Philosophical and Sociological Perspectives of the Self

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes covering the Philosophical Perspective of the Self (Chapter 1) and the Sociological Perspective (Chapter 2).

Socrates

An Ancient Greek philosopher who asserted that the true self is the soul and emphasized self-examination through the ideas 'Know thyself' and 'An unexamined life is not worth living.'

Plato

An Ancient Greek philosopher who believed the soul is immortal while the body is temporary, and divided the soul into three parts: Rational, Spirited, and Appetitive.

Rational Soul (Plato)

The part of the soul in Plato's philosophy that thinks and seeks truth.

Spirited Soul (Plato)

The part of the soul in Plato's philosophy that governs emotions, courage, and pride.

Appetitive Soul (Plato)

The part of the soul in Plato's philosophy responsible for desires and physical wants.

Aristotle

An Ancient Greek philosopher who viewed the self as the unity of body and soul working together as one whole based on hylomorphism.

Hylomorphism

Aristotle's doctrine that physical objects are unified wholes of matter (body) and form (soul).

Nutritive Soul

The level of soul in Aristotle's framework responsible for growth, nutrition, and reproduction.

Sensitive Soul

The level of soul in Aristotle's framework responsible for sensation, movement, and desire.

Rational Soul (Aristotle)

The level of soul in Aristotle's framework responsible for thinking and reasoning.

St. Augustine

A medieval philosopher influenced by Plato and Christianity who taught that the self is an immortal soul created by God searching for truth and God.

Thomas Aquinas

A medieval philosopher who integrated Aristotle's ideas with Christianity, stating that body and soul form one human being and knowledge begins through the senses.

René Descartes

The Father of Modern Philosophy who established mind-body dualism and formulated 'Cogito, ergo sum.'

Cogito, ergo sum

René Descartes' famous statement meaning 'I think, therefore I am.'

John Locke

A British empiricist philosopher who stated that personal identity is based on the continuity of consciousness and memory.

David Hume

An empiricist philosopher who denied a permanent self and claimed the self is merely a 'bundle of perceptions.'

Immanuel Kant

A modern philosopher who proposed the transcendental self, where the 'I' acts as the unifying consciousness connecting different experiences.

Transcendental Self

Kant's concept of the 'I' as the unifying consciousness behind experiences.

Sigmund Freud

A psychologist who proposed that the self or psyche is divided into three parts: Id, Ego, and Superego.

Id

The part of Freud's psyche representing basic desires and instincts ('I want').

Ego

The part of Freud's psyche that deals with reality and makes decisions ('I decide').

Superego

The part of Freud's psyche representing morals, rules, and conscience ('I should').

Gilbert Ryle

A contemporary philosopher who rejected mind-body dualism and the 'ghost in the machine,' defining self through behavior and actions.

Ghost in the Machine

The dualist idea criticized by Gilbert Ryle that treats the mind as a separate ghost-like entity inside the physical body.

Patricia and Paul Churchland

Contemporary philosophers who championed eliminative materialism, asserting that mental processes are physical brain processes.

Eliminative Materialism

The philosophical approach supported by the Churchlands stating that mental processes are physical brain processes.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

A contemporary philosopher who described the self as an 'embodied self,' where lived bodily experiences shape our understanding of self and the world.

Sociology

The systematic study of human society.

Socialization

The process through which individuals learn and acquire roles, values, beliefs, behaviors, and cultural norms from society.

George Herbert Mead

A sociologist who studied the social development of the self through interaction, symbolic interactionism, and role-taking.

Symbolic Interactionism

A sociological framework focusing on how people create meaning through social interaction, communication, symbols, role-taking, and social expectations.

Preparatory Stage

Mead's first stage of self-development during infancy, characterized by children imitating actions without understanding their meaning.

Play Stage

Mead's second stage of self-development, where children pretend and take on specific roles to see themselves from another person's perspective.

Game Stage

Mead's third stage of self-development, where children understand multiple roles simultaneously as well as society's rules and expectations.

Generalized Other

The general expectations of society that an individual internalizes and uses to guide behavior.

"I" (Mead)

The subjective, spontaneous, creative, and unique response component of the self in Mead's social theory.

"Me" (Mead)

The socialized part of the self in Mead's theory that represents society's expectations, rules, and values.

Albert Bandura

A psychologist who created Social Learning Theory and demonstrated observational learning using the Bobo Doll Experiment.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura's theory stating that people learn behaviors by observing and imitating models.

ARMM

The acronym for the four processes of Social Learning Theory: Attention, Retention, Motoric Reproduction, and Motivation.

Bobo Doll Experiment

An experiment by Bandura demonstrating that children learn behaviors by observing and imitating models.

Karl Marx

A sociologist who developed the Theory of Self-Alienation regarding disconnection from one's true self or activities.

Self-Alienation

A state described by Karl Marx where a person feels disconnected or estranged from their own true sense of self, values, feelings, or desires.

Émile Durkheim

A French sociologist associated with structural functionalism who introduced the concept of collective representation.

Collective Representation

Émile Durkheim's term for shared ideas, beliefs, values, norms, and symbols created through constant social interaction in a group or society.