The Self from the Perspectives of Various
Philosophers
Overview
George Gurdjieff, a philosopher, once said.
“Without self-knowledge, without
understanding the workings
and functions of our being, we cannot be
free. That is why in all ancient teachings
the first demand at the beginning of the
way to liberation was “know
thyself”.
Life as it progresses has a way of showing
what you are. But you must first accept the
fact that you are on your own ignorance of
yourself. Recognizing that you don’t know
who you are and who you could be are some
reward for the horror of determining who
you actually are Philosophers of the past and
modern times have devoted much of their
time in searching for answers to the
question, “who am I?. In this chapter, you
will be introduced to different perspective
that will
help you realize the meaning of who you
really are, what influence you as a person,
how society shapes you, and many other
questions.
Discussion
Socrates on Human Nature
Socrates had a unique way of
teaching and exploring subjects. He
would ask questions and then
discuss possible answers. The
answers would lead to more
questions and eventually lead to
more understanding of a subject. This
logical process of using questions and
answers to explore a subject is known today
as Socratic Method. He was the first
philosopher who ever engaged in systematic
questioning about the self.
For Socrates, every man is composed of
body and soul. He argued that human body
does not define us as men, but in fact
interfere with developing man’s fullest
humanity. If you say someone likes eating
spicy, it doesn’t necessarily define him as a
risk taker. Or if someone who is wealthy
doesn’t mean he is a hard worker. Rather
these characteristics help someone to better
understand himself and develop it to the
fullest. Then there is also soul which the
person’s core identity. It is source of deepest
thoughts and highest aspirations. The way
you think of things and how you are driven
to do something make you different from
other people. It is the unique life force that
shapes and defines itself through choices
made on a daily basis.
**Ang pisikal na katawan ng tao ay bigay na
mula pagkapanganak ng isang tao na kusang
lalago habang lumalaki ang isang tao.
Ngunit sa pagbuo ng katawan, hindi
nangangahulugan lalago din ang diwa ng
isang tao. Ang diwa ng kanyang pagkatao ay
isang malaking tanong na kinakailangan
hanapin upang mas lalong makilala niya ang
sarili.
The problem of the self is to know oneself.
For Socrates, it is a moral obligation. A
person must ask questions and seek an
answer to explore his self and eventually
will lead to more understanding of who he
is. it is an obligation to achieve a full human
potential and actively exercising our
eudemonia (Greek word for happiness)”. A
person is given the ability to rationalize.
This helps the person to know good and
distinguish knowledge from ignorance.
If someone does not acknowledge his
potential to explore himself, his life has
diminished value.
Socrates referred to it as “An unexamined
life is not worth living”. The gift of human
reason
provides individuals with the extraordinary
ability not to just live, but to critically
examine their lives to make them as
productive and worthwhile if possible. If one
has to become human in the fullest sense,
achieving distinctive potential and genuine
happiness, she/he must live an “examined
life”
Plato and the Human
Nature
Plato supported the idea that that a man is a
dual nature of body and soul. For him, soul
is more important than the body. The soul is
driven by 3 parts and determine the course
of our action.
The rational soul is the divine essence that
enables us to think deeply, make wise
choices and achieve a true understadning of
eternal truths. It is forged by reason and
intellect has to govern the affairs of human
person.This is aprt of the soul that that
rationally weighs options and tries to gauge
what is best and truest overall.Dahil ito ang
direktang may koneksyon sa mga
impormasyon sa labas
at ito din ang nagproprocess, mas alam nito
kung ano ang mga kaganapan sa paligid.
