BUENAVISTA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

CANGAWA BUENAVISTA BOHOL

PRELIM TOPIC
A.Y 2022-2023 FIRST SEMESTER

SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

MODULE 1
TOPIC: DEFINING THE SELF: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self;
2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the various
philosophers across time and place;
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical schools; and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class.

INTRODUCTION

Before we even had to be in any formal institution of learning, among the many things
that we were first taught as kids is to articulate and write our names. Growing up, we were told
to refer back to this name when talking about ourselves .Our parents painstakingly thought
about our names. Should we be named after a famous celebrity, a respected politician or
historical personality, or even a saint? Were you named after one .Our names represent who we
are .It has not been a custom to just randomly pick a combination of letters and number (or even
punctuation marks) like zhjk756!! To denote our being. Human beings attach names that are
meaningful to birthed progenies because names are supposed to designate us in the world.
Thus, some people get baptized with names such as ‘’ precious,’’ ‘’beauty’’ or ‘’lovely’ ’Likewise,
when our parents call our names, we were thought to respond to them because our names
represent who we are. As a student, we are told to always write our names on our papers,
projects, or any output for that matter. Our names signify us .Death cannot even stop this bond
between the person and her name .Names are inscribed even into one’s gravestone.

A name is not the person itself no matter how intimately bound it is with the bearer. It
is only a signifier .A person who was named after a saint most probably will not become an
actual saint .He may not even turn out to be saintly! The self is thought to be something else
than the name. The self is something that a person perennially molds, shapes and develops.
The self is not a static thing that one is simply born with like a mole on one’s face or is just
assigned by one’s parents just like a name. Everyone is tasked to discover one’s self. Have you
truly discovered yours?

ABSTRACTION
The history of philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the
fundamental nature of the self. Along with the question of the primary substratum that defines
the multiplicity of things in the world, the inquiry on the self has preoccupied the earliest thinkers
in the history of philosophy: the Greeks. The Greeks were the ones who seriously questioned
myths and moved away from them in attempting to understand reality and respond to perennial
questions of curiosity, including the question of the self. The different perspectives and views on
the self can be best seen and understood by revisiting its prime movers and identify the most
important conjectures made by philosophers from the ancient times to the contemporary period.
BELOW ARE THE DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHERS WHO GAVE THEIR CONCEPTS OF THE
SELF. Their perspectives will be discuss in module 2.

SOCRATES AND PLATO

AUGUSTINE AND THOMAS AQUINAS
DESCARTES
HUME
KANT
RYLE
MERLEAU-PONTY

ACTIVITY
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR SELF AS FULLY AND PRECISELY AS YOU
CAN.YOUR ANSWERS WILL BE DONE VIA VIDEO.PLEASE WEAR PROPER ATTIRE AND SPEAK FLUENTLY
IN ENGLISH.YOUR VIDEO WILL BE SUBMITTED IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF THIS POST.

1. How would you characterize yourself?

2. What makes you stand out from the rest? What makes yourself special?

3. How has your self-transformed itself?

4. How is your self-connected to your body?

5. How is your self-related to other selves?

6. What will happen to yourself after you die?

THANK YOU AND GODBLESS!!!