NOTES

Eastern Thought Western Thought

 Asia  Europe
 Raises questions about the ultimate  Conducts scientific investigation to
meaning of life understand the self and developed
 Theories about “what it means to be theories and difference among them
a human being”  Importance of scientific methods to
 Relational rather than individual provide answers to understanding the
 Highly practical self
 Social roles  They want an authentic evidence
 Collectivistic: group and social  Duality: you are distinct from others
relations are important  Talks about personal attributes
 Values cooperation and hierarchy  Individualistic: focus on the person
 Holistic thinking  Analytical thinking

Eastern Concept of the Self

Hinduism
 The religion of ancient people known as the Aryans
 Also the third world largest religion with over 1.25 billion followers (80% of the
world)
 Oldest religion
 From India
 Believes in the law of karma
 Law of Karma – most important doctrine in Hinduism
 Dharma – goodness
 Atman (soul/spirit) – Hindus believe that Atman being an immortal continues to
be reincarnated from lifetime to lifetime until it is freed from the cycle of rebirth
and reach a state of nirvana or non-birth
 Reincarnation – reborn in another body
 Karma does not end with a body’s death; its influence may extend through
incarnation of the soul
 Nirvana- concept of heaven
Buddhism
 Founded by Siddhartha Gautama
 Buddhism comes from the root word “budh” meaning awake
 All people have a seed of enlightenment – everyone has a potential to be
Buddha
  5 parts that compose the individual:
1. Matter/Form – own physical form
2. Sensation – made up of our feelings and emotion
3. Perception – thinking, cognition and reasoning
4. Mental constructs – habit, prejudice and willingness
5. Consciousness – awareness of sense to an object
 They believe that they have no self (soul)
 There is only nothing and all else is an illusion
 Nothing is permanent, but change
 Annica – impermanence; means that everything in life is always changing,
nothing lasts forever ; ideal taught by Buddha
 The ideal is to experience Nirvana(heaven), a state of transcendence devoid of
self-reference
 Nirvana can be achieved through meditation
 When a person’s desires and sufferings go away and they want nothing more
(achieving the state of nirvana)
 From India
Confucianism
 Philosophy and belief system from ancient china
 Founder is Confucius
 Regarded as a social and ethical philosophy rather than religion
 Golden rule (principle of reciprocity): “do not do to others what you would not
want others to do to you”
 The individual’s greatest mission of attaining self-realization wherein self-
cultivation is instrumental
 Self-cultivation – could be accomplished by knowing one’s role in the society
and act accordingly
 Moral character is perfected through continuously taking every opportunity to
improve oneself in thought and action
 Categories on how to the terms “Self”
1. Analytical
2. Individuality
3. Monotheistic
4. Rationalistic
 Yi – heart and righteousness
 Li – heart and property
 Len – heart and compassion
 Anih – heart and wisdom
Taoism
 An ancient tradition of philosophy and religious belief attributed to Lao Tzu
  From China
 Believes that the self is an extension of the cosmos, not of social relationships
 Self as one of the limitless forms of the Tao
 The Tao – is commonly regarded as a nature that is the foundation of all that
exists
 Perfect man has no self and the selfless person leads to a balanced life, in
harmony with nature
 There should be unity and harmony among opposing elements; the Yin and
Yang
 Yin – inward energy (Feminine, dark and negativity); black
 Yang – outward energy (Masculine, hot and bright energy); white
Dimension Western Eastern
Frame of reference There is a separation between Religion and philosophy are
philosophy and religion/spirituality intertwined
Example of school of Scholasticism Buddhism
thought Rationalism Hinduism
Empiricism Confucianism
Phenomenology Taoism

Notable philosophers Socrates Confucius

Plato Lao Tzu
Aristotle Siddhartha Gautama
Rene Descartes (Buddha)
John Locke
Source of knowledge Reason rather than faith to pursue Trusted intuition associate
wisdom with religious beliefs
Modes of cognition Analytic and deductive Synthetic and inductive

View of the universe and linear Circular

life
View of self egocentric Sociocentric
Theological view Monotheistic Polytheistic (pluralistic)

ideal Self-actualization through personal To achieve a balanced life

growth and find one’s role in
society
Cultural framework individualism Collectivism

4 pillars of Indian Psychology

 1. Maya – distorted perception
2. Atman
3. Materialistic/rationalistic
4. Individualistic

Taking care of my physical self

 Balanced diet – consuming the right food at the right time and in the right
proportion; should contain nutrients
 Water
 Sleep

