Understanding the Self: Philosophical Perspectives

A set of flashcards defining key philosophical terms and concepts regarding the nature of man and the self from Socrates to Merleau-Ponty.

Philosophical quest

An ongoing, systematic journey to understand the fundamental truths about existence, knowledge, values, and reality through curiosity and critical reasoning.

Direct intuition

The ability to understand or know something immediately without relying on step-by-step conscious reasoning, used by the soul to access knowledge in the realm of ideas.

Dialectic method

Also known as the Socratic method, it is an intellectual midwifery involving an exchange of question and answer to help a person remember forgotten knowledge.

World of Forms

Plato's concept of a permanent, unchanging reality containing perfect, invisible blueprints of everything, such as Justice and Beauty.

Dichotomy of the ideal world

The belief that reality is split into two realms: the flawed, ever-changing physical world and the invisible, eternal world of Forms.

Eternal Law

Moral laws imposed on the mind that are derived from God's Eternal Reason, which humans discern through the use of reason.

Conscience

The small still voice that tells an individual instinctively whether their actions are morally good or bad according to the Eternal Law.

Cogito ergo sum

A Latin phrase meaning "I think, therefore I am," which emphasizes mind consciousness as the evidence of existence.

Memory theory

John Locke's theory that personal identity consists of a psychological connection between life stages, making a person the same as their past self as long as they have overlapping memories.

Impressions

Things perceived through the senses as they are experienced, such as seeing a blue sky.

Ideas (David Hume)

Mental creations formed in the mind when an individual is no longer directly experiencing a sensory impression.

Bundle of perception

David Hume's conclusion that the self is not a permanent entity but merely a constantly changing stream of perceptions and experiences.

Free agent

An individual gifted with reason and free will who is capable of making rational deliberations and moral decisions.

Moral agent

A person who is driven by duty and acts towards the fulfillment of that duty through rational deliberation.

Id

The part of Sigmund Freud's tripartite division of the mind that represents biological nature, impulses, and bodily desires.

Superego

The ethical component of personality that provides moral standards and attempts to control the impulses of the Id.

Ego

The conscious self that manifests the outcome of the inner battle between the Id and the Superego.

Category mistake

Gilbert Ryle's criticism of Rene Descartes, arguing it is an error to treat the mind and body as separate entities rather than seeing the mind as the entire system of thoughts and behaviors.

Eliminative Materialism

The belief held by Paul Churchland that the self is the brain and that mental states like moods and emotions are strictly products of the brain's physical state.

Existentialist philosophy (Maurice Merleau-Ponty)

A perspective where the self is defined by virtue of movement and expression, grounded in past experiences, future possibilities, and present cognition.

Self-concept

One of the four components of the self alongside self-knowledge, self-esteem, and the social self.