Understanding Self

Knowing oneself is critical to being an effective team member as well as being successful in life,
work, and relationships. Your personal identity influences everything you do, and it changes and
evolves over time.

The purpose of this module is to help you deepen your understanding and appreciation for who
you are as a person. You will explore how you see yourself through the lenses of personal
identity, your skills and talents, roles, values, personal core, and how you meet your
psychological needs.

You will have an opportunity to examine how your personal identity has been shaped by a
variety of people and experiences. You will also have opportunities to think about and discuss
your values, interests, hopes for the future, as well as, your strengths and challenges. You will
learn about how your psychological needs are the primary source that motivates and drives your
behavior. You will also learn critical knowledge about change and how important it is in today’s
workplace to be adaptive and to embrace change as a personal and professional growth
experience

LESSON 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. explain why it is essential to understand the self; and
2. describe and discuss the different notions of the self from points-of-view of the various
philosophers across the time and place.
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The history of philosophy is supplied by men and women who inquired into the
fundamental nature of the self. The different perspectives and views on the self can be best seen
and understood by revisiting its prime movers and identifying the most important inferences
made by philosophers from ancient times to the contemporary period.

1. SOCRATES
 He was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self.
 His lifelong mission: the true task of the philosopher is to know
oneself.
 Socrates thought that this is the worst that can happen to anyone: to
live but die inside.
 He believed that every human person is dualistic. This means that
all individuals have an imperfect aspect of him which is the body,
while maintaining the soul that is perfect and permanent.

2. PLATO
 He added that there are three components of the soul: the rational soul. The spirited soul,
and the appetitive soul. The rational soul forged by reason and
intellect has to govern the affairs of the human person, the
spirited part which is in charge of emotions should be kept at bay,
and the appetitive soul in charge of base desires like eating,
drinking, sleeping, and having sex are controlled as well.
 He emphasizes that justice in the human person can only be
attained if the three parts of the soul are working harmoniously
with one another.
3. AUGUSTINE
 He agreed that man is bifurcated in nature. This means that an aspect of man dwells in the
world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine and
other is capable of reaching immortality.
 He proposed that the body is bounded to die on earth and the soul is to
anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in
communion with God.
 The goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss
with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.

4. THOMAS AQUINAS
 He said that man is composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter, or
hyle in Greek, refers to the “common stuff that makes up everything in the
universe.” Form or morphe in Greek refers to the “essence of a substance or
thing.”
 The cells in man’s body are more less akin to the cells of any other
living being in the world. However, what makes a human person is his
soul, his essence.

5. DAVID HUME
 He pointed out that the self is nothing else but a bundle of
impressions.
  For Hume, if one tries to examine his experiences, he finds that they can all be
categorized into two: impressions and ideas. Impressions are the basic objects of our
experience or sensation. They therefore form the core of our thoughts. When one touches
an ice cube, the cold sensation is an impression. Impressions therefore are vivid because
they are products of our direct experience with the world. Ideas, on the other hand, are
copies of impressions. Because of this, they are not as lively and vivid as our
impressions. When one imagines the feeling of being in love for the first time, that still is
an idea.

6. GILBERT RYLE
 Ryle supposed that what truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day-to-day life.
 The self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the
convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that
people make.

7. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
 He is a phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation that has
been going for a long time is a pointless endeavor and an invalid
problem.
 He then states that the mind and body are so intertwined that they
cannot be separated from one another. The living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences are all one.

8. RENE DESCARTES
 He is the Father of Modern Philosophy. He conceived that the
human person has a body and a mind.
 He thought that the only thing that cannot doubt is the
existence of the self, for even if one doubts oneself that only
proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and
therefore, that cannot be doubted. Thus, his famous, cogito
ergo sum, “I think therefore, I am.” The fact the one thinks
should lead one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he
exists.

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Exercise 1.1
In your own words, state what “self” is for each of the following philosophers.

After doing so, explain how your concept of “self” is compatible with how they conceived of the
“self”.

1. Hume
2. Socrates

3. Augustine