Philosophical Views on Self PDF

DEFINING THE SELF: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY  WHAT IS MY NAME? HOW DID WE GREW UP KNOWING OUR NAMES? Our parents painstakingly thought about our names. Should we be named after a famous celebrity, a respected politician or historical personality, or eve...

DEFINING THE SELF: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY  WHAT IS MY NAME? HOW DID WE GREW UP KNOWING OUR NAMES? Our parents painstakingly thought about our names. Should we be named after a famous celebrity, a respected politician or historical personality, or even a saint? Our names represent who we are. It has not been a custom to just randomly pick a combination of letters and number ( or even punctuation marks) like “baby1234” or “izz@90” to denote or being.  A name is not the person itself no matter how intimately bound it is with the bearer. It is only a signifier. How is the Name connected to Self? The Self is something that a person perennially molds, shapes, and develops. -The self is not a static thing that one is simply born with like a mole on one’s face or is just assigned by one’s parents just like a name.  The history of philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the fundamental nature of the self The Greeks were the ones who seriously questioned myths and moved away from them in attempting to understand reality and respond to perennial questions of curiosity, including the question of the self.  Socrates - first philosopher to engaged in a systematic questioning about the self. - For him, every man is composed of body and soul - Every human person is dualistic (imperfect aspect & body maintaining soul Plato - 3 components of the soul Rational- forged by reason & intellect Spirited- charged by emotions Appetitive- charged by based desires  Plato emphasizes that justice in the human person can only be attained if the 3 parts of the soul are working harmoniously with one another. St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas Augustine -his view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world when it comes to man. -believes that body can remain in physical world only but the soul remains even after death  Thomas Aquinas -most eminent 13th century scholar and stalwart of the medieval philosophy Said that man is composed of 2 parts: - matter or Hyle in Greek means “common stuffs that makes up everything in the universe -Form or Morphe in Greek means “ essence of a substance or thing” - Believes that soul is what animates the body  Rene Descartes - father of modern philosophy - believes that the only thing the one cannot doubt is the existence of self -famous for his lines cogito ergo sum, “ I think therefore, I am”. David Hume - a scottish philosopher -argues that Self is not an entity over and beyond physical body. -believes that the Self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions  Immanuel Kant - believes that without the Self, one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. Gilbert Ryle - believes that what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life. -suggests that Self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.  Merleau Ponty -a phenomenologist who asserts the mind-body bifurcation. -who simply denies the “Self”, says that mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another. The self, society, and culture  How much of you are essential? How much of who you are now a product of your society, community, and family? After all, our selves are not special because of the soul infused into us. We may be gifted with intellect and the capacity to rationalize things but at the end of the day, our growth and development and consequentially, our selves are truly products of our interaction with external reality.  What is the self? -defined by the following characteristics: Separate Self-contained Independent Consistent Unitary Private  According to Marcel Mauss, a french Anthropologist, every self has a two faces: personne and Moi Moi- refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and basic identity, his biological givenness. Thus, a basic identity. Personne- has much to do with what it means to live in a particular institution, family, religion, nationality, how to behave etc.  Most often, we think the human persons are just passive actors in the whole process of the shaping of selves. For Mead and Vygotsky - the way that human persons develop is with the use of language acquisition and interaction with others. - both treat the human mind as something that is made, constituted through language as experienced in the external world and as encountered in dialogs with others.  Human persons learn the ways of living and therefore their selfhood by being in a family. It is what a family initiates a person to become that serves as the basis for this person’s progress. Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person may not even survive or become a human person.  Another important aspect of the self is the gender. Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development.  Oftentimes, society forces a particular identity unto us depending on our sex and/or gender. Nancy Chodorow, a feminist, argues that because mothers take the role of taking care of children, there is a tendency for girls to imitate the same and reproduce the same kind of mentality of women as care providers in the family. Men on the other hand, in the periphery of their own family, are taught early on how to behave like a man.  Identity - composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities. - William James- one of earliest psychologist to study the self and conceptualized the self as having two aspects- the I is for thinking, acting and feeling. The “me” on the other hand is the physical characteristics. Self-concept- the idea of what to become Self-schema Carl Rogers- our organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are. Sigmund Freud- id/ego/superego 1) We do not create ourselves out of nothing. 2) Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are. 3) What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in our social or historical context.  Two types of self that we can be aware of: 1. the private self or your internal standards/private thoughts/feelings. 2. the public self or your public image commonly geared toward having a good presentation of self. Self-awareness presents 3 self-schema: 1. the actual self- who you are at the moment 2. the ideal self- who you like to be 3. the ought self- who you think you should be  Social comparison - also called self-evaluation maintenance theory -states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us. Narcissism -a trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self- admiration, and self-centeredness  Confucianism -can be seen as code of ethical conduct of how one should properly act according to their relationship with other people -Self-cultivation- seen as ultimate purpose of life but the characteristics of chu-tzu, a man of virtue or noble character, is still embedded in his social relationships. Taoism -living in the way of Tao or the universe -rejects one definition of what the Tao is -free flowing, relative, unitary, as well as paradoxical view of almost everything  Buddhism -the self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance, of trying to hold and control things, or human-centered needs. -a quest to forget about self, break attachment of the world, attain the state of Nirvana The Western Culture - also called as an individualistic culture since their focus is on the person. - has loose association or even loyalty to their groups -also emphasize more on the value of equality even if they see that the individual can rise above everything else.