced by
people in authority.
3. Divine Law – set by God on the actions of man.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 D AV I D H U M E

• “one can only know what comes from the

senses & experiences” (he is an empiricist)
• Influenced by empiricism
• you know that other people are humans not
because you have seen their soul, but because
you see them, hear them, feel them etc

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 “Bundle Theory - The self is nothing but a bundle of
impressions and ideas”
1. impression
•basic objects of our experience/sensation
• forms the core of our thoughts
2. idea
• copies of impressions
• not as “real” as impressions

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 IMMANUEL KANT
• we need active intelligence to
synthesize all knowledge and
experience
• the self is not only personality
but also the seat of
knowledge

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
 SIGMUND FREUD

• Father of Psychoanalysis
• The dualistic view of self by Freud involves the
conscious self and unconscious self.
• Three levels of the mind:
1. Id – primarily based on the pleasure principle
2. Ego – based on the reality principle
3. Superego - primarily dependent on learning
the difference between right and wrong, thus it
is called moral principle.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
• mind and body are inseparable
• “one’s body is his opening toward his existence
to the world”
• the living body, his thoughts, emotions, and
experiences are all one.

THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PHILOSOPHY