Understanding the Self PDF - UTS Preliminary Examination

Understanding the Self Preliminary Examination Reviewer (Read your Modules) The self is the idea of a unified being which is the source of consciousness. Anthropology emerged as a subject from the imperial ambitions of European states and was initially an effort to identify the weaknesses and fail...

Understanding the Self Preliminary Examination Reviewer (Read your Modules) The self is the idea of a unified being which is the source of consciousness. Anthropology emerged as a subject from the imperial ambitions of European states and was initially an effort to identify the weaknesses and failings of other cultures so that they could be exploited and subjugated. Karl Marx opposed the imperial version of anthropology when it was at its strongest, the problem was socio-political. The solution he proposed was communism, in which the workers would once again take control over their work. According to Jhiangani and Tarry (2014), self is “the sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals.” William James theorized the components of the self, which he divided into two categories: “Me” and “I.” David Hume pointed out that we tend to think that we are the same person we were five years ago. Though we have changed in many respects, the same person appears present as was present then. As Socrates famously said, ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself. The key to understanding Socrates' concept of the self is through the philosopher's take on the soul. Socrates' concept of the soul should not be viewed from the vantage point of christianity, that is a religious conception of the soul. It is important to note that the ancient Greeks lived long before the existence of christianity so that for them the concept of the soul did not have the same religious connotations that it has for us today. Frederick Coplestone, a famous historian of philosophy who believes that when Socrates speaks of the soul, the philosopher refers to a thinking and willing subject. According to the theory of Mead and Cooley, the self is not dependent on biological predisposition; rather, it is a product of social interaction. Socialization is the process whereby we learn to become competent members of a group. Primary Socialization is the learning we experience from the people who raise us. George Herbert Mead believed that people develop self-images through interactions with other people. John Locke believed that the self is consciousness. The self exists because of memory. Human mind at birth is a complete, but receptive, blank slate (scraped tablet or “tabula rasa”) upon which experience imprints knowledge. Jean Baudrillard believed that the individual achieves self-identity through prestige symbols and we consume goods that will give us a feeling of goodness instead of choosing our needs. In 1967, Morris Rosenberg asked 10-year-olds to describe themselves in 10 sentences. The children tended to describe themselves in physical terms. A few years later did children, at the edge of adolescence, begin to describe themselves in terms of their personality and character. Some mental illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s or bipolar affective disorder, alter or disrupt people’s experience of the self. The self that people possess has profound implications for their thoughts, emotional reactions, and behavior. A sense of self also influences the emotions people feel. People do not feel merely bad or good, but experience an entire panoply of emotions. The theory that the mind is made up of multiple selves has been proposed most forcefully in recent years by John Rowan and David Lester. Carl Rogers believed that the personality is made up of the Real Self and the Ideal Self. Socrates said, “One thing only I know, and that is I know nothing.” Plato founded the academy, considered the prototype of today’s universities. St. Augustine believed that the world of materials is not our final home; the real world is the one where God is. Mead and Cooley believed that the self is not dependent on biological disposition, rather, it is a product of social interaction. According to Stevens (1996), the self is separate, self-contained and independent, consistent, unitary and private. Lao Tzu said, "Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing the self is enlightenment.” Aristotle believed that there were four sections of the soul. The four sections are the calculative part, the scientific part on the rational side used for making decisions and the desiderative part and the vegetative part on the irrational side responsible for identifying our needs. Socrates said that “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Plato believed that there are three components of the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul and the appetitive soul. St. Augustine adhered that the world of materials is not our final home; the real world is the one where God is. Rene Descartes believed that the mind or the soul is superior to the body for it is in the mind that mental states occur. Thus for him, the mind is the real self. John Locke was against the view that man innately knows basic logical propositions, instead, an empty mind, a tabula rasa which is shaped by experience, and sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our ideas. George Herbert Mead proposed the theory of the emergence of mind and self out of the social process of significant communication. For George Herbert Mead, the mind arises out of the social act of communication. The philosophy of self defines the essential qualities that make one person distinct from all others. Anthropology is a relative newcomer to the debate on selfhood. It emerged as a subject from the imperial ambitions of European states during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was initially an effort to identify the weaknesses and failings of other cultures so that they could be exploited and subjugated. Karl Marx opposed the imperial version of anthropology when it was at its strongest, the problem was socio-political. George Herbert Mead says about the I, me, and generalized other. According to him, the “I” is the acting part of yourself. George Herbert Mead says about the I, me, and generalized other. According to him, the “me” is the thinking part of the self. The solution proposed by Marx was communism. The illusion of a selfish but powerless individual selfhood, fostered by capitalism, would be replaced by a communally aware selfhood. Emile Durkheim saw modern society as a form of alienation of the individual; but for him the alienation was caused by an enhanced sense of personal identity. Claude Lévi-Strauss thought that the individual was almost entirely the product of their social environment, and any selfhood was therefore imposed on the individual by the local culture. Joseph Campbell is an anthropologist with an interest in myth and that myths or heroes’ journeys influence the self. Gilbert Ryle believed that the self is how you behave in a certain way in certain circumstances. Immanuel Kant believed that the self is a transcendental activity that continually uses the categories of mind to filter, order, relate, organize, and synthesize sensations and thoughts into a unified and intelligible whole. Socrates was concerned with the problem of the self and believed that every man is composed of body and soul. *