01 OVERVIEW OF THE SELF the distinguishing character or

personality of an individual".
Self Discovery process of learning,
understanding, or knowing more about Personality - refers to the patterns of
yourself and who you are, becoming thinking, feeling and behaving that make
aware of one's true potential, character, one unique from others.
motives, and the like.
02 THE PHILOSOPHICAL SELF
Self Awareness: knowledge of yourself
and your worth as a person. An example Philosophy is the study of acquiring
of awareness is what you hope to gain knowledge through rational thinking and
from meditating. Self-awareness is a inquines that involves answering
result of doing self-discovery. questions regarding the nature and
existence of man and the world we live
Nature vs Nurture in. It originated from the Greek words
Philo- (loving) and Sophia (knowledge,
Nature is often defined as genetic or wisdom). At its simplest, philosophy
hormone-based behaviors, traits, and means "loving knowledge" or "loving
dispositions. It refers to all of the genes wisdom." The term philosophy as
and hereditary factors that influence originally used by the Greeks meant the
who we are-from our physical pursuit of knowledge for its own sake."
appearance to our personality
characteristics. The Philosophy of the self has been
defined through distinct philosophical
Nurture-refers to all the environmental lenses:
variables that impact who we are,
including our early childhood Empiricism-derives explanations of the
experiences, how we were raised, our self from sensory and bodily responses.
social relationships, and our surrounding We know things because we have
culture. experienced them through our bodily
senses.
Self vs Identity
Rationalism - there is innate knowledge;
Self-based on the lexical definition, "the they differ in that they choose different
person that someone normally or truly is objects of innate knowledge.
or the entire person of an individual". Rationalism explains self from the
standpoint of what is "ideal" and the
Identity based on the lexical definition, "truth", not rooted in what is felt by the
refers to "the qualities, beliefs, senses nor our body.
characteristics that make a particular
person or group different from others or
Dualism - In the modern world "dualism" Plato is a dualist, there is both an
most often refers to "mind-body dualism, immaterial mind (soul) and a material
or the idea that the mind is separate body, and it is the soul that represents
from the body. the self. Plato believed the soul exists
before birth and after death. For him,
Naturally, the need to understand the one should care about his soul rather
"self" did not escape the philosopher's than his body.
curious mind. Hence, here are the most
relevant philosophical views that will The soul (mind) is divided into three
give you a historical framework in parts:
understanding yourself:
Reason is our divine essence that
SOCRATES: "The unexamined life is enables us to think deeply, make wise
not worth living choices and achieve a true
understanding of eternal:
Know Thyself is the most important task
one can undertake is to examine Physical Appetite is our basic biological
oneself, for it alone will give one the needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual
knowledge necessary to answer the
question 'how should I live my life. Will or Spirit is our basic emotion or
passion, such as empathy,
known as the "father of Western aggressiveness, love, anger.
philosophy" was believed to be the first
thinker to focus on the full power of Plato was one of the first philosophers
reason on the human self- our existence who believed in an enduring self that is
in the universe, who we are, who we represented by the soul. He argued that
should be, and who we will become. the soul is eternal and constitutes to
exist.
the self exists in two parts: the physical
body and the soul, ARISTOTLE: "Knowing yourself is the
beginning of all wisdom.
physical body is a tangible aspect of us.
It is mortal (it dies), constantly changing, the human person is a "rational animal".
imperfect, transforming, disappearing In other words, for Aristotle, the human
person is simply an animal that thinks.
Our soul which Socrates believed to be
immortal, is etemal, perfect, or ideal. ST. AUGUSTINE: Accepting God is the
poth to know thyself.
PLATO: "The first and the best victory is
to conquer self St. Augustine's reflections on the
relations between time and memory
greatly influenced many fundamental Further, your soul and your body are
doctrines of psychology. independent of one another. Each one
can exist and function without the other.
Time is something that people measure
within their own memory. It is not a JOHN LOCKE: "The Self is
feature or property of the world, but a Consciousness"
property of the mind.
John Locke is known for his theory that
He believed that the times present of the mind is a tabulo raso, a blank slate.
things past, present, and future coexist Locke believed that we are born without
in the soul; the time present of things thoughts, or our mind was empty and
post is memory, the time present of that knowledge is instead determined
things present is direct experience, and only by experience.
the time present of things future is
expectation. Consciousness is the perception of what
passes in a Man's own mind. He
The existence of past and future for St. concluded that personal identity is not in
Augustine is only possible through the brain but in one's consciousness.
memory and expectation.
He supports that consciousness can be
RENE DESCARTES: "I think, therefore I transferred from one substance (body
am” and soul) to another. This philosophy
can be understood easily in his
For Descartes, this is the essence of illustration of "The Prince and the
self-you are a "thinking thing" (I exist Cobbler". It supports the possibility that
because I think: I think, therefore I the same person may appear in a
exist). different body at the time of resurrection
and yet still be the same person.
Descartes dedares that the essential
self, or the self as a thinking entity, is DAVID HUME: "There is No "Self"
radically different from the self as a
physical body. For Scottish philosopher David Hume,
there is no self as a mental entity for
The thinking self-or soul is a non- "what we call a mind is nothing but a
material, Immortal, conscious being heap or collection of different
independent of the physical laws of the perceptions..." The self is a bundle of
universe. The physical body is a mortal, perceptions.
non-thinking material that is fully
governed by the physical laws of nature. There is no stable thing called self, for
the self is nothing but a complex set of
successive impressions or perceptions.
Thus, we cannot observe any the norms, values, and standards
permanent self because we prescribed by society. If superego is
continuously undergo change. dominant, a law-abiding, morally upright,
god-fearing, and socially acceptable
IMMANUEL KANT: "We Construct the individual appears.
Self
Superego has two systems the
Consciousness is formed by one's inner conscience and the ideal self.
self and outer self, The inner self Conscience can sanction the ego
includes rational reasoning and through the feeling of guilt. The ideal
psychological state while the outer self self, an imaginary picture of one's self, is
includes the body and physical mind. rewarded by the superego when one
conforms with the standards Imposed by
SIGMUND FREUD: "There Are Two the society.
Selves. One Conscious, One
Unconscious" GILBERT RYLE: 1 act, therefore I am".

