UNDERSTANDING THE SELF : PHILOSOPHICAL SELF

SELF

Dictionary.com defines this as a person or thing referred to with respect to complete individuality.

SELF

Learnedictionary.com this is the personality or character that makes a person different from other people: the combination of emotions, thoughts, feelings etc., that make a person different from others.

SELF

Merriam-Webster has defined it  as the union of elements (such as body, emotions, thoughts and sensations) that constitute the individuality and identity of a person

DAMASIO

The self-according to ___ is a network composed to highly integrated brain and body (through biochemical and neural circuits). Three levels:

PROTO-SELF

Is the sense of physical being (body) of an organism, based on neural patterns that map the person’s physical structures of which the organism is not conscious.

CORE SELF

Is the organisms emotional state (at the ultimate physiological level), it means this is where the individual is aware of, which is generated through the person’s encounters between the physical self and the objects in the environment.

EXTENDED SELF

This is the conscious concept of an individual or identity, which mostly relies on one’s personal characteristics and memories of past experiences (whether good or bad).

PERSONAL IDENTITY

refers to a sense of self that an individual develops over their life. It is a combination of how you see yourself and how others perceive you.

PERSONAL IDENTITY

This includes the personality, tastes, achievements, gender, ethnicity, nationality, social status, culture, beliefs and values which makes us unique if we combine all of these.

PHILOSOPHY

Love of wisdom

PHILOSOPHY

This is the investigation of nature, causes or principles of reality, knowledge or values through logical reasoning as opposed to empirical methods (American Heritage Dictionary).

PHILOSOPHY

For the Ancient Greeks, ___ meant the pursuit of wisdom for its own sake, and included ALL fields of philosophical learning, including the arts, sciences (Psychology, Physics even Medicine) and religion.

KNOW THYSELF

The dictum ___ is an ancient greeting of the highly civilized Greeks. It was believed that the temple gods greet the people with this salutation as they enter the holy sanctuary. The ancient Greek philosophers manifested to the people their various interpretations of the greeting.

SOUL

For the ancient Greeks, the ____ is the essence of the person.

SOCRATES

An ancient Greek philosopher known as the :

Forerunner OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

SOCRATES

Also known as the Market philosopher

SOCRATES

Wisest among the philosophers

SOCRATES

His method of questioning, famously known as Socratic method laid the groundwork for Western systems of logic in particular and philosophy in general.

SOCRATES

He believes that the soul existed first before man’s body. Man first exists in the realm of ideas and exists as a soul or pure mind.

SOCRATES

Plato was considered to be his greatest student

PLATO

He wrote Socrate’s Philosophy

DEATH

It can be concluded then that SOCRATES used his ____ as a final lesson for his students to face the adversities in life calmly and squarely rather than flee like chickens when faced with storms in life.  

SOCRATIC METHOD

is a method of eliminating hypotheses, in that better hypotheses are found through the continuous identification and elimination of those that lead to contradictions.

SOCRATIC METHOD

The said method searches for basic, widely held truths that form and scrutinize beliefs in order to assess their consistency with their beliefs.

DOGRA

He also added that the common belief or “doxa” as the greeks called it, always drags our mind down. It is important to think objectively about your life because what you feel about is what matters at the end.

DOXA

This always drags our mind down. It is important to think objectively about your life because what you feel about is what matters at the end.

Ankita Memon

According to him and his discussion of the self in 2018 , said that Socrates believed that the self exists in two parts; the Physical and the Soul

PHYSICAL

•          Ankita Menon, in his discussion of the self in 2018 , said that Socrates believed that the self exists in two parts:

•          First part is the _____, tangible aspect of us. Part that is mortal and can constantly change. Earth also belongs to this realm that our bodies belong in.

Second part is the soul, which is believed to be immortal. The soul is the part that is unvarying across all realms (it is unchanging while it is attached to our body and thus, in the physical realm, but it is also unmodified once the person dies the soul leaves the body to travel to the ideal realm).

SOUL

•          Ankita Menon, in his discussion of the self in 2018 , said that Socrates believed that the self exists in two parts:

•          First part is the physical, tangible aspect of us. Part that is mortal and can constantly change. Earth also belongs to this physical realm that our bodies belong in.

Second part is the ____, which is believed to be immortal. This is the part that is unvarying across all realms (it is unchanging while it is attached to our body and thus, in the physical realm, but it is also unmodified once the person dies this also leaves the body to travel to the ideal realm).

SOCRATES

He believed that when we are in the physical realm, we are alive and our body and soul are attached, therefore, making both parts of our “self” present in the physical realm. When we die however, our body stays in the physical realm while our soul travels to the ideal realm, therefore making our soul immortal.

PLATO

“If we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself.”

PLATO

According to him the soul is the true self- the permanent unchanging self, found in the world of Ideas.

PLATO

According to him the body is what we see in the material world- a mere replica of the true self (that is why it is changing).

PLATO

He perceives the SELF as the KNOWER = self is knowledge

PLATO

According to him, the body is the dichotomy of the body and soul.The body is the material and destructible part while the soul is the immaterial, indestructible part of the self.

