PHILOSOPHER’S PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
What is Philosophy? pillars and foundation of what
Philosophy – is the study of getting
knowledge through inquiries and rational
thinking that bear on responding to
questions regarding the state and nature
of an individual and the universe we live
in.
It comes from the Greek words:
Philos - love
Sophia - wisdom
Socrates
▪ First Martyr of philosophy
knowledge of education.
▪ He is being charged with corruption
of minors.
▪ He was made to choose between
death and exile with the drinking of
Hemlock.
▪ He believed men’s goal in life is to
acquire happiness.
Socrates’ Perception to Self
▪ He believed that every man is
dualistic, composed of body and
soul.
▪ The body is a physical thing that is
not perfect and temporary.
▪ The soul is a mental thing and is
permanent. Even without the
physical body, the soul can exist since
it is mental.
Plato
▪ Plato is a student of Socrates.
▪ He wrote various pieces of literature
that tackle politics, and human
nature, and constituted the concept
of virtue and intelligence.
▪ Father of Academy a place where
sharing and learning of knowledge
happens and later became one of the
schools and education now in the
present.
▪ Preceded the concept of Socrates in
knowing thyself, according to him, a
person who is a follower of truth and
wisdom will not be enticed by vices
and will always be
correct/moral/ethical.
Plato’s Perception to Self
He supported the idea of duality and
added that there are 3 concepts of the
soul.
1. Appetitive Soul - is the part of the
person that is motivated by want and
need to satisfy oneself. This
satisfaction involves physical needs,
pleasures, desires, objects, and
situations.
2. Spirited Soul - is a brave part of a
person. The one who desires to right
the wrong that they observe. This is
very active. Competitiveness drives
one to anticipate positive results and
winning.
3. Rational Soul - is the drive of our
lives. The part that thinks and plans
for the future. It decides what to do,
when to do it and the possible
results one could have depending on
their actions.
St. Augustine
▪ A Saint and a philosopher of the
church.
▪ He follows the concept that God
embraces us all, he said that
everything will be better if we are with
God.
▪ He relates our existence to God being
modeled in his likeness though
being alive means that we are still far
from God and have yet to be true to
him.
St. Augustine’s Perception to Self
▪ The soul can be immortal through
communion with the divine.
▪ He viewed the dual nature of self in
the circumstance where one is not
perfect and immortal.
▪ The soul is capable of immortality
through communion with the
Christian God. While in universe, the
body will live in virtue, longing to be
with God.
Rene Descartes
▪ Is a French Philosopher not able to
be the father of modern philosophy
because of his radical use of a
systematic and early scientific
method to help his assumptions.
▪ He believes in modern dualism or
the existence was presented with the
evidence from experiments as well as
philosophical reasoning.
▪ He is famous to be the advocate of
methodical doubt.
▪ He defined the roles of the mind and
body as the belief in one’s existence
and sense of self.
▪ He is also known for the statement
“cogito ergo sum” - I think therefore I
am.
Rene Descartes’ Perception to Self
▪ He viewed the dual nature of self
where the mind is a thinking thing
that makes a man, and the body is a
mere machine.
▪ Cogito is the mind enabling our
fundamental existence. The body is
just an extension of it.
▪ According to him “I am thinking” and
“I exist” is a combination of “cogito
ergo sum” ‘I think therefore I am ‘
John Locke
His works made up the way to various
revolutions to fight the utter powers of
monarchs and rules of his time that led
to the improvement of governance,
politics, and the economic system that we
know today.
John Locke’s Perception to Self
▪ The self is most delineated by the
idea “Tabula Rasa” - blank slate
▪ He said that a person is born
knowing nothing and is capable to
input learning from the experiences,
failures, references, and observations
of the person.
▪ He viewed that consciousness is the
center of the self.
David Hume
▪ He is a Scottish Philosopher, who
focused his work on the field of
empiricism, skepticism, and
naturalism.
▪ Self is a collection of different
impressions and does not exceed
the physical kingdom.
▪ He said there is no permanent self
because impressions of things are
based on our experiences where we
can make our concepts and
knowledge. Hence, it might improve
or totally be replaced.
David Hume’s Perception to Self
▪ He anchored his definition of the self
on the empiricist school of thought.
He cited that the self is nothing but a
collection of impressions.
▪ He defined experiences as either
impressions or ideas.
▪ According to him, impressions are
products of our direct experiences
while ideas are copies of our
impressions.
Immanuel Kant
▪ A German philosopher that is famous
for his works on empiricism and
rationalism.
▪ He establishes that the compendium
of impressions and different contents
is what it only takes to describe a
person.
Immanuel Kant’s Perception to Self
▪ He defined the self as an organizing
principle that combines experiences.
▪ According to him, the mind permits
us to recognize not only things that
are present in this universe but also
those that are not present but are
experienced anyways, which he
called the “apparatuses of the
mind”.
Sigmund Freud
▪ He is the father of psychoanalysis.
▪ He is famous for his work on human
nature and the unconscious.
Sigmund Freud’s Perception to Self
▪ He detailed the idea of a multi-
layered self.
Three levels of Consciousness
1. Conscious – includes mental abilities
that we are presently aware of.
2. Preconscious – activities that are not
currently active but stored in our
memory
3. Unconscious – activities that are
totally unaware of.
Three levels of Awareness
1. Id – driven by pleasure principle
2. Ego – reality
3. Superego – conscience
Gilbert Ryle
▪ His first book, The Concept of Mind
(1949), is considered a modern
classic.
▪ He challenges the traditional
difference between body and mind as
delineated by Rene Descartes
▪ According to him the Traditional
Cartesian dualism, commit serious
confusion when searching beyond
the human body.
▪ It views the mind as an additional
mysterious thing not subject to
observation or to mechanical laws,
rather than as the form or organizing
principle of the body.
Gilbert Ryle’s Perception to Self
▪ He contradicts the duality idea of the
self, particularly the non- physical
self.
▪ The self is just a brand we call all the
behaviors we have.
Paul Churchland
▪ A Canadian philosopher focuses on
the idea that people should improve
their association and use of worth in
distinguishing the self.
▪ The self is defined by the motility of
our brain.
▪ His work turns around folk
psychology or common sense
psychology.
▪ The main philosophy is the idea of
“eliminative materialism" [debates
that people’s common sense
understanding of the mind is false
and the mental states that man is into
are not existing; applies the
 understanding of behavior and
emotions]

