SELF, SOCIETY

AND CULTURE
 SELF, SOCIETYAND CULTURE
Across time and history, self
has been debated, discussed and
fruitfully or otherwise conceptualized by different thinkers in
philosophy. With the advent of social sciences, it became possible
for new ways and paradigms to reexamine the true nature of the
self.
Thinkers settled on the idea that are two components of human
person and whatever relationship these two have is less
important than the facts that there is a self. One of the loci, if not
the most important axis of analysis is the relationship between
the self between external reality and the self?
The self, in contemporary literature and even common
sense, is commonly defined by the following
characteristics: “separate, self-contained,
independent, consistent, unitary and private.”
SEPERATE

DISTINK
FROM
OTHERS
SELF CONTAINED

Distink with its own

thoughts
Characteristic and
volition
CONSISTENT

ENDURING;
EXPECTED TO
PERSIST FOR QUITE
SOME TIME
INDEPENDENT
DOES NOT
REQUIRE ANY
OTHER SELF
TO EXIST.
UNITARY
CENTER OF ALL
EXPERIENCES
AND THOUGHTS
 PRIVATE
ISOLATED
FROM THE
EXTERNAL WORLD
From this perspective the concern of this
lesson is in understanding the vibrant
relationship between the self and the
external reality.
This reality is called social constructionist
perspective that argues for a merged
view of the person and their social
context where the boundaries of one
cannot easily be separated from the
boundaries of the other.
According to Mauss.
Every self has two
faces: personne and
moi.
Moi- refers to a person’s sense
of who he is, his body, and his
basic identity, his biological
governess. Moi is a person’s
basic identity personne on the
other hand, is composed of the
social concept of what it means
to be who he is.
 Personne- has much to do with
what it means to live in a
particular institution, a
particular family, a particular
religion, a particular nationality
and how to behave given
expectations and influences
from others

Mead Vygotsky
 Mead Vygotsky

For Mead and Vygotsky the way that the

human develop is with the use of language
acquisition and interactions with others-
without a family biologically and sociologically
a person may not even survive or became a
human person.