Understanding the Self
The Philosophical Perspective
Self
- A unified being, essentially connected by
consciousness, awareness, and agency.
Different philosophers introduced
specific characteristics and meanings of the self,
which, over time, transformed from pure
abstractions to explanations that hold scientific
proofs.
In an age where the pursuit of one’s
happiness and celebrating one’s identity seem
to be at the forefront, that question still has no
easy answer.
 What exactly are we?
 What do we even mean by the “SELF”?
 Are we souls, organic bodies or merely
a figment of another’s imagination?
 Are we just minds or a combination of
body and mind?
 Will I survive bodily death because I am
more than a body or when my body is
dead, that’s really the end?
 Am I a robot controlled by some entity?
Philosophically, discussion of the self is
a basic search for meaning and purpose of life.
Determination, rationalization, and
identification of the self-set the
direction from which an individual
travels to fulfill his or her purpose in
life.
The inability to define oneself leads to a
lot of contradictions within the self later
on; hence, it is one of the many
imperatives in life to know oneself and
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to go on with the business of leading a
life charted by oneself.
#Thought to Ponder: If someone asks your
friend-“who is _____”, how would you like your
friend to answer?
_____________________________________
Socrates
Know Thyself.
 Left no writings, but his highly regarded
student, Plato, wrote extensively about
him.
 Posited hat if person knows who he/she
is, all basic issues and difficulties in life
will vanish and everything will be
clearer and simpler.
 Argued that the ruler of the body is the
soul; soul pre-existed the body, and it is
what makes the body alive.
UNIVERSE  OUR EXISTENCE IN THE UNIVERSE
“An examined life is not worth living.”
For him, there was soul first before
man’s body. Man’s existence was first in the
realm of ideas and exists as soul or pure mind.
This soul has knowledge by direct intuition and
all these are stored in his mind.
However, once he came to the material
world or the world of senses, he forgot most of
what he knew. This resulted in lack of
knowledge or ignorance which causes problems
to man.
Dialectic Method/ Socratic Method
 Exchange of question and answer that
aims to make the person remember all
 the knowledge that he has forgotten,
including his former omniscient self.
Answer will always be subjective and there is no
right and wrong answer to the questions; The
quality and quantity of answers are dependent
on the person answering.
Self-knowledge
 Means knowing one’s degree of
understanding about the world and
knowing one’s capabilities and
potentials.
It is only through self-knowledge that one’s self
emerges. Therefore, the self emerges and not
just discovered something to work on and not a
product of mere realization.
Plato
If we are ever to have pure knowledge of
anything, we must get rid of the body and
contemplate things by themselves with the soul
by itself.
 One of the first philosophers who
believed in an enduring self that is
represented by the soul.
 Argued that the soul is eternal and
constitutes the enduring self, because
even after death, the soul continues to
exist.
Ideal World/ World of Forms
 Permanent, unchanging reality as
opposed to the world of Materials
which keep on changing.
 Soul
Material World
 What we see around us; replica of the
real world found in the world of Forms
 Body
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The body is seen as some sort
of a prison. We can free ourselves from
the imprisonment of our bodily senses
through contemplation.
We continue to exist even in
the absence of our bodies because we
are Souls only.
Augustine
But my sin was this, that I looked for
pleasure, beauty, and truth not in Him
but in myself and His other creature,
and the search led me instead to pain,
confusion, and error.
According to him, our world
(world of materials) is not our final
home but just a temporary home where
we are just passing through.
Our real world is where there is
permanence and infinity- that’s the
world where God is.
Time is something that people measure
within their own memory. Time is not a
feature or property of the world, but a
property of the mind.
He believed that the times present of
things past, present, and future coexist
in the soul.
 The time present of things past is
memory
 The time present of things present is
experience
 The time present of things future is
expectation
He emphasized that the memory of the past is
significant in anticipation of the future and
presence in the present.
However, time past and time future are not real
in themselves but they are only real as long as
they exist in the mind or consciousness.
The existence of past and future is only possible
through memory and expectation. He argued
that as far as consciousness can be extended
backward to any past action or forward to
actions to come, it determines the identity of
the person.
Rene Descartes
I think, therefore; I am.
The mind and the body are separate
and very distinct from one another but he
believes that the mind is conjoined with the
body in such an intimate way that they casually
act upon each other.
The body can be described in a precise,
structure manner, but the mind is not contained
like that, and it’s allowed to pursue its own
thought.
One can always doubt about the
certainty of things but the very fact that one
doubts is something that cannot be doubted.
This is what “I think, therefore I am” means.
Whichever thought a person chooses is the one
that is carried over his/her “I am”.
Descartes believed that the self is a
“thinking thing, or a substance whose essence
or nature is merely thinking.” It is nothing else
but a mind-body dichotomy. Thought (mind)
always precedes action (body). Human think
first about doing something and then do it.
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John Locke
He subscribes to the memory theory
that holds we are the same person as we were
in the past for as long as we can remember
something from the past. The memory renders
us self-conscious that we are that one and the
same person.
Tabula rasa- posits that everyone started as a
blank state, and the content is provided by
one’s experiences over time.
David Hume
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the
passions, and can never pretend to any other
office than to serve and obey them.
-stressed that there is no stable thing called
self, for the self is nothing but a complex set of
successive impressions or perceptions.
-views the soul as a product of imagination;
there is no primordial substance that houses
the self; any concept of the self is simply
memory and imagination.
-rejected the idea that personal identity is
reflected by the association of the self with an
enduring body.
The mind is divided into two:
 Impressions- things we perceive
through our senses as we experience
them.
 Ideas- things that we create in our
minds even though we are no longer
experiencing them.
Whenever we think of simple ideas, it must
have, as a basis, a simple impression. Complex
ideas happen when we combine simple ideas by  Outer Sense
arranging and rearranging them.
-consists of one’s senses and the physical world.
He argues that when he looks into g=his mind,
he finds a stream of impressions and ideas, but -transcendental appreciation (allows the self
no impression corresponding to a self-endures and the world to come together.)
through time. The self keeps on changing, like
how one looks, one feels, one think- they
constantly change. Sigmund Freud

