Me in different eyes:

The dissimilar views of self by

different philosophers

Understanding the Self

Cebu Doctors’ University
College of Allied and Medical Sciences
Mrs. Kharen Rubillos
Instructor

Lemarieh Obad
lemariehobad@gmail.com
Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology
2nd year Summer Term
 ABSTRACT

This paper explores the dissimilar philosophical perspectives of the self from different

Philosophers. The author attempts a better understanding of the different philosophies by relating

the different views to one’s own perception of self. The paper seeks to answer the question: To

what degree are the Philosophers right about their philosophy, and how does it show on the way

people act.
 INTRODUCTION

Do you really know yourself? Today, as social media becomes well-known, we are

constantly seeing other people online through different platforms, like YouTube, Facebook and

the likes. We easily get influenced by the crowd, losing our individuality, dragged by the

conformation. The different philosophies shown on this paper helps one reconnect and reflect on

one’s true self. Socrates, Plato and the like, created Philosophies for us to gain knowledge and

wisdom about ourselves and how we interact with others. As society enhances the illusion of the

ideal self, the field of understanding the self greatly helps to fix this dilemma. To know the real

self, to have a better depiction on how people progress and to be able to recognize and appreciate

who we are and how we originated.

Socrates Philosophy

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” According to Socrates, the

taking of unawareness is the start of awareness. One must have the meekness to accept that we

are not all-knowing. This enables us to know what we should learn to fill the lack.

In relation of this to myself, as an admirer of knowledge and the world, I’ve accepted I

don’t know anything. But as a person who wants to learn a lot, I study, I listen and I observe.

This led me to be very quiet especially in social encounters. I am cautious on what I say. I make

sure that what I say is right and valid. Furthermore Socrates also stated that men’s goal in life is

to obtain happiness. I’ve grown up to be a very-goal driven person. I have dreams. I have the

perception that if I achieve certain things I would be happy. For example, if I graduate and earn

big money then I can buy stuff that could make me happy. In relation to this, I should obtain

knowledge to increase my abilities and skills to help me be successful.

Plato’s Philosophy

“The essence of Knowledge is self-knowledge”. According to Plato, a person is divided

into 3 different parts. These 3 fragments of the soul are known as the Appetitive, Spirited and

Rational soul.

In relation to Plato’s views, I have different behaviors. First, I really like food, shopping

and other things that satisfy my hunger for my pleasures and desires. But I still can control

myself due to my rational self for I think and plan about my future. I make sure that the things I

choose would benefit me personally and those people around me. For example when I crave for

food, I still eat the things I love but in moderation. Next, my spirited soul. I know for a fact, that

I am very active and competitive, especially towards reaching my goals. But at the same time I

make sure I don’t intentionally hurt others and do what is right. Of course I am imperfect, I

make a lot of mistakes but I am courageous enough to correct the wrongs I’ve done.
St. Augustine’s philosophy

“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the

gospel you believe but yourself”. This is a great quote from St. Augustine that showcases his

belief for a greater all-knowing being, whom is God.

As with St. Augustine, I believe that God is the ultimate being. I also believe that life is

better with God alone. I believe, that as I am living through this life, I am being changed into

God’s likeliness through challenges and trials, the good and the bad and everything in between.

I believe that God is truth and He is the standard of truth. My opinions are not important if it is

not based on the truth. My purpose and passion in life comes from God alone. He is the Author

of my destiny. He sees things beyond my control. I am the pot he is the potter. This is in relation

to what St. Augustine stated “Our idea of existence comes from a higher form of sense in which

bodily senses may not or do not understand”.

Rene Descartes’ Philosophy

“Conquer yourself rather that the world”. My favorite from Descartes’ several quotes.

Rene believed that our body and mind cannot be completely reliable and is easily misled.

Because of this we should put emphasis on the cognitive areas.

I agree with what Descartes had said, that we cannot always trust our senses and in turn

what we perceive as who we are or the essence of our existence. I believe that I am easily

deceived especially by our emotions. I should always think about the facts. I should not be

swayed by my emotions.
John Locke’s Philosophy

“No man’s knowledge can go beyond his experience”. We were born knowing nothing.

We were not equipped with anything. We are susceptible to internal and external factors that

help us become who we are at present.

As I grow older, I become more mature through experiences. My knowledge and

wisdom about things expands as I learn. Truly, I was born from a blank slate. Those experiences

and trials that I had experienced made me who I am today. The choices I’ve made from the past

and the present affects my future. The information and wisdom that I’ve accumulated shaped me

as I am today. My possibilities for growth, although are quite limited, but is always enough for

me. So as to never come short.

Who I am right now are a by-product of my past experiences. My actions are influenced

by my experiences before that makes me choose things to be able to not experience the same

mistakes I did before.

David Hume’s Philosophy

“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind,

that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish”. Hume

believed that tangible indications and noticeable involvements mold one person.

I admit that the notions I see myself are the accumulations of what people think about me

in general. For example, my friends view me as a happy, approachable and persevering person.

But as what I have alleged, those impressions from other people changes. I am sure that there is

no permanent self. Who I am right now is just a response to the current circumstances I am

facing. I may be happy at one point, then sad the next. These behaviors of myself change

constantly from time to time.

People change as time change. Someone had said, the only things constant is change.

Thus let us not feel bad when someone changes, especially for the better.
Immanuel Kant’s Philosophy

“I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself”. Kant thought

that the consciousness of diverse sentiments that we have, is only a portion of ourselves.

You do not need to experience things to learn from it. We can still understand things

beyond we experience. As for myself, I observe people. I notice people’s mistakes and victories

easily. I am able to see beyond the things I have experienced in life and learn from it. I am also

able to react to different involvements. The learnings I have formulated from my past

experiences formed my theories and belief system.

