Alden Ely Topacio

Philosophy 1-1
Polytechnic University of the Philippines

William James

Jamesian Theory of Self is divided the person’s mental picture of self into two
categories: the “ME” and the “I”. The “ME” is thought of as a separate object or
individual, a person refers to when describing their personal experiences; while the
“I” is the self that knows who they are and what they have done in their life.

I know it was me who ate the cookie; both concepts are depicted in the statement,
James called the “ME” part of the self the “empirical me” and me “I” part “the pure
Ego”. The I part of the self was the thinking self, which could not be further divided.

However James did divide the “Me” part into: material self, social self, and spiritual
self.

The material selves consist of things that belong to a person or entities that a person
belongs to. Such as body, family, clothes, money and such make up the material self.
The body was the core of material self, He believed a person’s clothes were one way
they expressed who they felt they were; or clothes were a way to show status.
Money and family are the critical parts of the material self. If one loses a family
member, a part of who they are was lost also, same with money.

The social selves are who we are in a given social situation. For James people change
how they act depending on the social situation that they are in. James believed that
people had as many social selves as they did social situations they participated in.
For example, a person may act in a different way at work when compared to how
they act with a group of friends.

The spiritual self was who we are at our core. The spiritual self is more concrete or
permanent than the other selves. It involves introspection or looking inward to
deeper spiritual, moral, or intellectual question without the influence of objective
thoughts.
 OWN
PHILOSOPHER THEORY EXPLANATION
SOCRATES “KNOW THYSELF” The Idea of know
Greek Philosopher thyself is that we are
responsible of
knowing our own self.

One must have known

thyself first before
anything else.

This thought that the

worst that can happen
to anyone is “to live
but die inside”
PLATO Plato’s tripartite The soul has three
Greek Philosopher theory of soul parts according to
plato:

The reason, the spirit,

and the appetite,

All parts of the soul

have their own
desires, but desire in
appetitive and spirited
parts is not a matter of
belief about what is
good and what is bad.

“Knowledge is a
higher form of
awareness”

Plato said that for I

think that even when
you have enough
experience of a thing,
 we cannot say that
you learn something
from that experience
compare to reasoning.
AUGUSTINE Introspection He introduced and used
He takes different Agustine’s sense of self is the method of
philosophy before he his relation to God. Introspection: The
became a Christian at the description of one’s own
age of 35. conscious process in
subjective events.

St. Augustine believed one

could not achieve self-
inner peace without
finding God’s love.

Pretty self-explanatory.
AQUINAS Soul-body unity theory. Aquinas combined the
Medieval Philosopher science of the mind and
religion to explain the idea
of immortality.

He said that man is

composed of 2 parts: Soul
and the Body; or the Form
and the Matter.

What makes a person,

person, is his soul.

The soul is immortal, it is

what animates the body
and so it is what makes us
humans.

DESCARTES Reflex theory “I think therefore, I am”

Founder of modern “I think therefore, I am”
philosophy. Self is a thinking thing.

The mind exists and so

does man.

The reflex theory

explained that for
automatic reaction in
 response to external
events, a mind is like a
machine both can be
studied.

He also said that the body

is nothing without the
mind. But it is not what
makes a man, man. It is his
mind.
HUME Empiricism Theory All knowledge comes from
Scottish Philosopher the senses.

Self is a bundle of
impressions, or collection
of different perceptions.

Hume stated that self is

simply a combination of
all experiences with a
particular person;
knowledge can only be
possible if it is sensed and
experienced.

So basically, the mind is

not separated from
perception based on
Hume’s theory of self.
KANT Rationalism and Kant said that the path to
German Philosopher empiricism. true knowledge is thru
rationalism and
empiricism or in simpler
term, Man get knowledge
from reasons and by the
senses.

Without the self, one

cannot organize it in
relation to his own
existence.

He also said that, self is

the seat of knowledge
acquisition for all human
 persons.
GILBERT RYLE “I made it, and so I am” Compared to other theory
of this, Ryle’s theory is bit
different: as he said that in
searching for the self, one
couldn’t be
simultaneously be the
hunter and the hunted.

From my own
understanding Ryle’s
theory is that he believes
that what truly matter is
the behavior that a person
manifest in his day-to-day
life.

Although he still believes

that the mysterious
component called “mind”,
is the one who controls
the mechanistic body.
MERLEAU-PONTY Mind and body One cannot experience
that is not an embodied
experience, all experience
is embodied, he said.

The body is our general

medium for having a
world.

Since we are in the world,

we are condemned to
meaning. We have to have
meaning in life.

As having that meaning in

life that gives us our own
identity; our goals,
aspirations, goodness,
badness, ect. Will provide
us our legacy here on
earth.
JOHN LOCKE “Tabularasa” From the day we are born
in this world, our mind is
 like a blank sheet, it
gathers its contents from
our experiences and
reasoning that we
encounter during our
lifetime.

“No mans knowledge can

go beyond his experience.”

Experience is more
important than
knowledge.

We are given intelligence,

our ability to think, but
becomes useless if it is not
being utilized.

As we are in-control of
what we become in this
world, for instance some
choose to be bad and it
will then became their
habit, vise-versa.
CHURCHLAND The self as a brain. To understand the mind,
one must understand the
brain.

The churchland’s believes

that there isn’t a special
thing called the mind; the
mind is just the brain.

Whatever our mind does,

it is the process and
activities of our brain.

They are modern

philosophers who studied
the brain as “the self as a
brain.”
FREUD Id, ego, superego Basically freud divided
self into three parts, the
id, ego, superego and to
explain it in simpler term.

The id is our instincts, the

ego is our reality, and the
superego is our morality

These are the systems, not

parts of the brain, or in
any way physical.

According to Freud's
model of the psyche, the id
is the primitive and
instinctual part of the
mind that contains sexual
and aggressive drives and
hidden memories, the
super-ego operates as a
moral conscience, and the
ego is the realistic part
that mediates between the
desires of the id and the
super-ego.
ASSESMENT (HOME QUIZ)

1. I would describe myself as Rationalism and empiricism. Just like kant’s

theory of self. I would describe myself as a kind of person who gets my knowledge
from my experience and reasoning that I have encountered day-by-day.

2. My family is sure one of my influencers in life as individual, as most of my

experience and knowledge is from them and with them. I can say that I am nothing
without my family.

3. For almost 4 years in YFC Community, there I have experienced my true

self, and that is when I learned how to take and spent time talking and praying to
God. Because maybe, praying is something personal, others will not judge you for
who and what you are doing and so by that I can say that when I do things those
others can’t see, that’s my true self.

4. We are living in a world where judgment is irrevocable, so vise versa to my

answer above, I felt like I’m not in my true self whenever there’s a need to prove
someone something, mostly in school. You have to be someone that your teacher
who expected you to be.

5. Surely I should not blame others for what I have became, but when ever I
get social pressure that’s when I’m with a group of person who I wanted to be with,
and to do that, I have to be whatever they wanted me to be, same idea applies in
question number 4.

6. Myself as dependent person, soon enough, people will leave me, I have
nothing but myself. So when that time come, I can prepare myself and be an
independent person.