LESSON 4 TOPIC: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SELF
It helps us solve our problems – mundane or
abstract and it helps us make a better decision by
developing critical thinking which is very important
in the age of disinformation.
Why do we need Philosophy?
Philosophy:
Philia = love, strong desire for a particular object
Sophia = wisdom, correct application of knowledge
Philosophy = Love of Wisdom
It teaches critical thinking, close reading, clear
writing and logical analysis; it uses these to
understand the language we use to describe the
world, and our place within it
What is Philosophy?
 Philosophy is the study of general and
fundamental problems, such as those
connected with existence, knowledge, values,
reason, mind and language.
 Philosophy is the rational attempt to formulate,
understand, and answer fundamental
questions.
What is the meaning of philosophical self?
 The philosophy of self defines the essential
qualities that make one person distinct from all
others.
 There have been numerous approaches to
defining these qualities.
 The self is the idea of a unified being which is
the source of consciousness
 Before we even had to be in any formal
institution of learning, among the many things
we were first taught as kids is to articulate and
write down our names.
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 Our names represent us, who we are.
 Our names signify.
 Death cannot even stop this bond between the
person and her name.
 A name, no matter how intimately bound it is
with the bearer, however is not the person.
 It is only a signifier.
 The SELF is thought to be something else than
the name.
 The SELF is something perennially molds,
shapes, and develops.
 The SELF is not static thing that one is simply
born with like a mole on one’s face or is just
assigned by one’s parent’s just like a name.
 Everyone is tasked to discover one’s self.
 It was the GREEKS 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 self.
 The different perspectives and views on the self
can be best seen and understood then by
revisiting its prime (major) movers and identify
the most important conjectures (assumptions)
made by philosophers from the ancient times
to the contemporary period.
Philosophical Perspectives of the Self
THE SELF ACCORDING TO ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS
SOCRATES
Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who
is credited as a founder of Western philosophy and
the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical
tradition of thought.
Socrates and his contention of the Self
 Socrates was the first philosopher to ever
engage in a systematic questioning about the
self, hence the method of inquiry called
socratoic questioning.
 Socratic method was named after him. Socratic
method, also known as dialectic method is the
 foundation of critical thinking, a method of
questioning that challenges accuracy and
completeness of thinking in a way that acts to
move people towards their ultimate goal.
 Furthermore, Socrates argued that self is
dualistic, as it is composed of body and soul,
where body is characterized as imperfect and
impermanent and soul as perfect and
permanent.
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates
 He believed that the self exists in two parts.
 One part is the Physical and, tangible and
mortal aspect of us that can be/is constantly
changing.
 The second part is the soul, which he believed
to be immortal.
 Socrates believed that when we are alive our
body and soul are attached, therefore making
both parts of our “SELF “present in the physical
realm.
 When we die however, our body stays in the
physical realm, thus making our soul immortal.
 The true self is not to be identified with what
we own, with our social status, with our
reputation, or even with our body.
 Instead, Socrates maintained that our true self
is our soul.
 He was also known for his dictum “Ignorance is
the beginning of wisdom “
 It is accepting our ignorance that prods us to
know ourselves, our power and limitations.
 To know ourselves means to acquire true
knowledge, which is practical knowledge.
 It is not knowledge gained merely for the sake
of knowledge but knowledge used to improve
ourselves by capitalizing on our powers to fight
our limitations.
 He is also famous for this quote “the
unexamined life in not worth living.
 In other words, an examining, thinking, and
investing self is what the self essentially is
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 In fact, he preferred to continue to seek the
truth to the answer to his question in the after
–life so he preferred death to exile because for
him exile was tantamount to not being able to
identify the answer to his questions on life
while on exile on earth.
 The Core of Socratic Ethics is the concept of
Virtue and knowledge.
 Virtue is the deepest and most basic propensity
of man.
 Knowing one’s own virtue is necessary and can
be learned.
 Since Virtue is innate in the mind and self –
knowledge is the source of all wisdom, an
individual may gain possession of oneself and
be one’s own master through knowledge.
 The knowledge Socrates equates to virtue is the
knowledge that we gain through the process of
“questioning and examining ours and others'
beliefs” that makes a life an examined (or
examining) life.
 Virtues" are attitudes, dispositions, or character
traits that enable us to be and to act in ways
that develop this potential.
 They enable us to pursue the ideals we have
adopted.
 Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity,
fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and
prudence are all examples of virtues.
How does virtue lead to knowledge?
