THE SELF FROM

VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
PROF. RIZALINA TAGATA
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the range of representations and

conceptualization of the self from various discipinal perspectives.
2. Compare and contrast how the concept of self has been represented
across disciplines and perspectives;
3. Examine the different influences, factors, and forces that
contribute to the development of self; and
4. Analyze the development of one’s self and identity by creating a
theory of self.
 INTRODUCTION
Socrates’ philosophy “Know thyself” clearly underscores the primary
concern for understanding the nature of the self throughout history, thus the
philosophical question “who am i?” and “what am i?” As you shall see,
however, understanding the nature of the self is not simple – it takes time
and effort. But why is it important to understand the self? This course does
not have direct and clear answers, but in trying to understand the nature of
self, you will discover that self-understanding is most definitely one of the
essence of what it means to be a human being.
 WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE SELF?

Philosophical perspectives Sociological perspective:

The self as a product of
society
An Anthropological
conceptualization of self: WHO AM I?
The self as embedded in The Self in Western and
culture SELF Eastern thought
WHAT AM I?

A search for answers to the nature of

Psychological Perspective the self and the qualities that define it
can be traced back to great
philosophers during the ancient
THE MANY VIEWS OF SELF times. Over time, various disciplines
offered their own explanations.
01
Philosophical
Perspective of
the Self
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

1. Explain the role of philosophy in understanding the concept of self;

2. Discuss the different concepts of the self from the philosophical
perspective;
3. Differentiate the various concepts of the self and identify their
similarities; and
4. Develop your own philosophy of the self
 —Socrates
“Know thyself”

Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to discover the ultimate causes, reasons, and principles of
everything.

It goes beyond scientific investigation by exploring all areas of knowledge such as religion, psychology,
politics, physics, and even medicine. Hence, the etymological definition of philosophy “love of wisdom”
could pertain to the desire for truth by formulating never ending questions to provide answers to every
inquiry about the nature of human existence. The nature of the self is a topic of interest among philosophers.

The philosophical framework for understanding the self was first introduced by the ancient great Greek
philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

In particular, Socrates suggests: “know thyself.”

SOCRATES:
AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING
For Socrates the self is synonymous with the soul. He believes that
every human possesses an immortal soul that survives the physical body. Socrates was the
first to focus on the full power of reason on the human self: who we are, who we
should be, and who we will become.

Socrates suggests that reality consists of two dichotomous realms: physical and
ideal realms. The physical realm is changeable, transient, and imperfect. The ideal realm is
unchanging, eternal, and immortal. The physical world in which man lives belongs to the physical
realm.

• For Socrates, the body belongs to the physical realm.

• The unchanging, eternal, perfect realm includes the intellectual essences of the universe,
concepts such as truth, goodness, and beauty.
• The soul belongs to the ideal realm.
SOCRATES:
AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING
• The essence of the self – the soul – is the immortal entity.
• Socrates suggests that man must live an examined life and a life of purpose and value
• An unexamined life is not worth living.
• The Socratic method, the so-called introspection, is a method of carefully examining one’s
thoughts and emotions – to gain self-knowledge.
PLATO:
THE SELF IS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
Another ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, elaborates on Socrates’
concept of soul. Like Socrates, Plato believes that the self is synonymous with the soul.
His philosophy can be explained as a process of self- knowledge and purification of the
soul.

Specifically, he introduces the idea of a three-part soul/self: reason, physical

appetite, and spirit or passion.

• Reason is the divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a
true understanding of eternal truths.
• Physical appetite includes our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desires.
• Spirit or passion includes basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and
empathy.
PLATO:
THE SELF IS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
• These three elements of our selves are in a dynamic relationship with one another, sometimes
in a conflict.
• When conflict occurs, Plato believes it is the responsibility of 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.
• This harmonious integration under the control of Reason is the essence of Plato’s concept of
justice.
• As such, if man lives in accordance to his nature, then he is giving justice to his existence.
ARISTOTLE:
THE SOUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE SELF
A Greek philosopher, Aristotle, believes that the soul is merely a set of
defining features and does not consider the body and soul as a separate entities. He
suggests that anything with life has a soul. Aristotle holds that the soul is the essence of
all living things. Thus, the soul is the essence of the self. However, humans differ from
other living things because of their capacity for rational thinking.

