Have you ever wondered. . .

• What exactly are we?

• What do we even mean by the “SELF”?
• Are we souls, organic bodies or merely a figment of another’s
imagination?
• Are we just minds or a combination of body and mind?
• Will I survive bodily death because I am more than a body or when
my body is dead, that’s really the end?
• Or maybe… I am actually a robot controlled by some entity?
• WHO AM I?
WHAT DOES KNOWING YOURSELF MEAN?
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOURSELF
NOW?
WHY IS GETTING TO KNOW YOURSELF SO
IMPORTANT?
The Tao the Ching says. . .
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself
is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power. If you realize
that you have enough, you are truly rich”
 CHAPTER 1
THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES
 PHILOSOPHY
The Self from Various Philosophical
Perspectives
WHAT IS A PHILOSOPHER?
• Traditionally, he is thought of a lover of wisdom.
• An intellectual who has devoted time to study the meaning of life.
• Has contributed in the field of philosophy in areas like logic, ethics,
metaphysics, epistemology (theory of knowledge), etc.
 PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR IDEAS
1. Socrates
2. Plato
3. Augustine of Hippo
4. Thomas Aquinas
5. Rene Descartes
6. John Locke
7. David Hume
8. Immanuel Kant
9. Sigmund Freud
10. Gilbert Ryle
11. Paul Churchland
12. Maurice Merleau Ponty
SOCRATES : Know Thyself.
The true task of a philosopher is to know oneself.
For Socrates, every man is composed of body and soul.
There was soul first before man’s body.
Man’s existence was first in the realm of ideas and
exists as a soul or pure mind. This soul has knowledge
by direct intuition and all these are restored in his
mind.
However, once he came to the material world or the
world of senses, he forgot most of what he knew. This The self is an immortal
resulted in lack of knowledge or ignorance w/c causes soul that exists over
problems to man. time.
He was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a -Socrates, Plato,
systematic questioning about the self. Augustine
PLATO Plato supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body
and soul.
Dichotomy of the Ideal world or the world of Forms and
the Material world.
*World of Forms- the permanent, unchanging reality.
*World of Materials- keeps on changing. It is what we
see around us, and for him, this-where we live, is just a
replica of the real world found in the world of Forms.
Human beings are composed of a body and a soul. It is the
soul which is the true self-the permanent, unchanging Self.
The changing body, however, or what we see in the
material world on the other hand, is not the real self but
only a replica of our true Self.
The soul exists before birth and leaves room for the
possibility that it might survive bodily death.
 AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

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.
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 all-
transcendent God.
Our world (world of materials) is not our final home
but just a temporary home where we are just passing
through.
Our real world is found in the world where there is
permanence and infinity- that’s the world where God
is.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

God is fully real-as the unchanging, permanent being and he sees

God as the ultimate expression of love.
Man has an immortal soul whose main pursuit is to have an
everlasting life with God.
Moral laws exist and is imposed on the mind. Reason makes us
recognize these laws and thus, we can discern the distinction
between right and wrong.
There is an Eternal law which should be universally followed because
this is coming from the Eternal reason or God Himself.
THOMAS AQUINAS

Aquinas said that indeed, man is

composed of two parts: matter and
form.
Matter or hyle in Greek refers to
“common stuff that makes up everything
in the universe.” Man’s body is part of
this matter.
 Form or morphine in Greek, on the
other refers to “essence of a substance
or thing.”
To Aquinas, the soul is what animates
the body; it is what makes us humans.
 • RENE DESCARTES: I think, therefore; I
am
Father of the modern Philosophy
Cogito ergo sum- emphasizes the consciousness of his
mind which leads to an evidence of his existence-
despite the fact that he is doubting the existence of
everything physical, including his own body.
Conceived of the human person as having a body and
a mind.
The body is nothing else but a machine that attached
to the mind.
The mind and the body are separated and very
distinct from one another but he also believes that The self is a thinking
the mind is conjoined with the body in such an thing, distinct from the
intimate way that they casually act upon each other. body.
 RENE DESCARTES

You are your body and your mind.