According to Socrates, virtue is knowledge,
because: (1) all living things aim for their perceived
good; and therefore
(2) if anyone does not know what is good, he
cannot do what is good -- because he will always
aim for a mistaken target; but
(3) if someone knows what is good, he will do what
is good, because he will.
PLATO
Plato: the human soul is immortal
 He is a student of Socrates
 The philosophy of the self can be explained as a
process of self-knowledge and purification of
the soul
 He believed that in the existence of the
 mind and soul Mind and soul is given in
perfection with God
For Plato, the self is an “immortal soul in a mortal
perishable body.”
The soul has tripartite nature.
This tripartite nature consists of:
a) a soul or an immortal rational part which
existed before it became part of the body,
b) a courageous and spirited part and
c) an appetitive part. These courageous and
spirited parts of the soul are mortal and they
perish when we die. What survives after we die
is our soul, rational part of our self.
3 components to the soul
1. rational soul - reason & intellect to govern
affairs
2. spirited soul - emotions should be kept at bay
3. appetitive soul - base desires (food, drink,
sleep, sexual needs, etc.)
When these are attained the human person's soul
becomes just & virtuous.
 In Book IV of Plato’s Republic, the soul is the
giver of life to the body, the permanent,
changeless and divine element “as opposed to
the changing, transitory and perishable body.
 The body is just a shell of the soul.
 For Plato, our life is a continuous striving to free
our soul from its imprisonment in the body.
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ARISTOLE
 He was an ancient Greek Philosopher, a student
of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great
 For Aristotle, the self is composed of body and
soul, mind and matter, sense and intellect,
passion and reason.
 Reason is supreme in human person and so
should govern all of life’s activities.
 When the senses, the lower nature of a human
person, dominate a human person’s life, he/she
tends to live a chaotic life.
 When reason rules over the senses, mind over
matter, the human person tends to live a happy
life.
 Furthermore, for Aristotle, perfection and
happiness come from wisdom and virtue.
 Wisdom is the true knowledge
 Virtue is doing what is best for you that which
leads you to the attainment of your own
perfection and happiness.
 He taught the theory of the GOLDEN MEAN.
 The Golden Mean means moderation; avoid the
extremes; avoid too much and too little.
 Living a life of moderation is doing things in
consonance with reason.
THE SELF ACCORDING TO MEDIEVAL
PHILOSOPHERS
ST. AUGUSTINE
 St. Augustine combined Greek philosophy and
truths contained in the Scriptures.
 The SELF is made up of the body and soul, a
soul in possession of a body” which does not
constitute two persons but one man.” Unlike
the ancient Greek philosophers, St. Augustine’s
concept of self is in the context of his relation
to God.
 Every human person is made for God.
 It is only upon his/her recognition of God’s love
and his/her response to the invitation to love
that he/she finds inner peace.
 Happiness is the end –all and the be-all of  But Aquinas pointed to a higher form of human
human living and this happiness can be found in soul-found in God alone. In this sense, St.
God alone. Thomas Aquinas was like St. Augustine who
 At his conversion, taught about the human soul that is restless
 St. Augustine remarked “You have made our and imperfect until it rests in God.
hearts for Thee, O God and so they will find rest
THE SELF ACCORDING TO MODERN AND
only in Thee.”
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHERS
 Like Aristotle, St. Augustine, virtue is “the order
of Love.” RENE DESCARTES
 To love God means necessary to love one’s
 The self is an immaterial mind and a material
fellowmen.
body.
 Never to do any harm to another as you would
 With his ties to dualism, Descartes believed
not want others do unto you
that the mind is the seat of consciousness.
 Speaking from his very own personal
 The body (which includes the human senses) is
experience, St. Augustine taught against
unreliable hence, should not be trusted.
hedonism.
 One can have ideas prior to experience.
 He stressed that man craves for something
 This secondary position of the body to the mind
perfect, immutable and enduring.
or to the soul is a unifying thread among
 Possession of the goods of this world such as
Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and
health, beauty, power, honor, fame can never
Thomas Aquinas
give to a human person what he/she is truly
 Descartes is known for his “I think, therefore, I
looking for, as these goods are finite, unstable
am.”
and ephemeral.
 The rationality and activity of the mind are at
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS the center of man’s being.
 To instill virtue and to give primacy to the mind,
 Like Aristotle, Aquinas proclaimed the
Descartes’s advice is for us to understand and
supremacy of reason in human person.
work hard enough on our passion so these
 A human person can know the truth with
passions are put under our control.
certainty by the use of his reason.
