Defining The Self: Personal And Developmental Perspectives On Self And Identity PDF

Defining the Self: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY CHAPTER 1 The Self from Various Philosophical LESSON 1 Perspectives GE 1 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF  LEARNING OUTCOMES At the...

Defining the Self: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON SELF AND IDENTITY CHAPTER 1 The Self from Various Philosophical LESSON 1 Perspectives GE 1 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF  LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of the lesson, you can: explain why is it essential to understand the self; describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the various philosophers across time and place; compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical schools; examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class.  WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?  Philosophy comes from the Greek words WHAT IS “philo” and “sophia” PHILOSOPHY? which means love for wisdom. Study of acquiring knowledge through rational thinking and inquiries that involve in answering questions regarding nature and  Philosophical views of self The philosophy of self seeks to describe essential qualities that constitute a person’s uniqueness or essential being.  PRE-SOCRATIC Philosophers who preceded Socrates Ex. Thales, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Empedocles Primary concern: explaining what the world is really made up of.  SOCRATES Socrates was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self. To Socrates, the true task of a philosopher is to know oneself. “An unexamined life is not worth SOCRATES For Socrates, the worst thing that can happen to anyone is to live but die inside. Man is composed of body and soul. Hence, every person is dualistic.  PLATO Plato is Socrates’ student. He supported the idea of his master that man is a dual nature of body and soul. Plato added that there are three components of the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the  PLATO Rational soul - forged by reason and intellect to govern the affairs of the human person. Spirited soul - in charge of emotions. Appetitive soul - in charge of human desires like eating, drinking, sleeping,  AUGUSTINE Augustine agreed that man is dualistic by 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 AUGUSTINE 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 ultimate goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.  THOMAS AQUINAS Man is composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter (hyle) - refers to the “common stuff that makes up everything in the universe.” Man’s body is part of this matter.  THOMAS AQUINAS Form (morphe) - refers to the essence of a substance or thing.” It is what makes it what it is. The soul is what animates the body; it is what makes us humans. It is our essence.  Descartes, dubbed as RENE the Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived DESCARTES of the human person as having a body and a mind. He is the proponent of “methodical doubt” We should only believe the things which can  Descartes thought that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the RENE existence of the self, for DESCARTES even if one doubts “Cogito ergo sum.” oneself, that only proves “I think therefore, I that there is a doubting am.” self, a thing that thinks and therefore, that cannot  Self is a combination of two distinct entities, the cogito (the thing that RENE thinks) and the extenza (extension of the mind) DESCARTES which is the body. A thinking thing is a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also, and  DAVID HUME A Scottish philosopher who uphold empiricism He believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experiences. We can only attain knowledge by experiencing.  DAVID HUME For Hume, experience is categorized into two: impressions and ideas. Impressions are the basic objects of our experience or sensation. It is more lively and vivid than ideas. The self is nothing else but a bundle of impressions. What one thinks as a unified self is simply a combination of all experiences IMMANUEL KANT He synthesized the two school of thoughts: rationalism and empiricism. The self is what makes the organization of different impressions possible. It is an actively engaged intelligence that synthesizes all knowledge and GILBERT RYLE Gilbert Ryle solves the body-mind dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the history of thought by blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life. GILBERT RYLE He suggests that the “self” is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.  MERLEAU-PONTY A phenomenologist who says the mind-body bifurcation is an invalid problem. For him, the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another.  QUESTIONS? END