about self improving.

1. THE SELF FROM
VARIOUS
PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES

2. The Soul is Immortal: SOCRATES and PLATO
 Concerned with the
problem of the self
 First philosopher who
ever engaged in a
systemic questioning
about the self
Socrates

3.  The true task of a philosopher is to
know oneself
 Unexamined life is not worth living
 Each person possesses an immortal
soul that survives beyond the death of
the body

4.  Reality is dualistic, made up of two
dichotomous realms( body & soul)
 One realm is changeable, transient, and
IMPERFECT (e.g., physical world –
comprising all that we can see, hear, taste,
smell, and feel)
 In contrast, the unchanging, eternal,
PERFECT realm includes the intellectual
essences of the universe (e.g., truth, goodness,
and beauty)

5.  Our bodies belong to the physical realm
 Our souls, however, belong to the ideal
realm. It strives for wisdom and
perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool
to achieve this exalted state.

6.  Reason enables the soul to free itself
from the corrupting imperfection of the
physical realm and achieve
“communion with the unchanging”

7.  Plato added that
there are three
components of the
soul:
a. Rational soul
b. Spirited soul
c. Appetitive soul Plato

8.  Rational soul – our divine essence
that enables us to think deeply, make
wise choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths.

9. Spirited soul – our basic emotions
such as love, anger, ambition,
aggressiveness, and empathy.

10. Appetitive soul – our basic
biological needs such as hunger,
thirst, and sexual desire.

11. Plato believed that genuine happiness
can only be achieved by people who
consistently make sure that their
Reason is in control of their Spirits and
Appetites.

12. Appetitive
Spiritual Rational

13. a. Describe an incident in your life which you
experienced a conflict between the three
dimensions of your self identified by Plato:
Reason, Appetite, and Spirit.
b. Describe an experience in your life which
Reason prevailed over Passion and Appetite.
c. Describe an experience in your life in which
the three elements of your self identified by
Plato worked together in a productive and
harmonious fashion, enabling you to achieve
a great success.

14. Philosophical Perspectives During the Middle Ages
 Augustine was convinced
that Platonism and
Christianity were natural
partners.
 Agreed that man is of
bifurcated nature.
Saint Augustine
Saint Augustine’s Synthesis of
Plato and Christianity

15. The body is bound to die on earth
and the soul is to anticipate living
eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss
in communion with God.

16.  In Aristotle’s theory, there are two basic categories
of things:
a. Matter (in Greek, hyle), which refers to
the common “stuff” that makes up the
material universe
b. Form (in Greek, morphe), which refers to
the essence of a thing, that which makes it
what it is.

17. Thus for Aristotle, matter and
form require each other in order
to exist – in contrast to Plato’s
dualism.

18. Matter: CLAY Form: BRICKS

19. Matter: BRICKS Form: BRICK HOUSE

20. Hylomorphism, individual
organism consist of both matter
and form, which can only exist in
relation to one another.

21. To Aquinas, just as in Aristotle, the
soul is what animates the body; it is
what makes us humans.

22. Descarte’s Modern Perspective on the Self
 Founder of Modern
Philosophy
 Concerned with
understanding the
thinking process we use
to answer questions
René Descartes

23. If our thinking instrument is
flawed, then it is likely that our
conclusions will be flawed as
well.

24. Cogito, ergo sum
“I think, therefore I am.”

25. The principle of existing as a
human identity is the
possibility of being aware of
our selves.

26. The thinking self – or soul –
is a nonmaterial, immortal,
conscious being,
independent of the physical
laws of the universe.

27. The physical body is a
material, mortal, nonthinking
entity, fully governed by the
physical laws of nature.

28. What is the relationship
between mind and
body?

29. a. In what ways
does your mind
significantly
affect your body.

30. RECAP:
SOCRATES
PLATO
ARISTOTLE
RENE DESCARTES

31. The Self: Consciousness
 John Locke an Empiricist and known as the
Father of Liberalism
 Locke's theory of the mind is often cited as
the origin of modern conceptions of identity
and the self, in the work of later
philosophers such as David Hume and
Immanuel Kant.
 He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a
blank slate or Tabula Rasa

32. John Locke on the self:
The self is founded on
consciousness / memory not the
body and the soul.

33. There Is No Self: David Hume
 An empiricist who
believes that one can
know only what comes
from the senses and
experiences.
Hume

34. Empiricism is the school of
thought that supports the idea
that knowledge can only be
possible if it is sensed and
experienced.

35. According to Hume, if we
carefully examine the contents of
our experience, we find that
there are only two distinct
entities, “impressions” and
“ideas”:

36. Impressions – basic sensations
of our experience: pain, pleasure,
heat, cold, happiness, grief, fear,
exhilaration.
– “lively” and “vivid”

37. Ideas – copies of impressions;
less “lively” and “vivid”
– include thoughts and images
that are built up from our
primary impressions through a
variety of relationships

38. Self, according to Hume, is simply
“a bundle or collection of different
perceptions/experiences which
succeed each other swiftly, and
are in a continuous change and
movement.”

39. We Construct the Self: Immanuel Kant
Where does the order and
organization of our
world come from?
• According to Kant, it
comes in large measure
from us.
Kant

40. Our minds actively sort, organize,
relate, and synthesize the
fragmented, fluctuating
collection of sense data
that our sense organs take in.

41. How ????

42. Our self is the weaver – who, using
the loom of the mind, weaves
together the fabric of experience
into a unified whole so that it
becomes my experience, my world,
my universe.

44. The Self Is How You Behave: Gilbert Ryle
 Behaviorism: The self
is defined in terms of the
behavior that is
presented to the world.
Ryle

45. The self is a pattern of behavior,
the tendency or disposition for a
person to behave in a certain
way in certain circumstances.

46. Fin.