SELF
Fundamental to our identity, the evolving concept and something that an individual must
actively discover and cultivate over time.
Bundle of different perceptions
Unified self is simply a combination of all experience with particular person
Separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary and private
It does not require any other self to exist
SOCRATES
Man is dual nature of body and soul, engaged in systematic questioning about the self, and
believe that every human is dualistic.
PLATO
Socrate’s student
Added the three components of life: the rational soul, the spirited, and the appetitive soul
o Rational soul- reason and intellect has to govern the affairs of human person.
o Spirited soul- charge of emotion should be keep at bay
o Appetitive soul- desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sex are controlled as
well
Justice can only be attained if three parts of the soul are working harmoniously with one
another
“Magnum opus” The Republic
AUGUSTINE
Called St. Agustine of hippo
One of the Latin fathers of church, doctor of church, and most significant thinkers and
philosophers.
Believes that body is bound to die and soul is to anticipate living eternally in realm
ASPECTS OF SELF SOUL:
1. It is able to be aware of itself
2. It recognize itself as holistic one
3. It is aware of its unity
Soul strives to achieve God through faith and reason
THOMAS AQUINAS
The most imminent thirteenth century scholar
Man is composed of matter and form.
o Matter “hyle”- common stuff that makes up everything in the word (ex. Man’s body)
o Form “morphe”- essence of substance or thing
Human person is human person because of its soul.
Soul is what animates the body, it what makes us humans
DESCARTES
Father of modern philosophy
Conceived of the human person as having a body and mind
“cotigo ergo sum” I think therefore, I am.
Two distinct entities: the cotigo and extenza
DAVID HUME
Sottish philosopher
Empiricism believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experience.
Self is bundle of impression
o Impression- basic objects of our experience or sensation
o Ideas- copies of impression
Men can only attain knowledge by experiencing
EMMANUEL KANT
There is an organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all this impression
Empirical self- the self that changes over time
Transcendental self- the unchanging self that makes conscious experience possible
GILBERT RYLE
British philosopher
Solve the mind body dichotomy
Behaviors is what truly matters
Critique the cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phares “ghost in the machine”
MERLEAU-PONTY
French phenomenologist
Body are so interwind and cannot separated from one another
Believes that; one cannot find any experience that is not an embodied experience, all
experience is embodied, one’s body is his opening toward his existence in the world
OPPOSED the cartesian dualism as he believes that every aspect of the human person: the body,
thoughts and emotions, and experience are one and not separate aspects
MEAD AND VYGOTSKY
Human person develop is with the use of language acquisition and interaction with others
THE SELF AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
People influence and create their social lives by actively participating in their own development
SELF IN FAMILIES
The impact of family is deemed given in understanding the self
The kind of family and resources they have affect the kind of development that person will go
through
GENDER AND THE SELF
Gender is one of the aspects that is subject to change, alteration, and development
Social view of gender is what we freely chose to identify ourselves rather than being innate
THE SELF AND CULTURE
According to Marcel Mauss a French anthropologist, self has two faces: PERSONNE AND MOI
Personne- composed of social context of what it means to be who he is
Moi- person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity.
Weliam James (1890)
-one of the earliest psychologist study the self as having two aspects The '° and the 'Me' is the thinking,
acting, and felling self Me' is the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes
who you are
Carl Rogers's (1959)
- theory of personality also used the same terns as the one who acts and decides 'me' is what you think
or feel about yourself as an object
Identity and self-concept
IDENTITY - Is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as
affiliations that define who one is
SELF-CONCEPT- is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are
Sigmund Freud
-Basically, Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one's behavior as the results of the interaction
between the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.
G.H. Mead (1934)
argued that the self is created and developed through human interaction
Self-awareness
- also presents us three other self-schema: the actual, ideal, and ought self.
-The "actual" self is who you are at the moment
-the "ideal" self is who you like to be
- the "ought" self is who you think you should be
The downward social comparison
. As the name implies, we create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who are
worse off than us
upward social comparison
-which is comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us
self-evaluation maintenance theory
- which states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person
is close to us
Confucianism
- can be seen as a code of ethical conduct, of how one should properly act according to their relationship
with other people; thus, it is also focused on having a harmonious social life
Self-cultivation
-is seen as the ultimate purpose of life but the characteristics of a chun-tzu, a man of virtue or noble
character, is still embedded in his social relationships
Taoism
- is living in the way of the Tao or the universe.
Buddhism
The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance, of trying to hold and control things, or human-
centered needs; thus, the self is also the source of all these sufferings
the Eastern perspective
-sees the other person as part of yourself as well as the things you may create, a drama in which
everyone is interconnected with their specific roles
-Eastern or oriental persons look after the welfare of their groups and values cooperation
Western culture
- is what we would call an individualistic culture since their focus is on the person. Asian culture, on the
other hand, is called a collectivistic culture as the group and social relations that is given more
importance than individual needs and wants.
-Westerners also emphasize more on the value of equality even if they see that the individual can rise
above everything else.
