WEEK 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

LESSON OBJECTIVES
➢ Examine and discuss the various philosophical and socio-anthropological perspectives of the
self
➢ Examine how the self is shaped by the society and culture
➢ Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of self from the
philosophical and socio-anthropological perspectives

PART 1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

➢ What is Philosophy?
o Philosophy: the term was derived from Greek words – ‘Philein’ and ‘Sophia’ which
literally mean ‘love’ and ‘wisdom’. Taken together, they mean “the love or pursuit of
wisdom.”
o Hence, philosophy is “a way of looking at the world and giving it meaning. It can
provide a high quality method of examining our beliefs.”
➢ What is Philosophy of Self and why it is important?
o A philosophy is the pinnacle of one’s life.
▪ Without philosophy we are subject to aimless bouts where life seems
sometimes void and meaningless.
o Philosophy adds structure and balance, to implement goals and reach one’s
dreams.
▪ It is the roadmap to our actions and thoughts, the processing tool of reason.
➢ Famous Philosophers of the world that you will be revisiting today:
o Socrates (469 – 399 B.C.)
▪ Know Thyself: man must stand and live according to his nature and examine
his life to understand his inner self.
• He asserted that “an unexamined life is not worth living.”
• Man = body (physical) + soul (ideal)
o Highlight: Socrates believed that the soul is perfect but tied to
the body which is imperfect. The worst thing that can
happen to anyone is to live but die inside. Hence, man
must live an examined life and a life of purpose and value.
▪ He believed that knowledge is the ultimate virtue, best used to help people
improve their lives.
▪ Two (2) important principles of life according to Socrates:
• His faithful adherence to the principle of never doing wrong or
participating in any wrongdoing, even indirectly.
• His strong belief that a person who knows what is good and right could
not act against it.
o Highlight: Socrates believed that there is no evildoers and all
kinds of evils are circumstantial and that no one does evil
volitionally. Hence, ignorance of the knowledge of the right
and good life enables man to do evil deed.
o Plato (429 – 347 B.C.)
▪ He agrees with Socrates that a person has soul.
▪ Three (3) components of the soul:
 • Reason: reason and intellect to govern affairs
• Spirit: emotions should be kept at bay
• Appetite: base desires (food, drink, sleep, sexual needs, etc.)
o Highlight: When these are attained, the human person’s soul
becomes just and virtuous. However, rational decisions or
reason should predominantly be in charge in the whole
system.
o Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650)
▪ Father of Modern Philosophy; he first introduced the idea that all knowledge is
the product of reasoning based on self-evident assumptions.
▪ He agrees with both Socrates and Plato that human is composed of body and
soul (mind). However, he further elaborated the premise between the
connection of the body and mind by dissecting animals, leading him to
believe that spirit (cranial fluid) flowed through the body (by nerves) and
commanded it.
▪ Dualist View of the Self: Mind-Body interaction
• The mind and body MUST be distinct
• He asserted that the soul (mind) is the essential form of the self and
could exist without the body, because human beings are composed
of a material body and an immaterial mind.
o Highlight: This forms the theory of doubt by Descartes, that he
can doubt the existence of the material world (i.e., body), but
cannot doubt the existence of himself as a thinking thing (i.e.,
mind), to the conclusion that his thoughts belong to the non-
spatial substance that is distinct from matter.
▪ Hence, coined the phrase, ‘Cogito Ergo Sum’ or ‘I think, therefore I am’.
We are the quality of our thoughts, but not our thoughts only because one must
continue to doubt (seek knowledge). Doubt is the very foundation of truth that
we doubt what we have thought of is the proof that we stumbled on knowledge.
o John Locke (1632 – 1704)
▪ He coined the phrase, ‘Tabula rasa’ which literally mean as blank tablet.
• Rejected the philosophy that man has innate ideas because one’s
beginning of knowledge is through Sense of Experience.
o Highlight: People are born as blank slates or having no innate
knowledge and that the way they are treated and educated
ultimately shapes who they will become (identity).
▪ Theory of Personal Identity:
• Personal identity is the concept you develop about yourself that
evolves over the course of your life through experiences.
• Unlike Socrates, Plato, and Descartes, Locke theorized that our
personal identity or our self is a matter of psychological continuity
based on consciousness (memory) and not on the substance of
either the soul or the body.
o Highlight: This claims that a person’s identity is the SAME
over a period of time, this is known as personal continuity.
o David Hume (1711-1776)
▪ Unlike Locke, Hume believed that the self which is based on consciousness
(memory) is nothing but a bundle of impressions and ideas.
 •Impressions: basic objects of our experience and forms the core of
our thoughts.
• Ideas: copies of impressions and not as real as impressions, which in
simpler terms, ‘feeling mo lang.’
▪ Hence, he asserted that there is no self.
• There is no self that persists through time, and countered it as Illusion
Theory of Personal Identity
o Highlight: People change from one moment to the next and
turn constantly into a new person. Hence, to think that
something in us remains the same is an illusion. We are never
justified in claiming we are the same person we were a
year ago or a minute ago.
o Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
▪ Unlike all other philosophers you have learned a while ago, Kant believes
that everything starts with perception, sensations of impressions or in
general experiences BUT these experiences DO NOT ALONE DEFINE a
person throughout the course of life.
▪ Intrinsic Worth: People are rational agents, meaning they are capable of
making their own decisions, directing themselves and their actions, and freely
orders means for the attainment of their aims.
• Highlight: Combined the opposing schools of thought empiricism
(knowledge through experiences like Locke and Hume) and
rationalism (knowledge through use of logic or reason like Socrates,
Plato, and Descartes) that both were vital in obtaining knowledge and
understanding in the world.
▪ Dignity of Human Person:
• Treat every person, including yourself, as an end in himself and not
as means to the advantage of anyone else.
• Always act in such wise as to will your action to become a universal
law.
• Act as a rational and free being from the purse sense of duty.

