UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

PHILOSOPHY
Athens of Ancient Greece at around 600 BCE
“philos” – love, “sophia” – wisdom
THE LOVE OF WISDOM
GREEK PHILOSOPHER OF MILETUS
Seek for natural explanations rather that super natural explanations
SOPHIST
First teacher
Skilled debaters

SOCRATES
One of the big three
Mentor of Plato
Named by Delphi Oracle as “wisest of all men”
True Self = Soul
SOCRATIC METHOD
Also called dialectic method
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
According to him “the examined life is not worth living”
Real understanding comes from within the person

PLATO
Real Name: Aristocles
Named Plato because of physical built
THEORY OF FORMS
Physical Realm – composed of changing, sensible things which are
lesser entities and therefore imperfect and flawed
The Realm of the Forms – composed of eternal things which are
permanent and perfect. It is the source of all reality and true knowledge.
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
Human beings as microcosms of the universal macrocosm.
Believes that people are intrinsically good and becomes evil through
ignorance of what is good.
THREE COMPONENT OF SOUL
The Reason – rational and is the motivation for the goodness and
thruth.
The Spirited – non-rationaland is the will or drive toward action
The Appetites – irrational and lean towards the desire for pleasures
of the body
THEORY OF BEING
In the knowing the thruth, the person must become the thuth
LOVE
The way by which a person can move from a state of imperfect
knowledge and ignorance to a state of perfection and true knowledge.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Did not believe that self-knowledge and happines were the ultimate
goals of man instead man should rely God’s commands and his judgement
of what constitute good and evil.
VIEW ON HUMAN NATURE
God is the source of reality and thruth
The sinfulness of man
THE ROLE OF LOVE
•Love of Physical objects lead to the sin of greed
•Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is
the sin of jealousy
•Love for the self leads to the sin of pride
•Love for the God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God
can man find real happiness
•All things are worthy of love but they must be loved properly
•If man loves God first everything will fall into its rightful place

RENE DESCARTES
Known as the “Father of the modern Philosophy”
Considered as one of the Rationalist Philosophers of the Europe
He introduced catesian method and invented analytic geometry
DESCARTES METHOD
He discovers that the human mind has two powers:
•Intuition – ability to apprehend direction of certain thruths
•Deduction – the power to discover what is now known by
progressing in an orderly way from what is already known.
- truths are arrive at using step by step process
VIEW ON HUMAN NATURE
“I think, therfore, I am”
The Mind-Body Problem
•Body – like a machine that is controlled by the will and aided
by mind
Thruths can be discovered priori
Priori – things that are innate in the human mind
JOHN LOCKE
Postoriori – objects that were experience
•Sensation
•Reflection
Ideas are not innate but rather “tabula rasa” – clean slate
“Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses”
Morality has to do with choosing or willing the good
Moral good depends on conformity and non conformity of persons
behavior toward some law:
•Law of Opinion(Self Opinion)
•Civil Law(Law of Society)
•Divine Law(God’s Law)

DAVID HUME
Relied on scientific method
THE HUMAN MIND
2 Types of Perception:
•Impression – immediate sensations of external reality
•Ideas – recollection of impressions
PRINCIPLES OF ASSOCIATION
•Principle of Resemblance
•Principle of Contiguity
•Principle of Cause and Effect – when people experience certain
relations between objects, thus it cant be basis for knowledge
IMMANUEL KANT
Greatly influenced by the philosophy of David Hume
German Idealism
Knowledge is the result of human understanding applied to sense
experience
Transcendental Apperception
God is within man – people should always see duty as a divine
command

SIGMUND FREUD
Austrian Neurologist
Pioneering figure in Psychology
Repressend thoughts and memories have enough pyschic energy to
impose its control on person’s consciousness
Hysteria – hidden unexpressed thoughts, and repressed memories
Libido – sexual instict
STRUCTURES OF THE MIND
•ID – Pleasure Principle
•Ego – Reality Principle
•Superego – Morality
•Thanatos – Death Instinct
•Eros – Life Instinct

GILBERT RYLE
English Philosoper
Freewill
TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
•Knowing-that
•Knowing-how

PATRICIA AND PAUL CHURCHLAND

Neurology – study of the nervous system, its structure, phsyiology,
and abberations
Man’s brain is responsible for the identity self
The biochemical properties of the brain is responsible for man’s
thoughts, feelings, and behavior
Brain is responsible for the identity known as the self
•Normal brain – acceptable behavoir
•Compromised brain – aberrant behavior patterns

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
French Phenomenological Philosoper
Influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger
Body Subject
consciousness the world and human body are interconnected as the
mutually perceive the world
The Phenomenology of Perception
The world is a field of perception and human consciousness assigns
meaning to the world
Man cannot seperate himself to the perceptions of the world
(no body = no perception)
Philosopher of the Body
 Focus on the relationship between self experience and the
experience of the other people.