Philosophical Perspective of the Self

Direction: Write the different views on Self of the following:

A. Socrates

- Know thyself - cornerstone of his philosophy

- First thinker in recorded history to focus the full power of reason on the human self:
who we are, who we should be, and who we will become.
- Convinced that in addition to our physical bodies, each person possesses
an immortal soul that survives beyond the death of the body.
- He explored this subject with his friends in the days following his trial and
before his sentence of death was executed, a time in his life when the question of
immortality no doubt had a special immediacy and significance.
- Reality is dualistic, comprised of two dichotomous realms:
o changeable, transient, and imperfect (the physical realm--the physical world)
o unchanging, eternal, immortal (ideal realm--the intellectual essences of the
universe: truth, goodness, beauty)
- Our bodies belong to the physical realm: they change, they’re imperfect, they die.
- Our souls, however, belong to the ideal realm: they are unchanging and
immortal, surviving the death of the body.
- Although a close relationship exists between our souls and our bodies, they
are radically different entities.
- Our souls strive for wisdom and perfection, and reason is the soul’s tool to
achieve this exalted state.
- But as long as the soul is tied to the body, this quest for wisdom is inhibited by
the imperfection of the physical realm, as the soul is “dragged by the body into the
region of the changeable,” where it “wanders and is confused” in a world that
“spins round her, and she is like a drunkard.”
- But reason is a powerful tool, enabling the soul to free itself from the
corrupting imperfection of the physical realm and achieve “communion with the
unchanging.”
- The unexamined life is not worth living

B. Plato: The Soul is Immortal

“The Divided Self’’ - The Self is defined by Plato as divided into three elements that
constitutes the overall likeness of our identity, namely:

1. Reason - our divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and
achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.

2. Physical Appetite - our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire

3. Spirit or Passion - our basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness,
empathy

C. St. Augustine: Plato and Christianity

- More than 500 years after Plato died, a Roman Philosopher named Plotinus
spearheaded Neoplatonism
- Plotinus: fervently committed to his Platonic ideas regarding the imperfection of
his physical body, in contrast to the perfection of his eternal soul.
- Plotinus’ ideas had a profound influence on St. Augustine.
- St. Augustine integrated the philosophical concepts of Plato with the
tenets of Christianity.
- Augustine was convinced that Platonism and Christianity were natural partners.
 - As his thinking matured, Augustine came to view the body as the “spouse” of
the soul, with both attached to one another by a “natural appetite”.
- The body is united with the soul so that man may be entire and complete.
Nevertheless, the body and soul remain irreconcilably divided, the body to
die, the soul to live eternally in a transcendent realm of Truth and Beauty.
- In melding philosophy and religious beliefs together, Augustine has been
characterized as Christianity’s first theologian (theos–God; logos–study of) –the
study of God

D. Rene Descartes: A Modern Perspective on the Self

- Descartes wanted to penetrate the nature of our reasoning process and

understand its relation to the human self.
- Genuine knowledge needed to be based on independent rational inquiry
and real-world experimentation.
- It was no longer appropriate to accept without question the “knowledge” handed
down by authorities.
- We need to use our own thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment and
develop our own well-reasoned conclusions, supported by compelling proof.
- Doubting things – the only way for you to develop beliefs that are truly
yours.
- For if you are not willing to question all that you have been asked to accept “on
faith”, then you will never have the opportunity to construct a rock-solid
foundation for your beliefs about the world and your personal philosophy
of life.
- Cogito, ergo sum – “I think, therefore I am”
- The essence of existing as a human identity is the possibility of being aware of our
selves –integral to having a personal identity.
- Conversely, it would be impossible to be self-conscious if we did not have a
personal identity of which to be conscious.
o You are a “thinking thing”
o You understand situations in which you find yourself.
o You doubt the accuracy of ideas presented to you.
o You affirm the truth of a statement made about you.
o You deny an accusation that someone has made.
o You will yourself to complete a task you have begun
o You refuse to follow a command that you consider to be unethical.
o You imagine a fulfilling career for yourself.
o You feel passionate emotions toward another person

