THE SELF

from Various

Philosophical

Perspectives
Lecture 1 in
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
 PHILOSOPHY
-study of the fundamental nature of
knowledge, reality, and existence,
especially in an academic discipline.
-a particular theory that someone
has about how to live or how to deal
with a particular situation.
 PHILOSOPHY
-academic discipline concerned with
investigating the nature of significance of
ordinary and scientific beliefs
- investigates the legitimacy of
concepts by rational argument
concerning their
relationships as well as implications
reality, knowledge, moral, judgment,
etc.
 Much of
philosophy concerns
with the fundamental
nature of self.
 The Greeks were the ones who
seriously questioned myths and moved
away from them to understand reality
and respond to perennial questions of
curiosity, including the question of the
self.
 The following are discussions of
different perspectives and
standing of under-
the self according to
s
prime movers.
its From philosophers of
the ancient times to the contemporary
period.
 THE PRE-SOCRATICS
Th Pre-Socratics (Thales,
Pythagoras,
e Parmenides, Heraclitus
Empedocles, etc.) were , with
concerned questions such as
answering
• what is the world really made up of?
• why is the world the way it is?
• what explains the changes that happen
around us?
 THE PRE-SOCRATICS
• arché origin or source/the “soul”/the
primal
- matter
• the soul’s movement is the
ultimate
arché of all other movement
• arché has no origin outside itself
and cannot be destroyed
• explains the multiplicity of things in the
world
DO YOU AGREE THAT THERE
IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
THE BODY AND THE SOUL?

DO YOU THINK YOU

HAVE BOTH?

WHAT’S THE
DIFFERENCE
BETWWEEN THE TWO?
 SOCRATES
• concerned with the problem of the self
• “the true task of the philosopher is
to know oneself”
• “the unexamined life is not
worth living”
• underwent a trial for ‘corrupting
the minds of the youth’
• succeeded made people think
about who they are
 SOCRATES
• ‘the worst thing that
can happen to anyone
is to live but die inside’
• “every person is
dualistic”
 SOCRATES
• man = body + soul
• individual =
imperfect/permanent
(body)
+ perfect &
permanent
(soul)
 PLATO
• 3 components to the soul
rational soul – reason & intellect to
govern affairs
spirited soul – emotions should be
kept at bay
appetitive soul – base desires (food,
drink, sleep, sexual needs,
etc.)
• when these are attained, the human
person’s soul becomes just &
WHAT HAPPENS TO A
PERSON WHOSE
3
COMPONENTS
OF THE SOUL
ARE
IMBALANCED?
 (ST.) AUGUSTINE
• ‘spirit of man’ in medieval philosophy
• following view of Plato but adds
Christianit
y
• man is of a (imperfect
bifurcated )

• nature
other part is capable of
• reaching
part of immortality
man dwells in the
• world
body – and
diesyearns to be
on earth; with
soul the eternally
– lives
Divine
in spiritual bliss with “God” (#lifegoalz)
DO YOU BELIEVE IN
THE CONCEPT OF THE
SOUL COMING TO
HEAVEN AFTER
DEATH?
WHAT MAKES US
PEOPLE
DIFFERENT FROM
ANIMALS?
 (ST) THOMAS AQUINAS
• man = matter + form
• matter (hyle) – “common stuff
that makes up everything in the
universe”
• form (morphe) – “essence of a
• substance
the bodyorof thing”; (what makes
the human it to
similar
what
is it is)
animals/objects, but what makes
human is his essence a
• “the soul is what makes us
humans”
MODERN PHILOSOPHY
 Rene DESCARTES
• Father of Modern Philosophy
• human person = body + mind
• “there is so much that we should
doubt”
• “if something is so clear and lucid as
not to be doubted, that’s the only time
one should believe.”
• the only thing one can’t doubt is
existence of the self
 Rene DESCARTES
• “I think, therefore I am”
• the self = cogito (the thing that thinks)
+ extenza (extension of mind/body)
• the body is a machine attached to the
mind
• it’s the mind that makes the man
• “I am a thinking thing. . . A thing that
doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills,
refuses, imagines, perceives.”
DO YOU AGREE WITH
THE STATEMENTS ABOUT
THE
SELF (body &
soul) SO FAR?

WHAT SEEMS TO BE
QUESTIONNABLE IN
THEIR
 David HUME
• disagrees with the all the other
aforementioned philosophers
• “one can only know what comes from the
senses & experiences” (he is an empiricist)
• “the self is not an entity beyond the
physical body”
• you know that other people are humans
not because you have seen their soul, but
because you see them, hear them, feel
them etc
 David HUME
• “the self is nothing but a bundle
of impressions and ideas”
• impression –
- basic objects of our
experience/sensation
- forms the core of our
thoughts
• idea –
- copies of impressions
- not as “real” as
impressions
 David HUME
• self = a collection of different
perceptions which rapidly succeed each
other
• self = in a perpetual flux and
movement
• we want to believe that there is a
unified , coherent self, soul, mind, etc.
but ~~actually~~ it is all just a
combination of experiences.
 Immanuel KANT
• Agree with HUME that everything
starts with perception/sensationof
impression
• there is a MIND that regulates these
impressions
• “time, space, etc. are ideas that one
cannot find in the world, but is built in
our minds
• “apparatus of the mind”
 Immanuel KANT
• the self organizes different impressions
that one gets in relation to his own
existence
• we active intelligence
need to all knowledge and
synthesize
• experience
the self is not only personality but also
the seat of knowledge
HOW DO YOU FEEL
ABOUT THE
DISCUSSION SO
FAR?
 Gilbert RYLE
• denies the internal, non-physical self
• “what truly matters is the behavior that
a person manifests in his day-to-day
life.”
• looking for the self is like entering LU
and looking for the “university”
(explain!)
 Gilbert RYLE
• the self is not an entity one can locate
and analyze but simply the convenient
name that we use to refer to the
behaviors that we make
 MERLEAU-PONTY
• a phenomenologist who says the mind-
body bifurcation is an invalid problem
• 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.
 MERLEAU-PONTY

• if you hate this subject, Merleau-

Ponty understands you.
ANY QUESTIONS?