DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

School of Arts and Sciences

University of San Jose-Recoletos

Understanding the Self

Lesson 1:

The Self from

Various Philosophical
Perspective
Presented by: Mr. Irvin Dan Regidor
Learning Competencies:
After the discussion, the students will be able to:
Discuss the different representation and conceptualization of the self from
various disciplinal perspective.
Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across different
disciplines and perspectives.
Examine the different influences, factors, and forces that shape the self.
Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of
one’s self and identity by developing a theory of the self.
HOW WELL DO YOU
TRULY KNOW
YOURSELF?
Activity:
Try to stop and reflect on yourself who you are right now. In your
current situation or phase, how well do you really know yourself?

Using the QR code presented, scan this one on

your devices and try to describe yourself currently
in ONE WORD.

After submitting your word, with the paper I have

given you draw or illustrate an object or an icon that
best represents who you are in this stage of life
The Self
For a more meaningful understanding of the “self,” numerous
studies have been conducted and various approaches have
been developed from concepts about it.
Important philosophers from ancient to contemporary times
sought to describe the essential qualities that compose a
person’s uniqueness.
Philosophical thinking have produced some of the most
important original ideas over the centuries.
Their contributions to all areas of learning are invaluable.
 What is Philosophy?
Philosophy is basically finding answers to serious
questions about ourselves and the world we live in.
To put it simply, to ask questions ("bakit?" questions)
and determine what is morally right or wrong.
Questioning the existing knowledge & insitution in
order to get closer to the truth.
Philosophy: The Origins
Philosophy comes from the greek words:
PHILO SOPHIA
(loving) (knowledge/wisdom)

At its simplest, philosophy means loving knowledge

or loving wisdom
Greeks originally use it as "the pursuit of
knowledge for its own sake"
What will we get from
Philosophy?
These skills are: Which will allow you to:
Critical Thinking Justify your opinion
Argument Skills Spot a bad argument, no
Communication matter what the topic is
Reasoning Explain to people why they
Analysis are wrong and you are right
Problem Solving Basically teaches you to
think
Philosophical
Perspective
about the Self
Socrates
Socrates was a Greek philosopher and one of the very
few individuals who shaped Western thought
He was known for his method of inquiry known as the
Socratic Method
Self knowledge is a pre-requisite to a happy and
meaningful life
An unexamined life is not worth living
Every man is dualistic and composed of body and soul
Two important aspects of personhood
Body is imperfect and impermanent
Soul is perfect and permanent
Socrates also believed that the goal of life is to be happy.
Know thy Self
Socrates' two dichotomous realms

Physical Realm Ideal Realm

changeable, transient unchanging, eternal
and imperfect and immortal
the body belongs here the soul belongs here
Socrates
He focused on full power reason of the human self: who
we are, who we should and who we will become
The soul strives for wisdom and perfection and reason is
the soul's tool to achieve an exalted state of life
Our preoccupation with bodily needs such as food, drink,
sex, pleasure and material possessions, wealth keeps us
from attaining wisdom
A person can have a happy and meaningful life if he
becomes virtuous and knows his/her value which can be
achieved through constant soul searching
For him, we can achieve this if we try to seperate the
body from the soul as much as possible
Know thy Self
Plato
A student of Socrates
Philosophy of the self can be explained as a
process of self knowledge and purification of
the soul
He believed in the existence of the mind and
soul
Mind and soul is given in perfection with God
The self/soul/mind according to Plato is the
aspect of the human beings by which the Forms
(ideas) are known.
The soul is immortal
3 Parts of the Soul : Plato's
Perspective
RATIONAL SOUL
reason and intellect
enables us to think deeply, make wise choice and achieve a
true understanding of eternal truths
SPIRITED SOUL
emotion and passion
in charge of basic emotions
APPETITIVE SOUL
basic needs including biological needs such as hunger, thirst,
and sexual desires.
Plato

Plato believed that the real self resides in the

Rational Soul, which is immortal and unaffected
by the physical body.
He believed that our true identity relates to the
reasoning component of our soul, which seeks
knowledge and insight beyond our bodily life.

