Philosophy Quiz: Descartes and Socrates

Understanding the Self (PD101) - Prelim Topics

• The course explores the philosophies of the self, which includes theories about human existence that have been debated throughout history.
• Philosophers have studied the self to answer questions about human nature.
• Examples of such questions include: What does it mean to be a person? Who am I? Do I really matter? How do I know that I will continue to be me in the future?

Activity No. 1

• Students are tasked with role-playing as a fresh graduate entering the workforce.
• They are to imagine a job opportunity and prepare for an interview.
• They need to describe their characteristics that make them suitable for the role.
• They are also to answer questions concerning their feelings about self-descriptions.

Lesson 1: Philosophy of the Self

• This lesson explores the key theories about human existence.
• Philosophers, who are known as the greatest thinkers, have investigated human nature to answer many questions about the self.
• The objectives include defining the self from a philosophical perspective, recognizing similarities and differences in self-conceptualization across different philosophies, and evaluating one's concept of self in relation to philosophical perspectives.

Socrates

• Socrates' accounts are mainly from later writings by others.

• He was born in Athens around 469 B.C.

• He was a stone mason and served in the Athenian army.

• His ideas gained him many followers in Athens.

• Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth in 399 B.C.

• He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning.

• The Athenian city-state regarded him as dangerous.

• Philosophy: An examiner who is always seeking to challenge and uncover the imperfections in others' ideas. He saw the highest form of excellence as questioning oneself and others to establish a higher standard of truth.

• "An unexamined life is not worth living."

• The soul's preservation after death requires awareness of one's values and the virtues associated with them. He believed a person is composed of both body and soul, where the soul is immortal.

• Socrates made a distinction between knowledge and belief. Knowledge is always true whereas beliefs are true on a case-by-case basis.

• Socrates was considered a menace; by questioning societal norms, faith, and religion.

Plato

• Plato, a student of Socrates, wrote many books about his master.
• He continued to propagate Socrates' dangerous ideas.
• Plato emphasized the idea of a dual nature of body and soul.
• The soul, for Plato, is immortal and separate from the body, with the potential to live after death.
• He believed the soul lives within a body but is freed when the body dies, moving into another.
• Plato's Republic: describes the human psyche as composed of three parts—appetitive, spirited, and rational.
• A just person, Plato believed, has these parts in harmony.
• Plato's theories contradict with both rationalism and empiricism.

St. Augustine

• Like Socrates, St. Augustine also asserted that the soul is immortal.
• He believed that the body and the soul make up a human.
• He didn't believe that the soul jumps from one body to another. A person is composed of one body and one soul.
• Augustine's view of the human person: The body is imperfect and bound to perish on earth but longs for spiritual unity with God.
• The purpose is to achieve spiritual unity with God throughout their life and according to their virtues.

Thomas Aquinas

• In his self-knowledge theory, Thomas Aquinas claimed that our experiences of the world determine our self-knowledge.
• He argued that our experiences greatly shape our awareness of ourselves.
• The more experience we have, the more we get to come to know ourselves.
• Answering the question, "Who am I?" can be resolved through reasoning based on life experiences.
• Our being is not composed of isolated minds or selves, but rather of agents interacting with our environment.

Rene Descartes

• Rene Descartes, the "Father of Modern Philosophy," was a dualist, believing reality is divided into mind and body.
• The mind is separate from the physical body.
• The body is merely a part of the mind, while the mind is part of an unseen creation.
• The mind is the seat of consciousness and comprises our intellect, passions, and understanding which gives us our identity and sense of self.
• "I think, therefore I am" (Cogito, ergo sum)
• Doubting is a way to uncover the existence of the self.

John Locke

• John Locke believed that identity is tied to consciousness, which is the perception of what passes in a man's own mind.
• Identity is what makes someone 'you' and 'me.'
• Identity means being one thing and not another.
• Our identity comes from our memories.
• Would losing an arm or leg change a person's identity? No, because our memories are still the same.

David Hume

• Hume adheres to empiricism and believes knowledge comes from our senses.
• To understand the self, Hume distinguishes between impressions (from the senses) and ideas (faint images of thinking).
• Our sense of self is merely a collection of physical impressions.
• The concept of 'dangerous' is difficult to define; it's just an idea.
• Our personal identity isn't consistent over time because our impressions are always changing.

Immanuel Kant

• Kant recognized empiricism and rationalism during his time.
• Instead of seeing the mind and body as separate, he believed that they are interconnected.
• We have an inner and outer self that form our consciousness. The inner self is comprised of our psychological state and rational intellect, and the outer self includes our senses and the physical world.
• He argued that the concept of the self and its relationship with the world can't be fully explained by only rationalism or only empiricism.
• Representations from sensations and experiences lead to the concept of the outer self.

Gilbert Ryle

• Ryle proposed an unconventional take on the self; the self, Ryle argues, isn't separate from the body or the mind.
• The self is composed of behaviors and actions.
• The self isn't a separate entity. The 'self' is an idea of how we see ourselves based on behaviors. This isn't a category mistake, but a simple notion.
• Our acts as a part of the whole self lead us to build a sense of identity or 'self view'.

Paul Churchland

• Churchland countered the dualistic ideas of the mind and the body.
• He argued that our sense of self comes from our physical brain, not from a separate mind.
• If the mind cannot be experienced through our senses, then it's not a real thing.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

• Maurice Merleau-Ponty believed the physical body is important to the subjective self.
• Subjectivity is a real entity that can perform actions and cause real effects.
• Our physical body connects to our mental state/inner self; the mind/outer self is inseparable from the body;
• The mind and body are interconnected and inseparable.
• Rationalism and empiricism oppose this notion of the interconnected nature of mind and body.

Explore fundamental questions of existence and self-identity through the philosophies of Descartes and Socrates. This quiz covers key concepts such as dualism, the nature of knowledge, and the significance of self-awareness. Test your understanding of their thoughts on life, death, and the essence of being human.