UNDERSTANDING THE SELF  Wisdom is awareness of one’s own self-

ignorance, especially through the acquisition

LESSON 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL of self-awareness & self-knowledge
PERSPECTIVES  Self-awareness & self-knowledge were key
PHILOSOPHY to becoming an individual who can think and
 Study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality & analyze for himself/herself.
existence, especially in an academic discipline  Seeking the truth in all things by asking
 A particular theory that someone has about how to live or questions and constantly dissecting all
how to deal with a particular situation viewpoints & ideas
 Academic discipline concerned with investigating the
nature of significance of ordinary and scientific beliefs –  Socrates’ Virtues:
investigates the legitimacy of concepts by rational  Humility
argument concerning their implications, relationships as  Frugality
well as reality, knowledge, moral judgement, and others.  Simplicity
 As used originally by the Ancient Greeks, the term  Quotes
“Philosophy” meant the pursuit of knowledge for its own  “As for me, all I know is I know nothing”
sake and comprised all areas of speculative thought,  “False words are not only evil in themselves
including the arts, sciences, and religion. but they infect the soul with evil”
 “True wisdom comes to each of us when we
PHILOSOPHY CONCERNS: THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF SELF realize how little we understand about life,
The Greeks were the ones who seriously questioned myths & ourselves, and the world around us”
moved away from them to understand reality & respond to  Wisdom begins in wonder”
perennial questions of curiosity, including the question of the
self. 2. PLATO
1. SOCRATES  Student of Socrates
 He was considered the father of Western  Supported the idea of Socrates that Man is a dual
Philosophy nature of body & soul
 He was concerned with the problem of the self  3 components of soul:
 “The true talk of the philosopher is to know  Rational soul – forged by reason and
oneself” intellect has to govern the affairs of the
 “The unexamined life is not worth living” human person
 Every human person is dualistic- MAN=body + soul  Spirited soul – in charge of emotions should
(every man is composed of body and soul) be kept at bay
 Individuals have imperfect/impermanent aspects  Appetitive soul – in charge of base desires
(body) and + perfect/permanent aspects (soul) (eating, drinking, sleeping, having sex) are
 Socrates’ Beliefs: controlled. When this ideal state is attained,
 then the human person’s soul becomes just  If something is so clear and lucid as not to be
& virtuous. doubted, that’s the only time one should believe
 He loves the whole of wisdom and is  The only thing we can’t doubt is the existence of the
satisfied with nothing else self
3. ST. AUGUSTINE  I think therefore I am
 His view of human person reflects the entire spirit  The self = cogito (the thing that thinks) + extenza
of the medieval world when it comes to man. (extension of mind/body
 Followed the view of Plato but added Christianity  The body is a machine attached to the mind
 Part of man dwells in the world (imperfect) and  It’s the mind that makes the man
yearns to be with the Divine  “I am a thinking thing…a thing that doubts,
 Another part is capable of reaching immortality understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses,
o Body dies on earth imagines, perceives”
o Soul lives eternally in spiritual bliss with God
 Major Themes: 6. JOHN LOCKE (Tabula Rasa)
o Search for happiness is not easy  Most important works:
o Struggle as an adolescent to believe in God o An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
and live a virtuous life o Two Treaties of Civil Government
o Virtue as character strengths that develop o A Letter Concerning Toleration
over time  Major works essay concerning human
o Sexuality and Holiness – can we bridge the understanding:
2? o In his essay Locke tries to determine the
limits of our understanding, discussing the
4. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS sources of human knowledge and what can
 Man= matter + form (2 parts) and what cannot be known
 Matter (hyle) – the common staff that makes up o He argues that people are not born with
everything in the universe innate knowledge, but rather that their mind
 Form (morphe) – the essence of a substance or is a tabula rasa, a blank slate on which the
thing (what makes it what it is) tread of experience writes
 The body of the human is similar to animals/objects, o All humanity is born equal in the realms of
but what makes a human is his essence natural intelligence
 The soul is what makes us humans o The father of modern philosophy,
expounded the theory that all knowledge
5. RENE DESCARTES should be proven as illustrated by his
 Father of modern philosophy famous statement “ I think, therefore I am”
 Human person = body + mind o Locke reportedly declared that he would
 “There is so much that we should doubt” “rather learn Descartes than Aristotle”
 o Locke developed his ideas in a very different  “Time space, etc. are ideas that one cannot find in
direction rather than Descartes, he rejected the world but is built in our minds “apparatus of the
his predecessor’s conviction in the existence mind”
of innate ideas  The self organizes different impressions that one
o Locke believed that man is not born with gets in relation to his own existence
innate ideas, but rather develops his ideas  We need active intelligence to synthesize all
by means of experience knowledge and experience
 The self is not only personality but also the seat of
7. DAVID HUME knowledge
 Disagrees with all the other aforementioned
philosophers 9. SOREN KIERKEGAARD
 “One can only what comes from the senses and  Soren Kierkegaard asked himself the question,
experiences” (he is an empiricist) "What is the human being?"
