Understanding The Self PDF

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF For him, the self is synonymous with the soul. He believed that soul is LESSON 1: THE SELF FROM immortal and e...

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF For him, the self is synonymous with the soul. He believed that soul is LESSON 1: THE SELF FROM immortal and every human VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES possessed it He also emphasized that Death is WHAT IS SELF? the separation of soul to the physical - The SELF is your main companion body and Death is not the end living in this world - It is something that a person THE DICHOTOMOUS REALM perennially molds, shapes, and PHYSICAL REALM develops - It is imperfect, transient, and - The self is not a static thing that one changeable and the body is simply born with like a mole on belongs to the physical realm one’s face or is just assigned by IDEAL REALM one’s parents just like a name - It is the realm where our soul - Everyone is tasked to discover one’s belongs. It is eternal, self unchanging, and immortal CHAPTER 1 PHILOSOPHICAL HOW TO CAN WE EXAMINE OUR LIVES PERSPECTIVE ON SELF ACCORDING TO SOCRATES: Philosophy is derived from the Greek Socrates was the first thinker to words “Philos” and “Sophia” which focus on the full power of reason on literally means “Love for Wisdom” the human self: who we are, who we It is the study of acquiring should be, and who we will become knowledge through rational thinking The soul strives for wisdom and and inquiries that involves in perfection, and reason is the soul’s answering questions regarding the tool to achieve an exalted state of nature and existence of man and the life world we live in Our preoccupation with bodily needs It is imperative to look into the such as food, drink, sex, pleasure, various explanations from different material possessions, and wealth philosophers their notion of what the keep us from attaining wisdom “Self” its nature and how it is formed Goodness or beauty is the most in order to have a better picture on important of all how people develop their behaviors, A person can have a meaningful and attitude and actions and to be able happy life only if he be achieved to identify and understand who we through constant soul-searching are and how we came to be For him, this is best achieved when one tries to separate the body from SOCRATES (470-399 B.C.E) soul as much as possible Socrates coined the famous quote The Socratic method, the so-called “An unexamined life is not worth introspection, is a method of living which philosophers agreed carefully examining our thoughts that knowing yourself is the and emotion to gain self-knowledge pre-requisite for meaningful life” PLATO The soul is simply the form of the Plato included in his work the body and is not capable of existing learnings and ideas shared to him by without the body his teacher Socrates The soul makes the person a person, According to Plato, a person who is a and the soul is the essence of the follower of truth and wisdom will not self be tempted by vices and will always Without the body, the soul cannot be just exist, and the dies along with the Plato also believed in the division of body a person’s body and soul which He suggested that anything with life forms the person as a whole aside has a soul from the material things and that These souls are: could be observed and associated ○ Vegetative with a person - The Physical Body; allows things to grow PLATO’S 3 PARTS OF THE SOUL ○ Sentient Appetitive Soul - Sensual Desire, - Plato’s idea of the appetitive Feelings, and soul is the part of the person Emotions that is driven by desire and ○ Rational need to satisfy oneself - What makes us Spirited Soul human; Include - This part of the soul can be intellect that makes attributed to the courageous man know and part of a person, one who understand things wants to do something or to Aristotle suggests that the rational right the wrongs that they aspect of the self is to lead a good, observe flourishing, and fulfilling life Rational Soul - The last part of the soul could ST. AUGUSTINE be said is the driven of our A saint and a Philosopher of the lives, this is the part that church, St. Augustine follows the thinks and plan for the future idea that God encompasses us all, “the conscious mind” it that everything will be better if we decides what to do, when to are with God do it and the possible results His idea of a man and how one could have depending on understand who we are as a person their actions is related to our understanding of who we are and how we question ARISTOTLE ourselves For him, the mind and body is not a He emphasized that we may not bea separate element but they are one ble to give our agreement to thing everything other people tell us but we can still agree to those who we, from our own perception, think is  right or wrong based from our The process of the mind to absorb perception information and accumulate He believes that our notion of knowledge may imply that as a ourselves and our idea of existence person to be able to be whom we comes from a higher form of sense want to be in which bodily sense may not perceive or understand, and the DAVID HUME more one doubts and question his There is no permanent “self”, that life means that, that person is since our impressions of things actually living based from our experiences and By continuously questioning and from such impressions we can create finding the truth will we be able to our ideas and knowledge which find the best answer to who we are leads to the argument that since our and what our role is in the world impression and ideas change He said when a person is asked the RENE DESCARTES question “Who you are?” That Descartes is known for the person tends to answer different statement “Cogito Ergo Sum” which impressions such as good, happy, means in English as “I think optimistic, contented, sad, etc. therefore I am”. According to him a generally they apply to who you are person is comprised of mind and now but at the same time these body, the body that perceives from characteristics might change from the different senses and the mind time to time that thinks and question or doubt what the body has experienced EMMANUEL KANT For him, the body and its Kant responded to Hume’s work by perceptions cannot fully be trusted trying to establish that the collection or can easily be deceived of impressions and different He also implies that being in a contents is what it only takes to constant doubt regarding one’s define a person existence is proof that a perso Kant argued that the awareness of actually exist different emotions that we have, impressions and behaviour is only LOCKE part of our self His work on the self is most Kant argued that the sense called represented by the concept “Tabula “Transcendental Apperception” is Rasa” which means a Blank Slate an essence of our consciousness that He believed that the experiences provides basis for understanding and perceptions of a person is and establishing the notion of “self” important in the establishment of by synthesizing one’s accumulation who that person can become of experiences, intuition and The experiences of the