MODULE 1
DEFINING THE SELF:
PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL
PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY
Who Am I?
NAME: is the most intimate precious and the sweetest word to
hear
A signifier, represent who we are, and meaningful to birth
progenies because names are supposed to designate us in the
world
WE ARE MORE THAN OUR NAME
LESSON I – THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
MOST MEN WERE REALLY NOT FULLY AWARE OF WHO THEY
WERE AND THE VIRTUES THAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO
ATTAIN IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THEIR SOULS FOR THE
AFTERLIFE. SOCRATES
SOMETHING THAT A PERSON PERENIALLY MOLDS
SHAPES AND DEVELOPS
NOT A STATIC THING
IT HAS CHARACTERISTICS
STANDS OUT FRPM THE REST
UNDERGOES A PROCESS OF TRANSITION
IT IS CONNECTED TO YOUR BODY
IT IS RELATED TO OTHER SELVE
WHAT HAPPENS TO IT AFTER WE DIE
WHAT IS THE SELF
TO LIVE BUT DIE INSIDE IS THE WORST
THAT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE
SOCRATES
Socrates/Plato Augustine/Aquinas Descartes Hume
Kant Ryle Merleu-Ponty
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND
VIEWS ABOU THE SELF
• perfect
soul • permanent
• Imperfect
body • Impermanent
SOCRATES’DUALISTIC VIEW OF MAN
• Rational- reason
Justice can only be attained if three
soul
• Spirited - emotions
• Appetitive – base parts of the soul are working
harmoniously with one another
desires
The RATIONAL SOUL forged by
reason and intellect has to govern
The SPIRITED SOUL in charge of
body
emotions should be kept at bay
The APPETITIVE SOUL in charge of
base desires are controlled
Justice can only be attained if the
three parts of the soul are working
harmoniously with one another.
PLATO’S DUAL NATURE OF MAN
“Cogito ergo sum,” The self is a
combination of two distinct entities
COGITO – the thing that thinks which
is the mind
EXTENZA – extension of the mind
which is the body
“ I THINK, THEREFORE, I AM.” - DESCARTES
Mind – doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills,
refuses
imagines, perceives
Body – a machine
you have it but it is not what makes
man a man
CARTESIAN DUALISM
The self and body as one is a bundle of
impressions
AN EXPERIENCING PERSON = self/body
The self is a bundle or collection of
different perception which succeed
each other with an inconceivable
rapidity and are in a perpetual flux and
movement
Experience may be categorized as
impressions (sensation) and ideas
(copies of impressions)
HUME’S CONCEPT OF THE SELF
The self is a combination of all experiences with a particular
person
(Empiricism) Knowledge can only be possible if is sensed and
experienced
One can know only what comes from the senses and
experiences
Experiencing person (SELF/BODY) – bundle of impressions
HUME’S CONCEPT OF THE SELF
It is an actively There is necessarily a mind
engaged that organizes the impressions
intelligence in that men get from the external
man that world
synthesizes all
knowledge and The self organizes the different
experience impressions that one gets in
relation to his own existence
The self is the seat of
knowledge acquisition for all
human person
KANT’S APPARATUSES OF THE MIND
The self is not an entity one can locate and
analyze but simply the convenient name that
people use to all behaviors that make people.
What you actually do is the self
Your behavior is the self
RYLE’S CONCEPT THAT THERE IS NO
SUCH THING AS THE SELF….
The self = mind and body
are so intertwined that
they cannot be separated
from one another
One’s body is an opening
toward his existence to
the world.
The living body, his
thoughts, emotions and
experiences are all ONE
MERLEAU-PONTY’S
HOLISTIC CONCEPT OF THE SELF
END OF MODULE 1
LESSON 2: THE SELF, SOCIETY AND
CULTURE
SOCIAL SCIENCE’S STUDY OF THE
SELF AND THE EXTERNAL WORLD
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST PERSPECTIVE
THE PERSON AND THEIR SOCIAL CONTEXT ARE
MERGED, BOUNDARIES OF ONE CANNOT EASILY
BE SEPARATED FROM THE BOUNDARIES OF THE
OTHER
The self is something that is in unceasing flux, in a constant
struggle with external reality and is malleable in its dealings with
society
The self is always in participation with social life and its identity
subjected to influences here and there.
THE SELF IS CAPABLE OF MORPHING AND
FITTING ITSELF INTO ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES IT FINDS ITSELF IN.
Remaining the same
person and turning
chameleon by
adapting to one’s
context seems
paradoxical
MOI – a person’s sense
of who he is
PERSONNE- composed
of social concepts of
what it means to be
who he is.
MARCEL MAUSS’S
TWO FACES OF THE SELF
In the Philippines, we tend to
consider our territory as part of
who we are
The Filipino language is an
articulation of our unique values
and it is gender-neutral
LANGUAGE AS PART OF CULTURE HAS A
TREMENDOUS EFFECT IN CRAFTING OF
THE SELF
The way we process information is
normally a form of internal
dialogue in our head.
The human mind is something
that is made, constituted through
language as experienced in the
external world and as encountered
in dialogs with others.
MEAD AND VYGOTSKY CONCEPT OF
THE SOCIAL SELF
Born with certain givenness
Provide resources available to us
Source of the kind of development
that we have
Learning is critical in our capacity
to actualize our potential of
becoming humans
Initiates a person to become that
serves as the for this person’s
progress
THE FAMILY SYSTEM IS THE MOST
POWERFUL SOURCE OF LEARNING
GENDER IS SUBJECT TO
ALTERATION, CHANGE AND
DEVELOPMENT
The gendered self is shaped within a
particular context of time and space
The sense of self that is being
taught makes sure that an individual
fits it Gender has to be personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture or
society
GENDER AND THE SELF
GENDER AND SELF
LESSON 3
THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT
PSYCHOLOGY FOCUS ON THE
INDIVIDUAL AND THE COGNITIVE
FUNCTIONS
LESSON 4
THE SELF IN WESTERN
AND EASTERN
THOUGHTS
TWO SIDES OF THE SAME PLANET