Philosophical Perspectives of the Self

ARISTOTLE
He wrote a book on psyche called "Peri Psyches" in Greek which means "on the soul". He tried
to understand the relationship of psyche with the body, spirit and cognitive abilities like
comprehension, logical reasoning, motivation etc. He believed the notion of 'psyche" gave
meaning to human behaviour. Today, it's a science which takes into account both mental and
behavioural activities of a person or group. 

DEMOCRITUS
Democritus, the laughing philosopher, had ideas far in advance of his time.

He is famous for his atomic theory featuring tiny particles always in motion interacting through
collisions; his belief that the universe is governed entirely by natural, mechanistic laws rather
than gods.

Free Will—those impulses of thought and feeling that allow one to make choices, decisions,
directly affecting, shaping the course of one’s life

Socrates
“An unexamined life is not worth living” this quote by Socrates summarizes his
philosophy on how one can live a good and virtuous life. Just like the other influential Greek
philosophers, Socrates also gave his take on what he conceived as the right way in which man
should live his life in order for him to acquire the happiness that everyone wants. He is
concerned about understanding one self before manipulating things arounds us. For him,
knowing our self first can lead us to what we can be in this world. And also, it can help you and
maybe others to take the path that you wanted to achieve.
For Socrates the self is synonymous with the soul. He believes that every human
possesses an immortal soul that survives the physical body.
Socrates suggests that man must live an examined life and a life of purpose and value. For him
an unexamined life is not worth living. Th individual person can have a meaningful and happy
life only if he becomes virtuous and knows a meaningful and knows the value of himself that
can be achieved through incessant soul-searching. He must begin at the source of all
knowledge and significance – the self. The socratic method, the so-called introspection, is a
method of carefully examining one’s thoughts and emotions to gain self-knowledge.

Plato
According to Plato, it is very crucial to know thyself first before anything else in this
world. He make them realize that every mankind should learn the truth and seek wisdom. He
also stated that each individual is composed of imperfect and impermanent body and perfect
permanent soul that makes the personhood to be more distinguished.
Like Socrates, Plato believes that the self is synonymous with the soul. Like Socrates, he
postulated that living a mentally good life is important to a person to achieve happiness. He
introduces the idea of a three part soul/self: appetitive, spirited, rational soul. To attain
happiness these 3 must therefore be intellectually, emotionally and biologically balanced.
St. Augustine
St. Augustine has the perspective that the human can think. It is said that the forms of
human were ideas in the mind of God. He also said that a man was divided into two branches,
the one is imperfect and persistently to be with the divine and the other is capable of reaching
immortality. Following rules cannot make your life miserable but making your life intended to
be pure and wis. Based on Augustine, we are free to choose between good or evil but he added
that God who connected everything did not create evil which means that evil is just there to
test us whether we are eligible to be with God that is what St. Augustine negotiate about “Man
has the responsibility to be with God.” We humans need to be challenge if we are about to
leave this world and be with God. Free will is not totally free to do everything we desire that is
why rules and laws are being implemented such as God made his testaments. e. Also,
according to him there are two types of evil which are the physical evil and the moral evil such
that physical evil are things that might harm our body like disease, disaster, mishap, and any
other events that is not good for us. While the moral evil is the swerve from the norm of just
and good action. Lastly, according to him that at the end of the day we need to choose what is
right for us and avoid such wicked things.

Rene Descartes
Known for the statement “cogito ergo sum” ( I think therefore I am)
“I think therefore I am” is the keystone of Descartes concept of the self. For him, this is
the essence of the human self – a thinking entity that doubts, understands, analyzes, questions,
and reasons. The more we think and doubt what we perceived from our senses and the answer
that came from such thinking or doubting leads to better understanding of ourselves
He discovered that “I exist” is impossible to doubt and therefore, absolutely certain.
According to him, there is mind and body problem where mind does exist while the body is
doubtful and mind can exist without the body.
He discovered that “I think therefore, I exist” is impossible to doubt and therefore,
absolutely certain. Just like when we are unsure of things, we usually doubt about it because
we have mind to think. According to him, there is mind and body problem where mind does
exist while the body is doubtful and mind can exist without the body.

David Hume
A Philosopher who believe that self-exist because of our impressions and ideas that
grow through our experiences, wherein he added these two things as the categorized of our
experiences in life. First is our impressions that is normal for us people to create and arrange
our own thoughts in life. As we try to communicate with each other it do grow because we
tend to know how other people think. Ideas are the one we experience in a second of time,
people never stop thinking with anything that is why idea is being formed and because through
our feelings why ideas exist. He believe that each of us is keep on progressing because of our
experiences in life, it maybe good or bad but it makes us human for we can create our own
impressions and ideas through to how we appreciate everything.

John Locke
He thinks that our identity is not locked in the mind, soul or body only. He included
concept of a person’s memory in the definition of the self. He holds that we are of 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 we are that one and the same person. The idea that as long
as we have overlapping memories, then I am the same person. That memory makes me aware
of my existence. I am connected to that past for as long as I and another person can remember
that experience and still be aware of the present.
Emmanuel Kant
He believes that man is a free agent, capable of making a decision for himself. The
necessity of his being is tested in his decision to be moral. An individual has free will to be
moral or not. A moral person is one who is driven by duty and acts towards the fulfillment of
that duty. Thus, for us to know what is our duty, we have to rationally deliberate on it and not
expect a higher authority will hand it automatically for us, and certainly we cannot let the
arbitraries of emotion guide us. We acknowledge that each individual is capable of thinking
that we must give them respect by treating every individual as ends in themselves and never
as a means. This means that every person should not be exploited and used.

Gilbert Ryle
According to him, the nature of the motive of the self can be described by the actions
and reactions of the self in different circumstances. The perceptions, thoughts, emotions,
remembering, and willing of the self can be understood in terms of observable behaviors.
Therefore, the self is the way people behave.

Paul Churchland
The self is the brain. How could it be possible that the self is the same as the brain? The
mental state of the mind can impact the physical conditions of the self. It has an impact on the
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor of the self. The brain is instrumental in making us human
and special. Our physical and mental lives are influenced by the brain.

Maurice Merlaeu-Ponty
Is the self the body or soul? He asserted that one’s body is not a thing nor an object of
study. When we say I have a body, it implies that there is a dichotomy between the self and the
body. In this sense, the body is merely an object or possession being possessed by the self. The
self is the body and the body is the self itself. The body plays a vital role in perception,
knowledge, and meaning. The body is our general medium for knowing the world and giving
meaning to it.