Understanding the Self
2. By what means?
The Self From Various Perspectives
To find what?
▪ Invitation to introspection: Platonic theory of
reminiscence
▪ Knowledge is within, inherent in man; not
outside
▪ Wisdom is learning to reflect
By what means?
▪ The Socratic Method: Dialogue between the
soul and itself
▪ Between a student and his teacher
Two Aspects of Reality:
✔ Physical World- Changeable, transient,
imperfect World of Senses/Matter
✔ Spiritual World- Unchanging, eternal, perfect
World of Ideas/Form
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Philosophy
Sociology
Psychology
Anthropology
Oriental/ Eastern Thought
PHILOS
OPHY-
the self in a philosophical paradigm
HOW DO YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION: Who am I?
IN WHAT WAYS DO I GET TO KNOW MYSELF?
Ancient Philosophy 1000 BC to 500 AD
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Pre-Socratic- (The Milesians)
The Ancient Triumvirate- (Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle)
Post-Aristotelians
Pre-Socratics (The Milesians)
Cosmo-centric
❖ There is a fundamental principle/ thing that
underlies everything else, including the human self
Characteristics:
Thales-water
Anaximander-Apeiron: “Boundless”
Anaximenes- air
Democritus- atom
Heraclitus- fire
Anaxagoras- Nous: Mind
Pythagoras- numbers
The Ancient Triumvirate
❖ Socrates
“Know thy self”
▪ Man must live and stand according to his nature
▪ Man must look at himself
An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Two fundamental questions:
1. To find what?
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*Dualistic Reality: Body and Soul
Our Soul (Self)
▪ strive for wisdom and perfection
▪ reason is the soul’s tool to achieve such state
▪ a unified, indissoluble, immortal entity that
remains the same over time
▪ that is in the very likeness of the divine
❖ Aristotle
3-Part Soul/Self (Psyche)
▪ Reason: the divine essence that lets us think
deeply
(wisdom), make wise choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths
▪ Physical Appetite: accounts for the basic
biological needs such as hunger, thirst and
sexual desire
▪ Spirit/Passion: accounts for the basic emotions
such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness,
and empathy
3-Part Soul/Self (Psyche)
● The three are in a dynamic relationship with
each other: in agreement or in conflict
● But it is the responsibility of the Reason to
restore harmony among the three
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Harmony: justice in the individual, social, and
political levels
❖ Plato
The mind (self) is Tabula Rasa – a blank slate
▪ Self is composed of matter and form
▪ Matter is in a continuous process of developing
and becoming
▪ The Process of Completion is through
experiences
▪ Knowledge is acquired through the senses
Self comes from a First Cause, the source of all changes
although unchangeable itself
The goal of the human self is reached in happiness
through moderation or balance of things
The Post-Aristotelians
✔ Maintains the dualism between body and soul
✔ More ethical in the ideas
▪ Moral norms: attainment of happiness
Stoicism (Zeno) - apathy or indifference to pleasure
Hedonism (Aristippus) - “Eat, drink, and be happy. For
tomorrow, you will die.”
Epicureanism (Epicurus) - moderate pleasure
IS THE SELF RELATED TO A SUPREME BEING/GOD? WHO
AM I IN RELATION TO A SUPREME BEING/GOD?
Medieval Philosophy (500 AD to 1350 AD)
Theo-centric
▪ From the scientific investigation on nature and
search for happiness to the question of life and
salvation in another realm, in a better world (i.e.,
the afterlife)
▪ Influence from ancient thought: The (human) self
endures through time 500 AD to 1350 AD
▪ More imposing than informing, because it was
trying to aim at paganism and barbarism
▪ There was an aim to merge philosophy and
religion
(Christian, Jewish, Muslim)
St. Augustine (Theologian, Philosopher)
▪ Integrates Platonic ideas with the tenets of
Christianity
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▪
Platonic Realm of Idea = Christian Philosophy of
a Transcendent God
The self strives to achieve union with God
through faith and reason Theologian,
Philosopher
▪
St. Thomas Aquinas (Theologian, Philosopher)
✔ Self-knowledge is dependent on our experience
of the world around us (objects in our
environment)
✔ We don’t encounter ourselves as isolated minds
or selves, but rather always as agents
interacting with our environment
The labels we attribute to ourselves are taken from the
things we encounter in our environment
▪ Examples: Gardener, Artist, Kind, Loving
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
If St. Thomas tells us that our knowledge is based on
our encounter of things, does this mean that we get to
know everything simply by experiencing it?
