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
www.thoughtco.com contemporary 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.