LESSON 1: PHILOSOPHY

PHILO- LOVE, SOPHIA- WISDOM ARISTOTLE:

o Soul is the essence of the self
Philosophy is a training guide for your mind, showing how you think in clear, o Student of Plato
analytic, and powerful ways. o Body and soul are not two separate elements but are one things
o Soul is simple a form of the body, and is not capable for existing
Studying philosophy in a serious and reflective way will change you as a without the body.
person. Learning to think philosophically will inspire you to be more o Soul is that which makes a person a person
thoughtful, more open-minded, more attuned to the complexities and subtleties o Soul is the essence of self
of life, more willing to think critically about yourself and all of life’s important o Without the body, the soul cannot exist, the soul dies along the body.
issues, and less willing to accept superficial interpretations and simplistic o Anything with life has soul
answers. And will help you develop the understanding and insight you will need o Introduce the 3 kinds of soul
to make intelligent choices and fulfill your potential as an individual. o Vegetative- physical body that can grow(plant)
o Sentient- sensual desire, feeling, emotion(animals)
This is the special power of philosophy: to provide the conceptual tools required o Rational- intellect that makes man know and
to craft a life inspiring in its challenges and rich in its fulfillment. Philosophy is understand(humans)
not intended to limit your options or dictate your choices. Your responsibility ST. AUGUSTINE:
as a student is to explore, to reflect, to think critically- and then to create o I am doubting, therefore I am
yourself in the image you have envisioned. o Integrated the idea of Plato in Christianity
o Soul is united with the body
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SELF o Human kind is created in the likeness of God, always geared toward
God
Philosophy is often called the mother of all disciplines simply because all fields o Self-knowledge is the consequence of knowledge of God
of study began as philosophical discourses. o Knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us.
o emphasized that we may not be able to give our agreement to
What is Philosophy? study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking everything other people tell us, but we can still agree to those who
and inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature and we are from our own perception.
existence of man and the world we live in. o His believes that teaching the church and establishing our sense of
self with God identifies the essence of our existence and role in the
What is Self? It is defined as “a unified being, essentially connected to world (the reason for this is because our bodies are limited).
consciousness, awareness and agency (or, at least, with the faculty of rational
choice). RENE DESCARTES:

PHILOSOPHERS o father of modern philosophy

o I think therefore I am- cogito ergo sum
PYTHAGORAS - the first to use the term philosophy o the act of thinking about self- of being self-conscious- is in itself
proof that there is self.
SOCRATES: o 2 distinct entities- cogito, extenza
o "knowing oneself" o Cogito- the thing that thinks- mind
o men's goal in life is to obtain happiness. o Extenza- the extension- body
o self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life o modern dualism or the existence of body and mind
o an unexamined life is not worth living o
o everyman is dualistic JOHN LOCKE:
o composed of body and soul o Father of Classical Liberation.
o two important aspect of his personhood is the body and soul. o He works on the self is most represented by the concept "tabula rasa"
o Body- imperfect and impermanent (blank slate).
o Soul- perfect and permanent o person is born with knowing nothing and that is susceptible to
o two dichotomous realms- physical and ideal stimulation and accumulation of learning from the experiences,
o Physical- changeable, body belongs to this realm failures, references, and observations of the person
o Ideal- unchangeable, soul belongs to this realm o the self is consciousness
PLATO: o human mind at birth is "tabula rasa" (blank slate).
o soul is immortal o He felt that the self is constructed primarily from sense experiences
o student of Socrates
o He was called the Father of academy DAVID HUME:
o Mind and soul is given in perfection with God • There is no self
o a person who is a follower of truth and wisdom will not be tempted • The idea of personal identity is a result of imagination
by vices and will always be correct/moral/ethical. • Self is simply a bundle of collection of different perception
o He believed in the division of a person's body and soul which forms
the person as a whole aside from the material things and that could IMMANUEL KANT:
be observed and associated with a person. • We construct the self
o He believed that the soul is divided into 3 different parts that has • German philosopher that is known for his works on empiricism and
different views, leading to different behaviors rationalism
o Appetitive soul - the part of the person that is driven by • He established that the collection of impressions and different
desire and need to satisfy oneself. This satisfaction contents is what it only takes to define a person
involves physical needs, pleasures and desires, objects,
• He believes that the awareness of different emotions that we have,
and situations.( basic needs)
impressions and behavior is only a part of ourselves.
o Spirited soul- courageous part of a person. One who
• He emphasizes that a person who fully understand the self has a
wants to do something or to right the wrongs that they
certain level of consciousness or sense that uses our intuition which
observe. This is very competitive and is very active.
synthesizes all the experiences, impressions and perceptions of
Competitiveness drives one to expect positive results and
ourselves will pave the way to define and know who we are really
winning.(emotion and passion)
are.
o Rational soul- the drive of our lives. The part that thinks
and plan for the future (the conscious mind). It decides • But he argued that the sense called "transcendental apperception" is
what to do, when to do it and the possible results one an essence of our consciousness that provides basis for
understanding and establishing the notion of self by synthesizing
could have depending on their actions. ( reason and
one's accumulation of experiences, intuition, and imagination
intellect)
SIGMUND FREUD: • His idea of perception follows the idea of Gestalt psychology (gives
• Father of psychoanalysis. importance on the whole rather than the sum of its parts).
• Freud is well known for his work on human nature and the • The perception guides our action based from our experiences.
unconscious. • The body perceives while our consciousness provides the meaning
• He believed that man has different constructs of personality. or interprets the various perception we have in the world and the self
• He conceptualized about the different levels of consciousness that could be established by the perceptions we have in the world.
provides an idea how a person develops a sense of self: • One's actions, behavior and language used could be said to be the
• Man has 3 aspects of personality reflection of our united perception of the world.
o Id- the child aspect of a person; attention is on
satisfaction of one's needs and self-gratification. Driven THOMAS AQUINAS
by pleasure principle. • The most eminent 13th century scholar and stalwart of the medieval
o Super ego- the conscience of one's personality. Has the philosophy, appended something to this Christian view.
inclination to uphold justice and do what is morally right • He explained that Man is composed of two parts:
and socially acceptable actions. Involved in the notion of o Matter or hyle in Greek, refers to the “common stuff that
right or wrong that is imparted to us by our parents or makes up everything in the universe.”
people that took care for us during childhood o and Form or morphe in Greek refers to the “essence of a
o Ego - police or the mediator between id and super ego. substance or thing”.
Operates within the boundaries of reality, primary • In the case of human person, the body of the human person is
function is to maintain the impulses of the id to an something that he shares even with animals. The cells in man's body
acceptable degree. are akin to the cells of any other living, organic being in the world.
• Introduced the Levels of Consciousness: However, what makes a human person a human person and not a
o Conscious- where minority of our memories are being dog, or a tiger is his soul, his essence. To Aquinas, the soul is what
stored and the memories that are in the conscious is animates the body; it is what makes us humans.
easier to be to be tapped or accessed
o Pre-conscious - the middle part of the entirety of our SOCIOLOGY
consciousness; the memories stored in this area can still
be accessed but with a little difficulty GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
o Unconscious- this area is where majority of our ✓ Sociologist from University of Chicago
memories since childhood are deeply stored. It is very ✓ Symbolic Interactions Perspective
difficult to tap the memories. It would need a trained
professional and several special techniques in order to THEORY OF SELF
make some memories resurface. o Two parts of Self: Self-awareness and Self-image Our bodies age
• He believed that we are a by-product of our experiences in the past biologically, but the self is something that emerges thorough social
and that are actions are driven by the idea of resisting or avoiding interaction
pain, and are molded from our need for pleasure or being happy o Self is developed as we age, as we grow
o Self develops through interacting with others, through reflecting on
GILBERT RYLE that interaction, to thinking about how others are perceiving you,
• He used behavioristic approach to self. and that helps you generate an image of yourself
• According to him, self is the behavior presented by the person. o Our self is mirrored in the reaction of the other
• The behavior that we show, emotions, and actions are the reflection o Self-image was developed in recognizing how others are perceiving
of our mind and as such is the manifestation of who we are. us, we are constantly trying to put ourselves in the shoes of another
• He does not believe that the mind and body are two separate entities and think about how they are seeing this event or situation or this
which is said to be evident in the unexplainable phenomenon or action transpiring – this is imitation
abilities of the mind where the soul is considered; however, to some o When you have internalized the widespread cultural norms, mores,
they can co-exist. and expectations of behaviors – this is generalized others
• He explained that the self is exemplified in his "ghost in the o By taking the role of other, we can become self-aware
machine" view (man is a complex machine with different THE “I” and “ME” of the SELF
functioning parts, and the intelligence, and other characteristic or o “I” – what is out there, acting, being spontaneous, doing things in
behavior of man is represented by the ghost in the said machine. His the world
idea is saying that the things that we do, how we behave and react o ”me” – an object, the aggregate combined image of yourself that has
and all other components like the way we talk, walk and look is been given to you from interacting with society
generally who we are as a person.
HENRI de SAINT-SIMON (1760-1825)
PAUL CHURCHLAND o Historic founder of French Socialism Origin of many ideas
elaborated into Comtism
• A Canadian philosopher whose focus is on the idea that people o His idea of the reconstruction of society were conditioned by the
should improve our association and use of worth in identifying the French Revolution and by feudal and military system
self. o He insisted on the necessity of new and positive reorganization of
• THE SELF IS THE BRAIN, MIND DOES NOT REALY EXIST society
• The self is defined by the movement of our brain. o Industrial chiefs should control society
• A constant movement of the brain can be the basis of who the person o In medieval church, spiritual direction of society should fall to the
is (emphasized by Churchland and his wife in the statement "the men of science
brain as the self"). He focuses on the philosophy of "eliminative o Industrial state directed by modern science, in which universal
materialism" and understanding the different neural pathways, how association should suppress war
they work, and what implications are those movement to people is a o Men who are successfully able to organize society for productive
measurable classification on one's behavior labor are entitled to govern it
o The social aim was to produce things useful to life
MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MERLEAU-PONTY o Call for “society of science” – influenced his disciple Auguste
Comte
• He is known for his works on existentialism and phenomenology.
• THE SELF IS EMBODIED SUBJECTIVITY HERBERT SPENCER (1820-1903)
o Synthetic Philosophy - Encompasses realms of physical,
• He coined the idea of phenomenology of perception (unity of the
function of the mind and the body) which is divided into three psychological, biological, sociological, and ethical
o Moral Philosophy
division.
• Merleau-Ponty regarded that the body and mind are not separate
entities but rather those two components is one and the same.
Social Statistics • “the alienation of man’s essence, man’s loss of objectivity and his
• Human happiness can be achieved only when individuals can satisfy loss of realness as self-discovery, manifestation of his nature,
their needs and desires without infringing on the right of others to objectification and realization”
do the same • When a person feels alienated from others and society as a whole
• In obtaining full satisfaction, one must derive pleasure from seeing • A person may feel alienated by his work by not feeling like he has
pleasure in others meaning to his work, therefore losing their sense of self at the
Principles of Ethics – basic law of ethics and morality o workplace
• Extension of laws in the natural world, and much of his scientific MAX WEBER (1864 – 1920)
justification for his moral position • German sociologist and political economist
• Moral dictum: Once physical and biological realms are discovered, • Capitalism developed out of a Protestant ethic, a religious
humans should obey them and cease trying to construct, through calling
political legislation, social forms that violate these laws • “iron cage” – as the religion became peripheral, capitalism
• Scientific position: The laws of social organization can no more be decoupled from its roots and established itself as the dominant
violated than can those of the physical universe, and to seek to do so force in society
will create, in the long run, more severe problems
• Humans should be as free from external regulation as possible – LEWIS MORGAN
“implicitly obey them!” • The Leasguge of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois (1851)
Social Statistics • This presented the complexity of Iroquois society in a path-breaking
• Moral laws and laws of laissez-faire capitalism converge and how ethnography that was a model for future anthropologists
they reflect biological laws of unfettered competition and struggle • He wanted to provide evidence for monogenesis, the theory that all
among species o human beings descended from a common source
• In the union of many men into one community – the law of • The structure of the family and social institutions develops and
individuation o change according to a specific sequence
• While decrying war as destructive, it allows more organized “races”
to conquer the ”less organized and inferior races,” increasing ✓ George Mead – Symbolic Interactions Perspective; two parts of Self: Self-
thereby, the level and complexity of social organization awareness and Self-image
• ✓ Henri de Saint-Simon – French Socialism; synthetic and moral philosophies
DAVID EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917)
