GEC Self
*Thanks to Joyce Geolagon for the extra
notes*
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
● I - Mental; Me - Content
● Habit > Attitude > Character
● We understand an individual through
the pattern of their behavior
● To be happy, it must require action >
must be positive
● Know your motives
● A person is divided into two:
○ Spiritual (brain, soul, etc.)
○ Material (body)
● The body is an extension of the
spiritual and the thoughts feed the
body
● Cultures
also
influence
our
self-understanding
● Self > identity-based (situation) >
traits
THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
● PRE-SOCRATES
○ Thales,
Pythagoras,
Parmenides, Heraclitus, and
Empedocles.
○ They were concerned with
explaining what the world is
really made up of and why
the world is so, what explains
the changes that they
observed around them.
● SOCRATES - Who I am
○ Socratic
Method
Q&A/Cooperative dialogue
between individuals
○ Unlike the Pre-Socratics,
Socrates busied himself with
the problem of the self.
○ All individuals have an
imperfect,
impermanent
aspect to him, and the body,
while maintaining that there
is also a soul that is perfect
and permanent.
● PLATO - Socrates’ student
○ Body and soul
○ Dualism:
■ Rationalism
knowledge
derived
from reason and logic
■ Empiricism
knowledge
derived
from experimentation
and experience
○ All that exist are a copy of
the original.
○ There are three components
of the soul:
■ Rational
Soul
forged by reason and
intellect that governs
the affairs of the
human person
■ Spirited Soul - in
charge of emotions
and must be kept at
bay
■ Appetitive Soul - in
charge of base desires
(eating,
drinking,
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)
GEC Self
sleeping, and having
sex)
○ When
these
three
components are attained, the
human person’s soul becomes
just and virtuous.
● ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
○ Dual phenomenon of man
○ An aspect of man dwells in
the world an is imperfect and
continuously yearns to be
with the Divine and the other
is capable of reaching
immortality
○ 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. Man
can only do this by living his
life here on Earth in virtue.
○ St. Augustine’s idea to
baptize the infants
○ Body - Material; Animal
(will die/has an end/finite)
○ Soul - Spiritual; Rational
○ We cannot separate the
body
from
the soul.
Without the body, the soul
is nothing.
● ARISTOTLE - human being is an
animal being
○ Humans are not only material
beings but also spiritual
beings.
● ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
○ A human person is composed
of two things:
■ Matter - Body =
Material
(not
infinite/finite)
■ Form (morphe in
Greek) - Soul = Spirit
(infinite);
“the
essence of a substance
or thing”
○ The soul is what animates
the body; it is what makes
us humans
○ Our form is capable of
morality
○ Human beings/persons are
capable of making choices
and are capable of change.
○ “If you have to reform
yourself, you have to
understand yourself, what’s
within.”
○ “No predestination, only
reformation.”
● RENE DESCARTES (Father of
Modern Philosophy)
○ Human person having a body
and a mind
○ Human person as the measure
of the universe; God is not
the center of the universe
○ Man is a rational being
○ Everything suspicious will
not cause development
○ Theist - believes in God
○ Atheist - does not believe in
God
○ “Cogito ergo sum” = “I
think therefore I am”
○ Two distinct entities: Cogito
(the thing that thinks, which
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)
GEC Self
is the mind) & Extenza
(extension of the mind)
○ For him, the body is nothing
else but a machine that is
attached to the mind.
● DAVID HUME
○ The self is only but an
impression
○ Experiences can be divided
into two: impressions (the
basic
objects
of
our
experience or sensation) and
ideas (copies of impressions)
○ You must experience the
person to understand the
person
○ “The self is a bundle or
collection
of
different
perceptions, which succeed
each
other
with
an
inconceivable rapidity, and
are in a perpetual flux and
movement.”
● IMMANUEL KANT
○ Thinking and experiencing
- is in collaborative process
to have one and common
concept
○ You cannot just use reasons
alone and you cannot use
experience alone
○ For Kant, there is a mind that
organizes the impressions
that men get from the
external world. Time and
space, for example, are ideas
that one cannot find in the
world but are built in our
minds. Kant calls these the
apparatuses of the minds.
