History of Philosophy

• Philosophers have long explored consciousness, identity, and the mind-body relationship

Philosophical Origins

• Philosophy began in 600 BCE, literally meaning "love of wisdom"
• Athens became a hub for debates where words equaled power

Key Figures

• Sophists were skilled in arguments and debates and considered the first leaders of Western thought
• Socrates emphasized self-knowledge, stating that "the unexamined life is not worth living"
• Socrates used a method of questioning to help individuals uncover their beliefs
• The Socratic Method, also known as the dialectal method, sought essential truths about the world and people

Plato's Philosophy

• Plato, Aristotle's mentor, founded "The Academy"
• Plato's Theory of Forms states that the self is an immortal soul separate from the physical body
• True knowledge comes from understanding eternal Forms, like beauty, justice, and goodness
• Plato's dualism divides reality into the Realm of the Shadow (imperfect, changing) and the Realm of Forms (perfect, eternal)
• Plato viewed humans as having three components to the soul: reason, spirit, and appetites
  • Reason is rational and aims to see things in their nature
  • Spirit is non-rational and drives action
  • Appetites represent desires
• Plato's Theory of Love and Becoming uses the Allegory of the Cave and emphasizes the search for knowledge
• Plato's Theory of Being suggests that knowing truth requires becoming the truth

Philosophy of Love

• Love enables a person to move from ignorance to true knowledge and perfection reflecting Plato's ideas

Good Versus Evil

• Plato suggests humans are inherently good but become evil through a lack of understanding of what is good
• "Ignorance of the law excuses no one"

Christianity

• After the Hellenistic-Roman period, Christian theologians focused on God and humanity's relationship with God
• The ultimate goal was not self-knowledge or happiness, but to rely on God's commandments
• St. Augustine of Hippo rejected Christianity initially, seeking to understand moral evil and personal desires
• Augustine viewed the self as a complex entity striving for connection with God
• A belief that the soul can only find rest in God
• Augustine's Confessions is a personal spiritual journey

St. Augustine’s View of Human Nature

• God is the source of reality and truth, with sinfulness stemming from free will
• Humans were created to love, with real happiness found in God
• Disoriented love arises when humans love the wrong things
  • Love of physical objects leads to greed
  • Excessive love for others leads to jealousy
  • Love of self leads to pride
  • Loving God is the supreme virtue for happiness

The Enlightenment Era

• It emphasized reason and individual autonomy

René Descartes

• Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, used the Cartesian Method and Analytic Geometry
• He emphasized reason and individual consciousness
• Through math, Descartes discovered the human mind has two powers
  • Intuition allowing one to see direction of truth
  • Deduction to discover what is not known
• Descartes believed in priori truths that can be discovered

Descartes’ Human Nature

• "I think, therefore I am"
• A thinker refuses, understands, denies, imagines, and feels
• The cognitive aspect is the basis of self existence
• The mind-body problem is that the mind is separate from the body, and the body is motivated by the mind

John Locke

• Locke believed knowledge comes from experience
• Two processes of gaining knowledge: sensation and reflection

Sensation and Reflection

• Sensation is experienced through the senses
• Reflection is when the mind looks at the objects that were experienced
• Tabula rasa meaning mind is a blank slate at birth

Locke's Three Laws of Human Nature

• Locke's Laws of Human Nature include the Laws of Opinion, Civil Law, and Divine Law
  • Law of Opinion includes virtuous and not virtuous actions
  • Civil Law enforces right actions by people in authority
  • Divine Law is set by the actions by God

David Hume

• Hume used the scientific method and discovered the mind's limitations and skepticism
• Hume viewed the self as a changing bundle of perceptions with no fixed identity, challenged the fixed self

Hume's View of Mind

• The mind receives information form the senses and calls them perceptions
• The perceptions are grouped as impressions and ideas

Impressions and Ideas

• Impressions are immediate sensations of external reality
• Ideas are reflections of those impressions

Immanuel Kant

• Kant was deeply spiritual.
• Kant’s View of Mind discusses that knowledge results from applying the human understanding to experiences

Transcendental Apperception

• States that the Transcendental Apperception is experience of the self and its unity with objects

Sigmund Freud's Psychic Energy

• Drive to do something and controls the person’s consciousness
• Psychopathology results from repressed and hidden memories.
• Freud used the iceberg theory when mapping the structure of the mind

The Topography of the Mind

• Conscious: awareness, observable behavior
• Preconscious: can be recalled
• Unconscious: past experiences, fantasies

The Levels of Mind

• Id follows the pleasure principle
• Ego is based on the reality principle and regulates the Id.
• Superego is defined by learning right and wrong

What are the Kinds of Instincts?

