Who Am I?
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How are you today?
Happy/ Sad
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Rate your Happiness/
Sadness 1-10
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Your Name?
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Should we be named after a
famous celebrity, a respected
politician or historical
personality, or even a saint?
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Our names represent who we
are.
Our names signify us.
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What is our favorite
food? What place of
travel?
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Have you ever thought of not caring
for yourself?
Do you believe that it’s better to love
some other people than to love your
own self?
But do you think also of loving
yourself more than loving others?
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Let’s take a journey
down to the innermost
aspect of your being…
yourself….
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What is Self? The self has many aspects.
These aspects make up the “self’s” integral
parts, such as self-awareness, self –esteem,
self knowledge, and self-perception. With
these aspects, the person is able to alter,
change, add, and/or modify himself or
herself for the purpose of gaining
social acceptance.
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The “self” is an important study in
psychology. It holds that the “self” is either
the cognitive or the affective representation
of the individual.
Cognitive is relating to or involving
conscious intellectual activity while
affective is relating to or arising from
feelings influenced by emotions (Merriam-
Webster, 2017)
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“ Believe in yourself! Have
faith in your abilities! Without a
humble but reasonable
confidence in your own powers
you cannot be successful or
happy” –Norman Vincent Peale
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How well do you know
yourself? Are you aware of your
talents? Skills? Weaknesses?
Strengths?
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Who am I? is rooted in the human need to
understand the basis of the experiences of
the self.
When people are asked to explain their
understanding of the word, the usual
answers are: “It’s who I am”. “ It’s me, my
essence.” “ It’s what makes me unique
and different from everyone else.”
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Sociology sees the self as a product of social interactions,
developed over time through social activities and experiences.
Anthropology views the self as a culturally shaped construct
or idea. Anthropologists assert that it is an autonomous
participant in the society as much as it is submerged in the
community.
Psychology sees the self as having characteristics or
properties that can be used to describe it.
Pioneers pointed out that the self is related to its physical and
social environment, it is unique, and it is necessary to its
experiences.
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Eastern and Western
British philosopher Alan Watts (known for his interpretation of
Eastern philosophy and mythology) talked about the great
‘myths” of the Self. However, it should be noted that the term
“myth” here is not used to describe false story, rather it is used
as a means to interpret a reality.
According to Watts, the pervading myth in the West is that “
the world is an artifact.” This means there is a clear distinction
between the creator and the creation. This perspective
indicates that the Western interpretation of the “self” possesses
an internal distinction from its external environment. That
even though the “self” functions in the world, the “self” is still
its own.
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In the East the myth is that “ the world is a drama and all
things are actors with specific parts to play”. There is no
distinction between the creator and the creation as all that
exists is immersed in one and the same existence.
This perspective suggests that the self in Eastern traditions
is seen through the eyes of a community, rather than a
detached, single entity. However, Watts further clarified
that his statements on the two great myths of the self is
only a description of what it is “like” in that civilization,
and not a definition of what it is.
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“ If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or
weak, return to yourself, to who you are,
here and now and when you get there, you
will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in
full bloom, even in a muddy pond,
beautiful and strong.” – Masaru Emoto,
Secret Life of Water
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1. He believes that the 2. A philosopher who states 3. Explain this statement, “ I
human mind at birth is a that “ I act, therefore I am” think, therefore I am.”
“tabula rasa”
4. Knows the philosophy of 5. Discuss the philosophy of 6. Recite the three kinds of
Immanuel Kant. Hume being by Plato
7. Explain the Socratic 8. Give an example /personal 9. Explain this phrase,
Method. experience of the phrase “ I physical body is an
act, therefore I am.” important part of the self.
10. Know the life of John 11. Discuss the statement, I 12. Differentiate between
Locke sense, therefore I am. Descartes and Gilbert Ryle
views about the self.”
13. Tell who Augustine is. 14. This philosopher states 15. Give the background of
that reason is the final Descartes
authority of morality.
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Socrates- The unexamined life is not worth
living. Self knowledge or the examination of
one’s self, as well as the question about how one
ought to live one’s life, are very important
concerns because only by knowing
yourself can you hope to improve
yourself.
