THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE

Intended learning outcomes

articulate the clarify how classical and
At the end of the
fundamental concept modern philosophical
lesson/topics, you
and principles of the models defined the
should be able to
self; self; 

describe and discuss the

examine the different examine one’s self
different notions of the
influences, factors, and against the different
self from the points-of-
forces that shape the views of self that were
view of the various
development of the self; discussed.
philosophers; and
What is the nature of self?
How well do you know yourself? When asked what kind of person a you are, are
you able to truly express who you really are?
When you know who you are, you are more
likely to specifically seek and speak about
what you want. You are more decisive with
your decisions, and are able to set boundaries
for people or things that might not be serving
your happiness or health.
The conscious, social construction of the self is
clearest in how people portray themselves on
social media. This is a context in which people are
required to describe themselves and thus create a
self for others to see. One they call ‘context driven’
in which individuals only reveal aspects of
themselves relevant to the particular medium they
are using. Essentially, this is presenting a
professional self to their online community.
The other is ‘user driven’ in
which the person readily
reveals personal aspects
across all media. These
relate, intriguingly, to
Mead’s ‘me’ and ‘I’
respectively.
The sum total of your personality is
your S.E.L.F.  What you are is a
product of
your Social, Environmental and
other Life Factors.
What is personality? It  is defined one that is made
up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. 
Personality came from the Greek word 'persona'
which means mask worn by actors in theater. We are
all actors in the theater called life. As an actor, we 
wear mask. As an actor, we have roles to play. How
many masks do you wear?  
Your past makes up a big portion
of what makes you you. But it
doesn’t define who you are today.
You might have come to certain
conclusions because of your
parents, or have a deeper
appreciation for something that
you didn’t have as a child.
Your future can shape what motivates you in life.
What are your goals personally or professionally?
How do you want to be treated, or how do you want
to treat others? Knowing yourself can make those
relationships around you deeper and more genuine.
It can also show you which relationships can be
toxic and should probably end.
The root of all change starts with self-
understanding. If you don’t understand
yourself, your efforts will be lost, and spent
on things that are actually not under you
control.
Self-understanding is a journey. There will
always be new things to discover about
yourself—and new paths to success as a
result of that understanding.
Who you are is your self-identity.    
The way you look at yourself and your
relationship to the world defines the kind of
person you are.  In understanding this, it
allows you to examine who you are and
more importantly create who you want to
be.
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wFAufg&t=5s-
SELF UNDERSTANDING
The Philosophivcal View of the Self

The word philosophy is derived from two Greek words. The first
word, Philo, means “love.” The second, sophy, means “wisdom.”
Literally, then, philosophy means “love of wisdom”. Each individual has
an attitude toward life, children, politics, learning, and previous personal
experiences that informs and shapes their set of beliefs. Although you
may not be conscious of it, this set of beliefs, or personal philosophy,
informs how you live, work, and interact with others. What you believe is
directly reflected in both your teaching and learning processes. 
What Philosophy says about the Self
The Self has been defined as “as a unified being, essentially connected to
consciousness, awareness, and agency (or, at least, with the faculty of
rational choice) “. Different philosophers have come up with more
specific characteristics of the Self, and over time, these meanings have
transformed from pure abstractions to explanations that hold scientific
evidence. The Philosophy of the self has been defined through two
distinct philosophical lenses:
 Empiricism - derives explanations of the self from sensory and bodily
responses. We know things because we have experienced them through
our bodily senses. 
Rationalism - there is innate knowledge; they differ in that they choose
different objects of innate knowledge. Rationalism explains self from the
standpoint of what is “ideal” and the “truth”, not rooted in what is felt by
the senses nor our body.
Socrates :  “The unexamined life is not worth living” 
 Socrates was believed to be the first thinker to focus on the full power of reason on the human self - our
existence in the universe, who we are, who we should be, and who we will become. For Socrates, the self
exists in two parts: the physical body and the soul. The physical body is a tangible aspect of us. It is
mortal (it dies), constantly changing, imperfect, transforming, disappearing. Our soul, which Socrates
believed to be immortal, is eternal, unchanging, perfect, or ideal. Socrates believed that there was a soul
first before a man's body. The soul has all the knowledge that is stored in his mind. However, once he
came to the material world or the world of senses, he forgot most of what he knew. This resulted in a lack
of knowledge or ignorance, which causes problems for men. Knowledge can be restored through the
process of the dialectic method or Socratic method - an exchange of question and answer that ultimately
aims to make a person remember all the knowledge that he has forgotten, including his former all-
knowing self.
Socrates’ conviction is conveyed in his famous statement: "the unexamined life is not worth living." The
most important task one can undertake is to examine one's self, for it alone will give one the knowledge
necessary to answer the question 'how should I live my life.' Socrates explained: "…once we know
ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves, but otherwise, we never shall." Socrates is,
eventually, known as the "father of Western philosophy."
 Plato : “The first and the best victory is to conquer self.” 
Plato is a dualist; there is both an immaterial mind (soul) and a
material body, and it is the soul that represents the self. Plato
believed the soul exists before birth and after death. For him, one
should care about his soul rather than his body. The soul (mind) is
divided into three parts: Reason - our divine essence that enables
us to think deeply, make wise choices and achieve a true
understanding of eternal; Physical Appetite - our basic biological
needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual; and Will or Spirit - is
our basic emotion or passion, such as empathy, aggressiveness,
love, anger.
 Aristotle  :  The Soul Is Immortal
Plato’s idea of the truth about the human self was even more expounded and formalized by
his prized student, Aristotle. While Plato emphasized the separation of ideal and
phenomenal existence (or being), Aristotle suggested that the ideal is subsumed in the
phenomena. Aristotle called the ideal as “essence” and the phenomena as “matter”. He also
emphasized that the two co-exist and are co-dependent, the essence provides meaning and
purpose to the matter, and the matter provides substance and solidity to essence. As we may
already know, Plato is sure that the true self is the soul, not the body. And to be specific, the
true self for Plato is the rational soul which is separable from the body. Aristotle’s concept
of the self is quite the opposite. Aristotle’s concept of the self is more complicated.
However, there is one main theme in Aristotle’s narrative of the soul that guides us in
understanding his concept of the self, that is, the human person is a “rational animal”. In
other words, for Aristotle, the human person is simply an animal that thinks.
St. Augustine: Christianity
“Accepting God is the path to know thyself.”  
Augustine believes that man is created in the image and likeness of
God, and he is essentially a soul whose goal is to be with God.
St. Augustine's sense of self is his relation to God, both in his
recognition of God's love, and his response to it. It is achieved
through self-presentation then self-realization. Augustine believed
one could not achieve inner peace without finding God's love and
through faith and reason, our self seeks to be united with God.
Augustine believes that God is transcendent, and everything
created by God, who is all good, is good.
 
