WHO ARE YOU? Begin your exploration of your self by responding to the following questions. How would you describe yourself? What makes you different from the others? What do you mean when you say, “I don’t feel like myself today”? What do you mean when you encourage someone else to “Just be yourself!”? SOCRATES • Greek Philosopher • Father of Western Philosophy Know Thyself. Know Thyself? • • • • • • • • • • • But what exactly does that mean? Who exactly is your “self”? What are the qualities that define it? What differentiates your particular “self” from all others? What is the relation of the “self” you were as a child to the “self” you are now? What is the relation of your “self” to your “body”? How does your “self” relate to other “selves”? What happens to a “self” when the body dies? In what ways is it possible for you to “know” your “self”? In what ways might you never fully know your “self”? What do you mean when you say, “I don’t feel like myself today” or when you encourage someone else to “Just be yourself!” Socrates • For Socrates, reality is dualistic. 1. The physical realm is changeable, transient, and imperfect. 2. The ideal realm is unchanging, eternal, immortal. • For Socrates, our bodies belong to the physical realm: They change, they’re imperfect, they die. • Our souls belong to the ideal realm: They are unchanging and immortal, surviving the death of the body. Our souls strive for wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool to achieve this exalted state. Human person is dualistic. BODY • Changeable • Transient • Imperfect SOUL • Unchanging • Eternal • Immortal As Socrates stated in Phaedo, "And do we not believe it (death) to be the separation of the soul from the body? Does not death mean that the body comes to exist by itself separated from the soul, and that the soul exists by herself, separated from the body? What is death but that?" Difference of soul and body • The soul is immortal, and the body is just a substance, which the soul gives life. • The soul brings life while the body brings death. • The body becomes the carrier of the soul. Socrates attribute all mental states to the soul but argues that some may be attributed to the body. The body is responsible for • Beliefs and pleasure • Desires and fears The soul, too has desires, even passionate ones, such as the nonphilosophical soul’s love [erôs] of the corporeal and pleasures as well, such as the pleasures of learning (Long & Sedley, 155) The soul is responsible for all of a person’s mental or psychological activities and responses The soul’s functions are, 1. grasping and appreciating truth, 2. regulating and controlling the body and its affections, such as beliefs and pleasures, desires and fears, no doubt in light of suitable judgments, arrived at, or anyhow supported and controlled, by reasoning Our souls strive for wisdom and perfection. REASON is the soul’s tool to achieve it. Your soul is the source of your deepest thoughts and highest aspirations, the unique life force that shapes and defines itself through choices made on a daily basis. According to Socrates, your soul is “immortal and imperishable and after death should continue to exist in another world.” The soul performs the controlling function. At this point, Socrates again stresses the superiority of the soul over the body. The soul controls the body and prevents it from falling into fallacy and inadequate behavior As a result, humans are in the permanent struggle between their body and their soul, for the body generates different mental states, while the soul restricts them and imposes its control and impact on the body. In this regard, the soul has the power over the body because it is the soul that gives life to the body. What is the soul? PSYCHE (Ψυχή) “true self” or “soul” Core identity Unique spirit that makes you distinctively YOU Authentic personality Distinctive character Man is a being who thinks and wills • Socrates seems to put more emphasis on the attitudinal level of human nature since he gives more value to the human soul rather than the body. • He argued that the human soul should be nurtured properly through acquisition of knowledge, wisdom, and virtue. • Man should discover the truth about the good life, for it is in knowing the good life that man can act correctly. Some of Socrates’ core teachings: • The unexamined life is not worth living. • The truth lies within us. • We should strive for excellence in all areas of life. PLATO • Greek Philosopher • Student of Socrates Plato introduces the idea of a three-part soul/self: • REASON - Our divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths. • PHYSICAL APPETITE Our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire. • SPIRIT OR PASSION Our basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, empathy. Plato illustrates his view of the soul/self with a vivid metaphor CHARIOT ANALOGY “We will liken the soul to the composite nature of a pair of winged horses and a charioteer.” One horse represents passion, the other appetite, and the charioteer who tries to control them is reason”. The Three Parts of the Soul in Plato's Republic and Phaedrus Parts of the Soul Rational Chariot Part Charioteer Loves Truth/Wisdom Wisdom Pride/Sloth Ectomorph Head Carl Jung Guardians The Virtue The Vice Somatotype Body Symbol Psychiatrist Class in Republic Spirited ("Thymos") White horse on Right Honor/Victory Courage Anger/Envy Mesomorph Heart Alfred Adler Auxiliaries/Soldiers Appetitive Black horse on Left Pleasure/$$ Temperance Gluttony/Lust/Greed Endomorph Belly/Genitals Sigmund Freud Merchants The fact that the horses are “winged” suggests the capacity of the soul to soar to the world of wisdom and intellectual enlightenment Plato believed that genuine happiness can only be achieved by people who consistently make sure that their reason is in control of their spirits and appetites. • Charioteers who are successful in setting a true course and ensuring that the two horses work together in harmonious unity achieve true wisdom. • Charioteers who are unable to control their horses and keep their chariot on track are destined to experience personal, intellectual, and spiritual failure. Describe an experience in your life in which you experienced a vigorous conflict between the three dimensions of your self identified by Plato: reason, appetite, and spirit. What was the nature of the conflict? How was it resolved? Analyzing the Chariot Analogy Describe an experience in your life in which reason prevailed over passion and appetite. How was reason able to prevail? Did you gain increased wisdom from the experience? Describe an experience in your life in which the three elements of your self identified by Plato worked together in a productive and harmonious fashion, enabling you to achieve a great success.
