SOCRATES: AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH
LIVING
As what I have understood, each one of us
should be conscious of what is good to be able to have a good life.
Don’t let ignorance overcome you. If you don’t know such thing, never
hesitate to ask for the help of others for you to learn something new.
Our soul strives for wisdom and perfection to achieve this exalted
state. For example, if you didn’t totally understand the discussion of
your professor don’t be afraid to go to his/her consultation hours. A
very good friend of mine always reminds me that if you will not try,
then you’re a failure. There’s nothing wrong in asking somebody’s help
if you’ll be the one who will benefit from it.
Example: As Socrates famously said, ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself.
There are three part soul which are the following: Reason, physical
appetite, and spirit or passion. These three basically allow man to live
in accordance to his nature, then he is giving justice in his existence
therefore everyone in this world has a purpose for each one of us
should do our part. Always remember that good is above God. A task
is a task. No matter what happens, you should meet the deadlines that
are given to you. Practice yourself in doing what you can do now for
time runs so fast wherein you won’t notice it and this will definitely
help you in your future work.
Plato considers the reality to be good and beautiful.
There are three part soul which are the following: Reason, physical
appetite, and spirit or passion. These three basically allow man to live
in accordance to his nature, then he is giving justice in his existence
therefore everyone in this world has a purpose for each one of us
should do our part. Always remember that good is above God. A task
is a task. No matter what happens, you should meet the deadlines that
are given to you. Practice yourself in doing what you can do now for
time runs so fast wherein you won’t notice it and this will definitely
help you in your future work.
JOHN LOCKE: THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
For him our human mind is a Tabula Rasa or also known as a mind
self at birth is a blank state. Conscious awareness and memory of
previous experiences are the keys in understanding the self. For
example, while we are communicating with other people in different
environment, we can carefully observe our experiences with them that
lead us to learnings or being knowledgeable.
In that “self” ie. our self awareness of our existence, therefore our existence itself. Is based solely on our
consciousness of our past and present ..
DAVID HUME: THERE IS NO SELF
Man is a bundle of all sensation and perception. When people will
examine their content of experience what they can see are just
impressions and ideas that results to imagination. For example, our
first impression towards our new classmate from other country is
quiet for he doesn’t speak to us. Well, we cannot totally define who is
he if he will not talk or engage with us for our imagination is moving
that defines the personal identity of a certain person.
Hume has no reason to believe in a self.
IMMANUEL KANT: WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF
It is the self that is constructing and organizing principles of
experiences which creates a world that is familiar, predictable and
significantly be called as mine. For example, I myself is the one who’s
discovering the world for I am the driver of my life. Nobody will do it
for me for it transcends the experience in my mind as well as the
senses of mine.
The self for Kant is something real, and yet is neither appearance nor thing in itself, but rather
has some third status.
GILBERT RYLE: THE SELF IS THE WAY PEOPLE
BEHAVE
Self is best understood as a collection of behavior that leads to a
person to behave in accordance with different circumstances. For
example, you can easily tell whether that certain person is talkative,
intelligent, and so on for what their behavior speaks towards other
people. If he/she keeps on smiling, then that person is a positive one.
Ryle believed that self comes from behavior.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: THE SELF IS EMBODIED
SUBJECTIVITY
According to him, all the knowledge of every individual comes from
the inner world of subjective phenomena of experience that people are
aware in everything within its consciousness. For example, our body
won’t function or mover unless being said or commanded by our brain
for the two of them were not separated.
“Maurice Merleau-Ponty believed the physical body to be an important part of what makes up the
subjective self.
PAUL CHURCHLAND: THE SELF IS THE BRAIN
He advocates the eliminative materialism or physiology of the body
and brain which explains that all of us have a brain but if it is gone,
there is no self at all. Our brain is not inseparable from our body. For
example, how you dress doesn’t define who you are but rather what’s
the content of your mind defines who you are.
the self is the same as bodily behavior. “The self is the brain”,
RENE DESCARTES: I THINK THEREFORE I AM
Man is a thinking man that has an entity to doubt, understand,
analyze, question, and the most important thing is to reason out that
can exist independently in the physical body. This Latin
phrase Corgito ergo sum is the concept of self by Descartes. For
example, I can complain what I have read in the social media posts of
my friends if they are spreading fake news for I myself know what is
right from bad. I have the free will to reason out what I wanted to say.
Descartes declares that the essential self—the self as thinking entity—is radically different
than the self as physical .
ST. AUGUSTINE: THE SELF HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
A soul can’t live in this world without a body for it is considered as a
unity of body and self. It is an important element of man which
governs and defines himself. We all know that we are created in the
image and likeness of God for we are geared towards the good. For
example, as we are living in this world, we should take good care of
our body not just physically as well as mentally for it is the house of
our soul and when the right time comes, we won’t regret anything for
it has been useful.
He has two ways of conceptualising the self as radically oriented to God, namely self-presentation and
self-realisation
