DEFINING THE SELF: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY

LESSON 1 - The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives

INTRODUCTION

Before we even had to be in any formal institution of learning, among the many things
that we were first taught as kids is to articulate and write our names. Growing up, we were told
to refer back to this name when talking about ourselves. Our parents painstakingly thought
about our names. Our names represent who we are. Human beings attach names that are
meaningful to birthed descendants because names are supposed to designate us in the world.
Our names signify us. However, a name is not the person itself no matter how intimately bound
it is with the bearer. The self is thought to be something else than the name. The self is
something that a person perennially molds, shapes, and develops. The self is not a static thing
that one is simply born with like a mole on one’s face or is just assigned by one’s parents just
like a name. Everyone is tasked to discover one’s self. Have you truly discovered yours?

LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self;

2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the
various philosophers across time and place;
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical
schools; and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class.

COURSE MATERIALS

Philosophical Self

The history of philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the
fundamental nature of the self. Along with the question of the primary substratum that defines
the multiplicity of things in the world, the inquiry on the self has preoccupied the earliest thinkers
in the history of philosophy: the Greeks. The Greeks were the ones who seriously questioned
myths and moved away from them in attempting to understand reality and respond to perennial
questions of curiosity, including the question of the self. The different perspectives and views

“THE COUNTRY’S 1st POLYTECHNICU”

on the self can be best seen and understood by revisiting its prime movers and identify the most
important conjectures made by philosophers from the ancient times to the contemporary period.

PHILOSOPHERS
• Socrates
• Plato
• Augustine
• Descartes
• Locke
• Hume
• Kant
• Freud
• Ryle
• Churchland
• Merleu-Ponty

SOCRATES

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher considered to be the main source of

Western thought. He was condemned to death for his Socratic method of questioning.

Socrates was a scholar, teacher and philosopher born in ancient Greece. His Socratic
method laid the groundwork for Western systems of logic and philosophy. 

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When the political climate of Greece turned against him, Socrates was sentenced to death by
hemlock poisoning in 399 B.C. He accepted this judgment rather than fleeing into exile.

Philosophy

Socrates believed that philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater well-
being of society. He attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather
than theological doctrine. 

Socrates pointed out that human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness.
Ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself. The more a person knows, the greater his or her
ability to reason and make choices that will bring true happiness. 

Socrates believed that this translated into politics with the best form of government being
neither a tyranny nor a democracy. Instead, government worked best when ruled by individuals
who had the greatest ability, knowledge and virtue, and possessed a complete understanding of
themselves.

Socrates was more concerned with the problem of the self. He was the first philosopher
who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self. To Socrates, and this has been
his life-long mission, the true task of the philosopher is to know oneself.

PLATO

Ancient Greek philosopher Plato founded the Academy and is the author of philosophical
works of unparalleled influence in Western thought.

Ancient Greek philosopher Plato was a student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle.
His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained discussions in aesthetics,
political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the philosophy of language. Plato

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founded the Academy in Athens, one of the first institutions of higher learning in the Western
world. 

Philosophy

Plato, Socrates’ student, basically took off from his master and supported the idea that
man is a dual nature of body and soul. In addition to what Socrates earlier espoused, Plato
added that there are three components of the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the
appetitive soul. In his magnum opus, “The Republic” (Plato 2000), Plato emphasizes that
justice in the human person can only be attained if the three parts of the soul are working
harmoniously with one another. The rational soul forged by reason and intellect has to govern
the affairs of the human person, the spirited part which is in charge of emotions should be kept
at bay, and the appetitive soul in charge of base desires like eating drinking, sleeping, and
having sex are controlled as well. When this ideal state is attained, then the human person’s
soul becomes just and virtuous.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the
one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church,
and his authority in theological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Ages and
remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtually uncontested till the nineteenth century.

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 Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) lived from 13 November 354 to 28 August 430. He was
born in Thagaste in Roman Africa (modern Souk Ahras in Algeria). His mother Monnica (d.
388), a devout Christian, seems to have exerted a deep but not wholly unambiguous influence
on his religious development. His father Patricius (d. 372) was baptized on his deathbed.
Augustine himself was made a catechumen early in his life. 

Philosophy

Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world
when it comes to man. Following the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with the newfound
doctrine of Christianity, Augustine agreed that man is of bifurcated nature. An aspect of man
dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine and the other
is capable of reaching immortality.

