Understanding the Self

Activity #1 - 3

For you, what is the meaning of the self? How can you identify your self? How did you become you? Try to answer
the questions as best as you can.

Read the following items and try to understand where the idea ofself came from.
1. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
• French philosopher who is usually considered the “father of modern philosophy”
• Raised in the French aristocracy and educated at the Jesuit College of La Fléche
• Became skilled in the classics, law, and medicine but decided these fell far short of proper knowledge,
and so he turned to modern science and mathematics
• Discovered, while still young, what we now call “analytic geometry” and used this discovery as a model
for the rest of his career
• Basing the principles of philosophy and theology on a similar mathematical basis, he was able to
develop a method in philosophy that could be carried through according to individual reason and that
no longer depended upon appeal to authorities whose insights and methods were questionable
• In Discourse on Method (1637), he set out these basic principles, which he had already used in
Meditations on First Philosophy (not published until 1641), to reexamine the foundations of philosophy
• He sought a basic premise from which, as in a geometrical proof, he could deduce all those principles
that could be known with certainty
But what then am I? A thing which thinks. What is a thing which thinks? It is a thing which doubts,
understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, which also imagines and feels
—Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
• Descartes knows that he exists and continues to exist as long as he is a “thing that thinks”
• This consciousness that allows us to know that we exist composes our soul, which is a substance
• For Descartes, self-identity depends on consciousness

2. John Locke
 Much of his mature life was spent in politics; joined a group that was fighting for the overthrow of the
government
 Forced to flee England in 1683; lived in Holland until the Glorious Revolution of 1688
 Self-identity depends on our having the same consciousness and memories
 He distinguishes between a substance (the soul) and consciousness
 Memory provides an infallible link between what we might call different stages of a person
 Two objections:
a. We forget much of what we experience
b. Our memories are not always accurate
 Understanding the Self
Activity #1 - 3
3. David Hume (1711-1776)
 Often admired as the outstanding genius of British philosophy
 Born in Scotland (Edinburgh), where he spent much of his life; he often traveled to London and Paris
 Was refused professorships at the leading universities for his “heresies” and yet was, by all accounts, an
utterly delightful man who never lost his sense of humor
 Hume’s Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) created as much of a stir in the intellectual
world as his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
 Hume’s thesis in moral philosophy was as skeptical and shocking as his thesis in epistemology:
o There is no knowledge of right and wrong and no rational defense of moral principles
o These are based upon sentiment or feeling and, as such, cannot be defended by argument

. . . I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of
different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual
flux and movement
—David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

 “The self is a fiction. When we are self-conscious we are aware of only fleeting thoughts, feelings, and
perceptions; we do not have an impression of the self or a thinking substance”
 We are accustomed to the spatiotemporal continuity of an object and rely on resemblance as a criterion
of identity. We cannot even establish the identity of objects on this account
 The argument “I can never catch myself” relies on a presupposition: that there is a “myself” to be
caught

4. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

 His philosophical system was embodied in three huge volumes: Critique of Pure Reason (1781),
Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and Critique of Judgment (1790)
 He changed the thinking of philosophers as much as the revolution changed France
 His central thesis was the defense of what he called synthetic a priori judgments (and their moral and
religious equivalents) by showing their necessity for all human experience
 In this way, he escaped from Hume’s skepticism and avoided the dead-end intuitionism of his rational
predecessors
Kant agrees with Hume: Kant’s Transcendental Ego

- Identity is not found in self-consciousness

- The enduring self is not an object of experience; it is transcendental

 If there was a different self at each moment of consciousness, we would not be able to perceive
anything
 Because we do experience objects, we must assume that we have a unified consciousness that combines
all of these impressions into the perception of these objects
 This is Kant’s self; the “I” that had the experience can always be found
 The self, for Kant, is also the activity of applying the rules by which we organize our experience.
 We must “synthesize” our experiences into a unity, for we could not come to have any knowledge
otherwise
 He calls this the transcendental unity of apperception
 The transcendental ego is basic and necessary for all human experience

