P H I L O S O P H E R S A. SOCRATES - First martyr of education, knowledge, and philosophy.

His
philosophy underlies in the importance of the notion "knowing oneself". A person's acceptance of
ignorance is the beginning of acquisition of knowledge. But, possession of knowledge is a virtue;
ignorance is a depravity (evil, corruption, wickedness). Knowing ourselves, lies in our own abilities, and
wisdom. Understanding ourselves is through internal questioning or introspection (understanding our
strengths and weaknesses, like vs. Dislike)

His way of teaching called Socratic Method or Socratic conversation (role of both the teacher and the
student is known to the world; asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw
out ideas and underlying presumptions). However, he was charged with corruption of minors and died
as a martyr that fought against ignorance and narrow-mindedness. But for him, men's goal in life is to
obtain happiness. It motivates us to act towards or avoid things that could have negative effects in our
lives. As such, by fully knowing oneself a person will be able to achieve happiness.

B. PLATO – He is a student of Socrates that is the reason he followed the idea of Socrates in knowing
thyself. He was called the Father of academy (a place where learning and sharing of knowledge happens;
Later became one of the pillars and basis of what schools and education is now in the present). He also
wrote several literatures that tackles politics, human nature and established the idea of virtue and
intelligence. According to Plato, a person who is a follower of truth and wisdom will not be tempted by
vices and will always be correct/moral/ethical. He believed in the division of a person's body and soul
which forms the person as a whole aside from the material things and that could be observed and
associated with a person.

He believed that the soul is divided into 3 different parts that has different views, leading to different
behaviors

1. Appetitive soul - the part of the person that is driven by desire and need to satisfy oneself. This
satisfaction involves physical needs, pleasures and desires, objects, and situations

2. Spirited soul- courageous part of a person. One who wants to do something or to right the wrongs
that they observe. This is very competitive and is very active. Competitiveness drives one to expect
positive results and winning.

3. Rational soul- the drive of our lives. The part that thinks and plan for the future (the conscious mind).
It decides what to do, when to do it and the possible results one could have depending on their actions.

C. ST. AUGUSTINE - A saint and a philosopher of the church. He follows the idea that God encompasses
us all, that everything will be better if we are with God. He believed that God and his teachings affects
various aspects in life (that everything is better if we devote ourselves in mending our relationship with
God). His idea of a man and how to understand who we are as a person is related to our understanding
of who we are and how we question ourselves. He also relates our existence to God being modelled in
his likeness though being alive means that we are still far from god and has yet to be truly with him. But
he rejected the doubtfulness of the academy in which one cannot or should not accept ideas from
others. St. Augustine emphasized that we may not be able to give our agreement to everything other
people tell us, but we can still agree to those who we are from our own perception. His believes that
teaching the church and establishing our sense of self with God identifies the essence of our existence
and role in the world (the reason for this is because our bodies are limited).

D. RENE DESCARTES – a French philosopher known to be the father of modern philosophy because of
his radical use of systematic and early scientific method to aid his ideas and assumptions. He believed in
modern dualism or the existence of body and mind and its importance to on e's existence were
presented with the evidences from experiments as well as philosophical reasoning. Descartes is known
to be the proponent of the "methodical doubt" (continuous process of questioning) doubting, asking
questions are part of one's existence. He defined the roles of the mind and body to the notion of one's
existence and sense of self. He is known for the statement "cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am) and
according to him, a person is comprised of mind (thinks and questions what the body has experienced)
and body (perceives from the different senses). The body and its perceptions cannot fully be trusted or
can easily be deceived (for example: there are times that we feel that a dream is real before actually
waking up or having different perception of size based on an objects distance from the viewer).
Descartes believes that we should focus on the mind in order to perceive as who we are or the essence
of our existence because we cannot always trust our senses. He explained that the more we think and
doubt what we perceived from our senses and the answer that came from such thin king or doubting
leads to better understanding of ourselves. He also emphasizes that being in constant doubt regarding
one's existence is proof that a person exists.

E. JOHN LOCKE – An English philosopher and physician. He is the Father of Classical Liberation. His works
paved the way to several revolutions to fight the absolute powers of monarchs and rulers of his time
that led to the development of governance, politics, and economic system that we now know. He works
on the self is most represented by the concept "tabula rasa" (blank slate). The experiences and
perceptions of a person is important in the establishment of who that person can become. Locke does
not disregard the experiences of the person in the identification and establishment of who we are as a
person. He stated that a person is born with knowing nothing and that is susceptible to stimulation and
accumulation of learning from the experiences, failures, references, and observations of the person F.
DAVID HUME – A Scottish philosopher. He focused his work in the field of empiricism, skepticism, and
naturalism. He explained that the Self is the accumulation of different impressions and does not exceed
the physical realm. For him, there is no permanent self because impressions of things are based from
our experiences where we can create our ideas and knowledge. Thus, it may improve or totally be
replaced G. IMMANUEL KANT – A German philosopher that is known for his works on empiricism and
rationalism. He established that the collection of impressions and different contents is what it only takes
to define a person. He believes that the awareness of different emotions that we have, impressions and
behavior is only a part of ourselves. He emphasizes that a person who fully understand the self has a
certain level of consciousness or sense that uses our intuition which synthesizes all the experiences,
impressions and perceptions of ourselves will pave the way to define and know who we are really are.
But he argued that the sense called "transcendental apperception" is an essence of our consciousness
that provides basis for understanding and establishing the notion of self by synthesizing one's
accumulation of experiences, intuition, and imagination H. SIGMUND FREUD – An Austrian psychologist
and physician. The Father of psychoanalysis. Freud is well known for his work on human nature and the
unconscious. He believed that man has different constructs of personality. He conceptualized about the
different levels of consciousness that provides an idea how a person develops a sense of self:

Man has 3 aspects of personality 1. Id- the child aspect of a person; attention is on satisfaction of one's
needs and selfgratification. Driven by pleasure principle. 2. Super ego- the conscience of one's
personality. Has the inclination to uphold justice and do what is morally right and socially acceptable
actions. Involved in the notion of right or wrong that is imparted to us by our parents or people that
took care for us during childhood 3. Ego - police or the mediator between id and super ego. Operates
within the boundaries of reality, primary function is to maintain the impulses of the id to an acceptable
degree.