Philosophical Self

Classical Antiquity
Socrates
● He invented the phrase "Know Thyself," believing it is a philosopher's task.
Knowing Thyself would mean that a person must stand and live according to
his/her nature. One must look at him/herself. The knowledge of oneself can be
achieved only through the Socratic Method, the dialogue between the soul and
itself. He often played the role of a questioner. He questions because he
believes & knows that he knows nothing; in this way, he discovers the truth.

● He notes that everyone is composed of body and soul. Individuals have an “An unexamined
imperfect, impermanent aspect, the body while maintaining that there is also life is not worth
a perfect and permanent soul. living”

● He claimed that life is worthless without striving to know and understand

ourselves.

•Therefore:
• The self can be understood through self-knowledge and self-examination
Plato
● The famous student of Socrates. He took off when his teacher died and vastly elaborated on his philosophy.

● He is a dualist; the self has both an immaterial mind (soul) and material body, and the soul knows the forms
(ideas).

● He claimed that the soul (mind) itself is divided into three parts and that person differs as to which part of their
nature is predominant:
1. Rational soul
– reason;
– seeks philosophical and knowledge “Good actions
give strength
2. Spirited soul to ourselves and
– will, emotion, passion;
– victory loving and seek reputation
inspire
good actions in
3. Appetitive soul others”
– physical urges;
– profit-loving and seeking material gain

● He emphasizes that “justice in the human person can only be attained if the three parts of the soul are
working harmoniously with one another.”

Therefore:
Middle Ages
St. Augustine of Hippo
● One of the most significant Christian thinkers.

● He agreed with Plato that human beings are dualistic, and he combined his beliefs with the
newfound doctrine of Christianity.

● Unsurprisingly, he also viewed the "self" as an immaterial (but rational) soul.

“Grant Lord,
● To give the theory of forms a Christian perspective, he asserted that these forms were that I may
concepts existing within the perfect and eternal God (The Catholic University of America know Myself
Press, 1982). that I may
• know Thee”
● He believed the body possessed senses, such as imagination, memory, reason, and mind,
through which the soul experienced the world. Moreover, the senses can only grasp/feel the
temporal objects in the material world. Nevertheless, the immaterial but intangible God can
only be apparent to the mind if one tunes into his/her immaterial self/soul.

•Therefore:
• The self is a restless soul seeking its ultimate fulfillment and rest in God's love.
Thomas Aquinas
▪ The doctor of the church and the most eminent 13th-century scholar and
stalwart of the medieval philosophy

▪ He elucidates that man is composed of two parts:

1. Matter – refers to the common stuff that makes up everything in the universe.
2. Form – refers to the essence of a substance or thing, it is what makes it what it
is.
“The greatest
▪ In humans, the person's body, including animals, is something he/she shares. kindness one can
▪ The soul makes humans different from animals as it animates the body; it render to any
man consists in
makes us humans.
leading him from
•Therefore: error to truth”
• The self is a rational and immortal soul uniquely united with a physical
body, created in the image of God.
Renaissance
Rene Descartes
▪ A French philosopher and considered the father of modern Western philosophy.

▪ His is known in his famous line "Cogito ergo sum," translated as "I think. Therefore I
am." He stressed that everything the senses can perceive through the body could
NOT be used as proof of existence, and there is only one thing that one could be
sure of in this world, which is the act of doubting (Otig et al., 2018).

▪ The body is nothing but a machine attached to the mind. So, what makes a person a
person? Descartes said: "But what then, am I? A thinking thing. It has been said. “I think therefore
Nevertheless, what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands I am”
(conceives), affirms, denies, wills, refuses, imagines, and perceives (Descartes,
2008).
•Therefore:
• The self is a thinking, conscious entity with an inherent existence, distinct from
the body and inseparable from the mind.
John Locke
▪ He introduced the concept of the "tabula rasa" or "blank slate. It means that the
human mind at birth is like a blank slate that has not been written on, meaning it
does not possess innate ideas, knowledge, or pre-existing content.

▪ He believed that the self is identified with consciousness, and this self consists of
the sameness of consciousness. It would mean that the self consists of memory,
that the person existing now is the same person yesterday because he/she
remembers the earlier self's thoughts, experiences, or actions.
“No man’s
▪ For him, a person's memories provide a continuity of experience that allows knowledge
him/her to identify himself/herself as the same person over time. can go
beyond his
▪ experience.”
According to Locke, since you are the same "self" over time, you can be held
accountable for past behavior. However, Locke insisted that a person could only
be held accountable for behaviors he/she can remember.
•Therefore:
• The self is not an innate entity but rather a product of individual
consciousness and the continuous experiences that shape one's identity
David Hume
▪ A Scottish Enlightenment philosopher who highlights empiricism. Empiricism is the
school of thought that suggests that knowledge can only be possible if sensed and
experienced.
▪ As an empiricist, Hume believed that one can know only through one’s senses and
experiences. He argued that the self is nothing but what his/her predecessors
thought. It is not an entity over and beyond the physical body.
▪ What is the self, then? Self is simply a bundle of collections of different perceptions,
which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux “A wise man
and movement (Hume & Steinberg, 1992). proportion his
belief to the
evidence.”
•Therefore:
● The self is a bundle of perceptions and experiences, lacking a unified and
enduring substance.
Immanuel Kant
▪ Thinking of the self as a mere combination of impressions was
problematic to Kant.

▪ He 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.

