Summary of Philosophical Ideas about Self

PHILOSOPHICAL
PHILOSOPHER ERA/YEAR (BC/AD)
IDEA
“An unexamined life is not
worth living”, is the keyword
of Socrates' idea about the
self. He states that the soul is
immortal and even if a human
died, it’s not its end. There is
what we call the world after
death. In his concept, he
introduced the physical and
469-399 BCE
Socrates ANCIENT PERIOD
ideal realm. The body
belongs to the physical
realm, while the soul belongs
to the ideal realm. So in order
to have a good life, one must
live a good life. That’s what
brought happiness even
afterlife because we did the
real purpose of life, to
become good.

Plato 428-348 BCE

Plato Believed that a human
ANCIENT PERIOD was comprised of a body,
which is physical, and a soul,
which is spiritual. His ideas on
the subject, although not
originally his, become the first
fully developed ideas in
western philosophy of human
beings consisting of two parts.
Like his teacher, Plato
believed humans to be
essentially their souls. He
believed that the body’s desire
were important, but not as
much as the souls. He also
believed that the soul is
immortal. That the soul existed
before it came to the physical
body, and it is still there when
the body dies. This is a dualistic
interpretation of the mind/body
problem.
 Augustine believed that the
physical body was both
radically different from and
inferior to its inhabitants, the
immortal soul.
Correspondingly, in his
354 AD–430 AD mission to discover the truth
St. Augustine MEDIEVAL PERIOD on the existence of God,
Augustine develops the
fundamental concept of the
human person, and thus
provides the philosophical
principle: “I am doubting,
therefore I am”,

To Aquinas, the soul is what

animates the body; it is what
makes us humans. He beliefs
that the human soul
is incomplete when the body
it animates perishes. When
you die, part of you, your
substantial form or soul
subsists or survives apart
St. Thomas 1225–1274 from your body. Also,
Aquinas MEDIEVAL PERIOD Aquinas thinks that our souls
are responsible for the kind of
bodies we have, and our
bodies not only play a
positive role in our lives but
are also essential to our
continued existence. It is the
natural aptitude and tendency
of the soul to be united to the
body.

Rene Descartes 1596–1650

MODERN “I think, therefore I am,” is a
famous philosophical
(RENAISSANCE) statement formulated by
Rene Descartes. It is also
known in Latin as “cogito
ergo sum” or simply “cogito”.
This statement serves as the
foundation for knowledge in
the face of radical doubt.
According to him, the
 essence of existing as a
human identity is the
possibility of being aware of
ourselves as to be self-
conscious is integral to
having a personal identity.
Conversely, it would be
impossible to be self-
conscious if we didn’t have a
personal identity of which to
be conscious.

David Hume was a British

empiricist who likes other
empiricists believed that
human beings can know
nothing beyond what is
revealed to them by their
experience. Hume also
believed that the human
mind, human reason, is
severely limited in its power
1711–1776 to interpret and understand
that experience.
David Hume MODERN Hume took philosophical
(ENLIGHTENMENT) empiricism and skepticism to
its ultimate conclusion,
questioning whether it was
possible for human beings to
truly know anything
whatsoever about
themselves or their world:
"So narrow are the bounds of
human understanding, that
little satisfaction can be
hoped for in this particular”.

1724–1804
EARLY MODERN Kant thinks that the 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
impressions. To Kant, there
Immanuel Kant 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 it is built in our
minds. Kant calls these the
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.

Ryle Gilbert 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
1900–1976 matters is the behavior that a
Ryle Gilbert CONTEMPORARY person manifests in his day-
to-day life. Ryle suggests
that 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.

Maurice Merleau- 1908–1961

CONTEMPORARY Maurice Merleau-Ponty is a
Ponty 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 that they
cannot be separated from
one another. One cannot find
any experience that is not an
embodied experience. All
experience is embodied.
One’s body is his opening
toward his existence to the
world.