THE SELF FROM

THE VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTER 1
DIAGNOSTIC EXERCISE (p.3)
• Write nine adjectives that describe you in
these post-its. Then make sentences using
these adjectives and write about yourself on
the next page.
INTRODUCTION
• “WHO AM I?” is rooted in the human need to
understand the basis of the experiences of the
“SELF.”
- “It’s who I am.”
- “It’s me, my essence.”
- “It’s what makes me unique and different from
everyone else.”
VARIOUS APPROACHES IN THE
CONCEPT OF “SELF”
• Philosophers (ancient to contemporary) describe the
essential qualities that compose a person’s uniqueness.
• Sociology sees the “self” as a product of social
interactions, developed over time through social
activities and experiences.
• Anthropology views the “self” as a culturally shaped
construct or idea – an autonomous participant I the
society as much as it is submerged in the community.
• Psychology sees the “self” as having the characteristics
or properties that can be used to described it. – the
“self” is related to its physical and social environment, it
is unique, and it is necessary to its experiences.
 ACTIVITY 1:
THE “PHILOSOPHER’S GALLERY WALK”
(page 6)

• Roam around , and let your classmates

answer each box. After each has answered
orally, let your classmates sign in the box
being answered.
DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
IN THE EXPLANATION OF SELF

• SOCRATES
• A Greek philosopher and one of the few individuals who
shaped Western thought.
• Known for his method of inquiry in testing an idea called
“Socratic Method”.
• Some of Socrates’ ideas were:
- The soul is immortal.
- The care of the soul is the task of philosophy.
- Virtue is necessary to attain happiness.
DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
IN THE EXPLANATION OF SELF
• SOCRATES
• One of his most-quoted phrases is, “The unexamined life
is not worth living.”
• Self-knowledge or examination of one’s self, as well as
the question about how one ought to live one’s life, are
very important concerns because only by knowing
ourselves can we hope to improve our life (Rappe, 1995).
• Self-knowledge would open our eyes to our true nature
which is not what we own, how many “likes” we get in
our social media posts, or how successful we are in our
career – our real self is the state of our inner being
(soul/self) which determines the quality of our life.
TWO WAYS OF EXISTENCE (Socrates)
1. VISIBLE EXISTENCE
- The BODY
- always changing
- considered as a “reluctant slave”
2. INVISIBLE EXISTENCE
- The SOUL
- remains constant
- considered to be the “ruler and master”

“The body was a reluctant slave, and the soul gets

dragged toward what is always changing. This would
leave the soul confused.”
• For Socrates, the goal of life is to be happy.
• “The virtuous man is a happy man, and that virtue
alone is the one and only supreme good that will
secure man’s happiness.”
• VIRTUE is the moral excellence, and an individual is
considered virtuous if his character is made up of the
moral qualities that are accepted as virtues: courage,
temperance, prudence, and justice.
• PLATO
• Student of Socrates who wrote the “Socratic Dialogue”
• Best known for his “Theory of Forms” (the physical
world is not really the “real” world because the ultimate
reality exists beyond the physical world.
• He is the single most important influence of the Western
concept f “self.”
• According to him, the “soul” is indeed the most divine
aspect of the human being.
• His concept of the divine is not a spiritual being but
rather one that has an intellectual connotation.
Three Parts of the Soul (Plato)
1.The Appetite (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 of the soul through the use of
reason.
3. The Spiritual (feeling)
- the element that is inclined toward reason but
understands the demands of passion: the part that loves
honor and victory.
• ST. AUGUSTINE
• Known as St. Augustine of Hippo
• His philosophical approach to Christian thinking is the
most influential theological system.
• Deeply influenced by Plato where he adopted the view of
the “self” as an immaterial (but rational) soul.
• His concept of “self” was an inner, immaterial “I” that
has 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.
Aspects of the self/soul (St. Augustine)
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 a human being who is both soul and body is

