Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES

University Town, Northern Samar
Website: uep.educ.ph; Email: [email protected]

Understanding
The
Self

Geselle R. Pajares, LPT

Part-time Lecturer
At the end of this learning module, you are expected to:
a. Articulate the various philosophical views about the self;
b. Examine one’s thoughts and experiences according to philosophical views of the self;
c. Propose an answer to the question “who am I?”

a. Motivational activity
The world is in chaos. There is an impending melting of planet earth because of Global Warming.
All people are asked to submit a Bio-data to the world screening committee. The committee will
only select 1000 citizens from each country to be sent to an earth-like planet in the neighboring
galaxy. As to what the criteria are for the selection process is unknown to anyone. Fill out the
bio data form. Further, in order to increase our chances to be selected we have to fill in all the
necessary data on the form.

Name
Sex
Address
Cellphone number
Email address
Civil status
Height
weight
Religion
Best friend
Fears
Why should we select you?

What could be your contribution to the new

world?

Draw a self- portrait that explains who you are. Give a brief discussion that sum up your
thoughts about yourself.
Philosophical Views
1. Socrates, Plato, Augustine

The dictum “know thyself” as we hear today is an ancient greeting of the highly civilized
Greeks. To know thyself is first an imperative and then a requirement. It is imperative to
know the limits of the self so that one knows what one is capable of doing and what one is
not. The real meaning of knowing thyself, then is a requirement for self-moderation,
prudence, good judgement, and excellence of the soul ( Ortiz de Landazuri)

Socrates proposed a very emphatic philosophy. In Plato’s Apology, Sec 38a, Socrates
narrates:

And if again I say that to talk everyday about virtue and the other things about which
you hear me talking and examining myself and others s the greatest good to man, and that
the unexamined life is not worth living, you will believe me still less. This is as I say,
gentlemen, but is not easy to convince you. Besides, I am not accustomed to think I deserve
anything bad. If I had money, I would have proposed fine…

Here Socrates insisted that, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

On his account of Socrates’ claim, Plato writes:

Only a self- controlled man, then, will know himself and will be capable of looking to see
what he actually knows and what he doesn’t know. By the same token only a self-controlled
man will be capable of examining others to see what a person knows and thinks he knows
(assuming he does have knowledge), and whether there are things which he thinks he
knows, but doesn’t really. And no one else will be capable of doing this (charmides, 167a).
 Plato proposed his own philosophy of the self. He started on the examination of the self as a
unique experience. The experience will eventually better understand the core of the self
which is called the Psyche.
For Plato, the psyche is composed of three elements. These are the appetitive, spirited, and
the mind.

The development of the self for St. Augustine is achieved through the self-presentation and
self-realization. He was not afraid to accept himself and tell the people about his sinfulness.
However, the realization of the wasted self is achieved through his conversion to the faith.
Thus, his journey toward the understanding the self was centered on his religious
convictions and beliefs. To St. Augustine man’s end goal is happiness. Only in God can man
attain true and eternal happiness.

2. Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant

Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy. He claimed that we cannot rely on our
senses because our sense perception can often deceive us. Nonetheless, this same doubt
redeemed him from slumber. He claimed that since he could no longer doubt that he is
doubting, there should be a level of certitude that there must be someone who is doubting
– that is him. Then he said “Cortigo, ergo Sum.” This is translated as “I think therefore I am”
or “I doubt therefore I exist.” Only after the certitude of the “doubting I” can all the other
existence become certain. The primary condition, therefore of the existence of the self, at
least according to Descartes, is human rationality.

Contrary to the primacy of reason as proposed by Descartes, one British philosopher and
politician, John Locke, suggested another way of looking at the self. His proposition is that
“the self is comparable to an empty space” where every day experience contribute to the
pile of knowledge that is put forth on that empty space. Experience, therefore, is an
important requirement in order to have sense data which, through the process of reflection
and analysis, eventually becomes sense perception.

David Hume claimed that there cannot be a persisting idea of the self. While Hume agreed
that all ideas are derived from the impressions. However, impressions are subjective,
temporary, provisional, prejudicial, and even skewed- and therefore cannot be persisting.
For Hume, all we know about ourselves are just bundles of temporary impressions. In fact,
Hume harshly claimed that there is no self.

