UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF
Course Material No. 2

Jigo Rafael
Catamio, MAEd, RGC
Course Instructor
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Philosophical


Perspective of Self



2

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Here’s what I will teach you in this course material:
LESSON OUTLINE • To know what Self is in the eyes of various Philosophers
• What is • To understand the role of mind, body and soul to the Self
Philosophy? • To distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of each
Unit Outline
• Who are the
concepts
various
philosophers • To apply the concepts that best suits your situation
that explained
self?
RESOURCES NEEDED
• What is soul and
its relation to For this lesson, you would need the following resources:
Self?
• PowerPoint on the various Philosophers
• What is the Role
of the body to • Laptop and Internet Access
the identification
• Notebook or short bond paper for activities
of Self?




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TABLE OF CONTENTS




Pretest
4 SMILE Activity

Before you start, try answering the following
questions.

is Philosophy?
5 Philosophical
Perspective
1. What


_________________________________________
11 Reflection about the
topic

2. Why do we have to know who we are?


________________________________________ 12 Lesson Summary


3. What
are the different Philosophies explaining Self?

________________________________________
12 Key Terms




4. What is the Role of the Soul to the Establishment of
13 Post Test
the Self?


________________________________________

14 References

are the roles of impressions to ones identity?.

5. What


________________________________________











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Why are there so
many points of
view about self?

Key Point
It is important for us to
consider and exhaust every
possible concepts that may
explain or help us to
understand who we are or
our notion of Self better. By
learning various perception,
might provide better
opportunity for us to
ultimately establish a
stronger sense of self in life.

“SMILE”: Situation, Moments, Important Landmarks,

and Events Activity
Make an Illustration of situations, moments or events that make
or will make you happy. Share as many as you can, it may or
may not be something that happened in the past, present, or a
something that you are looking forward to in the future.

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Philosophical Perspective

Philosophy is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and

inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature and existence
of man and the world we live in.

From the Greek word “Philo” and “Sophia” which ultimately mean “the love of
wisdom”. Philosophy is done primarily through reflection and does not tend to rely
on experiment.

Self and the Philosophers

In order for us to have a better understanding of what the self is and how
it may have been established, we have to look at the different philosophical
beliefs, ideas and concepts that tried to explain human nature and the Self.
Socrates. was a classical Greek philosopher and a pioneer in Western
moral philosophy. He introduced the Socratic Method of thinking with the
goal of which was to “Know thyself.”
The philosophy of Socrates focuses on the importance of the notion
“knowing oneself” for him, man’s goal in life is to obtain true happiness and
such goal motivates us to act towards avoiding things that could have
negative effects in our being.
He believes on the existence of two different Realms, the Physical Realm
(Changeable, Transient, and imperfect) and the Ideal Realm (Unchanging,
eternal, and immortal). Thus, he believes on the existence of the Soul who
belongs to the Ideal Realm.
He explains that the Soul, which is the essence of the Self, is in constant
striving towards perfection. And it is only hindered because of its ties to our
body.
Socratic Method, which promotes introspection, or examination of oneself
thoughts and emotions he also stated that “An unexamined life is not worth
living.”
Plato. was a classical Greek philosopher and the founder of Academy of
Athens-the first institution of higher learning in the western world. As a
student of Socrates he mostly agrees to the ideas of his mentor. And it is
reflected on his belief that the Body and Soul, though share the same entity is
different from each other and is divided.
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He also stated that the ‘ mind’ or the “soul“ is comprised of three elements:
1. The appetites (appetitive), which involve our pleasure desires such
as those and physical comfort.
2. The passion (spirited) that denotes the part of our psyche that is
agitated most of the time. It is highly spirited and motivated to surpass and
conquer life challenges.it involves the most basic emotions that a person has.
3.The reason (Rational), is the conscious awareness which
meditates, weighs choices and assesses situations in our lives. This side is
rational and logical as it chooses only the best of us.
Another one of his distinct beliefs about self is that he stated that happiness
can only be found by those who pursue knowledge and is controlled by
reason.
Aristotle. Another Greek philosopher, unlike the others he does not believe
that the body and soul is separate or different from each other. Since he
believes that anything with life has a soul, it is the essence of all living
things. This ideation in turn leads to the belief that the soul is the essence of
the self.
In order to fully understand self, we must be able to know the different types
of soul that a person has. According to Aristotle, our soul can be classified as
the vegetative, sentient, and rational. Vegetative soul implies growth an
example of which is the body, the Sentient soul includes the desires and
emotions that people have, and lastly the Rational soul includes the intellect
and ability to think and understand things.

