LESSON 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES

GECSEL: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Philosophy as a subject presents various philosophers offering multiple perspectives on just about any
topic including the self. Philosophical discussion of the self is a basic search for meaning and purpose in
life. Determination, rationalization, and identification of the self-set the direction from which an
individual travel to fulfill his or her purpose in life.

Socrates (c. 469 - 399 B.C.) Greek Philosopher - Know Thyself

∙ According to Socrates, the examination of this question is very important as it is through striving
for answers to it that one can hope to improve their life
∙ “…once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves, but otherwise we never
shall.” (First Alcibiades)
∙ When we turn our gaze inward in search of self-knowledge, Socrates thought we would soon
discover our true nature
∙ We should not be identified with what we own, with our social status, our reputation, or even
with our body.
∙ We should only be maintained that our true self is our soul.
∙ Emphasized that it is the state of our soul, or our inner being, which determines the quality of
our life.
∙ He pronounces in Plato’s dialogue the Apology: “I shall never give up philosophy or stop
exhorting you and pointing out the truth to any one of you whom I meet, saying in my most
accustomed way: “Most excellent man, are you…not ashamed to care for the acquisition of
wealth and for reputation and honor, when you neither care nor take thought for wisdom and
truth and the perfection of your soul?” (Apology 29d)
∙ Virtue is defined as moral excellence, and an individual is considered virtuous if their character is
made up of the moral qualities that are accepted as virtues.
∙ Ancient Greece commonly accepted virtues included courage, temperance, prudence, and
justice
∙ To summarize this idea, it is useful to express it in a simple formula: knowledge = virtue =
happiness
∙ Stated that philosophy must obtain practical results for greater wellbeing of society. ∙ Believed that
the very first step towards realization of this goal is the acquisition of wisdom through “knowing
one’s Self. As Socrates famously said, “ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself.”
∙ Believed that every man is composed of body and soul. This means, every person is dualistic, that
is, he is composed of 2 important aspects of personhood. This means all individuals have an
imperfect, impermanent aspect to him, and the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul
that is perfect and permanent.

Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.) Greek philosopher “Ignorance. The root and stem of every evil.”

∙ In addition to what Socrates, Plato added that there are 3 components of the soul: the rational
soul, the spirited soul and appetitive soul.
∙ rational soul (intellect) is the thinking portion within each of us, which discerns what is real and
 not, judges what is true and what is false, and makes the rational decisions.
∙ spirited soul, is the active portion; its function is to carry out the dictates of reason ∙ appetitive soul
(emotion or desire) is the portion of each of us that wants and feels many things, most of which
must be deferred if we are to achieve self-control.
∙ DUALISM:
o There’s the body, which is material, mortal, and “moved” (a victim of causation). o
Then there’s the soul, which is ideal, immortal, and “unmoved” (enjoying free will). The
soul includes reason, of course, as well as self-awareness and moral sense. Plato says the
soul will always choose to do good, if it recognizes what is good.

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) Greek Philosopher- “We are what we do repeatedly.”

∙ Insisted that the human being is a composite of body and soul and that the soul cannot be
separated from the body.
∙ Aristotle’s philosophy of self was constructed in terms of hylomorphism in which the soul of a
human being is the form or the structure of the human body or the human matter ∙ Aristotle used
his concept of the soul in many of his works; the De Anima (On the Soul) provides a good place to
start to gain more understanding of his views.
∙ Sections of the soul:
o the calculative and scientific parts on the rational side used for making decisions,
o the desiderative,
o the vegetative parts on the irrational side responsible for identifying our needs.

St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354 - 430) “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is
restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

∙ St. Augustine emphasized the importance of the WILL, the ability to choose between good and
evil.
∙ Introduced the concept of freewill which means that humans are morally responsible for their
actions.
∙ Stated that the fundamental religious duty is to love and serve God; if we can succeed in this, we
will also choose the good and avoid the evil.

Thomas of Aquinas (1225-1274)- “Beware the man of a single book.”

∙ Have a theory of "indirect" self-knowledge, according to which the mind only knows itself in a
second-order act that reflects on a first-order act directed toward extramental objects ∙ Agreed
that man is composed of 2 parts: matter and form.
o Matter or hyle in Greek, refers to “common stuff that makes up everything in the
universe. Man’s body is part of theis matter.
o Form or morphe in Greek refers to the essence of a substance or thing. “It is what makes
what it is.”

René Descartes (1596 - 1650) French philosopher "Cogito ergo sum," I think, therefore I exist.
∙ Viewed the self as a thinking thing concludes that I know one thing clearly and distinctly, namely,
 that I exist because I think: "Cogito ergo sum," I think, therefore I exist. ∙ Believed that other truths
that I know clearly and distinctly, such as the principle of identity (A is A) and the notion that things
in the world are "substances."

David Hume (1711 - 1776) Scottish philosopher “No man ever threw away life while it was worth
living.”

∙ Believed that there is no soul, it is an illusion created by our unfounded trust in cause and effect.
Because our consciousness is constantly changing there is no ‘self’ which the same remains. ∙
Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) German philosopher “What can I know? What ought I do? What can I
hope?”
∙ Approach is often seen as “anti-metaphysical interpretation,”
∙ Seen his work as anticipating Wittgenstein’s claims that the self or subject “doesn’t belong to
the world, but is a limit of the world.”
∙ He thinks that, if there were any such thing, it would have to be something outside of
appearances, in the realm of things in themselves. Since that is a realm we could only cognize a
priori, a metaphysics of the self would have to be an a priori metaphysics of a thing in itself

Gilbert Ryle (1900 - 1976) 20th Century British philosopher – “Man need not be degraded to a machine
by being denied to be the ghost in a machine”

∙ Ryle rejects Descartes’ theory of the relation between mind and body
∙ Believes that mental processes are merely intelligent acts. There are no mental processes
distinct from intelligent acts
∙ States that the operations of the mind are not merely represented by intelligent acts; they are
those intelligent acts.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty-French philosopher (1908-1961) “I sense, therefore I am”

∙ Believed the physical body to be an important part of what makes up the subjective self ∙ Rejected
rationalism because it asserts that reason and mental perception, rather than physical senses and
experience, are the basis of knowledge and self.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939 ) The Psychoanalytic Theory “The mind is an iceberg, it floats with one
seventh of its bulk above water”

∙ Freud proposed that the conscious mind (everything we are aware of) is seen as the tip of an
iceberg; the unconscious mind is the repository of primitive wishes and impulses kept at bay and
meditated by the preconscious area.
∙ Freud developed a more structural model of the mind, comprising the:
o id (child in us), the unconscious level
o ego (adult)follows the reality principle both unconscious and conscious
o superego (parent), the psychic apparatus, the morality principle