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The self from various philosophical
perspectives
Socrates
Human are compost of body and soul.
Soul – perfect and permanent
Body – imperfect and impermanent
Plato
 Student of Socrates
 3 components of soul
 Rational – reason and intellect
 Spirited – charge and emotions
 Appetitive – charge of base desires
 Justice attain if 3 souls are working with another
Augustine
 View of human reflect the entire spirit of medieval
when it comes to man
 He follows the view of Plato and combine with new
found doctrine of Christianity
 Man is bifurcated nature
 Body is bound to die on earth while soul is anticipate
living eternally with God
 Goal of a person is to attain communion and bliss on
earth virtue
Thomas Aquinas
 Adapt the idea of Aristotle
 Man is composed of matter and form
 Matter (hyle) – makes up everything in universe
 Form (morphe) – essence of substance or things
 Soul or essence is what make us humans
Rene Descartes
 Father of modern philosophy
 Conceived of the human person as having body and
mind
 The meditations of first philosophy (BOOK)
 There is so much to doubt
 Human is not infallible or not perfect to think
 One should that since which can pass the test of
doubt (Descartes 2008)
 The only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence
of the self
 Cogito ergo sum, “I think therefore I am”
 Body is nothing but a machine that is attached to the
mind
David Hume
 Very unique way of looking at man
 An empiricist who believes that one can know what
comes from the sense and experiences (Philosopher
John Locke)
 Empiricism is the school of thought or a belief that
knowledges can be attained by sensed and
experienced.
 Self is nothing but a bundle of impressions
Examine his experiences can be all categorized into two:
 Impressions – experience or a sensation
 Ideas – copies of impression
Immanuel Kant
 Everything starts with perception and sensation of
impressions
 Mind organizes the impressions that men get from
the external world (apparatus in mind)
 Without self, one cannot organize the different
impression that gets from relation of existence
 Actively engaged intelligence in that man
synthesized all knowledge and experience
 Self is not just giving personality, also it is the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all human
Gilbert Ryle
 What truly matters is the behavior that person
manifest in his everyday life
 Self is not entity but a name the refers to all behavior
of people they make
Merleau-Ponty
 Mind and body are intertwined or can’t separated
 One can’t find experience is not embodied experience
rather all experience is imbodied
 Body, thoughts, emotion and experiences are one
John Locke
 Personal identity or the self is depending on
consciousness not on the substance nor the soul.
 Believes that one can know what comes from the
sense and experiences
Sociology
 From classical sociological perspective the self is the
relatively stable set of perceptions of who we are in
relations to ourselves, others, and to social system
 Study of human society/ social life/ social
interactions on the society
Anthropology
 Self-embedded in culture
 Study of human behavior of society
Psychology
 Sense of self is defined as the persons think about
view of traits, beliefs and purpose within the world
 Study of mind and behavior
Self in Western thoughts
 Enduring self refers that “you are the same person
you were earlier in your life.”
The self, society, and culture
Self is defined by characteristics: Separate, self-contained,
independent, consistent, unitary, and private.
 Separate – distinct from others, always unique and
own identity
 Self-contained and Independent – distinctions allow
it to be self-contained with though, characteristics,
and volitions. Itself can exist.
 Consistent – personality that is enduring, expected to
persist for quite some time. Allow to be studied,
describe and measured.
 Self in unitary - center of experiences and thoughts
through a certain person
 Self is private - information feelings and emotions,
and thoughts processes within the self or Isolated
from the external worlds.
Social constructivist perspective
Social constructionists
 view of “the person” and “their social context”. The
boundaries cannot easily separate from others.
(Stevens 1996)
 The self is always in participation with social life and
its identity subjected to influences here and there.
The self and culture
Marcel Mauss - French Anthropologist
Every self has two faces:
 Moi – Persons sense of who he is, his body, basic
identity and biological giveness
 Personne – compost of social concepts. It has
particular institutions: family, religion, nationality,
and how to behave given expectations and influences
from others.
Example:
Language – in Filipino, the word “Mahal” can mean
both love and expensive
Gender Neutral – in other language male and female:
He (el) and she (ella). “siya” gender not specified.
Mead and Vygotsky
 persons develop is with the use of language
acquisition and interaction with others.
 cognitive and emotional development of a child is
mimicry of external world.
 young child internalizes values, norms, practices, and
social beliefs and more through exposure to these