meant to tend to higher, divine, and heavenly matters
because of his capacity to ascend and comprehend truths
through the mind.
• He also pointed out that a person is similar to God as
regards to the mind and its ability; that by ignoring to use
his mind (or incorrect use of mind) he would lose the
possibility to reach real and lasting happiness.
• RENE DESCARTES
• Father of Modern Western Philosophy
• The first thinker to emphasize the use of reason to describe,
predict, and understand natural phenomena and based on
observational and empirical evidence.
• Hyperbolical/metaphysical “Doubt” (methodological skepticism)
was a principal tool to disciplined inquiry – a systematic process
of being skeptical about the truth of one’s beliefs in order to
determine which beliefs could be ascertained as true.
• His famous line: “Cogito ergo sum” translated as, “I think,
therefore I am” became a fundamental element of Western
philosophy as it secured the foundation for knowledge in the
face of radical doubt.
 • The self are:
- constant, it is not prone to change; and it is not affected by
time
- Only the immaterial soul remains the same throughout time
- The immaterial soul is the source of our identity
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE SOUL AND BODY (Descartes)
THE SOUL THE BODY
It is a conscious, thinking substance It is material substance that
that is unaffected by time. changes throughout time.
It is known only to itself (only you
know your own mental event and It can be doubted: The public can
others cannot correct your mental correct claims about the body.
states).
It is not made up of parts. It views
the entirety of itself with no hidden
It is made up of physical,
or separate compartments. It is both quantifiable, divisive parts.
conscious and aware of itself at the
same time.
• JOHN LOCKE
• The most influential Enlightenment thinkers.
• He expanded his definition of “self” to include the memories
of that thinking thing.
• “Self” is identified with consciousness and this “self” consists
of sameness of consciousness – the person existing now is the
same person yesterday because he remembers the thoughts,
experiences, or actions of the earlier self.
• For Locke, a person’s memories provide a continuity of
experience that allows him to identify himself as the same
person overtime.
• DAVID HUME
• Fierce opponent of Descartes’ Rationalism
• One of the three main figureheads of the influential British
Empiricism movement.
• Empiricism is the idea that the origin of all knowledge is
sense experience – emphasized the role of experience and
evidence in forming concepts.
• Proposed the “Bundle Theory” wherein he described the
“self” or “person” (Hume assumed as the mind) as a
collection of different perceptions that are moving in a very
fast and successive manner; therefore, it is in a “perpetual
flux.”
• Hume divided the mind’s perceptions into two groups stating
that the difference between the two “consists in the degree of
force and liveliness with which they strike upon the mind.”
1. Impressions. These are the perceptions that are the
strongest. They entered the senses with most force. These
are directly experienced; they result from inward and
outward sentiments.
2. Ideas. These are the less forcible and less lively counterparts
of impressions. These are mechanisms that copy and
reproduce sense data formulated based upon the previously
perceived impressions.
• Hume compared the “self” to a nation; whereby a nation
retains its “being a nation” not by some single core of
identity but by being composed of different, constantly
changing elements, such as people, systems, culture, and
beliefs. In the same manner, the “self” is not just one
impressions but a mix and a loose cohesion of various
personal experiences.
• IMMANUEL KANT
• A central figure in modern philosophy.
• Kant proposed that the human mind creates the structure of
human experience.
• He view the “self” as transcendental meaning, it is related to
a spiritual or nonphysical realm. The “self” is not in the body
but outside the body, and it does not have the qualities of the
body. The body and its qualities are rooted to the “self” and it
is the knowledge that bridges the “self” and the material
things together.
• Two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality):
1. Consciousness of oneself and one’s psychological states in
inner sense
2. Consciousness of oneself and one’s states by performing
acts of apperception

• Apperception is the mental process by which a person makes

sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he
already possesses.
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, sensations, pleasure
and pains.
2. Outer Self. It 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 through the
senses, which the inner self interprets and coherently expresses.
The “self” organizes information in three ways:
3. Raw perceptual input
4. Recognizing the concept
5. Reproducing in the imagination.’
• SIGMUND FREUD
• One of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
• Psychoanalysis (a practice devised to treat those who are
mentally ill through dialogue( is one of the most important
contribution he made.
• Psychoanalysis is a groundbreaking in the notion of “self”.
• Psyche is the totality of the human mind, both conscious and
unconscious.
Three levels of consciousness:
1. Conscious, which deals with awareness of present
perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories and fantasies at
any particular moment.
2. Preconscious/Subconscious, which is related to data that
can readily be brought to consciousness.
3. Unconscious, which refers to data retained but not easily
available to the individual's conscious awareness or scrutiny.
The Psychoanalytic Theory
• EGO-conscious part of • The ID and the SUPEREGO are in constant
the mind (Rational conflict. Your DRIVE tells you to do one
Self). Decides what thing , while SOCIETY tells you to do
action to take for something else.
positive means and
what to do based on
what is believed is the
right thing to do.
Aware of reality.
• SUPEREGO-
ID- unconconscious part of unconscious part of
the mind (this part of the the mind that acts as
mind seeks to bring us our conscience.
pleasure). Primitive parts Reminds us of what we
of our personality including should do.
aggression and sexual
drives

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, compared the human

mind to an iceberg. The tip above the water represents consciousness,
and the vast region below the surface symbolizes the unconscious
mind. Of Freud’s three basic personality structures—id, ego, and
superego—only the id is totally unconscious.
The superego consists of two 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.
• Gilbert Ryle
• He wrote the “Concept of Mind” where he rejected the notion
that mental states are separable from physical states.
• He called the distinction between mind and matter as
“category-mistake” because of its attempt to analyze the
relation between “mind” and “body” as if the same.
• He asserted that it is from our behaviors and actions – your
actions define your own concept of “self”.
• PAUL CHURCHLAND
• Known of his study of neurophilosophy and the philosophy of
mind.
• His philosophy stands on a materialistic view or the belief that
nothing but matter exists.
• Churchland’s idea of “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.
• MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
• The “self” is an embodied subjectivity. He claimed that the body is
the primary site of knowing the body.
• The term “embodied” is a verb that means to give a body to (usually
an immaterial substance like a soul). Subjectivity in philosophy, 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 object.
• He argued that the body is part of the mind, and the mind is part of
the body; that although there could be a stand – alone mental faculty
that perceives what the senses experiences, it needs the body to
receive these experiences , act on its perceptions and communicate
with the external world – the body acts what the mind perceives as a
unified one.