TOPIC 1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Dr. Kathlyn Mata, RGC

“To find yourself, think for yourself.” – Socrates

In efforts to appreciate and understand reality, and retort to

persistent questions of inquisitiveness, including the inquiry of
self, it was the Greeks who earnestly probed legends and folklore,
and turned away from them.

This topic on the philosophical perspective of the self (which will

utilize 3 hours) will then allow you to reexamine its key movers
for you to be able to identify the most imperative assumptions
made by philosophers from the ancient to the contemporary
www.thoughtco.com times.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

1. cite highlights in the life of the philosophers that influenced their concepts and principles;
2. identify and differentiate the philosophers’ perspectives of self; and
3. create your own concept/ theory of the self.

PHILOSOPHERS’ PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

The way you choose to spend your life contributes to the development of your identity and self-
understanding. Your past is a contributory factor to who you are today, but who you will be
tomorrow greatly depends on your perspective about
yourself.

1. SOCRATES (470-399 B.C.)

He explored his philosophy of immortality in the days

following his trial and before his sentence to death was
executed.

According to him, an unexamined life is not worth living.

This statement is reflected in his idea of the self.

He believed in dualism that aside from the physical body

(material substance), each person has an immortal soul
(immaterial substance).

The body belongs to the physical realm and the soul to the
ideal realm. When you die, your body dies but not your soul. There is a life after the death of
your physical body. There is a world after death.

According to him, in order for you to have a good life, you must live a good life, a life with a
purpose, and that purpose is for you to do well. Then there you will be happy after your body
dies.

2. PLATO (428/427-348/347 BC)

He was greatly affected by Socrates’ death.

Socrates was Plato’s teacher.
He believed that the self is immortal and it
consists of 3 parts:

a. Reason – the divine essence that enables you

to think deeply, make wise choices and
achieve an understanding of eternal truths;

b. Physical Appetite - your basic biological

needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual
desire and;

c. Spirit or Passion – your basic emotions such

as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and
empathy.

The 3 components may work together or in conflict. If human beings do not live in accordance
with their nature/function, the result will be an injustice.

3. ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430)

He was a great explorer in his youth and young

adulthood; he spent great times with his friends and
up to the extent of fathering an illegitimate child.

His explorations led to his conversion to

Christianity wherein he spent the remainder of his
day serving the bishop of Hippo and writing books
and letters including his idea of the self.

At first, he thought the body as the “slave” of the

soul but ultimately, regarded the body as the
“spouse” of the soul both attached to one another.
He believed that the body is united with the soul, so
that man may be entire and complete. His first
principle was, “I doubt, therefore I am.”
The self seeks to be united with God through faith and reason and he described that humanity is
created in the image and likeness of God, that God is supreme and all-knowing and everything
created by God who is all good is good.

4. RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650)

Descartes was a scientist in his professional life and

during his time, scientists believed that after death the
physical body dies, hence the self also dies.

He was a devout Catholic who believed in the

immortal souls and eternal life. By having the idea of
both the thinking self and the physical body,
Descartes was able to reconcile his being a scientist
and a devout Catholic.

The self is a thinking thing, distinct from the body.

The thinking self or soul is nonmaterial, immortal,
conscious while the physical body is material, mortal,
non-thinking entity, fully governed by the physical
laws of nature.

“Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I Am) is the keystone to his concept of the self. The
essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of oneself.

5. JOHN LOCKE (1634-1704)

The intolerant and charged atmosphere in England

kept Locke to stay abroad and freedom from
political intrigues and duties allowed him to
develop his philosophy.

According to Locke, the human mind at birth is a

tabula rasa (“blank slate”). The self or personal
identity is constructed primarily from sense
experiences which shape and mold the self
throughout a person’s life.

Personal identity is made possible by self-

consciousness. In order to discover the nature of
personal identity, you to have to find out what it
means to be a person. A person is a thinking,
intelligent being who has abilities to reason and to
reflect. A person is also someone who considers itself to be the same thing at different times and
different places.

Consciousness means being aware that you are thinking; this what makes your belief possible
that you are the same identity at different times and in different places. The essence of the self is
its conscious awareness of itself as thinking, reasoning, reflecting identity.

6. DAVID HUME (1711-1776)

He left the University of Edinburg at the age of 15,

to study privately. Although he was encouraged to
take up law, his interest was philosophy. It is
during his private study that he began raising
questions about religion.

For him, there is no “self” only a bundle of

perceptions passing through the theatre of your
minds.

According to him, humans are so desperately

wanting to believe that they have a unified and
continuous self or soul that they use their
imaginations to construct a fictional self. The
mind is a theatre, a container for fleeting sensations
and disconnected ideas and your reasoning ability
is merely a slave to the passions. Hence, personal identity is just a result of imagination.

7. IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)

Although Kant recognizes the legitimacy in

Hume’s account, he opposes the idea of Hume that
everything starts with perception and sensation of
impressions, that’s why he brought out the idea of
the self as a response against the idea of Hume.

For Kant, there is unavoidably a mind that

systematizes the impressions that men get from the
external world.

Therefore, Kant believed that the self is a product

of reason because the self regulates experience by
making unified experience possible.
We construct the self. The self exists independently of experience and the self goes beyond
experience.

8. SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

Freud develops his theories during a period in which he

experienced heart irregularities, disturbing dreams and
periods of depression. He read William Shakespeare in
English throughout his life.

Based on him, the self is composed of three layers,

conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

The conscious mind includes thoughts, feelings, and

actions that you are currently aware of; the
preconscious mind includes mental activities that are
stored in your memory, not presently active but can be
accessed or recalled; while the unconscious mind
includes activities that you are not aware of.

According to him, there are thoughts, feelings, desires,

and urges that the conscious mind wants to hide, buried in your unconscious, but may shed light
to your unexplained behavior.

9. GILBERT RYLE (1900-1976)

His father was a general practitioner but had a keen

interest in philosophy and astronomy that he passed it on
to his children; they had an impressive library where
Ryle enjoyed being an omnivorous reader.

He graduated with first class honors in the New Modern

Greats School of Philosophy, Politic, and Economics.

His concept of the self is provided in his philosophical

statement, “I Act therefore I am.” Ryle views the self as
the way people behave, which is composed of a set of
patterned behavior.

Basically, for Ryle, the self is the same as your behavior.

10. PAUL CHURCHLAND (1942)

Churchland became a professor at the University of

California where he later became the department chair
and member of the Cognitive Science Faculty, a member
of the Institute for Neural Computation. His membership
to these organizations prompted him to dwell on the
brain as the self.

Churchland’s theory is anchored in the statement, “the

self is the brain.” The self is inseparable from the brain
and the physiological body because the physical brain
gives the sense of self. In short, the brain and the self are
one. Once the brain is dead, the self is dead too.

11. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1908-1961)

When he
won the school’s “Award for Outstanding
Achievement” in Philosophy it traced his
commitment to the vocation of Philosophy.

His concept, “the self has embodied subjectivity”

explained that all your knowledge about yourself
and the world is based on your subjective
experiences and everything that you are aware of is
contained in your consciousness.

For him, your body is your general medium for

having a world.