LESSON 1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
THE SELF
SOCRATES (Know thy self – ‘gnothi seauton’)
 No historical document proves that Socrates really
existed
 Socrates posited that if a person knows who he or she
is, all basic issues and difficulties in life will vanish
and everything will be clearer and simpler
 Self-knowledge means knowing one’s degree of
understanding about the world and knowing one’s
capabilities and potentials.
 Possession of knowledge is virtue and ignorance is
vice.
 Answers will always be subjective and there is no
right or wrong answer to the questions posited by
Socrates
 He is a dualist
 He believed that man has soul
 The ruler of the body is the soul
 Body – mortal ; Soul – immortal
 For him, soul pre-existed the body, and soul is what
makes the body alive.
 If the soul gives life to the body, it makes the body
and the soul dependent on each other
PLATO (The self is an immortal soul)
 Student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle
 Plato’s idealism insisted that empirical reality we
experience in the experiential world is fundamentally
unreal and is only a shadow or a mere appearance;
observations to verify (to see is NOT to believe) while
ultimate reality is real
 Soul – enduring self (unchanging; stable self)
 The soul is eternal and constitutes the enduring self,
because even after death, the soul is continues to exist
ST. AGUSTINE (The self has an immortal soul)
 St. Augustine’s reflections on the relations between
time and memory greatly influenced many
fundamental doctrines of psychology
 Time is measured within their own memory “Property
of the Mind”
 Exist: Time past – memories; Time present – direct
experience; Time future – expectations
 Past & Future – exist but not real
 Introspection- awareness of one’s own mental
processes
 Self-consciousness what makes us humans superior
over other organisms
RENE DESCARTES (I think therefore I am)
 Best known for his dictum “cogito ergo sum or I think,
therefore I am”
 The existence of anything that you register from your
senses can be doubted
 The self is real and not just illusion.
 He also reassured that the self is different from the
body. Hence, self and body exist but differ in
existence and reality.
 The self for Descartes is nothing else but a mind-body
dichotomy. Thought (mind) always precedes action
(body)
 Self as Thinking thing.
JOHN LOCKE (The self is consciousness)
 the self is founded on consciousness or memory
 For him, consciousness is the perception of what
passes in a Man’s own mind
 Self is not in brain but in one’s consciousness
 the body may change, while the consciousness
remains the same.
 “tabula rasa” or blank slate, and the content is
provided by one’s experiences over time.
DAVID HUME (There is no self)
 There is no self
 Mind is nothing but a heap or collection of different
perceptions.
 The self is a bundle of perceptions (object of the mind)
of interrelated events
 Soul – product of imaginations
 Personality and cognition – machine can be activated
or not.
IMMANUEL KANT (We construct the self)
 Consciousness is formed by one’s inner and outer
sense.
 The inner sense is comprised of one’s psychological
state and intellect
 The outer sense consists of one’s senses and the
physical world
 Consciousness of oneself and of one’s psychological
state (or inner sense) was referred to by Kant as
empirical self-consciousness while consciousness of
oneself and of one’s state via acts of apperception is
called transcendental apperception
 All representational states are in the inner sense such
as moods, feelings, and sensations including pleasure
and pain
 self organizes sensations and thoughts into a picture
that makes sense to a person
 As opposed to Hume, Kant stressed the self is
something real, yet is neither an appearance nor a
thing in itself since it belongs to a different
metaphysical class
GILBERT RYLE (The self is the way people behave)
 Opposed to Rene Descartes ‘Thinking thing’
 He maintained that the mind is not separate from the
body (not a dualist)
 His theory is called logical behaviorism or analytical
behaviorism- a theory of mind which states that
mental concepts can be understood through observable
events
 The disposition to know, believe, feel, and act is
called the mind
 He said that, the mind is not the seat of self but the
behavior (opposed to Descartes’ immaterial mind in a
material body)
 The self is the way people behave; combination of
mind and body.
PAUL
CHURCHLAND
AND
PATRICIA
CHURCHLAND (The self is the brain)
 Neuropsychology
 Eliminative Materialism- common sense do not
actually exist.
 Our beliefs and attitudes are supported by our
feelings, which include mental states like joy and
sorrow, or anxiety and relief.
 Self is inseparable from the brain. If the brain is
gone, there is no self.
 Patricia Churchland, if we want to understand more
about ourselves, we must study the Brain not just the
mind.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (The self is embodied
subjectivity)
 He distinguished the body in two types:
 Subjective Body- as lived and experienced
 Objective Body- as observed and
scientifically investigated
 Ponty says that the mind and body are so intertwined
that they cannot be separated from one another (not
a dualist)
 Self as embodied subjectivity
 Consciousness is both perceiving and engaging;
must be embodied.
 Man’s living body, thoughts, emotions and
experiences are all one
 Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s aphorism I am my body
Lesson 2: The Self from the Sociological Perspective
GEORGE MEAD
SOCIAL SELF
 He argued that the self is not biological but social
 He proposed the idea that the self develops through
social interaction; that social interaction involves the
exchange of symbols (i.e. language); and that
understanding of symbols involves being able to take
the role of another.
 Two parts of Social Self

