Personal and Developmental

Perspective of Self and Identity:

The Self from Various
Philosophical Perspectives
Socrates

Biography

Unlike some other famous Greek philosophers, Socrates didn't write down his thoughts and
ideas. He preferred to just speak to his followers. Fortunately, two of Socrates' students, Plato and
Xenophon, wrote about Socrates in their works. We learn about Socrates' philosophies in many of
Plato's dialogues where Socrates is a major character taking part in philosophical discussions.
Xenophon was a historian who wrote about the events in Socrates' life. We also learn about
Socrates from the plays of the Greek playwright Aristophanes.

Not much is known about Socrates' early life. His father was a stonemason named
Sophroniscus and his mother was a midwife. His family was not wealthy, so he likely didn't have
much of formal education. Early on in his career, Socrates took up his father's profession and
worked as a stonemason.

Socrates lived during the time of the Peloponnesian War between the city-states of Athens
and Sparta. As a male citizen of Athens, Socrates was required to fight. He served as a foot soldier
called a "hoplite." He would have fought using a large shield and spear. Socrates fought in several
battles and was noted for his courage and valour.

As Socrates grew older, he began to explore philosophy. Unlike many philosophers of his
time, Socrates focused on ethics and how people should behave rather than on the physical world.
He said that happiness came from leading a moral life rather than material possessions. He
encouraged people to pursue justice and goodness rather than wealth and power. His ideas were
quite radical for the time.
Young men and scholars in Athens began to gather around Socrates to have philosophical
discussions. They would discuss ethics and current political issues in Athens. Socrates chose not
to give answers to questions, but instead posed questions and discussed possible answers. Rather
than claim he had all the answers, Socrates would say "I know that I know nothing."

Socrates had a unique way of teaching and exploring subjects. He would ask questions and
then discuss possible answers. The answers would lead to more questions and eventually lead to
more understanding of a subject. This logical process of using questions and answers to explore a
subject is known today as the Socratic Method.

After Athens lost to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, a group of men called the Thirty
Tyrants were put into power. One of the leading members of the Thirty Tyrants was a student of
Socrates named Critias. The men of Athens soon rose up and replaced the Thirty Tyrants with a
democracy.

Because Socrates had spoken out against democracy and one of his students was a leader in
the Thirty Tyrants, he was branded a traitor. He went on trial for "corrupting the youth" and "failing
to acknowledge the gods of the city." He was convicted by a jury and was sentenced to death by
drinking poison.

Philosophy about Self

Socrates believed that philosophy had a very important role to play in the lives of
individuals and in Plato’s dialogue, the Gorgias he explained why he held such a belief: “For you
see what our discussions are all about – and is there anything about which a man of even small
intelligence would be more serious than this: what is the way we ought to live?” (Gorgias)

One of the reasons why most do not consciously contemplate this question is because it
requires that one attain self-knowledge, or in other words, turn their gaze inward and analyze both
their true nature and the values which guide their life. And such knowledge is perhaps the most
difficult knowledge to obtain. This conviction is conveyed in perhaps Socrates’ most famous
statement: “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology).

When we turn our gaze inward in search of self-knowledge, Socrates thought we would
soon discover our true nature. And contrary to the opinion of the masses, one’s true self, according
to Socrates, is not to be identified with what we own, with our social status, our reputation, or even
with our body. Instead, Socrates famously maintained that our true self is our soul. What Socrates
actually meant when he made the claim that our true self is our soul is not known for certain.
Although many scholars have taken a view similar to the one put forth by the famous historian of
philosophy Frederick Copelston who wrote that in calling our true self our soul Socrates was
referring to “the thinking and willing subject”.
 According to Socrates, it is the state of our soul, or our inner being, which determines the
quality of our life. Thus it is paramount that we devote considerable amounts of our attention,
energy, and resources to making our soul as good and beautiful as possible. Or as he pronounces
in Plato’s dialogue the Apology: “I shall never give up philosophy or stop exhorting you and
pointing out the truth to anyone of you whom I meet, saying in my most accustomed way: “Most
excellent man, are you…not ashamed to care for the acquisition of wealth and for reputation and
honour, when you neither care nor take thought for wisdom and truth and the perfection of your
soul?” (Apology 29d)

After coming to the realization that one’s inner self, or soul, is all-important, Socrates
believed the next step in the path towards self-knowledge was to obtain knowledge of what is good
and what is evil, and in the process use what one learns to cultivate the good within one’s soul and
purge the evil from it.