The spirited soul which is incharge of the
basic emotions such as love, anger,
ambition,
aggressiveness and empathy.Plato uses the
term “spirited” different from “spiritual”. He
means spirited in the same sense of having a
high power or energy within. It is the part of
the soul that has the courage to take
challenges and overcome fears. Ang trabaho
ng spirited soul is suportahan ang mga
policies and judgments commanded by the
rational soul. Kapg nagdedesisyon ang isang
ktao, normal lang na mkaramdam ito ng
kaba o takot lalo. Dahil sa ganitong
pakiramdam, si rational soul minomodify
niya ang kanyang desisyon upang
mabawasan ang demand ng
spirited soul. Minsan napapansin natin sa
mga desisyon na nangyari na, nagkaroon
tayo ng pagsisisi at sasabihin na “sabi ko
na nga ba”.
Lastly, biological needs such as hunger,
thirst, sexual desire is controlled by the
appetitive soul. The rational and spirited
souls are not against the appetitive soul.
Dahil sa appetitive soul, nakakaramdam
tayo ng gutom, uhaw, at walang sawang
kasabikan sa mga pagkain, isama na rin
ang sexual desire.
According to Plato, easch of us is driven by
three different souls. The problem however
is that we often use the wrong part of the
soul to make decisions, which leads to less
than desirable consequences. We have
evidence that we sometijes have conflicting
desires simultaneously. For example, the
person wants to be fit or sexy but does not
want to exercise, a student wants to pass the
test but does not want to study well. So the
soul here has atleast two parts. The
appetitive part
which generates a desires based on the
body’s command and the reasoning part
which generates
a desire not to do something Plato believed
in reason and rationality above all. He
emphasized that
justice in the human person can only be
attained if the three parts of the soul are
working
harmoniously with one another.
St. Augustine on Human Nature
Augustine took from Plato that the view
of human self is an immaterial soul that
can think. While Plato emphasized the
importance of perfecting reason and
following it, St. Augustine focused on the
importance of the will, the ability to
choose between good and evil. Ethically
speaking, the most important part of the
mind is not the intellect but the “will”.
The self is divided into two, the good and
the evil. If the person chooses to serve
God, he chooses to do good. Good people
are those whose will and reason are
subordinated to faith
in God and devotion to God’s will. Through
it, the self finds its meaning. Augustine's
sense
of self is his relation to God. Habang
pinaglilingkuran ng isang individual ang
Diyos, kasabay nito
na maliliwanagan siya sakanyang pagkatao
dahil ang mga bagay na ginagawa ay ayon
sa utos ng
diyos.
Rene Descartes on what it
means to be Human
Descartes claimed that there is an essential
distinction between the mind(soul) and
body. Proceeding from his famous maxim,
“ I think therefore I am”, he concluded
that the first thing a person can be certain
is his own existence. Even if one doubts
his/her own existence, the fact that there is
an “I” to do the doubting proves that the
person truly exists. The “I” is a thinking
thing that doubts, understands, affirms,
imagines, feels etc. Some people may ask
others “are you
with us? Are you with me? As the person
seems to be out of this world or out of
existense. To doubt
is to be certain of one’s self as an individual.
Descartes thought that the only thing that
one cannot
doubt is the existence of the self. For even
one doubts oneself, that only proves that
there is a
doubting self. The man becomes a human
when he thinks. The mind is separate from
the body, but
they interact to work together. Each person
has a triadic existence: mind in a body in the
world.
John Locke on the nature of the Self
John Locke looks at the self to be founded
by
conscious and not a substance of either soul
or
body. He believed that humans by nature are
good.
Locke believed that people are naturally
good but
later corrupted by the society. Humans are
born
with minimal influence. While growing up,
influence is spreading and people around a
person
are becoming numerous. Each influence
from
different people has an effect to behavior.
Behavior, according to Lock, is learned.
Behavior
shapes the self. He believed that humans
have reasonable mind and moral. What they
sense from the
environment will eventually influence the
kind of behavior a person does. For
example, a child
learns words not directly taught to him but
knows how to say it is a product of what he
hears from
the people around him. Environment
includes friends, school, books, music,
movies etc, people may
influence you to do good or bad. Although
human are born good, they do have the sense
of right or
wrong. Everything we know comes from the
sensory experience.
