Understanding the Self

Learning Module No. 01

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Learning Module on Understanding the Self

 LEARNING MODULE INFORMATION
I. Course Code US 101
II. Course Title Understanding the Self
III. Module Number 01
IV. Module Title The Self from Various Perspectives
V. Overview of the Module This module discusses the different representations and
conceptualizations of the self from various disciplines.
VI. Module Outcomes The outcome of the module is for you to realize your own
conceptualization and representation of yourself and be
able to develop a pleasant and wholesome attitude
towards oneself by responding to the Self-Reflection activity
at the end of this module. You should reflect on your actions
and behaviors in different circumstances thus maintaining a
healthy self-worth.
VII. General Instructions
You must allot the necessary time to complete the lessons
each week. If you choose not to complete the lesson using
the schedule provided, you must understand that it is your
full responsibility to complete them by the last day of
completion. Time is of the essence.
The module is designed to assess student understanding of
the assigned lessons found within the associated content of
the midterm and final period of the course. The assessment
part of the module is composed of varied types of questions.
You may see true/false, traditional multiple choice,
matching, multiple answer, completion, and/or essay. Pay
attention to the answer to the assessment questions as you
move through each lesson. After each module you will be
given a summative test. Your responses to the assessment
parts of the module will be checked and recorded.
Because the assessment questions are available within the
whole completion period and because you can reference
the answers to the questions within the content modules, we

Learning Module on Understanding the Self

will not release the answers within modules. However, your
professors are happy to discuss the assessments with you
during their consultation time, should you have any
questions.

Added instruction with regards to the Progress Tracker

To track your progress in the completion of the module,

each time you completed a task in each part of the lesson
you will earn a badge. Now, to help you not to skip one of
them, you are task to color the badges earned so that you
can go back to the activities you remained idle.

Budget your time wisely and effectively. Enjoy. Good luck!

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Lesson1. Philosophical Perspectives

Philosophy has always sought to answer life’s difficult questions and has relentlessly
pursued answers to these no matter how seemingly futile the quest may be. This lesson will
discuss selected philosopher’s answer to the question, “WHO AM I?” That question may be
one of the most difficult to answer and has garnered attention tight from the start of man’s
self-reflection.

Lesson Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
 Understand the importance of knowing one’s self
 Recognize the different perspectives regarding the nature of man
 Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different schools
 Examine one’s self against the different views of the self

Getting Started:
Growing up, we were first taught as
kids to articulate and write our names.
Further, we were told to refer back to this
name when talking about ourselves. But
really, who exactly are we? What do we
mean by the “SELF”?
Are we souls, or minds or
combination of body and mind? Will we
survive bodily death because we are more
than a body or when our body is dead,
that’s really the end?
The philosophical quest is aimed at
unraveling who man is and his nature by
Do you know yourself? looking, not just on the everyday goals of a
man, but to determine what ultimately is man, his goals, and his essence.

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Discussion:

From time of the classic philosophers up to this day, not one answer to the question of WHO
AM I, can be universally centralized. We can respond to this question in varied ways and
according to how we comprehend and analyze this “simple yet difficult to answer” question.
To help and guide us somehow, we will now take a look at how some great minds from our
history approach the question, “WHO AM I?”

The Classical Philosophers

Socrates (470–399 BCE)
- “Know Thyself”

- “Market Philosopher”
- “An unexamined life is not
worth living”

For him, there was a soul first before

man’s body. The soul has knowledge
by direct intuition and all these are
stored in his mind. However, once he
came to the material world, he lost it in
the world of senses. He forgot most of
what he knew. This resulted in the lack
of knowledge or ignorance which
causes problems to a man.
But this can be restored through
dialectic method or the Socratic
Method, a sort of intellectual midwifery
trying to painfully coax knowledge out
of man. It is the exchange of question
and answer that ultimately aims to
make the person remember all the
knowledge that he has forgotten.

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Plato (428/427- 348/347 BCE)

- Socrates’ prized student
- Founded the Academy (Academia)
or the prototype of the modern
university (Law, S., 2007)

Plato believed that man is

composed of body and soul. The
soul is the true self which is the
unchanging and permanent self.
The body is the replica of true self
that is changing, getting older, etc.
The body is considered as prison of
our soul.
We can free ourselves from the
imprisonment of our bodily senses
through contemplation or the
communion of the mind with
universal and eternal ideas. For him,
we continue to exist even the
absence of bodies because we are
souls only.

He also believed that the soul is

composed of three components:
Rational soul – responsible for
reason and intellect

Spirited soul – in charge of emotions

Appetitive soul – responsible for

eating, drinking, sleeping, and even
sexual needs

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Augustine (354-430 AD)

- Self-confessed sinner
- Bishop of Canterbury
- Inspired by Plato

Taking his cue from Plato’s idea of ideal

world or the world of forms, gave him a
philosophical idea of God and paved the
way for his return to Christianity.
According to him, our world is only
temporary home (AD 426). The real world
is where the God is, as God is the ultimate
expression of love (City of God,
Books XI-XXII). Out of that love, He created
man in His image.
Man pursues happiness, but this can only
achieved in God alone. More so, moral
law exists and imposed in the mind so we
can discern the distinction between right
and wrong. However, we have the Eternal
law which should be universally followed
because this is coming from the Eternal
Reason or the God Himself. This is the law
of conscience that tells us if our action is
morally good or bad.

