UTS 101

Understanding the Self

UTS 101 COURSE
DESCRIPTION
The course deals with the
nature of identity, as well as
the factors and forces that
affect the development and
maintenance of personal
identity.
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GRADING SYSTEM
Term Examinations – 30%
Project/Journal – 30%
Quizzes/Activities – 20%
Recitation – 10%
Attendance – 10%

Total: 100%

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Chapter 1: The Self from Various
Perspectives
Lesson 1: Philosophy
Time frame: 2 weeks

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Objectives
● describe and discuss the different notions of the self
from the points-of-view of the various philosophers;
● analyze how the self has been represented in different
philosophical schools; and
● examine one’s self against the different views of self
that were discussed

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PHILOSOPHY
▫ Originates from two Greek words ("Philos" means
beloved and “Sophia" means wisdom), meaning "love
of wisdom."
▫ A way of thinking about anything in the world, the
universe;
▫ Works by asking very basic questions about the nature
of human thought, the nature of the universe, and the
connections between them
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 “
“The unexamined
life is not worth
living.”
Socrates
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Socrates: The Soul Is Immortal
▫ Socrates was believed to be the first thinker to focus on
the full power of reason on the human self - our existence
in the universe, who we are, who we should be, and whom
we will become.
▫ Self exists in two parts: the physical body and the soul.
The physical body is a tangible aspect of us. It is mortal
(it dies), constantly changing, imperfect, transforming,
disappearing. Our soul, which Socrates believed to be
immortal, is eternal, unchanging, perfect, or ideal.
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Socrates: The Soul Is Immortal
▫ Socrates believed that there was a soul first before a
man's body. The soul has all the knowledge that is stored
in his mind. However, once he came to the material world
or the world of senses, he forgot most of what he knew.
This resulted in a lack of knowledge or ignorance, which
causes problems for men.
▫ Knowledge can be restored through the process of
dialectic method or Socratic method
▫ Father of Western philosophy
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“The first and the best victory
is to conquer self.” 12
Plato: The Soul Is Immortal

▫ Plato is a dualist; there is both an immaterial mind (soul)

and a material body, and it is the soul that represents the
self.
▫ Plato believed the soul exists before birth and after death.
For him, one should care about his soul rather than his
body.

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Plato: The Soul Is Immortal
The soul (mind) is divided into three parts:
▫ Reason - our divine essence that enables us to think
deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths.
▫ Physical Appetite - our basic biological needs such as
hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.
▫ Will or Spirit - is our basic emotion or passion, such as
empathy, aggressiveness, love, anger, ambition.

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Plato: The Soul Is Immortal
▫ The three elements of our “self” are in a dynamic
relationship with one another. Sometimes, they work in
concert, sometimes in conflict. For instance, we may
develop a romantic relationship with someone who is an
intellectual companion (Reason) or with whom we are
passionately in love (Spirit) and or with whom we find
sexually attractive, igniting our lustful appetites
(Appetite).

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Plato: The Soul Is Immortal
▫ Plato believes it is the responsibility of our reason to sort
things out and exert control, re-establishing a
harmonious relationship between the three elements of
ourselves.
▫ Plato believed that true and genuine happiness could only
be achieved if we consistently make sure that our reason
is in control of our Spirits and Appetites.

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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
▫ Freud believes that there are two levels of human
functioning: the conscious and the unconscious. In his
psychoanalytic theory, the conscious refers to all mental
processes of which we are aware; the unconscious refers
to mental processes that are not easily accessible to our
awareness.
▫ Freud believes that even if the conscious self plays an
important role in our lives, it is the unconscious self that
has the dominant influence on our personalities.
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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
▫ The unconscious contains basic instinctual drives that
include aggressiveness, sexuality, and self-destruction;
traumatic memories; childhood fantasies and unfulfilled
wishes; thoughts and feelings that would be considered
socially taboo. This unconscious level is characterized by
the most primitive level of human motivation and
functioning. Our most basic instinctual drives in the
unconscious level seek immediate gratification or
discharge.
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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
▫ The impulses at this level are governed solely by the
“pleasure principle.” Our unconscious self exists and
influences us throughout our lives.
▫ Though it is not directly observable, its existence can be
inferred from such phenomena as neurotic symptoms,
dreams, and “slips of the tongue.”

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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
▫ The conscious self is governed by the “reality principle.” At
this level of functioning, our behavior and experience are
organized in ways that are practical, rational, and
appropriate to the social environment.

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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
Even if the ultimate goals of the conscious self are the same
as the unconscious self, that is, the gratification of needs and
the reduction of tensions to optimal levels, the means of
achieving these goals are entirely different. The conscious self
takes into account the realistic demands of situations, the
consequences of actions, and the overriding need to preserve
the equilibrium, rather than doing direct, impulsive, and
irrational behaviors.
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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
The conscious self takes the task of controlling the constant
pressures of the unconscious self that is constantly seeking
for immediate discharge and gratification.

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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
Freud later developed the Structural model of the mind that
is divided into three: the id, ego, and superego. The Id
represents man's biological nature, impulses, and bodily
desires. The superego represents the ethical component of the
personality and provides the moral standards by which the
ego operates.