Kant objects to Descartes on three grounds:

 Understanding the Self
Activity #1 - 3
 Our concern with self-consciousness is given impetus because we are not often self-conscious
 Kant does not believe that the thinking self is a thinking thing because the self is not in our experience
but rather responsible for it. The self is an activity, which undermines the traditional concept of the
soul
 Kant believes that we need two very different conceptions of self. The first is that the transcendental
self is essential to being a self, and the second is the idea of the empirical ego, which includes all of those
particular things that make us different people. This allows us to differentiate between particular selves
I. Based on what you read, try to analyze and summarize, how does one
become the self? Paano ka nagiging isang tao?
(You can use Filipino or English) Write your answers in 1 sheet of
Yellow Pad Paper.
1. Based on Descartes….?
2. Based on Locke….?
3. Based on Hume….?
4. Based on Kant….?

Assignment:
1. Provide 1 notebook that will serve as your journal. Write 3 things you
discover about yourself EVERY DAY.
2. Write an autobiography that will answer the question, “Who Am I”?
Base your autobiography on the following:
Sino ako bilang. . .
i. Anak
ii. Kapatid
iii. Studyante
iv. Kaibigan
v. Boyfriend/girlfriend
vi. Mananampalataya
vii. Filipino
 Understanding the Self
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The Social Self

Through interaction with their social and cultural environments, people are transformed into participating
members of their society.

Socialization is the interactive process through which people learn (a) Basic Skills, (b) Values, (c) Beliefs,
(d) Behavior Patterns of Society, (e) sense of self. Through socialization, we transform into a proper
member of the society. We become conscious that we have a distinct identity that separates you from other
members of the society.
* PAUSE *
What makes you different from the people around you? Describe yourself. What are your basic skills, values,
beliefs, behaviors or any other thing that you would identify as YOURSELF. Ano ang kakaiba sa’yo?

John Locke
Tabula Rasa : “Blank Slate”
“I am born with no personality. I
became myself because I was
taught to be this way.”
Theories of Socialization
Charles Cooley George Herbert Meade
Looking Glass Self : “We imagine Role-Taking: What Others Expect
ourselves based on what we think
others see” “My teacher thinks I am a bad
student, so I really am.”
“People are talking behind my
back. Maybe they think I’m ugly.
So I am.”

Agents of Socialization
 Family: Families introduce children to the expectations of society. Socialization is different based on
race, gender and class.
 Media: The average young person (age 8–19) spends 6 3/4 hours per day immersed in media in
various forms, often using multiple media forms simultaneously. Television is the dominant
medium, although half of all youth use a computer daily.
 Peers: For children, peer culture is an important source of identity. Through interaction with peers,
children learn concepts of self, gain social skills, and form values and attitudes.
 Religion: Children tend to develop the same religious beliefs as their parents. Very often those who
disavow religion return to their original faith at some point in their life, especially if they have strong
ties to their family of origin and after they form families of their own.
 Understanding the Self
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 Sports: Through sports, men and women learn concepts of self. Men learn that being competitive in
sports is considered a part of “manhood.”
 School: In school, teachers and other students are the source of expectations that encourage children
to think and behave in particular ways. Research finds that teachers respond differently to boys than
to girls, with boys receiving more of their attention.

II. With whose theory do you agree with regarding the formation of your self?
Locke, Cooley or Mead? Why? Give at least 3 examples to support your
argument.
(You can use Filipino or English) Write your answers in 1 sheet of Yellow
Pad Paper.

Assignment:
1. In your journal, write an entry that would describe how your self was
influenced by the following agents of society:
- Family
- Social Media (facebook, twitter, IG)
- Friends
- Religion
- Sports
- School
How did they change you? How did you become who you are? Give at least 3
experiences on how they influenced you.

2. Write a paper on ONE of the following topics: (choose only one. You can
write in Filipino or English)
a. Who I am and Who I want to be
b. Real self vs Digital Self
c. My Past, Present and Future, a comparison

3. Bring your best selfie on the submission of all of your papers (May 3, 2018)