PHILOSOPHICAL

PERSPECTIVES
OF
THE SELF
 BIOGRAPHY
OF
PHILOSOPHERS
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society
 Sophronicus and  Teacher of Plato  Father of
Phaenarete ( parents)  Tutor of Western
Socrates
 Studied music, Alexander the Philosophy
gymnastics, and Great  “Know Thyself”
grammar  An unexamined
 Served the military life is not worth
and saved the life of living
Alcibiades, a popular
Athenian General
 Convicted and
sentenced to death by
drinking hemlock
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society
• Named from the • Founded the • Teacher of
word Platon meaning Academy – first Aristotle
Plato “broad shoulders” institutions of
• Ariston and higher learning
Perictione (parents) • Wrote the Apology
• Studied metaphysics of Socrates, The
and epistemology Republic, Crito, and
• Participated in Allegory of the
Peloponnesian War Cave
• Placed under house • Theory of Forms
arrest for conspiracy • Three Parts of Soul
• Died while sleeping
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

Saint • Son of a Christian • Wrote “Confessions” • Saint Augustine

mother and a pagan (personal account of of Hippo
Augustine father his life) and City of • Sometimes
• Taught rhetoric at the God called “Father of
age of 21 • Formalized the Roman
• Became a priest in doctrine of original Catholicism”
391 and Bishop in sin • Considered
395 patron saints of
• Died in 430 theologians and
those with “sore
eyes”
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

• Joachim (father’s name) • Formulated the • Cogito Ergo

Rene • Born in 1596 and died in first modern Sum (I think
Descartes 1650 version of mind- therefore I am)
• Though intelligent, his body dualism • Father of
health was poor, and • Invented the use Modern
allowed to stay in bed of “x and y” Philosophy
until 11 in the morning to
• Took law degree in represent
1616, studied unknown
mathematics and variables
military architecture • Invented
• Join the military after “Analytic
finishing law Geometry”
• Introduced
deductive
reasoning
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society
John Locke • Born 1632 and died 1704 • His Political Views • Locke’s
• Studied Greek, Latin, influenced both Philosophy
Hebrew, Arabic, American and personal identify
Mathematics and French consist of
Geography Revolutions continuity of
• He finished Bachelor of • Some Thoughts consciousness
Medicine Concerning • Father of
• Founder of the Whig Education, Two Classical
Movement in British Treatises of Liberalism
politics, became Lord Government, • Sometimes called
Chancellor in 1672 An Essay “Philosopher of
Concerning Freedom”
Human
Understanding
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

David Hume • Born 1711 died 1776 • Known for his • He said it is not
• Joseph and Catherine empiricism and reason that
(parents) skepticism governs human
• He suffered a nervous • His famous behavior but
breakdown in 1729 writings “A desire instead
• Hume never married and Treatise of
had no children. Human Nature” • His philosophy
and “History played an
of important role in
England the development
of critical
philosophy of
Immanuel Kant
and Auguste
Comte
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

Immanuel • Born 1724, Konigsberg, • Critique of Pure He proposed a

Kant Prussia
• He died 1804
•His goals were to save
knowledge by combining
rationalism and empiricism.
Reason and Critique moral law called the
of Judgment – His “categorical
famous works imperative,”
stating that morality
is derived from
rationality and all
moral judgments are
rationally
supported. (Act the
way you believe
everyone should
Act)
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

Gilbert Ryle • Born 1900, Sussex, • Concept of Mind– He opposed

England His famous work Descartes
• He died 1976 philosophy “the
mind inside the
body” which he
referred to as
“Ghost in the
Machine”
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

Gilbert Ryle • Born 1900, Sussex, • Concept of Mind– He opposed

England His famous work Descartes
• He died 1976 philosophy “the
mind inside the
body” which he
referred to as
“Ghost in the
Machine”
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

Paul • Born 1942, Vancouver, • Major Proponent Folk psychology, or

Churchland Canada of Eliminative commonsense
• Studied at University of Materialism psychology which
British Columbia seeks to explain
human behaviour in
terms of the beliefs
and desires of
agents), is actually a
deeply flawed
theory that must be
eliminated in favour
of a mature
cognitive
neuroscience.
 Famous Works/
Recognition and
Philosopher Life Contributions to
Philosophy
Society

Maurice • Born 1908, Rochefort, •Phenomenology • We perceive the

Merleau - France of Perception world through our
Ponty • Officer during World War bodies; we are
II embodied subjects,
•Died in 1961 at the age of involved in
53 existence.
 SIMILARITIES AND
DIFFERENCES OF WELL-
KNOWN PHILOSOPHERS
ABOUT
“THE SELF”
 Philosophical
Philosopher Similarities Differences
View of the Self
Socrates Human soul was Socrates, Plato, and Plato believed that
invisible, Saint Augustine man in this world is an
immortal, and believed that man has illusion. The real man is
directs the soul. Soul pre-existed the idea of man. There
physical body. the body and death is is no self in reality. The
viewed as release of self of an individual
Plato Man has soul and the soul from the body. man in this world is
it has three They believed that soul immersed in the
aspects namely: is separated from the universal idea of man.
reason physical body.
desire, and spirit. Saint Augustine’s belief
Socrates, Plato, and of the immortality of
Saint Man as rational Saint Augustine the soul became the
Augustine substance emphasized the core of Christian
constituted of soul superiority of the soul teachings.
& body over the body.
 Philosophical
Philosopher Similarities Differences
Views of the Self
The soul is Socrates, Plato, and For Hume, self must be
superior to the Saint Augustine constant, persisting,
body. Human believed the self is a stable thing, and yet
being is a product of interplay knowledge is derived
perfect unity of between soul and from impressions, which
soul & body. body. are transient, non-
persisting, variable
Descartes The self is a Plato and Freud both things, it follows that we
thinking thing have three divisions of do not really have
distinct from the soul/self. knowledge of a “self”
body and therefore, there in
Descartes, Locke, Kant, NO self but illusion.
Ponty and Freud
described self as a
mental substance, a
thinking thing.
 Philosophical
Philosopher Similarities Differences
Views of the Self
John Locke The self exist Descartes, Locke, Ponty For Freud, superego is a
because of regarded self as activity layer of oneself with two
memory. of the mind, you exists systems: conscience and
Personal identify because you are conscious, ideal self
is made possible you have memory, and you
by self- are thinking.
consciousness

A person is a
thinking intelligent
being that has
reason &
reflection&
consider itself as
itself, the same
thing thinking in
different times &
places.
 Philosophical Views
Philosopher Similarities Differences
of the Self
David Hume There is no self, only a
bundle of different
perception passing
through the theater of
our minds (there are
no persons that
continue to exist over
time)
 Philosophical Views
Philosopher Similarities Differences
of the Self
Gilbert Ryle The self is the way The Concept of Mind
people behave by Gilbert Ryle is a
rebuttal of Descartes
‘res cogitans’, which he
calls the ‘The Ghost in
the Machine’.
Descartes believed we
have such a ‘thinking
thing’ in our head.
Gilbert says that’s
impossible; it has
never been found and
never will, because it is
a ghost.
 Philosophical Views
Philosopher Similarities Differences
of the Self

Immanuel The self transcends

Kant experiences

Paul
The self is the brain
Churchland

Maurice – The self is an

Merleau - embodied subjectivity
Ponty