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Experiencing that something exists doesn’t
tell us what it is
Knowing and learning about a thing requires a
long process of understanding; same with the
mind and the self – with experience and
reason
HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT THE SELF EXISTS? WHAT ARE
THE PROOFS THAT THE SELF EXISTS?
Modern Philosophy (14th Century to the early 20th
Century)
Genuine knowledge has to be based on independent
rational inquiry and real world experimentation, rather
than dependent on knowledge handed down by
authorities
Anthropocentric
❖ Thinkers began to reject the scholastics’ (medieval
thinkers) excessive reliance on authority
❖ Period of radical social, political and intellectual
developments
RENE DESCARTES
“Cogito ergo sum”
❒ “I think, therefore, I am”
❒ Human identity: self-awareness
❒ The Self if a thinking thing which can exist
independently of the body
Dualism:
JOHN LOCKE
❒ The self endures because of memory
❒ Conscious awareness and memory of previous
experiences are the keys to understanding the
self
DAVID HUME
❒ Impressions – basic sensations of experiences
❒ The self is a “bundle or collection of different
perceptions, which succeed each other in an
inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux
and movement”
IMMANUEL KANT
❒ A priori concepts
❒ The self actively organizes all the sensations and
thoughts into a picture that makes sense to each
one of us
❒ Self as subject, not object
Sigmund Freud (Father of Psychoanalysis)
The self is multi-tiered/multi-layered:
❖ Conscious – refers to those thoughts and
feelings that we are aware of
❖ Preconscious – experiences that are
unconscious but could become conscious with
little effort
❖ Unconscious – contains all drives, urges or
instincts that are beyond our awareness but
motivate our feelings, thoughts and behavior
WHICH AMONG THESE PHILOSOPHIES CAN YOU RELATE
WITH? HOW DO THEY AFFECT THE WAY YOU SEE
YOURSELF?
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Contemporary Philosophy (Late 20th Century)
▪ Political Revolution
▪ Industrial Revolution
▪ Scientific advancements and growth of
materialism
▪ Theory of Evolution
▪ More humanist as a response to the so-called
alienation of the human person
Edmund Husserl
- we experienced our self as a unity which the
mental & physical are seamlessly woven
together
Maurice Merleau- Ponty
“Lived Body”
-an entity that can never be objectified or known in a
completely objective sort of way, as opposed to the
“body as object” of the dualists
-“There is no duality of substance but a dialectic of
living being in its biological milieu”
Gilbert Ryle
-self is defined in terms of behavior that is presented to
the world
-self is a pattern of behavior, the tendency or
disposition for a person to behave in a certain way in
certain circumstances
Paul Churhland
Eliminative Materialism
- Grounded in neuroscience
- the mind/ self is the brain
Sociology- self as product of modern society among
other constructions
The Self in the Sociological Perspective
Classical sociological perspective: the self is a relatively
stable set of perceptions of who we are in relation to
ourselves, others, and to social systems
❖ The self is socially constructed in the sense that it
is shaped through interaction with other people
❖ As with socialization in general, the individual is
not a passive participant in this process and have
a powerful influence over how this process and its
consequences develop
The Looking Glass Self (Charles Horton Cooley)
▪ A person’s self grows out of a person´s social
interactions with others
▪ The view of ourselves comes from the
contemplation of personal qualities and
impressions of how others perceive us
▪ Actually, how we see ourselves does not come
from who we really are, but rather from how
we believe others see us
→ Natural part of the self
→ Animalistic nature of man
→ Pleasure seeking part of the personality
→ Determined by the genetic code
→ Providing the raw materials
→ Setting the boundary conditions for development
The id represents the basic need of man. If it is not
satisfied, it could result to stress and tension. If
satisfied, it could give you comfort and joy.
