ENTITY

I ND
IVID
UAL
I A L ITY
TY ON
S
PE R

CTER ESS
A R A E NC E
CH
 SOCRATES
Øancient Greek philosopher
Øl i v e d i n A t h e n s i n t h e 5 t h
century BCE
Øadmired by his followers for his
integrity, self-mastery, profound
philosophical insight and his
argumentative skill.
-He believed in Dualism.

1. EXIST IN PHYSICAL (material

substance)

•body belongs to the physical

realm
•mortal and constantly
changing
•believed that when we are in
the physical realm, we are alive
a n d o u r b o d y a n d s o u l a re
attached, therefore making
both parts of our “self” present
in the physical realm.

•“There is world after death.”

2. SOUL (immaterial substance)
•belongs to the ideal realm
•Immortal
-it is unchanging while it is
attached to our body and
thus in the physical realm,
but it is also unmodified.
“an unexamined life is
not worth living.”
 PLATO
Øborn around 428 B.C
Øg r e w u p d u r i n g
Peloponnesian War (431-
404)
Øh e w a s e d u c a t e d i n
philosophy, poetry, and
gymnastics by distinguished
Athenian teachers.
•The SOUL is the SELF
ØSOUL has 3 parts,

1. Rational/Reason- the
divine essence that enables you
to think deeply, make wise
choices and achieve an
understanding of eternal truths.
2 . S p i r i t o r Pa s s i o n - b a s i c
emotions such love, happiness,
joy, anger, empathy, and other
emotional feelings.
3 . Phys i cal Appet i te - b a s i c
biological needs such as hunger,
thirst, sexual desires and other
physical wants.
“If we do not live in
accordance with their
nature/function, the
result will be injustice.”
THE CHARIOTEER
 ST. AUGUSTINE
• born in Tagaste, North Africa.
• son of a Roman citizen and a Christian
woman, Monica.
• Bishop of Hippo Regius, present day
Annaba, Algeria.
• Latin philosopher and theologian from
the Africa Province of the Roman
Empire.
• one of the greatest Christian thinkers of
all time.
ST. AUGUSTINE • At first, he thought the body as the
“slave” of the soul but ultimately,
regarded the body as the “spouse”
of the soul both attached to one
another.
• he believed that body is united
with the soul, so that man may be
entire and complete.
• His first principle was, “I doubt,
therefore I am.”
 ST. AUGUSTINE
• He believed in parts of the soul, like
Plato.
PLATO ST. AUGUSTINE

1. SOUL- achieves eternal 1. SOUL- strives to achieve

realm through God through faith and
intellectual reason.
enlightenment.

2. BODY is inferior. 2. BODY- is inferior and our

physical world is proving
ground for eternal destiny.
 ST. AUGUSTINE
• The self seeks to be united with
God through faith and reason.

“Humanity is created in the image of

and likeness of God, that God is
supreme and all-knowing and
everything created by God who is all
good is good.”
 RENE DESCARTES
• Born in conservative France (1956)
• Finished his studies in law
• Engaged as a soldier in diverse army
•Met Isaac Beeckman (Dutch
philosopher and scientist; sparked
his interest in mathematics and the
New Physics)
• After several dreams, he quitted
army career for the study of
philosophy and mathematics
 RENE DESCARTES
•H e w a s a s c i e n t i s t i n h i s
professional life and during his
time, scientists believed that after
death the physical body dies,
hence the self also dies.

• He was a devout Catholic who

believed in the immortal souls
and eternal life.
 RENE DESCARTES
• The self is the thinking thing,
distinct from the body.

ØSoul/thinking self- nonmaterial,

immortal, conscious
ØPhysical body- material, mortal,
n o n - t h i n k i n g e n t i t y, f u l l y
governed by the physical laws of
nature.
 “Cogito ergo sum.”

“I think, therefore I am.”

 JOHN LOCKE
• He was born in Wrington the 29 th of
August, 1632.
• He studied natural sciences, medicine
and State’s theory.
• Locke never married nor had children.
However, he was very close with Lady
Damaris Cudworth Masham that lasted
till his death on October 28 th , 1704 at
the age of 72.
• Locke is recognized as the founder of
empiricism.
 JOHN LOCKE
• Human mind at birth is a tabula
rasa (“blank slate”)

• The self or personal identity is

constructed primarily from sense
experiences which shape and
m o l d t h e s e l f t h ro u g h o u t a
person’s life.
 JOHN LOCKE
• Personality is made possible by self-
consciousness.
• Conscious awareness and memory of
previous experiences are the keys in
understanding the self.
• Consciousness means being aware
that you are thinking; this what
makes your belief possible that you
are the same identity at different
times and in different places.
 DAVID HUME
• Born April 26th 1711
• Scottish philosopher, historian, and
economist
• Studied law for 3 years
• He is widely regarded as “ The
greatest English philosopher”
• Failed to get university appointments
because of his “atheism”
• He attended the Jesuit college in
France where Descartes also studied
 DAVID HUME
•Hume completely undercuts
Descartes and Locke’s view of self-
identity.

