THE SELF FROM

THE VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
• “WHO AM I?” is rooted in the human need to
understand the basis of the experiences of the
“SELF.”
- “It’s who I am.”
- “It’s me, my essence.”
- “It’s what makes me unique and different from
everyone else.”
VARIOUS APPROACHES IN THE
CONCEPT OF “SELF”
• Philosophers (ancient to contemporary) describe the
essential qualities that compose a person’s uniqueness.
• Sociology sees the “self” as a product of social
interactions, developed over time through social
activities and experiences.
• Anthropology views the “self” as a culturally shaped
construct or idea – an autonomous participant I the
society as much as it is submerged in the community.
• Psychology sees the “self” as having the characteristics
or properties that can be used to described it. – the
“self” is related to its physical and social environment, it
is unique, and it is necessary to its experiences.
DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
IN THE EXPLANATION OF SELF

SOCRATES
• A Greek philosopher and one of the few individuals who
shaped Western thought.
• Known for his method of inquiry in testing an idea called
“Socratic Method”.
• Some of Socrates’ ideas were:
- The soul is immortal.
- The care of the soul is the task of philosophy.
- Virtue is necessary to attain happiness.
DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
IN THE EXPLANATION OF SELF
SOCRATES
• One of his most-quoted phrases is, “The unexamined life
is not worth living.”
• Self-knowledge or examination of one’s self, as well as
the question about how one ought to live one’s life, are
very important concerns because only by knowing
ourselves can we hope to improve our life (Rappe, 1995).
• Self-knowledge would open our eyes to our true nature
which is not what we own, how many “likes” we get in
our social media posts, or how successful we are in our
career – our real self is the state of our inner being
(soul/self) which determines the quality of our life.
TWO WAYS OF EXISTENCE (Socrates)
1. VISIBLE EXISTENCE
- The BODY
- always changing
- considered as a “reluctant slave”
2. INVISIBLE EXISTENCE
- The SOUL
- remains constant
- considered to be the “ruler and master”

“The body was a reluctant slave, and the soul gets

dragged toward what is always changing. This would
leave the soul confused.”
• For Socrates, the goal of life is to be happy.
• “The virtuous man is a happy man, and that virtue
alone is the one and only supreme good that will
secure man’s happiness.”
• VIRTUE is the moral excellence, and an individual is
considered virtuous if his character is made up of the
moral qualities that are accepted as virtues: courage,
temperance, prudence, and justice.
PLATO
• Student of Socrates who wrote the “Socratic Dialogue”
• Best known for his “Theory of Forms” (the physical
world is not really the “real” world because the ultimate
reality exists beyond the physical world.
• He is the single most important influence of the Western
concept f “self.”
• According to him, the “soul” is indeed the most divine
aspect of the human being.
• His concept of the divine is not a spiritual being but
rather one that has an intellectual connotation.
Three Parts of the Soul (Plato)
1.The Appetite (sensual)
- the element that enjoys sensual experiences, such
as food, drink and sex
2. The Rational (reasoning)
- the element that forbids the person to enjoy the sensual
experiences; the part that loves truth, hence, should rule
over the other parts of the soul through the use of
reason.
3. The Spiritual (feeling)
- the element that is inclined toward reason but
understands the demands of passion: the part that loves
honor and victory.
ST. AUGUSTINE
• Known as St. Augustine of Hippo
• His philosophical approach to Christian thinking is the
most influential theological system.
• Deeply influenced by Plato where he adopted the view of
the “self” as an immaterial (but rational) soul.
• His concept of “self” was an inner, immaterial “I” that
has self-knowledge and self-awareness.
• He believed that the human being was both a soul and
body, and the body possessed senses, such as
imagination, memory, reason, and mind through which
the soul experienced the world.
Aspects of the self/soul (St. Augustine)
1. It is able to be aware of itself.
2. It recognizes itself as a holistic one.
3. It is aware of its unity.

