UNDERSTANDING THE SELF PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE.docx

Discussion on the similarities and differences of philosophical views of self

1. UNDERSTANDING THE SELF: Philosophical Perspective
Philosopher Life Famous Works or
Contributions to the
Society
Recognition Philosophical View of
the Self
Similarities Differences
Socrates
Sophronicus
and Phaenarete
(parents
Teacher of Plato Father of Western
Philosophy
Human soul was
invisible, immortal, and
directs the physical
body.
Socrates, Plato and
Saint Augustine
believed that man
has soul. Soul pre-
existed the body
and death are
viewed as release of
the soul from the
body and the self is
a product of
interplay between
soul and body.
Also, they
emphasized the
superiority of the
soul over the body.
 
  Studied Music,
Gymnastics,
and Grammar
Tutor of Alexander the
Great
"Know Thyself  
  Served the
Military and
saved the life
of Alcibiades,
a popular
Athenian
General
Introduced the Socratic
Method - a form of
cooperative
argumentative dialogue
between individuals,
based on asking and
answering questions to
stimulate critical
thinking and to draw out
ideas and underlying
presuppositions.
"An unexamined
life is not worth
living"
  
  Convicted and
sentenced to
death by
drinking
hemlock
     
1

2. Plato
Named from
the work
Platon,
meaning
"broad
shoulders"
Teacher of AristotleThe Philosopher -
King
Man has soul and it has
three aspects namely:
reason, physical desire,
and spirit
Plato and Freud
both have three
divisions of soul or
self.
Plato believed that
man in this world is
an illusion. The real
man is the idea of
man. There is no
self in reality. The
self of an individual
man in this world is
immersed in the
universal idea of
man.
  Ariston and
Perictone
(parents)
Founded the Academy
known as Platonism -
first institutions of
higher learning
"Platonic Love" 
  Studied
Metaphysics
and
Epistemology
Wrote the Apology of
Socrates, The Republic,
Cerrito, and Allegory of
the Cave
"Good people do
not need laws to tell
them to act
responsibly, while
bad people will find
a way around the
laws"
 
  Participated in
Peloponnesian
War
Doctrine of Platonic
Realism, Essentialism,
and Idealism
   
  Placed under
house arrest for
conspiracy
Theory of Forms   
  Died while
sleeping
Three Parts of Soul:   
   Rational (Logical
Reason, Mind (Nous)
   
   Appetitive (Desire,
Feminine (Eros)
   
   Spirited (Emotion,
Masculine (Thymos)
    
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3. Saint
Augustine
Son of a
Christian
mother and
Pagan father
Wrote Confessions
(personal account of his
life) and City of God
Saint Augustine of
Hippo
Man is rational
substance constituted of
body and soul.
  Saint Augustine's
belief of the
immortality of the
soul is based on the
Christian teachings.
  Taught
Rhetoric at the
age of 21
Formalized The
Doctrine of Original Sin
Father of Roman
Catholicism
 
  Became a
Priest in 391
and Bishop in
395
Considered Patron
Saints of
Theologians and
those with "sore
eyes"
  
  Died in 430     
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4. Rene
Descartes
Joachim
(father's name)
Formulated the first
modem version of
Mind-Body Dualism-
distinct or separable
kinds of substances or
natures.
Father of Modern
Philosophy
The soul is superior to
the body. Human being
is a perfect unity of soul
and body.
Descartes, Locke,
Kant, Ponty, and
Freud described self
as a mental
substance, a
thinking thing.
 
  Born in 1596
and died in
1650
Invented the use of "x"
and "y" to represent
unknown variables
Cogito Ergo (I think
therefore I am)
The self is a thinking
thing distinct from the
body.
  
  Though
intelligent, his
health was
poor, and
allowed to stay
in bed until 11
in the morning
Invented Analytic
Geometry
  Descartes, Locke,
Kant, Ponty
regarded self as
activity of the mind,
you exist because
you are conscious,
you have memory,
and you are
thinking.
 
  Took Law
degree in 1616,
studied
Mathematics
and Military
Architecture
Introduced Deductive
Reasoning- a type of
reasoning that used
general conclusion by
applying general
assumption, process, or
principles to reach a
conclusion
  
  Joined military
after finishing
Law
     
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5. John Locke Born in 1632
and died in
1704
His Political View
influenced both
American and French
Revolutions
Father of Classical
Liberalism
The self-exist because of
memory. Personal
identity is made possible
by self-consciousness.
  
  Studied Greek,
Latin, Hebrew,
Arabic,
Mathematics,
and Geography
Some thoughts
concerning Education,
Two Treatises of
Government, and an
essay concerning
Human Understanding
Philosopher of
Freedom
  
  Finished
Bachelor of
Medicine
"Personal identity
consists of
psychological
continuity of
consciousness, and
not on the substance
of either the soul or
the body."
A person is a thinking
intelligent being that has
reason, reflection, and
consider itself as itself,
the same thing thinking
in different times and
places.
  
