CHAPTER 1

-Is it really essential to understand the self?

-What are the different notions of the self from
different standpoints of various philosophers across
time and place?
-How do we compare those varying standpoints?
-How do I examine myself using these different
standpoints or perspectives?
▪ Philosophy- “Love for wisdom”
▪ Answers questions regarding the nature of and
existence of man and the world.
▪ (Socrates, Plato, St. Augustine, Descartes, Locke,
Hume, Kant, Freud, Ryle, Churchland, Monty-Ponty).
▪ All to answer the basic question, who are you?
▪ Philosophically, discussion of the self is a
basic search for meaning and purpose in
life.
▪ Determination, rationalization, and
identification of self; sets the direction from
which an individual travel to fulfill his
identified purpose in life.
▪ Inability to define oneself leads to a lot
of contradiction in life later on, hence, it
is one of the many imperative of life to
know oneself and to go on with the
business of leading a life charted by
oneself.
▪ We only know Socrates
because his illustrious
students (from Plato to
Aristotle) spoke
eloquently and generously
about his knowledge, wit,
wisdom and intellect.
▪ Socrates left no known
writings, his highly
regarded student Plato
though, wrote extensively
about Socrates.
▪ According to Socrates it is
the state of our soul, or
our inner being, which
determines the quality of
our life.
▪ Thus it is paramount that
we devote considerable
amounts of our attention,
energy, and resources to
making our soul as good
and beautiful as possible.
▪ Socrates believed the next step
in the path towards self
knowledge was to obtain
knowledge of what is good and
what is evil.
▪ Most people dogmatically
assume they know what is truly
good and what is truly evil.
▪ All human beings naturally
strive after happiness, for
happiness is the final end in life
and everything we do we do
because we think it will
make us happy
▪ We therefore label what we think
will bring us happiness as ‘good’,
and those things we think will bring
us suffering and pain as ‘evil’.
▪ There is one supreme good, he
claimed, and possession of this
good alone will secure our
happiness
▪ Virtue is defined as moral
excellence, and an individual is
considered virtuous if their
character is made up of the moral
qualities that are accepted as
virtues.
▪ “gnothi seuton”= “know
thyself.”
▪ If you know who you are,
all basic issues and
difficulties in life would be
gone in a simple snap of a
finger. If you know who
you are, then everything
would be clearer and
simpler. One could now
act according to his own
self-definition without any
doubt and self-
contradiction.
 ▪ “Socractic method” or the art
(Cont’d) of questioning
▪ His simple technique of asking
basic questions such as “who
am I?”, “what is the purpose of
my life?”, “what am I doing
here?”, “what is justice” were
all questions predicated on the
fact that humans must be able
to define these simple things so
as to move forward and act
accordingly based on what is
the definition of the said
individual.
(Cont’d) ▪ Possession of knowledge is
a virtue and that ignorance
is a vice, that a person’s
acceptance of ignorance is a
source or a springboard for
the acquisition of knowledge
later on.
▪ So, one must first have the
humility to acknowledge
one’s ignorance so as to get
or acquire knowledge.
 ▪ Answers will always be subjective.
(Cont’d) ▪ There is really no right or wrong answers
to the questions posited by Socrates, the
quality and quantity of answers is
dependent on the respective person
▪ Answering these basic premises and his
subsequent actions is best understood on
how he defined himself.
▪ Thus, the constant reminder of “know
thyself”.
▪ Historically, he is known as the first martyr
of education, knowledge and philosophy.
For lighting up the minds of his students,
he was literally charged with corruption of
minors. Socrates is even considered to be
so ugly, that only his own mother could
love.
▪ He is the acknowledged
author of the groundbreaking
book “The Republic” which
became the bedrock of
democracy as we now know it
today.
▪ This book talks about justice,
balance, equality, how best to
rule and how to prepare for
ruling. It talks about statecraft,
how to run a country, how to
govern with the best interest of
people at heart.
▪ Theory of Human Nature –
The Tripartite Structure of
the Soul.

