Philosophical
Perspective
Philosophy- It is often called the
mother of all disciplines, simply because
of all fields of study began as a
philosophical discourse. Ancient
philosophers have striven to explain
natural and social phenomena, coming
up with their own definitions of how the
world works and what factors contribute
to such phenomena.
Philosophy is from the Greek words Philo- (loving)
and Sophia(knowledge, wisdom). At simplest,
philosophy is means “loving knowledge” or
“loving wisdom”.
THE SELF
- The totality of the
individual, consisting of all
characteristic attributes,
conscious and unconscious,
mental and physical.
Socrates
Socrates was a Greek
philosopher. Though, unlike other
philosophers during his time, he
never wrote anything. All the
information’s about him today is
through second-hand
information from his student Plato
and historian Xenophon (The
Standford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, 2017).
Socrates is concerned with
the problem of the self. He is
the one to first focus on the
full power of reason on the
human self: who we are, who
we should be, and who we
will become.
▪ Socrates
“Every person is
dualistic”
* Body + Soul = MAN
He suggested that SELF can be viewed into
two distinct being:
1. Physical dimension - All individuals have an
imperfect and impermanent body.
2. Ideal dimension - All individuals have a
perfect and permanent soul.
Socrates
“Every person is dualistic”
• For Socrates the self is synonymous
with the soul.
• He believes that every human
possesses an immortal soul that
survives the physical body.
• Socrates believed that the real self is
not the physical body, but rather the
psyche (or soul).
❖ For him, an individual can have a
meaningful and happy life only if he
becomes virtuous and knows the value
of himself that can be achieved
through incessant soul-searching.
Socrates
“The worst thing that can
happen to anyone is to
live but die inside.”
Socrates
“The true task of the
philosopher is to know
oneself.”
• Plato is another Greek
Philosopher who
elaborates Socrates’
concept of the soul. He
was the student of
Socrates.
• He is best known for his
Theory of Forms
▪ Plato
Introduces the idea of a 3 part of soul /self:
1. Reason is the divine essence that enables us
to think deeply, make wise choices, achieve
true understanding of eternal truths.
PLATO THE SELF IS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
2. PHYSICAL APPETITE - Biological needs
3. SPIRIT / PASSION - Basic emotions
MYTH OF THE CAVE
MYTH OF THE CAVE
The Cave
•Imagine a cave, in which there are three prisoners. The prisoners are tied to
some rocks, their arms and legs are bound and their head is tied so that they
cannot look at anything but the stonewall in front of them.
•These prisoners have been here since birth and have never seen outside of
the cave.
•Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between them is a raised walkway.
•People outside the cave walk along this walkway carrying things on their
head including; animals, plants, wood and stone.
MYTH OF THE CAVE
The Shadows
• So, imagine that you are one of the prisoners. You cannot look at anything
behind or to the side of you – you must look at the wall in front of you.
• When people walk along the walkway, you can see shadows of the
objects they are carrying cast on to the wall.
• If you had never seen the real objects ever before, you would believe that
the shadows of objects were ‘real.
MYTH OF THE CAVE
The Game
• Plato suggests that the prisoners would begin a ‘game’ of
guessing which shadow would appear next.
• If one of the prisoners were to correctly guess, the others would
praise him as clever and say that he were a master of nature.
MYTH OF THE CAVE
The Escape
•
•
•
•
•
One of the prisoners then escapes from their bindings and leaves the cave.
He is shocked at the world he discovers outside the cave and does not
believe it can be real.
As he becomes used to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view
of reality was wrong.
He begins to understand his new world, and sees that the Sun is the source
of life and goes on an intellectual journey where he discovers beauty and
meaning
He sees that his former life, and the guessing game they played is useless.
MYTH OF THE CAVE
The Return
• The prisoner returns to the cave, to inform the other prisoners of
his findings.
• They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set
them free.
St. Agustine
The African philosopher, Augustine, is
regarded as a saint (St. Augustine of
Hippo) in the Catholic Church. He is
one of the Latin Fathers of the church,
one of the Doctors of the church, and
one of the most significant Christian
thinkers
St. Agustine
• He integrates the ideas of Plato and
teachings of Christianity.
St. Agustine
➢ The SELF HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
➢ -The physical body is different from and inferior to its
immortal soul.
➢ -He believes that the soul is what governs and
defines man.
Rene Descartes
• René Descartes was a French
philosopher, mathematician,
and a scientist and considered
as the “father of modern
philosophy.”
Rene Descartes
For him, the act of thinking about
the self – of being self-conscious –
It’s a proof that there is a self.
Rene Descartes
He asserted that everything perceived by
the senses could not be used as proof of
existence because human senses could
be fooled.
2 Dimensions of Self according to Rene Descartes
1.The self as thinking entity
2.The self as a physical body
Some distinctions between the soul and body as
pointed out by Descartes are:
THE SOUL
THE BODY
•
It is a conscious, thinking substance
that is unaffected by time.
•
It is a material substance that
changes through time.
•
It is known only to itself (only you
know your own mental event and
others correct your mental states).
•
It can be doubted; The public can
correct claims about the body.
•
It is not made up of parts. It views
the entirely of itself with no hidden or
separate compartments. It is both
conscious and
aware of itself at the same time.
•
It is made up of physical,
quantifiable, divisible parts.
John Locke is an English
philosopher and physician.
For Locke, the human mind
at birth is Tabula rasa or a
blank slate.
David Hume
Scottish Philosopher David Hume
suggests that if people carefully
examine their sense of
experience through the process
of introspection, they will discover
that there is no self.