According to Socrates if one devoted themselves to self-knowledge and philosophical

inquiry, they would soon be led to a more appropriate view of the good. There is one supreme
good, he claimed, and possession of this good alone will secure our happiness. This supreme good,
thought Socrates, is a virtue.

Socrates held virtue to be the greatest good in life because it alone was capable of securing
one’s happiness. Even death is a trivial matter for the truly virtuous individual who realizes that
the most important thing in life is the state of his soul and the actions which spring from it: “Man,
you don’t speak well, if you believe that a man worth anything at all would give countervailing
weight to the danger of life or death, or give consideration to anything but this when he acts:
whether his action is just or unjust, the action of a good or of an evil man.” (Apology 28b-d). In
order to become virtuous, Socrates maintained that we must arrive at the knowledge of what virtue
really is. Knowledge of the nature of virtue, in other words, is the necessary and sufficient
condition for one to become virtuous.

To summarize this idea it is useful to express it in a simple formula:

knowledge=virtue=happiness. When we arrive at the knowledge of virtue we will become
virtuous, i.e., we will make our souls good and beautiful. And when we perfect our souls, we will
attain true happiness. If all individuals naturally desire happiness, and if it is only by becoming
virtuous that one can attain happiness, then a simple question arises: Why do so many people fail
to become virtuous and instead commit evil acts, thereby preventing themselves from attaining
that which they really want?
 An individual who commits an evil act is one who is ignorant of the fact that virtue alone is
the one true good. Such an individual instead falsely assumes that wealth, power, and pleasure are
the greatest goods in life, and therefore if necessary will use evil means to attain these goods. In
other words, they are ignorant of the fact that by committing such evil acts they are tarnishing their
soul and thus condemning themselves to a perpetual unhappiness.

This self inflicted harm to one’s soul caused by not acting virtuously is the greatest evil
which could befall an individual. In fact, Socrates went so far as to put forth, “So I spoke the truth
when I said that neither I nor you nor any other man would rather do injustice than suffer it: for
it is worse.” (Gorgias)

When we commit an injustice we are harming our own soul, which is our true self. Yet on
the other hand, when we suffer an injustice it is not our soul which is harmed, but instead what is
harmed is merely something we possess: be it our wealth, reputation, or even our body. Since the
state of our soul is of the utmost importance in the attainment of happiness, we should ensure that
we take care of our soul even at the expense of our possessions and body. And if the choice
confronts us, we should choose to suffer harm rather than inflict it.

References:
Nelson, Ken. (2019). Socrates Biography. Ducksters.
Retrieved from https://www.ducksters.com/history/ancient
https://academyofideas.com/2015/03/the-ideas-of-socrates-transcript/
 Plato
(427 BC-347 BC)

Biography:

Plato grew up in the Greek city-state of Athens during the Classical Period of Ancient
Greece. Although historians don't know a lot about Plato's early life they know he came from a
wealthy family and likely had two brothers and a sister. He would have been taught by the best
Greek teachers about various subjects including music, gymnastics, math, grammar, and
philosophy.

Much of Plato's youth would have been influenced by the Peloponnesian War between
Athens and Sparta. It is likely that Plato served in the Athenian army during his early life. The
war no doubt influenced his life and his philosophy.

As Plato grew older he became more interested in academics and philosophy. He became
a student and close follower to the famous philosopher Socrates. Socrates would hold
conversations with his students about various aspects of politics and life. They then would break
down the problem and come up with theories on the subject. Socrates teachings and learning
style became the cornerstone of Plato's writings.

In 399 BC, Socrates was executed by the leaders of Athens for corrupting the youth and
for not acknowledging the gods of Athens. Plato left Athens and travelled around the
Mediterranean region for the next twelve years. During that time, he visited places like Italy,
Egypt, and North Africa. He studied all sorts of subjects including science, math, and
philosophy.

While Plato was travelling around the Mediterranean, he began to write. He wrote in an
interesting style called a "dialogue". In the dialogue, Plato would introduce several characters
who would discuss a topic by asking questions of each other. This form allowed Plato to explore
several sides of an argument and to introduce new ideas.

