CHAPTER 1
THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES

SOCRATES
SOCRATIC METHOD – ask question and discuss
possible answers.
He believed that man is composed of body and soul.
SOUL – is the person’s core identity, his/her
unique spirit that makes one distinct.
-FATHER OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

“Know thyself”- inscribed on the frontispiece of
the Temple of Delphi. This assertion, imperative
in the form, indicates that man must stand and
live according his nature.
Socrates also believes on the dualism of reality,
that the nature of man is comprising with the a
Body which is imperfect and changeable and
Soul that is perfect and unchanging.
“The unexamined life is not worth
living”

PLATO
He also believed that man is composed of body and soul.
Soul exists before birth after death.
Soul is composed of 3 parts.
-Greek Philosopher
REASON (mind/ nous)
SPIRIT (honor, emotion) APPETITE (desire)
TRI-PARTITE
SOUL

0ur divine essence that enables us to
think deeply, make wise choices, and
achieve a true understanding of eternal
truths.
REASON
our basic biological needs such as
hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.
PHYSICAL
APPETITE
our basic emotions such as love, anger,
ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy
SPIRIT or
PASSION

SAINT AUGUSTINE
Human self is an immaterial soul that can
think.
After the death of the souls of those who most love
the forms would rise to contemplate the eternal
truths.
Emphasized the importance of the will, the
ability to choose between good and evil.
The fundamental religious duty is to love and
serve God.
-Christian Theologian

RENE DESCARTES
There is an essential distinction between mind
(soul) and body.
“I think, therefore I am”
The first thing a person can be certain is his own
existence.
“I”
-Archetypal proponent of the rationalist view of
knowledge
-founder of modern Philosophy

“We need reason in order to evaluate our thoughts
and actions.”
Triadic Existence : a mind in a body in the world.
He believed that being human starts with the self.
Knowledge is a product of the rational mind.
Mind and body interact, but they are separate.

JOHN LOCKE
-Archetypal advocate of the empiricist view of
knowledge
-Believed that humans by nature are good.
-People are naturally reasonable and moral.
-Behavior is learned, people are either influenced
to do good or bad.
“We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the
color of our moral character from those who are
around us”.
-British philosopher and physician

The view that reason is the
primary source of all knowledge
and that only our reasoning
abilities can enable us to
understand sense experience and
reach accurate conclusions.
RATIONALIST
The view that sense
experience is the
primary source of all
knowledge and that only
a careful attention to
sense experience can
enable us to understand
the world and achieve
accurate conclusions.
EMPIRICIST

SIGMUND FREUD
The mental Iceberg
-Austrian neurologist/psychologist
Though conscious self
also has important role to
play in our lives, it is the
unconscious self that
holds the greatest
fascination that has the
dominant influence in our
personalities.

is defined as a reservoir of feelings, thoughts,
urges, and memories that outside of conscious
awareness.
Freud believed that the unconscious continues to
influence behavior even though people are
unaware of these underlying influences.
UNCONSCIOUS
“Pleasure Principle”

The conscious mind involves all of the things that
you are currently aware of and thinking about. It
is somewhat akin to short-term memory and is
limited in terms of capacity. Your awareness of
yourself and the world around you are part of
your consciousness.
CONSCIOUS
“Reality Principle”

DAVID HUME
He claimed that there cannot be a persisting idea of
the self.
All ideas are derived form impressions.
Impressions are subjective , temporary, provisional,
prejudicial and even skewed – and therefore cannot
be persisting.
Impression – direct experience
Ideas - imagination
-Scottish philosopher and historian

As long as we only derive our knowledge from
sense impressions, there will never be the “self”.
All we know about ourselves are just bundles of
temporary impressions.
Hume harshly claimed that there IS no self.

IMMANUEL KANT
- believes that man is a free agent, capable of
making decisions for himself. As a free
agent, man is gifted with reason and free
will.
-Prussian metaphysicist
“The busier we are, the more acutely
we feel that we live, the more
conscious we are of life.”

GILBERT RYLE
“The self is the way people behave”
The self is basically our behavior. This concept
provided the philosophical principle, “I act therefore
I am” or “You are what you do”.
In short, the self is the same as bodily behavior.
-British philosopher

PAUL and PATRICIA CHURCH LAND
“The self is the brain”
Stated that the self and brain I one. Basically if there
is no brain, there would be no self.
The physical brain and not the imaginary mind, gives people the sense of
self. The mind does not really exist because it can not be experienced by
the senses.

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
“The self is embodied Subjectivity”.
This concept explained that all the knowledge of
ourselves and our world is based on subjective
experiences. It is more on how we view and give
perceptions. The self can never be truly objectified.
-French philosopher

END..
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