MODULE 1: KNOWING THE SELF

UNIT 1: Philosophical Perspectives of the Self

Ancient and Medieval Philosophies

● view and understand the self as a perfection of the soul via self-examination and
self-control.

1. Socrates
● “The unexamined life is not worth living”
● In order to know yourself you need to examine who you are
● One should recognize and acknowledge that there are things that one does not know ;
that there are things that still needs to be discovered
● Life is a never-ending search for answers

2. Plato
● “Human behaviors flow from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge)
● Examination of the self is unique from one person to another and experiences leads to
better understanding of the self

3 elements of the psyche

1. Appetitive- consist of one's pleasures, desires, physical satisfactions, and
comfort.
2. Spirited- motivated element, which fights back to ensure that the appetitive is
controlled.
3. Mind- the most superior element of the psyche, which controls how the self is
expressed.

3. St. Augustine
● “This is the very perfection of man; to find out his own imperfections.”
● Considered himself a sinner and resolved to change and become a better person.
● Accepting one’s strengths, weaknesses, and discerning changes to be a better
individual.
● St. Augustine’s perspective centers on religious conviction and believes that to be a
better person, one should turn to his/her religious beliefs as this would serve as a guide
towards better understanding of oneself.

Modern Philosophies
● Rationalism- deals with thinking and innate ideas, and regards reason as the main
source of knowledge.
● Empiricism- has to do with sense experience where knowledge is based on how one
observes and perceives his/her experiences.
 1. Rene Descartes
● “I think, therefore I am.”
● The concept of Methodic Doubt states that everything must be subjected to doubt or
that everything should be questioned.
● You need to understand everything to have a foundation of who you are.

2. John Locke
● “No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
● His concept of “tabula rasa” explains how the self-starts out as an empty space.
● These sense data are then perceived or given meaning, and so the empty space is filled
with knowledge of the self.
● Highlighted the capability of man to learn from experience, and process different
perceptions skillfully to form more complex ideas.

3. David Hume
● “There is no self.”
● The idea of the self is merely derived from impressions. These impressions may be
subjective, temporary, and prejudicial. They do not persist.

4. Immanuel Kant
● “If man makes himself a worm, he must not complain when he is trodden on.”
● He proposed that the self is always transcendental.
● Ideas are perceived by the self, and they connect the self and the world.
● Rationality unifies and makes sense of the perceptions we have in our experiences.
● Rationality enables sensible ideas about ourselves and our world.

Contemporary Philosophies
● present a wide variety of theories that could be used in understanding the self.

1. Sigmund Freud
● contended that the self is the “I” that constitutes both mental and physical actions.

2 models
1. Topographical Model
● This model explains how the “I“ is both conscious and unconscious.
● Conscious level, one is aware of thoughts, feelings, and
perceptions.
● Subconscious level consists of those that one is able to easily
remember and bring into awareness, such as usual memories and
stored knowledge.
● Unconscious level, houses those that one has either repressed or
forgotten. it consists of those which are unacceptable, undesirable,
or painful.

2. Structural Model
 ● Looks into the structures of personality or the self
● The ID is the primitive or instinctive component, which consists of
one’s primal urges and wants.
● The EGO is the reality principle, and balances the id and superego.
● The SUPEREGO synthesizes the values and morals of society, and
includes one’s conscience.

2. Gilbert Ryle
● “I act, therefore I am.”
● Stated that the self may be understood based on the external manifestations - actions,
language, expressions – of a person.
● Physical actions or behaviors are dispositions of the self.

3. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
● “I live in my body.”
● Phenomenological rhythms: the empiricist view, the idealist-intellectual alternative,
and the synthesis of both views.
● The concept of “lived body” refers to an entity that can never be objectified or known in
a completely objective sort of way.
● The “I” is a single integrated entity; a blending of mental, physical, and emotional -
structured around a core identity: the self.

4. Paul and Patricia Churchland

● “Brains are not magical; they are causal machines.”
● The Churchlands brought neuroscience into the fore of understanding the self.
● “Eliminative Materialism” explains how mental concepts are mistaken and do not
adequately allow people to know about what is going on with themselves.
● To understand the self, one should go for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or
Computed Tomography (CT) Scans, to have a view of the brain’s present condition.
 Unit 2: Sociological Perspectives of the self

Sociology is among the disciplines contributory to the understanding of who we are in relation to
ourselves, others, and to social systems.

SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGM
1. Structural Functionalism- How each part of the society functions together to contribute to the
whole.
2. Conflict Theory- How inequalities contribute to social differences and perpetuate differences in
power.
3. Symbolic interactionism- One-to-one interactions and communications.

1. Emile Durkheim: Social Integration and Moral Individuation

● “To love society is to love something beyond us and something in ourselves.”
● There are already societal influences on us that shape our life and personalities.
● Durkheim proposed that the task of sociology is to analyze social facts.
● Social Facts- conditions and circumstances external to the individual that,
nevertheless, determine the individual’s course of action.
● Social Integration- is the degree to which an individual is connected to the society.
● Moral Individualism- the doctrine that rationality leaves room for the individualities of
personalities of subjects to express themselves in the moral realm in an autonomous
choice between idealism and fulfillment-maximization.

2. Charles Horton Cooley: The looking glass self

● Concept of the self is formed through our impressions on how other people see us.
● “Self” is how we believe others see us.

The Labeling Bias

● occurs when we are labeled, and others’ views and expectations of us are
affected by that labeling.

Self-labeling:
● This occurs when we are repeatedly labeled and evaluated by others, and we
adopt other’s labels explicitly into our self-concept.
● Internalized prejudice- individuals turn prejudice directed toward them by others
onto themselves.
● Positive reclaiming- take place when labels are used by society to describe
people negatively.

1. George Herbert Mead: Stages of the self

● According to Mead, the conception one holds about the self in one’s mind emerges from
social interaction with others.
● It is constructed and reconstructed in the process of social experience.
 Two components of the self:
1. “Me” - objective element; represents the expectations and attitudes of others (the
“generalized other”) organized into the social self
2. “I” - subjective element; the response to the “me”or the person’s individuality.

● The stream of thought between the knower (“I”) and the known (“Me”) is the essence of the
development of identity as influenced by the social context.

STAGES BY WHICH THE SELF EMERGES:

1. PREPARATORY STAGE (1-3 years old)

● children merely imitate the people around them then they understand the symbols and
they become aware of roles that people play in their immediate environment

2. PLAY STAGE (4-7 years old)

● they now do pretend play of different characters or roles
● they become more aware of social relationships; they can mentally assume the
perspective of another and respond from that imagined viewpoint.

3. GAME STAGE (8-9)

● begins to consider several actual tasks and relationships simultaneously grasp not only
their social position but also those of others around them
● they begin to understand and accept that many people have different perspectives and
develops others