LESSON 1: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE  Socrates wanted to discover the and convince others who were willing

OF PHILOSOPHY essential nature of knowledge, to seek this knowledge with him.

justice, beauty and goodness.  The touching of the soul, may mean
GREEKS
 A lot if his thoughts were only known helping the person to get in touch
 Greek philosophers in Miletus chose through Plato’s writing (The with his true self.
to seek natural explanations to Dialogues).  True self is not the body but the soul.
events and phenomena around him  Virtue is inner goodness, and real
instead of seeking for supernatural  THE SOCRATIC METHOD beauty is that of the soul.
explanations from the gods as what  Socratic/Dialect Method  Delphi Oracle named Socrates the
was passed down through the  Search for the correct/proper wisest of all men.
generations. definition of a thing.  According to Socrates, Real
 Their study of change led to them to  In this method, Socrates did not understanding comes from within the
the idea of permanence. lecture, he instead would ask person.
 The ‘big three’ (Socrates, Plato and questions and engage the person in  The aim of the Socratic Method is to
Aristotle) a discussion. make people think, seek and ask

 The goal of this is to bring the person again and again.

 SOCRATES closer to the final understanding.
 He was the mentor of Plato and Plato  PLATO
was the mentor of Aristotle.  SOCRATES’S VIEW OF  His real name is Aristocles
 Athenians settle arguments by HUMAN NATURE  Plato because of his physical built
discussion and debate. which means ‘wide/broad’
 “the unexamined life is not worth
 People skilled in doing this were living”  Established a school known as ‘The
called Sophist, the first teacher of the Academy’
 He believed that his mission in life
west. was to seek the highest knowledge
 Believed that philosopy is more than  PLATO’S VIEW OF HUMAN pleasures are the source of
analyses but rather is a way of life. NATURE happiness.
(Socrates and Plato)  Judgement are made in ignorance
 Considered Socrates/Dialectic
 Plato’s metaphysics (philosophical and Plato equates ignorance with
Method as an important tool in
study on the causes and nature of evil.
discovering knowledge.
things) is known as the ‘Theory of
 Also believed that knowledge lies
Forms’.
within the person’s soul  PLATO’S THEORY OF
 In his Theory of Forms , Plato LOVE AND BECOMING
 Plato described the soul as having
explained that Forms refers to what
three components:  Plato illustrated his philosophy of the
are real.
1. The Reason – rational ; search for knowledge using the
 Plato’s Forms (Characteristics) ‘Allegory of the Cave’.
motivation for goodness and truth
1. ageless and eternal
2. The Spirited – non-rational  Allegory of the Cave – what people in
2. unchanging and permanent
the will or drive toward action the cave see are only shadows of
3. unmoving and indivisible
– initially neutral but can be reality which they believe are real
 Plato' also introduced to the West the influenced/pulled in two directions things and represents knowledge.
existence of two realms or Plato’s 3. The Appetites – irrational ; What these people fail to realize is
Dualism lean towards the desire for pleasures that the shadows are not real for
1. The Realm of the Shadows of the body. according to Plato, “only the Forms
– composed of changing ; imperfect
 Reason seeks the true goal of man are real”.
and flawed
which is to see things in their true  Theory of Being – the person must
2. The Realm of Forms –
nature. become the truth. ; the more the
composed of eternal things which are
 Spirited and Appeties want wordly person knows, the more he is and
permanent and perfect ; reality and
pleasures and can influence reason the better he is.
true knowledge
by making it believe that sensual
 To recall or remember the Forms is
to know the truth and then to become
just and wise.
 Plato’s Symposium (another
Dialogue) – that love is the way by
which a person can move from a
state of imperfect knowledge and
ignorance to a state of perfection and
true knowledge.
 Plato’s love begins with a feeling or
experience that there is something
lacking. This drives the person to
seek for that which is lacking. The
deeper the thought, the stronger the
love.