Paul Churchland’s Perceptionn to Self

▪ He was a materialist who believed
that nothing but a physical entity
exists.
▪ He stated that the idea of a non-
physical mind as the place of
consciousness.

Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau Ponty

▪ A French phenomenological
philosopher, powerfully influenced
by Edmund Husserl and Martin
Heidegger.
▪ He is famous for his works on
existentialism and
phenomenology.
▪ Self-regarded that the body and
mind are not separate entities
instead those two elements are one
and the same.

Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau Ponty’s

Perception to Self
▪ He creates the concept of the
phenomenology of perception
[unity of the function of the mind and
the body ] which is divided into three
divisions.
1. Body – both obtains the experiences
as well as incorporates
likeexperiences in the different
perceptions.
2. Perceived World – is the
accumulation of the perception
merged with the experiences of the
body.
3. People and the World – enable one
to not only be able to integrate the
other objects in the universe but also
to be able to experience the cultural
aspect and associate with some.
 SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SOCIOLOGY
What is Sociology?
Sociology
▪ Is a social science that focuses on
society, human behavior, patterns of
social relationships, social
interaction, and aspects of culture
associated with everyday life.
▪ Is nearly concerned with the way that
influences our behavior patterns. It is
broadby manner of behavior differ
from class and gender.
Why Socialization Matters?
It is important because it helps uphold
societies and cultures and it is also a
keypart of individual development.
Study exhibits that we are stirred by both:
Nature – is the hormonal and genetic
composition.
Nurture – is the cultural surroundings in
which we are upraised.
Self-development
▪ according to the psychological
theories it has been broadened by
sociologists who explicitly examine
the social interaction and the roles of
the society.
Mead and Cooley both impart
importantly to the sociological
understanding of the development of
the self.
Carol Giligan and Lawrence Kohlberg
developed their concepts further,
exploring how our awareness of morality
develops.
Giligan also added the concepts of
gender differences to Kohlberg’s
theory. Human beings are born with
natural traits and genetic makeup. All the
same, individuals evolve through social
interaction. Both in the fields of
psychology and sociology have
represented the cognitive process of
development of the self and to
understand how that “self” becomes
socialized.
Freud (1856-1939) is a prestigious
psychoanalyst. He is a modern scientist
to put away the theory about how to
develop the meaning of the self. He also
thinks that sexual development and
personality were nearly attached. He
separates the process of maturation into
overall psychosexual stages that affect
the child’s discovery through the physical
pleasures linked to:
▪ Oral Stage – birth to 1 year
Erogenous Zone: Mouth
▪ Anal Stage – 1 to 3 years
Erogenous Zone: Bowel and bladder
control
▪ Phallic Stage – 3 to 6 years
Erogenous Zone: Genitals
▪ Latent Stage – 6 to puberty
Erogenous Zone: Libido inactive
▪ Genital Stage – puberty to death
Maturing sexual interests
Charles Horton Cooley is the pioneer of
the sociological perspectives on the
self-development (1864-1929), He
declared that the people’s understanding
of the self is constructed, “looking glass
self” in part, is their conceptualization of “I” represents the portion of the self that
how others see them. People imagine acts on its own drive or reacts to the
how they must look to some on certain organized attitudes of others like a
outfits, fix their hair, and how they wear novel spontaneous, unpredictable
makeup. The perception that our look is portion of the self. It is always caught up
going to change is how others view us. in a social process, in which we turn back
and forth between the “I” and “me”
People always expect a particular reaction
and if it is positive we get it and feel good
about it. Cooley believed that self is only
based on some inner source of identity.
In some others words, people’s react like
in a mirror in which we are reflected. “The
imaginations people have one of one
another are the solid facts of society”.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

