THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

PHILOSOPHY

• The history of philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the fundamental
nature of the self. The different perspectives and views on the SELF can be best seen and
understood then by revisiting the important conjectures made by philosophers.

Why use epochal in understanding the different philosophical perspectives of the SELF ?

• In the history of the philosophy, philosophers are classified and organized based on their
epoch.

• Their philosophy is somehow identified based on the influences of the prevailing

characteristics of the era

• the evolutionary phase or development of the human mind in the history

1. PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY

- is characterized by the rejection of the mythological explanation on the nature and phenomena
in the universe.

- search for the “true essence of things” through looking on the basic stuff that composed
everything.

THALES (624-546 BC)

❖ He became known for positing that water is the single element that comprised all things
in the universe.
❖ He also made famous the aphorism, “The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.”

ANAXIMENES

• He designated air as the primary substance from which all things come from.
• “Although air is invisible, we live only as long as we can breathe, and just as our soul, being
air, holds us together, so do breath and air encompass the whole world.”

HERACLITUS

• THE PROBLEM OF CHANGE (All things are in flux)

• You cannot step twice into the same river. (SOUL)
• FLUX AND FIRE: To describe change as unity in diversity, Heraclitus assumed that there must
be something which changes, and he argued that this something is FIRE.

DEMOCRITUS(460—370 B.C.E.)

• He is known as “the laughing philosopher” – that he never appeared in public with out
expressing his contempt of human follies while laughing;

• expanded the atomic theory of Leucippus. He maintained the impossibility of dividing

things, ad infinitum.

2. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

Ancient Greek philosophy opened the doors to a particular way of thinking that provided the roots
for the Western intellectual tradition.

SOCRATES (469-399 BC)

Unlike the Pre-Socratics, Socrates was more concerned with another subject, the problem of the SELF.
He was more concerned with understanding one SELF rather than how the world works.

- He is challenging everyone to question their presuppositions about themselves and about

the world, particularly who they are. He challenges everyone to KNOW THYSELF.

- For Socrates, every man is composed of body and soul.

- It means that every human person is dualistic, that is, he is composed of two important
aspects of personhood.
- This means all individual have an imperfect, impermanent aspect, the body, while
maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent.

PLATO (428-348BC)
- was a student of Socrates who became known through his dialogues which contained the
presentation of his ideologies and theories in conversational form.
- “Man is the soul enclosed in a body.”
- In addition to what Socrates earlier espoused, Plato added that there are parts or three
components to the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive soul.
- In the Republic, Plato describes the soul as having three parts.
1. REASON (awareness of a goal or a value)
2. SPIRIT (drive toward action)
3. APPETITE (desire for the things of the body)

Virtue as Fulfillment of Function

- The GOOD LIFE is the life of inner harmony , of well-being, of happiness.
- Each part of the soul has a special FUNCTION. If one will use reason to control the spirit
and appetite, one can cultivate the virtues of wisdom (reason), spirit (courage), and
appetite (temperance)

ARISTOTLE (384-322BC)
- was a student of Plato and became known as the first thinker to create a comprehensive
system of philosophy, encompassing Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, Metaphysics, Logic and
Science.
- The human soul combines in itself all the lower forms of soul, the vegetative, nutritive, and
sensitive, having in addition to these the rational soul.

- Man is a rational animal.

FUNCTION OF MAN

• Two composition of soul: Rational and Irrational.

• The conflict between the two elements in man is what raises the problems and subject
matter of morality.

• Morality involves action.

• Human action should aim for proper end (the ultimate end or the final end).

• Happiness is a working of the soul in the way of excellence or virtue.

VIRTUE as the GOLDEN MEAN

- Virtue is formed through performing good habits.

3. MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

This period was predominantly composed of philosophers who were concerned with proving the
existence of God and with reconciling Christianity/Islam with the classical philosophy of Greece
particularly that of Aristotle.

St. Augustine
- Following the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with the newfound doctrine of
Christianity, he agreed that man is of *bifurcated nature.
- There is an aspect of man, which dwells in the world, that is imperfect and continuously
yearns to be with the divine while the other is capable of reaching immortality.

*Bifurcated – divided into two branches or parts

PHILOSOPHY OF MAN
• God created man as his beloved creation with rationality and free will.
• God has given as the option to freely return to him through moral actions prescribed by the
Church.
• Man has the responsibility to be with God.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

• Evil is the absence of good. Thus, God, who is the creator of all that is good did not
create evil.

• There are two types of evil: (1) physical evil and (2) moral evil. The latter serves to be
our daily decisions to do what is good and avoid what is evil

The Higher Good

• Man must attain the higher Good who is God and avoid focusing on temporary pleasures.
• One must concentrate his reason and faith to God because God can only give us perfect
happiness.

