“Know Thyself”

Module 1: Philosophical Perspective of the Self

Philosophy is...
 Gk: Philo - love and Sophia- wisdom – Love of Wisdom
 desire for truth
 the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and
existence, especially when considered as an academic
discipline.

 The philosophical framework for understanding the self

(soul/ego/i/identity/psyche/me/ being) was first introduced by
ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato.

 Socrates suggests to “know thyself.”

 Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a

happy and meaningful life.
 The Self can be viewed in 3 ways:
 Self is innate.
 The self is an important quality of
humans that is present upon birth
and that self-awareness is natural.
 This view of self includes the
philosophies of Socrates, Plato,
Augustine, and Rene Descartes.
 The Self can be viewed in 3 ways:
 Self is innate.

 Self is
emergent.
 The self is an outcome of
interaction with the physical as
well as the social world.
 The empiricist perspectives of
Aristotle , John Locke, and David
Hume belong to this view of self.
 The Self can be viewed in 3 ways:
 Self is innate.
 Self is emergent.

 Self is  The self has various components that

integrated and undergoes change through time.
developing.  Immanuel Kant, Gilbert Ryle, and
Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s The
Phenomenology of Perception may
fall under this view of self.
Different Philosophical Views of the Self:

 Socrates  Immanuel Kant

 Plato  Sigmund Freud
 Aristotle  Gilbert Ryle
 Augustine  Paul Churchland
 Rene Descartes  Maurice Merleau-
 John Locke Ponty
 David Hume
Socrates (Greek Philosopher)

 He inspired the youth of Athens to

“know thyself” and discover the
importance of their souls by continuous
questioning called as the Socratic
Method.
 He equates knowledge with virtue and
ignorance with vice.
 For him, “an unexamined life is not
worth living.”
Socrates
 The self is synonymous with the soul
 Every human possessed an immortal soul that survived the physical
body.
 The self consists of two dichotomous realms:
 The physical realm is changeable, transient, and imperfect. The body
belongs to the physical realm.
 The ideal realm is unchanging, eternal, and immortal. The intellectual
essences of the universe, concepts, (such as truth, goodness, beauty)
and the soul belong to the ideal realm.

 How do you view DEATH? Is it positive or negative?

Socrates
 The essence of the self is the soul which strives for wisdom and perfection, and
reason is the soul’s tool to achieve this exalted state, i.e., man must live an
examined life and a life of purpose and value.
 For Socrates, an unexamined life is not worth living.
 As long as the soul is tied to the body, the quest for wisdom is inhibited by the
imperfection of the physical realm, where it wanders and is confused.
 A person can have a meaningful and happy life only if he becomes virtuous and
knows the value of himself that can be achieved through constant soul-searching.
 Soul searching must begin at the source of all knowledge and significance – our
self.
 The Socratic method, the so-called introspection, is a method of carefully
examining our thoughts and emotions – to gain self-knowledge.
Plato (Greek Philosopher)

 Student of Socrates
 Theory of Forms:
 The world of Forms
(nonphysical ideas)
 The world of Sense (replica)
 3 Basic Elements of the Soul
 Reason
 Spirit (Passion)
 Appetite (Desire)
 Plato
 Plato: self is synonymous with the soul.
 Plato’s philosophy of the self can be explained as a process of self-knowledge and
purification of the soul.
 The self consists of three-parts:

 Reason: divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise

choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.

 Spirit (passion): includes basic emotions such as love, anger,

ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy.

 Appetite (desires): includes our basic biological needs such as hunger,

thirst, and sexual desire.

Need for harmonious relationship through the control of REASON

Aristotle (Greek Philosopher)

 Student of Plato
 He suggests that anything with life
has a soul.
 Threefold nature of man:
 Vegetative (physical body)
 Sentient (sensation & emotion)
 Rational (intellect)
Aristotle
 The soul and body are not separate
 The soul is the essence of all living things
 The soul is the essence of the self.
 3 Kinds of Soul:
1. Rational S.- what makes man human. It is intellectual capacity to know and understand.
2. Sentient S. - sensual desires/ feelings and emotions
3. Vegetative S. – physical body that grows

 The rational nature of the self should lead to good and fulfilling life (self-actualization)
 Happiness is a search for good life by doing virtuous actions.
Augustine ( Early Christian Philosopher)
 Regarded as a saint in the
Catholic Church
 Integrated the ideas of Plato and
the teachings of the Catholic
Church
 Contemplated that the soul is an
essential element which
governs and defines the human
person.
 “Knowledge can only come by
seeing the truth that dwells
within us.”
Augustine
 The soul is what governs and defines the human person or the self.
 The soul is united with the body so that man may be entire and complete.
 Humankind is created in the image and likeness of God
 The self is known only through knowing God. Self-knowledge is a consequence of
knowledge of God.
 For Augustine, “knowledge can only come by seeing the truth (knowing God) that
dwells within us.”
 God is transcendent and that the self seeks to be united with God through faith and
reason.
 In Augustine's mission to discover the truth on the existence of God. Developed the
philosophical principle, “I am doubting, therefore I am.”
Rene Descartes (French Philosopher)

