UNIT I: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS

PERSPECTIVES
Lesson 1: Philosophy
2.5 weeks or 7.5 hours

Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the ultimate causes, reasons,
and principles of everything. It goes beyond scientific investigation by exploring all areas of
knowledge such as religion, psychology, politics, physics, and even medicine. Hence, the
etymological definition of philosophy "love of wisdom" could pertain to the desire for truth
by formulating never ending questions to provide answers to every inquiry about the
nature of human existence. The nature of the self is a topic of interest among
philosophers.
The philosophical framework for understanding the self was
first introduced by the ancient great Greek philosophers
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In particular, Socrates
suggests: "Know thyself" But what exactly does "know
thyself" mean? What is self and the qualities that define
it? This lesson presents an overview of the philosophical
perspective of the self to assist students identify one's
own self to gain self-knowledge. It intends to give a
wider perspective in understanding the self. The
different
views of prominent philosophers regarding the nature of the
self are discussed and while there are disagreements in how
philosophers view the self, most of them agree that self-knowledge is a
prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life.

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. discuss and explore the concept of the self from the different
philosophical perspective;
2. appreciate the contribution of each philosophical perspective to a
better understanding of the self;
3. examine oneself on how the philosophical perspectives on the self are applied; and

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 Philosophy as a subject presents various
philosophers offering multiple perspectives on just about
any topic including the self. Philosophical, discussion of the self is a basic search for
meaning and purpose in life. Determination, rationalization, and identification of the self
set the direction from which an individual travels to fulfill his or her purpose in life. The
inability to define oneself leads to a lot of contradictions within the self later on; hence, it
is one of the many imperatives in life to know oneself and to go on with the business of
leading a life charted by oneself.

Socrates
No historical document proves that Socrates really existed. We only know Socrates
because his illustrious students (from Plato to Aristotle) spoke eloquently and generously
about his wit, intellect, and wisdom. Socrates left no known writings, but his highly
regarded student, Plato, wrote extensively about him. Some would
even claim that Plato, in positing his own radical ideas in his era,
spoke through the character of Socrates in his writings. Despite
this mystery in his identity, Socrates is credited for his many
contributions to western philosophy.
Socrates reminds us to "know thyself," a
translation of an ancient Greek aphorism gnothi Seauton,
Socrates posited that if a person knows who he or she is, all
basic issues and difficulties in life will vanish and everything
will be clearer and simpler. One could now act according to
his or her own definition of the self without any doubt and
contradiction.
His technique of asking basic questions such as "Who am I?"
"What is the purpose of my life?," "What am I doing here?" or "What is justice?" are
all predicated on the fact that humans must be able to define these simple things so
as to move forward and act accordingly based on their definition of the self.
Self knowledge, for Socrates, means knowing one's degree of understanding
about the world and knowing one's capabilities and potentials. It is only through self-
knowledge that one's self emerges. Therefore, self is achieved and not just discovered,
something to work on and not a product of a mere realization.
For Socrates, possession of knowledge is virtue and ignorance is vice. He argued
that a person's acceptance of ignorance is a springboard for the acquisition of knowledge
later on. So, one must first have the humility to acknowledge his or her ignorance so as to
acquire knowledge. (“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”)
Answers will always be subjective and there is no right or wrong answer to the
questions posited by Socrates. The quality and quantity of answers are dependent on the
person answering these basic inquiries and one's subsequent actions are best understood
on how one defines oneself, thus the constant reminder to "know thyself."
For Socrates, every man is composed of body and soul. This means that every
human person is dualistic, that is, he is composed of two important aspects of his
personhood. For Socrates, this means all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent
aspect to him, and the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect
and permanent. He argued that the ruler of the body is the soul. For him, soul pre-
existed the body, and soul is what makes the body alive.

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 Plato
An ancient Greek philosopher who was a student of
Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle, Plato produced a
substantial body of work that became the basis for
western thought. He basically took off from his master and
supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body and
soul. In addition to what Socrates earlier espoused, Plato
added that there are three components of the soul:
the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the
appetitive soul.
In his magnum opus, "The Republic" (Plato
2000), Plato emphasizes that justice in the human
person can only be attained if the three parts of the soul
are working harmoniously with one another. The rational soul
forged by reason and intellect has to govern the affairs of the human person, the spirited
part which is in charge of emotions should be kept at bay, and the appetitive soul in
charge of basic desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sex are controlled as
well. When this ideal state is attained, then the human person's soul becomes just and
virtuous.
In terms of the concept of the self, Plato was one of the first philosophers who
believed in an enduring self that is represented by the soul. He argued that the soul is
eternal and constitutes the enduring self, because even after death, the soul continues to
exist.

St. Augustine
Augustine's view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval
world when it comes to man. Following the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with the
newfound doctrine of Christianity, Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature. An
aspect of man dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the
Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality. The body is bound to die on earth
and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with
God. This is because the body can only thrive in the imperfect, physical reality that is the
world, whereas the soul can also stay after death in an eternal realm with the all-
transcendent God. The goal of every human person
is to attain this communion and bliss with the Divine
by living his life on earth in virtue.
However, Augustine in his Confessions takes
this idea and expands it into an entire genre that
critically inquires what it means to be a person. In
other words, he explores the idea of the self until he
discovers personal subjectivity. As Augustine
constructs a view of God that would come to
dominate Western thinking, he also creates a new
concept of individual identity: the idea of the self.
This identity is achieved through a twofold
process: self-presentation, which leads to self-
realization.
Augustine creates a literary character out of the self
and places it in a narrative text so that it becomes
part of the grand allegory of redemption. In The
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Confessions, Augustine plays the lead role in the story of his own life. By telling this tale
he transforms himself into a metaphor of the struggle of both body and soul to find
happiness, which exists only in God’s love. He reads his life as an allegory to arrive at a
larger truth.

Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes, Father of Modern Philosophy conceived of

the human person as having a body and a mind. In his famous
treatise, The Meditations of First Philosophy, he claims that
there is so much that we should doubt. In fact, he says
that since much of what we think and believe are not
infallible, they may turn out to be false. One should
only believe that since which can pass the test of doubt
(Descartes 2008). If something is so clear and lucid as
not to be even doubted, then that is the only time when
one should actually buy a proposition. In the end,
Descartes thought that the only thing that one cannot
doubt is the existence of the self, for even if one doubts
oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing
that thinks and therefore, that cannot be doubted. Thus, his
famous, cogito ergo sum, "I think therefore, I am." The fact that
one thinks should lead one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he exists. The self
then for Descartes is also a combination of two distinct entities, the cogito, the thing that
thinks, which is the mind, and the extenza or extension of the mind, which is the body. In
Descartes's view, the body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind. The
human person has it but it is not what makes man a man. If at all, that is the mind.
Descartes says, "But what then, am I? A thinking thing. It has been said. But what
is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands (conceives), affirms, denies,
wills, refuses; that imagines also, and perceives" (Descartes 2008).
For Descartes, the existence of anything that you register from your senses can
be doubted. For example, if you are staring at a burning building, you are not certain if
that building is really burning or it is something you are only reconstructing from your
dream. One can always doubt about the certainty of things but the very fact that one
doubts is something that cannot be doubted. This is what "I think, therefore I am"
means.
The self, for Descartes, is nothing else but a mind-body dichotomy. Thought
(mind) always precedes action (body). It has always been in that sequence. Everything
starts with a thought. Humans think first about doing something and then do it. When one
thinks that he or she will have a very busy week, then he or she will plan what to do from
Monday to Sunday. It is the thought that sets direction to human actions but humans are
always free to choose. So, if one says he or she will have a very busy week, then he or
she can push through with the tasks he or she needs to do for the week or not.
Humans are self-aware and being such proves their own place in the universe.
Humans create their own reality and they are the masters of their own universe.
Western philosophy is largely based on the writings of Descartes. If you have
heard of the saying that man is a rational animal, one is actually positing the ideas of Rene
Descartes. To acknowledge him, Filipinos have a unique term, "diskarte," a derivative of
the surname of Descartes, which denotes finding a way or making things possible.