This enables me to comprehend outside those know-hows and be capable to reflect and

have a strong meaning of who I am and create a logic of character that is matchless and different

from others.
Sigmund Freud’s Philosophy

“The only person with whom you have to compare yourself is you in the past”. This is a

really powerful quote from Freud that fights of personal insecurities. Sigmund Freud shows this

by creating a notion of the different levels of consciousness that provides an impression of just

how an individual grows a sense of self. I disown impulses that feel foreign to the ego, which

the ego fears, takes precautions against, yet feels paralyzed.

My characteristics now are results of my bygone practices. My movements are subjected

by my past understandings that helps me pick things to be capable to not do the same faults again

and again.
Gilbert Ryle’s Philosophy

“Man need not be degraded to a machine by being denied to be a ghost in a machine. He might,

after all, be a sort of animal, namely, a higher mammal. There has yet to be ventured the

hazardous leap to the hypothesis that perhaps he is a man.”

My understanding of Ryle’s ghost in the machine, means the consciousness or mind

carried in a physical entity. Arguing that the mind does not exist and therefore can't be the seat

of self, Ryle believed that self comes from behavior. We're all just a bundle of behaviors caused

by the physical workings of the body.

Paul Churchland’s Philosophy

Churchland argues that a change in the way we describe ourselves is not just possible but

necessary. He presents a stronger, broader argument than Nisbett and Wilson do. Put bluntly, he

says, “Our common sense conception of psychological phenomena constitutes a radically false

theory”.

Churchland’s central argument is that the concepts and theoretical vocabulary we use to

think about ourselves, using such terms as belief, desire, fear, sensation, pain, joy, actually

misrepresent the reality of minds and selves. All of these concepts are part of a commonsense

“folk psychology” that obscures rather than clarifies the nature of human experience. Eliminative

materialists believe that we need to develop a new vocabulary and conceptual framework that is

grounded in neuroscience and that will be a more accurate reflection of the human mind and self.

Churchland proceeds to state the arguments that he believes support his position.
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau- Ponty’s Philosophy

“I am not in front of my body, I am in it or rather I am it... If we can still speak of

interpretation in relation to the perception of one's own body, we shall have to say that it

interprets itself.” Maurice Merleau-Ponty believed the physical body to be an important part of

what makes up the subjective self. This concept stands in contradiction to rationalism and

empiricism. Rationalism asserts that reason and mental perception, rather than physical senses

and experience, are the basis of knowledge and self.

In his study of the Phenomenology of Perception, he terms phenomenology as the

learning of cores, comprising the quintessence of awareness and of realization. Empiricism

preserves that involvement is the main foundation of knowledge, and that knowledge is a

derivative from sensory perceptions.

George Herbert Mead Philosophy

“Our precious present as such is very short. We do, however, experience passing events;

part of the process of the passage of events is directly there in our experience, including some of

the past and some of the future”. What gives it its human character is that the individual through

language addresses himself in the role of the others in the group and thus becomes aware of them

in his own conduct.

I reacts first in every situation. That is spontaneous part of ourselves. But before we take

action we consider “me”, because “me” is part of our socialization which is trying to conform.

When they play, Mead said, children take the role of the other. This means they pretend to be

other people in their play and in so doing learn what these other people expect of them.
Carl Roger’s Philosophy

Growth occurs when individuals confront problems, struggle to master them, and through

that struggle develop new aspects of their skills, capacities, views about life. The curious

paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change. People are just as wonderful

as sunsets if you let them be.

Rogers believed that people are inherently good and creative. They become destructive

only when a poor self-concept or external constraints override the valuing process. Carl Rogers

believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence.
Kenneth Gergen’s Philosophy

“It is not the answer that we must seek but rather a continuous process of answering”. I

agree with his notion that I have many potential selves depending in the situation I face through

the day.

Generative ideas emerge from joint thinking, from significant conversations and from

sustained, shared struggles to achieve new insights by partners in thoughts.

William James’ Philosophy

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.Rogers believed that a therapist who

embodies the three critical and reflexive attitudes (the three core conditions) will help liberate

their client to more confidently express their true feelings without fear of judgement. To achieve

this, the client-centred therapist carefully avoids directly challenging their client's way of

communicating themselves in the session in order to enable a deeper exploration of the issues

most intimate to them and free from external referencing. Rogers was not prescriptive in telling

his clients what to do, but believed that the answers to the clients' questions were within the

client and not the therapist. Accordingly, the therapists' role was to create a facilitative, empathic

environment wherein the client could discover the answers for him or herself.
B. Letter to Myself

Dear Self, I want you to fulfill your purpose in life.

Good day Lemarieh! How is life going? I hope you are doing well despite the challenges.

I wrote this letter for you to remember the importance of staying serviceable especially to other

people. Being purpose-driven helps with your mood swings and emotional incapabilities. You

are smart, please use it wisely. You are talented, please use it for your happiness not for fame.

You are beautiful, don’t boast about it. You are worth it, please make other people feel that too.

Use everything you have for God’s glory. Never trust yourself too much, trust in God’s promises

for His is honest and faithful. Keep your feet planted on the ground no matter how successful

you might be. Never forget to be generous to all, especially those in need. Don’t look for

people’s approval for it leads to self-destruction, instead look unto God’s standard for His is right

and just. Work smart, pray and pray, trust God always. Be the person God wants you to be. Even

if you fail, just keep on standing back up as long as you live. Do not believe on the lies of the

enemy. Remember, you are loved always. Forgive those who hurted you. Move on.

Sincerely,

Lemarieh Obad