PHILOSOPHICAL

THEORIES OF THE
SELF Helen Grace D. Ronda
 AVOCADO AND
ARTICHOKE
Do you truly know yourself?
PRE-ASSESSMENT
How would you characterized yourself?
 What makes you stand out from the rest?
What makes your “self”
How has your “self” connected to your
body?
 How is your ‘self” related to other selves?
SOCRATES: “KNOW
YOURSELF”
For Socrates, every man is composed of body and
soul.
This mean, all individuals have an imperfect,
impermanent aspect, the body, while maintaining
that there is also a soul that is perfect and
permanent.
SOCRATES
Famous of his line ”Know yourself”
 Tells that each man to bring his inner self to light.
 Virtue is the most basic and propensity of man.
 PLATO “THE IDEAL SELF,
THE PERFECT SELF”
Plato is Socrates' student and he supported the idea that man is a dual
nature of the body and soul. Plato added that there are three components to
the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive soul.
Rational Soul - composed by reason and intellect
Spirited Soul - in charge of emotions
Appetitive Soul - in charge of base desires like eating, drinking,
sleeping and having sexual intercourse is controlled as well.
 PLATO
 Man was all-knowing before he came to be born in
this world.
By contemplating and doing good he can regain his
former perfections.
 Happiness is the fruit of virtues, is attained by
constant imitation of divine exemplar of virtue
embodied in man’s former perfect self.
ST. AUGUSTINE AND THOMAS
AQUINAS
Augustine's agreed that man is of a bifurcated
nature.
 Love and Justice as a foundation of the
Individual Self
Aquinas said that, indeed man is composed of
two parts: matter and form.
THOMAS AQUINAS
 Matter, or hyle in Greek
- refers to the common stuff that makes up everything in
the universe
- Man's body is part of this matter
 Form, or morphe in Greek
- refers to the essence of a substance or thing
- It is what makes it what it is
RENE DESCARTES “I THINK,
THEREFORE I AM”
The Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived that the
human person as having a body and mind.
His famous principle: Cogito, Ergo Sum (l think, therefore
I am). The self then for Descartes is also a combination of
two distinct entities:
 Cogito- the things that thinks, which is the mind
 Extenza- extension of the mind, which is the body
In Descartes' view, the body is nothing else but a
machine that is attached to the mind. The human
person has it but it is not what makes man a man. If at
all, that is the mind.

But what then, am l? A thinking thing. But what is a

thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands
(conceives), affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines
also, and perceives
DAVID HUME “THE SELF IS THE
BUNDLE THEORY Of MIND”
a Scottish Philosopher, who believes that one can
know only what comes from the senses and
experience
To David Hume, the self is nothing but a bundle of
impressions.
Impressions are the basic object of our experience or
sensation. They therefore form the core of our
thoughts. Impressions therefore are vivid because
DAVID HUME “THE SELF IS THE
BUNDLE THEORY OF MIND”
 A person can never observe oneself without some
other perceptions.
 Self is just a bundle or collection of different
perceptions
KANT “RESPECT FOR SELF”
Without the self, one cannot organize the different
impressions that one gets in relation to his own
existence.
He therefore suggests that the "self" is an actively
engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all
knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what
gives one his personality. It is also the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all human persons.
KANT
He recognizes the veracity in Hume's account are not
that everything starts with perception and sensation of
impressions.
For Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the
impressions that men get from the external world.
KANT
Without the self, one cannot organize the different
impressions that one gets in relation to his own
existence.
He therefore suggests that the "self" is an actively
engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all
knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what
gives one his personality. It is also the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all human persons.
KANT
 Man is the only creature who governs and directs
himself and his actions, who sets up end for himself and
his purpose and who freely orders means for the
attainment of his aims.
RYLE
Gilbert Ryle solves the mind-body dichotomy that has
been running for a long time in the history of thought by
denying blatantly the concept of an internal, non-
physical self.
For Ryle, what truly matter is the behaviors that a
person manifests in his day-to-day life.
RYLE
He suggested that the self is not an entity one can locate
and analyze but simply the convenient name that people
use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.
MERLEAU- PONTY
 He says that the mind and body are so intertwined that
they cannot be separated from one another.
One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied
experience. All experience is embodied. The living body,
his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one.
ACTIVITY (IN THE
DISCUSSION BOARD)
Choose one of the philosophers and state what is the
meaning of self for them. After doing so, explain how
your concept of self is compatible with how they
conceived of the self.
(Philosophers point of view vs. Personal point of view)
ANY QUESTIONS?
 SOCIOLOGICAL
THEORY OF THE SELF Helen Grace D. Ronda
F
G
 “Through interaction with their
social and cultural environments,
people are transformed into
participating members of their
society.”
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST
PERSPECTIVE
• The relationship between the self and the
external reality.
SOCIALIZATION
Socialization
 The interactive process through which people learn
 Basic skills
 Values
 Beliefs
 Behavior patterns of a society

