Understanding Self

• Arche


  Origin or source, the "soul"
• Socrates: 'The unexamined life is not worth living'
• Philosopher: 'The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to live but die inside'
• Arche explains the multiplicity of things in the world
• The self is defined by the movement of the brains
• Other people are recognized as humans through sensory experiences
• The essence makes a human, not the body
• When the three components of the soul are balanced, the human person's soul becomes just & virtuous
• Philosopher: 'There is so much that we should doubt'
• Philosopher: 'I am a thinking thing... A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, imagines, perceives'
• The soul's movement is the ultimate source of all other movement
• Philosophy is concerned with the problem of the self
• Philosophy


  Study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially in an academic discipline
• The soul is what makes us humans
• The soul is the most divine aspect of the human being
• Philosophy makes people think about who they are
• Empiricism states that knowledge of the world is based on experiences, particularly sensory experiences
• Philosopher: 'I think, therefore I am'
• In medieval philosophy, the spirit of man dwells in the world and yearns to be with the Divine
• The idea of Eliminative Materialism was built by a philosopher
• The self is a combination of experiences
• Philosophy is also about how to live or deal with particular situations
• Philosopher: 'Every person is dualistic'
• Arche has no origin outside itself and cannot be destroyed
• Philosopher: 'The true task of the philosopher is to know oneself'
• In medieval philosophy, the body dies on earth while the soul lives eternally in spiritual bliss with "God"
• Modern philosophy considers the human person as body + mind
• The mind makes the man
• Plato's components of the soul

  • Rational soul - reason & intellect to govern affairs
  • Spirited soul - emotions should be kept at bay
  • Vegetative/Appetitive soul - base desires (food, drink, sleep, sexual needs, etc.)
• Defense Mechanism


  Various mechanisms used by the mind to protect itself
• Self from Various Philosophical Perspective

  • The Pre-Socratics
  • Socrates
  • Plato
  • St. Augustine
  • St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Rene Descartes
  • David Hume
• The self is not an entity beyond the physical body
• The self is embedded in culture, which includes behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols passed along by communication and imitation
• Embodied subjectivity


  • Self and perception encompassed in a physical body
  • The physical body is part of self, perceptions of the mind and actions of the body are interconnected
  • The body embodies self
• Group work is a method of social work that helps enhance social functioning through purposeful group experiences and coping with personal, group, or community problems
• Types of Societies

  • Egocentric
  • Sociocentric
• Anthropology


  Systematic study of humanity to understand evolutionary origins, distinctiveness as a species, and diversity in forms of social existence
• Physical self


  Behavior that a person manifests in day-to-day life
• Sociology


  Study of how human society is established, its structure, how it works, and people's interaction with each other
• Eliminative Materialism


  • Argues that ordinary folk psychology of the mind is wrong
  • It is the physical brain and not the imaginary mind that gives us our sense of self