The soul is immortal

 Aristotle
A student of Plato
Aristotle's view of the self emphasizes the concept of the
self as a combination of body and spirit, with a focus on
how we live and realize our potential. The body and soul are
not separate entities but are one thing and the body and is
not capable of living without it.
The soul makes a person a person. It is the essence of self
Aristotle defined the self as the union of body and soul.
Unlike Plato, who thought the soul was separate from the
body, he believed that the soul and body worked together
to form a person.
The soul is the "form" of the body, which gives it shape and
purpose.
The soul is the essence of self.
3 Kinds of the Soul : Aristotle's
Perspective
VEGETATIVE SOUL
includes the physical body that can grow
SENTIENT SOUL
sensual desires, feelings, emotion
RATIONAL SOUL
what makes a man human. Includes intellect that makes
a man know and understand things.
Aristotle
Aristotle's concept of the self is based on the union of body
and soul, with the rational part of the soul serving as the
foundation for our identity. He believed that living a good life
entails honing our skills, acting morally, and achieving
happiness via fulfillment and virtue.
St. Augustine
Integrated Plato's idea to Christianity
His view of a human person reflects the entire
spirit of the medieval world
The soul is united with the body. Man cannot be
complete without the soul
Therefore, the human person being a creation of
God is geared towards the good.
Self- knowledge is a consequence of
knowledge of God.

All knowledge leads

to God
St. Augustine
Augustine felt that our true self is found
through our inner thoughts and reflections,
and that our ultimate purpose and identity
come from our connection to God.
In simple terms, Augustine saw the self as
being deeply linked to spiritual
understanding and our relationship with the
divine.
All knowledge leads
to God
Rene Descartes

" The act of thinking about self-of

being self-conscious- is in itself
proof that there is self "

I think, therefore I am
Rene Descartes
René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and
scientist.
He is considered the father of modern Western philosophy.
Descartes proposed that doubt was a principal tool of
disciplined inquiry called hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt.
He believed that there are two entities of self:
Cogito- thinks that think; mind
Extenza- the extension: body
His famous line “Cogito ergo sum” translated as “I think,
therefore I am”
He asserted that everything perceived by the senses could not
be used as proof of existence because human senses could be
fooled.
He added that there was only one thing we could be sure of in
I think, therefore I am this world, and that was everything could be doubted.
John Locke
John Locke was a philosopher and physician and was one
of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers.
The human mind at birth is a tabula rasa or at blank state
The self is constructed primarily from sense experiences
Locke believed that the “self” is identified with
consciousness and this “self” consists of sameness of
consciousness.
The self consists of memory; that the person existing now
is the same person yesterday because he/she remembers
the thoughts, experiences, or actions of the earlier self
For Locke, a person’s memories provide a continuity of
experience that allows him/ her to identify himself/herself
as the same person over time.
Tabula Rasa
David Hume
The self is just a collection of changing thoughts and
experiences that come and go quickly, always moving
and never staying the same.
The idea of a personal identity is a result of the
imagination
There is no self.
The self emerges as one accumulates recurring
experiences such as that these experiences has been
internalized and become part of one’s personhood
He stressed that your perceptions are only active for as
long as you are conscious.
All knowledge is derived
from human senses.
Immanuel Kant
The self is not in the body. The self is outside the
body, and it does not have the qualities of the body.
The self constructs its own reality by how we
interpret and respond to our environment based on
our personal opinions and feelings.
We need active intelligence to synthesize all
knowledge and experience
The self is not just something that experiences life
but also something that actively shapes how we
understand it.

We construct the self

Sigmund Freud
Human behavior as propelled by the drive to find
pleasurable experiences
Each human behavior was motivated by seeking
pleasure, irregularities in one’s behavior could be
interpreted as a lack in the gratifications of said
motives, which he may not be aware of.
The Self emerges as one strives to address
unmet needs and find pleasurable experiences
to gratify one’s aspirations and instincts as he
goes through the different stages of growth and
“Wish fulfillment is the development.
road to the unconscious.”
Gilbert Ryle
The self is not an entity that one can locate and
analyze, but simply a convenient name that
people use to refer all behaviors that people
make
I act therefore I am basically means the self is
the same as bodily behavior
The self is the way people behave
In Ryle’s view, your actions define your own
concept of “self” (who you are).
I act, therefore I am
Paul Churchland
The self is inseparable from the brain and the
physiology of the body
He does not believe of the mind but all we have is our
brain
If the brain is gone, there is no self
The physical brain, not the imaginative brain, gives us
our sense
The self is the brain
Churchland’s idea is called eliminative materialism or
the claim that people’s common-sense
understanding of the mind (or folk psychology) is
false, and that certain classes of mental states which
The Self is the Brain most people believe in do not exist
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
According to Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the self is closely related
to the body and how we perceive the outside environment. He
maintained that we are our body rather than only having one.
He believed that the mind and body functioned together
rather than as distinct entities. We learn about the world and
ourselves through movement, perception, and interaction in
addition to thought. For instance, because our body and mind
are one, we walk instinctively without thinking about it.
To put it briefly, he believed that the self is an embodied
experience, meaning that our feelings, movements, and
interactions with the outside environment all influence who
we are.
“Physical body is an
important part of the self ”