NETFLIX
LESSON 1
DEFINITION OF THE
SELF: PHILOSOPHICAL
JOURNEY • What is the role of philosophy in understanding the self?
• What are the different concepts of the self from the
philosophical view?
• What are the various concepts of the self and identify
their similarities?
• How to develop your own philosophy of the self?
what is philosophy?
PHILOSOPHY IS ABOUT
Finding answers to serious questions about ourselves and
about the world we live in:
What is morally right and wrong? And why?
What is a good life?
Does God exist?
What is the mind? And much, much more
Questioning existing knowledge and intuitions to get closer
to the truth.
What will you get out of
philosophy?
The skills are critical thinking skills,
argument skills, communication, reasoning,
problem solving, analysis and much more.
You can justify your opinion and spot a bad
argument what ever the topic is. You can
explain to people why you are right and
they are wrong. Lastly, philosophy basically
teaches you to think.
PYTHAGORA OF
SAMOS
An Ionian Greek PHILOSOPHER
The first to use the
word philosopy
The origin of The people tend to
search for truth
philosophy and Search is to look for
something
logic Search for meaning
Search for answers
Search for importance
Search for significance
Search for value
Search for relevance
Philosophy tends to ask
a lot of questions
PHILOSOPHY AND
THE SELF
HYPATIA OF ALEXANDRIA
Ancient Greek philosopher,
mathematician and astronomer
“KNOW THYSELF”
“AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS
NOT WORTH LIVING”
Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a prerequisite
to a happy and meaningful life.
SOCRATES
EVERY MAN IS DUALISTIC
WE ARE COMPOSED OF BODY
AND A SOUL
THERE ARE TWO IMPORTANT ASPECT OF
PERSONHOOD
THE BODY WHICH IS IMPERFECT AND IMPERMANENT
AND THE SOUL, PERFECT AND PERMANENT.
SOCRATES’ TWO DICHOTOMOUS REALMS
The Physical Realm The Ideal realm
Changeable, transient Unchanging, eternal
and imperfect and immortal
The body belongs to The soul belong to
this realm this realm
Socrates was the first thinker to focus on the full power of
reason on the human self
WHO WE ARE, WHO WE SHOULD BE, AND WHO WE WILL
BECOME.
The soul strives for wisdom and perfection, and reason is
the soul’s tool to achieve an exalted state of life.
Our preoccupation with bodily needs such as food, drink,
sex, pleasure, material possessions, and wealth keep us
from attaining wisdom.
A person can have a meaningful and happy life only if he
becomes virtuous and knows the value of himself that can
be achieve through constant soul-searching.
For him, this is best achieved when one tries to separate
the body from the soul as much possible.
Plato: the human soul is immortal
• He is a student of Socrates
• The philosophy of the self can
be explained as a process of
self-knowledge and
purification of the soul.
• He believed that in the
existence of the mind and
soul
• Mind and soul is given in
perfection with God Plato
Plato: the human soul has 3 parts
1. Rational Soul
• reason and intellect
• divine essence that enables
us to think deeply, make wise
choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal
truths
plato
Plato: the human soul has 3 parts
1. Spirited Soul
• emotion and passion
• basic emotions such as love,
anger
ambition, empathy, and
aggressiveness.
plato
Plato: the human soul has 3 parts
1. Appetitive Soul
• basic needs
• includes our basic biological
needs
such as hunger, thirst, and
sexual desire.
plato
Plato: the human soul has 3 parts
theses three elements of ourselves
are
in a dynamic relationship with one
another, sometimes in conflict.
When conflict occurs, Plato believes
that it is the responsibility of our
reason to sort things out and exert
control, restoring a harmonious
relationship among the three elements
of ourselves.
plato
Plato: the human soul has 3 parts
Plato believes that genuine
happiness can only be achieved by
people who consistently make sure
that their reason is in control of
their spirits and appetites.
plato
Aristotle: the soul is the essence of the self
• A student of Plato
• The body and soul are not two
separate elements but are one
thing
• The soul is simply the form of
the body and is not capable of
existing without the body
aristotle
Aristotle: the soul is the essence of the self
• The soul is that which makes a
person a person. The soul is the
essence of the self
• Aristotle suggest that the
rational nature of the self is to
lead a good, flourishing, and
fulfilling life.
