LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE

3/15/2022

JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)

 Born Wrington, England
 Son of a puritan lawyer
 Interested in politics and like his father, he was a defender of the parliamentary
system.
 At the age of 57, he published a book on the scope and limits of the human mind.
(Price, 2000)
 His interest is on the workings of the human mind particularly the acquisition of
knowledge.
 He believed in contrast to Rene Descartes, wherein understanding requires the
senses.

Believed in the concept of empiricism:

 “no man’s knowledge can go beyond his experience”
 “nothing exists in the mind that has not first been experienced”

He believed that “Knowledge results from ideas produced A Posteriori or by

objects that were experienced”.
The process involves two forms:
1. SENSATION – wherein objects are experienced through the senses (the
knowledge your senses grasps)
2. REFLECTION – by which the mind looks at the objects that were experienced to
discover relationships that may exists between them. (compare and contrasts
the knowledge that you senses)

He contended that ideas are not innate, but rather, the mind at birth is a “tabula
rasa” (blank slate):
 Morals, religion, and political values must have been a product of man’s
experiences.
 Knowing what is good does not necessarily mean that people will always do what
is good
 Morality has to do with choosing or willing the good.
 Moral good depends on the conformity of a person’s behavior towards some law.

Three laws according to Locke:

1. LAW OF OPINON – where actions that are praiseworthy are called virtues and
those are not are vices
2. CIVIL LAW – where right actions are enforced by people in authority
3. DIVINE LAW – set by God on the actions of man. This is deemed to be the true
law for human behavior. The divine law is eternally true and one law that man
should always follow.
 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

DAVID HUME (1711-1770)

 Born in Edinburgh, Scotland
 Lost his faith at the time he was enrolled at the University of Scotland
 After reading the philosophy of John Locke, he never again entertained any belief
in religion.
 Credited for giving empiricism its clearest formulation.
 Discovered the limitations of the mind and his optimisms turned into skepticism.
 He relied on the scientific method believing that it could analyze human nature
and explain the workings of the mind.

Hume believed that the mind receives material from the senses, and called it
perception.
He then expounded that there are two types of perception:
1. IMPRESSIONS - which are immediate sensations of external reality
2. IDEAS - Which are the recollection of the impressions

Hume saw the self as just a sense of impressions. He believed that like causality,
‘the self’ is also a product of imagination.
IMAGINATION – has the ability to connect two ideas to form a complex idea.

In examining the patterns of thinking, Hume formulated three principles on how

ideas relate to one another:
1. THE PRINCIPLE OF RESEMBLANCE which is basically the tendency which
ideas become associated if objects they represent are similar.
Ex. A photo of a bird resembles a real bird, therefore, they must be related.
2. THE PRINCIPLE OF CONTIGUITY refers to the tendency of ideas to be
associated if objects are near each other in time & space.
Ex. when you see a box of crayons, you immediately associate it to have crayons
even if it does. You automatically think of crayons, not a box of crayons
3. THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT is the tendency of things being
causally related
Ex. the ball caused the window to break

THE SELF
 The man does not really have an idea of the so-called self because ideas rely on
sense impressions and people have no sense impression of a self.
 There is no such thing as ‘personal identity’ behind perceptions and feelings that
come and go; THERE IS NO PERMANENT/UNCHANGING SELF
 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)

 Born in Konigsberg in East Russia (Presently Western Russia)
 Deeply spiritual
 Founder of German Idealism
 His studies on Asian philosophies had a strong influence on him but it was the
French philosopher Rousseau that made him realized and enabled him to
formulate his Philosophical ideas.
 Came up with most remarkable Philosophical system of the modern times.
 Wrote Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, and Critique of
Judgement.
 posited the melding of both rationalist, & empirical approaches

Kant argued that the mind is not just a passive receiver of sense experience but
rather actively participates in knowing the objects it experiences:
 “When the self sees an object, it tends to remember its characteristics and
applies on it, the forms of time and space”
 Instead of the mind conforming to the world, it is the external world that conforms
to the mind.
 Combined Rationalism and Empiricism
 Defined knowledge as a result of human understanding applied to sense
experience.

He used the term transcendental apperception to explain the experience of the

self in unity with objects:
 TRANSCENDENTAL – because people do not experience the self directly but as
a unity of all impressions that are organized by the mind through perceptions
 All objects of knowledge which includes the self are phenomenal.
 The true nature of things is altogether unknown and unknowable.

The Kingdom of God is within Man

 God is manifested in people’s lives therefore it is man’s duty to move towards
perfection.
 People should always see duty as a divine command.
 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

 Austrian Neurologists
 Still considered to be one of the pioneering figures in the field of Psychology
 Psychodynamic Theory
 His revolutionary ideas of the probable factors that determine human behavior
pave the way for science to look into the workings of the unconscious mind.

