PHILOSOPHICAL

PERSPECTIVES
OF THE SELF
•The etymological definition of philosophy is " love of
wisdom" from the Greek words Philo and Sophia.
•Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the
ultimate causes, reasons, and principles of everything.
•The nature of the self is a topic of interest among
philosophers.
•The philosophical framework for understanding the self was
first introduced by ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and
Plato.
•Socrates suggests to “know thyself. ” What is self and the
qualities that define it? Philosophers agree that self-
knowledge is a prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life.
Notable Philosophers:
• Socrates • Locke • Ryle

• Plato • Hume • Churchland

• Aristotle • Kant • Merleau-Ponty
• St. Augustine
• Freud
• Descartes
SOCRATES: "AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS
NOT WORTH LIVING"
• For ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, the self is
synonymous with the soul.
• The soul is the essence of the human person therefore
the soul is the person's true self.
• The soul is immortal, Socrates explained that death is
the departure of the soul for the eternal world.
•In Socrates' concept of Reality, it consists of two
dichotomous realms: physical realm and ideal realm. The
physical realm is changeable, transient, and imperfect.
The body belongs to the physical realm.
•The ideal realm is unchanging, eternal, and immortal. The
soul belongs to the ideal realm.
•Socrates urges us to take care of our soul because it is through this that
we can achieve a good life.
•The soul strives for wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool to
achieve an exalted state of life.
•Our preoccupation with bodily needs such as food, drink, sex, pleasure,
material possessions, and wealth keep us from attaining wisdom.
•A person can have a good life only if he becomes virtuous and wise which
can be attained through the acquisition of knowledge, wisdom, and virtue.
PLATO: THE SELF IS
IMMORTAL

• Plato believed that the self is

synonymous with the soul.
• The self consists of three-parts:
reason, spirit or passion, and
physical appetite.
•Reason is the divine essence that enables us to think
deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths.
•The spirit or passion includes basic emotions such as
love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy.
•The physical appetite includes our basic biological
needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.
•These three elements of our selves are in a dynamic relationship with
one another, sometimes in conflict.
•When conflict occurs, Plato believes that it is the responsibility of our
Reason to sort things out and exert control, restoring a harmonious
relationship among the three elements of our selves.
•Plato believes that genuine happiness can only be achieved by people
who consistently make sure that their Reason is in control of their
Spirits and Appetites.
ARISTOTLE: THE SOUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE
SELF
• For Aristotle, the body and soul are not two separate elements but are one thing.
• The soul is simply the Form of the body and is not capable of existing without
the body.
• The soul is that which makes a person a person. The soul is the essence of the
self.
• Without the body the soul cannot exist. The soul dies along with the body.
• Aristotle suggested that anything with life has soul.
• His discussion about the self centers on the kind of soul possessed by man.
• He introduced the three kinds of soul: vegetative, sentient, and rational.
• The vegetative includes the physical body that can grow.
• Sentient includes the sensual desires, feelings, and emotions.
• Rational is what makes man human. It includes the intellect that makes man
know and understand things.
• Aristotle suggests that the rational nature of the self is to lead a good,
flourishing, and fulfilling life.
ST. AUGUST INE: THE SELF IS
KNOWN ONLY THROUGH KNOWING
GOD

• St. Augustine integrated the ideas of Plato

and Christianity.
• He argued that man is bifurcated wherein
there is a part of man, called soul, which
dwells in the world(imperfect) and yearns to
be with the Divine and another part, called
body, which is incapable of reaching
immortality.
•Along with his idea is his notion that self is in search
of happiness because after all, we, humans, are
eudaemonic characters: our satisfaction in life is derived
from happiness.
•And with happiness comes the two fundamental rules
of man that are always intertwined: love and justice.
RENE DESCARTES: "I
THINK THEREFORE I AM"
(Cogito,ergo sum)
• His concept of the self revolves
around his idea of mind-body
dualism.
•The phrase “I think therefore I am” is
the keystone of Descartes’ concept of
self.
•For him, the act of thinking about the self – of being self-conscious –
is in itself proof that there is self.
•There are two dimensions of the self: the self as a thinking entity
(res cogitans) and the self as a physical body (res extensa).
•The thinking self (or soul) is the nonmaterial, immortal, conscious
being, and independent of the physical laws of the universe.
•The physical body is the material, mortal, non-thinking entity, fully
governed by the physical laws of nature.
JOHN LOCKE: THE SELF IS
CONSCIOUSNESS
• For Locke, the human mind at birth is tabula
rasa or blank slate.
• The self or personal identity is constructed
primarily from sense experiences that shape
and mold the self throughout a person’s life.
Hence, the self is considered to be the same
thing at different times and in different
places.
•Personal identity is made possible by self-
consciousness. A person is a thinking, intelligent
being who has abilities to reason and to reflect. The
essence of the self is its conscious awareness of
itself as thinking, reasoning, reflecting identity.
DAVID HUME: THERE IS NO SELF
• Hume suggests that if people carefully examine their sense experience through
the process of introspection, they will discover that there is no self.
• According to Hume, what people experience can all be categorized into two:
impressions and idea.
• Impressions are the basic objects of our experience or sensation. They
therefore form the core of our thoughts.
• The mind is a theatre, a container for fleeting sensations, hence, personal
identity is just a result of imagination.
IMMANUEL KANT: WE
CONSTRUCT THE SELF

• According to Kant, the self is composed of

the inner and outer self. The inner self is
comprised of our psychological state and our
rational intellect. The outer self includes
our sense and the physical world.
•The self is a product of reason because the self regulates
experience by making unified experience possible.
•We construct the self. The self exists independently of
experience and the self goes beyond experience.

•Through our rationality, the self transcends sense experience

SIGMUND FREUD: THE SELF IS
MULT ILAYERED
• According to Freud, the self consists of three layers:
conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
• The conscious mind includes thoughts, feelings, and
actions that you are currently aware of; the
preconscious mind includes mental activities that are
stored in your memory, not presently active but can
be accessed or recalled; while the unconscious mind
includes activities that you are not aware of.
GILBERT RYLE: "I ACT THEREFORE I AM"
• 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 provided the
philosophical principle, “I act therefore I am.”
• In short, the self is the same as bodily behavior.
PAUL CHURCHLAND: THE SELF IS THE
BRAIN
• The self is inseparable from the brain and the physiology of
the body.
• All we have is the brain and so, if the brain is gone, there is
no self.
• For Churchland, the physical brain and not the imaginary
mind, gives us our sense of self.
• The mind does not really exist.
• It is the brain and not the imaginary mind that gives us our
sense of self. The self is the brain.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: THE SELF IS
EMBODIED SUBJECTIVITY

• To him, body and mind are so intertwined that they

cannot be separated from one another. Both give humans
a sense of self.
• All knowledge of our selves and our world is based on
subjective experience.
• Your body is your general medium for having a world.
• The self can never be truly objectified or known in a
completely objective sort of way.