CHAPTER 1: LESSON 2

VARIOUS WAYS IN DEALING

WITH THE QUESTION “WHO
AM I” IN THE COURSE OF
HISTORY
THE PROBLEM OF THE SELF THAT IS EXPRESSED IN THE QUESTION
“WHO AM I?” IS ONE OF THE DIFFICULT PROBLEMS IN PHILOSOPHY.

VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES AND DEBATES SPRUNG FROM IT.

♡DUALITY OF BODY AND SOUL
■ UNITY OF BODY AND SOUL
♤ HUMAN CONCIOUSNESS AND EXISTENCE
☆ HUMAN FACULTY OF REASON
DUALITY OF BODY AND SOUL

duality refers to having two parts, often with opposite meanings,

like the duality of good and evil. If there are two sides to a coin,
metaphorically speaking, there's a duality. Peace and war, love
and hate, up and down, and black and white are dualities.
The duality of body and soul is the view held by those who
believe that our body is separate and distinct from our soul.
The soul, though conceived in many ways, is that aspect of our
being that is not material. Our body shows our
corporeality(corporeality - the quality of being physical;
consisting of matter. Corporality, physicalness, materiality.) But
we are more than our body because we have a soul or a spirit.
DUALITY OF BODY AND SOUL

• This view is reflected in HOMERIC POEMS

who go into battle are described as risking
their soul (Lorenz 2009). Moral qualities
such as courage are commonly understood
as properties of the human spirit. Even the
animal rituals of our ancestors reflect a
dualistic view.
DUALITY OF BODY AND SOUL

The soul or the spirits is

philosophically discussed as mind
since mental capacities and abilities
are attributed to it.
The Mind-Body Problem
Mind-Body Problem

• Mulan (1998)
• The theme “reflection” from this movie may be related to the mind-
body peoblem in philosophy. The song and movie became popular
because a lot of teenagers were able to relate with these lunes:
Who is that girl I see staring back at me ?
Why is my reflection someone I don’t know ?
Somehow I csnnot hide
Who I am though I tried
DUALITY OF BODY AND SOUL

• René Descartes (1596–1650) believed that mind

exerted control over the brain via the pineal
gland: ... His posited relation between mind and
body is called Cartesian dualism or substance
dualism. He held that mind was distinct from
matter, but could influence matter.
WHO AM I?

We are involved in thinking

about ourselves. We reflect or
introspect. In doing so, we are
looking within or deep inside
ourselves (at our soul mind).
Being a teenager is a difficult
time because that is when one
intensely feels that he/she is not
the person other people think
them to be.
The mind/soul

• . The mind/soul is simply difficult to reduce to something physical.

The mental capacities and abilities we have seem too powerful to
attribute to a brain. But distinguishing the mind from the brain
leads to many difficult questions which remain unresolved to this
day. The distinction of the mental and the bodily, for one, raises
the question of how interaction takes place between the mind and
the body. Not to mention the problem of causal linkage between
brain and mind. To this time, philosophers are still grappling over
the problem of the place of mental phenomena in nature.
• Despite numerousproblems, perhaps oneuseful insight to bedrawn
out from dualismof body and mind is, thatthe qualities of our
bodyare separate and distinctfrom the qualities ofour soul, so that
whathappens to our body inlife and in death doesnot translate to
the exactsame occurrence to oursoul. People who are not born
physically complete do not necessarily have broken souls, so to
speak. Whatever tragedy happens to you in life, your soul and your
body will have their responses and you can count on either of the
two to help you endure and survive. What a gift it is to be human!
■ UNITY OF BODY AND SOUL
In contrast to
Among those who did not subscribe to dualism is
dualism,
St. Thomas Aquinas. Following Aristotle's notion of
monism is much
form and matter, Aquinas claimed that body and
simpler and
soul are not two entities that interact with each
avoids mam
other but are one being made up of matter and
unresolved
form. Although the body is the matter and the
questions. To
soul is the form, a being cannot remain a being if
say that the
matter and form are not united. A being is one
body and soul
even though it consists of many parts. It ceases to
together make
exist in death because the matter and form that
one entitydoes
make up that being is no longer complete. This
not require
kind of thinking is like saying that the whole is the
much proof as
sum total of its parts. Remove a part and it is no
opposed to
longer whole.Christians believe that human is
offering a
created body and soul by God.
dualist
Thinking Pop