Sigmund Freud on the Self
Though the conscious self also has
important role to play
in our lives, it is the unconsious self that
holds the greatest
fascintion ofr Freud, and which has
thedominant influnce
in our personalities. The unconsious self
encompasses
most of the self, it the deepest part of the
self.
The unconscious contains all those drives,
urges, or
instincts that are beyond our awareness but
that
nevertheless, motivate most of our words,
feelings, and
actions. Although we may be conscious of
our overt
behaviors, we often are not aware of the
mental processes
that lie behind them. For example, a man
may know that
he is attracted to a woman but may not fully
understand all
the reasons for the attraction, some of which
may even
seem irrational.
Because the unconscious is not available to
the
conscious mind, how can one know if it
really
exists? Freud felt that its existence could be
proved only indirectly. To him the
unconscious is the explanation for the
meaning
behind *dreams, *slips of the tongue, and
certain kinds of forgetting, called
*repression.
Dreams serve as a particularly rich source of
unconscious material. For example, Freud
believed that childhood experiences can
appear
in adult dreams even though the dreamer has
no conscious recollection of these
experiences.
Freud recognized three provinces of the
mind—id, ego, and superego. The Id is
called
the pleasure principle. All of the id’s energy
is spent for one purpose—to seek pleasure
without regard for what is proper or just. For
example,
you would go to drinking party a day before
your final exam. You wouldn’t mind getting
drunk
while having fun with your friends.
The ego, or I, is the only region of the mind
in contact with reality. It is governed by the
reality
principle, which it tries to substitute for the
pleasure principle of the id. As the sole
region of the
mind in contact with the external world, the
ego becomes the decision-making or
executive branch
of personality. When performing its
cognitive and intellectual functions, the ego
must take into
consideration the incompatible but equally
unrealistic demands of the id and the
superego.
The superego represents the moral and ideal
aspects of personality and is guided by the
moralistic
and idealistic principles as opposed
to the pleasure principle of the id and
the realistic principle of the ego. It
strives blindly and unrealistically
toward perfection. It is unrealistic in
the sense that it does not take into
consideration the difficulties or
impossibilities faced by the ego in
carrying out its orders. Not all its
demands, of course, are impossible to
fulfill, just as not all demands of
parents and other authority figures are
impossible to fulfill. The superego,
however, is like the id in that it is
completely ignorant of, and
unconcerned with, the practicability of
its requirements.
You can determine by the action of an
individual on which the principle is
dominated. Look at the
possible conversation of the three on how
there could be a conflict.
Scenario: Tonight’s Bday party vs Final
Exam Tomorrow
ID: Arat na! Masaya to!
SuperEgo: No way! Ayaw kong bumagsak
sa Exam noh!
Ego: Teka lang. Kaya naman natin gawin
yan dalawa.
ID: Paano? Dala ng reviewer sa party?
SuperEgo: Video call from home? Hala
Ego: Ikaw ID, punta ng maaga para naman
magreet mo personally si bestie. Pero
dalwang oras ka lang dun ha. Hindi ka
pwede magtagal.
ID: Walang problema: Isang shot lang!
Ego: SuperEgo, maaga pa naman, pwede pa
magreview ngayon pati mamaya
pagdating ni ID.
Superego: ok sige, pero extend ako ng 2
hours mamayang gabi sa pagrereview ah.
**Note: this kind of situation occurs
normally in our daily life. Sometimes, our
Ego
sides with ID or SuperEgo.
David Hume and the Bundle Theory of
Self
To see is to believe. David Hume,
as an empiricist, believes that one
can know only what comes from
the senses and experiences.
Hume is skeptical about the
existence of the self, specifically,
on whether there is a simple,
unified self that exists over time.
For him, man has no “clear and
intelligible’ idea of the self.
Hume argues that the self is
nothing; it is not an entity over and beyond
the physical body. To David Hume, the self
is nothing
but a bundle of impressions. Impressions are
the basic object of our experience or
sensation. They,
therefore, form the core of our thoughts.
Men can only attain knowledge by
experiencing. When one
touches an ice cube, the cold sensation is an
impression. Impressions are vivid because
they are
product of the direct experience with the
world. Ideas, on the other hand, are copies of
impressions.
When one is imagining how it feels like to
touch an ice cube, that is still an idea. It
hasn’t been
sensed and experienced.
What is the self then? Self is simply the
bundle or collection of different
impressions. In reality,
what one thinks as unified self is simply a
combination of all experiences with a
particular person.
Activity 1.8 – David Hume
Provide three ideas along with their
impressions.
Situations must be from your own
experience.
Immanuel Kant and the Intelligence in
man
Thinking of the self as mere of combination
of
impressions was problematic for Immanuel
Kant.
Kant thinks that the things that a man
perceives
around them are not just randomly infused
into
human person without an organization
principle that
regulates the relationship of all these
impressions.
For Kant, there is necessarily a mind that
organizes
the impressions that men get from the
external
world. Time and space, for example, are
ideas that
once cannot find in the world but built in our generally, who we are a person. Para kay
minds. Ryle, mas maiintindihan ang pagkatao ng
Kant calls these “apparatus” of the mind. isang individual kung mga nangyayari
Along with the apparatus of the mind goes sakanya ay nakikita ng mga mata, naririning
the self. ng mga tenga at nararamdaman ng balat.
Without the self, one cannot organize the
different
impressions that one gets in relation to his
own existence. Kant therefore suggests that
the “self” is
an actively engaged intelligence in man that
synthesizes all knowledge and experience.
Thus, the
self is not just what gives one his
personality. It is also the seat of knowledge
acquisition for all
human persons. Sa madaling sabi, ayon kay
Kant, ang kakayanan ng isang indibidwal na
pag isip ay
siyang nagaayos sa kung anong natutunan
nito sa kapaligiran

Gilbert Ryle and the His view on Self

For Ryle, what truly matters is the behaviors
that a person
manifest in his day-to-day life. In in his
opinion, looking for
and trying to understand self as it really
exists is like visiting
your friend’s university and looking for the
“university”.
One can roam around the campus, visit the
library, play
basketball in the gym, meet the
administrators and faculty
and still end up not finding the “university”.
This is because the campus, the people, the
systems and the territory all form the
university. Ryle suggests that the self is not
an entity one can locate and analyse but
simply the convenient name that people use
to refer to all behaviors that people make.
Considering the analogy of Ryle, he is
saying that the things that we do, how we
behave and react and all other components
like the way we talk, walk and look is

Overview
Sociology or the study of how human
society is established, its structure and how
it works, the people interaction with each
other and the effects they have to one
another is an aspect in which we have to
consider with regards to the development of
a person. It is also important to understand
that the
establishment of the Self based on social
structure could give us a better
understanding of who we are and
provide reasons how our interactions can
affect us as a person.
Discussion
Have you ever thought of how you could be
a Boyfriend
different person if you had grown up in
another
environment? What could be your behavior
of
talking, feeling and dealing with things
around you?
Imagine Tarzan, if he happened to grow up
in a
community with people, house,
establishments etc, he
would not have behaved like an animal. He
would
have learned to utter words and
communicate with
people and know their feelings. He would
have
emotions just like any normal people would
have. Then imagine yourself living in a
jungle.(joke)
According to George Herbert Mead, the self
is not there from birth, but it is developed
over time
from social experiences and activities. This
includes interactions and relationship in an
environment. Interaction refers to the mutual
and reciprocal exchange of communication
or action
between two or more persons or groups. On
the other hand, relationship refers to
particular way in which two or more
individuals; groups talk to, behave toward or
deal with each other. There is established
connection, kinship, or attachment that binds
them together. Oh diba ang taray, kaya wag
mag assume kaagad na may kayo
(relationship) kung nakipag interact lang
naman sa iyo in the first place.
