C1-Lesson-1-Philosophical-View-of-the-Self PDF

Chapter 1: Lesson 1 The Self from the Philosophical Perspective “An unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates SCHEDULE: Week 1 & 2 Note: The instructor...

Chapter 1: Lesson 1 The Self from the Philosophical Perspective “An unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates SCHEDULE: Week 1 & 2 Note: The instructor must provide the course syllabus for the introduction of the course. LEARNING OBJECTIVES of the Course: a. Understand the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various philosophical perspectives. b. The students should be able to compare and contrast these perspectives and see how it has affected their life principle. After this Lesson, STUDENTS MUST BE ABLE TO: a. Comprehend the importance of the philosophical perspectives for deeper understanding of the nature of man. b. Assess these philosophical perspectives of the self through cross-referencing. c. Capable of answering questions “Who am I?” by aligning various thoughts. REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS “What is your name” vs. “Who are you”? What is your deepest question in life? What is your definition of self? How did the “self” start? What makes you, you? People are often asked “Who are you?” especially when they just meet someone along the streets, or special occasions. But with all honesty, a person may be hard up of answering this simple question. So, they end up stating their name but is it truly who they are? The Self is a person’s essential being that distinguishes him from others. The self is separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private (Stevens, 1996). Self may be as simple as it seems but it is a complex matter that touches disciplinal perspectives in understanding it (i.e. philosophical, sociological, anthropological or psychological) and the self has various aspects such as physical, sexual, material, political, spiritual and virtual.  The self can be explained based on the components defined by Stevens (1996): SEPARATE – The self is distinct from other selves, as no two persons are exactly alike – biologically, psychologically and socially – not even identical twins. SELF-CONTAINED – It has its own unique thoughts, characteristics, and volition. Even when society dictates what should be done, a person has its own way of expressing their true self. INDEPENDENT – In itself, it can exist. CONSISTENT – It has personality that is enduring and is expected to persist for some time. Their personality has patterns but is not necessarily predictable in response to a stimuli. UNITARY – It is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a person. PRIVATE – Each person sorts out information, feelings, emotions, and thought processes within self. It has its own reservations for security purposes. The study of the Self, which was referred to as philosophical anthropology by a Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, is considered a unique area of inquiry since it takes the self as the subject, as well as the object of philosophic probing. A man continuously studies about himself but the perennial question of identity “Who am I?” remains a difficult question to answer, and finding an answer to such question comes with another series of questions. Philosophy has always been seeking answers to life’s difficult questions. Etymological definition of Philosophy: Philosophy came from the Greek word “philein” which means love of/for or friendship of/for, and “sophia” which means wisdom. Basically, philosophy is having an active pursuit of wisdom. Probing question: “Who am I?” To answer such difficult question, one has to be self-reflective: “What is your definition of the self?” “The self is composed of what?” “How did the “self” start?” “What makes you, you?” Those series of questions may be something to ponder upon at unraveling who man is. Some great minds sought for an answer for the question “Who am I?” For the early Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato, the inquiry digs on the nature of man.  THE “SELF” FROM THE VARIOUS PHILOSOPHERS’ POINT OF VIEW The Self in the Greek Philosophy The general thread of the concept of the self is that the self is seen as a body-soul compound with the rational soul as immaterial, immortal, immutable, distinct, and far superior to the body. The formation of the self primarily consists of the nourishment of the rational soul of the self. In understanding the nature of the self from the Greek philosophy, the great minds of Socrates and Plato come in discussion. SOCRATES (470 BC - 399 BC) He believed that man was formerly a soul or a pure mind and knowledge by intuition is stored in his mind. However, the soul suffers forgetfulness about this knowledge when it assumed the body, resulting to ignorance. This ignorance can be overcome by intellectual midwifery, the ultimate goal of which is the attainment of the knowledge lost. “What we call learning is really just recollection. If that is true, then surely, what we recollect now, we must have learned at some time before.” He claimed that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates became famous for his method referred to as “Socratic Method of Question and Answer” which is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals and own self, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions. Sample questions for Socratic Method of Question and Answer: o Who exactly is your “self?” o What differentiates your particular “self” from