The Self from the Philosophical Perspective.pdf

GEC-101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF The Self from Various Perspectives THE SELF FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE How did ancient thinkers view a human being? Who were those curious enough to study how human beings perceive themselves? One a...

GEC-101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF The Self from Various Perspectives THE SELF FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE How did ancient thinkers view a human being? Who were those curious enough to study how human beings perceive themselves? One aspect that makes us humans different from all other creatures on earth is our capacity to build on knowledge. We learn, we apply it in our lives, and we use acquired ideas to create. Philosophy is from the Greek words philo (loving) and sophia (wisdom). Let’s find out how philosophers define or describe self during the early and modern times. But before going into the details of their significant contributions in the understanding of the self. Socrates Socrates was a Greek philosopher and one of the very few individuals who shaped Western thought. He is known for his method of inquiry in testing an idea called the Socratic Method wherein an idea is tested by asking a series of questions to determine underlying thoughts or beliefs and the extent of knowledge to guide the person toward better understanding. Socratic Dialogue is a method of group conversation where participants engage in a cooperative, structured discussion aimed at exploring and understanding complex philosophical or ethical questions or topics. Socrates believed that philosophy had a very important role to play in the lives of the people. One of his most-quoted phrases is “The unexamined life is not worth living”. According to him, self-knowledge or the examination of oneself, as well as the question about how one ought to live one’s life, are very important concerns because only by knowing can you hope to improve your life. Existence is of two kinds, the visible and the invisible. The visible existence changes while the invisible existence remains constant. According to Socrates, this is the state of a human being. The body, which is visible, changes; the other part, the kind that is invisible to humans yet sensed and understood by the mind remains constant. ‘When the soul and body are together, nature assigns our body to be a slave and to be ruled and the soul to be the ruler and the master”. Also, according to Socrates, a virtuous man is a happy man. The goal of life is to be happy, and virtue is the only supreme good that will secure happiness. Plato Plato was a student of Socrates. He is best known for his Theory of Forms which asserted that the physical world is not really the real world because the ultimate reality exists beyond the physical world. According to Plato, the “soul” is indeed the most divine aspect of the human being. However, his concept of the divine is not a spiritual being but rather one that has an intellectual connotation. 1|P a g e Mahinay, C.D. GEC-101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF The Self from Various Perspectives The self/soul/mind according to Plato is the aspect of the human beings by which the Forms are known. Three parts of the soul: The appetitive (sensual). It is the element that enjoys sensual experiences, such as food, drink, and sex. The rational (reasoning). The element that forbids the person to enjoy the sensual experiences; the part that loves truth, hence, should rule over the other parts of the soul through the use of reason. The spirited (feeling). It is the element that is inclined toward reason but understands the demand of passion; the part that loves honor and victory. St. Augustine Saint Augustine was deeply influenced by Plato’s ideas. Not surprisingly, he adopted Plato’s view that the “self” is an immaterial (but rational) soul. Giving the Theory of Forms a Christian perspective, Augustine asserted that these Forms were concepts existing within the perfect and eternal God where the soul belonged. The “self” is an inner, immaterial “I” that has self-knowledge and self-awareness. He believed that the human being is both a soul and body, and the body possesses senses, such as imagination, memory, reason, and mind through which the soul experiences the world. Everything related to the physical world belongs to the physical body, and if a person concerns himself/herself with this physical world then he/she will not be any different from animals. Rene Descartes Descartes proposed that doubt was a principal tool of disciplined inquiry. His method was called hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt, also sometimes referred to as methodological skepticism. It is a systematic process of being skeptical about the truth of one’s beliefs in order to determine which beliefs in order to determine which beliefs could be ascertained as true. “I think, therefore I am”. He asserted that everything perceived by the senses could not be used as proof of existence because human senses could be fooled. He added that there was only one thing we could be sure of in this world, and that was everything could be doubted. In turn, by doubting his own existence, Descartes proved that there is a thinking entity that is doing the act of doubting. The “self” is conscious and unaffected by time. The immaterial soul is the source of our identity. He further asserted that this thinking entity could exist without the body. Nevertheless, this possesses a body and is so intimately bounded/joined by it that the “self” forms a union with its body. 2|P a g e Mahinay, C.D. GEC-101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF The Self from Various Perspectives John Locke If Descartes described the “self” as a thinking entity, Locke expanded this definition of “self” to include the memories of that thinking entity. He believed that the “self” is identified with consciousness and this “self” consists of sameness of consciousness. This is usually interpreted to mean that the “self” consists of memory; that the person existing now is the same person yesterday because he/she remembers the thoughts, experiences, or actions of the earlier self. Since the person is the same “self” in the passing time, he/she can be held accountable for past behaviors. However, Locke insisted that a person could only be held accountable for behaviors he/she can remember. David Hume Hume is one of the three main figureheads of the influential British Empiricism movement. Empiricism is the idea that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience. Hume is identified with the bundle theory wherein he described the person (which Hume assumed to be the mind” as a bundle or a collection of different perceptions that are moving in a very fast and successive manner; therefore, it is in a perpetual flux. Hume divided the mind’s perceptions into two groups stating that the difference between the two consists in the degree of force and liveliness with which they strike upon the mind”. 1. Impressions. These are the perceptions that are the strongest. They enter the sense with most force. These are directly experienced. 2. Ideas. These are less forcible and less lively counterparts of impressions. These are mechanisms that copy and reproduce sense data formulated based upon the previously perceived impressions. Hume did not believe in the existence of the “self”. He stressed that your perceptions are only active for as long as you are conscious. Should your perceptions be “removed” for any time (such as when you are sleeping), and you can no longer sense yourself then you also cease to exist. Hume’s self is a passive observer similar to watching one’s life pass before the eyes like a play or on a screen; whereby the total annihilation of the “self” comes at death. Sigmund Freud Freud’s work in psychoanalysis was groundbreaking because it answered questions about the human psyche in a way that no one else had before him. In psychology, the psyche is the totality of the human mind, both conscious and unconscious. Three levels of consciousness: 1. Conscious. It deals with awareness of present perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories, and fantasies at any particular moment. 2. Pre-conscious/subconscious. It is related to data that can readily be brought to consciousness. 3|P a g e Mahinay, C.D. GEC-101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF The Self from Various Perspectives 3. Unconscious. It refers to data retained but not easily available to the individual’s conscious awareness or scrutiny. Psychoanalytic Theory is a personality theory based on the notion that an individual gets motivated by unseen forces, controlled by the conscious and the rational thought. Provinces of the mind: 1. Id. It operates on the pleasure principle. Every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. 2. Ego. It operates according to the reality principle. It works out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands (often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society). The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette, and rules in deciding how to behave. If the ego fails to use the reality principle, anxiety is experienced, and unconscious defense mechanisms are employed to help ward off unpleasant feelings. 3. Superego. It incorporates the values and morals of society. The superego’s function is to control the id’s impulses. It persuades the ego to choose moralistic goals and to strive for perfection rather than simply realistic ones. 4|P a g e Mahinay, C.D.