 For Plato, love is the way of knowing
and realizing the truth. The greater
the love, the more intellectual
component it will contain.
 To love the highest according to
Plato is to become the best.
CHRISTIANITY personal desire for sensual
pleasures and questions about all
 Christianity’s influence dominated
the sufferings in the world.
Western thought after the fall of the
Hellenistic-Romas eras.
 ST. AUGUSTINE’S
 These Christians philosophers did
VIEW OF HUMAN
not believed that self-knowledge
and happiness were the ultimate
NATURE
goals of man but instead man  His thoughts focus on two realms:
should rely on God’s command and 1. God as the source of all reality and
his judgement of what constitutes truth. – Without God as the source of
good and evil. all truth, man could never understand
 The Greek Philosophers see man eternal truths.
as basically good and becomes evil 2. The sinfulness of man. – The
through ignorance of what is good. cause of sin or evil is an act of man’s
 Christianity sees man as a who freewill.
reject/go against a loving God’s  THE ROLE OF LOVE
commands.  Man searches for happiness.
 ST. AUGUSTINE OF  He stated that real happiness can
HIPPO only be found in God.
 Problems arise because of the
 St. Augustin(354-436 CE) of Hippo,
objects humans choose to love.
Africa.
 Disordered love results when man
 Augustine became a priest and a
loves the wrong things which he
bishop of Hippo.
believes will give him happiness.
 He wanted to know about moral evil
and why it existed in people, his
 1. Love of physical objects = sin of
greed
2. Love for other people is not lasting
and excessive love for them = sin of
jealousy
3. Love for the self = sin of pride
4. Love for God is the supreme virtue
and only through loving God can
man find real happiness.
 RENE DESCARTES
 Father of Modern Philosophy
 Considered as one of the Rationalist
Philosophers of Europe
 Considered truth as a universal
concept and reason is superior to
and independent of sensory
experience.
 Rationalist are so impressed by the
scientific method and mathematics
that they aimed to apply these to
their philosophy.
 He introduced Cartesian Method and
invented analytic geometry.
 Had three dreams; Instructed him to
construct a system of knowledge
using just the powers of human  ‘I think, therefore I am.’ – first
reason. principle of his philosophy; He
 DESCARTES’ SYSTEM believes that to doubt is to think.
 Came up with a system using  The cognitive aspect of a human
principles that were true and related nature is his basis for existence of
to each other in clear and meaningful the self.
way.  THE MIND-BODY
 Discovered that the human mind has PROBLEM
two powers:  Descartes considered the soul/mind
1. Intuition – Ability to as a substance that is separate from
apprehend direction of certain truths the body.
2. Deduction – The power to  He believed that all bodily processes
discover what is not known by are mechanical.
progressing in an orderly way from  Body is like a machine that is
what is already known. controlled by the will and aided by
 The truths that can be discovered are the mind.
a priori.
 JOHN LOCKE
 Ideas discovered this way do not rely
 Son of Puritan lawyer; Defender of
on some experiences because they
the parliamentary system
are innate in the human mind.
 Published a book on the scope and
 Philosophy should progress from
limits of the human mind which
simple ideas to complex ideas.
played a significant role in the new
 DESCARTES’ VIEW OF era of thought known as the
HUMAN NATURE ‘Enlightenment’.
 Locke believed that knowledge 2. Civil law – right actions are and ideas or ideas to copy
results from ideas produces a enforced by people in authority impressions.
posteriori or by objects that were 3. Divine law – set by God on  Examining the patterns of thinking
experienced. the actions of man; true law for 1. The principle of
 Process involves two forms: human behavior; eternally true Resemblance – relatable/related
1. Sensation – Wherein 2. The Principle of Continguity
objects are experienced through the  DAVID HUME – consistency and natural flow
senses  Born in Edinburgh
2. Reflection – Which the mind  At the beginning of his philosophy,  THE PRINCIPLE OF
‘looks’ at the objects that were he relied on the scientific method CAUSE AND EFFECT
