LESSON 1: PHILOSOPHICAL

PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF Ancient Greek Philosophers:

- Socrates
What is Philosophy? - Plato
● Philosophy is all about; finding - Aristotle
answers to serious questions about
ourselves and about the world we Socrates
live in: - “Know Thyself”, Philosophers
● Questioning existing knowledge agree that self-knowledge is a
and institutions to get closer to the prerequisite to a happy and
truth. meaningful life.
- “An unexamined life is not worth
What will you get out of Philosophy? living”.
The skills are: - Every man is dualistic
● Critical thinking - Composed of body and soul
● Argument skills - 2 important aspects of his
● Communication personhood: body; imperfect and
● Reasoning impermanent, soul; perfect and
● Analysis permanent
● Problem solving
Which allow you to: Socrates 2 dichotomous realms
● Justify your opinions Physical realm
● Spot a bad argument, no matter - changeable, transient, and
what the topic is imperfect.
● Explain to people why they are - the body belongs to this realm.
wrong and you are right Ideal realm
● Philosophy basically teaches you to - unchanging, eternal, and immortal.
think - the soul belongs to this realm.

Pythagoras - the first to use the term ● Socrates was the first thinker to
“Philosophy”. focus on the full power of reason
on the human self: who we are,
Philosophy means “Love of Wisdom” who we should be and who we
Philo is a greek word means “Love”. will become.
Sophia is a greek word means “Wisdom”. ● The soul strives for wisdom and
perfection, and the reason is the
Origin of Philosophy and Logic soul’s tool to achieve an exalted
● Search for the truth state of life.
● Search is to look for something ● Our preoccupation with bodily
● Search for meaning (importance, needs such as food, drink, sex,
significance, value, relevance) pleasure, material possessions
● Philosophy ask a lot of questions and wealth keep us from attaining
wisdom.
Philosophy and the Self
 ● A person can have a meaningful When conflict occurs, Plato believes that it
and happy life only if he becomes is the responsibility of our Rational to sort
virtuous and knows the value of things out and exert control, restoring a
himself that can be achieved hormonious relationship among the three
through constant soul-searching. elements of ourselves.
● For him, this is the best achieved
when one tries to separate the body Plato believes that genuine happiness can
from the soul as much as possible. only be achieved by people who
consistently make sure that their Rational
Plato is in control of their Spirits and Appetites.
- “The soul is immortal”
- A student of Socrates Aristotle
- Philosophy of the self can be - “The soul is the essence of the
explained as a process of Self”
self-knowledge and purification - A student of Plato
of the soul. - The body and soul are not two
- He believed in the existence of the separate elements, but are one
mind and soul. thing.
- mind and soul are given in - The soul is simply the form of the
perfection with god. body, and is not capable of existing
without the body.
Soul has three parts
1. Rational Soul Aristotle: Kinds of Soul
- reason and intellect 1. Vegetative
- devine essence that enables us to - includes the physical body that can
think deeply, make wise choices grow.
and achieve a true understanding of 2. Sentient
eternal truths. - includes the sensual desires,
2. Spirited Soul feelings and emotions.
- emotion and passion 3. Rational
- basic emotions such as love, anger, - is what makes man human. It
ambition, empathy, and includes the intellect that makes
aggressiveness. man know and understand things.
3. Appetitive Soul
- basic needs Examples:
- includes our biological needs such ● Vegetative Soul - Plants
as hunger, thirst, and sexual (Reproduction, Growth)
desire. ● Sentitive Soul - Animals (Mobility,
and Sensation)
These 3 elements of ourselves are in a ● Rational Soul - Human (Thought,
dynamic relationship with one another, Reflection)
sometimes in conflict.
St. Augustine learn everything through
- “I am doubting, therefore I am” experience.
- Integrated the ideas of Plato and
Christianity. THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
- Augustine’s view of the buman
person reflects the entire spirit of CONSCIOUSNESS
the medieval world. ● necessary to have a coherent
- The soul is united with the body so personal identity or knowledge of
that man may be entire and the self as a person.
complete. ● what makes possible our belief, is
- Believed humankind is created in that we are the same identity in
the image and likeness of God. different situations.
- “Knowledge can only come by
seeing the truth that dwells David Hume
within us”. The truth of which - “There is no self”
Augustine spoke refers to the truth - Self is simply a bundle or
of knowing God. collection of different perceptions,
which succeed each other with an
Rene Descartes inconceivable rapidly and are in a
- “I think therefore I am” perpetual flex and movement.
- The act of thinking about self - of - The idea of personal identity is a
being self-conscious - is in itself result of imagination.
proof that there is self. - There is no self.

