Lesson 1: The Self from Various Perspective

The Self from the Perspective of Philosophy

History
● 600 BCE: Athens, Greece
● The birth of Philosophy began: philia=love, sophia=wisdom, love for wisdom
● The philosophy is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries in
answering questions regarding the nature and existence of man.
● The Greeks in search of knowledge came up with answers that are both ​cognitive ​and ​scientific​ in
nature. (Price, 2000)

Greek Philosophers in Miletus

● They choose​ to seek natural explanations to events and phenomena around them, ​instead of
seeking supernatural explanations from the gods that were passed down through generations.
● These​ philosophers observed changes in the world and wanted to explain these ​changes by
understanding the laws of nature.
● Their study of change led them to the ​“idea of permanence”
● Many of the pre-socratic thinkers of the 6th century BC, particularly interested in the questions
about change and permanence, to clear out the notion about what makes the universe permanent in
the phase of all its changing aspects (dynamic), what gives the universe permanency.
● “The early philosophers sought to understand the nature of human beings, problems of
morality and life philosophies”​ (Price, 2000)

The Philosophy of the Self

● The self has been defined as​ “a unified being, essentially connected to consciousness,
awareness or agency (or, at least, with the faculty of rational choice).”
● Different philosophers have come up with more specific characteristics of the self, and over time,
these​ meanings have transformed from pure abstractions to explanations that hold scientific
evidence​.

In the 5th Century BCE

● Athenians settle arguments by discussion and debate to seek for answers to their questions.
● People skilled in doing this were called ​Sophists​, the first teachers of the West.

Human Nature
● A concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics, including: ways of thinking,
feelings, and acting that humans are said to have naturally.
● What a man is made of, elements of man.
Socrates (470-399 BCE)
● Mentor of Plato, the first moral philosopher
● Considered to be the wisest of all men, ​the Oracle of Delphi
● Ancient Greek Thinker, ​who laid the early foundations for Western philosophical thought.
● He was born in Athens and fought as a foot soldier in the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, but in later
years became a devotee of philosophy and argument.
● At the age of 70, he was charged with heresy and corruption of local youth.
● He wanted to discover the essential nature of knowledge, justice, beauty, and goodness (Moore &
Bruder, 2002)
● He did not write anything, hence he is not a writer
● A lot of his thoughts were only known through Plato’s writing: ​The Dialogues

Socratic Method
● To understand the self, is to know thyself, to determine your identity, you need to know the
characteristics of yourself, a man has to look at himself. Through Socratic Method.
● “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” ​This is Socrate’s method for
discovering what is essential in the world and people.
● In this method, ​Socrates did not lecture; he insisted would ask questions and engage the
person in a discussion​.
● He would begin by acting as if he did know anything and would get another person to clarify their
ideas and resolve logical inconsistencies (Price, 2000).

● Using this method, ​the questioner should be skilled at detecting misconceptions and at
revealing them by asking the right questions​.
● The goal is to bring the person closer to the final understanding.
● Socrates believed that​ his mission in life was to seek the highest knowledge and convince
others who were willing to seek his knowledge with him.
● “The unexamined life is not worth living.” ​In life you have to truly know yourself in order for it to
be truly meaningful and worthwhile.

Socrates View of Human Nature

Self-Knowledge
● According to Socrates, ​one must strive for self-knowledge.
● He quoted​, “the unexamined life is not worth living - once we know ourselves, we may
learn how to care for ourselves, but otherwise we never shall.”
Nature of True Self
● The true self is our ​“soul”
● The state of one’s soul determines the quality of their life, thus we devote our attention to
feeding and making our soul as good as possible.
Good and Evil
● Good ​- wealth, status, pleasure, ● Evil ​- poverty, death, pain social
social acceptance are the things we rejection
considered as the greatest good in
life
 ● “All human beings strive for happiness, for happiness is the final end of life. Everything we do,
we do because we think it will make us happy. Therefore, we follow the label that what will
bring us happiness is good and what will bring us suffering and pain is evil.”
Virtue
● One supreme good, the ultimate good, and moral excellence.
● Virtue - “a virtuous person is one whose character is made up of the moral qualities accepted
as virtues include courage, justice, prudence, and temperance.
● Virtue is the greatest good in life, for it can alone secure happiness
● It is the most important of the state of the soul
Happiness
● “Human beings naturally desire good as it alone secures happiness, with that knowledge they
have no choice but to be virtuous.” ​Knowledge=Virtues=Happiness
● When we arrived at the knowledge of virtue we would become virtuous and we will make our
soul good and beautiful and when we perfect our soul we will attain true happiness.
● Virtue is knowledge because all living things aim for their perceived good, therefore, if
anyone isn’t aware of what is good they are prone to mistakes and sins. But if someone knows
what is good and just, he/she shall aim for what is good.
Plato (428-348 BCE)
● Another Greek philosopher with major contributions, ​Aristocles, also known as Plato.
● He was nicknamed​ “Plato”​ because of his ​physical built, ​which means ​wide/broad
● Left Athens for 12 years after the death of Socrates
● When he returned, he established a school known as ​“The Academy”
● Plato devoted his life to only one goal ​helping people reach a state of what he called
“Eudaimonia” or fulfillment
● Some of the books written by Plato: Dialogue, The Republic, The Symposium, The Laws, The Meno,
The Apology

Plato’s View of Human Nature

Theory of Forms
● Plato’s Metaphysics ​(philosophical study on the causes and nature of things)
● Plato explained that ​Forms refers to what is real, ​hence Plato is a ​realist.
● They are not objects encountered with the sense but can only be ​grasped intellectually, ​thus
Plato is not an​ empiricist.

