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SUBJECT: Understanding The Self MODULE #: 1

DATE & TIME: TEACHER: Mr. Charles Ledgear G. Abante

I. TOPIC: Philosophical Concept on the Self

II. TARGET OUTCOMES:

The learner shall be able to:
1. Explain the concept of the Self from various philosophical concepts.
2. Develop an understanding about the different philosophical orientation about the self.
3. Conduct a reflective thought in interpreting the development of one’s self in the context of
philosophy.

I. MATERIALS NEEDED:
To accomplish exercises and activities, you need the following: black pen, pencil and/or other writing
materials and other available references.

III. GEAR UP YOUR MIND

This lesson will discuss the selected

philosopher’s answer to the question,
“Who am I”? This question may be one
of the most difficult to answer and has
garnered attention right from the start of
man’s self-reflection. But no matter how
difficult it is, we cannot just ignore the
question and leave it unanswered. What we do and our reaction to the world has a lot to do with how we
see ourselves.

What do we even mean by the “SELF?” Are we souls, organic bodies or merely a figment of
another’s imagination? Are we just minds or a combination of body and mind? Will I survive bodily death
because I am more than a body or when my body is dead, that’s really the end? Or maybe, I am actually
a robot controlled by someone entity?

We will now take a look at how some great minds from our history approach the question.

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Various Philosophical Perspectives

SOCRATES: Know thyself. The True Self is the Soul

Socrates, a Greek philosopher and the Father of Western

Philosophy, believes the Self as the immortal soul that
resides in the body and is separated from it at death, to be
born again after a period in the spirit, world. “Know
Thyself”, Socrates philosophy still shines today. This
assertion indicates that man must stand and live according
to his nature. Examining one’s life is the most important task one can undertake to answer the intriguing
question, “How should I live my life?” as Socrates explained, once we know ourselves, we learn how to
care for ourselves. But otherwise, we never shall.

When we turn our gaze inward in search of self-knowledge, we would soon discover our true
nature. Our true self should not be identified with what we own, with our social status, reputation or even
with or body. Instead, Socrates maintained that our true self is our soul. He claims that the condition of our
soul or our inner being determines the quality of life. Thus, it is important that we give much attention,
energy and resources to making our soul as good and beautiful as possible. Once we have done this, the
next step is to obtain knowledge of what is good and what is evil. In the process, we use what we learn to
nurture the good within our soul and purge (remove) the evil from it.

“Knowing thyself” is simply identifying our set of beliefs or accepting that we are ignorant thus we
need to exert more effort to know ourselves. Knowing ourselves is a therapeutic goal which regulates an
understanding of our self and evaluates our ideals.

PLATO: “The soul is the seat of human consciousness.”

Plato is one of the Big 3 in Greek Philosopher and

Socrates’ prized student. In his Theory of Forms or Ideas,
Plato argues that non –physical but substantial forms or
ideas represent the most accurate reality. Socrates, Plato,
and Descartes were all proponents of the theory of
dualism. Dualism is the belief that reality is divided into two
parts- the body and the soul. All three believed the soul to be immortal and the body the prison of the soul.
The soul is a real substance that exists independent from the body. Unlike our bodies which are subject to
decay, the soul is not. The soul is what separates man from animals.

Plato claims that the soul is the seat of human consciousness. The soul is our intellect, our
will, and our emotion. This is what he counts as the tripartite soul, his most famous and influential yet least

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understood theory. The three souls are: 1) the appetite which includes our innumerable desires for various
pleasures, comforts, physical satisfactions and bodily ease. 2) the spirited or hot-blooded soul, Spirited
means one with lots of energy and power. This is the soul that gets angry when it perceives an injustice
being done. It loves to face and overcome great challenges. It also can steel itself to adversity, loves
victory, winning in challenge and garner much honor. 3) the mind, our conscious awareness. This is the
part of us that thinks, analyzes, looks ahead, rationally weighs options and tries to gauge what is best and
truest of all.

These three are the body parts to symbolize the three souls. The rational soul or the mind is like
the body’s head, the spirited soul is like the hot blood in the heart and the appetitive soul would be best
represented by the belly and genitals. The soul includes reason as well as self-awareness and moral
sense. Plato says that the soul will always choose to do what is good and is drawn to god as the Buddhists
believe. Our ethereal (divine) goal is to liberate ourselves and finally attain self-realization.