▪ Appetite Soul- needs and

wants that are to be satisfied
(physical urges)
▪ Spirited (will )Soul-
courageous part of the person;
one who wants to do something
or right the wrongs
▪ Rational (reason) Soul- “the
conscious mind”; decides,
plans, and thinks.
▪ Plato also emphasized
the social aspect of
human nature. We are
not self-sufficient, we
need others, and we
benefit from our
social interactions,
from other person’s
talents, aptitudes, and
friendship.
▪ Plato made the philosophical allegory of the cave. Slaves born

as such inside a cave facing only the shadows of men, will

never have knowledge that there is another set of men
representing or creating their respective shadows. That when a
chained slave escapes and learned that shadows are just mere
representatives of their captors. If this escapee returns and tell
his former slave buddies that what they are seeing and hearing
inside their cave is nowhere near to what is actually a reality,
they would doubt him, in fact - they would even doubt his own
very existence.
▪ Follows the notion that
everything is better if we devote
ourselves to God
▪ Augustine's sense of self is his
relation to God, both in his
recognition of God's love and his
response to it—achieved through
self-presentation, then self-
realization. Augustine believed
one could not achieve inner
peace without finding God's
love.
▪ The physical body is bound to
die on earth while the soul is to
anticipate living eternally in
communion with God.
▪ The Big Picture Argument. Just
because something considered
in isolation seems vile,
disgusting, stupid, and the like,
doesn't mean that it is evil. For it
might be a necessary part of the
virtue, beauty, or intelligence of
the larger whole of which it is a
part.

▪ The Free-will Defense. God

thought that a world with Free
Agents in it would be better than
one without.
▪ St. Augustine is
credited with the
invention of the idea
of “original sin.”
▪ Augustinian view of
man is that we are
originally sinful.
▪ He developed the
concept of the
church being the city
of god. That a city
governed by the
church is a city
governed by god.
▪ He is best known for quoting
“cogito ergo sum”, or “I think
therefore, I am”.
▪ Dualism is the concept that
reality or existence is divided
into two parts. When discussing
dualism in the context of
humanity, this division is
between the mind and the
physical body. In other words,
the mind is separate from the
empirically studied, physical
attributes of the body.
▪ He begins with an argument
known commonly as the
Cogito. He comes to
understand that if he is capable
of doubting – which is
precisely what he is doing –
then he must exist.

▪ After establishing the fact of his

existence, Decartes goes on to
ask himself what he is. He
eventually comes to describe
himself as a thinking thing.

▪ He proposed the idea of

substance, essence of substance,
and modes of substance.
▪ The mind is the
substance

▪ The essence of this

substance is thought

▪ A mind can be seen as

something that is
defined by thought.

▪ The modes of the mind,

then, are the various
ways of thinking
▪ This, then, is what
Descartes views as
the “self”; a thinking
thing

▪ Man innately knows

basic logical
propositions.
▪ Father of Liberalism

▪ Was against Augustinian

and Cartesian view of man

▪ He holds that personal

identity is a matter of
psychological continuity.
He considered personal
identity (or the self) to be
founded on consciousness
(memory), and not on the
substance of either the soul
or the body.
▪ 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.
▪ This is an irony because, he
espoused three (3) notable
contention in philosophy;
empiricism, skepticism and
naturalism. He promoted
empiricism by basing his
knowledge and philosophy on
evidences, knowing and proving
are two different things. And in
life, it is not what you know, but
rather what you can prove.
▪ One can only know through
senses and experience.
▪ Empiricism asserts that
knowledge is only attained
through the senses.
▪ David Hume was a known
atheist and as such, he
believed in the natural cycle
of life. Everything is
governed by reason, by
rationality and as such, there
is a natural order of things.
▪ There is no permanent “self”
▪ The self is a collection of a
person’s different
impressions and perceptions
▪ For Hume there is no mind or
self. The perceptions that
one has are only active when
one is conscious
▪ Hume appears to be
reducing personality and
cognition to a machine that
may be turned on and off.
Death brings with it the
annihilation of the
perceptions one has.
▪ Became critical of Hume’s
ideas.
▪ In this book, he posited
the idea that there is a
connection between
reason and experience.
That in order to have solid
rationality, one must have
a variety of experience
and exposure.
▪ He further contended that
there is a correlation between
experience and rationality.
You cannot have one without
the other.
▪ Immanuel Kant subscribe to
the idea of metaphysics, that
which is beyond matter, he
also subscribes to the idea
that pure reason is one of the
prime source of morality. That
what is right, that what is
moral, is best explained via
reason and rationality.
▪ Rationalism is the theory that
reason, rather than
experience, is the foundation
of all knowledge.
▪ Humans have both an inner
and an outer self which unify
to give us consciousness.
▪ The inner self is comprised of
our psychological state and
our rational intellect.
▪ The outer self includes our
sense and the physical world.
▪ Apperception is how we
mentally assimilate new ideas
into old ones. Occurring
through rational reasoning, it’s
how we make sense of new
things.

