DIFFERENT

PERSPECTIVE IN THE
EXPLANATION OF SELF
 GILBERT
RYLE
• “what truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day-to-day life.”
• a British philosopher whose book, The
Concept of Mind, had a dramatic impact on
Western thought.
• Ryle summarizes the essential elements of
the dualistic view of the self—mind and
body as distinct entities—first articulated
by Plato and then perpetuated in various
incarnations through St. Augustine,
“I act therefore, I am” Descartes, and others.
 PAUL
CHURCHLAND
• refers to this view as “eliminative
materialism.”
• Churchland’s central argument is that the
concepts and theoretical vocabulary we
use to think about ourselves—using such
terms as belief, desire, fear, sensation,
pain, joy—actually misrepresent the
reality of minds and selves.
MAURICE MERLEAU-
PONTY
• ▪Both empiricism and
intellectualism are flawed in
nature.
• ▪ “we are our bodies”
• Our bodily experiences do not
detach the subject/object,
min/body, rational/irrational.