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John Locke
John Locke's main philosophy about personal identity or
the self is founded on consciousness or memory. For Locke,
consciousness is the perception of what passes in a Man's
own mind. He rejected that brain has something to do with
consciousness as the brain, as well as the body may
change, while consciousness remains the same. He
concluded that personal identity is not in the brain but in
one's consciousness.
In his work, "Identity and Diversity” in An Essay
Concerning Human Understanding (1689), he pondered, if
the same substance which thinks be changed, it can be the
same person, or remaining the same, it can be a different
person." Here, he supports that consciousness can be transferred
from one substance (body and soul) to another. While the soul is
changed, for instance, consciousness remains the same, thereby maintaining the personal
identity through the change. On the other hand, consciousness may be lost involuntarily
through forgetfulness while the soul stays the same. With this, he claimed that there is
the same soul but a different person. Thus, the same soul is unnecessary or insufficient in
the formation of one's personal identity over time when consciousness is lost.
His philosophy can be understood easily in his illustration of “The Prince and the
Cobbler." Suppose a prince will die and have its soul resurrected in the body of a cobbler
whose soul has departed. With this exchange, the prince will still act and think as a prince
even though he finds himself in a new body. This idea supports the possibility that the
same person may appear in a different body at the time of resurrection and yet still be the
same person.
Locke’s other remarkable contribution was the notion of tabula rasa. This concept
posits that everyone started as a blank slate, and the content is provided by one's
experiences over time.

David Hume
David Hume a Scottish philosopher, has a very unique way of looking at man. As
an empiricist who believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and
experiences, Hume argues that the self is nothing like what his predecessors thought of it.
The self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body. One can rightly see here the
empiricism that runs through his veins. Empiricism is the school of thought that espouses
the idea that knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced. Men can only
attain knowledge by experiencing. For example, Jack knows that Jill is another human
person not because he has seen her soul. He knows she is just like him because he sees
her, hears her, and touches her.

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 To David Hume, the self is nothing else but a bundle of
impressions. What are impressions? For David Hume, if one
tries to examine his experiences, he finds that they can all
be categorized into two: impressions and ideas.
Impressions are the basic objects of our experience or
sensation. They therefore form the core of our thoughts.
When one touches an ice cube, the cold sensation is an
impression Impressions therefore are vivid because they
are products of our direct experience with the world.
Ideas, on the other hand, are copies of impressions.
Because of this they are not as lively and vivid as our
impressions. When one imagines the feeling of being in
love for the first time that still is an idea.
For David Hume, there is no self as a mental entity for “what
we call a mind is nothing but a heap or collection of different perceptions…” The self is a
bundle of perceptions (objects of the mind) of interrelated events. The assumption of a
self as mental entity and thus as mental substance does not exist (Northoff, 2013). Hume's
materialism views the soul as a product of the imagination. There is no primordial
substance that houses the self. Any concept of the self is simply memory and imagination.
Hume stressed that there is no stable thing called self, for the self is nothing but a
complex set of successive impressions or perceptions. If you are looking for a self, you
can't find it; the only thing that you can discover is a set of individual impressions like
happiness or sadness, hotness or coldness, hunger or fullness, hate or love, and many
others. What you think and what you feel constitute what you are at this very moment.
So, if at this moment, you are happy, then you are happy. If you are hungry, then you are
hungry. That is what you are; that is who you are.
What is the self then? Self, according to Hume, is simply “a bundle or collection of
different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are
in a perpetual flux and movement”. (Hume and Steinberg 1992) Men simply want to
believe that there is a unified, coherent self, a soul or mind just like what the previous
philosophers thought. In reality, what one thinks is a unified self is simply a combination
of all experiences with a particular person.

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Immanuel Kant

German philosopher Immanuel Kant theorized that

consciousness is formed by one's inner and outer sense. The
inner sense is comprised of one's psychological state and
intellect. The outer sense consists of one's senses and
the
physical world.
Consciousness of oneself and of one's
psychological state (or inner sense) was referred to by
Kant as empirical self- consciousness while
consciousness of oneself and of one's state via acts of
apperception is called transcendental apperception.
The source of empirical self-consciousness is
the inner sense. All representational states are in the
inner sense such as moods, feelings, and sensations
including pleasure and pain. One must be phenomenally
conscious to be aware of something in the inner sense.
Apperception is the faculty that allows for application of
concepts. The act of apperceiving allows one to synthesize or make
sense of a unified object. Transcendental apperception makes experience possible and
allows the self and the world to come together.
Consciousness being unified, Kant argued, is the central feature of the mind
(Brook, 2013). Mind should perform both the unity of consciousness and the unity of
apperception. Consciousness makes the world intelligible. It is the self that organizes
sensations and thoughts into a picture that makes sense to a person. This picture
constitutes the "you" at the center of the universe, looking at the universe from one's point
of view. For example, think about a moment when you shared memorable experiences
with someone but each of you had radically different experiences-swimming, attending
reunion, or walking at a party. Reflect on the way each person instinctively describes the
situation from his or her perspective. This is the unity of consciousness that Kant
described. The self is able to perform this synthesizing and unifying function because it
transcends sense experience.
Kant recognizes the veracity of Hume's account that everything starts with
perception and sensation of impressions. However, Kant thinks that the things that men
perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human person without an
organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all these impressions. To Kant, there
is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world.
Time and space, for example, are ideas that one cannot find in the world, but is built in
our minds. Kant calls these the apparatuses of the mind.
Along with the different apparatuses of the mind goes the "self." Without the self,
one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own
existence. Kant therefore suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man that
synthesizes all knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what gives one his
personality. In addition, it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human persons.

Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

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 Freud emphasized the inner dynamics of unconscious motives. He asserted that
the sex urges in the unconscious constitute the main human drive. This is known as the
“libido” theory.
Many human desires are directed and complicated by
unconscious motives which we are not directly aware of
because they lie in the substrata of our consciousness
but which are nevertheless powerful drives that may
dominate our lives.
Basic to Freud’s theory is the conception that
the unacceptable (forbidden, punished}
wishes/desires of childhood principally libidinal
(sexual) are repressed in our consciousness or get
driven out of awareness. Repressed drives press to
find expression in dreams, slips of speech, and in
unconscious mannerisms. They are the reasons for many
of our inner conflicts in life.
Freud believed that all human behavior is energized by
psychodynamic forces. One needs psychic energy in order to satisfy his basic urges. He
viewed human as an inherently negative creature who is relentlessly “driven” by two kinds
of biological instincts (or motives).

Two Kinds of Biological Instincts

1. Eros or life instinct – helps the individual survive; directs life-sustaining
activities. Ex. respiration, eating, sex
2. Thanatos or death instinct – is viewed as the destructive forces present in all
human beings.
Ex. destructive acts like arson, murder, war

Freud’s Structure of the Human Mind

According to Sigmund Freud, our personality develops from the interactions among
what he proposed as the three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego,
and superego.

