BY: ESTELA I.

BORJA
 A. THE
PHILOSOPHICAL
SELF
What is Philosophy?
- Greek words “philos” which means
love and “sophia” which means
wisdom, thus, philosophy is a “love
of wisdom”
- study of general and fundamental
problems concerning matters like
existence, values, knowledge, mind
and language
- characteristics of the self which
determine its identity
 ACTIVITY:
Imagine that the world suddenly went
into chaos. There is an impending
melting of planet Earth because of Global
Warming. All people are asked to submit
a Bio Data to the World Screening
Committee. The committee will select
only 1,000 citizens from each country to
be sent to an Earth-like planet in the
neighboring galaxy. As to what the
criteria are for the selection process is
unknown to everyone.
Because of the urgency of the situation,
you are given only 10 minutes to fill up
the Bio Data From. You are supposed
to draw the self-portrait accurately and
as quickly as possible. Further, in order
to increase your chances to be selected,
you have to fill all the necessary data
on the form.
 Bio Data
Name
Sex
City Address
Provincial Address
•
Telephone
Email Address
Date of birth
Place of Birth
Civil Status
Height
Weight
Religion
Citizenship
Special Skills
Best friend
Fears
Language/Dialect Whole Body Self-Portrait
 NAMES OCCUPATION DATE OF PLACE OF BIRTH
BIRTH
Father
Mother
Siblings

SCHOOL YEAR AWARDS CLUBS

Nursery
Kinder
Elementary
Junior High
School
Senior High
School
College
Vocational
School
Character Position/Company Telephone
Reference
Name

Why should we select you?

What could be your contribution to the new World?

C. PROCESSING QUESTIONS

(to be answered in triads then one will report to

the plenum the summary of the discussion.)

1. Which part of the Bio-Data Form is the easiest to

answer? How about the most difficult?
2. What did you have in mind while writing your
Bio Data? Which part did you answer first, why?
3. How did you feel while writing your Bio-Data?
4. What were your realizations after 10
minutes of completing your Bio Data?
 We sometimes think that some
factual information about ourselves are
easy to access, but it is not only about
accessing the factual information but
also pulling over what are truly essential
about ourselves, what distinguishes us
and what individualizes us from the rest
of humanity. We need to take time to
know ourselves better and deeper
which will lead us to the core of our
identity - “KNOW THYSELF”
WHO Am I?
 Famous Philosophers who
attempted to understand the meaning
of human life and braved to answer
the question “Who am I?” and whose
views have influenced the way we
look at our lives today:
Socrates, Plato, Augustine, Descartes,
Locke, Hume, Kant, Ryle, Churchland
and Merleau-Ponty
1. SOCRATES (470 - 399 B.C.)
- known for the dictum
“KNOW THYSELF”
- acclaimed as the greatest philosopher
in the Western civilization
- one of the philosophers who had
the greatest influence on European
thought
Views:
- Proper way to solve problems is to
discover our true nature - “Know
Thyself”
- Man is a being who wills and thinks
and knowledge is a virtue while
ignorance is a vice.
- Man should discover the truth, truth
about good life, for it is in knowing the
good life that man can act correctly.
- The admission of ignorance is the
beginning of wisdom.
- Moral virtue leads to life's ideal, i.e.,
“happiness” and that happiness is
impossible without moral virtue.
- Humanity comits evil because
people do not know any better -
ignorance.
FYI
 Knowing oneself is not only about
measurable facts that pertain to the self such as
age, height, color, blood type or cholesterol level
but first an imperative and then a requirement.
It is imperative to know the limits of the self so
that one knows what one is capable of doing and
what one is not. The real meaning of knowing
thyself, then, is a requirement for self-
moderation/self-control, prudence/good
judgment, and excellence of the soul (Ortiz de
Landazuri, 2014).
Anything that is excessive is not good. Thus
it is just prudent to strike the balance of
things:
- Too much power might lead to abuse;
- Too many friends might decrease the quality of
relationships;
- Too many problems might bring about depression;
- Too much knowledge might make one think that
there is nothing else to know about, and so on.
In a nutshell:

