UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

LESSON 1: FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF PHILOSOPHY

Self- Unified being and is essentially connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency or with the
faculty of rational choice.
Self- Understanding- understanding of oneself.
In Athens of ancient Greece, 600 BCE marked the birth place of the Philosophy means LOVE OF
WISDOM
PHILOSOPHERS CONCEPT
1. SOCRATES  The wisest of all men by Delphi Oracle
1. Every person is dualistic. The soul is a real substance that exists
independent from the body)
2. The unexamined life is not worth living.
3. Know thy self (The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing)
4. A person’s acceptance of ignorance is the beginning of the acquisition
of knowledge.
 Socratic/ Dialectic Method (artful questioning to bring the person close
to a final understanding of the object/ concept)
2. PLATO  Father of the Academy (a place where learning and shaping happens)
 Platonic Dualism
1. The Realm of the Shadows (imperfect and flow)
2. The Realm of Forms (permanent and perfect the source of all reality
and true knowledge)
 Allegory of Cave (what they see in the cave are just shadows which
are not real)
 Forms are ageless therefore are eternal, unchanging therefore
permanent and unmoving and invisible)
 Components of Soul
1. The Reason- rational and is the motivation for goodness and
truth.
2. The Spirited- non rational and is the will or the drive toward
action that can be influenced/ pulled into directions. (emotions)
3. The Appetites- irrational and lean towards the desire for
pleasure of the body.
 Theory of Being – The more the person knows, the more he is and
the better he is.
 Plato believed that is only through education that humans would
be able to acquire knowledge of the forms.
3. ST. AUGUSTINE  There is a part of self that lives on when we die and returns to God.
 The soul always yearns to be with the Divine
 Love for the God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God
can man find real happiness.
 Man is sinner who does not follow God’s will.
 Exceed Love for Physical objects leads to the sin of GREED.
 Exceed love for other people is the sin of JEALOUSY.
 Exceed love for the self leads to the sin of PRIDE.
4. RENE DESCARTES  The Father of Modern Philosophy.
 He is a rationalist along Socrates and Plato and regards reasons as
the chief sources and test of knowledge.
 Powers of Human Mind
1. Intuition- ability to apprehend direction of certain truths.
2. Deduction- discovering what is not known from progressing in an
orderly way from what is already known.
 Self’s Distinct Identities
1. Cogito Ergo Sum (Mind)- I think, I Therefore I am.
2. Extenza (Body)- extension of the mind.
 Methodical Doubt- a continuous process of questioning as part of
one’s existence.
 Ideas are innate since when we are born. MIND AT BIRTH IS A
PRIORI.
5. JOHN LOCKE  He is empiricist along with Hume and Aristotle, believes knowledge
comes to us through our experiences of the world that comes
through:
1. Sensation- experienced through senses (nothing exists in the
mind that was not first in the senses.
2. Reflection- to discover relationships bet. Experience and objects.
 Ideas are not innate, therefore mind at birth is tabula rasa (empty
mind)
 Laws of Morality
1. Law of Opinion- actions that are praise worthy are virtues and
those that are not called vice.
2. Civil Law- enforced by the authorities.
3. Divine Law- set by God on the actions of Man.
 6. DAVID HUME  Self is just a thing to which all perceptions of man are attributed.
 Types of Perception
1. Impressions- the immediate sensation of external reality.
2. Ideas- recollection of impressions.
 Principles of Association
1. Cause and Effect- people experience certain relation between objects
but can’t be basis for knowledge
2. Resemblance- implying common properties
3. Contiguity- ideas, memories and experience are linked which one is
frequently experienced with other.
7. IMMANUEL KANT  Founder of German Idealism (motivated by HUME)
 Knowledge is the result of human understanding applied to sense
experience.
 REASON is the final authority of morality,
 TRANSCENDENTAL APPERCEPTION- the experience of the self
and its unity with objects.
8. SIGMUND FREUD  The self has an unconscious mind that controls the body.
 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE MIND (an illustration of an iceberg to show
how the mind works based on the theory)
 ASPECTS OF PERSONALITY
1. Id- based on the pleasure
2. Ego- based on the reality. Meditates between id and superego.
3. Superego- based on the morality.
 LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Conscious – minority of our memories are stored and is easier to
be tapped or accessed.
2. Preconscious- memories stored in this area can still be accessed
but with a little difficulty.
3. Unconscious- memories since childhood are deeply stored. It is
very difficult to tap the memories and it would need professionals
in order it make some memories resurface.