The body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm
of spiritual bliss in communion with God. This is because the body can only thrive in the
imperfect, physical reality that is the world, whereas the soul can also stay after death in an
eternal realm with the all-transcendent God. The goal of every human person is to attain this
communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.

RENE DESCARTES

Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes is regarded as the father of modern

philosophy for defining a starting point for existence, “I think; therefore I am.”

René Descartes was extensively educated, first at a Jesuit college at age 8, then
earning a law degree at 22, but an influential teacher set him on a course to apply mathematics
and logic to understanding the natural world. This approach incorporated the contemplation of

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the nature of existence and of knowledge itself, hence his most famous observation, “I think;
therefore I am.”

Philosophy

Rene Descartes, Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived of the human person as

having a body and a mind. In his famous treatise, The Meditations of First Philosophy, he
claims that there is so much that we should doubt. In fact, he says that since much of what we
think and believe are not infallible, they may turn out to be false. One should only believe that
since which can pass the test of doubt (Descartes 2008). If something is so clear and lucid as
not to be even doubted, then that is the only time when one should actually buy a proposition.
In the end, Descartes thought that the only thing one cannot doubt is the existence of the self,
for even if one doubts oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks
and therefore, that cannot be doubted. Thus, his famous cogito ergo sum, “I think therefore, I
am.” The fact that one thinks should lead one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he
exists. The self then for Descartes is also a combination of two distinct entities, the cogito, the
thing that thinks, which is the mind, and the extenza or extension of the mind, which is the body.
In Descartes’s view, the body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind. The
human person has it but it is not what makes a man a man. If at all, that is the mind. Descartes
says, “But what then, am I? A thinking thing. It has been said. But what is a thinking thing? It
is a thing that doubts, understands (conceives), affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines
also, and perceives” (Descartes 2008).

JOHN LOCKE

English philosopher John Locke's works lie at the foundation of modern philosophical
empiricism and political liberalism.

John Locke went to Westminster School and then Christ Church, University of Oxford. At
Oxford, he studied medicine, which would play a central role in his life. He became a highly

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influential philosopher, writing about such topics as political philosophy, epistemology, and
education. Locke's writings helped found modern Western philosophy.

Philosophy

The English philosopher—and physician—John Locke continued exploring the themes

Descartes had initiated, both in terms of the nature of knowledge (epistemology) and the nature
of the self. He shared with Descartes a scientist’s perspective, seeking to develop knowledge
based on clear thinking, rigorous analysis, and real-world observation and experimentation.
However, Locke brought a very different approach to this epistemological enterprise. Descartes
believed that we could use the power of reason to achieve absolutely certain knowledge of the
world and then use this rationally based knowledge to understand our world of experience. His
extensive work in mathematics served as a model, convincing him that there were absolute
truths and knowledge waiting to be discovered by reasoned, disciplined reflection.

Locke’s work as a physician, rather than a mathematician, provided him with a very
different perspective. The physician’s challenge is to gather information regarding the symptoms
a patient is experiencing, and then relate these symptoms to his (the physician’s) accumulated
knowledge of disease. Although a successful doctor uses sophisticated reasoning abilities in
identifying patterns and making inferences, his conclusions are grounded in experience.
Knowledge, in other words, is based on the careful observation of sense experience and/or
memories of previous experiences. Reason plays a subsequent role in helping to figure out the
significance of our sense experience and to reach intelligent conclusions.

To sum up: For Descartes, our reasoning ability provides the origin of knowledge and
final court of judgment in evaluating the accuracy and value of the ideas produced. For Locke,
all knowledge originates in our direct sense experience, which acts as the final court of
judgment in evaluating the accuracy and value of ideas. As a result, Descartes is considered an
archetypal proponent of the rationalist view of knowledge, whereas Locke is considered an
archetypal advocate of the empiricist view of knowledge.

DAVID HUME

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 In his autobiography written near the end of his life, David Hume describes himself as a
“man of mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour,
capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my
passions.” Those who knew him agreed for the most part with his assessment.

Hume was born on February 24, 1711, in Edinburgh. His father died when he was an
infant, leaving him and his two older siblings in the care of his mother. Hume went with his older
brother to the University of Edinburgh in 1723. He “passed through the ordinary course of
education with success” and left the university without taking a degree. Hume writes that from
an early age, he “found an insurmountable Aversion to anything but the pursuits of Philosophy
and General Learning,” and that his passion for literature (comprising philosophy and history)
“has been the great ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyments.”

