Who Am I? A Philosophical Journey to Discovering the Self

Practice flashcards covering the philosophical and psychological theories of identity from Socrates to modern neuroscience.

According to the lecture, identity is shaped by a complex mix of reason, reflection, memory, experience, society, the body, and the __________.

physical brain

Socrates (470-399 BCE) famously stated that "The __________ life is not worth living."

unexamined

In Plato’s Tripartite Soul, the part that seeks truth, knowledge, logic, and wisdom is called __________.

Reason

According to Plato, the __________ part of the soul drives emotions like courage, pride, ambition, and determination.

Spirit

In the Tripartite Soul model, the __________ drives physical desires like hunger, comfort, money, and entertainment.

Appetite

St. Augustine (354-430 CE) argued that self-knowledge requires deep __________ over external achievements.

introspection

René Descartes (1596-1650) is famous for the Latin phrase "__________," which means "I think, therefore I am."

Cogito, ergo sum

René Descartes proposed __________ Dualism, asserting that the mind and the body are distinctly separate entities.

Mind-Body

John Locke (1632-1704) believed we are born as a __________, or a "blank slate."

tabula rasa

For John Locke, __________ is the bridge connecting our past and present selves.

Memory

David Hume (1711–1776) proposed the __________, which states there is no permanent, fixed true self.

Bundle Theory

Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy is guided by the __________, which asks: "What if everyone acted the way I am about to act?"

Categorical Imperative

In Sigmud Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the __________ is the instinctive part that seeks immediate pleasure.

Id

In Freud's theory, the __________ is the rational part that balances instincts with reality.

Ego

According to Freud, the __________ is the moral conscience that distinguishes right from wrong.

Superego

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) rejected Descartes' mind-body dualism, referring to it as the "__________."

ghost in the machine

Paul Churchland (1942-Present) argues that identity is fundamentally linked to __________.

brain function

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) proposed the concept of the __________, which suggests we understand the world through our physical bodies.

Embodied Self