▪ Representations are the

immediate objects of our
awareness.
▪ Father of Psychoanalysis
▪ Predicated on sex and
aggression with the
unconscious mind as the
platform.
▪ Present self or personality is
greatly shaped by the
person’s past experiences.
▪ Utilized introspection as a tool
▪ Unconscious, preconscious,
conscious
▪ Id- pleasure principle
▪ Ego- reality principle
▪ Superego- morality
principle
▪ Ninety percent (90%) of the time, man is unaware of his
behavior and often, his behavior is to feed the libido, residing
in the id. According to the theory of psychoanalysis, every
individual is composed of the superego, ego and the id. It is the
main function of the superego and the ego to regulate and
control the id.
▪ Accordingly, man and his unconscious mind is affected by
Oedipus complex, penis envy and castration anxiety. By and
large, man’s behavior is an interplay of sexual energies and
endeavor, all to facilitate the attainment or near attainment of
sexual gratification because of sexual excitation.
▪ The main concept of Gilbert
Ryle is that there is a
relationship between the
body and the mind.
Conversely, the body affects
the mind and the mind affects
the body.
▪ The self is affected by the
mind and by the body. The
self is a combination of the
mind and the body.
▪ While the focus of other
philosopher is veered
towards the separation of
the mind and body, for
this British philosopher –
self is taken as a whole,
with body and mind
combination.
▪ The self is an integrated
whole made up of
different parts and
systems.
▪ The ghost in the
machine means the
consciousness or mind
carried in a physical
entity.
▪ He believed that human
consciousness and mind
are very dependent on
the human brain
▪ According to Churchland,
Folk Psychology will
eventually be discredited
by scientific inquiry.
Indigenous notions,
theories, concepts and
ideas will be supplanted
by scientific method.
▪ The “self” is defined by
the movements of the
brain.
▪ The main philosophy of Churchland
is predicated on “eliminative
materialism”. Principally,
eliminative materialism contention is
that people’s common sense
understanding of the mind is false
and that most of the mental states that
people subscribe to, in turn, do not
actually exist.
▪ The world could be wrong; most
people could be wrong and even the
mind could also be wrong. In short,
everyone and everything could be
fallible. There is no such thing as
infallibility.
▪ The main articulation of the self-
philosophy of Merleau-Ponty is
existentialism. Very briefly,
existentialism is predicated on the
premise that man gives meaning to his
own life. Happiness and sadness are
dependent on the individual and his
perception of his on reality.
Consciousness and perception are
related to one another.
▪ Proponent of descriptive psychology,
this by extension - places the current
interpretation of reality dependent on
the perception, consciousness and
appreciation of an individual.
▪ Phenomenology of Perception:
▪ The Body
▪ The Perceived World
▪ People in the World
Socrates (Greek) Died by drinking of Had a chance to go to Charged with corruption Know thyself
hemlock exile of minors
Plato (Greek) Student of Socrates Wrote the republic Founded the academe Man has a soul
St. Augustine (Numidia, Love of knowledge brings Made the doctrine of Developed the concept of Doctor of the church
Roman province of happiness original sin the church as the city of
Africa) god
Rene Descartes (French) Cogito ergo sum Western philosophy was Had an ambition as a Father of modern
largely based on his military officer rationalism philosophy
writings
John Locke (English) empiricism Father of liberalism Was a country lawyer and Tabula rasa
obtained a degree in
bachelor of medicine
David Hume (Scott) Empiricism, skepticism, atheist Raised by a single mother, Although of noble
and naturalism worked as a merchant ancestry, had no source
assistant of income and no
learned profession
Immanuel Kant Metaphysics, beyond Relationship between Young scholar, aptitude for Critique of Pure Reason
(German) matter. Reason is the reason and experience study at an early age
source of morality.
Sigmund Freud Died of cancer of the Addicted to cocaine Subjected his own children Oedipus complex,
(Prussian) mouth to psychoanalysis penis envy, castration
anxiety
Gilbert Ryle (British) Ghost in the machine, Father was a doctor who Brothers were also Body and mind dualism
concept of the mind, I act passed on to his children considered to be eminent
therefore I am his vast collection of scholars
books
Paul Churchland Eliminative materialism Wife is also a noted Folk psychology will The self as a brain, mind
(Canadian) philosopher (Patricia eventually be discredited and body are separate
Churchland) by a scientific from one another and
inquiry/method they are not related
Maurice Merleau-Ponty Existentialism, Proponent of descriptive Father died at his very Perception influence
(French) consciousness and psychology young age one’s understanding
perceiving are correlated