2 - UTS Philosophical Perspective of Self.pdf

NU FAI RV I EW PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF Presented by: Angelica Joy D. del Fierro, RPm Faculty, Psychology Department National University - Fairview  Learning Objectives To know what Self is in the eyes of various Philosophers To un...

NU FAI RV I EW PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF Presented by: Angelica Joy D. del Fierro, RPm Faculty, Psychology Department National University - Fairview  Learning Objectives To know what Self is in the eyes of various Philosophers To understand the role of mind, body and soul to the Self To distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of each concepts To apply the concepts that best suits your situation  Starting Point... What is Philosophy? Why do we have to know who we are? What are the different Philosophies explaining Self? What is the Role of the Soul to the Establishment of the Self? What are the roles of impressions to ones identity? Why are there so many points of view about self?  Philosophical Perspective Philosophy is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature and existence of man and the world we live in. From the Greek word "Philo" and "Sophia" which mean "the love of wisdom". Philosophy is done primarily through reflection and does not tend to rely on experiment.  Self and the Philosophers S O C R AT E S Classical Greek Philosopher and pioneer of Western Moral Philosophy. He introduced the Socratic Method of thinking with the goal of which was to "Know thyself" For him, a man's goal in life is to obtain true happiness and such goal motivates us to act towards avoiding things that could have negative effects in our being. Socratic Method, which promotes introspection or examination of oneself thoughts and emotions he also stated that "An unexamined life is not worth living."  Self and the Philosophers P L AT O Classical Greek Philosopher and the founder of Academy of Athens-the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Former student of Socrates Believe that the Body and Soul, though share the same entity is different from each pther and is divided. 'MIND' OR 'SOUL' IS COMPRISED OT THREE ELEMENTS  THE APPETITES (APPETITIVE) Involves our pleasure desires such as those and physical comfort. 2. THE PASSION (SPIRITED) Denotes the part of our pysche that is agitated most of the time. It is highly spirited and motivated to surpass and conques life challenges. It ivolves the basic emotions that a person has. 3. THE REASON (RATIONAL) It is the conscious awareness which meditates, weighs choices and assesses situations in our lives. This side is rational and logical as it chooses only best for us.  Self and the Philosophers ARISTOTLE Unlike the others, he does not believe that the body and sould is separate or different from each other. Since he believes that anything with life has a soul, it is the essence of all living things. The ideation in turn leads to the belief that the soul is the essence of the self. In order to fully understand self, we must be able to know the different types of soul that a person has. According to Aristotle, our soul can be classifies as vegetative, sentient, and rational. Vegetative soul implies growth an example of which is the body. Sentient soul includes the desires and emotions that people have, and lastly, the Rational soul includes the intellect and ability to think and understand things.  Self and the Philosophers S T. A U G U S T I N E Known as Saint Augustine of Hippo - a Christian theologian and philosopher to have greatly contributed to the progress of Western Christianity through his writings specifically The City of God, On Christian Doctrine.  St. Augustine identified the two-fold process comprised of self-presentation leading to self-realization. He also believes that our understanding of who we are revolves around our own doubtfulness, understanding of our standing and the way we question our own existence.  St. Augustine also rejected the doubtfulness of academic way of thinking in which one should not accept ideas from others. He emphasized that not being able to agree to everything other people sau should be the case but we can still agree to those who we, from our own perception, think is right or wrong based from our own evaluations and perceptions. Thus, leading to a famous quote on his work "I doubt therefore, I am".  St. Augustine also related our existence to God being modeled in his likeliness through living means that we are still far from God and has yet to be truly with him. Knowledge of God results to ones better understanding of oneself, he emphasized that "knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us". RENE DECARTES Self and the Philosophers He is believed to be the father of modern western philosophy. Though similar to some of the concepts of St. Augustine were specifically in the idea of doubt which can be traced as influenced by the Socratic method as well, he distinguishes himself through the notion of understanding the relationship of one's process of thinking to the identification of ones' self.  He developed the Cartesian Philosophy which holds that mental acts determine physical acts. So by continuous thinking, questioning or doubting is in and of itself a proof of ones existence. He described the mind as the "intellectual substance" which possesses a will. He stated "Cogito, ergo sum" which is "I think, therefor I am".  In his idea, if a man thinks and reflects, a person will be able to realize the two dimensions of the human self: The Self as a thinking entity and the Self as a physical body. Since sensation sometimes have faults in understaning what is real and not, he said that it is important to give priority in trying to understand what we experience to fully identify what is true.  Thus ultimately, he believed that the body and mind is separate from each other, and it is an important aspect of the human self to think and can be independent from our physical self.  Self and the Philosophers JOHN LOCKE An English Philosopher, Physician; He is considered to be the father of Classical liberalism. He was known for his idea that when we are born, we began in a state of "Tabula rasa" or blank slate. He stated that a person is born with nothing and that is very susceptible to establishing a sense of self by accumulation and learning from our experiences, which maybe from, successes, failures, reflection, and observations to oneself.  Locke also put emphasis on ones ability to think and the value of a person's experiences into consideration, in the establishment of ones sense of self. For him, our senses and the perception we have from our environment contribute to the identification of who we are as an individual, along with ones ability to be consciously aware of ones surroundings and endeavors.  