GEUTS01X

Philosophical View of the Self

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lecture, you are expected to:

1. Discuss the different representations and

conceptualizations of the self from different
perspective.
2. Examine the different influences, factors and
forces that shapes the self-thru different aspects.
3. Demonstrate critical and reflective thoughts in
analyzing the development of oneself and identity
by developing a theory of the self.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
Pre-assessment Activity

Tweet me Baby, One more Time

You are tasked to write a tagline about yourself as a
tweet, as if you are a product ready to be sold. Make
your tagline as appealing to the market possible. You
can state some pleasing qualities that you have or
might have.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “The only true wisdom is in knowing
you know nothing”
Socrates

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 • Know Thyself
Socrates • Question Everything
• Only the Pursuit of Goodness
“An unexamined Bring Happiness
life is not worth • Socratic Method: Question and
living” Answer;
• Leads us to think for ourselves.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “The first and greatest victory is to
conquer yourself”
Plato

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 Tripartite Soul
Plato • The Rational part desires to exert reason
and attain rational decisions (RULING
“For a man to CLASS)
conquer himself
• The Spirited part desires supreme honor
is the first and (MILITARY CLASS)
noblest of all
victories” • The Appetite part of the soul desires bodily
pleasures such as food, drink, sex, etc.
(COMMONER)

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 Plato
According to Plato, man was omniscient
before he came to be born to this world.
“For a man to
With his separation from the paradise of
conquer himself truth and knowledge and his long exile on
is the first and earth, he forgot most of the knowledge he
noblest of all had.
victories”

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 Plato

“For a man to However, by constant remembering

conquer himself through contemplation and doing good, he
can regain his former perfections.
is the first and
noblest of all
victories”

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “Knowing yourself is the beginning of
all wisdom”
Aristotle

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 • Contributed the foundation of both symbolic
Aristotle logic and scientific thinking

“Happiness depends • The best way to gain knowledge was through

in ourselves” “natural philosophy,” which is what we would
now call science.

• Happiness, which is dependent in an

individual’s virtues, is the central purpose of
human life and a goal in itself.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “The truth is like a lion. You don’t
have to defend it. Let it lose. It will
defend itself.
St. Augustine

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GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 • An important figure in the development of Western
Christianity
St. Augustine
• His philosophy of man brings together wisdom of the
Greek philosophy and the divine truths contained in
“Do unto others, the scripture.
what you want
others do unto you” • The absolute and immutable is the Living God, the
Creator of the entire universe.

• To love God means to love one’s fellowmen, and to

love one’s fellowmen means never to do any harm to
another.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “I doubt therefore I think, I think
therefore I am”
René Descartes

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GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
René Descartes • The Self is defined as a subject that thinks.

• The self that has full competence in the powers of

human reason.
“The fact that I am
doubting, cannot • Having distanced the self from all sources of truth
be anymore open to from authority and tradition, the self can only find its
truth and authenticity within its own capacity to
doubt” think.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “No man’s knowledge here can go
beyond his experience”
John Locke

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GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
John Locke • Personal identity is a matter of psychological
continuity.

• Personal identity (or the self) is founded on

“Our concept of consciousness.
personal identity
must derive from • Identity over time is fixed by awareness of the past.
inner experience” • Locke posits an “empty” mind, a tabula rasa, which is
shaped by experience, and sensations and reflections
being the two sources of all our ideas.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “A wise man proportion
his belief to the evidence.”
David Hume

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
David Hume • He rejects the notion of identity over time.

• There are no “persons” that continue to exist over

time, there are merely impressions.
“The self is a bundle
of impressions” • The things you are thinking about towards yourself
are individual impressions or perceptions of towards
you.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “To be is to do.”

Immanuel Kant

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
Immanuel Kant • Consciousness is the central feature of the self.

• The consciousness is divided into:

“Rule for Happiness: 1. Internal Self - composed of psychological states
Something to do, and informed decisions; remembering our own
someone to love, state, how can we combine the new and old ideas
with our mind.
something to hope 1. Self-is memory and Imagination .
for.”
2. External Self - made up of ourselves and the
physical world where the representation of
objects

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “The child is the father of the man”

Sigmund Freud

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GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
Sigmund Freud • The self continues from childhood to
adulthood.
• Personality is determined by childhood
“Out of your experiences.
vulnerabilities will • Personality is largely unconscious.
come your strength”
• Structure of the Self
• Id: animalistic self; pleasure principle
• Ego: executive self; reality principle
• Superego: conscience; morality principle

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 I made it, and so I am.

Gilbert Ryle

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GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 • Rejects the theory that mental states are separable
from physical states.
Gilbert Ryle • He argued that philosophers do not need a "hidden"
principle to explain the supra-mechanical capacities of
humans, because the workings of the mind are not
“In search for the distinct from the actions of the body, but are one and
self, one cannot be the same.
• His form of Philosophical Behaviorism (the belief that
simultaneously be all mental phenomena can be explained by reference to
the hunter and the publicly observable behavior) became a standard view
hunted.” for several decades.
• He concluded that adequate descriptions of human
behavior need never refer to anything but the
operations of human bodies.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
 “The body is to be compared, not to a
physical object, but rather to a work
of art.”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty

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GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
MAURICE PONTY • His work is commonly associated with the
philosophical movement called existentialism
and its intention to begin with an analysis of
“We know not the concrete experiences, perceptions, and
through our difficulties, of human existence.
intellect but
through our • Our perception of the self is a collection of our
experience.” perceptions of our outside world.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
Thank you End of discussion

for QUESTIONS?
listening

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self
Reference/s:
• Gazinggan, L.B, Porillo, J.E, Velasco, V.V, Villaluz, et al., (2018).
Understanding the Self. Panday-Lahi Publishing House, Sucat,
Muntinlupa City.

BS Psychology
GEUTS01X - Understanding the Self