ARISTOTLE: “The soul exists independently from the body and is immortal”

Aristotle was Plato’s prized student, another Greek Philosopher. He is

best known as the founder of formal logic. His goal as to come up with a
universal process of reasoning that would help people be able to learn
anything.

Aristotle insisted that human being is a composite of body and soul and
that the soul cannot be separated from the body. The soul is the form or the
structure of the human body of which human beings are able to perform their
activities of life. These activities include growth, nutrition, reproduction, perception, imagination, desire and
thinking. He further argues that there is no modern sense of self, rather there is a soul that perceives,
thinks and nourishes. He believes the soul as the principle which causes movement and life is a movement.

Aristotle is one with Plato and Descartes in the theory of individualism—which the soul exists
independently from the body and is immortal. Like Plato, Aristotle postulates three kinds of soul. There
is a plant soul—the essence of which is nutrition. Then there is an animal soul which contains the basic
sensations of desire, pain, pleasure, and the ability to cause movement. As mentioned earlier, life is a
movement. Last is the human soul, the essence of which is reason. He suggests that perhaps the last soul
is capable of existence apart from the body. He also mentioned about the most natural function of man and
animals which is to beget another being similar to itself in order that they attain as far as possible the
immortal and divine. This is the final cause of every creature – LIFE.

There are two powers in the soul which appear to be moving forces—desire and reason. Desire
prompts actions in violation of reason.

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ST. AUGUSTINE: “Grant Lord that I may know myself that I may know Thee.”

Saint Augustine was a Roman, African, early Christian theologian

and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of
Western Christianity and Western philosophy. From his book
Confessions, Augustine declares his version of the self. It is only
possible to understand how he stands in relation to God. This is a
central aspect of the soul which he espouses.

In his opinion, the self can only be truly discovered through

recognition of God’s love and man’s response to that love. He says
that the soul is the substance of the human being. But similar to Aristotle’s proposal, it is only through its
manifestation inside the human body that a person could be said to be a person. Augustine struggled with
the problem of selfhood and self-knowledge as the two primary issues foe the intellect. He sought only to
know God and the soul. A necessary condition for knowing oneself is that he must come to himself, stop
wandering and start the journey to selfhood. Augustine shows that a person can establish the conditions for
selfhood and God while ever seeking to remain to his true home with God. The soul needs to seek its true
home and journey to it like a “peregrine”—a foreigner in strange land striving to return home. This requires
the discipline to constantly remind oneself that he is on the way and not at home yet. This can happen by
realizing that one’s desire should be to seek happiness with God by knowing one’s self.

RENE DESCARTES: “Our identity comes from the mind. I think, therefore I am”

Rene Descartes was an eminent French philosopher who

is known as “The Father of Modern Western Philosophy.” One
of the deepest and most lasting legacies of Descartes
philosophy is his thesis that mind and body are really distinct
known as the “mind-body dualism.” He argues that the mind is
a thinking non-extended thing which is completely different
from that of the body, the extended non-thinking thing. He
believes the mind is the seat of man consciousness. Because it houses man’s drives, intellect and
passions, it gives him his identity comes from the mind. As Descartes aptly puts it, “I think, therefore I
am.” Cogito, ergo sum is the first principle of Descartes’ theory of knowledge and the keystone of his
concept of self. This is the essence of man’s self—that the self is a thinking thing – a dynamic identity with
being a human self.

The soul which is the non-material mind is the real person. It is here that mental conditions occur
rather than the physical actions that are basic to the life of a person. Descartes was concerned with
understanding the “thinking process”, the human ability to reason to achieve truth and knowledge. He

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penetrated the nature of man’s reasoning process and understood its relation to the human self. He was
convinced that man needed to use his thinking abilities to investigate and analyze. He believed likewise it is
necessary to doubt all things because doubt is the origin of wisdom.

JOHN LOCKE: “The self is the conscious thinking thing. No man’s knowledge can go beyond his
experiences.”

John Locke, an English philosopher set out the theory of

empiricism that states that all knowledge os derived from sensory
experience. It holds that the best way to gain knowledge is to see, hear,
touch, taste and smell. He believes that this is the only kind of
knowledge that really counts. In his “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding”, he restated the importance of sensory experience and
that the human mind at birth is tabula rasa, a complete blank slate upon
which experience imprints knowledge. God stamps certain notions into
the mind of man which the soul receives upon being born and brings it into the world.