*If the id is properly controlled it could bring warmth
and comfort
*If the id is angered or provoked it could destroy not
only himself but also his surrounding
SUPEREGO (Social Self)
Idealistic Principle
→ The superego incorporates the values and morals
of society which are learned from one's parents
and others
EGO (Psychological Self)
Reality Principle
→ The only region of the mind that is in contact with
reality; it operates to fulfill the reality principle
Ex. HOW MY PARENTS SEE ME x HOW MY GIRLFRIEND
SEES ME x HOW MY EXGIRLFRIEND SEES ME
Johari Window (Joseph Luft & Harrington Ingham)
❒ Technique used to enhance the individual's
perception on self and others.
PSYCHOLOGY- The self based on psychoanalytic
approach and cognitive construction
THE SELF BASED ON PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH
Structure of the Self (Sigmund Freud)
ID (Biological Self)
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Pleasure Principle
*The job of the ego or self is to balance the aggressive/
pleasure-seeking drives of the id with the moral control
of the superego.
→ The ego constantly tries to reconciles the irrational
wants of the id and the superego with the realistic
demands of the world
→ When the scale is out of balance, it is the
responsibility of the EGO to mediate the conflict
between the ID and SUPEREGO
→ Weak ego will lead to ANXIETY
→ To protect the ego from anxiety, we use DEFENSE
MECHANISMS
Ego Defense Mechanisms
❒ Repression: when the ego is threatened, it
unconsciously forgets or block unpleasant
feelings Displacement: redirecting unacceptable
urges to less threatening people or objects
❒ Regression: the ego may revert back to an
earlier stage during times of stress or anxiety
❒ Projection: attributing the unwanted impulse to
another person.
❒ Sublimation: suppression of unwanted impulses
by substituting it with a creative cultural
accomplishment
Functionalism (William James)
▪ Focused on the operation of conscious activity
Example: thinking and learning
▪ Study of man’s adjustment to his environment
� Materials
� Capacities
� Skills
THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION
▪ Symbolic Interactionism (George Herbert Mead)
“I and the Me” self
▪ Two aspects of self awareness:
→ The “me” is the socialized aspect of the person
→ The “I” is the active aspect of the person
Imaginary Audience
▪ Adolescents are thought to believe that others
are always watching and evaluating them, and
that they are special and unique
Self-Concept
▪ Mental representation
→ What we look like?
→ How we feel in different types of
situation?
→ How we behave towards others?
→ What do we do at work?
→ What are the roles we have in the
family or society?
Real and Ideal Self (Carl Rogers)
❖ A person's ideal self may not be consistent with
what actually happens in life and experiences of
the person.
❖ Hence, a difference may exist between a
person's ideal self and actual experience.
❖ Carl Rogers believed that for a person to
achieve self-actualization they must be in a
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state of congruence
Self as defined by Social Comparison (Leon Festinger)
TEMPORAL COMPARISON
▪ Considering your present condition in relation to
how you were in the past
SOCIAL COMPARISON
▪ Evaluating yourself in comparison to others –
using others as a basis for evaluating your
attributes
How does the social comparison process work?