• He believed that a human being who is both soul and body is

meant to tend to higher, divine, and heavenly matters
because of his capacity to ascend and comprehend truths
through the mind.
• He also pointed out that a person is similar to God as
regards to the mind and its ability; that by ignoring to use
his mind (or incorrect use of mind) he would lose the
possibility to reach real and lasting happiness.
RENE DESCARTES
• Father of Modern Western Philosophy
• The first thinker to emphasize the use of reason to describe,
predict, and understand natural phenomena and based on
observational and empirical evidence.
• Hyperbolical/metaphysical “Doubt” (methodological skepticism)
was a principal tool to disciplined inquiry – a systematic process
of being skeptical about the truth of one’s beliefs in order to
determine which beliefs could be ascertained as true.
• His famous line: “Cogito ergo sum” translated as, “I think,
therefore I am” became a fundamental element of Western
philosophy as it secured the foundation for knowledge in the
face of radical doubt.
 • The self are:
- constant, it is not prone to change; and it is not affected by
time
- Only the immaterial soul remains the same throughout time
- The immaterial soul is the source of our identity
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE SOUL AND BODY (Descartes)
THE SOUL THE BODY
It is a conscious, thinking substance It is material substance that
that is unaffected by time. changes throughout time.
It is known only to itself (only you
know your own mental event and It can be doubted: The public can
others cannot correct your mental correct claims about the body.
states).
It is not made up of parts. It views
the entirety of itself with no hidden It is made up of physical,
or separate compartments. It is both quantifiable, divisive parts.
conscious and aware of itself at the
same time.
JOHN LOCKE
• The most influential Enlightenment thinkers.
• He expanded his definition of “self” to include the memories
of that thinking thing.
• “Self” is identified with consciousness and this “self” consists
of sameness of consciousness – the person existing now is the
same person yesterday because he remembers the thoughts,
experiences, or actions of the earlier self.
• For Locke, a person’s memories provide a continuity of
experience that allows him to identify himself as the same
person overtime.
DAVID HUME
• Fierce opponent of Descartes’ Rationalism
• One of the three main figureheads of the influential British
Empiricism movement.
• Empiricism is the idea that the origin of all knowledge is
sense experience – emphasized the role of experience and
evidence in forming concepts.
• Proposed the “Bundle Theory” wherein he described the
“self” or “person” (Hume assumed as the mind) as a
collection of different perceptions that are moving in a very
fast and successive manner; therefore, it is in a “perpetual
flux.”
• Hume divided the mind’s perceptions into two groups stating
that the difference between the two “consists in the degree of
force and liveliness with which they strike upon the mind.”
1. Impressions. These are the perceptions that are the
strongest. They entered the senses with most force. These
are directly experienced; they result from inward and
outward sentiments.
2. Ideas. These are the less forcible and less lively counterparts
of impressions. These are mechanisms that copy and
reproduce sense data formulated based upon the previously
perceived impressions.
• Hume compared the “self” to a nation; whereby a nation
retains its “being a nation” not by some single core of
identity but by being composed of different, constantly
changing elements, such as people, systems, culture, and
beliefs. In the same manner, the “self” is not just one
impressions but a mix and a loose cohesion of various
personal experiences.
IMMANUEL KANT
• A central figure in modern philosophy.
• Kant proposed that the human mind creates the structure of
human experience.
• He view the “self” as transcendental meaning, it is related to
a spiritual or nonphysical realm. The “self” is not in the body
but outside the body, and it does not have the qualities of the
body. The body and its qualities are rooted to the “self” and it
is the knowledge that bridges the “self” and the material
things together.
• Two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality):
1. Consciousness of oneself and one’s psychological states in
inner sense
2. Consciousness of oneself and one’s states by performing
acts of apperception

• Apperception is the mental process by which a person makes

sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he
already possesses.
Two components of the “Self”
1. Inner Self. The “self” by which you are aware of alterations in
your own state. This includes your rational intellect and your
psychological state, such as moods, feelings, sensations, pleasure
and pains.
2. Outer Self. It includes your senses and the physical world. It is the
common boundary between the external world and the inner
self. It gathers information from the external world through the
senses, which the inner self interprets and coherently expresses.
The “self” organizes information in three ways:
3. Raw perceptual input
4. Recognizing the concept
5. Reproducing in the imagination.’
SIGMUND FREUD
• One of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
• Psychoanalysis (a practice devised to treat those who are
mentally ill through dialogue( is one of the most important
contribution he made.
• Psychoanalysis is a groundbreaking in the notion of “self”.
• Psyche is the totality of the human mind, both conscious and
unconscious.
Three levels of consciousness:
1. Conscious, which deals with awareness of present
perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories and fantasies at
any particular moment.
2. Preconscious/Subconscious, which is related to data that
can readily be brought to consciousness.
3. Unconscious, which refers to data retained but not easily
available to the individual's conscious awareness or scrutiny.
The Psychoanalytic Theory
• EGO-conscious part of • The ID and the SUPEREGO are in constant
the mind (Rational conflict. Your DRIVE tells you to do one
Self). Decides what thing , while SOCIETY tells you to do
action to take for something else.
positive means and
what to do based on
what is believed is the
right thing to do.
Aware of reality.
• SUPEREGO-
ID- unconconscious part of unconscious part of
the mind (this part of the the mind that acts as
mind seeks to bring us our conscience.
pleasure). Primitive parts Reminds us of what we
of our personality including should do.
aggression and sexual
drives