● Asking one’s self and others, what the perfect version of something is the ​ideal version​,
might sound like a strange idea, perfect marriage or career? Or a system of government? Or
school?
● It can feel immature and naive, to bother much with such questions, they’re just daydreams.
We deal with what we’ve got.
● Throughout his work, he argues that focusing on the ideal version of something is one
of the most useful kinds of thought exercises we can generate, it’s by knowing how
something should be like that we can more clearly start to define what might be wrong
and what we need to do to make the world slightly better.
● Plato used a slightly strange but ultimately useful word: The Forms
● He asked what is the form of friendship or the form of parental love.
● When a Greek Stoneman was carving an ornament, they wouldn’t just make it up themselves.
They make use of a wooden template, or form, to check if they were getting it right. The form
itself was made by the master, but if the mason possessed the form, they could more reliably
do perfect work.
● Plato’s basic picture of what an ideal is, it’s the guide you need that shows you how to do
something well yourself. If you’ve got possession of the form, you can be guided towards a
true goal.
● A form, as Plato sees it, it is a blueprint, a set of instructions for making a very good
version of something. Hence why we all need a very well thought-through set of forms
to guide us in life.
● Philosophy can guide us to these forms.
● E.g., The form of friendship, a mental model of what a perfect friendship actually involves,
thus if you grasp this model if this idea is active in your mind, you will know how to be a good
friend.
● Having a form of education in mind is going to be very useful for the teacher, it will stop her
from being buffeted by events and day-to-day pressures, she’ll be able to keep in mind where
ideally she should be going.
 ● We’ve typically thought of ideals as phantasy projections that blindly ignore most of
what life is actually like, we think of them as the opposite of being realistic.
● Plato sees an ideal as a result of a deep understanding, and careful engagement with
reality.
● E.g., Someone setting up an airport would need, in the platonic scheme, to have in mind the
ideal air traffic control system, something optimally effective, efficient, and safe, this person
who would in Plato’s terms have grasped the form of air traffic control.
● We all need to have as many forms in mind as we possibly can, Plato is breaking the
habitualistic assumption, that searching for the ideal is at odds with getting things
done in the ruff and tumble of the real world and he’s pushing us to be more exacting
about where we are trying to head to.
● If an ideal seems utterly distant and hopeless, maybe the problem isn’t that it’s too idealistic,
but not idealistic enough, that is we have not quite yet discovered the form.
● We shouldn’t abandon our ideals, we should get more ambitious about them.

Characteristics of the Plato’s Forms

● The Forms are ​ageless ​and therefore​ eternal/Forever
● The Forms are ​unchanging ​and therefore ​permanent
● The Forms are​ unmoving and indivisible

Plato’s Concept of Dualism

The Realm of Shadows The Realm of Forms
● Composed of​ changing, ‘sensible’ things ● Composed of​ eternal things​ that are
which are lesser entities and therefore permanent and perfect​. It is the ​source of
imperfect and flawed. all reality and true knowledge

Plato’s View of Human Nature

● He believed that knowledge lies within the person’s soul.
● He considered human beings as microcosms of the universal macrocosms i.e ​Everything in
the universe can also be found on people earth, air, fire, water, mind, and spirit ​(Price,
2000).
● Philosophy of the self can be explained as a process of self-knowledge and purification of the
self. He believed in the existence of mind and soul, given in perfection of god.

Plato’s Components of the Soul are in Dynamic Relationship with One Another
● The ​Reason​ is rational (it has reason and intellect: thinking soul), has a divine essence that
enables us to think deeply, make wise choices and achieved through understanding of eternal
truths; and is the motivation for goodness and truth.
■ When conflict occurs, it is the responsibility of the reason to sort things out or restore
the relationship of the elements. Mediator of the three, in control of the two
● The ​Spirited​ (composes of emotion, feelings and passion)​ ​is non-rational and is the will or
drive toward action
● The ​Appetites ​(basic biological needs)​ ​are irrational and lean towards the desire for
pleasures of the body
Plato believed people are​ intrinsically good​. Sometimes, however, judgments are made in
ignorance and Plato​ equates ignorance with evil​ (Price, 2000).

