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Module 1: Introduction to Philosophy

Lesson 1: Why study Philosophy?

• Philosophy makes a central contribution to the educational enterprise through its

demands upon intellectual activity.
• Philosophy addresses problems and questions that arise in all areas of human
thought and experience and in all disciplines. Such work is applicable to virtually all
career endeavors. Recurring questions about the nature of value, the good life, right
conduct, knowledge, truth, language, mind and reality are central to philosophical
study.
• Philosophy also investigates the methodologies and assumptions of the major
disciplines in the university in order to deepen our understanding of the sciences, of
mathematics, art, literature, and history, and of religion and morality.
• It leads us to contemplate the nature of these subjects, the methods of reasoning
characteristic of them, and the contributions they make to our understanding of
ourselves and our world.

Skills that we develop in studying Philosophy:

General Problem-Solving Skills

• The study of philosophy enhances a person's problem-solving capacities. It helps us
to analyze concepts, definitions, arguments, and problems.
• It contributes to our capacity to organize ideas and issues, to deal with questions of
value, and to extract what is essential from large quantities of information.

Communication Skills
• Philosophy contributes uniquely to the development of expressive and
communicative powers.
• It provides some of the basic tools of self-expression - for instance, skills in
presenting ideas through well-constructed, systematic arguments - that other fields
either do not use or use less extensively.

Persuasive Powers
• Philosophy provides training in the construction of clear formulations, good
arguments, and appropriate examples.
• It, thereby, helps us to develop our ability to be convincing.
• We learn to build and defend our own views, to appreciate competing positions,
and to indicate forcefully why we consider our own views preferable to
alternatives.
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Writing Skills
• Writing is taught intensively in many philosophy courses, and many regularly
assigned philosophical texts are also excellent as literary essays.
• Philosophy teaches interpretive writing through its examination of challenging
texts, comparative writing through emphasis on fairness to alternative positions,
argumentative writing through developing students' ability to establish their own
views, and descriptive writing through detailed portrayal of concrete examples.

Development of Sound Methods of Research and Analysis

• Still another value of philosophy in education is its contribution to our capacity to
frame hypotheses, to do research, and to put problems in manageable form.

Understanding Other Disciplines

• Philosophy is indispensable so our ability to understand other disciplines. Many
important questions about a discipline, such as the nature of its concepts and its
relation to other disciplines, are philosophical in nature.

Lesson 2: Defining Philosophy

Etymological meaning of philosophy

o The word philosophy is derived from Greek words – Philia and Sophia.
o Philia means love and Sophia means wisdom. Thus, Philosophy means love
of wisdom
o Philosophy is done primarily through reflection and does not tend to rely on
experiment.
• Philosophy as love of wisdom is geared towards proper understanding of human
experiences and the world.
• Philosophy is a systematic study of the foundation of human knowledge with an
emphasis on the conditions of its validity and finding answers to ultimate questions.
• Philosophy provides a good way of learning to think more clearly about wide range
of issues.
• Oxford Dictionary definition: A department of knowledge which deals with
ultimate reality or with the most general causes and principles of things.
• Aristotle Considers philosophy as "the first and last science"—the first science
because it is logically presupposed by every other science, the last because deals
with reality in its ultimate principles and causes.
• It has been generally considered that philosophy is a purely abstract enterprise
without any practical relevance.
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• Philosophy does not put people to slumber, but disturbs and awakens them from
their life of mediocrity and stagnation, and spurs them to dynamic action and moral
living.
• Philosophy enables people to live a life of existential depth, moral integrity and
religious conviction.
• Philosophy as the body of natural knowledge critically and methodically acquired
and ordered which undertakes an investigation of the fundamental problems
concerning knowledge, being, nature, values and endeavours to attain the
fundamental explanation of things.

Lesson 3: Thinking Philosophically: Becoming a Critical Thinker

• To think philosophically means, in the vaguest of senses, to introspect about life in

general, humanity, creation, and other abstract puzzling topics present in today’s
world.
• Thinking philosophically usually comes naturally. If you find yourself pondering
about questions bigger than your surroundings or your day-to-day activities, then at
some level you are using philosophical logic to think.