PART 2: SOCIO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

➢ What is Sociology and why it is important?
o Sociology: it is a study of society, patterns of social relationships, social relationships,
social interaction and culture of everyday life.
▪ Society: is derived from the Latin word ‘Socious’ which means Association or
Companionship or Fellowship. Thus, society means large groups of people
who are associated with each other.
o Sociological Perspective provides a different way of looking at familiar worlds that
allows us to gain a new vision of social life.
▪ Have you heard of the following phrases: ‘I AM WHAT YOU THINK I AM’ or
‘Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.”
• Highlight: From a sociological perspective, human beings CANNOT
form a self or personal identity WITHOUT intense social contact
with others.
➢ Famous Sociologists that you will be revisiting today:
o Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
 ▪He theorized, the Looking Glass Self
• Our Self-concept is derived from others perception about us. To put
simply, how we think they view us.
• Our self-concept begins at an early age and continues throughout life.
▪ Three (3) Steps of Looking Glass Self
• You imagine how you appear to the other person (to your parents,
friends, strangers, significant others, etc.)
• You imagine the judgment of the other person. How others
evaluate you as being intelligent, alive, alert, or enthusiastic!
• Development of some sort of feeling about ourselves as a result
of these impressions. You feel some sense of pride, happiness, guilt,
shame, and so on.
o George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
▪ Famous for his theory, the Social Self
▪ Similar with Cooley, he suggested that the self is a product of social
interaction.
▪ Components of Social Interaction
• Social Self: is the joining point between the individual and the society.
• Communication: is the link that allows the intersection to occur.
o Highlight: In order for the Social Self to be developed, and
individual needs to continuously interact in the society, and
this interaction is made possible through communication
(verbal or nonverbal).
▪ Two (2) Sides of Social Self: ‘I’ and ‘Me’
• ‘I’ which is highly inclined to the self (individual) can be considered as
the person’s individuality.
o Example: Your creativity, uniqueness, adaptability in
social process
• ‘Me’ which is highly inclined to the society (other people) represents
the socialized aspect of the individual.
o Example: Your conformist, social organized behavior of
your self

‘I’ is highly Social ‘Me’ is highly

Self Society
inclined on this Self inclined to this
side side

▪ Three (3) Stages of Self-Development: Mead postulated that the self

develops in 3 stages.
• Preparation Stage: In this stage, children merely imitate the people
around them, especially those whom they often interact.
 o Example: When she sees her mother ironing the clothes, the
little girl will most likely imitate her mother.
• Play Stage: The most important aspect of the play stage is role-
playing. When they develop their skill in communicating through
symbols, children increasingly become aware of social relationships.
They start to pretend to be other people.
• Game Stage: At this stage, children no longer just play roles but start
to consider several tasks and relationships simultaneously. Children
and throughout life, we begin to understand that others have
expectations and demands placed on them. Grasping not only their
own social positions but also those of others around them.
➢ However, not all society are the same because different societies have different cultures, and
this would mean different degree and complexities of the development of their social self.
Nonetheless, culture and society are co-existent; a culture represents the beliefs and
practices of a group while society represents the people who share those beliefs and
practices. Hence, people born in a certain locality tend to also have a distinct practices, belief
system, and set of behaviors that may be different from what other people from another locality
have. To it simply, society is the combination of people with different cultures.

Prepared by: Joselito O. Banono Jr., MAPsy, RPm