WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SELF • Physical world : changeable, transient, and

imperfect; World of Senses/Matter

 What is Philosophy? • Spiritual world: unchanging, eternal, perfect; The
World of Ideas/Form
Etymology: Greek – Our souls (self) strive for wisdom and perfection, and
reason is the soul’s tool to achieve such state.
– Philos – love – The soul is a unified, indissoluble, immortal entity that
– Sophia – wisdom remains the same over time, and that is in the very likeness
– “love of wisdom” of the divine.
• The study of the basic/ fundamental principles of life,
knowledge, reality, existence, morality, human nature, etc.,
through the use of logic and reason • Plato:
– 3-part soul/self (psyche)
•As an academic discipline, it does not provide ultimate • Reason: the divine essence that lets us think
answers, despite the ultimate nature of philosophical ideas deeply (wisdom), make wise choices and achieve a true
• Opens the minds of people understanding of eternal truths.
• Encourages individuals to ask questions and to seek • Physical Appetite: accounts for the basic
answers for themselves biological needs such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire
• Encourages students to philosophize • Spirit/Passion: accounts for the basic emotions
such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, empathy
– These are in a dynamic relationship with each other:
in agreement or in conflict. But it is the responsibility of the
Reason to restore harmony among the three.
History of Philosophy: – Harmony: Justice in the individual, social and
An Approach that can be Employed political levels.
• Grounds the ideas to the context of the philosophers
• Shows the development of philosophy alongside with the
development of human discovery and knowledge • Aristotle:
• Grounds contemporary ideas – The self consists of matter and form; matter is in a
• Can provide an objective presentation of philosophical continuous process of developing and becoming.
ideas – The process of completion is through experiences as
• Can be a ground/basis for other approaches knowledge is acquired through the senses (and this
knowledge is true).
– But this self comes from a First Cause, the source of all
changes although unchangeable in Itself.
Question: – The goal of the human self is reached in happiness
through moderation or balance of things.
How do you answer the question,“Who am I”?
Who am I in relation to the natural world(cosmos)?

The Post-Aristotelians

Ancient Philosophy • Maintains the dualism between body and soul

• 1000 BC to 500 AD • More ethical in their ideas (moral norms attainment of
• 3 Periods: happiness)
– Pre-Socratics (The Milesians) – Stoicism: apathy or indifference to pleasure
– The Ancient Triumvirate – Hedonism: “Eat, drink and be happy, for
– Post-Aristotelians tomorrow, you will die.”
– Epicureanism: moderate pleasure