others? o What is the relationship between your “self” to your body? o How does your “self” relate to the other selves? o What happens to the “self” when the body dies? He has a Dualistic View of the Self, believing that the self has two components: o The Physical body (material component); and o The Soul (immaterial / immortal component). In which, Socrates claimed that the moment of death is the final separation of the physical body and the soul. The physical body, will rot after death; but the soul, however, remains immortal. PLATO (428/427BCE-348/347 BCE) There are two composites of a human being – body and soul, the former being corruptible and susceptible to change while the latter is unchanging. Plato believes that the body is a merely a replica of the true self. The soul is imprisoned in the body and thus subject to bodily sensations and the only way for it to be liberated is through contemplation. Thus, Contemplation refers to the “communion of the mind with the universal and eternal ideas.” The soul is eternal and survives bodily death. He became famous for his Theory of Tripartite Soul, which states that the soul of the self consists of three dissimilar elements: the highest is the element of reason (head), the spirited elements (heart), and at the bottom of the hierarchy are the bodily appetite (stomach) (Lavine, 1989). o Rational Soul-pertains to our divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths. o Appetitive Soul- refers to our basic bodily appetite such as hunger, thirst and sex. o Spirited Soul- which expresses emotional drive, such as aggression, ambition, pride, anger, honor, loyalty, courage, and being protective. In a given time, each of the three elements is dominant in an individual, resulting in the individual person’s having a distinct type of personality and goal in life. If the reason is the dominant element, the chief goal of an individual is the pursuit of knowledge and truth. An individual will live and strive for success and public acclaim when the spirited element is prevailing; and when the bodily appetites are domineering, the individual will work toward money and material gains. Irrespective of which element is dominant in a person, the primary goal is attaining a sense of well-being is the result of fulfilling the three needs associated with the head, heart, and stomach. The reason (head) must take charge to oversee the spirited element and bodily appetite. Illustration by: https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/religious- studies/philosophy-religion/life-after-death/distinctions-between-body-and-soul The Self in The Medieval Philosophy The theocentric approach of the medieval philosophy relegated the self to secondary concern. Neo-Platonist, St. Augustine gave his own point of view about the self. ST. AUGUSTINE (354 - 430 BCE) In consonance with the philosophy of Plato, St. Augustine further advanced the theory in believing that there exist two worlds – the real and the temporary. Human beings are only sojourning in the world as it is but a temporary home, where there is pain and evil and is directed toward the world that is eternal, where there is permanence and infinity, the world where God is. He believed that after death, the soul finds its ultimate fulfilment in union with the eternal, transcendent realm. He believed that God and faith in Him is primary, and the self is secondary because the self owes its origin to God. Man is created by God according to His image (Imago Dei) and likeness to know, to love, and to fulfill His purpose and to share his everlasting glory. Going beyond the body-soul dualism, St. Augustine, along with St. Thomas Aquinas, contemplated the self is a tripartite being. The self is composed of the body, soul, and spirit. The body is the outer part of the self through which the self can come in contact with the world. The inner part of the self is called the soul, which is composed of the mind, the emotions and the will. It is through the spirit that the self can communicate with God (Joven 2006). St. Augustine asserted that God created man, body, and soul of which the soul is spiritual, perpetual, and superior to the body. The soul is created by God to administer the body. The body is united with the soul so that the self may be completed. He believed that there exists a moral law and it is being imposed by the mind. Through reason (mind), man can discern the difference between right and wrong. The Eternal Law meanwhile comes from God Himself, through our conscience or the internal voice that tells whether thoughts or actions are morally good or bad (Palean et. al, 2018). “When I consider thy Heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is a man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou hast visited him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet” (Ps 8:3-6). The Self in The Modern Philosophy In opposition to the medieval view of man and his knowledge as subordinate to the divine truth, the modern philosophy affirmed the dignity and worth of man with regard to the power of his reason to know the truth of his nature. Various school of thought came up with divergent views on the self. In these pages, the concepts of self according to Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Gilbert Ryle, Paul Churchland, and Maurice Marlaeu-Ponty will be discussed. RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650) With the famous “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think, therefore I am), Descartes