 Hysteria- manifestations of hidden and unexpressed thoughts and
memories that control the person’s consciousness.
 KINDS OF INSTINCT
1. EROS- survival needs
2. THANATOS- self harm/ aggression,
9. GILBERT RYLE  GHOST IN THE MACHINE- man is a complex machine with different
functioning parts, and the intelligence and other characteristics or
behavior of man is represented by the ghost in the machine.
 Freewill was invented to answer the question of whether an action
deserves praise or blame.
10. PAUL AND  Patricia stated that the brain and its biochemical properties are
PATRICIA responsible for man thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
CHURCHLAND  a fully matured neuroscience will eliminate the need for beliefs since
“they are not real”
 The physical brain gives us a sense of self.
 Neuro philosophy- the study of the philosophy of the mind, science,
neuroscience and psychology all rolled into one.
LESSON 2: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY
 Sociology- one of the disciplines in the social sciences which aim to discover ways by which social
environment influences people’s thoughts, feelings and behavior.
 Self- a dimension of personality that is made up of the individual’s self- awareness and self- image.
 Self cannot be separated from the society.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD  COURSE DEVELOPMENT
1. PREPARATORY STAGE- imitation through verbal/ non- verbal
symbols.
2. PLAY STAGE- ROLE TAKING- mentally assuming the
perspective of another person
3. GAME STAGE- Generalized Other- the ability of the child to
recognized other people in the environment.
 Children see themselves as the center of their universe.
 Parents/ Family- is the first environment on the child’s development
(significant others)
 MEAD’S THEORY OF THE SELF
1. I SELF- subjective element of self and initiates or performs a social
action.
2. ME SELF- objective element of self and takes the role of the other.
 Socialization continues for as long as the person is alive.
 The self may change based on life circumstances that have strong
impact on it.
 Events such as death of a loved one, disease or disability may
RESHAPE THE SELF.
CHARLES HORTON Looking glass self- the self is the product of social interactions with
other people.
 PHASES OF SELF DEVELOPMENT
1. People imagine how they present themselves to others.
2. People imagine how others evaluate them.
3. People develop some sort of feeling about themselves as a result
of those impressions.
 Wrong perceptions however can still change based on POSITIVE
SOCIAL EXPERIENCES.
ERVING GOFFAN  Stated that the SOCIAL INTERACTIONS is similar to a DRAMA
PERFORMANCE.
 IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT is a process of altering how the person
presents himself to others.
 DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH – the idea that we are actors on the
stage and the similarity of social interactions to a theatrical
presentation.
 We are call fakers or engaged in a con job on ourselves to affect
other people.
 An individual’s self can be change according to audience.
 Face work is another aspect of the self where face- saving measures
are resorted to in the maintenance pf a proper image of the self in
frustrating or embarrassing situations.
LESSON 3: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTHROPOLOGY- a field of social sciences that focuses on the study of man.
SURVIVAL- most important aspect of human nature.
ARCHEOLOGY  Deals with the study of human activity through the recovery and
analysis of material culture.
BIOLOGICAL/PHYSICAL  Focus primarily on how the human body adapts to different Earth
ANTHROPOLOGY environments.
LIGUISITIC  Human survival is primarily linked to their ability to communicate.
ANTHROPOLOGY  Language- an essential part of human communication, mean to
discover a group’s manner of social interaction and his world’s view.
 Tower of Babel- a biblical literature which explains the origins of the
multiplicity of languages.
 LGBT SLANG, LGBT speak or gay slang is set of slang lexicon used
predominantly among LGBT people/
 JEJEMON- a popular culture phenomenon in the Philippines not only
in language but also in sub-culture and fashion.
 NAME GAME- Replacing word with name; usually of a celebrity; that
sounds like it
 PLUS- Adding extra syllable, letter, word to create different word.
 THE J LAW- replace the first word with J
 THE KY/NY LAW- replace the first letter with KY or NY
CULTURAL  Cultural Anthropology- interested in knowing what makes one
ANTHROPOLOGY group’s manner of living particular to that group and forms an essential
part of the member’s personal and social identity.
 CULTURE- defined as group of people’s ways of life.
 CULTURAL DETERMINISM- a theory stating that culture has a strong
influence and impact of how individuals view themselves.
 Manifestations of Culture
1. Symbols- words, gestures, pictures or objects that have a
recognized/ accepted meaning in a particular culture.
2. Heroes- real / fictitious
3. Rituals- activities
4. Values- core of every culture.