Philosophy of Self from Socrates to Kant

Understanding the Self

• Greeks sought natural explanations, instead of supernatural ones.
• Socrates used the Socratic Method to question assumptions and reveal misconceptions.
• Socrates was declared the wisest man but was confused by this.
• Plato wrote dialogues featuring Socrates.
• Plato described the soul with three parts: reason, spirited, and appetitive.
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave illustrates the difference between shadows (appearance) and reality.
• St. Augustine believed God was the source of reality and truth, while humans were sinful.
• St. Augustine associated love of God with true happiness.
• Rene Descartes believed in the mind-body dualism.
• Descartes' deduction led him to "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am).
• John Locke believed knowledge comes from experience ("tabula rasa").
• Reflection involves looking at experiences to understand relationships.
• Hume believed that the mind receives impressions from the senses.
• Immanuel Kant argued that the mind actively participates in experience.
• Kant believed the mind has different apparatuses in organizing experience.
• The mind is considered the seat of knowledge acquisition.
• Sigmund Freud described the mind's structure with id, ego, and superego.

The Self from a Sociological Perspective

• Sociology explores how social factors influence thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• George Herbert Mead's social behaviorism suggests that the self is shaped by social interactions.
• Mead's stages of self-formation include preparatory, play, and game stages.
• Self-development is a social process, not innate.
• The self is shaped by the environment and culture.

The Self from an Anthropological Perspective

• Anthropology focuses on the study of humans across cultures and time.
• Archaeological studies explore the ancient human past.
• Cultures manifest in symbols, heroes, rituals, and values.
• Cultural determinism suggests culture shapes individuals.
• Cultural relativism emphasizes understanding different cultures on their own terms.
• Biological anthropology explores human evolution and diversity.

Impression Management

• Goffman's perspective focuses on how people manage impressions and present themselves.
• People strategically present a particular image to others.
• This process is akin to theatrical presentations and face-saving measures are used in everyday life.
• The self is a performance, managed carefully in social situations.

The Looking-Glass Self

• Cooley's looking-glass self describes how individuals develop their self-concept based on how they believe others perceive them.
• This involves imagining how others see us, visualizing their judgments, and forming self-perceptions.