person in the imagination goes. Which means that identification and establishment of this idea goes beyond what we who we are as a person experience but still able to become aware of SIGMUND FREUD Unconscious, this area is where Freud believed that man has majority of our memories since different constructs of personality childhood are deeply stored. It is that interacts with each other and very difficult to tap the memories in along with his concept of the the unconscious, it would need a different levels of consciousness trained professional and several provides an idea how a person special techniques in order to make develops a sense of a self some memories resurface SIGMUND FREUD’S ASPECT OF GILBERT RYLE PERSONALITY Self is the behavior presented by the ID person, his notion of dualism is that - Also known as the child the behavior that we show, emotions aspect of a person, The ID’s and actions are the reflection of our attention is on satisfaction of mind and as such is the one’s needs and manifestation of who we are self-gratification Once we encounter others, their SUPEREGO perceptions of what we do, how we - Is the conscience of the one’s act, and the way we behave will then personality, Superego has result to the understanding of other the inclination to uphold people and establishing of who we justice and do what is are morally right and socially Ryle is saying that the things that we acceptable actions do, how we behave and react and all EGO other components like the way we - Sometimes known as the talk, walk, and look is generally who Police or the mediator we are as a person between id and superego. It operates within the PAUL CHURCHLAND boundaries of reality, The main philosophy of Churchland primary function is to built the idea of “Eliminative maintain the impulses of the Materialism”. Basically, eliminative ID to an acceptable degree materialism opposes that people’s common sense understanding of the SIGMUND FREUD’S PROVINCES OF MIND mind is false and that most of the The conscious where minority of our mental states that people subscribe memories are being stored and the to, in turn, do not actually exist, this memories that are in the conscious is idea also applies on the easier to be taped or accessed understanding of behaviour and Pre-conscious, the middle part of the emotions entirety of our consciousness, the He believed that to fully understand memories stored in this area can still one’s behaviour, one should be accessed but with a little understand the different difficulty neurological movement of the brain that pertains to different emotions,  feelings, actions, and reactions and self-identity and the post-modern how such brain movements affect individual accepts all the the body possibilities for self-improvement Therefore, in post-modern societies, MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY self-identity continuously developed For him perception guides our action due to the very demanding multiple based from what our experiences social contexts and the advent of are new information technologies and The body perceives while our globalization consciousness provides the meaning or interprets the various perception THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF we have in the world and the self POSTMODERN SOCIETY could be established by the Jean Baudrillard, a French perceptions we have in the world, Sociologist, exposed the negative whereas one’s action consequences of post-modernization Behavior and language used could to individuals in society (Demetrio, be said to be the reflection of our 2013) united perception of the world The post-modern individuals achieve self-identity through prestige LESSON 2: SOCIOLOGICAL symbols that they consume Individuals want to have a position PERSPECTIVE in society through the quality of prestige symbols that they can WHAT IS SELF afford to consume - The self is a relatively stable set of It is manifested through the cultural perceptions of who we are in relation practices of advertising and mass to ourselves, others, and to social media that have a great impact on systems the individual consumers’ behavior - The self is socially constructed in the of goods consumption not for their sense that it is shaped through value and utility but more for the interaction with other people feeling of goodness and power when compared with other THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF MODERN SOCIETY THE LOOKING-GLASS SELF According to Gerry Lanuza’s article, The looking-glass self describes how “The Constitution of the Self” we perceive ourselves or how we (2004). In modern societies, the base our self-identity based on how attainment and stability of other people view us. Every person self-identity are “freely chosen” we encounter becomes a mirror It is no longer controlled by customs where we look at and see our and traditions reflection The dissolution of traditional values The people we encounter serve as a and communities in a modern mirror, likewise, their judgments, society guided the individual to opinions, sayings, perceptions, etc. develop a strong and stable on us serve as a mirror. We look into  that mirror and see ourselves based present and the future phase on their description on us of the self. This represents We may consider their view of us, or the unique traits of the we may not. We might use their individual judgment to measure our worth, values, and behavior, or we might MEAD’S THREE ROLE-PLAYING STAGE OF not. It depends on them SELF DEVELOPMENT Preparatory Stage (Birth - 2 yrs MEAD old) One of the most important - According to Mead, during sociological approaches to the self this stage, the infant simply was developed by American imitates the actions and sociologist George Herbert Mead. behaviors of the people that Mead conceptualizes the mind as the the infant interacts with individual importation of the social Play Stage (2 - 6 yrs old) process - For the Play Stage, it is the This process is characterized by time when children begin to Mead as the “I” and the “me”. The interact with others in which “I” is the individual’s impulse. The certain rules apply, these “I” is self as a subject; the “me” is rules often times does not self as object adhere to any set or For Mead, existence in a community standards but rather are comes before individual rules that are set by the consciousness. First one must children themselves participate in the different social Game Stage (6 - 9 yrs old) positions within society and only - The final stage of subsequently can one use that self-development according experience to take the perspective to Mead where are of others and thus become characterized by the ability self-conscious of the children to recognize the rules of the game and be THE TWO DIVISIONS OF SELF: ME AND I able to identify their roles The “Me” Self and the roles of the others - The objective element of the that is playing with them self and considered as the socialized aspect of self. This represents the behaviors and attitudes we get from other people, and the expectations of others and society we are trying to meet The “I” Self - The subjective element and the active side of the self. This can be considered as the