The Self from

Various
Perspective
Objectives
◉ Know the definition of self from the philosophical perspectives
◉ Understand different philosopher’s view on the self

2
Review

3
Philosophy

PART 2
“What worries
you, masters
you”
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JOHN LOCKE
◉ The human mind at birth is “Tabula
rasa”, which means that knowledge is
derived from experiences.
◉ Developed his Memory Theory
◎ This holds that we are the same
person as we were in the past for
as long as we can remember
something from that past
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JOHN LOCKE
“For since consciousness always accompanies thinking, and tis’
that, that makes everyone to be, what he calls self; and thereby
distinguishes himself from all other thinking things, in this one
consists personal identity, i.e. the sameness of a rational Being; and
as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards, to any past
action or though, so far reaches the identity of that person [Locke,
1975].”
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“All knowledge is
derived from
human senses”

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DAVID HUME
◉ One of the main figureheads of
Empiricism- the idea that the origin of
al knowledge is sense experience. It
emphasized the role of experience and
evidence.
◉ Proposed his Bundle Theory
◎ In this theory, he describes the
“self” as a bundle or collection of
different perceptions that are
9 moving in a very fast manner.
DAVID HUME
He divided the minds perceptions into 2 groups, stating that the difference
between the two “consists in the degree of liveliness with which they strike
upon the mind”
1. Impressions – These are the perceptions that are most strong. They
enter the senses with most force. These are directly experienced;
they result from inward and outward sentiments
2. Ideas- These are less forcible and less likely counterparts of
impressions. These are mechanisms that copy and reproduce sense
data formulated based upon the previously perceived impressions

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DAVID HUME
◉ Hume did not believe on the existence of the “self”. He stressed that
perceptions are only active as long as you are conscious. According to
him, should your perception be “removed” for any time (such as when
you are sleeping), and you can no longer sense yourself then you also
cease to exist.
◉ Humes’s “self” is a passive observer similar to watching one’s life pass
before the eyes like a play or a screen; whereby the total annihilation of
the “self” comes at death.
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“All our knowledge begins with
the senses, proceeds then to the
understanding, and ends with
reason. There is nothing higher
than reason”

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IMMANUEL KANT
◉ For Kant, the human mind creates the
structure of human experience.
◉ His view on the self is transcendental,
which means the “self” is related to a
spiritual or nonphysical realm. For
him, the self is not in the body. The
self is outside the body, and it does not
have the qualities of the body.

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IMMANUEL KANT
◉ For Kant, there are two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality)
1. Consciousness of oneself and one’s psychological states in inner
sense
2. Consciousness of oneself and one’s states by performing acts of
Apperception.
○ Apperception- is the mental process by which a person
makes sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas
that he/she already possesses.
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IMMANUEL KANT
◉ Kant’s view isbthat what truly exists are your ideas and your knowledge
of your ideas; that you perceive the outside world through the slef with
your ideas.
◉ He presented that “bodies are object of outer sense; souls are object of
inner sense” (Carpenter, 2004)
◎ Inner self. The “self” by which you are aware of alterations bin
your own state. This includes your rational intellect and your
psychological state, such as moods, feelings, and sensations,
pleasure and pain.
◎ Outer self. It includes your senses and the physical world. It is the
common boundary between the 15
external world and the inner self.
IMMANUEL KANT
◉ Kant proposed that the “self” organizes information in three
ways.
1. Raw perceptual input
2. Recognizing the concept
3. Reproducing in the imagination

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 “The ego is not
master in its own
house”

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SIGMUND FREUD
◉ Developed Psychoanalysis, a practice device to treat
those who are mentally ill through dialogue.
◉ Unlike his predecessors Freud did not accept a single
entity that could be pit forward bas the notion of
“self”.
◉ His work was groundbreaking because it answered
questions about the human psyche
◎ Psyche- The totality of human mind, both
conscious and unconscious (Watson, 2014).
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SIGMUND FREUD
CONSCIOUS
◉ It is the only level of mental life directly available to us.
PRECONSCIOUS
◉ What a person perceives is conscious for only a transitory period; it quickly passes
into the preconscious when the focus of attention shifts to another idea.
UNCONSCIOUS
◉ It contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that
nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions.

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SIGMUND FREUD
ID has no contact with reality, yet it strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying
basic desires. Because its sole function is to seek pleasure, we say that the id serves the
pleasure principle.
EGO is the only region of the mind in contact with reality. It grows out of the id during
infancy and becomes a person’s sole source of communication with the external world. It
is governed by the reality principle.
SUPEREGO represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the
moralistic and idealistic principles as opposed to the pleasure principle of the id and the
realistic principle of the ego.
◉ Conscience. If the ego gives in to the id’s demands, the superego may make the
person feel bad through guilt
◉ Ideal self. It is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be. It represents
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aspirations; how to treat other people and how to behave as a member of society.
“I Act, Therefore I am”

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GILBERT RYLE
◉ He ‘produced a critic on Descartes’s idea that
the mind is distinct from the body. He wrote
the Concept of the Mind where he rejected the
notion that physical states are separable from
mental states.
◉ For Ryle this distinction is a category-mistake
because of its attempt to analyze between the
mind and body as if the two terms were of the
same category
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GILBERT RYLE
◉ His point against Descartes’ theory are:
◎ The relation between the mind and body are not isolated processes.
◎ Mental processes are intelligent acts, and are not distinct from each
other
◎ The operation of the mind itself is an intelligent act.
◉ Ryle described the distinction between the body and mind as “the dogma
of the ghost in the machine” where he explained that there is no hidden
entity or ghost called “soul” inside
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a machine called “body”
“The physical rain and
NOT the imaginary
mind gives us our
sense of self”

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PAUL CHURCHLAND
◉ His philosophy stands on a materialistic view or
that belief that nothing that matter exists. If
something can be seen, felt, heard, touched, or
tasted, then it exists. There is nothing beyond the
sensory existence
◉ For Churchland the immaterial, unchanging
soul/self does not exist because it cannot be
experienced by the senses.

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PAUL CHURCHLAND
◉ He proposed Eliminative materialism or the claimbthat people’s
common-sense understanding or the mind is false, and that certain
classesnof mental states which most people believe do not exist
(Churchland, 1989; Baker, 1995)
◉ Churchland asserts that the sense of “self” originated from the brain
itself, and that this “self” is a product of electrochemical signals
produced by the brain.
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“We know not through
our intellect but
through our
experience”

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MAURICE MERLEU-PONTY
◉ His idea of the “self” is an embodied
subjectivity.
◉ Subjectivity- in philosophy is the
state of being a subject- an entity that
possesses conscious experiences, such
as perspectives, feelings, beliefs, and
desires. Moreover, a subject acts upon
or affects other entity which in
philosophy is called the object.
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MAURICE MERLEU-PONTY
◉ The self is a product of our conscious human experience. The
definition of self is all about one’s perception of one’s
experiences and the interpretation of those experiences

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Thanks!
Any questions?

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 Assignment
In a one whole sheet of paper

• Define self in the perspective of sociology

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