GEC 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Man as a Rational Being

- We are rational beings, and part of the general ordeal of "understanding the self" is delving deep into this natural human
trait. The task of knowing who we are I itself a manifestation of our rationality. Thus, we start by asking this basic
question: WHAT CAN WE KNOW?

- TWO DOMINANT SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AS EGARDS THE NATURE AND ACQUISITION OF

KNOWLEDGE –
1. Empiricism (To see is to believe)
- holds the doctrine that all knowledge originates from the senses, and experiences.
- Derived from the Greek word, empeiria, which means experience.
PROMINENT EMPIRICIST
a. Aristotle- one of the early pioneers of empiricism, explained nothing comes that into the intellect/mind without first
passing through our senses.
b. John Locke - believes that the mind is like a blank slate, a tabula rasa.
• Nativism- a notion that some ideas are innate in the human mind.
c. David Hume- "First Impressions Last"
- Holds that everything we believe is ultimately traceable to experience.
TWO CATEGORIES OF PERCEPTION
1. Impressions- includes sensations as well as desires, passions and emotions.
2. Ideas- are the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning.
TWO KINDS OF IMPRESSIONS
1. Impressions of sensation or original impressions - includes the feelings we get from our five senses as well as the
pains or pleasures.
2. Impressions of reflection or secondary impressions - includes desires, emotions, passions, and sentiments.

2. Rationalism (I'll believe what I know)

- the intellect or reason is the foundation of what we know.
- It is the mind, not the senses
- we are capable of knowing the truth even without the aid of experience.
PROMINENT RATIONALISTS
1. Plato (The "Perfect" World of Ideas)
- The temporal tangible world is fleeting.
- Distinguished two approaches to knowledge:
a. Sense perception- cannot be adequate for possessing the truth.
b. Reason/knowledge- goes beyond the particular and grasp universal ideas.
2. Rene Descartes (I think, therefore, I exist)
- He began by doubting everything- methodic doubt - as he was working on the presumption that whatever can be
doubted is open to error and therefore cannot be the foundation of truth and knowledge. "His project is to doubt all his
previous knowledge in order to build a secure house of the truth."
- Starts his undertaking by doubting his senses. (Prone to mistakes daw ang senses)
- "I think, therefore, I exist". In Latin, this is translated as "cogito ergo sum".
For rationalists, the mind is already equipped with a priori knowledge, knowledge that is already known to the individual
prior to any form of experience. In other words, human beings have innate knowledge independent of any sense
experience.
These are the philosophers who remarkably have provided unique views about the real nature of the concept we call 'self.

SOCRATES
-Introduced the Socratic problem also known as the Socratic question. The goal of which was to "Know thyself."
-Accordingly, there should be a dialogue between the self and the soul. One should accept that he knows nothing and
he knows and accepts that he knows nothing as this leads to learning and discovering the truth.
-Socrates who was greatly known for his Socratic method stated that "An unexamined life is not worth living."

PLATO
-Founder of Academy in Athens, the first Institution of higher learning in the western world.
-An influential figure in western philosophy and the founder of western spirituality.
-Plato stated that the 'psyche' or the 'mind' is comprised of three elements.
1. The appetites - our pleasurable desires such as those which provide us physical pleasure and physiological comfort.
2. The spirited - it is highly spirited and motivated to surpass and conquer life challenges. It is the area within us that
enjoys triumph, honor, greatness and affirmation,
3. The mind is the conscious awareness which thinks, meditates, weighs choices and assesses situations in our lives.

SAINT AUGUSTINE
- contributed to the progress of Western Christianity through his writings specifically The City of God, On Christian
Doctrine and Confessions.
- He pointed that sin is the source of human unhappiness as sin impairs human free will.
- identified the two-fold process comprised of self-presentation leading to self-realization.
- he stressed on the superiority of the mind over that of the body. Understanding of the self and the formation of
identity is achieved through the process of 'Introspection' or 'self-analysis.

RENE DESCARTES
- father of modern western philosophy.
- he developed the Cartesian philosophy which holds that mental acts determine physical acts.
- He described the mind as the "intellectual substance" which possesses a will.
- He stated that "Cogito, ergo sum" which is "I think, therefore I am." This is a method to assess one's self. This is
Descartes' first theory of knowledge
- The essence of your self makes you a "thinking thing," engaged in all forms of mental operations determinant of being
a human with a distinct persona.

JOHN LOCKE
- prominent thinker during the "Age of Reason."
- considered the "Father of Liberalism" as he had posited the "theory of mind.
- developed the concept of "Tabula Rasa.' He pointed onto the theory that at birth, the mind is a blank slate without
innate ideas, and it is experience that provides us knowledge provided by sensory experiences and reflections.

