Allyssa Marie L.

Gascon
BSN 1-A

My Philosophy about Self

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you
try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege
of owning yourself.”- Friedrich Nietzsche

Every individual has his/ her own perspective about self.  A lot of philosophers from different
area of the world and generations concluded ideas about self. Some philosophers said that self is the
product of how our mind works and others said that it is the result of our own consciousness and
experiences. As I lived through in this world, I learned to develop my own philosophy about self. I
believe that self is the product of the environment. People in the environment directly affect the behavior
of a child, how people in that particular community communicate, as well as their perceptions about life.
His/ her environment is like a looking glass for a child where he/she sees himself according to what is
expected from him/her as part of such community. When a child is raised on a conservative and religious
environment, he/she will also grow up to be a religious one. I can say that who you/we are today is
basically the product of the environment where you/we belong to. I agree in John Locke’s tabula rasa
which posits that everyone started as a blank state but as for me the content is provided by one’s
experiences in his/her environment over time. We are born innocent in this world and as we grow up we
experience a lot of things and acquire lifestyles from our environment which influence and shapes how
we live our life and see our self as a single identity.  Our attitudes and behaviors are surely influenced by
the environment we are living in, if an individual spend years of his/her life in an environment where sex
is sacred and having intimate relationship with someone is prohibited then that person will likely prevent
himself/herself engaging in those kinds of activities and live in a conservative way which eventually
reflects who he/she is as a person. 

As an individual I believe that before we aim to establish a good identity and better version of
ourselves we must first look and work how to make our environment better. Our environment serves as a
platform that guides us in reaching the highest potential of ourselves. Even though we have our freedom
to choose what will be the outcome of ourselves in spite of the environment we are living in, we still can’t
deny the fact that it inevitably affects and influence us most of the time.

I agree with John Locke’s philosophy that personal identity or the self is founded on one’s
consciousness or memory. However, I believe that our environment is the one who gives birth to our
consciousness. Our environment does not only make life possible but it also produces identities to every
life.