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, compared the human

mind to an iceberg. The tip above the water represents consciousness,
and the vast region below the surface symbolizes the unconscious
mind. Of Freud’s three basic personality structures—id, ego, and
superego—only the id is totally unconscious.
The superego consists of two systems:
1. Conscience. If the ego gives in to the id’s demands, the
superego may make the person feel bad through guilt.
2. Ideal Self. It is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be.
It represents career Aspirations; how to treat other people;
and how to behave as a member of society.
Gilbert Ryle
• He wrote the “Concept of Mind” where he rejected the notion
that mental states are separable from physical states.
• He called the distinction between mind and matter as
“category-mistake” because of its attempt to analyze the
relation between “mind” and “body” as if the same.
• He asserted that it is from our behaviors and actions – your
actions define your own concept of “self”.
PAUL CHURCHLAND
• Known of his study of neurophilosophy and the philosophy of
mind.
• His philosophy stands on a materialistic view or the belief that
nothing but matter exists.
• Churchland’s idea of “eliminative materialism” or the claim
that people’s common sense understanding of the mind (or
folk psychology) is false, and that certain classes of mental
states which most people believe in do not exist.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
• The “self” is an embodied subjectivity. He claimed that the body is
the primary site of knowing the body.
• The term “embodied” is a verb that means to give a body to (usually
an immaterial substance like a soul). Subjectivity in philosophy, is the
state of being a subject – an entity that possesses conscious
experiences, such as perspectives, feelings, beliefs, and desires.
Moreover, a subject acts upon or affects some other entity, which in
philosophy is called the object.
• He argued that the body is part of the mind, and the mind is part of
the body; that although there could be a stand – alone mental faculty
that perceives what the senses experiences, it needs the body to
receive these experiences , act on its perceptions and communicate
with the external world – the body acts what the mind perceives as a
unified one.
SOCIOLOGICAL and
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
VIEW OF THE SELF
CHAPTER 1
Self As a Product of Modern
Society
• How does society influence you? How do you affect society?
Who are you as a person in the society?

• Sociology implies that socially formed norms, beliefs, and

values come to exist within the person to a degree where
these become natural and normal – self identity

• Pre-modern society centered on survival and focused on

traditions; Modernization improved living conditions but
decreased stability.
Self As a Product of Modern
Society
• Key Characteristics of Modernity

• Industrialism – implied the extensive use of material power

• Capitalism – competitive product markets and price tag of labor
power
• Institutions of surveillance – massive increase of power and reach
by institutions and government
• Dynamism – Having vigorous activity and progress. Everything is
subjected to change
Self As a Product of Modern
Society
• Social Groups and Social Networks

• George Simmel – people create social networks by joining social

groups

• Social Group – two or more people interacting with one another,

sharing similar characteristics and identify themselves as one
with the group

• Social network – refers to ties or connections that link you to your

social group (e.g. family=blood relation; barkada=friendship;
classmates=common interest to learn)
Self As a Product of Modern
Society
• Social Groups and Social Networks

• Organic Group – Naturally occurring. Formed in traditional

societies
• Organic Motivation – You join because of tradition, deep influence.

• Rational Groups – Occur in Modern Societies. People join out of

their own free-will
• Rational Motivation – Implies greater freedom but less connection
with other members
Mead and the Social Self
• George Herbert Mead – “’A multiple personality is in a a
certain sense normal”.

• Theory of the Social Self – focused on how self is developed

• Self is the product of social interactions and internalizing the

external (other people’s) views along with one’s personal view
about oneself.

• Self is not present at birth; it develops over time through social

experiences and activities
Mead and the Social Self
• Developing the Self

• Three stages of Development by Mead:

• Language, play and game

• Language – sets the stage for self-development. Understanding

symbols, gestures, sound, language.
• Play – Individuals role-play or assume the perspective of others.
Role-playing enables the person to internalize other people’s
perspectives thus developing an understanding of others
• Game – The person is able to take into account societal rules and
abides to it.
Mead and the Social Self
• Two sides of Self:

• Me
• The product of what the person has learned through interactions

• I
• Part of the self that is dissocialized and spontaneous
The Self and the Person in
Contemporary Anthropology
• Anthropology – the study of people, past and present. Focuses on
understanding the human condition in its cultural aspect.