Three Components/Structures of the Mind

1. id – the most primitive of the three structures, is
concerned with instant gratification of basic physical
needs and urges without fear of consequences nor
regard for discipline or control. It operates by the
pleasure principle; it includes all the erotic cravings
including sex drives, pleasure drives, aggressive drives,
and other instinctual forces which seek expression. The
id occupies the unconscious level of the mind, and
when a person is id-dominated, he is aggressive, self-
centered, sadistic, arrogant and ambitious for himself
alone.

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 For example, if your id walked past a stranger eating ice cream, it would most
likely take the ice cream for itself. It doesn’t know, or care, that it is rude to
take something belonging to someone else; it would care only that you wanted
the ice cream.
2. superego – Moral Arm of Personality or obey the
morality principle. It is concerned with social rules and
morals. It represents the ideal, and strives for perfection
rather than pleasure or for reality. It also serves as the
conscience. It develops as a child learns what their culture
considers right and wrong.
Example: If your superego walked past the same stranger,
it would not take their ice cream because it would know
that that would be rude. However, if both your id and
your superego were involved, and your id was strong
enough to override your superego’s concern, you would still
take the ice cream, but afterward you would most likely
feel guilt and shame over your actions.
3. ego – In contrast to the instinctual id and the moral
superego, the ego is the rational, pragmatic part of
our personality. It obeys the reality principle and block
the id’s irrational thinking. It delays gratification and
find realistic ways of gratifying the instinct. It is less
primitive than the id and is partly conscious and partly
unconscious. It’s what Freud considered to be the
“self,” and its job is to balance the demands of the id
and superego in the practical context of reality.
So, if you walked past the stranger with ice cream one more time, your ego
would mediate the conflict between your id (“I want that ice cream right now”)
and superego (“It’s wrong to take someone else’s ice cream”) and decide to
go buy your own ice cream. While this may mean you have to wait 10 more
minutes, which would frustrate your id, your ego decides to make that
sacrifice as part of the compromise– satisfying your desire for ice cream while
also avoiding an unpleasant social situation and potential feelings of shame.

Conflict within the mind: According to Freud, the job of the ego is to balance the
aggressive/pleasure-seeking drives of the id with the moral control of the superego.

Conflicts among these three structures, and our efforts to find balance among what
each of them “desires,” determines how we behave and approach the world. What balance
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we strike in any given situation determines how we will resolve the conflict between two
overarching behavioral tendencies: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking
drives vs. our socialized internal control over those drives.

Freud's Three Levels of Mind

Freud delineated the mind in the distinct
levels, each with their own roles and
functions. Freud likened the three levels of
mind to an iceberg.
1. The conscious mind contains all of
the thoughts, sensations, memories,
feelings, and wishes of which we are
aware at any given moment. This is
the aspect of our mental processing
that we can think and talk about
rationally. This also includes our
memory, which is not always part of
consciousness but can be retrieved
easily and brought into awareness. It
is likened to the tip of an iceberg
that you can see above the water.

2. The preconscious mind includes

thoughts, feelings, sensations, or
memories we are not aware of at
the The mind is like an iceberg-mostly hidden.
moment, but may be brought to consciousness. Compared to the part of the
iceberg that is submerged below the water, but is still visible.

3. The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and repressed

memories, instincts and wishes we are not aware of or that are outside of our
conscious awareness. The unconscious contains contents that are unacceptable or
unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. The bulk of the iceberg
that lies unseen beneath the waterline represents the unconscious.

Gilbert Ryle

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 Gilbert Ryle, a British philosopher, opposed Rene Descartes that the self is a
"thinking thing." He maintained that the mind is not separate from the body (mind-body
dichotomy). Mind consists of dispositions of people based on what they know, what they
feel, what they want, and so on. People learn that they have their own minds because
they behave in certain ways. What truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in
his day-to-day life.
For Ryle, looking for and trying to understand a self as
it really exists is like visiting your friend’s university and looking
for the "university." One can roam around the campus, visit
the library and the football field, and meet the
administrators and faculty and still end up not finding the
"university." This is because the campus, the people, the
systems, and the territory all form the university. Ryle
suggests that the "self is not an entity one can locate and
analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to
refer to all the behaviors that people make.
Ryle supported the basic notions of behavioristic
psychology. His theory is called logical behaviorism or analytical
behaviorism-a theory of mind which states that mental
concepts can be understood through observable events.
In his work Concept of Mind (1949), he described Descartes’ mind-body dualism
as "ghost in the machine." For him, Descartes idea is a category mistake supporting
that there is an immaterial mind in a material body. Descartes thought that one has soul
in the body that possesses talents, memories, and character. The properties of a person
are better understood as adjectives modifying a body, than as noun (objects) parallel to it.
Kindness, for example, is not a thing that exists apart from and parallel to the body, but
rather a collection of properties a body has. Kindness includes properties such as being
generous, humble, courteous, loyal, and honest. Someone who never exhibited any of
these traits would not be called kind; and anyone who is considered kind exhibits some of
these traits.
The only proof of the mind's operation is visible and evident in activities like
singing, running, walking, and the like. Knowing and believing are just dispositions but
these influence people's actions. To understand Ryle's illustration of the mind, think of this
scenario: You went to a forest and you saw the trees, animals, falls, and caves. You might
ask, "Where is the forest?" This is similar to asking, "Where is the mind?" All the things
you saw is the forest. Therefore, the disposition to know, believe, feel, and act is called
the mind.

As for Ryle's concept of the self, the self is a combination of the mind and the
body. While the focus of other philosophers is towards the separation of mind and body
(a dualist view), for Ryle, self is taken as a whole with the combination of the body and
the mind. Ryle also posited the maxim, "I act, therefore I am." For him, the mind is
not the seat of self but the behavior, opposing Descartes' immaterial mind in a material
body. The self is the way people behave.

Paul Churchland and Patricia Churchland

Paul Churchland and Patricia Churchland, who are both neuroscientists, introduced
eliminative materialism-"a radical claim that ordinary, common sense understanding of
the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common
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sense

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do not actually exist" (Ramsey, 2013). For theme it is false to claim that folk
psychology, or common sense psychology, is the capacity to explain mental states of
people.

Most people think that we have a stream of consciousness that contains images
and conceptions of things about which we have beliefs and attitudes. Our beliefs and
attitudes are supported by our feelings, which include
mental states like joy and sorrow, or anxiety and relief.
It is also a folk belief that our sense of the world and of
ourselves is a direct representation of how the world is
formed, thus making our bodies reflect or adapt the
way the world is (Weed, 2011).

The Churchlands argued that talk of mental

states would eventually be abandoned in favor of a
radically different view of how the brain works not
identified with mental states. For them, self is nothing
else but brain, or simply, the self is
contained entirely within the
physical brain.

In Patricia Churchland's book Touching a Nerve:

The Self as Brain (2013), she wrote: "My brain and I are
inseparable. I am who I am because my brain is what it is.
Even so, I often think about my brain in terms different
from those I use when thinking about myself. I think about
my brain as that, and about myself as me. I think about
my brain as having neurons, but I think of me as having a
memory. Still, I know that my memory is all about the
neurons in my brain. Lately, I think about my brain in more
intimate terms-as me." This supports the idea that to
understand the self, one must study the brain, not just the
mind.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

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 Maurice Merleau-Ponty is a French
phenomenological philosopher who asserts that the
mind-body bifurcation that has been going on for a
long time is a futile
endeavor and an invalid problem. Unlike Ryle who
simply denies the "self," Merleau-Ponty instead says
that the mind and body are so intertwined that
they cannot be separated from one another.
One cannot find any experience that is not an
embodied experience. All experience is
embodied. One's body is his opening toward his
existence to the world. Because of these bodies,
men are in the world. Merleau-Ponty dismisses
the Cartesian Dualism that has spelled so much
devastation in the history of man. For him, the
Cartesian problem is nothing else but plain
misunderstanding. The living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences are all one.

