PHILOSOPHICAL

PERSPECTIVE ON SELF
PHILOSOPHY

 Is derived from the Greek words “ PHILOS” and “SOPHIA” which literally means “LOVE
FOR WISDOM”
 It is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries that involves
in answering questions regarding the nature and existence of man and the world we live in.
SOCRATES

 “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”

 Know thyself
 Question everything
 “Only pursuit of goodness bring happiness”
 Socratic Method: Question and Answer; leads to students to think for themselves
PLATO

 “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge”
 Dualism – man is dual nature, composed of BODY and SOUL
 TRIPERTITE SOUL (Plato’s 3 parts of soul)
o rational soul (reason) – ruling class
- desire to exert reason and attain rational decisions
o Spirited soul (spirit) – military class
- desires supreme honor
o Appetitive soul (appetite) – commoner
- desires body pleasures such as food, drink, sex, etc.
ST. AUGUSTINE

 “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it, Let it loose. It will defend itself”
 An important figure in Western Christianity.
 His philosophy of man brings together wisdom of the Greek philosophy and the divine
truths contained in the scripture.
 The absolute and immutable is the living God, the creator of the entire universe.
 To love God means to love one’s fellowmen.
RENE DESCARTES

 Father of modern philosophy

 I doubt therefore I think, I think therefore I am (Cogito Ergo Sum)
 The self is defined as a subject that thinks
 The self that has full competence in the powers of human reason.
 Having distanced the self from all sources of truth from authority and tradition, the self can
only find its truth and authenticity within its own capacity to think.
JOHN LOCKE

 Personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity.

 Personal identity(or the self) is founded on consciousness
 Identity over time is fixed by awareness of the past.
 Locke represent the self by the concept “Tabula Rasa” (blank slate or empty mind), which
shaped by experience and sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our idea.
 “Our concept of personal identity must derive from inner experience”.
DAVID HUME

 “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence”

 Rejects the notion of identity over time
 There are no “persons” that continue to exist over time, there are merely impressions.
 “The self is bundle of impression”
IMMANUEL KANT

 Consciousness is the central figure of the self

 “Transcendental Apperception” is an essence of our consciousness that provides basis for
understanding and establishing the notion of “self”
 Two kinds of consciousness
o Internal self – composed of psychological states and informed decisions; remembering our
own state, how can we combine the new and old ideas with our mind.
o External self – made up of ourselves and the physical world where the representation of
objects.
SIGMUND FREUD

 He believed that man has different personality that interacts with each other.
 Aspects of Personality
o ID – also known as the child aspect of a person
- satisfaction of one’s needs and self gratification.
- it is driven by pleasure principle.
o SUPEREGO – is the conscience of the one’s personality
- is involved in the notion of right or wrong that is imparted to us by our parents or people that
tool care during childhood.
o EGO – sometimes known as the Police or the mediator between id and superego.
- It operates within the boundaries of reality, primary function is to maintain the impulses of the
ID to an acceptable degree,
GILBERT RYLE

 “I made it and so I am”

 Rejects the theory that mental states are separable from physical states.
 Concluded that adequate descriptions of human behavior need never refer to anything but
the operations of human bodies.
 His form of Philosophical Behaviorism (the belief that all mental phenomena can be
explained by reference to publicly observable behavior) became a standard view for
several decades.
PAUL CHURCHLAND

 He defined “self” by the movement of brain.

 The concept of Folk Psychology also known as common sense psychology
 Eliminative materialism opposes people’s common sense.
 “The brain as the self”
MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MERLEAU-PONTY

 “We know not through our intellect but through our experienced”
 His work is commonly associated with the philosophical movement called “existentialism”
and its intention to begin with an analysis of the concrete experiences, perceptions, and
difficulties of human existence.
 Consciousness, the world and the human body as a perceiving thing are intricately
intertwined and mutually “engaged”
 Our perception of the self is a collection of our perception of our outside world.
THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS

 Prepared by: Darlene N. Baguio, LPT