DAVID HUME
-posited that passion rather than reason governs human behavior.
- According to Hume the self and one's mind is like a machine that can be turned on and off as they are
only active when one is conscious.
IMMANUEL KANT
- was born in Prussia. He asserted that it is the human mind which creates experiences.
- he said that every person has an inner and outer self which comprises the consciousness
- According to him, the intellect as well as the psychological state of a being is what we call as the inner
self (soul) while the outer self (body) is made of the senses and the physical self.

SIGMEUND FREUD
-he established psychoanalysis. This is a school of thought revolving around the role of psychological
conflicts within the unconscious which is relevant in the development of human behavior as well as personality.
-he stated that there are three components in the mind that interact to produce the individual persona. the
id, ego, and superego.
 ego balances the conflicting force between the superego and the id.
 id demands pleasure and gratification of urges,
 superego requires compliance to societal norms.

GILBERT RYLE
- the phrase "the ghost in the machine."
- Ryle, in his book ‘The Concept of Mind' explained how the mental states are inseparable from the physical
states.
- He stated that every human being has both a physical body and a non-physical mind which are
ordinarily "harnessed together" while we are alive.
- He stated that "A person therefore lives through two collateral histories, one consisting of what
happens in and to his body, and other consisting of what happens in and to his mind. The first is
public, the second private."

PAUL MONTGOMERY CHURCHLAND

- He argued that 'nothing but matter exists' which is also known as materialism.
- Paul hypothesized that the human consciousness can be explained through the neural networks
communicating through its hub in the brain which is the thalamus.

MAURICE MERLEAU PONTY

- wrote the book Phénoménologie de La Perception in 1945. In this book, he expounded his thesis on 'The
Primacy of Perception" where he revealed how the body is central to one's perception.
- she argued that perception is the determinant of one's consciousness.
- This is the "primacy of perception" where Merleau-Ponty said that "there is harmony between what we
aim at and what is given, between intention and performance." The same provides an explanation as to
Merleau-Ponty's claim that "consciousness is primarily not a matter of "I think that", but of "I can."
 LESSON 2: THE SELF, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE
What is the Self?
Characteristics of the Self
1. Separate – The self is distinct from other selves, unique with its own identity.
2. Self-contained – Its distinctness allows it to have its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition.
3. Independent – does not require other selves to exist.
4. Consistent – It has personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist for quite some
time.
5. Unitary – It is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain person.
6. Private – Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thoughts processes within the
self.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERPECTIVE - the self is always at the mercy of external circumstances that
bump and collide with it. It is ever changing and dynamic, allowing external influences to take part in its
shaping.

THE SELF AND CULTURE

MARCEL MAUSS - a French anthropologist, determine the two faces of the self.:
 Personne – The social concept of what it means to be who he is.
 Moi – A person’s sense of who he is, including his body and basic identity.

THE SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL WORLD

 Language - publicly shared and privately utilized symbol system is the site where the individual and the
social make and remake each other.
 Mead and Vygotsky - human person develop with the use of language acquisition and interaction with
others. The way that we process information is normally a form of internal dialogue in our head.
- treat the human mind as something that is made, constituted through language as experienced in the
external world and as encountered in dialogues with others.
 Mead – it is through playing role play that a child delineates the “I” from the rest.
 Vygotsky – believes that a child internalizes real-life dialogues that he had with others, with his family,
his primary caregiver or his playmates.

SELF IN THE FAMILIES

Family - most prominent institution in the society that influenced self-development. It is what a family initiates a
person to become that serves as the basis for every person’s progress. Without a Family, biologically or
sociologically, a person may not even survive or become a human person.

GENDER AND SELF

Gender- one of the loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change and development.
Nancy Chodorow - argues that because mothers take the role of taking care of children, there is a tendency
for girls to imitate the same and reproduce the same kind of mentality as women as care provider in the family.

LESSON 3: THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

Self- the sense of personal identity and who we are as individuals.
William James (1890) - conceptualized the self as having two aspects
a. I - the thinking, acting and feeling self
b. me - the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes who you are.
Carl Rogers (1954) - his theory of personality used the terms:
a. I - the one who acts and decides
b. me - what you think or feed about yourself as an object.
Other Concepts Similar to Self
1. identity - composed of one's personal characteristics, social roles and responsibilities as well as affiliations
that define who one is.
2. Self-concept- basically what comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are.

