Chapter 1: Lesson 1
The Self from the Philosophical Perspective
“An unexamined life
is not worth living.”
- Socrates
SCHEDULE: Week 1 & 2
Note: The instructor must provide the course syllabus for the introduction of the course.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES of the Course:
a. Understand the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from
various philosophical perspectives.
b. The students should be able to compare and contrast these perspectives and see
how it has affected their life principle.
After this Lesson, STUDENTS MUST BE ABLE TO:
a. Comprehend the importance of the philosophical perspectives for deeper
understanding of the nature of man.
b. Assess these philosophical perspectives of the self through cross-referencing.
c. Capable of answering questions “Who am I?” by aligning various thoughts.
REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
• “What is your name” vs. “Who are you”?
• What is your deepest question in life?
• What is your definition of self?
• How did the “self” start?
• What makes you, you?
People are often asked “Who are you?” especially when they just meet someone along
the streets, or special occasions. But with all honesty, a person may be hard up of answering
this simple question. So, they end up stating their name but is it truly who they are?
The Self is a person’s essential being that distinguishes him from others. The self is
separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private (Stevens, 1996). Self
may be as simple as it seems but it is a complex matter that touches disciplinal perspectives
in understanding it (i.e. philosophical, sociological, anthropological or psychological) and the
self has various aspects such as physical, sexual, material, political, spiritual and virtual.
The self can be explained based on the components defined by Stevens (1996):
SEPARATE – The self is distinct from other selves, as no two persons are exactly alike –
biologically, psychologically and socially – not even identical twins.
SELF-CONTAINED – It has its own unique thoughts, characteristics, and volition. Even when
society dictates what should be done, a person has its own way of expressing their true self.
INDEPENDENT – In itself, it can exist.
CONSISTENT – It has personality that is enduring and is expected to persist for some time.
Their personality has patterns but is not necessarily predictable in response to a stimuli.
UNITARY – It is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a person.
PRIVATE – Each person sorts out information, feelings, emotions, and thought processes
within self. It has its own reservations for security purposes.
The study of the Self, which was referred to as philosophical anthropology by a Jewish
philosopher, Martin Buber, is considered a unique area of inquiry since it takes the self as the
subject, as well as the object of philosophic probing. A man continuously studies about
himself but the perennial question of identity “Who am I?” remains a difficult question to
answer, and finding an answer to such question comes with another series of questions.
Philosophy has always been seeking answers to life’s difficult questions.
Etymological definition of Philosophy:
Philosophy came from the Greek word
“philein” which means love of/for or friendship
of/for, and “sophia” which means wisdom. Basically,
philosophy is having an active pursuit of wisdom.
Probing question:
“Who am I?”
To answer such difficult question, one has to be self-reflective:
“What is your definition of the self?”
“The self is composed of what?”
“How did the “self” start?”
“What makes you, you?”
Those series of questions may be something to ponder upon at unraveling who man
is. Some great minds sought for an answer for the question “Who am I?”
For the early Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato, the inquiry digs on the nature
of man.
THE “SELF” FROM THE VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS’ POINT OF VIEW
The Self in the Greek Philosophy
The general thread of the concept of the self is that the self is seen as a body-soul
compound with the rational soul as immaterial, immortal, immutable, distinct, and far
superior to the body. The formation of the self primarily consists of the nourishment of the
rational soul of the self.
In understanding the nature of the self from the Greek philosophy, the great minds of
Socrates and Plato come in discussion.
SOCRATES (470 BC - 399 BC)
•
• He believed that man was formerly a soul or a pure mind
and knowledge by intuition is stored in his mind.
• However, the soul suffers forgetfulness about this
knowledge when it assumed the body, resulting to
ignorance. This ignorance can be overcome by intellectual
midwifery, the ultimate goal of which is the attainment of
the knowledge lost. “What we call learning is really just
recollection. If that is true, then surely, what we recollect
now, we must have learned at some time before.”
• He claimed that “an unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates became famous for his method referred to as “Socratic Method of Question
and Answer” which is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between
individuals and own self, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical
thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions.
Sample questions for Socratic Method of Question and Answer:
o Who exactly is your “self?”
o What differentiates your particular “self” from others?
o What is the relationship between your “self” to your body?
o How does your “self” relate to the other selves?
o What happens to the “self” when the body dies?
•
He has a Dualistic View of the Self, believing that the self has two components:
o The Physical body (material component); and
o The Soul (immaterial / immortal component).
