Understanding The Self - PRELIM MODULE PDF

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Cagamutan Norte, Leganes, Iloilo - 5003 Tel. # (033) 396-2291 ; Fax : (033) 5248081 Email Address : [email protected]...

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Cagamutan Norte, Leganes, Iloilo - 5003 Tel. # (033) 396-2291 ; Fax : (033) 5248081 Email Address : [email protected] COO – FORM 12 SUBJECT TITLE: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF INSTRUCTOR: ROSE F. BELGA, LPT SUBJECT CODE: PSYCH1 PRELIM MODULE Knowing oneself is critical to being an effective team member as well as being successful in life, work, and relationships. Your personal identity influences everything you do, and it changes and evolves over time. The purpose of this module is to help you deepen your understanding and appreciation for who you are as a person. You will explore how you see yourself through the lenses of personal identity, your skills and talents, roles, values, personal core, and how you meet your psychological needs. You will also examine how you respond to the pressures of changes and transitions in your life. You will have an opportunity to examine how your personal identity has been shaped by a variety of people and experiences. You will also have opportunities to think about and discuss your values, interests, hopes for the future, as well as, your strengths and challenges. You will learn about how your psychological needs are the primary source that motivates and drives your behavior. You will also learn critical knowledge about change and how important it is in today’s workplace to be adaptive and to embrace change as a personal and professional growth experience. You will be invited and encouraged to take risks, to step outside your comfort zone, and to challenge your thinking and the thinking of others. You will be engaged in reflection, partner activities, storytelling, discussion groups, self-assessment, and giving and receiving feedback. Page 1 of 1 Topic 1: Ancient to Post-Modern Philosophy LEARNING OBJECTIVES: At the end of this topic, the students are expected to: 1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self. 2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the various philosophers across time and place. 3. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical schools. NOTES: Before we even had to be in formal institution of learning, among the many things that we were first taught as kids is to articulate and write our names. Growing up, we were told to refer back to this name when talking about ourselves. Our parents painstakingly thought our names. Likewise, when our parents call our names, we were taught to respond to them because our names represent who we are. A name is not the person itself no matter how intimately bound it is with the bearer. It is only a signifier. The self is something that a person perennially molds, shapes and develops. The self is not a static thing that one is simply born with like a mole on one’s face or is just assigned by one’s parents just like a name. Have you truly discovered yours? 1.1. Socrates He was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self. To Socrates, and this has become his life-long mission, the true task of the philosopher is to know oneself. Plato claimed in his dialogs that Socrates affirmed that the unexamined life is not worth living. Most men, in his reckoning, were really not fully aware of who they are and the virtues that they were supposed to attain in order to preserve their souls for the afterlife. Socrates thought that this is the worst that can happen to anyone: to live but die inside. For Socrates, every man is composed of body and soul. This means that every person is dualistic, that is, he is composed of two important aspects of his personhood. For Socrates, this means all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect, the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent. Page 2 of 17  1.2. Plato Plato, Socrates’s students, basically took off from his master and supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul. In addition to what Socrates earlier espoused, Plato added that there are three components of the soul.  Rational Soul – govern the affairs of the human person.  Spirited Soul – in charge of emotions  Appetitive Soul – in charge of base desires In his magnum apres, The Republic, Plato emphasizes that “justice in the human person can only be attained if the three parts of the soul are working harmoniously with one another”. 1.3. Augustine Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world when it comes to man. Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature. An aspect of man dwells in the world and is 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 to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with God. The goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue. 1.4. Rene Descartes Rene Descartes, Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived that the human person as having a body and a mind. He claims that there is so much that we should doubt. In fact, he says that since much of what we think and believe is not infallible, they may turn out to be false. In the end, Descartes thought that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of the self. This resulted to his famous “Cogito Ergo Sum” or “I think therefore I am”. The self then for Descartes is also a combination of two distinct entities: o Cogito or the thing that thinks o Extenza or extension of the mind Finally, he asks “But what then, am I? A thinking thing. It has been said. But what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also, and perceives.” 