SLM IN UNDERSTANDING THE SELF | MICO MAY M.

REGIS -CAYACO, RGC l EVSU – TANAUAN CAMPUS

TO YOU DEAR FRESHMEN:

Welcome to College Life. This course is Understanding the Self. This course is a fundamental
course in the tertiary education. This course is designed to help you understand the nature of
the self and the factors that influence and shape self-identity. These sets of modules will
contain all the necessary lessons as indicated in our course syllabus. The main purpose of this
module is to help you learn and complete your course work while you are studying at home.

This module has icons that you should be familiar with as you work through the entire modules
of this course.

In this part you will know the contents of this

module.
Let’s Begin Here

This part of the module will tell you what are the
Let’s Hit It learning competencies that you need to achieve.

This is a short activity or review of the previous

lesson that aims to help you bridge the current to the
Let’s Recall past lesson.

In this part the new lesson will be discussed. The

concepts will help you understand the new concepts
Let’s Learn and skills.

This part contains activities and questions that can

help you translate theoretical learnings to practical
Let’s Do It application.

This part contains questions and activities that aims

Let’s Put Your to process the lessons that you learned in this
Thoughts into module. This involves activities and exercises that
Writing aims to enhance your understanding and skills
related on the topic at hand by writing about it.

This part contains questions and activities that aims

Let’s Assess Your to assess and measure the level of learning of the
Learning target competency/ies.

At the end of the module, a glossary of terms is

Glossary prepared for you to serve as your guide on the
different concepts and terms found in the module.

At the end of the module, references are also

References
provided.

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 SLM IN UNDERSTANDING THE SELF | MICO MAY M. REGIS -CAYACO, RGC l EVSU – TANAUAN CAMPUS

MODULE
The Self in the Eyes
1 of the Philosophers

Let’s Begin Here

This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help
you better understand yourself by walking you through the philosophical
foundations on the study of the self. As a bonus, you will be given fun
enrichment activities. Be careful in answering the exercises and tasks by
carefully reading every given instruction. Let’s begin!

Let’s Hit It

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1.1 Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the
points-of-view of the various philosophers across time and place.
1.2 Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different
philosophical schools.
1.3 Examine one’s self against different views of self
Materials Needed:
Journal Notebook
Pen and paper
Duration:
3 hours/1 week

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Let’s Recall
Direction: Make a graphic organizer like the one below in your activity sheet.
Fill in the information asked in each box.

Let’s Learn

Do you remember the first time you were asked “What’s your name?”
As you grow older, you were probably asked this question a dozen times.
Every time, you are asked to say something about yourself, you would often
start with your name. But as you probably already know, your name is not all
that you are. You also have been going through self-reflection of who you
really are whenever you are asked to describe yourself. You are not alone in
investigating about the existence of the self. Many of our philosophers have
also philosophize about it and come up with their own ideas about the self.
Let’s look into each one of them and reflect whether you agree or disagree with
their ideas.

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Socrates & Plato

Socrates is a Greek philosopher that is concerned
with the problem of the self. He was the first philosopher
who engaged in a systematic questioning about the self.
He believes that man is composed of body and soul, the
body is described as imperfect, material and
impermanent while the soul is perfect, immaterial and
permanent.
Source:https://ethics.org.au/big-thinker-socrates/

As a student of Socrates, Plato also believed in the

dualistic nature of the self. He added to his teacher’s idea
the three components of the soul: the rational soul
(reason), the spirited soul (emotion) and the appetitive
soul (desires). Plato said, that the self can only live a life
of virtue and justice if the three components are working
harmoniously with one another. Both Socrates and Plato
believe that when the body dies, the soul continues to Source: https://www.biography.com/scholar/plato

exist in eternity.

Augustine and Thomas Aquinas

Augustine view of the self is based on the ideas of Plato
combined with the teachings of Christianity. Man for
Augustine has a bifurcated nature – one aspect that is
imperfect, lives in the material world and continuously
yearn to be one with the Divine; and the other aspect
that is capable of reaching immortality. Augustine
believes that the body is bound to die on earth and
the soul is anticipated to live eternally in a realm in
communion with God. The ultimate goal of a human
ST. AUGUSTINES person is to attain this communion with God by living a
SOURCE: https://www.s9.com/Biography/aurelius-aug ustinus/
life of virtue on earth.