In which, Socrates claimed that the moment of death is the final separation of the
physical body and the soul. The physical body, will rot after death; but the soul, however,
remains immortal.
PLATO (428/427BCE-348/347 BCE)
• There are two composites of a human being – body and
soul, the former being corruptible and susceptible to change
while the latter is unchanging.
• Plato believes that the body is a merely a replica of the
true self.
• The soul is imprisoned in the body and thus subject to
bodily sensations and the only way for it to be liberated is
through contemplation.
• Thus, Contemplation refers to the “communion of the
mind with the universal and eternal ideas.”
• The soul is eternal and survives bodily death.
• He became famous for his Theory of Tripartite Soul, which states that the soul of the self
consists of three dissimilar elements: the highest is the element of reason (head), the
spirited elements (heart), and at the bottom of the hierarchy are the bodily appetite
(stomach) (Lavine, 1989).
o Rational Soul-pertains to our divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise
choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.
o Appetitive Soul- refers to our basic bodily appetite such as hunger, thirst and sex.
o Spirited Soul- which expresses emotional drive, such as aggression, ambition, pride, anger,
honor, loyalty, courage, and being protective.
• In a given time, each of the three elements is dominant in an individual, resulting in the
individual person’s having a distinct type of personality and goal in life. If the reason is the
dominant element, the chief goal of an individual is the pursuit of knowledge and truth.
• An individual will live and strive for success and public acclaim when the spirited element
is prevailing; and when the bodily appetites are domineering, the individual will work
toward money and material gains.
• Irrespective of which element is dominant in a person, the primary goal is attaining a sense
of well-being is the result of fulfilling the three needs associated with the head, heart, and
stomach. The reason (head) must take charge to oversee the spirited element and bodily
appetite.
Illustration by: https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/religiousstudies/philosophy-religion/life-after-death/distinctions-between-body-and-soul
The Self in The Medieval Philosophy
The theocentric approach of the medieval philosophy relegated the self to secondary
concern. Neo-Platonist, St. Augustine gave his own point of view about the self.
ST. AUGUSTINE (354 - 430 BCE)
• In consonance with the philosophy of Plato, St. Augustine further
advanced the theory in believing that there exist two worlds – the
real and the temporary. Human beings are only sojourning in the
world as it is but a temporary home, where there is pain and evil
and is directed toward the world that is eternal, where there is
permanence and infinity, the world where God is. He believed that
after death, the soul finds its ultimate fulfilment in union with the
eternal, transcendent realm.
• He believed that God and faith in Him is primary, and the self is
secondary because the self owes its origin to God. Man is created
by God according to His image (Imago Dei) and likeness to know,
to love, and to fulfill His purpose and to share his everlasting glory.
•
•
•
•
Going beyond the body-soul dualism, St. Augustine, along with St. Thomas Aquinas,
contemplated the self is a tripartite being. The self is composed of the body, soul, and
spirit. The body is the outer part of the self through which the self can come in contact
with the world. The inner part of the self is called the soul, which is composed of the
mind, the emotions and the will. It is through the spirit that the self can communicate
with God (Joven 2006).
St. Augustine asserted that God created man, body, and soul of which the soul is
spiritual, perpetual, and superior to the body. The soul is created by God to administer
the body. The body is united with the soul so that the self may be completed.
He believed that there exists a moral law and it is being imposed by the mind. Through
reason (mind), man can discern the difference between right and wrong.
The Eternal Law meanwhile comes from God Himself, through our conscience or the
internal voice that tells whether thoughts or actions are morally good or bad (Palean
et. al, 2018).
“When I consider thy Heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon
and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is a man, that Thou art
mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou hast visited him? For thou
hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of
Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet” (Ps 8:3-6).
The Self in The Modern Philosophy
In opposition to the medieval view of man and his knowledge as subordinate to the
divine truth, the modern philosophy affirmed the dignity and worth of man with regard to the
power of his reason to know the truth of his nature. Various school of thought came up with
divergent views on the self. In these pages, the concepts of self according to Rene Descartes,
John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Gilbert Ryle, Paul Churchland, and
Maurice Marlaeu-Ponty will be discussed.
RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
With the famous “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think, therefore I
am), Descartes highlights that the consciousness or the act of
thinking is the evidence towards his existence as such
consciousness cannot be subject to doubt.
•
The essence of a human being lies in his capacity to think
as thinking cannot be doubted.
•
He believed that the essence of existing as a human
identity is the possibility of being aware of ourselves, thus,
having self-identity and being self-conscious are mutually
dependent on one another.