Think more and Know Yourself

● Give ourselves time to think about our lives and how to lead them.
● Strengthen your self-knowledge so you don’t get yourself easily pulled around by feelings by
subjecting your ideas to examination rather acting on impulse. Mind over feelings.
● According to Plato, people just go along with​ “Doxa”​ which means popular opinion.
● In honor of his mentor, he called to process of examination ​“Socratic discussion” = ​socratic
method

Why do we like beautiful things?

● We find things beautiful when we unconsciously sense qualities we need that are missing in
our lives.
● Gentleness, harmony, balance, peace, strength, beautiful objects, therefore have essential
functions they help educate our souls.
● Ugliness on the other hand parades dangerous and damaged characteristics in front of us and
makes it harder to be wise, kind and calm.
● Plato sees art as therapeutic.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

● What people see are only shadows of reality which they believe are real things and
represents knowledge
● What these people fail to realize is that the shadows are not real for according to Plato, ​“only
the Forms are real”
● The most famous allegory in philosophy. Tribute of Plato to Socrates, it is his best known
work, one of the world’s most influential works of Philosophy, both intellectually and
historically.
● The story was intended to compare “ the effect of education and lack of it in our nature.
● The story of the cave is an allegory of the life of enlightened people.
● For Plato we are most of our lives in shadow, many of the things we get excited about like
fame, perfect partners, high-status jobs are infinitely less real than we suppose they are for
the most are phantoms projected by our pop-culture (doxa).

● What is reality, knowledge, the meaning of life?

● Life is like being chained up in a cave, forced to watch shadows flitting across a stone wall.
Book VII: “The Republic”
● Plato envisioned the ideal society by examining concepts like justice, truth and beauty.
● In the allegory, a group of prisoners have been confined in a cavern since birth, with no
knowledge of the outside world. They are chained, facing a wall unable to turn their heads,
while a fire behind them gives off a faint light. Occasionally, people pass by the fire, carrying
figures of animals and other objects that cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners name and
classify these illusions, believing they’re perceiving actual entities. Suddenly, one prisoner is
freed and brought outside for the first time. The sunlight hurts his eyes and he finds the new
environment disorienting. When told that the things around him are real, while the shadows
 were mere reflections, he cannot believe it. While the shadows were mere reflections, he
cannot believe it. The shadows appeared much clearer to him. But gradually, his eyes adjust
until he can look at reflections in the water, at objects directly, and finally at the sun, whose
light is the ultimate source of everything he has seen. The prisoner returns to the cave to
share his discovery, but he is no longer used to the darkness, and has a hard time seeing the
shadows on the wall. The other prisoners think the journey has made him stupid and blind,
and violently resist any attempts to free them.
● Plato introduces this passage as an analogy of what it’s like to be a philosopher trying
to educate the public. Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance but
hostile to anyone who points it out.
● The real life Socrates was sentenced to death by the Athenian government for disrupting the
social order, and his student Plato spent much of “The Republic” disparaging Athenian
Democracy while promoting rule by Philosopher Kings.
● Plato may be arguing that the masses are too stubborn and ignorant to govern themselves.
● The allegory is connected to the theory of forms, which holds that like the shadows on
the wall things in the physical world are flawed reflections of ideal forms, such as
roundness, or beauty.
● The cave leads to many fundamental questions, the origin of knowledge, problem of
representation, nature of reality.
● For theologians, the ideal forms exist in the mind of a creator.
● For philosophers of language viewing the forms as linguistic concepts, the theory illustrates
the problem of grouping concrete things under abstract terms.

Love According to Plato

● Plato’s love begins with a feeling or experience that there is ​something lacking
● This then drives the person to seek for that which is lacking
● Thoughts and efforts are then ​directed towards the pursuit of which is lacking
True Love is Admiration
● The person you need to get together with should have good qualities which you yourself lack.
● By getting close to this person you become a little like they are.
● For Plato, in a good relationship, a couple should not love each other exactly as they are right
now rather they should be committed to educating each other to be the best version of
themselves.
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
● Father of Western Philosophy, Student of Plato
● The self is made up of the soul which is the essence of a living being which is not separated from the
body.
● The body and soul are not two separate elements but are one thing, they function together.
● The soul is the essence of the self. Without the body, the soul cannot exist. The soul dies along with
the body.
● “Soul and body I suggest react sympathetically upon each other. A change in the state of the
soul produces a change in the shape of the body and conversely, a change in the shape of the
body produces a change in the shape of the soul.”
● If there is a change with one’s body, there will also be a change in the soul, vice versa.

Three Kinds of Souls (“psyches”)

● Anything that has a life can be described as having a soul. The soul is the internal principle of motion
or change in a living being; it is capable of moving and changing itself according to certain patterns.

