Module 1 - Understanding The Self

The Self from various perspectives: A Philosophical Journey to Discovering the Self - Socrates, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Locke, Hume,
Kant, Freud, Ryle, Churchland, Merleau-Ponty

Philosophical View of Self

- point of view is specified or stated manner of consideration, an attitude how one sees or thinks of something, as in ‘from my pe
rsonal point of view”.
- synonymous with one of the meanings of the term “Perspective”
- self is sometimes understood as unified being essentially connected to consciousness, awareness and agency.(faculty of rationa
l choice)

1. From Myth to Science

★ Pre - philosophical Greek Attitudes Toward the Soul and Death:

● Pre-philosophical Greek worldview
- Before formal philosophical inquiry began, ancient Greeks had certain ideas about life, death, and th
e soul (or psyche).
● Homeric View
- In the epic poetry of Homer (e.g., The Iliad and The Odyssey), the psyche (soul or life force) was belie
ved to survive bodily death. However, this survival didn't mean the continuation of the person as a w
hole. In other words, after death, the soul existed but wasn’t linked to the full identity or individuality
of the person.

★ Psyche and Breath (Pneuma)

- In Homer, the psyche was closely tied to breath (pneuma) and movement. This suggests that life and the soul
were seen as dependent on physical aspects like breathing, implying that the soul was not distinct from the b
ody.
- After death, while the psyche might linger, it was considered disconnected from the person’s life or conscious
ness.

★ Mystery Cults of Dionysus and Orpheus

- These mystery cults further developed ideas about the soul's survival and its journey after death.
● Dionysus and Orpheus
- Both cults focused on the idea of life after death, often emphasizing the soul's journey and transform
ation in the afterlife.

★ Philosophical Developments
● Pytagoras and Heraclitus
- In the 6th century BCE, philosophy began addressing these questions more rigorously.
● Pythagoras
- Proposed ideas of reincarnation and the transmigration of souls, where the soul was seen as somethi
ng distinct from the body, capable of passing into new forms.
● Heraclitus
- the body, capable of passing into new forms. •Heraclitus: Emphasized the constant change and flux
of life, suggesting that the soul, like the universe, was in a continual process of transformation.
Early Greek thinkers grappled with the concept of the soul's survival, especially in Homer, where the soul existed but wasn't tied to the c
ontinuity of personal identity. Later philosophers, particularly Pythagoras and Heraclitus, expanded on these ideas, offering more compl
ex notions of the soul’s immortality and connection to the body.

1. Socrates (470 - 399 BC)

- Father of western philosophy
- ‘Know thyself!’
 ● Socratic thinking
- Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate) is a form of cooperative arg
umentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and t
o draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions

Socrates : An Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

Every man is dualistic
Two Important Aspects of his personhood:
● Body
- Imperfect and impermanent
● Soul
- perfect and permanent

Socrates Two Dichotomous Realms

1. Physical Realm
- Changeable, transient and imperfect
2. Ideal Realm
- Unchanging, eternal and immortal

The core of Socratic ethics is the concepts of virtue and knowledge

Socrates was the first thinker to focus on the full power of reason on the human self:
● Who we are, who we should be, and who we will become

The soul strivesfor wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’stool to achieve and exalted state of life.

Socrates: A person can have a Meaningful and Happy life only if becomes Virtous and Knows the value of Himself that can be achieved t
hrough constant soul searching

Since virtue is innate in the mind and self- knowledge is the source of all wisdom, an individual may gain possession of oneself and be on
e’s own master through knowledge.

Virtues List
● Virtues are the essence of our character and character does indeed determine destiny
● The more we recognize the potential impact that practicing virtues can have on our lives, the more our lives open up to new po
ssibilities and to greater joy and fulfilment.
The virtues

Virtue Definition (Merriam Webster) Complements transcends

Acceptance The act of accepting something Contentment, forgiveness Denial, rejection

or someone

Assertiveness Disposed to or characterized by Confidence, courage Self-doubt, shyness

bold or confident statements a
nd behavior

Authenticity True to one’s own personality, Honesty, integrity Low self-esteem

spirit, or character

Beauty The qualities in a person or a th Joyfulness, peace ugliness

ing that give pleasure to the se
nses or the mind
 Caring Feeling or showing concern for Compassion, kindness Cruelty, insensitivity
other people

❖ Plato (428 - 248 BC)

- the human person is composed of a body and soul
● Body
- the material and destructible part of the human person
● Soul
- immaterial and indestructible part

- For Plato, the soul is the self

● According to Plato, the SOUL has three parts
i. Rational soul
- Cognition
- the superior among the three because it serves as a moral and rational guide for the spiritual soul an
d the appetitive soul
ii. Spiritual soul
- Emotions
iii. Appetitive soul
- physical wants/needs
These 3 elements of ourselves are in dynamic repaltionship with one another, sometimes in conflict

Plato: Believes that genuine happiness can only be achieved by people who consistently make sure that their Reason is in control of the
spirits and appetites.