Immanuel Kant proposition maintained that the self is always transcendental. In fact, he
calls his philosophy the Transcendental Unity of Appreciation. His theory explains that being
 or the self is not in the body, it is outside the body and even outside the qualities of the
body- meaning transcendent.

3. Freud, Ryle, Churchland, and Merleu-Ponty

Sigmund Freud, refusing to take the self or the subject as technical terms, regarded the self
as the “I” that ordinarily constitute both mental and physical actions. Freud sees the “I” as a
product of multiple interacting process, systems and schemes. ( search for the two models
of Freud: the topographical and the structural model)

Gilbert Ryle, proposed his positive view in his “concept of the mind.” Ryle said that the
thinking I will never be found because it is just a “ghost machine.” The mind is never
separate from the body. The mind therefore, is nothing but a disposition of the self.

Paul and Patricia Churchland promoted the position they called “eliminative materialism”
which brings forth neuroscience into the fore of understanding the self. Eliminative
materialism sees the failure of folk psychology in explaining basic concepts such as sleep,
learning, mental illness, and the like.

Maurice Merleau- Ponty, his philosophy, the Phenomenology of perception draws heavily
from the contemporary research Gestalt psychology and neurology. He developed a kind of
phenomenological rhythm that will explain the perception of the self. The rhythm involves
three dimensions. First is the empiricist take on perception, followed by the idealist-
intellectual alternative, and lastly, the synthesis of both proposition.

Name:________________________________
Course/year/section:____________________

1.Textual analysis. Explain each of the passages.

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is, that I know nothing.”

-(Socrates) Plato, The Republic

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason.
There is nothing higher than reason.”

-Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“And what more am I? I look for aid to the imagination.[But how mistakenly!] I am not the assemblage
of limbs we call the human body; I am not a subtle penetrating air distributed throughout these
members; I am not a wind, a fire, a vapor, a breath or anything at all that I can imagine. I am supposing
all these things to be nothing. Yet I find, while so doing, that I am still assured that I am a something.”

-Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
“Look into the depths of your own soul and learn first to know yourself, then you will understand why
this illness was bound to come upon you and perhaps you will thenceforth avoid falling ill.”

-Sigmund Freud, Character and Culture

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“I discover that there are other minds in understanding what other people say and do.”

-Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Whether it is a question of my body, the natural world, the past, the birth or death, the question is
always to know how I can be open to phenomena that transcend me and that, nevertheless, only exist
to the extent that I can take them up and live them.”

-Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Discussion. Answer each of the following questions.

a) Compare and contrast the elements of the mind according to Plato and the life of St. Augustine

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

b) Differentiate the concepts of the self according to Descartes and that of Locke.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

c) For Hume, what makes “your” perceptions inaccessible to “me” and vice versa?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

d) What were some of the criticism that have been brought against Freud and psychoanalysis?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Key Terms. List some terminologies associated with each philosopher. Briefly define or describe each
term.

Philosopher Key terms Definition

Socrates
Augustine
Descartes
Hume
Kant
Freud
Merleau- Ponty
 Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES

University Town, Northern Samar
Website: uep.educ.ph; Email: [email protected]

Understanding
The
Self

Geselle R. Pajares, LPT

Part-time Lecturer
Sociology

At the end of this learning module, you are expected to:

a. Compare and contrast the different views of the self

b. Examine the two components of self
c. Describe the concept of the looking- glass self and how it affects self-concept
d. Explain the concept of social comparison and why it is important to human behavior.

Sociological views of the self

1.1 The self as the product of modern society among others
Clifford Geertz believes that the struggle for one’s individuality is only possible in modern
society where religion-theological traditions are gradually replaced by rational and scientific
calculations; and the intimate personal affiliations are replaced by exceedingly impersonal
associations brought about by urbanized way of life. Modernization or the destruction of the
traditional way of life “delocalizes” the self. This poses certain problem as:
1. The new found freedom threatens the very authenticity of the self(e.g. love).
2. Alienation (Marx)- human beings haunted by the very images they have created
3. Objectification of the body( e.g. medical practice)
4. Dehumanization of the self

Solution: For the individual to discover the true and authentic part of himself/herself to
realize his/her potentials, there is a need to abolish repressive social constraints.

