Understanding Self Chapter 1

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
CHAPTER 1: THE SELF FROM

VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES
(PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
OF THE SELF
JADE C. MARCOS
Date:SEPT. 26. 2023
INSTRUCTOR
Contents
1 2 3 4
ACTIVITY 1 WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? PHILOSOPHY AND THE SELF? ASSESSMENT
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1 EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN UNDERSTANDING THE

SELF
2 DISCUSS THE DIFFENET CONCEPTS OF THE SELF FROM THE

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
3 DIFFERENTIATE THE VARIOUS CONCEPTS OF THE SELF AND

IDENTITY THEIR SIMILLARITIES
HOW DO YOU KNOW YOURSELF?
ASK YOURSELF
1. How would you characterize yourself?

2. what makes you stand out from the rest? What makes
yourself special?
3. how is yourself connected to your body?
4. how is yourself related to other selves?
5. what will happen to yourself after you die?
Analysis
Questions Easy or difficult? why?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is Philosophy?
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 a good life?
 Does God exist?
 What is the mid?
questioning existing knowledge and intuitioins to get closer to the truth

What will you get out of Philosophy?
The skills can get:

Critical Thinking
Argument Skills
Communication
Reasoning
Analysis
Problem Solving
What will you get out of Philosophy?
Which will allow you to:

 Justify your opinions
 Spot a bad arqument, no matter what the topic is
 Explain to people why they are wrong and you are
right
 Philosophy basically teachers you to think!
PYTHAGORAS
the first to use the term “ Philosophy”
LOVE OF WISDOM
PHILO
Greek word for “LOVE”
SOPHIA
Greek word for “WISDOM”
The Origin of Philosophy and Logic?
Search for Truth

 Search is to look for something
 Search for meaning
- importance/significance
- Value
- Relevance
Philosophy ask a lot of questions
Philosophy and the self
Ancient Greek Philosophers
Socrates:
“KNOW THYSELF”
Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a

happy and meaningful life.
“ An unexamined life is not worth living”

Socrates:
Every man is dualistic
composed of body and soul
2 important aspects of his personhood:
Body
Imperfect and impermanent
Soul
Perfect and permanent
Socrates two dichotomous realms:
Physical Realm
- changeable, transient and imperfect

- the body belongs to this realm
Ideal Realm
- unchanging, eternal and immortal

- the soul belongs to this realm
Socrates
 Socrates was the first thinker to focus on the full power of reason on the human self: who we
are, who we should be and who we will beacome.
 The soul strives for wisdom and perfection, and the reason is the soul’s tool to achieve an
exalted state of life.
 Our preoccupation with bodily needs such as food, drink, sex, pleasure, materal possessions and
wealth keep us from attaining wisdom.
 A person can have a meaningful and happy life only if he becomes virtuos and knows the value
of himself that can be achieved through constant soul-searching.
 For him, this is best achieved when one tries to separate the body from the soul as much as
possible.
Plato - “The soul is immortal”
 he was a student of Socrates
 Philosophy of the self can be explained as a process of self-knowledge and
purification of the soul.
 he belived int he existence of teh mind and soul
 mind and soul are given in perfection with God.
Plato
Soul has 3 parts
1. Rational Soul
 Reason and intellect
divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices and achive a true
understanding of eternal truths.
2. Spirited Soul
 Emotion and passion
basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, emphaty and aggressiveness
3. Appetitive Soul
 Basic needs
includes our biological needs such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire.
Plato
These 3 elements of ourselves are in a dynamic relationship with one another, sometimes in
conflict.
when conlfict occurs, Plato believes that it is the responsibility of our Rational to sort things out
and exert control, restoring a harmonious relationship among the three elements of ourselves.
he believed that genuine happiness can only be achieved by people who consistently make sure
that hier Rational is in control of theier Spirits and Appetites
Rational means - based on or in accordance with reason or logic:

Plato
These 3 elements of ourselves are in a dynamic relationship with one another, sometimes in
conflict.
when conlfict occurs, Plato believes that it is the responsibility of our Rational to sort things out
and exert control, restoring a harmonious relationship among the three elements of ourselves.
he believed that genuine happiness can only be achieved by people who consistently make sure
that hier Rational is in control of theier Spirits and Appetites
Rational means - based on or in accordance with reason or logic:

