socrates -Ancient

Greek philosopher often called the

�father of Western philosophy.�
Socrates created the conceptual framework
and method of inquiry for much
of Western thought.
plato -The Soul Is Immortal: Socrates and Plato
� For Socrates and Plato, the self was synonymous
with the soul. Every human being, they believed,
possessed an immortal soul that survived the physical
body.
� Plato further defines the soul or self as having three
components: Reason, Physical Appetite, and Spirit
(or passion). These three components may work in
concert, or in opposition
augustine-Saint Augustine�s Synthesis of Plato
and Christianity
� Augustine enthusiastically adopted Plato�s vision of
a bifurcated universe in which �there are two realms,
an intelligible realm where truth itself dwells, and
this sensible world which we perceive by sight and
touch.� In Augustine�s adapted Christian framework,
Plato�s ultimate reality, the eternal realm of the
Forms, became a transcendent God. Plato�s life-long
efforts to encourage people to �take care of their
souls� became for Augustine immortal souls striving
to achieve union with God through faith and reason.
� Reflecting his dualistic view of the �self,� Augustine
viewed the physical body and the nonphysical soul
as two radically different entities with diverging
fates: the body to die, the soul to live eternally in a
transcendent realm of spiritual bliss.
� Augustine anticipated Descartes�s core belief of cogito
ergo sum with a remarkably similar announcement
of �I am doubting, therefore I am.�
Descartes�s Modern Perspective on the Self
� Early modern European philosophers, including
Ren� Descartes, expanded the concept of the self to
include the thinking, reasoning mind. For Descartes,
the act of thinking about the self�of being selfconscious�is
in itself proof that there is a self.
Descartes still demonstrates the powerful influence of
Platonic thought in his distinction between the physical
body (which he believes is material, mortal, and
nonthinking) and an immortal, nonmaterial thinking
self, governed by God�s will and the laws of reason.

descartes - Early modern European philosophers, including

Ren� Descartes, expanded the concept of the self to
include the thinking, reasoning mind. For Descartes,
the act of thinking about the self�of being selfconscious�is
in itself proof that there is a self.
Descartes still demonstrates the powerful influence of
Platonic thought in his distinction between the physical
body (which he believes is material, mortal, and
nonthinking) and an immortal, nonmaterial thinking
self, governed by God�s will and the laws of reason.
John Locke -The Self Is Consciousness: Locke
� John Locke argued that consciousness�or, more
specifically, self-consciousness�of our constantly
perceiving self is necessary to �personal identity,� or
knowledge of the self as a person.
� Instead of positing that the self is immortal and separate
from the body, Locke argues that our personal
identity and the immortal soul in which that identity
is located are very different entities

david hume - There Is No Self: Hume

� David Hume went radically further than Locke to
speculate that there is no self or immortal soul in the
traditional sense. Our memories and experiences,
Hume argued, are made up of impressions and ideas
with no one �constant and invariable,� unified identity.
When we are not actively perceiving, or conscious
of ourselves perceiving, Hume notes, there is no basis
for the belief that there is any self

immanuel kant - We Construct the Self: Kant

� If Hume�s view of the mind was a kind of passive
�theatre� across which random experiences flitted, Kant
proposed an actively engaged and synthesizing intelligence
that constructs knowledge based on its experiences.
This synthesizing faculty�Kant�s version of the
self�transcends the senses and unifies experience.
� In addition, Kant proposed a second self, the empirical
self or ego, which consists of those traits that make
us each a unique personality.

sigmund freud - The Self Is Multilayered: Freud

� Although Freud was not, strictly speaking, a philosopher,
his views on the nature of the self have had a
far-reaching impact on many areas of study, including
Philosophy. Freud�s view of the self was multitiered,
divided among the conscious, preconscious,
and unconscious. Although the conscious self has an
important role to lay in the �split-level functioning�
of our lives, it is the unconscious and its influence
that hold the greatest fascination for Freud.
� In addition to the Topographical model of the mind,
Freud later developed a Structural model of the mind
that divided it according to mental functions: the id,
the ego, and the superego.
� Although the contents of the unconscious are protected
from conscious awareness by psychic defense
systems and cannot be observed directly, we can nevertheless
look for evidence of unconscious functioning
in areas such as dreams and neuroses.

gilbert ryle -The Self Is How You Behave: Ryle

� Gilbert Ryle solves the �mind/body problem� by
simply denying the existence of an internal, nonphysical
self, and instead focus on the dimension of
the self that we can observe�our behavior.
� Ryle provides a devastating critique of Descartes�s
dualism by characterizing it as �the ghost in the machine�
metaphysic that has infiltrated every area of
our culture, a view that makes no conceptual sense.
Just as a visitor to a college might commit a �category
mistake� by wanting to see �the college� after
viewing all of the parts of the college, so we make a
category mistake when we seek to find a �self� which
is apart from all of the public behaviors of our selves.
� Many people believe that Ryle�s effort to reduce the
rich complexity of human experience to a compilation
of observable behaviors is a much too limited
view of the human self and the world we inhabit.

paul churchland -The Self Is the Brain: Physicalism

� Materialism holds that the self is inseparable from
the substance of the brain and the physiology of
the body. Contemporary advances in neurophysiology
allow scientists to observe the living brain as it
works to process information, create ideas, and move
through dream states. Philosopher Paul Churchland
argues that a new, accurate, objective, and scientifically
based understanding of our �selves� will
�contribute substantially toward a more peaceful and
humane society.�

maurice merleau panty -The Self Is Embodied Subjectivity: Husserl

and Merleau-Ponty
� Phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Maurice
Merleau-Ponty simply dismiss Cartesian dualism as
a product of philosophical misunderstanding. The
living, physical body and its experiences are all one,
a natural synthesis, what Husserl and Merleau-Ponty
called the Lebenswelt (a German word meaning
�lived world�).
. French philosopher
whose thinking was influenced by
Husserl. Merleau-Ponty objected to
philosophies that underestimated the
significance of the body and argued
that perception is fundamental to
our knowledge of the world. In The
Phenomenology of Perception (1945), he
argued that consciousness is a
dynamic form that actively structures
our experience