Critical Thinking
• The ability to analyze the way you think and present evidence for your ideas, rather
than simply accepting your personal reasoning as sufficient proof.
• Defined as the skill of making a decision based on the right reasons because there is
the skill of evaluating arguments to compose good cases in real life
• A form of higher order thinking skill involving students in learning to recognise or
develop an argument, use evidence in supporting of that argument, drawing
reasoned conclusions, and using the information to solve problems.
• Self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It
presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of
their use.

5 Critical Thinking Skills:

1. Reasoning 4. Problem-solving
2. Analyzing 5. Evaluating
3. Decision-making
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Reasons why critical thinking skills are important and beneficial:

Critical Thinking is a domain-general thinking skill.
• The ability to think clearly and rationally is important whatever we choose to
do.
• Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any
career.

Critical Thinking is very important in the new knowledge economy.

• The new economy places increasing demands on flexible intellectual
skills, and the ability to analyse information and integrate diverse
sources of knowledge in solving problems.
• Good critical thinking promotes such thinking skills, and is very
important in the fast-changing workplace.

Critical Thinking enhances language and presentation skills.

• Thinking clearly and systematically can improve the way we express our
ideas.
• In learning how to analyse the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also
improves comprehension abilities.

Critical Thinking promotes creativity.

• To come up with a creative solution to a problem involves not just having
new ideas.
• Critical thinking plays a crucial role in evaluating new ideas, selecting the
best ones and modifying them if necessary.

Critical Thinking is crucial for self-reflection.

• In order to live a meaningful life and to structure our lives accordingly, we
need to justify and reflect on our values and decisions.
• Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of self-evaluation.

Good Critical Thinking is the foundation of science and a liberal

democratic society.
• Science requires the critical use of reason in experimentation and theory
confirmation.
• The proper functioning of a liberal democracy requires citizens who can
think critically about social issues to inform their judgments about proper
governance and to overcome biases and prejudice.
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How do I become a critical thinker?

• Accomplished critical thinkers focus on destinations, not dramas. They

don’t leave their people with answers; they give them opportunities to
solve problems.
• Students who know how to analyze and critique ideas are able to
make connections across disciplines, see knowledge as useful and
applicable to daily life and understand content on a deeper, more
lasting level.
• Rather than relying on teachers and classroom time for instruction
and guidance, students with critical thinking skills become more
independent, self-directed learners.
• A good critical thinker knows how to separate facts from opinions,
how to examine an issue from all sides, how to make rational
inferences and how to withhold personal judgment or biases.
• The critical thinker usually has the comprehensive skills to consider
all possible options and solve a problem.
• Critical thinkers consider all options before they act. If time is an
important factor, they consider the fastest method of achieving a goal.

Lesson 4: Branches of Philosophy

1. Metaphysics
• Metaphysics investigates the nature, structure and value of reality.
• A branch of philosophy that goes beyond the realms of science. It is concerned with
answering the questions about identity and the world.
• The foundation of philosophy
• Aristotle calls it "first philosophy" and says it is the subject that deals with "first
causes and the principles of things".
• It asks questions like: "What is the nature of reality?", "How does the world exist, and
what is its origin or source of creation?", "Does the world exist outside the mind?",
"How can the incorporeal mind affect the physical body?", "If things exist, what is their
objective nature?"
2. Epistemology
• Epistemology literally means “science of knowledge.”
• It deals with the definition of knowledge and its scope and limitations.
• The study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief.
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• It analyzes the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such
as truth, belief and justification.
• It questions the meaning of knowledge, how we obtain knowledge, how much do
we know and how do we have this knowledge?

3. Ethics
• A branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is,
concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc.
• Ethics denotes the theory of right action and the greater good, while morals
indicate their practice.
• Ethics is concerned with questions of how people ought to act, and the search for
a definition of right conduct and the good life.
• It is deals with questions on morality and values and how they apply to various
situations.