1. Knowledge is the personification

of good while ignorance is that of
evil.
2. Self-knowledge is the ultimate
virtue.
2. PLATO (Aristocles)
“The Ideal Self, The Perfect Self”
- born around 427 B.C. in Athens
- student of Socrates
- devoted himself to the pursuit of
philodophy and science
- dedicated himself to the education
of the youth
- died in 347 B.C.
Views:
- Man is a soul(immaterial) using a body
(material). The soul exists prior to the body.
- Reason would rule over the physical
desires.
- Man was omniscient before he came to be
born. With his separation from the paradise
of truth and knowledge, and his long exile
on earth, he forgot most of the knowledge
he had. But by constant remembering
through contemplation and doing good, he
Man should live a life of virtue in
which true human perfection exists.
- Perfect happiness is the result of
virtue which in turn is wisdom or true
knowledge.
- Happiness, which is the fruit of
virtue, is attained by the constant
imitation of the divine exemplar of
virtue, embodied in man's former
perfect self.
In a nutshell:

- Moral virtue is rooted in the

intellectand leads to happiness.
- Wisdom and knowledge lead to
virtue which in turn will lead to
happiness.
3. ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430 A.D.)
“Love and Justice as the Foundation of
the Individual Self”
- born in Tagaste, North Africa
- was not a former Christian before
becoming a saint. He succumbed to vices and
pleasures of the world. (“Late Have I Loved
You”)
-baptized into the Catholic Church in answer
to his mother's prayers
- dedicated his Christian life to the pursuit of
contemplative ideals.
 - practiced extreme self-denial and self-
mortification. “My heart is restless until it
finds rest in You.”
- became a priest then bishop of Hippo
- died in 430 and was later awarded the
title of Doctor of the Church, being a
defender of the Church
- known as “the great formulator of
Christian doctrine”
Views:
- Man is a perfect unity of the body and
the soul - a material body which
belongs to the physical world and a soul
which can know God.
- A virtuous life is a dynamism of love,
which is a constant following of and
turning towards love (God) while a
wicked life is a constant turning away
from love. The golden rule applies.
- Man's end goal is happiness.
- Only in God can man attain true and
eternal happiness, made possible in his
contemplation of the Truth and the Divine
Wisdom, i.e., God Himself.
- Christianity is the full and true philosophy.
It is the full revelation of the true God.
- Human beings alone, without God, are
bound to fail.
In a nutshell:
All knowledge leads to God so that
faith enlightens reason.
Only the pure in heart can see God.
Love of God; faith in Him and the
understanding of His Gospel will
ultimately lead to happiness.
4. Rene Descartes
“Cogito, ergo Sum” (“I think,
therefore, I am.” or “I doubt,
therefore, I exist.”)
- a Mathematician, to whom the
Coordinate System of the Cartesian
Plane is attributed
- also known for his contributions in
Analytic Geometry and Algebra
- the father of modern philosophy
Views:
- The self is a thinking entity distinct
from the body. Man must use his own
mind and thinking abilities to
investigate, analyze, experiment, and
develop himself.
- We cannot really rely on our senses
because our sense perceptions can often
deceive us.
 - Only after the certitude of the
“doubting I” can all the other existences (e.g.
God, the universe, things, events, etc.)
become certain.
- Everything must be subjected to doubt. Our
existence, our religion, our world, our God,
our special someone, even our teacher!
There will never be certain in this world as
long as it passes our senses.
Simply put:
“We need reason in order to evaluate our
thoughts and actions.
 We need reason to live fully the demands,
challenges and call of our religion. We need
reason in order to establish firm foundations
for universal truth and morals. We need
reason in order to exist and to continue to
survive the generations to come by
protecting our environment. We need
reason in order to protect ourselves from
our being savage to one another. We need
reason in order to build and live out our
peace.”
In a nutshell:

