IN THE 5TH CENTURY BCE

Lesson 1 Athenians settle arguments by

discussion and debate People
skilled in doing this were called
From the Perspective of Sophists, the first teachers of
Philosophy the West
The Philosophy of the Self
“The early philosophers sought to
The Self has been defined as
understand the nature of human
“as a unified being, essentially
beings, problems of morality and life
connected to consciousness,
philosophies” (Price, 2000)
awareness, and agency (or, at
least, with the faculty of
rational choice)“ .Different Socrates
philosophers have come up 470-399 BCE
with more specific “The unexamined life is not worth
characteristics of the Self, and living.”
over time, these meanings have Who is Socrates?
transformed from pure ● The mentor of Plato
abstractions to explanations ● Wanted to discover the
that hold scientific evidences. essential nature of knowledge,
justice, beauty and goodness
APPROXIMATELY 600 BCE (Moore and Bruder, 2002)
The Birth of Philosophy or the ● He didn’t write anything, he is
“love for wisdom” in Athens of
not a writer
Ancient Greece The Greeks in
● A lot of his thoughts were only
search for knowledge came up
known through Plato’s writing
with answers that are both
(The Dialogues)
cognitive and scientific in
SOCRATIC METHOD
nature (Price, 2000)
● This is Socrates’ method for
discovering what is essential in
GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN MILETUS
the world and in people
● They chose to seek natural
● In this method, Socrates did
explanations to events and
not lecture, he instead would
phenomena around them
ask questions and engage the
instead of seeking for
person in a discussion
supernatural explanations
● He would begin by acting as if
from the gods that was passed
he did not know anything and
down through generations
would get the other person to
● These philosophers observed
clarify their ideas and resolve
changes in the world and
logical inconsistencies (Price,
wanted to explain these
2000)
changes by understanding the
● Using this method, the
laws of nature Their study of
questioner should be skilled at
change led them to the “idea of
detecting misconceptions and
permanence” (Price, 2000)
 at revealing them by asking the
right questions.
● His Socratic method allowed
him to question people’s
beliefs and ideas, exposing
their misconceptions and get
them to touch their souls
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
● Socrates believed that the real
self is not the physical body,
but rather the psyche (or soul).
He further posited that the
appearance of the body is
inferior to its functions.
● Socrates believed that his
mission in life was to seek the
highest knowledge and
convince others who were
willing to seek his knowledge
with him
● He wanted to discover the
essential nature of knowledge,
justice, beauty and goodness(
Moore and Bruder, 2002)
Be true to thine self
True self
● The touching of the soul, may
mean helping the person to
get in touch with his true self
● The true self, Socrates said, is
not the body but the soul.
Virtue is inner goodness, and
real beauty is that of the soul
(Price, 2000)
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
● According to Socrates, real
understanding comes from
within the person
● His Socratic method forces
people to use their innate
reason by reaching inside
themselves to their deepest
nature
The aim of the Socratic Method is to
make people think, seek and ask
again and again. Some may be
angered and frustrated, but what is
important is for them to realize that
they do not know everything, that
there are things that they are
ignorant of, to accept this and to
continue learning and searching for
answers (Moore and Bruder, 2002)
Good and Evil
● Good
○ Wealth, status, pleasure,
social acceptance are
the thing we considered
the greatest good in life;
● Evil
○ ‘all human beings strive
for happiness, for
happiness is the final
end in life. Everything we
do because we think it
will make us a happy.
Therefore, we follow the
label that what will bring
us happiness is good
and what will bring us
suffering and pain is evil”
Virtue
● One supreme good, ultimate
good and moral excellence
● Virtue – “a virtuous person is
one whose character is made
up of the moral qualities
accepted as virtues include
courage, justice, prudence,
and temperance.
● Virtue is greatest good in life,
for it can alone secure
happiness
 ● It is most important of the
state of soul
Happiness
● “human being naturally desires
good as it alone secure
happiness, with that knowledge
they have no choice but to be
virtuous”
● When we arrived at the
knowledge of virtue we would
become virtuous and we will
make our soul good and
beautiful and when we perfect
our soul we will attain true
happiness.
● Knowledge=virtues=happiness
PLATO
428 – 348 BCE
Wise men speak because they have
something to say; fools because they
have to say
Who is Plato?
● His real name is Aristocles
● He was nicknamed “Plato”
because of his physical built
which means wide/broad
● Left Athens for 12 years after
the death of Socrates
● When he returned he
established a school known as
“The Academy”
THEORY OF FORMS
● Plato’s Metaphysics
(philosophical study on the
causes and nature of things)
● Plato explained that Forms
refers to what are real
● They are not objects
encountered with the senses
but can only be grasped
intellectually
THEORY OF FORMS
● Plato explained that forms
refers to what are real and they
are not object that can be seen
but can only be grasped
intellectually.
1. The Forms are ageless and
therefore eternal
2. The Forms are unchanging
and therefore permanent
3. The Forms are unmoving and
indivisible
PLATO’S DUALISM
THE REALM OF SHADOWS
● Composed of changing,
‘sensible’ things which are
lesser entities and therefore
imperfect and flawed
THE REALM OF FORMS
● Composed of eternal things
which are permanent and
perfect. It is the source of all
reality and true knowledge
Plato’s View of Human Nature
● Think more and Know Yourself
● Give ourselves a time to think
about our lives and how to
lead them.
● Strengthen your self knowledge
you don’t get yourself easily
pulled around by feelings by
subjecting your ideas to
examination rather acting on
impulse.
● According people we just go
along with “doxa” means
popular opinion.
● In honor of his mentor he
called to process of
examination “Socratic
Discussion”
View of human nature
● He believed that knowledge lies
within the person’s soul
● He considered human beings
as microcosms of the universal
 macrocosms i.e. everything in
the universe can also be found
on people – earth, air, fire,
water, mind and spirit (Price,
2000)
Soul
Plato described the soul as having
three components:
1. The Reason is rational and is
the motivation for goodness
and truth
2. The Spirited is non-rational
and is the will or the drive
toward action
3. The Appetites are irrational
and lean towards the desire for
pleasures of the body
Plato believed that people are
intrinsically good. Sometimes
however, judgements are made in
ignorance and Plato equates
ignorance with evil. (Price, 2000)
Theory of Love and Becoming
● ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
○ What people see are only
shadows of reality which
they believe are real
things and represents
knowledge
○ What these people fail to
realize is that the
shadows are not real for
according to Plato, “only
the Forms are real”
Allegory of the Cave
● The most famous allegory in
philosophy.
● The story was intended to
compare “the effect of
education and lack of it on our
nature”.
● The story of the cave is an
allegory of the life of
enlightened people.
● For Plato we are most of our
lives in shadow, many of the
things we get excited about like
fame, perfect partner, high
status job are infinitely less real
that we suppose they are for
the most are phantoms
projected by our culture.
Theory of Love and Becoming
● Theory of Being
○ In knowing the truth,
according to Plato, the
person must become the
truth.
○ To know for Plato is to
be. The more the person
knows, the more he is
and the better he is.
Plato’s Love
● Plato’s love begins with a
feeling or experience that there
is something lacking
● This then drives the person to
seek for that which is lacking
● Thoughts and efforts are then
directed towards the pursuit of
which is lacking
● The person you need to get
together with should have
good qualities which you
yourself lack.
● For Plato, in a good
relationship, a couple should
not love each other exactly as
they are right now; rather they
should be committed to
educating each other to be the
best version of themselves.
● The deeper the thought, the
stronger is the love.
 Love is a process of seeking higher
stages of being.
The GREATER the love, the MORE
intellectual component it will contain.
● Lifelong longing and pursuit
seek even higher stages of love
which lead to the possession of
absolute beauty (Moore and
Bruder, 2002)
To love the highest according to Plato
is to become the best
Christian Philosophers…
● Their concern was with God
and man’s relationship with
God
● These Christian philosophers
did not believe that
self-knowledge and happiness
were the ultimate goals of man
Greek Philosophers
They see man as basically
good and becomes evil
through ignorance of what is
good
Christian Philosophers
They see man as sinners who
reject/go against a loving
God’s commands
St. Augustine of Hippo
354 – 436 CE
“God loves each of us as if there were
only one of us. “
Who is St. Augustine?
● Hippo, Africa
● Became a priest and bishop of
Hippo
● Initially rejected Christianity for
it seemed to him then that
Christianity could not provide
him answers to questions that
interested him
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
1. GOD as the source of all reality
and truth.
○ Through a mystical
experience, a man is
capable of knowing the
eternal truths
○ This is possible through
the existence of one
eternal truth which is
God
○ God is within man and
transcends him
2. The sinfulness of man
○ The cause of sin or evil is
an act of man’s freewill
○ MORAL GOODNESS CAN
BE ONLY ACHIEVED
THROUGH THE GRACE
OF GOD
The Role of Love
“For God is love and he created
humans for them to also love”
● Disordered love results when
man loves the wrong things
which he believes will give him
happiness
St. Augustine explains
1. Love of physical objects leads
to sin of greed
2. Love for other people is not
lasting and excessive love for
them is the sin of jealousy
3. Love for the self leads to the
sin of people
4. Love for God is the supreme
virtue and only through loving
God can man find real
Rene Descartes
1596 - 1650
“Cogito ergo sum.”
Who is Rene Descartes?