○ For Kant, without the self,
one cannot organize the
different impressions that one
gets in relation to his own
existence.
○ The self is not just what
gives one his personality,
but it is also the seat of
knowledge acquisition for
all human persons.
● GILBERT RYLE
○ The self is the behavior of the
human person
○ Your behavior reflects the
kind of person you are
○
● MERLEAU-PONTY
○ You can only say who you
are based on your experience.
○ Your experience defines who
you are.
○ Mind-body bifurcation is a
futile endeavor and an invalid
problem.
○ The mind and body are so
intertwined that they cannot
be separated.
○ The living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences
are all one.
THE SELF, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE
● The self in contemporary literature
and even common sense, is
commonly defined by the following
characteristics:
“separate,
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)
GEC Self
●
●
●
●
●
self-contained,
independent,
consistent, unitary, and private”
(Stevens, 1996)
The self is distinct from other selves.
The self is also self-contained and
independent because in itself, it can
exist. Its distinctness allows it to be
self-contained with its own thoughts,
characteristics, and volition.
It is consistent because it has a
personality that is enduring and
therefore can be expected to persist
for quite some time, which allows it
to be studied, described, and
measured.
The self is private suggesting that the
self is isolated from the external
world.
Social constructivists argue that the
self should not be seen as a static
entity. Instead, the self has to be seen
as something that is in a constant
struggle with external reality and is
malleable in its dealings with society.
Its identity is subjected to influences
everywhere.
Considering
these
perspectives of the self, we can
conclude that the self is truly
multifaceted.
● THE SELF AND CULTURE
○ French
anthropologist,
Marcel Mauss
■ Every self has two
faces: personne and
moi
■ Moi refers to a
person’s sense of
who he is, his body,
and
his
basic
identity,
his
biological givenness.
■ Personne
is
composed of the
social concepts of
what it means to be
who he is.
○ Language
is
another
interesting aspect of this
social
constructivism.
Language is a salient part of
culture and ultimately, has a
tremendous influence in our
crafting of the self.
● THE
SELF
AND
THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF
THE
SOCIAL WORLD
○ The unending terrain of
metamorphosis of the self is
mediated
by
language.
“Language as both a publicly
shared and privately utilized
symbol system is the site
where the individual and the
social make and remake each
other” (Schwartz, White, and
Lutz, 1993)
○ Mead and Vygotsky - the
way that human persons
develop is with the use of
language acquisition and
interaction with others.
● SELF IN FAMILIES - Without a
family, biologically or sociologically,
a person may not even survive or
become a human person.
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)
GEC Self
● GENDER AND THE SELF Gender is one of the loci of the self
that is subject to alteration, change,
and development. It is important to
give one the leeway to find, express,
and live his identity. Our gender
partly determines how we see
ourselves in the world. Oftentimes,
society forces a particular identity
unto us depending on our sex and/or
gender.
○ However,
slight
modifications have been on
the way due to feminism and
LGBT activism but for the
most part, patriarchy >:( has
remained to be at work
(“Fuck the patriarchy!” Taylor Swift, All Too Well 10
Minute’s Version (Taylor’s
Version) (From The Vault),
2021)
○ Nancy
Chodorow,
a
feminist, argues that because
mothers take the role of
taking care of children, there
is a tendency for girls to
imitate the same and
reproduce the same kind of
mentality of women as care
providers in the family.
○ Men on the other hand, in the
periphery of their own
family, are taught early on
how to behave like a man.
This
normally
includes
holding in one’s emotion,
being tough, fatalistic, not to
worry about danger, and
admiration for hard physical
labor. Masculinity is learned
by integrating a young boy in
a society. (e.g. circumcision)
○ The gendered self is then
shaped within a particular
context of time and space.
The sense of self that is being
taught makes sure that an
individual fits in a particular
environment.
This
is
dangerous and detrimental
in the goal of truly finding
one’s
self,
self-determination,
and
growth of the self. Gender
has
to
be
personally
discovered and asserted and
not dictated by culture and
the society.
THE SELF AS COGNITIVE
CONSTRUCT
● William
James
(1890)
conceptualized the self having two
aspects: the “I” and “me”.
a. I - thinking, acting, and
feeling self
b. Me
the
physical
characteristics/psychological
capabilities that makes you
who you are
c. According to Carl Rogers’s
Theory of Personality, the
“I” is the one who acts and
decides while the “me” is
what you think or feel about
yourself as an object.
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)
GEC Self
● Other concepts similar to self are
identity and self-concept. Identity is
composed
of
personal
characteristics, social roles, and
responsibilities,
as
well
as
affiliations that define who one is.
Self-concept is what basically comes
into your mind when you are asked
about who you are.
● Self, identity, and self-concept are
not fixed in one time frame.
● Theories generally see the self and
identity as mental constructs, created
and recreated in memory.
● Sigmund Freud saw the self, its
mental processes, and one’s behavior
as the results of the interaction
between the Id, Ego, and the
Superego.
● Under the theory of symbolic
interactionism, G.H. Mead (1934)
argued that the self is created and
developed
through
human
interaction. There are three reasons
why self and identity are social
products:
a. We do not create ourselves
out of nothing. Society
helped in creating the
foundations of who we are
and even if we make our
choices, we will still operate
in our social and historical
contexts in one way or the
other.
b. Whether we like to admit it
or not, we actually need
others to affirm and
reinforce who we think we
are. We also need them as
reference points about our
identity.
c. What we think is important
to us may also have been
influenced by what is
important in our social and
historical context.
● Social interaction and group
affiliation, therefore, are viral factors
in
creating
our
self-concept
especially in the aspect of providing
us with our social identity or our
perception of who we are based on
our membership to certain groups. It
is also inevitable that we can have
several social identities, that those
identities can overlap, and that we
automatically play the roles as we
interact with our groups.
● There are times when we are aware
of our self-concepts, this is called
self-awareness. Carver and Scheier
identified two types of self that we
can be aware of:
a. The private self or your
internal standards and private
thoughts and feelings
b. The public self or your public
image is commonly geared
toward having a good
presentation of yourself to
others.
● Self-awareness also presents us with
at least three other schema: the
actual (who you are at the
moment), ideal (who you like to
be), and ought self (who you think
you should be.)
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)
GEC Self
● Self-awareness may be positive or
negative
depending
on
the
circumstances of our next action and
it can also keep you from doing
something dangerous.
● Our
group
identity
and
self-awareness also has a great
impact on our self-esteem (positive
or negative perception or evaluation
of ourselves).
● Social relationships affect our
self-esteem by social comparison.
According to the social comparison
theory, we learn about ourselves, the
appropriateness of our behaviors, as
well as our social status by
comparing the aspects of ourselves
with other people.
a. Downward
social
comparison - comparing
ourselves from people worse
off than ourselves to boost
our self-esteem
b. Upward social comparison comparing ourselves with
those who are better off than
us. While it can be
motivating for some, a lot of
those who do this actually
feel lower self-esteem as they
highlight more of their
weaknesses or inequities.
● Social comparison also entails what
is
called
the
self-evaluation
maintenance theory which states that
we feel threatened when someone
outperforms us, especially when that
person is close to us. We usually
react in three ways:
a. Distance ourselves from
them or redefine our
relationship with them
b. Reconsider the importance
of the aspect or skill you
were outperformed in
c. Strengthen our resolve to
improve that certain aspect
of ourselves.
● However, in an attempt to boost our
self-esteem, some people become
narcissistic. Narcissism is a trait
characterized by overly high
self-esteem, self-admiration, and
self-centeredness.
●
Patrick Jude C. Villafuerte
BSMT 1A (A.Y. 2022-2023)