MODULE 1
IndiaSouth of Asia who share some common
THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES
The philosophy of self refers to the conditions of
identity that make the individual distinct from all
others. Identity means the qualities, characteristics,
beliefs etc. that makes a person or group unique
from one another.
The concept of self may be examined in five ways:
Self-Knowledge,
Self-Activity, Self-Independent of the sense; Self-
Identity,
and Self-Image.
Self-knowledge
- refers to one's knowledge and
understanding of one's own learning's,
characters, motivations and capabilities. To
have self-knowledge, one must know his/
her particular experiences, sensation,
attitudes and beliefs.
Self-activity
- is defined as an independent and self-
determined action of one person. It is the
quality or state of being self-active or self-
action. A person's decision to carry out
actions which you have thought about
yourself and not been told to do by others. It
infers motion or the power of moving one's
self without the help or aid of the external. A
person becomes active and directed from
action. It is the basis of all learnings.
Self-independent
- of the senses refers to the inner self. It is
maintaining a person as a separate or self-
contained individual. It focuses on internal
attributes like our abilities, natural
intelligence not acquired one. It is a related to
a person's sense of worth and self-esteem
and help us to strive to achieve our goals in
life.
Self-identity
- is the particular characteristics of the self that
determines individual's uniqueness among others. It
is the recognition of one's potentials and qualities as
an individual. It is the awareness of one's individual
identity. Example: gender identity, 1.D. card
(personal, social identity).
Self-Image
- is a mental picture of an individual and is
quite resistant to change through time
regarding one's abilities, personality, and
role. It is how you see yourself and feels
about your personality, achievements and
values in life. Example: A person who sees
herself beautiful and smart, a mental picture
of a person about himself at the past or
present.
THE EASTERN PHILOSOPHY OF SELF
The eastern philosophies of self encompasses all
views of the self that emanate from the Asian
continent, postulated by thinkers from this region.
Hindu Philosophy of Self (1500 B. C.E.)
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- Hindu indigenous (people who live in North
ancestry with the ancient Indians), believe
that the self is made up of two aspècts:
"Atman" and "Brahman."
- "Atman" (self-soul) is a secular word which
means "essence, breath or soul." Atman
means "real self" of the individual, the
innermost essence and soul of the person.
Hinduism considered Atman as eternal;
imperishable, beyond times. It is different
from the body or mind or consciousness and
accept it as the spiritual self-concept for the
Hindus (Dalal, 2010).
- Atman is the true self that lies at the inner
core of human identities and it is only this
inner core that is identical with God. The self-
identity of a person can be compared to that
of onion with various layers. The outer layer
of our identities involve common sense of
views of ourselves that we experience. The
inner layer involves the self-God within each
of us and sees the underlying unity of the
world (Dalal, 2010).
- On the other hand, Brahman connotes the
highest Universal Principle, the Ultimate
Reality in the universe. In major schools of
Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient,
formal and final cause of all that exists. It is
the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal
truth and bliss which does not change, yet is
the cause of all changes.Brahman as a
metaphysical concept is the single binding
unity behind diversity in all that exists in the
universe (Lochtefeld, 2002).
Buddhist Philosophy of Self (5th century B.C.E. to the
present)
- Buddha's teaching of self is to understand
the nature of self which is a combination of
five aggregates of existence known as the
"Five Skandhas or the Five heaps" Form,
Sensation, Perception, Mental Formation,
and Consciousness.
- Various schools of Buddhism interpret the
skandhas in somewhat different ways.
Generally, Form, the first skandha, is the
physical form. Sensation, the second is made
up of feelings--both emotional and physical,
and senses: seeing, hearing, tasting,
touching, and smelling.
- the third skandha, perception, takes in most of what is
called thinking, which inclides conceptualization,
cognition, reasoning. This also includes the recognition
that occurs when an organ comes in reasons with an
object. Perception can bethought of as "that
which identifies." The object perceived may
be a physical object or a mental one, such as
an idea.
- The fourth skandha, mental formations,
includes habits, prejudices, and
predispositions. Human volition, or
willfulness, is also part of the fourth
skandha, as are attention, faith,
conscientiousness, pride, desire,
vindictiveness, and many other mental
states both virtuous and not virtuous.
