Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Self Philosophical Tapestry
The Self Philosophical Tapestry
The Self Philosophical Tapestry
A TAPESTRY OF
PHILOSOPHICA
L TRADITION.
Before we start…
ask yourself whether there is a “Real you” fixed at birth or whether you
are a working progress.
3
4
5
6
IF a computer can pass for a human being, does this mean there are no essential
differences between humans and computers, more to point, are we unique among
animals? Is there something that sets us apart?
For centuries we have claimed that we are Superior to other animals because of our
capability in:
Tool making
Culture
Language
Reason
7 And Morality
Yet Chimps for instance
Make tools and plan ahead for their use.
9
Chimps are also capable of
using language:
10
Rio the sea lion
11
DAMINI THE
ELEPHANT
12
Killer whales and
culture
13
Macaques won’t Betray you
14
Milgram’s Experiment
15
Milgram’s Experiment
16
If we are truly unique?
The task of proving it seems getting very difficult.
17
Who or what are we?
18
“
“When you devote
yourself into an ideal, you
become something else
entirely”
19
AVOCADO VS. ARTICHOKE
VIEW ON HUMANITY
AVOCADO
Pear shaped, yellowish flesh
Single large seed at the center.
If the seed is planted, an entire new avocado plant may grow, which is also
capable of producing another generation of fruit
The seed at the canter contains all the essential information of what makes an
avocado.
Artichoke
Consist of spiny layers that can be peeled off one after the other.
When the last of the layer has been peeled of , there is nothing left
The artichoke does not have an essence , the artichoke is nothing but it’s layer.
20
“
21
Judaic and
Hebrew
Traditions
22
The Hebrew scriptures asserts that humans are
made in the image and the likeness of God.
Like the creator, we know who we are – we are self
conscious and has the capacity to love.
We are moral and is obliged to love and serve God.
Like the avocado we have a fleshy outward
appearance which makes us similar to animals yet
at the core we share the divine nature and that
makes us unique.
23
Judaic and Hebrew traditions affirms that that
what makes you a person, rather than a chimp or
computer is you’re a special creation of god.
24
Socrates and Plato
The first philosopher who started to engaged in systematic
questioning about the self.
For Socrates, the true task of a philosopher was to now
oneself.
Socrates believed that an unexamined life is not worth
living.
For Socrates, Every man is composed of Body and Soul, this
means that humans are dualistic, that he is composed of two
important aspects of his personhood.
Since humans are dualistic, he sees them as having both
imperfections and impermanent vessels while also having a
perfect soul that is permanent.
25
“
“An unexamined life is not
worth living.”
-Socrates
26
Plato
Plato basically took off from his master and supported that
humans is a dual nature of body and soul.
In Addition to socrates’ contribution Plato added that there
are (3) three components of the soul:
Rational Soul – Forged by reason & intellect. It governs the
affair of the human person.
Spirited Soul – In charge of emotions that should be kept at
bay.
Appetitive soul – is in charge of base desire such as eating,
drinking, sleeping and having sex.
These aspect must work harmoniously in order to attained the
ideal and becomes just and virtuous.
27
“
“The measure of a man is
what he does with power.”
-Plato
28
Augustine and Aquinas
He also believes that humans are bifurcated
One aspect of the man dwells in the world and is imperfect and
continuously yearn to with the divine and the other is capable of
reaching immortality.
Soul – stays even after death in an eternal realm with the all
transcendent God.
The goal of every human person is to attain this communion and
bliss with the divine by living his life on earth with virtuous.
29
“
“Love is the beauty of the
soul.”
-Augustine
30
Thomas Aquinas
He sees man as having two parts: Matter and Forms.
The body of the human person is something that he shares even with
animals, the cells in man’s body are more or less akin to the cells of
any living, organic world, how ever what makes human, as a person
is his essence or the soul. Which for aquinas animates the body.
31
“
“The soul is known by it's
acts.”
-Thomas Aquinas
32
Rene Descartes
Father of Modern Philosophy.
Conceived of the human person as having Body and Mind.
(Cognito & Extenza)
He claims that there is so much of what we think and believe are
not infallible, they may turn out the be false. One should believe
that which can pass the test of doubt. (Descartes)
Descartes thought that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the
existence of the mind, for even if one doubt oneself that only
proves that there is a doubting mind.
Cognito ergo sum “ I Think, therefore I am”
Descartes view the body as nothing else but a machine that is
attached to the mind.
33
“
34
DAVID HUME
Scottish Philosopher, Empiricist who believes that one can
know only what comes from senses and experience.
Hume argues that the self is nothing like what his predecessors
thought of it. The self is not an entity over and beyond the
physical body.
To hume, the self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions.
2 Types of experience
Impressions - the basic object of our experience or sensations,
therefore the core of our thoughts. When one touches an ice
cube, the cold sensation is an impression
35
DAVID HUME
Therefore, impressions are vivid because they are direct products of
our experience with the world.
2. Ideas – These are copies of impressions. Because of this, they are
not as lively and vivid as impressions. When one imagines the
feeling of being inlove for the first time, that still is an idea.
37
Gilbert Ryle
Ryle sees the self as the day to day behaviour that manifest in a
person.
For ryle, looking for the self is like visiting your friend’s
university and looking for the “university” one can roam around
the campus, visit the library, football field, faculty and still end
up not finding the “university”. This is because the campus, the
people and the system and the territory all form the university.
38
Merleau Ponty
Unlike his predecessors who believe that Man is bifurcated into
MIND and BODY, he sees these as intertwined and cannot be
separated from one another.
Sees living body his thoughts, emotions and experience are all
one.
39