- better understand who we
THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY
DESIGNING PHILOSOPHY
- Pursuit of wisdom
- Begins with wonder
- dynamic process
- ultimate aims
BECOMING A CRITICAL
THINKER
- open minded, curious, self-
aware, analytical, creative and
knowledgeable
- critical-thinking model
UNDERSTANDING
ARGUMENTS
- structure of arguments
- Evaluating arguments
- types of arguments
INDUCTIVE (spec-general)
and DEDUCTIVE (gen-spec)
- informal fallacies
BRANCHES OF
PHILOSOPHY
- Metaphysics
- Epistemology
- Ethics
- Logic
- Aesthetics
PHILOSOPHY
- study of the fundamental
nature of knowledge, reality
and existence
are, why we are here, and
where we are going
THREE PHILOSOPHERS OF MILETUS
BELIEVED IN A SINGLE SUBSTANCE
NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS
- Thales- water
- Anaximander- divine matters,
boundless
- Anaximenes- air
- Paramenedes - all is
permanent
- Heraclitus - all is in flux
BASIC ELEMENTS
- air
- water
- earth
- fire
- Empedocles - source of
nature cannot be a single
element
- Anaxagoras - seeds ordered
by intelligence
GREEK PHILOSOPHERS
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
- greeks seriously questioned
myths and moved away from
them to understand reality and
respond to perennial questions
of curiosity, including the self
PRE SOCRATICS
- 6th and 5th BCE greek thinkers
introduced a new way of
acquiring into the world and the
place of human beings in it.
MILESIAN SCHOOL
- school of thought
- practiced material monism
MATERIAL MONISM
- belief which provides an
explanation of the physical
world
- world’s objects- composed of
a single element.
THE PRE SOCRATICS
Thales, Pythagoras, Parmenides,
Heraclitus, Empedocles etc
- concerned with answering:
- What is the world really made
of
- Why is the world the way it is?
- What explains the changes
that happen around us?
Arche’
- Origin or source
- The “soul”
- The primal matter
- no origin outside itself
- cannot be destroyed
-explains the multiplicity of
things in the world
Ultimate Arche’
- soul’s movement
SOCRATES (469-399 BC)
- personal tendencies towards
critical reasoning and
commitment for the truth-
reason why he become a role
model to be emulated by
everyone
-soldier during the
Peloponnesian War.
- later worked as sculptor
- spent his life discussing
issues ( knowledge, values,
politics ad more)
SOCRATIC PERIOD

SOCRATES
- concerened with the problems
of the self
- according to him “ the true
task of the philosopher is to
know oneself”
- “the unexamined life is not
worth living”
- trial for “corrupting the minds
of the youth
- made a lot of people think
“who” they are.
THE UNEXAMINED LIFE
- Socrates’ perspective: lack of
philosophical self- reflection is
Tharysmachus’ mistake
- believed that the human
psyche, the soul/mind and
capacity for reflective thinking
is most definitive about human
nature.
- the unexplained life takes the
psyche for granted and
incomplete.
- Man = Body + Soul
- individual
- imperfect (body)
- perfect (soul)
PLATO ( 429-347 BCE)
- “idealist”/ “utopian”/ “dreamer”
- from a wealthy family in the
second year of Peloponnesian
War
- name means “big forhead”
- student of Socrates
- left athens during Socrates’
death
- opened the Academy in 385
during his return
- wrote 20 books that attempted
to teach a specific concept
(socrates as mc)
PLATO’S PHILOSPHY
- every individual should devote
his life to what is best fitted for
him to do.
-The important function of
education: determine what
every individual is by nature
capable and fitted of doing
things.
- Poor leadership will lead to
wrong decision
SOCIAL JUSTICE
- giving what is due to whom it
is due.
TRIPARTITE SOUL
PLATO: THE THEREE SOULS

1. Intellectual Soul
- virtue is wisdom
- most Important virtue
- intellectual soul should rule
over the other parts
2. Will-Soul
- virtue: courage
- second important
3. Desire Soul
- virtue: moderation
- third most important
PLATO’S PHILOSOPHY
- the only good life/ worth living
is a life reasoned by your own
mind, not on other’s ideas and
opinions- change your life and
mind
- examine your life, history, and
ideas, once. Once you self
examine, then you are ready
for knowledge
- all knowledge begins in not
knowing. To state “ I don’t
know” is the first step to
learning.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)
- Greek philosopher
- sent to complete his
education at the academy at 17
years old.
- 20 years studying under Plato
- became a teacher in the
Academy
ARISTOTLE AS AN EMPERICIST
EMPERICISM
- theory of knowledge comes
from primarily from SENSORY
experience.
- he thinks that all knowledge
comes to human beings from
and through sensation. Our
minds start as blank slates and
from sensation we get ideas “
contents”
HISTORY MAKERS
SOCRATES
- one of the mot powerful
thinkers in history
- encouraged students to
examine their beliefs
SOCRATIC METHOD
- method of teaching by a
question and answer approach
- devoted his life to gaining self
knowledge
- “ there is only one good,
knowledge; and one evil,
ignorance
PLATO
- wealthy athenian family
- wrestler and poet before
- studied under Socrates
- traveled to North America
- founded the Academy in 387
BC
- school lasted for approx. 900
years
- Philosophy Begins in wonder

