UTS Understanding The Self PDF

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Philosophy Philo - loving Greek Sophia - knowledge/wisdom “The pursuit of knowledge for it’s own sake” PHILOSOPHERS Socrates - Greek philosopher - shaped Western thought - Knowledge about Socrates is through second-hand information from the...

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Philosophy Philo - loving Greek Sophia - knowledge/wisdom “The pursuit of knowledge for it’s own sake” PHILOSOPHERS Socrates - Greek philosopher - shaped Western thought - Knowledge about Socrates is through second-hand information from the writings of his student Plato and historian Xenophon - known for his method of inquiry in testing an idea - He was accused of impiety or lack of reverence for the gods and for corrupting the minds of the youth. - At 70 years old, Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a cup of poison hemlock SOCRATIC METHOD - an idea was tested by asking a series of questions to determine underlying beliefs and the extent of knowledge to guide the person toward better understanding His ideas: - The soul is immortal. - The care of the soul is the task of philosophy. - Virtue is necessary to attain happiness “I Know That I Don't Know” “The unexamined life is not worth living.” self-knowledge or the examination of one's self, as well as the question about how one ought to live one's life, are very important concerns because only by knowing yourself can you hope to improve your life you as a person should consciously contemplate, turn your gaze inward, and analyze the true nature and values that are guiding your life. According to Socrates, the state of your inner being (soul/self) determines the quality of your life. Existence is two kinds; The visible and invisible ○ The visible existence changes while the invisible existence remains constant. ○ This is the state of the 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 ruler and master" The goal of life is to be happy. The virtuous man is a happy man, and that virtue alone is the one and only supreme good that will secure his/her happiness. Plato Balance Between the mind and body ; “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others” - Plato was the student of Socrates. - He wrote the Socratic Dialogue where Socrates was the main character and speaker. - The single most important influence of the Western concept of "self." COLLECTION AND DIVISION - "Collect" all the generic ideas that have common characteristics then divided into different kinds until the subdivision of ideas became specific. - Best known for his Theory of Forms that asserted the physical world is not really the "real" world because the ultimate reality exists beyond the physical world. According to Plato, the "soul" is the most divine aspect of the human being. His concept of the divine is one that has an intellectual connotation. The self/soul/mind according to Plato is the aspect of the human beings by which the Forms (ideas) are known. The three parts of the soul according to Plato are: 1. Appetitive (sensual) - The element that enjoys sensual experiences, such as food, drink, and sex 2. 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 3. Spirited (feeling) - The element that is inclined toward reason but understands the demands of passion; the part that loves honor and victory St. Augustine All knowledge leads to God - Saint Augustine of Hippo - One of the Latin Fathers of the Church, one of the Doctors of the Church, and one of the most significant Christian thinkers. - 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 - Saint Augustine held that the soul held the Truth and was capable of scientific thinking. - Saint Augustine's concept of the "self" was an inner, immaterial "I" that had self-knowledge and self-awareness. He believed that the human being was both a soul and body, and the body possessed senses, such as imagination, memory, reason, and mind through which the soul experienced the world. The aspects of the self/soul according to Saint Augustine's are: - It is able to be aware of itself. - It recognizes itself as a holistic one. - It is aware of its unity. Rene Descartes "I Think, Therefore I Am." ; "Cogito ergo sum" - French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. - He is considered the father of modern Western philosophy. - Often regarded as the first thinker to emphasize the use of reason to describe, predict, and understand natural phenomena based on observational and empirical evidence. - Descartes proposed that doubt was a principal tool of disciplined inquiry. METHODOLOGICAL SKEPTICISM - called hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt - A systematic process of being skeptical about the truth of one's beliefs in order to determine which beliefs could be ascertained as true - He asserted that everything perceived by the senses could not be used as proof of existence because human senses could be fooled. - There was only one thing we could be sure of in this world, and that was everything could be doubted. Descartes' claims about the "self" are: ○ It is constant; it is not prone to change; and it is not affected by time. ○ Only the immaterial soul remains the same throughout time. ○ The immaterial soul is the source of our identity. He further asserted that this thinking entity could exist without the body because it is an immaterial substance. Nevertheless, this immaterial substance (self) possesses a body and is so intimately bound/joined by it that the "self" forms a union with its body. Despite