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2 Philosophical Perspectives

This document discusses different philosophical perspectives on the nature of the self from ancient Greek philosophers to contemporary thinkers. It covers views such as: - For pre-Socratics like Thales, the soul's movement is the ultimate source of all other movement. - Socrates believed man has both a perfect immortal soul and an imperfect mortal body. Plato viewed the soul as having rational, spirited, and appetitive components that must be balanced. - St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas incorporated Christian theology, viewing the soul as immortal and what makes humans distinct from animals. - René Descartes argued the self is the mind ("I think therefore I am") separate from the extended

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Mark Palomar
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40 views32 pages

2 Philosophical Perspectives

This document discusses different philosophical perspectives on the nature of the self from ancient Greek philosophers to contemporary thinkers. It covers views such as: - For pre-Socratics like Thales, the soul's movement is the ultimate source of all other movement. - Socrates believed man has both a perfect immortal soul and an imperfect mortal body. Plato viewed the soul as having rational, spirited, and appetitive components that must be balanced. - St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas incorporated Christian theology, viewing the soul as immortal and what makes humans distinct from animals. - René Descartes argued the self is the mind ("I think therefore I am") separate from the extended

Uploaded by

Mark Palomar
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The SELF from Various

Philosophical Perspectives

Lecture 1 in
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
PHILOSOPHY
- study of the fundamental nature of
knowledge, reality, and existence,
especially in an academic discipline.
- a particular theory that someone
has about how to live or how to deal
with a particular situation.
PHILOSOPHY

- academic discipline concerned with


investigating the nature of significance
of ordinary and scientific beliefs

- investigates the legitimacy of


concepts by rational argument
concerning their implications,
relationships as well as reality,
knowledge, moral judgement, etc.
Much of
philosophy concerns
with the fundamental
nature of self.
The Greeks were the ones who
seriously questioned myths and moved
away from them to understand reality
and respond to perennial questions of
curiosity, including the question of the
self.
The following are discussions of
different perspectives and under-
standings of the self according to its
prime movers. From philosophers of the
ancient times to the contemporary period.
THE PRE-SOCRATICS
The Pre-Socratics (Thales,
Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus,
Empedocles, etc.) were concerned with
answering questions such as
• what is the world really made up of?
• why is the world the way it is?
• what explains the changes that happen
around us?
THE PRE-SOCRATICS

• arché- origin or source/the “soul”/the


primal matter
• the soul’s movement is the ultimate
arché of all other movement
• arché has no origin outside itself and
cannot be destroyed
• explains the multiplicity of things in the
world
DO YOU AGREE THAT THERE IS
A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
BODY AND THE SOUL?

DO YOU THINK YOU


HAVE BOTH?

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE


BETWEEN THE TWO?
SOCRATES SOCRATES

• concerned with the problem of the self


• “the true task of the philosopher is to
know oneself”
• “the unexamined life is not worth
living”
• underwent a trial for ‘corrupting the
minds of the youth’
• succeeded made people think about
who they are
SOCRATES SOCRATES

• ‘the worst thing that


can happen to anyone
is to live but die inside’
• “every person is
dualistic”
SOCRATES SOCRATES

• man = body + soul


• individual =
imperfect/permanent
(body)
+ perfect & permanent
(soul)
PLATO

• 3components to the soul


rational soul – reason & intellectto
govern affairs
spirited soul – emotions should be
kept at bay
appetitive soul – base desires (food,
drink, sleep, sexual needs, etc.)
• when these are attained, the human
person’s soul becomes just & virtuous
WHAT HAPPENS TO A
PERSON WHOSE
3COMPONENTS
OF THE SOUL
ARE IMBALANCED?
ST. AUGUSTINE

• ‘spirit of man’ in medieval philosophy


• following view of Plato but adds
Christianity
• man is of a bifurcated nature
• part of man dwells in the world (imperfect)
and yearns to be with the Divine
• other part is capable of reaching
immortality
• body – dies on earth; soul – lives eternally
in spiritual bliss with “God” (#lifegoalz)
DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE
CONCEPT OF THE SOUL
COMING TO HEAVEN
AFTER DEATH?
WHAT MAKES US
PEOPLE DIFFERENT
FROM ANIMALS?
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
• man = matter + form
• matter (hyle) – “common stuff that
makes up everything in the universe”
• form (morphe) – “essence of a substance
or thing”; (what makes it what it is)
• the body of the human is similar to
animals/objects, but what makes a
human is his essence
• “the soul is what makes us humans”
MODERN
PHILOSOPHY
RENE DESCARTES

• Father of Modern Philosophy


• human person = body + mind
• “there is so much that we should
doubt”
• “if something is so clear and lucid as
not to be doubted, that’s the only time
one should believe.”
• the only thing one can’t doubt is
existence of the self
RENE DESCARTES

• “I think, therefore I am”


• the self = cogito (the thing that thinks)
+ extenza (extension of mind/body)
• the body is a machine attached to the
mind
• it’s the mind that makes the man
• “I am a thinking thing. . . A thing that
doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills,
refuses, imagines, perceives.”
DO YOU AGREE WITH
THE STATEMENTS ABOUT THE
SELF(body & soul)
SO FAR?

WHAT SEEMS TO BE
QUESTIONNABLE IN
THEIR CONJECTURES?
DAVID HUME
• disagrees with the all the other
aforementioned philosophers
• “one can only know what comes from the
senses & experiences” (he is an empiricist)
• “the self is not an entity beyond the
physical body”
• you know that other people are humans
not because you have seen their soul, but
because you see them, hear them, feel
them etc
DAVID HUME
• “the self is nothing but a bundle of
impressions and ideas”
• impression –
- basic objects of our
experience/sensation
- forms the core of our thoughts
• idea –
- copies of impressions
- not as “real” as impressions
- feeling mo lang yun!
DAVID HUME

• self = a collection of different


perceptions which rapidly succeed each
other
• self = in a perpetual flux and
movement
• we want to believe that there is a
unified , coherent self, soul, mind, etc.
but ~~actually~~ it is all just a
combination of experiences.
IMMANNUEL KANT

• Agree with Hume that everything starts


with perception/ sensation of
impressions.
• There is a MIND that regulates these
impressions
• “time, space, etc. are ides that cannot
find in the world, but is built in our
minds
• “apparatus of the mind”
IMMANNUEL KANT

• the self organizes different impressions


that one gets in relation to his own
existence
• we need active intelligence to
synthesize all knowledge and
experience
• the self is not only personality but also
the seat of knowledge
HOW DO YOU FEEL
ABOUT THE
DISCUSSION SO
FAR?
GILBERT RYLE

• denies the internal, non-physical self


• “what truly matters is the behavior that
a person manifests in his day-to-day
life.”
• looking for the self is like entering LU
and looking for the “university”
(explain!)
GILBERT RYLE

• the self is not an entity one


can locate and analyze but
simply the convenient name
that we use to refer to the
behaviors that we make
MERLEAU-PONTY
• a phenomenologist who says the mind-
body bifurcation is an invalid problem
• mind and body are inseparable
• “one’s body is his opening toward his
existence to the world”
• the living body, his thoughts, emotions,
and experiences are all one.
MERLEAU-PONTY

• if you hate this subject, Merleau-Ponty


understands you.

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