Pre-Socratics
• Cosmo-centric: There is a fundamental principle/thing that
underlies everything else, including the human self: Question:
– Thales: Water Is the self related to a supreme being/God?
– Anaximander:Apeiron – “Boundless Something” Who am I in relation to a supreme being/God?
– Anaximenes: Air
• Others: Democritus (atom) , Heraclitus (fire), Anaxagoras
(nous/mind), Pythagoras (numbers)
Medieval Philosophy
Question:
In what ways do I get to know myself? • 500 AD to 1350
• Theo-centric
• From the scientific investigation on nature and search for
happiness to the question of life and salvation in another
realm, in a better world (cf. afterlife)
The Ancient Triumvirate • Influence from ancient thought:
– The (human) self endures through time.
•Socrates: • Rather imposing than informing, because it was trying to
– Didn’t write anything, but his ideas were echoed by his aim atpaganism and barbarism.
student, Plato, in his Dialogues. • There was an aim to merge philosophy and religion
– “Know thyself.” (Christian, Jewish, Muslim)
– “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
– Each person has an immortal soul that surpasses the
death of the body. (dualistic reality=body & soul) St. Augustine
– Two Aspects of Reality
•Integrates Platonic ideas with the tenets of Christianity Immanuel Kant
• Platonic Realm of Idea/Forms: the Christian philosophy of • Contests Hume’s idea by alluding to the primary
a transcendent God: the self strives to Achieve union with experience of the world that is not a disconnected stream of
God through faith and reason. sensations.
• The finite, temporary world of Plato becomes a proving • A priori concepts: fundamental organizing rules or
ground for our eternal destinies: such that the human principles built into the architecture of the mind, which
person becomes whole with both body and soul (more categorize, organize and synthesize sense data into the
unified view). familiar fabric of our lives , bounded by space and time.
– They are innate.
– Unity of consciousness that makes the world
intelligible
Question:
How can I be sure that the self exists? • The self actively organizes all the sensations and thoughts
What are the proofs that the self exists? into a picture that makes sense to each one of us. WE
CONSTRUCT THE SELF!
• The self is not an object located in the consciousness, but
rather, it is a subject, an organizing principle that makes a
unified and intelligible experience possible.
Modern Philosophy • The self exists independently of and transcends
experiences.
• 14th century to the early 20th century • The self is a transcendental unifying principle of
• Anthropocentric = centered on the human person consciousness
• Thinkers began to reject the scholastics’ (medieval
thinkers) excessive reliance on authority
• Period of radical social, political and intellectual
developments
• Genuine knowledge has to be based on independent Sigmund Freud
rational inquiry and real world experimentation, rather than
dependent on knowledge handed down by authorities. • Founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology
• The SELF is multi-tiered/multi-layered:
– Conscious (governed by the reality principle; at
this level, behavior and experience are organized in
René Descartes: A Rationalist ways that are rational, practical and appropriate to
the social environment.)
•“Cogito ergo sum.” – “I think, therefore, I am.” – Preconscious
• Human identity: self-awareness – Unconscious (contains the basic instinctual drives
• Self: A thinking thing including sexuality, aggressiveness, and self-
• Self: can exist independently of the body destruction; traumatic memories; unfulfilled wishes
– But doesn’t deny the association of the body to the self and childhood fantasies; thoughts and feelings that
• Dualism: thinking (spiritual) self vs. physical body would be considered socially taboo.)
• The spiritual self (governed by the laws of reason and
God’s will) surpasses the physical self (governed by the
laws of nature). Gilbert Ryle: A Physicalist
• Yet the intimate connection between the soul and the
body is undeniable (pineal gland) • Behaviorism: No more dichotomy by denying the inner
selves, immortal souls, states of consciousness, or
unconscious entities
John Locke: An Empiricist • The self is defined in terms of behavior that is presented
• Knowledge originates in our direct sense experience. to the world.
* The mind (self) is a TABULARASA (a blank tablet) • The self is a pattern of behavior, the tendency or
• Reason plays a subsequent role in figuring out the disposition for a person to behave in a certain way in certain
significance of our sense experience and in reaching circumstances.
intelligent conclusions.
• The self is not necessarily embedded in a single substance Paul Churchland: A Physicalist
or soul, but exists in space and time,
– Every aspect of the physical body is integrated • Eliminative Materialism: grounded in neuroscience
with personal identity. The body changes. The physical • The mind/self is the brain
self changes.
• But the self endures because of memory.
• Conscious awareness and memory of previous Question:
experiences are the keys to understanding the self. Describe what happens to you when you fall in love—
physically, emotionally, mentally(cognitively).
David Hume: Empiricist, Skeptic & Nihilist
• There is no self! Contemporary Philosophy
• Empiricism
– Impressions – basic sensations of experiences • Late 19th century
– Ideas – copies of our impressions • Political revolution
– *Impressions form a fleeting stream of • Industrial Revolution
sensations • Scientific advancements and.growth of materialism
– *No constant and invariable self that exists as a • Theory of Evolution
unified identity over the course of life. • More humanist as a response to the so-called
• The self is a “bundle or collection of different perceptions, alienation of the human person.
which succeed each other in an inconceivable
rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and movement.”
Edmund Husserl
• The father of Phenomenology
• We experience our self as a unity in which the mental and
physical are seamlessly woven together.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• “lived body”
• An entity that can never be objectified or known in a
completely objective sort of way, as opposed to the “body
as object” of the dualists.
• “There is no duality of substance but a dialectic of living
being in its biological milieu.”

Embodied Subjectivity
• Both Husserl and Merleau- Ponty agree that our living
body is a natural synthesis of mind and biology.
• Phenomenological approach: describe the phenomena of
the lived experience (reducing biases) by describing what
your immediate responses are—physically,
emotionally,cognitively.

Question:
Which among these philosophies can you relate with?
How dothey affect the way you see yourself?