Unit I.

The Self from Various

Disciplinal Perspectives The Greeks were the ones who seriously questioned myths
to understand reality and respond to questions of
Lesson 1. Philosophical Perspective curiosity, including the question of the self.

Philosophy The Pre-Socratic Philosophers like Thales, Pythagoras,

-from 2 Greek words
1. philein which means love
2. sophia which means wisdom.
-Study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality,
and existence especially in an academic discipline.
What explains the changes that happen around us?
Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles and others were
concerned with answering questions like:
What is the world really made up of?
Why is the world the way it is?

Name Nationality Known for Other info

Greek One of the • -Socratic Method where a problem is broken up into parts with various questions
founders of which help a person determine their underlying beliefs
Western • -Believed that reality is dualistic,
Philosophy o Physical realm which is changeable and imperfect;
o Ideal realm which is unchanging and immortal
Socrates • -Believed that people should ideally live to better themselves rather than seek
(c.469 BC-c.399 material wealth
BC) • -First to engage in a systematic questioning about self
• “Know thy self”
• -To live but die inside
• -Every man is composed of:
o body (physical)- imperfect, impermanent aspect
o soul (ideal)- perfect and permanent
Greek Theory of • One of the founders of Western thought, helped shape ideas about government &
the societies
Tripartite • His The Republic talked about justice and the state’s role in society and in the lives of
Soul people
• Believed in the immortality of the soul
Plato • Justice can be attained if 3 parts of the soul are working with one another
(c.428 BC-c.348 • Reason – Our divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and
BC) achieve a true understanding of eternal truths
• Physical Appetite – Our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst and sexual
desire
• Spirit or Passion – Our basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness,
empathy
• Ideal State: Just and Virtuous life
North African First • His discourse on the issue of free will
Christian Humans have personal responsibility and God has no bearing on our actions
theologian • No evil force, but evil exists in the absence of good
to connect • Man is of bifurcated nature:
Plato’s ideas -Body is bound to die on earth
to church -Soul is living eternally in communion with God
Saint Augustine
doctrine • Body can only thrive in the imperfect, physical reality, i.e. world
of Hippo
• Soul can stay after death in an eternal realm
(354-430)
Goal: to attain communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth with virtue
Italian Fathered the • Helping bridge the gap between faith and reason
school of • Man is composed of 2 parts:
thought 1. Matter (hyle in Greek) – common stuff that makes up everything in the universe
entitled 2. Form (morphe in Greek) –essence of a substance of thing
Thomas Aquinas Thomism • The body of the human person is something that he shares with the animals
(1225-1274) • What differs human from animal is his soul, his essence
• Soul is what animates the body; it is what makes us human
French The Father • “I think, therefore I am,” as he sees the self as the “thinking thing”
of Modern • He questioned everything from the existence of God to his own existence
Philosophy • Theory of the duality
1. Mind
2. Body
• Defended the idea of free will
• There is so much that we should doubt
Rene Descartes • The only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of the self, for even if one
(1596-1650) doubts oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and
therefore, that cannot be doubted
• The fact that one thinks should lead one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he
exists
• 2 distinct entities of self:
1. Cogito –thing that thinks -Mind
2. Extenza – extension of the mind-Body
• What makes man a man is the mind.
• What is a thinking thing? “It is a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills,
refuses; that imagines also, and perceives.”
Scottish Dialogue • He was of the empiricist school of thought- his ideals focused on things in the world
Concerning that could directly observed and experienced. Following from this belief, many
Natural consider him one of the first atheists.
Religion and • There is NO SELF.
Natural • The Self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions;
David Hume History of • 2 categories of experiences
(1711-1776) Religion 1. Impressions – basic of our experience; the core of our thoughts; products of our
direct experience with the world
2. Ideas- copies of impressions
-when one imagines the feeling of being in love for the first time, that is still an
idea
• SELF as simply a “bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each
other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.”
• Men simply want to believe that there is a unified, coherent self, a soul or mind just
like what previous philosophers thought
• In reality, what one thinks is a unified self is simply a combination of all experiences
with a particular person
German Greatest • Attempted to synthesize rationalism and empiricism, by showing the important role
Thinker of both experience and reason play in constructing our knowledge of the world.
the 18th • We construct the self.
Century • Believes Hume’s account that everything starts with perception and sensation of
impressions
• Things that men perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human
person without an organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all these
Immanuel Kant
impressions
(1724-1804)
• There is a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world
• Without self, one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation
to his own existence
• Self is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all knowledge and
experience
• Hence, the self is not just what gives one his personality, it is also the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all human persons
British Solving of • What truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life
Philosophica • Self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that
l Puzzles people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make
through
Gilbert Ryle Language
(1900-1976)
French Leading • Asserted that the mind-body bifurcation is a futile endeavor and an invalid problem
Academic • Mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another
Proponent of • One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the world
Existentialis • The living body, his thoughts, emotions and experiences are all one
m and
Maurice Phenomenol
Merleau-Ponty ogy
(1908-1961)
Lesson 2. Psychological Perspective In psychology,
Self
Psychology -is the sense of personal identity and of who we are as
-First used-study of the soul individuals
-Today-study of the mind. -similar to identity and self-concept
Identity
The Self as a Cognitive Construct Composed of one’s personal characteristics, social roles,
Cognitive Psychology responsibilities and affiliations that define who one is
–mental processes such as perception, thinking, learning Self-Concept
and memory, with respect to the internal events occurring What you think or feel about your self
between sensing and the expression of behavior.
Psychological theories “Self, identity and self-concept are not fixed for life.
See the self and identity as mental constructs, created and However, they can’t be ever changing every moment. Like
recreated in memory (frontal lobe is associated with the a metal, they can be molded into other shapes
processes concerning the self). but at its core, it’s the same element.”

