Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Philosophical Perspectives
Socrates
Every man is dualistic, with Body and Soul
All individuals have imperfect and impermanent aspect which is
the body
There is perfect and permanent aspect which is the soul
The body is a physical thing which is imperfect and impermanent.
It may be physically present today, but changes through the years
and will decay upon death. It will be gone from the face of the
Earth forever
The body is separate from the soul. What we see on the mirror is
our bodies alone
The soul is a mental thing and is permanent. It exists and
manifests in the body today but separates when the body leaves the
face of the earth. This is one reason why there is a belief that one
continues to be present even after death
Plato
Three concepts of soul are:
Rational soul
Governs reason and intellect
Spirited soul
Takes charge of emotions
Appetitive soul
Rules basic human desires
Augustine
The soul can be immortal through communion with the Divine
Anchored on the idea of duality of the self. He added a then-
newfound doctrine of Christianity where salvation becomes the
reason for the separation of body and soul
Rene Descartes
Cogito ergo sum – I think therefore I am
Cogito – the mind enabling our fundamental existence. The body is
just its extension
He viewed the dual nature of self where the mind is a thinking
thing that makes a man, and the body is a mere machine
Body
Augustine: the body lives yearning for the Divine
Descartes: The body is just a machine
Soul
Descartes: I think therefore I am
Augustine: The soul can be immortal through the Divine
Rational
Plato: Our reason and intellect
Spirited
Augustine: Our feelings and emotions
Appetitive
Augustine: Our basic needs and desires
John Locke
The self is our consciousness
It is the personal identity and psychological continuity that
defines who we are
David Hume
There is no self, only a bundle of constantly changing perceptions
passing through the theatre of our minds
Empiricism – “knowledge can only be possible if sensed and
experienced”
The self is nothing but bundle of impressions
Impressions are products of our direct experiences while
ideas are copies of our impressions
Life is a never-ending productions of experiences
Everything is passing and who we are is impossible to define
Immanuel Kant
The self is an organizing consciousness that makes intelligible
experience possible
There is an “organizing principle” to these experiences, and
introduced the concept of “apparatuses of the mind”
Sigmund Freud
Three levels of consciousness:
Conscious mind
Includes mental activities that we are currently aware of
Preconscious mind
Includes all mental activities that are not currently active but
stored in our memory
Unconscious mind
Includes mental activities that people are totally unaware of
regardless of time
Three levels of awareness:
ID
Ego
Superego
Gilbert Ryle
The self is the way people behave
The self is just a label we call all the behaviors we make as
individuals
Paul Churchland
Believed in materialism, which is the belief that nothing but
matter exists. He promoted the view of self based on brain states
rather than in mental states. After all, the brain exists in the
physical world and the mind does not.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
He said that intertwined that they cannot be separated. All that
make us are one and the same self
Sigmund Freud
The self is multi-layered
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
The self is embodied subjectivity
Paul Churchland
The self is the brain
Gilbert Ryle
The self is a label we use for our behaviors
Socrates
Every man is dualistic, with body and soul
Plato
The three concepts of soul are rational, spirited and appetitive
Augustine
The soul can be immortal through communion with the Divine
Rene Descartes
Cogito Ergo Sum – I think therefore I am
John Locke
The self is our consciousness
David Hume
There is no self, only a bundle of impressions
Immanuel Kant
The self is an organizing principle to our experiences
Self-concept Defined
Personality Theory
Humanistic approach in defining self-concept
Three constructs unique to self:
Self-image
The view you have of the self, including the influence of your body
image to your inner personality
Self-esteem
A term commonly used with the term self-worth, states how much
value you place in the self
Ideal Self
Vision of who you wish to be or who you would like to be,
consisting of goals and ambitions in life
Self-concept Theory
Refers to how someone perceives, evaluates or thinks about the self
Unique to each individual
It is multi-dimensional and varies over time, too
One can always move from a negative to a positive self-concept
through time
Existential Self
Having a clear understanding that you are an individual separate
from another, with distinct and distinguishable characteristics
You understand that your existence in this world is constant and
consistent
I am separate
I am distinct
I am consistent
Categorical Self
Having a clear understanding that your existence in the world is
shared with others
You learn to categorize people into groups as you grow older. And
as a result, you identify traits that make yourself more unique
from them
I am a boy, you are a girl
I am small, you are big
I am three years old, you are 16 years old