•H u m a n s a re s o d e s p e rate l y
wanting to believe that they have a
unified and continuous soul that
they use their imaginations to
construct a fictional self.
 DAVID HUME
•“ There is no self”, only a
bundle of perceptions
passing through the theatre
of your minds.
•T h e i d e a o f a p e r s o n a l
identity is just a result of
imagination.
IMMANUEL KANT
•Born 1724, Died 1804 at
Konikgsberg, East Prussia
• Appointed as a professor of
Logic and Metaphysics when he
was 45
•He stands as part of the
“European Enlightenment”- the
attempt to get beyond authority
and superstition and deal with
the world on the basis of
HUMAN REASON
IMMANUEL KANT
•He opposes the idea of
Hume that everything starts
with perception and
sensation of impressions.
• There is unavoidably a mind
that systematizes the
impressions that men get
from the external world.
IMMANUEL KANT
• “We construct the self.”
• Self is a product of Reason
because the self regulates
experience by making unified
experience possible.
• Self constructs its own reality,
actively creating a world that
is familiar and predictable.
Considering whether
the action good or
bad?

What are you using

to formulate your
answers?
We ex p e r i e n c e t h e
world as we do
because it is the way
our senses function.
We do not know
things as they are in
themselves but only
as they appear to us.
 SIGMUND FREUD
• Born May 6, 1856, Austria
Empire (now Pribor, Czech
Republic)
• Died September 23, 1939
• He was an Austrian neurologist
• Founder of Psychoanalysis
SIGMUND FREUD
• Self is composed of three (3)
layers.

conscious
preconscious
unconscious
SIGMUND FREUD
Conscious mind- thoughts,
feelings, and actions that
you are currently aware of

-human awareness of
both internal and external
stimuli
SIGMUND FREUD
Preconscious mind- mental
activities that are stored in
your memory
-consists of those things we
could pay conscious attention to if
we so desired, and where many
memories are restored for easy
retrieval.

(e.g., the “tip of the tongue”

effect)
SIGMUND FREUD
Unconscious mind- includes
activities that you are not
aware of.
-largely inaccessible, such
as in dreams or slips of the
tongue.

(e.g., A man who accidentally

uses a former ’s girlfriend
name when referring to a
current girlfriend.)
SIGMUND FREUD
-According to him, there are
thoughts, feelings, desires, and
urges that the conscious mind
wants to hide, buried in your
unconscious, but may shed light
to your unexplained behavior.
GILBERT RYLE
• Born August 19,1900 in Brighton, Sussex,
England and died on October 6, 1976.
• His father was a general practitioner but had
a keen interest in philosophy and astronomy
that he passed it on to his children
• He was educated at Brighton College and
then entered Queen's College, Oxford
• He graduated with first class honors in the
New Modern Greats School of Philosophy,
Politic, and Economics.
GILBERT RYLE
• “I Act therefore I am.”, in short
the self is the same as bodily
behavior.
• Arguing that the mind does not
exist and therefore can’t be the
seat of self.
• views the self as the way people
behave, which is composed of a
set of patterned behavior.
GILBERT RYLE
•Basically, for Ryle, the self is the
same as your behavior.

•The workings of the mind are

not distinct from the actions of
the body but are one and the
same.
 PAUL CHURCHLAND
• born on October 21, 1942 in Vancouver,
Canada
• Canadian philosopher and author
known for neuro philosophy and
philosophy of mind
• married to fellow philosopher Patricia
Churchland
• Churchland became a professor at the
University of California where he later
became the department chair and member
of the Cognitive Science Faculty, a member
of the Institute for Neural Computation.
 PAUL CHURCHLAND
•H e b e l i e v e d t h a t t o f u l l y
understand one’s behavior, one
should understand the different
neurological movement of the
brain that pertains to different
emotions, feelings, actions, and
reactions and how such brain
movements affect the body.
 PAUL CHURCHLAND
• “the self is the brain.”
• The self is inseparable from the
brain and the physiological body
because the physical brain gives
the sense of self.
• the brain and the self are one.
• Once the brain is dead, the self is
dead too.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
•B o r n M a r c h 1 4 , 1 9 0 8 i n
Rochefort, France
• Died May 1961 in Paris
• Educator, philosopher, political
scientist, academic author,
editor, and journalist
• Lost his father in WWI
• Served in the infantry in WWII
• Elected chair of Philosophy in
1952 until his death
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
• believed the physical body to
be an important part of what
makes up the subjective self.
• All knowledge of ourselves and
our world is based on
subjective experience.
•T h e s e l f c a n n e v e r t r u l y
objectified or known in a
completely objective sort of
way.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
•“ t h e s e l f h a s e m b o d i e d
subjectivity”
• -all your knowledge about
yourself and the world is based
on your subjective experiences
and everything that you are
aware of is contained in your
consciousness.
• “ Your body is your general
medium for having a world.”
THANK YOU!