Identify the following members of the
society whether
the activity is relationship or interaction. Put
a check ( )
in the box
Society Relationship Interaction
Coworker
Nephew
Jeepney driver
Neighbor
Peer
Ex-bf
Supervisor
Classmate
Organization
Mead introduced 3 activities that help
develop the self at
early stage.
1. Preparatory/Language stage (birth-2
years) – according
to Mead, during this stage the infant simply
imitates the
actions and behaviors of the people that the
infant interacts
with. Language develops self by allowing
individuals to
respond to each other through symbols,
gestures , words and
sounds. Language conveys other attitudes
and opinions
toward a subject or the person. Emotion,
such as anger,
happiness and confusion are conveyed
through language.
Because the child is mimicking what she or
he observes from
his or her environment their actions are only
the reflection of
what they can remember without any
intention or meaning
behind their actions and behavior. It is one
of the main
reasons why parents do not speak fowl
words in front of the child.
2. The Play stage (2-6 years old) developed
self by allowing individual to take on
different roles,
pretend and express expectation of others. It
is the time where children begins to interact
with
others with which certain rules apply , these
rules sometimes does not adhere to any set
or standards
but rather are rules that are set by children
themselves.Play develops one’s self-
consciousness
through role-playing. During role-play, a
child is able to internalize the perspective of
others and
develop an understanding of how others feel
about themselves and others in a variety of
social
situations. During play, children develops
different characters like being superior or
the “always
leader”, friendliness, fair, honest playmate.
They also begin to discover different
abilities and begin
to imagine how a mother feels like by
playing like a mother or a teacher in a
classroom.
3. Games develop self by allowing
individuals to understand and adhere to the
rules of the activity.
Self is developed by understanding that
there are rules in which one must abide by in
order to win
the game or be successful at an activity.
Activity 2.2
____________1. In which of Mead’s Stages
of the Self do the children merely imitate the
people around them.
____________2. It conveys other attitudes
ad
opinions toward a subject or the person.
____________3. During this stage, children
develops different characters and portray
different attitudes.
____________4.The self develops at this
stage by adhering to the rules of the activity
____________5. It was one of the reasons
why parents do not speak fowl words in
front
of children.
Social Constructivism
Social Constructivism refers to vibrant
relationship between the self
and the external reality. All cognitive
functions originate in social
interaction. This supports the idea of John
Locke that everything we
know comes from the sensory experiences.
We obtain sensory
experiences through social interaction and
relationship.
The self should NOT be seen as a static
entity that stays constant
through and through. When somebody told
you, “Ui, nagbago kana”,
have noticed something different from what
they used to know about
you. They might have observed a change in
the way you talk, behave
and your interaction with them. These
changes are the influences the
new environment you have stayed. The self
is capable of morphing
and fitting itself into any circumstance it
finds itself in. In all
situations, the self has its ability to adjust but
this adjustment needs
time for the self to absorb. Social interaction
must be initiated first
before it is able to fit itself. Halimbawa
kapag maliligo kana, isasaw-
saw mo muna ung daliri mo para malaman
kung gaano kalamig o
kainit ang tubig para bago mo ibuhos ang
isang tabo upang kayang iadjust ng katawan
mo ang
impact ng lamig o init ng tubig. Sa
pakikisalamuha naman, kikilalanin mo muna
ang isang tao o ang
isang lugar bago ka magkaroon ng palagay
na loob sa kung anong klase ng pagkatao
ang ihaharap
mo sa knila. This morphing and fitting
happen most of the time in school setting
when the teacher
asks you to have a demonstration in front of
the class but you are shy, or when you are an
OFW,
you have follow the culture of the country.