1. Vegetative Soul - ​(soul of the plant, lowest level of the soul)​ ​it can grow and nourish itself,
they have internal principles of development and change, that’s what makes them able to
grow from a seed to a tree.
2. Sensitive Soul - ​(soul of an animal, for they have sensitive soul) it can experience sensations
and move locally,
● They have internal principles of development and change (vegetative soul), have a
power of nutrition and reproduction, capable of movement and sensation, hear, smell,
taste food, emotions.
3. Rational Soul - ​(highest level of soul) has the ability to receive forms of other things and to
compare them using the ​nous (intellect) and logos (reason). ​It’s all about thoughts and
reflection.
● They have internal principles of development and change (vegetative soul), have a
power of nutrition and reproduction, capable of movement and sensation, hear, smell,
taste food, emotions, locomotion, apolitical animal: capable of forming society, rational
abstraction.

Comparing Greek and Christian Philosophers (Medieval and Modern Philosophers​)

Greek Philosophers
● Sees man as basically good and becomes evil
through ignorance of what is good.
Christian Philosophers
● Christian philosophers on the other hand
focused on God, and man’s relationship with
God.
● Sees man as sinners who reject/go against a
loving God’s commands.
Christian Philosophers Medieval and Modern Philosophers:
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-436 BCE)
● Hippo, Africa
● Became a priest and bishop of Hippo
● A noteworthy Christian philosopher who initially rejected Christianity for it seemed to him that
Christianity could not provide him answers to questions that interested him.
● Upon seeking answers he came up with his views of human nature.
St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature
1. God is the source of all reality and truth
● People close to God will be the ones closest to understanding the world since God is the
source of all truth and reality.
2. The Sinfulness of Man
● Moral goodness can only be achieved through God.​ The cause of evil is not God’s will but
rather the free will given to man by God.
The Role of Love According to St. Augustine
● Real happiness can only be achieved through God.
● “For God is love and he also created humans for them to also love.”
● Problems arise when a man loves the wrong things in the wrong ways​ (Disordered Love)
Disordered Love
● Excessive love of physical objects leads to the sin of greed
● Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is the sin of jealousy
● Excessive love for the self leads to the ​sin of people (pride)
● Love for God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God can man find real happiness.
● Love for God is the best king of love.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
● He was a French 17th century philosopher famous above all in the saying​ “Cogito ergo sum or I
think Therefore I am”.
○ I’m able to think therefore I exist, It’s a philosophical proof of existence based on the fact that
someone capable of any form of thought, necessarily exists.
● He was a fierce rationalist that believed that much of what is wrong with the world was caused by
misusing our minds by confusion, bad definition, and unconscious illogicality.
○ Descartes questioned, if anything can be known with certainty, his dreams instructed him to
construct a system of knowledge and a system of knowing. He came up with a way in
analyzing human knowledge, hence it is the methods of doubts.
● Descartes proposed that we always have to divide large problems into small understandable
sections by way of incisive questions called the​ methods of doubts.
○ Method of doubts is a way of searching for certainty by systematically though tentatively
doubting everything.
Descartes’ View of Human Nature
● The “self” is a thinking person
● The mind is a substance within the brain capable of thinking (affirming, doubting, judging, etc. )
● He observed that our senses is deeply unreliable but could trust that he was actually thinking
○ He is not an empiricists, he is a rationalists
● He argued that sense experience can be deceiving; it cannot be a basis claim for knowledge (e.g taste
of food whenever you are sick.
● He argued that we do not need scientist and using expensive equipment to prove something we just
need ‘a quiet room and a rational mind
● Skepticism​ refers to an attitude of doubt or disbelief, either in general or toward a particular object,
or to any doubting or questioning attitude or state of mind.
● One of his clear thoughts he called a ‘clear and distinct idea’ is that God exists.
Two Powers of Human Mind
1. Intuition- ​the ability to apprehend the 2. Deduction - ​the power to discover what is not
direction of certain truths known by progressing in an orderly way from
what is orderly known (deductive reasoning)

● Descartes believed that reasoning could produce absolute truths, that is why he believed in ​Apriori​,
which means that knowledge is independent of experience (Price, 2000).
Concept of Dualism
● Mind-Body Problem- ​The mind/soul was separated from the body
● The body is like a machine that is controlled by the will and aided by the mind
● “On the one hand, I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am a thinking, non-extended
thing; and on the other hand, I have a distinct idea of body, in so far this is simply an extended,
non-thinking thing. And accordingly, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body and exist
without it.” - René Descartes
● Body is an extended non-thinking element.
John Locke (1632-1704)
● Believed in contrast to Descartes, wherein, understanding requires the senses
● Interested in politics, Defender of the parliamentary system
● At 57 years old, he published a book which played a significant role in the era of Enlightenment
(Price, 2000)
● He is an empiricist
Locke’s View of Human Nature
● Knowledge results from ideas produced​ a posteriori​ or objects that were experienced
● The process involves Two Forms:
1. Sensation - ​wherein objects are experienced through senses
2. Reflection - ​by which the mind ‘looks’ at the objects that were experienced to discover
relationships that may exist between them

● Locke contended that ideas are not innate, but rather, the mind at birth is a ​“tabula rasa” (i.e blank
slate)
● According to Locke, since ideas are not innate, it then, therefore, must come from the senses.
● He argued that all knowledge is obtained through experience. He rejected concept of Rene's ideas
● That further means, that morals, religion, and political values must have been a product of man’s
experiences

Empiricism
● A belief that sense experience is the most reliable source of knowledge.
● It emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory perception, in the formation of
ideas, and argues that the only knowledge humans can have is based on experience.