He distinguished the body into two types: the subjective body, as lived and
experienced, and the objective body, as observed and scientifically investigated. For him,
these two are not different bodies." The former is the body as-it-is-lived. He wrote, "But I
am not in front of my body, I am in my body, or rather I am my body.” He regarded self as
embodied subjectivity. It sees human beings neither as disembodied minds (existing
without body) nor as complex machines, but as living creatures whose subjectivity
(consciousness) is actualized in the forms of their physical involvement with the world. The
body is the general medium for having a world and we know not through our intellect but
through our experience. The latter is the body as observed and scientifically investigated.
It is the body that is known to others. These are bodies that people see, admire, imitate,
criticize, or even dissect.
For phenomenological philosophers, to be a subject (a self) essentially requires a
body. Consciousness cannot simply be immaterial but must be embodied. The "I think"
implies "I can,” in the sense that "I can” go somewhere else as a being possessing a
body. This is where Merleau-Ponty opposed the dualist account of subjectivity. Mind and
body are essentially correlated and it is not possible to understand subjectivity without
taking into account this essential correlation. He also opposed the Cartesian cogito. For
him, consciousness is both perceiving and engaging.
To sum it up, Merleau-Ponty's, "I am my body" cannot simply be interpreted as
advocating a materialist, behaviorist type position. He accepts the idea of mental states but
he also suggests that the use of the mind is inseparable from our bodily, situated, physical
nature. The body cannot be viewed solely as an object, or material entity

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15
Multiple Choice: Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write your answers before tnumber of
the test item.
1. He is regarded as the Father of Modern Philosophy.
A. Gilbert Ryle B. Rene Descartes
C. John Locke D. Immanuel Kant
2. He postulates that the human mind at birth is a blank slate or tabula rasa.
A. David Hume B. Immanuel Kant
C. Gilbert Ryle D. John Locke
3. According to Plato, the soul seeks truth and is swayed by facts and
arguments.
A. spirited B. rational
C. vegetative D. appetitive
4. What main categories did Hume use to describe mental perceptions?
A. impressions and ideas B. the physical and the spiritual
C. ideas and memories D. sensations and perceptions
5. The first philosopher to engage in systematic questioning about the self.
A. Aristotle B. Socrates C. Plato D. St. Augustine

Alata, Eden Joy, Caslib, Bernardo Jr., Serafica, Janice Patria & Pawilen, R.A. 2018.
Understanding The Self . 1st Ed. Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store, 1st ed.

Brawner, D. and Arcega, A. 2018. Understanding the Self. 1st Ed. Manila,
Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Corpuz M. Ronald, Estoque S. Ronan, & Tabotabo, Claudio V. 2019. Understanding the
Self . 1st Ed. Manila, Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc. 1st Ed.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/psychodynamic-
perspectives-on-personality/

16
 UNIT I: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
Lesson 2: Psychology
1.5 weeks or 4.5 hours

How do you define who you are? Do you rely on

the different roles and relationships you have, such as
being a mother, a teacher, a soldier, or a son? Or, would
you say your identity is more based on your thoughts,
emotions, and knowledge of the world around you? Some
people believe it is neither of those, and that the sense of
self is your self-esteem. Do you like what you see when
you look in the mirror? What do you think you're capable
of accomplishing? All of these questions pertain to the
idea of the sense of self.
In psychology, the sense of self is defined as the
way a person thinks about and views his or her traits,
beliefs, and purpose within the world. It refers to a
person’s experience as a single, unitary, autonomous
being that is separate from others, experienced with
continuity through time and place. The experience of the
self starts when one identifies himself or herself as an
object, followed by describing oneself as a self-concept
or self-feeling, and ends with saying that the self is
manifested in how one acts and presents himself or
herself to others.(Zhao, 2014). In this process, the self is
perceives through how one sees and understands himself
or herself.

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. identify oneself based on William James Theory of Self;

2. differentiate one’s real self and ideal self; and
3. value the importance of alignment of oneself.

17
18
The Self as Cognitive Construct

How people define themselves in relation to others greatly influences how they
think, feel, and behave, and is ultimately related to the construct of identity. Self-
development is a continuous process throughout the lifespan; one’s sense of self may
change, at least somewhat, throughout one’s life. Self-representation has important
implications for socio-emotional functioning throughout the lifespan.

William James Theory of Self

Philosopher and psychologist William James (1842–1910) was one of the first to
postulate a theory of the self in The Principles of Psychology. James described two aspects
or categories of the self that he termed the “I” Self and “Me” Self.
For James, a human being
has the capacity to be a thinking
subject and the object of his or her
thinking at the same time. As a
thinking subject, an individual is both
conscious of his or her environment
and conscious of his or her existence.
The continuous stream of
consciousness internal to an
individual constitutes the “I” Self
which is responsible for the thinking
and makes awareness and self-
awareness possible.
An individual turns himself or herself into a “Me” Self when he or she makes
himself or herself the object of his or her own thinking.

James claims that in understanding the self, the self can be

contextualized in three categories: the constituents of the self; the feelings and
emotions they arouse (self-feelings): and the actions they prompt (self-seeking).
 Constituents of the self refer to the further sub-categories of the self including
the material self, social self, and spiritual self. Note: These concepts were
further discussed below.
 The second category of the self refers to the feelings and emotions aroused in
the individual because of his or her knowledge and appraisal of his or her
empirical existence in the world.
 The third category refers to the actions the self prompts- the effort of
every individual to preserve and improve oneself based on one's self-
knowledge and resulting self-feelings. Simply put, the self is an object to be
reflected upon, an object that is capable of arousing emotions and prompting
actions.

19
According to James, these sub-categories are related in a hierarchical way, with material
self at the bottom, the spiritual self at the top, and the social self in between. Together,
they constitute what James calls the empirical self (Zhao, 2014
James further distinguished three components of the Me Self. These include: (1)
the material self (e.g., tangible objects or possessions we collect for ourselves); (2) the
social self (e.g., how we interact and portray ourselves within different groups, situations,
or persons); and (3) the spiritual self (e.g., internal dispositions).

1. The Material Self. Consists of things

that belong to us or that we belong to.
Things like family, clothes, our body,
and money are some of what makes up
our material selves. It refers to tangible
objects, people, or places that carry the
designation my or mine.
 Two subclasses of the material self
can be distinguished: The bodily self
and the extracorporeal (beyond
the body) self. Rosenberg (1979)
has referred to the extracorporeal self
as the extended self.
 The bodily component of the material self requires little explanation. A
person speaks of my arms or my legs. These entities are clearly an
intimate part of who we are.
 But our sense of self is not limited to our bodies. It includes other
people (my children), pets (my dog), possessions (my car), places (my
home town), and the products of our labors (my painting) called
extended self.
 It is not the physical entities themselves, however, that comprise the
material self. Rather, it is our psychological ownership of them (Scheibe,
1985). For example, a person may have a favorite chair she likes to sit in.
The chair itself is not part of the self. Instead, it is the sense of
appropriation represented by the phrase “my favorite chair.” This is what
we mean when we talk about the extended self. It includes all of the
people, places, and things that we regard as “ours.”

