Understanding the Self - Technological University of the Philippines - PDF

Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self Before we even had to be in any formal institution of learning, among the many things that we were first taught as kids i...

Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self Before we even had to be in any formal institution of learning, among the many things that we were first taught as kids is to articulate and write our names. Growing up, we were told to refer back to this name when talking about ourselves. Our parents painstakingly thought about our names, should we be named after a famous celebrity, a historical personality, a friend or even a saint? Our name represents who we are, human beings attached names that are meaningful to birthed progenies because names are supposed to designate us in the world. Thus, some people get baptized with names such as “beauty”, “lovely”, or “king”. As a student, we are told to always write our names on our papers, projects, or any output for that matter. Our names signify us. Though, a name is not a person itself, it is only signifier. The self is thought to be something else than the name, it is something that a person perennially molds, shape, and develops. Everyone is tasked to discover one’s self. PHILOSOPHY means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to LIFE most basic questions. It is a discipline comprising as its core logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology The history of philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the fundamental nature of self. Along with the question of the primary substratum that defines the multiplicity of things in the world, the inquiry on the self has preoccupied the earliest thinkers in the history of philosophy: the Greeks. The Greeks were the ones who seriously questioned myths and moved away from them in attempting to understand Page 1 of 8  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self reality and respond to questions of curiosity including the question of the self. The different perspective and views on the self can be best seen and understood by revisiting its prime movers and identify the most important conjectures made by philosophers from ancient times to the contemporary period. SOCRATES: Know Yourself Socrates is principally concerned with man. He considers man from the point of view of his inner life. The famous line of Socrates, “Know yourself”, tells each man to bring his inner self to light. A bad man is not virtuous through ignorance, the man does not follow the good fails to do so https://philosophy.redzambala.com/philosophy/socrates-know-thyself.html because he does not recognize it. The core of Socratic ethics is the concept of virtue and knowledge. Virtue is the deepest and most basic propensity of man. Knowing one’s own virtue is necessary and can be learned. Since virtue is innate in the mind and self-knowledge is the source of all wisdom, and individual may gain possession of oneself and be one’s own master through knowledge. For Socrates, every man is comprised of body and soul. This means that every human person is dualistic, that is, he is composed of two important aspects of personhood. For Socrates, this means all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect to him, and the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent. PLATO: The Ideal Self, the Perfect Self According to Plato, man was omniscent or all-knowing before he came to be born into this world. With his separation from the paradise of truth and knowledge and his long exile on earth, he forgot most of the knowledge he had. However, by constant remembering through contemplation and doing good, he can regain his former perfections. Man who is Page 2 of 8  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self now an exile on earth has a guiding star, a model, or a divine exemplar which he must follow to reach and attain his destiny. In pratical terms, this means that man in this life should imitate his former self; more specifically, he should live a life of virtue in which true human perfections exists. Happiness, which is a fruit of virtue, embodied in man’s former perfect self. Plato, Socrates’ student, basically took off from his master and supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul. Plato added that there are three components of the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive soul. Plato emphasizes that justice in the human person can only be attained if three parts of the soul are working harmoniously with one another. The rational soul forged by reason and intellect has to govern the affairs of the human person, the spirited part which is in charge of emotions, and https://torch.ox.ac.uk/event/relooking-at-plato-on-images the appetitive soul in charge of base desires like eating, sleeping, and having sex are controlled as well. AUGUSTINE AND THOMAS AQUINAS Saint Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world when it comes to man. Following the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with newfound doctrine of Christianity, Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature. An aspect of man dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality. http://www.catholic365.com/author/alex-brittain/ Page 3 of 8  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self The body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with God. This is because the body can only thrive in the imperfect, physical reality that is the world, whereas the soul can also stay after death in an eternal realm with the all-transcendent God. The goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue. Thomas Aquinas, the most eminent thirteenth century scholar and stalwart of the medieval philosophy, appended something to this Christian view. Adapting some ideas from Aristotle, Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two