The Self from Various Perspectives – Key Vocabulary

Learning Outcomes

  • Compare representations of the self across disciplines
  • Identify influences/factors shaping the self
  • Apply critical reflection to build a personal theory of the self

Classical Greek Perspectives

  • Socrates
    • Central task: “Know thyself”
    • Unexamined life→life not worth living\text{Unexamined life} \rightarrow \text{life not worth living}
    • Dualism: Man=Body+Soul\text{Man} = \text{Body} + \text{Soul} (body imperfect, soul perfect)
  • Plato
    • Pre-existence: soul knew all before birth
    • Tripartite soul
    • Rational (reason)
    • Spirited (emotion)
    • Appetitive (desire)
    • Justice = harmony among three parts
  • Aristotle
    • Body–soul unity; reason should rule senses
    • Happiness from virtuous, balanced life (Golden Mean → moderation)

Medieval Christian Perspectives

  • St. Augustine
    • Bifurcated nature: earthly body vs. immortal soul yearning for God
    • Virtue = “order of love”; goods of world are finite
  • St. Thomas Aquinas
    • Adopted Aristotelian hylomorphism:
    • Matter = body
    • Form = soul (animates body)

Early Modern Perspectives

  • René Descartes
    • Substance dualism:
    • Cognito (mind)\text{Cognito (mind)} – thinking, conscious
    • Extensa (body)\text{Extensa (body)} – mechanical
    • “Cogito, ergo sum\text{Cogito, ergo sum}” – thinking proves existence
  • John Locke
    • Mind at birth = tabula rasa\text{tabula rasa}
    • Knowledge from experience; individuals author their own character
    • Natural rights: life, liberty, health, property
  • Immanuel Kant
    • Mind actively organizes experience
    • Self = synthesizing, rational apparatus (sensibility → understanding → reason)
  • David Hume
    • Two contents: impressions (sensations) & ideas (copies)
    • No unified self; only bundle of perceptions

Contemporary & 20th-Century Views

  • Gilbert Ryle
    • Rejects “ghost in the machine”
    • Self = pattern of observable behaviors (speech, decisions, habits, emotions)
  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty
    • Mind–body inseparable; lived body = existence itself
  • Paul Churchland
    • Eliminative materialism: folk-psychology terms should be replaced by neuroscience
    • Self = dynamic neural patterns; no fixed, stable entity

Key Themes / Comparative Snapshot

  • Dualism vs. Monism
  • Role of reason (Socrates → Kant)
  • Experience & environment (Locke, Hume)
  • Embodied self (Merleau-Ponty)
  • Neurobiological reduction (Churchland)
  • Ethical dimension: virtue, moderation, love (Aristotle, Augustine)