Emotion management strategies

1. Smile to make yourself feel god
2. Smile to make others feel good
3. Get up and move
4. Check in with your body
5. Physically remove the tension
6. Breathe
7. Talk to someone
8. Disengage and re-engage emotions
9. Label your emotions
10. Label emotions for others

The Philosophical View of Self

Socrates: Know Yourself
- Socrates is principally concerned with man. He considers from the point of his
inner life. His famous life, “Know yourself”, tells each man to bring his inner self
to light
- A bad man is not virtuous through ignorance; the man who does not follow the
good fails to do so because he does not recognize it
- The core of socratic ethics is the concept of virtue and knowledge
- Virtue is the deepest and most basic propensity of man. Knowing one’s virtue is
necessary and can be learned
Plato: the ideal self, the perfect self
- Man in this life should imitate his former self, he should live a life of virtue in
which true human perfection exists
- Happiness is the fruit of virtue
Immanuel Kant: Respect for self
- Man is the only creature who directs and governs himself and his actions, who
sets up ends for himself and his purpose, and who freely orders means for the
attainment of his aims
- Respect others as you would respect yourself
Rene Descartes: “I think , therefore I am”
- Self is a thinking entity distinct from the body
- First famous principle, “Cogito, ergo sum”, which means “I think, therefore I am”
John Locke: Personal Identity
- Holds that personal identity (self) is a matter of psychological continuity. Personal
identity is founded on memory and not on the substance of either the soul or the
body
- Personal identity is the concept of oneself that evolves over the course of an
individual’s life
David Hume: The Self is the Bundle Theory Of Mind
- Hume is skeptical about the existence of life, specifically, on whether there is a
simple, unified self that exists over time
- Man has no “clear and intelligible” idea of the self

The Christian of Biblical View of Self

The Holy Bible
The crown creation of self
 Religious
 Aesthetic
 Moral
 Sentiment
 Sensual and sexual
 Economic
 Social
 Intellectual
 Political
 Spiritual
 Rational
 Physical
 Emotional
St. Augustine: Love and Justice as the foundation of the Individual Self
- Virtuous life is a dynamism of love. It is a constant following of and turning
towards love while a wicked life is a constant turning away from love
Sigmund Freud: The psychoanalytic theory of self
- Humans psyche (personality) is structured into three parts (tripartite)
1. Id (internal desires) – also called internal drives or instinctive drives, consists
of the body’s primitive biological drives and urges which are concerned only
with achieving pleasure and self-satisfaction. It lives completely in the
unconscious
2. Ego (reality) – it is the “I” part of the individual that gives him/her the sense of
identity. The ego is rational part of the personality
3. Supergo (conscience) – part of the personality concerned with morals,
precepts, standards and ideas. It is a critical faculty of the personality
Freduian Stages of Psychosexual Development
Fred also argues that the development of an individual can be divided into distinct
stages characterized by sexual drives
1. Oral (0-1)
2. Anal (Expulsive phase; 2-3)
3. Phallic – gets curious about genitals and becomes attached to the parents of the
opposite sex (3-6)
 Oedipus complex – attraction of boy to his mother
 Electra complex – attraction of girl to her father
4. Latency – sexual motivations (10-12)
5. Genital – heterosexual relations (after puberty)
Erik Erikson: The psychosocial stages of self-development
- Concerned with how both psychological and social factors affect the
development of individuals
Development stage Age

Pre-natal period Conception to birth

Infancy Birth to second wee

Babyhood End of second week to end of the second year

Early childhood or preschool age 2-6 years

 Late childhood or elementary age 6-10 or 12 years

Puberty or preadolescence 12 or 13 to 14years

Adolescence 13-14 or 18 years

Early adulthood 18-40 years

Middle age 40-60 years

Old age or senescence 60 years to death

Fourteen intelligent behaviors

Behavior is defined as the manner in which a person conducts himself/herself in
various instruments
1. Persistence
2. Overcoming impulsiveness
3. Listening to others
4. Flexibility in thinking
5. Metacognition
6. Checking for accuracy and precision
7. Questioning and problem posing
8. Applying past knowledge to new situations
9. Precision of language and thought
10. Using all senses
11. Creativity
12. Living with a sense of wonderment
13. Cooperation
14. Sense of humor