Many of Plato's dialogues feature his former teacher Socrates as the main character. Most
of what is known about Socrates' philosophies comes from Plato's dialogues. He wrote four
dialogues about Socrates' final days including The Apology in which Socrates' defends himself
before being sentenced to death.

Plato's most famous writing is The Republic. In The Republic, several characters discuss
the meaning of justice and how it relates to happiness. Socrates is once again the main character
in the dialogues and he discusses how being just or unjust can affect someone's life. They discuss
various aspects of government and finally present the "philosopher-king" as the ideal ruler. Plato
comes to the conclusion that philosophers must become kings, or kings must become
philosophers.

When Plato was around 40 years old, he returned to Athens and founded a school called
the Academy. Plato and other scholars taught subjects such as mathematics, philosophy, biology,
and astronomy at the Academy. One of Plato's students was the famous scientist and philosopher
Aristotle who studied at the Academy for nearly 20 years.

Philosophy about Self

The problem of the self inevitably begins with Plato and his dialogue Phaedrus, which
has for some two millennia been a central text in discussions of truth, philosophy, rhetoric, and
writing. Ultimately, it is Plato's sustained interest in defining and attaining Truth (the capital "T"
is intentional) that drives the Phaedrus.

But Plato's key move in this text was in locating truth in a metaphysical world and in
conceptualizing the human self as a thinking being capable of accessing that metaphysical world
through the method of dialectic. As Walter Hamilton points out in his introduction to the Phaedrus,
Plato believed that "truth is to be attained by a partnership of two like-minded people . . . in the
common pursuit of the beauty not of this world which is ultimately to be identified with the Form
of Good, and which gives meaning and coherence to the whole of reality".
With this formulation, Plato establishes two enduring binaries: the metaphysical realm as
distinct from the physical world; and, more important for our purposes here, the essential human
self and the physical world, which becomes the mind/body split. This human self is fundamentally
an intellectual entity whose "true" or essential nature exists as separate from the physical world.
Descartes' famous line is perhaps the best-known expression of this view of the self: Cogito
Ergo Sum. The mind is what matters.
Despite challenges from alternative perspectives, this view of the self as autonomous
thinking being separate from the physical world has become the central way of understanding the
self in Western culture. And it is a way of understanding the self that, many scholars have
argued, depends upon literacy--or, more specifically, on what Marshall McLuhan has called
the sensual reconfiguration of communication that the technology of writing makes possible.

References: Nelson, Ken. (2019). Plato Biography. Ducksters. Retrieved from

https://www.ducksters.com/history/ancient, https://www.albany.edu/faculty/rpy95/webtext/p
 Aristotle

(384 BC- 322 BC)

Biography:

Aristotle was born in northern Greece in the city of Stagira around the year 384 BC. He
grew up as part of the aristocracy as his father, Nicomachus, was the doctor to King Amyntas of
Macedonia. It was at the king's court that he met his son, Philip, who would later become king.

Growing up the son of a doctor, Aristotle became interested in nature and anatomy. He
grew up putting a premium on education and the arts. As a youth, Aristotle likely had tutors who
taught him about all sorts of subjects. He learned to read and write Greek. He also learned about
the Greek gods, philosophy, and mathematics.

When Aristotle turned seventeen he travelled to Athens to join Plato's Academy. There he
learned about philosophy and logical thinking from Plato. He stayed at the Academy for nearly
20 years, at first as a student and later as a teacher.

Plato's Academy was not a school or college as we have today. They didn't have classes
on specific subjects taught by teachers. What they did was challenge each other with questions
and debate. One method of doing this was to have dialogues where one person would ask a
question and the other person would attempt to answer it. They would then continue to discuss
the question in a debate format, asking new questions as they came up in the debate.

After leaving the Academy in 347 BC, Aristotle travelled throughout Greece and Turkey.
He got married and wrote several works including The Natural History of Animals,
the Reproduction of Animals, and The Parts of Animals.

New Ideas
 Aristotle had new ideas on how the world should be studied. He liked to make detailed
observations of the world, taking notes and records of what he saw. He went so far as to dissect
animals to learn more about their anatomy. This was very different from the other Greek
philosophers and educators of the day. They did all their work in their mind, thinking about the
world, but not observing it. In this way Aristotle laid the foundation of science today.

Aristotle spent a lot of time learning about biology. He was the first to try and classify
different types of animals into different groups. He made drawings of different animal parts and
tried to determine the function of different organs. Aristotle made many discoveries and
interesting observations.

