UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF
JEMELYN MERIDA, LPT
LECTURER
Lesson 1: the self from
various philosophical
perspectives
 WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

PHILO SOPHIA

Greek word for “LOVE” Greek word for “WISDOM”

LOVE OF WISDOM
 Philosophy is all about:
Finding answers to serious questions about
ourselves and about the world we live in:
• What is morally right and wrong? And why?
• What is good life?
• Does God exist?
• What is the mind?
• …… and so much more

Questioning existing knowledge and

institutions to get closer to the truth
 PYTHAGORAS
The first to use the term
“philosophy.”
Ancient Greek philosophers

SOCRATES PLATO ARISTOTLE

Socrates
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.
Socrates
“An unexamined life is not
For Socrates, the self
worth living.” was
primarily the soul, which he
believed was the essence of a
person. He emphasized the
importance of self-knowledge,
famously stating, "Know
thyself."
 Socrates
According to Socrates, understanding oneself
is key to living a virtuous and examined life.
He believed that the soul, or self, is immortal
and is the seat of moral and intellectual
character. The pursuit of wisdom and virtue
was, for Socrates, a way of caring for the soul.
Socrates
Our preoccupation with bodily needs
such as drink, food, sex, pleasure,
material possessions, and wealth
keep us from attaining wisdom.
Socrates
A person can have a meaningful
and happy life only if he becomes
virtuous and knows the value of
himself that can be achieve
through constant soul-searching.
 Plato
Plato, building on Socratic ideas, offered a
more structured and metaphysical view of
the self. He saw the self as composed of
two parts: the body and the soul. Plato
believed the soul was eternal and pre-
existed before inhabiting a body. He
conceptualized the soul as having three
parts: the rational, the spirited, and the
appetitive.
 Plato
• The rational part seeks truth and wisdom;
• The spirited part is responsible for emotions like
anger and courage.
• The appetitive part desires bodily pleasures.

For Plato, the true self is the rational soul, which

should govern the other parts to achieve harmony and
justice within the individual.
Plato
When conflict occurs, Plato
believes that it is the responsibility
of our rational soul to sort things
out and exert control, restoring a
harmonious relationship among
the three elements of ourselves.
Plato
Plato believes that genuine
happiness can only be
achieved by people who
consistently make sure that
their rational soul is in control
of their spirits and appetitive.
 Aristotle
Aristotle, a student of Plato, took a more
empirical and biological approach to the
self. He rejected Plato's theory of the
separate existence of the soul and the
Forms. Instead, Aristotle viewed the self as
a unity of body and soul, where the soul is
the form of the body. The soul, according
to Aristotle, is what makes a living being
what it is; it is the principle of life.
Aristotle
Aristotle distinguished between different
parts of the soul: the vegetative (responsible
for growth and nutrition), the sensitive
(responsible for perception and movement),
and the rational (responsible for thinking
and reasoning).
Aristotle
For humans, the rational part is the most
important and defines the essence of the
human self. However, unlike Plato, Aristotle
did not believe in the pre-existence or
immortality of the soul. The self is fully
integrated with the body, and when the body
dies, the self ceases to exist.
 St. Augustine
St. Augustine, influenced by Christian doctrine and
Neoplatonism, viewed the self primarily as a soul created
by God. He believed that the self is unified and
continuous, with memory playing a key role in
maintaining personal identity over time. Augustine
emphasized the importance of the inner life and the
relationship between the self and God. He held that true
knowledge of the self is found through introspection and
the recognition of one's dependence on God. For
Augustine, the self is a composite of body and soul, with
the soul being superior and responsible for guiding the
body toward divine truth.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, a medieval philosopher and
theologian, followed Aristotelian thought but
integrated it with Christian doctrine. He viewed the
self as a unity of body and soul, with the soul being
the form of the body. Unlike Aristotle, Aquinas
believed that the soul is immortal and continues to
exist after the death of the body. The soul is rational
and is capable of knowing universal truths and
achieving a relationship with God. Aquinas also
emphasized the idea of the self as fundamentally
oriented toward the pursuit of truth and goodness,
which ultimately leads to union with God.
 Rene
Descartes
René Descartes, often called the father of modern
philosophy, famously asserted, "Cogito, ergo sum“
("I think, therefore I am"). For Descartes, the self
is fundamentally a thinking, conscious being (res
cogitans)
“I think therefore I am.” that exists independently of the body. He
“cogito, ergo believed that the self is known directly through
introspection and that the essence of the self is its
sum” capacity for thought and self-awareness.
Descartes's dualism posits a strict separation
between the mind (or soul) and the body, with the
mind being the true self.
Descartes’ 2 distinct entities
-
Cogito Extenza