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Plato- The self/soul/mind according to him is the
aspect of the human beings by which the Forms
(ideas) are known. Three parts of soul are; The
appetitive (sensual), The rational (reasoning)
and The spirited (feeling).
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St. Augustine- The self was an inner, immaterial
“I” that had self-knowledge and self-awareness.
He believed that human being was both a
soul and body , and the body possessed
senses, such as imagination, memory, reason,
and mind through which the soul experienced
the world.
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Aristotle- is composed of body and soul., mind and
matter, sense and intellect, passion and reason.
Reason is supreme in a human person and so should govern all
of life’s activities. When the senses, the lower nature of a human
person, dominate a human person’s life tends to live a chaotic life.
When reason rules over the senses, mind over
matter, the human person tends to live a happy life.
Living a life of moderation is doing things in consonance with
reason.
Golden Mean means moderation; avoid the extremes; too
much and too little.
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Perfection and happiness come from wisdom and
virtue.
Wisdom is true knowledge and virtue is doing what is
best for you that which leads you to the attainment of your own
perfection and happiness.
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St. Thomas Aquinas- The supremacy of reason in
human person. A human person can know the truth with
certainty by the use of his reason.
However, he stressed that there are some truths which
cannot be known by human reason alone and which can
be perceived on with the aid of the light of divine
revelation.
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When
Reason
ends, Faith
Begins.
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Rene Descartes- Thinking entity is
doing the act of doubting.
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John Locke- 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 same
person yesterday because he/she remembers the thoughts,
experiences, or actions of the earlier self. The person is the
same self in the passing of time, he/she can be held
accountable for past behavior.
A person could only be held accountable for behaviors
he/she can remember. A person who cannot remember
his/her behavior is the same as the state of the person who
never committed the act, which meant the person was
ignorant.
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David Hume- The self or person as a bundle or
a collection of different perceptions that are
moving in a very fast and successive manner;
therefore, it is in a perpetual flux. These
perceptions are only active for as long as you are
conscious. The self is merely made up of
successive impressions.
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Immanuel Kant- Self is transcendental, which means
the self is related to a spiritual or nonphysical realm.
The self is not in the body. The self is outside the body,
and it does not have the qualities of the body. The
body and qualities are rooted to the self. It is the
knowledge that bridges the self and the material things
together. Apperception is the mental process by
which a person makes sense of an idea by assimilating
it to the body of ideas he or she already possesses. 32
All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to
the understanding, and ends with a reason. There is
nothing higher than reason
As a Free Agent, Man is gifted with reason and
free will. The necessity of his being free is tested in his
decision to be moral. An Individual has free will to be
moral or not. A moral person is one who is
driven by duty and acts towards the
fulfillment of that duty.
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Sigmund Freud- Psychoanalysis a practice devised to treat those
who are mentally ill through dialogue. The self was an entity in
itself characterized as the subject (the focal point: the topic
and doer of the action) of the physical and mental actions and
experiences.
“The Ego is not the master in its own house.” Things
are not in control of the Ego, if Ego behaves, then Suferego won, If Ego
misbehaves, then Id won. This battle is all taking place in the
subconscious. The realm of the Ego is found in the conscious.
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Gilbert Ryle- I act, therefore I am. It is from our behaviors
and actions. For example, you think of yourself as a kind of person
because your acts of kindness. Your actions define your own concept of
self (who you are).
The concept of mind expresses the entire system of thoughts,
emotions, actions, and so on that make up the human self.
The only way by which we can know how the mind is working through
the behavior of the person, hence we can only know a person through
how one behaves, their tendencies and reactions in certain circumstances.
“Minds are things, but different sorts of things from bodies.”
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Paul Churchland- The self is originated from
the brain itself/ the self is the brain. We do
have an organ for understanding and
recognizing moral facts. It is called the brain.
“Mind”, our moods, emotions, actions,
consciousness are deeply affected by the state
of our brain. The brain works for us to
understand how it creates the SELF.
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty- Physical body is an
important part of the self. “ We know not through
our intellect but through our experience.”
The idea of self as a continuous flow of movement and
expression from infancy to adulthood. Our perception of
who we are is strictly tied to our own bodily
development.
The self is a product of our conscious human
experience.
Man is all about how he sees himself. ( an embodied
subjectivity.)
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