E. John Locke: The Self is Consciousness

- Descartes (Rationalist): our reasoning ability provides the origin of

knowledge and final court of judgement in evaluating the accuracy and value of
ideas produced.
- Locke (Empiricist): all knowledge originates in our direct sense experience, which
acts as the final court of judgement in evaluating the accuracy and value of
ideas.
- Rationalism: the view that reason is the primary source of all knowledge.
- Empiricism: the view that sense experience is the primary source of all knowledge
Locke’s points
- To discover the nature of personal identity, we’re going to have to find out
what it means to be a person.
- A person is a thinking, intelligent being who has the abilities to reason and to
reflect.
- A person is also someone who considers himself to be the same thing in
different times and different places.
Locke’s points

- Consciousness – being aware that we are thinking –always accompanies

thinking and is an essential part of the thinking process.
- Consciousness is what makes possible our belief that we are the same
identity in different times and different places.
- Self-consciousness is a necessary part of having a coherent self-identity.
- Consciousness accompanies thinking and makes possible the concept we
have of a self that remains the same at different times and indifferent places.

F. David Hume: There is No self

- If we carefully examine our sense experience through the process of

introspection, we discover that there is no self.

• 2 distinct entities:

o Impressions: the basic sensations of our experience, the elemental data

of our minds: pain, pleasure, heat, cold, happiness, grief, fear, exhilaration,
and so on. These impressions are “lively” and “vivid”.
o Ideas: copies of impressions and as a result they are less “lively” and “vivid”.
Ideas include thoughts and images that are built up from our primary
impressions through a variety of relationships, but because they are
derivative copies of impressions, they are once removed from reality.

- They form a fleeting stream of sensations in our mind, and that nowhere among
them is the sensation of a “constant and invariable” self that exists as a
unified identity over the course of our lives.
- All of our experiences are perceptions and none of these perceptions
resemble a unified and permanent self-identity that exists overtime.
- When we are not experiencing our perceptions (when we sleep), there is
no reason to suppose that our self exists in any form.

G. Immanuel Kant: We construct the self

- Our primary experience of the world is not in terms of a disconnected stream of

sensations.
- We perceive and experience an organized world of objects, relationships
and ideas, all existing within a fairly stable framework of space and time.
- Our minds actively sort, organize, relate and synthesize the fragmented,
fluctuating collection of sense data that our sense organs take in.
- It’s our self that makes experiencing an intelligible world possible, because
it’s the self that is responsible for synthesizing the discreet data of sense
experience into a meaningful whole.
- You are at the center of your world, and you view everything in the world
from your perspective.
- The self is not a content of consciousness but rather the invisible “thread” that
ties the contents of consciousness together

H. Sigmund Freud: There are two selves, one conscious, one unconscious

The self is multilayered.

–Conscious
–Preconscious
–Unconscious
•Consciousness : mental
processes of which we
are aware.
•Unconsciousness: mental
processes which are
not easily accessible to our
awareness.
•Preconscious: Everything
unconscious that can
easily exchange the
unconscious condition for
the conscious one
(capable of entering
consciousness).
Unconscious Self
 The self is multilayered
o Conscious – mental processes of which we are aware.
o Unconscious - mental processes of which are not easily accessible to our
awareness.
o Preconscious – Everything unconscious that can easily exchange the
unconscious condition for the conscious one (capable of entering
consciousness).

Unconscious Self

- Basic instinctual drives: sexuality, aggressiveness and self-destruction;

traumatic memories; unfulfilled wishes and childhood fantasies; thoughts and
feelings that would be considered socially taboo.
- Governed by “pleasure principle”
- Can be found in the content of our dreams, inadvertent “slips of the tongue”,
neurotic symptoms.