 ● Father of Modern Philosophy John Locke
● One of the Rationalist
1632 - 1704
Philosophers of Europe
“No man’s knowledge here can go
● These philosophers considered
beyond his experience.
truth as universal concept and
Who is John Locke?
reason is superior to and
● Born in Wrington, England
independent of sensory
● Interested in politics; Defender
experience
of the parliamentary system
● Cartesian Method and Analytic
● At Oxford, he studied medicine
Geometry
which would play a central role
Descartes’ View of Human Nature
in his life.
● “I think, therefore I am”
● At 57 years old, Locke
● Descartes believes that to
published a book which played
doubt is to think.
a significant role in the era of
● Skepticism refers to an attitude
Enlightenment(Price, 2000)
of doubt or disbelief, either in
general or toward a particular
He believed that knowledge results
object, or to any doubting or
from ideas produced a posteriori or
questioning attitude or state
objects that were experienced
of mind.
● The cognitive aspect of human
1. The process involves 2 forms:
nature is his basis for existence
Sensation wherein objects are
of the self.
experienced through senses
2. Reflection by which the mind
View of human nature
‘looks’ at the objects that were
Descartes deduced that a thinker is a
experienced to discover
thing that doubts, understands,
relationships that may exist
affirms, denies, wills, refuses and also
between them
imagines and feels (Price, 2000)
Locke contended that ideas are not
Descartes’ System
innate but rather the mind at birth is
Through math, he discovered that the
a “TABULA RASA” (i.e. Blank Slate)
human mind has TWO POWERS:
1. INTUITION or the ability to
Locke’s View of Human Nature
apprehend direction of certain
● He believed that we are all
truths
born as tabula rasa (blank
2. DEDUCTION or the power to
state)
discover what is not known by
● He argued that all knowledge
progressing in an orderly way
is obtained through
from what is already known
experience; he rejected the
The mind-body problem
concept of Rene’s ideas.
● The body, according to
● Locke thought that “we were
Descartes, is like a machine
born knowing nothing and
that is controlled by the will
instead all of our knowledge
and aided by the mind.
 comes to us through sensory
data”
● Since there are no innate ideas
according to Locke, morals,
religious, and political values
must come from experience.
View of human nature
Moral good depends on the
conformity of a person’s behavior
towards some law
There a 3 laws according to Locke:
1. LAW OF OPINION – where
actions that are praiseworthy
are called VIRTUES and those
are not are VICES
2. CIVIL LAW – where right actions
are enforced by people in
authority
3. DIVINE LAW – set by God on the
actions of man
Empiricism
● Belief that sense – experience
is the most reliable source of
knowledge.
● It emphasizes the role of
experience and evidence,
especially sensory perception,
in the formation of ideas, and
argues that the only knowledge
humans can have is a based
on experience
David Hume
1711 - 1776
“A wise proportions his belief to the
evidence. “
Who is David Hume?
● Born in Edinburgh, Scotland
● At the time he was enrolled at
the University of Edinburgh, he
lost his faith
● He relied on the scientific
method, believing that it could
analyze human nature and
explain the workings of the
mind
The human mind
According to Hume, there are two
types of perceptions: IMPRESSIONS
immediate sensations of external
reality IDEAS recollections of the
impressions
In examining the patterns of thinking,
Hume formulated three principles on
how ideas relate to one another:
● THE PRINCIPLE OF
RESEMBLANCE
● THE PRINCIPLE OF
CONTIGUITY
● THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND
EFFECT
Hume’s View of Human Nature
● Hume believed that we are
more influenced by our feelings
than by reason.
● People are more motivated by
our feelings than any other
analysis and logic.
● Hume argued that the idea of
the self doesn’t persist over
time. He said there is no you
that is the same person from
birth to death. He said the
concept of the self is just an
illusion.
● Hume said that the so- called
“self” is just a bundle of
impressions, consisting of a
zillion different things – your
body, your mind, emotions,
preferences, memories, even
labels that are imposed on you
by others.
● It all begins with impressions,
without impressions there will
be no ideas
View of Human Nature
In looking for ‘the self’, Hume only
discovered sense of impressions
● He believed that like causality,
‘the self’ is also a product of
imagination
● There is no such thing as
‘personal identity’ behind
perceptions and feelings that
come and go; THERE IS NO
PERMANENT/UNCHANGING
SELF
Immanuel Kant
1724 - 1804
“I have no knowledge of myself as I
am, but merely as I appear to myself. “
Who is Immanuel Kant?
● Lived in the town of Konisberg
in East Prussia (presently
Western Russia)
● Founder of German Idealism
● Wrote three books: Critique of
Pure Reason, Critique of
Practical reason and Critique
of Judgement
Views of the mind
Kant argued that the mind is not just
a passive receiver of sense
experience but rather actively
participates in knowing the objects it
experiences
View of Human Nature and The Self
“When the self sees an object, it tends
to remember its characteristics and
applies on it, the forms of time and
space”
● The term he used for this
experience of the self and its
unity with objects is
TRANSCENDENTAL
APPERCEPTION
● He concluded that all objects
of knowledge, which includes
the self, are phenomenal.