Three Laws According to Locke

Moral good depends on the conformity of a person's behavior towards some law:
1. Law of Opinion​ where actions that are ​praiseworthy are called virtues and those that are
not are vices.
2. Civil Law​ where right actions are enforced by people in authority
3. Divine Law​ set by God on the actions of man
David Hume (1711-1776)
● A Scottish Philosopher who relied on the ​scientific method​ believing that it could analyze human
nature and explain the workings of the mind.
● At the time he was enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, he lost his faith.
● Was credited for giving empiricism its clearest formulation.
● Believed that the mind receives material from the senses and called it ​perception​.

Two Types of Perception of According to Hume

1. Impressions​ immediate sensations of external reality
2. Ideas ​recollections of the impressions

Three Principles on How Ideas Relate to One Another

1. The Principle of Resemblance
- the tendency which ideas become associated if objects they represent are similar
- Ex. a photo of a bird resembles a real bird, therefore, they must be related
2. The Principle of Contiguity
- the tendency of ideas to be associated if objects are near each other
- Ex. when you see a box of crayons, you immediately associate it to have crayons even if it
does not have any. You automatically think of crayons, not a box of crayons
3. The Principle of Cause and Effect
- the tendency of things being causally related
- Ex. the ball caused the window to break

Hume View of Human Nature

● Hume believed that we are more influenced by our feelings than by reason.
○ People are more motivated by feeling than any other logic.
● Hume argued that the idea of the self doesn’t persist over time. Hume saw the self as just a sense of
impressions. He believed that like causality, ‘the self’ is also a product of imagination or impressions.
● There is no such thing as ‘personal identity’ behind perceptions and feelings that come and go;
THERE IS NO PERMANENT/UNCHANGING SELF
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
● Lived in the town of Konigsberg in East Prussia (presently Western Russia)
● Founder of German Idealism
● Wrote three books: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical reason and Critique of Judgement.
● Kant argued that the mind is not just a passive receiver of sense experience but rather actively
participates in knowing the objects it experiences.

Kant’s View of Human Nature

● “When the self sees an object, it tends to remember its characteristics and applies on it, the
forms of time and space”
● The term he used for this experience of the self and its unity with objects is ​TRANSCENDENTAL
APPERCEPTION, ​it is where the self and the world come together.
● He concluded that all objects of knowledge, which includes the self, are phenomenal.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

● Austrian Neurologist
● His psychodynamic theory has characteristics of philosophical thought
● Freud made use of methods like ​free association​ and ​dream analysis​ for his clinical practice

Freud’s Structures of the Mind/ Freud’s Iceberg Theory

1. Id​ the pleasure principle ​(unconscious level) Bottom
● Basic impulses (sex and aggression); seeking immediate gratification; irrational and impulsive.
Operates at an unconscious level.
● Exceeds outside of our awareness at all times. Biological component of our personality: selfish and
needy.
2. Ideas ​the reality principle ​(conscious level) Upper
● Ego, executive mediating between ID impulses and superego inhibitions; testing reality; rational.
Operates mainly at a conscious level but also at the preconscious level.
● Current state of our awareness, part of our personality that makes decisions and faces the
consequences, it operates according to the reality of principle or the idea that the desires of the mind
must be satisfied in a method that is both appropriate and realistic.
3. Superego ​the morality principle ​(preconscious level) Middle
● Ideals and morals; striving for perfection; incorporated from parents; becoming a person’s
conscience. Operates mostly at the preconscious level.
● All information that you are not currently aware of but can be recalled. It represents our conscience
or our view of what is considered to be wrong.
Freud in his 1920 book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, presented two kinds of instincts that drive
individual behavior:
1. EROS
● Life Instinct; the energy is called​ LIBIDO​ and urges necessary for individual and species
survival like thirst, hunger, and sex
2. THANATOS
● Death Instinct; behavior that is directed towards destruction in the form of aggression and
violence
Freud’s View of Human Nature
● “Man’s behavior by his pleasure-seeking life instinct and his destructive instinct is said to be
born with his ego already in conflict (ID vs. Ego).”
● He sees man as a product of his past lodged within his subconscious.
● The man then lives his life balancing the forces of life and death making mere existence a challenge

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976)

● An English Philosopher who believed that many of the philosophical problems were caused by the
wrong use of language
● Criticized Cartesian Dualism, stating that it only equates to people being a “ghost in a machine”
○ Mind and body problem doesn’t make sense as applying non-material things should not have
been applied to material concepts
● Book he made “The Concept of the Mind”

Two Types of Knowledge of According to Ryle

Knowing-That Knowing-How
● This refers to knowing facts and information ● This refers to using facts in the permanence of
and its application. some skills or technical abilities
● Ryle considered this to be ​empty
intellectualism​, as it is worthless if you
cannot use it to solve practical problems

