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UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Discussion 1 PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF THE HUMAN PERSON AND THE SELF According to the Greek Rationalist Tradition: Topic Outline: Essentialism o Reason is a...

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Discussion 1 PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF THE HUMAN PERSON AND THE SELF According to the Greek Rationalist Tradition: Topic Outline: Essentialism o Reason is at the core of our being Existentialism o Our reasoning ability sets us apart fromother terrestrial beings o Reason controls emotions & appetites The Philosophical Self o We may act like animals at times, but only The Philosophical Self because we are not using reason to control Two Philosophical Perspectives the other parts of our being o Humans alone are capable of living accord avocado son Essentialism According to the Theocentric Tradition (St. eternal and unchangeable human nature Augustine of Hippo): The Essentialist /Avocado View o The most important part of a person is the o An avocado- inner person, i.e., the mind. o pear-shaped tropical fruit o Ethically, the most important part of the o yellowish flesh mind is not the intellect (or reason) but the o a single large seed at the center will. o The orientation of the will determines The seed at the center contains all the essential whether we love lower goods (such as information about what makes an avocado an bodily goods, wealth, and reputation) or avocado. higher goods (virtue and, above all, God). The claim that human nature is determined by o Although originally neither good nor bad, the the set of necessary and sufficient properties of human will became corrupted so it is in humanness, coupled with the claim that the most cases inclined to love lower rather properties that are part of human nature are than higher goods. distinctive of human beings. The essence of being a triangle, for example, would be 'having three sides'. Any object that Existentialism had more than three sides could not be a triangle. In the case of human beings, this individuar existence, freedom and choice essentialist view usually translates into the claim that things like intelligence, humor, morality, reason, and language are distinctively and Existentialist / Protean View (or Artichoke or essentially human. They are what define us and Cabbage View) mark us out as different from other animals. Named after Proteus - the shape - shifter of According to Judaic and Christian Traditions: Greek mythology (green tree, a blind man, blinding fire) depending on the situation o Humans are made in the image and likeness of demanding him to change forms God Like an artichoke or cabbage, as the layers o Animals may have instincts and intelligence but are removed, one finds there is no central they are not made in God's likeness core, this view agrees that we are nothing o We are self-conscious but layers and finds this reasonable and o We have the capacity to love healthy o We have fleshy outward appearance but inside we share the divine nature This idea says that humans are many layers that function at Type your initials here | 1  various times in life You are the master of your fate. Life is such that we need to be able to react in many different ways This is consistent with the idea that there Existentialist / Protean View (or Artichoke or are no moral absolutes or certain truth. Cabbage View) o Do we have a clearer view of ourselves as Existentialism (Self-created self) human persons? emphasizes individual existence, freedom, o Do we find our existence meaningful? and choice o If we do, then how deep and how wide have views that humans define their own we shared our meaningful life with others? meaning in life Only you and I can measure it. views that man is able to make rational decisions despite his existence in an PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE irrational universe. We have no fixed essence as human beings We live in the moment and create our own PHILOSOPHY selves moment by moment As we choose our path, we are accountable study of acquiring knowledge through rational for our choices thinking and inquiries that involves in answering "You create a self for yourself." Mitchell, questions regarding the nature and existence of 1995 man and the world we live in. *I am the master of my fate; lam the captain derived from the Greek words Philos and Sophia of my soul." which literally means love for wisdom (From "Invictus by William Ernest Henley - 19th cent) PHILOSOPHERS tend to search for the truth search for: * Meanings "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley Value * Importance Out of the night that covers me, * Significance Black as the pit from pole to Answers pole, I thank whatever gods may be Relevance For my unconquerable soul. philosophers ask a lot of questions In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. METAPHYSICS Under the bludgeonings of chance 1. Branch in Philosophy that studies the nature of reality My head is bloody, but unbowed. EPISTEMOLOGY Beyond this place of wrath and tears 2. Branch in Philosophy that studies the nature and scope Looms but the Horror of the shade, of knowledge And yet the menace of the years AXIOLOGY Finds and shall find me unafraid. 3. ETHICS study and evaluates human conduct 4. AESTHETICS study the nature of beauty It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, What is a human person? I am the captain of my soul a person is a being characterized by consciousness, rationality, and a moral sense, both a body and a mind or soul. They can make their own life choices. A complete and individual personality. Life has no inherent meaning - no core to What is the self? give purpose or direction. You can be Your "Self" is your basic personality or anything you want to be. But you have no nature, especially considered in terms of one to blame but yourself. Mitchell, 1995 what you are really like as a person. 2  Your "Self" is the essential part of your very nature which makes you different from everyone else and everything else. truthuses senses to although there are disagreements in how philosophers view recognize the truth the self, most of them would agree that self-knowledge is a a person who is a prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life. follower of truth and wisdom will not be tempted by vices and Socrates (470-399 BC) PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS will always be just. Body and soul not seperated Greek Philosopher "Knowing oneself". RATIONAL SELF one of the founders of Good life is attained (logical) Western Philosophy. through acquisition of SPIRITUAL SELF knowledge, wisdom, (emotional) and virtue. APPETITIVE Every man is Dualistic (physical desires) Knowledge is the personification of good, CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: ignorance is that of Academy evil. Allegory of the cave "If the world is not perfect, it Self-knowledge is the is not because of God or the ultimate virtue, it will ideals, but because the raw lead to ultimate materials were not perfect." happiness. search for goodness leads to a better and "There's the body, which is happier life. - self material, mortal and moved. development Then, there's the