Self – Awareness – conscious knowledge of
one’s character feelings etc.

Self – Image – The idea of one has of one’s
ability etc.
 Role playing is the process in which one takes on the
role of another by putting oneself in the position of the
person with whom he or she interacts
 For Mead, self is not inborn. Babies cannot interpret
the meaning of other people’s behavior. Learned
during childhood in these stages:
 Imitation or the Preparatory stage- a child
imitates the behavior of his or her parents
(sweeping the floor)
 Play stage- involves the child playing the
role of others (act like teacher or parent)
 Game stage- To play the game, the child
must be aware of his or her relationship to
other people and place himself/herself in
their roles in order to appreciate his/her
particular role in the game
PHASES OF SELF
 For him, self is essentially a social process going on
between the I and Me.
 The I is the phase of the self that is unsocialized and
spontaneous. “Free and Unique”. It is also the
subjective part of the self.
 The Me, on the contrary, is the self that results from
the progressive stages of role playing or role-taking
and the perspective one assumes to view and analyze
one’s own behavior. It represents the conventional
and objective part of the self
 Mead describes Generalized others as an organized
community or social group which gives to the
individual his or her unity of self. (ATTITUDE OF
ONE IS ATTITUDE OF ALL)
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY
LOOKING GLASS SELF
 The looking glass self is a social psychological
concept. In this view, the self is developed as a result
of one’s perceptions of other people’s opinions. It is
made up of feelings about other people’s judgments of
one’s behavior.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
 Self is an individual’s awareness of personal identity.
PRIVATE SELF, PUBLIC SELF, AND COLLECTIVE
SELF
 Private Self- or individual self is the cognition that
involves traits, states, and behaviors
 Example: I am generous- shows one’s
knowledge of his or her attributes that
differentiate him or her from the others
 Public Self- is the cognition concerning the
generalized other’s view of the self.
 Example: People think I am religious- shows
one’s relation with others and the role one
assumes in that relationship
 Collective Self- is the cognition concerning a view of
the self that is found in memberships in social
groups
 Example: When a person is activist –
attributes of being an activist (campaigns to
bring about political or social change)
HENRI TAJFEL
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
 Social identity theory has been defined as the
person’s sense of who he or she is according to his or
her membership to a certain group
 Group membership is an important source of pride
and self-esteem. It gives sense of identity and
belongingness to the social world
 Henri Tajfel pointed out that, the world is divided into
“us” and “them” through the process of social
categorization forming the social groups.

POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
POSTMODERNISM
 In the postmodernist view, self is not the creator of
meaning, nor the center of starting a point of
sociological inquiry.
MICAEL FOUCAULT
 Self is seen as product of modern discourse
 Self turned into text.
ANDERSON
 There are four basic postmodernist ideas about the self
(Anderson):
 Multiphrenia- refers to the many different
voices speaking about “who were are and
what we are” (You can be a student, a sibling,
a friend, GF/BF)
 Protean- a self is capable of changing
constantly to fit the present conditions. (You
may not be at ease to talk with gays and
lesbians as a teenager, but now you are not
bothered at all)
 De-centered- no self at all. The self is
constantly being redefined or constantly
undergoing change.
 Self-in-relation- which means that humans do
not live their lives in isolation but in relation
to people and to certain cultural contexts

WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER
 William Graham Sumner further divided these social
groups into two:
 In-group- is an esteemed social group
commanding a member’s loyalty “a person
belongs”
 Out-group- one feels competition or
opposition. “a person does not belong”
 A person has an inherent feeling of enhancing the
status of the group.
TAJFEL AND TURNER (1986)
 Tajfel and Turner identified three mental processes in
evaluating “us and them”
 Social Categorization - how people
categorize things
 Social Identification - people adapt the
identity of the group to which they have
categorized themselves (ex. When we
categorize Christians, chances are they will
adopt the identity of a Christian)
Social Comparison - after categorizing and
identifying a group, they tend to compare
that group with other groups (discrimination)


No “I” self since people don’t have fixed identities.
 Traditional society – by role
 Modern society – by achievements
 Postmodern society – fashion / style
Postmodern social condition is dominated by two
realities:
 The rise of new media technologies
 The dominance of consumerism
Lyon argued that the predicament of the self in
postmodern societies is complicated by the advent of
electronic-mediated virtual interactions of cyber
selves and the spread of information technology
GREEN (1997)
 The self is digitalized in cyberspace
 Essay “Email and Harmony”
LESSON 3: The Self from the Anthropological Perspective
CULTURAL IDENTITY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
 CULTURE - Latin word “cultura” or “cultus”
meaning care or cultivation.
 Individual has both personal identity and collective
identity.
 Personal Identity – the ways how one sees
him’herself as an individual
 Collective Identity - The way he/she sees
himself/herself as member of a certain group.





IDENTITY - “who the person is”; Qualities and traits
of an individual than make him/her different from
others.
CULTURAL IDENTITY - Identity or feeling of
belongingness to a certain culture group.
 Cultural Identity Theory - explains why a
person acts and behaves the way he or she
does.
Nation - Group of people built on the premise of
shared customs etc; Observed as a group of people
who share the same cultural identity.
NATIONAL IDENTITY - Identity or feeling of
belongingness to one state or nation; socially
constructed.
 Material Culture - refers to the physical
objects, resources, and spaces that people use
to define their culture.
 Non-Material Culture - refers to the
nonphysical ideas that people have about
their culture, including beliefs, values, rules,
norms, morals, language, organizations, and
institutions.
Self-Categorization - One must identify himself or
herself from other nations.
BRIAN MORRIS’S ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE SELF “The self is not an entity but a process that orchestrates and
individual’s personal experience.”
THE CONCEPT OF “SELF” AND “OTHER”
ACCORDING TO BRIAN MORRIS
SELF - defined as an individual’s mental representation of
his or her person, as kind of self-representation.
OTHER – (in relation to self) refers to how one perceives
the mental representation of others.
• The relationship between the self and others is also
a function of culture.
-The self is engaged in a process of
positioning and counter positioning in a
globalizing society (spatial perspective)
- Self is part of positioning in
collective history (Temporal POV)
Internal I-position - refers to how one functions in himself or
herself.
External I-position - refers to how one identifies himself or
herself based on particular factors.
• When positions are silenced or suppressed the self
becomes monologic instead of dialogic.
• Culture can be seen as the collective voices that shape
the social positions of the self.
• The relational self can be positioned at the
intersection of time and space.
INDIVIDUAL
SELF,
RELATIONAL
SELF
&
COLLECTIVE SELF
3 FUNDAMENTAL SELVES
Individual Self - reflects the cognition related to traits, states,
and behaviors that are stored in memory.
Relational Self - reflects cognitions that are related to one’s
relationship.
Collective Self - reflects cognitions that are related to one’s
group.
IDENTITY STRUGGLES - A term introduced by Anthony
Wallace and Raymond Fogelson.
-It characterizes the discrepancy between the
identity a person claims to possess and the
identity attributed to that person by others.
ADDITIONAL
Identity refers to the qualities and traits of an individual that
make him or her different from others
Wallace and Fogelson introduced Identity Struggles
National Identity refers to the identity or feeling of
belongingness to one state or nation. It also requires the
process of Self Categorization
HUBERT HERMANS
Dialogical Self Theory
 Self as the “society of Mind.”
 Sense of self
Lesson 4: The Self From The Psychological Perspective
WILLIAM JAMES’S SELF THEORY
 The perception of the self was divided into two
categories:
 I-Self- refers to the self that knows who he or
she is. (Thinking self)
 Me-Self- is the empirical self. It refers to the
describing the person’s personal experiences
 He claimed that understanding the self, the self can be
contextualized in three categories:
▪ Material Self- consists of things
that belong to a person such as the
body, family, clothes, money, house
etc. that contributes to one’s selfimage.
▪ Social Self- refers to who and how
a person acts on social situations.
James believed that we have
different social selves depending on
the social situation
▪ Spiritual Self- refers to the most
intimate and important part of the
self that includes the person’s
purpose, core values, conscience,
and moral behavior.
▪ Pure Ego- the most puzzling aspect
of the self. It is conceived by
understanding that it can recognize
its own thoughts and that these
thoughts possess a particular
warmth that separate the ego*
Empirical Self
 James said that, these sub-categories are related in a
hierarchical way, with material self at the bottom, the
spiritual self at the top, and the social self in between.
Together, they constitute what James called
EMPIRICAL SELF.
 Feelings and Emotions Aroused (SelfFeelings) - the self was categorized by this
concept because of his or her knowledge and
appraisal of his or her empirical existence in
the world.
 Action the Self prompt (Self-seeking) - it is
the effort of every individual to preserve and
improve oneself based on one’s selfknowledge and resulting self-feelings.
CARL ROGERS’S SELF THEORY
 Rogers’ believe that the self does not exist at birth; it
is developed gradually during childhood wherein one
differentiates the self from non-self.
 He said that by means of free choice and action, one
can shape himself or herself based on what he or she
wants to be.