Locke theorizes that experience is of two kinds- sensation and reflection. Sensation tells about
things and processes in the external world. Reflection is a sort of internal sense that makes a person
conscious of the mental processes he is engaged in. Sensation and reflection provide the basic simple
ideas which most of the complex knowledge is constructed. While the mind may be a blank slate in regard
to content, Locke thinks that a person is born with a variety of faculties to receive and abilities to manipulate
or process the content once it is acquired and stocked in the mind. He likewise retains the idea that
personal identity or the self is founded on consciousness or memory and not on either soul or body. He
points that some things could be discovered by reason. He proposed an ideal education that would instill a
strong moral sense. In particular, a child should be taught virtue, wisdom, breeding and learning. Since the
child’s mind is malleable, parents could mold him with careful diligence. He says that children as human
beings need a gradual development of rationality (reason) to be fostered by parents. He urged parents to
spend time with their children and tailor their education to develop a sound body, character, and sound
mind for learning. He advocates a kind of education that makes people to think for themselves and prepare
them to effectively make sound decisions and a responsibility to cultivate reason.

IMMANUEL KANT: “The self is composite of body and soul – the body as the outer self and the soul
as the inner self.”

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is a

central figure in modern philosophy. Kant views knowledge
of the self with two theories, empiricism and transcendental
idealism. Empiricism asserts that knowledge is only attained

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through the senses. There goes the saying, “Seeing is believing.” If something cannot be seen, tasted,
touched, heard, or physically experienced, knowledge is not attained. The self, according to Kant, is
something real, and not appearance or thing.

Much of his philosophy centered on self-knowledge. He often asks, “How do we know what we
know and where does this knowledge come from?” Kants views on the mind are dependent in his
transcendental idealism. He defines that the mind as a complex set of abilities (functions) which are crucial,
mental, knowledge-generating activity. These functions are forms of what Kant called synthesis that is
central to cognition. Synthesis is the process of combining or putting together of functions. He held that
some features of mind and its knowledge had “a priori” origins, that is, knowledge must be in the mind prior
to experience. He believes that an individual has two selves which are distinguishable but they are not
inseparable. These are transcendental self and the phenomenal self. The transcendental self is the inner
self (the soul) while the phenomenal self is the outer self (the body). These two are mutually dependent on
one another. The transcendental self chooses the whole course of its action. This means that every
individual chooses the course of his life and once he has made his choice, he has to follow it. The self
chooses the whole course of his action.

The phenomenal self and the empirical self are the same. Kant regards the empirical self as a
result of the self that is affected by its own manifold experiences. Nothing can be knowledge unless the self
is a unity of both form and matter. The knowledge of self includes the knowledge unless the self includes
the knowledge of outer objects/experiences. He argues that outer experiences are immediate and that only
by means of it is an inner experience possible.

DAVID HUME: “The ego (self) is a fictional idea. There is no mind or self. The self is just an
illusion.”

David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, is a pioneer of the concept of

empiricism which states that all knowledge ois derived from experiences
through the human senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Hume
believed that the entire contents of the mind are drawn from experiences
alone. Impressions and ideas are two perceptions that Hume used to make
clear his theory. He made a distinction between ideas and impressions. Ideas
are just images in thinking and reasoning based on one’s impressions.
Impressions are everything that originates from the senses. These perceptions are separate from one
another. The unifying component is the self. Everything in a person’s conscious state is derived from
impressions. Hume’s self is passive observer similar to watching one’s life pass as a play on a screen. He
claims that any concept of self is simply memory and imagination. For him, there is no mind or self. He
claims that he could not find a self when he looks within, only a succession of impressions.

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 He states that the self is a collection of ever-changing impressions or experiences. Just as there is
no mind independent of perception, there is no self that is independent of perception. The identity which is
ascribed to the mind of man is only a fictitious idea. The self is just an illusion. Because man’s
consciousness is constantly changing, there is no “SELF” which remains the same. Hume further explains
that in an extremely deep sleep, a person becomes insensible of the self, and may truly be said not to exist.
He affirmed that the self is nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions. The self is nothing
more than the perceptions which are available to the memory.

GILBERT RYLE: “The self is how a person behaves.”

A British philosopher, Gilbert Ryle believes that the self is defined in terms
of the behavior that is presented to the world, a view that is known as theory
of logical behaviorism. The mental aspect is related to behavioral output or
response. What the body does or its actions are observable thus others can
know a person only indirectly through his behavior. Ryle insists that the mind
must simply be the body and mental processes simply are physical processes
and that mental properties are patterns of behavior. This pattern of behavior
can apply to intelligence, motives, and purposes, voluntary actions, emotions
and moods, and of thoughts when they are overtly (openly) expressed. Intelligence is futile unless it is
applied to regulate a person’s behavior where the true self is revealed.