4. Political Philosophy
• The study of fundamental questions about
the state, government, politics, liberty, justice and the enforcement of a legal
code by authority.
• a study of government and nations, particularly how they came about, what
makes good governments, what obligations citizens have towards their
government, and so on.
• Political philosophy asks questions like: "What is a government?", "Why are
governments needed?", "What makes a government legitimate?", "What rights
and freedoms should a government protect?", "What duties do citizens owe to a
legitimate government, if any?" and "When may a government be legitimately
overthrown, if ever?"

5. Aesthetics
• The branch of philosophy which is concerned with definition, structure and
role of beauty, especially in the art is called aesthetics.
• Deals with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and
appreciation of beauty.
• The philosopher wishes to know the answer to questions such as:
What is beauty? What is the relation of the beautiful to the true and the good?,
Are there criteria by means of which we can judge a work of art in an objective
sense?
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6. Logic
• The system or principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge
or study. Among the branches of philosophy,
• Logic is concerned with the various forms of reasoning and arriving at
genuine conclusions. It includes the system of statements and arguments.

Module 2: The Philosopher’s Way

Lesson 1: Socrates a Model to Humanity

• Socrates is one of the few individuals whom one could say has so-shaped the
cultural and intellectual development of the world that, without him, history would
be profoundly different.
• Two of his younger students, the historian Xenophon and the philosopher Plato,
recorded the most significant accounts of Socrates’ life and philosophy.
• Socrates helped his students explore was whether weakness of will—doing wrong
when you genuinely knew what was right ever truly existed.
• Socrates was also deeply interested in understanding the limits of human
knowledge. When he was told that the Oracle at Delphi had declared that he was the
wisest man in Athens, Socrates balked until he realized that, although he knew
nothing, he was (unlike his fellow citizens) keenly aware of his own ignorance.
• Socrates is one of the few individuals whom one could say has so-shaped the
cultural and intellectual development of the world that, without him, history would
be profoundly different.
• He is best known for his association with the Socratic method of question and
answer, his claim that he was ignorant, and his claim that the unexamined life is not
worth living, for human beings.

Lesson 2: The Socratic Method

• The Socratic Method is named after Greek philosopher Socrates who taught
students by asking question after question. Socrates sought to expose contradictions
in the students’ thoughts and ideas to then guide them to solid, tenable conclusions.
• The principle underlying the Socratic Method is that students learn through the use
of critical thinking, reasoning, and logic. This technique involves finding holes in
their own theories and then patching them up.
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• a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking

and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and
underlying presuppositions.
• It is a dialectical method, involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of
view is questioned; one participant may lead another to contradict them in some
way, thus weakening the defender’s point.
• The Socratic Method searches for general, commonly held truths that shape beliefs
and scrutinizes them to determine their consistency with other beliefs.
• The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended
to help a person or group discover their beliefs about some topic, exploring
definitions and seeking to characterize general characteristics shared by various
particular instances.
• Socrates believed that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those
who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge.

Lesson 3: Socrates’ Central Concern: The Soul

Soul

• Immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and
humanity, often considered being synonymous with the mind or the self.

Socrates' Care of the soul develops as follows:

1ST Step: Belief in the Meaning

• The simple belief that there is some kind of meaning, pattern or order behind life.
• You must first admit that it is plausible that there is an absolute in life, there is
some meaning, although we may not know what it is, or even be capable of
understanding it.

2nd Step: Admission of Ignorance

• If you believe that you know things, when in fact you don't, that will only distort
your thoughts and frustrate your search for the meaning behind life, and how to
live your life.

3rd Step: Questioning / Questioning of Life

• You are unable to know the true meaning of life in its essence.
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• But Socrates believes that you are able to know things about it, even though you
can't know its whole. So you must question life to become a better person.
4th Step: Hope

• Hope that there exists an answer, and that the divine is not indifferent to
the souls of mankind.
• To treat everything with equal analysis under questioning, fuelled by this hope
for an answer.

