INTRODUCTION TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

GEED001 (Nov. 18, 2022)

Marken A. Ricardo | BSCPE 1-1 | Prof. Victoria Antonia R. Rafanan| SEM 1 2022

Philosophical Perspective PLATO

• Philosophy is the study of knowledge. A training for our
• The student of Socrates and regarded as the
minds wherein we can think clearly, deeply, and more
“Father of the Academy in Athens”.
analytically than we normally do. Also called "Mother of
• 3 components of the soul- the Rational soul (the
All Disciplines"
drive of our lives; the part that thinks and plan
"The most important thing to pursue is self-knowledge, for our future), the Spirited soul (the one who
and admitting one's ignorance is the beginning of true wants to do something or to right the wrongs
knowledge" - Socrates that they observe), and the Appetitive soul
(responsible for our drives).
SOCRATES o Rational Soul – conscious mind of an
individual. Decides what an individual will
• The acclaimed greatest philosopher in Western do, how to do something and the
civilization. consequences of our actions.
• Possession of knowledge is a virtue; ignorance is o Spirited Soul – more concerned on the
a depravity (evil, corruption, wickedness). morality (what is right and wrong). Also, it
• Understanding ourselves is through internal controls the emotions that fuels our actions.
questioning or introspection. o Appetitive Soul – things that motivates us to
o Investigating our own thoughts and do something. This is an urge that pushes us
feelings. to strive for something. Responsible for
o You are looking into your own self. fulfilling our needs in getting pleasure.
o An example of this is meditation.
THREE BASIC HUMAN DRIVES
o The most important thing to do in our life is 1. Hunger
to know ourself. 2. Thirst
o Do not rush to know/question everything 3. Sex
about our surroundings if we do not know
ourselves. These human drives are all biologically rooted
o The first thing we should question is ourself
or our identity. ST. AUGUSTINE
• According to him, our goal is to obtain happiness.
• First great Christian philosopher
And obtaining happiness is fully knowing
• Man is created by God in His image (+ free will)
ourselves.
o Free will is the power to do something.
• Soul > Body
• It is only possible to understand yourself if you
o He gives more importance to our soul than
understand how you stand in relation to God
to our body because he believes that our
o He believes that God encompasses us all.
soul is something that is permanent and
perfect, in comparison to our body that is
impermanent and imperfect given that we
RENE DESCARTES
have our flaws. • Father of modern Philosophy
o All of the experiences and knowledge that • The proponent of the “methodical doubt”
we get in our lifetime goes with our soul. (continuous process of questioning/doubting)
“Knowledge is what feeds our soul.”
INTRODUCTION TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
GEED001 (Nov. 18, 2022)
Marken A. Ricardo | BSCPE 1-1 | Prof. Victoria Antonia R. Rafanan| SEM 1 2022
o We should be in constant doubt. (lagi nating o Same with David Hume wherein all truth are
iqquestion yung existence natin) just interpretations.
o We perceive from our senses. o We use our senses to synthesize all the
o Continue to question something until it is experiences, impressions, and perceptions
proven to be true. of us to ourselves and perceptions of other
• Mind and Body Dualism people to us. It is all a collective form of
o Mind – the thinking thing/being. knowing ourselves.
o Body – extension of our mind. Means of
perceiving or experiencing our world. SIGMUND FREUD
• “Cogito Ergo Sum”
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
o “I think, therefore I am”
o When we doubt about our existence, the • Concept of the instinct – original contents of the
doubt itself suggests that we really exist. mind; constant motivational force
o Eros (sex) – life instinct
DAVID HUME o Survival of the individual and the human
race.
• “No-self” theory of the self
o Controls our behaviors that are oriented
• You are an illusion (false idea or belief)
toward growth and development.
• The self is “that to which our several impressions
 Libido - sexual energy
and ideas are supposed to have a reference”
 “Libog”
o The impressions that you have to another
 Something that fuels our life instinct.
