The Self From the Various

Perspective
Jhal Mark Le M. Villareal, RPm, MACPC
Philosophy
• Philia – love; Sophia – wisdom
• Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the
ultimate cause, reasons, and principles of everything
• The nature of the self is a topic of interest among
philosophers
• The philosophical framework for understanding the self was
heavily explored by ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and
Plato.
What do we
even mean by
the “self?”
Are we souls,
bodies, or
fragments of
someone else’s
imagination?
Are we just
minds or a
combination of
mind and body?
Will I survived
bodily death or is
it the end when
my bodily self
die?
Am I a robot
controlled by
some entity?
Socrates
•Socrates was concerned with the problem of
the self
•DUALISTIC- every man is composed of body and
soul.
•“unexamined life is not worth living.”
•“one thing only I know, and that is that I know
nothing”
Socrates
•There is a soul before the body, existing
in the realm of ideas
•Once the soul come into the material
world, he forgot everything.
•This knowledge is brought out by
Socratic Approach
Plato
•Founded the Academy; considered as
prototype of today’s universities
•Dichotomy between ideal (world of
forms) and material world.
•Three components of the soul: rational
soul, spirited soul, appetitive soul
St. Augustine
•Man is of a bifurcated nature.
•Two aspects: (1) Imperfect (earthly), and
capable of reaching immortality
•Goal of the person: to attain
communion with the divine
St. Thomas Aquinas
•Man is composed of matter and
form
•Matter (hyle) – common stuff that
makes up everything.
•Form (morpe)- essence
Rene Descartes
•“I think, therefore I am.”
•Father of modern Philosophy
•Doubts the existence of his own
physical body.
•Hyberbolical doubt
Rene Descartes
•“that the mere fact that I can doubt
is the evidence that I exist. Even
though I don't believe that I exist
because of my body, the mere fact
that I can doubt is enough to prove
that i exist.”
John Locke
• Our identity is not locked in the mind, soul
or body only. He included the concept of
person’s memory.
• Identity is explained in terms of
psychological connection between life
stages.
• Tabula rasa
David Hume
• “all knowledge is derived from human
senses
• Influences by empiricism
• Bundle theory – collection of impressions
• Impressions – vivid; products of direct
experience.
• Ideas- copies of impression; imagination
Sigmund Freud
•“The ego is not master in its own house”
•Man is governed by drives: Eros and
Thanatos
•Three provinces of the mind:
ID(pleasure), Ego(Reality),
Superego(Moral)
Gilbert Ryle
•Denies the existence of internal,
non-physical self.
•The self is NOT an entity one
can locate. It is a name we use
to refer to all behavior.
Meleau-Ponty
•Denies the dualistic ideas
•The mind and the body
cannot be separated.
Activity 1
1. Do you believe there's a difference between the soul and
the body? Do you think you will have one? Who separates the
two?
2. What happens to a person whose soul has three
unbalanced components?
3. Do you believe in the idea of the soul going to heaven after
death? What makes animals different from humans in this
context?
4. Do you agree with the claims made so far about the self
(body and soul)? Which of their conjectures are doubtful?