Socrates' idea is that the good for man is to live in accord with the moral
excellence (virtue) that is proper to man.
The good for man is the life of rational moral virtue.

Lesson 4: The Trial and Death of Socrates

• The trial of Socrates was held to determine the philosopher’s guilt of two charges:
asabeia (impeity) against the pantheon of Athens and the corruption of the youth of
the city-state.

• Socrates is found guilty by a narrow margin and is asked to propose a penalty.

• He rejected prison and exile, offering perhaps instead to pay a fine.
• The jury rejected his suggestion and sentences him to death, Socrates patiently
accepted the verdict with the observation that no one but the gods knows what
happens after death and so it would be foolish to fear what one does not know.

• He drank the cup of brewed hemlock his executioner handed him, walked around
until his legs grew numb and then lay down, surrounded by his friends, and waited
for the poison to reach his heart.

Lesson 5: Making Connections: Socrates’ Legacy

Socrates and his followers expanded the purpose of philosophy from trying to
understand the outside world to trying to tease apart one’s inner values.

Socrates Theory of the Soul

• He wanted to persuade others to look into themselves, to seek wisdom and virtue
and to care for their noblest possession, their soul, before all else.
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• He used the dialectical method as a midwife to ideas to lead others to knowledge,

truth and virtue. He used the dialectical process to arrive at universal definitions.
• Socrates himself believed in the universality of the inner rational being.
• He believed that: The unexamined life is not worth living. The best manner to
examine that life is through reasoning which employs the dialectical method of
inquiry.

Ethics
• For Socrates the key to a virtuous life was knowledge of the good.
• If one knew the good one would choose it. One always chooses the best of the
options available.
• Virtue would depend on knowledge.
• Knowledge of the good and of virtue was necessary for the good life.
• The soul must choose the good but only if it knows what it is.
• Evil is the result of ignorance. The soul chooses what it thinks is the good but if it
isn’t, the soul has made a mistake. Wrong doing is involuntary.
• If people knew what was the right thing to do they would do it. We always choose
what we think is the best or good for us.

Epistemology
• Socrates developed the dialectical process for gaining knowledge. He used
an inductive method of argumentation in order to develop universal definitions.
• Socrates would examine theories using the dialectic method, which was similar to a
conversational pattern with many questions.
• Socrates would challenge initial hypotheses and examine them for presumptions
and assumptions. He regularly used two techniques:
What follows if……..What conflicts with …
• He did this in an effort to establish the truth of the hypothesis. He looked for a
coherent and consistent set of ideas; a system of thought.

Module 3: Consciousness, Identity and the Self

Lesson 1: Know Thyself

• “Wisdom begins with wonder,” said Socrates. Through dialogue, he led his
audience to passionate inquiry of existence and identity.
• One could not know anything without knowing one’s self.
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• The nature of the self is a subject that most people take for granted.
• When we go searching for our self with a philosophical lens, we soon discover that
what we thought was a straightforward and familiar presence is in fact elusive,
enigmatic, and extraordinarily complex.
• If we are to fulfill Socrates’s exhortation to live an examined life, a life of purpose
and value, we must begin at the source of all knowledge and significance—our
self.

Lesson 2: The Soul is Immortal: Socrates and Plato

• Socrates was convinced that, in addition to our physical bodies, each person
possesses an immortal soul that survives beyond the death of the body.
• For Socrates, reality is dualistic, made up of two dichotomous realms. One realm is
changeable, transient, and imperfect, whereas the other realm is unchanging, eternal,
and immortal.
• For Socrates, our bodies belong to the physical realm: They change, they’re imperfect,
and they die. Our souls, however, belong to the ideal realm: They are unchanging and
immortal, surviving the death of the body
• Our souls strive for wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool to achieve
this exalted state.
• But as long as the soul is tied to the body, this quest for wisdom is inhibited by the
imperfection of the physical realm, as the soul is “dragged by the body into the region
of the changeable,” where it “wanders and is confused” in a world that “spins round
her, and she is like a drunkard.”
• Plato's idea of the soul is believing that body and soul are fundamentally separate.
• Plato was most concerned with indicating the immortality of the soul and its ability to
survive bodily death.

