Instructions:

From the discussion, choose 5 philosophers whose concept of “self” is most compatible with your definition of
“self”.
In your own words, state what “self’ is for each of the following chosen philosophers.
After doing so, explain how your concept of “self” is compatible with how they conceived of the “self”.
I have my very own definition of “self’. From the discussion, I realized that my definition of self is
almost to most compatible with Socrates, Plato, St. Augustine, Rene Descartes, and David Hume. Each have
different meanings but almost, consecutively, the same with mine. Socrates, as we discussed, is the first
philosopher to get engaged in questioning about the self. For Socrates, there is dualistic approach and that a
person is composed of two important aspects. The two important aspects are the body, which represents the
imperfect and impermanent aspect, and soul, which represents the perfect and permanent aspect and the
moral personality and intellectual. He also said that the person’s true self is the soul. In addition, it is also the
virtuous self, the one that is living with knowledge, virtue, and wisdom.
The definition of self for Socrates is similar to my thoughts of self. I also believe that there is soul and
body present in a man. The body is left behind and it dies, making it impermanent, while the soul is
permanent and holds our intellect and personality. I also believe that a true self should not be identified by
what a person have physically or his state of living. I think our true self is not just seen in our physical aspect,
because our physical aspect don’t define who we are inside. A true self should be seen and identified through
a person’s true nature and virtue which values the feelings, emotions, and knowledge.
Plato (a student of Socrates) supported the idea of Socrates about the dualistic approach. He then,
added the three components of soul: the rational soul, spirited soul, and appetitive soul. The rational soul is
forged by reason and intellect, spirited soul is responsible for our emotions and giving us courage, and the
appetitive soul is responsible for our desires, controls, and limits, both good and bad. This parts are said to be
harmoniously working together and by this idea, a persons soul is just and virtous. In addition, according to
what I read in a book, Plato defined true self as the one that makes up the soul, which is seperable in the
body, and is unchanging and eternal.
Just like what Plato said, I also see the soul as an eternal part of us. Our soul is not just a simple part of
us, it is our true self. I believe that it is responsible for our thoughts, feelings, emotions, knowledge,and
sensations. I realized that it was a thing of which the body is like a storage that houses our soul. I believe our
body and soul works together, even though the body just houses our soul. As they work together we are able
to show our true and just self.
Saint Augustine is another pre-socratic philosopher. In accordance to his viewpoint, a human is
reflected by the entire spirit of the medieval world. As inspired by Plato, Augustine said that a human is of a
bifurcated nature. He also added Christianity and believed that part of us stay in the world and is imperfect
while yearning to be with the Divine, as the others are capable of being immortals. In simple words, our body
is imperfect, impermanent, and bound to die on Earth. To add, the goal of every human person is to stay in
the eternal realm and attain the communion with God by living life on Earth in virtue.
As a Roman Catholic, I have also have the same understanding of self as Saint Augustine. I grew up
under the knowledge from elderlies that our body is the part of us that would die and stay in the world, while
our soul is the one that would be together with God. Elderlies also said to me that I should always be good,
kind, generous, and respectful to others, that way I can be together with God. His viewpoint is also similar to
those of Socrates and Plato, but he added Christianity to his thoughts. It is also this thought that is fixed in my
mind, we live and still lives but most of us are already thinking how life would be when we attain the
communion with God. His thought of self as a soul that would stay in the eternal realm permanently, is the
same thought I grew up with.
Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, said that a human person is composed of body and
mind. The mind is the cogito (the one that thinks), it is also equivalent to the soul, and the body is the extenza
(the extension of the mind). According to him, the existence of the self is the one and only thing we cannot
doubt, and since a person can think means there is nothing he should doubt about his existence. Doubting
may be a thing most of us, but we should not doubt about our existence. In his beliefs, the body of a person is
just a machine that works and acts only because it is attached to the mind, which is eventually the one that
thinks. The body may be present as seen, but it is not enough to say that it is what makes a person a person.
Being able to think, we shouldn’t doubt our existence because how could we think if we do not exist. I
basically agree with the this thought of Descartes and I also believe that we shouldn’t ever doubt our
existence. Again, as I said, the body is just the house of our soul and in the thought of Descartes mind is
equivalent to the soul. Our body works as the continuation of our mind and soul. And I believe on the part of
the thought that our body isn’t what makes us a person, it doesn’t make us our true self, but instead our body
houses our true self and our true nature.
Lastly is David Hume, who has a very unique way or view of looking at man. He believes in empericism,
the school of thought. For Hume, the self is nothing but a bundle of impressions and a person can only gain
knowledge through experience. For him, a person knows someone is a person not because a soul is seen, but
because he sees, hears, and touch. According to Hume, experiences can be categorized into two: impressions,
the product of direct experience, and ideas, the copies of our impressions and considered as a kind of
imagination.
The viewpoint of David Hume is a kind of view that is kind of different from the first 4 philosophers, but
for me his viewpoint is still similar to mine. I do not consider a self being nothing but a bundle of impressions. I
consider self being more than nothing is, and the bundle of impressions are just shown to express the self. I
also agree with his thought that even though our soul can’t be seen, we are all person because we see, hear,
smell, touch, feel, and think. Like Hume, I also believe that we gain knowledge through experience, experience
is the best teacher, and that makes our self be knowledgeable enough to live with virtue.