PHILOSOPHY

Prof. Genevieve L. Ondiz, RPm

Learning Objectives
• Define Philosophy
• Explored the concept of the self from the
different philosophical perspective
• Appreciated the contribution of each
perspective to a better understanding of the
self
 Philosophy from the Greek or phílosophía,
meaning „the love of wisdom‟. It is the study of
knowledge, or "thinking about thinking"

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
The study of the most general and abstract features
of the world and categories with which we think:
mind, matter, reason, proof, truth, etc. (Oxford
Dictionary of Philosophy)
•
Socrates
He was an ancient Greek philosopher who
lived in Athens in the 5th century BCE.
• He was admired by his followers for his
integrity, his self-mastery, his profound
philosophical insight, and his great
argumentative skill.
• Socrates professed not to teach anything but
only to seek answers to questions (e.g. “What
is virtue?” and “What is justice?”) and to help
others do the same.
• His style of PHILOSOPHIZING WAS TO
ENGAGE IN PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS
ABOUT SOME HUMAN EXCELLENCE AND,
THROUGH SKILLFUL QUESTIONING, TO
SHOW THAT HIS INTERLOCUTORS DID
NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WERE TALKING
ABOUT.
.
Socrates
• SOCRATES WAS RESPONSIBLE
FOR ESTABLISHING WESTERN
PHILOSOPHY. HE'S CONSIDERED
THE FIRST MORAL
PHILOSOPHER, AND WAS A
TEACHER TO PLATO, WHO
RECORDED ESSENTIALLY ALL WE
KNOW OF SOCRATES. SOCRATES
HELPED TO DEVELOP WHAT
WOULD BECOME THE MODERN
UNIVERSITY, AND HIS
METHOD OF DIALOGUE AND
DISCOURSE IS STILL used today;
otherwise known as the Socratic
method.
Socrates
 Plato
“Only a self-controlled man, then, will know himself and will
be capable of looking to see what he actually knows and
what he doesn‟t know.”

• Greek philosopher.

• born in Athens during the Classical Period in Ancient

Greece.

• known as the "father of idealism"

• He believed that the substantive reality around us us only

reflection of a higher truth.

• He was influenced by the wise pronouncements of

PLATO Socrates.
 Three Elements of Psyche by
Plato

The mind or rational soul is considered as the most superior of all the

PLATO
elements and referred as the nous which means the conscious
awareness of the self. It controls both the appetitive and spirited
elements of the psyche.
 Plato
• Plato‟s concept of self can be gleaned from his
notion of the soul.
• According to Plato, the soul is conceived as self.
Based from the three elements of Psyche by
Plato, the “appetitive element” is also known as
the appetitive soul or the DESIRE; the “spirited
element” is also known as the spirited soul or the
HONOR; and the “mind” is also known as the
rational soul or the REASON.
• Plato‟s concept of self believes that when the
human person dies, the soul departs from the

PLATO
body leaving the latter to decompose; and
because the soul is immaterial and indestructible,
it cannot die. It is eternal.
What happens to a
person whose
3 components of
the soul are
imbalanced?
 St. Augustine
• Augustine was hailed from Tagaste, Africa in 354
BC.
• He died in 430 BC and was later declared as
“Doctor of the Church”.
• To St. Augustine, a man‟s end goal is happiness.
He added that, only in God can man attain true
and eternal happiness. Human beings alone,
without God, are bound to fail.
• The self has an immortal soul.
• A soul can't live in this world without a body for it is
considered as a unity of body and self.
• He believed in parts of the soul like plato
• For St. Augustine, it is by the illumination of God
by "divine light". AUGUSTINE
St. Augustine

AUGUSTINE
 REŃE DESCARTES
• French philosopher
• Father of Modern philosophy
• proponent of Cogito ergosum―”I think therefore I
am".
• "I think before I am" (explanation) Although the mind
and body are physically together as a whole, the mind
and body are mentally independent and serve their
own function. He was convinced that we must use our
own mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze,
experiment and develop our own well- reasoned
conclusions. It is also important to doubt as far as
possible all things in order to become a real seeker for
the truth. (Sherley A., 2011)
• His concept of the self revolves around the idea of
mind-body dualism. Wherein, a human person is
composed of two parts: a material body and a non-
material mind.
REŃE DESCARTES
 JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)
• English Philosopher & Physician
• His work on the "SELF is most
represented by the concept "TABULA
RASA" blank slate clean slate
• SELF is the product of what we acquire
through our experience of the world-
Stated that the person is born with
knowing nothing and that is susceptible to
stimulation and accumulation of learning
from experiences, failures, references
and observations of the person
• Experiences "WRITES" knowledge and
understanding as the individual matures.
Experiences are important in the
establishment of who that person can
become.
JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)
• Consciousness—being
aware that we are thinking—
always accompanies
thinking and is an essential
part of the thinking process.
• Consciousness is what
makes possible our belief
that we are the same identity
in different times and different
places.
 David Hume (1711–1776)
• The Scottish Philosopher, focused his work in the
field of Empiricism, Skepticism, and Naturalism
• Being an Empiricist which believes in concrete
evidences and observable experiences that meld a
person, his notion on the self contradicts to the
ideas of the philosophers before him which said
that at the notion of the self, one's identity and
behavior does not exceed the physical realm and
that the “Self” is only the accumulation of different
impressions.
• There is no “permanent self”- Since our impression
of things based from our experiences and from
such impressions we can create our ideas and

