UTS  The absolute and immutable is

the Living God, the Creator of the

LESSON 1
entire universe.
Socrates 
 To love God means to love one’s
 Know Thyself fellowmen, and to love one’s
 Question Everything fellowmen means never to do any
 Only the Pursuit of Goodness harm to another.
Bring Happiness Rene Descartes
 Socratic Method: Question and  The Self is defined as a subject
Answer; that thinks.
 Leads us to think for ourselves. 
Plato  The self that has full competence
Tripartite Soul in the powers of human reason.
 The Rational part desires 
to exert reason and attain  Having distanced the self from all
rational decisions (RULING sources of truth from authority and
CLASS) tradition, the self can only find its
truth and authenticity within its own
 The Spirited part desires
capacity to think.
supreme honor (MILITARY
John Locke
CLASS)
 Personal identity is a matter of
psychological continuity.
 The Appetite part of the

soul desires bodily pleasures
 Personal identity (or the self) is
such as food, drink, sex, etc.
founded on consciousness.
(COMMONER)

Aristotle
 Contributed the foundation of  Identity over time is fixed by
both symbolic logic and scientific awareness of the past.
thinking 
  Locke posits an “empty” mind, a
 The best way to gain knowledge tabula rasa, which is shaped by
was through “natural philosophy,” experience, and sensations and
which is what we would now call reflections being the two sources of
science. all our ideas.
 David Hume
Happiness, which is dependent in
  He rejects the notion of identity
an individual’s virtues, is the central over time.
purpose of human life and a goal in 
itself.  There are no “persons” that
St. Augustine continue to exist over time, there are
 An important figure in the merely impressions.
development of Western Christianity 
 The things you are thinking about
 His philosophy of man brings towards yourself are individual
together wisdom of the Greek impressions or perceptions of
philosophy and the divine truths towards you.
contained in the scripture. Immanuel Kant

  Consciousness is the central Maurice Ponty
feature of the self.  His work is commonly associated
 with the philosophical movement
 The consciousness is divided called existentialism and its intention
into: to begin with an analysis of the
concrete experiences, perceptions,
1. Internal Self - composed of and difficulties, of human existence.
psychological states and
informed decisions;  Our perception of the self is a
remembering our own state, collection of our perceptions of our
how can we combine the new outside world.
and old ideas with our mind.
1. Self-is memory and
Imagination. Lesson 2
2. External Self - made up of Sociological Perspectives of the Self
ourselves and the physical 1. Self as a product of modern society
world where the representation 2. Self as a necessary fiction
beliefs that cannot be proven to be true and
of objects sometimes can be proven false, but are,
Sigmund Freud nonetheless, necessary to sustain life.
 The self continues from childhood
to adulthood. 3. Post Modern View of the Self
 Personality is determined by  Self is a narrative, a text written and
childhood experiences. rewritten
 Personality is largely  Information technology dislocates the
unconscious. self, thus, self is “digitalized” in
cyberspace.
 Structure of the Self  Post-modern selves are “pluralized”
selves.”
 Id: animalistic self;
 This can be observed through
pleasure principle
behavioral patterns portrayed in social
 Ego: executive self; reality media.
principle  Global migration produces multicultural
 Superego: conscience; identities.
morality principle
Gilbert Ryle 4. Self as Artistic Creation
 Rejects the theory that mental Self is not discovered. It is made through
states are separable from physical the socialization process.
states.
5. Self-Creation and Collective Identity
 He argued that philosophers do
Self-creation is formed through imagined
not need a "hidden" principle to communities
explain the supra-mechanical
capacities of humans, because the Memories play significant role in
workings of the mind are not distinct creating the self and identity
from the actions of the body, but are
one and the same. Search for self-identity is a product of modern
 He concluded that adequate society but this is complicated by the socio-
descriptions of human behavior need cultural sensibilities of postmodernity, new
never refer to anything but the information technologies and globalization.
operations of human bodies.
 Me is the image of self seen when one takes
Mead and the Social Self the role of the other.

George Herbert Mead Lesson 3

He is well-known for his theory of the social self, Anthropology - holistic view of human nature. It
which is based on the central argument that the self is concerned with how cultural and biological
is a social emergent. processes interact to shape the self.

According to Mead, there are three (3) 2 ways in which the concept of self is viewed in
activities through which the self is developed: different societies:
Language 1.Sociocentric
allows individuals to take on the “role of the other” and Sociocentric thinking occurs when a person
allows people to respond to his or her own gestures in
puts the needs and concerns of a social group
terms of the symbolized attitudes of others.
ahead of his or her own needs and concerns.
Play Thus, society is at the center.
During play, individuals take on the roles of other
people and pretend to be those other people in 2.Egocentric
order to express the expectations of significant Egocentric thinking occurs when an individual
others. is unable to understand or assume any
perspective other than one's own.
This process of role-playing is key to the generation
of self-consciousness and to the general
Arnold Van Gennep’s
development of the self.
3 Rites of Passage
Game Rites of Passage - A ceremonial event, existing
In the “game,” the individual is required to in all historically known societies, that marks
internalize the roles of all others who are involved the passage from one social or religious status
with him or her in the game and must comprehend to another.
the rules of the game.
1. SEPARATION PHASE
people detach from their former identity to
George Herbert Mead is also known for: another.
“I” Self and “Me” Self
2. LIMINALITY PHASE
The “I” is the response to the “me,” or the people detach from their former identity to
person’s individuality. another.

