Introspection, Philosophy and Socrates

• Introspection originates from Latin: "intro" meaning within, and "spect" meaning look.
• Introspection is the oldest method for collecting data about conscious experience in philosophy and later in psychology.
• The introspection method involves self-examination or inspection of one's thoughts and feelings.
• Looking within oneself to experience one's mental stat is also known as introspection.
• Introspection focuses on human self-reflection and is contrasted with external observation.
• Philosophy: love of wisdom
• "philos" means love, while "sophia" means wisdom
• Philosophy involves the academic study of life's questions and explores various kinds of questions.
• Philosophers use logical analysis and investigate questions, rather than giving opinions or speculating aimlessly.

Socrates

• Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher
• The state of an individual soul is most important.
• Soul is an immortal entity and the essence of the self.
• The soul strives for wisdom and perfection.
• Reality consists of two realms: physical (changing) and ideal (unchanging, eternal).
• "An unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates
• Socratic method of "Know Thyself" uses introspection to gain self-knowledge.

Plato

• Plato was an ancient Greek Philosopher
• Self is synonymous with the soul.
• The soul is the most divine aspect of being.
• The soul has three parts: appetitive (sensual and biological needs), rational (reasoning), and spirited (feelings and emotions).
• The Theory of Forms states that physical world is not the "real" world.
• Reality exists beyond the physical.
• The soul is permanent, thus one should give more importance to the should that the physical body

St. Augustine

• Augustine viewed the self as an inner immaterial "I" with self-knowledge and self-awareness
• He believed the human body was both "soul" and "body".
• The body possesses senses (imagination, memory, reason, mind) that allow the soul to experience the world.
• The body is bound to die on earth.
• The soul anticipates living eternally in spiritual bliss in communion with God.
• The goal is to attain communion and bliss with the divine by living a virtuous life.

Rene Descartes

• Rene Descartes was a French Philosopher and "THE FATHER OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY"
• Sought to understand the reasoning process and its relationship to the self.
• “Cogito ergo sum” means "I think, therefore, I am."
• The act of thinking about the self proves the existence of a self.
• The Theory of Rationalism: No rational person doubts their existence as a conscious thinking entity while aware of thinking.

John Locke

• John Locke was an English Philosopher
• The human mind is a "tabula rasa” or blank state.
• Empiricism: knowledge originates from sense experience.
• Experiences shape and mold the self throughout life.

David Hume

• David Hume was a Scottish Philosopher
• The self is not an entity beyond the physical body.
• The self is a series of incoherent impressions received by the senses.
• Experiences are a bundle of different perceptions, known as Bundle Theory.
• Impression: basic sensations.
• Ideas: thoughts and images from impressions.

Immanuel Kant

• Immanuel Kant was a German Philosopher
• The human mind creates the structure of human experience.
• The self is an organizing principle for unified and intelligible experience.
• The self constructs its own reality, creating a familiar and predictable world.

Components of Self

• Inner Self: includes rational, intellect, psychological states, feelings, sensations, pleasures, and pain.
• Outer Self: includes sense in the physical world.

Sigmund Freud

• Sigmund Freud was an Aussie Psychologist
• Levels of Consciousness: conscious, preconscious/subconscious, unconscious
• Conscious: awareness of present perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories, fantasies.
• Preconscious/Subconscious: data readily brought to unconscious.
• Unconscious: retained data not easily available to consciousness; basic instinctual drives (sexuality, aggressiveness), unfulfilled wishes, childhood fantasies.
• Id: desires and impulses.
• Ego: reality and balance.
• Superego: morality and guilt.

Gilbert Ryle

• Gilbert Ryle was a British Philosopher
• An individual's actions define their concept of self.
• The self is best understood as a pattern of behavior or a tendency to behave in a certain way.
• "I act, therefore, I am."

Paul Churchland

• Churchland was a Canadian Philosopher
• The self is inseparable from the brain (eliminative materialism).
• The physical brain gives the sense of self, not an imaginary mind.
• The mind does not really exist because it cannot be experienced by the senses.
• Theory of Materialism: nothing but matter exists.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

• Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a french Philosopher
• Self as an embodied subjectivity: the mind and body are intrinsically connected.
• The body is part of the mind and the mind is part of the body.
• Consciousness, the world, and the body are intertwined in perceiving the world.
• All knowledge about the self is based on the "phenomena" of experience.
• "Perception is not merely a consequence of sensory experience; rather it's a conscious experience."

Introspection involves self-examination of one's thoughts. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, exploring life's questions through logical analysis. Socrates, a Greek philosopher, emphasized the importance of the individual soul and its pursuit of wisdom.