Module 1

The Philosophical Perspective of

Self

Module Duration:

Week 2-4

GE 005
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
 SAN MATEO MUNICIPAL COLLEGE
General Luna St., Guitnang Bayan I, San Mateo, Rizal
Tel. No. (02) 997-9070
[Link]

MODULE 1: Philosophical Perspective of the Self

Philosophy is derived from the Greek words “Philos” and “Sophia” which literally means “Love for Wisdom”. It is the study
of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature
and existence of man and the world we live in. As such, it is imperative to look into the various explanations from different
philosophers their notion of what the “Self” its nature and how it is formed in order to have a better picture on how people
develop their behaviors, attitude and actions and to be able to identify and understand who we are and how we came to
be.

Welcome to the first module of Understanding the Self. Here, you will journey through the different works of notable
philosophers in unraveling their own tenets and points of view towards self-understanding. This topic will lead us to
various philosophical ideas on discovering our own being. What SELF meant to the various philosophers from classical
ages to the modern times coming from different schools of thought. Knowing our self will make us more effective in
knowing others and achieving our own goals, through this course we will have an idea of who we are deeper, our
strengths, weakness, capabilities and other things that composes us, our totality, the things that makes up our” SELF”

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After this module the students are expected to:

• Articulate the various philosophical views about the self.
• Examine one’s thoughts and experiences according to the philosophical views of the self.
• Propose an answer to the questions “Who Am I?”
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INPUT INFORMATION

Preparatory Activity:
Do inanimate beings like stones, woods; plants and animals have selves? Self could either be:
 non-living being (inanimate beings like stones, woods, etc.)
 non-conscious living irrational beings (like plants)
 conscious living irrational being (brutes/lower animals)
 conscious living rational being (human)

PHILOSOPHY AND THE SELF

PHILOSOPHY is called the mother of all disciplines because all fields of

study began as philosophical discourses. Ancient philosophers attempted to explain
natural and social phenomena, coming up to their own definitions of how the world
works and what factors contribute to such phenomena. It was also inevitable to come
up with various conceptions of what it means to be human,- and the different
definitions of the self.
In the context of Philosophy, the SELF refers to the condition of identity that
makes one subject of experience distinct from all others. It is sometimes understood
as the unified being essentially connected to consciousness, awareness and agency
(rational choice). Various philosophers introduced specific characteristics and meanings of self, which over time
transformed from pure abstractions to explanations that hold scientific proofs.
 THE GREEK RATIONALIST TRADITION
SOCRATES
The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

He was the first philosopher who engaged in the systematic questioning about the
self. According to him, a philosopher’s task is to “know thyself “through the process of
Introspection because “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Knowing of oneself is through
the use of Socratic Method - the dialogue between the soul and itself.
Socrates believe that the answer to our pursuit in knowing ourselves lies in our own
abilities and wisdom, and that the only way for us to understand ourselves is through internal
questioning or introspection. This method of questioning oneself, where the person assumes
the role of both the teacher and the student is known to the world as the Socratic Method or
Socratic Conversation.
Examining one’s self is the most important task one can undertake, for it alone will give us the knowledge necessary to
answer the question ‘how should I live my life’. He posited that “Once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for
ourselves, but otherwise we never shall.” Thus, through self-knowledge, we will discover our true nature. Socrates
famously maintained that our true self is our soul.

SELF ULTIMATE ULTIMATE

KNOWLEDGE VIRTUE HAPPINESS

He believed that MOST MEN WERE NOT REALLY FULLY AWARE OF WHO THEY WERE and the virtues that they
were supposed to attain in order to preserve their SOULS for the afterlife. The worst that can happen to anyone is to live
but die inside. By continuously asking and evaluating who we are as a person will also be able to understand our
strengths and weaknesses, the things that we like and dislike, how we want people to treat us and how we want
ourselves to be treated, so by knowing these things we can act in accordance to what we know we are and live our lives
following our knowledge of ourselves. Man is composed of two important aspects of his personhood. All individuals have
an imperfect, impermanent aspect, the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent

PLATO
The soul is the Self

Plato is a student of Socrates who supported the idea of the dualistic nature
of man – body and soul. He attested that the man is a soul using a body. The body
connotes man’s material, sensible world while the soul, on the contrary, connotes the
ideal world that exists apart from the body. The IDEAL WORLD (Intelligible world) is
the true world of reality. The SENSIBLE WORLD (World of Matter) is a world of
becoming; it is a world of constant change. Plato views the superiority of the human
soul over the human body. Hence, the real man for Plato is his soul and not his body.
Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based
eudemonistic conception of ethics. That is to say, happiness or well-being
(eudemonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues (arête:
‘excellence’) are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it.

