UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF
PREPARED BY:
MARIANE D. DUYO, RN, LPT
.
 THE SELF FROM
VARIOUS
PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Understanding the Self
▪ “know thyself”
▪ The self is your main
companion in living in this
world
▪ Who you are, who you want
to be, who society wants
you to be, and who you can
be are some of the ideas we
will explore
▪ The self is very complex
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
AT THE END OF THE TOPIC, YOU ARE EXPECTED TO:

✓ EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

✓ DISCUSS THE DIFFERENT CONCEPTS OF THE SELF FROM THE
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
✓ DIFFERENTIATE THE VARIOUS CONCEPTS OF THE SELF AND IDENTIFY
THEIR SIMILARITIES
✓ DEVELOP YOUR OWN PHILOSOPHY OF THE SELF

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 Philosophy
• Philia – love, Sophia – wisdom
• Philosophy employs the inquisitive
mind to discover the ultimate
causes, reason, and principles of
everything
• The nature of self is a topic of
interest among philosophers
• The philosophical framework for
understanding the self was heavily
explored by ancient Greek
philosophers Socrates and Plato

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 Socrates
• Known as the founding figure of
western philosophy
• He is the most exemplary and the
strangest of the Greek philosophers
• Socratic Method – involved not
conveying knowledge, but rather asking
question after clarifying question
• Questioning every assumption about
virtue, wisdom and the good life
• “Ultimate Wisdom Comes From
Knowing Oneself”
• “An unexamined life is not worth living”
One true self should not be
identified with what one
owns, social status,
reputation, or even with one’s
body. It is the state of the soul,
that is, the persons inner
being, which determines the
quality of one’s life.
The soul strives for wisdom
and perfection, and reason is
the soul’s tool to achieve an
exalted state of life.
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PLATO
▪ HE IS THE STUDENT OF SOCRATES
▪ “SELF” THAT IS, AS A HUMAN PERSONS
CAPABLE OF REASON AND ACTION
▪ WE ARE RATIONAL (HUMANS) “RATIONAL
SOUL” – WHICH IS SEPARATED FROM THE
BODY
▪ THE HUMAN PERSON IS COMPOSED OF THE
BODY AND SOUL

▪ Body – material and destructible

▪ Soul – immaterial and indestructible

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THE SOUL, CONCEIVED AS SELF, HAS 3 PARTS:

✓ The rational soul ( reason ) – located in the head

✓ Think, reflect, analyze, and do other cognitive functions
✓ It is superior because it serves as their moral and rational guide

✓ The spiritual soul ( honor ) – located in the chest

✓ Happiness, joy, sadness, abomination, anger, and other
emotional feelings

✓ Appetitive soul ( desire ) –located in the abdomen

✓ Physical pain, hunger, thirst, and other physical wants
 ARISTOTLE
• THE BODY AND SOUL ARE TWO
SEPARATE ELEMENTS BUT ARE
ONE THING
• THE SOUL IS SIMPLY THE FORM
OF THE BODY AND IS NOT
CAPABLE OF EXISTING WITHOUT
THE BODY
• THE SOUL IS THAT WHICH MAKES
A PERSON A PERSON. THE SOUL
IS THE ESSENCE OF THE SELF
• WITHOUT THE BODY THE SOUL
CANNOT BE EXIST. THE SOUL DIES
ALONG WITH THE BODY
ARISTOTLE –ON THE SOUL

✓ ARISTOTLE SUGGESTED THAT ANYTHING WITH LIFE HAS A SOUL

✓ THREE KINDS OF SOUL:

✓ Vegetative –The physical body; allows things to grow

✓ Sentient –sensual desire, feelings and emotions
✓ Rational –what makes us humans; includes intellect that makes
man know and understand things

