The Self from Various

Perspectives

A. PHILOSOPHY
 Socrates (469-399 B.C)
 Classical Greek philosopher
 One of the founders of Western
philosophy
 The first moral philosopher of
the Western ethical tradition of
thought
 Died: 399 BC
 Socrates
 Socrates was the mentor of Plato and Plato was
the mentor of Aristotle.
 Socrates wanted to discover the essential nature
of knowledge, justice, beauty and goodness.
 He did not write anything, he was not a writer.
 His thoughts were only known through Plato’s
writing.
 Socrates
 Socrates’ method for discovering what is
essential in the world and in people is what is
known as the Socratic/dialectic method.
 Socratic/dialectic method involves the search
for the correct/proper definition of a thing.
 He did not lecture, he instead ask questions and
engage the person in a discussion.
 Socrates

 He said, “I cannot teach anybody

anything. I can only make them think”.

 The goal is to bring the person closer to

the final understanding.
 Socrates’s View of Human Nature
 His famous statement which he fully lived by,
“the unexamined life is not worth living”.
 His Socratic method allowed him to question people’s
belief’s and ideas, exposing their misconceptions and
get them to touch their souls.
 Socrates’s View of Human Nature
 Real understanding comes from within the person.

 He wanted people to realize that they do not know

everything, that there are things that they are ignorant
of, to accept this and to continue learning and
searching for answers.
 Socrates’s View of Human Nature
 According to him, the touching of the soul
means helping the person to get in touch
with his true self.
 He said, true self is not the body but the soul.
 Virtue is inner goodness, and real beauty is that
of the soul.
 Socrates’s View of Human Nature
 Knowledge is a virtue, ignorance a
vice.

 Virtue is sufficient for happiness.

THALES OF MILETUS (620-546 BC), a pre-
Socratic philosopher, mathematician and
astronomer from Greek city.

A scientist tends to know everything about the

world
that he forgets to know anything about himself.
Analyses:

“An unexamined life

is not worth living”.

“Know thyself”.
 Plato
 Born: 428-427 BC, Athens, Greece
 Died: 348-347, Athens, Greece
 Ancient Greek philosopher
 Student of Socrates
 Teacher of Aristotle
 Plato
 Real name is Aristocles (428-348 BCE)
 Called Plato because of his physical built which means
“wide/broad”
 Plato left Athens for 12 years after the death of Socrates.
Socrates left a strong influence on Plato.
 Both believed that philosophy is more than analyses but
rather is a way of life.
 When he returned he established a school known as “The
Academy”.
Plato and Aristotle

Plato Aristotle
Idealist

Realist
 PLATO ARISTOTLE

Idealism Realism

Republic Politics

The “Ideal State” A Working Government

TRANSCEND ACKNOWLEDGE
Human Selfishness Human Selfishness

Social Unity Balance

“Educating the mind
without educating the
heart is not education
at all.”

- Aristotle
 Plato’s View of Human Nature
 “The body is the source of endless trouble”.
 “ Knowledge lies within the person’s soul”.
 Man is a dual nature of body and soul
 Plato’s View of Human Nature
 He described the soul has three components:
 Rational soul - Reason/intellect; motivation
for goodness and truth
 Appetitive soul – charge of base desires
(eating, sleeping, etc); irrational; desire for
pleasures of the body
 Spirited soul – charge for emotions; will;
the drive toward action
 Plato’s View of Human Nature

 Reasons seeks the true goal of man

 Spirited and appetites want worldly pleasures
and can influence reason by making it believe
that sensual pleasures are the source of happiness.
 He believed that is this is attained, then the
human person’s soul becomes just and
virtuous.
 Plato’s View of Human Nature

 Harmony starts with the

balance of the soul
 If there is balance of the
soul, there is justice.
 Plato’s View of Human Nature
 Concept of justice: JUSTICE can only exist
when you live in accordance to your nature
(ex. If you are born thinker, but you become a
laborer, then there is no justice and vice versa).
 The root of problems and injustices BEGINS
when you are not placed in your proper
position in the society.
Analysis:

“The body is the source of

endless trouble”.
“Makakatulong ang malalim na
pag-unawa ng sarili sa
paghubog ng mapayapa at
makataong lipunan”.
 Saint Augustine of Hippo

 A Roman African
 Christian theologian and
philosopher from Numidia
whose writings influenced the
development of the Western
Church and Western
Philosophy
 Saint Augustine of Hippo

 Full name: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis

 Born: 13 November 354 AD, Thagaste, Numidia
(now Souk Ahras, Algeria)
 Died: 28 August 430 AD, Hippo Regius,
Annaba, Algeria
 Augustine
 became a priest and bishop of Hippo
 Recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church
 He integrated the ideas of Plato and Christianity
 Augustine
Ang sarili ay isang hindi namamatay na kaluluwa.
“Each person has an immortal soul”
Since there is God who is transcendent, the self seeks
to be united with God through faith and reason.
He saw the human being as a perfect unity of two
substances: soul and body
“The soul is superior to the body”
 St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature

 His thoughts focused on two realms

(domain):
1. God as the source of all reality and
truth.
2. The sinfulness of man.
 St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature

God as the source of all reality and truth.

Discovered through mystical experiences that man
is capable of knowing eternal truths.
This is made possible through the existence of the
one eternal truth which is God.
According to him, without God as the source of all
truth, man could never understand eternal truths.
 St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature

God as the source of all reality and truth.

