UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF
GNED08
PART 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

Learning Outcomes:
1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from
various disciplinal perspective
2. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across different
disciplines and perspectives
3. Examine the different influences, factors, and forces that shape the self.
4. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of
one’s self and identity by developing a theory of the self.
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LESSON 1: From the Perspective of Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY

From the Greek words

“Philos” which means love
“Sophia” which means wisdom
In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when
they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the
world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to
each other. 
PHILOSOPHY

Way of thinking about everything around us; about the nature, the
world, and the society.
Seeking to know the truth
It is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge
PHILOSOPHERS

Socrates Immanuel Kant

Plato Sigmund Freud
St. Augustine of Hippo Gilbert Ryle
Rene Descartes Patricia and Paul Churchland
John Locke Maurice Merleau-Ponty
David Hume
SOCRATES

An ancient Greek, Philosopher, Scholar,

Teacher
One of the ‘big three’
Considered to be the main source of
Western Thought
His works were only known through
Plato’s writing (The Dialogues).
Socrates Plato Aristotle
SOCRATES
A stonemason with a sharp mind, a
brilliant debater and was idolized by many
Athenians
“the unexamined life is not worth living”
In the 5th century BCE, Athens is a city
state and democratic.
Athenians settle arguments by
discussions and debate.
SOCRATES’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

The touching of the soul, may mean helping the person to get in
touch with his true self.
The true self is not the body but the soul.
Virtue is inner goodness, and real beauty is that of the soul (Price,
2000).
THE SOCRATIC METHOD

Also called The Dialectic Method

This method involves asking a series of questions seeking to find
consistency and point out contradiction
The search for the correct/proper definition of a thing
This allowed him to question people’s belief and ideas, exposing
their misconceptions and get them to touch their souls.
THE GOAL OF SOCRATIC METHOD

To make people think, seek, and ask again and again
To make them realize that they do not know everything
Learn to accept ignorance and continue to learn and seek for
answers
PLATO

Plato’s real name is Aristocles (428-348 BCE)

He established a school known as ‘The
Academy’
He wrote more than 20 Dialogues with
Socrates as protagonist in most of them.
Plato’s metaphysics is known as the ‘Theory
of Forms’
THEORY OF FORMS

Forms in the mind is the reality and the object we sense is just a
manifestation of the “Forms”
Forms refers to what are real, they are not objects that are
encountered with the senses but can only be grasped intellectually.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PLATO’S FORMS

1. The Forms are ageless and therefore are eternal.

2. The Forms are unchanging and therefore permanent.
3. The Forms are unmoving and indivisible.
PLATO’S DUALISM

1. The Realm of the Shadows – composed of changing, sensible

things which are lesser entities and therefore imperfect and flawed
2. The Realm of Forms – composed of eternal things which are
permanent and perfect. It is the source of all reality and true
knowledge.
PLATO’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

Plato made use of Socrates’ dialectic method and considered it an

important tool in discovering knowledge.
Plato also believed that knowledge lies within the person’s soul.
He believed that humans have the immortal, rational soul which is
created in the image of the divine.
PLATO’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

Plato described the soul as having three components:

1. The Reason – rational and is the motivation for goodness and
truth
2. The Spirited – non-rational and is the will or the thrive toward
action
3. The Appetites – irrational and lean towards the desire for
pleasures of the body
PLATO’S THEORY OF LOVE AND BECOMING

‘Allegory of the Cave’

“Love is the force that paves the way for all beings to ascend to
higher stages of self-realization and perfection.”
“Love is the way of knowing and realizing the truth. Love is a
process of seeking higher stages of being. The greater the love, the
more intellectual component it will contain.”
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

A Christian Philosopher
Concerns mainly focuses with God and
man’s relationship with God
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY AND
GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Christian Philosophy rely on God’s commands and His

judgement determines what is good and what is evil.
Greek Philosophy believe that man is innately good and
becomes evil through ignorance what is good.
ST. AUGUSTINE’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

His thoughts focused on two realms:

1. God as the source of all reality and truth – According to St.
Augustine without God as the source of all truth, man could never
understand eternal truths.
2. The sinfulness of man – according to St. Augustine, the causes of
sin or evil is an act of man’s freewill. Moral goodness can only be
achieved through the grace of God.
THE ROLE OF LOVE

St. Augustine is in agreement with the Greeks that man searches for
happiness.
However, he stated that real happiness can only be found in God.
1. Love of physical objects - sin of greed
2. Love for other people - sin of jealousy
3. Love for the self - sin of pride
4. Love for God - real happiness
RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650)

Known as the “Father of Modern

Philosophy”
Introduced the Cartesian Method
Invented Analytic Geometry
“Cogito ergo sum”
DESCARTES’ SYSTEM

He discovered that the human mind has two powers:

1. Intuition – the ability to apprehend direction of certain truths.
2. Deduction – the power to discover what is not know by
progressing to an orderly way from what is already known. Truth
are arrived at using a step by step process.
DESCARTES’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

“I think, therefore I am”.