His discussion about the self centers on the kinds of soul possessed by man. Thus,
he introduces the three kinds of soul: vegetative, sentient, and rational.

• The vegetative soul includes the physical body that can grow
• Sentient soul includes sensual desires, feelings, and emotions.
• Rational soul is what makes man human. It includes the intellect that allows man to know and
understand things.
ARISTOTLE:
THE SOUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE SELF
• Aristotle suggests that the rational nature of the self is to lead a good, flourishing, and
fulfilling life (self-actualization)
• The pursuit of happiness is a search for a good life that includes doing virtuous actions
• In saying this, he posits that part of the rational soul is characterized by moral virtues such as
justice and courage.
ST. AUGUSTINE:
THE SELF HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
An African philosopher, Augustine, is regarded as a saint (St. Augustine of
Hippo) in the Catholic Church. He integrates the ideas of Plato and
teachings of Christianity. Augustine believes that the physical body is radically
different from and inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul. As his thinking matured, he
developed a more unified perspective on the body and soul. He ultimately came to view
the body as “spouse” of the soul, both attached to one another by a “natural appetite.”

He believes that the body is united with the soul, so that man may be entire and complete. As a
religious philosopher he believes that the soul is what governs and defines man.

• In his work “confessions” Augustine describes that humankind is created in the image and
likeness of God. Everything created by God who is all good is good.
• Augustine is convinced that the self is known only through knowing God
• Self-knowledge is a consequence of knowledge of God.
ST. AUGUSTINE:
THE SELF HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
• Knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us.
• The truth of which Augustine speaks refers to the truth of knowing God.
• God is transcendent and the self seeks to be united with God through faith and reason
• He develops the fundamental concept of the human person, and thus provides the
philosophical principle, “I am doubting, therefore I am”
RENE DESCARTES:
I THINK THEREFORE I AM
A French philosopher, Rene Descartes, is the father of modern
philosophy. He has brought an entirely new perspective to philosophy and
the self. He wants to penetrate the nature of reasoning process and
understand its relationship to the human self. The Latin phrase Cogito ergo sum – “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 a self.

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 selves. For Descartes, this is the essence of the
human self – a thinking entity that doubts, understands, analyzes, questions, and reasons.

• If man reflects thoughtfully, he will realize that there are two dimensions of the human self: the
self as a thinking entity and the self as a physical body
RENE DESCARTES:
I THINK THEREFORE I AM
• He introduces the idea of the thinking self (or soul) as non-material, immortal, conscious
being, and independent of the physical laws of the universe.
• In contrast, the physical body is a material, mortal, non-thinking entity, fully governed by the
physical laws of nature.
• The soul and the body are independent of one another, an each can exist and function without
the other.
• The essential self – the self as a thinking entity- can exist independently of the physical body
JOHN LOCKE:
THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
For english philosopher John Locke, the human mind at birth is tabula rasa
or a blank slate. He feels that the self, or personal identity, is constructed primarily from
sense experiences – or a more specifically, what people see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
These experiences shape and mold the self throughout a person’s life. For Locke,
conscious awareness and memory of previous existence are the keys to understanding the
self. Locke believes that the essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as a thinking,
reasoning, and reflecting identity.

He contends that the consciousness accompanies thinking and makes possible the concept people
have of a self. Self-consciousness is necessary to have a coherent personal (self) identity or
knowledge of the self as a person.

• Consciousness is what makes identity of a person similar in different situations.

JOHN LOCKE:
THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
• Locke is proposing that people could use the power of reason to gain knowledge and
consequently use this knowledge to understand experiences.
• Knowledge is based on careful observation of experiences
• Reason plays an important role in helping to figure out the significance of sense experience
and to reach intelligent conclusions.
• Using the power of reason and introspection enables one to understand and achieve accurate
conclusions about the self (or personal identity).
DAVID HUME:
THERE IS NO SELF
A Scottish philosopher, David 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 is just a bundle or
collection of different perceptions. Hume maintains that if people carefully examine the
contents of their experience, they will find that there are only distinct entities:
impressions and ideas.

Impressions are the basic sensations of people’s experience such as hate, love, joy, grief, pain, cold,
and heat. Impressions are vivid perceptions and are strong and lively. Ideas, however, are thoughts
and images from impressions so they are less lively and vivid.