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Sigmund Freud: There Are Two Selves, The
Conscious and Unconscious
The id and the superego find themselves clashing against
each other, with the superego trying to control the id's
impulses and its attempt to satisfy its urges. The winner of
this inner battle is manifested in the ego, which is the self. If
the ego behaves, then the superego won. If the ego
misbehaves, the id won. This battle is all taking place in the
unconscious. The realm of the ego is found in the conscious.

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“Accepting God is the path to
know thyself.”
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St. Augustine: Christianity
▫ Augustine believes that man is created in the image and
likeness of God, and he is essentially a soul whose goal is
to be with God.
▫ Augustine's sense of self is his relation to God, both in his
recognition of God's love, and his response to it. It is
achieved through self-presentation then self-realization.
Augustine believed one could not achieve inner peace
without finding God's love and through faith and reason,
our self seeks to be united with God.
▫ Augustine believes that God is transcendent, and
everything created by God, who is all good, is good. 27
“Cogito ergo sum (I think; therefore I
am.)”
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Rene Descartes: A Modern Perspective
on the Self
▫ “Founder of modern philosophy"
▫ Descartes' principle, cogito ergo sum (Latin), is the
keystone of his concept of self.
▫ For Descartes, this is the essence of self— you are a
"thinking thing" (I exist because I think: I think,
therefore I exist). The mind is what matters. But what
about your body? Descartes believes that our physical
body is secondary to our personal identity.
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Rene Descartes: A Modern Perspective
on the Self
▫ Descartes declares that the essential self, or the self as a
thinking entity, is radically different from the self as a
physical body. The thinking self—or soul—is a non-
material, immortal, conscious being, independent of the
physical laws of the universe.

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Rene Descartes: A Modern Perspective
on the Self
▫ The physical body is a mortal, non-thinking material that
is fully governed by the physical laws of nature. Further,
your soul and your body are independent of one another.
Each one can exist and function without the other. This,
in a way, echoes the dualism of Plato.

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John Locke: The Self Is Consciousness
▫ Locke is known for his theory that the mind is a tabula
rasa
▫ Locke believed that we are born without thoughts, or our
mind was empty and that knowledge is instead
determined only by experience.
▫ According to Locke, our memory plays a key role in our
definition of the self.

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John Locke: The Self Is Consciousness
▫ He theorized that we are the same person as we were in
the past for as long as we can remember memories from
that past. It is our memory or our consciousness of our
past that makes us that same person as we were in the
past.
▫ Thus, to Locke, our conscious awareness and memory of
previous experiences are the keys to understanding the
self. It is our consciousness that makes possible our belief
that we are the same identity at different times and
different places.
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David Hume: There Is No “Self”
▫ The source of all genuine knowledge is our direct sense
experience. He believes in the existence of the mind, and
what’s inside the mind is divided into two: impressions
and ideas.
▫ Impressions are those things we perceive through our
senses as we experience them
▫ Ideas are those things that we create in our minds even
though we are no longer experiencing them.

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David Hume: There Is No “Self”
▫ The self constantly changes.
▫ There is no permanent and unchanging self.
▫ A person is a bundle of perceptions. "I" will constantly
be changing because the different experiences one has for
every constant change will affect and re-shape that
person.
▫ Thus, we cannot observe any permanent self because we
continuously undergo change. In conclusion, there is no
self.

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Immanuel Kant: We Construct the Self
▫ Immanuel Kant refutes Hume’s theory that there is no
“self” and argues that it is possible to find the essence of
the self.
▫ For Kant, man is a free agent, capable of making a
decision for himself. Man is a free agent, for he is gifted
with reason and free will to enable him to organize the
data gathered by the senses.
▫ From these data and the way we organize them, we can
build an idea of who we are. Hence, the self is very
present.
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Gilbert Ryle: The Self Is How You Behave
▫ Gilbert Ryle simply focused on observable behavior in
defining the self.
▫ No more inner selves, immortal soul, states of
consciousness, or unconscious self: instead, the self is
defined in terms of the behavior that is presented to the
world.
▫ From Ryle's point of view, the self is best understood as a
pattern of behavior, a person’s tendency or disposition to
behave in a certain way in certain circumstances. In
short, the self is defined by the observable behaviors we
project to the world around us. 41
PAUL
CHURCH
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Paul Churchland: The Self Is the Brain
▫ Paul Churchland disagrees with the concept of dualism.
Churchland asserts that since the mind cannot be
experienced by the senses, it does not exist. It is the
physical brain, not the imaginary mind, that gives us our
sense of self.
▫ The self is the brain.
▫ Churchland believes that the term “mind,” our moods,
emotions, actions, consciousness are deeply affected by
the state of our brain. That by manipulating certain parts
of our brain, our feelings, actions, and physical state is
successfully altered. 43
URICE
RLEAU-PONTY
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty:
The Self is Embodied Subjectivity
▫ Maurice Merleau-Ponty suggest that there is unity in our
mental, physical, and emotional disposition, and they all
affect how we experience our selves.
▫ Our self is a product of our conscious human experience.
The definition of self is all about one’s perception of one’s
experience and the interpretation of those experiences.
▫ The self is embodied subjectivity. He entirely rejected the
idea of mind and body dichotomy because, for him, man
is all about how he sees himself. 45