• Without the body, the soul
cannot exist, the soul dies along
aristotle with the body
Aristotle: the soul is the essence of the self
The soul and the body, I suggest
react sympathetically upon each
other. A change in the state of the
soul produces a change in the
shape of the body and conversely, a
change in the shape of the body
produces a change in the state of
the soul.
aristotle
Aristotle: the soul is the essence of the self
• Aristotle suggested that
anything with life has soul
• His discussion about the self
centers on the kinds of soul
possessed by a man
• He introduced the three kinds of
soul
aristotle
Aristotle: the three kinds of soul
1. Vegetative Soul
includes the physical body that
can grow
2. Sentient Soul
includes the sensual desires,
feelings, and emotions.
3. Rational Soul
is what makes a man human. It
includes the intellect that makes
aristotle man know and understand things
Aristotle: the three kinds of soul
1. Vegetative Soul is for plant
reproduction and growth
2. Sensitive Soul is for animals
mobility and sensation
3. Rational Soul is for humans
thought and reflection
aristotle
St. Augustine: I am doubting, therefore I am
• Integrate the ideas of Plato and
Christianity
• Augustine’s view of the human person
reflects the entire spirit of the medieval
world
• The soul is united with the body so that
man may be entire and complete
• Believed humankind is created in the
image and likeness of God.
ST. AUGUSTINE
St. Augustine: I am doubting, therefore I am
• Therefore, the human person being a
creation of God is always geared
towards the good
• The self is known only through knowing
God
• Self-knowledge is a consequence of
knowledge of God
ST. AUGUSTINE
St. Augustine: I am doubting, therefore I am
“Knowledge can only come by
seeing the truth that dwells
within us”
ST. AUGUSTINE
RENE DESCARTES: I think therefore, I am
Cogito ergo sum
“the act of thinking about self –
of being self-conscious is in
itself proof that there is self”
Rene descartes
RENE DESCARTES’ two distinct entities
1. COGITO – The thing that thinks
the mind
2. EXTENZA – The extension
the body
Rene descartes
JOHN LOCKE: THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
• The human mind at birth is tabula
rasa
or blank slate, his theory of
knowledge
• He felt that the self is constructed
primarily from sense experience
JOHN LOCKE
JOHN LOCKE: THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
• Locke theorized that when a person
is
born, the baby know absolutely
nothing
• In essence, he a argued that the
inside of a baby’s brain was empty
and ready to learn everything
JOHN LOCKE
JOHN LOCKE: THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
• CONSCIOUSNESS
Necessary to have a coherent
personal identity or knowledge of the
self as a person.
what makes possible our belief that
we are the same identity in different
situations
JOHN LOCKE
DAVID HUME: THERE IS NO SELF
• Self is simply a bundle or
collection of different
perceptions, which succeed
each other with an
inconceivable rapidly are in a
perpetual flux and movement
• The idea of personal identity is
a result of imagination
• There is no self
David hume
• The ego is not master in its
own house
• Man is governed by 2 drives:
Eros and Thanatos
• Three provinces of the mind:
Id, ego and superego
Sigmund Freud: The ego is not master in its own house
Immanuel kant
• Self is not just what gives one
his personality but also the
seat of knowledge acquisition
for all human persons.
• The self construct its own
reality creating a world that is
familiar and predictable.
• Through our rationality, the
self transcends sense
experience.
Immanuel Kant : We construct the self
GILBERT RYLE: THE SELF IS THE WAY PEOPLE BEHAV
• 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.
• “I act therefore, I am”, in short,
the self is the same as bodily
behavior
• The self is the way people GILBERT RYLE
behave
Paul Churchland: the self is the brain
• Self is inseparable from the
brain and the physiology of the
body
• All we have is the brain and so,
if the brain is gone, there is no
self
• The physical brain and not the
imaginary mind, gives us our
Paul Churchland sense of self
• The self is the brain
• The mind-body bifurcation
that has been going on for a
long time is a futile endeavor
and an invalid problem.
• All knowledge of our selves
and our world is based on
subjective experience Maurice Merleau-
• The self can never truly ponty:
objectified or known in a The self is embodied
completely objective sort of subjectivity
way
• The self is embodied