1.5. John Locke Locke holds that personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity. Arguing against both the Augustinian view of man as originally sinful and the Cartesian position, which holds that man innately knows basic logical propositions, Page 3 of 17 Locke posits an “empty” mind, a tabula rasa, which is shaped by experience, and sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our ideas. Locke creates a third term between the soul and the body, and Locke’s thought may certainly be meditated by those who, following a scientist ideology, would identify too quickly the brain with consciousness. For the brain, as the body and as any substance, may change, while consciousness remains the same. Therefore, personal identity is not in the brain, but in consciousness. Locke holds that consciousness can be transferred from one soul to another and that personal identity goes with consciousness. 1.6. David Hume David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, has a very unique way of looking at man. As an empiricist who believes that one can know what comes from the senses and experience. Hume argues that the self is nothing like what his predecessors thought of it. The self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body. To David Hume, the self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions. What are impressions? For David Hume, if one tries to examine his experiences, he finds that they can all be categorized into two: o Impressions- basic object of our experience or sensation o Ideas – copies of impressions What is the self then? Self is simply “a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.” 1.7. Immanuel Kant Thinking of the “Self” as mere combination of impressions was problematic for Kant. Kant recognizes the veracity of Hume’s account that everything starts with perception and sensation of impressions. However, Kant thinks that the things that men perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human person without an organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all these impressions. To Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world. Without the self, one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. Kant therefore suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all knowledge and experience. Thus, the Self is not just what gives one his personality; it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human persons. Page 4 of 17  1.8. Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud’s view of the self leads to an analogous dualistic view of the self, though the contours and content of his ideas are very different from Kant’s. Naturally, his most dominant influence has been in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. Freud’s view of the self was multilayer, divided among the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. According to Freud, these two levels of human functioning— the conscious and the unconscious—differ radically both in their content and in the rules and logic that govern them.  unconscious contains basic instinctual drives  preconscious contains material that is not threatening and is easily brought to mind  the conscious self is governed by the “reality principle” 1.9. Gilbert Ryle Gilbert Ryle solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the history of thought by denying blatantly the concept of an internal, non-physical self. For Ryle, what truly matter are the behaviors that a person manifests in his day-to-day life. Ryle suggests that the Self is not an entity one can locate simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make. 1.10. Paul Churchland For much of history, many western philosophers have held to the theory of dualism. When it comes to discussing human life, dualism is the idea that the mind and the body are separate. In other words, we all have a physical brain, but we also have a separate mind. Adding to this distinction, dualists have historically asserted the mind is the seat of our consciousness. On the contrary, the brain is really just an organ similar to the heart or lungs. Churchland adheres to materialism, the belief that nothing but matter exists. In other words, if it can't somehow be recognized by the senses then it's akin to a fairy tale. Applying this argument to the mind, Churchland asserts that since the mind can't be experienced by our senses, then the mind doesn't really exist. Based on this assertion, Churchland holds to eliminative materialism. Stated simply, eliminative materialism argues that the ordinary folk psychology of the mind is wrong. It is the physical brain and not the imaginary mind that gives us our sense of self. Page 5 of 17  1.11. Merleau-Ponty Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologist who asserts that has been going on for a long time is a futile endeavor and an invalid problem. Merleau-Ponty says that the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another. The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one. One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied experience; all experience is embodied. One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the world. 1.12. Foucault Foucault rejected the view of a person having an inner and fixed 'essence' that is the person's identity. He identified the self as being defined by a continuing discourse in a shifting communication of oneself to others. He also rejected common notions of people having some form of implicit power, replacing this with the idea of power as a technique or action in which people engage. Power is thus exercised but not possessed. He described technologies of the self as ways individuals act upon themselves to produce particular modes of identity and sexuality. These 'technologies' include methods of self-contemplation, self-disclosure and self- discipline. They may be found in autobiographies, diaries, blogs, etc. Foucault also describes technologies of the self as the way in which individuals work their way into discourse. The classical view of identity is a something that is inherent and fixed in some way or part. Foucault's idea of practices increases the ways that the individual can be constituted in and through culture. Foucault's notion of fluid power is important as it denies the older notion of power being possessed by the few and elite, with a large and powerless majority. Exercises: Direction: Present through an illustration your concept map of Who U R. Then write a short bio essay based on your concept map. WHO AM I: Page 6 of 17 Topic 2: Sociology and Anthropology LEARNING OBJECTIVES: At the end of this topic, the students are expected to: 1. Explain the relationship between and among the self, society and culture. 