PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

What is Philosophy? the idea of virtue and intelligence

- From the Greek word Philos (love) and
Sophia (Wisdom) which means love of
wisdom.
- It is the study of acquiring knowledge
through RATIONAL thinking and
INQUIRIES that involves in answering
questions regarding nature and
EXISTENCE of man and the world we
live in.
SOCRATES
- First Martyr of Education
- Charged with corruptions with minor
- Made to choose between exile and
death via the intake of hemlock
- “The unexamined life is not worth living”
- For him, men’s goals in life is to
obtain happiness.
- Possession of knowledge is a VIRTUE;
IGNORANCE is a depravity.
- For him, a person’s acceptance of
ignorance is the beginning of acquisition
of knowledge.
- Knowing ourselves, lies in our abilities,
and wisdom.
- Know thyself
- Smarter Thinking: The Socratic Method
- Father of Academy
- Later became one of the pillars and
basis of what schools and education is
now in present.
He followed the ideas of Socrates in
knowing thyself
- He is notables for his work such as:
1. Allegory of the cave
2. The Apology
3. Perfect Government and Societal
System
4. The Republic
According to him, a person who is a
follower of truth and wisdom will not
be tempted by vices and will always
be:
• Correct
• Moral
• Ethical
He believed in the division of a
person’s BODY and SOUL, which forms
the person as a whole aside from the
material things and that could be
observed and associated with a person.

PLATO
- Student of Socrates
- Wrote several literature that tackle
politics, human nature, and established
Soul is Divided into 3 different parts
1. Appetitive soul - Appetitive soul is in
charge of base desires like eating,
drinking, sleeping and having sex are
controlled as well.
2. Spirited soul - Spirited is in charge of
emotions that should be kept at bay
3. Rational soul - Rational soul forged
by reason, intellect has to govern the
affairs of the human person
ST. AUGUSTINE
- A saint and a Philosopher.
- Follow the ideas that encompasses us
all, that everything will be better if we
are with God
- Believed that God and his teachings
affects various aspects in life.
- He rejected the doubtfulness of the
academy in which one cannot or should
not accept ideas from others
- Emphasized that we may not be able
to give our agreement to everything
other people tell us but we can still
agree to those who we are from our
own perception.
- “Right is right even if no one is doing
it; Wrong is wrong even if everyone is
doing it.
- Teaching of the church and establishing
our sense of self with God identifies the
essence of our existence and role in the
world (the reason for this is because our
bodies are limited.
RENE DESCARTES
- Father of Modern Philosophy
- He believed in modern dualism or the
existence of body and mind, and its
importance to one’s existence were
presented with the evidences from
experiments as well as philosophical
reasoning.
- Known to be the proponent of the
“methodological doubt”
- Methodological doubt – is the
continues process of questioning – what
we perceive and accepting the fact that
doubting, asking questions are part of
one’s existence.
- He also defined the roles of mind and
body to the notion of existence and the
sense of self
- He was also known for his statement
cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am)
- We should focus on the MIND in order
to perceive as who we are or the essence
of our existence because we cannot
always trust our senses
- Being in a constant doubt regarding
one’s existence is proof that a person is
actually exist.
JOHN LOCKE
- English Philosopher and Physician
- Considered to be the father of classical
liberation
- Tabula Rasa – the idea that children
are born as blank slates and that life
experiences form who they become as
adults.
JOHN LOCKE
- Scottish Philosopher
- Focused his work in the field of
empiricism, skepticsm, and naturalism.
- For him, self is accumulation of different
impression and does not exceed the
physical realm.
- Impressions are those we experience
through our senses and ideas which
create in our minds even if we no longer
experiencing it.
- There is no permanent self because
impressions of the things are based from
our experiences where we can create our
ideas and knowledge, thus it may
improve or totally replaced.
- Hume believed that there is no self, only
a bundle of impressions that is constantly
changing perceptions through our minds.
IMMANUEL KANT
- German Philosopher that is known for
his works on empiricism and
rationalism.
- Establish that the collection of
impressions and different contents is
what it only takes to define a person.
- Awareness of different emotions that we
have, impressions and behavior is only a
part of our self.
- He also argued about the sense of
“TRANSCENDENTAL
APPERCEPTION”
- Is an essence of our consciousness that
provides basis for understanding and
establishing the notion of self by
synthesizing one’s accumulation of
experiences, intuition and imagination.
- We experience, but still be able to
become aware of.
SIGMUND FREUD
- Austrian Psychologist and Physician
- Father of Psychoanalysis
- Known for his work on human nature
and the unconscious
- Believed that man has different
construct of personality that interacts with
each other.
According to Freud, man has 3 aspects
of personality:
1. ID – The child aspect of the
person; attention is on the
satisfaction of one’s needs and
self-gratification. Driven by
pleasure principle.
2. EGO – police or the mediator
between ID and super ego.
Operates within the boundaries of
reality. Primary function is to
maintain the impulses of ID to an
acceptable degree.
3. SUPER EGO – the conscience of
one’s personality. Has the
inclination to uphold justice and do
what is morally right and socially
acceptable actions. Involves in the
notion of right or wrong that is
imparted to us by our parents or
people that took care for us during
childhood.
He also introduced the levels of
consciousness:
1. CONSCIOUS – where minority of
our memories are being stored
and the memories that are in
conscious is easier to be tapped
or access.
2. PRE-CONSCIOUS – the middle
part of the entirety of our
consciousness; the memories
stored in this area can still be
accessed but with a little difficulty.
3. UNCONSCIOUS – This area is
where the minority of our
memories since childhood are
deeply stored. It is difficult to tap
the memories. We need a trained
professionals and several special
techniques in order to make some
memories resurface.
GILBERT RYLE
- He used behavioristic approach
to self
- The self is the behavior that we
presented by the person.
- He does not believed that the mind
and body are two separate entities
which is said to be evident in the
unexplainable phenomenon or
abilities of the mind where the soul is
considered; however to some they
can co-exist.
- He was famous for his idea that the
self is exemplified as a “GHOST IN
THE MACHINE”
- Meaning that man is a complex
machine with different functioning,
parts, and intelligence and other
characteristics or behavior of how
man is represented by the ghost in
the said machine
PAUL AND PATRICIA
CHURCHLAND
- Canadian Philosopher
- His focus is on the idea that people
should improve our association and
use of worth in identifying the self
- The self is defined by the movement,
actions, connections of our brain
system.
- They conceptualize about the
NEUROPHILOSOPHY, wherein they
believed that to fully understand one’s
behavior, one should understand the
different neurological movement of
the brain that pertains to different
emotions, feelings, actions, and
reactions, and how such brain
movements affect the body.
Maurice Jean Jacques
Merleau Ponty
- French Philosopher
- Known for his works on
EXISTENTIALISM and
PHENOMENOLOGY
- He regarded that the self is regarded
that the BODY and MIND are not
separate entities but rather those two
components is one and the same.
He coined the idea of phenomenology
of perception or the unity of the
function of the mind and the body,
which is divided into three division:
1. The Body – that bothe receives
the experience as well as
integrates such experiences in the
different perceptions.
2. Perceived World – The
accumulation of the perception as
integrated by the experiences of
the body.
3. The people and the world –
eneable one to not be able to
integrated the other objects in the
world but also to be able to
experience the cultural aspects
and relate to others.