Ryle’s View of Human Nature

● Ryle thought that free will was invented to answer the question of whether an action deserves praise
or blame.
● “Man’s actions must be moral for it to be free”
● “A person may acquire a great bulk of knowledge but without the ability to use it to solve
some practical problems to make his life easier, this bulk of knowledge is deemed to be
worthless”

Patricia & Paul Churchland

● Patricia coined the term ​NEUROPHILOSOPHY​, who together with Paul was dissatisfied with the
particular approach of philosophers and instead sought to guide scientific theorizing with
philosophy and guide philosophy with scientific inquiry
● The ​philosophy of neuroscience​ is the study of the philosophy of the mind,​ the philosophy of
science, neuroscience, and psychology​. This aims to explore the relevance of neuroscientific
studies to the philosophy of the mind.
Churchland’s View of Human Nature
● “There isn’t a special thing called the mind. The mind is just the brain.”
● Patricia claims that the man’s brain is responsible for the identity known as ‘the self’. The
biochemical properties of the brain according to this philosophy is really responsible for man’s
thoughts, feelings, and behavior
 ● “Man is endowed with more than just physical or neurological characteristics. Despite
research findings, neurophilosophy states that the self is real, that it is the tool that helps the
person tune in to the realities of the brain and the extant reality”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)

● French Phenomenological Philosopher
● ‘Philosopher of the Body’
● The Center of his philosophy is the emphasis placed on the human body as the primary site of
knowing the world
● He focuses on the relationship of self-experience and experience of others through ​PERCEPTION.

Merleau-Ponty’s View of Human Nature

● Emphasized that the body was the primary site of knowing the world, and that man cannot be
separated from the world.
● According to Merleau Ponty, The world and the sense of self are emergent phenomena in the
ongoing process of man’s ‘becoming
● In addition, he stated that perception is not purely the result of sensations nor is it purely
interpretation. Rather, consciousness is a process that includes sensing as well as interpreting/
reasoning.
● He is an empiricists and rationalists
The Self from the Perspective of Sociology

Sociology - ​is one of the disciplines in the social sciences which aims to discover the ways by which the
social surrounding/environment influences people’s ​thought​, ​feelings, and behavior​.
● As sociology is concerned with human society, social interaction and social groups. It serves then as
a tool to explain why people behave and do what they do.
● It clarifies certain questions that involve an individual’s character and personality as to how one
relates with other persons which is a by-product of the process called ​socialization.

Importance of Sociology in the Foundations of Self

1. Social groups play a crucial role in the
influences of human development and other
various aspects of the self.
E.g group of friends , barkada,
organizations.
2. An individual born into a family is evaluated
in the context of his or her contribution to
society, quality of life, and social
relationships
E.g family backgrounds

Culture - ​consists of all the shared products of human groups. It compasses learned behavior, beliefs,
attitudes, values, and ideal characteristics of certain societies.
Society ​- is a group of mutually interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a
common ​culture a​ nd feeling of unity.

Therefore, ​society c​ onsists of people, and ​culture ​consists of the product that people create.

George Herbert Mead

● American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of
Chicago and is well known for his ​Social Self Theory.
● The proponent of ​Social Behaviorism, ​the approach used to describe the power of the environment
in shaping human behavior. He is the first to study the self from a social behavioral perspective.

Socialization and the Self

● Self is a​ “​dimension of a personality that is made of the individual’s self-awareness and
self-image” (​ Macionis, 2012)
● The self cannot be separated from society.
● Every person has different perceptions, feelings, and views about who they are and what their
similarities are.
● He sees the self as a distinct and unique identity that sets on apart from others. It is a dynamic
phenomenon that continues to develop and change throughout one's life.
● According to George Herbert Mead, people create our own; the self.

Mead’s Development Stages of the Self

1. Preparatory Stage (From birth-2 yrs. old)
● A stage in which the self did not exist at birth but develops over time. It depends on social
interaction and social experience.
● Children's behavior is primarily based on ​Imitation​, mimicking, and mirroring.
 ● They begin to understand and be familiar with symbols ​(verbal & non-verbal) ​as a way of
communication.
2. Play Stage (2 yrs old-6 years old)
● The stage where the child widens his perspective and realizes that he is not alone and there
are others around him which he has to consider.
● At this stage, they begin to know and learn skills in understanding the symbols of
communication.
● They constitute symbols as means to social interaction and social relationships.
● Children learn​ to role-play​ and pretend to be other people.
● They begin to play games but do not follow/adhere to the rules of the game, because they do
not know about it.
● ROLE PLAYING​ in the play stage is the process of mentally assuming the perspective of
another person to see how this person might behave or respond in a given situation that
people create.
3. Game Stage
● This occurs between ​8 or 9 years of age.
● The child begins to consider and understand several tasks and various types of relationships
simultaneously.
● In this final stage of development, the child has now the ability to respond to not just one but
several members of his/her social environment.
● ‘Generalized other’​ was what Mead used to explain the behavior of the person when he
considers other people in the course of his actions.