 God is within man and transcends him.
 This relationship with God means that those
who know most about God come closest to
understanding the true nature of the world.
 St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature

The sinfulness of man

 According to him, the cause of sin or evil is an
act of man’s freewill.
 Evil, therefore does not live in God’s creatures
but rather in man.
 Moral goodness can only be achieved through the
grace of God.
 St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature
The Role of Love
Real happiness can only be found in God.
Problems arise because of the objects humans
choose to love.
Disordered love results when man loves the wrong
things which he believes will give him happiness.
If man loves God first and everything else to a
lesser degree the all fall into its rightful place.
 Rene Descartes
 Known as the Father of
Modern Philosophy
 One of the Rationalist
Philosopher of Europe
 Introduced the Cartesian
method and invented analytic
geometry.
 Rene Descartes
Nakakapag-isip ako. Ang sarili ay may isip na
hiwalay sa katawan. “The self is a thinking
thing, distinct from the body”.
“I think, therefore I am”. (cogito ergo sum).
This phrase is Descartes legacy and his first
principle of his philosophy.
 Rene Descartes
 He discovered that the human mind has two powers:
1. Intuition – the ability to apprehend direction of
a certain truths
2. Deduction –the power to discover what is not
known by progressing in a orderly way from what
is already known. Truths are arrived at
using a step by step process.
 Rene Descartes
 He believes that “TO DOUBT IS TO
THINK”.
 What is a thing that thinks?
 A THINKER is a thing that doubts,
understands, affirms, denies, refuses, imagines
and feels
 The COGNITIVE aspect of human nature is
his basis for existence of the self.
 Rene Descartes
 He considered the SOUL/MIND
(also the SELF) as a substance
that is separate from the body.
 Believed that all bodily processes
are MECHANICAL.
 The BODY, is like a machine that
is controlled by the WILL and
aided by the MIND.
 John Locke (1632-1704)
 English philosopher
 Born in Wrington, England
 Interested in politics and like his
father was a defender of the
parliamentary system
 His interest is on the workings of the
human mind, particularly the
acquisition of knowledge
 John Locke
 He postulated, that at birth the mind was a blank slate
or “TABULA RASA”.
 Our identity is not made up of material substance, it is
tied to our consciousness.
 Personal identity is made possible by self-
consciousness.
 The self exists because of memory.
 John Locke
 Contrary to what Descartes proposed, Locke believed that
knowledge results from ideas produced a POSTERIORI or
by objects that were experienced.
 This process involves two forms:
1. SENSATION – wherein objects are experienced
through the senses
2. REFLECTION - by which the mind “looks” at the
objects that were experienced to discover relationships that
may exists between them.
 John Locke
 According to him, ideas are not innate
(inborn) but rather the mind at birth is a
“TABULA RASA” (blank slate)
 He stated that, “nothing exists in the
mind that was not first in the senses”.
 What the SENSES have experienced are
simple ideas which are the raw materials
from which knowledge begins.
 John Locke
 Ideas can also be the result of REFLECTION which
demonstrates the power of thinking and volition or
will.
 Through these mental powers, simple ideas are
repeated and compared to become complex
ideas.
 There are no innate ideas. Morals, religious and
political values must come from sense experiences.
 John Locke analysis
Maaaring magkaroon ng personal na
identidad kung taglay ang kamalayan.
Nananatili ang sarili dahil sa alaala.
The self exist because of the
memory.
 David Hume (1711-1776)
 A Scottish philosopher
 Born: Edinburgh, Scotland
 He lost his faith when he enrolled at the
University of Edinburgh
 He became cynical (believing that people
are motivated by self-interest) about almost
everything except in philosophy and general
learning.
 David Hume

Walang ”sarili”. Mayroon lang kalipunan ng

nagbabagong pagtingin sa sarili na dumadaan
sa ating isip.
There is no self, only a bundle of different
perceptions.
 David Hume
 The mind receives materials from the senses and calls it
perceptions.
 There are two types of perceptions: impressions and
ideas.
 IMPRESSIONS are immediate sensations of external
reality. These are more vivid than the ideas it produces.
IDEAS are recollection of these impressions. These two
make up the content of the human mind.
 David Hume
 Example: When one touches an ice cube, the cold
sensation is an impression. Impression are vivid because
they are the products of our direct experience with the
world. Ideas are copies of impressions, they are not as
lively and vivid as our impressions.
 When one imagines the feeling of being in love for the
first time, that still an idea.
 David Hume

 What is the SELF then?

 There is no “self”, only a bundle of
constantly changing perceptions passing
through the theater of our minds.
 Self, is simply “a bundle of collection
of different perceptions”.
 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
 An Austrian neurologist
 He made use of a typical
iceberg to show how the
mind works based on his
theory “topography of the
mind”
 Sigmund Freud
“Maraming antas at lebel ang sarili”
“The self is multi-layered”.
 According to him, the three levels of the
mind are structured by the following
components: ID, EGO, SUPEREGO
 Sigmund Freud
Three levels of the mind:
ID – pleasure principle, demands immediate
satisfaction
EGO – reality principle, mediates between the
impulses of the id and superego.
SUPEREGO – moral principle, right and wrong
 Sigmund Freud
 The tip of the iceberg represents
CONSCIOUS AWARENESS which
characterizes the person as he deals
with his external world.
 The person’s observable behavior
is further controlled by the working
of his unconscious/subconscious
mind.
 Sigmund Freud
 Two kinds of instincts that drives individual behavior:
EROS – the life instinct and THANATOS – death
instinct
 The energy of EROS is called libido and include urges like
thirst, hunger and sex
 The manifestation of THANATOS – man’s behavior
towards destruction in the form of aggression and violence.
 Sigmund Freud
 The subconscious serves as repository of past
experiences, repressed memories, fantasies and
urges.
 Man is as a product of his past lodged within his
subconscious.