experienced to discover relationships  He discovered the limitations of the  The idea of cause and effect arise
that may exists between them. mind and his optimism turned into only when people experience certain
 Tabula rasa – ideas are not innate skepticism relations between objects thus it
but rather the mind at birth (i.e. blank  THE HUMAN MIND cannot be a basis for knowledge.
state)
 The mind receives materials from the  HUME’S VIEW OF
 LOCKE’S VIEW ON senses and calls it perceptions; Two HUMAN NATURE
HUMAN NATURE types of Perceptions:
 Soul = The Self
 Moral good depends on conformity or 1. Impressions – immediate
 Hume only discovered sense
non-conformity of a person’s sensations of external reality
impressions.
behavior towards some law. ; Three 2. Ideas – Recollections of
 There is no such thing as ‘personal
laws according to Locke: these impressions
identity’ behind perceptions and
1. Law of Opinion – actions  These two together make up the
feelings that come and go.
that are praiseworthy are called content of human mind.
 There is no permanent/unchanging
virtures ; those that are not are called  Words are meaningful if and only if
self.
vice they can be traced to impressions
  IMMANUEL KANT  Psychopathology  FREUD’S VIEW OF
 Lived all his life in the town of  Hysteria HUMAN NATURE
Konisberg in East Prussia  Made use of methods like free  Man’s belief by his pleasure seeking
 Deeply spiritual association and dream analysis. life instinct and his destructive death
 Kant stated that it was the philosophy  STRUCTURES OF THE instinct is said to be born with his ego
of David Hume that ‘awakened’ and MIND and already in conflict.
motivated him to be the founder of  Topography of the mind  GILBERT RYLE
German Idealism.  Iceberg – Tip – conscious awareness  Contradicted Cartesian Dualism
 KANT’S VIEW OF THE which characterizes the person as he  Many philosophical problems were
MIND deals with his external world. caused by the wrong use of
 Kant argued that the mind is not just  Unconscious/subconscious – language.
a passive receiver of sense controlled by this; person’s  RYLE’S VIEW OF HUMAN
experience but rather actively observable behavior
NATURE AND
participates in knowing the objects it  Three Levels of the mind are
KNOWLEDGE
experiences. structured by the following:
 Just ‘knowing-that’ according to Ryle
 KANT’S VIEW OF HUMAN 1. Id – Pleasure
is considered as empty
2. Ego – Reality
NATURE AND THE SELF intellectualism. What is more
3. Superego – Morality
 Transcendental Apperception – the important is how to make use of
 Two kinds of instincts that drive
term he used for this experience of these facts.
individual behavior
the self and its unity with objects.
1. Eros – life instinct (Energy
 SIGMUND FREUD  PATRICIA AND PAUL
of Eros called libido)
 Austrian neurologists CHRUCHLAND
2. Thanatos – death instinct
 His psychodynamic theory has  Neurophilosophy
(Destruction in the form of
characteristics of philosophical
aggression and violence)
thought
 Known for her claims that man’s  MERLEAU-PONTY’S influences people’s thoughts,
brain is responsible for the identity VIEW OF HUMAN feelings and behavior.
known as the “self”  GEORGE HERBET MEAD
NATURE AND THE SELF
 The biochemical properties of the  Father of Sociology
 Developed the concept of body-
brain according to this philosophy is  MEAD’S SOCIAL SELF
subject and contended that
neuroscience is really responsible for
perceptions occur existentially.  Social Behaviorism is the approach
man’s thoughts, feelings and
 “The world and the sense of self are George Mead used to describe the
behavior.
emergent phenomena in the ongoing power of the environment in shaping
 CHURCHLAND’S VIEW human behavior.
process of man’s becoming.”
OF HUMAN NATURE  Perception is not purely the result of  He described the self as a
 Neuphilosophy states that the self is sensations nor is it purely ‘dimension of personality that is
real, that it is a tool that helps the interpretation. Rather consciousness made-up of the individual’s self-
person tune-in to the realities of the is a process that includes sensing at awareness and self-image.
brain and the extant reality. well as interpreting/reasoning. 1. The Preparatory Stage –
 MAURICE MERLEAU-  Body Schema – relationship between children’s behavior are primarily

PONTY self-experience and the experience based on imitation

of other people. 2. The Play Stage – Children

 At the center of his philosophy is the
emphasis placed on the human body
as the primary site of knowing the
world.
 Sociology is one of the disciplines in
begin to role play and pretend to be
LESSON 2: FROM THE
other people. ; Developing
PERSPECTIVE OF
3. The Game Stage – Child
SOCIOLOGY
begins to consider several tasks and
various types of relationships. ; 8-9
the social sciences which aims to years old ; Generalized other
discover the ways by which the
social surrounding/environment
  MEAD’S THEORY OF THE - American Sociologist who  Development of Modern American

SELF made use of the Sociology

sociophysological approach to  The Presentation of the Self in
 Theory of the Self
understanding how societies Everyday Life.
 Children see themselves as the
work.  Impression Management – altering
center of their universe and is having
- Human Nature and the Social how the person presents himself to
difficulty understanding others
Order (1902), he discussed the others
around them.
formation of the self through  Dramagurtical Approach – similarities
 People around him, particularly his
interaction. of real social interaction to a
family, play a major role in the
- Cooley called this the looking- theatrical presentation
formation of the self. (Significant
glass self or the self that is a
Others) LESSON 3: THE SELF FROM THE
product of social interaction.
 THE ‘I’ AND ‘ME’
 Three phases process for developing PERSPECTIVE OF
 The self is composed of two parts,
the self ANTHROPOLOGY
the I self and the Me self
I Self – person initiates or 1. People imagine how they present  Anthropology is a field of the social
performs a social action, the self themselves to others. sciences focus on the study of man.
functions as a SUBJECT  Four Subfields of Anthropology
2. People imagine how others
Me self – takes the role of the - Archaeology (artifacts) – a
evaluate them.
other, the self functions as a object scientist with his digging tools
 OTHER SOCIOLOGICAL 3. People develop some sort of carefully removing soil and dirt
feelings about themselves as a result from a particular site.
APPROACHES TO
of those impressions. - Most important aspect of
UNDERSTANDING THE
human nature is survival.
SELF  ERVING GOFFMAN
- Continues to adapt in order to
 Charles Horton Cooley  Canadian-American sociologist
survive
- Biological Anthropology 1. Symbols 2. Constantly changing or are
(Physical Anthropology) – 2. Heroes never static
focus primarily on how the 3. Rituals
3. There is a continuity of thoughts
human body adapts to the 4. Values
as its focus shifts from one
different earth environments. LESSON 4: THE SELF
object to another.
- Linguistic Anthropology – FROM THE
focuses on using language as 4. Deal with objects that are
PERSPECTIVE OF
a means to discover a group’s different from and independent of
PSYCHOLOGY
manner of social interaction consciousness itself.
 Psychology is the field of the social
and his worldview.
sciences that deals with the 5. Consciousness can focus on
- Study how language and
description, explanation, prediction particular objects and not others.
modes of communication
and control of behavior.  Thoughts are associated with the
change overtime.
- Cultural Anthropolgy –  Mind-body problem of philosophy is existence of the self.
interested in knowing what one issue in the field of knowledge.  ME Self is further divided into three
makes one group’s manner of  Nature-Nurture Controversy compnents:
living particular to that group  WILLIAM JAMES 1. The Material Self – things
and forms an essential part of  Known for his Theory of the Self or objects that belong to the person
members’ personal and social  The Principles of Psychology in 1890 or entities that a person belongs to
identity. where his theory of the self is 2. The Social Self – the
- Theory of Cultural Determinism explained person is in a particular social
- Symbols are considered the situation
 THE ‘ME’ AND ‘I’
most superficial level of culture 3. The Spiritual Self – the self
 Human thoughts concluded that
and values belong to the that is more concrete or permanent
thoughts have five characteristics:
deepest level or are considered when compared to the material and
the core of culture 1. Owned by some personal self. social.
 I Self is the Pure Ego.
 Pure Ego is similar to the person’s
soul or mind.
 Comprises the totality of the person’s
identity.
2. The Ideal Self-Concept – the psychoanalyst who studied child
model version the person has of development.
himself. (WHAT YOU WANT TO BE)  The true self is the individual who
 He stated that there should be recognizes is strengths and accepts
congruence or equality between the his limitations, enjoys winning and

 GLOBAL AND two types of self-concept in order for success and learns from mistakes.
the person to be happy and satisfied  A false self may be manifested as a
DIFFERENTIATED SELF
with her life. form of defense.
MODELS
 The Self-Discrepancy Theory of - Lacks spontaneity is dead and
 Murray Bowen (1913-1990) – came
Higgins (1987) by Edward Tory empty
up with the concept of a
Higgins stated that people use - The mask (persona) that hides
differentiated self
internalized standards to which they the true person for fear of the
- He observed that there are two
compare themselves. pain of rejection and failure.
forces affecting the person; the
 MULTIPLE AND UNIFIED - At times false selves enable
first is togetherness and the
SELVES the person to form superficial
second is individuality.
but productive social
 The Multiple Selves Theory suggests
 REAL AND IDEAL SELF- relationships.
that there exists in the individual
CONCEPTS  True and False selves are present in
different aspect of the self.
 Carl Rogers (1902-1987) – proposed all individuals.
 A unified being is essentially
the personality theory known as the  THE SELF AS
connected to consciousness,
Person-Centered Theory
awareness and agency. PROACTIVE AND
 There are two types of self-concept:
 TRUE AND FALSE AGENTIC
1. The Real Self-Concept – refers to
SELVES  Albert Bandura (1925 – present) –
all information and perception the
 D.W. Winnicott (1896-1971) – an the proponent of the personality
person has about himself. (YOU)
English pediatrician and
 theory known as The Social regulates his behavior as he these decisions and taking
Cognitive Theory. observes his progress in achieving responsibility for consequences
- The person is seen as goals - Independence and self-reliance
proactive and agentic 4. Self-reflectiveness – the person from the development of the
- Capacity to exercise control looking inward and evaluating his self in Western cultures.
over his life motivations, values, life goals and  Collective Self – In the cultures of the
- In his theory, the basic other people’s effect on him East, the development of a collective
principle involved in human  Self-Regulation – When he reactively self is ingrained into the individual.
learning is learning through attempts to minimize the - Strong bonds of unity
observation discrepancies between what he has - Bound by the customs, beliefs
- The Social Cognitive Theory already accomplished and what he and traditions of the group
suggested that human beings still wants to achieve. - Collectivism fosters
are proactive, self-regulating, LESSON 5: THE SELF IN nationalistic attitude as this is
self-reflective and self- what the group believes
WESTERN AND
organizing.  Both the individualistic and the
EASTERN THOUGHT
 Human Agency = Essence of Being collective self may exist in a single
 Individualistic Self – through the
Human individual.
process of introspection and
 Features of Human Agency  THE SELF IN WESTERN
reflection, man begins to search for
1. Intentionality – actions performed THOUGHT
clues as to the probable purpose of
by the person intentionally or with full
his existence and the role he plays in  West introduced the ecological self
awareness of his behavior.
the general order of the things of the which sees the self as a process that
2. Forethought – person’s
world is undergoing development.
anticipation of likely outcomes of his
- Living the life that he chooses,  Seen as dynamic, different and
behavior
making decisions, acting upon unique in each individual and is
3. Self-reactiveness – process in
which the person is motivated and
 constantly exposed to an ever  According to Confucianism, result in
changing world a well-rounded, civilized, humane
 THE SELF IN society.

CONFUCIAN THOUGHT
 Confucius was the name for whick
Kong Zhongni of China was known in
the West.
 His philosophy came to be known as
humanistic social philosophy.
 Focus is on human beings and the
society he finds himself in.
 Ren – guides human actions and to
go against; means abandoning what
is truly human.
1. Li (propriety) – rules of propriety
should be followed
2. Xiao (fidelity) – virtue of reverence
and respect for family
3. Yi (rightness) – right way of
behaving
 Li, xiao, and Yi are virtues observed
in a person whose humanity is
developed, morally cultivated and
aware.