 However, he stressed that there are some JOHN LOCKE
truths which cannot be known by human
 In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
reason alone and which cannot be known by
John Locke explained that at birth the (human)
human reason alone and which can be
mind is a “tabula rasa” which means “blank
perceived only with the aid of the light of Divine
slate”
Revelation
 The mind is empty at birth.
 Yet these two truths-those known through
 It is without rules for processing data and that
reason and those from Divine Revelation can
data is blank.
never contradict each other because they
 According to Locke, impressions during infancy
emanate from the same source, God, who is
have very important and lasting consequences.
TRUTH Itself.
 He argued that the “associations of ideas” that
 Like Aristotle, Aquinas taught that man’s
individuals make when young are more
longing for happiness on earth comes with the
important than those made later because they
full development of man’s powers.
are the foundation of the self.
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 While impressions during infancy serve as the  He is known for his supreme principle of
foundation of the development of the self, this morality, the Kantian categorical imperative,
does not mean that individuals can no longer Act only according to that maxim by which you
unmake effect of not-so-good earlier can at the same time will that it should become
experiences. a natural law “
 Locke emphasized the “freedom of individuals
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHERS
to author their own soul.”
 Individuals are free to define the content of MAURICE MERLEAU PONTY
their character except for their basic identity as
 The self-according to him is an inextricable
a member of human species.
union between mind and body.
 He believes that “God created man and we are
 There is no experience that is not embodied
in effect, God’s property.
experience.
 The chief end set by our creator for us as a
 He asserts that “everything that we experience
species and as individuals is survival.
of joy, sadness, love, remorse- happens with
 Locke further explains. “Being furnished with
our bodies.
like faculties, sharing all in one community of
 There is never a moment in which we are
nature, there cannot be supposed any
separated from our bodies as if it is a clothing
subordination among us, that may authorize us
that we can shed of.
to destroy one another, as if we were made for
 Our bodies open our existence to the world.
one another’s uses, as the inferior ranks of
We grow and move about in the world in such a
creatures are for us
way that our bodies learn to be in harmony
 With survival as the end, every human person
with it.
has the right to life, liberty, health and
 Merleau Ponty refers to this oneness or
property.
harmony between the body and the world as
IMMANUEL KANT our being-in the world. The hyphenation of the
phrase indicates an inextricable relation. Our
 According to Kant, a human person has an inner
being is always an existence that is in the world.
and an outer self which together, form his/her
 It is clear that the “mind and the body are so
consciousness.
intertwined that we cannot even distinguished
 The inner self consists of his/her psychological
where the work of the mind ends and where
state and rational intellect.
the work of the body begins.
 The outer self is a human person’s senses and
 Bodily knowledge shows that the body is also
the physical world.
intelligent.
 Like, St. Augustine, Kant sees the self as prone
 Conversely, the mind is not pure spirit,
to corruption.
detached from the material world through its
 Life is a constant struggle between beauty and
cognitive activity.
pleasure, between the inner self and the outer
 The mind always thinks in an embodied way.
self.
 Kant, lived during the enlightenment period
characterized by growing secularism and the
weakened effect of religion.
 Kant replaced religion with reason.

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GILBERT RYLE  Yes, some people still say things like, “She’s lost
her mind. However, neuroscience says, “No, it’s
 Ryle believes that the “workings of the mind
a physical problem and we aim to fix it.”
are not distinct from the actions of the body
 For Churchland, decision-making and moral
but are one and the same.
behaviour are a biological phenomenon.
 The mind is a set of capacities and abilities
 Human behaviour must be explained rather by
belonging to the body.
a mature cognitive neuroscience.
 The mind is a mysterious entity that controls
 Human behaviour must be explained materially
the mechanical workings of the body.
in terms of “recurrent neutral network. Thus,
 The mind should not be viewed as an additional
Churchland speaks of a neuro- conscience.
mysterious thing that is subjected to
observation or to mechanical laws.
 Rather, the mind should be seen as the form or
organizing principle of the body.
 Another teaching of Ryle that relates to
understanding and developing your self is the
distinction among knowing how (technical
ability), knowing that facts and propositions),
and knowing what.
 Ryle asserts that knowing that is empty
intellectualism without knowing how to make
use of the fact.
 Effective possession of a piece of knowledge
involves knowing how to use that knowledge,
when required for the solution of other
theoretical or practical problems.
PAUL CHURCH LAND

 Church land adheres to materialism, the belief

that nothing except matters exists.
 If a thing can’t be recognized by the senses,
then it is not real.
 He asserts that since the mind can’t be
experienced by our senses, then the mind
doesn’t really exist.
