Philosophical Perspective of Self

Know thyself

 This is an ancient greeting of the highly civilized Greeks. It was believed that the temple gods greet the
people with this salutation as they enter the holy sanctuary. To know thyself is first an imperative and
then a requirement. It is imperative to know the limits of the self so that one knows what one is capable
of doing and what one is not. The real meaning of knowing thyself is a requirement for self-moderation,
prudence, good judgment, and excellence of the soul. (Ortiz de Landazuri,2014)

Socrates (“The ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself”)

 He is the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning of the self and according to
him, the true task of the philosopher is to know oneself.

 In Socrates' idea, he believed in a dualistic approach to understanding the self. He believed that every
human person is composed of two important aspects of his personhood:

1. Body which refers to the imperfect, impermanent aspect that is vulnerable to basic emotions
and actions, whereas

2. Soul refers to the perfect and permanent aspect that controls the body and prevents it from
falling into fallacy and inadequate behavior. Therefore, the “soul” in the context of ancient
philosophers refers to the mind and should not be viewed from the vantage point of Christianity
which is a religious conception of the soul.

Plato

 Student of Socrates

  He founded the Academy which is the prototype of today’s universities. The universities nowadays are
designed after the Academy founded by Plato.

 He believed that human beings are composed of two things:

1. Body- what we see in the material world which is not the real self but only a replica of our true
Self. This is the reason why it is constantly changing- getting older, changing shape, etc.

2. Soul- it is the true self -the permanent, unchanging self. The soul exists before birth and leaves
room for the possibility that it might survive bodily death. We continue to exist even in the
absence of our bodies because we are Souls only.

 He stated that the Soul or the ‘psyche’ comprised of three elements:

1. The appetitive soul

 This involves our pleasurable desires such as those which provide us physical pleasure and
physiological comfort. It is in charge of effortless craving required to stay alive like eating,
 drinking, sleeping, and having sex that is only intended for married couples and must be
controlled as well.

2. The spirited soul

 This denotes the part within us that is agitated most of the time. It is in charge of basic emotions
such as love, anger, and empathy. This means that it is a part of psyche or mind that is excited
when given challenges, or fights back when agitated, or fights for justice when unjust practices
are evident.

 The rational soul

 also known as “reason” is forged by reason and intellect, has to govern the affairs of the human
person. It is the conscious awareness that thinks, meditates, weighs choices, and assesses
situations in our lives. This side is rational and logical as it chooses only the best for us.

 Nous- the conscious awareness of the self. It is the superpower that controls the affairs of the
self. One has to develop the nous and fill it with the understanding of the limits of the self, and
the correct ethical standards.

 Psyche- the core of the self that is composed of three elements mentioned above.

St. Augustine

 The perspective of Saint Augustine is greatly influenced by Plato. The only thing that is different is that
St. Augustine also thinks that this world is a material world and that there is another type of world
where we would like to live in because that is the world where God is and that is the ideal world so we
should strive to be reunited with God so that we could live in that world.

 He believed that the development of the self is achieved through self-presentation and self-realization.

 Following the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with the newfound doctrine of Christianity, Augustine
agreed that man is of a bifurcated (split/branched) nature:

1. Body dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine; is
bound to die on earth.

2. Soul is capable of reaching immortality; anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in
communion with God. The goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss
with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.

 This only means that for him, man’s end goal is happiness. Only in God can man attain true and
eternal happiness, made possible in his contemplation of the truth and divine wisdom that
refers to God himself.

St. Thomas Aquinas

1. Matter comes from the Greek word “hyle” which means the common stuff that makes up
everything in the universe that includes man's body while

2. Form comes from the Greek word “morphe” which means the essence of a substance or thing
that makes it what it is. In the case of the human person, the body is something that he shares
even with animals; what makes a human person a human person is his soul, his essence.

 It only means that the cells in man’s body for example are more or less akin to the cells of any
other living, organic being in the world. The body of the human may be similar to animals or
objects, but what makes a human person a human person and not a dog, or tiger for example is
his soul, his essence. For him, we don’t encounter ourselves as isolated minds or selves, but
always an agent interacting with our environment. Therefore, the soul is what animates the
body, it is what makes us humans.

Rene Descartes

 Father of Modern Philosophy, a rationalist (a person who bases her opinions and actions on reason and
knowledge, not beliefs).

 He claimed that we cannot really on our senses because our sense perceptions can often deceive us and
so he started to doubt everything about our existence, our world. That is why he also endorsed the term
“HYPERBOLICAL DOUBT”- a method of reasoning that stated that though he may doubt, he cannot
doubt that he exists.

 “Cogito, ergo Sum” translated as, “I think therefore I am” or “I doubt therefore I exist.” The discovery
of the cogito revolutionizes the way we view ourselves and the world around us. He said that the mere
fact that I can doubt is the evidence that I exist. The Act of thinking about the self, of being conscious, is
in itself proof that there is a self. Basically, he is one of the reasons why we question a lot of things
about existence and he will tell you that your ability to question things is proof that you are existing.
Human rationality, therefore, is the primary condition in the existence of the self. This includes the
need for reason in order to evaluate our thoughts and actions.