St. Augustine. Known as Saint Augustine of Hippo- a Christian

theologian and philosopher to have greatly contributed to the progress of
Western Christianity through his writings specifically The City of God, On
Christian Doctrine.
He identified the two-fold process comprised of self-presentation leading to
self-realization. He also believes that our understanding of who we are
revolves around our own doubtfulness, understanding of our standing and the
way we question our own existence.
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St. Augustine also rejected the doubtfulness of the academic way of thinking
in which one should not accept ideas from others. He emphasized that not
being able to agree to everything other people say should be the case but we
can still agree to those who we, from our own perception, think is right or
wrong based from our own evaluations and perceptions. Thus leading to a
famous quote on his work “I doubt therefor, I am”
St. Augustine also relates our existence to God being modeled in his likeness
though living means that we are still far from God and has yet to be truly
with him. Knowledge of God results to ones better understanding of oneself,
he emphasized that “knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that
dwells within us”.
Rene Descartes. Is believed to be the father of modern western
philosophy. Though similar to some of the concepts of St. Augustine more
specifically in the idea of doubt which can be traced as influenced by the
Socratic method as well, he distinguishes himself through the notion of
understanding the relationship of ones process of thinking to the
identification of ones’ self.
He developed the Cartesian philosophy which holds that mental acts
determine physical acts. So by continuous thinkning, questioning or doubting
is in and of itself a proof of ones existence.
He described the mind as the “intellectual substance” which possesses a
will. He stated “Cogito, ergo sum” which is I think, therefore I am.”
This leads to his idea that if man thinks and reflects, a person will be able to
realize the two dimensions of human Self: The self as a thinking entity and
the self as a physical body. Since sensation sometimes have faults in
understanding what is real and not, he said that it is important to give priority
in trying to understand what we experience to be able to fully identify what is
true. Thus ultimately, he believed that the body and mind is separate from
each other, and it is an important aspect of the human self to think and can be
independent from our physical self.

John Locke. Is an English Philosopher, Physician; He is considered to be

the father of Classical liberalism. He was known for his idea that when we
are born, we began in a state of “Tabula rasa” or blank slate.

He stated that a person is born with nothing and that is very susceptible to
establishing a sense of self by accumulation and learning from our
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experiences, which maybe from, successes, failures, reflection, and
observations to oneself.
Locke also put emphasis on ones ability to think and the value of a person’s
experiences into consideration, in the establishment of ones sense of self. For
him, our senses and the perception we have from our environment contribute
to the identification of who we are as an individual, along with ones ability to
be consciously aware of ones surroundings and endeavors.
Lastly, self-consciousness, reflective thinking, and experiences are the
common bases to the concept of Self from his point of view, where people
may be able to distinguish their sense of selves because of it.

David Hume. The Scottish Philosopher David Hume is known on

Philosophical Empiricism, Skepticism, and Naturalism. He insisted that there
is no “self”, and that people and their experiences are just a collection of
perceptions from the physical realm, which led to our impressions and ideas
about who we are.

Impressions are feelings and/or sensations the people have, such as, love,
hate, fear, cold, heat, and sadness. It can be observed and introspected. Since
ones feelings and different sensation is not constant or may change
depending on the experience or situation of a person, it reiterates Hume’s
statement on the non existence of the self could also be interpreted that since
no person may not be able to associate to one simple impression on their
concept of self, there is no self or rather there is no permanent concept of self
and that our identity is a result of imagination while taking consideration the
perceived impressions and ideas we have about us.
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Immanuel Kant. Who was born in Prussia, Germany was a great contributor
in modern western philosophy. He asserted that is the human mind which
creates experiences “that every person has inner and outer self which comprises
the consciousness.”

His philosophy which revolves on the idea that the self can only be established
by organizing and synthesizing one’s accumulation of experiences, intuition,
thoughts, imagination, and perception. According to him The Self is identified,
in the form of consciousness, is primarily based on various transcendental
deductions of categories or concepts, which helps us to make sense the world
that we live in and the experiences that we have.