dialogs that will eventually become part of his
individual world.
Mead
 this takes place as a child assumes the “other”
through language and role play.
Vygotsky
 child internalizes real-life dialogs that he has had
with others, with his, family, his primary caregiver,
or his playmates.
 “children are great imitator”
The self in family
 The most prominent is the family
 Child is born with certain givenness, disposition
coming from his parents’ genes and general condition
of life, the impact of one’s family is still deemed as a
given in understanding the self.
 Resources available to us (human, spiritual,
economic), and the kind of development that we will
have certainly affect us as we go through life.
 dependency period of a human baby to the parents for
nurturing is relatively longer than most other animals.
 In becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a
system of relationship, most important of which is the
family.
Gender and self
 Gender is one of the loci of the self that is subject to
alteration, change, and development.
 Some may insist biological but social sciences give
importance is to give one leeway to find, express and
live his identity.
Nancy Chodorow
 Feminist, argues that because mothers take the role of
taking care of children, there is a tendency for girls to
imitate the same and reproduce the same kind of
mentality of women as care providers in the family.
 Toys are encouraged to play with reinforces the
notion of what roles they should take and the selves
they should develop
 Men on the other hand, are taught early on how to
behave like a man.
 This normally includes holding in one’s emotion,
being tough, fatalistic, not to worry about danger, and
admiration for hard physical labor.
 Masculinity is learned by integrating a young boy in
a society.
The Self as Cognitive Construct
Self is the sense of personal identity and of who we are as
individuals (Jhangiani and Taryy 2014).
William James (1890)
earliest psychologists to study the self and
conceptualized the self as having two aspects the “I” and the
“me”.
The “I” is the thinking, acting and the feeling, on the
other hand, the “me” is the physical characteristics as well as
psychological capabilities that makes who you are.
Carl Roger’s Theory of personality
used the same terms, the “I” as the one who acts and
decides while the “me” is what you think or feel about
yourself as an object.
Self-schema - organized system or collection of knowledge
about who we are.
SELF = HOBBIES, RELIGION, NATIONALITY, FAMILY
Example:
 Other mention your name
 someone speaks with the same dialect you
have
 a book store for book lover
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Sigmund Freud
saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s behavior
as the results of the interaction between the Id, the Ego and the
Superego.
Id (unconscious) – pleasure – oriented, selfish.
Driven by pleasure. Insatiable instincts present from birth.
Ego (conscious) – Rational. Driven by the reality
principles. Balance the conflict of Id and superego.
Superego – Develops through socialization. Concern
with morality, right and wrong.
Id = Instincts, Ego = Reality, Superego = Morality
Example:
 Id – “I want to do that now”
 Ego – “Maybe we can compromise.”
 Superego – “It’s not right to do that.”
G.H Mead (1934)
The theory of symbolic Interactionism argued that the
self is created and developed through human interaction.
3 reason why self and Identity is a social product
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually
need others to affirm and reinforce who we think
we are.
3. What we think is important to us may also have
been influenced by what is important in our
social or historical context.
Social interaction and group affiliation - are vital factors in
creating our self-concept. (Jhangiani and Taryy 2014).
Carver and Scheier (1981)
There are two types of self:
1. Private self- internal standard. Private thoughts and
feelings
2. Public self – public image commonly geared toward
having good presentation of yourself to other.
Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-
schemas:
1. Actual self – who you are at the moment.
2. Ideal self – who you like to be.
3. Ought self – who you think you should be.
Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the
circumstances and action
Self-awareness can keep you from doing something dangerous
The self in western and eastern thoughts
Different cultures and environments tend to create
different perception of the “self” most common distinctions
between cultures and people is the Eastern-vs—Western
dichotomy wherein Eastern represents Asia and Western
represents Europe and Northern America.
Confucianism
can be seen as a code of ethical conduct, of how one should
properly act according to their relationship with other people.
thus, it is also focused on having a harmonious social
life. Therefore, the identity and self-concept of the individual
are interwoven with the identity and status of his/her
community or culture, sharing its pride as well as its failures.
(Ho 1995)
Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate purpose of life
but the characteristics of a chun-tzu, a man of virtue or noble
character, is still embedded in his social relationship.
Cultivated self in Confucianism is “Subdued self” for
scholars wherein personal needs are repressed (subdued) for
the good of many, making Confucian society also hierarchal
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for the purpose of maintaining order and balance in society
(Ho 1995).
Taoism
is living in the way of universe or Tao. However,
Taoism rejects having one definition of what the Tao is, and
one can only state clues of what it is as they adopt a free-
flowing, relative, unitary, as well as paradoxical view of
almost everything.
Asians, with their collectivistic culture, put more emphasis on
hierarchy as the culture wants to keep things in harmony and
order (Qingxue 2003)
Example: Westerns called their parents with first name while
Asians use respectful terms.
With the social media, migration, and intermarriages, variety
between the Western and Asian perceptions may either be
blurred or highlighted.

The self is not just an extension of the family or the Whereas conflict is inevitable in diversity, peace is also
community; it is part of the universe, one of the forms and possible through the understanding of where each of us is
manifestations of the Tao (Ho 1995) coming from.

The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting

about the self, it is living a balanced-life with society and
nature, being open and accepting to change, forgetting about
prejudices and egocentric ideas and thinking about equality as
well as complementary among humans as well as other beings.

Buddhism

The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance,

of trying to hold and control things, or human-centered needs;
thus, the self is also the source of all these sufferings (Ho
1995)

It is, therefore, our quest to forget about the self,

forget the cravings of the self, break the attachments you have
with the world, and to renounce the self which is the cause of
all sufferings and in doing so, attain the state of Nirvana (Ho
1995)

Summary

Confucianism and Taoism

still situate the self within a bigger context. To create

a self above other people or nature but a self that is beneficial
to his community.

Buddhism

the self, with all its connections and selfish ideas,

and the whole picture of it.

Western Perspective

does not discount the role of environment and society

in the formation of the self but the focus is always looking
toward the self.

comparing yourself in order to be better.

Americans

example talk more about their personal attributes

when describing themselves.

Asians

talk about their social roles or the social situations

that invoked certain traits that they deem positive for their
selves.

Western culture

called an individualistic culture. Their focus is on the

person.

Asian culture

called a collective culture as the group and social

relations that is given more importance that individual needs
and wants.

Westerners also emphasize more on the value of equality

One can say that they also promote ideals that create “fair”
competition and protect the individual