- The fifth skandha, consciousness, is
awareness of or sensitivity to an object, but
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 without conceptualization. The fifth skandha
is explained in some schools as a base that
ties the experience of life together. (Plott,
2000).
Confucian Philosophy (551B.C. - 479 B.C.)
- In order to understand the Confucian view of
the Self one must shed the western
conception of the same, and see the issue
under a different paradigm. The predominant
theme in this philosophy is anchored on
finding an understanding for true becoming.
- In essence, the human condition at birth in
Confucianism is not to be confused with that
of being a tabula rasa, as postulated by John
Locke, upon which our experiences write
what will become the individual personality
(Lan, 2005).
- The human adult self, in Confucianism is
defined as an 'achieved state of moral
excellence rather than a given human
condition', and there are several implications
to such an understanding. First, strictly
speaking, one may speak of a human being in
Confucianism only as such with regard to the
human potential to become a human being. In
other words, at birth, being human is no
different from being an animal The true
human condition is achieved in life, if indeed
it is being achieved, through the practice of
the virtues. While these virtues are almost
impossible to be achieved in anyone's
lifetime, being human refers to making the
effort of achieving them. In this, the concept
of 'self' in Confucianism is closely linked with
all those areas that the virtues stand for.
- In Confucianism the quest for the human self,
the search for what it is to be human in terms
of spirit or body, does not exist. What takes
precedence in the writings of
- Confucius is that of personality personality
as such is not seen as inherently existing, but
as something that is being formed through
upbringing and environment. In that, the
human being is seen as a social being. (Some
have even used the term: Social animal).
Accordingly, every person is born with four
beginnings, which do not encapsulate a
concept of self as yet, but which together, if
put in the western framework of thinking,
may be called pre-self, or 'potential-self:
- heart of compassion - leads to Jen,
- heart of righteousness - leads to Yi,
- heart of propriety - leads to Li,
- heart of wisdom - leads to Chih.
- In this, Jen, Yi, Li, and Chih, are the perfection
of the virtues that exist in the human heart
from the beginning as potentials. A self as
such would develop out of these, and develop
through practice of the corresponding
virtues. Personality, in the Confucian
perception, is an achieved state of moral
excellence rather than a given human
condition.
- In Confucianism then, the self can never be
static. If one stops to develop the virtues in
one's living, one has already lost them all. To
be human means to develop and to keep
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pursuing the virtues. In the sage, this has
ceased to be a conscious effort or decision.
The dynamic has been integrated into the
nature of the self, and has become the self. It
has become an unconscious way of being
(Hobson, 2005).
THE WESTERN PHILOSOPHY OF SELF
The Western Philosophies of Self encompasses all
views of the self that emanated from the European
and American continent, postulated by thinkers from
these regions.
Socrates: The First Moral Philosopher (470-399
B.C.E.)
- Socrates believes that to understand the self
is to"know thyself"
- The particular characteristics of the self-
determine its identity. This assertion,
imperative in the form, indicates that man
must stand and live according to his nature.
Man has to look at himself. To find what? By
what means? How, then. This knowledge of
oneself can be achieved only through the
Socratic method through the dialogue
between the soul and itself or between a
student and his teacher. Without this work on
oneself, life. is worthless according to
Socrates.
Aristotle: Father of Western Philosophy (384-322
B.C.E.)
- The self is made up of the soul which is the
core essence of a living being which is not
separated from the body. The soul is the one
that acts within the body (ex. just as we
cannot separate the activity of cutting from
the knife) the knife is the body and the act of
cutting is the soul.
- Aristotle, in his treatise On the Soul (peri
psyche) posits three kinds of soul
("psyches*): the vegetative soul, the
sensitive soul, and the rational soul.
- Humans have a rational soul. The human soul
incorporates the powers other kinds. like the
vegetative soul it can grow and nourish itself;
like the sensitive soul it can experience
sensation and move locally. The unique part
of the human, rational soul is its ability to
receive forms of other things and to compare
them using the nous (intellect) and logos
(reason) (Zalta, 2016).
