UNDERSTANDING
THE SELF
Prepared by: ROSANA F. RODRIGUEZ, RN, MAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Chapter I – Defining the Self: Personal and
Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
•
Lesson 1: The Self from Various
Philosophical Perspectives
•
Lesson 2: The Self, Society, and Culture
•
Lesson 3: The Self as Cognitive
Construct
•
Lesson 4: The Self in Western and Eastern
Thoughts
Lesson 1:
The Self from Various
Philosophical Perspectives
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self;
2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from
the points-of-view of the various philosophers across time
and place;
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented
in different philosophical schools; and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self that
were discussed in class.
ACTIVITY
Answer the following questions about your self as
fully and precisely as you can.
1. How would you characterize your self?
2. What makes you stand out from the rest? What makes
your self special?
3. How has your self transformed itself?
4. How is your self connected to your body?
5. How is your self related to other selves?
6. What will happen to your self after you die?
ANALYSIS
Were you able to answer the questions on the previous slide with ease?
Why? Which questions did you find easiest to answer? Which ones are
difficult? Why?
Can one truly know the self? Do you want to know about self?
DEFINITION OF SELF
• MERRIAM WEBSTER
an individual's typical character or behavior her
true self was revealed
an individual's temporary behavior or
character his better self
 the union of elements (such as body, emotions,
thoughts, and sensations) that constitute the
individuality and identity of a person
PHILOSOPHY OF SELF
PHILOSOPHY OF SELF
• The philosophy of self defines, among other
things, the conditions of identity that make
one subject of experience distinct from all
others. Contemporary discussions on the
nature of the self are not thereby
discussions on the nature of personhood, or
personal identity.
SOCRATES
• Know thyself”
o Socrates was the first philosopher
who ever engaged in a systematic
questioning about the self; the true
task of the philosopher is to know
oneself.
o For Socrates, every man is
composed of body and soul; 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
o Plato supported the idea
that man is a dual nature
of body and soul.
o Plato added that there are
three components of the
soul: the rational soul, the
spirited soul, and the
appetitive soul.
3 PARTS OF THE SOUL
• Plato's identification of these three distinct
elements of a person's inner life is unique,
and can be validated by directly turning
inward to one's own experience of the self.
3 PARTS OF THE SOUL
1. The appetitive which includes all our myriad
desires for various pleasures, comforts,
physical satisfactions, and bodily ease.
3 PARTS OF THE SOUL
2. The spirited, or hot-blooded, part, i.e., the
part that gets angry when it perceives (for
example) an injustice being done. This is
the part of us that loves to face and
overcome great challenges, the part that
can steel itself to adversity, and that loves
victory, winning, challenge, and honor.
3 PARTS OF THE SOUL
3. The mind/ rational is our conscious
awareness, is represented by the
charioteer who is guiding (or who at least
should be guiding) chariot. This is the part
of us that thinks, analyzes, looks ahead,
rationally weighs options, and tries to
gauge what is best and truest overall.
ST. AUGUSTINE
o Augustine 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.
o The body can only thrive in the
imperfect, physical reality that is
the world, whereas the soul can
also stay after death in an
eternal realm with the alltranscendent God.
THOMAS AQUINAS
o Aquinas said that indeed, man is
composed of two parts: matter
and form. Matter, or hyle in
Greek, refers to the “common
stuff that makes up everything
in the universe.” Man’s body is
part of this matter. Form, on the
other hand, or morphe in Greek
refers to the “essence of a
substance or thing.”
o To Aquinas the soul is what
animates the body; it is what
makes us humans.
RENE DESCARTES
o Conceived of the human
person as having a body
and a mind
o The body is nothing else
but a machine that is
attached to the mind. The
human person has it but it
is not what makes man a
man. If at all, that is the
mind.
DAVID HUME
o The self is not an entity over and
beyond the physical body.
o Men can only attain knowledge
by experiencing.
o Self, according to Hume, is
simply “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
o
o
o
o
Things that men perceive around them are
not just randomly infused into the human
person without an organizing principle that
regulates the relationship of all these
impressions.
There is necessarily a mind that organizes the
impressions that men get from the external
world.
Time and space are ideas that one cannot
find in the world, but is built in our minds; he
calls these the apparatuses of the mind.
The self is not just what gives one his
personality; it is also the seat of knowledge
acquisition for all human persons.
GILBERT RYLE
o Blatantly denying the concept of an
internal, non-physical self; what
truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day-to-day
life.
o “Self” is not an entity one can
locate and analyze but simply the
convenient name that people use
to refer to all the behaviors that
people make.
MAURICE MERLEAU- PONTY
o The mind and body are so
intertwined that they cannot be
separated from one another.
o One cannot find any experience
that is not an embodied
experience. All experience is
embodied; one’s body is his
opening toward his existence to the
world.
o The living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences are all
one.
APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT
In your own words, state what “self” is for each of the philosophers
enumerated below. After doing so, explain how your concept of “self” is
compatible with how they conceived of the “self.”
1. Socrates
2. Plato
3. Augustine
4. Descartes
5. Hume
6. Kant
7. Ryle
8. Merleau-Ponty
LESSON SUMMARY
o Philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired
into the fundamental nature of the self.
o Socrates was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a
systematic questioning about the self.
o Plato supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body
and soul.
o Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature.
o Thomas Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two
parts: matter and form.
LESSON SUMMARY
o Rene Descartes conceived of the human person as having
a body and a mind.
o David Hume, the self is not an entity over and beyond the
physical body
o Immanuel Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes
the impressions that men get from the external world
o Gilbert Ryle, “self” is not an entity one can locate and
analyze
o Merleau-Ponty, the living body, his thoughts, emotions, and
experiences are all one