precocious a more elaborated
sociological approach to self. He agreed
that the self is an individual’s clear
individuality that developed only
through social interaction. He argued
that the critical element of the self is its
capability for self-reflection, its capacity
to be “an object itself”. It broke the self-
down into two components or phases.
The I and me.

“Me” represents the part of the self as

“organized sets of attitudes” towrads
the self. It is who we are in others eyes:
our roles, our personalities, our public
personas.
 SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ANTHROPOLOGY

What is Anthropology? Concept of Self in Different Societies

It is the study of people, past and present.

Culture and Self are chromatic ideas
It centering on the understanding the
that are to be understood in relation to
human condition in its cultural aspect.
one another. The most essential
(Gallinero et al., 2018)
philosophical task of the postmodern
man today is to "work on yourself" just
The Anthropological Perspective of Self
like in the Socratic message "know
▪ Culture is Everything
thyself".

Culture – is a method of inherited

Robbins considered human beings as
conceptions uttered in symbolic forms by
cultural animals as they make the
means of which people communicate,
meaning of objects, persons, behaviors,
perpetuate and develop their knowledge
emotions, and events and behave in
about and attitudes toward life.
conformity with meanings they presume
to be true. Identity is interpreted as a
Types of Culture
disposition of basic personality
Material – includes all the concrete and
properties acquired mostly during
visible parts of culure, which includes
childhood and, once integrated, more or
foods, clothes, and even buildings.
less fixed.
Non-Material – refers to the nonphysical
concepts that people have about the The Self as Embedded in Culture
culture, including values, beliefs, norms,
rules, morals, language, organizations, Human Nature is mutually beneficial to
and institutions. culture.

Identity Struggles are differences

Anthropology Considers Human
Experience as an Interaction of:
1. Nature – is the hormonal and genetic
composition.
2. Nurture – is the cultural
surroundings in which we are
upraised.
As Max Weber mentioned that
anthropology has emphasized that
culture is not the behavior itself but the
joint understandings that guide behavior
and are explicit in behavior. Anthony
Wallace and Raymond Fogelson called
this case as identity struggles.
between the identity a person claims to
possess and the identity attributed to that
person by others.
Ethnic or Race is relating to a population
subgroup within a bigger or paramount
national or cultural group with a common
national or cultural tradition.
To achieve self-identification, the
individuals have to get over many
hindrances like traditionally established
habits and externally imposed self-
images.
Culture can Influence How You View
the Following:

1. Relationships
Culture influences how you get into and
keep a relationship.

Ex. Relationships might be seen as

voluntary or as duty-based. In Western
countries, it is important to choose whom
to marry, on the other hand, some
Eastern countries still exercise set up
marriage.

2. Personality Traits
Culture influences whether and how you
value traits, such as self-esteem,
politeness, humility, and assertiveness,
also how you perceive hardship in life.

3. Achievements
Culture influences how you value specific
types of individual and group
achievements and how you define
success.

4. Expressing Emotions
Culture influences how you express
yourself and it will affect you emotionally.
 SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PSYCHOLOGY
The Self as Cognitive Construction
What is Psychology and How it Helps
you Understand Yourself and Know
Who You Really Are?
Psychology
▪ Is the scientific study of how people
behave, think, and feel.
▪ It also includes topics like how the
brain works, how our memory is
organized, how people interact
with groups, and how the children
learn about the universe.
▪ Everything that concerns human
beings is a concern of psychology.
The process of the human brain to
consciousness to memory, language,
and reasoning. Psychology will
examine it so that the human being
will understand how it is to be.
Cognitive Theory – Jean Piaget's theory
of cognitive development suggests that
intelligence changes as children grow.
A child's cognitive development is not just
about acquiring knowledge, the child has
to develop or construct a mental model of
the world.
3 Basic Components of
Piaget’s Cognitive Theory
Schemas/Schemes – These are the
building block of knowledge. These are
the mental organization individuals use to
understand their environment and fate
action.
Adaptation – It is the child’s process to
encounter situational conditions.
Stages of Cognitive Development –
These are the growing expertise of the
child’s thought process.
Piaget said that the knowledge children
acquire is organized into schemes or
groupings of the same action or
thoughts.
What Role do Schemas Play in the
Learning Process?
Assimilation – It is commonly known as
the process of getting new information
that is already active in our schemas.
This operation is somewhat subjective for
the reason we tend to change information
and experiences that could fit in with our
pre-existing beliefs.
Accommodation – It is a procedure
known as a part of adaptation involves
that altering or changing the existing
schemas, as a result of a new experiences
and information. During this process, a
new schema might be developed.
Equilibration – Piaget believed that this
mechanism tries to attack equilibrium
between assimilation and
accommodation. It is essentials to
maintain a balance between
assimilation [previous knowledge] and
accommodation [new knowledge]. It helps
to explain how the children can move
from one stage to another.
Piaget’s stages of
Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor (Age 0 to 2) – The child
learns by doing, looking, touching, and
suckling.
Preoperational (Age 2 to 4) – The child
uses language, symbols, letters, and
numbers.
Concrete Operations (Age 7 to 11) –
Thinking stage. The child demonstrates
conservation, reversibility, serial ordering,
and understanding of cause and effect
relationships.
Formal Operations (Age 11 to 15) –
Demonstrate abstract thinking.
Harter’s Self-Development Concept
Dr. Susan Harter – a psychologist,
author, and professor elaborated on the
emergence of self-concept and asserted
that the wide developmental changes
observe across early childhood, later
childhood, and adolescence could be
understood in a Piagetian framework.
Self Esteem – is the ideal self and self-
concept.
Planetary Self Esteem – refers to the
overall mass opinion of oneself at any
time, on a scale of positive and negative.
[Harter, 1993, Pg.88 as cited in Kling et al
1999]
Harter’s Self-Development Concept
Early Childhood – As the child describes
the self in terms of concrete, observable
characteristics, like in physical attributes
[I’m beautiful or I’m ugly or I’m witty],
material possessions [I have imported
shoes and clothes, lots of toys], behaviors [I
love wearing my clothes, and shoes], and
preferences [I like milk chocolates].
Middle to Later Childhood – Self-
described in terms of traits such as
constructs [ex. timid, brave, smart,
approachable and shy] that would need
the type of stratified organizational skills
characteristic of analytical thought
development.
Adolescence – Harter said this is the
emergence of more abstract self-
definitions, such as inner thoughts,
attitudes, motives, and emotions.
Emerging Adults – The self for is
emerging adults having sight of “possible
self”. The “age of possibilities” [Amett,
2004 a]. Australian research [Whitty,
2002], early emerging adulthood[ages17-
22] was found to be a time of “grand
dreams”, of being wealthy and having
glamorous occupation., hence beyond
emerging adulthood [ages 28-33] the
visions of a possible self became more
realistic, if still optimistic.
There is a saying that self-image
developed as they grow older and a
strong one is necessary.
William James [1890/1981, p. 221] cited
in the Principles of Psychology, it lies at
the middle of mental life. As he is
commonly has known “the father of
American psychology” a philosopher,
psychologist, and university professor. He
gave one of the earliest self-theory on
psychological analyses. According to him
[1950], the self has two elements the I-
self [pure ego] and the Me-self [object].
Difference Between
Aspects of Self-hood
Material Self – physical appearance
[clothing, family, and home]
Social Self – social skills and interpersonal
relationships.
Spiritual Self – personality, character,
and defining values.
Ideal Self vs. Real Self
Ideal Self
1. Notions influences by your parents
2. What you admire in others
3. What the society sees as acceptable
4. What you think is best your interest
Real Self – is who you are, it is how you
behave in a certain situation. It is who you
are in reality, how you think, feel, or act.
The Importance of Alignment
Unified Self vs. Multiple Self
If the real self is aligned with the way
that I want to be it is the ideal self, then
I will feel aware of my mental well-being
or peace of mind. If the way that I am is
not aligned with how I want to be, is the
incongruence, or the lack of alignment,
it will result in mental distress or
anxiety. The greater the level of
incongruence between the ideal self and
real self, the greater the level of resulting
distress.
Unified Self – is also the self we show to
people we trust and when we are
alone.
Multiple Self – it is our subself that forms
different behaviors in specific
situation, which are not only limited to
characteristics but also vary.
True Self vs. False Self
True Self – is described by our real
feelings and desires.
False Self – is a side of us that has
changed its behavior, inhibited feelings
and forced needs aside in order to
survive.
It presents the idea of the onion, the
true self at the middle secured by outer
layers of a false self.
According to John Bowlby and D.W.
Winnicott, a developmental psychologist,
children are very adjusted to their
parents’ feelings and needs. They
unconsciously acknowledge that they
need their parents’ permission in order
to survive, so they strive to meet their
needs as much as possible.
The true self is the child’s real feelings,
needs, desires and thoughts it is forced
further and further inside the bulb. Yes,
we still have all of these feelings, needs,
desires and thoughts, it’s just that the
altered false self dominates, it has to.
Hence, this striving is important in our
younger years, it changes us. The false-
self thought and behavior patterns we
develop during childhood stay with us as
adults. On the other hand, they used to be
helpful; they often become a deterrent as
we get older and gain more
independence. While some psychologists
see the true self as black and white [true
self is good, the false self is bad], some
maintain there are two types of false self
a healthy false self and an unhealthy
false self.