• Hume further posits that different sensations are in a constant continuum that is invariable and
not constant.
• Hume argues that it cannot be from any of these impressions that the idea of self is derived and
consequently, there is no self.
DAVID HUME:
THERE IS NO SELF
• Hume’s skeptical claim on this issue is that people have no experience of a simple and
individual impression that they can call the self where the self is the totality of a person’s
conscious life.
• Subsequently, the idea of personal identity is a result of imagination.
IMMANUEL KANT:
WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF
A German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, it is the self that makes
experiencing an intelligible world possible because it is the self that is
actively organizing and synthesizing all of our thoughts and perceptions. The self, in the
form of consciousness, utilizes conceptual categories which he calls transcendental
deduction of categories, to construct an orderly and objective world that is stable and can
be investigated scientifically.

He believes that the self is an organizing principle that makes a unified and intelligible experience
possible. It is metaphorically above or behind sense experience, and it uses the categories of our
mind to filter, order, relate, organize, and synthesize sensations into a unified whole.

• The self constructs its own reality, actively creating a world that is familiar, predictable, and most
significantly, mine.
IMMANUEL KANT:
WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF
• The self is the product of reason, a regulative principle, because the self regulates experience
by making unified experiences possible.
• The self transcends experience because the mind can grasp aspects of reality which are not
limited to the senses. Through rationality, people are able to understand certain abstract ideas
that have no corresponding physical object or sensory experience.
SIGMUND FREUD:
THE SELF IS MULTILAYERED
An Austrian psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. His views on the nature of the
self have a far-reaching impact on philosophical thinking, as well as other
disciplines such as psychology and sociology. Freud holds that the self
consists of three layers: conscious, unconscious, and preconscious. The conscious
self is governed by the “reality principle.” The conscious part of the self is
organized in ways that are rational, practical, and appropriate to the environment. The conscious self
usually takes into account the realistic demands of the situation, the consequences of various
actions, and the overriding need to preserve the equilibrium (balance) of the entire psychodynamic
system of the self.

In contrast, the unconscious part of the self contains the basic instinctual drives including sexuality,
aggressiveness, and self-destruction; traumatic memories; unfulfilled wishes and childhood
fantasies; and thoughts and feelings that would be considered socially taboo. The unconscious level
is characterized by the most primitive level of human motivation and human functioning which is
governed by the “pleasure principle”
SIGMUND FREUD:
THE SELF IS MULTILAYERED
Freud argues that much of the self is
determined by the unconscious.
On the other hand, the preconscious
self contains material that is not
threatening and is easily brought to
mind. According to Freud, the
preconscious part is located between
the conscious and the unconscious
parts of the self.
GILBERT RYLE:
THE SELF IS THE WAY PEOPLE BEHAVE

A British philosopher, Gilbert Ryle, believes that the self is best

understood as a pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition of a
person to behave in a certain way in certain circumstances. Ryle’s concept of the human
self thus provides the philosophial principle, “I act therefore I am.” Ryle considers the
mind and body to be intrinsically linked in complex and intimate ways. In short, the self is
the same as bodily behavior.

He concludes that the mind is the totality of human dispositions that is known through the way
people behave. Nevertheless, Ryle is convinced that the mind expresses the entire system of
thoughts, emotions, and actions that make up the human self.
PAUL CHURCHLAND:
THE SELF IS THE BRAIN
A Canadian philosopher, Paul Churchland, advocates the idea of
eliminative materialism of the idea that the self is inseparable from the brain and the
psysiological of the body. All a person has 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
people the sense of self. The mind does not really exist because it cannot be experienced by
the senses.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY:
THE SELF IS EMBODIED SUBJECTIVITY
A French philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, argues that all knowledge
about the self (e.g., understanding the nature of the self) is based on the
“phenomena” of experience. The “I” is a single integrated core identity, a combination of
the mental, physical, and emotional structures around a core identity of the self. He further
articulates that when people examine the self at the fundamental level of direct human
experience, people will discover that the mind and body are unified, not separate.

He notes in his book, Phenomenology of Perception, that everything that people are aware of its
contained within the consciousness. Consciousness is a dynamic form responsible for actively
structuring conscious ideas and physical behaviour.

• He is convinced that consciousness, the world, and the human body are intricately intertwined in
perceiving the world.
• For him, perception is not merely a consequence of sensory experience; rather it is a conscious
experience. Thus, the self is embodied subjectively
 END OF
PRESENTATIO
N