LESSON 1

THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF SELF

Our names represent

who we are. Our names
signify us. However, the
name is not the person
itself no matter how
intimately bound it is with the bearer. It is only a signifier. Self is
thought to be more than the name. Self is something that a
person perennially molds, shapes, and develops. The self is not
static.

LEARNING At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

OUTCOMES
• Define the nature, concept, and meaning of
the self
• Discuss the nature of the self from your own
point of view;
• Use the conceptualization and representation
of the self from various disciplines and
perspectives

Learning Experiences and Self-

Assessment Activities (SAA)
The Philosophical view of Self: Various
Philosophers

Socrates: Know Yourself

He is principally concerned with man. He was the first philosopher who engages in
systematic questioning about the self. “Every man is composed of body and soul.” – i. e.
dualism [Man is composed of two important aspects of his personhood] Therefore, all
individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect to him, and the body, while maintaining
that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent. [Platonic]

He considers man from the point of view of his inner life. The famous life of Socrates tells
each man to bring his inner self to light. A bad man is not virtuous through ignorance. The
core of Socratic ethics is the concept of virtue and knowledge. Virtue is the deepest and
most basic propensity [strong natural tendency to do something] of man. Knowing one‟s own
virtue is necessary and can be learned. Since virtue is innate in the mind and selfknowledge
is the source of all wisdom, an individual may gain possession of oneself and be one‟s own
master through knowledge.

Plato: The Ideal Self, perfect self

With this, he basically took off from his master and supported the idea
that man is dual in nature. He added that there are components of the
soul: a] rational soul; b] spiritual soul; and c] appetitive soul.

The republic – he emphasizes that justice in the human person can

only be attained if the three parts of the soul are working harmoniously
with one another. The rational soul forged/ copied by reason and
intellect that govern the affairs of the human person; the spiritual soul
which in charge of emotions; and appetitive soul in charge of base desires. Therefore, when
this ideal state is attained, the human person‟s soul becomes just and virtues. To make it
simple, a man was omniscient before he came to be born into this world. In practical terms,
this means that man in this life should imitate his former self; he should live a life of virtue in
which true human perfection exists.

Rene Descartes: Cogito, ergo sum/ I think,

therefore I am
He conceived of the human person as having a body and a mind. He
claims that there is so much that we should doubt since much of what
we think and believe is not infallible, they may turn out to be false. Rene thought that the only
thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of the self, for even
if one doubts oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and
therefore, that cannot be doubted.

The self then for Rene is also a combination of two distinct entities, the COGITO, the thing
that thinks, which is the mind, and the EXTENZA of the mind, which is the body, ie. like a
machine that is attached to the mind. The human person has the body but it is not what
makes a man a man. If at all, that is the mind.

Descartes: says: “What then am I? A thinking thing, that doubts, understands, affirms,
denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also and perceives. To sum, although the mind and the
body are independent of each other and serve their own function, man must use his own
mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment, and develop himself.

David Hume: the self is the bundle

theory
of mind
He is an empiricist who believes that one can know only through
the senses and experiences. Example: Ana knows that Lenard is
a man not because she has seen his soul. Ana knows Lenard just
like her because she sees him, hears him, and touches him. Hume
posits that self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions.

What are impressions? For Hume, they can all be categorized into two: impressions and
ideas. The first one is the basic objects of our experience or sensation. So, it forms the core
of our thoughts. Example: when one touches fire, the hotness sensation is an impression
which is the direct experience. On the contrary, Ideas are copies of our impressions.
Because of this, they are not as lively and clear as our impressions.

Example: the feeling of being in love for the first time that is an idea. According to Hume,
the self is a bundle or collection of various perceptions, which succeed each other with an
inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement. Thus, the self is simply a
collection of all experiences with a particular being.

Immanuel Kant: respect for self

Every man is thus an end in himself and should never be treated merely
as a means – as per the order of the Creator and the natural order of
things. To Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the
impressions that men get from the external world. Time and Space are
ideas that one cannot find in the world but built-in our human mind. Kant calls these the
apparatuses of the mind.
Along with the different apparatuses of the mind goes the self. Without the self, one cannot
organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. Thus, the
self is not just what gives one his personality. It is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for
all human persons.

Gilbert Ryle: The mind-Body dichotomy

For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his
day-today life. For him, looking for and trying to understand the self as it
really exists is like visiting your friends‟ university and looking for the
“university.” Ryle says that self is not an entity one can locate and analyze
but simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the
behaviors that people make.

Merleau Ponty: Phenomenologist

He insisted that body and mind are so intertwined from one another. One cannot find any
experience that is not an embodied experience. All experience is embodied. One‟s body is
his opening toward his existence to the world. Because men are in the world. For him, the
Cartesian problem is nothing but plain misunderstanding. The living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences are all one.