Appetitive Part – part of the soul that drives man to

experience thirst, hunger, and other physical wants. It is the
seat of physical pleasures. It seeks power, wealth, and even
sexual satisfaction. It is located in the stomach.

Spiritual Part – part of the soul that makes man assert

abomination and anger. It is the seat of emotions (i.e. anger,
fear, hatred, jealousy). It is located in the chest.

Rational Part – it is the seat of reasoning. It is the rational part of the soul that enables man to think, to reflect, to draw
conclusions, and to analyze. This part of the soul is located in the head. For Plato this part of the soul is the most
important and the highest. It naturally desires to acquire knowledge and wisdom. It is this part that rules over the other
parts and not to be overruled. It is this part that specifically distinguishes man from the brutes. Man can control his
appetite and self- assertion of spirit through reason.
Plato was one of the world's earliest and possibly greatest philosophers. He matters because of his devotion to making
humanity more fulfilled.

ARISTOTLE
The Soul is the Essence of the Self

He defined man as a rational animal for we have free will and

intellect. Only man in God’s creation has the ability to think. Only
man in God’s creation has the ability to think. So therefore, we
should use our decisions wisely and this will definitely lead us to
self-actualization. For example, your parents are working hard
just to send you to school, so you better do your part as a child
and as a students and think wisely that it’s for your own good
when the right time comes. It’s your choice whether you’ll do
what is right from evil for you have the intellect that allows you to
make your own decisions.
Denied the world of Forms and said the form exists within
the object. The soul exists only in the body. When the body dies,
the soul dies with it. For Aristotle the body and soul are in a
STATE OF UNITY.
The BODY is MATTER to the soul and the SOUL is the FORM to
the body. Body and soul therefore, are inseparable. They
constitute man as a whole. Man is a RATIONAL ANIMAL.
RATIONAL SOUL – exists only in man. The rational soul ranks
the highest of all kinds of souls. Besides, it is capable of thinking,
reasoning and willing

MEDIEVAL AGES
He posited that man is a creation of God. Therefore, man is
responsible for the existence of evil, not God, for God cannot will it
because He is the ABSOLUTE GOODNESS. A part of man dwells in
the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the
DIVINE. Man is capable of reaching perfection only if man keeps
himself good. Through evil man is lost from God. But man can only be
saved by God, not by man himself. It is God alone who can redeem
man. Man cannot will to be saved; his salvation depends on the grace
and mercy of God.
A soul can’t live in this world without a body for it is
considered as a unity of body and self. It is an important element of
man which governs and defines himself. We all know that we are
created in the image and likeness of God for we are geared towards
the good. For example, as we are living in this world, we should take
good care of our body not just physically as well as mentally for it is the
house of our soul and when the right time comes, we won’t regret
anything for it has been useful.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The Self has an Immortal Soul
 RENAISSANCE

RENE DESCARTES
I think therefore I am

Man is a thinking man that has an entity to doubt, understand, analyze, question, and
the most important thing is to reason out that can exist independently in the physical
body. This Latin phrase Cogito ergo sum is the concept of self by Descartes. For
example, I can complain what I have read in the social media posts of my friends if
they are spreading fake news for I myself know what is right from bad. I have the free
will to reason out what I wanted to say.

JOHN LOCKE
The Self is Consiousness

For him our human mind is a Tabula Rasa or also known as a mind self at
birth is a blank state. Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are
the keys in understanding the self. For example, while we are communicating with
other people in different environment, we can carefully observe our experiences with
them that lead us to learnings or being knowledgeable.
According to the Memory Theory of the Self, Locke posited that
CONSCIOUSNESS- is what defines one’s SELF. X is the same person as Y if and
only if X shares at least one experiential memory with Y. The person today is the
same person as yesterday through the memories he has of the past. The
accumulated experiences of the person yesterday.
Considering this, the process of the mind to absorb information and
accumulate knowledge may imply that as a person to be able to be whom we want to
be, with the right stimulations, enough experiences, as well as awareness that by
primarily knowing nothing will enable one to be open to any kind of learning and does
not limit any possibilities for growth implies that the opportunity for one person to
develop to anything he wants to be is limited only to the environment, experiences,
and the choices of the person.

