LEARNING MODULES 01

LESSON 03

Understanding the self

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St. Augustine
Plotinus,

nd Christianity
a

DR. JENNIFER L. TUAZON-GUTIERREZ, RGC

Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
PAGE
1 M 01-LESSON 03
Philosophical Perspectives of the
Self According to Plotinus and St.
Augustine

Learning Outcomes:  Transforming Ideas of the Week: 

Illustrated how my
perspective of the

The beliefs I have about the SELF came

self originated from the philosophical from ancient philosophers,
ideas of Plato and Plotinus and transformed and used by Christian
transformed by St. Augustine to explain leaders to explain Christian's doctrine
Christianity's tenet of faith. on the Self/Soul.
ENGAGE
Fill up the boxes of "WHAT I KNOW, WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, HOW CAN I LEARN MORE
AND WHAT I HAVE LEARNED about each of the two (2) Focus Questions.

Focus 1. What are the similarities and differences of St. Augustine's and Plato's
concept about the Soul?
WHAT I KNOW WHAT I WANT TO KNOW HOW CAN I LEARN MORE WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

1. I know that Plato 1. I want to know 1. I can learn more 1. I have learned
believed the soul more about the by reading and that the concept of
was eternal, while relationship of analyzing the St. Augustine and
St. Augustine Plato's concepts interconnectedness Plato about the
asserted that the about the self to the of the perspectives soul is really
soul is immortal concepts of other of these interrelated since
because it philosophers (St. philosophers in this St. Augustine is
possesses truth. Augustine, Plotinus) module and by into Christianity,
Because the soul is searching other which teachings
capable of grasping 2. I want to know information about and ideas are very
scientific truth, and how these their ideas. similar to the
because truth is concepts relate to Platonists (Plato).
immortal, the soul my own 2. I can also learn by
too is immortal. perspective about analyzing my own 2. I have also
the self. perspectives about learned that my
2. Plato and St. the self through belief about the
Augustine believe in reflecting on my soul has been
the immortality of values and origin. influenced by these
the soul, wherein philosophers.
the soul after the
body dies, may live
eternally. This
concept of the soul
is also what I
believe ever since I
exist in this world.

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 Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
PAGE
2 M 01-LESSON 03
Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
According to Plotinus and
St. Augustine

EXPLORE
EXPLORE: Read and learn

Augusti ne: st i ani t y

St. Plato and Chri
Plato’s (and Socrates’) metaphysical views were revolutionary:
• The existence of an immaterial reality separate from the physical world
• The radical distinction between an immaterial soul and physical body
Write the KEY • The existence of an immortal soul that finds its ultimate fulfillment in
WORDS to help union with the eternal, transcendent realm
you remember these ideas would have died with the decline of Greek civilization had
important
IDEAS from this they not been adopted and perpetuated by subsequent cultures.
The Roman Empire both conquered and absorbed Greek culture,
KEY WORDS preserving much of its extraordinary accomplishments in the arts,
-Plato's and
Socrates' philosophy, and politics.
metaphysical views were
revolutionary Plato died in 347 B.C.E., and more than five hundred years later a
-Their views were not Roman philosopher named
acknowledge in Greek
civilization PLOTINUS
-Plotinus adapted the views
of Plato, resulting to
(205–270 C.E.) breathed new life into Plato’s ideas, spearheading an
Neoplatonism intellectual movement that came to be known as Neoplatonism.

Write the KEY PLOTINUS

WORDS to help you based his views on Plato’s core concepts believing, for example,
remember important that “the soul, since it is a spiritual substance in it own right and can
IDEAS from this exist independently of the body,
possesses a categorical superiority over the body.”
KEY WORDS was so fervently committed to his Platonic ideas regarding the

imperfection of his physical body, in contrast to the perfection of his

Plotinus believed
intensely in the
imperfection of his
physical body,
conversely to the
perfection of his
soul.
eternal soul, that he:
refused to celebrate his birthday.
His reasoning was that:
he was ashamed that his immortal soul had to be contained
in such an imperfect vessel as his body, and
that celebrating its birth was a cause for regret, not
celebration.
Similarly, he refused to have his physical likeness painted or sculpted
as he wanted no permanent record of his physical self.

