UTS Handouts 1st Quiz PDF

# GEC101 - Self From Various Perspectives ## Who Are You? Outlined by: JGCL Most people have been asked the question "who are you?" many times. This question arises when we meet a new person, in class, or when we're staring at the mirror and don't recognize our reflection. Our answer to this que...

# GEC101 - Self From Various Perspectives ## Who Are You? Outlined by: JGCL Most people have been asked the question "who are you?" many times. This question arises when we meet a new person, in class, or when we're staring at the mirror and don't recognize our reflection. Our answer to this question depends on many factors, which proves the complex nature of the self. This module explores the self by examining how different fields shed light on its beautiful enigma. ## Philosophical Perspectives Philosophers were the first to try to explain what makes the self. While they have different opinions and theories, most agree on the theory of mind-body duality. ### The Mind * Is a metaphysical object consisting of spiritual essence * Exists in the metaphysical world. * A perfect soul contained in the body. * There is a truth within our thoughts that constitute the self, and we must seek to discover it. ### The Body * Is a physical object made of physical material. * Exists and interacts with the physical world. * An imperfect body * Senses the world around it, but these senses are deceptive and must not be thought of as truth. ### Socrates Socrates believed that the true self is the soul, the rational part of our selves. He believed the self is made up of both body and soul and that the soul is the true self - it's unchanging and immortal. To take care of the self, we must know the self. The true self is discovered through questioning, now known as the Socratic method. The body, while part of the self, is just a receptacle of the soul. ### Plato Plato, a student of Socrates, expanded on the concept of the soul as having three parts: * **Reason** - the rational part of the self. The part that knows reality and makes decisions. * **Appetite** - the irrational and instinctive part of the self. It's related to our basic physical needs: hunger, thirst, and sex. * **Spirit** - our emotions like anger, love, empathy The three parts of the self are very dynamic and interact with each other. Plato compares them to a chariot pulled by two winged horses where the charioteer is reason, and the two horses are the appetite and spirit. The charioteer must control the horses to achieve harmony. Plato's idea of the three-part self is similar to Sigmund Freud's view of the mind's structures. ### Augustine of Hippo For Augustine, the true self is within our mind because it is capable of consciousness and can be used to know God. * We are like animals in that we can perceive the physical world, but we are also aware of ourselves. This inner knowledge of our existence must consist of the true self. * Like Socrates and Plato, Augustine believed that we have an inner knowledge of truth that we must seek out to understand the self. * To understand ourselves, we can also use the Socratic method of questioning. * Augustine believes the self is a combination of both the body and the soul, which is united just like the Trinity is one. * He believes that since humans are made in the image and likeness of God, knowing the self leads us to know God. ### Rene Descartes Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, formally proposed the mind-body dualism. Like his predecessors, he believed that the true self is within the soul, and we must discover it through scientific inquiry and scientific method. * Because humans are capable of doubting our own existence, it must mean we are capable of thinking. Because we are capable of thinking, therefore we must exist. (I think, therefore I am) * To have beliefs about the self, one must doubt their beliefs until they are capable of achieving beliefs that are their own. * While Descartes agreed with Augustine's view that the true self is within the mind, he also believed that the body is still a separate and distinct dimension of the self, even if it is secondary to the mind. * He also identified the pineal gland (in the brain) as the area where the mind and the body interact. ### John Locke Locke believed the self is a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth. Our consciousness creates the self, and it gives us a sense of continuity over time. Locke disputed the idea that we are born with inner knowledge. Consciousness provides a continuity and stability to the self that links our past, present, and future selves. He also refuted the idea that the self is an immortal soul made of a spiritual essence and claimed that the self can be anything capable of consciousness. ### David Hume Hume believed that there is no self. Instead, he claimed that we experience basic sensations (impressions) and ideas, which are copies of those impressions. To have an unchanging self would require unchanging impressions, but our impressions of the self (like grief) change. Therefore, the idea of an unchanging self is illogical because our impressions are fleeting and variable. When we die, we cease to exist, so the self can't continue to linger on Earth. The self is just an amalgamation of different impressions over time. ### Immanuel Kant Kant disagreed with Hume and believed that the self is the thread which binds our experiences of the self together in a "unity of consciousness." Kant believed that the mind was more than just a receptacle of fleeting impressions and refuted the idea that the mind was merely a receptacle of fleeting impressions and ideas. * Kant said that we're able to organize our perceptions because we have existing knowledge (a priori knowledge) that guides us in making sense of the world. * He believed that the self is organized by the transcendental self (the organizing principle of self) which is a priori knowledge. * The empirical self is the conscious "ego" that comes from posteriori knowledge. * Having a unity of consciousness creates the self's consistency over time. ### Gilbert Ryle Ryle believed that the self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition for a person to behave in a certain way. He subscribed to the main tenets of behaviorism. He argued that we can't observe a metaphysical sense objectively, so a person's actions, thoughts, emotions, and behavior define the self. He believed that the mind and body are not separate, we cannot observe them, and the mind is made up of the entire system of thoughts, emotions, and actions that make up the self. ### Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty These philosophers believed that the self is experienced subjectively and is not known objectively. They espoused phenomenology, which proposes that all knowledge of ourselves and the world is based on the phenomena of personal experience. They rejected dualism entirely and believed that the self is the unity between the mental and physical and is embodied in subjective experiences rather than objective behaviors. * To know the self, we must live it. The self is a lived experience. ### Paul Churchland Churchland believed that the self is a series of neurological phenomena which can be observed in the brain. He held a materialistic view of the self - the self is the brain. He believed that mental states and experiences of the self can be explained by physical states of the brain. To understand the self, we must rely on neuroscience. ## Psychological Perspectives As society developed, so did the sciences. Psychology emerged as a field that focuses on the mind or brain as the center of the self. Psychologists began to study the self as a cognitive construction, rather than a metaphysical entity. **Psychology's inquiry focused on understanding the self and asking questions such as:** * What can make an effective self? Happy self? Etc. * How does the self know itself (consciousness)? * What cognitive processes are involved in forming the self? ### Sigmund Freud Freud said that the self has both conscious and unconscious parts. He believed that the self is part conscious (aware) and part unconscious (unaware). Freud's psychoanalytic approach believed that the conscious and unconscious parts continually interact and influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.