“Emo”

originally a style of rock music, emo has come to

mean emotional or angs-ridden.
UNITY OF BODY AND Soul

• Human is an embodied soul. We have a body but

we are more than our body. Through the body we
express what is within ourselves. In the same
way, our soul is so much a part of our humanity
that we need to nourish and care for our soul just
as we do our body. Christians speak of the
salvation of souls and at the same time look
forward to Judgment Day when souls will be
united again with their bodies.
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AND EXISTENCE

John Locke (1632-1704)John Locke is an

English philosopher and political theorist.
In his "Essay Concerning Human
Understanding," he advanced a theory of
the self as tabula rasa, a compound of
words derived from the ancients, which
means "bank slate or page." He is also
famous for his treatises in political
philosophy The American Constitution,
which the Philippine Constitution mostly
models, is inspired by the views of Locke
on man, society, state, and governance
HUMAN CONCIOUSNESS AND EXISTENCE

• Part of the reason why the mind-body problem could not be entirely
abandoned in philosophy is because humans naturally engage in
thought as they interact with the world. Nonetheless, the
complexities of thought could not be explained by nature. A special
branch of philosophy called Philosophy of Mind deals with this puzzle.
One of the things they looked into is John Locke's notion of inner
sense that is better understood as reflection or introspection. Locke
was the first to point out that all thoughts are conscious. Moreover,
our consciousness is the criterion for personal identity. As a thinking
being, the self we refer to consists of those thoughts and sensations
of which we are conscious of (that is, something we aware of)
Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant is also interpreted by philosophers of

mind as providing the basis for a rationalist approach.
The self is a rational agent who can know their own
thoughts and attitudes, and be responsible for them.The
first-person being or the "I" is so obvious and yet
extremely difficult to explain. This intrigued
phenomenologists and existentialists, too. The
phenomenologist expounds on intentionality of
consciousness while the existentialist explores the
feelings that are awakened by consciousness. The
phenomenologist sees man as embodied subjectivity that
exists and gives meaning, with his body making incarnate
or alive the meaning he gives (Dy 2001, vi).
• Moreover, phenomenologists philosophize guided by the idea that consciousness is
thought (of a subject) that is always directed toward an object. The
existentialist, on the other hand, confronts the possibility that the T might have
been someone else or might not have been at all (Tallis 2004 D. Realizing that we
are contingent (or may not have existed) beings make us think deeply and more
emotionally about our existence Contemplating about our existence can
sometimes bring terror and despair among other things.The world will go on
without us. Confronted with such, our consciousness of our place in the world can
trigger complex and deep emotions of anxiety or distress,Thus, it is clear that our
mind presents phenomena that are distinct from those experienced by our body.
We can visualize pain and experience despair, for instance, without a physical
cause. We have reasons to believe that who we are cannot simply be reduced to
our corporeality and yet we do not fully know or even understand the workings of
our mind/sou.
Huma Faculty of Reason

• Reason, in philosophy, the faculty or process of drawing logical

inferences. ... Reason is in opposition to sensation, perception,
feeling, desire, as the faculty (the existence of which is denied by
empiricists) by which fundamental truths are intuitively
apprehended.
HUMAN FACULTY OF REASON

• All these things are puzzling and intriguing One does not
have to be a philosopher to relate with or understand
these things. Humans have a mental faculty or capacity
that enables them to think, to reason, to understand, to
compare to analyze, to associate ideas, and so on.
Philosophers are in agreement that human beings have
this human faculty of reason. But as to what reason can
do and what it really is there are differing views. The
scope and power of reason remain problematic.
• The rationalists and the empiricists both agree that there is a human faculty
called reason. However, the rationalists discover truths by sitting and thinking
while the empiricists discover truth using their senses or by observing the world
The rationalists seek knowledge by grasping necessary truths and necessary
connections-truths that do not depend on man. The empiricists also seek for
truths outside of man by looking at sense data. There are also skepties in
between. Reason is contrasted by some from faith; while others would claim
that reason includes the heart. Some narrow the scope of reason, others widen
it. There are also some who reveal that we are less rational than we think,
since we are beings who are much more influenced by things other than
rationality,The important point, however, is that human being possesses a
faculty that enables him/her to survive and endure life. He/she is unlike other
objects (extended, material like man) or other beings (plants and animals) in
this world because of his/her faculty of reason. His/her reason is a function of
his her mind or his her soul. The more that human being uses his her reason to
reflect and to deliberate things the more his/her life becomes fruitful.
satisfying, and meaningful