Understanding the Self Notes

Plato 

Socrates's students, basically took off from his master and supported the

idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul. He contends that the.true self of the

a human person is the "rational soul", that is, the reason or the intellect that constitutes the person's soul, and which is separable from the bodv.

There are three components of the soul:

▪️rational soul- forged by reason and intellect has to govern the affairs of human person.

▪️the spirited soul- which is in charge of emotions

▪️the appetitive soul- in charge of base desires like drinking, eating, sleeping and having sex are controlled as well.

Augustine

Augustine's view of the human person reflects the entire spirit of the medieval world when it comes to the man. Following the ancient view of Plato and infusing it with the newfound doctrine of Christianity, Augustine agreed that man is of bifurcated nature. An aspect of man dwells in the world and is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine and the other is capable of reaching immortality. The body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion to God

Thomas Aquinas

 the most eminent thirteenth century scholar and stalwart of the medieval philosophy, appended something to this Christian view. Adapting some ideas from Aristotle, Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter or hyle in Greek refers to the “common stuff that makes up everything in the universe”. Man’s body is part of this matter. Form on the other hand, or morphe in Greek refers to the essence of a substance or thing.

Rene Descartes

Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived of the human person as having a body and a mind. He claims that there is so much that we should doubt. The fact that one thinks should lead one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he exists. The self then for Descartes is also a combination of two distinct entities, the cogito, the thing that thinks, which is the mind, and the extenza or extension of the mind, which is the body. In Descartes view, the body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind.

David Hume

A Scottish philosopher has a very unique way of looking at man. As an empiricist who believes that one can know only what ones from the senses and experiences. Humes argues that the self is nothing like what his predecessors thought of it. The self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body.

Immanuel Kant

 Thinking of the self as a mere combination of impressions was problematic for Immanuel Kant. Kant. Kant recognizes the veracity of Hume’s account that everything starts with perception and sensation of impressions.

Gilbert Ryle 

Solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the history of thought by blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life.

Merleau-Ponty 

Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologists who assert that the mind-body bifurcation that has been going on for a long time is a futile endeavor and an invalid problem. Unlike Ryle who simply denies the “self”, Merleau-Ponty instead says that the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another.

The Self, Society, and Culture

What is the Self?

Across time and history, the self has been debated, discussed, and fruitfully or otherwise conceptualized by different thinkers in philosophy.

What is Culture?

 Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. It has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art.

What is Society?

 is defined as a group of people living as a community or an organized group of people for a common purpose.

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           The self, in contemporary literature and even common sense, is commonly defined by the following characteristics:

•Separate- it is meant that the self is distinct from other selves. The self is always unique and has its own identity. One cannot be another person. Even the twins are distinct from each other.

•Self-contained and independent- because in itself it can exist. Its distinctness allows it to be self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics and volition. It does not require any other self for it to exist. 

•It is consistent because it has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist for quite some time. Its consistency allows it to be studied, described and measured. It also means that a particular self’s traits, characteristics, tendencies, and potentialities are more or less the same.

•Self is unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain person.

•the self is private. Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought processes within the self.

-This whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self. Social constructivist argue that the self should not be seen as a static entity that stays constant through and through.

The Self and Culture

Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adapting to one’s context seems paradoxical. According to French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss, every self has two faces; personne and moi. Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, and his biological givenness. It is a person’s basic identity. On the other hand, Personne has much to do with what it means to live in a particular institutions, a particular family, a particular religion, a particular nationality and how to behave given expectations and influences from others.

The Self and the Development of the Social World

More than givenness(personality, tendency, and propensities, among others), one is believed to be in active participation in the shaping of the self. Most often, we think the human persons are just passive actors in the whole process of the shaping of selves. That we are born with particularities that they can no longer change. Recent studies, indicate that men and women in their growth and development engage actively in the shaping of the self.

The Self in Families

 While every child is born with certain givenness, disposition coming from his parents’ genes and general condition of life, the impact of one’s family is still deemed as a given in understanding the self. The kind of family that we are born in  the resources available to us, and the kind of development that we will certainly affect us as we go through life.

Gender and the Self

Another aspect of the self is gender. Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change and development. We have seen in the past years how people fought hard for the right to express, validate and assert their gender expression. Many conservatives may frown upon this and insist on the biological. However, from the point- of- view of the social sciences and the self, it is important to give one the leeway to find, express and live his identity. This forms part of selfhood that one cannot just dismiss.

The Self as Cognitive Construct

William James(1890) was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self and conceptualized the self as having two aspects—the “I” and the “me”. The “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self. The “me” on the other hand, is the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes who you are.

Self- concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are(Oyserman, Elmore and Smith 2012).

 The “I” Self reflects what people see or perceive themselves doing in the physical world (e.g., recognizing that one is walking, eating, writing).

The “Me” Self is a more subjective and psychological phenomenon, referring to individuals’ reflections about themselves (e.g. characterizing oneself as athletic, smart, cooperative). Other terms such as self-view, self-image, self-schema, and self-concept are also used to describe the self-referent thoughts characteristic of the Me Self.

Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self- schema or our organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are( Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).

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You may also include your interests, work, course, age, physical characteristics, among others.

The Self in Western and Eastern Thoughts

Different cultures and varying environments tend to create different perceptions of the “self” and one of the most common distinctions between cultures and people is the Eastern- vs- Western dichotomy wherein Eastern represents Asia and Western represents Europe and Northern America.

It must be reiterated that while countries who are geographically closer to each other may share commonalities, there are also a lot of factors that create differences. In the Philippines alone, each region may have a similar or varying perception regarding the “self”.

In this lesson, we will look at religious beliefs and political philosophies that  influenced the mindset of each nation or culture.

Confucianism- can be seen as a code of ethical conduct, of how on should properly act according to their relationship with other people. The identity and self- concept of the individual are interwoven with the identity and status of his/her community or culture, sharing its pride as well as its failures.

Taoism- is living in the way of tao or the universe. However, Taoism rejects having one definition of what the tao is, and one can only state clues  of what it is as they adopt a free-flowing, relative, unitary as well as paradoxical view of almost everything. The self is not just an extension of the family or the community; it is part of the universe, one of the forms and manifestations of the Tao. The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting about the self, it is living a balanced-life with society and nature, being open and accepting to change, forgetting complementarity among humans as well as other beings.

Buddhism- there are various groups who have adopted Buddhism; thus, you may find differences in their teachings with our discussion but more likely, their core concepts remain the same. The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance, of trying to hold and control things, or human- centered needs; thus, the self is also the source of all these sufferings

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