1.1.1. Philosophical Perspective of the Self

• The inquiry on the self has preoccupied the earliest thinkers in the history of philosophy: the Greeks
• Socrates: 'An Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living'
• Socrates is the philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self
• The true task of the philosopher is to know thyself - his life-long mission
• According to Socrates the components of man is the Body and Soul.
• Socrates suggests man must live an examined life and a life of purpose and value through incessant soul-searching
• According to Socrates man must begin at the source of all knowledge and significance - the self
• The Socratic method, the so called introspection is a method of carefully examining one's thoughts and emotions to gain self-knowledge.
• Plato: 'The Self is an Immortal Soul'
• Plato is a Greek philosopher; Socrates's student, supported Socrates's idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul
• Components of the soul according to Plato: Rational soul, Spirited soul, Appetitive soul
• Justice in the human person can only be attained if the 3 parts of the soul are working harmoniously with one another.
• When the ideal state is attained the human person's soul becomes just and virtuous.
• When conflict occurs it is the responsibility of Reason to sort things out and exert control, restoring a harmonious relationship among the 3 elements of our selves.
• Reason is the devine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a true understanding of eternal truths.
• Rational soul


  Forged by reason and intellect, has to govern the affairs of the human person
• Spirited soul


  In charge of emotions, should be kept at bay
• Appetitive soul


  In charge of base desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sex
• In his Theory of Forms, Plato introduces the concepts of the 2 worlds: the world of forms and the world of sense
• The world of forms is real and permanent; non-physical ideas
• The world of sense is temporary and only a replica of the ideal world; reality
• The sensible world is dependent on the ideal world where the concept of the soul belongs, since the soul is regarded as something permanent, man should give more importance to it than the physical body which resides in the world of sense (Plato).
• René Descartes: 'I Think, Therefore, I Am'
• René Descartes is a French philosopher; the Father of Modern Philosophy
• René Descartes conceived of human person as having a body and a mind
• René Descartes thought that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of the self, for even if one doubts oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and therefore, that cannot be doubted
• René Descartes: 'cogito ergo sum, "I think therefore, I am"'
• The self is a combination of 2 distinct entities: Cognito and Extenza (René Descartes)
• The cogito, the thing that thinks, which is the mind
• The extenza or extension of the mind, which is the body
• John Locke: 'The Self is Consciousness'
• John Locke Is an English philosopher, believed that human mind at birth is tabula rasa or a blank slate
• The self, or personal identity, is constructed primarily from sense experiences, which shape and mold the self throughout a person's life (John Locke)
• Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the self (John Locke)
• The essence of the self is its conscious awareness of itself as a thinking, reasoning, and reflecting identity
• Using the power of reason and introspection enables one to understand and achieve accurate conclusions about the self (or personal identity)
• David Hume: 'There is No Self'
• David Hume is a Scottish philosopher, an empiricist who believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experiences, argues that the self is nothing like what his predecessors thought of it
• David Hume believed that the self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body
• Empiricism is the thought that espouses the idea that knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced