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Theory of the Self

Adaptive and Altering Self in the 21st Century

A steadfast growth in various aspects of the world has been conspicuous today. Moving
forward in time is also became a vital role in advancements and progress. Everyone
acknowledges that change is the only constant event in the world. The 21st century, which is also
called the Common Era, will about to end in two years. Some many significant things and events
happened in this era. A new generation of changes will sprout again. Amidst these events, do
people can still construct their self? Do they engage in doubting the things around them? Or they
just adapt to the aspects of the world which they let reigned themselves. Do adapting produced a
genuine self?

People, specifically human, who is known for being an intelligent creature in the world
and the primary susceptible to changes. The human structure is composed of its foundation – the
Self. The structure wouldn’t be completed without establishing its grounds that will make it
known as a human. It is constituted of mind, body, and soul which is distinct or separable from
each other. Just like the conclusion on the Sixth Meditation of René Descartes:

For we are not able to conceive the half of a mind as we can do of the smallest of all
bodies; so that we see that not only are their nature different but even in some respects
contrary to one another. I have not however dealt further with this matter in this treatise,
both because what I have said is sufficient to show clearly enough that the extinction of
the mind does not follow from the corruption of the body, and also to give men the hope
of another life after death, as also because the premises from which the immortality of the
soul may be deduced depend on an elucidation of a complete system of Physics.1

However, on the contrary, the divisibility of the three is what formed the Self. Each of
them has certain differences which they only can do. The deficiency of one will still make the
Self alive but it will not function the same as when it is complete. Moreover, the absence of one
will not make the Self as it is.

The ​Soul​ ​is an intangible component of the Self – it is a spiritual substance2 and doesn’t
possess physical form. It is connected to the religiosity of a person. The conscience also lies with
the soul which goes hand in hand with the Mind in assessing the actions to be done by the body.
With the aid of the soul, the self can have a healthy function. However, when the withering of
Religion happened in the past, Humanism became more soaring as time passed by. When
Jean-Paul Sartre stated his claims on his well-known book – ​Existentialism and Humanism​, “man
first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world - and defines himself afterward. If
man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing.”3 He
is an existentialist and atheist in where they are known for employing freedom and ethical
decision in human life. It implies that human beings are responsible for its existence and how he
will spend his life thus, it is a concept of a world that is free from religious conviction or “unreal
supernatural object – God”.4 Then Auguste Comte, the father of modern humanity, renewed the

1
René Descartes, ​Philosophical Works of Descartes​, trans. Elizabeth S. Haldane and G.R.T Ross
(Fetter Lane, LDN: Cambridge University Press, 1911), https://web.archive.org
2
John Chaffee, ​The Philosopher’s Way​ (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012), 110.
3
Jean-Paul Sartre, ​Existentialism and Humanism,​ trans. Philip Mairet (London, UK: Methuen
Publishing Ltd, 1948), https://web.archive.org
4
Jean-Paul Sartre, ​Existentialism Is a Humanism​, trans. Carol Macomber, ed. John Kulka (New
Haven, US: Yale University Press, 2007), http://www.bayareaphilosophy.com
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notion through his altered version of the definition. He specified that the “humanity” should be
the object people worshipped rather than the “unreal supernatural object”.5

There are various claims about the Soul and the related things around it. But in contrast to
those, Soul, although it is intangible which made people doubt its existence, is a vital part of the
Self because religion is the foundation of the creation of humans. Many religions have been
created through the past years and diverse stories of creation have been told. Thus for people
who believe in God or Supreme One of their religion, they have a sense of the background of
their creation. Believing to God limits people to do only the ethical actions and guided them to
live a more moral life. They also believed in the different sacraments, like repenting and
reconciliation to God. Having faith in God, who possess invisible physical form, and to the
uncertainty of creation – must make people’s faith stronger. On the other hand, for those people
who believed that their creation was purely because of science or for those atheists, their beliefs
reside on Satre and Comte’s claims.