St. Thomas of Aquinas (1225 - 1274)

- was an Italian philosopher and theologian who became a great influence on subsequent
Christian philosophies, particularly that of the Roman Catholic Church.
- He is the most eminent 13th century scholar and stalwart of the medieval philosophy, appended
something to this Christian view.

- Adopting some ideas from Aristotle, he said that man is composed of two parts: matter and
form.

- Matter, or hyle in Greek, refers to the common stuff that makes up everything in the universe.

- Form, or morphe in Greek, refers to the essence of a substance or thing. Essence is what
makes a thing what it is

• In the case of the human person, the body is something that he shares even with animals.
• However, what makes a human person is his SOUL, his essence.
• To Aquinas, just as for Aristotle, the SOUL is what animates the body, it is what makes us
humans.

A. IDEA ABOUT MAN

• God created man according to his image and likeness.”
• 1. There is a God who is the creator.
• 2. There is a man who is created by God.
• 3. The creation bears the characteristics of his creator who is God.
4. EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY

David Hume (1711—1776)

• Scottish philosopher and empiricist who argues that the SELF is not an entity over and
beyond the physical body.
• The SELF is nothing but bundle of impressions. If one tries to examine his/her experiences,
he finds that they can all be categorized into two: impressions and ideas.

1. Impressions are the basic object of our experience or sensation. They form the core of our
thoughts. They are vivid because they are products of our direct experience with the world.

2. Ideas are copies of impressions. They are not as lively and vivid as our impressions. When
one imagines the feeling of being in love for the fist time, that still is an idea.

The SELF is simply “a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other
with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and movement”

Men don’t have a unified, coherent SELF. In reality, what one thinks as unified SELF is simply a
combination of all experiences with a particular person.

RENE DESCARTES

-French philosopher, mathematician, scientist and writer of the Age of Reason. He has been called the
"Father of Modern Philosophy"

-a great mathematician and the father of Modern Philosophy

-On Meditations, he was not able to distinguish what is real between the DREAMING STATE AND his
WAKING LIFE.

-He doubted the existence of EVERYTHING and the FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE

-I think therefore, I am. (cogito ergo sum)

5. MODERN PHILOSOPHY
- The rise of Modern Philosophy can be attributed to certain historical and cultural changes that
happened between the Age of Reason during the 17th century and the Age of Enlightenment
during the 18th century.

Karl Marx (1818–1883)

• best known not as a philosopher but as a revolutionary, whose works inspired the foundation
of many communist regimes in the twentieth century; known for his criticism of the capitalist
society
• “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it”
• Communism is a society in which each person should contribute according to their ability and
receive according to their need.
HUMAN NATURE AND ALIENATION
➢ Human labor is what makes and gives dignity and worth.
➢ It claims that man’s work, place of work, time of work, and nature of work determine his
humanity.
➢ Marx is suspicious of capitalism because it alienates man from his work.

▪ Alienation - the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one
should belong or in which one should be involved.
▪ loss or lack of sympathy; estrangement.
▪ (in Marxist theory) a condition of workers in a capitalist economy, resulting from a lack of
identity with the products of their labor and a sense of being controlled or exploited.

1. ALIENATION TO SELF
• The workers are not called by name, but by numbers.
• Man is reduced to a mere number. (numerical value)
• Success is determined by numbers.

2. ALIENATION TO NATURE
• Man is a social being → Man is a working animal

3. ALIENATION TO OTHERS
In a capitalist economy, workers must compete with each other for jobs and raises

• In the workplace, individual productivity is greater than socialization.

• The social animal is domesticated to be alone.

4. ALIENATION TO PRODUCTS OF THEIR LABOR

The commodities that workers produce through their labor is not their own but ultimately
belongs to another and is produced for another.

WHAT IS A GOOD MAN?

• If labor or work gives the essence of being a man, it is therefore a necessary condition to
make everything related to work desirable.
• Elimination of the factors of alienation
• “WORKERS of all nation unite, you have nothing to lose except your chains.”

6. CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

The present period in the history of Western philosophy beginning at the end of the 19th century
with the professionalization of the discipline. Major school of thoughts: rise of analytic and
continental philosophy, postmodernism, structuralism, etc.

Jean Paul-Sartre (1905-1980)

• He is commonly considered the father of Existentialist philosophy, whose writings set the
tone for intellectual life in the decade immediately following the Second World War.
• Characterized by a development of classic phenomenology, but his reflection diverges
from Husserl’s on methodology, the conception of the self, and an interest in ethics.
• Known for his dictum: “Hell is other people.”

“Existence precedes essence.”

-Sartre
“Man is challenged to create his meaning with the choice he is going to make.”

