Lesson 7
THE MATERIAL SELF
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
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Identify the things that are included in own extended self.
Facilitate to choose products appropriately based on their self-identity.
Make necessary changes of their lifestyle.
Materialism
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Entails the importance of physical objects.
▪It is also a belief that everything is made of matter and energy, with less emphasis in nonphysical objects like souls, spirits, or supernatural gods. Unlike spiritual entities, material
things do not last eternally.
William James (1842-1910) selfhood can be broken in different fragments.
Physical body – central constituent unit; includes the relatives and material possessions
COMPONENTS OF THE MATERIAL SELF
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BODY
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Immediate Family
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Extended Family
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Close Friends
THE CLOTHES
People who an individual has relationships with such as one’s:
Apart from clothes, the material component of the self can includes one’s:
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HOUSE
CAR
PETS
Hermann Lotze (1890)- asserted that each time we get to wear garments of varying kind is a
chance for us to bring them into relationship with the surface of our body and inject them with
the very consciousness of our personal existence. The accumulation of properties comprises
the empirical self’s wealth; it is perceived as most intimately ours for it is made possible by
our labor. We develop an attachment with most of the things we buy because we accord the
same to the resources that enable us to accomplish the transaction. It rationalizes our feeling
of sadness for losing some of our personal belongings. William James believes that the loss
of material things is considered as the shrinkage of the personality. The reason why we die a
little every time we lose some of our possessions.