Conscious Self

- Governed by “reality principle”

- Behavior and experience are organized in ways that are rational, practical and
appropriate to the social environment.
- Takes into account the realistic demands of the situation, the consequences of
various actions and the overriding need to preserve the equilibrium of
the entire psychodynamic system.
- The conscious self has the task of controlling the constant pressures of the
unconscious self, as its primitive impulses continually seek for immediate
discharge. Why does the unconscious self-remain inaccessible to conscious
awareness?
- Repression: used to help contain the potentially disruptive aspects of
unconscious functioning, and as a consequence it is usually the main defense
mechanism for maintaining the ego boundaries necessary for normal
conscious functioning.
- The purpose of psychotherapy is to enable the patient to acknowledge the
conflicts, emotions and memories at the root cause of his or her disorder

I. Gilbert Ryle: The self is how you behave

•Although each person has

direct knowledge of
his or her mind, it is
impossible for us to have
any direct knowledge of
other minds.
•Our physical bodies are
just the opposite of
our minds.
–Their movements are
available to
everyone
–Can be observed,
photographed, measured,
analyzed, & movements can
be recorded.
•Minds: completely private
•Bodies: completely public
•Ryle believes that the mind
is a concept that
expresses the entire
system of thoughts,
emotions, actions and so on
that make up the
human self.
•The self is best
understood as a pattern
of
behavior, the tendency
or disposition for a
person to behave in a
certain way in certain
circumstances
•How you behave is “who”
you are.
•Although each person has
direct knowledge of
his or her mind, it is
impossible for us to have
any direct knowledge of
other minds.
•Our physical bodies are
just the opposite of
our minds.
–Their movements are
available to
everyone
–Can be observed,
photographed, measured,
analyzed, & movements can
be recorded.
•Minds: completely private
•Bodies: completely public
•Ryle believes that the mind
is a concept that
expresses the entire
system of thoughts,
emotions, actions and so on
that make up the
human self.
•The self is best
understood as a pattern
of
behavior, the tendency
or disposition for a
person to behave in a
certain way in certain
circumstances
•How you behave is “who”
you are.
- The self is defined in terms of the behavior that is presented to the world.
(Behaviorism)
- Although each person has direct knowledge of his or her mind, it is impossible for
us to have any direct knowledge of other minds.
- Our physical bodies are just the opposite of our minds.
• Their movements are available to everyone
• Can be observed, photographed, measured, analyzed, & movements can
be recorded.
- Minds: completely private
- Bodies: completely public
- Ryle believes that the mind is a concept that expresses the entire system of
thoughts, emotions, actions and so on that make up the human self.
- The self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, the tendency or
disposition for a person to behave in a certain way in certain circumstances.
- How you behave is “who” you are.

J. Paul Churchland:

- Materialism: the self is inseparable from the substance of the brain and the
physiology of the body.
- Since history, humans have known of the close, intimate relationship
between the mind and the body.
o Dimensions of the physical self - affects mental & emotional
functioning
o Dimensions of mental self - affects physical condition
- Modern science is now able to use advanced equipment and sophisticated
techniques to unravel and articulate the complex web of connections that
binds consciousness and body together into an integrated self
o To fully understand the nature of the mind, we have to fully understand the
nature of the brain.
- The ultimate goal of exploring the neurophysiology of the brain is to link the
self (thoughts, passions, personality traits) to the physical wiring and physiological
functioning of the brain

K. Maurice Jean Jacques Merleu- Ponty: The self is embodied subjectivity

- We experience our self as a unity in which the mental and physical are
seamlessly woven together.
o This unity is our primary experience of ourselves, and we only begin to
doubt it when we use our minds to concoct abstract notions of a separate
“mind” and “body”.
- Our “living body” is a natural synthesis of mind and biology and any attempts to divide
them into separate entities are artificial and nonsensical.
- It’s the moments of direct, primal experience that are the most real (Lebensweltor
“lived world”) which is the fundamental ground of our being and consciousness.
- Phenomenology: all knowledge of ourselves and our world is based on the
“phenomena” of our experience.
- When we examine ourselves at this fundamental level of direct human
experience, we discover that our mind and body are unified, not separate.