2. The Social Self. It refers to how we are

regarded and recognized by others.
 Our social selves are who we are in a given social
situation. For James, people change how they act
depending on the social situation that they are
in. James believed that people had as many
social selves as they did social situations they
participated in.

3. The Spiritual Self. For James, the spiritual self was who we are at our core. The
spiritual self is more concrete or permanent than the other two selves. The
spiritual self is our subjective and most intimate self. Aspects of an individual's
spiritual self include things like their personality, core values, and conscience that
do not typically change throughout their lifetime.

20
  The spiritual self is our inner self or our psychological self. It is comprised of
our self-perceived abilities, attitudes, emotions, interests, values, motives,
opinions, traits, and wishes.

Carl Rogers's Self Theory

Carl Rogers' believed that the self does not exist at birth; it is developed gradually
during childhood wherein one differentiates the self from non-self. He proposed that by
means of free choice and action, one can shape himself or herself based on what he or
she wants to be. Rogers considered the self as the center of experience. According to him,
the self is one's ongoing sense of who and what he or she is and how and why he or she
responds to the environment. The choices an individual makes are based on his or her set
of values. Roger's theory focuses on the nature of the self and the conditions that allow
the self to freely develop (Rathus, 2014).

Real Self vs. Ideal Self

The real self is who an individual actually is, intrinsically. It is the self that feels
closest to how one identifies with. It is how one thinks, feels, looks, and acts. It is the
self that feels most natural, comfortable, and true to what and who one really is. It is the
self that one continuously needs to accept, takes care of,
and improves. Despite the difficulty of an individual to
truly know how others see him or her, his or her real
self can still be possibly seen. One's significant other
may tell almost exactly his or her real self. The real
self is one's self-image.

The ideal self, on the other hand, is the

perception of what a person would like to be or thinks
he or she would be. It is an idealized image that has
developed over time based on the influence of the environment and the people one
interacts with. It is the self that one thinks he or she should be, and that one feels others
think he or she should be. This self is a product of expectations and pressures from other
people, and arises from the need to be loved and accepted by others. It is dynamic and
forever changing.
For example, your parents are medical doctors who are respected and admired
in the community, and experience tells you that in order to be happy, you need to be
smart and have a high-paying job. Your Ideal Self might be someone who excels in
science subjects, spends a lot of time studying, and does not get queasy at the sight
of blood. If your Real Self is far from this idealized image, then you might feel
dissatisfied with your life and consider yourself a failure.
Carl Rogers believed that we all own a real self and an ideal self. The real self
of course is what we are intrinsically. It’s the self that feels most true to what and who
we really are; the honest self that leaves us most comfortable in our skin. It may not be
perfect, but it`s the part of us that feels most real. And it`s the one we need to learn to
love the most. The ideal self on the other hand, is the self that we think we want to be,

21
that we strive to be, and that we feel we are expected to be. This self is borne out of
influences outside of us. It is the self that holds values absorbed from others; a
culmination of all those things that we think we should be, and that we feel others think
we should be. We want to accommodate those expectations because we believe we will
be more loved and accepted if we do. Holding the values of others is not a conscious
decision, but rather, a process of osmosis. For the most part, we are not even aware of
it.

Importance of Alignment

Sadly, having an overly strong ideal

self can be detrimental to our mental health.
It is healthy to some extent to have what we
I am a self-actualize
envision as an ideal self. It is something
person!
that we all strive for; to be the best that we
can be. Who doesn’t want that? The
problem arises when our ideal selves are too
far removed from what we really are. When
there is a huge discrepancy between what
we actually are (real self), and what we
want to be (ideal self), we begin to
experience an incongruence, a dissonance, a
lack of resonance within our true selves, and
a gap, sometimes huge, between what we
sense as our real self compared to what we
feel compelled to aspire to (our ideal self).
When the discrepancy between the real self
and ideal self is huge, the resulting
incongruence can lead us to become
demoralized and discouraged because we
have in fact set ourselves up for failure.
This discrepancy
can lead to stress and anxiety because the real self never seems good enough and the
ideal self seems impossible to attain. Hence, one should strive to reduce the discrepancy
by either addressing the issue or accepting the issue if it cannot be resolved.

As much as possible, there has to be an alignment or congruence between the two

selves, which happens when the ideal self is closer to the real self. People with align or
congruent selves feel a sense of mental well-being or peace of mind. They are more likely
to attain self actualization compared to those with incongruent selves. Self-worth is high
when the real self and ideal self are close to each other.

22
In the activity part, you identified your real self and ideal self. Reflect and answer the
questions as honestly as possible.

1. Are your real and ideal self closely aligned? Why or why not?

2. How can you make you real and ideal self closely aligned? What steps are
you going to do to attain alignment?

Multiple Choice: Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write your answers before the
number of the test item.

1. According to William James, it is classified as the thinking self or it refers to

individuals’ reflections about themselves.
A. “I” self B. “We” self C. “Us” self D. “Me” self

2. It is the self we aspire to be or who we want to be.

A. ideal self B. actual self C. real self D. true self

3. Which of William James’ three components of the self is based on all the
physical elements that reflect who you are?
A. material self B. social self C. spiritual self D. political self

4. John is an introvert and a pessimist. He hopes to become an optimist and a

more sociable person someday. This happy and positive person that John wants
to become is his image of the:
A. real self B. ideal self C. self-image D. false self
23
 5. A subclass of material self that represents our psychological ownership.
A. bodily self B. political self C. extended self D. social self

Alata, Eden Joy, Caslib, Bernardo Jr., Serafica, Janice Patria & Pawilen, R.A. 2018.
Understanding The Self . 1st Ed. Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store, 1st ed.

Brawner, D. and Arcega, A. 2018. Understanding the Self. 1st Ed. Manila,
Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Corpuz M. Ronald, Estoque S. Ronan, & Tabotabo, Claudio V. 2019. Understanding the
Self. 1st Ed. Manila, Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc. 1st Ed.

Macayan, J.V. et al (2019). Understanding the Self (Outcome-Based Module). Quezon City:
C & E Publishing, Inc.:

https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Ideal+Self

https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/psychology/psychology-and-psychiatry/self-
representation

https://listentomethunder.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/the-real-vs-the-i

24
 UNIT I: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
Lesson 3: Sociology
1 week or 3 hours

In the realm of sociology, the self interacts with the social world.
Initially, the self is self-absorbed and is just concerned with its own.
Progressively, however, the self expands and is now concerned with other
constellations of selves, known as others. Conceptually, with the introduction
of others, sociology as a science comes to fore, expanding the self in its
contemporary setting and relating with other selves as well.
No one could live by himself or herself alone. By extension, man will
always look for someone to commune with. The human person is a social
animal; he or she will always seek others for commercial or personal reasons.
These
reasons will always be equated with
relationships. Relationships and their scientific
study will always be correlated with sociology.

In sociology, the self is a product of

modern society versus other constructs or
archetypes. When one talks about sociology,
one talks about social norms and social
values. Social factors such as political
system, children, partners, school, location,
education, economic status, physical status,
religion, wealth, family, and ethnicity are also
considered.
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

The Self as a Product of Society

Sociological perspective of the self is based on the assumption that human

behavior is influenced by group life. A particular view of oneself is formed through
interactions with other people, groups, or social institutions. This lesson draws on the
principles and concepts of well-known sociologists to foster student understanding of
sociology and how sociology impacts students' everyday lives, and provide a pathway to
self-understanding of "who you are" and "what you are" in contemporary society. For
sociologist like Mead the self does not depend on biological predispositions; rather, it is a
product of social interaction. The sense of self emerges as the individual partakes in the
society.

