THSELF1UNDERSTANDINGTHESELF

THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

Prepared and Compiled by: Junix Jerald I. Delos Santos, RPm, LPT
2nd Semester, S.Y. 2019-2020

PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY defined
Ψ the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered
as an academic discipline (www.philosophybasics.com).

I. SOCRATES (469-399 BCE): the self is an immortal soul that exists over time
Ψ Ancient Greek philosopher
Ψ Father of Western philosophy
Ψ First thinker in Western history to focus the full power of reason on the human self: who we are, who we
should be, and who we will be.
Ψ The cornerstone of Socrates’ philosophy was the Delphic Oracle’s command to “Know thyself.”
o Socrates believed that the unexamined life is not worth living, that individuals should strive to
live a life of purpose and value.
Ψ The self
o The self is the source of all knowledge.
o Individuals are composed of physical bodies and an immortal soul that survives beyond the
death of the body.
o Believed that individual experience was important when one wanted to arrive at knowing oneself
o To truly know something, is to understand its essence.
 It is not enough to identify something as beautiful; one must know why it is beautiful.
o Knowledge and morality were intimately related; knowledge is virtue, and improper conduct
results from ignorance.
Ψ Reality is dualistic.
o Twofold. Related to dualism, the view that material substance (physical body) and immaterial
substance (mind or soul) are two separate aspects of the self.
o The physical realm is continually changing, transforming, disappearing (e.g., all that we can see,
hear, taste, smell, and feel).
o The ideal realm is unchanging, eternal, perfect realm that includes the intellectual essence of
the universe (e.g., truth, goodness, beauty).

II. PLATO (427-347 BCE): the self is an immortal soul that exists over time
Ψ Ancient Greek philosopher
Ψ The Three Part Soul/Self
o Reason: Divine essence that enables individuals to
think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths;
o Physical Appetite: Basic biological needs (e.g.,
hunger, thirst and sexual desire); and
o Spirit or Passion: Basic emotions (e.g., love, anger,
ambition, aggressiveness, empathy).
Ψ Genuine happiness is achieved when reason is in control of Spirits and Appetites.
Ψ Plato also believed in the dualism that divided the human into a body, which was material and
imperfect, and a mind (soul), which contained pure knowledge.

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III. ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430): the self is an immortal soul that exists over time
Ψ Christian philosopher
Ψ Bishop of Hippo in North Africa
Ψ Christianity’s first theologian
Ψ St. Augustine believed that there are two realms
o Intelligible realm: Where the truth dwells
o Sensible world: Which we perceive by sight and touch
Ψ Relationship of body and soul
o The physical body is different and inferior to the immortal soul
o Body: a “snare” and a “cage” for the soul; slave to the soul
o He eventually developed a more unified perspective on the body and soul: the body as the
“spouse” of the soul, with both attached to one another by a “natural appetite”
Ψ Virtuous life
o To live a virtuous life is to live in love and all sin is a result of turning away from love and God
o St. Augustine believed that God is love upon which the foundations of Christianity are built upon

IV. RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650): the self is a thinking thing distinct from the body
Ψ French philosopher
Ψ Founder of modern philosophy
Ψ Mathematician and scientist
Ψ Keystone of Descartes’ concept of self: Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore I am.
o The essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of our selves.
Ψ Descartes is considered an archetypal proponent of the rationalist view of knowledge.
o Rationalism: The view that reason is the primary source of all knowledge and that only our
reasoning abilities can enable us to understand sense experience and reach accurate
conclusions.
Ψ Descartes wanted to penetrate the nature of our reasoning process and understand its relation to the
human self.
Ψ Genuine knowledge needed to be based on independent rational inquiry and real-world
experimentation.
Ψ We need to use our own thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment, and develop our own
well-reasoned conclusions, supported with compelling proof.
Ψ “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far
as possible, all things.”
Ψ You are a thinking thing, a dynamic identity that engages in all of those mental operations we associate
with being a human self.
Ψ If you reflect thoughtfully, you can see that you have clear ideas of both your self as a thinking entity
and your self as a physical body.
o Essential self: The self as thinking entity.
o Thinking self (soul): Nonmaterial, immortal, conscious being, independent of the physical laws
of nature.
o Physical body: Material, mortal, non-thinking entity, fully governed by the physical laws of
nature.

V. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704): personal identity is made possible by self-consciousness

Ψ British philosopher
Ψ Physician
Ψ Knowledge is based on the careful observation of sense experience and/or memories of previous
experiences.
Ψ Locke is considered an archetypal advocate of the empiricist view of knowledge.
o Empiricism: The view that sense experience is the primary source of all knowledge and that only
a careful attention to sense experience can enable us to understand the world and achieve
accurate conclusions.
Ψ Reason plays a subsequent role in helping to figure out the significance of our sense experience and to
reach intelligent conclusions.

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 Ψ For Locke, all knowledge originates in our direct sense experience, which acts as the final court of
judgment in evaluating the accuracy and value of ideas.