ARISTOTLE (384-32 BC)
- son of a physician
- one of the brightest students
of the Academy
- stayed for 20 years
-founded his own school
“Lyceum”
-”he who studies how things
originated from and came into
being.., will achieve the
clearest view of them”
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
- (354-430 BC) roman
provinces in Africa (algeria)
- studied philosophy
- Rhetoric teacher
- converted to christianity later
on
- monk, priest, Bishop of Hippo
- up until Aquinas: is a
preeminent thinker in the
christian church
- “spirit of man” (medieval
philo.)
- follow Plato’s view but added
christianity
-man is bifurcated nature
- part of man dwells in the
world (imperfect) yearns to be
with the Divine
- other part is capable of
reaching immortality
Body- dies on earth
Soul- lives eternally in spiritual
bliss with God
- man truly knows himself when
he knows the prime origin and
ultimate end.
PHILOSOPHY OF
INTERIORITY
- his philosophy
- he does not seek to solution
philosophical problems in the
study of external realities
(aristotle), but IN THE STUDY
OF THE INTERIOR WORLD,
of the SOUL
ST. AQUINAS
Man
- the point of convergence
between corporeal (human
body) and spiritual substances
- “one substance body and
soul”
- an embodied soul not a soul
using body (claimed by plato)
- substantially body ad soul,
only the soul is the substance
while the body is actual.
MODERN PHILOSPHER
RENE DESCARTES
- born in Haye, France 1591 -
1650 Sweden
-father of modern philosophy
- educated by the jesuits
- problems according to him
was:
Sterility and conflict of
Scholastic (church) philosophy
- set the task of providing an
indubitable (unquestionable)
foundation of human
knowledge
- foundation he found:
Cogito, ergo sum.
THECONCEPT OF SELF
COGITO ERGO SUM
- “ I think, therefore I am”
The self = cogito (thing that
thinks)
+ extenza (extension
of mind/body)
Body
- a machine attached to the
mind
- mind makes the man
“ I am a thinking thing… a thing
that doubts, understands,
affirms, denies, wills refuse,
imagines, perceives
DAVID HUME
- disagrees with all other
aforementioned philosophers
- “ one can only know what
comes from the senses and
experiences” (empiricist)
- “the self is not an entity
beyond the physical body”
- you know that other people
are humans not because you
have seen their soul but
because you see them, hear
them, feel them etc
HUME’S EMPERICIST SKEPTICISM
- all cause- effects and
continuity of the self are
perceptual illusions
- “ a bundle or collection of
different perceptions which
succeed one another with an
inconceivable rapidity and are
in perpetual flux and
movement”
THE SELF
- the self is an empty idea
Because there is no
experiential continuity of
selfhood.
- cannot truly experience the
self at all
- this discovery is so frightening
to us that we “feign its
continued existence… and run
into the notion of a soul
IMMANUEL KANT
- one of the most important
philosophers of the modern era
-his project revolutionized
philosophy
- first to use the term “race”
- agrees with Hume (everything Merleau-Ponty
starts with perception/ - french philosopher
sensation
BODY PERCEPTION
- there is Mind that regulates - aspects of
these impressions.
Mind & Body
-”time, space, etc. Are ideas
that one cannot find in the - Intertwined, cannot be
world” separated

- “apparatus of the mind” - One cannot find any

experience that is not
embodied experiences
GILBERT RYLE - Living body

THE CONCEPT OF MIND

- GILBERT RYLE SELF
“Im not myself today, you see,”
CHARACTERISTICS OF MIND Alice
“i don’t see”
- person’s mental life is utterly -caterpillar
private; the only way one mind
can affect another is through - Lewis Carroll
the physical world.

- each mind has special access

to itself, but not to any others.

- what truly matters is the

behavior that a person
manifests in his day to day
existence

SELF
- not an entity one can locate
and analyze but simply the
convenient name that people
use to refer to all the behavior
that people make.
CARL ROGERS AND SELF-
CONCEPT
REAL SELF
- one’s perception of actual
characteristics, traits, and
abilities
- “what I am?”
IDEAL SELF
- what one should be/would like
to be
-” what I aspire to be?”
PROJECTED SELF
- “how I project myself to
others”
The curious paradox
- when I accept myself just as I
am, then I can change
- Carl Rogers
Characteristics of the self
- separate
The self is distinct from other
selves. Always uniique and has
its own identity.
- self contained /
independent
Because in itself can exist.
Its distinctness allows it self to
be contained with its own
thoughts, characteristics and
volition.
- consistent
Particular self’s traits and
characteristics, tendencies and
potentialities, are more or less
the same.
-unitary
The center of all experiences
and thoughts that run thru a
center person
-private
Each person sorts
information. Feelings and
emotions and thought
processes within the self. This
whole process is never
accessible to anyone but the
self.
Guiding principles of
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
1. Knowledge constructed thru
human activity
2. Individuals create meaning
thru interactions
SELF AND CULTURE
- Marcel Mauss (1872-1950)
-THE GIFT
- self has 2 faces
MOI
- person’s sense of who he is
PERSONNE
- social concepts of what it
means to be who he is

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
(1863-1931)
- SELF
From experiences when we
learn to interpret situations by
“taking the role of the other”
same political authority and
cultural expectations
- one of the most importance of
society is that it gives you a
framework to work together.
Provides platforms to take
collective efforts towards
improving social conditions

-Children learn that in

Imitation
Play
Games What is self
Generalized other - self as “the sense of personal
identity and of who we are as
VYGOTSKY’S individuals”
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
William james (1890)
- development thru scaffolding, - earliest
Zone of proximal
development Carl rogers
“between what child can do
with and without scaffolding Self, identity and self-concept
Cognitive tools are note fixed in one time frame
- support child’s developing
brain Sigmund Freud
- he saw self, its mental p
SELF DEVELOPMENT

FAMILY
the kind of family we are born
in, resources available to
us( human, spiritual,
economic), and kind of
development will have certain
effects.

SOCIETY
- group of individuals involved
in persistent social interaction,
or large social group sharing
the same spatial or social
territory typically subject to the