DAVID HUME self

- Scottish Philosopher -the idea of personal identity is a result of

*if people carefully examine their sense imagination

experience through the process of IMMANUEL KANT

introspection, they will discover that there - German Philosopher

is NO self - it is the self that makes experiencing an

intelligible
-what people experience is just a collection
world possible
of different perceptions
-it is the self that is actively organizing and
*if people carefully examine the contents of
synthesizing all of our thoughts and perceptions
their experiences, they will find out that
 Transcendental deduction of categories – the
there are only distinct entities:
categories that the form of consciousness
1. Impressions
utilizes in order to construct an orderly and
2. Ideas
objective world that is stable and can be
 Impressions
investigated scientifically
- Basic sensations of people’s
-the self is an organizing principle that makes
experience such as hate, love,
unified
joy, grief, pain, cold, and heat
and intelligible experience possible
- Vivid perceptions and are
*uses categories to filter, order, relate,
strong and lively organize, and

 Ideas synthesize situations into a unified whole

- Thoughts and images from -the Self constructs own reality (a world that is

different impressions so they familiar predictable, and mine)

are LESS strong and lively  Rationality – through this people are able to

*different sensations are in constant continuum understand certain abstract ideas that have
that is
no corresponding physical object or sensory
invariable and not constant
experience
*it cannot be from any of these impressions
that the

idea of self is derived and consequently, there is

NO
SIGMUND FREUD
- Austrian Psychoanalyst
Self consists of THREE LAYERS:
1. Conscious Self
- governed by the “reality principle”
-organized in ways that are rational,
Practical, and appropriate to the environment
-takes into account realistic demands of the
Situation, consequences of various actions,
GILBERT RYLE
- British Philosopher
-self is best understood as a pattern of behavior
—
the tendency or disposition of a person to
behave in a
certain way in certain circumstances
Philosophical principle: “I act therefore I am”
-mind and body is intrinsically linked in complex
and

and overriding need to preserve the intimate ways

equilibrium of the entire psychodynamic -self is same as bodily behavior

system of self -the mind is the totality of human dispositions

that is
2. Unconscious Self
known through the way people behave
- contains the basic instinctual drives
-mind expresses the entire systems of thoughts,
(sexuality, aggressiveness, and self-destruction
–traumatic memories, emotions, and actions = these make up the
human
Unfulfilled wishes, and childhood fantasies,
self
thoughts and feelings that are considered
taboo)

-governed by the “pleasure principle”

-characterized by the most primitive level of

human motivation and human functioning

-self is determined by the unconscious

3. Preconscious Self

- contains material that is not threatening

and is easily brought to mind

-located between the conscious and the

unconscious parts of the self