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Lesson 1

The document discusses different perspectives on the self from ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato to modern thinkers like Descartes and Hume. It covers views of the self as consisting of body and soul, matter and form, as well as a bundle of perceptions. Key figures and their theories on the nature of the self are explained.

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Jhapzy Dinagat Perez
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23 views

Lesson 1

The document discusses different perspectives on the self from ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato to modern thinkers like Descartes and Hume. It covers views of the self as consisting of body and soul, matter and form, as well as a bundle of perceptions. Key figures and their theories on the nature of the self are explained.

Uploaded by

Jhapzy Dinagat Perez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DEFINING THE SELF:

PERSONAL AND
DEVELOPMENTAL
PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND
IDENTITY
The history of philosophy is replete with
men and women who inquired into the
fundamental nature of the self. Along with the
question of the primary substratum that defines
the multiplicity of things in the world, the
inquiry on the self has preoccupied the earliest
thinkers in the history of philosophy: the Greeks.
The Greeks were the ones who seriously
questioned myths and moved away from them
in attempting to understand reality and respond
to perennial questions of curiosity, including the
question of the self. The different perspectives
and views on the self can be best seen and
understood by revisiting its prime movers and
identify the most important conjectures made
by philosophers from the ancient times to the
contemporary period.
PRE-SOCRATICS
They preoccupied themselves with the
question of the primary substratum that explains the
multiplicity of things in the world
 Thales, Pythagoras. Parmenides, Heraclitus, and
Empedocles were concerned with explaining what
the world is really made up of, why the world is so,
and what explains the changes that they observed
around them.
 These men endeavored to finally locate an
explanation about the nature of change, the seeming
permanence despite change, and the unity of the
world amidst its diversity.
Socrates
After a series of thinkers from all across the ancient Greek world
who were disturbed by the same issue, a man came out to question
something else. This man was Socrates. Unlike the Pre-Socratics,
Socrates was more concerned with another subject, the problem of the
self. He was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic
questioning about the self. To Socrates, and this has become his life-
long mission, the true task of the philosopher is to know oneself.
Plato
 Plato claimed in his dialogue that Socrates affirmed that the
unexamined life is not worth living. During his trial for allegedly
corrupting the minds of the youth and for impiety, Socrates declared
without regret that his being indicted was brought about by his going
around Athens engaging men young and old, to question their
presuppositions about themselves and about the world, particularly
about who they are.
 Socrates took it upon himself to serve as a "gadfly" that disturbed
Athenian men from their slumber and shook them off in order to
reach the truth and wisdom. Most men, in his reckoning, were really
not fully aware of who they were and the virtues that they were
supposed to attain in order to preserve their souls for the afterlife.
Socrates thought that this is the worst that can happen to anyone: to
live but die inside.
For Socrates, every man is composed of body
and soul. This means that every human person
is dualistic, that is, he is composed of two
important aspects of his personhood. For
Socrates, this means all individuals have an
imperfect, impermanent aspect to him, and
the body, while maintaining that there is also
a soul that is perfect and permanent.

Plato, Socrates’ student, basically took off


from his master and supported the idea that
man is a dual nature of body and soul. In
addition to what Socrates earlier espoused,
Plato added that there are three components
of the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul,
and the appetitive soul.
Plato, in his magnum opus, "The Republic",
emphasized that justice in the human person
can only be attained if the three parts of the
soul are working harmoniously with one
another. The rational soul forged by reason
and intellect has to govern the affairs of the
human person, the spirited part which is in
charge of emotions should be kept at bay, and
the appetitive soul in charge of base desires
like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sex
are controlled as well. When this ideal state is
attained, then the human person's soul
becomes just and virtuous.
Augustine
 Augustine's view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the
medieval world when it comes to man. Following the ancient view of
Plato and infusing it with the newfound doctrine of Christianity,
Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature. An aspect of man
dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be
with the Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality.

 The body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to anticipate living
eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with God. This is
because the body can only thrive in the imperfect, physical reality that
is the world, whereas the soul can also stay after death in an eternal
realm with the all-transcendent God. The goal of every human person
is to attain this communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life
on earth in virtue.
Thomas Aquinas
 Thomas Aquinas, the most eminent thirteenth century scholar and stalwart of
the medieval philosophy, appended something to this Christian view.
Adapting some ideas from Aristotle, Aquinas said that indeed, man is
composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter, or hyle in Greek, refers to
the "common stuff that makes up everything in the universe." Man's body is
part of this matter. Form on the other hand, form or morphe in Greek refers
to the "essence of a substance or thing." It is what makes it what it is. In the
case of the human person, the body of the human person, the body of the
human person is something that he shares even with animals. The cells in
man's body are more or less akin to the cells of any other living, organic
being in the world. However, what makes a human person a human person
and not a dog, or a tiger is his soul, his essence. To Aquinas, just as in
Aristotle, the soul is what animates the body, it is what makes us humans.
Descartes

 Rene Descartes, Father of Modern


Philosophy, conceived of the human person
as having a body and a mind. In his famous
treatise, The Meditations of First Philosophy,
he claims that there is so much that we
should doubt. In fact, he says that since
much of what we think and believe are not
infallible, they may turn out to be false. One
should only believe that since which can pass
the test of doubt (Descartes 2008).
Descartes
 If something is so clear and lucid as not to be even
doubted, then that is the only time when one should
actually buy a proposition. In the end, Descartes
thought that the only thing that one cannot doubt
is the existence of the self, for even if one doubts
oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting
self, a thing that thinks and therefore, that cannot
be doubted. Thus, his famous, cogito ergo sum, "I
think therefore, I am." The fact that one thinks
should lead one to conclude without a trace of
doubt that he exists. The self then for Descartes is
also a combination of two distinct entities, the
cogito the thing that thinks, which is the mind and
the extenza or extension of the mind, which is the
body.
Descartes

 In Descartes's view the body is nothing else but a


machine that is attached to the mind. The human
person has it but it man. If at all, that is the mind.
Descartes says, "But what then, am 1? A thinking
not what makes man a thing. It has been said. But
what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts,
understands (conceives), affirms, denies, wills,
refuses; that imagines also, and perceives"
(Descartes 2008).
Hume
 David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, has a very
unique way of looking at man. As an empiricist
who believes that one can know only what comes
from the senses and experiences, Hume argues
that the self is nothing like what his predecessors
thought of it. The self is not an entity over and
beyond the physical body. One can rightly see
here the empiricism that runs through his veins.
Empiricism is the school of thought that espouses
the idea that knowledge can only be possible f it
is sensed and experienced. Men can only attain
knowledge by experiencing. For example, Jack
knows that Jill is another human person not
because he has seen her soul. He knows she is just
like him because he sees her, hears her, and
touches her.
Hume
 To David Hume, the self is nothing else but a
bundle of impressions. What are
impressions? For David Hume, if one tries to
examine his experiences, he finds that they
can all be categorized into two: impressions
and ideas. Impressions are the basic objects
of our experience or sensation. They
therefore form the core of our thoughts.
When one touches an ice cube, the cold
sensation is an impression.
Hume
 What is the self then? Self, according to
Hume, is simply a bundle or collection of
different perceptions which succeed each
other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are
in a perpetual Mux and movement (Hume
and Steinberg 1992). Men simply want to
believe that there is a unified, coherent self, a
soul or mind just like what the previous
philosophers thought. In reality, what one
thinks is simply a combination of all
experiences with a particular person.

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