“Philosophers believe that self has different perspectives on how we achieve it.

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philosophers namely; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Rene Descartes, Locke, Hume,
Kant, Freud, Ryle, Churchland, and Merleau-Ponty, They differently have beliefs that self is
different from the body and soul; soul is synonymous with the self; that the body and soul are
one thing; that knowing God is the way of knowing self; self-consciousness is the proof of self;
that there is no self; and a lot more.
Different perspective of self implies to all of us because we continuously develop
throughout the years, Some of these philosophers’ beliefs relates to how I understand the self.
Whatever we may view ourselves, we get to apply philosophies of different philosophers in life
without knowing it. I personally believe that self is earned through experiences. We learn and
grow from it.”

SOCRATES
“An unexamined life is not worth living”, this is the keyword of Socrates idea about self.
He states that the soul is immortal and even if a human died, it’s not its end. There is what we
call the world after death. In his concept he introduced physical and ideal realm. The body
belongs to physical realm, while the soul belongs to ideal realm. So in order to have a good life,
one must live a good life. That’s what brought happiness even after life because we did the
real purpose of life, to become good.

PLATO
Another concept from Plato, “The soul is immortal”. According to him the self consists
of reason, spirit or passion, and physical appetite. Reason means think deeply about
something, Spirit includes basic emotion, and physical appetite includes our basic biological
needs. These three have relation with each other. In short, to live a happy life, humans must
consistently make sure that their reason is in control of their spirit and appetite.

ARISTOTLE
Another concept from Aristotle which stated that, “The soul is the essence of the self”.
For him, the body and soul are not two separate elements but is one thing. The soul is the
essence of the self but it can’t exist without the body. In addition, he stated that we are a
rational animal or through reason we became human. So basically, we are defined base on our
reason that gives us distinct characteristics.

ST. AUGUSTINE
Moving on to St. Augustine concept, “I am doubting therefore I am”. He integrated the
idea of Plato and Christianity. Furthermore, he stated that the physical body is different from
and inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul. He also explained that human is created
through image and likeness of God and we are created as a good individual.
It is St. Augustine who believes that Knowing God is a way of knowing oneself. I believe
that not knowing God won’t help us know who we are. God made us, so through knowing and
continuously communicating with Him through prayer, we slowly develop ourselves. Bit by bit,
we learn who we really are. We slowly get to know who we are but, we aren’t aware of it,
being unconscious that we are getting better by each day.

RENE DESCARTES
Next is Rene Descartes with his keystone, “I think therefore I am”. As explained by him,
the act of being self-conscious- is in itself proof that there is self. In line with this, the essence
of self- a thinking entity that doubts, understand, analyzes, questions, and reasons. In accord
there is a soul and a body which are not independent of one another and each can exist and
function without the other.
Rene Descartes said that “I think, therefore I am”. He believes that we are rational
beings. I will not be able to be where I am now if I ain’t thinking. Our rationality develops as we
grow older. Having the capability to think, we learn from mistakes and experiences which
mold our minds to adjust our self beings.

JOHN LOCKE
For John Locke, another philosopher stated that “The self is consciousness”. He
explained that at birth our minds is at blank state and self identity is being developed primarily
from sense experiences. More so, self-consciousness is important to have coherent personal
identity or having the same identity in different situations. Lastly, to understand and achieve
accurate conclusions about self, we should use the power of reason and introspection.
John Locke in relation with Rene Descartes’ idea makes our mind develop from being
tabula rasa. As a child being innocent, I learned life experiences which helped me understand
how life works and how our self is really discovered.

IMMANUEL KANT
Immanuel Kant on the other hand believe that we construct ourselves. A lot of elders
say that “papunta ka pa lang, pabalik na ako”. At first, I was confused thinking that, “bakit ba
lagi nalang nila sinasabi yun?”. Until I realized that they were right. We experience ups and
downs in life and these sufferings, struggles, happiness and laughters are those that construct
us. We make ourselves depending on how and what we want it to be. We may be socially
developed also but, majority on our self is all in us. It is how we make ourselves.

DAVID HUME’S
Next is David Hume’s concept, “There is no self”. Hume suggested that if people
carefully examine their sense experience through the process of introspection, they will
discover that there is no self. Thus the idea of personal identity is a resulting imagination.

SIGMUND FREUD
Next is “the self multilayered” by Sigmund Freud. Based on him, the self consists of
conscious, unconscious, and preconscious. The conscious self is governed by the reality
principle. The unconscious contains the basic instinctual drives and governed by the pleasure
principle. The preconscious is between conscious and unconscious part of the self that is not
threatening and is easily brought to mind.
Experiences may or may not be a good one. Sigmund Freud believe that ourselves is
multilayered, consisting of conscious, unconscious, and pre-conscious. Our experiences are
things that we don’t always remember. Memories from our childhood are remembered but a
lot are not. Some of my memories were erased but people around me remember those.
Things that are painful for us tends to be forgotten,

GILBERT RYLE
Moving on to Gilbert Ryle, “The self is the way people behave”. The self is basically our
behavior. This concept provided the philosophical principle, “I act therefore I am”. In short, the
self is the same as bodily behavior.
PAUL CHURCHLAND
“The self is the brain”, another concept by Paul Churchland. He stated that the self and
brain I one. Basically if there is no brain, there would be no self. In short, the concept means
the self is the brain.