- For Aristotle, the soul is the form of a living
being. Because all beings are composites of
form and matter, the form of living beings is
that which endows them with what is specific
to living beings, e.g. the ability to initiate
movement (or in the case of plants, growth
and chemical transformations, which
Aristotle considers types of movement).
- In contrast to earlier philosophers, but in
accordance with the Egyptians, he placed the
rational soul in the heart, rather than the
brain. Notable is Aristotle's division of
sensation and thought, which generally went
against previous philosophers, with the
exception of Alcmaeon (Mason, 1979).
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Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
- To him the "self" is a thinking person. In his
writing "Cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore; I
am") He stressed that the mind is a
substance within the brain capable of
thinking (affirming, doubting, judging etc.)
The self then, is regarded the one that makes
us aware to perceive the external world.
Descartes emphasized the notion of self
which is made of consciousness (observer -
observed) that forms our thinking and guides
our behavior. It is the self that perceives the
world.
David Hume: Scottish Empiricist (1711-1776)
- The self is nothing more than the mental
perceptions which are available to our
memory. This perception relies on our
previous experiences that give meaning
based on the principles of cause and effects.
We view things as distinct but they are
connected together by resemblance,
contiguity or causation. All perceptions of the
mind is divided in two distinct kinds, the
"impression" and "ideas." Impressions are
the original form of all our ideas. The self-
according to Hume can be explained further
in the "Bundle Theory of Personal Identity."
Hume said the mind is simply a bonded of
perceptions and experiences linked by the
relations of causations and resemblance.
John Locke: English Empirical Philosopher (1632-
1704)
- The self can be understood by examining
one's mind, what constitute the mind. Locke
stressed that mind consists of memory
where our consciousness (thoughts,
experiences) resides. Locke suggests that
the self (consciousness) is a thinking
intelligent being, that has reason and
reflection and continuous to define one's
personal identity. Thus, the self can be
equated with one personal identity. This
consciousness determines one's self that
continues to grow and develop trough times
that form our personal identity. For example,
as far as our consciousness could remember
the past experience or thought, that
determine this identity as a person, it is the
same self now as it was then. Memory
therefore is a necessary condition of
personal identity.
Sigmund Freud: Drive Theory of Self (1856-1939)
- Freud believes that the self has three layers:
The id, ego, and superego.
- The Id, which works on the pleasure
principle, is the seat of our, passion, desires
and other instinctual drives.Like our bodily
needs, want and impulses. (Example: Our
sexual and aggressive drives)
- The Ego seeks to please the Id drives in
realistic way.It is also the ego that regulates
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our action. (Example: We can resist the urge
of stealing money from others, but instead
we work to earn money.)
- The Super Ego, which works on the morality
principle, is the seat of what is right or wrong
- as it reflects the internalization of cultural
rules, set by the guidance and influence of
our parents.
- The three layers of the self-interact with
each other. The Ego meditate between the Id
and Superego and whichever dominates
from the other two structures, the Ego will
act in reality. This is how our self determines
our personality.
SIKOLOHIYANG PILIPINO
- The Philippines also has a homegrown
phycho-philosophical view of the self.
- This view was developed by Virgilio Enriquez,
who is considered as the Father of
Sikolohiyng Pilipino.
Virgilio Enriquez (1942-1994)
- The self in the Filipino is the unity of the "self"
and "others" expressed in the Filipino word
"kapwa." Concept of "self" and "others" - He
proposed the idea that concept of "self" or
(personhood) can be centered on the core
values expressed in the word "Kapwa." The
word "Kapwa" is a concept of how every
Filipino thinks, behaves and relates with
others.
- "Kapwa" does not mean only "others" but the
shared inner self of a person. Enriquez
points out that when a Filipino says the word
"Kapwa, it shows the essence of sharing,
seeing and caring the other as oneself. It is
then, thal the Filipino concept of self can be
identified with the unity of his inner self (on
self and outer self (others) expressed in the
word "kapwa." (Example: The Flipine word
"magalang" is a concept that can describe a
person's one self. This concept is develop to
the person because of what others think of
him.)
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