Philosophical Perspectives on Understanding the Self - PDF

TOPIC 1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE Dr. Kathlyn Mata, RGC “To find yourself, think for yourself.” – Socrates In efforts to appreciate and understand reality, and retort to persistent questions of inquisitiveness,...

TOPIC 1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE Dr. Kathlyn Mata, RGC “To find yourself, think for yourself.” – Socrates In efforts to appreciate and understand reality, and retort to persistent questions of inquisitiveness, including the inquiry of self, it was the Greeks who earnestly probed legends and folklore, and turned away from them. This topic on the philosophical perspective of the self (which will utilize 3 hours) will then allow you to reexamine its key movers for you to be able to identify the most imperative assumptions made by philosophers from the ancient to the www.thoughtco.com contemporary times. LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of this lesson, you will be able to: 1. cite highlights in the life of the philosophers that influenced their concepts and principles; 2. identify and differentiate the philosophers’ perspectives of self; and 3. create your own concept/ theory of the self. PHILOSOPHERS’ PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF The way you choose to spend your life contributes to the development of your identity and self-understanding. Your past is a contributory factor to who you are today, but who you will be tomorrow greatly depends on your perspective about yourself. 1. SOCRATES (470-399 B.C.) He explored his philosophy of immortality in the days following his trial and before his sentence to death was executed. According to him, an unexamined life is not worth living. This statement is reflected in his idea of the self. He believed in dualism that aside from the physical body (material substance), each person has an immortal soul (immaterial substance). The body belongs to the physical realm and the soul to the ideal realm. When you die, your body dies but not your soul. There is a life after the death of your physical body. There is a world after death. According to him, in order for you to have a good life, you must live a good life, a life with a purpose, and that purpose is for you to do well. Then there you will be happy after your body dies. 2. PLATO (428/427-348/347 BC) He was greatly affected by Socrates’ death. Socrates was Plato’s teacher. He believed that the self is immortal and it consists of 3 parts: a. Reason – the divine essence that enables you to think deeply, make wise choices and achieve an understanding of eternal truths; b. Physical Appetite - your basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire and; c. Spirit or Passion – your basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy. The 3 components may work together or in conflict. If human beings do not live in accordance with their nature/function, the result will be an injustice. 3. ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430) He was a great explorer in his youth and young adulthood; he spent great times with his friends and up to the extent of fathering an illegitimate child. His explorations led to his conversion to Christianity wherein he spent the remainder of his day serving the bishop of Hippo and writing books and letters including his idea of the self. At first, he thought the body as the “slave” of the soul but ultimately, regarded the body as the “spouse” of the soul both attached to one another. He believed that the body is united with the soul, so that man may be entire and complete. His first principle was, “I doubt, therefore I am.” The self seeks to be united with God through faith and reason and he described that humanity is created in the image and likeness of God, that God is supreme and all-knowing and everything created by God who is all good is good. 4. RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650) Descartes was a scientist in his professional life and during his time, scientists believed that after death the physical body dies, hence the self also dies. He was a devout Catholic who believed in the immortal souls and eternal life. By having the idea of both the thinking self and the physical body, Descartes was able to reconcile his being a scientist and a devout Catholic. The self is a thinking thing, distinct from the body. The thinking self or soul is nonmaterial, immortal, conscious while the physical body is material, mortal, non-thinking entity, fully governed by the physical laws of nature. “Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I Am) is the keystone to his concept of the self. The essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of oneself. 5. JOHN LOCKE (1634-1704) The intolerant and charged atmosphere in England kept Locke to stay abroad and freedom from political intrigues and duties allowed him to develop his philosophy. According to Locke, the human mind at birth is a tabula rasa (“blank slate”). The self or personal identity is constructed primarily from sense experiences which shape and mold the self throughout a person’s life. Personal identity is made possible by self-consciousness. In order to discover the nature of personal identity, you to have to find out what it means to be a person. A person is a thinking, intelligent being who has abilities to reason and to reflect. A person is also someone who considers itself to be the same thing at different times and different places. Consciousness means being aware that you are thinking; this what makes your belief possible that you are the same identity at different times and in different places. The essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as thinking, reasoning, reflecting identity. 6. DAVID HUME (1711-1776) He left the University of Edinburg at the age of 15, to study privately. Although he was encouraged to take up law, his interest was philosophy. It is during his private study that he began raising questions about religion. For him, there is no “self” only a bundle of perceptions passing through the theatre of your minds. According to him, humans are so desperately wanting to believe that they have a unified and continuous self or soul that they use their imaginations to construct a fictional self. The mind is a theatre, a container for fleeting sensations and disconnected ideas and your reasoning ability is merely a slave to the passions. Hence, personal identity is just a result of imagination. 7. IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804) Although Kant recognizes the legitimacy in Hume’s account, he opposes the idea of Hume that everything starts with perception and sensation of impressions, that’s why he brought out the idea of the self as a response against the idea of Hume. For Kant, there is unavoidably a mind that systematizes the impressions that men get from the external world. Therefore, Kant believed that the self is a product of reason because the self regulates experience by making unified experience possible. We construct the self. The self exists independently of experience and the self goes beyond experience. 8. SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939) Freud develops his theories during a period in which he experienced heart irregularities, disturbing dreams and periods of depression. He read William Shakespeare in English throughout his life. Based on him, the self is composed of three layers, conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The conscious mind includes thoughts, feelings, and actions that you are currently aware of; the preconscious mind includes mental activities that are stored in your memory, not presently active but can be accessed or recalled; while the unconscious mind includes activities that you are not aware of. According to him, there are thoughts, feelings, desires, and urges that the conscious mind wants to hide, buried in your unconscious, but may shed light to your unexplained behavior. 9. GILBERT RYLE (1900-1976) His father was a general practitioner but had a keen interest in philosophy and astronomy that he passed it on to his children; they had an impressive library where Ryle enjoyed being an omnivorous reader. He graduated with first class honors in the New Modern Greats School of Philosophy, Politic, and Economics. His concept of the self is provided in his philosophical statement, “I Act therefore I am.” Ryle views the self as the way people behave, which is composed of a set of patterned behavior. Basically, for Ryle, the self is the same as your behavior. 10. PAUL CHURCHLAND (1942) Churchland became a professor at the University of California where he later became the department chair and member of the Cognitive Science Faculty, a member of the Institute for Neural Computation. His membership to these organizations prompted him to dwell on the brain as the self. Churchland’s theory is anchored in the statement, “the self is the brain.” The self is inseparable from the brain and the physiological body because the physical brain gives the sense of self. In short, the brain and the self are one. Once the brain is dead, the self is dead too. 11. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1908-1961) When he won the school’s “Award for Outstanding Achievement” in Philosophy it traced his commitment to the vocation of Philosophy. His concept, “the self has embodied subjectivity” explained that all your knowledge about yourself and the world is based on your subjective experiences and everything that you are aware of is contained in your consciousness. For him, your body is your general medium for having a world.