STAGE EXISTENCE OF SELF CHARACTERISTICS

Preparatory Stage None Imitates Another

Play Stage Developing Role-Taking

Game Stage Present Generalized Other

MEAD’S THEORY OF THE SELF

● The self is not present at birth but begins as a central character in a child’s world.
● Children see themselves as a “universe” and are having difficulty understanding people around them.
● As they grow and mature, they begin to see and understand other people and are concerned about
their reactions in the course of their actions.

FAMILY ​- (people who are with us since birth) plays a major role in the formation of the self. They are the
significant others strongly influence his development (Schaefer, 2012)

A person’s capacity to see one’s self through others implies MEAD’S I AND ME
I SELF ME SELF
● When the person initiates, the self functions ● When a person takes the role of the other,
as a subject. The ​subjective element​ of the the self functions as an object. The ​objective
self is the I. element​ of the self is the Me.
● The I is basically the response to the Me, it
 basically serves as the individual
identity/personal identity (Miller, 2015)

Example of the I and Me Applied

● The ‘Me’ would think that going to college is the next step after high school, since that is the objective
thing to do, what is expected of the individual. The ‘I’ would weigh in and respond to the “Me’s” idea
of going to college, considering if that is the best move forward from a personal standpoint.
● The self consists of '​me​' and 'I'. The '​me​' represents learned societal behaviors and expectations, and
the 'I' represents the individual's identity based on the response to those social behaviors and
expectations. The '​me​' and the 'I' act to balance the self out.

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY

● American sociologist who made use of the Socio Psychological approach to understand how society
works.
● The sociological approach takes into consideration the social variables that affect the development of
an individual’s personality. He took the accounts of psychological factors in understanding how
society works.
● Cooley stated that people learn who they are through their social interaction.
● Cooley viewed society as a group of individuals helping one another to develop their personalities.

COOLEY’S CONCEPT OF THE LOOKING GLASS SELF

The self is a product of social interaction. Seeing oneself is based on contemplating one’s personal
qualities and the view of the self is also influenced by the impression of other people
● It is the process of how people evaluate themselves based on how others see them.

THREE PHASES IN DEVELOPING THE SELF

1. We imagine how we appear to others
Ex. You dress up elegantly at the prom, greeting the professors at the corridor
2. We imagine how others judge us based on those appearances
Ex. Others will see you as pretty or attractive by the way you fix yourself or others will see
you as courteous and well behaved
3. We develop some sort of feeling about themselves as a result of those impressions
Ex. You may see yourself as confident or inferior
It can basically be summed up in:
(1) I am not what I think I am
(2) I am not what YOU think I am
(3) I am what YOU think I am.

Imagine - ​It is noticed that Cooley used the word Imagine. This may mean that there is a possibility that
people develop self identities based on the wrong perception of how others see them. Wrong perceptions,
however, can still change based on positive social experiences.
SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGY - ​focus on situations, socio-psychologists are interested with the impact of the social
environment and social group interactions on attitudes and behaviors.
SOCIAL​: Family, Religion, Wealth and Society PSYCHOLOGY​: Feelings, Thoughts, Actions, BeliefS
ERVING GOFFMAN
● A Canadian American sociologist known for his role in the development of Modern
American Sociology.
● He posited the​ Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life,​ wherein people early in their social
interactions learned to slant their presentation of themselves in order to create appearances and
satisfy particular people or altering how the person presents himself to others which he called
Impression Management.
● He sees similarities of real social interaction to a theatrical presentation. This is the reason for the
label, ​dramaturgical approach​ to his view.
○ People pleaser
The Self from the Perspective of Anthropology

ANTHROPOLOGY
● A field of the social sciences that focuses on the study of man. Not just one aspect of man, but the
totality of what it means to be human.
● The field looks into man’s physical/biological characteristics, social relationships, and the
influence of his culture​ from the dawn of civilization up to the present.
● A social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings. Everything in
Anthropology is Interconnected.
● As humans we are innately curious creatures that seek to find our origin point, evolution as a species
and feature patterns in our life. A big part of our human nature is also wanting to know how other
people are similar to and different to the community around us.
● Anthropology gives a solid picture of human origins.

Anthropologists deal with questions like:

● What defines us as a species (Homo sapiens)?
● Who are our ancestors both physically and socially?
● What are our physical traits?
● How do humans behave and what is the role of environment, culture and thought?
● Why are groups of humans physically different?
● How has our evolutionary past influenced our society and culture?

