Untitled Quiz

Prayer

• A prayer asking for guidance in thoughts, desires, speech, and work.
• The supplicant requests to think, desire, speak, and act as the divine being wishes.

The Self From Various Perspectives

• The unit examines the self from multiple perspectives, including philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and Oriental/Eastern thought.

Philosophy

• The self in a philosophical paradigm: Explores the nature of the self, source of self-knowledge, meaning in life, and the path to genuine happiness.
• Nature of the self: Composition, source, and authority of the self are addressed.
• Existential questions: Meaning in life is explored through existential questions.
• Path to genuine happiness: Methods of achieving happiness, including practical ways and a path, are identified.

Ancient Philosophy

• The Ancient Triumvirate: The study identifies Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle as key figures.
• Socrates: "Know thyself." Examined life and the question of a meaningful life. He believed that an unexamined life was not worth living.
• Plato: Three-part self (physical appetite, reason, and spirit/passion). A dualistic reality of body and soul, where the soul strives for wisdom and perfection.
• Aristotle: Self is comprised of matter and form, where the mind is considered a blank tablet, filled through experiences.

The Post-Aristotelians

• Stoicism: The focus is on apathy towards pleasure and resilience.
• Hedonism: The central concept is pleasure as the only good and pain as the only evil.
• Epicureanism: Moderation in pleasure and contentment with simple pleasures—to avoid disappointment; happiness derives from training desires.

Medieval Philosophy

• Theo-centric philosophy: The shift is from scientific inquiry to questions about life and salvation, often in a higher realm after death.
• The aim to integrate philosophy and religion (Christian, Jewish, Islamic).

Is the self related to a Supreme Being/God?

• The relationship between the self and a supreme being/God is examined.

St. Augustine

• Integrates Platonic ideas with Christian tenets: Belief about the pursuit of union with God through faith and reason.

St. Thomas Aquinas

• Self-knowledge and experience: The self learns through interaction with the world and experiences.
• The self's attributes, values, and characteristics come from the encountered things.

Does this mean we get to know everything by only experiencing it?

• The question examines if simply experiencing things is how we obtain knowledge, according to Aquinas.

St. Thomas Aquinas (continued)

• Experience of existence doesn't instantly define the nature of something.
• Knowledge and comprehension require an extensive understanding process, entailing both experience and careful reasoning.

Modern Philosophy

• Anthropocentric philosophy: Rejecting the medieval scholastic emphasis on authority, focusing on independent reasoning and real-world experiments in their inquiry into the self.
• Period of radical, social, political, and intellectual developments: Modern philosophy's key characteristics.

Rene Descartes

• The self is a thinking entity separate from the body.

David Hume

• The self is nothing but a collection of perceptions.

Gilbert Ryle

• The self is seen through observable behaviors.

John Locke

• Self-consciousness makes personal identity possible.

Immanuel Kant

• The self is a unifying consciousness that organizes experience.

Paul & Patricia Churchland

• The self is primarily a mental state arising from brain states.

Contemporary Philosophy

• Embodied Subjectivity: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty posit that the physical body is a natural aspect of the self.
• Phenomenological approach: Examining lived experiences to understand the self without biases.

Psychology

• Psychoanalytic: Self is a multifaceted structure— conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
• Cognitive construction: Self-constructed through mental processes like evaluating ourselves.

Structure of the Self (Sigmund Freud)

• Id (biological self): The instinctual, pleasure-seeking component.
• Ego (psychological self): The reality principle balancing id and superego.
• Superego (social self): The moral and societal constraints.

ID (Biological Self)

• The natural part of the self, driven by primal nature and pleasure.
• Determined by genetic code, setting conditions for development.

SUPEREGO (Social Self)

• Internalized societal values and morals, acquired from parents and other influences.

EGO (Psychological Self)

• The reality principle, reconciling desires of the id with social expectations of the superego.

The Self as a Cognitive Construction

• Self-perception and awareness.

Imaginary Audience

• Adolescents believe others are constantly watching and evaluating them.

Self-Concept

• Mental representation of self, including appearance, feelings in situations, behavior, roles in social structures.

Self-Esteem

• How people value and view their self-worth.

Real and Ideal Self (Carl Rogers)

• The ideal self might not align with the real self, leading to incongruity and issues.

Self as defined by Social Comparison (Leon Festinger)

• Temporal comparison: Comparing self-now with past self.
• Social comparison: Comparing self with others.

How does the social comparison process work?

• Motivation affects how individuals compare themselves to others, either in an upward or downward comparison.

Two Modes of Social Comparison

• Upward comparison: Comparing oneself with someone better to determine areas for improvement.
• Downward comparison: Comparing oneself with someone worse to feel better.

Two Modes of Downward Social Comparison

• Passive comparison: Considering the past self to feel better.
• Active comparison: Comparing the self with others by demeaning or causing harm to them .

Reference Group

• Individuals look to reference groups for standards to evaluate themselves and behavior.

Social Comparisons & Reference Groups

• Reference groups (e.g., cliques, crowds) serve as benchmarks for self-evaluation.

Is social comparison good or bad?

• Social comparison can be motivating, but also demotivating in some cases.

The Creation of Identities

• Balancing the desire to fit in with reference groups and establishing a unique identity.

Self-Evaluation and Self-Enhancement

• Self-evaluation: Judging oneself based on examples of others
• Self-enhancement: Improving current self to match the self-ideal.

Sociology

• The self is a product of societal structures and interaction.

The Self in the Sociological Perspective

• Perceptually, the self evolves from interactions concerning others and society.

Johari Window

• A technique for understanding self-awareness through information known to oneself, known by others, and unknown to both.

The Looking Glass Self (Charles Horton Cooley)

• Self-perception develops from imagining how others perceive us and how we wish they would perceive us.

Symbolic Interactionism (George Herbert Mead)

• The self emerges from social interactions and internalizes societal expectations. The self is made up of "I" (individual creative acts) and "me" (socialized self).

Asian Schools of Thought

• Examining different Asian philosophical perspectives on the concept of the self. (e.g., Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism).

Western Self vs. Non-Western Self

• The distinction between Western, egocentric self-perception, versus more communal/relationship-oriented concepts in Eastern cultures.

Individualism-Collectivism Model (Markus & Kitayama)

• The self is dynamic, influenced by social contexts and relationships (collectivism) or independent, autonomous, and fixed (individualism).

Traits of Individualistic/Collectivistic Cultures

• Identifying traits of cultures emphasizing individualism vs. collectivism.

The Self in Oriental/Eastern Thought

• The self as contextually embedded in relationships and shaped by spiritual development, like Confucian thought.