COVERAGE: FIRST LESSON Physical appetite - includes the basic

HANGGANG PAGE 45 SA LIBRO biological needs.

Spirit or passion - includes the basic
"THE SELF IS AN IMMORTAL SOUL” emotions
-Plato
As explained by Messerly (2014). The
Socrates explains that the essence of the soul (mind) itself is divided into 3 parts:
self - the soul- is the immortal entity. reason, appetite (physical urges), and will
(emotion, passion, spirit)
The soul strives for wisdom and
perfection.
The reason is the soul's tool to achieve The will is the source of love, anger,
this exalted state. indignation, ambition, aggression, etc.
When these aspects are not in harmony,
As long as the soul is tied to the body, the we experience mental conflict.
quest for wisdom is inhibited by the
imperfection of the physical realm, where The will can be on the side of either
it wanders and is confused. reason or appetites. We might be pulled
by lust, a full appetite, or the rational
Socrates thus suggests that man must desire to find a good partner.
live an examined life and a life of
purpose and value. For him an To explain the interaction of these 3 parts
unexamined is not worth living. of the self, Plato uses the image of the
charioteer (reason) who tries to control
The individual person can have a horses representing will and appetites.
meaningful and happy life only if he Elsewhere he says that reason uses the
becomes virtuous and knows the value will to control appetites.
of himself that can be achieved through
incessant soul searching. Plato also emphasized the social
aspect of human nature. We are not self
He must begin at the source of all sufficient, we need others, and we
knowledge and significance - the self. benefit from our social interactions,
from other person's talents, aptitudes, and
The Socratic method of introspection - is friendships.
a method of carefully examining one's
thoughts and emotions to gain self- Plato believed the soul exists before
knowledge. birth and after death. [We don't see
perfect circles or perfect justice in this
Plato believes that the self is world, but we remember seeing them in
synonymous with the soul. Platonic heaven before we were born.]

For Plato, the three elements of the Thus he believed that the soul or mind
soul/self are the reason, physical attains knowledge of the forms, as
appetite, and spirit or passion. opposed to the senses. Needless to say,
we should care about our soul rather than
Reason - is the divine essence that our body.
enables people to think deeply, make wise
choices, and achieve a true understanding As pointed out by Landazuri (2014) only a
of eternal truths. self-controlled man, then, will know
himself and will be capable of looking to He posits that the rational soul is the
see what he actually knows and what he character by moral virtues such as justice
doesn't know. and courage.
"THE SELF HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
By the same token only a self-controlled “ I am doubting, therefore I am
man will be capable of examining others -St. Augustine
to see what a person knows and thinks he
knows(assuming that he does have Augustine viewed the body as the
knowledge) and whether there are things "spouse of the soul, both attached to
that he thinks he knows, but doesn't really. one another by "natural appetite".
And no one else will be capable of doing
this (Charmides, 167a) He believes that the body is united with
the soul, so that man may be entire and
A self-controlled man has introduced an complete.
inner order which allows him to
acknowledge his own limits and to As a religious, the soul is what governs
examine other person's knowledge and defines man. For him, humankind is
created in the image and likeness of
"THE SOUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE God. Everything created by God is all
SELF" good.
-Aristotle
Therefore, the human person, being a
Aristotle suggests that anything with life creation of God is always geared towards
has a soul. the good. Augustine is convinced that
the self is known only through knowing
The soul is the essence of all living God. Accordingly, self knowledge is a
things, thus the soul is the essence of consequence of knowing God.
the self. He introduced the three kinds of
souls: vegetative, sentient, and “Corgito ergo Sum - I THINK,
rational. THEREFORE I AM”
-”Rene Descartes”
Vegetative soul includes the physical
body that can grow. Suggests that the act of thinking about
the self or being self-conscious is
Sentient soul includes sensual desires, proof that there is a self.
feelings, and emotions.
Human self is a thinking entity that
A rational soul is what makes man doubts, understand, analyzes, question
human. It includes the intellect that and reason.
allows man to know and understand
things. There are dimensions of human self:
The self as thinking entity and the Self
Aristotle suggests that the rational nature as Physical Body.
of the self is to lead a good, flourishing,
and fulfilling life. Soul for him, is a non material,
immortal, conscious being, and
independent of physical laws of
universe.
 For him, what people experience is just a
Physical Body is a material, mortal non bundle of collections of different
thinking entity, fully governed by the perceptions.
physical laws of nature.
If one examines his experiences, he
“THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS” will find distinct entities: impressions
~John Locke and ideas.

