LESSON 1: FROM THE

PERSPECTIVE OF
PHILOSOPHY

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Learning Outcomes
1. Discuss the difference representation and conceptualizations
of the self from various disciplinal perspective.
2. Compare and contract how the self has been represented
across different discipline and perspectives.
3. Examine the different influences, factors and forces that
shape the self.
4. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the
development of one’s self and identity by developing a
theory of the self.
Approximately 600 BCE
• The Birth of Philosophy or the “love for
wisdom” in Athens of Ancient Greece

• The Greeks in search for knowledge

came up with answers that are both
cognitive and scientific in nature (Price, 2000)
Greek Philosophers in
Miletus
• They chose to seek natural
explanations to events and
phenomena around them instead of
seeking for supernatural explanations
from the gods that was passed down
through generations
Greek Philosophers in
Miletus
• These philosophers observed
changes in the world and wanted to
explain these changes by
understanding the laws of nature

• Their study of change led them to the

“idea of permanence” (Price, 2000)
“The early philosophers
sought to understand the
nature of human beings,
problems of morality and
life philosophies”
(Price, 2000)
In the 5 th Century BCE

• Athenians settle arguments by

discussion and debate
• People skilled in doing this were called
Sophists, the first teachers of the West
SOCRATES (470-399 BCE)
• The mentor of Plato

• Wanted to discover the

essential nature of knowledge,
justice, beauty and goodness
(Moore and Bruder, 2002)

• He didn’t write anything, he is

not a writer
• A lot of his thoughts were
only known through Plato’s
writing (The Dialogues)
Socratic Method
• This is Socrates’ method for discovering
what is essential in the world and in people
• In this method, Socrates did not lecture, he
instead would ask questions and engage the
person in a discussion
• He would begin by acting as if he did not know
anything and would get the other person to
clarify their ideas and resolve logical
inconsistencies (Price, 2000)
Socratic Method
• Using this method, the questioner should be
skilled at detecting misconceptions and at
revealing them by asking the right questions

• The goal is to bring the person closer to the

final understanding
View of Human Nature
• Socrates believed that his mission in life was
to seek the highest knowledge and convince
others who were willing to seek his
knowledge with him
True Self
• The touching of the soul,
may mean helping the
person to get in touch
with his true self
• The true self, Socrates
said, is not the body
but the soul. Virtue is
inner goodness, and
real beauty is that of
the soul (Price, 2000)
View of Human Nature
• According to Socrates, real understanding comes
from within the person
• His Socratic method forces people to use their
innate reason by reaching inside themselves to
their deepest nature
The aim of the Socratic Method
is to make people think, seek and
ask again and again. Some may
be angered and frustrated, but what
is important is for them to realize
that they do not know everything,
that there are things that they are
ignorant of, to accept this and to
continue learning and searching
for answers
(Moore and Bruder, 2002)
PLATO (428-348 BCE)
• His real name is Aristocles
• He was nicknamed “Plato”
because of his physical built
which means wide/broad
• Left Athens for 12 years after the
death of Socrates
• When he returned he established
a school known as “The
Academy”
Theory of Forms
• Plato’s Metaphysics (philosophical
study on the causes and nature of
things)
• Plato explained that Forms refers
to what are real
• They are not objects encountered with
the senses but can only be grasped
intellectually
Theory of Forms
Plato’s Forms have the following characteristics:
1. The Forms are ageless and therefore eternal
2. The Forms are unchanging and therefore permanent
3. The Forms are unmoving and indivisible
Plato’s Dualism
The Realm of the Shadows
• Composed of changing, ‘sensible’ things which are
lesser entities and therefore imperfect and flawed