Hume did not believe in the existence of the
“self”. He insisted that your perceptions are
only active for as long as you are conscious.
In line with this, Hume seemed to reduce the
“self” as a light bulb that may be switched on
and off.
Bundle theory
According to bundle theory, an object consists of its
properties and nothing more; thus, there cannot be an
object without properties and one cannot conceive of
such an object.
For example, when we think of an
apple, we think of its properties:
redness, roundness, being a type of
fruit, etc.
Hume divided the mind’s perceptions into two
groups:
• Impression–everything
senses
that
originates
from
our
• Ideas–faint images of thinking and reasoning based
on impression “If there is no God, it is important for
man to invent Him”
Immanuel Kant
• WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF
Kant’s view of the “self” is
transcendental, which means the
“self” is related to spiritual or
nonphysical
realm. For Kant, the self is not in the
body. The self is outside the body, and
it does not have qualities of the body.
He proposed that it is knowledge that
bridges the “self” and the material
things together
(Boee, 1999; Brook, 2004).
Kant’s point is that what truly exist are
your ideas and your knowledge of
your ideas that you perceive in the
outside.
❑ Kant did NOT put forward a Moral Argument for
the Existence of God.
❑ Kant rejected all attempts to argue from the world
to God.
❑ Kant did not believe that either Life after Death
nor God could be proved, only that they could be
postulated. If the universe if fair and if the
Summum Bonum can be achieved, then there
must be aGod to ensure it.
Sigmund Freud
Structure of personality:
Freud thought of personality as
being based upon a structure of
three parts: the id, the ego and the
superego.
ID – Pleasure
EGO – Reality
SUPEREGO – For perfection/ideal
The Id: The id is the very immature component of
personality. It operates only on the pleasure principal
with no regard for anything else. One could say that it
is completely instinctual. Freud referred to the id as the
reservoir of psychic energy. It only consists of our basic
biological needs. To eat, sleep, defecate, etc... The id
is only a primary process thinker, so it is primitive,
irrational, and illogical.
Example: Jack is walking down the street and he is
very hungry. He only has an id so when he sees an
apple pie cooling in a window, he takes it for himself.
The Superego: The superego is our morals, principals, and
ethics. It considers the social standards for social behavior and
guides us on what is right and wrong. The superego begins to
develop between 3 and 5 years of age. It is mostly shaped by what
we learn as young children from adults. Eventually we accept this
training as a part of who we are. We put pressure on ourselves to live
up to how we think we should behave.
Example: Jack is walking down the street and he is very hungry. He
only has a superego so when he sees an apple pie cooling in a
window, he does nothing. His superego tells him that it is someone's
pie and that it is not acceptable to trespass on someones property
and take their pie.
The Ego: The ego is the moderator between the ego and the superego.
It operates on the reality principal. It makes the decisions that dictate
behavior. The ego also considers social realities, norms, ediquette, rules,
and customs when it makes a decision on how to behave. It seeks to
delay gratification of the id's urges until appropriate outlets can be found.
It uses secondary process thinking to avoid negative consequences from
society.
Example: Using the examples from above, Jack's ego would tell him that
he should not take the pie from the windowsill, but instead he can buy
some pie right up the street at the local grocery store.
LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
• Conscious level
• Preconscious level
• Unconscious part
Conscious level
• Relates to the awareness of an individual to his environment. It
functions when the individual is awake.
• It is concerned with thought, feelings and sensations, memory, IQ.
• Conscious as sense organ of attention.
• Through attention, person becomes conscious of perceptual stimuli
from the outside world within the organism.
• Conscious part of mind is aware of here and now as it relates
individual and his environment.
Preconscious level is described as that part of mind in
which ideas and reactions are stored and partially
forgotten.
• It also acts as a watchman because it prevents certain
painful, unpleasant, unacceptable, distributing
unconscious memories from reaching the conscious mind.
• Slip of tongue, slip of pen.
• Preconscious region of mind is not present at birth but
develops in childhood.
• It is accessible to both unconscious and conscious mind.
• Elements of unconscious mind are accessible to conscious
through preconscious.
Unconscious part is the largest part of mind (9/10).
• It is hidden part of iceberg that floats under water.
• It contains repressed ideas and affects.
• Elements of unconscious mind are in accessible to
consciousness.
• They become conscious only through preconscious
mind.
• Repressed ideas may reach to consciousness when
censor is over powered or relaxed (dream state).
• It is storehouse for all the memories, feelings and
responses experienced by the individual during his
entire life.
Gilbert Ryle
Denies the internal, nonphysical self “what truly
matters is the behavior that
a person manifests in his
day-to-day life.”
Gilbert Ryle
“The self is the way people behave”. The self is
basically our behavior. This concept provided the
philosophical principle, “I act therefore I am”. In short,
the self is the same as bodily behavior.
The body is mortal and dies, whereas the
mind is at least potentially able to continue
existing beyond the death of the body.
According to Ryle, this dualistic view has
serious implications for what we can know and
not know. Although each person has direct
knowledge of his or her mind, it is impossible for
us to have any direct knowledge of other
minds.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau wants to be
recognized for the person he feels
himself to be. He wants to
promote self-knowledge – not only
for himself but for others.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
❑ Man is inherently good at birth.
❑ An evil society is the culprit for
man’s evil deeds.
Gilbert Ryle
➢Self is a product of freedom one makes
and the consequence of this exercise.
➢One should assume full responsibility of
destiny.
➢Freedom
and
responsibility
coexistence.
Ayn Rand
➢Feminine Philosopher
➢One cannot give what one does not
have.