In the matter of God, Kant stated that
the Kingdom of God is within man
● God is manifested in people’s
lives therefore it is man’s duty
to move towards perfection
Sigmund Freud
1856 - 1939
“The mind is like an iceberg: it floats
with one seventh of its bulk above
water.”
Who is Sigmund Freud?
● Austrian Neurologist;
considered as one of the
pioneering figures in the field
of psychology
● His psychodynamic theory has
characteristics of
philosophical thought
● Freud made use of methods
like free association and dream
analysis for his clinical practice
Structures of the mind
In Freud’s illustration, he made use of
the typical iceberg to show how the
mind works based on his theorizing
The three levels of the mind are
structured by the following
components:
● ID – based on the pleasure
principle
● EGO – based on the reality
principle
● SUPER EGO – primarily
dependent on learning the
difference between right or
wrong

Freud in his 1920 book, Beyond the
Pleasure Principle, he presented 2
kinds of instincts that drive individual
behavior:
● EROS – Life Instinct; the energy
is called LIBIDO and urges
necessary for individual and
species survival like thirst,
hunger and sex
● THANATOS – Death Instinct;
behavior that is directed
towards destruction in the
form of aggression and
violence
View of Human Nature
“Man’s behavior by his pleasure
seeking life instinct and his
destructive instinct is said to be born
with his ego already in conflict”
● He sees man as a product of
his past lodged within his
subconscious.
● Man then lives his life
balancing the forces of life and
death – making mere existence
a challenge
Gilbert Ryle
1900 - 1976
“Man need not be degraded into a
machine by being denied to be a
ghost in a machine.”
Who is Gilbert Ryle?
● English Philosopher
● Contradicted Cartesian
Dualism
● Stated that many of the
philosophical problems were
caused by the wrong use of
language
● He wrote the book “The
Concept of the Mind”
View of Human Nature and
Knowledge
● Ryle thought that freewill was
invented to answer the
question of whether an action
deserves praise or blame.
● He assumes that “Man’s
actions must be moral for it to
be free”
Ryle touched two types of knowledge:
● KNOWING-THAT
○ Refers to knowing facts/
information
● KNOWING-HOW
○ Using facts in the
performance of some
skill or technical abilities
“A person may acquire a great bulk of
knowledge but without the ability to
use it to solve some practical
problems to make his life easier, this
bulk of knowledge is deemed to be
worthless”
Patricia & Paul Churchland
“There isn’t a special thing called the
mind. The mind is just the brain.” -
Patricia Churchland
Who is Patricia and Paul Churchland?
● Patricia Churchland
 ○ Born on July 16, 1943
○ Canadian-American
Philosopher, known for
her claims that man’s
brain is responsible for
the identity known as the
self
● Paul Churchland
○ Born on October 21, 1942
○ Canadian Philosopher.
Patricia coined the term
NEUROPHILOSOPHY, who together
with Paul, was dissatisfied with the
particular approach of philosophers
and instead sought to guide
scientific theorizing with philosophy
and guide philosophy with scientific
inquiry
The philosophy of neuroscience is
the study of the philosophy of the
mind, the philosophy of science,
neuroscience and psychology.
● Aims to explore the relevance
of the neuroscientific studies
to the philosophy of the mind
Patricia claims that the man’s brain is
responsible for the identity known as
‘the self’
● The biochemical properties of
the brain according to this
philosophy is really responsible
for man’s thoughts, feelings
and behavior
View of Human Nature
“Man is endowed with more than just
physical or neurological
characteristics. Despite research
findings, neurophilosophy states that
the self is real, that it is the tool that
helps the person tune-in to the
realities of the brain and the extant
reality”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
1908 - 1961
Who is Maurice Merleau-Ponty?
● French Phenomenological
Philosopher
● ‘Philosopher of the Body’
● Center of his philosophy is the
emphasis placed on the
human body as the primary
site of knowing the world
● He focus on the relationship of
self – experience and
experience of other through
PERCEPTION.
View of human nature
According to Merleau-Ponty, The
world and the sense of self are
emergent phenomena in the ongoing
process of man’s ‘becoming’
In addition he stated that perception
is not purely the result of sensations
nor is it purely interpretation. Rather,
consciousness is a process that
includes sensing as well as
interpreting/reasoning
● It is possible that one object
may be perceived from various
perspectives.
● Man, the perceiver, may thus
experience all the perspectives
of the object from the other
objects in its environment and
at the same time perceive all
the other perspective the
object may have on other
objects/being surrounding it.