 The self, then, is also a combination of two distinct entities:

1. Cogito refers to the thing that thinks, which is the mind the

2. Extenza refers to the extension of the mind, which is the body.

 In Descartes's view, the body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind; it is the mind
that makes a man a man.

John Locke
  Introduced the concept of tabula rasa which is the belief that the mind is a 'blank slate' at birth where
everyday experiences contribute to the pile of knowledge that is put forth on that empty space and we
are formed and develop from our own experiences with the environment.

 Experience is an important requirement. Personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity. It

 Locke posits an “empty” mind, a tabula rasa, which is shaped by experience, and sensations and
reflections being the two sources of all our ideas. Self- is compared to an empty space where everyday
experiences contribute to the pile of knowledge that is put forth on that empty space

David Hume

 Using the same empiricist principles as Locke, Hume ends up with an even more startling conclusion—if
we carefully examine our sense experience through the process of introspection, we discover that there
is no self! How is this possible? From Hume’s perspective, this astonishing belief is the only possible
conclusion consistent with an honest and objective examination of our experience.

 According to Hume, if we carefully examine the contents of our experience, we find that there are only
two distinct entities, “impressions” and “ideas”:

1. IMPRESSIONS—Impressions are the basic sensations of our experience, the elemental data of
our minds: pain, pleasure, heat, cold, happiness, grief, fear, exhilaration, and so on. These
impressions are “lively” and “vivid.”

2. IDEAS—Ideas are copies of impressions, and as a result, they are less “lively” and “vivid.” Ideas
include thoughts and images that are built up from our primary impressions through a variety of
relationships, but because they are derivative copies of impressions they are once removed
from reality.

Immanuel Kant

 Kant recognizes the veracity of Hume's account that everything starts with perception and sensation of
impressions; however, he believes that the things that men perceive around them are not just randomly
infused into the human person without an organizing principle that regulates the relationship of these
impressions.

 For him, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external
world (e.g., time and space are ideas that one cannot find in the world but are built in our minds). Kant
calls this the apparatuses of the mind.

 Along with the apparatuses of the mind goes the "self". Without the self, one cannot organize the
different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence.

 The self is always transcendental.

Sigmund Freud

 The psyche is structured into three parts (i.e., tripartite), the id, ego, and superego, all developing at
different stages in our lives (also known as three layers of the self). These are systems, not parts of the
brain, or in any way physical.

ID The id is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires and impulses. He believed that
the id acts according to the “pleasure principle” – the psychic force that motivates the
 
tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse.
(Pleasure
 
Principle)
It remains infantile in its function throughout a person’s life and does not change with
 
time or experience, as it is not in touch with the external world.

It is not affected by reality, logic, or the everyday world, as it operates within the
unconscious part of the mind. It operates on the pleasure principle which is the idea that
every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences.
When the id achieves its demands, we experience pleasure when it is denied we
experience ‘unpleasure’ or tension.

EGO Freud called it the rational part of our mind. He said that “the ego represents what may
be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions.”
 
 
(Reality
Principle) Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain, but unlike the id, the ego is the
decision-making component of personality, it operates according to the reality principle,
working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands. The ego considers social
realities and norms, etiquette, and rules in deciding how to behave.

SUPEREGO It refers to the incorporation of the values and morals of society which are learned from
one's parents and others. Its function is to control the id's impulses, especially those
 
which society forbids, such as sex and aggression
(Moral and
 
Idealistic
Principle) It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than
simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

According to Freud, the superego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes
 misbehavior with feelings of guilt,” working in contradiction to the id.

Freud believes that this part of human beings is not inborn and that human beings do not
develop the superego part of their mind until the age of five.

Gilbert Ryle

 For him, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life. Mind is not
separated from the body (contradict with Descartes’ dualism).

Paul and Patricia Churchland

 promoted the position called “eliminative materialism” which brings forth neuroscience into the fore of
understanding the self. It simply means that Philosophy and Psychology have failed to provide a
satisfactory position in understanding the self.

 According to Churchland, “Our behavior appears to have its basic cause in neural activity..."
NEUROBIOLOGY- as the Churchland’s wanted to predict, when people wanted to ask what is going on
with themselves, they might as well go for an MRI scan or CT scan to understand the present condition
of the brain and how it currently works.

Merleau-Ponty

 A phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation is a futile endeavor and an invalid
problem. Unlike Ryle who simply denies the "self," he instead believed that the mind and body are
intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another.

 For him, the living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one. He proposes treating
perception as a causal process. It means that our perceptions are caused by the intricate experiences of
the self, and processed intellectually while distinguishing truthful perceptions from illusory. Therefore,
the self is taken as a phenomenon of the world. He also believes that perception does not belong to the
world, but to the self.