Freud emphasized the role of the unconscious in the development of the self
 His psychodynamic theory has characteristics of philosophical thought
 Freud made use of methods like free association and dream analysis for his
clinical practice
HYSTERIA (PYSCHOPATHOLOGY) – repressed thoughts and memories have enough
psychic energy to impose its control on the person’s consciousness.

Topography of the Mind

Freud explained that the mind is structured by the following components
 ID – the pleasure principle
 EGO – the reality principle
 SUPER EGO – the morality principle
 The id, ego, and superego: According to Freud’s structural model, the personality
is divided into the id, ego, and superego.

On this diagram, the smaller portion above the water signifies the conscious
mind, while the much larger portion below the water illustrates the
unconscious:
 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

Freud in his 1920 book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he presented 2 kinds of
instincts that drive individual behavior:
 EROS - Life Instinct; the energy is called LIBIDO and urges necessary for
individual and species survival like thirst, hunger, and sex
 THANATOS - Death Instinct; behavior that is directed towards destruction in the
form of aggression and violence

Freud further believed that man lives life balancing the forces of life and death,
making mere existence a challenge
 “Man’s behavior by his pleasure seeking life instinct and his destructive instinct is
said to be born with his ego already in conflict”
 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

GILBERT RYLE (1900-1976)

 English Philosophers
 Contradicted Cartesian Dualism - stating that it only equates to people being a
“ghost in a machine”

He believed that many philosophical problems were caused by the wrong use of
language.
 In his book entitled, The Concept of the Mind, he argues that Dualism involves
category mistake and is a Philosophical nonsense
Ex. the Mind-Body Problem made no sense, as applying non-material things
should not have been applied to material concepts.

Ryle believed that freewill was only invented to answer whether actions must be
praised or blamed. He further elaborated that actions must be moral for it to be
free.
 He agrees with Kant that freewill involves a moral responsibility which further
assumes that man’s actions must be moral for it to be free.

Ryle touched on two types of knowledge

 KNOWING THAT – This refers to knowing facts and information
- Ryle considered this to be empty intellectualism, as it is worthless if you
cannot use it to solve practical problems
- “A person may acquire a great bulk of knowledge but without the ability to use
it to solve some practical problems to make his life easier, this bulk of
knowledge is deemed to be worthless”
 KNOWING HOW - This refers to using facts in the performance of some skills or
technical abilities

Knowing involves an ability and not just an intellect.

 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

PATRICIA & PAUL CHURHLAND (JULY 16, 1943, OCTOBER 21,1942)

 Canadian- American Philosopher (Patricia)
 Canadian Philosopher (Paul)
 Patrician Churchland coined the term Neurophilosophy, who together with Paul
Churchland was dissatisfied with the particular approach of philosophers and
instead sought to guide scientific theorizing with philosophy and guide philosophy
with scientific inquiry.

The philosophy of neuroscience is the study of the philosophy of the mind, the
philosophy of science, neuroscience and psychology.
 This aims to explore the relevance of the neuroscientific studies to the philosophy
of the mind
 “There isn’t a special thing called the mind. The mind is just the brain” – Patricia
Churchland.

Patricia claims that the man’s brain is responsible for the identity known as ‘the
self’
 The biochemical properties of the brain according to this philosophy is really
responsible for man’s thoughts, feelings and behavior
 “Man is endowed with more than just physical or neurological characteristics.
Despite research findings, neurophilosophy states that the self is real, that it is
the tool that helps the person tune-in to the realities of the brain and the extant
reality”
 Individuals’ deviant thoughts, feelings and actions stemmed from
anomalies/aberrations in the brain’s anatomy and physiology (Neurons,
Hormones and Overall Genetic Make-Up)

NEUROLOGY – deals with the study of the nervous system, its structure, physiology,
and aberrations.
PHILOSOPHY – is the love of wisdom in search for the truth
 LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
 French phenomenological philosopher who was known as the philosopher of the
body
 He made us of the concept of the body scheme is discussions that ranged across
a number of cognitive and existential issues. The focus is on the relationship
between self-experience and the experience of other people.
 Concept of Body – subject
 Perceptions occur existentially

The consciousness, the world and the human body are all interconnected as they
mutually perceive the world
 Emphasized that the body was the primary site of knowing the world, and that
man cannot be separated from the world

The world and the sense of self are emergent phenomena in the ongoing process
of man’s becoming.

In one of his written works, the phenomenology of perception (1945). He

described the nature of Man’s perceptual contact with the world.
 PHENOMENOLOGY – provides a direct description of the human experience
 PERCEPTION – forms the background of the experience which serves to guide
man’s conscious actions.
 The world is field of perception, and human consciousness assigns meaning to
the world. Thus man cannot separate himself from his perceptions of the world.
 Perception is not purely the result of sensations nor is it purely interpretation.
Rather consciousness is a process that includes sensing as well as
interpreting/reasoning.

PERCEPTUAL GESTALT – german word for good form.

LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE
3/15/2022