Self is multi-layered. It is composed of A British philosopher that opposed Rene

three structures of the human mind-id, Descartes that the self is a thinking
ego, and superego. thing.

Id exists since birth, pertaining to - People learn that they have their own
instinct. It serves as a storeroom of minds because they behave in certain
wishes and obsessions related to sexual ways.
and aggressive desires.
The self is a combination of the mind
Ego operates according to the reality and the body. For him, the mind is not
principle. This structure's role is to the seat of self but the behavior,
maintain equilibrium between the opposing Descartes' immaterial mind in
demands of id and superego in a material body. The self is the way
accordance with what is best and people behave.
practical in reality. if ego is successful, it
tums out to be a brilliant, creative, and PAUL AND PATRICIA CHURCHLAND:
emotionally-balanced individual. "The Self is the Brain".

Superego is the last layer to develop. It Paul & Patricia Churchland are both
operates according to the morality neuroscientists. It is the physical brain,
principle not the imaginary mind, that gives us
our sense of self. To Churchland, the
Superego is the reservoir of moral self is the brain.
standards, It ensures compliance with
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: "The the influence of people, meaning, the
Self is An Embodied Subjectivity self is shaped through interaction with
other people in a society.
The French phenomenological
philosopher distinguished the body into Social construction - means that
two types: the subjective body, as lived individuals develop a sense of self
and experienced, and the objective based on how they
body, as observed and scientifically
investigated. think other people see and judge them.
They see themselves and construct a
The former is the body as-it-is-lived. sense of Identity, by interpreting what
"But I am not in front of my body, I am in they think they see reflected about
my body, or rather I am my body." themselves in others' opinions and
reactions.
He regarded self as embodied
subjectivity. It sees human beings Socialization is the process of learning
neither as disembodied minds (existing one's culture and how to live within it. In
without body) nor as complex machines, other words, it is the process whereby
but as living creatures whose an individual learns to adjust to a group
subjectivity (consciousness) is and behave in a way that is approved by
actualized in the forms of their physical the group.
involvement with the world.
The Self and the Social Agencies
To sum it up, Merleau-Ponty's, "I am my
body cannot simply be interpreted as Family - it is the most pervading,
advocating a materialist, behaviorist Influential social group that impacts
type position. He accepts the idea of ourselves in the entire course of
mental states but he also suggests that development.
the use of the mind is inseparable from
our bodily, situated, physical nature. School-we are expected to meet certain
criteria of achievement and oftentimes,
03 in collaborative learning conditions. We
harness the knowledge that we get from
THE SOCIOLOGICAL SELF our mentors and apply the socialization
skills we got from our families in
Sociology is the study of the role of developing relationships with our school
society in shaping behavior. The peers.
sociological perspective of the self looks
into self as a social construction, which Communities - From an anthropological
means that who you are as a person all and sociological perspective, our
through your lifetime is developed under cultural
beliefs and practices are influenced by Game stage, comes to see himself or
what our communities and societies herself from the perspective of other
dictate. Values such as faith in God, people. To play the game, the child
respect for the elderly, task persistence must be aware of his or her relationship
& dedication, and love for our country to other people and place himself or
are often the products of communal herself in their roles in order to
settings we belong to and societal appreciate his or her particular role in
expectations imposed on us. the game.