The choices an individual makes are based on his or
her set of values.
REAL SELF
 It is the who an individual actually is, intrinsically.
 How one thinks, feels, looks and acts
 It is the self that feels most natural, comfortable, and
true to what and who one really is.
 It is the self that one continuously needs to accept, take
care of, and improves
 The real self is one’s self image
IDEAL SELF
 Is the perception of what a person would like to be or
thinks he or she would be.
 It is an idealized image that has developed over time
based on the influence of the environment and the
people one interacts with
 This self is product of expectations and pressures from
other people
 It is dynamic and forever changing
-The greater the discrepancy between the real and ideal self,
the greater the frustration and distress one will experience.
Hence, once should address the discrepancy by either
addressing the issue or accepting the issue if it cannot be
resolved.
-Ex. You want to be a professional basketball player but you
lack the ideal height
Self-worth is high when the real self and ideal self are close to
each other.
SELF CONCEPT
 It is defined as the totality of complex, organized, and
dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes, and
opinions that each person holds to be true about his or
her personal existence
 It is a social product, developing out of interpersonal
relationships and striving for consistency.
 It is also the individual’s beliefs about him or herself
which includes attributes
ASPECTS OF SELF-CONCEPT
 There are two aspect of self-concept:
 Existential Self- when an individual
recognizes his or her existence as a separate
entity from others and realizes that he or she
will continue to exist over a period of time
and space. It usually starts in infancy up to
early childhood. This is evident when a child
can relate to the outside world (i.e. responds
by clapping, touching objects, move objects)

