Ge1 Module 3

GE1 - Understanding the Self (Module 3)
LESSON 1 Cont’d…
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas
Augustinus (Philosopher) – St. Augustine, a bishop, of Hippo was a Roman African,

early Christian theologian and philosopher from Numidia whose writings influenced the
development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy.
Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world
when it comes to man.
Following Plato’s ancient view and infusing it with the newfound doctrine of
Christianity, Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated (divided into two parts)
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 (an area of activity, interest, or knowledge) of spiritual bliss (complete
happiness) in communion with God. This is because the body can only thrive in the
imperfect, physical reality that is the world, where as the soul can also stay after
death in an eternal real with all-transcendent God (paranormal/supernatural)
The goal of every human person is to attain this communion (fellowship/rapport)

and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.
Thomas Aquinas – the most eminent (successful, well-known and respected)

thirteenth century scholar and stalwart (very loyal and dedicated/physically strong) of
the medieval (very old) 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, 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 human person, the body of the human person, is something that he
shares even with animals. The cells of in man’s body are more or less akin (similar or
related) 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 – was A French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He was the
father of Modern Philosophy, conceived of the human person as having a body and
a mind. In his famous treatise (a book, article that discuss this subject carefully and
thoroughly) 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 (incapable of error) they may turn out to be false.
If something is so clear and lucid as not be even doubted, then that is the only time
when one should actually by a proposition (a statement to be proved, explained or
discussed).
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 as stated in his famous,
“cogito ergo sum” which means “I think therefore, I am.”
This is the fact that when 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.
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 is not what makes man a man. According to him, if at
all, that is the mind. Descartes says when he asked himself who he is, he is a
thinking thing, then what is a thinking thing – according to him, “It is a thing that
doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also, and
perceives (to notice or become aware of something).
DAVID HUME is a Scottish philosopher, has a very unique way of looking at man. As
an empiricist, one 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 (a
person who had a job or position before someone else/antecedent) thought of it.
(Empiricism – is the practice of basing ideas and theories on testing and

experiences.)
The self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body. Accordingly, Men can only
attain knowledge by experiencing. Example: “You know that your friend is just
like you a person because you see him, you hear him and touch him.”
To David Hume, the self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions.
What are impressions? For David, 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 experiences or sensations. They therefore
form the core of our thoughts (When one touches an ice cube, the cold sensation is an
impression.)
Impressions are vivid because they are products of our direct experience with the
world.
Ideas, on the other hand, are copies of impressions and because of these, they are
not as lively and vivid as our impressions. When one imagines the feeling of being in
love for the first time, that still is an idea.
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 in
perpetual (happening all the time or very often) flux (continuous change) and
movement.
IMMANUEL KANT – a German philosopher who is a central figure in modern

philosophy. He argued that the human mind creates the structure of human
experience, that reason is the source of morality.
For Kant, thinking the “self” as a mere combination of impressions was

problematic. He recognizes the veracity of Hume’s account that everything starts
with perception and sensation of impressions. However, Kant thinks that the
things that men perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human
person without an organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all these
impressions. To him, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the impression that
men get from the external world. Time and space, for example, are ideas that one
cannot find in the world, but is built in our minds. Kant calls these the apparatuses
of the mind. Along with these apparatuses of the mind goes the “self” because
without the self, one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets
in relation to his own existence.
Kant therefore suggests that it is an actively engage intelligence in man that

synthesizes all knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what gives
one his personality, it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human
persons.
GILBERT RYLE - British philosopher and was the representative of the generation of
British ordinary language philosophers who shared Wittgenstein’s approach to
philosophical problem.
He solves the mind-body dichotomy (contradiction/difference between two opposite

things) that has been running for a long time in the history of thought by bluntly
denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self.
For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-
to-day life.
For him, looking for and trying to understand, a self as it really exists is like visiting
your friend’s university and looking for the “university”. Which means, one can
roam around the campus, visit the library and the football field, and meet the
administrators and faculty and still end up not finding the “university”. This is
because the campus, the people, the systems, and the territory all form the
university.
Ryle suggests that the “self” is not an entity (something that exists by itself:
something that is separate from other things) one can locate and analyze but simply
the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.
MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MERLEAU-PONTY – A French philosopher and was the

French phenomenological philosopher. (Phenomenology – the study of the
development of human consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to or a part of
philosophy)
He is a phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation (separation) that

has been going on for a long time is a futile (useless/pointless) endeavor (serious
effort or attempt) and an invalid problem. Unlike Ryle who simple denies the “self”,
Merleau-Ponty instead says that the mind and body are so intertwined (closely
involved with each other) that they cannot be separated from one another.
One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied (assimilate/incorporate)

experience.
All experience is embodied. One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the
world. Because of these bodies, men are in the world.
Merleau-Ponty dismisses the Cartesian Dualism. (The word “Cartesius” is simply

the Latin form of the name of Descartes. And the Cartesian Dualism is simply
Descartes concept of dualism.
(Dualism – is the state of being so divided or the division of something conceptually

into two opposed or contrasted aspect). In philosophy – Dualism is a theory or
system of thought that regards a domain (an area of knowledge or activity) of reality
in terms of two independent principles, especially mind and matter (Cartesian
Dualism).
Merleau-Ponty dismisses the Cartesian Dualism that has spelled so much

devastation (cause great damage or harm to something) in the history of man.
For him, the Cartesian problem is nothing else but plain misunderstanding. The
living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF (PART 3)
APPLICATION & ASSESSMENT (OUTPUT)

Directions: In your own words, state what is “self” to the following
philosophers:
Socrates: Hume:
Plato: Kant:
Augustine: Ryle:
Descartes: Merleau-Ponty

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GE1 - Understanding the Self (Module 3)

Augustine and Thomas Aquinas

Augustinus (Philosopher) – St. Augustine, a bishop, of Hippo was a Roman African,

The goal of every human person is to attain this communion (fellowship/rapport)

Thomas Aquinas – the most eminent (successful, well-known and respected)

(Empiricism – is the practice of basing ideas and theories on testing and

To David Hume, the self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions.

IMMANUEL KANT – a German philosopher who is a central figure in modern

For Kant, thinking the “self” as a mere combination of impressions was

Kant therefore suggests that it is an actively engage intelligence in man that

He solves the mind-body dichotomy (contradiction/difference between two opposite

MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MERLEAU-PONTY – A French philosopher and was the

He is a phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation (separation) that

One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied (assimilate/incorporate)

Merleau-Ponty dismisses the Cartesian Dualism. (The word “Cartesius” is simply

(Dualism – is the state of being so divided or the division of something conceptually

Merleau-Ponty dismisses the Cartesian Dualism that has spelled so much

APPLICATION & ASSESSMENT (OUTPUT)

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