UNDRESTANDING THE SELF

threepart soul/self that is

TOPIC 2: the Self According to composed of:
Philosophy rational soul (reason),
- enables human to think
deeply, make wise choices
Pre-socratic philosophers were
and achieve a true
concerned with explaining what the
understanding of eternal
world is really made up of, why the world
truths. (balance the appetitive
is so, and what explains the changes that
soul and spirited soul)
they observed around them.
appetitive soul (appetite )
SOCRATES -the basic biological needs of
 was the first philosopher who human being such as hunger,
ever engaged in a systematic thirst, and sexual desire.
questioning about the self. (pleasure seeking principle)
spirited soul ( spirit or passion.)
 Socrates did not write down
- the basic emotions of human
his teachings; his ideas are
being such as love, anger,
mainly known through the
aggressiveness and empathy
writings of his student Plato.
 Socrates' philosophy was  Plato also illustrated his view of
inspired by the advice "Know the soul/self in "Phaedrus" in
Thyself" from the Delphic his metaphor: the soul is like a
Oracle. winged chariot drawn by two
powerful horses: a white
 According to Socrates, “self” is
horse, representing Spirit, and
dichotomous, which means
a black horse, embodying
composed of two things: The
appetite.
PHYSICAL realm (body), All
ST. AUGUSTINE
individuals have an imperfect,
 St. Augustine is considered as
impermanent aspect to him
the last of the great ancient
and the Ideal Realm (soul) or a
philosophers whose ideas
thinking and willing subject;
were greatly Platonic.
There is a soul that is perfect
 believed that the physical
and permanent.
body is different from the
immortal soul.
PLATO
 Body- Man dwells in the world
 A student of Socrates, who
and has imperfect,
introduced the idea of a
impermanent aspect to him
(and continuously yearns to
UNDRESTANDING THE SELF

be with the Divine). Soul- The JOHN LOCKE

soul is capable of reaching  An English philosopher and
immortality and may physician and famous in his
anticipate living eternally in a concept of “Tabula Rasa” or
realm of spiritual bliss in Blank Slate that assumes the
communion with God. nurture side of human
 He also stated that real development.
happiness can only be found  The self, according to Locke is
in God. For God is love and he consciousness. In his essay
created humans for them to entitled On Personal Identity
also love. (from his most famous work,
 Problems arise because of the Essay Concerning Human
objects humans choose to Understanding) he discussed
love. Disordered love results the reflective analysis of how
when man loves the wrong an individual may experience
things which he believes will the self in everyday living. He
give him happiness. provided the following key
 he said that if man loves God points:
first and everything else to a a. To discover the nature of
lesser degree, then all will fall personal identity, it is
into its rightful place. important to find out what it
RENE DESCARTES means to be a person.
 Descartes (founder of modern b. A person is a thinking,
philosophy) explained that in intelligent being who has the
order to gain true knowledge, abilities to reason and to
one must doubt everything reflect.
even own existence. Doubting
c. A person is also someone
makes someone aware that
who considers themself to be
they are thinking being thus,
the same thing in different
they exist.
times and different places.
 "cogito, ergo sum" or "I think,
therefore I exist" d. Consciousness as being
 Descartes asserted that the aware that we are thinking—
soul and body are separate always accompanies thinking
and can exist and function and is an essential part of the
independently. thinking process.
 Mind-cogito; body- extensa e. Consciousness makes
possible our belief that we are
UNDRESTANDING THE SELF

the same identity in different self is rational, practical, and

times and different places. appropriate to the social
 The bottom line of his theory environment. The conscious
on self is that self is not tied to self has the task of controlling
any particular body or the constant pressures of the
substance. It only exists in unconscious self, as its
other times and places primitive impulses continually
because of the memory of seek for immediate discharge.
those experiences.  The unconscious self is
DAVID HUME governed by pleasure
 empiricism is the school of principle. It is the self that is
thought that espouses the aggressive, destructive,
idea that knowledge can only unrealistic and instinctual.
be possible if it is sensed and  The observable behavior,
experienced. Men can only however, is further controlled
attain knowledge by by the workings of the
experiencing. subconscious/unconscious
 If one tries to examine his mind.
experiences, he finds that they ID- desires, pleasure principle
can all be categorized into EG0- reality principle; balance id and
two: impressions and ideas. superego.
- Impressions: the basic objects SUPEREGO-moral and the ideal
of our experience or sensation; principle.
form the core of our thoughts;  According to Freud, there are
products of our direct two kinds of instinct that drive
experience with the world. individual behavior – the eros
- Ideas: copies of impressions; or the life instinct and the
not as lively and vivid as thanatos of the death instinct.
impressions.  The energy of eros is called
 To David Hume, the self is libido and includes urges
nothing else but a bundle of necessary for individual and
impressions. species survival like thirst,
SIGMUND FREUD hunger, and sex in cases that
 The dualistic view of self by
human behavior is directed
Freud involves the conscious
towards destruction the form
self and unconscious self.
of aggression and violence,
 The conscious self is governed
by reality principle. Here, the
UNDRESTANDING THE SELF

such are the manifestations of  Contradicted David Humes.

thanatos.  Kant therefore suggests that it
GILBERT RYLE is an actively engaged
 suggests that the “self” is not intelligence in man that
an entity one can locate and synthesizes all knowledge and
analyze but simply the experience. Thus, the self is not
convenient name that people just what gives one his
use to refer to all the behaviors personality. It is also the seat of
that people make. knowledge acquisition for all
 Denied the concept of an human persons.
internal, non-physical self or PAULA ND PATRICIA CHURCHLAND
the soul.  Churchlands’ central
 Body- the behavior that a argument is that the concepts
person manifests in his day- and theoretical vocabulary
to-day life. that people use to think about
IMMANUEL KANT the selves— using such terms
 thinks that the things that men as belief, desire, fear,
perceive around them are not sensation, pain, joy— actually
just randomly infused into the misrepresent the reality of
human person without an minds and selves. He claims
organizing principle that that the self is a product of
regulates the relationship of all brain activity
these impressions.  Patricia Churchland claimed
 To Kant, there is necessarily a that man’s brain is responsible
mind that organizes the for the identity known as self.
impressions that men get The biochemical properties of
from the external world. Time the brain according to this
and space, for example, are philosophy of neuroscience is
ideas that one cannot find in really responsible for man’s
the world, but is built in our thoughts, feelings, and
minds → APPARATUSES OF behavior.
THE MIND  Paul Churchland is one of the
 Along with the different many philosophers and
apparatuses of the mind goes psychologists that viewed the
the “self”. Without the self, one self from a materialistic point
cannot organize the different of view, contending that in the
impressions that one gets in final analysis mental states
relation to his own existence. are identical with, reducible to,
UNDRESTANDING THE SELF

or explainable in terms of
physical brain states.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
 Merleau-Ponty says that the
mind and body are so
intertwined that they cannot
be separated from one
another. One cannot find any
experience that is not an
embodied experience.
 The living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences
are all one.