Understanding The Self: Philosophy PDF

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PHILOSOPHY  COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this training, students are expected to: 1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various disciplinal...

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PHILOSOPHY  COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this training, students are expected to: 1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various disciplinal perspectives; 2. Explore and demonstrate critical and reflective thought on the different aspects of self and identity; 3. Acquire and apply the theoretical underpinnings on how to manage and care for the different aspects of the self.  PHILOSOPHY Love of wisdom 3w’s- wonder, why and wisdom Question > answer  THE BIG THREE Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Shared a philosophical academic bond SOCRATES He did not write anything, he was not a writer. His thoughts were only known through Plato’s writing (The Dialogues). A great debater and was idolized by the Athenians Sophists- the first teachers of the West. SOCRATES Was named the wisest man of all men by Delphi Oracle People were ignorant of what knowledge is most important: how to live right and how to make their soul good. He was the only one who knew that he did not know. THE SOCRATIC METHOD “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” The art of questioning He did not lecture; he instead would ask questions and engage the person in a discussion. SOCRATES’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He believed that his mission in life is to seek the highest knowledge. True self is not the body but the soul. Real understanding comes from within the person. Innate reason SOCRATES’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE Nobody willingly chooses to do wrong. Ignorance is the root of evil. Knowing = following  SOCRATES “One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” “Enjoy yourself. It is later that you think.”  PLATO (ARISTOCLES) wrote 20 Dialogues established “The Academy”  PLATO’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE Man is a soul using a body Body is material. (cannot live and move apart from the soul; destructible) Soul is immaterial. (can exist apart from body; a substance; independent) Believed that humans are intrinsically good  THREE PARTS OF SOUL (PLATO) 1. The Reason- (rational)motivation for goodness and truth 2. The Spirited- (non-rational) initially neutral but can be influenced/ pulled in two directions. 3. The Appetites- (irrational) lean towards desire for pleasures of the body; where man desires to experience hunger, thirst and other physical aspects PLATO’S THEORY OF BEING ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE To know is to be. The more the person knows, the more he is and the better he is.  PLATO’S THEORY OF LOVE Love is the way by which a person can move from a state of imperfect knowledge and ignorance to a state of perfection and true knowledge. Begins with a feeling that there is something lacking  PLATO (ARISTOCLES) “Thinking: the talking of the soul itself.” “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”  ST. AGUSTINE OF HIPPO CHRISTIAN PHILISOPHERS. They did not believe that self-knowledge and happiness were the ultimate goals of man, but instead man should rely on God’s commands and His judgment of constitutes good and evil. -see man as sinners  ST. AGUSTINE OF HIPPO Initially rejected Christianity for it seemed to him that it could not provide him answers to questions that interested him He became a priest and a bishop of Hippo, Africa.  ST. AGUSTINE’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE Men are inherently flawed. Thus, in need of a greater purpose or God to fix us. Two Realms of his Thoughts: 1. God as the source of all reality and truth 2.The sinfulness of man - freewill  THE ROLE OF LOVE He explains: 1. Love of physical objects - sin of greed 2. Love for other people - sin of jealousy 3. Love for self - sin of pride 4. Love for God - supreme virtue; real happiness All things are worthy of love but they must be loved properly. “If man loves God first and everything else to a lesser degree...”  RENE DESCARTES Father of modern Philosophy Introduced the Cartesian method and invented analytic Geometry Used scientific method and mathematics “what is and is not”  DESCARTES’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE Considered truth as universal concept Intellectual (as opposed to experience or any religious belief; innate in the human mind) Formation of new ideas- progression from simple to complex ideas  THE HUMAN MIND HAS TWO POWERS: 1. INTUITION- ability to apprehend direction of certain truths 2. DEDUCTION- the power to discover the unknown by progressing in an orderly way from what is already known; truths are arrived using a step-by-step process  RENE DESCARTES “I think, therefore I am.” (cogito, ergo sum) The Body-Mind Problem Soul (also the self) is a substance that is separate from the body. All bodily processes are mechanical The body is like a machine that is controlled by the will and aided by the mind.  JOHN LOCKE Ideas are not innate. The mind at birth is a “tabula rasa”. “Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses.  LOCKE’S VIEW ON HUMAN NATURE Mental acts produce greatest possible good, but Knowing what is good does not necessarily mean that people will always do what is good Morality has to do with choosing or willing to do good  LOCKE’S THREE KINDS OF LAWS 1. Law of Opinion- actions that are praiseworthy (virtues); otherwise, vice 2. Civil Law- right actions enforced by people in authority 3. Divine Law- set by God  DAVID HUME Empiricist- sensory experience After reading philosophy of Locke, he never again entertained any belief in religion  THE HUMAN MIND (HUME) The mind receives materials from the senses and call it perceptions. Two types: a. Impressions- immediate sensation of external reality b. Ideas- recollections of these impressions; what arises when we reflect upon our impressions  THE HUMAN MIND (HUME) Three principles on how ideas relate to one another: 1. Resemblance 2. Contiguity 3. Cause and Effect HUME’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE Other philosophers called the part of human nature as “soul”, he termed it “the self” The self is also a product of imagination There is no such thing as “personal identity” There’s no permanent/unchanging self Bundle of ever-changing impressions  IMMANUEL KANT Deeply spiritual Mind is not just passively receiving sense experience but rather actively participates in knowing objects Bundles of sensory impressions imply a unity of the self without which there would be no knowledge of the self  IMMANUEL KANT A self must exist or else there could be no memory or knowledge (when the self sees an object, it tends to remember its characteristics) Transcendental Apperception people do not experience the self directly but as a unity of all impressions that are organized by the mind.  SIGMUND FREUD Psychodynamic Theory- workings of the mind or one’s mental life impacts strongly on the body resulting either emotional stability or psychological dysfunctions Subconscious- repository of past experiences, repressed memories, fantasies and urges  THREE LEVELS OF THE MIND (FREUD) 1. Id- pleasure principle; demands immediate satisfaction and not hindered by societal expectations 2. Ego- reality principle 3. Superego- learning the difference between right and wrong; morality of actions is largely dependent on childhood upbringing  TWO KINDS OF INSTINCTS(FREUD) These instincts drive individual behavior 1. Eros- the energy of eros is called “libido” and includes urges necessary for survival like thirst, hunger and sex 2. Thanatos- cases wherein man’s behavior is directed towards destruction in the form of aggression and violence.  FREUD’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE Man is a product of his past. Man lives balancing the forces of life and death which are opposing forces that make existence a challenge  GILBERT RYLE Man is endowed with free will. Agrees with Kant that free will involves a moral responsibility which further assumes that man’s actions must be moral for it to be free.  TWO TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE (RYLE) 1. ‘Knowing-that’- knowing facts and information; empty intellectualism 2. ‘Knowing-how’- knowing how to make use of these facts Bulk of knowledge is deemed to be worthless if not used to solve some practical problems to make his life easier.  PATRICIA AND PAUL CHURCHLAND Introduced ‘Neurophilosophy’- Study of the philosophy of the mind science, neuroscience and psychology all rolled into one.  PATRICIA AND PAUL CHURCHLAND “There isn’t a special thing called the mind. The mind is just the brain.” -what and who the person is largely determined by his brain and its biochemical properties -it can malfunction but can also allow man to do amazing things “Man is a work of art.”  MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY Philosopher of the body Human body is the primary site of knowing the world. All knowledge is perceived through the body with all its sensory functions which take place in the here and now.