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Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274)

- Most eminent 13th century scholar
- Supported Augustine’s view
For him, man is composed of two parts:

 Matter or Body – “hyle” in Greek, “common stuff

that makes up everything in the universe”
 Form or Soul – “morphe” in Greek, “the essence
of substance or thing”

The soul is what animates the body; it is what makes

us humans.

Rene Descartes (1596- 1650)

- Father of Modern Philosophy
- “I think, therefore, I am.” (Cogito ergo sum)

Rene Descartes emphasized that man has the mind

(cogito) and body (extenza) that are separate
but the mind is conjoined with the body.
This has led to his conclusion that the essence of the
Self is in it being a thinking being, because even if he
can doubt whether he has real body or it’s just a trick
of his senses, one thing he cannot doubt is that he is
thinking.
For him, when the body is gone, the mind may
continue to exist and function.

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John Locke (1632- 1704)

- Father of Classical Liberalism
- Inspired by Descartes

According to John Locke (1975), our self is not locked

.
in the mind, soul, or body only. He included the
concept of person’s memory in the definition of self.
He subscribes to the memory theory that we are the
same person as the past as long as we can
remember something from that past. Personal identity
is explained in terms of psychological connection
between life stages in the memory theory.
We are connected to that past as long as our
memories are around, we are around

David Hume (1711- 1776)

- Wrote the history book, “History of England”

- Considered as Empiricist

Empiricism is a school of thought that knowledge is possible if

it is sensed or experienced.
David Hume (1738) believed that the mind is divided into
two:
Impressions – what we perceive through our senses as we
experience them
Ideas – what we create in our minds even though we no
longer experience them

For David Hume, the self is a bundle or collection of different

perceptions, which succeed each other with an
inconceivable rapidity,

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and are in perpetual flux and movement. Simply, it is a combination of all experiences with
a particular person. We cannot observe any permanent self because we constantly
undergo change, so there is no self.

Immanuel Kant (1724- 1804)

- He refuted Hume’s idea of self

- “All our knowledge begins with the
senses, proceeds then to the
understanding, and ends with the
reason. There is nothing higher than
reason.”
Man is a free agent, capable of making a
decision for himself (Kant, 1781). We are
gifted with reason and free will. We have
the free will to be moral or not. He
emphasized that every person should not
be exploited or used. Man should not be
reduced to a thing but be valued as a
person.
To know our duty, we have to rationally
deliberate on it, not expect that higher
authority will hand it to us, and not let our
emotion guide us.

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Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939)

- Father of Psychoanalysis
- “The ego is not the master on its own.”

Sigmund Freud believed that our mind has three components:

Id – desires and impulses
Ego – Self (negotiator)
Superego – moral standards or the ethical component of personality

He also stated that the Subconscious mind is where the battle between id and superego
takes place. And the realm of the ego is found in the Conscious mind.

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Gilbert Ryle (1900- 1976)

His philosophy centers on language through linguistic
analysis. He claims that the problems of philosophy
were brought about only because of the confusion
due to misinterpretation, misunderstanding, etc. of
words (1949).
The mind expresses the entire system of thoughts,
emotions, actions, and so on that make up the human
self (Ryle, 1949).
This mind is part of the body. The only way we can
know how the mind is working is through behavior of
the person, hence we can only know a person though
how he behaves, his tendencies, and reactions in
certain situations.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908- 1961)

For him, the self is grounded on the experiences from the
past, the possibilities for the future, and the present
cognition.
The self is a continuous flow of movement and expression
from infancy and adulthood (1962). It is the product of
our conscious human experience. It is all about one’s
perception of experiences and interpretation of those
experiences.

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Application

Essay. (20 points). Directions. In your own words, state what “self” is for each of the following
philosophers. Relate it with real-life situation. Each item is equivalent to 5 points. It will be
checked based on the rubric below:
Criteria Corresponding
Points
A. Answers the specific central question that was asked. 1.5
B. Incorporates pertinent and detailed information from class discussion 1.5
and assigned readings, providing needed evidence.
C. Presents all information clearly and concisely and in an organized 1.5
manner.
D. Avoids distracting grammar and spelling. .5
Total 5

1. Socrates

2. Sigmund Freud

3. Augustine

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4. Immanuel Kant

Summary of the Lesson:

The philosophical quest of one’s definition of self, certainly carries with it a constant
debate of mind-body dualism versus those espousing singularity. Additionally, each
philosopher presented their views on the self in the lenses of philosophical, biblical, and
psychological.

Enrichment Activity:
Self-examination. Essay. (15 points). Directions. Answer the following essay questions using 5-6
sentences. Each item is equivalent to 5 points. It will be checked based on the rubric below:
Criteria Corresponding
Points
A. Answers the specific central question that was asked. 1.5
B. Incorporates pertinent and detailed information from class discussion 1.5
and assigned readings, providing needed evidence.
C. Presents all information clearly and concisely and in an organized 1.5
manner.
D. Avoids distracting grammar and spelling. .5
Total 5
1. How can you describe yourself based on your own perspective or point of view?
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2. What aspect of yourself do you feel good about? Why?

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3. What aspect of yourself do you believe you have to improve? Why?

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References/Attributions:
Alata E. et.al. (2018). Understanding the Self. 1st Ed. (pp.1-11)
Palean E. et.al. (2018). Introspection: Understanding the Self

Learning Module on Understanding the Self