The Self From Various Philosophical Perspectives PDF

**The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives** I. **Socrates** \[First Philosopher who engaged in a systematic questioning of self\] - True task of a philosopher is to know one self. - Every man is dualistic; man is composed of body and soul. II. **Plato** \[Socrate's student\] -...

**The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives** I. **Socrates** \[First Philosopher who engaged in a systematic questioning of self\] - True task of a philosopher is to know one self. - Every man is dualistic; man is composed of body and soul. II. **Plato** \[Socrate's student\] - There are three components of soul: 1. RATIONAL SOUL -- Intellect, reason, & rationality. Logical thinking, analysis, & contemplation. Rational soul is the highest and noblest part of the soul. The aspect that should govern and control the other two components. 2. SPIRITED SOUL -- Emotions, desires, & spiritedness. Passionate and emotional response. Feelings. 3. APPETITIVE SOUL -- Basic and material desires; hunger, thirst & bodily needs. Tied to instinct and animalistic nature. Lowest and most primal part of soul. Contrasts with rational soul. III. **Augustine** - Man is of a bifurcated nature. - An aspect of man dwells in the world and I imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality. - The body is bound to die on Earth and the soul is anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with God. IV. **Thomas Aquinas** - Man is composed of two parts: matter and form. - MATTER (hyle in Greek) -- common stuff that makes up everything in the universe. -Man's body is part of this matter. - FORM (morphe in Greek) -- essence of a substance or thing. The soul is what animates the body; it is what makes us humans. V. **Rene Descartes** \[Father of Modern Philosophy\] - Human person as having a body and mind. - "One should only believe that since which can pass the test of doubt." (Descartes 2008). - Cogito ergo sum, "I think therefore, I am". - Self is combination of two distinct entities; "cogito" (the thing that thinks Mind), "extenza" (extensions of mind Body). VI. **David Hume** \[Scottish Philosopher\] - Can only know what comes from the senses and experiences. - Men can only attain knowledge by experiencing. - IMPRESSIONS -- Most vivid and immediate mental experience. Direct sensations or perceptions experienced through our senses. - All our complex ideas are derived from these original impressions through various mental operations. - IDEAS -- Less vivid copies of impression. Mental representations or images of the impressions we've experienced. All ideas are derived from impressions. VII. **Immanuel Kant** - Explored the self in context of his transcendental idealism. - Empirical self (the self we perceive it in experience) transcendental self (unyielding unity of consciousness that makes experience possible. - Self is a necessary condition for coherence of our experiences. - Without the self, one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. VIII. **Gilbert Ryle** - What truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life. - Self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make. IX. **Merleau -- Ponty** \[Phenomenologist\] - Mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another. - One's body is his opening toward his existence to the world. - The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one. **The Self, Society, and Culture** I. **SELF** -"Separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, private" (Stevens 1996). - SEPARATE - Always unique and has its own identity. - Self is distinct from other self. One cannot be another person**.** - Self-contained & Independent - In itself it can exist. Does not need any other self for it to exist. - Distinctness allows it to be self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition. - CONSISTENT - It has personality that's enduring and expected to persist for long. - Particular self traits, characteristics, tendencies, & potentialities are more or less the same. - UNITARY - Self is the center of all thoughts and experience that run through a certain person. - PRIVATE - Each person sort out information within the self. - Never accessible to anyone but self. Self is isolated from external world. II. **SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE** -Understanding the vibrant relationship between self and external reality. -\"Social constructionists argue for a merged View OF \'the person\' and \'their social Context\' where the boundaries of one cannot easily be separated from the boundaries of other.\" (Stevens, 1996) - Should not be seen as a static entity. Rather, as an unceasing Flux, in a Constant struggle with external reality and is malleable in its dealings with society. Self is always in participation with social life and its identity subjected to influences here and there. Self is truly multifaceted. Self is capable of morphing and fitting itself to any circumstances it find itself in. **Marcel Mauss** \[French anthropologist\] -Every self has two faces: moi & personne. - MOI - Person's sense of who he is, his body his biological givenness. - A person's basic identity. - PERSONNE - Composed of social concepts of what it means to be who he is. - What it means to live in a particular institutions, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others. The self is morphed according to the circumstances and contexts. III. **The Self & Development of the Social World.