The mind and soul can exist

without the body.
Establishing the distinction of the
soul from the body can make
people believe in the afterlife and
the soul's immortality.
 5. John Locke
“Theory of Personal Identity”
 a- British philosopher and politician
 Views:
 - His proposition is that the self is comparable to
an empty space where everyday experiences
contribute to the pile of knowledge that is put
forth on that empty space.
 - Experience, therefore, is an important
requirement in order to have sense data which,
through the process of reflection and analysis,
eventually becomes sense perception.
-believes that our theories must be
built on experience.
- Our concept of personal identity
must be derived from inner
experience.It is the experience that
creates personal identity.
- It is in consciousness alone that
identity exists.
6. David Hume
“The Self is the Bundle Theory of
Mind”
- a Scottish philosopher and historian
Views:
- All knowledge is derived from the
senses. The impressions that we create
are more superior than our ideas
because ideas come after impressions.
- All we know about ourselves are just
bundles or collection of different temporary
impressions or perceptions.
- This idea supports the difficulty of
answering the question “Who am I?”
because what we can readily answer are
impressions such as name, height, color of
hair, affiliations, skills, achievements and the
like. All these are temporary and non-
persisting.
- Hume harshly claimed that there IS no self.
- Man has no “clear and intelligible”
idea of the self.
- No single impression of the self exists.

In a nutshell:

- All knowledge passes through the

senses.
- There is no self, only a bundle of
perceptions.
7. Immanuel Kant
“Respect for Self”
Views:
- Man is the only creature who governs and
directs himself and his actions, who sets up
ends for himself and his purpose, and who
freely orders means for the attainment of his
aims.
-Every man is thus an end in himself and
should never be treated as a means - a plain
dictum of reason and justice: Respect others
as you would respect yourself.
- A person should not be used as a
tool, instrument, or device to
accomplish another's private ends. All
men are persons gifted with the same
basic rights and should treat each other
as equals.
- Our rationality unifies and makes
sense the perceptions we have in our
experiences and make sensible ideas
about ourselves and the world.
In a nutshell:

- Reason is the final authority of

morality.
- There is the inner self which includes
rational reasoning and psychological
state and the outer self which includes
the body and physical mind, where
representation occurs.
8. Gilbert Ryle
“I act, therefore, I am.” or “You are
what you do.”
- a British philosopher, proposed his Positive View
in his “Concept of the Mind”, a stern critique of
Descartes’ dualism of the mind and body.

Views:
- The mind is never separate from the body.
Dualism is a category of mistake.
- The mind will depend on how words are being
told and expressed and delivered.
- The mind will depend on how words are
being told and expressed and delivered.
- Physical actions or behaviors are
dispositions of the self which are derived
from our inner private experiences,
meaning, we will only be able to understand
the self based from the external
manifestation – behaviors, expressions,
language, desires and the like, hence, he
mind is nothing but a disposition of the self.
9. Paul and Patricia Churchland
“ The Self as the Brain”
Paul Churchland
- a modern day philosopher who
studies the brain.
- promoted the position they called
“eliminative materialism” which brings
forth neuroscience in the fore of
understanding the self.
For the Churchlands, these
philosophical and psychological
directions will eventually be
abandoned only to be replaced by
a more acceptable trend in
neuroscience that provides
explanation of how the brain works.
* It is not impossible that folk
psychology will be replaced by
neurobiology. As the Churchlands
wanted to predict, when people
wanted to ask what is going on with
themselves, they might as well go for
MRI scan or CT Scan to understand the
present condition of the brain and how
it currently works.
In a nutshell:

- A fully matured neuroscience wll

eliminate the need for beliefs since “they
are not real.”
- The physical brain gives us a sense of
self.
10. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“Phenomenology of Perception”
- a French philosopher who is associated
with Existentialism
Views:
- rejected classical empiricism because it
eliminates the indeterminate complexities of
experience that may have an effect on
perception.
- rejected the idealist-intellectual position
because it will only falsify perception based
from one’s biases and prejudices.
- Both empiricism and intellectualism
are flawed in nature.
-believes that the physical body is what
makes up the subjective self.
-Self and perception are encompassed in
the physical body.
- “We are our bodies.”Our bodily
experiences do not detach the
subject/object, mind/body,
rational/irrational.
- our perceptions are caused by the
intricate experiences of the self, and
processed intellectually while
distinguishing truthful perceptions
from illusory.

Estela I. Borja
Saint Louis College
San Fernando City,
La Union