▪ He asserts that without the self, one cannot organize the different
impressions that one gets concerning his existence. “Genius is the ability to
independently arrive at
▪ and understand concepts
He suggests that the self is an actively engaged intelligence in man that
that would normally have
synthesizes all knowledge and experience.
to be taught by another
person.”
•Therefore:
• The self is a transcendental unity of apperception, the necessary
condition for organizing all experiences and concepts.
Modern Times
Gilbert Ryle
▪ He criticized Descartes' idea that the mind is distinct from the body.

▪ He defended that the distinction between mind and matter is a "category

mistake" because it attempts to analyze the relation between mind and body
as if the two were terms of the same categories (Nath, 2013).

▪ For him, what truly matters is a person's daily behavior. He believed that the
actions and behaviors of a person define the sense of self. "I act; therefore I “I act, therefore
am." I am”

•Therefore:
• The self is the result of a "category mistake," an erroneous belief in a
separate mental entity distinct from observable behaviors and
dispositions.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
▪ He was a philosopher and author who rejected the mind-body dualism view;
instead, he insisted that the mind and body are intertwined and cannot be
separated.

▪ He argued that the body is part of the mind, and the mind is part of the body.
The mind perceives what the body senses experience from the external world,
then the body acts out of what the mind perceives.

“Physical body
•Therefore: is an
• The self is an embodied and inseparable entity, existing within the lived important part
experiences and interactions with the surrounding world. of the self”
Sociological Self
Sociological Self
• In philosophical views, the self evolves only in body, soul/ mind, and its relationship.
• The birth of social sciences gave a new perspective on the self. The group's growth focused on
examining the self's relationship to the external world.
• Sociology is one of those sciences concerned with studying society, human behavior, and its
relationship.
• A human being has a unique yet complex self-concept, which has developed over time.
• Others provide us with "social reality" that helps us determine what to think, feel, and do (Hardin &
Higgins, 1996).
Looking Glass Self
• American sociologist Charley Horton Cooley, born in 1864, is well known for his
substantial contributions to the discipline, particularly in analyzing interpersonal
relationships and the idea of the self.
• The concepts of Cooley established the foundation for comprehending how society
shapes individuals and how individuals shape society through their social interactions
and self-perceptions.
• The idea of the “looking-glass self,” a potent metaphor highlighting how people shape
their sense of self through interactions with others and how others perceive them, lies at
the core of Cooley’s writing. Cooley claimed that our
• Self-concept is founded on how we believe others see us rather than on introspection or
an individualistic understanding. This introspection and social comparison process
significantly impacts our sense of self and identity. Such a concept states that part of how
we see ourselves comes from our perception of how others see us.
• individuals and society seemed to be not separable instead of two aspects that
complement the same phenomena (Nickerson, 2021)
Looking Glass Self
• According to Cooley, humans have an inherent tendency to
interact or socialize with people and objects surrounding them.
• This is why he suggests that self-feeling and social-feeling
must be harmonized since both are two sides of the same
phenomenon, then personal freedom is tied to the relations
that comprise society (Rousseau, 2002).
• Harmonizing self-feeling and social feelings does not mean
losing one’s self in society instead of being responsible for
examining the effects of their actions on others.
Theory of Social Self
• The American philosopher and sociologist George Herbert Mead is regarded as a critical figure in
sociology and is best known for his breakthrough research on the self and social interaction.
• Mead, born in 1863, significantly impacted contemporary sociological thought, particularly
concerning understanding the nuanced interaction between the self and society.
• The idea of “symbolic interactionism,” which investigates how people shape their sense of self via
interaction and conversation with others, is central to Mead’s work.
• Mead maintained that rather than being a static thing; the self is a byproduct of social processes
that arise from our capacity to see things from other people’s viewpoints and predict how others
would respond (Abbott, 2020).
Theory of Social Self

I ME
“I” is the spontaneous unpredictable “ME” is the conformist aspect of the self,
element of the self. and the reflexive, organized aspect of the
self.
It acts out of its own and inner The part of the self that is aware of how
motivation. others expect one to behave.
“I” memory is a store of creativity, “ME” is socialized, careful, and cautious
adaptability, and novelty in the social of its actions since it is a product of
process. social interaction experiences.
Where our most important values are
located.
Theory of Social Self
• “Theory of Social Self” proposed that the self consists of self-awareness and self-image is a product
of social interactions and experiences.
• Children do not recognize that they are different from others in the first few months of existence;
infants only know the “I.”
• Infants begin to recognize the faces of those around them soon after birth. Through social
interaction, they learn about “ME” and the “OTHER.”
• They develop a concept of the “Generalized Other,” which allows them to apply norms and
behaviors learned in specific situations to new situations.
In comparison:
• If someone is staring at you, you will think about what others think about you, and then you
adjust your behavior according to what is acceptable to others. So the “ME” self-counterbalances the
actions of the “I.” A theory known as “symbolic interactionism,” which emphasizes the importance of
language and communication in forming the self, is attributed to George Herbert Mead. Mead
contends that people build their sense of who they are through social interactions, adopting other
people’s viewpoints, and foreseeing their responses to their behavior. In this process of
comprehending social meanings and identities, language and symbols are essential.
•The term “social construction of the self” refers to the idea that the self is not an immovable
object but the result of social processes. Our capacity to adopt other people’s viewpoints and foresee
how they will respond to our actions is the basis for it. Mead and Cooley’s theories on the sociology of
the self heavily rely on this viewpoint.
The end.