Chapter 1

• Definition of the self includes: soul, ego, psyche, identity, I, me, am, or being, representing the core sense of who an individual is
• Early philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine believed in the existence of an immortal soul alongside the body
• Philosophers challenging the notion of self include Hume and the Buddhist concept of anatta, exploring the idea that the self might not be a fixed entity
• Sociological, anthropological, and psychological perspectives on the self have evolved, transitioning from philosophy to interdisciplinary approaches
• Carl Rogers' psychological perspective defines the self as a dynamic and ever-changing perception of personal identity, emphasizing self-awareness for understanding the self
• In sociological insights, Charles Horton Cooley's "Looking Glass Self" and George Herbert Mead's theory of the social self highlight the influence of family, school, peer groups, and mass media on self-perception
• Anthropological viewpoint emphasizes the interplay between culture and self, with contemporary anthropologists highlighting the complementary relationship between culture and self
• Philosophy explores the ultimate causes, reasons, and principles of everything, including the nature of the self, delving into various areas of knowledge like religion, psychology, politics, physics, and medicine
• Key philosophers and their perspectives on the self:

  • Socrates: "Know Thyself"
  • Plato: The Immortal Soul
  • Aristotle: The Essence of the Self
  • St. Augustine: An Immortal Soul
  • René Descartes: "I Think Therefore I Am"
  • John Locke: The Self is Consciousness
  • David Hume: There Is No Self
  • Immanuel Kant: We Construct the Self
  • Sigmund Freud: The Multilayered Self
  • Gilbert Ryle: The Self is Behavioral
  • Paul Churchland: The Self is the Brain
  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Embodied Subjectivity
• Philosophy offers diverse perspectives on the self, from immortal souls to behavioral patterns and brain physiology, enriching self-knowledge and worldview
• Philosophy explores ultimate causes, reasons, and principles of everything, including the nature of the self
• Socrates equated the self with the soul, emphasizing the role of reason in understanding who we are and who we should become
• Plato expanded on Socrates' concept of the soul as synonymous with the self, introducing a three-part soul: reason, physical appetite, and spirit/passion
• Aristotle considered the soul the essence of all living things, distinguishing three kinds of soul: vegetative, sentient, and rational
• St. Augustine integrated Plato's ideas with Christian teachings, believing the soul governs and defines a person, with self-knowledge as a consequence of knowledge of God
• René Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, introduced the concept "I think, therefore I am," emphasizing the nature of the reasoning process and its relationship to the human self
• John Locke believed the essence of the self is conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, and reflecting identity, with conscious awareness and memory of experiences as key to understanding the self
• David Hume suggested through introspection that there is no self, challenging the existence of a self based on sense experience
• Immanuel Kant proposed that the self constructs its own reality, with life as a struggle between inner and outer self, creating a familiar and predictable world
• Sigmund Freud described the self as consisting of three layers: conscious, unconscious, and preconscious
• Gilbert Ryle viewed the self as a pattern of behavior, emphasizing that understanding the self is the distinction between knowing how and knowing that
• Paul Churchland advocated eliminative materialism, stating that the self is inseparable from the brain and the physiological aspects of the body
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty believed all knowledge about the self is based on the "phenomena" of experience, emphasizing that there is no experience that is not an embodied experience