In 343 BC, Philip II of Macedonia asked Aristotle to tutor his son Alexander. Aristotle
spent the next several years teaching Alexander a wide range of subjects including philosophy,
logic, and mathematics. Alexander went on to conquer much of the civilized world and became
known as Alexander the Great.

Philosophy about Self

Aristotle undeniably diverged from Plato in his view of what a human being most truly
and fundamentally is. Plato, at least in many of his dialogues, held that the true self of human
beings is the reason or the intellect that constitutes their soul and that is separable from their
body. Aristotle, for his part, insisted that the human being is a composite of body and soul and
that the soul cannot be separated from the body. Aristotle’s philosophy of self was constructed in
terms of hylomorphism in which the soul of a human being is the form or the structure of the
human body or the human matter, i.e., the functional organization in virtue of which human
beings are able to perform their characteristic activities of life, including growth, nutrition,
reproduction, perception, imagination, desire, and thinking.

References:
Nelson, Ken. (2019). Biography for Kids: Aristotle. Ducksters. Retrieved from
https://www.ducksters.com/history/ancient_greece/aristotle.php
Sihvola J. (2008) Aristotle on the Individuality of Self. The New Synthese Historical
Library (Texts and Studies in the History of Philosophy), vol.64. Springer, Dordrecht.
Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-8596-3_6
 ST. AGUSTINE OF HIPPO (AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS)

(A.D. 354-430)

Biography

He was born on November 13, 354, in Tagaste, Numidia (Souk Ahras, Algeria) and died
on August 28, 430 in Hippo Regius (Annaba, Algeria). He is considered as the Father of
Orthodox Theology. He is one of the Four Great Fathers of Latin Church (along with St.
Ambrose, St. Jerome and St. Gregory), He was the bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430 and
considered as the most significant Christian Thinker of St. Paul. He was an author of momentous
books that influence us up until now. Some of his books are the ‘Confessions’ (c. 400) and ‘The
City of God’ (c. 413-426). He is recognized as the ‘doctor of the church’ in Roman Catholicism.
“Augustine is remarkable for what he did and extraordinary for what he wrote.”

The Confessions is made of thirteen books that contain the autobiography of St.
Augustine, which is the first autobiography in Western literature. The first book is about his life
from childhood to the age of fifteen. In there he confessed that he preferred studying hedonism.
The second book speaks about his early pursuit of sexual pleasure. In there he confessed that he
once gave up studying, instead, he chases women and even became a thief. He discovered the
Manichean Cult in the third book. While in the fourth book, he is a published author already. He
met Bishop Ambrose in the book five and he already gave up on the Manichean. Book six and
seven is about his spiritual journey where he seeks personal happiness. In book eight, he
describes his conversion to Christianity. Book nine is the falling part of his life where he thought
about giving up on teaching and when two of his closest friends died followed by the death of
her mother, Saint Monica. In book five he thought about the things that will lead him to God and
what will bring him true happiness. He studied Bible in book eleven and twelve where he gave
the full details of his examination to the first book of Genesis. Last, in the thirteenth book, he
states that God works to bring happiness to those who are holy.

Philosophy about Self

 The scholars are able to deduce some parts of Confessions, and there they found St.
Augustine’s idea of self and his discovery of personal subjectivity. His idea of self is achieve
through a two fold process: the self-presentation, which leads to self-realization. In ‘The
Confessions’ where St. Augustine plays the protagonist of his own life. He transforms himself into
metaphor of a struggle of both body and soul to find happiness, which in the end only exist in
God’s love.

St. Augustine made the Creator be with the created or the All-Powerful be with the weak
in his book. Through that he teach us a very important lesson: only in the presences of the
Omnipotent and the Omniscient can the self attain happiness and completeness. St. Augustine’s
journey from ‘the Confessions’ is also the journey of self towards wholeness. The Blessed Saint
once face the decision that would end his long struggle in choosing between sexual desire and
spiritual desire. From his writing, he implied that for one to be truly free he must choose the interior
world of the soul and abandon the distractions of the senses. In the end he decided to give up sex
which he sees as ‘bitter sweetness’, and live a spiritual life. St. Augustine said he was flooded with
peace and a great calm as he came to this decision. He chose the soul over the body, the intellect
over the desire, the faith over questioning, and the reason over uncertainty, and with that St.
Augustine gave us the complete view of the self in relation to God.

