SAINT MICHAEL COLLEGE OF HINDANG LEYTE INC.

A Bonifacio St., Poblacion II, Hindang, Leyte

Website: smchindang. edu.ph
E-mail: smchindang@gmail.com

Course : GEC 1 – Understanding the Self

Department : Education Department
School Year : 2nd Semester, School Year 2023 - 2024
Instructor : Giovanna B. Ayoc
Topic : The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Objectives:
1. Explain the importance of understanding the self.
2. Describe and discuss the concepts of the self from the perspective of the various philosophers across
time and place.
3. State how the self has been described in different philosophical schools.
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class.

Introduction

Can you confidently say that you have discovered and fully understood yourself? This course is intended
to help you answer this question and guide you in understanding your true self.

“Knowing yourself is a journey. It is discovering who you are as a human being- yes the real you. The
journey is unpredictable and engages you deeply as it brings you deeply face-to-face with your deepest
fears, doubts, vulnerabilities and insecurities. On the journey you question on how you are living your
life and whether or not it is in alignment with your highest purpose. And if you don’t know yet your
highest purpose, allow yourself to live in that space of not knowing.” Taylor, J. (2015)

Knowing your true self is important to keep you on track that will lead you to your ultimate goal in life.
You may be still unaware of what you are capable of doing, but in time you may become a self-fulfilled person
whose goals are fully realized.

J. Paulsen said, “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is
strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” (qtd.
in Alata et al.,2018)

The conjectures made by philosophers about the Self from the ancient times to the contemporary period.

Pre-Socratics – Greek thinkers who were concerned with explaining what the world is really made up of, why
the world is so, and what explains the changes that they observed around them. To name a few, they
were Thales, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Empedocles.
Socrates – first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self. To him, the true task
of the philosopher is to know oneself. Plato, Socrates’ student, claimed in his dialogs that Socrates
affirmed that the unexamined life is not worth living (Plato, 2012).
- Taught people around Athens that every man is composed of body and soul. This means that every
human person is dualistic, i.e., he is composed of two important aspects of his personhood. For
 Socrates, this means that all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect to him - the body,
while maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent.
Plato – supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul.
- added that there are 3 components of a soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive
soul. 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 emotion must be kept at bay, and the appetitive soul is in
charge of base desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sex are controlled as well. When
the ideal state is attained, then the human person’s soul becomes just and virtuous.
Augustine – followed the ancient view of Plato and infused it with the newfound doctrine of Christianity ,
agreed that man is of 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 goal of
every human person is to be in communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.

Thomas Aquinas – most eminent 13th century scholar and stalwart of the medieval philosophy
- To him, just as in Aristotle, the soul is what animates the body; it is what makes us humans.
- Said that man is composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter, or hyle in Greek, means
“common stuff that makes up everything in the universe.” Man’s body is part of this matter. Form,
or morphe in Greek, refers to the “essence of a substance or thing.” It is what makes it what it is.
Rene Descartes – Father Of Modern Philosophy, conceived of the human person as having a body and a mind.
- thought that the only thing that we can’t 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 self is 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.
- Viewed the body as 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.
- He said, “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).
Hume – Scottish philosopher, has a very unique way of looking at man.
- empiricist who believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experiences.
Empiricism is the school of thought that supports the idea that knowledge is only possible is it is
sensed or experienced.
- argued that the self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body
- viewed self simply as “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,
19992). Men simply want to believe that there is a unified, coherent self, a soul or mind. In reality,
what one thinks is a unified self is simply a combination of all experiences with a particular person.
- Hume suggests that the self is just a bundle of perceptions, like links in a chain. To look for a unifying
self beyond those perceptions is like looking for a chain apart from the links that constitute it.
Kant – opined that the things that men perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human
person without an organizing principle that regulates the relationships of all these impressions. There is
necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world. Kant calls
these as the apparatuses of the mind. Along with the 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 ; it is also the seat of knowledge
acquisition.
Gilbert Ryle – solves the mind-body dichotomy by denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. For
him, what truly matters is the behaviour that a person manifests in his day-to-day life.
- suggests that the “self” is not an entity one can locate and analyse but simple the convenient name
that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.
Merleau-Ponty - a phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation that has been going on for a
 long time is a futile endeavour and invalid problem.
- says the mind and the body are so entwined that they cannot be separated from one another. One
cannot find any experience that is not an embodied experience.
- Dismisses the Cartesian Dualism

References:
Alata et al. (2018). Understanding the Self 1st Edition. Manila: Rex Book Store Inc.
Taylor, J. (2015). The Importance of knowing Yourself. [WWW]. Available from:
https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/importance-knowing/
https://academyofideas.com/2015/03/the-ideas-of-socrates-transcript/#:~:text=And%20contrary%20to%20the
%20opinion,true%20self%20is%20our%20soul.
https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/guide/personality-questions/

Activity #1

A. Answer the following questions thoroughly.

1. What has been your greatest accomplishment?

2. Describe your relationship with the people around you? How would you characterize it?
3. Who has had the greatest impact on you in your life?
4. Can you explain a skill you hope to learn and why you want to learn it?
5. What is the lesson you learned from your greatest failure?
6. What is a life lesson you learned from a mentor?
7. What is a character trait you would like to change about yourself and why?
8. If you could live one day as another person, who would you change places with and what would you
do?
9. What unique characteristic or ability sets you apart from others?
10. Do you believe in the afterlife?

B. Which question(s) do you consider difficult to answer? Why?

C. Why it is important to understand one ’s self?

D. How do the following philosophers represented the self:

1. Socrates
2. Plato
3. Augustine
4. Descartes
5. Hume
6. Kant
7. Ryle
8. Merleau-Ponty
E. What is your own concept of self? Who among the philosophers above have compatible concept of
“self” with your own?
F. Read this article - https://academyofideas.com/2015/03/the-ideas-of-socrates-transcript/#:~:text=And
%20contrary%20to%20the%20opinion,true%20self%20is%20our%20soul.

Make a reaction paper about this article. (Submit his paper separately to be submitted next week.)