An “enduring self” is just a fiction produced by The ego is not the master in its own house.
our imagination. A person is a bundle of
- devised a structure that defines man according
perception. “I will be constantly changing
to his biological structure and influence of his
because the different experiences one has for
socio-cultural environment.
constant change will affect and re-shape the
person. Tripartite Division of Man's Mind:

ID - pleasure principle; represents man's

Immanuel Kant
All our knowledge begins with senses, proceeds
then to the understanding, and ends with
reason. There is nothing higher than reason.
-believes that man is a free agent, capable of
making a decision for himself; man is gifted with
reason and free but necessity of his being free is
tested in his decision to be moral.
-argues that for us to know our duty, we have
to rationally deliberate on it and not expect a
higher authority will hand it automatically to us,
and certainly we cannot let the arbitrariness of
emotion guide us.
Consciousness is formed by the following
senses:
 Inner Sense
-compromised of one’s psychological
state and intellect.
-moods, feelings, sensations, etc.
-empirical self-consciousness
biological nature, the impulses and bodily
desires.
EGO - reality principle: its role is to maintain
equilibrium between the demands of id and
superego in accordance with what is best and
practical in reality
SUPEREGO - morality principle; represents the
ethical component of the personality and
provided moral: standards by which the ego
operates.
The ID and SUPERGO will find themselves
clashing against each other, with the superego
trying to control the impulses of ID and the ID
trying to satisfy its urges. The winner of this
battle will be manifested in the ego.
Things are not in control of the ego, but the ego
only manifests the winner between the two.
This battle is all taking place in the
subconscious.
Id ID is dominant, an egoistic, boorish, and
barbaric brute emerges.