▪ Depending on the level of someone’s motivation,
he/she may have the tendency to compare
himself/herself with others either in an UPWARD
or DOWNWARD kind of comparison
Two Modes of Social Comparison
1. Upward social comparison
❒ When we compare ourselves with those who
we believe are better than us
❒ Often focus on the desire to improve our
current level of ability
❒ A highly motivated person tends to engage in
upward comparisons, and usually assume
himself/herself as better or equal to the “best
person”
❒ Studies have shown that if given a chance,
people choose to make upward comparisons
instead of downward ones
2. Downward social comparison
❒ When we compare themselves to others who are
worse off than ourselves
❒ Often centered on making ourselves feel better
about our abilities
❒ A person who is unhappy or is unmotivated
usually engages in this to feel better about
himself/herself
Two Modes of Downward Social Comparison
1. Passive downward comparison
❒ Happens when a person takes into consideration
the previous condition in making comparison
❒ Example: A low performing student comparing
himself/herself with a worse off student
2. Active downward comparison
❒ Happens when a person compares himself/herself
with others by demeaning or causing harm to
them
❒ By derogating the target or causing harm to
him/her, this person generates a situation in
which the target is worse off than him/her,
therefore giving him/her the chance to make a
downward comparison
Self-Evaluation and Self-Enhancement
Motivation plays a role in this model and is manifested
by self-evaluation and self-enhancement
1. Self-evaluation occurs when someone looks for
positive traits in himself/herself based on the
best person he/she compares himself/herself
with
2. Self-enhancement, on the other hand, occurs
when the person questions which aspects of
himself/herself need to be improved to reach the
level of goodness of the person he/she is
comparing himself/herself with
Self-Esteem
▪ Used to describe a person's over all sense of selfworth or personal value
▪ In other words, it refers to how much you
appreciate and like yourself
▪ Self-esteem is often seen as a personality trait,
which means that it tends to be stable and
enduring
Reference Group
▪ A group to which an individual or another group
is compared
▪ Sociologists call any group that individuals use
as a standard for evaluating themselves and
their own behavior a reference group
The Creation of Identities
▪ One’s identity must balance the need to be
similar to one’s reference group with the need
to be a unique individual
▪ Children become aware of the need for a group
▪ identity and are often afraid or acting
differently
▪
Teens often seem torn between the need to
assert their own individual identity and the
need to conform to their reference group
▪ New identities are forged in relation to work,
parenthood, economic status, and ageing
ANTHROPOLOGY- the self and person in contemporary
anthropology & the self being embedded in culture
Western Self vs. non-western Self
Western Self
❒ identity shared with others and derived from a
culture instead of a “self”
Non-western self
❒ autonomous and egocentric Individualism vs.
Collectivism Individualism
Individualism
❒ A human being has an individualistic nature and
is an independent part of the universe and the
society
Collectivism
❒ A human being is an integral part of the
universe and the society
❒ People are fundamentally connected
❒ Duty towards all others is a very important
matter
THE SELF IN ORIENTAL/EASTERN THOUGHT
The self as embedded in relationships and through
spiritual development in Confucian thought
Asian Schools of Thought
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Buddhism
Hinduism
Taoism
Confucianism
Buddhism
(Siddhartha Gautama)
❖ Buddha discovered why life is filled with suffering
and how humanity can escape from this unhappy
existence
Experience in the transformations of consciousness and
stages of meditation
Buddha denies the self: no self, no individual
Self as a separate identity is supported by the equal and
opposite sensation of otherness
Confucianism
(Confucius)
The Self in Confucianism is the starting point of a
constructive process
For western philosophers, the concept of the self is the
end of their searches
It is only through the continuous opening up of the self
to others that the self can maintain its wholesome
personal identity
No-self is the nature of an intuitive and subjective
perception toward oneself beyond the ordinary range
of human experience that is full of the anxieties and
defensiveness
A person who is not responsive to others is selfcentered
*To study the self is to deny the self
When self becomes anxiety-free, one can act
spontaneously.
Confucian self is relational and interdependent
Everything is impermanent in the continuous becoming
of lived experience.
Implies emphasis on compassion for others and conduct
ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility
Hinduism (Fusion of various Indian cultures and
traditions)
Hindus believe that an individual’s action (karma) – the
bad or good actions that the individual performed in a
previous life determines his or her caste
❖ In simple terms, the law of karma suggests that a
person's mental and physical actions are binding
❖ The law of karma is very much verifiable in real life
❖ We all have seen in our own lives, and in nature
too, that we reap what we sow
❖ Our successes and failures are mostly products of
our own thoughts and actions
Taoism
(Lao-Tzu)
Relativity of opposites (i.e., yin and yang)
Self does not exist without the existence of the other
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Confucianism
(Confucius)
Belief that certain sets of human relationships are basis
for moral community
Filial piety is a foundational concept in the thought of
Confucius
▪ to be good to one's parents
▪ to take care of one's parents
▪ to engage in good conduct not just towards
parents but also outside the home so as to bring a
good name to one's parents and ancestors
▪ to ensure male heirs
▪ display sorrow for their parents’ sickness and
death
▪ to bury their parents and carry out sacrifices after
their death