George Mead's Social Self

Sociologist George Herbert Mead argued that the self is not

biological but social. Self is something that is developed through
social interaction. The self is developed as one grows and
ages. He illustrated the development of self in the case of
Genie, a girl who was confined in a room until she reached
the age of 13. She was found when she was already 13
years old; she did not know how to walk and speak.
According to Mead, she had no development of the self.
Even though her body developed normally according to her
age, she had not developed her "self" because of her isolation
from the world. Self, therefore, is constructed by directly
engaging in the world through interaction and through reflections
on those interactions.

27
Roles, the Self, and the Generalized Other

One of the most noteworthy features of

Mead's account of the significant symbol is that it
assumes that anticipatory experiences are
fundamental to the development of language. We
have the ability place ourselves in the positions of

others—that is, to anticipate their

responses—with regard to our linguistic
gestures. This ability is also crucial for
the development of the self and self-
consciousness. For Mead, as for Hegel, the self is fundamentally social and cognitive. It
should be distinguished from the individual, who also has non-cognitive attributes. The
self, then, is not identical to the individual and is linked to self-consciousness. It begins
to develop when individuals interact with others and play roles. What are roles?
They are constellations of behaviors that are responses to sets of behaviors of other
human beings. The notions of role-taking and role playing are familiar from
sociological and social- psychological literature. For example, the child plays at being a
doctor by having another child play at being a patient. To play at being a doctor,
however, requires being able to anticipate what a patient might say, and vice versa.
Role playing involves taking the attitudes or perspectives of others. It is worth noting in
this context that while Mead studied physiological psychology, his work on role-taking
can be viewed as combining features of the work of the Scottish sympathy theorists
(which James appealed to in The Principles of Psychology), with Hegel's dialectic of self
and other. As we will discover shortly, perspective-taking is associated not only with
roles, but with far more complex behaviors.
For Mead, if we were simply to take the roles of others, we would never develop
selves or self-consciousness. We would have a nascent form of self-consciousness that
parallels the sort of reflexive awareness that is required for the use of significant symbols.
A role-taking (self) consciousness of this sort makes possible what might be called a
proto- self, but not a self, because it doesn't have the complexity necessary to give rise to
a self. How then does a self arise? Here Mead introduces his well-known neologism,
the generalized other. When children or adults take roles, they can be said to be
playing these roles in dyads. However, this sort of exchange is quite different from the
more complex sets of behaviors that are required to participate in games. In the latter, we
are required to learn not only the responses of specific others, but behaviors associated
with every position on the field. These can be internalized, and when we succeed in doing
so we come to “view” our own behaviors from the perspective of the game as a whole,
which is a system of organized actions.

28
 The organized community or social group which gives to the individual his unity of
self may be called “the generalized other.” The attitude of the generalized other is the
attitude of the whole community. Thus, for example, in the case of such a social group as
a ball team, the team is the generalized other in so far as it enters—as an organized
process or social activity—into the experience of any one of the individual members of it.
(MSS, 154)
For Mead, although these communities can take different forms, they should be
thought of as systems; for example, a family can be thought of systemically and can
therefore give rise to a generalized other and a self that corresponds to it. Generalized
others can also be found in concrete social classes or subgroups, such as political parties,
clubs, corporations, which are all actually functional social units, in terms of which their
individual members are directly related to one another. The others are abstract social
classes or subgroups, such as the class of debtors and the class of creditors, in terms of
which their individual members are related to one another only more or less indirectly.
(MSS, 157)
For Mead, self is not inborn. Babies cannot interpret the meaning of other
people's behavior. It is usually learned during childhood which comes in three stages of
development.

First is the preparatory stage (0-3 years old). Children imitate the people
around them, especially family members with whom they have daily interaction.
Example, a child imitates the behavior of his or her parents like sweeping the floor.
But they copy behavior without understanding underlying intentions, and so at this stage,
they have no sense of self. During this stage, children are just preparing for role-taking.

Second is the play stage (3 to 5 years old). During the play stage, children start
to view themselves in relation to others as they learn to communicate through language
and other symbols. At this stage, role-taking is exhibited; however, children do not
perceive role-taking as something expected of them. The self emerges as children pretend
to take the roles of specific people or significant others, those individuals who are
important agents of socialization. At this stage, the self is developing.
Play stage involves the child playing the role of others. For example, the child may
act as a teacher, carpenter, or soldier. In doing these, he or she becomes aware that
there is a difference between himself or herself and the role that he or she is playing.
However, children do not perceive role-playing as something expected of them.
(Corpuz,2019)

Last is the game stage (begins in the early school years; about 8 or 9 years
old). Children understand not only their own social position but also those of others
around them. They come to see himself or herself from the perspective of other people.
To play the game, the child must be aware of his or her relationship to other people and
place himself or herself in their roles in order to appreciate his or her particular role in the
game. In doing this, he or she sees himself or herself in terms of the collective viewpoint
of other people and the attitude of generalized others. They become concerned about and
take into account in their behavior the generalized others which refer to the attitudes,
viewpoints, demands, and expectations of the society which include cultural norms and
values that serve as references in evaluating oneself. This is the time when remarks like
"He is brilliant," "She is creative," or "He is lazy" are formed. They can have a more
sophisticated look of people and an ability to respond to numerous members of the social
environment. During this stage, the self is now present.

29
"I" and "Me" Self
For Mead, all humans experience internal conversation. This conversation involves
the “I” and “me”, which he called phases of self. For him, self is essentially a social
process going on between the “I” and “me”. The “I” is the phase of the self that is
unsocialized and spontaneous. It is the acting part of the self, an immediate response to
other people. It represents the self that is free and unique. It is the subjective part of the
self. The “Me”, on the contrary, is the self that results from the progressive stages of role
playing or role- taking and the perspective one assumes to view and analyze one's own
behaviors. It is the organization of the internalized attitude of others. It represents the
conventional and objective part of the self.
The “I” is the response of the organism to the attitude of others. The 'I' represents
the individual's identity based on response to the 'me‘, or the person’s individuality. It
allows the individual to still express creativity and individualism and understand when to
possibly bend and stretch the rules that govern social interactions. The 'I', therefore, can
be considered the present and future phase of the self.
The “Me” is the organized set of attitudes of others which one assumes. It is the
socialized aspect of the individual. It represents learned behaviors, attitudes, and
expectations of others and society. It is developed through the knowledge of society and
social interactions that the individual has experienced. A phase of the self that is in the
past.
The full development of the self is attained when the "I" and the "me" are united.

The Socialization Process

Humans learn the expectations of society through socialization. Socialization is
different based on race, gender and class.

Agents of Socialization
 The Family
Families introduce children to the expectations of society. Socialization is
different based on race, gender and class. Human persons learn the ways of living
and therefore their selfhood by being in a family. It is what a family initiates a
person to become that serves as the basis for this person’s progress. Babies
internalized ways and styles that they observe from their family. Internalizing
behavior may either be conscious or unconscious. Table manners or ways of
speaking to elders are things that are possible to teach and therefore, are
consciously learned by kids. One is who he is because of his family for the most
part.

 The Media
The average young person (age 8–19) spends 6 3/4 hours per day
immersed in media in various forms, often using multiple media forms
simultaneously. Television is the dominant medium, although half of all youth use a
computer daily. Can you notice how children eventually become what they watch?
How children can easily adapt ways of cartoon characters they are exposed to.
 Peers

30
 For children, peer culture is an important source of
identity. Through interaction with peers, children learn
concepts of self, gain social skills, and form values and
attitudes.