Rene Descartes: “Cogito ergo sum (I think; therefore I am.)”.
 René Descartes is the "founder of modern philosophy." Descartes'
principle, cogito ergo sum (Latin), is the keystone of his concept of self.
For Descartes, this is the essence of self— you are a "thinking thing" (I
exist because I think: I think, therefore I exist). The mind is what matters.
But what about your body? Descartes believes that our physical body is
secondary to our personal identity. Descartes declares that the essential
self, or the self as a thinking entity, is radically different from the self as a
physical body. The thinking self—or soul—is a non-material, immortal,
conscious being, independent of the physical laws of the universe.
The physical body is a mortal, non-thinking material that is fully governed
by the physical laws of nature. Further, your soul and your body are
independent of one another. Each one can exist and function without the
other.
John Locke: "The Self Is Consciousness"
John Locke is known for his theory that the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank
slate. Locke believed that we are born without thoughts, or our mind was
empty and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience.
According to Locke, our memory plays a key role in our definition of the self.
He theorized that we are the same person as we were in the past for as long as
we can remember memories from that past. It is our memory or our
consciousness of our past that makes us that same person as we were in the
past. Thus, to Locke, our conscious awareness and memory of previous
experiences are the keys to understanding the self. It is our consciousness that
makes possible our belief that we are the same identity at different times and
in different places.
David Hume: "There Is No “Self”
 David Hume believed that the source of all genuine knowledge is our direct sense of
experience. He believes in the existence of the mind, and what’s inside the mind is divided
into two: impressions and ideas. Impressions are those things we perceive through our senses
as we experience them. Like when I see the sky, and my sense of sight tells me I am looking at
a blue sky. That is now my impression. Ideas, on the other hand, are those things that we
create in our minds even though we are no longer experiencing them. For example, even when
I’m already inside my room and can no longer see the sky, I can still think of the idea of the
sky, like it’s a nice day, it’s not likely to rain, maybe I can do the laundry, or maybe I can go
out to the park. Whenever we think of simple ideas, it must have as a basis a simple
impression.
Hume's idea of the self follows this philosophical pattern. In his mind, he finds a stream of
impressions and ideas, but no impression that corresponds to a self that endures through time.
For Hume, the self keeps on changing, like how one looks, one feels, one thinks they
constantly change. There is no permanent and unchanging self. A person is a bundle of
perceptions. Thus, we cannot observe any permanent self because we continuously undergo
change. In conclusion, there is no self.
Immanuel Kant: "We Construct the Self'
 Immanuel Kant refutes Hume’s theory that there is no “self” and
argues that it is possible to find the essence of the self. For Kant, man
is a free agent, capable of making a decision for himself. Man is a
free agent, for he is gifted with reason and free will to enable him to
organize the data gathered by the senses. From these data and the
way we organize them, we can build an idea of who we are. 
According to him, the reason is the final authority of morality. Every
human being has his inner self and outer self; · The inner self
includes rational reasoning and psychological state while the outer
self includes the body and physical mind, where representation
occurs.
Sigmund Freud  'There Are Two Selves, One Conscious, One  Unconcious     
Sigmund Freud is not a philosopher, but his views on the nature of the self
have had a far-reaching impact on philosophical thinking. He is a great
influence in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, the theory he
founded. Freud believes that there are two levels of human functioning: the
conscious and the unconscious. In his psychoanalytic theory, the conscious
refers to all mental processes of which we are aware; the unconscious refers to
mental processes that are not easily accessible to our awareness. Freud
believes that even if the conscious self plays an important role in our lives, it is
the unconscious self that has the dominant influence on our personalities.
Sigmund Freud  'There Are Two Selves, One Conscious, One 
Unconcious     