this body-soul union, Descartes reasoned that the soul is still distinct from the body. THE SOUL THE BODY It is a conscious, thinking substance that is unaffected by It is a material substance that changes time. through time. It is known only to itself (only you know your own It can be doubted; The public can mental event and others cannot correct your mental states). correct claims about the body. It is not made up of parts. It views the entirety of itself It is made up of physical, with no hidden or separate compartments. It is both quantifiable, divisible parts. conscious and aware of itself at the same time. John Locke “Human mind at birth is a tabula rasa, which means that knowledge is derived from experience” - Philosopher and physician and was one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. - The Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the ideas in Europe during the 18th century. - If Descartes described the "self" as a thinking thing, Locke expanded this definition of "self" to include the memories of that thinking thing. - Locke believed that the "self" is identified with consciousness and this "self" consists of sameness of consciousness. - 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 - For Locke, a person's memories provide a continuity of experience that allows him/ her to identify himself/herself as the same person over time. - This theory of personal identity allows Locke to justify a defense of accountability - He asserted that the state of the person who cannot remember his/her behavior is the same as the state of the person who never committed the act, which meant the person was ignorant. David Hume (1711 - 1776) “All knowledge is derived from human senses” - Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian during the Age of Enlightenment. - He was a fierce opponent of Descartes' Rationalism. ○ Rationalism is the theory that reason, rather than experience, is the foundation of all knowledge. - Hume, along with John Locke and Bishop George Berkeley, was 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. ○ It emphasized the role of experience and evidence (especially sensory perception) in forming concepts, while discounting the notion of innate ideas Hume is identified with the BUNDLE THEORY wherein he described the "self" or person (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 believed that human intellect and experiences are limited; therefore, it is impossible to attribute it to an independent persisting entity (i.e., soul). David Hume concluded that the "self" is merely made up of successive impressions Hume divided the mind's perceptions into two groups 1. Impressions. These are the perceptions that are the most strong. They enter the senses with most force. These are directly experienced; they result from inward and outward sentiments. (impression) 2. Ideas. These are the less forcible and less lively counterparts of impressions. These are mechanisms that copy and reproduce sense data formulated based upon the previously perceived impressions. (experience) - The "self" according to Hume is not just one impression but a mix and a loose cohesion of various personal experiences. - Hume did not believe on the existence of the "self." He stressed that your perceptions are only active for as long as you are conscious. - Hume seemed to reduce the "self" as a light bulb that may be switched on or off. Immanuel kant REASON is the final authority of morality. Morality is achieved only when there is absence of war because of the result of enlightenment - Central figure in modern philosophy. - His contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics have had a profound impact on almost every philosophical movement that followed him. - The human mind creates the structure of human experience. - Kant's view of the "self" is transcendental, which means the "self" is related to a spiritual or nonphysical realm. - The self is not in the body. The self is outside the body, and it does not have the qualities of the body - Despite being transcendental, Kant stressed that the body and its qualities are rooted to the "self." - It is knowledge that bridges the "self" and the material things together Two kinds of consciousness of self (rationality): 1. Consciousness of oneself and one's psychological states in inner sense, and 2. Consciousness of oneself and one's states by performing acts of apperception. - Apperception is the mental process by which a person makes sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she already possesses. Kant's point is that what truly exist are your ideas and your knowledge of your ideas; that you perceive the outside world through the self with your ideas. Kant pointed out that the material world is not just an extension, and that you are merely seeing objects. He insisted that you perceive the outside world because there is already an idea residing within you.  