  Founder of the
Whig
Movement in
British Politics,
became Lord
Chancellor in
1672
    
5

6. David Hume
Born in 1711
and died in
1776
Known for his
Empiricism and
Skepticism
"It is not reason that
governs human
behavior but desire
instead"
There is no self, only a
bundle of different
perception passing
though the theater of our
minds (there are no
persons that continue to
exist over time)
  For Hume, self
must be constant,
persisting, stable
think, and yet
knowledge is
derived from
impressions, which
are transient, non-
persisting, variable
things, it follows
that we do not
really have
knowledge of a
"self" and therefore,
there is NO self.
  Joseph and
Catherine
(parents)
Wrote A Treatise of
Human Nature and
History of England
"Reason alone
cannot be a motive
to the will, but
rather is the slave of
the passions."
 
  Suffered
nervous
breakdown in
1729
His philosophy
played an important
role in the
Development of
Critical Philosophy
of Immanuel Kant
and Auguste Comte
 
  Hume never
married and no
children
     
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7. Sigmund
Freud
 After graduating (1873)
from secondary school in
Vienna, Sigmund Freud
entered the medical school of
the University of Vienna,
concentrating
on physiology and neurolog
y; he obtained a medical
degree in 1881.
He trained (1882–85) as a
clinical assistant at the
General Hospital in Vienna
and studied (1885–86) in
Paris under neurologist Jean-
Martin Charcot.
 As one of Freud's
most famous books,
"Introduction to
Psychoanalysis" (or
Vorlesungen zur
Einführung in die
Psychoanalyse),
Freud outlines his
theory of
psychoanalysis
including the
unconscious mind, the
idea of neuroses, and
dreams.
 He won the
esteemed Goethe
prize, a German
literary award in
1930.
He was also
interestingly
nominated for a
Nobel prize 13
times during his
career, however
never won the
award. It was
assumed this was
due to the mistrust
the scientific
community had for
his theories on
Psychoanalysis.
Self was multi-tiered,
divided among the
conscious,
preconscious, and
unconscious.
  For Freud,
superego is a
layer of oneself
with two systems:
conscience and
ideal self.
     Self has three layers
to develop: the
concept of id, ego,
and superego.
  
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8. Immanuel Kant Born on 22
April 1724 in
Konigsberg
The Critique of Pure
Reason and the Critique
of Practical Reason,
Critique of Judgement,
which remain the real
sources of his lasting
influence, and achieved a
complete Paradigm Shift
and moved philosophy
beyond the debate
between the Rationalists
and Empiricists.
  Believed that,
intellectually, humans are
incapable of knowing
ultimate reality. There
was still room in his
system for other concepts
completely (such as free
will, rational agency, god,
good and bad, etc.
  
1724-1804 Johann Georg
Kant and Anna
Regina Porter
(parents)
   
  Baptized as
"Emanuel" but
later changed
his name to
"Immanuel"
after he learned
Hebrew
Introduced the human
mind as an active
originator of experience
rather than just a passive
recipient of perception,
and placed the role of the
human subject or knower
at the Centre of inquiry
into our knowledge.
  Developed his moral
philosophy in three main
works: (1) The Principles
of the Metaphysics of
Ethics (2) Critique of
Practical Reason (3)
Metaphysics of Morals
  
  Raised in Pietist
household and
accordingly
received a strict,
punitive and
disciplinary
education that
favored Latin
and Religious
Instruction over
Mathematics
and Science
  Started by observing that
it is an observable
empirical fact that people
do in fact have moral and
ethical views and for
them to have any meaning
at all, people must have
some element of free will.
  
8

9.   German
philosopher
regarded as one
of the most
important
thinkers of
modern Europe.
  Founded on his view of
rationality as the ultimate
good and his belief that
all people are
fundamentally rational
beings.
  
  The starting
point and
inspiration for
the German
Idealism
movement in
the late 18th
and early 19th
centuries
  Emphasized the theory on
Categorical Imperative
which states that one
should act only in such a
way that you would want
your actions to become a
universal law, applicable
to everyone in a similar
situation.
  
    Asserted that each person
is his own moral agent,
and we should only be
responsible for our own
actions, not those of
others.
  
     Analysis: "The self
transcends experiences"
  
9

10. Gilbert
Bryle
(1900-1976)
Born on 19
August 1900 in
Brighton,
England
Enormous influence on
the development of
Analytic Philosophy,
particularly in the areas
of Philosophy of Mind
and Philosophy of
Language
  Characterized the mind
as a set of capabilities
and abilities belonging
to the body, thus, the
workings of the mind
are not distinct from the
actions of the body, but
are one and the same
  
  His father was a
doctor but also a
generalist who
had interests in
Philosophy and
Astronomy
Well-known for his
definitive critique of the
Dualism of Descartes
and other traditional
mind-body theories.
   
