Module 1 UTS

LEARNING TASK ASSESSMENT:
Textual analysis. Explain each of the following passages:
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is, that I know nothing.”
-(Socrates) Plato, The Republic
Answer:
Socrates affirmed that he would rather be as he is, knowing that he knows nothing, than to be
inflated by a false sense of his own great wisdom. Thus, he concludes, he truly is wiser than
other men because he does not think he knows what he does not know.
Life would be boring if we already know the whole thing, our whole existence. If you are aware
of your own doings which you only knew nothing, then life would be an amazing adventure
because every step you’ll take would crave for another knowledge and experience. We are the
wisest if we embrace are own strengths and weaknesses, if you only know one thing, and that is
you don’t know nothing, then go starts some actions that would be surely life changing.
“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding and ends with
reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”
-Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
Answer :
Kant argued that human beings had to impose certain structures on the information that their
minds received in order to interpret the world.
Our senses are an indispensable part of one’s life. Our senses, allows us receive information
from our environment in order to learn, appreciate and understand our surroundings.
Kant argued that human beings had to impose certain structures on the information that their minds
received in order to interpret the world. The mind is active in its interpretation of what it sees or
experiences, this necessary in order to make sense of it.
“And what more am I? I look for aid to the imagination. [But how mistakenly!] I am not the
assemblage of limbs we call the human body; I am not subtle penetrating air distributed throughout all
these members; I am not a wind, a fire, a vapor, a breath or anything at all that I can imagine. I am
supposing all these things to be nothing. Yet I find, while so doing, that I am still assured that I am still
something.”
Rene Descartes, Mediations on First Philosophy
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Answer:
Descartes, claimed that we cannot really rely on our senses because our sense perceptions can often
deceive us. There are many times when we hear something when in fact there is nothing, and that we
are deceived by our sense of hearing. There are also times when we see someone or something in the
peripheries of our eyes when in fact there is nothing that resembles with what we thought we saw.
This will be true to our sense of smell, touch, hearing and so on. Therefore Descartes refused to
believe in the certainty of his sense perceptions and started to doubt everything
“Look into the depths of your own soul and learn first to know yourself, then you will understand
why this illness was bound to come upon you, perhaps you will thenceforth avoid falling ill.”
- Sigmund Freud, Character and Culture
Answer :
Freud was the father of psychoanalysis and believed that in order to discover a person’s neurosis
(mental illness/emotional instability) one had to delve into the subconscious and make it conscious.
Only then would one be able to deal with the illness that in many cases was/is preventing people from
reaching their full potential as human beings. The depths of one’s own soul is most likely synonymous
with our own subconscious. Obviously, Freud and other psychoanalysts who came after him have
made psychoanalysis a career are often it takes years for people to transform their neurosis in order to
reach their full potential. Mental illness is a growing problem all over the world as more and more
people are becoming despondent, as the world is spiralling towards an existential crisis caused by
greed which has resulted in climate change, loss of diversity, the widening gap between the rich and
poor and above all a loss of spiritual awareness (depths of one’s soul?).
“I discover that there are other minds in misunderstanding what other people say and do.”
- Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of the Mind
Answer :
Gilbert Ryle said that the mind is never separate from the body. He proposed that physical actions or
behaviors are dispositions of the self. These dispositions are derived from our inner private
experiences. In other words, we will only be able to understand the self-based from the external
manifestation-behaviors, expressions, language, desire and the like. The mind therefore is nothing but
a disposition of the self.
Ryle continued that the mind will depend on how words are being told and expressed and delivered.
In a way, he demystified the operations of the mind because the operations of the mind are simply
manifested by the dispositions of knowing and believing.
“Whether it’s a question of my body, the natural world, the past, birth or death, the question is
always to know how I can be open to phenomena that transcend me and that, nevertheless, only exist to
the extent that I take them up and live them.”
- Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception
Answer:
Phenomenology of Perception draws heavily from the contemporary research Gestalt Psychology and
neurology. He developed a kind of phenomenological rhythm that will explain the perception of the
self.Merleau-Ponty proposes is treating perception as a causal process. It simply means that our
