Understanding The Self PDF

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF LESSON 1 The SELF from the various Philosophical Perspectives Inquiry about the SELF has preoccupied the earliest thinkers in the history of philosophy S O C R AT E S Socrates was the first philosopher who engaged in a systematic...

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF LESSON 1 The SELF from the various Philosophical Perspectives Inquiry about the SELF has preoccupied the earliest thinkers in the history of philosophy S O C R AT E S Socrates was the first philosopher who engaged in a systematic questioning about the self He was interested in ETHICS- a branch of philosophy that deals with the proper course of action of man. SOCRATES ASSERTED THAT: the TRUE task of the philosopher is TO KNOW ONESELF. S O C R AT E S AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING One must seek knowledge and wisdom before private interests. Knowledge is sought as a means of ethical action S O C R AT E S AS A DUALIST MAN BODY SOUL Imperfect Perfect Impermanent aspect of man Permanent aspect of man SOCRATES – ETHICAL INTELLECTUALISM Our TRUE happiness is promoted by DOING WHAT IS RIGHT. When your true utility is served ( tendering your soul ), you are achieving happiness To be happy, a person must live a VIRTUOUS LIFE. SOCRATES People act immorally, but they do not do so deliberately. one seeks what is more serviceable to oneself He who knows what is right, will also do what is right no one knowingly harms himself If harm comes to that person, then that person must have acted in IGNORANCE KNOWLEDGE VIRTUE, GOOD IGNORANCE BAD, EVIL, NOT USEFUL P L AT O Man is a dual nature of BODY and SOUL (in support of Socrates) Plato asserted that MAN is born with knowledge. That is, knowledge is PRESENT in the human mind at BIRTH P L AT O 3 COMPONENTS OF THE SOUL 1. RATIONAL SOUL- reason and intellect 2. SPIRITED SOUL - emotions 3. APPETITIVE SOUL – basic desires, needs of the body According to Plato, when these 3 work harmoniously with one another, the human person becomes JUST and VIRTUOUS St. AUGUSTINE  St. AUGUSTINE St. Augustine is the first great Christian philosopher and the man authority in the medieval period St. Augustine’s philosophy of man reconciles and brings together the wisdom of Greek philosophy and the divine truths contained in the scriptures.  S T. A U G U S T I N E Following view of Plato but added CHRISTIANITY Man is of a BIFURCATED nature 1. part of man dwells in the world (imperfect) body – dies on earth; 2. other part is capable of reaching immortality soul – lives eternally in spiritual bliss with “God” Man for Augustine, “is not a body only nor a soul.... Only when body and soul are in union can we speak of man”. AUGUSTINE ASSERTS THAT: “God is creator”. “God created the world out of love and man is part of this creation”. “God created man in a mortal body and in an immortal soul and gave man free will.” “Evil comes into the world not because it is part of God’s creation, but because man’s free will.” AUGUSTINE According to St. Augustine: “G O D I S ….. Absolute Spirit, Absolute Will, Absolute Intelligence Absolute Freedom Absolute Good Absolute Power Absolute Holiness, cannot will evil, no beginning and no end (Eternal) and Transcendent. “  MAN CRAVES FOR PERFECT ENDURING HAPPINESS Happiness, comes with the possession of some good; but where, or, in the possession of what good is perfect happiness to be found? Is it in the goods of the body as well as the goods of this world such as health, beauty, power, honor, fame? Augustine, speaking directly from experience, said that these and the possession of these can never give to man what he is truly looking for, as these goods are finite, unstable and ephemeral, whereas man craves for perfect, immutable and enduring. For Augustine, “The goal of every human person is to attain communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue” THO MAS AQ UIN AS THOMAS AQUINAS MAN MATTER + FORM – “common stuff that “essence of a substance makes up everything in or thing”; (what makes it the universe” what it is) THOMAS AQUINAS the body of the human is similar to animals/objects, but what makes a human is his ESSENCE. “the soul is what makes us humans” RENE DESCARTES Father of Modern Philosophy HUMAN PERSON BODY + MIND In Descartes’ view, the body is nothing else but a machine, attached to the MIND. The human person is a THINKING THING A Thing that DOUBTS, UNDERSTANDS, AFFIRMS, DENIES, WILLS, REFUSES, IMAGINES and PERCEIVES. RENE DESCARTES There is so much that we should doubt: “if something is so clear and lucid as not to be doubted, that’s the only time one should believe.” The only thing one can’t doubt is existence of the self, for even if one doubts oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self… a thing that thinks and therefore can not be doubted. “I THINK THEREFORE I AM”  THE QUEST FOR CERTAINTY Descartes was chiefly concerned with the problem of intellectual certainty. He insisted on the necessity of method and on systematic and orderly thinking. In practical life, as compared with scholarly activity, a mistake in reasoning has harmful consequences. DAV I D H U M E David Hume is a renowned 18th-century Scottish EMPIRICIST. EMPIRICISM is the theory that all knowledge is derived from human senses. we only know what we know through our physical experiences - things like sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell DAV I D H U M E To David Hume, the SELF is nothing else but a BUNDLE of IMPRESSIONS. Hume made a distinction between IMPRESSIONS and IDEAS IMPRESSIONS are everything that originate from our senses IDEAS are just feeble images of thinking and reasoning based on our impressions. IMMANUEL KANT Rationalism is the theory that reason, rather than experience, is the foundation of all knowledge. According to Kant, we humans have both an inner and an outer self which unify to give us consciousness. The INNER SELF is comprised of our psychological state and our rational intellect. The OUTER SELF includes our sense and the physical world. IMMANUEL KANT To Kant, there is necessarily a M I N D that organizes the impressions that men get from external world. Kant suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all knowledge and experiences JOHN LOCKE He considered personal identity or self to be founded on consciousness, and NOT on substance of either the SOUL or the body. Locke suggests that the self is “a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection