UNDERSTANDING THE SELF REVIEWER  In his, work THE REPUBLIC, knowing oneself can be attain if there is
harmony in the three parts of the soul
CHAPTER 1:
PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT ON THE SELF
What is Philosophy?
 Philosophy (from Greek philosophia, literally "love of wisdom")
 is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such
as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and Language.
 Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational
argument, and systematic presentation
Various Philosophical Perspectives
SOCRATES (GREEK)
 His philosophy underlies in the importance of the notion “knowing oneself”
 For him, men’s goal in life is to obtain happiness
 Knowledge is inherent in man, wisdom is learning to recollect.
 The knowledge of oneself can be achieved only through the Socratic Method
(the dialogue between the soul and itself)
 He suggest that man should lived in examined life ( life of purpose and value)
because an unexamined life is not worth living
ARISTOTLE
 Soul is the perfect expression or realization of a natural body.
 The soul manifests its activity in certain "faculties" or "parts" which correspond
with the stages of biological development, and are the faculties of nutrition
(peculiar to plants), that of movement (peculiar to animals), and that of reason
(peculiar to humans).
PLATO (Greek)
 Socrates’ student and he supported the idea that the man is a dual nature of
the body and soul
 believed that the soul is divided into 3 different parts
1. Reason - the part that thinks and plan for the future
2. Spirit – parts that want to right the wrong that it observed
3. Appetite - the part that is driven by desire and need to satisfy
SAINT AUGUSTINE
 follows the view of Plato but adds Christianity
 described that humankind is created in the image and likeness of God
 “Knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us.”
REŃE DESCARTES
 Father of modern philosophy
 The Latin phrase Cogito ergo sum―”I think therefore I am” is the keystone of
Descartes’ concept of self.
JOHN LOCKE
 For him, human mind at birth is tabula rasa or blank slate.
 self or personal identity is constructed primarily from sense experience
 conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to
understanding the self.
DAVID HUME
 There is no permanent self because impressions of things are based from our
experiences where we can create our ideas and knowledge. thus, it may
improve or totally be replaced
 Self is a collection of different perceptions.
IMMANUEL KANT
 awareness of different emotions that we have, impressions and behavior is
only a part of ourself
 The idea of self are not only an object that perceives and reacts to whatever it
is that we are experiencing; we have a clear identification of who we are and
establish a sense of self that is unique and distinct from others.
CHAPTER 2:
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE SELF
Definition of Sociology
 Sociology came from a Latin word “Socious” meaning companion or Society
and Greek word “Logos” meaning study. Sociology is the study of Society
and human behaviour.
 Sociology is defined as the scientific study of human relationships and
significant social phenomena arising from continuous interaction of men in a
particular setting or locale (Pasigui.et.al,2011).
Pioneers in the Study of Sociology
 Positivism (1978-1857)
Aguste Comte “Founder of Sociology”
 States that knowledge can be derived only from sensory experience,
metaphysical speculations and intuitive insights.
 Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
Book: Society in America
 Examines religion, politics, child rearing and immigration in the young nation.
 Gives special attention to status distinctions (gender and race)
 Spoke out in favor of the rights of women, emancipation of slaves, and
religion tolerance.
 Introduce new way of thinking that played important part of bringing about
the modern world.
 Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Theory of Evolution or Class Conflict Theory
 People should take active steps to change society.
 The bourgeoisie (capitalist) are locked in the inevitable conflict with the
masses (working class).
 Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Parallelism “Darwin’s Theory: Evolution of species”
 Proposed that living organisms evolve over time in order to survive the
conditions of the environment.
 “The most intelligent and capable members of the society survive, while the
less capable die out.”
 “Society is in a never-ending competition and the name of the game is to
win.”
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Suicide: applied in all cases of death resulting directly or 3 types of suicide
1. Egoistic Suicide – resulted from too little social integration. 17 indirectly
from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will
produce this result.
2. Altruistic Suicide – too much integration.
3. Anomic Suicide – involve an imbalance of means and needs.
4. Fatalistic Suicide – Future is pitiless blocked and whose passion are
violently chocked
 Max Weber (1864-1920)
Catholicism vs. Protestantism
 It was religion that encourage social change.
The Development of Sociology in the Philippines
 Serafin N. Macaraig – First Filipino to acquire a doctorate degree in
sociology and published a book entitled An Introduction to Sociology in
1938.
 Fr. Valentin Marin – Introduced Sociology in the Philippines, Opens a
program of Criminology at UST in 1950’s.
 1950 – A.W Salt and Murray Bartlett offered Sociology course in UP. Clyde
Hetlin at iliman University in Dumaguete and 2 Filipino Social Scientists,
Conrado Benitez and Luis Rivera were among the first teachers of Sociology
in the Philippines.
 1952 – Filipino Pioneers in Sociology organized the Philippine Sociological
Society.
 1957 – The CDRC (Community Development Research Council) was
created to conduct and support social science researchers.
 1960 – Fr. Frank Lynch, SJ founded the Institute of the Philippine Culture at
the Ateneo De Manila University.
 1972 – Xavier University was given credit as the first school, which opens a
program in Ph.D. in Sociology. UP was the first school offered a Bachelor
degree in Sociology.
CHAPTER 3: ROLE OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN OUR LIFE

