SCGE 1 - Understanding the Self PDF

SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Cloyd E. Verde or fl SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Philosophy is a way of thinking about certain subjects such as ethics, thought, existence, time, meaning and value. SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self More systematic academic philosophy is tr...

SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Cloyd E. Verde or fl SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Philosophy is a way of thinking about certain subjects such as ethics, thought, existence, time, meaning and value. SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self More systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study. WHO ARE YOU? SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self SOCRATES “Know thyself. An unexamined life is not worth living.” Philosopher agrees that self-knowledge is prerequisite to a happy ang meaningful life.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self SOCRATES Every man is dualistic. We are composed of body and soul. There are two (2) important aspect of personhood. 1. Body - which is imperfect and impermanent. It is mortal can be constantly changing. 2. Soul - Perfect and permanent. It is immortal that is unchanging across all realms.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self SOCRATES 2 Dichotomous Realms The Physical Realm The Ideal Realm Changeable, Transient and Unchanging, eternal and imperfect immortal The body belongs to this The soul belongs to this realm realm  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self SOCRATES The rst thinker to focus on the full power of reasons on the human self. WHO WE ARE, WHO WE SHOULD BE, AND WHO WE WILL BECOME. The should strives for wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool to achieve an exalted state of life. Our preoccupation with bodily needs such as food, drink, pleasure, material possessions, and wealth keep us from attaining wisdom. fi  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self SOCRATES A person can have meaningful and happy life only if he becomes virtuous and knows the value of himself that can be achieved through constant soul-searching. For him this is best achieved when one tries to separate the body from the soul as much as possible. SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 2  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3 S  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3 Descartes came to the conclusion that the ground was located in the self-awareness of his own existence. He came up with the concept of cogito ergo sum. In modern English, this conception can be translated as “I am conscious therefore I exist.”  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Descartes argues that one cannot coherently doubt 3 their own existence as a conscious thinking entity. The reason is that the very act of doubting implies their reality. In other words, one can never truly say “I do not exist”. He explains that even if one is dreaming or hallucinating, the self is still engaged. The reality remains even in cases where the consciousness of the individual is manipulated by an external agent.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self It was clear to Descartes that his dualism raised 3 the deep issue of how mind/consciousness acts on the physical matter of the body, including the issue of how the mind can have a morally responsible free will. His own proposal was that the mind acted on the body via the pineal gland, a single gland in the brain.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Freud believed that people were ruled by 3 two primary forces: the life instinct (Eros) and the death instinct (Thanatos). These two competing forces work together, and often in competition, to guide and direct human behavior.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self Freud's 3 concept of Thanatos is rooted in the law of entropy, or the idea that all systems eventually reach their lowest point. This can be contrasted with Eros, which is focused on the propagation of life. According to Freud, both instincts are in a constant and dynamic state of tension.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3 Biblical Perspective The self as a created being of the Creator God  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self How 3 we perceive and de ne ourselves deeply a ects how we think, feel, act, and of course, how we worship God. ff fi  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self To biblically conceptualize the self, I appreciate theologian John Stott’s articulation: 3 Our self is a complex entity of good and evil, glory and shame, of creation and fall… We are created, fallen and redeemed, then re-created in God’s image… Standing before the cross we see simultaneously our worth and unworthiness, since we perceive both the greatness of his love in dying, and the greatness of our sin in causing him to die.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3 When we see ourselves as created, fallen, and redeemed (or in need of redemption), it changes our relationship to and worship of our Redeemer and helps put into perspective our issues of understanding the self.  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 1. Created 3 Genesis 1:27 ESV “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 2. 3 Fallen Roman 3:23 ESV “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 2. 3 Fallen Roman 6:23 ESV “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  SCGE 1 - Understanding The Self 3. 3 Redeemed Roman 6:23 ESV “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”