Philosophy

David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, has a very unique way of looking at man. As an
empiricist who believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experiences,
Hume argues that the self is nothing like what his predecessors thought of it. The self is not an
entity over and beyond the physical body. One can rightly see here the empiricism that runs
through his veins. Empiricism is the school of thought that espouses the idea that knowledge
can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced. Men can only attain knowledge by
experiencing. For example, Jack knows that Jill is another human person not because he sees
her, hears her, and touches her.

To David Hume, the self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions. What are
impressions? For David Hume, if one tries to examine his experiences, he finds that they can
all be categorized into two: impressions and ideas. Impressions are the basic objects of our
experience or sensation. They therefore form the core of our thoughts. When one touches an
ice cube, the cold sensation is an impression. Impressions therefore are vivid because they are
products of our direct experience with the world. Ideas, on the other hand, are copies of
impressions. Because of this, they are not as lively and vivid as our impressions. When one
imagines the feeling of being in love for the first time, that still is an idea.

What is the self then? Self, according to Hume, is simply “a bundle or collection of
different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a
perpetual flux and movement.” (Hume and Steinberg 1992). Men simply want to believe that
there is a unified, coherent self, a soul or mind just like what the previous philosophers thought.
In reality, what one thinks is a unified self is simply a combination of all experiences with a
particular person.

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IMMANUEL KANT

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher during the Enlightenment era of the late 18th
century. His best-known work is the 'Critique of Pure Reason.'

While tutoring, Immanuel Kant published science papers, including "General Natural

History and Theory of the Heavens" in 1755. He spent the next 15 years as a metaphysics
lecturer. In 1781, he published the first part of Critique of Pure Reason. He published more
critiques in the years preceding his death on February 12, 1804, in the city of his birth.

Philosophy

Thinking of the “self” as a mere combination of impressions was problematic for

Immanuel Kant. Kant recognizes the veracity of Hume’s account that everything starts with
perception and sensation of impressions. However, Kant thinks that the things that men
perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human person without organizing
principle that regulates the relationship of all these impressions. To Kant, there is necessarily a
mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world. Time and space, for
example, are ideas that one cannot find in the world, but is built in our minds. Kant calls these
apparatuses of the mind.

Along with the different apparatuses of the mind goes the “self’. Without the self, one
cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. Kant
therefore suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all
knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what gives one his personality. In
addition, it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human persons.

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SIGMUND FREUD

Austrian neurologist who is credited with developing the field of psychoanalysis. He is

considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Twentieth Century, even though many of
his ideas have been challenged in recent decades.

Philosophy

Sigmund Freud’s view of the self leads to an analogous dualistic view of the self,
though the contours and content of his ideas are very different from Kant’s. Freud is not, strictly
speaking, a philosopher, but his views on the nature of the self have had a far-reaching impact
on philosophical thinking, as well as virtually every other discipline in the humanities and social
sciences. Naturally, his most dominant influence has been in the fields of psychology and
psychoanalysis. Freud’s view of the self was multitiered, divided among the conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious. He explains his psychological model in the following passage
from his An Outline of Psychoanalysis.

It is by no means an exaggeration to assert that the concept of the unconscious forms

the central core in Freud’s theory of the structure and dynamics of the human personality. And
though the conscious self has an important role to play in our lives, it is the unconscious self
that holds the greatest fascination for Freud, and which has the dominant influence in our
personalities. Freud’s focus on the unconscious self marks a significant departure from previous
efforts in philosophy to understand the nature of the self, and in so doing, it challenges the
traditional philosophical assumption that the self can be explored and understood primarily
through rational reflection and analysis.

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 Perhaps Freud's single most enduring and important idea was that the human psyche
(personality) has more than one aspect.
Freud's personality theory (1923) saw the psyche structured into three parts (i.e., tripartite), the
id, ego and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives. These are systems, not
parts of the brain, or in any way physical.
According to Freud psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of
the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-ego
operates as a moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the
desires of the id and the super-ego.

Although each part of the personality comprises unique features, they interact to form a
whole, and each part makes a relative contribution to an individual's behavior.

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What is the id?

The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the
inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality present at birth, including the sex (life)
instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and the aggressive (death) instinct - Thanatos.