 “the self is not an entity beyond the physical body”  His answer was, "a human being is spirit.
 You know that other people are humans not  But what is spirit? Spirit is the self.
because you have seen their souls, but because you  But what is the self? The self is a relation that
see them, hear them, feel the, etc. relates to itself.
 “the self is nothing but a bundle of impressions and  Then, who is it that establishes such a relation?
ideas”  It must be a third party, a reality other than one's
 Impression – basic objects of our own self-and that reality is none other than God
experience/sensation – forms the core of our Himself according to Kierkegaard.
thoughts  Therefore, the original self is the self that stands
 Idea – copies of impressions – not as real as before God, Kierkegaard concluded.
impressions  Kierkegaard criticized people for their
 Self = a collection of different perceptions which irresponsibility and their lack of conscience.
rapidly succeed each other  He asserted that, in order for people to actualize
 Self = in a perpetual flux and movement > We want their true human nature, they must depart from
to believe that there is a unified coherent self, soul, the world of the public and stand before God all by
mind, etc. But actually – it is all just a combination themselves each as an individual.
of experiences
10. KARL MARX
8. IMMANUEL KANT  Marx did not believe that there is no such thing as
 Agrees with Hume that everything starts with the nature of man
perception/sensation of impressions  Disagreed with John Locke that man at birth is like a
 There is a MIND that regulations these impressions TABULA RASA or blank sheet.
  Marx started out with the idea that man can be Key notion:
defined as a man not only biologically, anatomically,  There is a lower level to the personality which is
and physiologically, but also psychologically. below the conscious
 Marx said: "To know what is useful for a dog, one  This lower level is the scene of the action for
must study dog nature. This nature itself is not to be forbidden motives, painful memories, and
deduced from the principle of utility. disturbing ideas
 Applying this to man, he who would criticize all  Personality is composed of a conscious mind, a
human acts, movements, relations, etc., by the preconscious mind, and an unconscious mind
principle of utility, must first deal with human  The conscious mind has knowledge of what is
nature in general. happening in the present
 Marx's point is clear. It is irrational to dogmatize  The preconscious mind contains information from
what is useful to anything without first both the unconscious and conscious mind
understanding correctly what you are talking about.  The unconscious mind contains hidden or forgotten
Insight into, and a critical analysis of, the "nature" of memories or experiences
something should anticipate any attempt to decide  the division of the personality into the id, ego, and
what is useful or harmful to it. This applies in a superego;
special manner in the case of human nature.  the unconscious; anxiety; the functioning of ego-
defense mechanisms;
11. SIGMUND FREUD
Freudian view of human nature:
 He views human nature as dynamic – that there is
an exchange of energy and transformation.
 His view of human nature is basically deterministic.
It is based on the belief that our behavior is
determined by irrational forces, unconscious
motivations, and biological and instinctual drives as
these evolve through key psychosexual stages in the
first six years of life.
 Basically deterministic and focuses on irrational
forces, biological and instinctual drives, and
unconscious motivation, later developments in
psychoanalysis stressed social and cultural factors.
Emphasis
 The development of the ego and the differentiation
and individuation of the self.