According to him the soul is composed of three parts:

1. Rational Soul

2. Spiritual Soul

3. Appetitive Soul

RATIONAL SOUL

considered as the superior of all elements (moral and rational guide): reflects, think, analyze and do other cognitive functions

SPIRITUAL SOUL

part of the psyche that is excited when given challenges, or fights back when agitated, or fights for justice when unjust practices are evident. (Hot blooded part of the psyche). It contains man’s emotions

APPETITIVE SOUL

one’s desires, pleasures, physical satisfactions, comforts, pains, hunger, thirst etc.

NOUS

This means the conscious awareness of the self. This is the superpower that controls the affairs of the self. It decides , analyses, thinks ahead, proposes what is best, ansd rationally controls both the appetitive and spirited elements of the psyche

PLATO

He proposed he ALLEGORY OF THE CHARIOTEER

THE CROOKED AND DEFORMED HORSE

In the ALLEGORY OF THE CHARIOTEER, which horsed signifies the mortal?

THE NOBLE AND GAME HORSE

In the ALLEGORY OF THE CHARIOTEER, which horsed signifies the immortal?

DESTINATION

is the realm of the gods where there is beauty, wisdom, courage, justice and goodness.

ST. AUGUSTINE

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is a man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou hast visited him?”

ST. AUGUSTINE

He hailed from Tagaste, Africa in 354 B.C.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Augustine was unsettled and restlessly searched for the meaning of his life until his conversion to Christianity. 

ST. AUGUSTINE

The development of the self for him is achieved through self-presentation and self-realization. He was not afraid to accept to himself and tell the people about his sinfulness.

ST. AUGUSTINE

To him, man’s end goal is happiness. Only in God can man attain true and eternal happiness, made possible in his contemplation of the truth and the divine wisdom.

RENE DESCARTES

The Father of Modern Philosophy

RENE DESCARTES

The essence of man is in being a purely thinking being. Thus, I think, therefore; I am.

RENE DESCARTES

The mind and body are separate but at the same time conjoined with one another that they causally act upon each other.  (I cannot act without my body)

In his meditations on first philosophy, he claimed that we cannot really rely on our senses because our sense perceptions can often deceive us. 

He claimed that since he could no longer doubt that he is doubting, there should be a level of certitude that there must be someone who is doubting—that is him

COGITO ERGO SUM

Is translated as “I think therfore I’am” or “I doubt therfore I exist”

JOHN LOCKE

“What worries you, masters you.”

JOHN LOCKE

His proposition is that the self is comparable to an empty space/blank sheet where every day experiences contribute to the pile of knowledge that is put forth on that empty space.

DAVID HUME

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”

DAVID HUME

Born in Scotland, he was a lawyer but is known more for the history book that he wrote – History of England.

DAVID HUME

Just like Locke, he is an empiricist and regarded the senses as our key source of knowledge. He (1738) does believe in the existence of the mind and what’s inside the mind is divided into two: impressions and ideas.

DAVID HUME

He agreed that all ideas are derived from impressions, it follows that the idea of the self is also derived from impressions---which are subjective, temporary, provisional, prejudicial and even skewed—cannot be persisting

DAVID HUME

According to him, there is no self. Because for him, we are just a bundle of temporary impressions, therefore there is no self.

IMMANUEL KANT

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”

IMMANUEL KANT

Considered as one of the giants in philosophy, he was spurred into philosophical activism when he encountered Hume’s skepticism and took it upon himself to refute it.

IMMANUEL KANT

He argued that it is possible to discover universal truth about the world using our reason. He also argued that it is possible to find the essence of the Self.

The self is always, TRANSCENDENTAL

He believes that man is a free agent of capable of making decisions for himself

GILBERT RYLE

“Minds are things, but different sorts of things from bodies.”

GILBERT RYLE

For him, a talk of the mind is only a talk of behavior. The mind is not distinct from the body but is part of a certain aspects of our bodies.

GILBERT RYLE

Criticized Descartes and said Descartes made a category mistake. He finds the philosophy of Descartes absurd. The mind is never separate from the body.

GILBERT RYLE

Proposed that physical actions or behaviors are dispositions of the SELF. These dispositions are derived from inner private experiences.

PAUL CHURCHLAND

“We do have an organ for understanding and recognizing moral facts. It is called the brain.”

PAUL CHURCHLAND

Known for his Eliminative Materialism- the idea which states that the mind is unreal, and the brain is real.

ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM

the idea which states that the mind is unreal, and the brain is real.

PAUL CHURCHLAND

The self is the brain. The brain is the essence of the self. The term mind, moods, emotions, actions, and consciousness are deeply affected by the state of the brain.

PAUL CHURCHLAND

A new conceptual framework should be based on neuroscience.

MAURICE MERLEAU PONTY

“We know not through our intellect but through our experience.”

MAURICE MERLEAU PONTY

An existentialist, he believes that a person is defined by virtue of movement and expression. A person is the sum of all that he does with his body. Including his interpretation of his past and his decisions.

MAURICE MERLEAU PONTY

The self is grounded on the experiences from the past, the possibilities for the future and the present cognition.