Martin Heidegger (1889—1976)

In being involved with the things in the world, a person is either being involved with or along
these things or entities.

1. being with = subjects

2. being along = equipment

Gazing towards death opens up new possibilities for imagining our being.
-Heidegger
➢ Death is the end of dasein (man). We are born without meaning. It is up to us to create
our definition before we die. Knowing that all of us are going to die, it creates a sense of
urgency to create our own definition.

SOCIOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

• Thinkers just settled with the idea that there are two components of the human person and
whatever relationship these two have is LESS important than the FACT that there is a SELF.
• The most important axis of analysis is the relationship between the self and the external
world.

What is SELF?
1. Separate – self is distinct from other selves. It is always unique and has its own identity
2. Self-contained and Independent – self in itself can exist. It does not require any other self
for it to exist.
3. Consistent – it has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist
for quite some time.
4. Unitary – it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain
person.
5. Private – Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought
processes within the self. This whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self.
“Social constructionists argue for a merged view of the person and their social context where the
boundaries of one cannot easily be separated from the boundaries of the other”(Stevens,
1996)
Self is always in participation with social life and its identity subjected to influences here and there.

Marcel Mauss (French anthropologist)

Every self has two faces
1. Personne – social concepts of what it means to be who he is.
2. Moi – person’s sense of who he is; body, identity & biological givenness.

George Herbert Mead & Lev Vygotsky

The Self and the Development of the Social World
Language Acquisition and interaction with others; the way we process information is normally a
form of an internal dialogue in our head.

Self in Families
The kind of family that we are born in and the resources available to us (human, spiritual,
economic) will certainly affect us and the kind of development that we will have as we go
through life.

Gender and the Self

Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development.
Gender partly determines how we see ourselves in the world.

THE EMERGENCE OF SELF AS A PRODUCT OF ENVIRONMENT

(Behavioral Genetics)
The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest issues in psychology.
The debate centers on the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental
factors to human development. ... genetic traits handed down from parents influence the
individual differences that make each person unique.
NATURE
The influence of our inherited characteristics on our personality, physical growth, intellectual
growth and social interactions
NURTURE
-The influence of the environment on personality, physical growth, intellectual growth and social
interactions

NATURE VS NURTURE
(THEORIES)
John Watson (Behaviorism)

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in
and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I
might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
(1930)”

IVAN PAVLOV
(Classical Conditioning)
• Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical
conditioning.
• Classical Conditioning in Humans. The influence of classical conditioning can be seen in
responses such as phobias, disgust, nausea, anger, and sexual arousal. A familiar example
is conditioned nausea, in which the sight or smell of a particular food causes nausea
because it caused stomach upset in the past.

B.F. Skinner
(Operant Conditioning)
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B. F. Skinner, was an American psychologist,
behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher.

- Operant conditioning is learning that occurs based on the consequences of behaviour and
can involve the learning of new actions. Operant conditioning occurs when a dog rolls
over on command because it has been praised for doing so in the past, when a
schoolroom bully threatens his classmates because doing so allows him to get his way,
and when a child gets good grades because her parents threaten to punish her if she
doesn’t. In operant conditioning the organism learns from the consequences of its own
actions.

Erik Erikson (Psychosocial Development)

1.First Year
• Trust vs. Mistrust (0-2)
• Infants learn to trust or mistrust that their needs will be met by the world, especially by
the mother.
• (Most important other) An infant is helpless. He is totally dependent on others for his
needs. What is more important is the consistency of meeting his needs.

2.Second Year
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (2-3)
• Children learn to exercise will, to make choices, and to control themselves, or they
become uncertain and doubt that they can do things by themselves.
• (Virtue developing) Erikson believe that learning to control one's bodily functions leads to
a feeling of control and a sense of independence. Other important events include gaining
more control over food choices, toy preferences, and clothing selection.

3.Fourth to Fifth year

• Initiative vs. Guilt (4-5)
• Children learn to initiate activities and enjoy their accomplishments, acquiring direction
and purpose. If they are not allowed initiative, they feel guilty for their attempts at
independence.
• (Virtue developing) Children begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities
with others. If given this opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative, and feel
secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.

4. Sixth year through puberty

• Industry vs. inferiority (6-12)
• Children develop sense of industry and curiosity and are eager to learn, or they feel
inferior and lose interest in the task before them.
• (Most important other) Children are at the stage (aged 5 to 12 years) where they will be
learning to read and write, to do sums, to make things on their own. Teachers begin to
take an important role in the child's life as they teach the child specific skills.

