PHILO S O P HI C A L

P E R S P E C T IV E O N S E L F
CHAPTER 1
• DERIVED FROM THE GREEK WORDS “PHILOS” AND “SOPHIA”
WHICH LITERALLY MEANS “LOVE FOR WISDOM”.

• IT IS THE STUDY OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH

RATIONAL THINKING.
 WHAT IS SELF?

•A PERSON'S ESSENTIAL BEING THAT

DISTINGUISHES THEM FROM OTHERS,
ESPECIALLY CONSIDERED AS THE OBJECT OF
INTROSPECTION OR REFLEXIVE ACTION
ABSTRACTION:
• THE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND VIEWS
ON THE SELF CAN BE BEST SEEN AND
UNDERSTOOD BY REVISITING ITS PRIME
MOVERS AND IDENTIFY THE MOST
IMPORTANT SPECULATIONS MADE BY
PHILOSOPHERS FROM THE ANCIENT TIMES
TO THE PRESENT PERIOD.
SOCRATES
Socrates’ work was never published. We were
only able to know who Socrates is and his
works because of his illustrious students who
spoke generously and in detail about his
knowledge, wit, wisdom and intellect.

He underlies the importance of the notion

“knowing oneself”. For him, by fully knowing
oneself a person will be able to achieve
happiness.
He could be considered as the first
martyr of education, knowledge and
philosophy. Thus, dying as a martyr that
fought against ignorance and narrow-
mindedness.
SOCRATES
Socrates also posited that possession of
knowledge is a virtue and that ignorance is a
criminal; that a person’s acceptance of
ignorance is the beginning of acquisition of
knowledge.

Socrates believe that the answer to our pursuit in

knowing ourselves lies in our own abilities and
wisdom, and that the only way for us to understand
ourselves is through internal questioning or
introspection known as “Socratic Method”

By continuously asking and evaluating

who we are, we as a person will also be
able to understand our strengths and
weaknesses,
PLATO
He is historically known to be the “Father
of the academy”. He wrote several
literature that tackles politics, human
nature, and established the idea of virtue
and intelligence

According to Plato, a person who is a follower of

truth and wisdom will not be tempted by vices
and will always be just.

Plato presented the idea the ones’ soul is

divided into 3 different parts that has
different views leading to different behaviors,
these parts of the soul are known as the
Appetitive, Spirited, and Rational Soul.
Plato’s 3 parts of the soul
Appetitive Soul part of the person that is driven by desire and
need to satisfy oneself.

attributed to the courageous part of a person, one who wants to

do something or to right the wrongs that they observe. Spirited
Spirited Soul soul are very competitive and is very active, his
competitiveness drives one to expect positive results and
winning.

the driver of our lives, this is the part that thinks and plan for the
Rational Soul future. “the conscious mind” decides what to do, when to do it and
the possible results one could have depending on their actions.
ST. AUGUSTINE
A Saint and a Philosopher of the church,
St. Augustin follows the idea that God
encompasses us all, that everything will
be better if we are with God

His idea of a man and how to understand who we

are as a person is related to our understanding of
who we are and how we question ourselves,

St. Augustine also rejected the doubtfulness

of the academy in which one cannot or
should not accept ideas from others.
ST. AUGUSTINE
People is in need to establish their
relationship with god through being
virtuous, but at the same time, to be
able to stand by on what we think is
true,

By continuously questioning and

finding the truth will we be able to find
the best answer to who we are and
what our role is in the world
RENE DESCARTES Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher
known to be the father of modern philosophy
because of his radical use of systematic and
early scientific method to aid his ideas and
assumptions.

also known to be the proponent of the “Methodical

Doubt” which simply meant of a continuous process
of questioning.

Descartes is known for the statement “Cogito

Ergo Sum” which means in English as “I think
therefore I am”. According to him a person is
comprised of mind and body, the body that
perceives from the different senses and the
mind that thinks and question or doubt what
the body has experienced.
RENE DESCARTES
Descartes explained that because we cannot
always trust our senses and in turn what we
perceive as who we are or the essence of our
existence

He also implies that being in a constant doubt

regarding one’s existence is proof that a person
actually exist
JOHN LOCKE
some of his works on this subject matter
paved the way to several revolutions to fight
the absolute powers of monarchs and rulers
of his time that led to the development of
governance, politics and economic system
that we now know
His work on the self is most represented by the
concept “Tabula Rasa” which means a Blank Slate.
He believed that the experiences and perceptions
of a person is important in the establishment of who
that person can become
Unlike what the other Philosophers view on
human experiences and senses, John
Locke does not disregard the experiences of
the person in the identification and
establishment of who we are as a person.
JOHN LOCKE
He stated that a person is born with knowing
nothing and that is susceptible to stimulation
and accumulation of learning from the
experiences, failures, references, and
observations of the person.

