LESSON 1

DEFINING THE SELF: Personal & Developmental Perspectives on

RATIONAL SOUL -reason and intellect
Self & Identity
-govern the affairs of the
human person
It was the Greeks who seriously questioned myths and moved away
SPIRITED SOUL -Emotions
from them in attempting to understand reality and respond to
APPETITIVE SOUL -in-charge of desires like
questions of curiosity, including the question of self
eating, drinking, sleeping and
sexual intercourse
SOCRATES
ST. AUGUSTINE
Prior to Socrates, the Greek thinkers (Pre-Socratics) preoccupied
themselves with the question of the primary substratum (arche)  Augustine’s view of the human person reflects the entire
spirit of the medieval world when it comes to man
Arche – explains the multiplicity of things in the world  There is an aspect of man, which dwells in the world, that
is imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the divine
SOCRATES was more concerned with another subject, THE while other is capable of reaching immortality
PROBLEM OF SELF  The body is bound to DIE on earth and the soul is to
anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in
communion with God.
 He is the 1st philosopher who ever engaged in a
 The goal of every human person is to attain this
systematic questioning about The self. To Socrates, this
communion and bliss with the Divine by living his life on
has become his life long mission, the true task of the
earth in virtue
Philosopher is to know oneself
 During his trial for allegedly corrupting the minds of the
youth, Socrates declared without regret that his being
indicted was brought about by his going around to Athens ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
engaging men, young and old, to question their
presuppositions about themselves and about the world The most eminent 13th century scholar of the medieval philosophy
particularly about who they are.
“Man is composed of 2 parts – MATTER and FORM”
 Most men in his reckoning were really not fully aware of
who they were and the virtues that they were supposed to “The soul is what animates the body it is what makes us HUMANS”
attain in order to preserve their souls for the afterlife.
 Socrates thought that this is the worst that can happen to MATTER -hyle in Greek
anyone. -Common stuff that makes up everything in the
 TO LIVE BUT DIE INSIDE universe
-Man’s body is part of this form
For SOCRATES, every man is composed of body and soul. This FORM -Morphn Greek
means that every human is DUALISTIC (composed of 2 important -Essence of a substance or thing
aspects of his personhood) -it is what makes it is
-The body of human person is something that he
For Socrates, this means all individuals have an imperfect,
shares even with animals
impermanent aspect, the body, while maintaining that there is also a
-What makes a human person a human person is
soul that is perfect and permanent.
his ESSENCE

PLATO
PLATO, Socrates’ student basically took off from his master and
supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul.
He added that there are 3 components of the SOUL:
RATIONAL, SPIRITED, APPETITIVE
In his MAGNUM OPUS, The Republic , PLATO emphasizes that
justice in the human person can only be attained if the 3 parts of
the soul are working harmoniously with one another.
RENE DESCARTES
 Father of Modern Philosophy
 Conceived that the human person as having a BODY and
MIND
 The Meditations of First Philosophy – famous treatise.
There is so much that we should doubt
 In fact, he says that much of what we think and believe,
because they are not infallible, may turn out to be FALSE
 One should only believe that which can pass the test of
doubt
 If something is so clear and lucid as not to be even
doubted, then that is the only time when one should
actually by a proposition.
 Descartes thought that the only thing that one cannot
doubt is the EXISTENCE OF THE SELF.
 Cogito ergo sum – “I think therefore, I am”
 The body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to
the mind. The human person has it but it is not what
makes man a man. That is the MIND.
DAVID HUME
 Scottish philosopher has a very unique way of looking at
man.
 The SELF is not an entity over and beyond the physical body
 Empiricism – school of thought that discuss the idea that
knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed &
experienced.
 Men can only attain knowledge by EXPERIENCING
 To David Hume, the SELF is nothing else but a bundle of
impressions.
Impressions – the basic object of our experience or sensation. Form
the core of our thoughts. Products of our direct experience with the
world.
Ideas – copies of impressions.
SELF according to Hume, is simply “A bundle or collection of
different perceptions, which succeed each other with an
inconceivable rapidity & are in a perpetual flux & movement”
In reality, what one thinks as unified self is simply a combination of
all experiences with a particular person.
IMMANUEL KANT
 Kant recognizes the veracity in Hume’s account that
everything starts with perception and sensation of
impressions
 There is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions
that men get from the external world
 Without the self, one cannot organize the different
impressions that one gets in relation to his own
experience.
 Kant suggests that the “SELF” is an actively engaged
intelligence in man that synthesizes all knowledge &
experiences. Thus, the self is not just what gives one his
personality. It is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for
all human persons.
GILBERT RYLE
 He solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running
for a long time
 For Ryle, what truly matter is the behaviors that a person
manifests in his day-to-day life.
 The SELF is not an entity one can locate and analyze but
simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all
the behavior that people make.
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
 Phenomonologist who asserts that the mind-body that has
been going on for a long time is an invalid problem
 Mind and body are so intertwined that they CANNOT be
separated from one another
 One’s body is his opening toward his existence in the
world
 For him, the Cartesian problem is nothing else but plain
misunderstanding.
 The living body, his thoughts, emotions and experiences
are all ONE
LESSON 2
THE SELF, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
WHAT IS THE SELF?
 Self is distinct from other selves
 The self is always UNIQUE and has its own identity
 One cannot be another person
 Self is also self-contained and independent because in
itself it can exist
 It does not require any other self for it to exist
 Self is unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and
thoughts that run through a certain person.
 SELF is private. Each person sorts out information, feelings
and emotions and thought processes within the self.
 Self is isolated from the external world. It lives within its
own world.
 It is ever changing and dynamic, allowing external
influences to take part in its shaping.
 The self is always in participation with social life and its
identity subjected t influences here and there
 The self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any
circumstance it finds itself in
The Self and Culture
According to Marcel Mauss, every self has 2 faces: PERSONNE
and MOI
Moi – person’s sense of who he is, body and basic entity;
biological givenness
Personne – composed of the social concepts of what it means
to be who he is
The Self and the Development of the Social World
Men and women in their growth and development engage
actively in the shaping of the self. The unending terrain of
metamorphosis of the self is mediated by LANGUAGE
“Language as both a publicly shared and privately utilized
symbol system is the site where the individual and the social
make and remake each other”
For Herbert Mead & Lev Vygotsky, human persons develop
with the use of language acquisition and interaction with others
They treat the human mind as something that is made,
constituted through language as experienced in the external
world and as encountered in dialogues with others
A young child internalizes values, norms, practices and social
beliefs and more through exposure to these dialogues that will
eventually become part of his individual world.
Vygotsky believes a child internalizes real-life dialogues that he
has had with others, with his family, primary caregiver or his
playmates
SELF in Families
The impact of family is still deemed as a given in understanding
the self
The kind of family that we are born in and the resource
available to us (spiritual, economic, etc) will certainly affect us
and the kind of development that we will have as we go
through life
Human beings are born virtually helpless and the dependency SIGMUND FREUD
period of a human baby to its parents for nurturing is relatively
longer than most other animals -saw the SELF, its mental processes and one’s behavior as the results
of the interaction between the Id, Ego, Superego
In trying to achieve the goal of becoming a fully realized
human, a child enters a system of relationship, most important
of which is the FAMILY