William James • Conceptualized the self (1890):

(1842-1910) 1. I – thinking, acting, and feeling self
2. Me – physical characteristics and capabilities

Carl Rogers • Theory of Personality (1959):

(1902-1987) 1. I – one who acts and decides
2. Me – what you think or feel about yourself as an object
• Rogers captured this idea in his concept of SELF-SCHEMA, our
organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are.
The schema includes our hobbies, religion, nationality, family,
interests, work, course, age, name and physical characteristics.
• Self-concept has three components:
1. Self-image – the view of your self
2. Self-esteem – how much value you place on your self
3. Ideal-self – what you wish you really like
• For self-actualization (to fulfill one’s potentials in order to be a
fully functioning person) to occur, a person’s ideal self must be
consistent with his/her self-image.
Sigmund Freud - Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory on Instincts: Motivation,
(1856-1939) Personality and Development
- First to discuss the unconscious mind and human behavior.
- 3 levels of consciousness according to Freud
- Unconscious mind- outside of your awareness at all time
- Preconscious mind- all information that you are not currently
aware of but that can be recalled
- Conscious mind- your current state of awareness
- The self, mental processes and one’s behavior are results of the
interaction among the id, ego and superego- or the 3 parts to the
personality
- Id- (exist in unconscious mind)
-operates on the pleasure principle and represents primitive
desires and impulses
-illogical and fantasy oriented
- Ego (exist in pre conscious & conscious mind)
-operates on the reality principle
-mediates between the id and superego
-modified by the direct influence of the external world
- Superego (exist in all 3 levels of consciousness)
-operates on the morality principle and represents conscience
- Ego ideal -view of what is right
- Conscience- what you considered wrong
-applies the learned values of society
 - The id, ego and superego must relate harmoniously together. If
not, it will result to internal conflicts

Erik Erikson • He developed the concept that the environment plays a

(1902-1994) significant role in self-awareness, adjustment, human
development and identity.
• Theory on psychosocial development
• 8 stages of development
1. Basic Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy 1-2 yrs. old)
2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (Early Childhood 2-4 yrs. old)
3. Initiative vs Guilt (Preschool age 4-5 yrs. old)
4. Industry vs. Inferiority (School age 5-12)
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence 13-19 yrs. old)
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood 20-40 yrs. old)
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (Adulthood 40-65 yrs. old)
8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Maturity 65-death)

Lesson 3. Sociological and Anthropological Perspectives

Sociology
- the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and
consequences of human behavior.
- It does not see a person on his or her own, but rather,
- the impact of social institutions and relationships within society
on one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It provides tools for
understanding the human experience and society.
Anthropology
- The study of humans, past and present
- In studying the self, anthropology examines
the developmental advancements society has
made and how they have impacted how
people who existed within that society live
their lives

Nationality Known for Other info

French Father of French Two Faces of the Self
Ethnography and 1. Moi- refers to the person’s sense of who he is, his body and
a leading figure his basic identity, his biological givenness
in the French 2. Personne- the social concepts of what is means to be who
school of he is; what it means to live in a particular institution/group
sociology and how to behave given expectations and influences from
Marcel Mauss others
(1872-1950)
American Theory of The self is created and developed through human interaction
Symbolic Society helped in creating the foundations of who we are; thus, we
Interactionism operate in our social and cultural contexts.
We are social products because:
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
George H. 2. We need others to affirm and reinforce who we are.
Mead 3. What we think is important may have been influenced by
(1863-1931) what is important in our social and historical context
Greek- Being a pioneer • Harry Triandis, a cross-cultural psychologist, has studied
American of cross-cultural culture in terms of individualism and collectivism.
psychology • He went on to spend decades studying the ways people in
different cultures define themselves
• Individualists define themselves as individuals. They seek
personal freedom and prefer to voice their own opinions
Harry C. and make their own decisions.
Triandis • Collectivists are more likely to emphasize their
(1926-2019) connectedness to others. They are more likely to sacrifice
their personal preferences if those preferences come in
conflict with the preferences of the larger group
 Self in Families
• The kind of family we are born in will certainly affect us as we go through life.
• Without a family, a person may not survive or become a human person.
Gendered Self
1. Sex 2. Gender-
- biological fact - social construct
-Natural distinguishing -Are socially
variable based on differentiated roles,
biological characteristics and
characteristics of being expectations attributed
a man or a woman. by culture to women
and men.

-Gendered self is shaped within a particular context of time and space; taught to ensure that an individual fits in a particular
environment.
-Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by the society and culture.

The Self in Western and Eastern Thoughts

Western Eastern
• Dualistic perspective, • Interconnectedness
i.e. self is distinct in perspective, i.e.
from the other other people as well
person; the creator is as things created
separated from the are part of the self
object he created • Social roles/
• Personal attributes to situations that
describe the self surfaced positive
• Individualistic culture traits
• Focus is on the • Collectivistic culture
person • Focus is on the
• Values the individual group and social
• Fair competition relations
(equality) • Values the welfare
of the group and
cooperation
• Compromising