Philosophy of the Self: Socrates and Plato

The Self From Various Perspectives

• The self encompasses the qualities like personality and abilities that make each individual unique.
• Philosophically, the self is the essence of a person's being, the source of consciousness.
• Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom, also a rational investigation of existence, knowledge, and ethics. It can also mean a belief system accepted by a group.

Socrates

• Socrates believed reality consists of two realms: a physical realm (imperfect and changeable) and an ideal realm (perfect and unchanging).
• The physical realm includes the five senses and is temporary.
• Our bodies belong to the physical realm, subject to change, imperfections, and death.
• Our souls/minds belong to the eternal ideal realm.
• A close connection exists between our bodies and souls; however, the physical realm hinders the quest for knowledge.

Plato

• Plato built on Socrates' ideas, questioning why the soul changes if it is, by nature, unchanging.
• He divided the soul into three parts: appetites, spirited, and mind (nous).
• Appetites encompass diverse desires for comfort and physical pleasures. The part of the soul is represented by the black horse.
• Spirited involves emotions like anger and the desire for victory. The part of the soul is represented by the white horse.
• Mind (nous) is the rational part of the self; it analyzes, weighs options, and seeks ultimate truth. The part of the soul is represented by the charioteer.
• The allegory of the chariot is a metaphor illustrating the different elements of the soul and how they interact.

Neoplatonism

• Neoplatonism, spearheaded by Plotinus, revived Plato's ideas, influencing Saint Augustine.
• Plotinus believed that the self is intricately connected with Plato's core concepts.
• This philosophy profoundly impacted Saint Augustine, who integrated Platonic concepts into Christian thought.

Saint Augustine

• Augustine viewed the immortal soul's journey to union with the eternal as a transformation.
• The physical world, finite and transient, became a proving ground for eternal destinies.
• Augustine believed the physical body is radically different from the immortal soul, initially describing the body as a "slave" to the soul.
• However, he envisioned a more integrated relationship eventually seeing the body as the "spouse" of the soul.

Synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity

• Aquinas, integrating Aristotelian thought with Christianity, argued that the self is a unified entity of matter and form (matter is the substance, form is the essence of a thing).
• The soul emerges from this unified relationship.
• The self becomes a conscious entity through the gradual union of form and matter, opposed to the Platonic concept of a separate immaterial soul.
• The Latin word for soul (anima) distinguishes living things from inanimate objects, for they possess a life principle.

Descartes

• Descartes emphasized the importance of individual reasoning in understanding the self. He was concerned with creating a sound methodology for learning and knowledge. He used doubt as a tool in the process of discovery doubting everything you were taught to accept without question to build a well-reasoned conclusion.
• Descartes argued that the act of doubting one's own existence proves that there is a self. This is known as "Dubito, Cogito ergo sum" – (I doubt, I think, therefore I am).
• The self is made up of body and mind.
• Self-identity depends on being aware of mental processes.

Locke

• Locke believed all knowledge originates from sense experience.
• Conscious awareness and memory are key to understanding the self.
• Personal identity originates from the continuity of experiences, thus we are aware of our self as the same person across time in the same situation or different situations.
• It is difficult to be sure of a consistent self however if there are lapses in time or recollections; or if we don’t remember being aware of our self it cannot be proven there was a consistent self.

Hume

• Hume, continuing Locke's empiricist tradition, argued that the self is simply a collection of experiences.
• The self is not a permanent, unchanging essence.
• The self is a continuous bundle of perceptions rather than a unity. Instead of an enduring, unified self the bundle (perceptions) may be just a collection of experiences across time rather than a consistent self.

Kant

• Kant countered Hume's skepticism by proposing that the self actively constructs experience.
• The self actively organizes the raw data of experience into a meaningful whole. This means that the self organizes and creates the experience.
• Our minds structure experience according to universal principles, thus creating a coherent understanding of the world and our selves as part of it.

Freud

• Freud asserted a multi-layered self consisting of conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels.
• The unconscious mind is important because it contains repressed desires, instincts, and conflicts that influence our behaviour.
• Freud’s topographic model divided the mind further into systems based on their relationship to consciousness (conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.)

Gilbert Ryle

• Ryle criticized the "ghost in the machine" (dualism) conception of the self.
• He argued that the self means behaviour a person expresses in daily life.
• The self should be understood not in terms of an inner essence but rather in terms of observable behaviour.

Paul Churchland

• Churchland embraced physicalism, arguing that the self is fundamentally a product of the brain's neurological processes.
• The concept of the self can be understood by observing the physical brain.

Merleau-Ponty

• Merleau-Ponty emphasized a strong connection between the mind and the body.
• The mind and body are inseparable.