The ​Mind ​is another composition of the Self. It is intangible, which means it doesn’t hold
physical form but it inhabits the brain that is part of the body. Similar to the view of the Self of
René Descartes which he integrates on Plato’s metaphysic – Dualism:

The physical self is a part of nature, governed by the physical laws of the universe, and
available to scientific analysis and experimentation. At the same time, the conscious self
(mind, soul) is a part of the spiritual realm, independent of the physical laws of the
universe, governed only by the laws of reason and God’s will.6

The mind and soul, as stated earlier, work hand in hand in order for people to assess the
external and internal events or happenings in their life and surroundings. The mind focuses on
analyzing the situation ethically then the soul helps through assessing it based on the religious
teachings e.g., 10 commandments. Ethics7 and Religious teachings are somehow similar however
the former develops and changes through time while the latter was constructed a long time ago
by religious individuals e.g., prophets, disciples and saints.

As the mind must produce an ethical attitude, it must first need to have methods in order
to have a moral output. Descartes also stated that the self is a ​thinking thing ​that knows how to
doubt, understand, refuse, deny, affirm, have a will, imagine and feel.8 Through those methods,
the mind can perform ethically. However, every day the mind always encounters difficult events
that challenge it on being moral or immoral. Some people also stated that the mind is a very
dangerous part of the self. It can manipulate the entire being of a human in doing the things that
are unlikely to its purpose. With the precipitous change in the world, the mind must still stand to
its quest – to live ethically.

The ​Body, t​ he only part of the Self that possesses physical or tangible form. It is the
primary receiver or witness on the happenings around the surrounding. The mind occupies one of
the essential parts of the body, the brain. However, there is a distinctive characteristic of the
body that the mind can’t control e.g., reflexes. The body is very important for the soul and mind
to function. And it is not to be considered as a snare or cage according to St. Augustine9 and as a
prison, as Socrates stated because the mind and soul are somehow superior to the body. Most
actions that the body performed is already been assessed by the other parts of the Self. The body
also doesn’t limit the other part like a prison cell does to prisoners. Still, the body is a huge
constraint for the Self to act the way the soul and mind want. There are various considerations
5
Mary Midgley, Against Humanism (England: New Humanism, 2010), https://newhumanist.org.
uk
6
Chaffee, 117.
7
Ibid., 34
8
Ibid., 114
9
Ibid., 111
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since the body has a physical form that needs to be taken care of and protected. Whatever
decisions the other parts did, it will surely affect the body.

The growth in the form of the body doesn’t depend on the other parts. It has a natural
and fixed end. Humans will experience a body that is lively and full of enthusiasm then the later
of their life, they will have a weak and fragile body that is more prone to diseases or sickness. It
is an inevitable purpose of the body. Even though a person can reach the age of a hundred, it will
die, even if they prevent it. However, the improvement of the aesthetic aspect of the body relies
on the soul and mind. Through the other parts of the self, the body can undergo changes that will
them more comfortable and confident in themselves. There are many considerations that the
body made before it reaches the stage of satisfaction and contentment – which can be difficult in
this century.

Factors that affect the Adaptation and Alteration of the Self

Basic Aspects of the World

Some basic aspects of the world have been the factors of the adaptation and alteration of
the Self in the 21st Century. According to the theory of Descartes, the Self keeps struggling in
grasping and finding its consciousness thus, it cannot form its identity10.

Social structures ​as one of the most notable aspects of the world have been evolving
through time. Most people seize to dive-in on those changes because they see it as somehow
positive and remarkable as a component in the formation of their Self. There is already been a
constructed structure of the society that people follow nowadays. It seems that George H. Mead’s
view is becoming incorrect as he stated that “the individual is no thrall of society. He constitutes
society as genuinely as society constitutes the individual.”11 The society is slowly making the
Self limited to its constructed standards.