The Christian or Biblical view of Self

The Holy Bible
“God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He
created them. God blessed them, saying, „Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds in the air, and all the living things that move
on the earth.” Gen. 1:24-28 Thus, it is appropriate to think of the self as the “multibejeweled
crown of creation –the many gems thereof representing and radiating the glorious facets of
man‟s self that include the physical, intellectual, moral, religious, social, political, economic,
emotional, sentient, aesthetic, sensual, and sexual aspects.

Augustine: Love and justice as the

foundation of the individual self
Augustine‟s view of the human person
reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world when it
comes to man. He combined the platonic ideas into
Christianity perspective. Augustine agreed that man is
of a bifurcated/ dual nature.
An aspect of man dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously years to be with
the Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality. The body is bound to die on earth
and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in communion with God. He believes that a
virtuous life is the dynamism of love. Loving God means loving one‟s fellowmen; and loving
one‟s fellowmen denotes never doing any harm to another

Thomas Aquinas: Angelic doctor

Adapting some ideas from Aristotle, Aquinas said that indeed, man is
composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter/ hyle refers to the
common stuff that makes up everything in the universe. Forms/ morphe
refers to the essence of the substance of things.

It is what makes it what it is. In the case of the human person, the body of the human
person is something that he shares even with animals. What makes a human person a
human person is his essence. Like Aristotle, the soul is what animates the body; it is what
makes us humans.

The Psychological View of Self Sigmund Freud:

Psychoanalytic theory of self
He asserts that the human psyche [personality] is
structured into 3 parts. These structures – ID [internal desires],
EGO [reality], and SUPEREGO [conscience] – all develop at
different stages in a persons‟ life.

Freud also argues that the development of an individual can be divided into
distinct stages characterized by sexual drives. As the person grows, certain areas become
sources of pleasure, frustration, or both. Freudian stages of psychosexual development: oral,
anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
 Erik Erikson: Psychosocial stages of selfdevelopment
He was primarily concerned with how both psychological and social factors affect the
development of individuals. He formulated 8 major stages of development, each posing a
unique developmental
task and simultaneously presenting the individual with a crisis that s/he must overcome [see
chart]

SUMMARY/KEY POINTS

• Socrates: Know Yourself

• Plato: The Ideal Self, perfect self

• Rene Descartes: Cogito, ergo sum/ I think, therefore I am

• David Hume: the self is the bundle theory of mind

• Immanuel Kant: respect for self

• Merleau Ponty: Phenomenologist

• Thomas Aquinas: Angelic doctor

• Augustine: Love and justice as the foundation of the individual self
• Socrates: Know Yourself
• The Psychological View of Self Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic theory of self
• Erik Erikson: Psychosocial stages of self-development
Self-Assessment Activities
ACTIVITY 2 Write an essay about anything that you
wish to submit about yourself. You may use these
following suggested topics:
a. Me as I see me b. How other people see me c.
How I would like other people to see me
Who am I?

I see myself before, chaotic and dark with no way to go. With the flow of time, that's all. Not
knowing what to do, no plan in life. I have many weaknesses that often result in bad for me and
to my neighbor. I have a disappointment in life that I will never forget. I also have an unpleasant
habit in myself. We hurt through thoughts, words and deeds. And I admit that I did that too. I
used to think it was okay but it's not. I realized that it was wrong and it should not be done
especially in front of God because it is not what he wants from us. That was my life before when
I did not know the true God.

My life has changed since I came to know God and accepted him into my life. There are many
ways to change and remove things that are not good for us. The Lord has used many people to
change my life. My family, my friends, my fellow youth at church. Because of God's love my life
had light and color. I can be independent women who can handle and solve problems. I have
also discovered the things where I am good. I am able to share my abilities and talents with
others. I can express how I really feel. I can show love and care to my family, friend and other
people with the love of the Lord.

Nothing is Impossible with God. We have have a free will given by God to choose wisely what
thing we should do or what way we want and need to follow. It is our choice always.
I'm an ambitious person. I have the ability to be the way to achieve my dreams. I could be
successful someday. I can achieve my goals, I claimed it.I have a lot of inspiration in life. I want
to help other people. According to the holy bible, love your neighbor as you love yourself. So I’m
not just fighting for myself, but also for everyone I love. To all who support and trust in me.So
now this is my answer to the question, "Who am I?"

I am a child of God. I am fearful and wonderfully made of God. I am new creation. I am forgiven.
I am free. I am blessed.
ACTIVITY 3
In your own words, state what “self” is for each of the
following philosophers. After doing so, explain how your
concept of self is compatible with how they conceived of
the “self”.

Socrates:
Plato:
Augustine:
Aquinas:
Descartes:
Hume:
Kant:
Ryle:
Merleau Ponty:
Sigmund Freud:

Self and Module Evaluation

 References
Bandura, A. (1999). Social Cognitive Theory of Personality Press 134-194
Harter, S. (1996). Self and Person. Psychological Anthropology. 331-350
Geertz, C. 91973) Consciousness, Identity and Self 106-169