Babies internalize ways and styles that they view from their
Family. Notice how kids reared in a respectful environmental
becomes respectful as well and the converse if raised in a
converse family

Without a FAMILY, biologically and sociologically, a person may

not even survive or become a HUMAN PERSON.

GENDER AND THE SELF

Our gender partly determines how we see ourselves in the
world.

In the Philippines, husbands for the most part are expected to

provide for the family. Social interaction always has a part to play in who we think we are.
This is not nature vs nurture but instead nature-and-nurture
Men are taught early on how to behave like a man. This
perspective
normally includes holding in one’s emotion, being tough,
fatalistic

LESSON 3
THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

SELF is the sense of personal identity and of who we are as

individuals.

William James was one of the earliest psychologists to study

the self and he conceptualized the self as having 2 aspects – “I”
and “ME”

I Thinking, acting and feeling self

ME Physical characteristics as well as the
psychological capabilities that makes who you Under the theory of SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM, George Herbert
are Mead argued that the self is created and developed through
HUMAN INTERACTION.

CARL ROGERS 3 REASONS WHY SELF & IDENTITY ARE SOCIAL PRODUCTS:
REASONS EXPLANATION
Theory of personality also used the same terms, the “I” as the 1. We do not create ourselves - Society helped in creating the
one who acts and decides while the “ME” is what you think or out of NOTHING foundations of who we are &
feel about yourself as an object. even if we make our choices,
we will still operate in our
IDENTITY – composed of one’s personal characteristics, social social & historical contexts
roles & responsibilities, as well as affiliations that defines who 2. We actually need others to - Example: Reactions in
one is affirm & reinforce who we facebook can and will reinforce
think we are one’s self concept
SELF-CONCEPT – basically what comes to your mind when you
3. What we think as important - Example: Education might be
are asked about who you are.
to us may also have been an important thing to your self-
CARL ROGERS - captured the idea in his concept of self-schema influenced by what is concept because you grew up
important in our social or in a family that valued
or our own organized system or collection of knowledge about
historical context education
who we are.

The schema is not limited to the example. It may also include

your INTEREST, WORK, COURSE, AGE, NAME, PHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS, etc. 2 TYPES OF SELF THAT WE CAN BE AWARE OF: (Carver & Scheier)

1. The private self or your internal standards & private

thoughts & feelings
2. The public self or your public image commonly geared
towards having a good presentation of yourself to others
SELF-AWARENESS – can keep you from doing something dangerous,
it can help remind you that there is an exam tomorrow in one of
your subjects when you are about to spend time playing computer
games.

Self-awareness can be too much that we are concerned about being

observed and criticized by others, also known as SELF-
CONSCIOUSNESS

DEINDIVIDUATION – the loss of individual self-awareness &

individual accountability in groups.

A lot of people will attune themselves with the emotions of their

group and because the large crowd also provides some kind of
anonymity, we may lessen our self-control & act in ways that we will
not do when we are alone.

According to SOCIAL COMPARISON theory, we learn about

ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as our social
statues by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people.

 The downward social comparison – we create a positive

self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who are
worse off than us.
 The upward social comparison – comparing ourselves
with those who are better off than us

SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE theory – which states that we

can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially
when that person is close to us.

WE USUALLY REACT IN 3 WAYS:

1. We distance ourselves from that person – silent

treatment

2. We may also reconsider the importance of the aspect or

skill in which you were out-performed (If you got beaten
in drawing, you might think drawing is not for you and
you’ll find a hobby where you could excel)

3. We may also strengthen our resolve to improve that certain

aspect of ourselves (Attending seminars, practice, read more,etc)

However, in the attempt to increase or maintain SELF-ESTEEM, some

people become NARCISSISTIC

NARCISSISM – trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-

admiration and self-centredness. They are often charismatic
because of how they take care of their image

Taking care of that image includes their interpersonal relationship

thus, they will try to look for better partners, better acquaintances,
as well as people who will appreciate them alot.