Saint Augustine of Hippo’s theory of finite subjectivity is about the relation between self-
knowledge and self-transcendence in his early Plotinian-influenced thinking and the certain
developments of conception of the human mind on the model of divine Trinity. It traces
Augustine’s distinction in De Trinitate of three relational element of the human mind that compose
a trinitarian structure and his distinction of two levels of the human mind; one reflexive and the
other one preflexive, where a trinatarian structure is found. By highlighting the distinction between
the plane of discursive thinking (se cogitare) and the plane of intuitive (se nosse). To make it
shorter and more precise, the more foundational, trinatria-structure level of prereflexivity (se
nosse) accounts for the unity of consciousness and the identity of the self, while in trinitarian
structure on the level of reflexive thought (se cogitare) depends in moral and intellectual
perfection.

Saint Augustine of Hippo’s perspective of self is his relation to God, it is where he accept
God’s love and reciprocate it as much as he can. For us to reciprocate God’s love, we need to
achieve self-presentation and self-realization first. For Saint Augustine of Hippo, we can only
achieve true peace and great calm in God’s incomparable love.

References: SparkNotes Editor. (2005). SparkNote on Saint Agustin. Retrieved November 13,
2019. Retrieved from http.//www.spaknotes.com/philosophy/augustineB
Brachtendorf J. (n.d.). Chapter Seven: Saint Augustine. Retrieved November 13, 2019. Retrieved
from http.//www.oxfordscholarship.com/-chapter-7O’Donnell J. (2019). St. Augustine. Retrieved
November 13, 2019. Retrieved from http.//www.britannica.com .Smith J.W.D. (n.d.) From
Confessions, What is the ‘Self’ According to Saint Agustine. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
Retrieved from http.//www.enotes.com.
 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (ACQUINAS)
(SAN TOMMASO D’AQUINO)
DOCTOR ANGELICUS ‘ANGELIC DOCTOR’
(1225-1274)

Biography

He was born on 1225 , in Roccasecca, Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of Sicily (Italy), and
died on March 7, 1274 in Fossanova, Latium, Papal States. He is an Italian Dominican
Theologian ( foremost medieval scholastic). His was influenced by Aristottelian premises,
notably in the metaphysics of personality, creation, and Providence. He was able to make to
masterpieces, the ‘Summa Theologiae/Theologica’ (Compendium of Theology) and the ‘Summa
Contra Gentiles’ (On the truth of the Catholic Faith). His doctrinal system and the explanations
and developments made by his followers are known as Thomism.

Philosophy on Self

St. Aquinas self-knowledge theory claims that all our self-knowledge is dependent on
our daily experiences and on the type of environment we are living. He contradicts the popular
view at that time about the mind being ‘always on’, or never sleeping, subconsciously self-aware
in the background. Instead, St. Aquinas argues that our awareness of ourselves is triggered and
shaped by our experiences of objects in our environment.

He claims that all of us lack-knowledge of ourselves, understanding ourselves is a life-

long process for him. Self-ignorance is a philosophical puzzle for many. There are some some
cases where ignorance came from lack of experience. It is hard for us to understand something we
don’t even know.

St. Aquinas sees mind like a clay that will be shaped or molded by the outer forces. By
itself, the mind is dark and formless; but in the moment of acting. As an example, when I long for
a mid-afternoon coffee, I’m not just aware of the coffee, but with the fact that I am the one who
wants it. In the perspective of St. Aquinas, we don’t encounter ourselves as isolated minds or
selves, but rather as always as agents interacting with our environment. This is the reason why we
always label ourselves with the thing that are related to what we do, think or feel towards other
things.

In the perception of Aquinas, some people tend to ‘see’ their selves from the inside,
however, not just because we experience something doesn’t mean we instantly understand
everything about it. This is his exact terminology, “ Experiencing that something exists doesn’t
tell us what it is”. Learning about a thing is never easy, it is a long process of gathering information,
evidence and drawing conclusions, but that can’t even assure that we will fully understand it. There
is some answers from the experiences we had that is needed to be deduce by us to answer the
questions ‘What they are?’, ‘What they tell me about myself and the nature of mind?’, and this
questions need more experience and reasoning.

