University of Cebu

College of Liberal Arts

Psychology Department
Understanding the Self
Psych 101

Activity 2 

Name: Rhastee P. Toroy

Course and Year: BSME-2
Class Schedule: 1:00-4:00 PM

Instruction : In your own words state  what “Self”  is for each of the following philosophers. Base on
what you have understand on  the concept of “Self”.

1. Socrates 
To be called self, one should examine life to its core wherein the problem lays existentially.
Because of this inspection, Self will become complete with the body and discovery of the soul. If
you only have soul which is the perfect and permanent in being, it makes you incomplete
because you don’t have the body. Likewise, if you only have the body but you don’t examine life,
then you are still dead because you lack the soul. In contrast, both body and soul coincide in
order we can call the self as “self”.

2. Plato 
To be called self, 3 parts of soul should be balanced. The first part which is the rational soul,
responsible for reasoning, should weigh more than the second part which is the emotional soul,
describes the emotions, and the third part which is the appetitive soul- that is responsible for
desire and needs for survival. There will be circumstances that emotional and appetitive soul
can’t be controlled. In order for it to be justified, rational soul should be prioritized first because
self’s actions will be based on reasoning before satisfying the emotional and appetitive aspect.

3. Augustine 
Self is to seek God’s love while living. Self is born to be imperfect that’s why we have a role
model of being perfect which is God. We are born to follow the perfect by acknowledging our
imperfections- a tool to self-realization. There are two parts of self which is the body and the
soul. The body just remains and decays on earth when we die but the “soul of the self” will live
eternally with God because in the first place, it seeks God as a perfect being. If the soul of the
self already with the perfect being, then the soul indeed also a perfect being.
4. Descartes 
Self thinks therefore I am what I think. Self is all mind- it is a pure thoughts. But the mind has a
medium in portraying his thought which is the body. The body is just a tool of the mind to
portray the mind externally. With this, the body is just a part of the mind, the external mind.
Therefore, self is pure mind internally, but using a tool to express it externally.

5. Hume 
Self is pure body behaviours. It is the actions of feelings, and the stimulus of the senses makes
self. It is the impressions of the experiences of the body and an idea which rooted on the made
impressions, define self.

6. Kant 
Self indeed a collection of experiences and impressions. In order to synthesize its meaning and
unified thought, there should be responsible for it which he called the mind. The mind seeks
answers of existential questions that’s why there is a mind to work on a thought of knowledge
rooted on body’s experiences and impressions while living.

7. Ryle 
Self is an act depends on the situation we acted upon. Therefore, self is defined as the behaviour
that we make while we live.

8. Merleau- Ponty 
Self is a combination of the mind and body thus should be defined as the two and not to be
parted by the two. Self’s living body, thoughts, emotions to experiences are already inherent
from the start when the self is born. It should only not define to one aspect but to the branches
of many aspects as possible.