Understanding the Self - Philosophical, Sociological, and Anthropological Perspectives

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering philosophical, sociological, and anthropological perspectives on the self based on the lecture transcript.

Philia

A Greek word meaning love, forming part of the root of philosophy.

Sophia

A Greek word meaning wisdom, forming part of the root of philosophy.

Self (Philosophy)

A companion in living in this world.

Self-Knowledge

A pre-requisite to a happy and meaningful life according to philosophers.

Psyche

The soul, which is synonymous with the self and is immortal in every human.

Death (Socrates)

The departure of the soul for the eternal world.

Physical Realm (Body)

A realm that is changeable, transient, and imperfect.

Ideal Realm (Soul)

A realm that is unchanging, eternal, and immortal.

Dichotomous Realms (Dualism)

The framework dividing existence into the physical realm (body) and ideal realm (soul).

"Know Thyself"

Socrates' directive asking who you are, who you want to be, and who you can be.

Inquisitive Mind

A mind employed to discover ultimate causes, reasons, and principles of everything.

Rational Soul (Plato)

The part of the self that enables us to think deeply, make decisions, and achieve true understanding of eternal truths.

Spirited Soul (Plato)

The part of the self driven by basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy.

Appetitive Soul (Plato)

The part of the self driven by basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.

Reason (Plato)

The element that sorts things out to exert control and keep a harmonious relationship among the three elements of the soul.

Genuine Happiness (Plato)

A state achieved if reason is in control of one's Spirits and Appetites.

Body and Soul (Aristotle)

The view that body and soul are not two separate elements but one thing, where the soul forms the body and cannot exist without it.

Soul (Aristotle)

The essence of the self that makes a person a person; it dies with the body.

Vegetative Soul

The kind of soul associated with the physical body that allows living things to grow.

Sentient Soul

The kind of soul associated with sensual desires, feelings, and emotions.

Rational Soul (Aristotle)

The kind of soul that makes us human, providing the intellect to know and understand things.

Eudaimonia

The ultimate goal of life, achieved when rational nature leads to a good, flourishing, and fulfilling life.

St. Augustine

A medieval philosopher who integrated ideas of Plato and Christianity into a unified perspective on body and soul.

Body and Soul (St. Augustine)

The perspective that the soul is united with the body and defines the person or self.

Humankind (St. Augustine)

Creation made in the image and likeness of God.

God (St. Augustine)

A transcendent being who is all good, making everything created by Him good.

Self-Knowledge (St. Augustine)

Knowledge of self attained through knowing God and seeing the light that dwells within us.

St. Thomas Aquinas

A medieval philosopher who posited that man is composed of matter (hyle) and form (morphe).

Matter (hyle)

The common stuff that makes up everything.

Form (morphe)

The essence of the living.

Human Agency (Aquinas)

The perspective that we do not encounter ourselves as isolated minds, but as agents interacting with the environment.

Rene Descartes

A modern philosopher who posited 'I think therefore I am' and proposed the Mind-Body Dichotomy.

Thinking Entity (Descartes)

The soul or thinking self; a non-material, immortal, conscious being independent of physical laws that doubts, understands, analyzes, questions, and reasons.

Physical Body (Descartes)

A material, mortal, non-thinking entity fully governed by the physical laws of nature.

Mind-Body Dichotomy

Descartes' division of the self into two dimensions: the thinking entity (soul) and the physical body.

John Locke

A modern philosopher who described the mind as a Tabula Rasa and the self as a collection of memories.

Tabula Rasa

A blank slate; the concept that the self is constructed by sense experience (hear, see, smell, feel, taste).

Self-Consciousness (Locke)

A necessary power of reason and introspection required to have a coherent personal identity or knowledge as a person.

Self (John Locke)

A collection of memories organized by consciousness.

David Hume

An empiricist philosopher who asserted that there is no self.

Bundle Theory

David Hume's concept that the self is merely a bundle or collection of different perceptions, impressions, sensations, ideas, thoughts, and images.

Personal Identity (David Hume)

An idea that is just a result of imagination, with no past or future, only present stimulation provided by the environment.

Immanuel Kant

A philosopher who maintained that the self actively organizes and synthesizes thoughts and perceptions to construct reality.

Internal World (Kant)

The domain of thoughts and feelings within a person.

External World (Kant)

The domain of events, situations, and happenings outside our control.

Transcendental Self (Kant)

The active self that synthesizes the internal and external worlds, transcending sense experience to create a familiar and predictable reality.

Sigmund Freud

A psychoanalyst who outlined the levels and provinces of the mind.

Levels of the Mind (Freud)

The three mental divisions: Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious.

Provinces of the Mind (Freud)

The structural components of personality: Id, Ego, and Superego.

Gilbert Ryle

A philosopher who stated 'I act therefore I am', asserting that the way we do things defines the self.

Paul Churchland

A neurophilosopher who posited that the self is the brain, and if the brain is gone, there is no self.

Physical Brain (Churchland)

The biological organ, rather than an imaginary mind, that gives us our sense of self.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

A philosopher who posited that the self is embodied subjectivity.

Embodied Subjectivity

The concept that all knowledge of ourselves and our world is based on subjective experience, meaning the self can never be truly objectified.

Sociology

The study of collective behavior or people within society.

Society

A group of people sharing the same culture and interacting within a definite territory.

Culture

The way of life of a certain society.

Material Culture

Tangible components of culture such as food and clothes.

Non-Material Culture

Intangible components of culture such as beliefs and values.

Social Institutions

A set of ideas, norms, practices, or mechanisms organized to address community needs (e.g., Kinship, Politics, Economic, Religion, Education).

Symbolic Interactionism

The study of patterns of communication, interpretation, and adjustment between individuals.

Symbols (Mead)

Culturally derived social objects having shared meanings.

Mind and Self (Mead)

Products of the communication process that are created, developed, and changed through human interaction.

The 'I' (Mead)

The knower; the response of an individual to the attitudes of others, representing spontaneous traits and the subjective, active side of the self.

The 'Me' (Mead)

The known; the objective element of the self consisting of organized expectations and attitudes of others learned through interaction.

Charles Horton Cooley

A sociologist who introduced the Looking Glass Self theory.

Looking Glass Self

The concept that people shape their identity based on their perception of others, which leads them to reinforce other people's perspectives on themselves.

Dramaturgical Model of the Self

Erving Goffman's idea that life is like a never-ending play in which people are actors performing on Front Stage and Back Stage.

Impression Management

An individual's desire to manipulate others' impressions of them on the front stage using specific behavioral techniques.

Postmodern Anthropological Perspective

A perspective defining the self as fragmented, emergent or developing, relational or social, and culturally determined.