THE SELF FROM

VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the
self from various disciplinal perspectives
Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across
different disciplines and perspectives
 Examine the different influences, factors and forces that shape the self
Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the
development of one’s self and identity by developing a theory of the
self
PHILOSOPHICAL
VIEW
T

EACHEOF
R SELF
FACILITATION GOALS
help our students understand (i.e. define, analyze, identify, and
apply) important concepts and principles in the philosophy of man

 provide opportunities for our students to reflect

 and make sound judgment of the various philosophies of man

Provide opportunities to compare and contrast the

different philosophies
 Provide students opportunities to construct their own
philosophy of man
THE
AVOCADO/ARTICHOKE
MODEL METHAPORS
FOR HUMAN NATURE
OVERVIE
W
Are we more like avocados or more like of
artichokes? If we could peel away our layers would
we find a central core or merely emptiness as the
last layer is removed? Do we consist entirely of our
layers – genetic instructions or environmental
effects- or is there something central that contains
and represents the essence of who and what we
are.
 TOPI
CS
The Greek Rationalist Tradition (Avocado View)
Plato Aristotle
The Theocentric Tradition
- St. Augustine (Avocado View)
Self in the Modern Period (transition from Avocado to Artichoke
View)
- Rene Descartes
- John Locke
-
Existentialism: The Self-Created Self (Artichoke
View)
- Jean Paul Sarte

Postmodernism (Artichoke View)

- The Protean Self
SOCRA
TES
-believed in the natural goodness of the human person. No man
desires evil as such. His intention is
always directed toward the good in whatever he chooses to act upon.
- evil is not man’s intention; it is the result of ignorance that an action may
possibly end with.
- saw his task as helping people to "give birth" to the correct insight.
- it is imperative that man must examine his life for “an unexamined
life is not
worth living”
- Socratic Irony
 PLA
-TO
the soul existed before it inhabited the body
- It is reason that lies at the core of the human person
-To be fully human we must exercise our reason; to do otherwise
would be to risk slipping to the levels of animals being ruled by our
passionate impulses
- The soul is the immortal part of us
-Its true home is not in the world of matter and in the world of senses
(Socrates) but in the higher world of pure forms- a world that only
reason can reveal
FOR PLATO AND
ARISTOTLE
The soul represents the highest faculty
of human nature
By proclaiming the superiority of human
reason our essence as a person is captured
(avocado view) and to distinguish us from
other animal
ARISTOTL
E
HAPPINESS is a life of moderation. Whatever is
extreme is bad

CHANGE is necessary for growth and development of beings

ST.
AGUSTIN
- tries to reconcile his beliefs about freewill.
E- humans are morally responsible for their
actions.
- humans have the ability to behave morally.
- To be human is to be composite of body and
soul
- Man is ultimately meant to be happy
- Happiness is the end of every man
WHAT KIND OF
HAPPINESS
Everlasting happiness

What satisfies perfectly one’s craving for real happiness is his union with
God
RENE
DESCARTES
THINK ABOUT THE IDEAS
OR
PRINCIPLES THAT ARE
MOST IMPORTANT TO
YOU.
 BELIEF
#1

Human life is
directed towards
happiness.
 BELIEF #2
Every person has ONE TRUE
LOVE which will be his/her
destiny!

Every person has ONE TRUE LOVE

which
will be his/her destiny!
 BELIEF #3
There is a GOD who will give
meaning to our lives.
Now, are you sure that all
these ideas are true and
deserved to be
followed?
THINKING
OTHERWISE

Imagine yourself
as holding the
opposite belief.
BELIEF #-1

Human life is not

supposed to be
happy.
 BELIEF #-2

Wala naman
talagang FOREVER!
Human beings are
supposed to have MORE
THAN TWO LOVES.
BELIEF #-3