✓ David Emile Durkheim – Sociology of Knowledge
• French sociologist, cited as the principal architect of modern social
✓ Albert Bandura – Social Learning Theory
sciences
• Established academic discipline with Marx and Weber ✓ Karl Marx – Theory of Self-Estrangement or Self-Alienation
• How societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in ✓ Max Weber – Self-help Imagination
modernity, an era in which a traditional social and religious tie are ✓ Lewis Morgan – Theory of Social Evolution
no longer assumed, and in which new social institutions have come
into being ANTHROPOLOGY
• Acceptance of sociology as a legitimate science
Collective representations Anthropology is a relative newcomer to the debate on selfhood. It emerged as
• The symbols and images that come to represent the ideas, beliefs, a subject from the imperial ambitions of European states during the eighteenth
and values elaborated by a collectivity and are not reducible to and nineteenth centuries and was initially an effort to identify the weaknesses
individual constituents and failings of other cultures so that they could be exploited and subjugated.

ALBERT BANDURA (1925) Social Learning Theory MARCEL MAUSS

• Theory that attempts to explain socialization and its effect on the • Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adapting to
development of the self one’s context seems paradoxical. However, French anthropologist
• It looks at the individual learning process, the formation of self, and Marcel Mauss has an explanation for this phenomenon.
influence of society in socializing individual • According to Mauss, every self has two faces: personne and moi.
• Formation of one’s identity is a learned response to social stimuli Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic
• An individual’s identity is not the product of the unconscious, but identity, his biological givenness.
instead is the result of modeling oneself in response to the • He studied non-Western societies all over the world and proposed
expectations of others the “Total Social Phenomenon”, which tackles that every sector in a
• Behaviors and attitudes develop in response to reinforcement and community or society should cooperate to have a well-balanced
encouragement from people around us living.
Self-Efficacy
• People’s belief about their capabilities to produce designated levels LANGUAGE
of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their Has something to do with culture. It is a salient part of culture and ultimately,
lives has a tremendous effect in our crafting of the self. This might also be one of the
Four Main Sources of Self-Efficacy reasons why cultural divide spells out differences in how one regards oneself.
If a self is born into a particular society or culture, the self will have to adjust
• Mastery Experience Successes build a robust belief in one’s
according to its exposure.
personal efficacy A resilient sense of efficacy requires experience in
overcoming obstacles through perseverant effort
CLIFFORD GEERTZ
• Vicarious Experience Provided by social models Seeing people
• An American cultural anthropologist who defined culture as “a
similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers’
system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by
beliefs that they too, possess the capabilities to master comparable
means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their
activities required to succeed People seek proficient models who
knowledge about and attitudes towards life.
possess the competencies to which they aspire
• Basic premises of his work, "The Impact of the Concept of Culture
• Social Persuasion People who are persuaded verbally that they
on the Concept of Man," The Interpretation of Cultures. (1966),
possess the capabilities to master given activities are likely to
mobilize greater effort and sustain it than if they harbor self-doubts
✓ According to the anthropological perspective, the self is embedded in our culture.
• Psychological Responses People rely partly on their somatic and
emotional states in judging their capabilities They interpret their ✓ Personne is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is.
stress reactions and tensions as signs of vulnerability to poor ✓ Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, his
performance biological givenness.
✓ Language is a salient part of culture and ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our
KARL MARX (1818 – 1881) crafting of the self.
• Theory of Self-Estrangement or Self-Alienation ✓ Culture is a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means
of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and
attitudes towards life.