The Realm of Forms

• Composed of eternal things which are permanent and
perfect. It is the source of all reality and true knowledge.
View of Human Nature
He believed that knowledge lies within the person’s soul:
• He considered human beings as microcosms of the
universal macrocosms i.e. everything in the universe can
also be found on people – earth, air, fire, water, mind and
spirit (Price, 2000)
• Even if the materials of the human body
and the physical world are imperfect,
humans have immortal, rational soul
which Plato believed is created in the
image of the divine.
Soul
Plato described the soul as having three components:
1. The Reason is rational and is the motivation for
goodness and truth
2. The Spirited is non-rational and is the will or the
drive toward action
3. The Appetites are irrational and lean towards the
desire for pleasures of the body
Plato believed that people are intrinsically
good. Sometimes however, judgements are
made in ignorance and Plato equates
ignorance with evil. (Price, 2000)
The Allegory of the Cave
Theory of Becoming and Love

The Allegory of the Cave

• What people see are only shadows of reality which they
believe are real things and represents knowledge

• What these people fail to realize is that the shadows are

not real for according to Plato, “only the Forms are
real”
Plato’s Love
• Plato’s love begins with a feeling or experience
that there is something lacking
• This then drives the person to seek for that
which is lacking
• Thoughts and efforts are then directed towards
the pursuit of which is lacking
The deeper the thought,
the stronger is the love
Love is a process of seeking higher stages of being,
The GREATER the love, the MORE intellectual
component it will contain

Lifelong longing and pursuit seek

even higher stages of love which lead
to the possession of absolute beauty
(Moore and Bruder, 2002)
Christian Philosophers
• Their concern was with God
and man’s relationship with
God
• These Christian philosophers
did not believe that self-
knowledge and happiness were
the ultimate goals of man
 Christian
Greek Philosophers
Philosophers

Sees man as Sees man as

basically good and sinners who
becomes evil reject/go against a
through ignorance loving God’s
of what is good commands
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-436 CE)
• Hippo, Africa

• Became a priest and bishop of

Hippo
• Initially rejected Christianity for
it seemed to him then that
Christianity could not provide
him answers to questions that
interested him
View of Human Nature
1. God as the source of all reality and truth
• Through a mystical experience, a man is capable
of knowing the eternal truths
• This is possible through the existence of one
eternal truth which is God
• God is within man and transcends him
View of Human Nature

2. The Sinfulness of man

• The cause of sin or evil is an act of man’s freewill

• Moral goodness can be only achieved through the

grace of God
The Role of Love
• That the man searches for happiness

“For God is love and he created humans for

them to also love”
• Disordered love results when man loves the
wrong things which he believes will give him
happiness
St. Augustine explains…

1. Love of physical objects leads to sin of greed

2. Love for other people is not lasting and excessive
love for them is the sin of jealousy
3. Love for the self leads to the sin of people
4. Love for God is the supreme virtue and only
through loving God can man find real happiness
Rene Descartes (1956-1650)

• Father of Modern Philosophy

• One of the Rationalist

Philosophers of Europe
• Cartesian Method and
Analytic Geometry
Descartes’ System
Through math, he discovered that the human mind
has TWO POWERS:
1. INTUITION or the ability to apprehend direction of
certain truths

2. DEDUCTION or the power to discover what is not

known by progressing in an orderly way from what is
already known
View of Human Nature

Descartes deduced that a thinker is a thing that doubts,

understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses and also
imagines and feels
(Price, 2000)
The Mind-Body Problem

The body, according to

Descartes, is like a
machine that is controlled
by the will and aided by
the mind.
John Locke (1632-1704)
• Born in Wrington, England

• Interested in politics; Defender

of the parliamentary system
• At 57 years old, He published a
book which played a significant
role in the era of Enlightenment
(Price, 2000)
He believed that knowledge results from ideas produced a
posteriori or objects that were experienced

The process involves 2 forms:

1. Sensation wherein objects are

experienced through senses
2. Reflection by which the mind
‘looks’ at the objects that were
experienced to discover
relationships that may exist
between them
Locke contended that ideas are not innate
but rather the mind at birth is a
“TABULA RASA”
(i.e. Blank Slate)
View of Human Nature
Moral good depends on the conformity of a person’s behavior
towards some law
There a 3 laws according to Locke:
1. LAW OF OPINION – 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