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If SUPEREGO is dominant, a law abiding, morally
upright, god-fearing, and socially acceptable
individual appears.
If EGO is successful, it turns out a brilliant,
creative, and emotionally-balanced individual.
Gilbert Ryle
I act, therefore I am.
-maintained that the mind is not separate from
the body; it consists of dispositions of people
based on what they know, what they feel, what
they want, etc.
-supported the basic notions of behavioristic
psychology; states that mental concepts can be
understood through observable events.
The mind is not like a specific, separate entity
but is certainly a part of our body. Ideally, the
separation of mind/soul and body could be
possible, but in practice, this is hardly the case.
The only way which we can only know a person
is through how a man behaves their tendencies,
and reactions in certain circumstances.
Paul Churchland
We do have an organ for understanding and
recognizing moral facts. It is called a brain.
-stressed that it is false to claim that folk
psychology, or common sense psychology, is
the capacity to explain mental states of people.
-argues that talk of mental states would
eventually be abandinded in favor or a radically
different view of how the brain works not
identified with mental states.
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Eliminative Materialism
-a radical claim that ordinary, common sense
understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and
that some or all the mental states posited by
common sense do not actually exist.
With the advent of science and learning more
about the nuances of the brain, it becomes
clear to Churchland that the term "mind", our
moods, emotions, actions, consciousness are
deeply affected by the state of our brain. That
by manipulating certain parts of our brain, our
feelings, actions and physical state are
successfully altered.
Therefore, the self is contained entirely in the
physical brain.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
I am my body.
-approaches the idea of self as a continuous
flow of movement and expression from infancy
to adulthood. Our perception of who we are is
strictly tied to our own bodily development.
-believed that mind and body are essentially
correlated and it is not possible to understand
subjectivity without taking into account this
essential correlation.
-accepts the idea of mental states, but he also
suggests that the use of the mind is inseparable
from our bodily, situated, physical nature.
The body is distinguished into two types:
 Subjective Body
-as lived and experienced
-regarded Self as embodied subjectivity;
sees human beings as neither existing without
body nor as complex machines, but as living
creatures whose subjectivity is actualized in the
forms of their involvement with the world.

 Objective Body
-as observed and scientifically
investigated
-body that is known to others; that
people see, admire, imitate, criticize, or even
dissect.

To be a self is to be more than one's body. I am

the sum of all that I make my body do. This
includes the interpretation of the past and how
I actually make decisions in the present.

The self is a product of our conscious human

experience. The definition of self is all about
one's perception of one's experience and
interpretation of those experiences.

The self is grounded on the experiences of the

past, the possibilities of the future, and the
cognition in the present.

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 “WHO AM I?” The Psychological
Perspective
Self Theory: William James
-human being has the capacity to be a thinking
subject and the object of his/her thinking at the
same time.
Individual's Perception of Self
1) Me - when he/she makes himself/herself the
object of her own thinking
2.) I- continuous stream of consciousness,
makes awareness possible.
Contextualization of Understanding the Self
1.) Constituents of the Self
- When he/she makes himself/herself the object
of her own thinking
- Material self, social self, spiritual self, and
pure ego
2.) Self-feelings
-refers to the feelings and emotions aroused in
the individual because of his/her knowledge
and appraisal of his/her empirical existence in
the world.
3.) Self-seeking
-refers to the actions the self-prompts; the
effort of every individual to preserve and
improve oneself based on one's self knowledge
and resulting self-feelings.
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Humanistic Theory: Carl Rogers
-believes that the self does not exist at birth; it
is developed gradually during childhood
wherein one differentiates the self from the
non-self
-proposed that by means of free choice and
action, one can shape himself/herself based on
what he/she wants to be
-sees the self as one's ongoing sense of who
and what he or she is and how and why he/she
responds to the environment
Real and Ideal Selves
REAL SELF
 Who we actually are, intrinsically
 how one thinks, feels, looks, and acts
 self that feels most natural,
comfortable, and true to what and who
one actually is
IDEAL SELF
 person we want to be or think should
be
 Idealized image that has developed
over time based on the influence of the
environment
 dynamic and forever changing
Real and Ideal Selves Self-schema: perceptions and beliefs that
comprise our self-concept.
In achieving the ideal self or any goal, numerous
studies emphasize the importance of visual  past experiences
imagining exercises.  personality traits
 goals
It is best that we know as accurate as possible
 Abilities
who we want to become or achieve. Being as
 physical features
specific as possible is beneficial in visual
 social roles
imagining so we may vividly see our ideal self-
 own observations
taking shape.
 feedback from others
The congruence or incongruence between the  values
ideal and real self has effects on our self-
esteem. All factors are dynamic, every-changing in a way
that it grows, improves, or lessens as we go
Experiencing incongruence may happen from through life every day and expose ourselves to
time to time, most especially in cases or various interactions and media content.
contexts that are new or extreme. In
circumstances like these, we need to reflect, COMPONENTS OF SELF-CONCEPT
evaluate our behavior, and be reminded of our 1.) Self-worth/Self-esteem
ideal self to put us back on track.
-what one thinks about oneself - refers to how
Changing our way of thinking may take a bit of we value ourselves and perceive our worth as a
getting used to since most of us may have been person
exposed to people who might have given us
negative labels. 2) Self-image