Two components of the "self": 1. Inner self. The "self" by which you are aware of alterations in your own state. This includes your rational intellect and your psychological state, such as moods, feelings, and sensations, pleasure, and pain. 2. Outer self. It includes your senses and the physical world. It is the common boundary between the external world and the inner self. It gathers information from the external world through the senses, which the inner self interprets and coherently expresses. Kant proposed that the "self" organizes information in three ways: 1. Raw perceptual input, 2. Recognizing the concept, and 3. Reproducing in the imagination. - Kant's "self" has a unified point of self-reference. You are conscious of yourself as the subject, and you are conscious of yourself as a common subject of different representations. Sigmund Freud "Wish fulfillment is the road to the unconscious." - Philosopher, physiologist, and psychologist - One of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His most important contribution, particularly in psychology, was psychoanalysis, a practice devised to treat those who are mentally ill through dialogue. The psyche is the totality of the human mind, both conscious and unconscious. Three levels of consciousness 1. Conscious, which deals with awareness of present perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories, and fantasies at any particular moment 2. Pre-conscious/subconscious, which is related to data that can readily be brought to consciousness 3. Unconscious, which refers to data retained but not easily available to the individual's conscious awareness or scrutiny. Proposed existence of the unconscious as: 1. A repository for traumatic repressed memories 2. The source of anxiety-provoking drives that is socially or ethically unacceptable to the individual. Psychoanalytic Theory - personality theory based on the notion that an individual gets motivated by unseen forces, controlled by the conscious and the rational thought. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind.  The psyche/mind into three parts: 1. Id. It operates on the pleasure principle. Every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. When the id achieves its demands, you experience pleasure; when it is denied, you experience "unpleasure" or tension. 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. The superego consists of two systems: 1. Conscience. If the ego gives in to the id's demands,. Conscious the superego may make the person feel bad through guilt. 2. Ideal self. It is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be. It represents career aspirations; how to treat other people; and how to behave as a member of society. Gilbert Ryle "I Act, therefore I Am" - Philosopher and professor - produced a critique on Descartes' idea that the mind is distinct from the body. - He wrote The Concept of Mind (1949) where he rejected the notion that mental states are separable from physical states. - Ryle called the distinction between mind and matter a "category-mistake" because of its attempt to analyze the relation between "mind" and "body" as if the two were terms of the same categories. Ryle's points against Descartes' theory are: ○ The relation between mind and body are not isolated processes. ○ Mental processes are intelligent acts, and are not distinct from each other. ○ The operation of the mind is itself an intelligent act. The dogma of the ghost in the machine - There is no hidden entity or ghost called "soul" (also understood as mind or self) inside a machine called "body" - He asserted that sensations, thoughts, and feelings do not belong to a mental world separate from the physical world. - Ryle asserted that our sense of self is from our own behaviors and actions. - In Ryle's view, your actions define your own concept of "self" (who you are). Paul Churchland "The physical brain and NOT the imaginary mind gives us our sense of self" - Philosopher and professor - known for his studies in neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. - Nothing but matter exists. In other words, if something can be seen, felt, heard, touched, or tasted, then it exists. - There is nothing beyond the sensory experience. - The immaterial, unchanging soul/self does not exist because it cannot be experienced by the senses. eliminative materialism - claim that people's common-sense understanding of the mind (or folk psychology) is false, and that certain classes of mental states which most people believe in do not exist - Neuroscientists have found that brain activity, and even brain shape, appears to be associated with severe mood disorders. - Churchland asserted the sense of "self" originated from the brain itself, and that this "self" is a product of electrochemical signals produced by the brain. Maurice Merleau-Ponty "Physical body is an important part of the self" - Philosopher and author - Emphasizing the body as the primary site of knowing the world - Maurice Merleau-Ponty's idea of "self" is an embodied subjectivity. - Embodied. is a verb that means to give a body to (usually an immaterial substance like a soul). - Subjectivity. in philosophy, is the state of being a subject— an entity that possesses conscious experiences, such as perspectives, feelings, beliefs, and desires. - Moreover, a subject acts upon or affects some other entity, which in philosophy is called the object. - A subject, therefore, is something that exists, can take action, and can cause real effects (on an object). - Merleau-Ponty rejected the Cartesian mind-body dualism and insisted that the mind and body are intrinsically connected. - He added that the body is not a mere "house" where the mind resides. Rather it is through the lived experience of the body that you perceive; are informed; and interact with the world. - Merleau-Ponty argued that the body is part of the mind, and the mind is part of the body; that although there could be a stand-alone mental faculty that perceives what the senses experience, it needs the body to receive these experiences, act on its perceptions, and communicate with the external world. - According to Merleau-Ponty, the body acts what the mind perceives as a unified one.