The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and
immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all id
and only later does it develop an ego and super-ego.
The id remains infantile in its function throughout a person's life and does not change
with time or experience, as it is not in touch with the external world. The id is not affected by
reality, logic or the everyday world, as it operates within the unconscious part of the mind.
The id operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that every
wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. When the id
achieves its demands, we experience pleasure when it is denied we experience ‘unpleasure’ or
tension.
The id engages in primary process thinking, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and
fantasy oriented. This form of process thinking has no comprehension of objective reality, and is
selfish and wishful in nature.
What is the Ego?
The ego is 'that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the
external world.' (Freud, 1923, p. 25)
The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is
the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id
is chaotic and unreasonable.
The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of
satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative

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consequences of society. The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in
deciding how to behave.

Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure (i.e., tension reduction) and avoids pain, but unlike
the id, the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure. The ego has no
concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without
causing harm to itself or the id.
Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can do is stay
on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action were
its own.
Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider. The ego is
'like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superiour strength of the horse.' (Freud,
1923, p. 15)
If the ego fails in its attempt to use the reality principle, and anxiety is
experienced, unconscious defense mechanisms are employed, to help ward off unpleasant
feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good things feel better for the individual.
The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational, realistic, and
orientated towards problem-solving. If a plan of action does not work, then it is thought through
again until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control
their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.
An important feature of clinical and social work is to enhance ego functioning and help
the client test reality through assisting the client to think through their options.

What is the superego?

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from
one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 years during the phallic stage
of psychosexual development.

The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society
forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to
moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

The superego consists of two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The
conscience can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt. For example, if the ego gives in
to the id's demands, the superego may make the person feel bad through guilt.
The ideal self (or ego-ideal) is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be, and
represents career aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behave as a member of
society.
Behavior which falls short of the ideal self may be punished by the superego through
guilt. The super-ego can also reward us through the ideal self when we behave ‘properly’ by
making us feel proud.

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 If a person’s ideal self is too high a standard, then whatever the person does will
represent failure. The ideal self and conscience are largely determined in childhood from
parental values and how you were brought up.
GILBERT RYLE

Gilbert Ryle (1900 - 1976) was a 20th Century British philosopher, mainly associated

with the Ordinary Language Philosophy movement.

He had an enormous influence on the development of 20th Century Analytic Philosophy,

particularly in the areas of Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Language.

He was especially well-known for his definitive critique of the Dualism of Descartes (for

which he coined the phrase "the ghost in the machine") and other traditional mind-body
theories. His form of Philosophical Behaviorism (the belief that all mental phenomena can be
explained by reference to publicly observable behavior) became a standard view for several
decades.

Philosophy

Gilbert Ryle solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the
history of thought by blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. For Ryle,
what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life.

For Ryle, looking for and trying to understand a self as it really exists is like visiting your
friend’s university and looking for the “university”. One can roam around the campus, visit the
library and the football field and still end up not finding the “university”. This is because the
campus, the people, the systems, and the territory all form the university. Ryle suggests that

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the “self” is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that
people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.

PATRICIA S. CHURCHLAND

For decades PATRICIA S. CHURCHLAND has contributed to the fields of philosophy of

neuroscience, philosophy of the mind, and neuroethics. Her research has centered on the
interface between neuroscience and philosophy, with a current focus on the association of
morality and the social brain. A professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of California,
San Diego, and adjunct professor at the Salk Institute, she holds degrees from Oxford
University, the University of Pittsburg, and the University of British Columbia. She has been
awarded the MacArthur Prize, The Rossi Prize for Neuroscience, and the Prose Prize for
Science.

Churchland has authored multiple pioneering books, her most recent being Conscience:
The Origins of Moral Intuition. She has served as president of the American Philosophical
Association and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. 

Philosophy

Patricia Churchland is a neurophilosopher. That’s a fancy way of saying she studies new
brain science, old philosophical questions, and how they shed light on each other.

For years, she’s been bothered by one question in particular: How did humans come to
feel empathy and other moral intuitions? What’s the origin of that nagging little voice that we call
our conscience?

In her new book, Conscience, Churchland argues that mammals — humans, yes, but
also monkeys and rodents and so on — feel moral intuitions because of how our brains
developed over the course of evolution. Mothers came to feel deeply attached to their children
because that helped the children (and through them, the mother’s genes) survive. This ability to
feel attachment was gradually generalized to mates, kin, and friends. “Attachment begets
caring,” Churchland writes, “and caring begets conscience.”