The unconscious contains basic instinctual drives that

include aggressiveness, sexuality, and self-destruction;
traumatic memories; childhood fantasies and unfulfilled
wishes; thoughts and feelings that would be considered
socially taboo. This unconscious level is characterized by the
most primitive level of human motivation and functioning.
Our most basic instinctual drives in the unconscious level
seek immediate gratification or discharge. The impulses at
this level are governed solely by the “pleasure principle .” 
Gilbert Ryle: "The Self Is How You Behave".
Gilbert Ryle simply focused on observable behavior in defining the self. No more inner
selves, immortal soul, states of consciousness, or unconscious self: instead, the self is
defined in terms of the behavior that is presented to the world. From Ryle's point of view,
the self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, a person’s tendency or disposition to
behave in a certain way in certain circumstances. In short, the self is defined by the
observable behaviors we project to the world around us.
He contends that every human being has both a physical body and a non-physical mind
which are ordinarily “harnessed together” while we are alive. However, after the death of
the body, our minds may continue to exist and function. This “dualistic” conception of the
mind and body is analogous to the dualism of Socrates and Plato who viewed the self as
being comprised of a mortal body and an immortal soul,
According to him,  “The self is the way people behave”. The self is basically our behavior.
This concept provided the philosophical principle, “I act therefore I am”.  In short, the
concept means the self is the brain.
Paul Churchland: "The Self Is the Brain".
When it comes to learning of human experience, the concept of dualism is
that the mind and the body are separate. In other words, we do have a single
brain and have a separate mind, too. Paul Churchland disagrees with the
concept of dualism. Churchland asserts that since the mind cannot be
experienced by the senses, it does not exist. It is the physical brain, not the
imaginary mind, that gives us our sense of self. To Churchland, the self is
the brain. He focused on the brain states rather than the mental states.
Neuroscience is into the fore of understanding the self. When people want
to ask what is going on with themselves, they might go for an MRI scan or
CT scan to understand the condition of the brain and how it works.
Churchland believes that the term “mind,” our moods, emotions, actions,
consciousness are deeply affected by the state of our brain that altered our
actions, and physical state when they are manipulated.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Self is An Embodied Subjectivity
 Maurice Merleau-Ponty takes a very different approach to the self. His ideas suggest that there
is unity in our mental, physical, and emotional disposition, and they all affect how we
experience ourselves. For instance, when you wake up in the morning and experience your
gradually becoming aware of where you are or how you feel, what are your first thoughts of
the day? Perhaps something like, “Oh no, it’s time to get up, but I’m still sleepy, but I have a
class that I can’t be late for.” Note that at no point do you doubt that the “I” you refer to is a
single integrated entity, but a blending of mental, physical, and emotional structure around a
core identity: your self. Our self is a product of our conscious human experience. The
definition of self is all about one’s perception of one’s experience and the interpretation of
those experiences. To Merleau-Ponty, the self as embodied subjectivity. He entirely rejected
the idea of the mind and body dichotomy because, for him, man is all about how he sees
himself.
Sources:
Macayan, Jonathan V., Pinugu, Jasmine Nadja J., Castillo, John Christopher D. (2018).
Understanding the Self: An Outcome-Based Modular Courseware. C & E Publishing, Inc.
 https://www.greeka.com/greece-history/famous-people/socrates/    (Links to an external site.)
https://revelpreview.pearson.com/epubs/pearson_chaffee/OPS/xhtml/ch03_sec_02.xhtml 
ASSIGNMENT for next meeting:

Sociological Perspective of the Self