Thomas Aquinas added something to

Augustine’s view on the self. He believes that man
is composed of two parts – matter and form. Matter
or ‘hyle’ is a Greek word that means ‘common stuff
that makes up everything in the universe. Form or
‘morphe’ in Greek refers to the ‘essence of a
substance or thing.’ The human person’s body is
the ‘hyle’ and the soul is the ‘morphe’. The soul is THOMAS AQUINAS
what animates the body, it is what makes it human.
SOURCE: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Thomas-Aquinas

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 SLM IN UNDERSTANDING THE SELF | MICO MAY M. REGIS -CAYACO, RGC l EVSU – TANAUAN CAMPUS

Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes is known to be the Father of
Modern Philosophy. He believes that the human
person is made of body and mind. He said that
only when something is clear not to be doubted
that one should actually believe in it. He is then,
that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the
existence of the self – a thing that thinks and
RENE DESCARTES therefore cannot be doubted.
SOURCE: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Descartes

Cogito ergo sum is his famous philosophy – one thinks thus without a
doubt one exists. The self for Descartes is a combination of two entities –
cogito (the one that thinks) and extenza (extension of the mind which is the
body). The body is but a machine attached to the mind.
David Hume
David Hume, a Scottish philosopher and an empiricist. He believes that
one can only know what comes from the senses and experiences. The self is
nothing but a bundle of impressions. Experiences according to Hume can be
categorized into two – impressions and ideas. Impressions are the basic object
of the experience or sensation (ex. When one
touches a candle fire, the hot sensation is the
impression). Ideas are copies of impressions – they
are not as lively and vivid as the impressions. When
you imagine the pain of being broken hearted for the
first time, for example, is not an impression but just an
idea. Self then, according to Hume is simply a bundle
DAVID HUME or collection of different perceptions.
SOURCE: https://thegreatthinkers.org/hume/biography/

Other philosophers may simply believe that human person could be unified,
coherent, a soul or mind; but for Hume, what one think is that a unified self is
simply a combination of all experiences with a particular person.
Immanuel Kant
Kant had difficulty digesting that the self is but
a bundle of impression, although he
acknowledges Hume’s idea that everything starts
from perception and sensation. He philosophize
that there are apparatuses of the mind that
organizes these sensations and perceptions,
among these apparatuses is the self. Without the
IMMANUEL KANT
self, one cannot organize the different
impressions that one gets about its own existence. SOURCE:
https://cla.umn.edu/philosophy/news-events/story/kant-polymath-mo
dern-thought

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Let’s Do It
Activity: Let’s Philosophize!
Direction: Today you are going to be a philosopher, as a philosopher you are
going to synthesize the readings above and come up with your own definition
of the ‘self’ based on what and whose idea you believe to and adhere to the
most. Choose your personal ‘philosopher name’ and put it at the end of your
definition.

“But what then am I? A thinking thing. It has been said. But

what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands
(conceives), affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagine also and
perceives” (Descartes, 2008)

Let’s Put Your Thoughts into Writing

Activity: Journal Writing

Direction: On your journal notebook, write Journal Entry No. 1. You are going
to write your significant learning in this module. Share your reflections while
doing all the activities and important takeaways. Below are guide questions.
1. Compare and contrast the different ideas on the self and think of what is
most appealing to you.
2. Reflecting on the different ideas of the self, which do you believe
applies to your understanding about yourself?

Let’s Assess Your Learning

Direction: In your answer sheet make a table like the one below. Complete
the table (column 2) by writing the ideas on the self of the philosopher and
(column 3) writing your reaction or comment of the said idea – state whether

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you agree, disagree, partially agree and your explanation. Make it brief and
direct to the point.
Philosopher Idea on the Self Your POV
Socrates
Plato
Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
Rene Descartes
David Hume
Immanuel Kant

Glossary of Terms
philosophize. to reason in the manner of a philosopher
bifurcated. divided into two branches or parts

References
Alata, Eden Joy Pastor, Bernardo Nicolas Caslib Jr, Janice Patria Javier
Serafica, and R A Pawilen. 2018. Understanding the Self. Sampaloc,
Manila: Rex Bookstore.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

CATHERINE BORCE HOMECILLO
San Juan Elementary School, SD
San Carlos City, Region VI
Icons Illustrator

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