As a conclusion, St. Thomas Aquinas wants us to realize that the question ‘ Who am I?’
can’t be answer by anyone even by the person who know you most but only by the inside which
is certainly by you. Understanding yourself doesn’t mean you need to be selfish and just focus
about yourself. Instead, it is about us knowing and being more aware of our ‘self’, for us to be
more productive as a person when we interact with other people. And maybe, understanding the
impact of your actions to yourself will make you a greater person for yourself and of course for
the people surrounding you.

References:

Mclnerny R. (2014). Saint Thomas Aquinas. Retrieved November 13, 2019. Retrieved from
http.//www.plato.stanford.edu

Cory T.S. (2014). Thomas Aquinas- Toward Deeper Sense of Self. Retrieved November 13,
2019. Retrieved from http.//www.cambridgeblog.org
 RENE DESCARTES
(1596-1650)

Biography

Rene Descartes was born on March 31,1956, in La Haye en Touraine, France. He was
extensively educated, first at a Jesuit college at age 8, then earning a law degree at 22, but an
influential teacher set him on a course to apply mathematics and logic to understanding the natural
world. This approach incorporated the contemplation of the nature of existence and of knowledge
itself, hence his most famous observation, “I think; therefore I am.”

Philosophy about Self

After establishing the reasons behind his radical skepticism, Descartes goes on to ask
himself what he can know. In other words, what new foundations can he replace the old ones
with? He quickly realizes that it is subjective knowledge about his self that is most reliable, and
embarks on an intellectual journey to establish a firmer understanding of this.

He begins with an argument known commonly as the Cogito. He comes to understand

that if he is capable of doubting – which is precisely what he is doing – then he must exist. He
may doubt everything else, may be deceived about the existence of all other things, but he must
necessarily exist. Cogito ergo sum – I think therefore I am. After establishing the fact of his
existence, Decartes goes on to ask himself what he is. He eventually comes to describe himself
as a thinking thing. So, Decartes has established that he is a thing that thinks, and he has
achieved at least a sketchy idea of what that means. He then starts to consider material objects
in an attempt to understand his mind even better, choosing to do this by examining a piece of
wax. At first, the wax is hard and solid, smelling slightly of flowers and tasting slightly of honey. It
makes a sound when he taps it with his finger. However, when it’s brought close to a flame it
starts to melt, changing in shape and size, losing all taste and smell, and it no longer makes a
noise when he hits it (as it has softened). And yet, even though his senses perceive something
owning entirely different properties to those the wax had earlier, he is still conscious of it as a
piece of wax. The same piece of wax, even. His senses do not tell him this, so he reasons that
the way he really perceives the wax is through his mind. What does he perceive it as? An
extended substance that is flexible and changeable. This tells him something important about the
relationship between his mind and the external world, and it also tells him that his senses are only
of limited value. Naturally, without his senses he would not be aware of the wax at all, but without
a judging mind he would only have a very muddled understanding of it.

One of the conclusions that Descartes draws from his examination of the wax is that he
can never know anything better than his own mind. This is because, whenever he comes to
understand something about a material thing, such as its size or shape, he is also becoming
aware of the ability of his mind to perceive and understand that property. Whenever he learns
about material objects, then, he learns about his mind. But he can learn things about his mind
without learning anything new about the material world. Therefore, his mind is more readily known
to him than anything else. There is, however, one problem with this. What he learns about his
mind when examining the properties of an object – his ability to perceive said properties – is in
fact a property of his mind. However, Descartes himself regards properties as being immaterial –
it is the essence of a thing that truly matters.

References:

Biography.com Editors. (2019, Nov 16). Rene Descartes. Retrieved from

https:www.biography.com/scholar/rene-descartes

Retrieved from https://poignantboy.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/descartes-concept

 DAVID HUME
(1711-1776)

Biography

David Hume is a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist known especially
for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He is regarded as one of the most important
figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume is often
grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist.
Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic
“science of man” that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In stark opposition to
the rationalists who preceded him, most notably Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than
reason governed human behaviour, saying famously: “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave
of the passions.” He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather
than abstract moral principles. Hume also examined the normative is–ought problem. He held
notoriously ambiguous views of Christianity, but famously challenged the argument from design
in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). He was also critical of priests, arguing they
were often motivated by self-interest and ambition. His writings were considered controversial, if
not heretical for the time. With characteristic wit, Hume wrote close to his death bed.