The cognitive aspect of human nature is his basis for
existence of the self.
THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM

Soul/Mind (also the self) – a substance that is separate

from the body.
The body according to him, is like a machine that is
controlled by the will and aided by the mind.
JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)

Born in Wrington, England

Son of a Puritan Lawyer
His interest is the acquisition of
knowledge
Posteriori – knowledge results from
ideas produced by experiences
‘tabula rasa’ – blank slate
LOCKE’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

“Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses”
Humans have no innate ideas, morals, religious and political values
and they come from sense experiences.
Morality has to do with choosing or willing to do good.
THREE LAWS ACCORDING TO LOCKE

1. Law of Opinion – where actions are praiseworthy are 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. This is deemed to
be the true law for human behavior.
DAVID HUME (1711-1776)

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland

At the time he was enrolled at the
University of Edinburgh, he lost is faith.
He discovered the limitations of the mind
and his optimism turn into skepticism.
THE HUMAN MIND

The mind receives materials from the senses and calls it

perceptions.
Two types of perceptions:
1. Impressions – immediate sensations of external reality
2. Ideas – recollections of impressions
These two together make up the content of the human mind.
THREE PRINCIPLES ON HOW IDEAS RELATE TO ONE
ANOTHER

1. The Principle of Resemblance - sensing the likeness of current

experience to previous experiences
2. The Principle of Contiguity - associating an event to another event
3. The Principle of Cause and Effect – principle that all events have
sufficient causes. This idea arises only when people experience
certain relation between objects thus it cannot be a basis for
knowledge
HUME’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

The part of the human nature is what other philosophers called the
soul; Hume termed it ‘the self’.
The self is also a product of the imagination
He also stated that there is no such thing as ‘personal identity’
behind perceptions and feelings that come and go
There is no permanent/unchanging self
IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)

From Konisberg in East Prussia

(presently Western Russia)
The philosophy of David Hume
awakened and motivated him to be the
founder of German Idealism
KANT’S VIEW OF THE MIND

Kant argued that the mind actively participates in knowing the

objects it experiences
Instead of the mind conforming to the world, it is the external world
that conforms to the mind
He defined knowledge as a result of human understanding applied
to sense experience
KANT’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELF

When the self sees an object, it tends to remember its characteristics

and applies on it, the forms of time and space
A self must exist or else there could be no memory or knowledge
‘Transcendental apperception’ – the experience of the self and its
unity with objects
KANT’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELF

People do not experience the self directly but as a unity of all

impressions that are organized by the mind through perceptions
In the matter of God, Kant stated the kingdom of God is within man
God is manifested in people’s lives therefore it is man’s duty to
move towards perfection
SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

An Austrian neurologist

Considered to be one of the pioneering
figures in the field of Psychology
Focuses on the working of the
unconscious mind (Psychoanalysis)
STRUCTURES OF THE MIND

Psychodynamic theory of Freud tell that the workings of the mind

or one’s mental life impacts strongly on the body resulting in either
emotional stability or psychological dysfunctions
Freud presented the topography of the mind
STRUCTURES OF THE MIND

Three levels of the mind:

1. Id – pleasure principle
2. Ego – reality principle
3. Superego – moral principle
STRUCTURES OF THE MIND

Two kinds of instincts that drive individual behavior:

Eros or life instinct – energy of eros is called ‘libido’
Thanatos or death instinct – behavior towards destruction
in a form of aggression and violence
FREUD’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

Repressed thought and memories have enough psychic energy to

impose its control on the person’s consciousness
Freud’s psychoanalysis sees a man as a product of his past that lies
within his subconscious
Man lives his life balancing the forces of life and death
GILBERT RYLE (1900-1976)

An English Philosopher

Contradicted the Cartesian Dualism
In his book entitled, The Concept of the
Mind, he argues that dualism ‘involves
category mistakes and is a philosophical
nonsense’
RYLE’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

Man is endowed with freewill

He thought that freewill was invented to answer the question of
whether an action deserves praise or blame
Freewill involves a moral responsibility which further assumes that
man’s action must be moral for it to be free
RYLE’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

Two types of knowledge:

Knowing-that – an “empty intellectualism” as it refers to only
knowing facts
Knowing-how – using facts and perform it using skill or technical
abilities
‘Knowing’ involves an ability and not just intellect.
PATRICIA AND PAUL CHURCHLAND

A Canadian Philosopher
Uses the application of neurology to
problems such as the mind-body problem
Man’s brain is responsible for the
identity known as the ‘Self’
Coined the term ‘Neurophilosophy’
NEUROPHILOSOPHY

It is the study of the philosophy of the mind, the philosophy of

science, neuroscience and psychology
Aims to explore the relevance of neuroscientific experiments/
studies to the philosophy of the mind
Brain-mind issue is the center of this study
CHURCHLAND’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

Claims that man’s brain is responsible for the identity known as the
self
The biochemical properties of the brain is really responsible for
man’s thoughts, feelings and behavior.
Individual’s deviant thoughts, feelings and actions comes from
abnormalities in the brain’s anatomy and phyisiology
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1908-1961)

A French Phenomenological
Philosopher
He wrote books on perception, art and
political thought
His philosophy emphasized the human
body as the primary site of knowing the
world
MERLEAU-PONTY’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

He has been known as a philosopher of the body

The focus is on the relationship between self-experience and the
experience of other people
He developed the concept of body-subject and contended that
perceptions occur existentially
MERLEAU-PONTY’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

The consciousness, the world and the human body are all interconnected
as they mutually perceive the world
The world is a field of perception and human consciousness assigns
meaning to the world
The meaning assigned for a particular object is subject to change
depending on the perspective upon which it is seen
It is possible that one subject may be perceived from various perspectives
THANK YOU!
ACTIVITY NO. 2

Choose one (1) Philosophical perspective of the SELF

among those discussed that made a strong impression on
the concept of your self. Explain why and how this
perspective made you better understand yourself. Write
it on a short bond paper.