soul, which Virtues (the qualities is ideal, immortal and of being morally good unmoved." or righteous) are the most valuable possessions of human beings. – Saint Augustine of Hippo PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS seperate body from (354-430 AD) the soul Philosopher world was created by BODY: IMPERFECT, Theologian Bishop God from nothing: IMPERMANENT and Doctor of the only through a free act Church of His will. SOUL: PERFECT, concept of time such PERMANENT as past, present and future. CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: absolute unity and Socratic method- spirituality of the method of "As for me, all I know is that I human soul reasoning: a means know nothing." dual nature of self in the context where one of arriving at the is imperfect and truth by continually "There is only one good - immortal. questioning, knowledge, and one evil - soul is capable of obtaining answers, ignorance." immortality through and criticizing the the communion with answers "The unexamined life is not the Christian God worth living." The soul is superior to the body. Evil- moral sins Will – love of God Three Functions of Plato (428-348 BC) PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS the Intellective Soul: a. Being Greek Philosopher denied the existence b. Understanding founded the Academy of the outside world c. Loving most famous and reduced it to organized school in representations of These three functions western civilizations subject him, corresponded with: ideas were available a. Intellective to us through thought, memory while phenomena are b. intelligence available to us c. c. will through our senses. So, naturally, thought CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: is a vastly superior means to get to the 3  "The way to God was to look "All knowledge comes from into oneself." experience." "The cause of moral evil is not God, who is infinite Holiness, nor is it matter, for David Hume (1711-1776) PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS matter is a creature of God; and hence good. Neither is Scottich philosopher There is no self, only the will as a faculty of the and historian a bundle of soul evil for it too has been perceptions/ created by God." impressions. Acquired from one’s experience and becomes part of parenthood René Descartes (1596- PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS May altered or 1650) influenced also an empiricist who French mathematician (Rationalism) claimed that all that and philosopher, cartesian dualism or can be known Father of Modern the existence of body emanates from what Philosophy and mind we have seen, and built his own mind or soul were not through something interconnected indivisible. that can only be system of knowledge, Body and mind appreciated which comprised interact only intellectually. knowledge of human person who, there is no permanent metaphysics, physics not only possessed a self Since our and other sciences. good mind, but used it impressions of things. well too. are based from our Method of doubting experiences, we can Self is a real seeker of create our ideas and truth. knowledge from them. CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: Metaphysics, physics "Cogito ergo sum.” (I think, "A wise man proportions his therefore I am) belief to the evidence." John Locke (1632-1704) PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS Immanuel Kant (1724- PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS 1804) British philosopher concept tabula rasa and physician which means a blank Kant believed that Oxford academic and slate. German philosopher everything depended medical researcher EMPERICISM- all on how individuals considered to be the knowledge derived interprets and father of classical from experience responds to his liberalism Our mind is capable environment based on of examining, their personal comparing and opinions and feelings. combining the ideas in Self transcends numerous ways.. experience. Self emerges through There is an inner self experiences. and outer self Self is consciousness. The inner self individual exercises includes rational the principles of reasoning and freedom which psychological state. protects individual The outer self property. includes the senses and physical mind CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: "All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possession” 4 CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: The things that we do, how we behave and "Science is organized react and all other components like the knowledge. Wisdom is way we talk walk and organized life." look is generally who we are as a person “we construct the self” The self is basically our behavior. CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: Sigmund Freud (1856- PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS "The self is the way people 1939) behave" Austrian neurologist human behavior was " Act, therefore I am" founder of propelled by the drive psychoanalysis to find pleasurable experiences. Behaviour based on Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908- PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS seeking pleasures 1961) Irregularities in one's behavior could be French philosopher Regarded that the interpreted as a lack and public intellectual body and mind are not in the gratifications of separate entities but said motives which rather those two probably was not components is one within the individual's and the same. realm of awareness. looks at the world Freud holds that the through one's body self consists of three which is involved in layers: conscious, one's existence. unconscious and The Self is the way preconscious. people behaved ed- pleasurable Self is embodied principles subjectivity. ego- realities, balances the two CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: superego- moral principles, values, "We know not through our beliefs intellect but through our Self is multi-layered. experience." CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: "We are our bodies." psychoanalysis “We have to go deeper with the understanding of yourself” - Sigmund Freud Paul Churchland (1942- PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS present) "One day in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike Canadian philosopher folklores and mythical you as the most beautiful." Neuro-philosophy beliefs are fallacious the philosophy of the two distinct kinds of mind existence and these are our Brain and Body Gilbert Ryle PERSPECTIVE/BELIEFS Self emerges not as something that is A British analytical self is best theoretically founded, philosopher. understood as a but as data innervated He was an important pattern of behavior, Self cannot be a figure in the field of the tendency or product of imagination Linguistic Analysis disposition for a and opinions but of which focused on the person to behave in a empirical solving of certain way in certain observations. philosophical puzzles circumstances The Self is the through an analysis of opposed the notable brain. language. ideas of the previous philosophers and CONTRIBUTION: QUOTES: even claimed that built the idea of "The brain is the engine of those were results of eliminative reason and the seat for the confused conceptual materialism soul." thinking 5