person does not really imply the real attitude
Source of motivation. All of the
of a person is.
pleasurable acts are under libido.
o There is really no self because the
 Our goal as humans is to gain pleasure
impressions are just based from our
and avoid pain.
experiences wherein, we create our ideas
o Thanatos (aggression) – death instinct
and knowledge of that certain person.
o Aggressive drive.
o There is no self because everyday we
o Goal is to return an organism into its
change; we learn and improve.
inorganic state. Destruction, death, self-
sabotage.
IMMANUEL KANT o Fuels the destructive behaviors of a person
• There is no truth, only interpretations (engaging in drugs, alcohols, vices, self-
• Truth is nothing else but an invention of the harm). Putting yourself in danger.
human mind • He believes that humans are basically evil. He
• He established that the collection of has deterministic view of human nature (wala
impressions and different contents is what it kang choice sa buhay, walang kakayahang
only takes to define a person magbago).
o Known for his works on empiricism (to see is o Our behaviors is determined by irrational
to believe) and rationalism. forces, by unconscious motivations, by
o He believes that us being aware of our biological instinctual drives.
different emotions, feelings, impressions of  Instinct – things that motivates us to do
other people upon us, and the behaviors we something.
display are part of ourselves.
INTRODUCTION TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
GEED001 (Nov. 18, 2022)
Marken A. Ricardo | BSCPE 1-1 | Prof. Victoria Antonia R. Rafanan| SEM 1 2022
LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE o “Hindi pwedeng ang mangangaso ay siya
ring aso”
1. Conscious – has a minor role in psychoanalytic
o In contrast sa sinasabi ni Socrates.
theory; all mental elements in awareness at any
o He gives more emphasis on other people
given point in time.
wherein sometimes in order to know
- does not speak much about our personality.
ourselves better, we need the help of others.
2. Preconscious – level of the mind that contains
There is something that other people see
all those elements that are not conscious but
that we do not.
can become conscious either quite readily or
• Ghost in the machine – man is a complex
with some difficulty.
machine with different functioning parts, and
- can be triggered when you have the stimulus.
the intelligence, and other characteristic or
- memories and dreams are examples.
behavior of man is represented by the ghost in
3. Unconscious – contains all those drives, urges,
the said machine.
or instincts that are beyond our awareness but
o Machine = body; Ghost = something inside
nevertheless motivate most of our words,
our body that controls us.
feelings, and actions.
- contains all of our experiences, repressed
materials, needs, and motivations that are
PATRICIA S. CHURCHLAND
inaccessible or out of our awareness. • Modern philosopher who studied the brain
- Out of awareness realm • The mind just is the brain
• 2 sources of the unconscious: repression • The physical brain allows us to say we are so
(forcing unwanted experiences into the different
unconscious) and phylogenetic endowment o Before we look at the differences on our
(inherited unconscious images) thinking, feeling, and action. Look at our
brain first. The mere fact that our brain is
JOHN LOCKE different in size, levels, hormones, and
neurotransmitters, just means that we are
• Tabula rasa (experience imprints knowledge)
all different. What more on the way we think
o Blank slate
and behave.
o When we were born, our brain is just a plain
canvas, and as a result of our experiences
the canvas slowly paints itself.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
o We learn and become who we are because • The body is our general medium for having a
of our environment. world.
• Even if a man has the ability to think, it does not o In contrast to the previous philosophers in
mean that he is using it, others have chosen to which they gave more importance to the
live in ignorance. soul.
• Identity is found in the consciousness o He gave more importance to our body than
o According to him, our environment has more the soul because without our bodies we are
impact on ourselves than heredity. not able to experience the world.
o What’s the sense of having a soul yet you
GILBERT RYLE have no body.