✓ ARISTOTLE SUGGESTS THAT THE RATIONAL NATURE OF THE SELF IS TO LEAD A

GOOD, FLOURISHING, AND FULFILLING LIFE
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 St. Augustine
▪ St. Augustine integrated the
ideas of Plato to Christianity
▪ He developed a unified
perspective on the body and
soul.
▪ The soul is what governs and
defines the human person or
the self.
▪ The soul is an important
element of man
▪ The soul is united with the
body so that man may be entire
and complete
▪ The physical body is
different from the inferior
to its inhabitant, the
immortal soul.
▪ Augustine described that
humankind is created in
the image and likeness of
God
▪ Augustine believed that
God is transcendent and
everything created by God,
who is all good, is good.
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ST. AUGUSTINE –GOD AND MAN
▪ THEREFORE, THE HUMAN PERSON BEING A CREATION OF GOD
IS ALWAYS GEARED TOWARDS THE GOOD.
▪ THE SELF IS KNOWN ONLY THROUGH KNOWING GOD.
▪ SELF-KNOWLEDGE IS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF
GOD.
▪ FOR AUGUSTINE, “KNOWLEDGE CAN ONLY COME BY SEEING
THE TRUTH THAT DWELLS WITHIN US.
▪ GOD IS TRANSCENDENT AND THE SELF SEEKS TO BE UNITED
WITH GOD THROUGH FAITH AND REASON.
▪ KNOWING GOD, IS KNOWING ONESELF.
 ▪ There are two dimension
of the self:
Rene Descartes
▪ 1. the self as a thinking
▪ “I think, therefore, I am” entity (soul) – is the
nonmaterial, immortal,
▪ For him, the act of conscious being, and
thinking about the self – independent of the
of being self conscious- physical laws of the
is in itself proof that universe
there is self.
▪ The essence of the self – ▪ 2. the physical body –is the
a thinking entity that material, mortal, non-
doubt, understands, thinking entity, fully
governed by the laws of
analyzes, questions, and nature
reasons.
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RENE DESCARTES – MIND BODY DICHOTOMY
▪ THE MIND AND BODY ARE INDEPENDENT OF ONE ANOTHER,
AND EACH CAN EXIST AND FUNCTION WITHOUT THE OTHER
▪ THE SELF AS A THINKING ENTITY IS DISTINCT FROM THE SELF
AS A PHYSICAL BODY. IN OTHER WORDS, THE THINKING SELF
CAN EXIST INDEPENDENTLY OF THE PHYSICAL BODY.
DAVID HUME
▪ THERE IS NO SELF
▪ WHAT PEOPLE EXPERIENCE IS JUST A
BUNDLE OR COLLECTION OF DIFFERENT
PERCEPTIONS, IMPRESSIONS,
SENSATIONS, IDEAS, THOUGHTS, AND
IMAGES.
▪ THERE IS NO PAST NOR FUTURE, ONLY
THE PRESENT STIMULATION PROVIDED
BY THE ENVIRONMENT
▪ THE IDEA OF PERSONAL IDENTITY IS A
RESULT OF IMAGINATION.

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 Immanuel Kant
• We construct the self
• It is the self that makes
experiencing an intelligible world
possible because it is the self that
is actively organizing and
synthesizing all 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

• Internal world- thoughts, feelings

• External world –events, situations,

happenings outside our control

• We synthesize both to create the

self 16
GILBERT RYLE
▪ THE WAY WE DO THINGS, DEFINES
THE SELF.
▪ I ACT, THEREFORE I AM

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In Summary

▪ Is the knowledge of oneself coming from within or coming from the outside?
▪ Are you the person you think you are or are you the person other people think you are?
▪ Are you a soul with a body or a body with a soul?
▪ What is more important, who you are now, or who you want to be?
▪ Which philosophy are you most comfortable with?
▪ Which philosophy are you most disturbed by?

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Conclusion
▪ Knowing yourself is a lifelong search as the self is complex and
dynamic

▪ Simple answer may satisfy a child but in adult world, the

answers are never simple.

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THANK YOU!

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