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
Another concept by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “The self is embodied Subjectivity”. This
concept explained that all the knowledge of ourselves and our world is based on subjective
experiences. It is more on how we view and give perceptions. The self can never be truly
objectified.

From these concepts of philosophers, I mostly agree to the philosophical perspective of

St. Augustine because I believed in God who created all of us in His own image and likeness
and goodness in our hearts. Without Him, there are no us. If I will not let God enter my life, I
think everything will be doomed. Only God can give the life that is best for us. God will give me
the best that will help me find the real happiness in my own self. I also agreed to the concept
of Gilbert Ryle about “The self is the way people behave”, because for me that’s how I define
the self of people, base on their behavior.
Finally, my own philosophy of self, “I am constructed by God and shape by my act”. This
is related to St. Augustine and Gilbert Ryle concepts because I believed that God put us in this
world to find our purpose by giving us body and soul equipped with different elements in
finding our purpose. And our part is to shape this construction by finding ourselves through
the actions we do in every experiences.
1. Woman X decided to travel anywhere but home. Upon arrival in an unfamiliar place, she did not
know anyone. Indeed, it was an opportunity for her to have a fresh start, to explore and to learn
new things. This can be a manifestation of what concept?.
2. A child seemed to be curious about everything. Moreover, he loves to explore and would always
ask his parents about anything.Whenever his parents answer him, he continuously asks them and
seemed to be not satisfied with all their answers. Above scenario can be viewed using the lens of
________.
3. In his concept, Rene Descartes differentiated body from soul. All statements are TRUE about the
body, EXCEPT.
a) Changes can be observed through time
b) It is considered consistent and private.
c) An individual may quantify and divide it into parts.
d) It does not affect how a person thinks and come up with decisions.
4. According to Aristotle, these are the two realms of our existence. What are these?.
5. Socratic method is a ______ process of using questions and eventually lead to more
understanding of a subject.
6. His philosophy of self was constructed in terms of hylomorphism
7. The following statements may explain the quotation "the unexamined life is not worth living"
EXCEPT.
A) People can see the bigger picture in every struggle and can appreciate life itself through
reflection.
B)Humans are the only ones with the gift or ability of reasoning; hence, we should utilize it.
C)It is not advisable to step out of our comfort zones especially if we do not want to risk
something and eventually fail.
D)We should critically examine our lives so that we can be productive and life can be
worthwhile as possible.

8. Plato believed that human nature is______________.

9. Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence especially
in an academic discipline
10. In plato's philosophical method, it denotes that you should gather all generic ideas with
similarities or common characteristics
11. The following statements are FALSE about Rational Soul, EXCEPT
A)It loves honor and victory.
B)It is something enjoyable or pleasurable.
C)It should rule over the other components.
D)It enables us to think shallowly and make wise choices.
12. According to Rene Descartes, the soul is __________.
13. Which of the following examples depicts Rene Descartes' philosophical method?.
A)A son following the orders of his parents.
B)A lawyer interrogating a witness regarding a crime.
C)A teacher explaining her lessons in class.
D)A dog performing tricks.
14. This philosopher believes that behavior is learned, people are either influenced to to do good or
bad
15. According to St. Augustine, people can be considered good if_____________.
A)they attend mass/ church service every Sunday.
B)they pray the rosary and read the bible every day.
C)they live righteously.
D)they give alms to the poor.
16. A science teacher believes that going out of the classroom and letting his students explore is a
better way of learning rather than just relying on books and discussing every day. Thus, he allows
his students to see the surroundings, touch the plants and smell the flowers within the vicinity of
the school. The teacher may be considered as a/an _____________..
17. This philosopher stated that the only thing we can be sure of in this world is everything can be
questioned
18. Nica's parents want to ensure that she will grow into a smart, loving and respectful woman. Thus,
they taught Nica to say po and opo as well as read books for her when she was younger.
Eventually, Nica became an achiever in school and received feedback from her teachers that she
is also polite and is compassionate towards her classmates. Among the philosophers, who do you
think has an influence on Nica's parents?
19. St. Augustine argued that this is the most important part of mind.
20. A student was referred to the Guidance Counselor due to his tardiness and absenteeism. In order
for the Guidance Counselor to help and understand him better, she decided to conduct an intake
interview during their first session. During the intake interview, she asked the student's basic
information, then followed by questions about his family as well as his relationship with them.
Afterwards, she asked about his peers, classmates and teachers. The given context can be
considered as an example of a __________.