Healthy False Self

vs. Unhealthy False Self

Healthy False Self – is described as one

which allows someone to be functional
in society. It enables politeness and
social courtesy, even when we may not
feel like it.

Unhealthy False Self – comes from the

same beginnings as the healthy false self.
Yet, for our long-term well-being, the
effects of the unhealthy false self are
rather different from those of its
opposite. This false-self is the one behind
many dysfunctional behaviors,
including narcissism and addiction. As
defined by D. W. Winnicott, the
unhealthy false self as one that fits into
society through forced compliance
rather than a desire to adapt.
 EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

Eastern Philosophy "The thought manifests as the word; The

word manifests as the deed; The deed
▪ Buddhism
develops into habit, And habit hardens
▪ Confucianism
into character. So watch the thought and
▪ Hinduism
its ways with care, And let it spring from
▪ Integral
love born out of concern for all beings." –
▪ Yoga
Buddha
▪ Islam
▪ Taoism
The ”Me” Concept
▪ Zen
Eternal reality of the universal truth:
self-liberation through getting rid of
Main Principles
the false "Me" and discovering the true
▪ Cosmological unity
"Me".
▪ Life is a journey towards eternal
realities that are beyond the realities
Search for Absolute Truth
that surround us
Holistic Approach – all events in the
▪ Circular view of the universe, based
universe are interconnected.
on the perception of eternal
Inside Yourself – by becoming a part of
recurrence
the universe through meditation and
▪ Inner-world dependent
right living.
▪ Self-liberation from the false "Me"
and finding the true "Me". The
Search for Truth and
highest state is believed to be a state
Fundamental Research
of 'no-self', where neither self-worth
▪ The truth is given is does not to have
nor self-importance has any real
been proved.
meaning.
▪ The philosophic base for and culture
▪ Behavioural ethics
of fundamental research is weaker.