2. Describe and discuss the different ways by which society and culture shape the self. 3. Compare and contrast how the self can be influenced by the different institutions in the society. NOTES: Across time and history, the self has been debated, discussed, and fruitfully or otherwise conceptualized by different thinkers in philosophy. Eventually, with the advent of social sciences, it became possible for a new ways and paradigms to reexamine the true nature of the self. People put a halt on speculative debates on the relationship between the body and soul, eventually renamed body and the mind. Thinkers just eventually got tires of focusing on the long-standing debate since sixth century BC between the relationship of these two components of the human person. Thinkers just settled on the idea that there are two components of the human person and whatever relationship these two have is less important than the fact that there is a self. The debate shifted into another locus of discussion. 2.1. The Self as a product of modern society among other constructions We ourselves play different roles, act in different ways depending on our circumstances. Are we being hypocritical in doing so? Are we even conscious of our shifting selves? The self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any circumstances it finds itself in. Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adapting to one’s context seems paradoxical. According to Marcel Mauss, every self has two faces:  Moi – refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity  Personne – composed of social concepts of what it means to be who he is Moi is a person’s basic identity. Personne has much to do with what it means to live in a particular institution, a particular family, a particular religion, a particular nationality, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others. Page 7 of 17  This dynamics and capacity for different personne can be illustrated better cross-culturally. An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) adjusting to life in another country is a very good case study. 2.2. Mead and the Social World So how do people actively produce their social worlds? How do children growing up become social beings? How can a boy turn out to just be like an ape? How do twins coming out from the same mother turn out to be terribly different when given up for adoption? More than his givenness (personality, tendencies and propensities, among others), one is believed to be in active participation in the shaping of the self. Most often, we think the human persons are just passive actors in the whole process of the shaping of selves. That men and women are born with particularities that they can no longer change. Mead and Vygotsky  Human persons develop with the use of language acquisition and interaction with others.  Cognitive and emotional development of a child is always mimicry of how it is done in the social world.  Treat the human mind as something that is made, constituted through language as experienced in the external world and as encountered in dialogs with others.  For Mead, child assumes the “other” through language and role-play.  Vygotsky, for his part, a child internalizes real-life dialogs that he has had with others, with his family, his primary caregiver or his playmate. 2.3. The Self and Person in Contemporary The self, in contemporary literature and even common sense, is commonly defined by the following characteristics:  separate – the self is distinct from other selves  self-contained and independent – in itself it can exist  consistent – it has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist for quite some time  unitary – it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain person  private – each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought processes within the self Page 8 of 17  The concern then of this lesson is in understanding the vibrant relationship between the self and the external reality. This perspective is known as the social constructionist perspective. Social constructivists argue that the self should not be seen as a static entity that stays constant through and through. Rather, the self has to be seen as something that is in unceasing flux, in a constant struggle with external reality and is malleable in its dealings with society. The self is always in participation with social life and its identity subjected to influences here and there. Having these perspectives considered should draw one into concluding that the self is truly multifaceted. 2.4. The Self-embedded in Culture Anthropology is the science of human beings. It is more on understanding the human being in relation on cultural and biological processes to construct the self. Addition, it considered the human experiences as interplay of nature referring to genetic inheritance which sets the individual’s potentials and “nurture” with regards to socio-cultural environment. Moreover, biological and cultural factors have significant influence in shaping the self. There are two concepts of self that is viewed by different societies. Those are Egocentric and sociocentric. The egocentric is concerned with the individual rather than society. While, the sociocentric is concerned with one’s own social group or dependent on social situation. Another important aspect of the self that is important to mention here is gender. Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development. We have seen in the past years how people fought hard for the right to express, validate, and assert their gender expression. However, from the point-of-view of the social sciences and the self, it is important to give one the leeway to find, express, and live his identity. This forms part of selfhood that one cannot just dismiss. One maneuvers into the society and identities himself as who he is by also taking note of gender identities. Often times, society forces a particular identity unto us depending on our sex and/or gender. In the Philippines, husbands for the most part are expected to provide for the family. The eldest man in a family is expected to head the family and hold it in. Page 9 of 17 Exercises: Direction: Answer the following questions cogently but honestly. 1. What are the influences of family in your development as an individual? 2. Think of the time when you felt you were your “true self”. What made you think you were truly who you are during this time of your life? 3. Following the question above, can you provide a time when you felt you were not living your “true self”? Why did you have to live a life like that? What did you do about it? 4. What social pressures help shape yourself? Would you have wanted it otherwise? 5. What aspects of your self do you think may be changed or would like to change? Topic 3: Psychology LEARNING OBJECTIVES: At the end of this topic, the students are expected to: 1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”. 2. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the “self”. 3. Discuss and explain Carl Roger’s idea of Self-Schema. 4. Discuss fully the notion of self-concept and self-awareness. NOTES: As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences, have their own research, definition and conceptualization of the self and identity. Some are similar and some are specific only in their field. Each field also has thousands of research on self and identity as well as related or synonymous terms. However, it must be pointed out that modern researches acknowledge the contributions of each field and this is not some sort of nurture vs. nature, society/culture vs. individual/brain, and other social sciences vs. psychology debate. Psychology may focus on individual and the cognitive functions, but it does not discount the context and other possible factors that affect the individual. This lesson provides an overview of the themes of psychology regarding the said concept. Page 10 of 17  3.1. The Self as a Cognitive Construction  William James and the Me-Self;I-Self In confidence or in an attempt to avoid further analytical discussions, a lot of people say, “I am who I am”. Yet, this statement still begs the question “if you are who you are, then who are you that makes you who you are?” There are various definitions of the “self” and other similar or interchangeable concepts in psychology. Simply put, “self” is “the sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals”. William James was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self and he conceptualized the self as having two aspects – the “I” and the “Me”. “I” – is the thinking, acting and feeling self “Me” – is the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes who you are  Global vs. Differentiated Models Global refers to the general value that a person places on himself or herself. Global self-worth has been outlined as the awareness of good possessed by the self and refers to the overall appraisal of one’s worth or value as a person. People’s sense of personal worth often employs terms like “self-esteem”, “self-worth”, and “self-concept” interchangeably, and researchers have linked positive global self- worth to various positive life outcomes. Differentiation is the process of freeing yourself from your family's processes to define yourself. This means being able to have different opinions and values than your family members but being able to stay emotionally connected to them. It means being able to calmly reflect on a conflicted interaction afterward, realizing your own role in it, and then choosing a different response for the future. Self- differentiation involves being able to possess and identify your own thoughts and feelings and distinguish them from others. It’s a process of not losing connection to self while holding a deep connection to others, including those you love whose views may differ from yours.  Real and Ideal Self Other concepts similar to self are identity and self-concept. Identity is composed of one’s personal characteristics, social roles and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define who one is. Self-concept is basically what comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are. Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are. As you grow and adapt to the changes around you, they also change. But they are not passive receivers, they actively shape and affect how you see, think and feel about things. Three reasons why self and identity are social products: Page 11 of 17  a. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. b. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are. c. What we think is important to us may also have been influence by what is important in our social or historical context. There are times when we are aware of our self-concepts, also called self- awareness. Two types of self that we can be aware of: 1.) the private self or your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings, and 2.) the public self or your public image commonly geared towards having a good presentation of yourself to others. Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schemas: the actual, ideal, and ought self. The “actual” self is who you are at the moment, the “ideal” self is who you like to be, and the “ought” self is who we think we should be. Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great impact on our self- esteem, one of the common concepts associated with the “self”. It is defined as our own positive or negative perception or evaluation of ourselves.  