Plato introduces the idea of a three-part soul/self-constituted by

• REASON— it is the divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise
choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.
• APPETITE/PHYSICAL APPETITE— the basic biological needs such as hunger,
thirst, and sexual desire.
• SPIRIT OR PASSION— it is the basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition,
aggressiveness and empathy.

• Plato believed that genuine happiness can only be achieved by people who
consistently make sure that their Reason is in control of their Spirits and Appetites.
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Lesson 3: St. Augustine’s Synthesis of Plato and Christianity

• Saint Augustine (354-430): Christian philosopher and bishop of Hippo in Northern

Africa.
• Thus, Plato’s ultimate reality, the eternal realm of the Forms, became in Augustine’s
philosophy a transcendent God.
• In the same way, Plato’s vision of immortal souls striving to achieve union with this
eternal realm through intellectual enlightenment became transformed by Augustine
into immortal souls striving to achieve union with God through faith and reason.
• The transient, finite nature of the physical world described by Plato became in
Christianity a proving ground for our eternal destinies. Plato’s metaphysical
framework thus provided philosophical justification for Christian beliefs that might
otherwise have been considered far-fetched.
• Augustine believed that the physical body was both radically different from and
inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul.
• As his thinking matured, Augustine sought to develop a more unified perspective on
body and soul. He ultimately came to view the body as the “spouse” of the soul, with
both attached to one another.
• He concludes, “That the body is united with the soul, so that man may be entire and
complete, is a fact we recognize on the evidence of our own nature.”

Lesson 4: Descartes’s Modern Perspective on the Self

• René Descartes (1596-1650): French philosopher considered the founder of modern

philosophy.
• He was more concerned with understanding the thinking process we use to answer
questions.
• But instead of simply using reason to try to answer questions, Descartes wanted to
penetrate the nature of our reasoning process and understand its relation to the
human self.
• He was convinced that to develop the most informed and well-grounded beliefs about
human existence, we need to be clear about the thinking instrument we are
employing.
• Descartes is convinced that committing yourself to a wholesale and systematic
doubting of all things you have been taught to simply accept without question is the
only way to achieve clear and well-reasoned conclusions. It is the only way for you to
develop beliefs that are truly yours and not someone else’s.
• Doubting may mean shaking up your world, questioning the beliefs of important
people in your life, perhaps challenging your image of yourself.
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• Cogito, ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am” is the first principle of Descartes’s theory
of knowledge because he is confident that no rational person will doubt his or her
own existence as a conscious, thinking entity—while we are aware of thinking about
our self.
• The essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of our
selves.
• Being self-conscious in this way is integral to having a personal identity.
• It would be impossible to be self-conscious if we didn’t have a personal identity of
which to be conscious.
• Having a Self-identity and being self-conscious are mutually dependent on one
another.
• Descartes thought that the self is a thinking thing distinct from the body. His first
famous principle was " Cogito, ergo sum", which means I think, therefore I am."
Although the mind and body are physically together as a whole, the mind and body
are mentally independent and serve their own function. He was convinced that we
must use our own mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment and
develop our own well- reasoned conclusions. It is also important to doubt as far as
possible all things in order to become a real seeker for the truth.
• Even though your body is not as central to your Self as is your capacity to think and
reflect, it clearly plays a role in your self-identity. In fact, Descartes contends, if you
reflect thoughtfully, you can see that you have clear ideas of both your Self as a
thinking entity and your Self as a physical body.

Lesson 5: The Self is Consciousness: Locke

• John Locke a English philosopher and physician.