** Language is another interesting aspect of social constructivism. Recent studies indicate that men and women in their growth and development engage actively in the shaping of the self. The unending terrain of metamorphosis of the self is mediated by language. "Language as both a publicly shared and privately utilized symbol systems the site where the individual and the social make and remake each other." -- (Schwartz, White, & Lutz 1993) For Mead and Vygotsky, the way that human persons develop is with the use of language acquisition and interaction with others. The way that we process information is normally a form of an internal dialogue in our head. Cognitive and emotional development of a child is always a mimicry of how it is done in the social world, in the external reality where he is in. A young child internalize values, norms, practices, and social beliefs and more through exposure to these dialogs that will eventually become part of his individual world. For Mead, this takes place as a child assumes the "other" through language and role-play. According through Mead, it is through that a child delineates the "I" from the rest. For Vygotsky, a child internalizes real-life dialogs that he had with others. They apply this to their mental and practical problems along with the social and cultural infusions bought about by the said dialogs. IV. **Self in Families** Human persons are one of those beings whose importance of family cannot be denied. Human persons learn the ways of living and therefore their selfhood by being in a family. It is what a family initiates a person to become that serves as the basis for this person's progress. Internalizing behavior may either be conscious or unconscious. Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person may not even survive or become a human person. V. **Gender and The Self** **Sonia Tolstoy** \[Wife of Leo Tolstoy, a Russian novelist\] -She wrote a wonderful anecdote when she was twenty-one. This account illustrates that our gender partly determines how we see ourselves in the world. **Nancy Chodorow** \[A feminist\] -Argues that because mothers take the role of taking care of children, there is a tendency for girls to imitate the same and reproduce the same kind of mentality of women as care providers in the family. Men on the other hand, in the periphery of their own family, are taught early on how to behave like a man. Circumcision plays another social role by initiating young boys into manhood. The gendered self is then shaped within a particular context of time and space. Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and the society. **Self as Cognitive Construct** I. **SELF** -It is the sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals. (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). **William James (1890)** -One of the earliest psychologists to study the self and conceptualized the self as having two aspects: I and me. Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define who one is. (Oyserman, Elmore, & Smith 2012). Self concept is basically what comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are. (Oyserman, Elmore, & Smith 2012). II. **SELF SCHEMA** **Carl Rogers** -His concept of self-schema; - Organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are (Gleitman, Gross, & Reisberg 2011; Jhanggiani & Tarry 2014). **Sigmund Freud** **-**Saw the self, its mental processes, and one's behavior as the result of the interaction between the Id, Ego, and Superego. - ID - is the impulsive part of your personality that is driven by pleasure and repulsed by pain. - EGO - is the conscious part of your personality. - SUPEREGO - is the judgmental and morally correct part of your personality. Social interaction always has a part to play in who we think we are. This is not nature vs. nurture but instead a nature and nurture perspective. Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, G.H Mead (1934) argued that self is created and developed through human interaction (Hogg &Vaughan 2010). Basically, there are three reasons why self and identity are social products (Oyserman, Elmore, & Smith 2012): 1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. 2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are. 3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in our social and historical context. Self-awareness -- is when we are aware of our self-concepts. **Carver and Scheier (1981)** -Two types of self that we can be aware of (Hogg & Vaughan 2010): III. **THREE SELF-SCHEMA** Self-awareness also present us with three other self-schema: - Actual Self -- who you are at the moment. - Ideal Self -- who you like to be. - Ought Self -- who you think you should be. Self-consciousness -- self-awareness is too much that we are concerned about being observed and criticized by others. Deindividuation -- the loss of individual self-awareness and individual accountability in groups. Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great impact on our self-esteem. IV. **SELF-ESTEEM** -One of the concepts associated with the "self". -As our own positive or negative perception or evaluation of ourselves (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014; Gelaitman, Gross, & Reisberg 2011). V. **SOCIAL COMPARISON** One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem is through social comparison. According to the social comparison theory, we learn about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as our social status by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014; Hogg & Vaughan 2010). 1. Downward social comparison -- we create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who are worse off than us (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014); common type of comparing ourselves with others. By having the advantage, we can raise our self-esteem. 2. Upward social comparison -- comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014). A lot of those who do this felt lower self-esteem as they highlight more of their weakness. Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory, which states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person is close to us. VI. **NARCISSISM** In attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, some people become narcissistic. Narcissism -- trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014). This makes them a bad partner or friend since they engage in relationships only to serve themselves (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014). And though self-esteem is a very important concept related to the self, studies have shown that it only has a correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014). It can be argued that high or healthy self-esteem may result to an overall good personality but it is not, and should not be the only source of a person's healthy perspective of herself. **Baumeister, Smart, & Boden (1996)** In their research on self-esteem conclude that programs, activities, and parenting styles to boost self-esteem should only be for rewarding good behavior and other achievements and not for the purpose of merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or to appease them when they get angry or sad (Jhangiani & Tarry 2014). I. **CONFUCIANISM** -Code of ethical conduct of how one should properly act according to their relationship with other people; it also focuses on having a harmonious social life (Ho 1995). Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate purpose of life but the characteristic of a *chun-tzu* (a man of virtue or noble character) is still embedded on his social relationships (Ho 1995). -The cultivated self in Confucianism is what some scholars call a "subdued self" wherein personal needs are repressed (subdue) for the good of many, making Confucian society also hierarchal for the purpose of maintaining order and balance in society (Ho 1995). II. **TAOISM** -Is living the way of the *Tao* or the universe. -Rejects having one definition of what Tao is. -Only states clues as they adopt a free-flowing, relative, unitary, as well as paradoxical view of almost everything. -Taoism rejects hierarchy brought by Confucianism and would prefer a simple lifestyle and its teaching thus aim to describe how to attain that life (Ho 1995). -The self is not just an extension of the family or the community; it is part of the universe, one of the forms and manifestation of the Tao (Ho 1995). The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting about the self, it is living a balanced life with society and nature, being open and accepting to change, forgetting about prejudices and egocentric ideas and thinking about equality as well as complementary among humans as well as other beings (Ho 1995). In this way, you will be able to act spontaneously because you will not be restricted by some legalistic standards but because you are in harmony with everything. III. **BUDDHISM** -The self is seen as illusion, born out of ignorance, of trying to hold and control things, or human centered needs; thus the self is also the source of all sufferings (Ho 1995). -Our quest to forget about the self, forget the cravings of the self, break the attachments you have with the world, and to renounce the self which is the cause of all the suffering and in doing so, attain the state of Nirvana (Ho 1995). IV. V. **WESTERN PERSPECTIVE** VI. **EASTERN PERSPECTIVE** \- Western thought looks at the world in dualities wherein you are distinct from the other person, the creator is separate from the object he created, in which the self is distinguished and acknowledged (Wolter 2012). -Western culture is also called as individualistic culture since their focus is on the person. \- Studies shows that Americans talk more about their personal attributes when describing themselves. They also highlight their personal achievements. -Eastern perspective sees the other person as part of yourself as well as the things you may create, a drama in which everyone is interconnected with their specific roles (Wolter 2012). -Asian culture is called "collectivistic culture" as the group and social relations is given more importance than the individual needs and wants. -Studies shows that Asians talk about their social roles or situations that invoked certain \- Westerners may seem to have loose associations or even loyalty to their groups. Competition is the name of the game and they are more likely straightforward and forceful in their communication as well as decision-making (Qingxue 2003). \- Westerners also emphasize more on the value of equality even if they see that the individual can rise above everything else. Because everyone is on their own competition, they also promote ideals that create "fair" competition and protect the individual (Qingxue 2003). \- Westerners most likely call their bosses or other seniors by their first name. The boss can also be approached head-on when conflicts or problems about him arises (Qingxue 2003). -traits that they deemed positive about their selves. Asian keep a low profile as promoting the self can be seen as boastfulness that disrupts social relationships (Gleitman, Gross, & Reisberg 2011). -Eastern or oriental persons look after the welfare of their groups and values cooperation. They would be more compromising and they tend to go around the bush in explaining things, hoping the other person would 'feel' what they really want to say (Qingxue 2003). -Asians with their collectivistic culture, put more emphasis on hierarchy as the culture wants to keep things in harmony and order (Qingxue 2003). -Asians have respectful terms for their seniors and a lot of workers would not dare go against the high ranking officials (Qingxue 2003). In Philippines, we can consider the colonization experience for differences and similarities with our Asian neighbors. We might also find variation among provinces and regions due to geographical conditions. Variety between Western and Asian perspective may be blurred or highlighted. Conflict is inevitable in diversity, whereas, peace is possible through understanding where each of us is coming from.