GE 113 - Understanding The Self PDF

LESSON 1 THE SELF ACCORDING TO PHILOSOPHERS  SOCRATES  “Socratic Method” - where an idea is tested by asking series of questions to determine underlying beliefs and the extent of knowledge to guide the person toward better understanding  Most quoted phrase “The unexamined l...

LESSON 1 THE SELF ACCORDING TO PHILOSOPHERS  SOCRATES  “Socratic Method” - where an idea is tested by asking series of questions to determine underlying beliefs and the extent of knowledge to guide the person toward better understanding  Most quoted phrase “The unexamined life is not worth living” - Only by knowing yourself can you hope to improve your life - Most important thing in life is the state of your Soul  SOCRATES  2 kinds of existence - Visible > it changes; seen by the naked eye like the body - Invisible > constant; the mind & the soul  What is the Goal - To be happy - Virtue is defined as moral excellence  Believed that the most important thing in life is the state of an individual’s soul.  PLATO A student of Socrates Philosophical Approach: “Collection and Division” - Deductive Approach Theory of Forms 1. World of Forms – permanence/perfection 2. World of Senses – unreal world  PLATO  Soul is considered as devine aspect of human being - Consists of 3 parts: 1. The appetitve (sensual) 2. The rational (reasoning) 3. The spirited (feeling)  ST. AUGUSTINE  The human being is both a soul and body - Body Body possessed senses - Soul It is able to be aware of itself It recognizes itself as a holistic one It is aware of its unity  ST. AUGUSTINE  CITY OF GOD - one of the most influential works of the Middle Ages 1. City of God - an ideal of the future, heavenly paradise, where good would dominate, true justice 2. City of Men - deeply flawed, money can never accurately track virtue Believed that human being is both a soul and body.  RENE DESCARTES  Father of the modern Western Philosophy  Use of REASON to describe, predict, and understand natural phenomena  Hyperbolic Doubt  Cogito Ergo Sum “I think therefore I am”  Believed that the soul is distinct from the body.  JOHN LOCKE  Our identity is not locked in mind, soul or body only but also MEMORY  Identity is explained in terms of psychological connection between life stages to be founded on consciousness.  TABULA RASA > Blank Slate  DAVID HUME  Influenced by Empiricism  Bundle theory - collection of impressions - Impressions - vivid, products of direct experience - Ideas - copy of impressions  asserted that “self” does not exist; instead, he stressed that perceptions are only active for as long as an individual is conscious.  IMMANUEL KANT  Intelligence in a man synthesizes all knowledge and experience  Two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality): i. Consciousness of oneself and one’s psychological states in inner sense ii. Consciousness of oneself and one’s states by performing acts of apperception  IMMANUEL KANT  Two components of the “self”: i. Inner self - The “self” by which you are aware of alternations in your own state. ii. Outer self - It includes your senses and the physical world.  Believed that self is not in the body, and he stressed that the body and its qualities are rooted to the self  SIGMUND FREUD  Psychoanalysis  Instincts: Eros (sex) and Thanatos (aggression)  3 Provinces of the mind Id - pleasure Ego - reality Superego- idealistic  The MIND is an iceberg The Id and Superego are the below the surface Only the ego is on the conscious  GILBERT RYLE  Denies the existence of the mind  Behavior of the person truly matters  Your actions define your own concept of “self” PAUL CHURCHLAND  His philosophy stands on a materialistic view  If something can be seen, felt, heard, touched, or tasted, then it exists  MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY  His idea of the “self” is an embodied subjectivity  Subjectivity, is an entity that possesses conscious experiences such as perspectives, feelings, beliefs, and desires.  Dismissed the Cartesian Dualism