UTS-C1-LESSON1 Defining the Self PDF

# Chapter I: Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity ## Lesson 1: The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives ### 1. Socrates - Pre-Socratic philosophers were concerned with what the world is made up of. - Socrates focused on the philosophy that man sh...

# Chapter I: Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity ## Lesson 1: The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives ### 1. Socrates - Pre-Socratic philosophers were concerned with what the world is made up of. - Socrates focused on the philosophy that man should know himself. - His dictum: "Know Thyself". - He stated: "An unexamined self is not worth living". - During Socrates' time, men were unaware of their own identity and virtues needed to preserve their souls for the afterlife. - For Socrates, it's worse to live but die inside than to die physically. - Socrates believed that man is dualistic, made up of body and soul. - All individuals possess an imperfect and impermanent body, while also having a perfect and permanent soul. ### 2. Plato - A student of Socrates. - Supported the idea of a dual nature for man: body and soul. - Added three components to the soul: - Rational soul: governs reason and intellect - Spirited soul: governs emotions - Appetitive soul: governs basic desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, and sex - Justice is attained when these three parts work harmoniously. - When the three parts work in harmony, the soul becomes just and virtuous. ### 3. Augustine - Influenced by Socrates and Plato. - Incorporated Christianity into the idea of man. - Agreed with the dualistic nature of man. - One aspect dwells in the world and is imperfect. - The other aspect yearns to be with the Divine and is capable of immortality. - His famous line: "My soul is restless until it rests in you". ### 4. Thomas Aquinas - Considered the most imminent 13th-century scholar and stalwart of medieval philosophy, following Augustine's Christian view. - Believed that man is composed of two parts: matter and form. - Matter (hyle) is the common stuff making up everything in the universe. - Form (morphe) is the essence of a substance or thing, differentiating us from other animals. - Our soul animates our body, making us human. ### 5. Descartes - Father of Modern Philosophy. - Conceived the idea of a human person having a body and a mind. - Advocated for doubting everything, unless it's completely clear and lucid. - Claimed that the only thing beyond doubt is the existence of the self. - Doubting oneself proves that there is a doubting self, a thinking thing, which cannot be doubted. - His famous quote: *Cogito ergo sum* (I think therefore, I am). - Believed that the act of thinking proves one's existence. - Considered the self to be a combination of two distinct entities: - Cogito: the thing that thinks (the mind) - Extenza: the extension of the mind (the body) - Viewed the body as a machine attached to the mind. - Argued that the mind is the thinking thing, responsible for doubting, understanding, affirming, conceiving, denying, imagining, and perceiving. ### 6. Humes - A Scottish philosopher with a unique perspective on man. - An empiricist who argued that we can only know what comes from the senses and experiences. - Empiricism is the school of thought that believes knowledge is only possible through sensing and experiencing. - Even imagining the feeling of being in love for the first time is still an idea. - Believed that the self is nothing more than a bundle of impressions. - Impressions are the basic objects of our experiences - sensations, which are vivid products of our direct experience with the world. - Ideas are copies of impressions, less lively and vivid. - People want to believe in a unified, coherent self, a soul or mind, but this is just a combination of experiences with a particular person. ### 7. Kant - Found Humes' idea of the self as only impressions problematic. - Recognized that everything starts with perception and sensation of impressions. - Believed that perceptions are not just passively infused into our minds, but are organized by a principle within us. - This principle regulates the relationships between our impressions. - Argued that there is a mind that organizes the impressions we get from the external world. - Suggested that our intelligence actively engages with knowledge and experiences, synthesizing them. ### 8. Ryle - Solved the body-mind dichotomy by denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. - Believed that true significance lies in the behavior we display in everyday life. - Argued that the "self" is not an entity we can locate and analyze, but a convenient name used to refer to all our behaviors. ### 9. Merleau-Ponty - Argued that the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated. - No experience is disembodied. - Our body is our opening to existence and the world. - Rejected dualism, considering it a misunderstanding. - Believed that our living body, thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one.