HUME
knowledge which can always change.
 David Hume (1711–1776)

HUME
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
• German philosopher
• Born in Konigsberg 1724
• Worked as a private tutor for nobles and clergy
• Completed Ph.D. in physics and metaphysic
• His ideas were twice rejected by the chair of
philosophy at the university
• Critical philosophy constituted a watershed in
Western intellectual history.
• Major Works: The Critique of Pure Reason (1781);
Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals (1785);

KANT
Critique of Judgement (1790).
• Died of dementia
• One of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
• The fundamental idea of Kant‟s “critical
philosophy” – especially in his three Critiques: the
Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique
of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the
Power of Judgment (1790) – is human autonomy.
• One of Kant's greatest contributions to philosophy
was his moral theory, deontology, which judges
actions according to whether they adhere to a valid
rule rather than the outcome of the action.
• At the foundation of Kant's system is the doctrine
of “transcendental idealism,” which emphasizes a
distinction between what we can experience (the

KANT
natural, observable world) and what we cannot
(“supersensible” objects such as God and the
soul). Kant argued that we can only have
knowledge of things we can experience.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

KANT
 Sigmund Freud
He defined the psyche as having 3 parts
namely the id, ego, superego. He believed that
to have a strong sense of self (or ego), the id
and the superego have to be in harmony.
• Id – The instinctive or primitive component of
our personality is referred to as the id. It
functions as a pleasure principle by looking for
ways to satisfy our instinctual desires or
needs.
• Ego – It is the part of us that functions in
reality. Sort of like a human tollgate, the ego
regulates how many of the id‟s urges will be
expressed.
• Superego – It is the moral;, ethical part of the
mind that provides guidelines for the ego to
follow.
 Gilbert Ryle

RYLE
Paul Churchland
Maurice Merleau
Ponty phenomenological philosophy suggests the
search for the self and consciousness need not be
focused on the space within our skulls. Instead, we
should turn our attention to the lived body. He
believed the physical body to be an important part
of what makes up the subjective self. This concept
stands in contradiction to rationalism and
empiricism.
This concept stands in contradiction to rationalism
and empiricism.
- Rationalism asserts the reason and mental
perception.
- Empiricism is the belief that our physical senses
are the only source of knowledge.
Maurice Merleau
Maurice Merleau
• THE SELF AS EMBODIED SUBJECTIVITY - our self is a
product of our conscious human experience. The definition
of self is all about one's perception of one's experience
and the interpretation of those experiences.
• SUBJECT - physical body is an important part of what
makes up the subjective self.
• RATIONALISM - reason and mental perception, rather
than physical senses and experience, are the basis of
knowledge and self.
• EMPIRICISM - physical senses are the
only source of knowledge Merleau-
Ponty rejected the Cartesian mind-
body dualism and insisted that the
mind and body are intrinsically
connected. According to him, the body
acts what the mind perceives as a
unified one.
References:
1. Philo-notes. (16 May 2022). René Descartes's Concept of the Self. Retrieved from:
https://philonotes.com/2022/05/rene-descartess-concept-of-the-self
2. https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/university-of-science-and-technology-of-southern-
philippines/understanding-the-self/uts-module-week-1-philosophical-
perspective/9177910http://philosophy1437.blogspot.com/2011/10/descartes-perspective-of-
self.html?m=1
3. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hume/themes/#:~:text=Hume%20argues%20that%20our%20c
oncept,no%20logical%20support%20for%20it.https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/
4. https://www.scribd.com/document/421953324/Understanding-the-Self-pdf
5. https://iep.utm.edu/kantview/
6. https://ethics.org.au/big-thinker-immanuel-
kant/#:~:text=One%20of%20Kant's%20greatest%20contributions,the%20outcome%20of%20the%20a
ction
7. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Immanuel-Kanthttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/
 ACTIVITY: PHILOSOPHY

1. DIVIDE YOURSELVES INTO 5 GROUPS

2. WRITE THE NAME OF YOUR MEMBERS ON A

SHEET OF PAPER

3. CREATE YOUR OWN PHILOSOPHY OF SELF

4. SUBMIT IT NEXT MEETING IN A 1 LONG BOND

PAPER