LESSON 1:

PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES OF THE SELF

PREPARED BY:
SAHARA S. LUCERO, RPM
LESSON OBJECTIVES

✓ Explain the role of philosophy in understanding the self.

✓ Compare and contrast how the self has been represented
across the different philosophical perspectives.
✓ Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the
development of self from the philosophical perspectives.
✓ Develop your own philosophy of the self.
Thoughts to ponder…

✓ What do we even mean by the word “SELF”?

✓ Am I really in control of my actions and thoughts?
✓ Will we exist after bodily death?
✓ Do we get reincarnated?
✓ Am I just a fragment of some else’s imagination?
✓ How would you characterize yourself?
✓ What makes you stand out from the rest ? What makes your
self special?
✓ What will happen to your self after you die?
What is Philosophy?
✓Greek work “Philein” and “Sophia” which literally mean “love” and
“wisdom”
✓“The love and pursuit of Wisdom”
✓Finding answers to serious questions about ourselves and about the
world we live in.
✓What is a good life?
✓Does God exist?
✓What is the mind?
✓Do I get reincarnated after death?
✓What makes moral, moral and immoral, immoral?
✓Questioning existing knowledge and intuitions to get closer to the
truth.
HENCE,

✓PHILOSOPHY IS “A WAY OF LOOKING AT

THE WORLD AND GIVING IT MEANING. IT
CAN PROVIDE A HIGH QUALITY METHOD OF
EXAMINING OUR BELIEFS.”
ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY AND
LOGIC

✓The never ending search for truth (importance, significance,

valuable).
✓Search for meanings: importance, significance, value, relevance
✓Ask a lot of questions
PHILOSOPHY AND SELF
SOCRATES “Know Thy Self”
✓He agreed that self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a
happy and meaningful life.
✓“An unexamined life is not worth living”: meaning we
should learn to "reflect“
✓ "One thing only I know, and that is I know
nothing.“: the more that we know, the more
questions we ask.
✓Age comes with more questions and answers. To
answer unanswered questions, we continue to seek
for answers.
✓ concerned with the problem of the self
✓ concerned about the self and existence
✓ question about the meaning of the self
✓SOCRATIC METHOD: How knowledge is brought
(teaching by asking questions).
SOCRATES “Dualistic approach”
✓ Used in understanding the self: BODY and SOUL
Body : imperfect and impermanent
Soul: perfect and permanent
✓ Dichotomous Realms
➢ Physical realm: changeable, transient and imperfect, the body
belongs to this realm
➢ Ideal realm: unchanging, eternal, and immortal; the soul belongs
to this realm.
➢ There is a soul before the body: Once the soul comes into the
material world, he forget everything: By being born in this world
we disconnect from being wise as we were before from the realm
of ideas.
✓ Ideal Realm: We focus on who we are, who we should be and
who will become.
✓ The soul strives for wisdom and perfection and reason is the
souls tool to achieved exalted/happy state of life.
✓ What keep us from attaining wisdom?: focuses on material
possessions.
PLATO

✓"Student of Socrates"
✓Founded the Academy: considered as
prototype of today’s universities.
✓Dichotomy between ideal (world of
forms/realm of ideas beyond our
consciousness) and material world (the
world we exist right now is just a replica
of the real world)
✓Believe in the existence of the SOUL.
 ✓ RATIONAL soul: reason, intellect,
✓Soul as the most enables us to think deeply, make
divine aspect of the wise choices, thinking soul
self. ✓ Spirited soul: emotion and passion
➢Divine means the soul ✓ Appetitive soul: basic needs,
is the most intellectual
aspects of the person. The 3 elements are in dynamic
relationship but sometimes in conflict.
✓3 components of When conflict arises, reason's
SOUL: responsibility to sort things out.
➢Rational soul
E.g: If you are angry and you want to
➢Spirited soul heart others. Reason would tell you to
➢Appetitive soul do the right thing without hurting
somebody.
RENE DESCARTES "Cogito ergo sum"
✓"I think,, therefore I am.“
✓Father of modern philosophy.
✓HYPERBOLICAN DOUBT: " doubting the
existence of his own physical body“
✓The existence of the body is NOT the
proof that you exist.

How can Descartes prove that I exist?

➢The mere fact that I can DOUBT is
enough to prove that I can exist.
➢Your ability to question things is the proof
that you can exist.
RENE DESCARTES
"mind-body dualism"
✓Descartes believed that a man consisted of:
• Matter: The physical stuff that walks, talks,
and plays the accordion.
• Mind: The nonphysical substance
(sometimes equated with the soul) that
thinks, doubts, and remembers
✓The nature of the mind (that is, a thinking, non-
extended thing) is completely different from
that of the body (that is, an extended, non-
thinking thing).
✓Therefore, it is possible for one to exist without
the other.
✓The mind is united with the body to form a
human being.
JOHN LOCKE “TABULA RASA”

✓The person is born like a blank slate. Clueless about

the world. With experience we write in our blank
slate/mind, and it got encoded.
✓ MEMORY: Our identity is not locked in the mind,
soul or body only. If we don’t have memory, we
cannot have a CONTINOUS Identity.
✓Identity is explained in terms of psychological
connection between life stages due to memory (we
remember our experiences or what happened in the
past).
✓We learn more because of experiences and our
ability to remember these experiences allows us to
remember who we are today.
Example : You are so hardworking, because when
you were a child, you were rewarded for being hard
working.
DAVID HUME ✓ "All knowledge is derived from human senses. “
✓ Influenced by empiricism (they don’t believe on what can’t be
seen or observe. We make use of our senses.)
✓ Bundle theory: collection of impressions. The person is a
collection of impressions.
✓ Impressions: vivid, products of direct experiences
(perceptions of reality
✓ Ideas: copies of impressions; imaginations
Example of impression: What you feel when we talk to our
boyfriend is happiness.
Example of Idea: Do you have an idea how does it feel to touch a
hot water?

✓ THERE IS NO SELF: "Personal identity is just a result of

imagination”. The mind is simply a container for fleeting
sensations.
IMMANUEL KANT There is SELF. We construct self.

✓The self constructs its own reality, actively

creating a world that is familiar, predictable, and
most significantly, mine.
✓The self is a product of reason. Through
RATIONALITY, people can understand certain
abstract ideas that have no corresponding
physical object or sensory experience.
✓Self is not just what gives one his personality
but also the set of knowledge acquisition for all
human persons.
✓The self constructs its own reality creating a
world that is familiar and predictable.

Example: For example, imagine that your abandoned by your

group mates and you got zero in the activity.
What is Philosophy of Self and why it is
important?
✓A philosophy is the pinnacle of one’s life: Without philosophy we are
subject to aimless bouts where life seems sometimes void and
meaningless.
✓Philosophy adds structure and balance, to implement goals and reach
one’s dreams: It is the roadmap to our actions and thoughts, the
processing tool of reason.
✓Improve critical thinking, argument skills, analysis skills, problem solving
skills, and communications.
✓Allows you to: justify your opinions , spot a bad argument, explain to
people and why they are wrong, and you are right, philosophy teaches us
to think, and it Answers our WHY.
END OF LESSON 1