FOUR MAJOR SUBFIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY

● These subfields have the capability to use each other's research and methodology to explain the
complexity of human conditions.
● Holistic View of the Subfields

ARCHAEOLOGY
● Refers to the​ study of earlier cultures and their way of life​ through retrieving, and examination of
material remains of previous human societies to understand the technical, social, political
organization (Jose & Ong, 2016).
● The ​archaeologist​ is a scientist who studies artifacts in order to discover how people lived their
lives As a result, archaeologists have discovered that human adapted to change in their environment
in order for them to survive
● They believed that ​homo sapiens​ did not become extinct because of their ability to think, use tools,
and learn from experience
● The most important aspect of human life is ​survival​. Human behavior according to the ​School of
Functionalism​, ​continues to adopt,​ in order to survive.
○ Functionalism in psychology is a school of thought, and functionalists (one’s who lead:
psychologists, sociologists) these groups of people distress the importance of empirical
rational thought over an experimental trial error philosophy. They are concerned more with
the capability of the mind than the process of the thought.
○ Physical anthropologists work closely with archeologists to investigate human remains.
BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
● Gives emphasis on the biological adaptations of man to his environment.
● Biological Anthropologists​ focus primarily on how the human body adapts to the different earth
environments. They look at the probable cause of diseases, mutation and death. They are interested
in explaining how biological characteristics of human beings affect how they lived their lives.
○ Some examine fossils and apply their observations in understanding human evolution. Others
compare physiological adaptations of living humans to their environments to understand the
root of behavior.
○ Morphology- a branch of biology that deals with forms of living organism.
● They study people in different places and discovered that while ​human beings vary in their
biological make up and behavior, ​there are a lot more similarities among them than there are
difference
● Biological characteristics of human beings shared may earn from them complete dominion over all
earth creatures and at the same time be the cause of their extinction.
○ Biology of skin color- our skin tells an epic tale of human intrepidness and adaptability
revealing its variance to be a function of biology.
○ Melanin - pigment that gives skin and hair its color, an ingredient from skin cells
(melanocytes). Has two basic forms: ​eumelanin ​(gives rise to a range of brown skin tones,
black brown,blond hair), ​pheomelanin ​(causes the reddish browns of freckles and red hair).
● Consider the biology of skin color, wherein how the varying skin tone of man was formed by an
evolutionary process driven by the sun.

LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
● The branch of anthropology which focuses on the ​study of human speech and language​.
● Human survival is primarily linked to their ability to communicate and an essential part of human
communication is language.
● Language​ identifies a group of people; words, sounds, symbols, writings and signs that are used are
reflections of a group’s culture.
● L. A formulates categories of social identity and group membership.
● Linguistic Anthropologists used language to discover a group’s manner of social interaction, to
create and share meanings to form ideas, concepts and to promote social change, and how language
changes over time.
○ They are concerned with how language influences culture. Why is one language preferred
over another? Why do different geographic regions have different language accents? What
types of values and ideologies are communicated through language? Does language vary
according to gender, beliefs and other criteria?
● Language is​ reflective of the time and mode of thinking ​of the people using it. As societies change
and technologies develop, language is the lifeline of indigenenous identities and transmission of
culture, so do the symbols and meaning people use through language as their way of
communicating.
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
● Gives emphasis on the study of societies and human behavior, taking into consideration religion,
culture, myths, rituals, technology, gender roles, kinship, economic and political structure, music and
folklore.
● Culture ​group of people’s ways of life. Including their behavior, beliefs, values and symbols that they
accept, socially transmitted through communication and imitation from generation to generation.
● Cultural Anthropologists​ focus on knowing what makes one group’s manner of living particular to
that group and forms an essential part of the member’s personal and social identity.

THEORY OF CULTURAL DETERMINISM

Human nature is determined by the ideas, meanings, beliefs and values learned as members of a
society.
● Who or what a person is, can be determined by the type of culture he/she grew up in.
● Having different cultures, Cultural Anthropologists suggest that there is​ no universal or
right way of being human​. The right way is always based on culture. Since culture varies,
there is no one way of understanding human nature.
● This is also based on the idea that there is no absolute standard of good or evil, therefore
every decision and judgment of what is right and wrong is individually decided in each
society.
● The theory has positive and negative implications:
Human beings can be shaped to People have no control over
have the kind of life they prefer. what they learn. They blindly
There is no limit placed on the accept the learning their culture
human ability to be or to do expose them to. They are seen as
whatever they set their minds helpless and do only what their
and hearts into. culture instructs them to do.
Positive Negative

CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not to make judgments using the standards
of one’s own culture. No one culture is superior than another culture when compared to systems of
morality, law and politics.
● Any opinion with regard to ethics is subject to the perspective of each person within their
particular culture.

Ways How Culture Manifest Itself in Different Levels of Depth

SYMBOLS
● Words, gestures, objects that have a recognized/accepted meaning in a particular culture
HEROES
● Refer to persons from the past or present who have characteristics that are important in a
culture. They may be real or fictitious and are models of behavior.
RITUALS
 ● Refer to activities, may be religious or social, participated in by a group of people for the
fulfillment of desired objectives and are considered to be socially essential e.g. Weddings,
fiesta, baptism

VALUES
● Considered to be the ​core of every culture​. Values are unconscious, and can neither be
discussed nor be directly observed but can only be inferred from the way people act and react
to circumstances and situations.
E.g. respect for elders, hospitality