-how one sees himself/herself includes the

influence of body image on inner personality
Self-concept
3.) Ideal Self
-the totality of complex, organized, and
dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes, -person that one wants to be
and opinions that each person holds to be true
- consists of one's dreams and goals in life,
about his/her personal existence
continuously changing.
-social product developing out of interpersonal
relationships and striving for consistency

-includes the perceptions one has about his/her

social identity and personal qualities, as well as
his/her generalizations about the self-based on
past experiences.

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True Self & False Self: Donald Woods
Winnicott
True Self
-real self, authentic self, original self, vulnerable
self-core of who you are
-unshaped by the upbringing of society
False Self
-fake sell, deal self, perfect self, pseudo self
-composed of parts of the self wherein
behaviors are altered, feelings are repressed,
and one's needs are set aside in order fit in with
others
-constantly seeks to anticipate the demands
and expectations of others in order to preserve
and improve relationships.
*Most people do not easily present different
sides of themselves for others to see. They may
possibly reveal particular sides of themselves
depending on the situation.
Agentic Theory of the Self: Albert Bandura
-asserted that people are not merely passive
entities of molded by environmental forces or
driven by inner influences
-to be an agent means to be capable of
intentionally influencing one's own functionality
and life circumstances, it recognizes his/her
own ability to make life decisions
This theory rejects the notion that selfhood is
culturally influenced of controlled by urges,
rather, it looks upon every human being as
capable of thinking, deciding foreseeing, and
controlling his/her actions.
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This capability is termed human agency, the
capability of an individual to exert influence
over the course of his/her actions.
Core Properties of Human Agency
1.) INTENTIONALITY
-manifested in how an individual forms
intentions with action plans and strategies to
realize them
2.) FORETHOUGHT
-how an individual positions himself/herself in a
future state of existing therefore ensuring the
plans made can anticipate possible
opportunities or roadblocks
3.) SELF-REACTIVENESS
-in order for one's intentions and foresight to
produce successful actions, an individual needs
to self-regulate his/her efforts for the vision to
become a reality
4.) SELF-REFLECTION
-agents reflect on their life pursuits, the
meaning of actions they take in order to
accomplish these pursuits, their thoughs, and
personal efficacy.
*An individual with agency is expected to be
able to manifest these properties in how he/she
functions in his/her environment.
Since the self is situated in an environment
where the interplay of interpersonal and
intrapersonal activities occur, the self-functions
as a product of these influences making the
individual responsible for hoe he/she lets these
various influences affect how he/she functions
*Our mind is hard to change once we become
convinced. So it might be very natural to feel
demoralized and defeated after you fail.

But you cannot allow yourself to become

convinced you can't succeed.