There is no God,
soul, freedom, and
life after death.
 Doubt is the capacity of
the mind to think otherwise.
To negate.
To not believe.
 DESCARTES'
PHILOSOPHICAL
PROJECT
If we can apply doubt to every thing
believe
and that we have our self and
world,
the is there still something left
cannot
that anymore be
doubted?
We cannot trust our
senses.
We cannot trust our
feelings.
We cannot even trust those knowledge that
seem "true and certain" (as in mathematics)
because there is the possibility of an evil
genius that might just be tricking us into
believing.
What is the sole
unquestionable fact on which
we can base our knowledge?
 "The fact that i am
doubting ... Cannot be
anymore open to
doubt."
 One cannot anymore
doubt that one is
doubting, and since
doubting is a form of
thinking,
I think, therefore, I
am. Cogito, ergo,
sum
 RADICAL
SKEPTICISM
What is involved in Cartesian doubt is a
methodological issue.
It is aimed at establishing the basis for a systematic
philosophy that is based on secure and valid
(indubitable) premises.
PHILO SO PHICAL
DUALISM
The Self is defined as a subject that thinks.
But, it is a thinking being whose bodily
existence is questionable. Thus, echoing the
dualism originated by Platonic thinking.
 RATIONALISM
Descartes' idea of what philosophy is resulted to the idea
of a self that has full competence in the powers of human
reason.
Having distanced the self from all sources of truth from
authority and tradition, the self can only find its truth
and authenticity within its own capacity to think.
 MODERNITY

In the truest sense of the word, thus, we can see

that Cartesian thinking ushered in the thinking of
the epoch we call as MODERNITY.
 MODERNITY

Modernity is characterized by:

1. Reliance on human reason alone.
2. Modeling of knowledge after mathematics and
the natural or physical sciences.
JOHN
LOCKE
Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding is built
on a single premise: that all of our knowledge comes from
experience
He refuses to
accept the notion
that we have
innate ideas His
theory of
knowledge is
called empiricism
The tabula rasa or “blank tablet” view of the mind
is Locke’s most famous epistemological concept.
KARL
MARX
“Surround yourself with people who make you
happy. People who make you laugh, who
help you when you’re in need. People who
genuinely care. They are the ones worth
keeping in your life. Everyone else is just
passing through.”
Man makes his life activity the object of
his conscious will which distinguishes him
from animals
⦿Itis free, conscious activity makes him
the creature of his species/ or because he is
a creature of his species that he is a
conscious being
 As a conscious being he is able
1.to:
Direct his life-activity
2. Treats his own life as subject matter and as an
object of his own determination
By means of man’s productivity, nature appears
to him as his work and his reality and by his
labor he duplicates himself not merely
intellectually, in consciousness, but also actively
in reality and in the world that he has made
man contemplates his own image
EXISTENTIALISM: THE SELF-CREATED
SELF (ARTICHOKE
VIEW)
20 century
th

philosopher
His German prison camp
experience convinced him of 2
things:
1. There was no God
2. Humans had the capacity to
create their own human nature

Atheistic
existentialist
-We are not born with a fixed human nature, an
essence to tell us what we are and what we must
become
-Existence precedes essence
-Human nature is not provided it is earned
-Freedom is absolute- freedom is a life sentence and
we cannot say “ I couldn’t help it” or “I have no
choice”
-Everything is within our control
-“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my
soul
 POSTMODERNISM
(ARTICHOKE VIEW)
THE PROTEAN SELF
Based on Proteus the shape-shifter of the Greek
Mythology:

We are nothing but our layers

(like an artichoke, self is like many layers, each of which is
real and functional only at particular times and particular
circumstances)
 ACTIVITY
NO.1
INSTRUCTIONS:
Participants will be divided into groups with 4 members.
Each group would be assigned 1 Philosopher and are given 30 minutes
prepare a 4-5 liner prose on the Philosopher’s View of the Human
Nature.

Using things found on the class as props, a member from each group will
represent the philosopher’s prose.
RUBR
ICS
 The world is unpredictable
so we need a whole
collection of selves to meet
it.
ASSIGNMEN
T
Think of a metaphor (may
be a thing or a place) that
you feel represents your own
understanding of the self.
SUGGESTED
READINGS
Mitchell, H. B. (2011). Roots of Wisdom: A Tapestry of Philosophical Traditions.
6th ed. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 116 – 148.

Gaarder, Jostein, and Paulette Møller. (2007) Sophie's World: A Novel About
the History of Philosophy. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.