• A unit but unitary

• According to Katherine Ewing, SELF is an encompassing physical
organism, possessing psychological functioning and social
attributes.

• Joseph LeDoux (2002) conceptualized the implicit and explicit

aspects of the self

• Implicit – Immediately available to the consciousness

• Explicit – Self that you are consciously aware of
The Self and the Person in
Contemporary Anthropology
• Self as Representation

• Ewing asserted that a “self” is illusory,

• People construct a series of self-representations that are based
on selected cultural concepts of person and selected ‘chains’ of
personal memories
The Self Embedded in Culture
• Culture defines how an individual sees himself, how he relates
to people and to the environment
• Cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express and
transform the human psyche
• The principles of how the mind works cannot be conceived of
as universal , but as variations of culture and traditions that
people practice
• Two ways of how the Self is constructed

• Independent – Characteristic of individualistic culture such as North

America and Europe

• Interdependent – Typical of the collectivist culture in East Asia,

stressing the essential connection between the individual to other
people
The Self As A Cognitive
Construction
• Psychology is the scientific study of how people behave, think
and feel.
• Everything that concerns the human being is a concern of
Psychology
• Psychologist Jean Piaget, the term cognitive means relating to
being or involving conscious intellectual activity, such as
thinking, reasoning , or remembering
• Theory of Cognitive Development – a comprehensive theory
on the development of human intelligence
• The nature of knowledge itself, how humans gradually come
to acquire, construct, and use it
• Cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of
mental processes from birth until one acquires experiences
The Self As A Cognitive
Construction
• Children construct an understanding of the world around
them

• Cognitive development is at the center of human organism

(e.g. language is dependent on knowledge and understanding)

• Language can only be acquired through the dev’t of

intelligence, conscious thought and problem-solving ability
that begins in infancy
The Self As A Cognitive
Construction
• Three basic components to Piaget’s cognitive theory:

• Schemas/Scheme – Building blocks of knowledge. Schemes are

mental organizations that individuals use to understand their
environment and designate action
• Adaptation – Involves the child’s learning process to meet
situational demands
• Stages of cognitive Development – They reflect the increasing
sophistication of the child’s thought process
The Self As A Cognitive
Construction
• Two processes used by an individual in order to
adapt :
• Assimilation – Application of previous
concepts to new concepts
• Accommodation – Happens when people
encounter completely new information or
when existing ideas are challenged
The Self As A Cognitive
Construction
STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF STAGE

Sensorimotor 0-2 The child learns by doing

The child uses language and

Preoperational 2-7
symbols

The child demonstrates

conservation, reversibility, serial
Concrete Operations 7-11 ordering and a mature
understanding of cause-and-
effect

The individual demonstrates

Formal Operations 12+
abstract thinking at this stage
Harter’s Self-development
Concept
• Susan Harter – detailed the emergence of self-concept
and asserted that the broad developmental changes
observed across early childhood
• Early Childhood – The child describes the self in terms of
concrete and observable characteristics such as physical
attributes

• Middle to Later Childhood – The self is described in terms of

trait-like constructs (e.g. smart, honest, friendly, shy)

• Adolescence – the emergence of more abstract self-definitions

such as inner thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and motives

• Emerging Adults – Having a vision of a “possible self

William James and the Me-Self;
I-Self
• “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook”
• - William James

• William James – the father of Psychology, written The Principles of

Psychology
• Self has 2 elements: the I-self and the Me-self

• I-self – The pure ego. It is the subjective self. Aware if its own actions
• Me-self – The self is the object. You can describe as your physical
characteristics, personalities, social role or relationships, thoughts, feelings.
William James and the Me-Self;
I-Self
• Personality development and the self-concept
• Carl Rogers – American psychologist, and one of the founders of
Humanistic Approach.
• He stressed that a person is an active, creative, experiencing
being who lives in the present and who thinks, feels and responds
to his/her environment

• Ideal Self vs. the Real Self –

• Ideal self is the person that you would like yourself to be; the
concept of the “’best of me”
• Real Self is the person that you actually are. It is how you behave
right at the moment of a situation