Ψ Conclusions confirmed by examining one’s experiences:

1. To discover the nature of personal identity, one must find out what it means to be a person.
2. A person is a thinking, reflecting, analyzing being who has the abilities to reason and reflect.
3. A person is someone who considers itself to be the same thing in different times and different
places.
4. Consciousness always accompanies thinking and is an essential part of the thinking process.
5. Consciousness is what makes possible our belief that we are the same identity in different times
and different places.
Ψ The essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, reflecting identity.
Ψ Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the self.

VI. DAVID HUME (1711-1776): there is no “self,” only a bundle of constantly changing perceptions passing
through the theatre of our minds
Ψ Scottish philosopher
Ψ Hume continued the empiricist tradition believing that the source of all genuine knowledge is our direct
sense experience.
Ψ If we continue to examine our sense experience through the process of introspection, we discover that
there is no self.
Ψ Two distinct entities when we examine the contents of our experience:
o Impressions: Basic sensations of our experience, the elemental data of our minds that are
“lively” and “vivid” (e.g., pain, pleasure, heat, cold, happiness, grief, fear, exhilaration, etc.).
o Ideas: Copies of impressions, and as a result they are less “lively” and “vivid.” Ideas include
thoughts and images that are built up from our primary impressions through a variety of
relationships, but because they are derivative copies of impressions they are once removed
from reality.
Ψ The mind is a kind of theatre where several perceptions successively make their appearance; pass,
repass, glide away, and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations.

VII. IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804): the self is a unifying subject, an organizing consciousness that makes
intelligible experience possible
Ψ German philosopher
Ψ Greatest thinker of the eighteenth century
Ψ Kant was alarmed by Hume’s notion that the mind is simple a container for fleeting sensations and
disconnected ideas, and our reasoning ability is merely “a slave to the passion.”
Ψ Our minds actively sort, organize, relate, and synthesize the fragmented, fluctuating collection of sense
data that our sense organs take in.
Ψ We construct our world through conceptual operations; and, as a result, this is a world of which we can
gain insight and knowledge.
Ψ Unity of consciousness: The thoughts and perceptions of any given mind are bound together in a unity
by being all contained in one consciousness.

VIII. SIGMUND FREUD (1956-1939): the self is multi-layered

Ψ Austrian doctor
Ψ Founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology
Ψ Freud’s view of the self was multi-tiered.
Ψ Freud’s Topographical method of the mind: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
o Unconscious: Basic instinctual drives (i.e., sexuality, aggressiveness, and self-destruction,
traumatic experiences, unfulfilled wishes and childhood fantasies, etc.); most primitive level; the
naked impulses at this level are governed solely by the “pleasure principle.”
o Conscious: Governed by the “reality principle;” At this level of functioning, behavior and
experience are organized in ways that are rational, practical, and appropriate to the social
environment.

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 Ψ Structural model of the mind (structure of personality): id, ego, and superego.
o Id: Governed by the pleasure principle; animalistic instincts
o Ego: Governed by the reality principle ID SUPEREGO
o Superego: Governed by the morality principle
EGO
IX. GILBERT RYLE (1900-1976): the self is the way people behave
Ψ Analytic philosopher
Ψ He mounted an attack against Cartesian mind/soul dualism and supported a behaviorist theory of mind.
Ψ Ryle focused on observable behavior in defining the self.
Ψ The mind is a concept that expresses the entire system of thoughts, emotions, actions, etc. that make
up the human self.
Ψ The self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition for a person to behave
in a certain way in certain circumstances.
Ψ The self is defined in terms of what is presented to the world.
Ψ What the mind wills, the body executes.
Ψ Our knowledge of other persons’ minds can only be inferential at best.

X. PAUL CHURCHLAND (b. 1942): the self is the brain

Ψ Contemporary American philosopher
Ψ Professor at the University of California, San Diego
Ψ Mental states will be superseded by brain states.
Ψ The physical self (i.e., health of our body, the food we ingest, the experiences we endure) have a
profound impact on our mental and emotional functioning.
Ψ Similarly, our emotional states (i.e., the way we think about things, stress levels, optimism) have a
dramatic impact on our physical condition.
Ψ To fully understand the nature of the mind we have to fully understand the nature of the brain.
Ψ Goal of mind/brain research: To link the self to the physical wiring and physiological functioning of the
brain
Ψ Eliminative materialism: The radical claim that our ordinary, commonsense understanding of the mind is
deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common sense do not actually exist.

XI. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1906-1961): the self is embodied subjectivity

Ψ French philosopher
Ψ Merleau-Ponty articulated a phenomenologist position: “I live in my body.”
o Phenomenology: A philosophical approach that attempts to give a direct description of our
experience as it is in itself, without taking into account its psychological origins or causal
explanations.
Ψ Everything that we are aware of is contained within our own consciousness.
Ψ Consciousness is a dynamic form responsible for actively structuring our conscious ideas and physical
behavior.

REFERENCES

Carbonell, R. M. A. (2017). Synthesis paper: Philosophers. Baguio City, Philippines: Author.

Chaffee, J. (2016). The philosopher's way: Thinking critically about profound ideas (5th Edition). USA: Pearson.

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