The Self According to Philosophy

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, definitions, and theories of the self from major Western philosophers and psychologists.

Philosophy

The study of knowledge or wisdom, derived from the Greek roots philo (love) and sophia (wisdom); considered 'The Queen of All Sciences'.

Pre-Socratics

A group of early Greek philosophers born mostly before Socrates who focused on the origin and nature of the physical world, also known as cosmologists or naturalists.

Socratic Method

A method of inquiry and instruction consisting of a series of questionings to elicit a clear and consistent expression of something implicitly known by rational beings.

Physical Realm (Socrates)

The realm of existence that is changeable, temporal, and imperfect, such as the physical world and human body.

Ideal Realm (Socrates)

The realm of existence that is unchanging, eternal, and immortal, containing intellectual essences like beauty, truth, goodness, and the soul.

Reason (Plato)

The component of the soul (also called divine essence) that enables human beings to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.

Appetite (Plato)

The component of the soul representing basic biological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.

Spirit (Plato)

The component of the soul representing basic human emotions, such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, and empathy.

Cogito, ergo sum

Rene Descartes' famous principle meaning 'I think, therefore I am', establishing that doubting and mental operations prove one's existence.

Cogito (Descartes)

The thing that thinks, representing the mind and the essential identity of a human person.

Extenza (Descartes)

The extension of the mind, which is the body, operating as a machine attached to the mind.

Disordered Love

According to St. Augustine, the condition that results when a person loves wrong things believing they will bring happiness, leading to human problems.

Tabula Rasa

John Locke's concept of the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state prior to receiving outside impressions.

Empiricism

The school of thought espousing that knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced.

Impressions (Hume)

The basic sensations of experience and elemental data of the mind, such as pain, pleasure, heat, cold, happiness, grief, fear, and exhilaration.

Ideas (Hume)

Copies of primary impressions that include thoughts and images built up through relationships, once removed from reality.

Fictional Self

David Hume's concept of an imaginary construct created to unify mental events and introduce order, possessing no real existence.

Conscious Self (Freud)

The self governed by the reality principle that is rational, practical, appropriate to the social environment, and responsible for controlling unconscious pressures.

Unconscious Self (Freud)

The self governed by the pleasure principle that is aggressive, destructive, unrealistic, and instinctual.

Id

The structure of the mind based on the pleasure principle that demands immediate satisfaction without being hindered by societal expectations.

Ego

The structure of the mind based on the reality principle that mediates between impulses of the id and restraints of the superego.

Superego

The structure of the mind based on the moral principle, dependent on learning right from wrong through childhood rewards and punishments.

Eros

The life instinct driving human behavior whose energy is called libido, encompassing survival needs such as thirst, hunger, and sex.

Thanatos

The death instinct driving human behavior, manifested through destruction, aggression, and violence.

Category Mistake

Gilbert Ryle's term for confused conceptual thinking that occurs when speaking of the self as a purely mental entity existing in time but not space, independent of the physical body.

Transcendental Apperception

Immanuel Kant's concept of the sense or essence of consciousness that provides a basis for establishing the self by synthesizing experiences, intuition, and imagination.

Neurophilosophy

A term coined by Patricia Churchland for modern scientific inquiry applying neurology to age-old philosophical problems.

Eliminative Materialism

The position supported by Paul Churchland asserting that common-sense understandings of the mind are false and that mental states are reducible to physical brain states.

Self-Subject

Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concept contending that perceptions occur existentially, with consciousness, the world, and the body interconnected in mutual perception.

Phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty)

A philosophy providing a direct description of human experience, asserting that human consciousness assigns meaning to the world and cannot be separated from perception.