Good Aftie!

Understanding The Self

Table of Contxentxs
S. J.L. G.R.

P. D.H. P. C .

S t. A . I.K. M . M P.

R.D. S . F.
SOCRATES
“I Know That I Don’t Know”
 he never wrote Socratic method —
a Greek Philosopher anything, all (c) for
that shaped Western method of inquiry in
Socrates and testing an idea
thought Xenophon
A c c u s at i o n s
Athens questioning everyday views and popular Athens beliefs
Accused of impiety or lack of reverence
40 yrs old — death

ideas
The soul is immortal.
The care of the soul is the task of philosophy.
Virtue is necessary to attain happiness.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Self knowledge or the examination.
2 kinds of existence:
1. the visible (existence changes)
2. the invisible (existence remains)

5 Moral qualities:
1. Virtues
2. Courage
3. Temperance
4. Prudence
5. Justice
 “
(Plato wrote what Socrates said)

“When the soul and body are together, nature assigns

our body to be a slave and to be ruled and
the soul to be ruler and master.”
plato
Balance between mind and body.
a student of Socrates, “collection and he is best known for
who wrote the Socratic division” or his theory of
Dialogue “collect” forms
ideas
Most important influence of Western concept of “self”.
“Soul” is indeed the most divine aspect of the human being.
Not a spiritual being rather that has intellectual connotation.

3 parts of soul:
1. The Appetitive (Sensual)
2. The Rational (Reasoning)
3. The Spirited (Feeling)
st. Augustine
All knowledge leads to God.
 one of the Latin influential theological
also, St. Augustine Fathers, Doctors, and
of Hippo system; influenced
significant Christian by Plato
Thinkers of the
church
ideas
“Self” as an immaterial (but rational) soul.
Theory and forms a Christian perspective.
Concept of “self” was an inner, immaterial “I that had self knowledge and self
awareness”.

The body possessed senses:

1. Imagination 3. Reason
2. Memory 4. Mind

Aspects of self/soul:
It is able to be aware of itself.
It recognizes itself as a holistic one.
It is aware of its unity.
Rene Descartes
“I Think, Therefore I am.”
french philosopher, 1st thinker to use the hyperbolical or
mathematician, reason to describe, metaphysical doubt
scientist, and father predict and understand = Methodological
of modern western natural phenomena skepticism
philosophy.
ideas
Famous line, “cogito ergo sum”.
“I think, therefore I am”
Proved that there is a thinking entity that is doing the act of doubting.

Claims of self:
It is constant; it is not prone to change and it is not affected by time.
Only the immaterial soul remains the same throughout time.
The immaterial soul is the source of our identity.
John Locke
Human mind at birth is a tabula rasa, which means
that knowledge is derived from experience.
 a philosopher,
physician and one of
the most influential
enlightenment thinkers
ideas
If Descartes described the self as a thinking thing. Locke expanded
the definition of “self” to include the memories of that
thinking thing.
David Hume
All knowledge is derived from human senses.
 1 of 3 main figureheads
a Scottish philosopher, a fierce opponent of of the influential british
economist and Descartes’ rationalism empiricism movement;
historian Locke & B. Berkely
ideas
Rationalism is the theory that reason, rather than experience.
Empiricism is the idea that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience.
Hume is identified with the "bundle theory" wherein he described the "self" or
"person" as a bundle or a collection of different perception.
Hume concluded that the "self" is merely made up of successive impression.

2 groups of mind perception:

1. Impressions
2. Ideas
Immanuel Kant
REASON is the final authority of morality. Morality
is ached only when there is absence of war because of
the result of enlightenment.
 central figure in
modern philosophy
ideas
Kant proposed that human mind creates the structure of human experience.
Kant’s view of the "self" is transcendental, which means the self is related to a
spiritual or nonphysical realm.
2 k i n d s o f c o n s c i o u s n e s s o f s e l f : ( r at i o n a l i t y )
1. Conciousness of oneself and one's psychological states in inner sense.
2. Conciousness 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 he or she already possesses.
2 components of the self:
1. Inner self
2. Outer self

3 w ay s o f s e l f :
1. Raw perceptual input.
2. Recognizing the concept
3. Reproducing in the imagination.

Kant's confirms that the impressions you perceive point to one single common
fact - the “self” is the subject of these experiences.
sigmund freud
“Wish fulfillment is the road tot he unconscious.”
 philosopher, one of the most he is also a
physiologist, and influential thinkers psychoanalysis
psychologist in 20th psychology
3 levels of consciousness:
1. Conscious
2. Pre-conscious / Subconscious
3. Unconscious

Central to freud psychoanalytic theory was the proposed existence of the unconscious as:
1. A repository for traumatic repressed memories; and
2. The source of anxiety-provoking drives that is socially or ethically
unacceptable to the individual.
 Psychoanalytic theory — is a personality theory based on the
notion that an individual gets motivated by unseen forces.

3 parts of the psyche/mind:

1. Id
2. Ego
3. Superego

2 systems of superego:
1. Conscience
2. Ideal self
Conscious

Preconscious
superego e g o
1. Conscience
2. Ideal self

ID
Unconscious
Gilbert Ryle
“I Act, therefore I am”
Act
a philosopher he critiqued wrote The Concept
and professor Descartes’ idea of Mind (1949)
 The Concept of mind (1949)
rejected the notion that mental states are separable from physical states.
“Category-mistake” or “the dogma of the ghost in the machine”
“I’m the worst!” “I’m super duper kind…”
Paul Churchland
“The physical brain and NOT the imaginary mind
gives us our sense of self”
 studied
a philosopher neurophilosophy and he stands on a
and professor materialistic view
philosophy of mind
 E l i m i n at i v e m at e r i a l i s m
or the claim that people’s common-sense understanding of the mind
(or folk psychology) is false, and that certain classes of mental
states which most people believe in do not exist.
 He pointed out that if the mind were a separate entity, then the victim should
have retained his/her personality despite the damage to the brain.
!
“Self” originated from the brain, product of electrochemical signals produced
by the brain.
Maurice
Merleau-Ponty
“Physical body is an important part of the self”
a philosopher rejected Descartes’
and author Cartesian Mind-Body
Dualism
 Embodied Subjectivity
emphasizes the body as the primary site of knowing the world or knowing the “self”.
Also, it is through the experience of the body that you perceive;
are informed; and interact with the world.
t h a n k yo u !
Understanding The Self