Ryle further explains that actions such as thinking, remembering, feeling, and willingness are
revealed by modes of behavior or by dispositions to modes of behavior. Behaviorism insists that stimulus-
response mechanisms produce the behavioral responses of the conscious individual. Ryle also pushes
analytical behaviorism, the doctrine that psychological concepts can be analyzed in terms of actual or
possible behavior. The nature of a person’s motives may be defined by the actions and reactions of that
person in various situations. Motives may be revealed or explained by one’s behavior in a situation.
Perceptions, thought, emotions and feelings may be understood as observable behavior.

Ryle admits that his approach to the theory of mind is behavioristic opposed to the theory that there
are hidden mental processes distinct from observable behavior. The only way one knows what others have
on their mind is because they behave in a certain way. The mind is therefore the sum of all man’s
disposition reflected in the way he behaves.

PAUL M. CHURCHLAND: “It is the physical brain and not the imaginary
mind that gives a person the sense of self.”

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 Paul M. Churchland, a Canadian philosopher, is known for his studies in neuro philosophy and the
philosophy of mind. He holds to eliminative materialism, stated simply that it is the physical brain and
not the imaginary mind that gives the sense of self. Materialism holds that the self is inseparable from
the substance of the brain and the physiology of the body. All that a person has is the brain. If the brain is
gone, there is no self. The human brain is the most complex and wonderful object in the world. All cognitive
abilities of a person come from the brain. The mind is powerful. It enables an individual to process his
thoughts, ideas and images, and helps him to function.

Churchland adheres to materialism. He asserts that since the mind cannot be experienced by
man’s senses, then the mind does not really exist. Based on this assertion, he holds to eliminative
materialism. He gives a few arguments. He challenges the concept of the mind by using the misfortune of
traumatic brain injury. If the mind is the seat of the self, why should one believe in a mind when science is
proving that mental health is connected to the physical brain? If the mind is the seat of the seal, why does
brain injury alter a person’s personality? If the mind is a real separate entity, would not it retain it retain a
person’s sense of self despite damage to a physical organ?

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: “Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there
is no inner man. Man is in the world and only in the world does he know himself.”

French philosopher, Maurice Merleau- Ponty exposed in his major work,

“Phenomenology of Perception,” the age-old dualism involving the mind and
body, the idea of an outside world that is distinguished from the thinking body.
He claims that we are bodies and that the living experience of this body denies
the detachment of mind from the body. His statement, “I am my body.” Cannot
be simply interpreted as advocating a materialist, behaviorist position. He does
not want to deny or ignore those aspects of life which are commonly called the
“mental”. He also does not want to suggest that the use of this “mind” is
inseparable from man’s bodily and physical nature. This simply means that the perceiving mind is an
incarnated body which has the capacity to both think and perceive. The body cannot be viewed as an
object or material entity of the world and through the body man can have access to the world. The body is
always there and that its absence is unimaginable. It means man cannot treat his body as an object which
can or cannot be part of the world because he cannot exist without a body.

According to Ponty, man moves directly and in union with his body as he points out, “I do not lead
the body to finish an act because from the start the body propels itself towards the end.” He makes it clear
that the actions of a man are large habitual, learned through imitation and responsive within an
environment. Hence, he emphasizes the importance of learning and training. In this case, empiricism
(perceiving) and intellectualism (thinking) are in agreement. He claims, “I am not in front of my body. I am in
it or rather, I am it.”

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 Man experiences himself as a unity in which the mental and physical are woven together. Ponty
explains that the “living body” is a natural combination of mind and body. The mind and body are unified,
not separate. For him, everything that man is aware of and can comprehend, is contained within his
consciousness. Consciousness is a dynamic fore responsible for actively arranging his conscious ideas
and physical behavior. The body is itself the original knowing subject from which all other forms of
knowledge are derived. Body experiences and perceptions are the most fundamental and private part of
the self. The self has to be understood as a unity. The self, the lived body, is the fundamental mediator to
the world which means it is a sensory organ. The body self s constantly updated by sensations,
perceptions, and cognitions which evolve directly from bodily experiences via the organs of senses, with
reference to Ponty, the body self can be understood as the “natural self.”

REFERENCES Gl oria D. Ancheta, Ed.D, Understanding the Self (Who Am I?), 2019,
Wiseman’s Books Trading, Inc. pp. 13-25

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