• Knowledge is based on the careful observation of sense experience and/or memories
of previous experiences. Reason plays a subsequent role in helping to figure out the
significance of our sense experience and to reach intelligent conclusions.
• For Locke, all knowledge originates in our direct sense experience, which acts as the
final court of judgment in evaluating the accuracy and value of ideas.
• A person is a thinking, intelligent being who has the abilities to reason and to reflect.
A person is also someone who considers itself to be the same thing in different times
and different places.
• Consciousness is what makes possible our belief that we are the same identity in
different times and different places.
• For Locke, the essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as thinking,
reasoning, reflecting identity.
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• Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to

understanding the self.
• You have a coherent concept of yourself as a personal identity because you are aware
of yourself when you are thinking, feeling, and willing.
• For Locke, personal identity and the soul or substance in which the personal identity
is situated are two very different things.
• Every aspect of your physical body (substance) is integrated with your personal
identity.
• Your personal identity remains intact, although the substance associated with it has
changed.
• Your Self is not tied to any particular body or substance, and it only exists in other
times and places because of our memory of those experiences.
• Locke concludes that our personal identity is distinct from whatever substance it
finds itself associated with.

Lesson 6: There is No Self: Hume

• David Hume (1711-1776): Scottish philosopher whose skeptical examinations of

religion, ethics, and history were to make him a controversial eighteenth-century
figure.
• 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.

According to Hume, if we carefully examine the contents of our experience, we find

that there are only two distinct entities:

• IMPRESSIONS—the basic sensations of our experience, the elemental data of

our minds: pain, pleasure, heat, cold, and so on. These impressions are “lively”
and “vivid.”
• 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
• And because the self is not to be found among these continually changing sensations,
we can only conclude that there is no good reason for believing that the self exists.
• We tend to think of ourselves as selves—stable entities that exist over time. But no
matter how closely we examine our own experiences, we never observe anything
beyond a series of transient feelings, sensations, and impressions.
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• We cannot observe ourselves, or what we are, in a unified way. There is no

impression of the “self” that ties our particular impressions together. In other words,
we can never be directly aware of ourselves, only of what we are experiencing at any
given moment. Although the relations between our ideas, feelings, and so on, may be
traced through time by memory, there is no real evidence of any core that connects
them.
• Hume suggests that the self is just a bundle of perceptions, like links in a chain. To
look for a unifying self beyond those perceptions is like looking for a chain apart from
the links that constitute it.
• Hume argues that our concept of the self is a result of our natural habit of attributing
unified existence to any collection of associated parts.

Lesson 7: We Construct the Self: Kant

• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): German philosopher considered by many to be the

greatest thinker of the eighteenth century.
• In general, we live in a fairly stable and orderly world in which sensations are woven
together into a fabric that is familiar to us. And integrated throughout this fabric is
our conscious self who is the knowing subject at the center of our universe.
• According to Kant the order and organization of our world come largely from us.
• Our minds actively sort, organize, relate, and synthesize the fragmented, fluctuating
collection of sense data that our sense organs take in.
• The meaning-constructing activity is precisely what our minds are doing all of the
time: taking the raw data of experience and actively synthesizing it into the familiar,
orderly, meaningful world in which we live.
• Our minds actively synthesize and relate these sensations in the process of creating
an intelligible world.
• As a result, the sensations of immediate experience conform to our minds, rather
than the reverse. We construct our world through these conceptual operations; and,
as an effect, this is a world of which we can gain insight and knowledge.
• It’s yourself that is actively organizing all of your sensations and thoughts into a
picture that makes sense to you. This picture is uniquely your picture. You are at the
center of your world, and you view everything in the world from your perspective.
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Lesson 8: The Self is How You Behave: Ryle

• Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976). He is an Analytic Philosopher who is an important figure in

the field known as “Linguistic Analysis” which focused on the solving of philosophical
puzzles through an analysis of language.
• Ryle believes that self is how a person behaves
• Ryle quoted “In searching for the self, one cannot simultaneously be the hunter and
the hunted.”
• For Ryle, our knowledge of other persons’ minds can only be inferential at best.
• Ryle believes that the mind is a concept that expresses the entire system of thoughts,
emotions, actions, and so on that make up the human self.
• Ryle then focuses his attention primarily on human behavior. From his perspective,
the self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition for a
person to behave in a certain way in certain circumstances.
• Ryle’s concept of the human self thus provides the philosophical principles “I ACT
THEREFORE I AM”
• Ryle’s considered the mind and body to be intrinsically linked in complex and
intimate ways.
• Ryle is convinced that the mind expresses the entire system of thoughts, emotions
and actions that make up the human self.
• The nature of a person’s motives may be defined by the actions and reactions of that
person in various circumstances or situations. The nature of a person’s motives in a
particular situation may not necessarily be determined by any hidden mental
processes or intellectual acts within that person. Motives may be revealed or
explained by a person’s behavior in a situation.

Lesson 9: The Self is the Brain: Physicalism

• Physicalism is the philosophical view that all aspects of the universe are composed of
matter and energy and can be fully explained by physical laws.
• Functionalism contends that the mind can be explained in terms of patterns of
sensory inputs and behavior outputs mediated by functionally defined mental states.
• Jerry Fodor (b. 1935): Fodor, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is a
philosopher and cognitive scientist who focus on the philosophy of the mind and the
philosophy of language.
• Functionalism was a perspective that, like behaviorism, still maintained that the
model for the human mind was the connection between sensory stimulation and
observable behavior.
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• The difference was that functionalists also acknowledged that there were “mental
states” that served to “connect” the sensory stimulation and observable behavior.
• For functionalism, what makes something a mental state does not depend on its
internal constitution, but rather the way it functions, or the role it plays, in the system
of which it is a part. Jerry Fodor explains:
• Functionalists contend that computer is the same basic model for humans: we receive
a complex variety of stimuli through our senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting,
touching)— “input”—that activates various mental states that ultimately result in
observable behavior— “output.”
• Eliminative materialism. This view believes that the mind is the brain and that over
time a mature neuroscience vocabulary will replace the “folk psychology” that we
currently use to think about ourselves and our minds.
• Paul Churchland (b. 1942): Contemporary American philosopher and professor at the
University of California, San Diego. Churchland’s interests are the philosophy of
science, the philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence and cognitive neurobiology,
epistemology, and perception.
• Churchland’s central argument is that the concepts and theoretical vocabulary we use
to think about ourselves—using such terms as belief, desire, fear, sensation, pain,
joy—actually misrepresent the reality of minds and selves.
• All of these concepts are part of a common sense “folk psychology” that obscures
rather than clarifies the nature of human experience.
• Eliminative materialists believe that we need to develop a new vocabulary and
conceptual framework that is grounded in neuroscience and that will be a more
accurate reflection of the human mind and self.
• Materialists contend that in the final analysis, mental states are identical with,
reducible to, or explainable in terms of physical brain states.

Lesson 10: Buddhist Concepts of Self

• The Buddhist conception of the self, and comparisons are often made between Hume’s
concept of the self as a unified bundle of thoughts, feelings, and sensations and
Buddhism’s concept of anatta or “no-self.”
• Buddhist doctrine agrees with Hume that the notion of a permanent self that exists as a
unified identity through time is an illusion.
• Buddhist philosophy allows for the idea of reincarnation, as the self passes from body
to body.
• The Buddha uses the mudra (a sacred gesture) to represent the Karmic wheel of birth,
death, and rebirth.
 DO NOT MEMORIZE EVERYTHING. JUST READ AND UNDERSTAND.

• For Buddhists, every aspect of life is impermanent and all elements of the universe
are in a continual process of change and transition, a process that includes each self as
well.
• The self can best be thought of as a flame that is continually passed from candle to
candle, retaining certain continuity but no real personal identity.
• The self is composed of five aggregates: physical form, sensation, conceptualization,
dispositions to act, and consciousness.
• Each self is comprised of the continual interplay of these five elements, but there is
no substance or identity beyond the dynamic interaction of these five elements.

Instead of stressing out and jinxing yourself for the worst, just
focus on studying hard.

DON’T STRESS

DO YOUR BEST!

GOOD LUCK!!! 😊