Understanding The Self PDF

# Understanding the Self ## Philosophy ### Socrates - Greek philosopher who shaped Western thought. - Never wrote anything, knowledge is through second-hand information. - Known for the Socratic Method, which tests an idea by asking a series of questions to determine underlying beliefs. - Accuse...

# Understanding the Self ## Philosophy ### Socrates - Greek philosopher who shaped Western thought. - Never wrote anything, knowledge is through second-hand information. - Known for the Socratic Method, which tests an idea by asking a series of questions to determine underlying beliefs. - Accused of impiety (lack of reverence for the gods) and corrupting the youth. - Sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. ### Some of Socrates' Ideas: - The soul is immortal. - The care of the soul is the task of philosophy. - Virtue is necessary to attain happiness. - "The unexamined life is not worth living." - Self-knowledge is important for improving your life. - The state of your inner being determines the quality of your life. ### Plato - Student of Socrates. - Wrote the Socratic Dialogue. - Known for his Theory of Forms, asserting the physical world is *not* real. - Believed the soul is the divine aspect of the human being. - The soul consists of three parts: - **Appetitive (sensual):** the element that enjoys sensual experiences. - **Rational (reasoning):** the element that forbids the person to enjoy sensual experiences, that loves truth and should rule over other parts of the soul. - **Spirited (feeling):** the element inclined toward reason but understands the demands of passion. ### St. Augustine - One of the most significant Christian thinkers. - Influenced by Plato’s ideas, including the notion of the "self" as an immaterial soul. - Believed that Forms exist as concepts within the perfect and eternal God. - The soul is capable of scientific thinking, and holds the Truth. - The self is an inner, immaterial “I.” - The soul is distinct from the body, but they are connected. - God is only clear to the mind if one tunes into his/her immaterial self. ### René Descartes - French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. - Considered the father of modern Western philosophy. - Emphasized the use of reason to understand natural phenomena. - Proposed *doubt* as a principal tool of disciplined inquiry. - **Hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt**: a systematic process of being skeptical about truth. - "Cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am")—asserted that the body cannot be the foundation for knowledge. - Believed the thinking entity (soul) could exist without the body. - The thinking entity is the source of our identity. ### John Locke - Enlightenment thinker. - Expanded the definition of "self" to include memories. - Believed the "self" is identified with consciousness and memory. - Memories provide a continuity of experience that allows him/her to identify himself/herself as the same person over time. ### David Hume - Fierce opponent of Descartes' Rationalism. - Advocate of Empiricism—believed that knowledge originates from sense experience. - **Bundle Theory**: The self is a collection of different perceptions. - Believed that the self does not have a permanent essence or identity. ### Immanuel Kant - Central figure in modern philosophy. - Believed the human mind creates the structure of human experience. - **Transcendental self**: the self is not in the body. - Knowledge bridges the self and the material world. ### Sigmund Freud - Influential thinker of the 20th century. - Developed psychoanalysis. - Believed the psyche is a complex structure with three components: - **Id:** operates on the pleasure principle. - **Ego:** operates on the reality principle. - **Superego:** incorporates the morals of society. ### Gilbert Ryle - Critiqued Descartes' idea of the mind as distinct from the body. - Rejected the notion of a separate mental world. ### Paul Churchland - Advocated for a materialistic view of the mind—believed that only matter exists. - **Eliminative Materialism**: the claim that folk psychology (common-sense understanding of the mind) is false. - The brain, and not an immaterial mind, gives us our sense of self. ### Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Emphasized the body as a place of knowing. - Believed in an embodied subjectivity--the body is an essential part of the self. - Rejected the Cartesian mind-body dualism, believing the mind and body are intrinsically connected.