You have to fight feelings of helplessness.

You have to gain control over the situation,

And you have to break this kind of negative

cycle before I begins.

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“Who am I?” The
Sociological
Perspective
The Self as Embedded in Culture
CULTURE
-derived from Latin word culturo or cultus,
meaning care or cultivation
-analogous to caring for an infant
CULTURAL IDENTITY
- refers to the identity or feeling of
belongingness to a certain culture group
-Individual's perception about himself or herself
anchored on race, gender, nationality, religion,
ethnicity, and language
NORMS
- are what dictates our behavior in the society
- the acceptability of an act, the approval and
the disapproval of which, is dependent on socia,
standards which are a product of our people's
commitment to uphold the very essence of our
cultural values.
Culture has influenced us so much that a very
big part of who we are is a product of how
culture was instilled in the very depths of our
selfhood.
Consequently, the significance of culture in our
self-understanding and awareness is vital since
we have been brought up with it - the traditions
and customs of our family, the laws we need to
obey, and even the different art forms that our
society regards so dearly.
The more we get to know our culture, the more
we become aware of how we were influenced
by it.
Similarly, the more we get to know people from
other cultures, the more that we are surprised
at how different they are, not only in their looks
and language, but also in how they view
themselves as individuals and members of the
social group. When our culture changes, we are
challenged to uphold our values or alter our
worldview and behavior as well.
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Social Self: GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
- argued that self is not biological, but social; it
is developed as one grows and ages through
social interaction
-explains that self has two parts:
 self-awareness
 self-image
- proposed the idea that
 the self develops through social
interaction
 social interaction involves the exchange
of symbols
 understanding of symbols involves
being able to take the role of another
Role Playing
-process in which one takes on the role of the
other by putting oneself in the position of the
person with whom he/she interacts
-through this, the individual develops a concept
of self since one is able to reflect upon oneself
The idea of self can only be developed if the
individual can get outside in such a way that he
or she can become an object to oneself. To
accomplish this, one must be conscious of
oneself from the standpoint of others.
Therefore, the development of "self" lies in the
ability to "wear other people's shoes".
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
1.) Imitation/Preparatory Stage
- Child imitates the behavior of his/her parents
2.) Play Stage
- involves the child playing the role of others
3.) Game Stage
- Child comes to see himself/herself in their
roles from the perspective of other people
PHASES OF THE SELF
1.) I
- subjective; unsocialized and spontaneous
-acting part of the self, an immediate response -
represents the self that is free and unique
2.) Me
- objective; conventional
- self that results from the progressive stages of
role playing and role-taking and the perspective
one assumes to view and analyze one's own
behaviors
- organization of the internalized attitude of
others
Generalized Others
- an organized community or social group which
gives the individual his/her identity
- the attitude of the generalized other is the
attitude of the entire community
- a certain group becomes the generalized other
as long as it enters as an organized process or
social activity into the experience of any other
members of the group.
Looking-glass Self: CHARLES HORTON COOLEY
- is a social psychological concept that views the
self as something developed by one's
perceptions of other people's opinions
- people are the way they are at least partly
because of other people's reactions to them
and what they do; constantly picking up
feedback and incorporating it into their sense of
self
-the self, which is essentially an individual's
awareness of one's social or personal identity, is
a social development
THREE STEPS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION:
1. people imagine how they must appear
to others
2. they imagine the judgment on that
appearance
3. they develop themselves through the
judgment of others
People imagine not only how others see them
and their action, but also how others judge
what they see, whether with approval, doubt,
or hostility. As a result, the looking-glass self is
made up of feelings about other people's
judgments of one's behavior
"The imaginations which people have of one
another are the solid fats of society."
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Social Identity Theory: HENRI TAJFEL
- defined as the person's sense of who he/she is
according to his/her membership to a certain
group
-group membership is an important source of
pride and self-esteem; gives a sense of social