  Studied at
Brighton College
and in 1919, he
went to Queen's
College, Oxford,
to study
Philosohy
Philosophical
Behaviorism (the belief
that all mental
phenomena can be
explained by observable
behavior) became a
standard view for
several decades.
  Claimed that mental
vocabulary is merely a
different way of
describing action, and
that a person's motive is
defined by that person's
dispositions to act in
certain situations. He
concluded that adequate
descriptions of human
behavior need never
refer to anything but the
operations of human
bodies
  
Graduated with
first class honors
in 1924 and was
appointed to a
lectureship in
Philosophy at
Christ Church,
Oxford
Published his principal
work. The Concept of
Mind, in 1949 and was
recognized as an
important contribution
to Philosophical
Psychology and
Philosophy of Mind,
and an important work
in the Ordinary
Language Philosophy
movement
   
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11.   Generally
regarded as easy-
going and
sociable and an
entertaining
conversationalist
, but a fierce and
formidable
debater,
unforgiving of
pomposity and
pretentiousness.
Dismissed the idea that
nature is a complex
machine, and that
human nature is a
smaller machine with a
"ghost" in it to account
for intelligence,
spontaneity, and other
such human qualities.
  Analysis: "The self is
the way people behave."
  
 
President of
Aristotelian
Society from
1945 to 1946
   
  Bristich
philosopher who
was mainly
associated with
the Ordinary
Language
Philosophy
movement
     
11

12. Maurice
Merleau-
Ponty
(1908-1961)
Born in 1908 in
Rochefort-Sur-
Mer, Charente-
Maritime, France
Wrote on perception,
art, and politics.
However, the
construction of meaning
in human experience
was his main interest.
  Develop his own
concept of Radical
Reflection, the attempt
to return to, and reflect
on irreflective
consciousness.
  
  Received his
degree from the
University of
Paris
Wrote a book about The
Phenomenology of
Perception
  Self is explained by
"Eco Phenomenology"
or the pursuit of the
relationalities of worldly
engagement, both
human and those of
other creatures.
  
  Was awarded the
Chair of
Philosophy at the
College fe France
from 1952 until
his death in 1961
  This engagement is
situated in a kind middle
ground of relationality, a
space that is neither
purely objective,
because it is reciprocally
constituted by a
diversity of lived
experiences motivating
the movements of
countless organism, nor
purely subjective,
because it is nonetheless
a field of material
relationships between
bodies. It is governed
  
  Died suddenly of
a stroke at the age
of 53, apparently
while preparing
for class on Rene
Descartes
   
12

13. exclusively neither be
causality, not by
intentionality. In this
space of in-betweenness
phenomenology can
overcome its inaugural
opposition to naturalism.
  French
Phenomenological
Philosopher
   
  The only major
phenomenologist
to engage
extensively with
the sciences and
especially with
descriptive
psychology.
   
  It is through this
engagement that
his writings have
become
influential in
naturalizing
phenomenology,
in which
phenomenologists
use the results of
psychology and
cognitive science.
   Analysis: "The self is an
embodied subjectivity"
  
13

14. Paul
Churchland
Born in
Vancouver,
BC, Canada on
October 21,
1942
His works is inclined in
the school of Analytical
Philosophy, Western
Philosophy, with
interests in
Epistemology and the
Philosophy of Science
  Everyday mental
concepts such as beliefs,
feelings, and desires,
which are viewed as
theoretical constructs
without coherent
definition is destined to
be obviated by a scientic
understanding of human
nature.
  
  Graduated
from the
University of
British
Columbia with
a Bachelor of
Arts and
earned his PhD
from the
University of
Pittsburgh in
1969
Churchland is a major
proponent of eliminative
materialism, the belief
that every day,
commonsense or folk'
psychology (which
seeks to explain human
behavior in terms of the
beliefs and desires of
agents), is actually a
deeply flawed theory
that must be eliminated
in favor of a mature
cognitive neuroscience.
  Holds that "beliefs" are
not ontologically real;
that is, he maintains that
a future, fully matured
neuroscience is likely to
have no need for
"beliefs."
  
14

15.   Canadian
Philosopher
known for his
studies in
Neuro-
Philosophy,
Philosophy of
Mind and
Artificial
Intelligence.
  Hypothesizes that
consciousness might be
explained in terms of
arecurrent neural
network with its hub in
the intralaminar nucleus
of the thalamus, and
feedback connections to
all parts of the cortex.
  
  As of this
February 2017,
Churchland is
recognized as
Professor
Emeritus at the
UCSD, and is a
member of the
board of
trustees of the
Moscow
Center for
Consciousness
Studies of
Moscow State
University.
   Analysis: "The self is the
brain."
  
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