Living Principles
Individualism vs. Collectivism
VIRTUE
A human being is an integral part of the
"To be able under all circumstances to
universe and society. People are
practice five things constitutes perfect
fundamentally connected. Duty towards
virtue; these five things are gravity,
all others is a very important matter.
generosity of soul, sincerity,
COLLECTIVISM IS STRONGER
earnestness and kindness." – Confucius

Goals and Key to Success

"Be satisfied with whatever you have,
SPIRITUAL
and enjoy the same. When you come to
"Live a virtuous life and adhere to
know that you have everything, and you
performing your duties." – Confucianism
are not short of anything, then the
whole world will be yours." – Lao Tzu
"The Three Armies can be deprived of
their commanding officer, but even a
common man cannot be deprived of his
purpose." – Confucius
"If you really want everything, then give
up everything." – Lao Tzu
"He is able who thinks he is able." -Buddha
Eastern Concept of Self
Confucianism – is the identity and self-
concept of an individual who is
interlocking with the identity and
status of his/her community or culture,
sharing its feelings as well as its
occurrence. [Self-Cultivation is the final
purpose of life].
Taoism – is the self that is not just an
extension of the family or the
community it is also a part of the world,
one of the forms and manifestations of
the Tao. [Selflessness]
Buddhism – is the self that is seen as a
deception, born out of ignorance, of
trying to clasp and control things, or
human-centered needs, hence, the self
is also the source of all these agonies.
Western Philosophy
▪ Christianity
▪ Rational
▪ Scientific
▪ Logical Schools
Main Principles
▪ Feeling oneself as an element of the
Divine
▪ Life is a service (to God, money,
business, etc.)
▪ The Linear view of the universe and
life, based on the Christian
philosophy where everything has its
beginning and the end.
▪ Outer-world dependent
▪ Self-dedication to the goal (big
dream, life vision, happiness,
personal success, etc.)
Living Principles
ETHIC
“One can live magnificently in this world if
one knows how to work and how to
love.” – Leo Tolstoy
“Refrain from doing ill; for one all-
powerful reason, lest our childrean
should copy our misdeeds; we are all too
prone to imitate whatever is base and
depraved.” – Juvenal
“There is no real excellence in all this
world which can be separated from right
living.” – David Starr Jordan
The ”Me” Concept
"Me" is here and now. The true “Me” in
every human being is a part of the Divine
that needs to become apparent. True
“Me” is given and doesn’t have to be
cognizable.
Search for Absolute Truth
▪ More focused on Individual Events
and the role of the person.
▪ Searching outside yourself –
through research and analysis
Search for Truth and
Fundamental Research
▪ The truth needs to be proved.
▪ The philosophic base for and culture
of fundamental research is stronger.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
A human being has an individualistic
nature and is an independent part of
the universe and society.
INDIVIDUALISM IS STRONGER
Goals and Key to Success
MATERIALISTIC
"The secret of success in life, and
subsequently of making money, is to
enjoy your work. If you do, nothing is
hard work – no matter how many
hours you put in." – Sir Billy Butlin
"Success is that old ABC – ability, breaks
and courage." – Charles Luckman
"Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse
sense and persistence, is the quality that
most frequently makes for success." –
Dale Carnegie
Western Concept of Self
The ancient Grecian philosophers view
humans as the holders of irreplaceable
values. In medieval times, Thomas
Aquinas, philosopher, and saint believed
that the body constitutes individuality.
The individual was the focus of
renaissance thought, with Rene Descartes
famous “I think therefore I am” as the
epitome of the Western idea of the self.
[Gallinero, et al., 2018,p44] [The focus is
always looking towards the self]
Frank Johnson [1985], psychiatrist and
professor outlined four categories on
how the term “self” is used in the
contemporary western discussion.
[Gallinero, et al., 2018,p45]
Analytical – is an inclination to see
actuality as an aggregate of parts.
Monotheistic – is engaged in the
tendency toward unitary explanations of
phenomena and a closed system view of
self.
Individualistic – is a quality of western
thinking where self-expression and self-
actualization are essential ways of
establishing who one is, as well as
discovering satisfaction in the world.
Materialistic or Rationalistic – is
western thinking tends to disregard
explanations that do not use analytical
reasoning modes of thinking.
Eastern and Western Differences
Western Culture – is more
individualistic and trying to look for the
meaning of life there and now with self
at the canter as it is already given and part
of the divine.
Eastern Philosophy – is drawn much
more into groups or society or people’s
actions and thoughts as one in
order to look for meaning in life as they
try to get rid of the false “me” concept
and find meaning in discovering the true
“me” in relation to everything around
them, or as part of a bigger scheme.