MODULE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

PHILOSOPHY
● Desire for truth, study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.
● It is the philosophical framework for understanding the self (soul/ego/I/psyche/me; being) that was first introduced by ancient Greek
philosophers Socrates and Plato.
● Love (Philo) and Wisdom (Sophia) = Love of wisdom
● Socrates suggests to “know thyself.” Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life.

THREE WAYS TO VIEW SELF:

● Self is innate
The self is an important quality of humans that is present upon birth and self-awareness is natural.
This view of self includes the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Augustine, and Rene Descartes
● Self is emergent
o Self is an outcome of interaction with the physical as well as the social world.
o The empiricist perspectives of Aristotle, John Locke, and David Hume
● Self is integrated and developing (self is changing)
o The self has various components that undergo change through time
o Immanuel Kant, Gilbert Ryle, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty

DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF THE SELF

(SOCRATES)

“Know thyself” and discover the importance of their souls by continuous questioning called as the Socratic Method.

▪ Self is synonymous with the soul. Every human possessed an immortal soul that survived the physical body. It consists of
two dichotomous realms:
● Physical Realm is changeable, transient, and imperfect
● Ideal Realm is unchanging, eternal, and immortal.

▪ Equates knowledge with virtue and ignorance with vice.

▪ Body is soul of limitation.
▪ Death is liberation of the soul from the body.

Introspection is the Socratic method. Carefully examining our thoughts and emotions to gain self-knowledge.
Essence of self is soul which strives for wisdom and perfection. Reason is the soul tool to achieve excellent state. Man must
live an examined life and life of purpose and value

▪ The essence of the self is the soul which strives for wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool to achieve this
exalted state, i.e., man must live an examined life and a life of purpose and value. For him, “an unexamined life is not
worth living”
▪ As long as the soul is tied to the body, the quest for wisdom is inhibited by the imperfection of the physical realm, where it
wanders confused

(PLATO)

Student of Socrates. His self-philosophy can be explained as process of self-knowledge and purification of soul.

▪ Theory of Forms:
 o World of Forms (nonphysical ideas)
o World of sense (Replica)
▪ 3 Basic Elements of the soul
o Reason - Divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding
of eternal truths.
o Spirit (Passion) - Basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, etc.
o Appetite (Desire) – Our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.

(ARISTOTLE)

“Anything that has life, has a soul”. The rational nature of the self should lead to good and fulfilling life (self-actualization).
He is a student of Plato.

o 3 Natures of Man

o Vegetative soul (Physical Body) – Physical body that grows. Basta may life, may soul siya. in the thought of
Aristotle, the type of soul possessed by plants. The vegetative soul has the capacity for growth and reproduction but
does not have the capacity to receive and react to sense impressions or the capacity for rational thought.
o Sentient soul (sensation and emotion) – i.e. animals. Opt to sensation and emotion al conditioning. Sensual
desires.
o Rational soul (intellect) – Can exercise intellect and will. Can make wise choices. It’s what makes man human,
intellectual capacity.

The rational nature of the self should lead to good and fulfilling life (self-actualization)
Happiness is a search for good life by doing virtuous actions.

● Soul and body are not separate

● Soul is essence of all living things
● Soul is essence of self

(AUGUSTINE)

All questions and answers are related to God. If you want to know about yourself, know God, because God can help you find yourself.
“I am doubting, therefore I am.”

- Saint in the Catholic Church. He integrated the ideas of Plato and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
- Contemplated that the soul is an essential element which governs and defines the human person.
- “Knowledge can only come by seeing the truth (knowing God) that dwells within us.”
- The soul is what governs and defines the human person or the self. The soul is united with the body so that man
may be entire and complete. Humankind is created in the image and likeness of God.
God is transcendent and that the self seeks to be united with God through faith and reason.

(RENE DESCARTES)
o If you are thinking, you exist. The self is a thinking being.
▪ The act of thinking about the self --- a thinking entity that doubts, understands, analyzes --- is proof that
there is self.
▪ The very essence is to think. That’s the function of the self. People are thinking beings. Exercise rationality.
It’s an exercise to exert ideas.
▪ “I think therefore I am” or Cogito ero sum is the keystone of Descartes’ concept of self. The act of thinking
about the self.
o Father of Modern Philosophy, and considered as a rationalist

Two dimensions of the self:

● Thinking self (soul): immaterial, immortal, conscious being, and independent of the physical laws of the universe.
 ● Physical body material, mortal, non-thinking entity, fully governed by the laws of nature. The self is a thinking entity is
distinct from the self as a physical body. In other words, the thinking self can exist independently of the physical.

(JOHN LOCKE )

o The human mind at birth is TABULA RASA or blank slate. Children are Tabula Rasa.

o Experience. He’s an empiricist. If you have an idea, you can’t show it without physical evidence, or experience. You want to
prove that it’s true.

o Personal Identity. You are what you are because of experience (what you see, touch, feel). Isolation limits the understanding of
self. Experience makes you who you are.

o Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the self. Thus, the essence of the
self is its conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, and reflecting identity.

o Self-consciousness is necessary to have a coherent personal (self) identity or knowledge of the self as person.

o Using the power of reason and introspection enables people to understand and achieve accurate conclusions about the self.

(DAVID HUME)

o “We have no self.” Walang self. We only have imagination on who we want to be. There is no self, imagination lang natin
yon.

o Hume suggests that if people carefully examine their sense experience through the process of introspection, they will discover
that there is no self.

o According to Hume, what people experience is just a collection of different perceptions, impressions, sensations, and ideas.

o The idea of personal identity is a result of imagination.

(IMMANUEL KANT)

● Human + experiences. The self transcends experience.

● It’s our job to form ourselves. If we want to be anything, we need to put our mind and experiences.
● He harmonized the contradicting ideas of rationalists and empiricists. Knowledge can be drawn from the integration of
sensory experience and conceptual understanding.
● The human mind is an active shaper of experience.

● The self makes experiencing an intelligible world possible because it is the self that is actively organizing and synthesizing
all of our thoughts and perceptions.

● In other words, the self constructs its own reality creating a world that is familiar and predictable. Through our rationality,
the self transcends sense experience.

(SIGMUND FREUD)

● The self is multilayered:

o Conscious
o Pre conscious
o Unconscious. Contains repressed memories and emotions and instinctual drives.
● The goal of psychoanalysis is to release repressed emotions and experiences to overcome self-defeating behavior.

(GILBERT RYLE )
 ● “I act, therefore, I am.”
● The actions I do speak about myself. Project a responsible mirage if you want to be respected. Through behavior, the self is
revealed.
● The concept of the mind. The mind and the body are intrinsically linked: mental states and bodily actions are one and the
same.

(PAUL CHURCHLAND)

● The self is the brain.

o The self that you have is a result of brain. The physical brain and not the imaginary mind, gives us our sense of
self.
● Proponent of Eliminative materialism.
o Materialism maintains that the self is inseparable from the brain and the physiology of the body.

(MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY)

● Understanding the self is based on “phenomena” of experience. The I is a single integrated core identity (combination of
mental, physical, and emotions.)

● Mind and body are unified

● Everything that people are aware of is contained within the consciousness

o The phenomenology of perception

▪ The consciousness, the world, and the human body are intricately intertwined in perceiving the world.

o The self is embodied subjectivity

▪ Perception is not merely a consequence of sensory experience, rather, it is a conscious experience.