Philosophy about Self

David Hume continued in the empiricist tradition of John Locke, believing that the source
of all genuine knowledge is our direct sense experience. Using the same empiricist principles as
Locke, Hume ends up with an even more startling conclusion—if we carefully examine our sense
experience through the process of introspection, we discover that there is no self. From Hume’s
perspective, this astonishing belief is the only possible conclusion consistent with an honest and
objective examination of our experience.

According to Hume, if we carefully examine the contents of our experience, we find that
there are only two distinct entities, "impressions" and "ideas":
● Impressions are the basic sensations of our experience, the elemental data of our
minds: pain, pleasure, heat, cold, happiness, grief, fear, exhilaration, and so on.
These impressions are “lively” and “vivid.”
● Ideas are copies of impressions, and as a result they are less “lively” and “vivid.”
Ideas include thoughts and images that are built up from our primary impressions
through a variety of relationships, but because they are derivative copies of
impressions, they are once removed from reality.
 If we examine these basic data of our experience, we see that they form a fleeting stream
of sensations in our mind, and that nowhere among them is the sensation of a “constant and
invariable” self that exists as a unified identity over the course of our lives. And because the self
is not to be found among these continually changing sensations, we can only conclude that there
is no good reason for believing that the self exists.

“I can never catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything
but the perception.” Even when we actively look for the self, Hume contends, we simply can’t find
it. All of our experiences are perceptions, and none of these perceptions resemble a unified and
permanent self-identity that exists over time. Furthermore, when we are not experiencing our
perceptions—as when we sleep—there is no reason to suppose that our self exists in any form.
Similarly, when our body dies and all empirical sensations cease, it makes no sense to believe
that our self continues to exist in some form. Death is final. And what of people who claim that
they do experience a self in their stream of perceptions? Hume announces that “I must confess I
can reason no longer with him. . . . He may, perhaps, perceive something simple and continu’d,
which he calls himself; tho’ I am certain there is no such principle in me.” In other words, as an
empiricist, Hume cannot do more that provide an honest description and analysis of his own
experience, within which there is no self to be found.

References:

Steinberg, E. (n.d.). David Hume (2nd edition). Retrieved from

https://www.biographyonline.net/writers/philosphers/david-hume.html

Retrieved from
https://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/samplechapter/0/1/3/0/013048069X.pdf&ved=2ahUK
Ewju_bPHo-7IAhVOxYsBHcAoAfsQFjAMegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw0SkgmtwZzUTcbe7DZIBaon
 JOHN LOCKE
(1632-1704)

Biography

John Locke is an English philosopher whose works lie at the foundation of modern
philosophical empiricism and political liberalism. He was an inspirer of both the European
Enlightenment and the Constitution of the United States. His philosophical thinking was close to
that of the founders of modern science, especially Robert Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton, and other
members of the Royal Society. His political thought was grounded in the notion of a social contract
between citizens and in the importance of toleration, especially in matters of religion. Much of
what he advocated in the realm of politics was accepted in England after the Glorious Revolution
of 1688-1689 and in the United States after the country’s declaration of independence in 1776.

Philosophy about Self

John Locke proposes that one's personal identity extends only so far as their own
consciousness. The connection between consciousness and memory in Locke’s theory has
earned it the title of the "memory theory of personal identity." Despite criticism, Locke’s memory
theory of personal identity is a prominent subject of discussion among modern philosophical
circles. In his Essay, Locke suggests that the self is “a thinking intelligent being, that has reason
and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and
places” and continues to define personal identity simply as “the sameness of a rational being”. So
long as one is the same self, the same rational being, one has the same personal identity.
Given this assertion, any change in the self reflects a change in personal identity, and any
change in personal identity therefore implies that the self has changed. Locke goes on to suggest
that one’s personal identity extends only so far as ones consciousness. He offers the argument
that because in order to be a self, one must be a thinking thing and that because “consciousness
always accompanies thinking”, the self with which one personally identifies extends and persists
only so far as ones consciousness. The consciousness Locke refers to can be equated with
memory.