 Father of Modern Philosophy

 Considered as a Rationalist
 Mind-Body Dualism
 Mind and body are distinct
entities and co-existent
 Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore, I
am.)
Rene Descartes
 “I think therefore I am” is the keystone of Descartes’ concept of self.
 The act of thinking about the self – of being self-conscious – is a proof that there
is self.
 The essence of the self – a thinking entity that doubts, understands, analyzes,
questions, and reasons.
 Two dimensions of the self: the self as a thinking entity and the self as a physical
body.
 The thinking self (or soul) is the immaterial, immortal, conscious being, and
independent of the physical laws of the universe.
 The physical body is the material, mortal, non-thinking entity, fully governed by
the physical laws of nature
 The self as a thinking entity is distinct from the self as a physical body. In other
words, the thinking self can exist independently of the physical body.
John Locke (English Philosopher)

 He postulated that the human mind

at birth is a blank slate or tabula
rasa.
 Sensory experience is the source of
all knowledge.
 Personal identity is made possible by
being aware of the world that our
senses perceived.
 John Locke
 The human mind at birth is TABULA RASA or blank slate.
 The self, or personal identity, is constructed primarily from sense experiences – or more
specifically, what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. These experiences shape and mold the
self throughout a person’s life.
 Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the self.
 Thus, the essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, and
reflecting identity.
 Self-consciousness is necessary to have a coherent personal (self) identity or knowledge of the self
as a person.
 Using the power of reason and introspection enables people to understand and achieve accurate
conclusions about the self.
David Hume (Scottish Philosopher)

 Bundle Theory (Lack of Self)

 The self is nothing but a bundle
or collection of interconnected
and continually changing sense
impressions of what a human
person is all about.
 Self-knowledge depends on one’s
conscious experience and
perception.
David Hume
 Hume suggests that if people carefully examine their sense experience
through the process of introspection, they will discover that there is no
self.

 According to Hume, what people experience is just a bundle or

collection of different perceptions, impressions, sensations, ideas,
thoughts, and images.

 The idea of personal identity is a result of imagination.

Immanuel Kant (German Philosopher)

 He harmonized the contradicting

ideas of rationalists and empiricists.
 Knowledge can be drawn form
the integration of sensory
experience and conceptual
understanding.
 The human mind is an active
shaper of experience.
 The self transcends experience.
Immanuel Kant

 The self makes experiencing an intelligible world possible because it

is the self that is actively organizing and synthesizing all of our
thoughts and perceptions.

 In other words, the self constructs its own reality creating a world
that is familiar and predictable.

 Through our rationality, the self transcends sense experience.

Sigmund Freud
(Austrian Psychoanalyst)
 The self is multilayered:
 Conscious
 Preconscious
 Unconscious
 Contains repressed memories and
emotions, and instinctual drives
 The goal of psychoanalysis is to release
repressed emotions and experiences to
overcome self-defeating behavior.
Sigmund Freud

 The conscious self is governed by the reality principle and is

organized in ways that are rational, practical, and appropriate.

 The unconscious contains the basic instinctual drives that would

be considered socially taboo and is governed by the pleasure
principle. Much of the self is determined by the unconscious.

 The preconscious is located between the conscious and

unconscious part of the self that is not threatening and is easily
brought to mind.
Gilbert Ryle (British Philosopher)

 The Concept of Mind

 The mind and body are
intrinsically linked; mental states
and bodily actions are one and
the same.
 “I act, therefore, I am.”
 It is through one’s behavior that
the self is revealed.”
Gilbert Ryle

 The self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, the

tendency or disposition for a person to behave in a certain
way in certain circumstances.

 Ryle’s concept of the human self thus provided the

philosophical principle, “I act, therefore, I am.”

 In short, the self is the same as bodily behavior.

Paul Churchland
(Canadian Philosopher)
 Proponent of Eliminative
Materialism
 Materialism maintains that the
self is inseparable from the
brain and the physiology of the
body.
 The self is the brain.
 The physical brain and not the
imaginary mind, gives us our
sense of self.
Paul Churchland

 The self is inseparable from the brain and the physiology of the body.
 All we have is the brain and so, if the brain is gone, there is no self.
 For Churchland, the physical brain and not the imaginary mind, gives us
our sense of self.
 The mind does not really exist.
 It is the brain and not the imaginary mind that gives us our sense of self.
 The self is the brain.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
(French Phenomenological Philosopher)
 The Phenomenology of Perception
 The consciousness, the world, and
the human body are intricately
intertwined in perceiving the world.
 The self is embodied subjectivity.
 Perception is not merely a
consequence of sensory experience;
rather, it is a conscious experience.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty

 Understanding the self is based on “phenomena” of experience.

 The I is a single integrated core identity (combination of mental, physical
and emotions)
 Mind and body are unified
 Everything that people are aware of is contained within the consciousness
 Perception is not merely a consequence of sensory experienced, rather, it
is a conscious experience. Thus, the self is an embodied subjectivity.
(body) embodied subjectivity (I/Self-source of consciousness)
 END
Go-Monilla, J., & Ramirez, N. (2018).
Understanding the self. Philippines:
C&E Publishing, Inc.

Source:
Photo credits:

windows2universe.org
philosophybasics.com
medium.com
en.wikipedia.org
gosouth.co.za
journalpsyche.org
alchetron.com
berfrois.com