UTS Lesson 1 and 2

What is Self? + What Philosophy Say About the Self.

Self

A multilevel system not simply reducible to genes or neurons, emerging from interactions of mechanisms, operating at neural, psychological, and social levels.

Self

A multilevel system not simply reducible to genes or neurons, emerging from interactions of mechanisms, operating at neural, psychological, and social levels.

Roots of Selfhood

* Reflexive Consciousness
* Interpersonal Being
* Executive Function

Reflexive Consciousness

A conscious attention turning back toward its own source and gradually constructing a concept of oneself.

Interpersonal Being

The selves become handles and tools for relating to people.

Executive Function

A resolution or vow as a decision-maker or controller self. Some examples are Optimism and Pessimism.

James, 1892

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their mind. There are as many social selves as groups of individuals who know him, and that changes in behavior with different audiences resulting in "practically" a division into different selves.

Nature

The natural basis of the self anchored on biology and explains that human traits are passed on from one generation to another. Some examples are genes and hereditary factors, appearance, characteristics.

Nurture

The self should be mainly viewed as an outcome of various nurturing factors in the context of one's life. Some examples are environmental variables, childhood experiences , how one was raised , social relationships , and surrounding culture. 

Identity

The qualities, belief, etc., that make a particular person or group different from others.

Self

The entire person of an individual.

Oyserman, Elmore , and Smith, 2012

Identities are the traits and characteristics , social relations, roles, group memberships that define who one is. Identities can be focused on the past does what to be true of one, the present - what is true of one now, are the future - the person one expects or wishes to become, the person one feels obligated to try to become, or the person one fears one may become; identities make up one's self-concept variously described as what comes to mind when one thinks of oneself.

Dimensions of the Self

* Social Factor
* Personality
* Environmental Factor
* Person-volition Factor

Social Factor

Refers to the influence of significant people in one's life. 

Personality

The individual patterns of thinking , feeling, and behaving. 

Environmental Factor

Includes physical and communal elements present in everyday surroundings , and are invariably dealt with by the individuals in a specific geographic region or area.

Person-volition Factor

Refers to the inclination of a person to form and construct a specific identity that will set him or her apart from the others.

Greeks

The ones who started to question myths seriously and then moved away from them in attempting to understand reality and responded to the perennial questions of curiosity, including the question of the Self.

Greeks

The earliest thinkers in the history of western philosophy.

Philosophy

Mother of all disciplines simply because all fields of study began as philosophical discourses.

Etymology of Philosophy

Greek words philo and sophia

Philo

To love.

Sophia

Wisdom.

Love for wisdom.

Philosophy

Goal of Philosophy

Wisdom

Self

A unifying essentially connected to consciousness , awareness , and agency; at least with the faculty of the rational choice.

Classical Antiquity

The ancient philosophy the self can be traced back from one of 147 Greek aphorisms prominently inscribed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi - know thyself - Socrates' guiding principle that he important to students.

Classical Antiquity

The philosophy of the self has been defined through three distinct lenses, specifically Empiricism, Rationalism, and Idealism.

Empiricism

There is no such thing as innate knowledge . Instead , knowledge is derived from experience , either perceived with the five senses or processed with the brain.

Rationalism

There is innate knowledge , however there are different sources of innate knowledge.

Idealism

Object of knowledge is held to be dependent on the activity of the mind .

Antiquity/Classical/Golden Age Philosophers

* Socrates
* Plato
* Aristotle

The Philosophy of Self by Socrates

Know thyself.

The Philosophy of Self by Socrates

A bad man is not virtuous through ignorance.

Virtue and Knowledge

The core of Socratic ethics.

Virtue

The deepest and most basic propensity of man.

Virtue

Innate in the mind and self.

The Philosophy of Self by Socrates

Socratic Method and Ethics.

The Philosophy of Self by Plato

The ideal self , the perfect self.

Man

Was omniscient and all knowing before he was born in the world.

The Paradise of Truth and Knowledge

Because of the separation of man from _____________, together with his long exile on earth, he forgot most of the knowledge he had.

Perfection

Man can regain ______________ by constant contemplation and doing good.

The Philosophy of Self by Plato

Every man on earth has a guiding star , a model , or a divine exemplar which he must follow to reach and attain his destiny.

Happiness

Is achieved with the constant imitation of the divine exemplar of virtue.

Ideal

Subsumed in the phenomena.

The Philosophy of Self by Aristotle

The ideal is essence and phenomena is matter.

The Philosophy of Self by Aristotle

The ideal and the phenomena coexist and are codependent. The essence provides meaning and purpose to the matter, and the matter provides substance and solidity to the essence.