Multiple vs. Unified Selves The multiple selves originate from the inner experiences created by the infant as a result of its interactions with its mother and, later, others. Eventually, social structures are created to organize these multiple selves. However, later in life, new multiple selves can be introduced, and there is a need for assimilation and accommodation on both sides for these new selves to be incorporated. Adolescence is a time for the multiple selves to define their identity, character, boundaries, aspirations, goals, and means of action. Multiple selves varies across different interpersonal and intrapersonal roles and relationships, the attitude and characteristics we show depends on who are people we are interacting with. Having multiple personality or self makes it hard for a person to achieve and show a unified self. Unified self is the personality that stays within us, the self we usually only show to people we trust and whenever we are alone. It is important for a person to have a consistent and coherent self that they show to others, specially to people that are really close to them.  True vs. False Selves While the true self is represented by our real feelings and desires, while the false self is a side of us that has changed its behavior, repressed feelings and pushed needs aside in order to survive. We introduced the idea of the onion – the true self at the center protected by outer layers of false self. Page 12 of 17  The true self – real feelings, needs, desires and thoughts – is pushed further and further inside the onion. Of course, we still have all of these feelings, needs, desires and thoughts; it’s just that the adapted false self dominates: it has to. The Healthy False Self The healthy false self is described as one which allows someone to be functional in society. It enables politeness and social courtesy, even when we may not feel like it. The Unhealthy False Self The unhealthy false self comes from the same origins as the healthy false self. However, for our long-term well-being, the effects of the unhealthy false self are quite different to those of its counterpart. 3.2. The Self as Proactive and Agentic It has been known how people become more proactive or tend to make things happen instead of waiting for those things to happen to them. This maybe the main reason why human creates a lot of experiences and surrounded by a lot of beliefs and different perceptions towards certain things. Agency, which generally means how you assess yourselves based on your capabilities and strengths, plays a massive role on how you deal with yourself and with all the aspects in life. Based on its main features, first is intentionally which deals with the acts done with certain purpose. We tend to do things because of our own intention but we always anticipate of what the outcome would be. We always thought of what will come next after we do such thing. Another is the forethought which is closely related to the first one but with this, human anticipates what the consequences of their acts would be. Through this, our actions were guided towards what people must really do and even for the future events that could possibly happen. In our life, the normal routine of a normal people goes like this. Acts upon the situation, but not until he/she knew what would the consequence if ever. While self-reactiveness distinguishes the right decisions from the incorrect one. Through this, people would merely know the right way to react and to act upon the current situation they were into. It was just like choosing what’s best for you and what’s the right thing to do because we know that in everyone’s life, when we decide quickly and without thinking deeply about it, it can turn out to be disruptive and affect more things. Moreover, self-reflectiveness turns out to become the realization stage wherein we analyze the thoughts and actions we made. Human aren’t just made to become agents and handle them because our functions are one thing we examine thoroughly. Our self-efficacy basically dictates how our minds would turn out negatively or positively due to the thinking or beliefs which push us to believe that Page 13 of 17 we are capable of doing things which will enhance or hinder ourselves. By this, it also makes people know that they can regulate their selves without asking for anyone’s help. It can already be done independently which helps improve control the abilities and behavior we already have. Exercises: Direction: Answer the following questions cogently but honestly. 1. What are the most important aspects of your self-concept, and how do they influence your self-esteem and social behavior? 2. Describe a situation where you experienced a feeling of self-discrepancy between your actual and ideal selves. How well does self-affirmation theory help to explain how you responded to these feelings of discrepancy? 3. Try to identify some situations where you have been influenced by your private and public self-consciousness. What did this lead you to do? What have you learned about yourself from these experiences? 4. Describe some situations where you overestimated the extent to which people were paying attention to you in public. Why do you think that you did this and what were the consequences? Topic 4: The Self in Western and Oriental/Eastern Thought LEARNING OBJECTIVES: At the end of this topic, the students are expected to: 1. Differentiate the concept of self according to individualism and collectivism, Western thought against Eastern perspectives. 2. Explain the concept of self as found in Asian thoughts. 3. Create a representation of the self through spiritual development. NOTES: Different cultures and varying environment tend to create different perceptions of the “self” and one of the most common distinctions between cultures and people is the Eastern-vs-Western dichotomy wherein Eastern represents Asia and Western represents Europe and Northern America. It must be understood that this distinction and the countries included was politically colored at the time that aforementioned concepts were accepted and used in the social sciences. Furthermore, it must be reiterated that while countries who are geographically Page 14 of 17 closer to each other may share commonalities, there are also a lot of factors that create differences. 