Self

Lesson 1: The Nature of the Self

Philosophy and the Self

• Philosophy explores the ultimate causes, reasons, and principles of everything.

• Involves inquiry beyond scientific investigation to explore various areas of knowledge.

Pre-Socratic Philosophers

• Focused on the world's inquiry and the workings of the 'arche' (the origin or principle).

Socrates

• Advocated for self-knowledge: "Know thyself."

• Believed understanding the self is essential for a virtuous life.

• Key Ideas:

  • Self-knowledge as the highest goal:

    • Emphasizes the foundation of a meaningful life through understanding one’s values and ignorance, leading to personal growth.

  • The Soul as the True Self:

    • The soul (psyche) is immortal and is the essence of a person, essential for morality and identity, overshadowing the physical.

  • Virtue and the Self:

    • Virtue can be cultivated through continual questioning and dialogue, guiding one towards wisdom and temperance.

  • The Dialogical Self:

    • The self evolves through reflection and dialogue with others.

• Socratic view lays groundwork for later explorations by Plato.

Plato

• Introduced Tripartite Soul:

  • Rational: Governs with reason and seeks truth.

  • Spirited: Emotional part, striving for honor and bravery.

  • Appetitive: Seeks physical pleasures and desires.

• A just and virtuous soul exists when these three components are balanced.

Aristotle

• Proposed the concept of the unity of the body and soul.

• Emphasized that the soul is integral to one's existence, and it has three types:

  • Vegetative: Basic life functions.

  • Sentient: Sensory experiences and feelings.

  • Rational: Engaging in rational thought leads to a flourishing life.

Augustine & Thomas Aquinas

• St. Augustine: Merged Christian thought with Plato’s belief of a bifurcated human nature; the body is mortal, while the soul reaches divine communion after death.

• St. Thomas Aquinas: Defined humans as a combination of matter (hyle) and form (morphe), where the soul distinguishes humans from animals.

René Descartes

• Proposed dualism: body and mind are distinct; established "I think, therefore I am."

• Self-awareness correlates to existence and understanding.

David Hume

• Critiqued traditional views stating the self is a collection of experiences and perceptions, reducing it to a bundle of impressions.

Immanuel Kant

• Established the mind’s role in organizing experiences, making sense of existence and reality.

Gilbert Ryle

• Rejected internal dualism; suggested self is represented in behavior: "I act, therefore I am."

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

• Argued mind and body are inseparable in human existence.

Lesson 2: Sociological Perspectives on Self

Symbolic Interactionism

• Pioneered by George Herbert Mead.

• Examines communication patterns shaping the self through social interactions.

• Self as reflexive process:

  • The "me" (social self) vs. the "I" (individual’s response).

  • Self-awareness stems from social interactions and reflects attitudes from generalized others.

  • Self as social construction: Defined by social experience and changed through social relationships.

Looking Glass Self

• Developed by Charles Horton Cooley.

• Concept: Self-identification emerges from how we think others perceive us.

• Components:

  1. Imagine appearance to others.

  2. Imagine others’ judgment.

  3. Develop self through judgments.

Dramaturgical Model

• Developed by Irving Goffman.

• Life as a performance: front stage (public behavior) and back stage (private self).

• Impression Management: Manipulating self-presentation using social cues and behavior to influence perceptions.

LESSON 2.2

Anthropology is not just the study of how man and society evolved but profoundly interested in explaining and understanding the holistic aspects of man’s experiences that makes man human. According to Meijl (2008), the interest of early anthropology in a person is centered on the concept of personality and culture emerging from Freud and Sullivan’s psychoanalysis.  Personality and culture are co-influenced, i.e. personality was considered to be resulting from the internalization of culture, whereas culture was regarded as the projection of personality.
Eventually, the work of Erikson in the ‘50s on ego identity replaced the notion of personality and became a key term in anthropology. Identity referred to a well-adjusted personality that emerges from the same, or identical, identification of self by self and other (Erikson, 1950 as mentioned by Meijl, 2008). Hence, the concept of identity connotes sameness and stability which ran across many disciplines like sociology, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology in its earlier stage.
“Marcel Mauss (1938) used the concept of self (moi) but prefer the concept of persona (personne). Implicitly he focussed on the notion of person as a cultural category while he seemed to reserve the conception of self for the psychological dimension of personhood” (Meijl, 2008 p. 176). The concept of person is basically a cultural conception of a specific community while the concept of self was understood as a self-conscious agent that was constituted socially and psychologically.
In the contention of Morris (1994) “the self is not an entity but a process that orchestrates an individual’s personal experience as a result of which he or she becomes self-aware and self-reflective about her or his place in the surrounding world. The concept of self may accordingly be defined as an individual’s mental representation of her or his own person, as a self-representation, while the concept of other refers to the mental representation of other persons. Indeed, the most crucial form of interaction and exchange takes place between the self and her or his cultural environment as mediated in social practices” ( Meijl, 2008 p. 176).
In a postmodern perspective, the self is no longer considered as the source of all reflection, but it is reduced to a mere function of social practice. The self is never unified but increasingly disunited, while it is never singular but always constituted in manifold manners in different domains of society (Hall, 1996). Hence, the self is currently understood as a pluralist, fragmented, emergent, dialogical, relational, inconsistent, and culturally determined (Murray, 1993).

The cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger (1957) hypothesized that any person experiences the existence of dissonance between cognitive elements as uncomfortable and therefore everyone will always try to reduce a discrepancy between conflicting cognitions and attempt to achieve consonance, consistency, and coherence. This theory contends that people attempt to preserve a consistent and stable sense of self.  
Cognitive anthropologists refer to cognitive schemata and cultural models that are shared by members of a society and internalized into the self. This implies that people have no choice but to accommodate diverging cultural identifications within a relatively stable and coherent self. In order to maintain a cohesive whole, the self rejects or suppresses identifications that may conflict with other types of cognitive information and self-representations (Meijl, 2008).

Katherine Ewing’s (1990) paper ‘The Illusion of Wholeness’ tried to show how individual selves throughout the world continuously reconstitute themselves into new selves in response to internal and external stimuli. The self is generally not aware of these shifts in self-representation, which do not therefore thwart individual experiences of wholeness and continuity. The shifting selves can only be observed by others, who are generally also unable to identify an overarching, cohesive self. In Ewing’s perspective, this implies that the experience of personal continuity and wholeness by self is illusory.

Lesson 3: Understanding Self through Psychology

“You can alter your life by altering the state of your mind.”-  William James

Humanistic Perspective

• Focuses on personal growth and free will.

• Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of needs emphasizing self-actualization.

• Carl Rogers: Self emerges from experiences; comprises self-concept and ideal self which must align for adjustment and well-being.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Founded by Sigmund Freud; focuses on unconscious mind and early childhood experiences shaping personality.

• Stages of Psychosexual Development: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital.

Cognitive and Moral Perspectives

• Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget; children construct understanding through interaction with the world.

• Moral Development: Lawrence Kohlberg; theory of moral reasoning through stages from Pre-Conventional to Post-Conventional morality.

Lesson 4: The Physical Self

Body Image

• Concerned with perception of physical self and self-worth influenced by cultural and media standards.

• Healthy vs. unhealthy body image defined:

  • Healthy: Realistic self-perception and acceptance.

  • Unhealthy: Body dissatisfaction; detrimental behaviors.

Media and Culture

• Cultural conditioning impacts standards of beauty; promotes negative body awareness among youth.

• Reported trends in body image influenced by Western beauty ideals.

Lesson 5: The Sexual Self

Factors Influencing Sexual Self-Concept

• Biological, psychological, and social factors impacting an individual's understanding and acceptance of sexuality.

Lesson 6: Material Self

Understanding Ownership

• Relationship with possessions influences identity and behavior.

• Materialism peaks during adolescence.

Loss and Disposal

• Emotional connections with possessions affect psychological well-being.

• Disposal of possessions symbolizes personal growth and change.

Lesson 7: Spiritual Self

Spirituality

• Defined broadly as search for meaning and connection to self and others.

• Filipino perspectives on spirituality highlight connectedness, meaning, and expression.

The Soul in Various Cultures

• Beliefs in the dual nature of the soul; differing views among ethnic groups in the Philippines regarding the relationship between the body and soul.

  • Ibanag: Distinction between body and soul, seeing the soul as guiding force.

  • Ilonggo: Dungan's concept as the moving soul, influencing life.

Rituals

• Defined as structured sequences of activities with cultural significance.

• Life-cycle rituals, pilgrimages, and their effects on identity and community.