M1: Lecture Notes
One interesting question that philosophy
tries to address is about the nature of self.
Philosophers investigate the intrinsic and
extrinsic elements of self. According to
Abella (2016), the self can be viewed in
three ways:
1. Self is innate. The self is an important
quality of humans that is present upon
birth and that self-awareness is natural.
This view of self may include the
philosophies of Socrates, Plato,
Augustine, and Rene Descartes.
2. Self is emergent. The self is an
outcome of interaction with the physical
as well as the social world. The
empiricist perspectives of Aristotle and
John Locke may be categorized to this
view of self.
3. Self is integrated and developing.
The self has various components that
undergoes change through time.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s The
Phenomenology of Perception falls
under this view of self.
Different Philosophical Views of Self
SOCRATES (Greek Philosopher)
Socrates was interested in the nature of
the human person. He believes that the
person has an immortal soul. He inspired
the youth of Athens to “know thyself” and
discover the importance of their souls by
continuous questioning called as the
Socratic Method. He equates knowledge
with virtue and ignorance with vice. For
him, “an unexamined life is not worth
living”. The individual person can have a
meaningful and happy life only if he
becomes virtuous and knows the value of
himself that can be achieved through
incessant soul-searching.
PLATO (Greek Philosopher)
Plato was a student of Socrates. Like
Socrates, Plato also challenged his
students to search for answers to the
questions about life. In his Theory of
Forms, he introduced the concepts of the
two worlds: the world of forms (nonphysical
ideas) and the world of sense. While the
world of forms is real and permanent, the
world of sense is temporary and only a
replica of the ideal world. Plato claims that
the sensible world is dependent on the
ideal world wherein the concept of the soul
belongs. Since the soul is regarded as
something permanent, man should give
more importance to it than the physical
body which resides in the world of sense.
Plato identifies three basic elements of the
soul, namely reason, spirit (passion), and
appetite (desire). He contends that justice
exists in the personal level when there is
harmony among the three elements of the
soul. If man lives in accordance to his
nature, then he is giving justice to his
existence.
ARISTOTLE (Greek Philosopher)
Aristotle was a student of Plato.
However, he holds an opposing view of
Plato’s theory of forms. He believes that
reality is based on what we can sense and
perceive. Aristotle asserts that anything
with life has soul. For him, self-realization is
attained by fulfilling man’s threefold nature:
vegetative (physical body), sentient
(sensual feelings and emotions), and
rational (intellect). Individuals should only
pursue activities that will promote their
physical and mental health.
AUGUSTINE (Early Christian
Philosopher)
Augustine is regarded as a saint in the
Catholic Church. He integrated the ideas of
Plato and Christianity. As a religious
philosopher, he contemplated on the nature
of man with an emphasis on the soul as an
important element of man. He believes that
the soul is what governs and defines the
human person. In addition, his view is that
everything created by a God who is all
good is good. Thus, the human person
being a creation of God is always geared
towards the good. Augustine also states
that man has an inner sense or a
conscience which is the voice of God that
would guide one’s voluntary actions. And
because we have free will, we are
accountable for our decisions in life.
For Augustine, “knowledge can only
come by seeing the truth that dwells
within us.” The truth refers to the truth of
knowing God. God is transcendent and that
the self seeks to be united with God
through faith and reason. He contends that
true knowledge of things is based on faith
and that we need reason to gain an
understanding of what we already believe.
RENE DESCARTES (French
Philosopher)
Descartes is the Father of Modern
Philosophy and is considered a rationalist.
Rationalism considers that humans are
born with certain kind of knowledge that are
not derived from the world using sensory
perception. The knowledge of reality can be
attained through logical deduction.
Descartes is known for the Mind-Body
Dualism wherein he argues that mind and
body are really distinct, and that it is
possible for one to exist without the other.
For him, the self is a thinking thing, distinct
from the body. The Latin phrase Cogito
ergo sum (I think, therefore, I am) is
Descartes’ conclusion that, if he doubted,
then something or someone must be doing
the doubting, therefore the very fact that he
doubted proved his existence.
JOHN LOCKE (English Philosopher)
Locke used the concept of reason from
the empirical perspective. Empiricism
ascertains that the acquisition of knowledge
is through the senses and experience.
Generalizations are achieved by inductive
reasoning.
Locke postulated, that the human mind
at birth is a blank slate or tabula
rasa, which a man creates through
experience. For him, sensory experience is
the source of all knowledge and therefore
there can be no knowledge without
observation. He holds that our personal
identity is not made up of material
substance, it is made possible by selfconsciousness or being aware of the world
that our senses perceived.