Aristotle: “The soul is the essensce of the self”
 a student of Plato
 the body and soul are not two separate elemets but one thing.
 the soul is simply the form of the body, and is not capable of existing without
the body.
 the soul makes a person a person. the soul is the essence of the self.
 Aristotle suggestst that the rational nature of the self is to lead a good,
flourishing a fullfilling life.
 whithout the body, the soul cannot exist. the soul dies along with the body.
Aristotle: “The soul is the essensce of the self”
Aristotle
suggested that anything with life has soul.
his discussion about the self centers on the kinds of soul possessed by a man.
He introduced the kinds of soul

Aristotle: Kinds of Soul
1. Vegetative - (Vegetative soul “PLANTS”) - reproduction, growth.
- includes the physical body that can grow
2. Sentient - (Sensitive Soul “ANIMAL” - MOBILITY, SENSATION.
- includes the sensual desires, feelings and emotions
3. Rational - (RATIONAL SOUL “HUMAN”)-THOUGHT, REFLECTION
- is what makes man human. It includes the intellect that makes man know and
understand things
St. Augustine: “ I am doubting, therefore I am”
Integrated the ideas of Plato and Christianity

Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world.
the soul is united with the body so that man may be entire and complete
believed humakind is created in the image and likeness of God.
therefore, the human person being a creation of God is always geared towards the good.
the self is known only through knowing God
self-knowledge is consequence of knowledge of God.
“knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us”
Rene Descartes: “ I think therefore I am”
the act of thinking about self of being self-concious - is in itself proof that there is self.
Cogito
- the thing that thinks mind
Extenza
- the extension body
John Locke
the human mind at birth is tabula rasa or blank state
he felt that the self is constructed primarily from sense experiences
theorized that when they are born, all babies know absolutely nothing
he argued that the inside of a baby’s brain was empty - ready to learn everything through
experience.
The Self is conciousness
CONCIOUSNESS
necessary to have a coherent personal identity or knowledge of the self as

a person
what makes possible our belief, is that we are the same identity in
different situations
David Hume: There is no self
Self is simply a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which

succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidly and are in a perpetual
flex and movement
the idea of personal identity is a result of imagination
there is no self
Immamuel kant : we construct the self
\
Self is not just what gives one his personality but also the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all human persons
the self constructs its own reality creating a world that is familiar and
predictable
through our rationality, the self trancends sense experience

Gilbert Ryle: The self is the way people behave
\
self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient
name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make
the self is the way people behave

Paul Churchland: “The self is the brain”
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.
the physical brain and not the imaginary mind, gives us our sense of self
Maurice Merleau Ponty: “the self is embodied subjectivity”
the mind-body bifurcation that has benn doing on for a long time is a
futile endeavor and an invalid problem
all knowledge of ourselves and our world is based on subjective

experience
the self can never be truly objectified or known in a completely objective

sort of way
the self is embodied subjectivity

THANKS FOR
LISTENING

Understanding Self Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Understanding Self Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Understanding Self Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

CHAPTER 1: THE SELF FROM

1 EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN UNDERSTANDING THE

2 DISCUSS THE DIFFENET CONCEPTS OF THE SELF FROM THE

3 DIFFERENTIATE THE VARIOUS CONCEPTS OF THE SELF AND

1. How would you characterize yourself?

 what is morally right and wrong? and Why?

questioning existing knowledge and intuitioins to get closer to the truth

The skills can get:

Which will allow you to:

the first to use the term “ Philosophy”

Search for Truth

Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a prerequisite to a

“ An unexamined life is not worth living”

- changeable, transient and imperfect

- unchanging, eternal and immortal

Rational means - based on or in accordance with reason or logic:

Rational means - based on or in accordance with reason or logic:

He introduced the kinds of soul

Integrated the ideas of Plato and Christianity

the human mind at birth is tabula rasa or blank state

he felt that the self is constructed primarily from sense experiences

necessary to have a coherent personal identity or knowledge of the self as

Self is simply a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which

the idea of personal identity is a result of imagination

through our rationality, the self trancends sense experience

the self is the way people behave

all knowledge of ourselves and our world is based on subjective

the self can never be truly objectified or known in a completely objective

the self is embodied subjectivity

You might also like