•
While Descartes’ Dualism is evident, he goes on to say
that while the physical body and soul are distinct from one
another, they are in a way intertwined or linked and intimately connected.
Descartes presented an extreme dualistic separation of mind and body. His idea on
the self is centered on the concept of substance. Substance refers to anything that
exist in itself.
There are two kinds of substance: infinite and finite. Infinite substance refers to the
innate idea of God while finite substance refers to man.
Man is finite substance composed of the body and mind known as “Cartesian Dualism.”
The body is independent of the soul since the mind is not the body’s provider of life.
The body material, mortal, non-thinking substance is governed by completely
mechanical laws.
The mind is nonmaterial, immortal, conscious being, independent of the physical law
of the universe. The mind is not the principle of life because its primary function is to
think.
The self, therefore, is construed as a mental and
thinking substance: “I think, therefore, I am.” So,
the self is nothing else but thinking thing or a
machine that thinks.
JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)
•
•
•
•
• John Locke believed that the source of authentic knowledge of
reality must pass the test of sensory experience. He believed that
knowledge cannot be innate because mind is like blank sheet of
paper (Tabula Rasa) at birth, upon which life experiences are
written (Ramos 2004). As we grow and interact with others, we
accumulate knowledge. The accumulated experiences are then
printed on the blank sheet of paper or the mind.
• The existence of the self is reliant on our consciousness of our
own experiences and knowledge. The essence of the self is its
conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, and
reflecting being and is not tied up with any particular body or
substance.
Locke contended that every aspect of our physical body (substance) is integrated into
our personal self. The physical body may undergo change, but the personal self remains
the same. For instance, if one leg has to be amputated because of an accident, a
person’s personal identity remains the same in spite of alteration in the physical body.
Personal identity is, therefore, distinct from whatever body it finds itself associated
with.
He introduced the ‘Memory Theory’ which forwards the idea that a person is the same
person as he is in the past provided that he recalls the events in the past.
A person had somewhat existed, and this existence becomes evident when, while being
able to remember the past, a human person can also be aware of the present.
The memory connects one’s self. The self then exists not in the present, but the present
existence is basically connected with the past, so long as the self remembers.
DAVID HUME (MAY 7, 1711-AUG.25, 1776)
•
•
• Hume believed that human beings acquire knowledge through
the sense perception. The contents of the mind are fundamentally
product of one’s experience in the world.
• The contents of the mind are divided into two: (a) impressions
which are the things which the senses perceive and thus
experience in the world; and (b) ideas which refer to the things
that are created in the mind about the things experienced through
the senses.
• In connection to his philosophy of man, he cannot detect a
particular impression of the self that endures and is thus
permanent.
“The mind does not create ideas but derives them from impressions.”
He then concludes that the self is a ‘bundle of perception’ and is subject to change
depending on the different experiences that shape the human person.
IMMANUEL KANT (APR 22, 1724-FEB 12, 1804)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Kant grounds his philosophy of the human person on the
contention that the self is free and has the capacity to make
decision for himself.
• Man is not only free, but also rational. Man possesses
reason and free will.
• The “self” is the product of reason because the self
regulates experience.
• This sense of freedom is tested by his choices in relation
to his duties and the fulfilment of his duties.
• One’s duty is a product of deliberation and not imposed
by a particular authority outside of the self.
• This capacity to act and deliberated through the
guidance of reason and the capacity to refrain from heeding
the dictates of emotion is what makes human a moral agent.
Having the capacity to rationally deliberate, man should be treated as an end and not
as a means, thus should not be exploited.
Empiricism asserts that knowledge is only attained through the senses. In other
words, seeing is believing.
Rationalism is the theory that reason, rather than experience, is the foundation of all
knowledge.
Kant also believed that there are two aspects of self: the inner self is comprised of our
psychological state and our rational intellect. The outer self includes our sense and the
physical world.
Kant said that human knowledge is composed of sensory component and rational
component. Knowledge has, indeed, the sensory element, but these sensory
impressions are meaningless unless the rational element or the mind actively
interprets and gives meaning to these sensory impressions. This rational component
which Kant called a prori comes from the mind itself and is independent of sensation.
The human mind is not an empty cabinet since it is equipped with a build- in structure
or some organizing principles known as categories, which actively sort out, organize,
relate and synthesize the collection of sense data our sense organs take in (Lavine
1989).
Kant conceptualized two kinds of the self: the empirical self and the transcendental self. The
empirical self pertains to particular aspects of the self that make the self-unique, such as
physical aspects, memories, personalities, history, and culture.