Categorical Self- starts after a child
recognize his or her existence as a separate
entity and become aware that he or she is an
object in the world. Like objects with
physical properties, one begins to categorize
him or herself in terms of age, sex, height,
weight.
THREE COMPONENTS OF SELF-CONCEPT
1. Self worth or self-esteem- is what one thinks about oneself.
This develops in early childhood stage resulting from
interaction of the child with his or her mother and father
2. Self-Image- is how one sees him or herself, which is
important for good psychological health. Self-image includes
the influence of body image on inner personality. At a simple
level, one might look at oneself as either good or bad and the
like.
3. Ideal Self- is the person that one wants to be. It consist of
one’s dreams and goals in life, and it is continuously changing.
GLOBAL VS. DIFFERENTIATED MODELS
 This model looks into a human being in his or her
totality, as an invisible entity that cannot be broken
down into parts.
 Two prominent schools of thought in this model:
 Gestalt Psychology- is guided by the
principle that “the whole is greater than the
sum of all its parts”.
 Humanistic Psychology- is guided by the
principle that “human beings, as humans,
supersede the sum of their parts”. They
cannot be reduced into components. It is
better understand one’s emotions and
experiences in order to know more about
one’s identity
 The differentiated models look into a human being
through examining its parts for it is divisible or can be
broken into components.
SIGMUND FREUD (Multilayered Self)
 For him, self is multi-layered:
 Id- exist since birth “instincts”, obsessions
related to sexual “libido” and aggressive
desires. It operates in the Pleasure principle
 Ego- operates in the Reality principle. It is
developed by means of socialization at home,
school, church, etc. It has two system:
Conscience which can sanction the ego by
feeling of guilt; Ideal Self rewarded by the
superego when conforms to the standards
 Superego- dominant, a law-abiding, morally
upright and socially acceptable individual
appears. Operates on the Moral principle

Freud and Jung, both Psychoanalyst studied the
human psyche and its structure that is essential in
understanding personality and identity. For Freud, the
psyche is composed of three parts (id, ego, superego).
While for Carl Jung divided the psyche into three
parts:
 Ego- is the center of consciousness. It is the
person’s sense of identity and existence. It
organized the thoughts, feelings, senses and
intuition.
 Personal unconscious- refers to all
information stored in a person’s mind that are
readily accessible to consciously recall.
 Collective unconscious- refers to the
unconscious mind shared by all human
beings such as instincts and archetypes
(models or people, personalities, and
behavior).
ALBERT BANDURA’S AGENTIC THEORY OF THE SELF
 To be an agent means to be capable of intentionally
influencing one’s own functionality and life
circumstances
 An agent recognizes his or her own ability to make life
decisions.
 The agentic theory of the self rejects the notion that the
selfhood is culturally influenced or controlled by
urges, rather, it looks upon every human being as
capable of thinking, deciding, foreseeing, and
controlling his or her actions, free to decide for himself
or herself. This capability is called human agency,
which is the capability of an individual to exert
influence over the course of his or her actions.
 For him, there are four core properties of human
agency:
 Intentionality- is manifested in how an
individual forms intentions with action plans
and strategies to realize them
 Forethought- refers to how an individual
positions his or her plans in the future. How
he or she visualizes him or herself in a future
state of existing
 Self-reactiveness- an individual needs to
self-regulate in order for one’s intentions and
foresight to produce successfully. This
includes adapting personal standards,
constructing appropriate courses of action,
monitoring activities, and regulating them by
making use of self-reactions.
 Self-reflection- signifies that people are
capable of self-examining their own
functioning. They reflect on their life
pursuits, the meaning of the actions they take