• “In searching for the self, one cannot

simultaneously be the hunter and be hunted” Provinces of the mind
INTRODUCTION TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
GEED001 (Nov. 18, 2022)
Marken A. Ricardo | BSCPE 1-1 | Prof. Victoria Antonia R. Rafanan| SEM 1 2022
o It makes defense mechanisms to protect
itself against tensions and anxieties. It
1. Id “das es (German)” “it (English)”
will help us cope with anxiety and
• At the core of personality.
prevent the Ego from being
• No contact with reality overwhelmed.
• Serves the pleasure principle o Defense mechanisms - Adaptive
• Operates through the primary process behaviors that people have. They are
• Illogical, primitive, and chaotic normal as long as it does not become a
o Untamed drives and impulses that are habit.
linked to our biological component.
o Not aware on what’s happening to the DEFENSE MECHANISMS
real world. Our defense mechanisms has two common
o Reduce tension and avoid pain (pleasure characteristics: deny or distort reality and they operate
principle) on an unconscious level.
o Satisfy our instinctual needs.
o “spoiled brat” of our personality. 1. Repression
- Threatening or painful thoughts and
feelings are being repelled to our
2. Ego “das ich” “I” awareness.
• Only region of the mind in contact with the 2. Regression
reality. - You regress/go back to an earlier phase
• Serves the reality principle of development when you are conflicted
• Operates through secondary process with anxiety. By engaging in immature or
• Decision-making or executive branch of inappropriate behaviors for our age.
personality 3. Displacement (pagbabaling)
- You direct your energy toward another
• Responsible for defense mechanisms
person or object.
o The only one that is aware of our
4. Projection
environment/what really happens in the
- You attribute your unacceptable desires
real world.
or impulses to other people. You deceive
o Controls, governs, regulates our
yourself.
personality. It has the heaviest workload
5. Reaction Formation
since it mediates the wants of Id and
- Expressing the opposite of impulse that
wants of Superego as well as the
you feel, when you are confronted with
environment.
a threatening impulse.
o Its goal is to grant Id and Superego’s
6. Sublimation
wants while taking into consideration
- You divert your aggressive or sexual
what’s happening in the external world.
energy into other channels.
o It makes realistic things. It thinks logical
- The healthiest defense mechanism
plans to satisfy the needs of Id and
because you transform unacceptable
Superego.
impulses into something acceptable
o Only one that feels pressures and
7. Intellectualization
tension.
INTRODUCTION TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
GEED001 (Nov. 18, 2022)
Marken A. Ricardo | BSCPE 1-1 | Prof. Victoria Antonia R. Rafanan| SEM 1 2022
- You focus on the solutions rather than o Its concern is whether your actions are
our emotions. You focus on the things good or bad or right or wrong.
that could make you better. o It aims for perfection not just pleasure.
- We are setting aside our emotions and It is idealistic.
focusing on the intellectual aspect of the o Represents the traditional values that
situation. we have. The ideals that the
8. Denial society/family have in us.
- Most basic and simplest defense o It inhibits our Id impulses. It persuades
mechanism. our ego to substitute its moralistic goals.
- We distort what we are thinking, feeling Substitution of what Id asks.
and seeing in a situation. We close our o “Instead na sundin mo si Id, ganito
own eyes to the existence of a nalang gawin mo”
threatening aspect of the reality. We o Conscience – it stems from punishments
deny the existence of something. o Ego-ideal – it develops from experiences
9. Rationalization (sweet lemon and sour grape) with rewards
- You try to give out good reasons to
explain a bruised ego. You justify your
behavior.
- It softens the “blow” for you to not be
disappointed.
- Sweet lemon-ing – you find the good in
the bad that happened.
- Sour grap-ing – you find something
negative on that certain experience.
10. Undoing
- You try to take back what you already
acted out due to guilt or negative
emotions.

3. Superego “das uber ich” “above-I”

• Represents the moral and ideal aspects of
personality
• Serves the morality principle
• No contact with reality
• Unrealistic demands for perfection
• 2 subsystems: conscience (results from
punishments and tells us what not to do) and
ego-ideal (develops from experiences with
rewards)
o Opposite of Id. Perfection. Judicial
branch of our personality. Moral code of
a person
INTRODUCTION TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
GEED001 (Nov. 18, 2022)
Marken A. Ricardo | BSCPE 1-1 | Prof. Victoria Antonia R. Rafanan| SEM 1 2022