 Religion
Children tend to develop the same religious beliefs as
their parents. Very often those who disavow religion return to
their original faith at some point in their life, especially if they
have strong ties to their family of origin and after they form
families of their own.

 Schools
In school, teachers and other students are the source
of expectations that encourage children to think and behave in
particular ways. Research finds that teachers respond
differently to boys than to girls, with boys receiving more of
their
attention.

Determining Appropriate Social Behavior

Describe how you are expected to behave and interact with other
people in each of these situations. You may consider the following
factors: volume of your voice, dress code, general behavior.

1. Attending church services

2. Studying in the library

3. Attending a class

4. Meeting a new friend

 5. Attending a formal party with parents

Multiple Choice: Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write

your answers before the number of the test item.

1. The organized community or social group which gives to the

individual his unity of self.
A. significant others B. generalized others
 C. society D. looking glass self
2. He proposed the theory of social self.
A. Carl Rogers B. William James
C. George Herbert Mead D. Charles Horton Cooley
3. During this stage, the self emerges as children pretend to take the roles of
specific people or significant others
A. game stage B. preparatory stage
C. imitation age D. play stage
4. It is considered the socialized aspect of the individual and represents learned
behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of others and of society.
A. “ME” self B. “I” self C. “WE” self D. “US” self
5. During this stage, there is no sense of self.
A. play B. game C. preparatory D. role-taking

Alata, E.J.P. et al (2018). Understanding the Self. : Quezon City: Rex Bookstore Inc.

Corpuz, R.M. et al (2019). Understanding the Self. Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Macayan, J.V. et al (2019). Understanding the Self (Outcome-Based Module). Quezon City:
C & E Publishing, Inc.:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mead/

33
 UNIT I: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
Lesson 4: Anthropology
1 week or 3 hours

The Self Embedded in Culture

How we see ourselves shapes our lives, and is shaped by our cultural context. Self-
perceptions influence how we think about the world, our social relationships, health and
lifestyles choices, and another people’s well-being. Culture has such a great influence on
our lives and is contributing greatly to our self-concept. The influence might either be
negative or positive depending on the type of culture we have been brought up in. Culture
contributes a great deal in shaping our individual personality or the SELF.

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. explore the self from the perspectives of Anthropology;

2. examine the cultural influences in shaping one’s self; and
3. analyze how these influences are manifested in real life situations.

34
 Let’s explore . . . . .

How much do you know?

List down as many cultural practices as you know from different regions of Luzon, Visayas
and Mindanao.

Cultural Practices from different Regions of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao

Luzon Visayas Mindanao

Based on your lists, answer the following questions:

1. What are the similarities among the regional practices?

2. What are its uniqueness in each region?

3. Which cultural practices can you best relate with?

4. What significant learnings can you get from the cultural practices?

35
Cultural Anthropology is the study of human culture and society. It is the study
of people – their origin, their development, and contemporary variations, wherever
and whenever those have been found (Ferraro, 2008).

Culture on the other hand refers to the major way in which human beings adapt
to their environment and give meaning to their lives. It includes human behavior and
ideas that are learned rather than genetically transmitted, as well as the material objects
produced by a group of people (Nanda and Warren, 2007).

How we see ourselves shapes our lives, and is shaped by our cultural context. Self-
perceptions influence how we think about the world, our social relationships, health and
lifestyles choices, and another people’s well-being. Culture has such a great influence on
our lives and is contributing greatly to our self-concept. The influence might either be
negative or positive depending on the type of culture we have been brought up in. Culture
contributes a great deal in shaping our individual personality or the SELF.

The impact of culture on the self is based on our cultural beliefs and values. It also
depends on the kind of education we receive or the kind of culture we are growing up
into. It is sometimes argued that the concepts of the self, the person, or the individual are
culturally variable because people are not always considered to be persons everywhere.
Culture is something shared that characterize a group collectively just like identity.

The Origins of Self explores the role that selfhood plays in defining human society,
and each human individual in that society. It considers the genetic and cultural origins of
self, the role that self plays in socialization and language, and the types of self we
generate in our individual journeys to and through adulthood.

Anthropology
- has explored various meanings of culture, self and identity to better understand
the self.
- holds a holistic view of human nature. It is considered with how cultural
and biological processes interact to shape the self.

Who am I?
What could be the answer to this question?

Anthropology considers human experience as an interplay of

“nature” referring to genetic inheritance which sets the individual’s potentials.
- meaning to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are
– from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics

“nurture” referring to the sociocultural environment

- meaning to all the environmental variations that impact who we are,
including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social
relationship, and our surrounding culture.

Anthropology is providing insights into the nature of self-based on continuous

understanding of the basic element of culture
36
The Self as Embedded in Culture

Cultural Differences exist when groups of people assign different meanings to different
life events and things. Therefore, the self is embedded/ attached in culture

American Anthropologist Clifford Geertz in “The Impact of

the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man” states that
“. . . culture provides the link between what men are
intrinsically capable of becoming and what they actually,
one by one, in fact become.”

This lead us to the importance of culture in understanding

who we are as human beings.

 Culture – is a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means

of which people communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and
attitudes toward life.

 Man acquires his knowledge, beliefs, morals, customs, and other habits and
capacities from his interactions with others in the society where he belongs.
 We learn our cultural practices and traditions by listening, talking, and interacting
with other people.
 As a child we learn appropriate behavior by observing and copying the behavior
of adults.
 We express our feelings and make judgement of what is right or what is wrong
based on our interpretation of adults behavior.
 This serves to guide our own behavior and perceptions throughout life.
 Thus, our shared beliefs, values, memories, and expectations bind us together
who grow up in the same culture.

37
Make a reflection paper using the guide questions below.

1. How do you feel about the pictures that was presented above?
2. What is its main message to you? Support you answer.

38
Alata, E. J., Caslib, B. Jr., Serafica, J. P. & Pawilen, R.A. (2018). Understanding the self
(1st ed.). Manila: Rex Book Store.

Aligada, G. & Trajeco, S. (2010). Introduction to sociology and anthropology: Text and
workbook. Quezon City: AMMS Publications.

Ariola, Mariano (2012). Sociology and anthropology with family planning. Intramuros,
Manila: Purely Book Trading and Publishing Corp.

Atienza, M.E., Rico, R., Arugay, A., Franco, J. & Quilala, D. (2016). Understanding
culture, society and politics. Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Brawner, D. & Arcega, A. (2018). Understanding the self. Quezon City: C & E Publishing,
Inc.

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/phillipines/

https://prezi.com/go6zixmolgw-/an-anthropological-conceptualization-of-self/

39
 UNIT I: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
Lesson 5: The Self in Western & Oriental/Eastern
Thought
1 week or 3 hours

Different cultures and varying environment tends to create different perceptions of

the “self” and one of the most common distinctions between cultures and people is the
eastern vs. western dichotomy wherein eastern represents Asia and western represents
Europe and Northern America. Oftentimes we associate western thought with individualism
and eastern/oriental with collectivism. In this lesson we learn more of their differences in
terms of culture, values, norms, and practices.

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. examine the cultural influences in shaping one’s self;
2. analyze how these influences are manifested in real life situation;
3. discuss personality differences of people from collectivist and individualist cultures;
4. differentiate the concept of self according to Western thought against
Eastern/Oriental perspective.
40
 Let’s read this . . . . .