Plato believes that it is the responsibility of our reason to sort out and exert control, restoring a harmonious relationship among three el
ements of ourselves

❖ Aristotle
Aristotle:THE SOUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE SELF
- Body and Soul are not two separate elements but are one thing.
- 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.
- Aristotle suggests that the rational nature of the self is to lead a good, flourishing and fulfilling life.
- Without the body the soul cannot exist. The soul dies along with the body
- “Soul and Body, I suggest react sympathetically upon each other. A change in the state of the soul produces a change i
n the shape of the body and conversely, a change in the shape of the body produces a change in the state of the soul.”
- Aristotle suggested that anything with life has soul.
- His discussion about self centers on the kind of soul by a man.
- He introduced the three kinds of soul.
● Vegetative soul
- Plants
- reproduction , growth
● Sensitive soul
- Animals
- Mobility, sensation
● Rational soul
- Humans
- Thought, reflection

❖ St. Augustine (354 - 430 CE)

 - He believed that man is bifurcate (divided into two branches) in nature
● Physical body
● Soul
- . One aspect of us is imperfect and worldly while the other is capable of divinity and immortality
- Integrated the ideas of Plato and Christianity
- The Soul is united with the body so that man may be entire and complete
- He believed humankind is created in the image and likeness of God
- Therefore, the human person being a creation of God is always geared towards the good
- The self is known only through knowing God
- Self-knowledge is a consequence of knowledge of God.

● Manicheanism
- the religion that Augustine bought into in the first part of his life

"For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand."

● IF GOD EXISTS ONLY IN OUR IMAGINATIONS, HE WOULDN'T BE THE GREATEST THING CONCEIVABLE, BECAUSE GOD IN REALITY
WOULD BE BETTER
THEREFORE, GOD MUST EXIST IN REALITY
● THINGS CAN EXIST ONLY IN OUR MINDS OR THEY CAN EXIST IN REALITY
● GOD IS THE GREATEST THING WE CAN THINK OF
● THINGS THAT EXIST IN REALITY ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN THINGS THAT EXIST ONLY IN OUR MINDS
● GOD EXISTS AS AN IDEA IN THE MIND

The ontological argument

In attempting to reconcile faith and reason, a problem for scholastic philosophers was to provide a rational argument for the existence o
f God. Probably the first of the Christian philosophers to present such an argument was Anselm of Canterbury. His reasoning, known as t
he ontological argument, defines God as "that than which nothing greater can be thought." From that premise, he methodically shows t
hat if God exists in our imagination, then an even greater God is possible: one that exists in reality. Thomas Aquinas later identified four
other arguments for the existence of God, derived from Aristotle's idea of an "unmoved mover" or first cause (see p.45).

❖ Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650)

- was more concerned with understanding the thinking process we use to answer questions
- agreed with the great thinkers before him that the human ability to reason constitutes the extraordinary instrument w
e have to achieve truth and knowledge
● Cogito, ergo sum is the first principle of Descartes’s theory of knowledge
- because he is confident that no rational person will doubt his or her own existence as a conscious, thinking entity—whi
le we are aware of thinking about ourselves. “ I think therefore I am. “

- The self is a thinking entity distinct from the body

- “Cogito Ergu Sum”
- Although the mind and the body are interdependent from each other and serve their own function, man must use his
own mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment and develop himself.

Dualism
The idea that reality is dual in nature that it is made up of both physical and mental elements-was championed by the 17th-cent
ury French philosopher René Descartes.

Mind and body

 According to Descartes, physical objects exist in space and are governed by physical laws: a tree, for example, has a certain heig
ht, width, mass, and location. However, he argued, the same is not true of the human mind or its attributes: beliefs, pains, hopes, decisi
ons, and plans have no such characteristics, so they cannot be regarded as physical. For Descartes, the mind has no material substance-it
is a pure subject of experience that goes beyond the otherwise clockwork machinery of the world. Only humans, he believed, enjoy such
freedom; all other creatures are determined by the laws of nature (see pp.54-55). Having split the world into mind and matter, Descarte
s questioned how the two interact. He suggested that they "commingle" in the pineal gland of the brain, but was unable to say how they
do so. Indeed, explaining the interaction between mind and matter is difficult for a dualist, for the mind (being immaterial) can never be
found to see how it works: it is always the subject of experience, but never its object. And so, if ever a physical object, such as a brain or
a computer, is presented as being a mind, a dualist knows in advance that it is not. Likewise, if a materialist (see pp.154-155) states that
pain is simply electrical activity in the brain, this only deepens the mystery, for we know that that conscious awareness the feeling of bei
ng stung by a bee is bound up with bodily processes. The mystery is the nature of that bond, and how a physical brain can do anything as
strange as feel.