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 Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
PAGE
3 M 01-LESSON 03
Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
According to Plotinus and
St. Augustine

EXPLORE
EXPLORE: Read and learn
PLOTINUS
His disdain for his body led to his:
neglect of his physical health,
resulting in the loss of his voice
and
pus-laden sores and abscesses
covering his hands and feet.
Because he was a teacher with his
own school and had a penchant for
embracing his students, his
physical deterioration ended up
driving his students away.
EXPLAIN
What might be the indications that shows,
that like Plotinus, you hated your body?
There are times that I don't like my body. The signs that I
can see is due to my high standards of beauty, which is
somehow influenced by social media. Just like Plotinus,
my intense admiration to those beautiful people I see on
Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok made me feel so bad
and insecure about my body. Sometimes, due to my high
appreciation of other people's beauty, I tend to feel
disappointed about my own body to the point of using
beauty products just to change my body and to be like
them.

Write the KEY EXPLORE

WORDS to help Plotinus (205–270 B.C.E.)
you remember Roman founder of Neoplatonism,
important influential in medieval Christian, Islamic, and Renaissance
IDEAS from this thought.
KEY WORDS Believed that all being:

Neoloplatonism flows from one ultimate and immaterial reality, and
Plotinus - founder of
He believe that all being flows from
that being is expressed in terms of:
one ultimate and immaterial reality modes of descending order and value:
from mind, to soul, to nature.
Write the KEY Plotinus’ ideas had a profound influence on the last of the great ancient
WORDS to help philosophers, St. Augustine (354–430 C.E.), and through him on all of
you remember Western consciousness. This extraordinary and far-reaching influence was
important the result of Augustine integrating the philosophical concepts of Plato with the
IDEAS from this tenets of Christianity.

t. Augu s ti ne : Christianity
KEY WORDS

S Plato a nd
Augustine believe that
Augustine was convinced
Platonism and that Platonism and Christianity were natural partners,
Christianity are going so far as to contend,
related to each other. “If (the Platonists) could have had this life over again with us . . .
they would have become Christians, with the change of a few
He adopted Plato's words and statements.”
vision of bifurcated
universe (two realms)
enthusiastically adopted Plato’s vision of a bifurcated universe in which
“there are two realms:
an intelligible realm where truth itself dwells, and
this sensible world which we perceive by sight and touch,”
but then adapted this metaphysic to Christian beliefs. Go to
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4
 Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
PAGE
4 M 01-LESSON 03
Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
According to Plotinus and
St. Augustine

EXPLORE
EXPLORE: Read and learn

St. A ugustCinher:istianity in Augustine:

Plato and Plato’s ultimate reality, the eternal realm of the Forms,
became in Augustine’s philosophy
Write the KEY a transcendent God.
WORDS to help you Plato’s vision of immortal souls striving to achieve union with
remember important this eternal realm through intellectual enlightenment became
IDEAS from this transformed by Augustine
into immortal souls
KEY WORDS striving to achieve union with God through faith and
Plato's eternal real, of the Forms

became a transcendent God in reason.

Augustine's philosophy. The transient, finite nature of the physical world described by
Plato and Augustine's vision of Plato became in Christianity
immortal soul is similar, immortal a proving ground for our eternal destinies.
soul striving to achieve union with
eternal realm by Plato and
Plato’s metaphysical framework thus provided philosophical
immortal soul striving to achieve justification for Christian beliefs
union with God by Augustine. that might otherwise have been considered farfetched.
Augustine
a complex and fascinating figure.
Born to successful parents in northern Africa,
Write the KEY spent much of his youth and young adulthood carousing with
WORDS to help
you remember
friends,
important indulging in numerous love affairs, and even
IDEAS from this fathering an illegitimate child.
KEY WORDS he also had a powerful and curious intellect, and
Augustine
his explorations ultimately led him to conversion to Christianity
- complex figure when he was thirty-three years old.
- has a book, Confessions
- converted to Christianity personal odyssey is recorded in one of the most extraordinary
due to his exploration and compelling books of its kind, his Confessions.
- served as Bishop of Hippo
-wrote books and letters spent the remainder of his life in his home country, serving as
that influence Christianity Bishop of Hippo and
writing books and letters that helped shape the theology of
Christianity for subsequent centuries.
E X P L A I N What are Plato's concepts of the Self that was being used or
transformed to explain the the teachings of Christianity?