The Philosophy of Self by Aristotle

Aristotle is an empiricist. He thinks that all knowledge comes to human beings from and through sensations. Our minds start as blank slates and from sensation we get our ideas or the so-called contents of our mind.

Medieval/Middle Ages Philosophers

* St. Augustine
* St. Thomas Aquinas

The Philosophy of Self by the Christian Bible

God created man in his image; in the divine image He created him; male and female he created them . God blessed them , saying "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it . Have dominion over the fish of the sea , the birds in the air , and all the living things that move on earth." - Genesis, 1:24-28

Love and Justice

The foundation of the individual self.

The Philosophy of Self by St. Augustine

Man is of a bifurcated nature. Man is imperfect and earthly but is also capable of reaching immortality.

The Philosophy of Self by St. Augustine

The goal of the person is to attain communion with the divine.

The Philosophy of Self by St. Augustine

The world of materials is not our final home but only a temporary one; the real world is the one where God is.

Virtuous Life

A dynamism of love.

The Philosophy of Self by St. Thomas Aquinas

Man is composed of matter and form.

Matter or Hyle

The common that makes up everything.

Form or Morpe

The essence of the living.

Enlightenment Philosophers

* René Descartes
* John Locke
* David Hume
* Immanuel Kant

The Philosophy of Self by René Descartes

Cogito, ergo sum or I think , therefore I am.

The Philosophy of Self by René Descartes

The self is a thinking entity distinct from the body.

The Philosophy of Self by René Descartes

Man must use his own mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment, and develop himself.

The Philosophy of Self by John Locke

Personal identity , Tabula Rasa.

The Philosophy of Self by John Locke

The self is a matter of psychological continuity; it is founded on consciousness or memory and not on the substance of either the soul or the body.

The Philosophy of Self by John Locke

Personal identity or the self is a concept about oneself that evolved over the course of an individual's life.

The Philosophy of Self by John Locke

Identity is not locked in the mind , soul, or body only; there is also the concept of the person's memory.

The Philosophy of Self by John Locke

Identity is explained in terms of psychological connection between life stages.

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

All knowledge is derived from human senses.

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

Introduced the bundle theory.

Impression

Vivid product of direct experience

Idea

A copy of an impression, like imagination

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

Skeptical about the existence of the self specifically if there is a simple or unified self that exists over time.

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

Man has no clear and intelligible idea of the self; even if there was, it has to remain constant over time to constitute identity, but man and his impressions very and always change.

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

The self is just the thing to which all perceptions of a man is ascribed.

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

A person can never observe oneself without some other perception.

The Philosophy of Self by David Hume

The self is just a bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity.

The Philosophy of Self by Immanuel Kant

Respect for the self.

The Philosophy of Self by Immanuel Kant

Man is the only creature who governs and directs himself and his actions.

The Philosophy of Self by Immanuel Kant

Every man is thus and end in himself and should not be used as a tool or instrument to accomplish another's private ends.

Contemporary/ Modern Philosophers

* Sigmund Freud
* Gilbert Ryle
* Paul and Patricia Churchland
* Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The Philosophy of Self by Sigmund Freud

The ego is not the master in its own house.

The Philosophy of Self by Sigmund Freud

Man is governed by Eros and Thanatos.

Eros

Life Drive

Thanatos

Death Drive

Provinces of the Mind

• ID

• Ego

• Superego

ID

Instinct

Ego

Reality

Superego

Morality

The Philosophy of Self by Gilbert Ryle

I act, therefore I am.

The Philosophy of Self by Gilbert Ryle

The mind is not separate from the body; it consists of dispositions of people based on what they know, what they feel, what they want, and so on.

The Philosophy of Self by Gilbert Ryle

Introduced Analytical Behaviorism

Analytical Behaviorism

A theory of mind which states that mental concepts can be understood through observable events.

Bundle Theory

A theory that describes one as a collection of impressions and ideas.

The Philosophy of Self by Paul and Patricia Churchland

Introduced Eliminative Materialism.

The Philosophy of Self by Paul and Patricia Churchland

The self is nothing else but brain; the self is contained entirely within the physical brain.

The Philosophy of Self by Paul and Patricia Churchland

To understand oneself, one must study the brain, not just the mind.

Eliminative Materialism

A radical claim that ordinary, common sense understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common sense do not actually exist.

The Philosophy of Self by Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The body is two types: subjective body and objective body.

The Philosophy of Self by Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The self is embodied subjectivity. There cannot be disembodied minds or complex machines.

The Philosophy of Self by Maurice Merleau-Ponty

He opposed the cartesian cogito. For him, consciousness is both perceiving and and engaging.