Lastly, self-consciousness, reflective thinking, and experiences are the common basis to the concept of self from his point of view, where people may be able to distinguish their sense of selves because of it.  Self and the Philosophers D AV I D H U M E The Scottish Philosopher David Hume is known on Philosophical Empiricism, Skepticism, and Naturalism. He insisted that there is no "self", and that people and their experiences are just a collection of perceptions from the physical realm, which led to our impressions and ideas about who we are.  Impressions are feelings and/or sensations that people have, such as, love, hate, fear, cold, heat, and sadness. It can be observed and introspected. Since ones feelings and different sensation is not constant or may change depending on the experience or situation of a person, it reiterated Hume's statement on the non existence of the self could also be interpreted that since no person may not be able to associate to one simple impression on their concept of self, there is no permanent concept of self and that our identity is a result of imagination while taking consideration the perceived impressions and ideas we have about us.  Self and the Philosophers IMMANUEL KANT Born in Prussia, Germany Great contributor in modern western philosophy. He asserted that is the human mind which creates experiences "that every person has inner and outer self which comprises the concsiousness"  Self can only be established by organizing and synthesizing one's accumulation of experiences, intuition, thoughts, imagination, and perception. The Self is identified, in the form of consciousness, is primarily based on various transcendental deductions of categories or concpets, which helps us to make sense of the world that we live in and the experiences that we have.  Transcendental Apperception is an intrinsic nature of our consiousness that goes beyond sense experiences. This is similar to certain abstract ideas an example of which, is the concpet of time and love.  We may be aware about the implications of the conccept of love through our experiences as well as characteristics that is related to them, but the entirety of the concept cannot solely be understood on simple observation because it is something that is not concrete as a whole and is only represented through concepts, actions and various behavior that we have in our environment.  Self and the Philosophers SIGMUND FREUD Known for his work on human nature and the unconscious. Austrian psychiatrist that established himself as a father of psychoanalysis Frued's idea of self revolves around the role of the consciousness and its various levels.  T H E M E N TA L I C E B E R G According to Freud, the Self can be divided into three layers: the conscious, preconscious and the unconscious. He believed that people have various constructs of personality and the levels of consciousness where every person's experiences and desires take part in the establishment of the self. A N I C E B E R G I L L U S T R AT I N G F R E U D ’ S D I F F E R E N T L E V E L O F consciousness. Photo credit: h t t p s : / / w w w. p i n t e r e s t. p h / p i n / 2 9 4 2 1 1 78 8 1 3 9 1 1 2 0 1 1 /  The conscious is a layer of self that contains all of the things that we are aware of, the thought, feelings, motivations, and preferences and is readily accessible for us. It is the area where reality and rationality is.  The preconscious could be said to be like a boundary between awareness and unawareness, these are still memories and thoughts that is not necessarily available at any given time but could still be easily brought into the consciousness.  The unconscious is a part of our selves where our instinctual drives and pools of our feelings, thoughts, and meemories that is outside of our awareness. It can be memories that we have forgotten or we want to forget, fantasies from our childhood, and may include some unpleasant aspects of ourselves that we chose to forget.  Self and the Philosophers GILBERT RYLE Philosopher known for his Behavioristic approach to self, he emphasized that the behavior presented by an individual, emotions and actions are the reflection of our mind and as such is the manifestation of our self that reflects to his statement "I act, therefor I am".  His explanation of the self is further exemplified in his "ghost in the machine" view. This concept explained that a person can be compared to a complex machine with different functioning parts, and the intelligence and behavior of man is represented as the "ghost". The ghost, who is not seen but is believed to be the driving force in the said machine.  Self and the Philosophers PA U L C H U R C H L A N D a Canadian philosopher that is known primarily for his philosophy "eliminative materialism" which revolves around the premise that "nothing but matter exist".  With that in mind, he argues that the self which is the accumulation of all the emotions, perceptions, actions and behavior of a person is attached to their source which is the brain. This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he believed that to fully understand one’s behavior, one should understand the different neurological movement of the brain.  Self and the Philosophers MAURICE MERLEAU PONTY a French philosopher, who unlike others that believe on the separation of the mind and body, he believes that if one studies their experiences a person may identify that the mind and body is unified.  From his work in "Phenomenology of Perception" which follow the gestalt notion "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts", emphasizes on the importance of consciousness of which all our perceptions are gathered.  According to him, the Self, can be established based on the conscious understanding of our experiences with our selves and our environment, thus, leading us into considering the body, the perceived world, and the people and the world. These areas does not only focus on the individual and ones own perception, but also the accepted influence and assumed role that we have while considering others. This strengthens Merleau-Ponty's idea that our concept of the Self is embedded in subjectivity. ANY QUESTIONS? ASSIGNMENT ALERT  Based on the topics and philosophies that were discussed, choose one philosophy that you can relate to the most, explain why, and give examples from your experiences how it is so. A task will be assigned on your Teams, 1 page (minimum of 300 words). Deadline: September 5, 2023  REFERENCES Alata, E.J., Caslib Jr., B.N., Serafica, J.P., & Pawilen, R.A. (2018). Understanding the Self. [1st ed.]. Quezon City: Rex Book Store, Inc. Go-Monilla, M.J. & Ramirez, N. (2018). Understanding the Self. [1st ed.]. Quezon City: C & E Pub. Chafee, J. (2013). Who are you? Consciousness , identity and the self. In the Philosopher’s Way. Thinking Critical about Profound Ideas (pp 106 – 169). Pearson. **Gathered and compiled by Prof. Jigo Rafael Catamio, MAEd, RGC