PHILOSOPHY OF THE SELF
asking questions
PHILOSOPHY
 “philosophia”
 philo = love, sophia = wisdom
 love of wisdom
 pursuit of knowledge and wisdom
-Philosopher is one, who has a thirst for
knowledge (Socrates)
-He who has a taste for every sort of
knowledge and who is curious to learn and
is never satisfied may be justified termed a
philosopher (Plato)…..meaning, not
contented with just one info.
“Every rational person is a philosopher”
 rational person meaning you know
what is right and what is not.
PHILOSOPHERS
SOCRATES (mere separation)
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
 born in Athens, in the year 469 BC
 upset a lot of people because of his
philosophical inquiries
 an examiner - a questioner
 was found guilty of corrupting the
minds of the youth in his city
 was brought to trial in 399 BC
 was sentenced to death and was
killed by letting him drink hemlock
poison
 according to him, the highest form
of human excellence is to question
oneself and others
 Socrates heart of philosophy: keeps
 man’s long-standing mission: “Know
yourself”
meaning: to know yourself you have to
keep on asking questions
 self-knowledge - living a life with
purpose
 “the most horrible thing that can
happen to a man’s life is to live but
die inside”
 individual’s personhood is
composed of the BODY & SOUL
 he said that “death is not the end of
existence, the soul is immortal”
 there is just a mere separation
between the body and the soul
 made a distinction between
knowledge and belief
 teacher of Plato
PLATO (reincarnation)
 sustained the idea of Socrates, he
also believed in dual nature, that a
man is composed of a body and soul
 like Socrates, he also believed that
the is immortal and just separated
from the body
 however, he believed that the body
is the prison of the soul and that
soul is eternal
 he believed that the soul cannot live
without the body, therefore, the
soul moves to another body
(REINCARNATION)
 he said that the human soul/psyche
is divided into three:
-APPETITIVE SOUL
 wants, desires
-SPIRITIVE SOUL
 the one with lots of energy, power,
and emotion
 based on one’s mood
-RATIONAL SOUL
 conscious awareness
 this is the part of us that thinks and
analyzes
ST. AUGUSTINE (afterlife)
 like Plato, he also asserted that the
soul is immortal
 he also believed in dual nature, that
the body and soul make up the
human
 he follows the view of Plato but adds
Christianity
 he does not believe in reincarnation
 “person is made of one body and
one soul”
 body - dwells in the world and
yearns to be with the Divine (how?:
follow The Commandments)
 soul- the other part that is capable
of reaching immortality
 he believed that after death, a
person’s soul goes to the afterlife
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (experiences ha self
knowledge) how we get to know ourselves
 his theory of self-knowledge claimed
that all our experiences contribute
to our self-knowledge
 experiences mold you into a person
 argues that “experiences greatly
shape our awareness of ourselves”
 the more experiences we have, the
more we get to know ourselves
 a deeper sense of self
 matter - common stuff that makes
up everything in the universe
 form - the essence of a substance or
a thing (what makes it what it is)
(ex. of matter and form: chair is a matter.
the form of the chair since we’re talking
about essence, the form of a chair is
nagagamitan hya paglingkod.)
DESCARTES
“cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)”
 Father of Philosophy and most
famous dualistic thinkers of all time
 dualism - the concept of
reality/existence is divided into two -
mind and the physical body
 further believed that the mind is the
seat of our consciousness (why?:
because it houses our intellect)
JOHN LOCKE (experiences shape our
knowledge) nababaro kita tungod tat experiences
“every human being is a blank slate”
 believed that our identity is tied
with our consciousness which means
that the perception of what passes
in a man’s own mind
 it is through our experiences that
we learn
 used his principle of individuation
 principle of individuation: the idea
that a person keeps the same
identity over time
 identity is not defined by our
physical being
 our memories give us our identity
DAVID HUME (human senses)
 known for his lack of self – theory
 he adhered to empiricism
 empiricism: theory that all
knowledge is derived from human
senses
 only through our physical
experiences using our sense that we
know what we know
 made a clear distinction between
impressions and ideas
impression: everything that we
originate from our sense
idea: a thought or suggestion
 Bundle Theory – the idea of the self
that we make is a bunch of physical
impressions
-assertions that the
property that we can sense
are the only real part of an
object.
IMMANUEL KANT
- believed that we have an
inner and outer self which
together forms our
consciousness
- inner self is comprised of
our psychological state and
our rational intellect
- outer self includes our sense
and physical world
inner self
- apperception = how we
mentally assimilate a new
idea into old ones. Basically
it is how we make sense of
new things
outer self
- representation = a mental
imagery based on past
sensations and experiences
GILBERT RYLE (how u behave is who u r)
“I act, therefore I am”
- it is our behavior and actions
that gives us our sense of
self
category mistake
- an error in logic in which one
category of something is
present as belonging to
another category
PAUL CHURCHLAND
- physical brain gives us our
sense of self
- separate mind, separate
brain
- physical brain is where we
get our origin of self
- mind cannot be sensed by
our senses
- he believes that there is no
mind, only physical brain
MAURICE MERLEAU – PONTY

Physical brain gives us our sense of self

- physical brain is where we

get our sense of self
- mind is the seat of our
consciousness
- body is just a shell and it is
the object behind what it
means to be human
- mind and body are
inseparable (mind and body
need each other)