perceptions are caused by the intricate experiences of the self, and processed intellectually while
distinguishing truthful perceptions from illusory. Therefore the self is taken as a phenomenon of the
whole-a Gestalt understanding of perceptual analysis.
Discussion. Answer each of the following questions.
Compare and contrast the elements of the mind according to Plato and the life of St. Augustine.
Answer :
For Plato, the psyche is composed of three elements. These are the appetitive, spirited and the mind.
The appetitive element of the psyche includes one's desires, pleasures, physical satisfactions,
comforts, etc. The spirited element is part of the psyche that is excited when given challenges, or
fights back when agitated, or fights for justice when unjust practices are evident. In a way, this is the
hot-blooded part of the psyche. The mind, however, is what Plato considers as the most superior of all
the elements. He refers to this element as the nous which means the conscious awareness of the self.
The nois is the superpower that controls the affairs of the self. It decides, analyses, thinks ahead,
proposes what is best, and rationally controls both the appetitive and spirited elements of the psyche.
Another concrete example of a highly self-controlled nous is the life of St. Augustine. He hailed from
Tagaste, Africa in 354 B.C. He succumbed two vices and pleasures of the world. Augustine was
unsettled and restlessly searched for the meaning of his life until his conversion ti Christianity. In his
confessions he pronounced; You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it
finds rests in you. The development of the self for St. Augustine is achieved through self-presentation
and self-realization. He was not afraid to accept to himself and tell the people about his sinfulness.
However the realization of the wasted self is achieved through his conversion to the faith. Thus his
journey toward the understanding of the self was centered on his religious convictions and beliefs.
Differentiate the concepts of the self according to Descartes and that of Locke.
Answer :
According to Descartes self is human rationality. Simply put, we need reason in order to evaluate our
thoughts and actions. We need reason to live fully the demands, challenges and call for our religion.
We need reason in order to establish firm foundations for universal truth and morals. We need reason
in order to exist and to continue to survive the generations to come by protecting our environment.
We need reason in order to protect ourselves from being savage to one another. We need reason in
order to build and live out our peace.
Contrary to the primary reason as proposed by Descartes, one British philosopher and politician, John
Locke, suggested another way of looking at the self. Locke opposed the idea that only reason is the
source of knowledge of the self. His proposition is that the self is comparable to an empty space where
every day experiences contribute to the pile of knowledge that is put forth on that empty space.
Experience, therefore is an important requirement in order to have sense data which, through the
process of reflection and analysis, eventually becomes sense perception.
For Hume, what is it that make “your” perceptions inaccessible to “me” and vice versa?
Answer :
For David Hume, there is no reasoning capable of demonstrating that there is a "you" at all, let alone
perceptions that you might be having. Hume claimed that there cannot be a persisting idea of the self.
While Hume agreed that all ideas are derived from impressions, problematically, it follows that the
idea of the self is also derived from impressions. However impressions are subjective, temporary,
provisional, prejudicial and even skewed –and therefore cannot be persisting. In as much as we
wanted to be persistent, constant and stable with our knowledge about ourselves, Hume asserted that
this is just impossible. As long as we derive our knowledge from impressions, there will never be the
“self.” This means that for Hume, all we know about ourselves are just bundles of temporary
impressions.
What are some of the criticisms that have been brought against Freud and psychoanalysis?
Answer :
A number of modern psychologists have pointed out that traditional psychoanalysis relies too much
on ambiguities for its data, such as dreams and free associations. Without empirical evidence,
Freudian theories often seem weak, and ultimately fail to initiate standards for treatment.
Freud's work has been criticized as not scientifically testable and offering after-the-fact explanations,
focusing too much on sexual conflicts in childhood, and based on the idea of repression, which has not
been supported by modern research.
Key terms. List some terminologies associated with each philosopher. Briefly define or describe each
term.
Philosopher Key Terms Definition
SOCRATES
AUGUSTINE
DESCARTES
HUME
KANT
FREUD
MERLEAU-PONTY
Self Awareness Index
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LEARNING TASK ASSESSMENT:

Textual analysis. Explain each of the following passages:

-(Socrates) Plato, The Republic

-Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

Rene Descartes, Mediations on First Philosophy

- Sigmund Freud, Character and Culture

- Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of the Mind

- Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception

Discussion. Answer each of the following questions.

Philosopher Key Terms Definition

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