George Herbert Mead: Social Self The"I" Self and "Me" Self Theory

Self is not biological but social. Self is The "I" is the phase of the self that is
something that is developed through unsocialized and spontaneous. It is the
social interactions. The self is developed acting part of the self, an immediate
as one grows and ages. response to other people. It represents
the self that is free and unique. It is the
Role playing is the process in which one subjective part of the self.
takes on the role of another by putting
oneself in the position of the person with The "Me" is the self that results from the
whom he or she interacts. Through role progressive stages of role playing or
playing, the individual develops a role-taking and the perspective one
concept of self. By putting oneself in the assumes to view and analyze one's own
position of others, one is able to reflect behaviors. It represents the
upon oneself. conventional and objective part of the
self.
Babies cannot interpret the meaning of
other people's behavior, it is usually Charles Horton Cooley: Looking Glass
learned during childhood which comes Self
in three stages of development.
The self developed as a result of one's
Imitation or the preparatory stage, a perceptions of other people's opinion.
stage in which a child imitates the People are the way they are at least
behavior of his or her parents like partly because of other people's
sweeping the floor. reactions to them and to what they do.
They are constantly picking up feedback
Play stage involves the child playing the and incorporating it into their sense of
role of others. In doing these, he or she self.
becomes aware that there is a
difference between himself or herself The self is built through social
and the role that he or she is playing. interaction which involves three steps:
first, people imagine how they must
appear to others; second, they imagine There are four branches of
the judgment on that appearance; and Anthropology:
finally, they develop themselves through
the judgment of others Archeology is the study of how people
lived in the past. Archaeologists learn
The Self Embedded in Culture from things people leave behind or
artifacts like pottery, tools, relics,
yourself, such as showing your feelings ceramics, weapons, or anything made
in public or keeping it private. Culture or used by humans.
Influences what will affect you
emotionally, as well as how you express Physical Anthropology is the study of
human biology, including how people
beliefs, values, and traditions. Culture is adapt to where they live and how bodies
everything that makes up the way a change over time (human evolution).
group of people lives. It includes their Physical anthropologists also study non-
human
being influenced by it: There are two
components of culture that are essential Linguistic anthropology is the study of
in understanding how the self is 19 how people speak and the words they
use and how their language developed
we buy and the products we use are and evolved. Linguistic anthropology
also included here. and use. These are also studies the evolution of language
the physical manifestations of culture. and how it changed what people think
The goods and products Material culture and how people change their language.
consists of human technology, all the
things that people make Cultural anthropology is the study of
how people live their lives in the present
norms, morals, rules, language, and and how they may have lived in the
organizations. Non-material culture past, including the tools they used and
includes intangible human creations like the food they produced and consumed.
beliefs, values, It is also related to sociology and social
science.
Anthropology is the scientific study of
humanity, concerned with human Cultural Identity and National Identity
behavior, human biology, cultures,
societies and linguistics, in both the Culture is derived from the Latin word
present and past, including past human cultura or cultus meaning care or
species. Anthropology is the study of cultivation. It is analogous to an infant,
people and cultures in the past and because an infant has prolonged
today. dependency, he or she has to be taken
care of by the people around him or her. Brian Morris reiterated that the self is
The infant has to leam from them so he not an entity but a process that
or she can better adjust while showing orchestrates an Individual's personal
up in his or her immediate cultural experience. As a result of this process,
environment. a person becomes self-aware and self-
reflective about his or her place in the
Cultural Identity refers to the identity or surrounding world.
feeling of belongingness to a certain
group. It is an individual's perception Morris stated that the most crucial form
about himself or herself anchored on of interaction and exchange takes place
race, gender, nationality, religion, in the self and his or her cultural
ethnicity, and language. environment as mediated by social
practices.
The cultural identity theory explains why
a person acts and behaves the way he Dialogical Self
or she does, it makes sense of how an
individual is influenced by the cultural The dialogical self theory was
contexts he or she is situated in. A introduced in 1992 by Hubert Hermans.
single person can possess many The theory regarded self as the society
cultural groups. of Mind. He posited the idea that the self
is considered as extended to significant
A nation is a group of people built on the others in the environment that populate
premise of shared customs, traditions. the self as dynamic multiplicity of I-
religion, language, art, history and more. positions in which dialogical and
monological relationships may emerge.
National identity is socially constructed.
It is influenced and shaped by material In this theory, individual sense of self is
and non-material cultures. established through how one identifies
himself or herself with the different
Material culture such as the national positions he or she holds, internally or
flag, emblem, or seal is representative externally, to himself or herself. For
of all the people who are part of a instance, one may say, "i" as a member
nation. of my family, "I" as an educator.

Non-material culture embodies the An internal I-position refers to how one

shared understanding of a group of functions in himself or herself while an
people which includes norms, beliefs, external 1-position refers to how one
and traditions. identifies himself or herself based on
particular external factors. (e.g. internal:
Brian Morris Anthropology of the Self I am empathic, "I am diligent, extemal).
The dialogic self approach calls for the
need for the I-positions to come in
contact with each other.

Individual Self, Relational Self and

Collective Self

There are three fundamental selves,

namely the Individual self, the relational
self, and the collective self:

The individual self-reflects the

cognitions related to traits, states and
behaviors that are stored in a memory.
(e.g. I am religious, I feel cold...)

The relational self-reflects cognitions

that are related to one's relationships
(e.g. I am the father, I am the
godfather..)

The collective self-reflects cognitions

that are related to one's group (I am an
Ilocano or I am a Filipino).

Identity Struggles

People are quick to judge who others

are. People's actions in every situation
vary depending on physiological and
psychological states. This is called
identity struggles.

Identity struggle is a term introduced by

Anthony Wallace and Raymond
Fogelson.

It characterizes the discrepancy

between the identity a person claims to
possess and the identity attributed to
that person by others.