This assumption is supported by Locke’s assertion that, “as far as [a] consciousness can
be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person;
it is the same self now as it was then; and it is by the same self with this present one that now
reflects on it, that that action was done”. More explicitly stated, if one can remember some
experience, Locke’s says that one in fact had that experience. It is by this reasoning that Locke
arrives at the most controversial portion of his theory which suggests that the converse of the
previous argument is true: if one cannot remember some experience, then one did not have that
experience.
 Memory is therefore, according to Locke, a necessary condition of personal identity.
Referring to states of interrupted consciousness or forgetfulness, Locke claims that, “in all these
cases, our consciousness being interrupted, and we losing sight of our past selves, doubts are
raised whether we are the same thinking thing”. An abridged version of Locke’s memory theory
of personal identity would therefore conclude that memory is both a necessary and sufficient
condition of self, and, therein, personal identity.

References:

Rogers, G.A.J. (2019, Oct 31). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-

Locke

Piccirillo, R.A. (2010)p1/1 The lockean theory of personal identity: Definition, objection,
response. Inquiries Journal, 2(8), 1. Retrieved from www.inquiriesjournal.com/amp/1683/the-
lockean-memory-theory-of-personal-identity-definition-objection-response
 MAURICE JEAN JACQUES MERLEAU-PONTY

Biography

French philosopher and public intellectual, he was the leading academic proponent of
existentialism and phenomenology in post-war France. He was born in Rochefort-sur-Mer, in the
province of Charente-Maritime, on March 14, 1908. During his student years, Merleau-Ponty
attended Husserl’s 1929 Sorbonne lectures and Georges Gurvitch’s 1928–1930 courses on
German philosophy.

Merleau-Ponty’s most important works of technical philosophy were La Structure du

comportement (1942; The Structure of Behavior, 1965) and Phénoménologie de la perception
(1945; Phenomenology of Perception, 1962)

Philosophy on Self

Self as Embodied Subjectivity

Maurice Merleau-Ponty believed the physical body to be an important part of what makes
up the subjective self. He argued that the significance of the body, or the body-subject as he
sometimes referred to it, is too often underestimated by the philosophical tradition which has a
tendency to consider the body simply as an object that transcendent mind orders to perform
varying functions.

In this respect, his work was heavily based upon accounts of perception and tended
towards emphasizing an embodied inherence in the world that is more fundamental than our
reflective capacities, though he also claims that perception is itself intrinsically cognitive.
His work is often associated with the idea of the 'primacy of perception', though rather than
rejecting scientific and analytic ways of knowing the world, Merleau-Ponty simply wanted to argue
that such knowledge is always derivative in relation to the more practical exigencies of the body's
exposure to the world.
References:

Retrieved from www.academia.edu, Maurice Merleau and the Embodied Subjectivity

 PAUL CHURCHLAND

Biography:

Paul Churchland (born 1942) is a Canadian philosopher and author. He is currently the
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses
on epistemology, perception, philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of mind, philosophy of
neuroscience, and philosophy of science.

Paul Montgomery Churchland was born on October 21, 1942, in Vancouver, Canada. He
attended the University of British Columbia, from where he received a degree in Bachelor of Arts
in 1964.

Later, he the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received a Ph.D. in

1969. With American philosopher Wilfrid Sellars as his advisor, his dissertation during the Ph.D.
was "Persons and P-Predicates."

Philosophy about Self

The Self as The Brain

Churchland’s central argument is that the concepts and theoretical vocabulary we use to
think about our selves—using such terms as belief, desire, fear, sensation, pain, joy—actually
misrepresent the reality of minds and selves. All of these concepts are part of a commonsense
“folk psychology” that obscures rather than clarifies the nature of human experience. Eliminative
materialists believe that we need to develop a new vocabulary and conceptual framework that is
grounded in neuroscience and that will be a more accurate reflection of the human mind and self.
Churchland proceeds to state the arguments that he believes support his position.

Churchland’s point is that the most compelling argument for developing a new conceptual
framework and vocabulary founded on neuroscience is the simple fact that the current “folk
psychology” has done a poor job in accomplishing the main reason for its existence—explaining
and predicting the commonplace phenomena of the human mind and experience. And in the same
way that science replaces outmoded, ineffective, and limited conceptual frameworks with ones
that can explain and predict more effectively, so the same thing needs to be done in psychology
and philosophy of mind. This new conceptual framework will be based on and will integrate all
that we are learning about how the brain works on a neurological level. Although he believes
strongly in the logic of his position, Churchland recognizes that many people will resist the
argument he is making for a variety of reasons.

Reference:
Retrieved from revelpreview.pearson.com, The Self Is the Brain: Physicalism.