• Eros are life instincts and maintain survival
• Thanatos is a death instinct and results in forms of aggression

Freud’s View of Human Nature

• States humans are pleasure seeking individuals and aim to balance the forces of life and death

Gilbert Ryle

• Author of “The Concept of Mind”

Freewill

• Invented to determine if an action results in reward or blame
• Agrees with Kant that decisions result in praise if the actions were morally responsible

What are the Two Types of Knowledge?

• Knowing-that includes general facts
• Knowing-how includes utilizing information

Patricia and Paul Churchland

• Coined the term "Neurophilosophy" to guide scientific theorizing in order to study science and philosophy.

What is the Philosophy of Neuroscience?

• It is the study of the philosophy of mind, science, psychology, and neuroscience.

Maurice-Merleau-Ponty

• Philosophical works focused on perception, art, and political
• The human body is the primary place for understanding experiences
• Merteau-Ponty’s View of Human Nature discusses body-subject connections as perceptions arise

Sociology View of the Self

• Sociological views highlights the significance of institutions like family, education, and religion when determining an individual's identity.

• The institutions guide civilization based on societal norms and influence individuality, thus, creating placement in civilization

• Social inequalities like race, gender, and class can either expand or limit personal growth.

George Herbert Mead and Social Behaviorism

• A method demonstrating the environmental power when influencing a human

The Stages of Development

• The self is nonexistent at the Preparatory Stage and behavior relies on simple imitation

The Play Stage

• Includes the creation of the self and role playing
• Role playing is the mental processing of how a person might act amid an experience.

The Game Stage

• Includes the sense of self in children of ~8 years old
• Children learn to manage relationships and tasks while also adopting the perspective of others

Generalized Other

• The way in which an individual considers other people as they act

Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment for Aggression

• The Bobo Doll Experiment demonstrates aggression stemming from watching adults

What is Role Modeling?

• Is done when the adults in the experiment acted like mirrors, showing the importance of role models when adapting

Social Learning

• The experiment aims to provide evidence for the theory that students learn from observing

Gender Roles

• A points to the influence of gender roles in the experiment

What is Media Influence?

• The experiment signifies media involvement in violence and emphasizes the influence when developing individually

Social Control

• Includes punishments and rewards, further shaping the sense of self and maintaining order.

Social Construct

• Refers to how individuals can adapt certain behaviors based on actions from others

Mead's Theory of the Self

• Consists of "I" and "ME"

The "I" and "ME"

• I refers to the action or functions as a subject
• ME refers to the other and also acts as an object

Charles Horton Cooley

• Discussed the sense of self with interaction
• The looking-glass self emerges due to interaction

Process of Self-Development

• Includes the idea of how individuals think others view them and form a sense of self

Erving Goffman

• Highlighted how to change self-presentation to satisfy or appeal to specific people
• Dramaturgical approach likens social interaction with a theatrical presentation
• Face-work is how individuals display them amid situations

Anthropology View of the Self

• Includes how a sense of self impacts societal interactions

• Origins include genes and culture as well as roles amid individual existence

• Edwardes argues knowledge of others formed early and is improved with relation

• Self-awareness results from the sharing of social structures

• The model of self generated depends on awareness

• Edwardes aims to identify the seven forms of personal structure amid individuals

• Awareness hinges on others

What is Anthropology?

• Is the studying of human culture and development

• The field is dedicated to how occurrences impact human experiences

• Anthropology analyzes every portion of an experience regardless of societal structure

• Contemporary concepts identify self as culturally created

• Identities emerge significantly amid cultures

Cultural Variation

• Emphasizes individualistic cultures that value personal freedom
• Other societies are closely tied to community
• Selves are perceived as an ongoing creation and affected by societal interactions

What is Agency and the Self?