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE SELF
ANTHROPOLOGY
 Anthropology according to Merriam Webster is the science of human beings
it is especially the study of human beings and their ancestors through time
and space in relation to physical character, environmental and social
relations and culture. Its goal is to understand the human condition that
includes what has happened in the past, what is happening now and what
will happen later on.
The different branches of Anthropology are:
 Sociological - Sociological Anthropology deals with material remains of
human activities of the past in order to reconstruct how different cultures
adjust to varying situations.
 Linguistic - Linguistic Anthropology is a branch of anthropology that studies
the history, foundation, structure and physiology of people’s definitive traits
called language.
 Applied - Applied Anthropology is the direct application of anthropological
ideas to current problems.
 Forensic - Forensic Anthropology is used in the identification of crime victims
and other information vital to criminal justice system.
 Physical Anthropology - Physical Anthropology is human biology but it
explains the difference in human color in more complex manner such as
culture, way of life and environment while biology approaches the same thru
genetic consideration.
Anthropology is important for you to understand yourself in relation to others. It
somehow makes you critically think on why you do what you do, why others do what
they do and what factors affect these actions like economy, religion, biology, politics,
family structure, gender, ethnicity, etc. In studying Anthropology, analytical and critical
thinking skills could also be enhanced on how to read between the lines of a text,
question the basis of an author or speaker’s biases and how the cultural context in
which ideas were formed. It also help us to learn how to deal with unfamiliar
situations. For example, we learn new languages and different rules for
communication with people from all over the globe to participate in addition to
observation so that we can better understand where someone else is coming from.
or the undergraduate students, it is imperative to study and understand anthropology
because it could be very useful for future jobs. For example in the field of Medicine, if
someone chooses to be a Doctor or healthcare provider , one must not just based on
biology, chemistry or pharmacology, you must also consider the culture and their
belief. If you are in line with Politics whose job will require them to develop the
interpersonal skills they need to work with the public. If you will choose to be in line
with business field, it is important to understand how individuals and cultures deal
with money.
In short, Anthropology bridges the gap, answer some of the unknown and provide a
lesson in life that one must be open to differing opinions, ways of life, etc.

Everything that happens, happens in relation with culture. Our education, belief,
practices, etc could guides us at every step if we classify all our knowledge we can
clearly observe many things like what culture is contributing in society to make it
better.

Cultural relativism is the idea that a person’s beliefs, values and practices should be
understood based on the person’s own culture rather than be judged against the
criteria of another.