Within socialization, a person develops a sense of self

 Conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity that separates you
from other members of society.
THEORIES OF SOCIALIZATION
John Locke
English philosophe from the
1600’s.
Insisted each newly born human
being is a tabula rasa
“blank slate”
No personality
Newborns could be molded
into anything with training.
THEORIES OF SOCIALIZATION
Charles H. Cooley
Developed idea of looking glass
self
The interactive process by which
we develop an image of ourselves
based on how we imagine we
appear to others.

Ex: Other people act as a mirror

reflecting back the image we see
with their reactions.
LOOKING GLASS THEORY
3 steps

We imagine how we appear to others.

Based on the other’s reactions, we attempt to determine

whether they view us as we see ourselves.

We use our perceptions of how others judge us to develop

feelings about ourselves.
THEORIES OF SOCIALIZATION
George Herbert Mead
Believed that we not only see ourselves as others
see us, but actually take on the roles of others.
Called role-taking
Socialization process that allows a person to
anticipate what others expect of us.
MEAD’S “GENERALIZED
OTHER”
Mead says a person first individualizes
significant others
 Mom
 Dad
 Sister
 Brother

As we grow older
 People internalize attitudes, expectations, and
viewpoints of society
 Generalized other
SELF IN FAMILIES
The kind of family that we were are born in, the
resources available to us (human, spiritual,
economic) and the kind of development that we
will certainly affect us as we go through life.
Without family , biologically and socially a
person may not even survive or become a
human person.
 GENDER AND SELF
Gender partly determines how we see ourselves in
the world.
The sense of self that is being taught makes sure that
an individual fits in a particular environment.
This is dangerous and detrimental in the goal of truly
finding one’s self, self determination and growth of
the self.
Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted
and not dictated by culture and the society.
MEAD’S THEORY OF
THE SOCIAL SELF
THE “I” IN “ME”
“I”
The unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested component of
personality.
Very large role in children

“Me”
The part of our self that is aware of the expectations and
attitudes of society.
Very large role in adults
 When he or she performs his or her
role, he or as he becomes self-aware.
The self continues to change along
with his or her social experience.
No matter how the world shapes a
person, he or she will always remain
creative being, and be able to react to
the world around him or her.
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF
THREE STAGES PROCESS
Children develop skills that are necessary in order to role-take through social interaction
Preparatory stage- (0 month – 3 years old)
 Children lack sense of self.
 Therefore, they can only imitate the action of others.
Play stage (3 -5 years old)
 Children learn to play and act out roles
 Can play “house” or role play
 Start to view themselves in relation to others
Game stage ( 8 to 9 years old)
 Children can play games with specific rules
 Children can anticipate actions of others
 Children can outmaneuver other players
 Understand not only their own social position but also those of others around them.
 The self is now present
 THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF MODERN
AND POSTMODERN SOCIETIES

Gerry Lanuza
The Constitution of the Self
In modern societies the attainment and stability of
self-identity are freely chosen.
It is no longer restricted by customs and traditions.
Hence, there is a need to discover the
‘authentic core” .Whereas the
dissolution of traditional values and
communities in modern society has
led the individual to construct a solid
and stable self identity, the
postmodern individual welcomes all
possibilities for self improvement.
IN POSTMODERN
SOCIETIES
Self identity continuously changes
due to the demands of multitude of
social contexts, new information
technologies and globalization.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
Consumption structures the postmodern society.
The postmodern individuals achieve self
identity through prestige symbols that they
consume.
Individuals seek for a position in society
through the quality of prestige symbols that
they can afford to consume.
 THE POSTMODERN
PERSON HAS BECOME
INSATIABLE
CONSUMER AND MAY
NEVER BE SATISFIED
IN HIS OR HER LIFE.