Plato understood the self as composed of body and soul, with the soul more closely related to
goodness and truth, which is also applied in Christianity's teaching. The eternal realm of Plato
became the transcendent God in Christianity. The immortal souls of Plato has also been applied in
Christianity, in which the soul strives to achieve union to God.
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 Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
PAGE
5 M 01-LESSON 03
Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
According to Plotinus and
St. Augustine

EXPLORE
EXPLORE: Read and learn

t. Augustine: anity Like Plato and Plotinus,

S to and Chris ti
Pla
Augustine believed:
physical body was both radically different from and inferior to
Write the KEY its inhabitant, the immortal soul.
WORDS to help you Early in his philosophical development he describes the body
remember important
IDEAS from this as a “snare” and a “cage” for the soul.
considers the body a “slave” to the soul, and sees their
KEY WORDS relation as contentious:

“The soul makes war with the body.”
Augustine believed that As his thinking matured, Augustine
physical body is inferior to sought to develop a more unified perspective on body and
immortal soul.
soul.
-physical body as "cage" ultimately came to view the body
and a "snare" for soul as the “spouse” of the soul, with both attached to
one another by a “natural appetite.”
-body as a "spouse" of the
soul, unified by natural concludes, “That the body is united with the soul, so
appetite that man may be entire and complete, is a fact we
recognize on the evidence of our own nature.”
the body to die, the soul
Nevertheless, as for Plato, Plotinus, and all the other
to live eternally
Neoplatonists,
body and soul remain irreconcilably divided,
two radically different entities with diverging fates:
the body to die,
the soul to live eternally in a transcendent realm of
Truth and Beauty.
Are you like the Neoplatonists in your own understanding about body
ELABORATE
and soul? Elaborate.
I believe YES, I am Neoplatonist, and I believe that a human being comprise 2 different
entities which is the body and soul, which have diverse fate. Growing up in a catholic
religion, I always believe that once the body dies, the soul will continue to live eternally,
aiming to unite with God, with the help of the prayers of their love ones here on physical
world. As I became mature, my belief about the body and soul became complex. My
understanding of the soul as immortal can be seen as an immaterial substance. Since
soul is an immaterial substance, it can not be decomposed just like other material
substance, which makes it immortal. This explanation strengthen my belief that the body
may die, but the soul will live eternally.
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page 6
 Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
PAGE
6 M 01-LESSON 03
Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
According to Plotinus and
St. Augustine

EXPLORE
EXPLORE: Read and learn
tine: anity
t. Augus
S to and Chris ti
Pla Melding PHILOSOPHY iefs
R elig ious Beliefs
Write the KEY In melding philosophy and religious beliefs together, Augustine:
WORDS to help you has been characterized as Christianity’s first theologian,
remember important a term derived from the:
IDEAS from this Greek theos (God) and
logos (study of)—the study of God.
KEY WORDS ideas defined and shaped the structure of Christianity for the

next fifteen hundred years,
Augustine as first
but by serving as a conduit for Plato’s fundamental ideas,
theologian Augustine’s influence extended beyond Christianity to the
(theos - god, logos- study of) cultural consciousness of Western civilization as a whole.
He has direct impact on the thinking of a French philosopher
Augustine influence the
thinking of Rene Descartes René Descartes.
In addition to establishing the groundwork for Descartes’ thinking
Augustine- "I am doubting, regarding the soul and the body, Augustine also foreshadowed
therefore I am."
Descartes’ theory of knowledge.

Engaging in a similar quest for certainty that was to consume

Descartes twelve hundred years later, Augustine identified
as a first principle,
“I am doubting, therefore I am,” a statement eerily prescient of
Descartes’ famous pronouncement,:
cogito, ergo sum —“I think, therefore I am.”

Compare and contrast your belief and that of St. Augustine about the
SELF . Elaborate who influences the belief you have about the SELF
ELABORATE

Corresponding to the idea of St. Augustine about the self, I tend to believe that the self has two entities,
the immortality of the soul and the impermanent body, in which the body dies while the soul continue to
live. I also believe in the existence of transcendent God who the souls are striving to unite, which was
stated in the philosophy of St. Augustine. I think I don't have any contradictory belief to St. Augustine's
idea about the self since I have believed all of his concepts throughout my existence. Since St.
Augustine has a great influence in the teaching of Christianity, I believe he is also the one who
influences my views about the self since I am a Christian. My religion (Roman Catholic) and my family
also influences on what I believe about the self, because their teaching and guidance have surrounded
and lead me as I live in this world.

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 Evaluate
WEEK 03:
M 01-LESSON 03 M I N D M A P
Plato's Idea on the Self Transformed by
Augustine to Explain Tenets of Christianity
Instruction: Using mind mapping, connect concepts of the self according to plato's perspectives and how
these perspectives was being transformed by St. Augustine, and how it explained the tenets of Christianity
and in the process, becomes your own concept or belief about the SELF

PLATO'S
(Plotinus)
Philosophical
idea of the
Self