Descartes 2 distinct entities Immanuel Kant

1. Cogito - Self is not just what gives one his
- the thing that thinks personality, but also the seat of
- mind knowledge acquisition for all
2. Extenza human persons.
- the extension - The self constructs its own reality
- body creating a world that is familiar and
predictable.
John Locke - Through our rationality, the self
- “The self is consciousness” transcends sense experience.
- The human mind at birth is tabula
rosa or blank slate. Gilbert Ryle
- He felt that the self is constructed - “The self is the way people
primarily from sense experiences. behave”
- Locke theorized that when they are - Self is not an entity one can locate
born, all babies know absolutely and analyze, but simply the
nothing. convenient name that people use to
- He argued that the inside of a refer to all the behaviors that
baby’s brain was empty - ready to people make.
- The self is that way people behave.
 - The term “looking glass-self” was
Paul Churchland first used by Cooley in his work,
- “The self is the brain” Human Nature and the Social
- The mind does not really exist. Order in 1902.
- It is the brain and not the
imaginary mind that gives us our Steps in looking glass-self
sense of self. 1. You imagine how you appear to the
- The self is the brain. other person.
2. You imagine the judgement of the
Maurice Merleau Ponty other person.
- “The self is embodied 3. You feel same sense of pride,
subjectivity” happiness, guilt, or shame.
- The mind-body bifurcation that
has been going on for a long time George Herbert Mead
is a futile endeavor and an invalid - Mead’s theory of the self is
problem. completely social. Yourself
- All knowledge of ourselves and our develops through interacting with
world is based on subjective others, through reflecting on that
experience. interaction, to thinking how others
- The self can never be truly are perceiving you, and that helps
objectified or known in a you generate an image of your self.
completely objective sort of way. - Mead theorized that the self has
- The self is embodied subjectivity. two parts: Self-awareness and
Self-image.
LESSON 2: SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF DEVELOPMENT OF SELF
● PREPARATORY STAGE:
Sociology - A social science that studies Language develops self by
human societies, their interactions, and the allowing individuals to respond to
processes that preserve and change them. each other through symbols,
gestures, words, and sounds.
Charles Cooley ● PLAY STAGE: Play develops self
- He is perhaps best known for his by allowing individuals to take on
concept of the looking glass self, different roles, pretend and express
which is the concept that a person’s expectations of others. Play
self grows out of society’s develops one’s self-consciousness
interpersonal interactions and the through role-playing.
perceptions of others. ● GAME STAGE: Games develop
- The concept of the “looking self by allowing individuals to
glass-self” is undoubtedly his most understand and adhere to the rules
famous, and is known and accepted of the activity. Self is developed by
by most psychologists and understanding that there are rules
sociologists today. in which one must abide by in
 order to win the game or be ● RELIGION - children tend to
successful. develop the same religious beliefs
- His theory of the social self as their parents. Very often those
includes the concepts of “I” and who disavow religion return to
“me”. their original faith at the same
point in their life, especially if they
Erving Goffman have strong ties to their family of
- We use “impression origin and after they form families
management” to present ourselves of their own.
to others as we hope to be
perceived. DRAMATURGY PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
- Each situation is a new scene and OF THE SELF
we perform different roles
depending on who is present. What is Psychology?
- In his theory of dramaturgical - Psychology is the study of mind
analysis, he argued that people live and behavior. It encompasses the
their lives much like actors biological influences, social
performing on a stage. pressures and environmental
factors that affect how people
AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION think, act and feel.
● FAMILY - families introduce
children to the expectations of 1. Sigmund Freud - the importance
society. Socialization is different of unconscious.
based on race, gender and class. ○ He was considered as the
● SCHOOL - in school, teachers and “father of psychoanalysis”
other students are the source of ○ He postulated that there are
expectations that encourage three layers of self within
children to think and behave in us all.
particulat ways. Id - “makahayop”
● PEERS - peer culture is an ● the first part of the self to develop
important source of identity. ● the seat of all our desires and wants
Through interaction with peers, ● it has no awareness other than it
children learn concepts of self, gain wants what it wants
social skills, and form values and ● it is the pleasure principle
attitudes. ● it doesn’t care about morals or
● MEDIA - the average of young societal norms
person (age 8-19) spends almost 7 Ego - “makatao”
hours per day immersed in media ● the part of us that functions on
in various forms, often using reality
multiple media forms ● the ego regulates how many of the
simultaneously. Television is the id’s urges will be expressed
dominant medium, although half of ● the ego is able to discern what is
all youth use a computer daily. right or wrong based on the context
● it is the reality principle
Super-Ego - “makadiyos” have developed over time, based
● sometimes referred to as the “voice on what we have learned and
of god” experienced.
● it strives for perfection THE IMPORTANCE OF
● its main concern is to decide and ALIGNMENT
act in accordance to what is ● If the way that I am (real self) is
morally and socially acceptable aligned with the way that I want to
standards. be (the ideal self), then I will feel a
sense of mental well-being, or
2. William James - concept of self peace of mind. If the way that I am
● He theorized the components of the is not aligned with how I want to
self, which he divided into two be, the incogruence, or lack of
categories: “me” and “I” alignment, will result in mental
● The “me” is a separate individual, distress or anxiety.
a person refers to when talking
about their personal experience. Multiple vs. Unified Selves by David
● The “I” is the part of the self that Lester
knows who they are and what they
have accomplished in life. The unified self is a means of referring to
● “I know it was me who ate the the “composite” persona, or to the “self”
cookie.”, the “me” is the empirical that contains all of the personas that exist
self, the one who does the acting, within a person’s. Multiple selves (or
whereas the “I” is the self that is multiple personas) refer to the different
capable of thinking and reflecting. ways that individuals interact with the
● 3 sub-categories of ME: a material, different situations and circumstances in
social, and spiritual self. their lives.
○ The material self consists
of what belongs to a person, Donald Winnicott - true self versus false
such as the body, family, self
clothes, or money. ● Winnicott suggests that the self is
○ The social self marks who composed of the true self and false
you are in a specific social self. Accoding to him, the function
situation. of the false self is to hide and
○ The spiritual self is who protect the true self.
we are at our core,
including our personality, Why is it important to know yourself?
values and conscience. ● Happiness
● Less inner conflict
IDEAL SELF VERSUS REAL SELF ● Better decision-making
● The real self is who we actually ● Self-control
are. It is how we think, how we ● Resistance to social pressure
feel, look and act. ● Tolerance and understanding of
● The ideal self is how we want to others
be. It is an idealized image that we ● Vitality and pleasure