1.2 self as necessary fiction

self for Nietzsche, is the sum of individual’s action, thoughts and feelings. Self is nothing
more than a metaphor, a representation of something abstract; symbolic. A true given self is
not what unites these experiences, but is the presumed unity of these experiences that gave
rise to a concept of the self.
1.3 Post- modern view of the self
Self is a product of modern discourse that is historically and socially imprisoned by what is
acceptable by norms. Self in post modernity is complicated by electronic mediated virtual
interaction of cyber self such as change in appearance(in cyberspace). According to N.
Green, self is digitalized in cyberspace, a virtual version of who we are. The self is seen in
websites or social media- face book, twitter, instagram etc.
The following are the manifestations:
1. Information technology dislocates the self, thus, self is digitalized in cyberspace.
2. Global migration produces multicultural identities.
3. Post-modern selves are “pluralized” selves.
1.4 Rewriting the self as an artistic creation
Nietsche states that the unity of the self is not pre-given but accomplished through
conscious effort- transform self through beautiful art. Individuals must fashion, care for and
cultivate themselves.
1.5 self creation and collective identity
Memories play a significant role in creating the self and identity. Memory and forgetting are
most important powers in recreating a person’s identity. Another important aspect of this
view of the self is that the self-creation is formed within imagined communities.
1.6 self-creation and the struggle for cultural recognition
this is a challenge of self-identity amidst recognition of racial and ethnic identities. Self-
creation necessarily grounded on collective solidarities. We create ourselves by struggling
with cultural hassles then owning the created self. We hide the ugly part of our cultural
nature. We learn to adjust.

2. Meads theory of self

George Herbert Mead is an American sociologist best known as a founder of American
pragmatism, a pioneer of symbolic interaction theory, and one of the founders of social
psychology.
Meads theory of the self maintains that the conception a person holds of himself/herself in
his/her mind emerges from social interaction with others. The self according to Mead is
made of two components: the “I” and the “me.” The “me” represents the expectations and
attitudes of others (the generalized others) organized into a social self. The “I” is the
response to the “me” or the person’s individuality.
In other words, the “I” is the response of an individual to the attitudes of others while the
“me” is the organized set of attitudes of others which an individual assumes. The “me” is
the self as object, while the “I” is the self as subject.
2.1 Meads Three Stages of Development of self

Stage 1: The Preparatory Stage

The preparatory stage starts from the time we are born until we are about age two. In this
stage, children mimic those around them. This is why parents of young children typically do
not want you to use foul language around them.

Stage 2 The Play stage

From about age two to six, children are in the play stage. During the play stage, children play
pretend and do not adhere to the rules in organized games like patintero or basketball.
Playing a game with children of this age is far easier to just go with any rules they come up
with during the course of the game than trying to enforce any rules upon them.

Stage 3: The Game Stage

The third stage is the game stage, which is from about age seven onwards. In this stage,
children can begin to understand and adhere to the rules of the games. They can begin to
 play more formalized games because they begin to understand other people’s perspective
or the perspective of the generalized others.

2.2 The Looking-Glass Self: our sense of self is influenced by others view of us
According to the American sociologist Charles Cooley, the degree of personal insecurity you
display in social situations is determined by what you believe other people think of you.
Cooley’s concept of the looking glass self, states that the a person’s self grows out of a
person’s social interactions with others. The view of ourselves comes from the
contemplation of personal qualities and impressions of how others perceive us.

Assessment:
Encircle the letter of your chosen answer.

1. It represents the self as the subject, and the individual’s impulses.

a. “I” b. “me” c. “you” d. “we”

2. In this stage, children can begin to understand and adhere to the rules of games.
a. Game b. language c. play d. preparatory

3. He is known for his concept of looking glass- self.

a. Mead b. Cooley c. Erikson d. Freud

4. This occurs when one is labeled, and others views and expectations of an individual are
affected by labeling.
a. Internalized prejudice c. self- labeling
b. Labeling bias d. social comparison

5. This occurs when individuals turn prejudice directed toward them by others onto
themselves
a. Internalized prejudice c. self- labeling
b. Labeling bias d. social comparison

Essay. Describe some aspects of your self- concept that have been created through social comparison.
Write down your thoughts and feelings in no less than 300 words.