parts; matter and form. Matter, or hyle in Greek, refers to the “common stuff that makes up everything in the universe”, man’s body is part of this matter. Form or morphe in Greek refers to the “essence of a substance or thing”. To Aquinas, the soul is what animates body; it is what makes us human. RENÉ DESCARTES: “I think, therefore I am” He is the father of Modern Philosophy, he conceived human person as having a body and a mind. Descartes states that the self is a thinking entity distinct from the body. His first famous principle was “Cogito, ergo sum,” which means “I think, therefore I am”. Although the mind and the body are independent from each other and serve their own function, man must use his own mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment, and develop himself. In his view, the body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind. https://www.onthisday.com/people/rene-descartes Page 4 of 8  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self JOHN LOCKE: Personal Identity John Locke holds that personal identity (the self) is a matter of psychological continuity. For him, personal identity is founded on consciousness (memory), and not on the substance of either the soul or the body. Personal identity is the concept about oneself that evolves over the course of an individual’s life. It may include aspects of life that man has no control over, such as where he grew up or the color his skin, as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke as the choices he makes, like how he spends his time and what he believes. DAVID HUME: The Self is the Bundle Theory of Mind Hume is sceptical about the existence of the self, specifically, on whether there is a simple, unified self that exists over time. For him, man has no “clear and intelligible” idea of the self. He posits that no single impression of the self exists; rather, the self is just the thing to which all perceptions of a man ascribed. Moreover, even if there were such an impression of the self, it would have to remain constant over time to constitute identity. However, man’s impression vary and always change. A person can never observe oneself without some other perceptions. Hume asserts that what we call the “self” is really just a “bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity. Page 5 of 8 https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Hume  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self IMMANUEL KANT: Respect for Self Man is the only creature who governs and directs himself and his actions, who sets ups ends for himself and his purpose, and who freely orders means for the attainment of his aims. Every man is thus an end in himself and should never be treated merely as a means – as per the order of the Creator and natural order of things. This rule is a plain dictum of reason and justice: Respect others as you would respect yourself. https://medium.com/thedialogues/immanuel-kant-1724-1804-f736bafe364d A person should not be used as a tool, instrument, or device to accomplish another’s private ends. Thus, all men are persons gifted with the basic rights and should treat each other as equals. GILBERT RYLE: Respect for Self Gilbert Ryle solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the history of thought by blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life. He believes that looking for and trying to understand a self as it really exists is like visiting your friend’s university and looking for the “university”. https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ryle.html This is because the campus, the people, systems, and the territory all form the university. Ryle suggests that the “self” is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviours that people make. Page 6 of 8  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self PAUL CHURCHLAND: Philosophy of Mind Churcland is a major proponent of eliminative materialism –– the view that because the mind and brain are identical, we should eliminate the folk- psychological language (i.e., "mind" talk) from our vocabulary and replace it with a new scientific/neurophysiological language. He believes that the "folk psychology" that seeks to explain human behavior in terms of the beliefs and desires of agents is flawed, and that it will be eventually displaced by https://alchetron.com/Paul-Churchland completed neuroscience –– a theory that is more substantially integrated within physical science generally. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY He is a phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body bifurcation that has been going on for a long time is a futile endeavor and an invalid problem. Unlike Ryle who simply denies the “self”, he instead says that the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another. One cannot find any expereince that is not an embodied experience. One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the world. Because of these bodies, men are in the world. Merleau-Ponty dismisses the Cartesian Dualism that has spelled so much devastation in the history of man. For him, the Cartesian problem is nothing else but plain misunderstanding. The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experience are all one. Page 7 of 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Merleau-Ponty  Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Understanding the Self LESSON #1 – The Philosophical View of Self References:  Alata, Eden Joy Pastor, et. al, 2018. Understanding the Self.  Beilharz, Peter, and Trevor Hogan, 2002. Social Self, Global Culture: An Introduction to Sociological Ideas  Chaffee, John. 2015. The Philosopher’s Way: Thinking Critically about Profound Ideas. 5th ed.  Arcega, Analiza, and Dalisay, Brawner. 2018. Understanding the Self. Quezon City  Stevens, Richard. 1996. Understanding the Self: SAGE Publications Page 8 of 8