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WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SELF
What is Philosophy?
 Etymology: Greek
 Philos – love
 Sophia – wisdom
 “love of wisdom”
As an academic discipline,
 It does not provide ultimate answers, despite
the ultimate nature of philosophical ideas.
 It opens the minds of people.
 It encourages individuals to ask questions
and to seek answers for themselves.
 It encourages students to philosophize.
Definition of Philosophy
 The study of the basic/ fundamental
principles of life, knowledge, reality,
existence, morality, human nature through
the use of logic and reason.
I. Ancient Philosophy
 1000 BC to 500 AD
 3 Periods:
1. Pre-Socratics
2. The Ancient Triumvirate
3. Post-Aristotelians
1. Pre-Socratics
 Cosmo-Centric
 There is a fundamental
principle/thing that underlies
everything else, including the human
self.
 Thales: Water (everything comes
out of water and that the earth floats
on water)
 Anaximander: Apeiron
“Boundless Something” (first
creatures originated from the moist
element by evaporation)
 Anaximenes: Air (air is the source
of all things)
 Democritus (atom)
 Heraclitus (fire)
 Anaxagoras (nous/mind)
 Pythagoras (numbers)
2. The Ancient Triumvirate
a. Socrates
 Know yourself
 The core of Socratic ethics is the
concept of Virtue and Knowledge
 Virtue is the deepest and most
basic propensity of man
 Can you give examples of
virtue?
 Each person has an immortal
soul that surpasses the death of
the body. (dualistic
reality=body & soul)
b. Plato
 3-part soul/self (psyche)
- Reason: the divine essence
that lets us think deeply
(wisdom)
- Physical Appetite:
accounts for the basic
biological needs such as
hunger, thirst and sexual
desire
- Spirit/Passion: accounts
for the basic emotions such
as love, anger, ambition,
aggressiveness, empathy
 The three parts are in a dynamic
relationship with each other: in
agreement or in conflict.
 But it is the responsibility of the
Reason to restore harmony
among the three.
c. Aristotle
 The mind (self) is a
TABULARASA (a blank tablet)
 The self consists of matter and
form; matter is in a continuous
process of developing and
becoming.
 The goal of the human self is
reached in happiness through
moderation or balance of things.
3. The Post-Aristotelians
 Maintains the dualism between body
and soul
 More ethical in their ideas (moral
norms attainment of happiness)
 Stoicism: apathy or indifference to
pleasure (the endurance of pain or
hardship without a display of
feelings and without complaint)
 Hedonism: “Eat, drink and be
happy, for tomorrow, you will die.”
(pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-
indulgence)
 Epicureanism: Moderate Pleasure
- Advocated hedonism (pleasure
as the highest good), but of a
restrained kind.
- Mental pleasure was regarded
more highly than physical, and
the ultimate pleasure was held
to be freedom from anxiety and
mental pain, especially that
arising from needless fear of
death and of the gods.
II. Medieval Philosophy
 500 AD to 1350
 Theo-centric
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WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SELF

 From the scientific investigation on nature - A person should not be used as a

and search for happiness to the question of tool, instrument, or device to
life and salvation in another realm, in a accomplish another’s private ends.
better world (afterlife) - All men are persons gifted with the
 Rather imposing than informing, because it same basic rights and should treat
was trying to aim at paganism and each as equals.
barbarism.  Sigmund Freud
 There was an aim to merge philosophy and - Founded the Psychoanalytic school
religion (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) of psychology
 St. Augustine: Love and Justice as the - The SELF is multi-tiered/multi-
Foundation of the Individual Self layered
- “The good man, though slave, is  Conscious governed by
free; the wicked, though he reigns, the reality principle
is a slave.” –St. Augustine  Preconscious
 Unconscious contains the
III. Modern Philosophy basic instinctual drives
 14 to early 20th century
th -
 Anthropocentric
 Thinkers began to reject the scholastics’
(medieval thinkers) excessive reliance on
authority.
 Period of radical social, political and
intellectual developments
 “Cogito ergo sum.” “I think,
therefore, I am.” -Reńe Descartes
 John Locke: An Empiricist
- Knowledge originates in our direct IV. Contemporary Philosophy
sense experience.  Late 19th century
- Reason plays a subsequent role in  More humanist as a response to the so
figuring out the significance of our called alienation of the human person.
sense experience and in reaching  Edmund Husserl- The Father of
intelligent conclusions. Phenomenology
- Personal Identity- conscious - We experience our self as a unity in
awareness and memory of previous which the mental and physical are
experiences are the keys to seamlessly woven together.
understanding the self  Maurice Merleau-Ponty
 David Hume: Empiricist, Skeptic - Mind and body are so intertwined
& Nihilist that they cannot be separated from
- There is no self! each other.
- Man has no “clear and intelligible” - The living body, his thoughts,
idea of the self emptions, and experiences are all
- Self is just the thing to which all one.
perceptions of a man is ascribed
 Paul Churchland: A Physicalist
- Eliminative Materialism: grounded END
in neuroscience
- The mind/self is the brain
 Immanuel Kant
- The self actively organizes all the
sensations and thoughts into a
picture that makes sense to each
one of us.
- WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF!
- Respect for Self
- Man is the only creature who
governs and directs himself and his
actions
- Every man is an end in himself and
should not be treated merely as a
means.