The body can be described in a precise, structured manner (like a
mathematical formula) but the mind is not contained like that, and it’s
allowed to pursue its own thoughts.
When the body is gone, the mind may continue to exist and function.
 JOHN LOCKE
His starting point is the claim that all knowledge must
come from experience (empiricism). There are no
innate ideas.
 Before there is any knowledge, the mind is first
considered as a tabula rasa [blank state], who’s
interactions with the world fill it with knowledge.
 Unlike the first few philosophers discussed, he thinks
that our identity is not locked in the mind, soul, or
body ONLY.
 He included the concept of a person’s memory in the
definition of the self.
Personal identity is
made possible by self-  He subscribes to the memory theory that holds we
consciousness. are the same person as we were in the past for as
long as we can remember something from the past.
 DAVID HUME
The self is not an entity over and beyond the
physical body.
Men can only attain knowledge by
experiencing.
He does believe in the existence of the mind
and what’s inside the mind is divided into
two:
a. Impressions- those things we perceive There is no “self”, only a
through our senses as we experience them. bundle of constantly
b. Ideas- are those that we create in our minds changing perceptions
even though we are no longer experiencing passing through the
them. theater of our minds.
 DAVID HUME

The self keeps on changing, like how one looks, one feels, one thinks-
they constantly change.
An “enduring self” is just a fiction produced by our imagination.
There is no permanent and unchanging self. A person is a bundle of
perception.
The “I” will be constantly changing because the different experiences
one has for every constant change will affect and reshape that person.
In conclusion, there is no self.
IMMANUEL KANT
Kant believes that man is a free agent, capable of making
decisions for himself. As a free agent, man is gifted with
reason and free will.
A moral person is one who is driven by duty and acts
towards the fulfillment of that duty.
For us to know what is our duty, we have to rationally
deliberate on it and not expect that a higher authority will
hand it automatically to us, and certainly we cannot let
the arbitrariness of emotion guide us.
The self is a unifying  In refuting Hume’s idea that there is no self, he (1781)
subject, an arguing
consciousness that makes
said that since man is gifted with reason and free will,
intelligible experience man can organize the data gathered by the senses.
possible. From these data, and the way we organize the data, we
can now have a good idea of a man.
 SIGMUND FREUD

Considered as the father of psychoanalysis.

One of his famous ideas was the tripartite
division of man’s mind:
a. Id- represents man’s biological nature; the
impulses and the bodily desires.
b. Ego- the self; the reality principle
c. Superego- represents ethical component of the
personality and provides the moral standards
by which the ego operates. The self is multi-
layered.
GILBERT RYLE In his book, Concepts of Mind, he (1949) criticized
Descartes’ treatment of the mind.
The mind is NOT distinct from the body, but rather
refers to certain aspects of our bodies.
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.
“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.
The mind is not like a specific, separate entity but is
certainly a part of our body.
The self is the way We can only know a person through how a man
people behave. behaves, their tendencies and reactions in certain
circumstances.
 PAUL CHURCHLAND

• In partnership with his wife, Churchland

believes that the self is the brain.
• The term “mind”, our moods emotions,
actions, consciousness are deeply affected by
the state of our brain.
• By manipulating certain parts of our brain,
our feelings, actions and physical state are
successfully altered.
• It is only a matter of time before we can fully
comprehend how the brain works for us to The self is the brain. Mental
understand how it creates the Self. states will be superseded by
brain states.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY

For him, a person is defined by virtue of movement

and expression. To be a self is to be more than
one’s body.
It includes all the things that I will do with my
body, how I will act on it and how I will make it act
in consonance with other human beings.
The self is a product of our conscious human
experience. The definition of self is all about one’s
perception of one’s experience and the
interpretation of those experiences.
The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and The self is embodied
experiences are all alone. subjectivity.
Seatwork (15pts)
•Choose one philosopher and in your
own words, briefly discuss his ideas
about the self. How do his ideas can help
you in understanding yourself? Give an
example to justify your insight.
Assignment:
• This is a week-long, self-reflection project. Be creative and expressive as you can.
On a short bond paper, write the answer to questions given to you every day.
When you write your answer, use one word/phrase/sentence and express it in
calligraphy/drawing/pictures from magazines. You may also design the page
where you will write your answer to express yourself and your answer better.
Day 1: What will best describe your over-all emotion for the day?
Day 2: What characteristics do you think you need to improve today?
Day 3: What is your greatest achievement today?
Day 4: What is your biggest regret for the day?
Day 5: Why did you wake up today? For/because I_______.
Day 6: What’s your greatest contribution to the world today?
Day 7: What do you hope to achieve in life?