The hard problem

Today, what is called the "hard problem of consciousness" , reformulates Descartes' thought: that no amount of science gets us
any closer to understanding what it is to be conscious to have direct experience of colors, scents, and sounds. According to this view, sci
ence describes the world as it is "out there," and does so from the vantage point of experience. But the vantage point itself the place wh
ere experience occurs-can never itself be seen: the subject of experience can never become its object. As David Chalmers, a defender of
"naturalistic dualism," puts it: "Studying consciousness tells us more about how the world is fundamentally strange."

EPIPHENOMENALISM
One problem faced by dualists is the possibility that the universe is "causally complete" (see pp.152- 153). According to this vie
w, human behavior is completely explained by bodily processes, which leaves nothing for the mind to do other than to experience the b
ody's workings. The biologist T.H. Huxley held this view, calling the mind an "epiphenomenon," or by-product, of the brain. He likened th
e mind to a clock's bell, which plays no role in keeping the time.

Qualia
Philosophers use the word "qualia" to describe the immediate contents of experience-what it feels like to hear a particular soun
d, for instance. Frank Jackson used this example: Mary lives in a black-and-white world, in which she learns everything there is to know a
bout color from books and television documentaries. She is then taken out into the real world and experiences color for the first time. W
hat she is introduced to are qualia- qualities that, according to dualists, cannot be explained by materialist accounts of the mind (see pp.
152-153).

A materialist may say that Mary knows everything there is to know about color, even in her black- and-white world, simply by s
tudying it.

Mary’s entry into the world highlights the dualists case - that color is not a theory, but an experience
“Except our own thoughts there is nothing absolutely in our power”

❖ John Locke
John Locke:The Self is Consciousness
- The Human Mind at birth is a Tabula Rasa or Blank Slate
● Personal Identity
- founded on consciousness (memory), and not on the substance of either the soul or the body
- the concept about oneself that evolves over the course of an individual’s life
- may include aspects of life that man has no control over,such as where he grew up or the color of his skin, as
well as the choices he makes, like he spends his time and what he believe

❖ David Hume
DavidHume: the Self is the Bundle Theory of Mind
- Man has no “clear and intelligible” idea of the self
 - no single impression of the self exists; rather, the self is just the thing to which all perceptions of man is ascribed. More
over, even if there were such an impression of the self, it would have to remain constant over time to constitute identi
ty
- Man’s impressions vary and always change
- person can never observe oneself without some other perceptions.
- Hume asserts that what we call the “self” is really just a bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed ea
ch other with an inconceivable rapidity

❖ Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant: Respectfor Self
- • Man is the only creatures who governs and directs himself and his actions, who sets up ends for himself and his purp
ose, and who freely orders means for the attainment of his aims
- Respect others as you would respect yourself
- A person should not be used as a tool, instrument, or device to accomplish another’s private ends
- All men are persons gifted with the same basic rights and should treat each other as equal.

❖ Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

- According to Freud, the Self is multi-layered
● According to Freud, these two levels of human functioning
- the conscious and the unconscious— differ radically both in their content and in the rules and logic t
hat govern them

● Unconsious Self
- f embodies a mode of operation that precedes the development of all other forms of our mental functioning
- includes throughout our lives the primitive rock-bottom activities, the primal strivings on which all human functioning i
s ultimately based
● Conscious self
- governed by the “reality principle” (rather than the “pleasure principle”), and at this level of functioning, behavior and
experience are organized in ways that are rational, practical, and appropriate to the social environment

❖ Gilbert Ryle (1900 - 1976)

- Gilbert Ryle believes that our behavior makes us who we are
- The Self is not merely an entity that you can easily locate or analyze but simply the convenient name that people use t
o refer to all the behaviors that people make. The Self is open for exploration into different facet
- "our knowledge of other people and ourselves depends on noticing how they and we behave"

❖ Paul Churchland (1942)

● Eliminative materialism
- This view is embodied in the work of philosophers like Paul Churchland, who believes that the mind is the brai
n and that over time a mature neuroscience vocabulary will replace the “folk psychology” that we currently us
e to think about ourselves and our minds

- believes that the brain is the essence of the Self

- He believes that by empirically investigating how the brain functions, we will be able to predict and explain how we function. Th
erefore, we are our brain

❖ Maurice Merleu-Ponty (0908 - 1961)

- believes that the definition of the Self is all about one’s perceptions of his or her experiences and how we interpret tho
se experiences
- believes that the mind and body is intertwined or connected and that they cannot be separated from one another
- He dismisses the Cartesian Dualism and says that the living body, our thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all on