highlights that the consciousness or the act of thinking is the evidence towards his existence as such consciousness cannot be subject to doubt. The essence of a human being lies in his capacity to think as thinking cannot be doubted. He believed that the essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of ourselves, thus, having self-identity and being self-conscious are mutually dependent on one another. While Descartes’ Dualism is evident, he goes on to say that while the physical body and soul are distinct from one another, they are in a way intertwined or linked and intimately connected. Descartes presented an extreme dualistic separation of mind and body. His idea on the self is centered on the concept of substance. Substance refers to anything that exist in itself. There are two kinds of substance: infinite and finite. Infinite substance refers to the innate idea of God while finite substance refers to man. Man is finite substance composed of the body and mind known as “Cartesian Dualism.” The body is independent of the soul since the mind is not the body’s provider of life. The body material, mortal, non-thinking substance is governed by completely mechanical laws. The mind is nonmaterial, immortal, conscious being, independent of the physical law of the universe. The mind is not the principle of life because its primary function is to think. The self, therefore, is construed as a mental and thinking substance: “I think, therefore, I am.” So, the self is nothing else but thinking thing or a machine that thinks. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) John Locke believed that the source of authentic knowledge of reality must pass the test of sensory experience. He believed that knowledge cannot be innate because mind is like blank sheet of paper (Tabula Rasa) at birth, upon which life experiences are written (Ramos 2004). As we grow and interact with others, we accumulate knowledge. The accumulated experiences are then printed on the blank sheet of paper or the mind. The existence of the self is reliant on our consciousness of our own experiences and knowledge. The essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, and reflecting being and is not tied up with any particular body or substance. Locke contended that every aspect of our physical body (substance) is integrated into our personal self. The physical body may undergo change, but the personal self remains the same. For instance, if one leg has to be amputated because of an accident, a person’s personal identity remains the same in spite of alteration in the physical body. Personal identity is, therefore, distinct from whatever body it finds itself associated with. He introduced the ‘Memory Theory’ which forwards the idea that a person is the same person as he is in the past provided that he recalls the events in the past. A person had somewhat existed, and this existence becomes evident when, while being able to remember the past, a human person can also be aware of the present. The memory connects one’s self. The self then exists not in the present, but the present existence is basically connected with the past, so long as the self remembers. DAVID HUME (MAY 7, 1711-AUG.25, 1776) Hume believed that human beings acquire knowledge through the sense perception. The contents of the mind are fundamentally product of one’s experience in the world. The contents of the mind are divided into two: (a) impressions which are the things which the senses perceive and thus experience in the world; and (b) ideas which refer to the things that are created in the mind about the things experienced through the senses. In connection to his philosophy of man, he cannot detect a particular impression of the self that endures and is thus permanent. “The mind does not create ideas but derives them from impressions.” He then concludes that the self is a ‘bundle of perception’ and is subject to change depending on the different experiences that shape the human person. IMMANUEL KANT (APR 22, 1724-FEB 12, 1804) Kant grounds his philosophy of the human person on the contention that the self is free and has the capacity to make decision for himself. Man is not only free, but also rational. Man possesses reason and free will. The “self” is the product of reason because the self regulates experience. This sense of freedom is tested by his choices in relation to his duties and the fulfilment of his duties. One’s duty is a product of deliberation and not imposed by a particular authority outside of the self. This capacity to act and deliberated through the guidance of reason and the capacity to refrain from heeding the dictates of emotion is what makes human a moral agent. Having the capacity to rationally deliberate, man should be treated as an end and not as a means, thus should not be exploited. Empiricism asserts that knowledge is only attained through the senses. In other words, seeing is believing. Rationalism is the theory that reason, rather than experience, is the foundation of all knowledge. Kant also believed that there are two aspects of self: the inner self is comprised of our psychological state and our rational intellect. The outer self includes our sense and the physical world. Kant said that human knowledge is composed of sensory component and rational component. Knowledge has, indeed, the sensory element, but these sensory impressions are meaningless unless the rational element or the mind actively interprets and gives meaning to these sensory impressions. This rational