Locke believes that the human mind at Impressions are the basic sensations
birth is a tabula rasa or a blank slate. of people’s experiences such as hate,
love, joy, pain, cold, and heat.
For him, conscious awareness and Impressions are vivid perceptions and
memory of previous experiences are the are strong and lively.
keys to understanding the self.
Ideas are thoughts and images from
He believes that the essence of the self impressions so they are less vivid.
is its conscious awareness of itself as
thinking,reasoning, and reflecting For Hume, the idea of personal identity
identity. is a result of imagination.

He contends that consciousness “WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF”

accompanies thinking and makes ~Immanuel Kant
possible the concept people have of a
self. It is the self that makes experiencing
an intelligible world possible because it
Self- consciousness is necessary to is the self that is actively organizing
have a coherent personal (self) identity and synthesizing all of our thoughts
or knowledge of the self as a person. and perceptions.

Consciousness is what makes identity The self in the form of consciousness,

of a person similar in different utilizes conceptual categories which he
situations. calls transcendental deduction of
categories, to construct an orderly and
The power of reason and introspection objective world that is stable and can
enables one to understand and achieve be investigated scientifically.
accurate conclusions about the self (or
personal identity). Kant believes that the self is an
organizing principle that makes a unified
“THERE IS NO SELF” and intelligible experience possible.
~David Hume
The self constructs its own reality,
The idea of personal identity for Hume actively creating a world that is familiar
is a result of imagination and that if the and predictable and most significantly
person carefully examines his sense mine, according to Kant.
experience through the process of
introspection, he will discover that “THE SELF IS MULTILAYERED”
there is no self. ~Sigmund Freud
Freud holds that the self consists of three brain and physiology of the body is
layers: conscious, unconscious, and advocated by Churchland.
preconscious.
For him, all a person has is the brain,
The conscious self is governed by the and so if the brain is gone, there is no
“reality principle”. self.
What gives people a sense of self is the
The unconscious part of the self, the physical brain and not the imaginary
“pleasure principle”, contains the basic brain.
instinctual drives including sexuality,
aggressiveness, and self-destruction, The mind does not exist because it
traumatic memories, unfulfilled wishes, cannot be experienced by the senses.
and childhood fantasies.
“THE SELF IS EMBODIED
The preconscious self contains SUBJECTIVITY”
material that is not threatening and is ~Maurice Merleau-Ponty
easily brought to mind. This is located
between the conscious and For Merleau-Ponty, all knowledge about
unconscious part of the self. the self is based on the “phenomena”
of experience.
Freud argues that much of the self is
determined by the unconscious. He is convinced that consciousness, the
world, and the human body are
“THE SELF IS THE WAY PEOPLE intricately intertwined in perceiving the
BEHAVE” world.
“I ACT, THEREFORE I AM”
~Gilbert Ryle For him, perception is not merely a
consequence of sensory experience;
Ryle believes that the self is best rather it is a conscious experience.
understood as a pattern of behavior,
the tendency or disposition for a Thus, the self has embodied in
person to behave in a certain way in subjectivity.
certain circumstances.
He notes in his book, Phenomenology of
For him, the self is the same as bodily Perception, that everything that people
behavior. He concludes that the mind is are aware of is contained within the
the totality of human dispositions that Consciousness.
is known through the way people behave.

The mind expresses the entire system

of thoughts, emotions, and actions that
make up the human self.

“THE SELF IS THE BRAIN”

~Paul Churchland

The idea of eliminative materialism or the

idea that the self is inseparable from the
LESSON 2 -Play stage (3-5years old): children start
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE to view themselves in relation to others;
SELF AS A PRODUCT OF SOCIETY learns to communicate through language
and other symbols, but don’t perceive
Sociological perspective of the self is role-taking as something expected of
based on the assumption that human them. The self is developing at this stage.
behavior is influenced by group life.
-Game stage (8-9years old): children
A particular view of oneself is informed understand not only their own position but
through interactions with other people, also others; children become concerned
groups, or social institutions. about and take into account their
behavior. The self is now present at this
Postmodern individuals try to avoid stage.
fixation and keeps the options open for
self-improvement. Sociology generates According to Lanuza, the attainment
new insights into the interconnectedness and stability of self-identity in modern
between self and other people. societies are freely chosen and no
longer restricted by customs and
The self continues to change along with traditions.
his or her social experience; no matter
how much the world shapes a person, Problems such as alienation and
they will always remain a creative being dehumanization of the self appear,
and be able to react to the world around hindering the full development of human
them. potentials. Hence, a need to discover the
“authentic core” of the self to freely work
The looking-glass self, a concept towards self-realization.
introduced by Charles Horton Cooley,
describes the development of one’s For Lanuza, self-identity continuously
self and identity through interactions changes due to the demands of
with others. multitude of social contexts, new
information technologies, and
The self has two dimensions according globalization.
to Mead, the I and the me.
Individuals achieve self-identity
The I is the subjective element and the through prestige symbols that they
active side of the self, whereas the me is consume is explained by Baudrillard.
the objective element of the self.
In postmodern societies, self-identity
According to Mead, the self passes continuously changes due to social
through three stages of development: contexts, new info technologies, and
preparatory, play, and game. globalization.

