Philosophical Perspective on the

SELF: PART 1

March 8, 2021
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• DISCUSS The NOTION of
PHILOSOPHY, the
insights of Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle as
their theory relate to
the self.
 PRELIMINARIES
• PHILOSOPHY IS a science, which
inquires to the ultimate
causes/principles of all things
through the use of reason alone.
• AN interrogation about life.
• A meaning-giving activity
 Let’s ponder First
• Self-knowledge is not only something that
one ought to work at; it is something that can
only be had by working at it. It is an
achievement and not a given. It is not
something that I merely happen to have, like
eye color or temperament. Nor is it
something that I obviously or
unproblematically have.
• My simply claiming to know who I am, for
instance, is not enough to establish that I in
fact know who I am. (David Jopling, 3)
• To begin with, I must call into question
the veracity and plausibility of my
conventional self understanding, which
supplies me with a reassuring
and ready-to-hand account of who I am;
and then I must move on to the more
difficult task of raising the question
“Who am I?” in a more
fundamental manner. (Jopling)
 Pre-Socratic
• The pre-socratics were concerned
with the following questions such as:
• What is really the world made of?
• Why is the world the way it is?
• What explains the things that
happened around us?
• What is the ultimate stuff that
underlies all things?
 EXAMPLES

• THALES – WATER
• Anaximander – Boundless
• Anaximines – AIR
• Heraclitus – FIRE/ Change
 THE ARCHE
• ORIGIN OR SOURCE/ THE SOUL THE
PRIMAL MATTER
THE SOUL’s Movement is the
ultimate arche of all other
movement
• Arche has no origin of itself and
cannot be destroyed
• Explains the multiplicity of things in
the world
 SOCRATES: KNOW THYSELF
• A man in love with the examined life and
cultured mind. (Kristjanson)
“The unexamined life is not worth living,” just as
“an unexamined idea is not worth knowing”

• A searcher of wisdom
• The self-knowledge that results from the process of
reflective selfinquiry and reflective self-evaluation is
ascribed to those who know with some acuity the
shape and development of their moral personality,
the direction their lives are taking, and the values
that matter most to them; who have achieved a
level of personal integrity through the adoption of a
stance of self-criticism toward their immediate
desires, beliefs, and volitions; and who have not
accepted uncritically any conventional and ready-to-
hand forms of selfunderstanding as descriptive of
the true nature of the self, but who have, by
reasoning, choice, dialogue, or moral reflection,
arrived at their own ways of making sense of
themselves and their life histories.
• SOCRATES EMPLOYED
THIS THROUGH a
DIALECTIC METHOD: Are
of inviting others to a
conversation through
the art of questioning.
• Kristanjan Kristjansson commenting about
Socrates said that:
• the true Socrates was not a mere
selfconstruction of intellectualist beliefs, but a
full-blooded person with strong and profound
emotions. And his selfhood, in so far as it was
accessible to him, was also accessible to
others – perhaps, in some respects, even
more so.
• A Man possessing an actual full self
• Socrates was a man at one
with himself, yet one with
hidden depths that he – in
his ready admittance of his
own ignorance – realised
that he could scarcely
fathom. (Kristjansson)
• For Socrates human is a a
being who thinks and wills.
Human’s responsibility is to
discover the truth, truth about
the good life.
• In knowing the good life,
human being can act correctly.
 PLATO
• Plato is a dualist; there is both immaterial mind
(soul) and material body, and it is the soul that
knows the forms. Plato believed the soul exists
before birth and after death. [We don’t see perfect
circles or perfect justice in this world, but we
remember seeing them in Platonic heaven before
we were born.] Thus he believed that the soul or
mind attains knowledge of the forms, as opposed to
the senses. Needless to say, we should care about
our soul rather than our body.
 THREE COMPONENTS OF THE
SOUL
• The soul (mind) itself is divided into 3
parts: reason; appetite (physical urges);
and will (emotion, passion, spirit.) The will is the
source of love, anger, indignation, ambition,
aggression, etc. When these aspects are not in
harmony, we experience mental conflict. The will can
be on the side of either reason or the appetites. We
might be pulled by lustful appetite, or the rational
desire to find a good partner. To explain the
interaction of these 3 parts of the self, Plato uses the
image is of the charioteer (reason) who tries to control
horses representing will and appetites. [Elsewhere he
says that reason uses the will to control the appetites.
1. The rational soul (mind or
intellect) is the thinking portion
within each of us, which discerns
what is real and not merely
apparent, judges what is true and
what is false, and wisely makes
the rational decisions in
accordance with which human life
is most properly lived.
2. The spirited soul (will or
volition) is the active person.
Its function is to carry out the
dictates of reason in practical
life, courageously doing
whatever the intellect has
determined to be best.
3. The Appetitive Soul (emotion
or desire) is the portion of
each of us that wants and
feels many things, most of
which must be deferred in the
face of rational pursuits if we
are to achieve a salutary
degree of self control.
 ARISTOTLE
• THE HUMAN PERSON IS A
COMPOSITE (UNITY) OF BODY
(matter) AND SOUL (form).
• The soul is the principle of life
which causes the body to live:
thinks, wills, imagines, desires,
acts.
 THREE LEVELS OF SOUL
1. Vegetative Soul: CApAcity to grow,
reproduce and feed itself.
2. Sensitive soul: No. 1 Plus capacity for
sensation.
3. Rational Soul: Plus capacity for thinking.
“Man is a Rational Animal”
 FIRST TASK till Thursday: Read and
Reflect
• Read Plato’s Allegory of the cave and
answer the question :

1.What does the allegory of the cave of

Plato reveal to us about the self? Limit
your answer to FIVE grammatically
correct sentences in paragraph form
2. Apply Socratic Method to yourself: what is it that
you believe about yourself? Follow the structure:
One statement of what you believe about yourself:
________________________________________
Formulate a question on that statement like clarifying
the word/s you used.
___________________________________________

Answer that question in one to two sentences only:

____________________________________________
__________________________________________
Then confirm or disconfirm your statement based on
your answer above.
 DO THE TASK ASAP

• CONTINUE IT ON
THURSDAY AND BE
SUBMITTED ON
FRIDAY EVENING