PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF SELF
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“Who am I?” – seeks to answer the existence of humanity
The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek word philos (loving) + sophia (wisdom) meaning
literally love of wisdom.
SELF FROM VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES

MODERN PHILOSOPHERS

Socrates
- Socratic Method
- Understanding the subject by asking
René Descartes
- Father of Modern Philosophy
- Philosophy with empirical evidences
(Philosophy + Science)
- Descartes certainly believed that empirical
observation can give us knowledge of the
world but he argued that the justification
for that empirical knowledge ultimately
rests on purely rational grounds.
questions rather than simply relaying
information.
-
“know thyself”
- are the first of three Delphic maxims
inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of
Apollo at Delphi.
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Dualism
- all individuals have imperfect and
impermanent aspect of him and the body,
while maintaining that there is also a soul
that is perfect and permanent.
- The greatest virtue will be acquired once
we attain self-knowledge through soul
searching (self-reflection)

Plato (Student of Socrates)
- Dualism – mind & soul
- 3 Parts of Soul –
- Appetitive (Sensual)
- sensual experiences, such as food,
-
have to explore myself.


drink, & sex.
- Spirited (Emotional)
- inclined toward reason but
understands the demands of passion.
- Rational (Reasoning)
- rule over the other parts of the soul

through the use of reason.
- The greatest virtue will be acquired once
we attain self-knowledge through
intellectual enlightenment.

Saint Augustine
- Dualism – Physical (body) and Ideal
Realm (soul)
- Following the view of Plato but adds
Christianity.
- Agreed that “Man is of a bifurcated
nature”
- "the body is bound to die on earth and the
soul is to anticipate living eternally in a
realm of spiritual bliss in communion with
God"
-
The greatest virtue will be acquired
once we attain self-knowledge through
faith and reason.
We first have to doubt everything we
know in order to determine whether
there is anything we can know with
certainty.
“I think therefore I am”
- The more I think, the more motivation I

John Locke
- Argues that people are not born with
innate knowledge, but rather that their
mind is tabula rasa (blank slate) on
which the thread of experience writes.
David Hume
- Disagrees with the all the other
aforementioned philosophers
- Believes that self is just a bundle of
impressions and ideas
- “one can only know what comes from
the senses & experiences” (empiricist)
Immanuel Kant
- Agrees with Hume that everything starts
with perception/sensation of
impressions.
- For Kant, there is necessarily a mind
that organizes the impressions that
people get from external word.
- Believes that not everything is
temporary & there’s permanent to
human existence (time & space)
Sigmund Freud
- Father of Psychoanalysis
- Developed a set of therapeutic techniques
centered on talk therapy that involved the
use of strategies such as transference, free
association, and dream interpretation
-
Proponent of dream analysis + first
psychological therapy
Personality is shaped by different
interactions
-
The “I” is a product of multiple
interaction, system and schemes
Topographical Model – 3 Layers of Self
- Conscious
- contains all of the thoughts,

- what controls behavior is brain
- understand self through MIR & CT Scan
-
memories, feelings, and wishes of which we
are aware at any given moment.
- Pre-Conscious
- anything that could potentially be
brought into the conscious mind.
- Unconscious
- reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges,
and memories that are outside of our
conscious awareness.
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
Structural Model – 3 Dimensions of Self
- Id: Instincts
- instinctual part of the mind that
contains sexual and aggressive drives
and hidden memories (same as
appetitive)
- Ego: Reality
- the realistic part that mediates
between the desires of the id and the
super-ego. (same as rational)
- Superego: Morality
- operates as a moral conscience
Gilbert Ryle
- His body and his mind are ordinarily
harnessed together, but after the death
of the body his mind may continue to
exist and function. Ryle referred to the
idea of Cartesian dualism as the dogma
of the ghost in the machine – the
physical body being the machine, and
the mind being the ghost.
- “I act therefore I am”
- what we think is what we act and what we
act is what we are
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Arguing that the mind does not exist
and therefore can't be the seat of self,
Ryle believed that self comes from
behavior. We're all just a bundle of
behaviors caused by the physical
workings of the body.
“what truly matters is the behavior that
a person manifests in his day-to-day
life.”
Paul & Patricia Churchland
- Neurophilosophy
- self is a product of what we think

Rather than dualism, Churchland holds
to materialism, the belief that nothing
but matter exists. When discussing the
mind, this means that the physical
brain, and not the mind, exists. Adding
to this, the physical brain is where we
get our sense of self.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
- Phenomenology of Perception
- body and mind are so intertwined that
they cannot be separated
- the living body, thoughts, emotions,
experience are all one
-
“one’s body is his opening toward his
existence to the world”
- information from outside -> body -> mind
- thoughts -> body -> actions