in order to accomplish these pursuits, their
thoughts, and personal efficacy.
Bandura’s theory views the self as a person
and not as a distinct entity responsible for
bearing information and regulating behavior.
As agents, individuals exercise control over
their own functioning
Since the self is situated in an environment
where the interplay of interpersonal and
intrapersonal activities occur, the self
functions as a product of these influences
making the individual responsible for how he
or she lets these various influences affect how
he or she functions.
Carl Jung divided the human psyche into three parts namely:
the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective
unconscious
Personal Unconscious refers to all information stored in a
person’s mind that is readily accessible to consciously recall.
Apperception is the faculty that allows for application of
concepts. It is the act of apperceiving that allows one to
synthesize or make sense of a unified object
Self Reflection signifies that people are capable of selfexamining their own functioning.
ADDITIONAL
Self-knowledge means knowing one’s degree of
understanding about the world and knowing one’s capabilities
and potentials.
Freud, the self is multi-layered and it is composed of three
structures of the human mind the id, ego and superego
the Material Self consists of one’s body, clothes, family, home
and other material possessions.
Pure Ego is the most puzzling aspect of the self. It is
conceived by understanding that it can recognize its own
thoughts and that these thoughts possess particular warmth
that separates the ego.
Carl Rogers believes that the self does not exist at birth. It is
developed gradually during childhood wherein one
differentiates the self from non-self.
Self Concept is defined as the totality of complex, organized
and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions
that each person holds to be true about his or her personal
existence.
Self Worth talks about what an individual thinks about
oneself.
Gestalt Psyhology is a school of thought is interested in
looking at the entirety of the self – the mind, body, physical
attributes, behaviors
Superego is the reservoir of moral standards. It ensures
compliance with the norms, values and standards imposed by
society.
Lesson 5: THE SELF IN WESTERN AND EASTERN
THOUGHTS
INDIVIDUALISM AND COLLECTIVISM
 Individualism is an orientation concerned with the
independence and self-reliance of the individual.
 Individualistic cultures put more emphasis on
promoting the individual and the immediate family’s
welfare
 The western conception of the self is individualistic;
it gives more emphasis on freedom and choice
 Self-orientedness
 Does not promote isolation
 An individual has the capacity to consider his or her
own best interest.
 Everyone is free to decide whether to take it or not in
solving societal problems
 Collectivism is an orientation characterized by
belongingness to larger groups or collectives.
 Collectivistic cultures, on the other hand, give more
importance to loyalty to the in-group, which in turn
takes care of the individual’s welfare
 The eastern conception is collectivistic; it gives more
importance on relationships, roles, duties, obligations,
and the preservation of culture and tradition.
 It prioritizes the needs and goals of society over the
needs and desires of every individual.
 Others-oriented
BUDDHISM
 In Buddhism, there is no such thing as the Atman
(Self).
 It is regarded as illusion (atman), an imaginary concept
born as a product of evolved consciousness and
misguided thinking of humans.
 What is perceived by one’s sense becomes one’s
reality.



There is nothing permanent, but change
It does not consider humans as persons with a fixed
and unified identity.
Instead, a human being is a product of five changing
processes, the physical body, feelings, perceptions,
responses, and the flow of consciousness-that
experiences them all.
CONFUCIANISM
 It regards an individual as a member of a larger whole,
not as a separate being.
 The ethical teachings of Confucius are based on
human relationship as reflected in his concept of Five
Cardinal relationship/Five bonds:
 Between the ruler and minister
 Between father and son
 Between husband and wife
 Between brothers
 Between friends
 If individuals perform their respective roles, there will
be harmony
 Individual identity is defined by membership in the
reference group to which one belongs (Relational
Self)
 Subdued Self is conditioned to respond to
perceptions, not of its own needs and aspirations but
of social requirements and obligations.
 To subdue oneself means to practice ren-(humanheartedness)
 Ren is a virtue characterized by altruistic “selfless”
behavior that must be nurtured in every person
 A subdue self means being a “person for others”
TAOISM
 Living with harmony with the Tao (way or path), is a
religion and a philosophy at the same time
 Tao is nothing but the expression of the unity of the
universe and of the path which human beings must
take to preserve that unity.
 Going against the will of the nature or the universe
disrupts the cosmic order (Ying and Yang)
 It contradicts the idea of Confucius since it does not
consider the self as extension of social relationships;
rather, the self is but one of the countless
manifestations of the Tao.
HINDUISM
 The atman, referred to as the self, spirit and soul, is
the same self described in the creation.
 In Hinduism, the atman is one with the Brahman (the
absolute, transcendental power).
 It has been stated that Brahman is an absolute reality,
while Atman (soul or spirit), the true knowledge of
self, is identical to Brahman.
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The atman is viewed as a spiritual, immaterial being
that must be detached from the material world and
worldly possessions
Law of Karma is the most important doctrine of
Hinduism
All actions are subject to Karma (Good or Bad)