-Preparatory stage (0-3years old): The postmodern person has become an

children imitate people around them insatiable consumer and may never be
especially family members; they copy satisfied because of a need to seek for a
behavior without understanding intentions position in society through quality of
. prestige symbols they can consume.
Therefore, leading to a never-ending
search for prestige in the society. The but the shared understandings that
postmodern individuals achieve self- guide behavior.
identity through prestige symbols that they
consume. Culture, being diverse, self, and identity
may have different meanings
The cultural practices of advertising and in different cultures.
mass media greatly influence individuals
to consume goods not for their primary Identity is a disposition of basic
value and utility but for the feeling of personality features acquired mostly
goodness and power when compared with during childhood and once integrated,
others more or less fixed.

There are two ways in which the concept

LESSON 3
of self is viewed in different societies:
AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
egocentric and sociocentric.
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SELF: THE
SELF AS EMBEDDED IN CULTURE
In the egocentric view, the self is seen
as an autonomous and distinct
Anthropology, considered one of the
individual. Each person is defined as a
most complex areas of discipline, has
replica of all humanity but capable of
explored various meanings of culture,
acting independently from others.
self and identity in the desire to come
up with a better understanding of the
In the socio-centric view, the self is
self.
contingent on a situation or social
setting. This is a view of the self that is
Some anthropologists, however, arrive at
context-dependent which emphasizes that
a conclusion that there is no simple
there is no intrinsic self that can possess
definition.
enduring qualities (Robbins, 2012).

Anthropology is concerned with how

The identity toolbox refers to the
cultural and biological processes
features of a person’s identity that he
interact to shape human existence.
or she chooses to emphasize in
constructing a social self. Some
Both biological and cultural factors have
characteristics such as kinship, gender,
significant influence within the society.
and age are almost universally used to
The most important contribution of
differentiate people.
anthropology is providing insights into
the nature of self based on a continuous
Other characteristics, such as ethnicity,
understanding of the basic elements of
personal appearance, and socioeconomic
culture.
status are not always used in every
society.
Culture is defined by Edward Tylor as a
Family membership could be the most
complex whole that includes
significant feature to determine a
knowledge,belief, art, morals, law,
person’s social identity.
customs, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as member of
Another important identity determinant
society. Culture is not behavior itself
that is often viewed as essential for the
maintenance of group identity is separation from one’s family to become
language. part of a new one.
In the liminality phase, a person
In other societies, religious affiliation is an transitions from one identity to another.
important marker of group identity For example, the wedding ceremony itself
(Robbins, 2012). In Mindanao, being is the process of transition of the bride and
Christian or a Muslim is possibly the most groom from singlehood to married life.
important defining feature of one’s social
identity. In the incorporation phase, the change
in one’s status is officially incorporated.
Personal naming, a universal practice with For example, the wedding reception and
numerous cross-cultural variations, parties that celebrate the wedding serve
establishes a child’s birthright and social as the markers that officially recognize the
identity. bride and groom towards being husband
and wife.
A name is an important device to
individualize a person and legitimize him Self-identification may be attained by
or her as a member of a social group such overcoming traditional practices or
as a family (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, through internalizing divergent cultural
& McBride, 2013). models and suppressing any conflicting
self- representations.
Personal names in all societies are
intimate markers of a person who which The concept of the “illusion of
differentiates him or her from others. A wholeness” implies that the
person’s name may symbolically cohesiveness and
represent his or her cultural self. Hence, continuity of self are only illusory.
many cultures mark the naming of a child
with a special ceremony. Geertz defined culture as a system of
inherited conceptions expressed in
One’s identity is not inborn. It is something symbolic forms by means by which
people continuously develop in life. people communicate, perpetuate, and
For instance, rites of passage usually develop knowledge about and attitudes
involve ritual activities to prepare towards life.
individuals for new roles from one stage of
life to another such as birth, puberty, According to Geertz, man is defined by
marriage, having children, and death. his genetic potentials shaped into
actual accomplishments which are
Arnold van Gennep believes that made possible by culture. Cultural
changes in one’s status and identity are differences exist when groups of people
marked by a three-phased rite of assign different meanings to different life
passage : separation, liminality, and events and things.
incorporation.

In the separation phase, people detach

from their former identity to another. For
example, in a wedding, the bride walking
down the aisle to be “given away” by the
parents to the groom implies the