During morphing and fitting, According to
Marcel Mauss, every self has two faces, Moi
and
Personne. Moi is the person’s sense of who
he is, his body, and his basic identity; his
biological
givenness. Personne is the Composed of
social concepts of what it means to be who
he is. To put it
simple, Moi refers to relatively permanent
character of the self while Personne is the
temporary
character. These two faces are manifested
during adjustment. In the examples above,
the student’s
moi is being shy and quiet and his personne
is to have a bit of confidence and loudness.
Activity 2.3
Situation Moi Personne
An OFW adjusting life in another
country e.i KSA
Likes wearing revealing clothes Have to
wear closed clothes
1. A guy courting a girl
2. A student is given a task
to report in class
3. Newly wed couple living
in groom’s house
4. From office worker to
Teaching position
5. Traditi0onal class to
Online class
Charles Cooley’s Looking glass self
The way we think about ourselves is
particularly apt to be a reflection of other’s
appraisals and that
our self-concepts are built up in the intimate
groups that he called “primary groups”.It is
a social
psychological concept that involves three
steps; You imagine how you appear to the
other person,
you imagine the judgement of the other
person, and we imagine how that person
feels about us, on
the basis of the judgements they've made.
Look at the illustration, using social
interaction as a type of “mirror,” people use
the judgments they
receive from others to measure their own
worth, values, and behavior. We are not
actually
influenced about the opinions of others but
instead we are being influenced by what we
imagine the
opinions of others people to be. We develop
our self-identity based on correct and
incorrect
perceptions of others see us. Halimbawa,
meron isang guro na istrikto pagdating sa
pagchecheck ng
test paper, activities and homework dahil
naniniwala itong guro na ito na pinaghirapan
ng isang
estudyante ang isinumite nitong papel at
nakikitaan ito ng guro ng potential kaya
naman binubusisi
nito ang bawat gawa ng knyang mga
estudyante. Matapos matanggap ng
estudyante ang kanyang
papel nakita nitong maraming pagtatama ang
nakasulat
at nakabilog sa red ink. Ang magiging
interpretasyon
ng estudyanteng ito at kung paano nito
maapektuhan
ang kanyang self-image ay possibleng
sabihin niya na
ang kanyang guro ay walang pakundangan o
consideration, iniisip din ng estudyante na
ang tingin ng
kanyang guro ay hindi siya marunong. Now,
based on
the conclusion of the student, he would
create a
perception of himself as not a good student.
So the
student here is acting on incorrect perception
of what
the teacher believes and because of his
attitudes can
often influence his behavior. On the other
hand, we also get the correct perception of
other and how
we think they think of us. For example.
When Pedro approached did not respond the
same way we
expected and we began thinking that we may
have done something that they probably felt
bad
about. Then sooner or later, we found out
from a companion that
When Pedro approached Juan in a nice way
and Pedro did not respond the way Juan did.
Juan
would start thinking he was not important to
Juan. Sooner or later, Juan heard from Maria
that Pedro
does not like the kind of attitude Juan has.
The self in the family
Family is considered as the smallest unit of
the society. They play a big role in shaping
the social
self as they are the first to have a
relationship with the self. It is what a family
initiates a person to
become that serves as the basis for the
person’s progress. The kind of family that
we are born in and
the resource available to us (human,
spiritual, economic) will certainly affect us
and the kind of
development that we will have as we go
through life. Out of billions household in the
world, no two
families are exactly the same, now siblings’
families are alike. So we do not expect each
family to
have the same upbringing to children. Each
child grows according on how he is raised
by their
parents. There are families who are devoted
to their religion, families who have high or
low income
or families who are sociable.
Gender and the Self
Another important aspect of the self that is
important to mention is gender. Gender is
one of the loci of the
self that is subject to alteration, change, and
development. The gendered self is then
shaped within a
particular context of time and space. The
sense of self that is being taught makes sure
that an individual fits

in a particular environment. This is

detrimental and dangerous in the goal of
truly finding oneself, self-
determination, and growth of the self.
Gender has to personally discovered and
assorted and not dictated by

culture and the society.