DAVID HUME
The Self is a bundle of perception

Man is a bundle of all sensation and perception. When people will

examine their content of experience what they can see are just impressions
and ideas that results to imagination. For example, our first impression
towards our new classmate from other country is quiet for he doesn’t speak to
us. Well, we cannot totally define who is he if he will not talk or engage with
us for our imagination is moving that defines the personal identity of a certain
person.
Hume argues that our concept of the self is a result of our natural
habit of attributing unified existence to any collection of associated parts. “For
my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble
on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or
hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a
perception, and never can observe anything but the perception” (Treatise,
[Link]).
That is the idea that Hume reiterated when saying that there should be no permanent concept of the self. He
said when a person is asked the question “who you are? “That person tends to answer different impressions such as
good, happy, optimistic, contented, sad, etc. generally they apply to who you are now but at the same time these
characteristics might change from time to time. If the neighbor you knew your entire life to be happy and have a positive
outlook suddenly looked sad and discontented can we say that the person you seeing is not your neighbor anymore?
IMMANUEL KANT
We construct the Self

It is the self that is constructing and organizing principles of experiences which

creates a world that is familiar, predictable and significantly be called as mine.
For example, I myself is the one who’s discovering the world for I am the driver
of my life. Nobody will do it for me for it transcends the experience in my mind
as well as the senses of mine.

SIGMUND FREUD
The Self is Multilayered

Self has consists of three layers which are conscious, unconscious, and
preconscious which are considered as far reaching impact for we have so many
questions in life that leads us to curiosity and to find for an answer. For example, we
are just human that commit mistakes. Therefore, we are conscious that we did
something wrong and we should not do it again for we should not repeat our own
mistakes twice because we’re grown-ups already.

GILBERT RYLE
The Self is the way people behave

Gilbert Ryle with his Behavioristic approach to self, said that self is the
behavior presented by the person, his notion of dualism is that the behavior that we
show, emotions and actions are the reflection of our mind and as such is the
manifestation of who we are. Ryle does not believe that the mind and body, though
some say can coexist, are two separate entities, which is said to be evident in the
unexplainable phenomenon or abilities of the mind where the soul is considered.

Self is best understood as a collection of behavior that leads to a person to

behave in accordance with different circumstances. For example, you can easily tell
whether that certain person is talkative, intelligent, and so on for what their behavior
speaks towards other people. If he/she keeps on smiling, then that person is a
positive one.

PAUL CHURCHLAND
The Self is the Brain

Paul Churchland a Canadian philosopher whose focus is on the idea that

people should improve our association and use of words in identifying the
self. He has this idea that the “self” is defined by the movements of our
brain. Churchland’s work revolves around challenging of the notion and
terms being used to explain behavior or to explain how a person feels,
thinks, and act with regards to physiological phenomenon that is happening
in the body as well as definitions brought about by emotions, this is one of
the notion of the concept of Folk Psychology also known as common sense
psychology.

He advocates the eliminative materialism or physiology of the body and

brain which explains that all of us have a brain but if it is gone, there is no
self at all. Our brain is not inseparable from our body. For example, how
you dress doesn’t define who you are but rather what’s the content of your
mind defines who you are.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
The Self is Embodied Subjectivity

Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty is a French

philosopher that is known for his works on existentialism and
phenomenology. His idea of the self, regarded that the body and
mind are not separate entities, but rather those two components is
one and the same. His idea that follows the gestalt ideation where
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in which pushed his
idea on the unity of the function of the mind and body, this idea is
called the Phenomenology of Perception. The idea of
Phenomenology of Perception according to Merleau-Ponty is
divided into three (3) division, The Body, The Perceived World, and
the People and the world.
According to him, all the knowledge of every individual
comes from the inner world of subjective phenomena of experience
that people are aware in everything within its consciousness. For
example, our body won’t function or mover unless being said or
commanded by our brain for the two of them were not separated.

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LEARNING RESOURCES

 Understanding the Self (Dalisay G. Brawner and Analiza F. Arcega)

 A Holistic Approach in Understanding the Self (Vergie S. Otig, Winston B. Gallinero, Noemi U. Bataga, Fritzie B.
Salado, Josephine C. Visande)
 Alata, E.J.P., [Link]. (2018). Understanding the Self. Rex Bookstore.
 Chafee, J. (2013). Who are You? Consciousness, Identity and the Self. In the Philosopher’s Way. Thinking
Critical about Profound Ideas. Pearson.
 Demetrio, F. (1991). The Soul. GF Books