These, categories enables one to be integrated by his idea is best explained by

his concept of the “Transcendental Apperception”, he characterized it by
being an intrinsic nature of our consciousness that goes beyond sense
experiences. This is similar to certain abstract ideas an example of which, is the
concept of time and love, we may be able to be aware the implications of such
concepts through our experiences as well as certain characteristics that is related
to them, but the entirety of the concept cannot solely be understood on simple
observation because it is something that is not concrete as a whole and is only
represented through concepts, actions and various behavior that we have in our
environment.
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Sigmund Freud. is known for his work on human nature and the unconscious.
An Austrian psychiatrist that established himself as a father of psychoanalysis,
Freud idea of self revolves around the role of the consciousness and its various
levels.
According to him the self can be divided into three layers: the
conscious, preconscious and the unconscious. He believed that
people have various constructs of personality and the levels of
consciousness where every person’s experiences and desires take
part in the establishment of the self define it.
The conscious is a layer of self that contains all of the things
that we are aware of, the thoughts, feelings, motivations, and
preferences and is readily accessible for us. It is the area where
reality and rationality is.
The preconscious could be said to be like a boundary between
awareness and unawareness, these are still memories and
thoughts that is not necessarily available at any given time but
could still be easily brought into the consciousness.
The unconscious a part of our selves where our instinctual
drives and pools our feelings, thoughts, and memories that is
outside our awareness. It can be memories that we have An iceberg illustrating Freud’s different level of
forgotten or we want to forget, fantasies from our childhood, consciousness. Photo credit:
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/294211788139112011/
and may include some unpleasant aspects of ourselves that
we chose to forget.
Gilbert Ryle. Is a philosopher known for his Behavioristic approach to self, he
emphasized that the behavior presented by an individual, emotions and actions
are the reflection of our mind and as such is the manifestation of our self that
reflects to his statement “I act, Therefore I am”.

His explanation of self is further exemplified in his “ghost in the machine” view.
This concept explained that a person can be compared to a complex machine
with different functioning parts, and the intelligence and behavior of man is
represented as the “Ghost”. The ghost, who is not seen but is believed to be the
driving force in the said machine.

Paul Churchland. a Canadian philosopher that is known primarily for his
philosophy “eliminative materialism” which revolves around the premise that
‘nothing but matter exist”.
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With that in mind, he argues that the self which is the accumulation of all the
emotions, perceptions, actions and behavior of a person is attached to their
source which is the brain. This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he
believed that to fully understand one’s behavior, one should understand the
different neurological movement of the brain.
Maurice Merleau Ponty. A French philosopher, who unlike others that
believe on the separation of the mind and body, he believes that if one studies
their experiences a person may identify that the mind and body is unified.
From his work in “Phenomenology of Perception” which follow the gestalt
notion “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, emphasizes on the
importance of consciousness of which all our perceptions are gathered.
According to him, the self, can be established based on the conscious
understanding of our experiences with our selves and our environment, thus,
leading us into considering the body, the perceived world, and the people and
the world. These areas not only focuses on the individual and ones own
perception, but also the accepted influence and assumed role that we have while
considering others. This strengthens Merleau-Ponty’s idea that our concept of
the Self is embedded in subjectivity

Based on the topics and philosophies that were discussed, choose

one philosophy that you can relate to the most, explain why, and
give examples from your experiences how it is so.
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LESSON SUMMARY

In Summary, the philosophies that was presented in this chapter provides

varying take on how the self is established, its nature, and how one can
define. It ultimately gives us opportunity to think for ourselves and relate if
possible to the examples, scenarios or conditions that was presented by the
philosophers about self and man’s goal in life. Though the concept may vary
and sometimes contradict each other, it will be very helpful to understand
that at the end of the day, we ourselves are the ones who will need to define
and understand ourselves. Whether we pattern our believes to our own
understanding, to God, or accept that our experiences play the biggest part of
who we are as a person is still up to us and no one should tell us otherwise.

KEY TERMS

Self Consciousness Happiness

Soul The world Rationality
God Impressions existence
perception body blank slate

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POSTTEST

Directions: Write the answers on the space provided the philosophy or concepts about Self of the
different philosophers.

PHILOSOPHER Philosophical View of Self

Socrates
Plato
Aristotle

St. Augustine

Rene Descartes

John Locke
David Hume

Immanuel Kant

Sigmund Freud

Gilbert Ryle

Paul Churchland

Maurice Merleau-

Ponty
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REFERENCES

Alata, E.J., Caslib Jr., B.N., Serafica, J.P., & Pawilen, R.A. (2018). Understanding the Self. [1st
ed.]. Quezon City: Rex Book Store, Inc.
Go-Monilla, M.J. & Ramirez, N. (2018). Understanding the Self. [1st ed.]. Quezon City: C & E
Pub.
Chafee, J. (2013). Who are you? Consciousness , identity and the self. In the Philosopher’s Way.
Thinking Critical about Profound Ideas (pp 106 – 169). Pearson.