Human social progress involves the use by human individuals of their socially derived
mechanism of self-consciousness, both in the effecting of such progressive social
changes, and also in the development of their individual selves or personalities in such a
way as adaptively to keep pace with such social reconstruction. Ultimately and
fundamentally societies develop in complexity of organization only by means of the
progressive achievement of greater and greater degrees of functional, behavioristic
differentiation among the individuals who constitute them;12

People use to adapt and reconstruct themselves into social standards in order to heighten
or increase their self-efficacy13. There are many social structures that have been branded today,
thus, people used this as a means in order to strengthen their performance and achievements in
life. According to Bandura, there are four sources of Self-Efficacy: Mastery experiences,
Vicarious experiences, Verbal persuasion, Emotional and physiological states.14 The gathered
vicarious experiences of the Self from the society became its example in order to increase its
efficacy. The Self determines role models that accomplished the things that it similarly desires.

The Body which is the primary witness of the external aspect of the Self also goes
through changes. Nowadays, social structures are leading the body to adapt to its changes. When
10
Chaffee, 114.
11
George H. Mead, ​Mind, Self and Society​, ed. Charles W. Morris (Chicago, USA: Chicago
University Press, 1934) XXV.
12
​Ibid., 309 - 310
13
​Albert Bandura, ​Self-Efficacy​, ed. V.S Ramachaudran, ​Encyclopedia of Human Behavior​ Vol.
4, pp. 71-81 (New York: Academic Press), Reprinted ed. H. Friedman, ​Encyclopedia of Mental Health
(San Diego: Academic Press, 1998) 2.
14
​Ibid., 2 - 3.
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the Self decided to control the natural form of the body, it loses its original construction. Plato
also confirmed that a body cannot remain the same because it has a natural continual change and
evolution.15 The 21st century brought massive technological innovations that people admired and
started to use in order to delay the physical youthfulness or the aesthetic aspect of the body.
Since time immemorial, there have been constructed standard of the body that was made by the
society. It is very evident in this century and people are constructing it unfairly. The “natural”
standards is only called that way because people are used to it. According to Margo DeMello, it
is “In fact, what occurs is that once something comes to take on cultural meaning, it becomes
naturalized: we think that things are the way that they are because they have always been that
way, and that they are, therefore, ​natural​.”16

Generally, society is the widest community a person will interact with. It is not unusual if
a person develops an intimate and romantic relationship with a significant other. Helen Fisher
mentioned the three basic ingredients of Love according to psychologist Robert Stenberg which
are intimacy, passion, and commitment.17 A specific part of passion is physical attraction, which
the body portrays. People are very keen when it comes to their external form because it seems
that it is the measurement of how people will love you. Furthermore, since they use their ​body
every day, it is more prone to diseases or illnesses that may affect the mind and soul. The number
of cases of sexually transmitted diseases escalates as time passed by.

While changes progress, the soul is gradually weakening. On its original nature which is
it must be the superior aspect of the Self. It is now set aside and somehow the Mind and Body
have been striving to lead. We dived into the social structures even though it violates the
standards of one’s religion. Those standards may look like “strict parents” since those are the
religious teachings that were long-established.

The ​Culture​ ​was defined by Clifford Geertz as a “self-contained "superorganic" reality

with forces and purposes of its own; that is, to reify it”.18 Some aspect of it is ​tangible​ – foods,
art, place and ​intangible​ – customs, superstition, dialects. Most of it was constructed in ancient
times. Hence, nowadays, it is difficult to have supplemented or enhance customs because it is
slowly elapsing. The culture serves as a vital contributor to the ​soul ​since people were a true
devotee and religious back then, there are many religious practices that are part of it. The culture
also has relevance to the construction of the body. The Self belongs to a race, a sub aspect of
culture, which is determined by its nationality. As the culture’s standard was outdated on the
standard of the body demanded by society. It becomes a constraint for the body to act according
to its desires. The differences within the culture of oneself prohibit the expression of freedom.
Like tattoos and piercings, which is common for ethnic tribes but seen by other nationalities as
unpleasant. Hence it is opposed to the claims of Ward Goodenough that culture is placed on the
mind and heart of men.19 It must also be in the body of oneself since it has an immense effect on
it. Nevertheless, the Self still finds its way to break stereotypes. Because the desire to express
oneself is much stronger and enduring the criticism until it seems like a normal statement. Just
like the notions made by Pierre Bourdieu which is the “cultural capital – the experiences,
knowledge, skills, and even ways of speaking that a person has developed which may be
differentially valued by the culture around them”.20

Language ​is also a vital part that affects the formation of the Self because it is used in
communicating or connecting to others. The language can also be part of the culture, however,
dialect is the specific term used in culture. As language was defined by Ludwig Wittgenstein as a
15
Chaffee, 105.
16
Margo DeMello, ​Body Studies ​(New York, NY: Routledge, 2014) 5-6.
17
Helen Fisher, Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love (New York, NY:
Henry Holt and Company, 2004)
18
Clifford Geertz, ​The Interpretation of Cultures​ (New York: Basic Book Inc., 1973) 11.
19
Ibid., 11
20
Ibid., 14
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“key partner of thinking21”. It is implied that an unwise usage of language can generate unwise
thinking, vice versa. The ​soul m​ ust use language cautiously and limited only to the words that
may not bring insult or disrespect to their religion. It also helps the mind by incorporating the
religious teachings in evaluating the thoughts. The ​mind i​ s responsible for assessing the language
that the ​body ​will generate. Since it holds a greater view of the environment it’s residing. It also
controls the body in terms of the movement of muscles. Thus, the mind must analyze and assess
wisely before it states the thought. Just as William James wrote:

The words in every language have contracted by long association fringes of mutual
repugnance or affinity with each other and with the conclusion, which run exactly parallel
with like fringes in the visual, tactile and other ideas. The most important element of
these fringes is, I repeat, the mere feeling of harmony or discord, of a right or wrong
direction in the thought.22

There are phrases and curses that became very vogue in this era. Like “sana all” and
“marupok” which can be a verbal impulse. Words that are like automatically people say even if
they don’t mean it.

Technology ​has a vast effect on all the other aspects of the world. It has an intense
influence on how the Self was formed. The ​soul, j​ ust like the effect of social structures,
continuously weakens because technology consumes the entirety of a person. It also corrupts the
mind ​in performing ethically. Although it has benefits in certain aspects like medicine and
business. Its innovation prohibits the mind to have a true identity because of the inventions of
gadgets that lead to the creation of social media. Hence, it opens up new linkage to different
people around you which have the tendency to generate “multiple online identities”23. That is
why the Self is difficult to identify because digitally it behaved differently.

This theory only uses only four basic aspects of the world because it has an eminent
effect on the formation of the Self. All of it has limitations that are inevitable to avoid. That is
why the Self is difficult to find its identity. Most people today in the 21st century learned how to
adapt and alter themselves. A religious person can have a body full of a tattoo but
business-minded. There is also a person, which part of an ethnic group, but wore a suit and tie
and that works in an office. Another one is an American woman that speaks Tagalog and Waray
and wore Hijab. An intellectual woman who is very fat and an atheist. The soul, mind, and body
are distinctive with each other due to the effects of social structures, culture, language, and
technology. But those are what make a person find oneself.

The ​Self ​– soul, mind, and body, is composed of tangible and intangible figures thus, it
really exists. However, the changes that are happening in one’s surroundings may prohibit
him/her from finding oneself. When do people know that they found themselves? They might
think that they cannot find their self but the truth is they can. There will come a time that people
will grow tired of living with the trend and depending their life on the basic aspect of the world.
When people start to have an unconventional life, people seek to live in a life where they do not
conform to the usual or “natural”.

21
Chaffee, 8.
22
William James, Psychology: ​Briefer Course The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular
Philosophy Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals ​(USA, Library of
America) 167.
23
Russell W. Belk, ​Extended Self in a Digital World from Journal of Consumer Research​, Vol.
40, No. 3, pp. 477-500 (Chicago, USA: Chicago University Press, 2013)