Lesson 1. Philosophical Perspective on the Self PDF

8/10/24 OBJECTIVES: Lesson 1: Philosophical At the end of the lesson, you should be Perspective on the Self...

8/10/24 OBJECTIVES: Lesson 1: Philosophical At the end of the lesson, you should be Perspective on the Self able to: 1. state the importance of understanding one’s self; 2. explain the various notions of the self from different philosophical perspective; and Mr. John Franz B. Badoraya, LPT 3. examine one’s self in relation to the Instructor philosophical perspective of the self. 1 2 PHILOSOPHY WHO AM I? Philosophy is an activity people The Greeks were the ones who undertake when they seek to seriously questioned mythological understand fundamental truths and supernatural explanations. about themselves, the world in They move away from them to which they live, and their understand reality and respond to relationships to the world and to the perennial questions of each other. curiosity, including the question of the self. 3 4 1  8/10/24 The Pre-Socratics The Pre-Socratics Greek thinkers prior to Socrates, Were concerned with answering like Thales, Pythagoras, and questions such as Heraclitus among others. 1. What is the world really made up of? The Pre-Socratic philosophers 2. Why is the world the way it is? turned to observation, 3. What explains the changes that documentation, and reasoning. happen around us? 5 6 The Pre-Socratics Socrates 1. Arché – the origin or source/ (469-399 BCE) the “soul” / the primal matter focused on the self and applied 2. the soul’s movement is the systematic questioning of the self. ultimate arché of all other believed that it is the duty of the movement philosopher to know oneself and to 3. Arché has no origin outside live without knowing who you are itself and cannot be destroyed and what virtues you can attain is 4. Explains the multiplicity of the worst thing that can happen to things in the world. a person. 7 8 2  8/10/24 Socrates (469-399 BCE) Plato (428-347 BCE) noted “unexamined life is not worth expounded the idea of the soul and living” stated that it has 3 parts or saw a person as dualistic, and components. every person is composed of body The appetitive, rational, and and soul. spirited soul. body as imperfect and impermanent. soul as perfect and permanent. 9 10 3 Components of the Soul (Plato) 3 Components of the Soul (Plato) Appetitive soul – desires and in his work, “The Republic,” cravings. emphasized that all three parts of Rational soul – thinking, the soul must work harmoniously to reasoning, and judging aspect. attain justice and virtue in a Spirited soul – accountable for soul. emotions and makes sure that rules of reason is followed to attain victory and/or honor. 11 12 3  8/10/24 3 Components of the Soul (Plato) St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE) Appetitive soul – desires must be infused the view of Plato with controlled and focused to those Christianity which led him to that give life. believe in the duality of a person Rational soul – must be well (bifurcated nature). developed and in-charge. Spirited soul – emotions are checked. 13 14 St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE) St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE) imperfect part of us, which is imperfection of the body connected with the world and yearns incapacitates it from thriving in to be with the divine. (body) the spiritual communion with God, part of us, that is not bound by thus, it must die for the soul to this world and can therefore attain reach the spiritual realm. immortality. (soul) 15 16 4  8/10/24 St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE) René Descartes (1596 - 1650) however, the communion of the soul claimed the person is composed of: with God can only be attained if cogito or the mind, the body lives in this world with extenza or the body which is the virtue. extension of the mind. argues that a person should only believe the things that can pass the test of doubt. 17 18 René Descartes (1596 - 1650) René Descartes (1596 - 1650) concluded that the only thing one the mind makes a man, and the body can’t doubt is the existence of his is just some kind of a machine that or her “self” because even doubt is controlled by it. about the self proves that there is “I am a thinking thing… a thing thinking or doubting self. that doubts, understands, affirms, Cogito, ergo sum (I think, denies, wills, refuses, imagines, therefore I am) perceives.” 19 20 5  8/10/24 John Locke (1632 - 1704) David Hume (1711 - 1776) his idea deviated from the duality an empiricist who believes that all of the body or soul. concepts as well as knowledge come a person’s mind is a blank slate from the senses and experiences. (tabula rasa) and through argued that there is no self beyond experiences that the black slate is what can be experienced. filled, and a personal identity or disagrees with all the other “self” is formed. aforementioned philosophers except Locke. 21 22 David Hume (1711 - 1776) David Hume (1711 - 1776) we know other people are humans not self is a bundle or collection of because you have seen their soul, different perceptions, which but because you see them, hear succeed each other with an them, feel them etc. inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement. self is a combination of experiences of a person. 23 24 6  8/10/24 David Hume (1711 - 1776) Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) we can categorize experiences into agrees with Hume that everything impression and ideas. starts with sensations and impressions are real or actual impressions but there is a mind experiences or sensations. that regulates these impressions. ideas are copies of impressions or against empiricist Locke, he is a representation of the world and rationalist who thinks that reason, sensations, like love or faith. not mere experience, is the foundation of knowledge. 25 26 Immanuel Kant MODERN-DAY PHILOSOPHERS (1724 - 1804) it is the self that organizes and The debate on the duality of a synthesizes our experiences into person’s self, of mind and body, of something meaningful for us. consciousness and substance, internal mind/self is independent from and external, have been revised and sensory experiences, and it is adapted for a long time that several above even our consciousness. modern-day philosophers had to take drastic actions, so to speak. 27 28 7  8/10/24 Gilbert Ryle (1900 - 1976) Gilbert Ryle (1900 - 1976) focus on the observable behavior of sees the self as an entirety of a person in defining the “self”. thoughts, emotions, and actions of a duality state seems to state is person that relates to observable there can be private, unobservable behavior. we get to know others by observing aspect of a person, and a different their behavior and inferring about public and observable part. their selves, same thing must apply in one can describe one’s “self” as observation and reflection of good but do otherwise in real life. ourselves. 29 30 Maurice Merleau-Ponty Paul Churchland (1908 – 1961) utilized knowledge from other mind and body are interconnected academic and research fields to with each other and therefore talk about the self as well as the cannot be separated. mind. our body is our connection to the the one who proposed the use of external world, including other “eliminative materialism” or people, thus all experiences are “eliminativism,” which claims the embodied, including thoughts and old terms we use to describe the emotions. mind are outdated. 31 32 8  8/10/24 NEUROSCIENCE shows a connection of what we call mental states to that of the physical activities of the brain. it can be argued that the self is actually located in the brain, and that the actions of the mind or the self are processes of the brain. 33 9