component which Kant called a prori comes from the mind itself and is independent of sensation. The human mind is not an empty cabinet since it is equipped with a build- in structure or some organizing principles known as categories, which actively sort out, organize, relate and synthesize the collection of sense data our sense organs take in (Lavine 1989). Kant conceptualized two kinds of the self: the empirical self and the transcendental self. The empirical self pertains to particular aspects of the self that make the self-unique, such as physical aspects, memories, personalities, history, and culture. The empirical self, just like anything else in the world, is known through experiences. As a transcendental self, the self is an activity or organizing principle that actively interprets, constructs, and gives meaning to collections of sensory data. Since the mind in the source of ideas, and sensory impressions are just elements on producing the ideas, the self is the product of the mind. SIGMUND FREUD (1856 TO 1939) He developed a framework which analyzes man in relation to his biological make-up and the impact of his socio-cultural environment. He proposes the three structures of personality – the id, the ego and the superego. While the Id embodies the impulses and desires, the Superego provides the moral standards by which the ego performs. A clash of the Id and the Superego is inevitable, and the Ego displays which among the two (Id and Superego) was superior above the other. Naked impulses are governed by the pleasure principle (id) and it has the dominant influence in our personalities. He also asserts that the mind has three levels- the conscious, pre-conscious and unconscious. Conscious – contains information that we have immediate access to. Preconscious – information that we need to exert effort to recall. Unconscious – contains basic instinctual drives that seeks for immediate gratification. Illustration by https://www.pinterest.ph/ Illustration by https://courses.lumenlearning. pin/456763587191555815/ com/boundless-psychology/chapter/ introduction-to-consciousness/ GILBERT RYLE (Aug. 1900 - Oct. 1976) For Ryle, a discussion of the mind is basically discussion of behaviors, since it is through these behaviors that the workings of the mind are made manifest. He contested the dualism of Descartes claiming that the mind is not a distinct entity but a part of the body. The contents of the mind are expressed with man’s tendencies, behavior and his responses to particular circumstances. The self then, must be comprehended as a pattern of behavior or the tendency of an individual to be behave in a certain way in particular situation. The nature of the motive of the self can be described by the actions and reactions of the self in different circumstances. The perceptions, thoughts, emotions, remembering, and willingness of the self can be understood in terms of observable behavior. The self, therefore, is the way people behave. PAUL CHURCHLAND (1943-present) He believed that the body-mind problem cannot be solved by philosophers but by neuroscientists. He advances neuroscience as he believes that mind is associated with workings of the brain. The mental state of the mind can impact the physical condition of the self. It has an impact on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor of the self. The brain affects the moods, emotions as well as the consciousness of the human person. An analysis of the workings of the brain would lead to the awareness of the contents of the mind. Churchland did not believe in the idea of Dualism (the idea that the mind and the body are separate), instead he believed in the idea of materialism. Churchland asserts that since the mind can't be experienced by our senses, then the mind doesn't really exist. He is famous for his idea on Eliminative Materialism. 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. MAURICE MARLEAU-PONTY Rather than seeing the perceiving mind and the acting body as separate, Marleau-ponty argued that they are interconnected. They are both our seat of knowledge and they both give us our sense of self. He contends that the self is subject to constant development and what the self becomes depends on what it does to the body. The self becomes the sum of what it makes to the body. Merlaeu-Ponty took a significant turn by asserting that one’s body is not a thing nor an object of the study. When we say I have my body, it implies that there is a dichotomy between the self and the body. In this sense, the body is merely an object or possession being possessed by the self. Therefore, the self is the body and the body is the self itself. The self lives in a body; hence, without the body the self cannot exist. In his notion of the body-subject, Merleau-Ponty claimed that the body plays a vital role in perception, knowledge, and meaning. The body is our general medium for knowing the world and giving meaning to it. The self becomes a product of the conscious experience in world. He believed the physical body to be an important part of what makes up the subjective self. SUMMARY: SOCRATES, PLATO, ST. AUGUSTINE: “The self has an immortal soul.” DESCARTES: “The self is a thinking thing.” LOCKE: “The self is consciousness.” HUME: “There is no self, only a bundle of constantly changing perceptions.” KANT: “The self is a unifying object.” FREUD: “The self is multi-layered.” RYLE: “The Self is the way people behave.” CHURCHLAND: “The Self is the brain.” MARLEAU-PONTY: “The self is an embodied subjectivity.”