It allows us to still express creativity and 3. INCORPORATION PHASE

individualism and understand when to possibly the change in one’s status is officially
bend and stretch the rules that govern social incorporated.
interactions.
1. Self-identification may be
attained by: kinship, family
membership, gender, age,
“Me” represents the expectations and attitudes language, religion, ethnicity,
of others (the generalized other) personal appearance, and
socioeconomic status.
It is the socialized aspect of the individual. It
 kinship, gender,
represents the learned behavior, attitudes, and and age are almost
expectations of others and the society. universally used to
differentiate people.
  ethnicity, personal These are casual behaviors that are generally and
appearance, and widely conformed to. Learned through observation,
socioeconomic status are imitation, and general socialization.
not always used in every
society. Culture and it’s characteristics
2. Family membership could be 1.Culture is learned. It is not biological; we do not
the most significant feature to inherit it. Much of learning culture is unconscious.
determine the person’s social
identity. We learn culture from families, peers, institutions,
3. Another important identity and media.
determinant that is often viewed 2. Culture is shared. Because we share culture
as essential for the maintenance with other members of our group, we can act in
of a group identity is language. socially appropriate ways as well as predict how
4. In other societies, religious others will act.
affiliation is an important marker
of group identity.
5. A name is an important device 3. Culture is based on symbols. A symbol is
to individualize a person and to something that stands for something else. They
have an identity. only have meaning when people in a culture agree
6. One’s identity is not inborn. It on their use.
is something people continuously 4. Culture is all-encompassing and dynamic.
develop in life. Because most cultures are in contact with other
cultures, they exchange ideas and symbols. All
cultures change, otherwise, they would have
Culture - A system of inherited conceptions
problems adapting to changing environments.
expressed in symbolic forms by means of
5. Culture is integrated. This is known as holism, or
which men communicate, perpetuate, and the various parts of a culture being interconnected.
develop their knowledge about and their All aspects of a culture are related to one another
attitudes toward life” (Clifford Geertz 1973). and to truly understand a culture, one must learn
about all its parts, not only a few.
3 Components of Culture
1.Material Component Cultural Challenges
 Pertains to all tangible materials that Cultural Lag (Generation Gap)
are inherited from previous generation. The time elapses between the introduction of a new
2.Cognitive Culture item to the culture and the acceptance of it as part
 Pertains to all body of knowledge, of the new culture
skills, and other capabilities handed
down from one generation to another. Cultural Barrowing
3.Normative Culture Happens when one society meets another society
Pertains to prescription or standards and ends up adopting it as its own. Excessive

usage of borrowed culture results to Xenocentrism.
of behavior that govern the relationship
of individuals in the society.
Xenocentrism. Culturally-based tendency to
 This standard of behavior is
value other cultures highly than one’s own.
known as societal norms.
Very much alike with colonial mentality.
A. Formal Social norms
B. Informal Social norms
Formal Social Norms Xenophobia
These are established, written rules. It is made to fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of
maintain the balance and order amongst people anything that is strange or foreign .
Informal Social Norms
Culture Shock
is a sense of anxiety, depression, or confusion that
results from being cut off from your familiar culture,
environment, and norms when living in a foreign 1. Buddhism
country or society. Nirvana, a state of transcendence
devoid of self-reference.
Lesson 4
Self - is the sense of personal identity and of who 2. Hinduism
we are as individuals. Law of Karma

William James’ concept of the selves 3. Confucianism

I – Self - Refers to the self that knows who he or Golden Rule
she is. Rectification of Names – a person or
thing should be true to its name.
Me – Self - Refers to describing the person’s
personal experiences and further divided into sub- Individualistic Self
categories. needs of the individual being satisfied
Material Self - it consists of things that before those of the group.
belong to us or that we belong to. Things like
family, clothes, our body, and money. Collectivistic Self
Social Self - people change how they act The survival and success of the group
depending on the social situation that they are in. ensures the well-being of the individual, so that by
Configured based upon our interactions with considering the needs and feelings of others, one
society and peoples’ reaction to us. protects oneself.

Spiritual Self - subjective and most intimate

self. It includes one’s personality, core values, and
conscience that do not typically change throughout
their lifetime.

David Lester’s Multiple versus Unified self

Multiple selves – Basically, our own different
identities and roles that we play.

Unified self - means of referring to the "self"

that contains all the other personas that exist
within a person's interactional style.
- response to our multiple selves

Donald Winnicott’s True self versus False self

 Winnicott argued that the function of the
false self is to hide and protect the true self.
 True self can sometimes be shown to
people we trust.
 People tend to display a false self to
impress others.

Lesson 5
Western Thoughts
Emphasized the importance of scientific
methods of investigation to provide satisfactory
answers to understand the self.

Eastern Thoughts
Raise question about the ultimate meaning
of human life.