LEGINE B. ABARRO ANGELINE P. AGUACITO BAIALALIAH A.

ALI
Presenters
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self;
2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the
self from the points-of-view of the various
philosophers across time and place;
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been
represented in different philosophical schools;
and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of
self that were discussed in the class.
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 Before we even have to be in any
formal institution of learning, among the
many things that we were first taught as
kids is to articulate and write our names.
Our parents painstakingly thought about
our names. Our names represent who we
are. Death cannot even stop this bond
between the person and his name.
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 A name is only a signifier and not the
person itself. The self is thought to be
something else than the name. The self is
something that a person perennially
molds, shapes, and develops. Everyone is
tasks to discover one’s self.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Socrates Hume
Plato Kant
Augustine Ryle
Thomas Aquinas Merleau-Ponty
Descartes References

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 SOCRATES

• He was the first philosopher

who ever engaged in a
systematic questioning about
the self.

• To Socrates, and this has

become his life-long mission,
the true task of the philosopher
is to know oneself.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 • He believed that every
man is composed of body
and soul. This means that
every human person is
dualistic, that is he is
composed of two
important aspects of his
personhood.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
• Plato, Socrates’s student, basically
took off from his master and supported
the idea that man is a dual nature of
body and soul. In addition to what
Socrates earlier espoused, Plato
added that there are three
components of the soul: the rational
soul, the spirited soul, and the
appetitive soul.
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
• The rational soul forged by reason
and intellect has to govern the affairs
of the human person,
• The spirited part which is in charge of
emotions should be kept at bay and,
• The appetitive soul in charge of base
desires like eating, drinking, sleeping
and having sex are controlled as well.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 In his magnum opus, “ The Republic”
(Plato 2000), Plato emphasizes that
justice in the human person can only be
attained if the three parts of the soul are
working harmoniously with one another.
When this ideal state is attained, then the
human person’s soul becomes just and
virtuous.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 Saint Augustine
• Following the ancient view of Plato and
infusing it with newfound doctrine of
Christianity, Augustine agreed that man
is of bifurcated nature.
• He believed that the body is bound to
die on earth and the soul is to anticipate
living eternally in a realm of spiritual
communion with God.
• The goal of every human person is to
attain it by living his life on earth in virtue.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 Thomas Aquinas
• 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 “common
stuff that makes up everything in the
universe.”
-Form on the other hand, or morphe in
Greek refers to the “essence of a substance
or thing.”
• For him, just as Aristotle, the soul is what
animates the body; it is what makes us
humans.
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 RENE DESCARTES
Father of Modern Philosophy,
conceived of the human person as
having body and a mind. In his famous
treatise, The Meditations of First
Philosophy, he claims that there is so
much that we should doubt.
He says that since much of what
we think and believe are not infallible,
they may turn out to be false.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 RENE DESCARTES
One should only believe that
since which can pass the test of
doubt (Descartes 2008.)
The self for Descartes is also a
combination of two distinct entities,
the cogito, the thing that thinks,
which is mind, and the extenza or
extension of the mind, which is the
body.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 DAVID HUME
He is a Scottish philosopher
with a very unique way of looking
at man. As an empiricist who
believes that one can know only
what comes from the senses and
experiences. The self is not an
entity over and beyond the
physical body.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 For David Hume, if one tries to
examine his experiences, he finds
that they can all categorized into
two: impressions and ideas. They
therefore form the core of our
thoughts.
Impressions are vivid because
they are product of our direct
experience. Ideas on the other
hand, are copies of impressions.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 Immanuel Kant
Kant recognizes the veracity of
Hume’s account that everything
starts with perception and
sensation of impressions.
However, to Kant, there is
necessarily a mind that organizes
the impressions that men get
from the external world.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 Immanuel Kant
Kant suggests that it is an
actively engaged intelligence in
man that synthesizes all
knowledge and experience. Thus,
the self is not just what gives one
his personality. In addition, it is
also the seal of knowledge
acquisition for all human persons.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 GILBERT RYLE
• 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.
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 GILBERT RYLE

• Ryle suggests that the “self” is

not an entity one can locate
and analyze but simply the
convenient name that people
use to refer to all the behaviors
that people make.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
• Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologist
who asserts 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 intertwined that
they cannot be separated from one
another.
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
• He dismisses the Cartesian
Dualism that has spelled so
much devastation in human
history. For him, the Cartesian
problem is nothing else but plain
misunderstanding. The living
body, thoughts, emotions, and
experiences are all one.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
ACTIVITY:
In your own words, state what “self” is for
each of the following philosophers. After doing so,
explain how your concept of “self” is compatible
with how they conceived of the “self”.
1. Socrates

2. Plato

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
3. Augustine

4. Descartes

5. Hume

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
6. Kant

7. Ryle

8. Merleau-Ponty

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 REFERENCES
Descartes, Rene. 2008. Meditations on First Philosophy: With
Selections from the Objections and Replies. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Hume, David, and Eric Steinberg.1992. An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding; [with] A Letter from a
Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh; [and] An Abstract
of a Treatise of Human Nature. Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing.
Ganeri, Jonardon. 2012. The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and
the First-Person Stance. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Plato. 2000. Plato: “The Republic.” Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 REFERENCES
Stevens, Richard. 1996. Understanding the Self. California: SAGE
Publications.
Plato. 2017. The Republic. Germany: BookRix.
Rappe, Sara L. 1995. “Socrates and Self-Knowledge.” Apeiron: A
Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 28 (1):1-24.
Schlenker, Barry R. 1985. The Self and Social Life. new York:
McGraw-Hill.
Marsella, Anthony J., George A. De Vos, and Francis L.K. Hsu.
1985. Culture and Self: Asian and Western Perspectives.
London: Tavistock Publications.
Beilharz, Peter, and Trevor Hogan. 2002. Social Self, Global
Culture: An Introduction to Sociological Ideas. New
York: Oxford University Press.

Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity
 INSTRUCTOR
Anna Rose T. Marcelino, MPA
Chapter 1- Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental Perspectives on Self and Identity