SHORT QUIZ NO.

i. Socratic Ignorance
ii. Plato’s World of Forms
iii. Aristotle’s Notion of Actuality prior to Potency and Principle of Change
iv. St. Augustine’s Theory of Divine Illumination
v. St. Thomas’ “Man is not soul”
SEATWORK NO. 3 – INTEGRATIVE PAPER

To which and whose philosophical perspective of the self do you side with? Support
and justify your claim with your personal experiences
AS A CHILD, WHAT ARE YOUR….
i. Language
ii. Role Play
iii. Games
iv. Me
v. I
Sociological Views of the Self
Objectives
 To know the different Sociological
perspectives of the self;
 To differentiate these various views of
the self;
 To be able to apply these views
Sociological Perspectives of the Self:
Self as Product of Modern Society
Self as a Necessary Fiction
Post-Modern View of the Self
Self as Artistic Creation
Self Creation and Collective Identity
Self Creation and the Struggle for Cultural
Identity
Self as Product of Modern Society
Self as a Necessary Fiction
Self (Nietzsche) : sum of
individual’s action, thoughts and
feelings:

Self as a representation;
Post-Modern View of the Self
Self is a narrative, a text written and
rewritten
Manifestations:
 Information technology dislocates the self,
thus, self is “digitalized” in cyberspace
 Global migration produces multicultural
identities
Post-modern selves are “pluralized” selves
Self as Artistic Creation
Self is not discovered, it is made
through the socialization process. BUT,
individuals are not just hapless victims
of socialization.
Individual is an active, strategizing
agent that negotiates for the definition
of himself.
Self Creation and Collective Identity
Memories (photographs, videos) play
significant role in creating the self and identity
Self creation is formed within “imagined
communities”
Self creation along cultural lines must be
done in maximum cultural recognition of
differences among and between individuals
and cultural groups.
Self Creation and the Struggle for
Cultural Identity

 A challenge of self-identity amidst

recognition of racial and ethnic
identities
Beyond self creation
Search for self-identity is a product of
modern society but this is complicated by the
socio-cultural sensibilities of postmodernity,
new information technologies and
globalization.Yet the project of self creation is
embedded within imagined communities.
The self constantly lives in this paradox: to
pursue self creation within pre-given, not
willfully chosen social circumstances.
He is well-known for
his theory of the
social self, which is
based on the
central argument
that the self is a
social emergent.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

The social conception of the

self entails that individual
selves are the products of social
interaction and not the logical
or biological preconditions of
that interaction.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

It is not initially there at

birth, but arises in the
process of social experience
and activity.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

mind arises out of the social act of

communication.
 GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

According to Mead, there are three activities

through which the self is developed:

1. Language

2. Play

3. Game
Language allows individuals to
take on the “role of the other”
and allows people to respond to
his or her own gestures in terms
of the symbolized attitudes of
others.
During play, individuals take
on the roles of other people
and pretend to be those other
people in order to express the
expectations of significant
others.
This process of role-playing
is key to the generation of
self-consciousness and to the
general development of the
self.
“All the world’s a
stage, and all the
men and women
merely players.”
In the game, the individual is required to
internalize the roles of all others who are
involved with him or her in the game and
must comprehend the rules of the game.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

George Herbert Mead is

also well-known for his
concept of the “I” and the
“me”.
According to Mead, the
self has two sides.
The “me” represents the
expectations and attitudes of
others (the generalized
other).
It is the organized set of
attitudes of others that
the individual assumes.
It is the socialized
aspect of the
individual.
It represents the learned
behavior, attitudes, and
expectations of others and
the society.
The “me” is
considered a phase
of the self that is in
the past.
The “me” has been
developed by the
knowledge of society and
social interactions that the
individual has gained.
The “I” can be
considered the present
and future phase of the
self.
It represents the
individual’s identity
based on response to
the “me”
The “I” is the response
to the “me,” or the
person’s individuality.
It allows the individual to still
express creativity and
individualism and understand
when to possibly bend and
stretch the rules that govern
social interactions.
existence in
community comes
before individual
consciousness.
One must participate in the different
social positions within society and
only subsequently can one use that
experience to take the perspective
of others and thus become self-
conscious.
The self is the
joining point
between the
individual and the
society.

Communication is
the link that allows
the interaction to
occur.
The Self: I and Me

I – the spontaneous, driving

force that fosters all that is
novel, unpredictable, and
unorganized in the self.

Me – the objective self;

the image of self seen
when one takes the role
of the other.
What others think of us,
the perspective of others
we gain from being a part
of the conversation of
gestures, are absolutely
necessary for us to even
have a sense of self.
We think of ourselves
as individuals, to be
sure, but we are only
able to do so by virtue
of being a part of a
larger social
community.