Self-schema - captured by Carl Rogers, our own organized system or collection of knowledge about who we
are.
Sigmund Freud - most influential psychologist
-saw the self, its mental processes and one's behavior as the results of the interaction between the Id,
the Ego and the Superego.

GH. Mead (1934) - in his theory of symbolic interactionism, he argued that the self is created and developed
through human interaction.
3 REASONS WHY SELF AND IDENTITY, ARE SOCIAL PRODUCTS
1) We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the foundations of who we are and
even if we make our choices, we will still operate in our social and historical contexts in one way or the other
2) Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are.
3) What we think as important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in our social or
historical context.

Social interaction Group affiliation - vital Factors in creating our self-concept especially in the aspect of
providing us with our social identity of our perception of who we are based on our membership to certain
groups.
Self-awareness-being aware of our self-concepts.
TWO TYPES OF SELF ACCORDING TO CARVER AND SCHEIR
1. PRIVATE SELF -your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings.
2. PUBLIC SELF – your public image commonly geared towards having a good presentation of yourself
to others.
3 SELF-SCHEMA PRESENTED BY SELF-AWARENESS
1. actual self - who you are at the moment.
2. ideal self - who you like to be.
3. ought self - who we think we should be.
deindividuation- the loss of individual self-awareness and individual accountability in groups.
Self-esteem - our own positive or negative perception or evaluation of ourselves.
-being impacted by group identity and self-awareness.
social comparison - one way in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem
-"we learn about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors as well as our social statues
by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people.
2 KINDS OF COMPARISON
1) downward social comparison - we create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who
are worse off than us. By having the advantage, we are able to raise our self-esteem.
2.) upward social comparison - comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us. While it can be a
form of motivation for some, majority actually felt lower self-esteem as we highlight more of our weakness or
inequities.

Self-evaluation maintenance theory- entailed by social comparison.

- states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person is close to
us.

3 WAYS WE USUALLY REACT

1. We distance ourselves from that person or redefine our relationship with them.
2. We may reconsider the importance of the aspect or skill in which you were outperformed.
3. We may also strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves.

Narcissism - may result in the attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem

- a trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration and self-centeredness.

Baumeister Smart Boden - in their research on self-esteem concluded that programs, activities → and
parenting styles to boost self-esteem should only be for rewarding good behavior and other achievements and
not for the purpose of merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or to appease them when
they get angry or sad.

LESSON 4: THE SELF IN WESTERN AND EASTERN THOUGHTS

EASTERN - also called oriental; represents Asia

WESTERN - represents Europe and Northern America
BUDDHISM — 'no soul or no self'
— however it is believed that human has a mind and body as well as a stream of consciousness
•SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA BUDDHA - developed the doctrine called Anatta, often defined as 'no-self' or the
principle that nothing is permanent and that no one is independent entity as we are all a part of collective whole
- explained that there is no unchanging self.

• DUKKHA - suffering
• ANICCA - impermanence
•ANATTA DOCTRINE - states that there is anything called 'self' as belief in this leads to DUKKHA which of
course is mere suffering and pain

5 components called 'SKANDAS' which make up a person, these are

1. From which comprises the body qnd the sense organs;
2. Sensations - five senses
3. Perception - recognized the object on what he/she has sensed
4. Mental formations or our predispositions, tendencies, traits, habits and
5. Consciousness - awareness

HINDUISM — The 'self' of UPANISHADS finds its place in "The Story of Creation" pertaining to the creation
of the universe and of man.
— the 'self' begins with the main character Purusha.
BRAHMAN — true nature of self
— true nature of man

MAIN IDEAS IN HINDUISM

1. BRAHMAN — most supreme entity
— the concept of God
2. REINCARNATION — soul passes through different physical bodies as it is destined according to it's
KARMA
3. ATMAN — also BRAHMAN
— the soul
4. The world we are living is comprised of varied levels of existence.
5. The paths of salvation which are all similar to other doctrines which have same goal.

TAOISM LAO TZU — 'Knowing others is wisdom, Knowing the self is enlightenment."
— understanding others requires force but mastering the self requires power and strength.
TAO TE CHING — Taoist's Bible
— explain how to live good life
DAO — way
LAO TZU TEACHES - 'stillness to the mind'
- let go of all the worries, confusions and just experience the world
LAO TZU SAID — "empty yourself of everything, let your mind become still"
CONFUCIANISM — the individuals a social being which makes us 'social animals'
— believed that every person is born with four beginnings which lead to the formations of a
'self'
CONFUCIUS — "don't do unto others what you do not want to undo to you"

Virtues found in human heart

1. Heart of compassion
2. Heart of righteousness
3. Heart of propriety
4. Heart of wisdom