Sherpa village is found at the mountains around Mt. Everest in Nepal. Six (6)
Sherpa children were observed on how they were able to learn to speak their own Sherpa
language and culture.

Here are the findings . . . .

When Sherpa adults talk to children, they used commands at astronomical rates.
Sometimes, there were over 200 commands per hour. Often these commands came when the
child was already coming, washing, or eating. Then, when a 4 year old talked to a 2 year old
child, there was the same proportion of commands. What these commands, were really being
used for was to mark status, which is based on age in Sherpa society.

These children were learning language...........but right from the start they’re also
learning the cultural patterns and expectations that go along with the language use.

Language and culture comes together. The language they’re learning is full of
information about their culture and some of the most important parts of the culture are
about how language should be used.

The better we understand how language is learned across culture, the better we can
interact with people from different backgrounds.
(“Language Development and Socialization in Sherpa” Ciesielski, Sara U. retrieved at https://www.phdcomics.com/tv)

Ways of greetings in different countries.

Greetings around the world differ radically from culture to culture and sometimes
they are shaped by religion or superstitious beliefs. Study the pictures and identify what
country they represent. Choose your answers below and write it on the space provided
below the pictures.

a. Russia c. Japan e. Argentina

b. Philippines d. New Zealand f. Nigeria

41
Based on where you live, do you agree or disagree with the traits associated with yourself
and the residents of your area of the country? Why or why not?

42
 Personality is shaped by both genetic and environmental factors. The culture in
which you live is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes your
personality. The term culture refers to all of the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a
particular society. Culture is transmitted to people through language as well as through
the modelling of culturally acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors that are either
rewarded or punished.
Different cultures and varying environment tends to create different perceptions of
the “self” and one of the most common distinctions between cultures and people is the
eastern vs. western dichotomy wherein eastern represents Asia and western represents
Europe and Northern America. Oftentimes we associate western thought with individualism
and eastern/oriental with collectivism.
Individualist cultures and
collectivist cultures place emphasis on
different basic values. People who live in
individualist cultures tend to believe that
independence, competition, and
personal achievement are important.
People who live in collectivist cultures
value social harmony, respectfulness,
and group needs over individual needs.
These values influence personality. For
example, people in individualist cultures
displayed more personally oriented
personality traits, whereas people in
collectivist cultures displayed more
socially oriented personality traits.
The Western Culture is what we
would call an individualistic culture since
their focus is on the person. Asian
culture, on the other hand, is called a
collectivistic culture as the group and
social relations that is given more
importance than individual needs and
wants.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Individualism
• Individualist culture is a culture in
which the goals of the individual
take precedence over the goals
of the group.
Collectivism
• Collectivist culture is a culture in
which the goals of the group
take precedence over the goals
of the individual.

43
It means that, members are responsible
for themselves and, perhaps, their
immediate families.
Success is measured by how far one
stands out from the crowd.
Ex: self-made millionaires,
employees of the month,
standing out…
• The “I” identity.
• The individual identifies primarily
with self, with the needs of the
individual being satisfied before
those of the group.
• The individual is acts and makes
his own choices, looks after and
taking care of oneself and being
self- sufficient.
• Independence and self-reliance are
greatly stressed and valued.
• In general, they tend to distance
themselves psychologically and
emotionally from each other. One
may choose to join groups, but
group membership is not
essential to one’s identity or
success.
• Individualistic doers are self-
assured and very independent
people. They are quiet and
realistic, very rational, extremely
matter of fact people. They
strongly cultivate their individualism
and enjoy applying their abilities to
new tasks. But they are also very
spontaneous
and impulsive persons who like to
follow their sudden inspirations.
• Individualistic people are
susceptible to loneliness
• Individualism:
Individual autonomy; self-oriented;
personal goals; unique and independent;
individual privacy; nuclear family;
individual rewards (equity); competition
It means that members are responsible for
the group as a whole.
Success is measured by one’s contributions
to the group as a whole.
Ex: loyalty to company or country,
specialized skills, fitting in…
• The “We” identity.
• Collectivist views the group as the
primary entity, with the individuals
lost along the way.
• The survival and success of the
group ensures the well-being of the
individual, so that by considering
the needs and feelings of others,
one protects oneself.
• Harmony and the interdependence
of group members are stressed and
valued.
• It sees the group as the important
element, and individuals are just
members of the group. The group
has its own values somehow
different from those of the
individual members.
• Each person is encouraged to be
an active player in society, to do
what is best for society as a whole
rather than themselves.
• Rules promote unity, brotherhood,
and selflessness.
• Working with others and
cooperating is the norm; everyone
supports each other.
 collectivist people can have
a strong fear of rejection.
 Collectivism:
Group unity and harmony; group-oriented;
group goals; conforming and
interdependent; group belongingness;
extended family; equal distribution of
reward (equality); cooperation
44
  Countries with generally  Countries with generally collectivist
Individualistic culture are: culture are :
 United States Italy  China Malaysia
 Australia Belgium  Taiwan Egypt
 United Kingdom Sweden  India Cyprus
 Canada Ireland  Pakistan Ghana
 Netherlands Norway  Bangladesh Nepal
 Hungary Switzerland  Indonesia Argentina
 New Zealand Germany  Afghanistan Armenia

By valuing the individual, Westerners may seem to have loose associations or even
loyalty to their groups. Competition is the name of the game and they are more likely
straightforward and forceful in their communication as well as decision-making. Eastern or
oriental persons look after the welfare of their groups and values cooperation. They would
also be more compromising and they tend to go around the bush in explaining things,
hoping that the other person would “feel” what they really want to say ( Qinxue 2003 in
Alata et al. 2018).

Westerners also emphasize more on the value of equality even if they see that the
individual can rise above everything else. Because everyone is on their own in the
competition, one can say that they also promote ideals that create “fair” competition and
protect the individual. Asians, with their collectivistic culture, put more emphasis on
hierarchy as the culture wants to keep things in harmony and order ( Qinxue 2003 in Alata
et al. 2018).
It must be emphasized, however, that these are general commonalities among
Western cultures as compared to Asian or Oriental cultures. In the case of the Philippines,
we can also consider the colonization experience for differences and similarities with our
Asian neighbours. We might also find variation among provinces and regions due to
geographical conditions.
With the social media, migration, and intermarriages, variety between the
Western and Asian perceptions may either be blurred or highlighted. Whereas conflict is
inevitable in diversity, peace is also possible through the understanding of where each of
us is coming from.

45
 Create a representation, diagram, or concept map
of the SELF according to where you came from, starting from your maternal and paternal
grandparents. Provide a brief explanation of places, religion and culture where they came
from in which the family used it until now.

MY FAMILY

FATHER
MOTHER

Place of Birth Place of Birth

Religion Religion
Beliefs Beliefs

Brothers and Sisters

YOU

Place of Birth
Religion
Beliefs

1. Is your family considered as individualistic or collectivistic? Why?

2. What western or eastern cultures influence your family?

3. What western or eastern culture would you like to adapt in your own self?

46
Alata, E.J.P. et al (2018). Understanding the Self. : Quezon City: Rex Bookstore Inc.

Brawner, D. and Arcega, A. 2018. “Understanding the Self” C & E Publishing, Inc.

Blog by Tochi and Julie. Ways of Greeting in Different Countries. Retrieved

at https://worldwithtj.wordpress.comAugust 4, 2020

Cultural Understanding of Personality. Introduction to Psychology. Retrieved at

courses.lumenlearning.com August 4, 2020

47