The empirical self, just like anything else in the world, is known through experiences. As a
transcendental self, the self is an activity or organizing principle that actively interprets,
constructs, and gives meaning to collections of sensory data. Since the mind in the source of
ideas, and sensory impressions are just elements on producing the ideas, the self is the
product of the mind.
SIGMUND FREUD (1856 TO 1939)
•
•
•
•
• He developed a framework which analyzes man in relation to his
biological make-up and the impact of his socio-cultural environment.
• He proposes the three structures of personality – the id, the ego
and the superego. While the Id embodies the impulses and desires,
the Superego provides the moral standards by which the ego
performs.
• A clash of the Id and the Superego is inevitable, and the Ego
displays which among the two (Id and Superego) was superior above
the other.
• Naked impulses are governed by the pleasure principle (id) and
it has the dominant influence in our personalities.
He also asserts that the mind has three levels- the conscious, pre-conscious and
unconscious.
Conscious – contains information that we have immediate access to.
Preconscious – information that we need to exert effort to recall.
Unconscious – contains basic instinctual drives that seeks for immediate gratification.
Illustration by https://www.pinterest.ph/
pin/456763587191555815/
Illustration by https://courses.lumenlearning.
com/boundless-psychology/chapter/
introduction-to-consciousness/
GILBERT RYLE (Aug. 1900 - Oct. 1976)
•
•
•
For Ryle, a discussion of the mind is basically discussion
of behaviors, since it is through these behaviors that the
workings of the mind are made manifest.
•
He contested the dualism of Descartes claiming that the
mind is not a distinct entity but a part of the body.
•
The contents of the mind are expressed with man’s
tendencies, behavior and his responses to particular
circumstances.
•
The self then, must be comprehended as a pattern of
behavior or the tendency of an individual to be behave in a
certain way in particular situation.
The nature of the motive of the self can be described by the actions and reactions of
the self in different circumstances. The perceptions, thoughts, emotions,
remembering, and willingness of the self can be understood in terms of observable
behavior.
The self, therefore, is the way people behave.
PAUL CHURCHLAND (1943-present)
•
•
•
•
He believed that the body-mind problem cannot
be solved by philosophers but by neuroscientists.
•
He advances neuroscience as he believes that
mind is associated with workings of the brain.
•
The mental state of the mind can impact the
physical condition of the self. It has an impact on the
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor of the self.
•
The brain affects the moods, emotions as well as
the consciousness of the human person.
•
An analysis of the workings of the brain would
lead to the awareness of the contents of the mind.
•
Churchland did not believe in the idea of Dualism
(the idea that the mind and the body are separate),
instead he believed in the idea of materialism.
Churchland asserts that since the mind can't be experienced by our senses, then the
mind doesn't really exist.
He is famous for his idea on Eliminative Materialism.
Eliminative Materialism argues that the ordinary folk psychology of the mind is wrong.
It is the physical brain and not the imaginary mind that gives us our sense of self.
MAURICE MARLEAU-PONTY
•
•
•
•
• Rather than seeing the perceiving mind and the acting
body as separate, Marleau-ponty argued that they are
interconnected. They are both our seat of knowledge and
they both give us our sense of self.
• He contends that the self is subject to constant
development and what the self becomes depends on what it
does to the body. The self becomes the sum of what it makes
to the body.
• Merlaeu-Ponty took a significant turn by asserting that
one’s body is not a thing nor an object of the study.
• When we say I have my body, it implies that there is a
dichotomy between the self and the body. In this sense, the
body is merely an object or possession being possessed by the
self.
Therefore, the self is the body and the body is the self itself. The self lives in a body;
hence, without the body the self cannot exist.
In his notion of the body-subject, Merleau-Ponty claimed that the body plays a vital role
in perception, knowledge, and meaning. The body is our general medium for knowing
the world and giving meaning to it.
The self becomes a product of the conscious experience in world.
He believed the physical body to be an important part of what makes up the subjective
self.
SUMMARY:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SOCRATES, PLATO, ST. AUGUSTINE: “The self has an immortal soul.”
DESCARTES: “The self is a thinking thing.”
LOCKE: “The self is consciousness.”
HUME: “There is no self, only a bundle of constantly changing
perceptions.”
KANT: “The self is a unifying object.”
FREUD: “The self is multi-layered.”
RYLE: “The Self is the way people behave.”
CHURCHLAND: “The Self is the brain.”
MARLEAU-PONTY: “The self is an embodied subjectivity.”