- the thing
-the
that thinks extension
- mind
-body
John Locke “The self is consciousness.”
• The human mind at birth is
tabula rasa or blank slate.
• He felt that the self is
constructed primarily from
experiences.
• In summary, Locke's perspective on the self emphasizes
consciousness and memory as the key elements of personal
identity. He rejects substance-based notions of identity,
proposing instead that it is the continuity of conscious
experience that defines the self. This view laid the groundwork
for many modern debates on personal identity, ethics, and
responsibility.
John Locke
The Self as Consciousness:
Locke defines the self as a thinking, intelligent
being that has reason and reflection and can
consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing,
in different times and places. He argues that
personal identity, or the self, is based on
consciousness rather than on substance (either
material or immaterial).
 David Hume
David Hume, an empiricist philosopher, challenged
the traditional notion of the self. He argued that
there is no permanent self that persists over time.
Instead, the self is a bundle or collection of different
perceptions, experiences, and feelings that are
constantly changing. Hume maintained that what we
call the self is merely a convenient fiction, a product
of the mind’s tendency to attribute unity and identity
“There is no to a series of related experiences. There is no
underlying substance or essence to the self, only a
self.” continuous flow of perceptions.
Immanuel Kant “We reconstruct the
Immanuel Kant offered a complex view of the self, synthesizing
self.” He distinguished
elements of rationalism and empiricism.
between the empirical self (the self as it appears to us in
experience, subject to time and space) and the transcendental
self (the self as the condition for the possibility of experience,
not directly knowable). For Kant, the transcendental self is the
source of the unity of consciousness and is what allows us to
have coherent experiences. This self is not an object of
experience but rather the necessary condition for any
experience to occur. Kant believed that the self is both shaped
by the categories of the mind and, in a sense, a constructor of
its own experience.
Gilbert Ryle “The self is the way people be
Ryle's view of the self is rooted in the
idea that mental life is not something
mysterious or hidden but is rather an
aspect of how we live and interact with
the world. The self is always contextual,
defined by actions and reactions in
specific situations. This stands in contrast
to traditional views that see the self as an
inner essence or soul.
 Maurice Merleau Ponty
“The self is embodied
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a phenomenologist, emphasized
subjectivity.”
the embodied nature of the self. He argued that the self
cannot be understood in isolation from the body and the
world it inhabits. For Merleau-Ponty, the body is not just a
physical object but a lived, experiential reality through which
we engage with the world. The self is fundamentally
embodied, and our perception and experience of the world
are always mediated through our bodily existence. This view
challenges the traditional Cartesian separation of mind and
body, instead positing that the self is always already situated
in a physical and social context.
In Summary:
•Socrates: The self is the soul, which is immortal and the
source of moral character. Knowing oneself is key to a virtuous
life.
•Plato: The self is the rational soul, which pre-exists the body
and seeks to govern the other parts of the soul to achieve
harmony.
•Aristotle: The self is a unity of body and soul, with the
rational soul being the defining characteristic of human beings,
but it does not exist independently of the body.
In Summary:
•St. Augustine: The self is a unified soul, dependent
on God, and discovered through introspection.
•Thomas Aquinas: The self is a union of body and
soul, with the rational soul being immortal and oriented
toward God.
•René Descartes: The self is a thinking, conscious
mind, distinct and separate from the body.
•David Hume: The self is a bundle of perceptions with
no underlying substance or continuity.
In Summary:
•Immanuel Kant: The self is both empirical (as it
appears in experience) and transcendental (the
necessary condition for experience).
•Gilbert Ryle: The self is a set of behaviors and
dispositions, rejecting the idea of an inner, non-
physical entity.
•Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The self is embodied, and
our experience of the world is inseparable from our
bodily existence.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF SELF

Sigmund Freud: The Psychoanalytic

Theory of Self
Freud’s asserts that the human psyche
“personality” is structured into three parts
(tripartite). These structures – the id, ego,
superego – all develop at different stages in a
person’s life.
Parts of Personality
1. Id (internal desires). Also called
internal drives or instinctive drives, it
consists of the body’s primitive
biological drives and urges which are
concerned only with achieving pleasure
and self-satisfaction. Id lives completely
in the unconscious.
Parts of Personality

2. Ego (reality). It is the “I” part of the

individual that gives him/her the
sense of his/her own identity. The
ego is the rational part of the
personality.
Parts of Personality

3. Superego (conscience). It is the

part of the personality concerned
with morals, precepts, standards,
and ideas. The superego is also the
critical faculty of the personality.
Self-study Activity # 1:
Watch the video titled “The Miracle of Life”
by Rendering CG on YouTube. Fill out the
text below as you are watching. If you miss
something, get back to it after viewing the
film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Qzb-Y0NE8
Self-study Activity # 1:
Self-study Activity # 1:
Self-study Activity # 1: