Defining-the-self.pdf about understanding oneself

About understanding oneself GEC 1

2. Explain why it is essential to understand the self;
Describe and discuss the different notions of
the self from the points of view of the various
philosophers across time and place;
Compare and contrast how the self has been
represented in different philosophical schools;
and
Examine one’s self against the different views
of self that were discussed in class.

3. Why do we need to
understand thyself???

Do we really need to do
so???

4. Tell me your name and I can
describe who you really are.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

5. It signifies us as a person
We respond to people who call us by our names.
Death cannot even stop this bond between the
person and her name.
It was inscribed even into one’s gravestone.
It is not a person itself no matter how intimately
bound it is with the bearer.
e.g. A person who was named after a saint most
probably will not become an actual saint. The
self is thought to be something else than the
name. The self is something that a person
perennially molds, shapes and develops.
EVERYONE IS TASKED TO DISCOVER
ONE‟S SELF.
Have you truly discovered yours?

6. How would you characterize your self?
What makes you stand out from the rest?
What makes your self special?
How has your self transformed itself?
How is your self connected to your body?
How is your self related to other selves?
What will happen to your self after you
die?

8. The Pre-socratics: the Greek thinkers denotes that some of them
preceded Socrates.

•Preoccupied themselves with the question of the primary substratum,
arche’ that explains the mutiplicity of things in the world .

•Thales, Pythagoras , Parmenides, Heraclitus and Empedocles were
concerned with explaining what the world is really made up of, why
the world is so, and what explains the changes that they observed
around them

9. More concerned with the problem of
the self.
The first philosopher who ever
engaged in a systematic questioning
about the self.
Has become his life-long mission, the true task
of the philosopher is to know oneself.

10. “KNOW THYSELF”

11. Every man is composed of BODY and SOUL
Every human person is dualistic composing
of 2 important aspects of his personhood.
Furthermore, all individuals have an imperfect,
impermanent aspect to him which is the BODY
while maintaining that there is also a SOUL that is
perfect and permanent.

12. Supported the idea that man is a dual nature of
body and soul but added that that there 3
components of the SOUL:
1.Rational soul-forged by reason and intellect
2.Spirited soul-in charge of emotions
3.Appetitive soul-in charge of base desires


If these 3 parts of the soul are working
harmoniously with one another, just and
virtuous for human person is attained.

13. His view of the human person reflects the entire
spirit of the medieval world.
He agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature.
The body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to
anticipate living eternally in a realm of a spiritual
bliss in communion with God.

The GOAL of every human is to attain this
communion and bliss with the Divine by living his
life on earth in Virtue.

14. Adapted some ideas from Aristotle.
Man is composed of 2 parts: MATTER and FORM
MATTER or hyle in Greek refers to the common stuff that
makes up everything in the universe
FORM or morphe refers to the essence of a substance or
thing.

What makes a human person a human
person and not a dog or a tiger is his
SOUL, his essence.

15. He is the Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived of
the human person as having a body and a mind.
“I think, therefore I am.” the fact that one thinks
should lead one to conclude without a trace of
doubt that he exists.
The self is also a combination of two distinct entities:
the COGNITO and the EXTENZA
Cognito: the thing that thinks(mind)
Extenza: extension of the mind(body)

The human person‟s body is nothing else but a
machine that is attached to the mind. He has it
but it is not what makes man a man. If at all, that
is the mind.

16. He has a very unique way of looking at man
He is an empiricist who believes that one can know only what comes
from the senses and experiences.
Empiricism is the school of thought that espouses the idea that
knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced.
Self is nothing but a bundle of IMPRESSIONS.

2 Categories of experiences: IMPRESSIONS and IDEAS
1.Impressions-are the basic objects of our experience and sensation
2.Ideas-are copies of impressions and so, it is not lively and vivid as our
impressions
Self is simply “a bundle or collection of different perceptions,
which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and
are in a perpetual flux and movement.”

17. There is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions
that men get from the external world.
Time and space, for example, are ideas that one cannot
find in the world but is built in our minds. Kant calls these
the apparatuses of the mind.
SELF is one of the different apparatuses of the mind.
Without this, man cannot organize the different
impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence.

Kant suggests that an actively engaged intelligence in man
synthesizes all knowledge and experience.

18. He solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been
running for a long time in the history of thoughts by
blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-
physical self.
What truly matters is the behavior that a person
manifests in his day-to-day life.

Ryle suggests that the 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.

19. A phenomenologist who asserts that the mind-body
bifurcation that has been going on for a long time is a
futile endeavor and an invalid problem.
He says that the mind and body are so intertwined
that they cannot be separated from one another.
All experience is embodied. One’s body is his opening
toward his experience to the world.

The living body, his thoughts, emotions and
experiences are all one.

20. In your own words, state what SELF is for
each of the 9 philosophers discussed.
After doing so, explain how your
concept of „self‟ is compatible with how
they conceived of the „self.’

Write your answers in a your notebook.