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 Conscience, to her, is not a set of absolute moral truths, but a set of community norms
that evolved because they were useful. “Tell the truth” and “keep your promises,” for example,
help a social group stick together. Even today, our brains reinforce these norms by releasing
pleasurable chemicals when our actions generate social approval (hello, dopamine!) and
unpleasurable ones when they generate disapproval.

You’ll notice that words like “rationality” and “duty” — mainstays of traditional moral
philosophy — are missing from Churchland’s narrative. Instead, there’s talk of brain regions like
the cortex.

Rooting morality in biology has made Churchland a controversial figure among

philosophers. Some think that approach is itself morally repugnant because it threatens to
devalue ethics by reducing it to a bunch of neurochemicals zipping around our brains. A number
of philosophers complain that she’s not doing “proper philosophy.” Other critics accuse her
of scientism, which is when you overvalue science to the point that you see it as the only real
source of knowledge.

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY

Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work is commonly associated with the philosophical movement

called existentialism and its intention to begin with an analysis of the concrete experiences,
perceptions, and difficulties, of human existence. However, he never propounded quite the
same extreme accounts of radical freedom, being-towards-death, anguished responsibility, and
conflicting relations with others, for which existentialism became both famous and notorious in
the 1940s and 1950s.

Philosophy

Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation that has
been going on for a long time is a futile endeavor and an invalid problem. Unlike Ryle who
simply denies the “self”, Merleau-Ponty instead says that the mind and body are so intertwined

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that they cannot be separated from one another. One cannot find any experience that is not an
embodied experience. One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the world. Because of
these bodies, men are in the world. Merleau-Ponty dismisses the Cartesian Dualism that has
spelled so much devastation in the history of man. For him, the Cartesian problem is nothing
else but plain misunderstanding. The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are
all one.

READINGS/REFERENCES:

1. Alata, E.J. & Caslib, B.N. 2018. Understanding the Self. First Edition. Rex
Bookstore
2. Socrates. Retrieved from
https://www.biography.com/scholar/socrates
3. Plato. Retrieved from
https://www.biography.com/scholar/plato
4. Saint Augustine. Retrieved from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine/#Life
5. John Locke. Retrieved from
https://www.biography.com/scholar/john-locke
https://revelpreview.pearson.com/epubs/pearson_chaffee/OPS/xhtml/ch03_sec_
05.xhtml
6. Great Thinkers David Hume. Retrieved from
https://thegreatthinkers.org/hume/biography/
7. Immanuel Kant. Retrieved from
https://www.biography.com/scholar/immanuel-kant
8. Sigmund Freud Biography. Retrieved from
https://www.biographyonline.net/scientists/sigmund-freud-biography.html
9. Id, Ego and Supergego by Saul McLeod. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
10. Gilbert Ryle. Retrieved from
https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ryle.html
11. Patricia S. Churchland. Retrieved from
https://www.edge.org/memberbio/patricia_s_churchland#
12. How your brain invents morality by Sigal Samuel. Retrieved from
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/7/8/20681558/conscience-patricia-
churchland-neuroscience-morality-empathy-philosophy
13. Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Retrieved from
https://iep.utm.edu/merleau/

WATCH:

1. Understanding the Self Philosophical Perspectives (Series 1) – Ryan

Jimenez. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR1HGEPmayE
2. Self in Philosophical Perspective/Philosophical Views of the Self – Mahjalin
Bugtong. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dIE21mVSiA

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 17

ACTIVITIES/ASSESSMENT:

Do you truly know yourself?

Answer the following questions about yourself as fully and precisely as you can.

o How would you characterize yourself?

o What makes you stand out from the rest? What makes yourself special?
o How has yourself transformed itself?
o How is yourself connected to your body?
o How is yourself related to other selves?
o What will happen to yourself after you die?

Analysis

Were you able to answer the questions above with ease? Why/ Which questions did you
find the easiest to answer? Which ones are difficult? Why?

Application and Assessment

In your own words, state what “self” is for each of the following philosophers. After doing
so, explain how your concept of “self’” is compatible with how they conceived of the “self”.

1. Socrates
2. Plato
3. Augustine
4. Descartes
5. Locke
6. Hume
7. Kant
8. Freud
9. Ryle
10. Churchland

Assignment

1. Be ready for a Quiz (coverage is Lesson 1). The quiz will be uploaded in MS Teams.

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 18

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 19