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 “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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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. “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. 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.
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