Locke’s Law of Reason states that all
human beings are born equal in terms of
their natural rights such as the rights to life,
liberty, and property. Every person is
expected to respect the natural rights of
another individual.
DAVID HUME (Scottish Philosopher)
Like John Locke, Hume is also an
empiricist. He asserts that both experience
and observation are the foundations of any
logical argument. He believes that the
qualities of an object are all that really exist,
and there is no actual substance of which
they are attributed. Thus, there is no self,
only internal subjective data of the mind.
Hume’s Bundle Theory (Lack of
Self) proposed that the self is nothing but a
bundle or collection of interconnected and
continually changing sense impressions of
what a human person is all about. Selfknowledge depends on one’s conscious
experience and perception.
IMMANUEL KANT (German Philosopher)
Kant harmonized the contradicting
ideas of the rationalists and the empiricists.
He believes that knowledge derives from an
integration of sensory experience and
conceptual understanding. Sensory
experience alone is not enough to generate
knowledge. In Kant’s work, Critique of
Pure Reason he opposes Hume’s view
that knowledge is subjective. According to
Kant, our knowledge is objective. Time and
space are universal conditions which are
necessary to acquire sensory experience.
For Kant, the human mind is an active
shaper of experience which implies that the
self is a unifying subject, an organizing
consciousness that gives coherence into
one’s experience.
The self transcends experience. This is
because our mind can grasp aspects of
reality which is not limited to our senses.
Through our rationality, we are able to
understand certain abstract ideas that have
no corresponding physical object or
sensory experience.
SIGMUND FREUD (Austrian
Psychoanalyst)
Freud is not a philosopher, but his views
on the nature of the self may have an
impact on philosophical thinking. Freud
holds that the self is multilayered:
conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
He believes that the self is predominantly
governed by its unconscious part that
contains the sexual and aggressive
impulses. Although one’s unconscious
thoughts, perception and urges are beyond
the conscious level, these elements remain
active in the self and cause some
individuals to develop self-defeating
behavior. Hence, the goal of
psychoanalysis is to release repressed
emotions and experiences to decrease
internal conflicts.
The self also operates on two other
levels of awareness. While the conscious
self contains the thoughts, perceptions,
feelings, and memories that you are aware
of at a given moment, the preconscious self
includes materials that can be brought to
awareness easily such as nonthreatening
memories.
GILBERT RYLE (British Philosopher)
Ryle is a representative of philosophical
behaviorism. In his book, The Concept of
Mind Ryle opposes Descartes’ Mind-Body
Dualism which maintains that the mind is
distinct from the body. For Ryle, the mind
and body are intrinsically linked which
means that mental states and bodily
actions are one and the same. The mind is
the totality of human dispositions that is
known through the way the people behave.
Ryle holds that it is not in the mind where
the self is found; rather, it is through one’s
behavior that the self is revealed (“I act,
therefore, I am.”).
PAUL CHURCHLAND (Canadian
Philosopher)
Churchland being a proponent
of Eliminative Materialism, claims that
there is something wrong on how people
understand the mind and its functions.
Materialism maintains that the self is
inseparable from the brain and the
physiology of the body. All we have is the
brain, if the brain is gone, there is no self.
For Churchland, the physical brain and not
the imaginary mind, gives us our sense of
self. The self is the brain.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (French
Phenomenological Philosopher)
Merleau-Ponty as a phenomenologist,
gives importance to man’s lived
experiences. In his work, The
Phenomenology of Perception, the body
is considered as a subject, opposed to the
view of Western Philosophy that treats the
body as an object. Merleau-Ponty believes
that the consciousness, the world, and the
human body are intricately intertwined in
perceiving the world. For him, perception is
not merely a consequence of sensory
experience; rather, it is a conscious
experience. The self is embodied
subjectivity.
Summary
This module intends to give you a wider
perspective in understanding oneself. The
self can be viewed in three ways, namely
self as innate, self as emergent, and self as
integrated and developing. The different
views of prominent philosophers regarding
the nature of the self were also discussed.
For some philosophers, the self has an
immortal soul, while for others, it is the
physical brain and a thinking thing. Other
philosophers regard the self as one’s
consciousness, sensory experience, and
behavior, or a combination of these
elements. Though there are disagreements
on how philosophers view the self, most of
them agree that self-knowledge is a
prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life.
Upon the completion of this module, you
are expected to develop your own
philosophy of self that may guide you
towards self-realization.