 It is the physical brain and not the mind that
gives us our senses of self.
 Churchland defends his eliminative materialism.
“First, why should we believe in a mind when
science is proving that mental health is
connected to the physical brain?
 For instance, depression is strongly linked to
brain chemicals gone wrong.

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LESSON: 5 The JOHARI WINDOW
What is the role of Psychology in understanding
the self
 Psychology is the scientific study of the mind
and behavior.
 Psychologists are actively involved in studying
and understanding mental processes, brain
functions, and behavior.
 the four primary goals of psychology are
to describe, explain, predict, and change
behavior.
 In many ways, these objectives are similar to
the kinds of things you probably do every day
as you interact with others.
FOUR MAJOR GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
DESCRIBE: To describe human thought and
behavior
EXPLAIN: To explain why these behaviors occur
PREDICT: To predict how, why and when these
behaviors will occur again in the future
MODIFY: To modify and improve behaviors to
better the lives of individuals and society as a
whole
Why Johari Window is important?
 The Johari Window is a communication model
that can be used to improve understanding
between individuals.
 The Johari Window is a model used to help
people better understand their relationships
both with themselves, and with others.
 As such, it's a useful technique for improving an
individual's self-awareness and development in
group situations.
 It also aids two-way communication with the
group
 Johari Window is a technique for improving
self-awareness within an individual.
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 Johari Window model can be a useful tool if you
want to improve your communication skills.
Influence
Today the Johari Window model is especially
relevant due to modern emphasis on, and influence
of
 soft skills, Soft Skill training is working on
personal attributes, communication abilities,
personality traits, etc. which are important
socially and professionally. These skills help you
with a lot of things in the workplace. Soft skills
play an important role in the success and
growth of a person.
 Behaviour
 Empathy
 cooperation
 inter-group development
 interpersonal development, it is through
the development of positive social relationships
that individuals become linked to society,
develop a sense of belonging and learn to live
and work with others.
Use of Johari Model
The Johari Window soon became a widely used
model for understanding and training self-
awareness, personal development, improving
communications, interpersonal relationships, group
dynamics, team development and intergroup
relationships.
Who are the founders of Johari Window?
It was created by American psychologists Joseph
Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–
1995) in 1955, while researching group dynamics at
the University of California Los Angeles. The model
was first published in the Proceedings of the
Western Training Laboratory in Group
Development by UCLA Extension Office in 1955,
and was later expanded by Joseph Luft. Used
primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings
as a heuristic exercise. ‘JOHARI’ after combining
their first names, JOE and HARRY. It is a simple and For example, you may not know that you say
useful tool for understanding and training self- "Um" a lot. 
awareness.  You may not be aware that your thinking face
looks like an angry face.
What is a Johari Window?
Johari quadrant 3 / Hidden Area or Hidden Self
Johari window is a psychological tool to self-assess
one’s behaviour as well as the relationship with  What is known to ourselves but kept hidden
others, through feedback or disclosure. from, and therefore unknown to others.
 This includes secrets, past experiences, feelings,
It is one of the most effective means of self-analysis
etc. Many people keep their information
by considering the other’s perspective to
private and do not share it with others.
understand oneself in a better way.
Johari quadrant 4 / Unknown self
Areas of Model
 It contains information, feelings, talent abilities,
The four Johari Window perspectives are called
aptitudes, experiences etc., that are unknown
'regions' or 'areas' or 'quadrants'. Each of these
to the person him/herself and unknown to
regions contains and represents the information -
others in the group.
feelings, motivation, etc. – known about the
 The unknown self is the mysterious state of an
person, in terms of whether the information is
individual neither known to him, nor others
known or unknown by the person, and whether the
know about it.
information is known or unknown by others in the
group.  Often the feelings, thoughts or ideas go so deep
down the individual that it becomes difficult for
Johari quadrant 1 / Open the individual as well for the other people to
understand it.
 Johari region 1 is also known as the 'area of free
activity'. This is the information about the
person - behaviour, attitude, feelings, emotion,
knowledge, experience, skills, views, etc. -
known by the person ('the self) and known by
the group ('others').
 Open self personality is a personality in which a
person is well aware of his own strengths,
weaknesses, his abilities and other people
around him- can be his team members or ones
he interacts with- are well aware of those. An
open personality is not mysterious or hidden or
even deluded.
Johari quadrant 2 / The Blind Self

 Johari region 2 is what is known about a person

by others in the group, but is unknown by the
person him/herself.
 Is the part of you that other people see about
you, but that you don't know about yourself.
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