5. Adolescence
• Identity vs. role confusion (12-19)
• Adolescents come to see themselves as unique and integrated persons with an
ideology, or they become confused about what they want in life.
• (Virtue developing) This is a major stage in development where the child has to learn the
roles he will occupy as an adult. It is during this stage that the adolescent will re-examine
his identity and try to find out exactly who he or she is. Erikson suggests that the two
identities are involved: the sexual and the occupational.

6. Early adulthood
• Intimacy vs. isolation (20-40)
• Young people become able to commit themselves to another person, or they develop a
sense of isolation and feel they have no one in the world but themselves.
• (Most important other) Occurring in young adulthood (ages 18 to 40 yrs), we begin to
share ourselves more intimately with others. We explore relationships leading toward
longer term commitments with someone other than a family member.

7. Middle age
• Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-60)
• Adults are willing to have and care for children and to devote themselves to their work
and the common good, or they become self-centered and inactive.
• (Most important other) During middle adulthood (ages 40 to 65 yrs), we establish our
careers, settle down within a relationship, begin our own families and develop a sense of
being a part of the bigger picture.
8. Old age
• Integrity versus despair (65-death)
• Older people enter a period of reflection, becoming assured that their lives have been
meaningful and ready to face death with acceptance and dignity. Or they are in despair
for their unaccomplished goals failure, and ill-spent lives.
• (Most important other) As we grow older (65 + yrs) and become senior citizens, we tend
to slow down our productivity, and explore life as a retired person.

COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION
“Cognitive”

- relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning,
or remembering).

Self is defined as “the sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals. (Jhangiani and
Tarry 2014,106)

William James
“I” vs. “me”
- One of the earliest psychologists to study the self.
- Conceptualized the self as having two aspects, the “I” and the “me”.
- “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self.
- “me” is the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes who
you are.
The Empirical Self or Me
It is clear that between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine, the line is difficult to
draw. We feel and act about certain things that are ours very much as we feel and act about
ourselves. Our fame, our children, the work of our hands, may be as dear to us as our bodies
are, and arouse the same feelings and the same acts of reprisal if attacked. And our bodies
themselves, are they simply ours, or are they us?

In its widest possible sense, a man's Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his
body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his
ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and
bank-account. All these things give him the same emotions.

- The constituents of the Self may be divided into classes, those which make up respectively -

- (a) The material Self;

- (b) The social Self; “Me” Self

- (c) The spiritual Self; and

- (d) The pure Ego. “I” Self

- Self-esteem is the subjective measure of a person's value—the worth that one believes
one has as an individual.
- self esteem as the ratio of an individual's actual behavior in contrast to their pretensions.

Self- Esteem = Actual Behavior

Pretensions

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist who agreed with the main assumptions of
Abraham Maslow, but added that for a person to "grow", they need an environment that provides them
with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive
regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood).

Abraham Maslow
“Self-actualization” represents a concept derived from Humanistic psychological theory and,
specifically, from the theory created by Abraham Maslow. Self-actualization represents
growth of an individual toward fulfillment of the highest needs; those for meaning in life, in
particular.

Identity is composed of one’s personal characteristics, social roles and responsibilities as well as
affiliations that defines who one is. (Elmore, Oyserman and Smith 2012, 69)

Self-concept is basically what comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are.
(Elmore, Oyserman and Smith 2012,69)

Self, identity, and self concept are not fixed in one time frame. For example, when asked who you
are, you may say something that was part of your past, something that you do in the present, or
something that is about your future.

Self-schema according to Carl Rogers:

* self-schema is our own organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are.

These schema changes as you grow and adapt to the changes around you. These are not passive
and it actively shape and affect how you see, think, and feel about things.

➢ When someone states your name, your attention is drawn to him.

➢ If you hear your provincial dialect being used by someone, it catches your attention.
➢ If you consider yourself a book-lover, a bookstore may always entice you every time you go to
a mall.
Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and re-created in
memory.

Current researches point to the frontal lobe of the brain as the specific area in the brain
associated with processes concerning the self.

Sigmund Freud
is considered to be the father of psychiatry. Among his many accomplishments is, arguably, the most
far-reaching personality schema in psychology: the Freudian theory of personality.

Freud used the term 'Das Ich' (the 'I'). They are:

❑ the ego - one's person as subject, who desires, thinks, feels, acts.
❑ the self - the person one believes, wishes, or hopes oneself to be, as distinct from the actual
object, one's (or another's) actual person.
❑ the character - a stable syndrome of interrelated traits of behaviour or thought.

Ego - it is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason,
whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable.
Id - The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and
immediately to the instincts.
Superego - The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's
parents and others.

SELF-AWARENESS SCHEMA
ACTUAL - Basic self-concept

IDEAL - concerned with hopes and wishes

OUGHT - concerned with safety and responsibility