4.1. Individualistic vs. Collective Self Individualism stresses individual goals and the rights of the individual person. Collectivism focuses on group goals, what is best for the collective group, and personal relationships. An individualist is motivated by personal rewards and benefits. Individualist persons set personal goals and objectives based on self. Individualistic workers are very comfortable working with autonomy and not part of a team. The collectivist is motivated by group goals. Long-term relationships are very important. Collectivistic persons easily sacrifice individual benefit or praise to recognize and honor the team’s success. In fact, being singled out and honored as an individual from the rest of the team may be embarrassing to the collectivistic person. 4.2. The Social Construction of the Self in Western Thought Western perspective does not discount the role of environment and society in the formation of the self but the focus is always looking toward the self. You compare yourself in order to be better; you create associations and bask in the glory of that group for your self-esteem; you put primacy in developing yourself. By valuing the individual, 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. 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, one can say that they also promote ideals that create “fair” competition and protect the individuals. For example, Westerners would most likely call their bosses, parents, or other seniors by their first name. The boss can also be approached head-on when conflicts or problems about him arises. With the social media, migration and intermarriages, variety between the Western and Asian perceptions may either be blurred or highlighted. Whereas Page 15 of 17 conflict is inevitable in diversity, peace is also through the understanding of where each of us is coming from. 4.3. The Self as embedded in relationships and through Spiritual development in Confucian thought There are actually a lot of sources in which you can analyses the perspective of each culture and country about the concept of “self”. You can see it in their literature like how one culture depicts a hero or a villain in their stories. You can see it in their social organization like how they see their boss or their subordinate. Artworks, dances, even clothing may show you clues about the “self”. Confucianism can be seen as a code of ethical conduct, of how one should properly act according to their relationship with other people, thus it is also focused on having a harmonious social life. The identity and self-concept therefore of the individual is interwoven with the identity and status of his/her community or culture, sharing its pride as well as its failures. Although it is by westerners often understood that there is no self in Confucian thought, (because in Confucianism one does talk of the concept of "no- self") this concept may be misunderstood when taken into western paradigms of thinking. But what is really meant by the idea of "no self", is this: "If one had no selfish motives, but only the supreme virtues, there would be no self. … If he serves selflessly, he does not know what service is [does not recognize it as service]. If he knows what service is, he has a self… [to think] only of parents but not of yourself… is what I call no self." In Confucianism the quest for the human self, the search for what it is to be human in terms of substance or no-substance, in terms of spirit or body, does not exist. The form which that question takes in Confucius’ writings, is one of personality. Personality as such is not seen as inherently existing, but as something that is being formed through upbringing and environment. In that, the human being is seen as a social being. (Some have even used the term: Social animal). Accordingly, every person is born with four beginnings, which do not encapsulate a concept of self as yet, but which together, if put in the western framework of thinking, may be called ‘pre-self’, or ‘potential-self’: heart of compassion – leads to Jen heart of righteousness – leads to Yi heart of propriety – leads to Li heart of wisdom – leads to Chih In this, Jen, Yi, Li and Chih, are the perfection of the virtues that exist in the human heart from the beginning as potentials. A self as such would develop out of these, and develop through practice of the corresponding virtues. Personality, in Page 16 of 17 the Confucian perception, is an achieved state of moral excellence rather than a given human condition. However, such achieved personality, or self, is not to be understood as primarily an individual entity, as would be the tendency in western thinking. As with the Maori, the Confucian concept of self also is deeply embedded within the family and society, and it is only in that context that the self comes to be what it is. In Confucianism, we find that most of its writings are dealing with this process, namely, to develop the potential into actuality, and if one may speculate on reasons for such an understanding, one has to bear in mind the background amidst which these ideas originated. Exercises: Direction: Create a representation, diagram or concept map of the SELF according to Filipino culture. Provide a brief explanation of your output. You can also cite books and researches about Filipino culture, self and identity to further elaborate on the topic. References: Alata, Eden Joy P., et. Al. 2018. Understanding the Self. First Edition. Rex Printing Company, Inc. Ang, Jaime G., 2018. Understanding the Self – A Text Manual for the 21st Century Filipino Student. Mindshapers Co.,Inc. END OF PRELIM MODULE Page 17 of 17