Does not limit any possibilities for growth

implies that the opportunity for one person to
develop to anything he wants to be is limited
only to the environment, experiences, and the
choices of the person.
DAVID HUME
The Scottish Philosopher David Hume,
focused his work in the field of Empiricism,
Skepticism, and naturalism.

According to him, there is no permanent “self”, that

since our impressions of things based from our
experiences and from such impressions we can
create our ideas and knowledge

leads to the argument that since our

impression and ideas change, it may
improve or totally be replaced
 L F ” Loving

“ E
S IO N
E S
Happy Cold
H
T R E S
P Impressions
IM Warm
Approach-
able

Sad
IMMANUEL KANT
Kant argued that the awareness of different
emotions that we have, impressions and
behavior is only a part of our self.

Kant argued that the sense called “Transcendental

Apperception” is an essence of our consciousness
that provides basis for understanding and
establishing the notion of “self” by synthesizing
one’s accumulation of experiences, intuition and
imagination goes.
we also have the capabilities to understand
beyond those experiences and be able to
think and have a clear identification who we
are
SIGMUND FREUD
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian Psychologist and
Physician, he is also known as the father of
psychoanalysis and is known for his work on human
nature and the unconscious

Freud believed that we are a by-product of our experiences in

the past. Driven by the idea of resisting or avoiding pain, and
are molded from our need for pleasure or being happy.

Freud also introduced the idea that the accumulation of the

experiences of a person helps build his personality although
such information are not stored in a single area where we can
access them at any time. He introduced the levels of
consciousness
Believed that man has different constructs of
personality that interacts with each other and along
with his concept of the different levels of
consciousness provides an idea how a person
develops a sense of self.
ASPECTS OF PERSONALITY
also known as the child aspect of a person, The ID’s attention is
on satisfaction of one’s needs and self-gratification. It is driven by
the pleasure principle.

Sometimes known as the Police or the mediator between id and

superego. It operates within the boundaries of reality, primary function is
to maintain the impulses of the ID to an acceptable degree.

is the conscience of the one’s personality, has the inclination to

uphold justice and do what is morally right and socially
acceptable actions. It is involved in the notion of right or wrong
that is imparted to us by our parents or people that tool care for
us during childhood.
 LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1
where minority of our memories are
being stored and the memories that are in
the conscious is easier to be tapped or
accessed.
2

this area is where majority of our

3 memories since childhood are deeply
the middle part of the entirety of stored. It is very difficult to tap the
our consciousness, the memories memories in the unconscious, it would
stored in this area can still be need a trained professional and several
accessed but with a little difficulty. special techniques in order to make some
memories resurface.
GILBERT RYLE
To him, once we encounter others, their
perceptions of what we do, how we act, and
the way we behave will then result to the
understanding of other people and
establishing of who we are.

the idea of Ryle 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 generally
who we are as a person.

For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior

that a person manifests in his day-to-day life
PAUL CHURCHLAND
a Canadian philosopher whose focus is on
the idea that people should improve our
association and use of words in identifying
the self; emphasized with his wife as “the
Brain as the Self”

Churchland’s work revolves around challenging of

the notion and terms being used to explain
behavior or to explain how a person feels, thinks,
and act with regards to physiological phenomenon
that is happening in the body

built the idea of “eliminative materialism”.

Basically, eliminative materialism opposes
that people’s common sense understanding
of the mind is false
MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MARLEAU-PONTY
a French philosopher who is known for his
works on existentialism and
phenomenology. His idea of the self,
regarded that the body and mind are not
separate entities,

the unity of the function of the mind and body, this

idea is called the Phenomenology of Perception.

His idea of perception follows the idea of

Gestalt psychology which gives important on
the whole than the sum of its part.
PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERCEPTION
• both receives the experience as well as integrates such
The Body experiences in the different perception.

• are the accumulation of the perception as integrated by

Perceived World the experiences of the body.

• enable one to not only be able to integrate the other

People and the World objects in the world but also to be able to experience
the cultural aspect and relate to others.
END OF CHAPTER 1