• Includes exploration from anthropologists in regards to the extent people have impact on their personality

• Even amid culture, people have capabilities to form resistance or adapt to personal norms, resulting in self-awareness

• The idea of a person amid anthropology includes more than individuality and signifies traits of societal recognition

Aspects of the Person in Contemporary Anthropology

• Recognizes societal characteristics linked to people

• Characteristics are not guaranteed, but can be obtained due to status, age, morality, gender, or traditions

• Status dictates moral integrity and legal rights

• In society, identity or personhood can be limited due to societal structure

• Anthropologists analyze how the person is viewed in conjunction with treatment or image

Self Concept

• Refers to information or understanding regarding oneself

Aspects of a Self Concept

• Include physical, societal, and psychological attitudes
• Family history maintains influential status relating to individuality

The Self as a Culture

• Study performed by Erdman concluded childhood memories are a considerable portion of unique personality and endure amid time Cultural context can be a portion of identity and the way one relates

What does Edward Taylor Define Culture As?

• Includes a comprehensive compilation of belief, understanding, and unique habits humans have acquired What two parts does Sociology Maintain?

• Non-materialistic cultural portions regarding societal perspective

• Materials regarding religion and consist of worship, integrity, and ethos

• Sociologists infer cultures through language and symbols

Self Analysis

• Egocentric implies self-concepts
• Socio-centric theorizes there is no pre-existing element

What are Identity Struggles?

• They dictate the interaction of a claimed identity vs. conferred identity
• Attainment of uniqueness requires surmounting obstacles
• The Illusion of Wholeness was constructed by Katherine Ewing

Aspects of a Fulfilling Illusion

• Cohesiveness and continuity are the only aspects, and are illusory
• Diversity is apparent when various meanings are associated with life or objects.

What are Social Identities?

• Refers to how an individual constructs their sense of self based on attributes

• Language is essential while families influence identity

Psychology's View of the Self

• Discusses psychological principles and their influence amid personal understanding

• Personal understanding improves when individual components are unified

• Self-awareness is crucial to improving consciousness

What are the Two-Fold Parts of the Self?

• I self references who or what is known. Reflects consciousness of a being

• Me self references encounters

• Aspects of the me self include the material, interpersonal, and the celestial

• Material self includes belongings, bodies, and dwellings

• Interpersonal self refers to how that individual views societal circumstances

• Celestial Self includes reasons, values, morality, and conscience. This self can be discovered through introspection

Rogers’s Self Theory

• Reals v Ideal

• Self concept refers to the image of self

• Self is identified as an exchange and flexible based on people

• Development of self requires integration of people and awareness

• The theory emphasizes self-fulfillment

Rogers’ Two Self Suggests

• A denial of needs generates anxiety

• Real-Self understands “what’s” and “can”

• The theory’s ideal self reflects one’s ambitions

• Harmony with these two aspects is essential, discord can result in unhappiness or distress

Adolescence

• Is a crucial turning point regarding self identity and relies on being multiple or unified

• Coping results in the formulation of a task and identity and struggle

• Winnicot suggests the distinction of the truth, and falsity

• Defense mechanisms are created against the known

• Impressing societal influences results in societal flux

Proactivity

• Alvert Bandura implies the potential people have

• Theory refers to how individuals act amid unique experiences

Inherent Aspects of Agency

• Attributes personal control, self-perception and beliefs
• Self-reflectivity permits the influence of actions and understanding
• Influences the level of self and beliefs

Self as the Central Form

• Formulated by Carl Young
• Form refers to both shape and information amid life/adolescence.

Networked Parts of Inner Workings

• The psyche is complex

• Parts consist of the ego, both conscious and unconscious

• The ego refers to the conscious and forms a point of stability

• Unconsciousness repressed the forgotten

• In the collective unconscious are archetypes

• Archetypes represent the self

Archetypes

• Persona- what we present to others
• Shadow- dark side
• Anima/Animus- Female/Male side
• The self- Unites parts