identity a sense of belongingness to the social
world
- the world is divided into "us" and "them
through the process of social categorization
forming the social groups
2 TYPES OF SOCIAL GROUP
1.) In-group
- an esteemed social group commanding a
member's loyalty
- group to which a person belongs
2.) Out-group
-a scorned social group to which one feels
competition or opposition
- group to which a person does not belong
Social Identity Theory states that the in-group
will discriminate against the out-group to
enhance its self-image.
3 MENTAL PROCESSES:
1.) Social Categorization
-similar to how people categorize things in
order to understand their social environment
- with this, people learn things about
themselves by knowing what category they
belong to
2.) Social Identification
- people adopt the identity of the group to
which they have categorized themselves
3.) Social Comparison
-comparing their group with other groups here
they might discriminate and criticize other
groups
Anthropology of the Self: BRIAN MORRIS
-self is not an entity but a process that
orchestrates an individual's personal experience
-as a result of this, a person becomes self-aware
and self-reflective about his/her place in the
surrounding world.
The concept of "self is defined as an individual's
mental representation of his/her person, as
kind of self-representation. The concept of
"other", on the other hand, refers to how one
perceives the mental representations of others.
A clear separation between the self and others
seems to be universal, but the meaning of this
distinction varies from person to person.
The most crucial form of interaction and
exchange takes place neither between the
individual and society nor between the psyche
and culture, but instead between the self and
his/her cultural environment as mediated by
social practices.
Dialogical Self: HUBERT HERMANS
- regarded the self as the "society of mind"
- an individual's sense of self is established
through how one identifies himself/herself with
the different positions he/she holds, internally
or externally, to himself/herself
- the dialogical self is a relational concept of
self; one's moments of insights about
himself/herself and his/her actions are
relational to others, nurtured, or discouraged
by the,
Internal l-position
-refers to how one functions in himself/herself
- I as empathic, I as diligent
External l-position
-refers to how one identifies himself/herself
based on particular external factors
-I as brother, I as student
All these constitute the functionality of the self.
The dialogic self approach calls for the need for
the l-positions to come in contact with each
other to be in a dialogue with one another in
order for an individual to become fully aware of
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the different dimensions that constitute his/her
self.
In a world of many observant eyes, no action is
almost unguarded. People are quick to judge
who others are.
Regardless of the truthfulness of how people
may perceive you, it provides opportunity for
self-reflection. Your response to how people
describe you will depend on your own
perception of the self.
Identity Struggles: Anthony Wallace &
Raymond Fogelson
- characterized the discrepancy of between the
identity a person claims to possess and the
identity attributed to that person by others.
WESTERN VS. ORIENTAL
INDIVIDUALIST
 everyone grows up to look after
him/herself and his/her immediate
family only
 children learn to think in terms of "1"
 individual ownership resources low-
context communication prevails
 media is the primary source of
information
 self-actualization by every individual is
an
 ultimate goal
 occupation mobility is higher
 task prevails over relationship
 individual interest prevail over
collective
COLLECTIVIST
 people are born into extended families
or in other groups that continue
protecting them in exchange for loyalty
 children learn to think in terms of "we"
 resources should be shared with
relatives
 high context communication prevails
 social networks are the primary source
of information
 harmony and consensus in society are
ultimate goal
 occupation mobility is lower
 relationship prevails over task
  collective interests prevail over
individual

The Self as a Product of the Modern World

Since the self has to keep up with the ever-

changing world, he needs to adjust, re-adjust,
and re-align his actions with the seismic
transformation and evolution of the society.

The values of a society changes overtime, and if

in case, they do not, the society is trapped in
the challenges of the modern world. The self
then, as a social construct, becomes a product
of the modern society among other
constructions.

The internet brought an understanding of the

self, as part of the global world, and not just of
the micro society.

With this, the values, beliefs, and traditions that

the self holds dear, are met with challenges,
criticism, as its authenticity is likewise
questioned.

The transformation of the social world resulted

further in the fragmentation of the self, as our
cultural values become fragmented as well.

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