Understanding the Self

• Self


  • Sense personal of identity
  • Distinguishes a person from other
  • What makes us unique
• Philosophy


  • The search for truths and answers
  • The love for knowledge. Philo for love, Sophia for wisdom.
  • The fundamental principles of life, knowledge, reality, existence, morality, human nature, etc., through logic and reason.
• The Milesians


  • Students of Thales
  • Other term for Pre-socratic period
  • Period that spanned the workings of the natural world.
• Arche


  Meaning principles, origin, or substance
• Thales of Militus


  • Believes that the arche is water
• Anaximander


  • Student of Thales that believes that the arche is apeiron (boundless something; unlimited; undefined substance of unique quality)
• Anaximenes


  • Student of Thales that believe that the arche is air
• Cosmology


  A science that studies the origin and evolution of the universe
• Triumvirate


  • The big three
  • Ancient Philosophy's Triumverate
  • - Socrates
  • - Plato
  • - Aristotle
• Socrates


  • He believes that each person has an immortal soul that surpasses the death of the body.
  • Believes that bodily needs hinders happy and meaningful life
  • Believes one must separate the body from the soul, as much as possible
• Socrates' Dualistic Reality of the Person

  • Body: changeable, transient, and imperfect. World of Senses/Matter
  • Soul: unchanging, eternal, perfect. World of Ideas/ Form
• Reason


  The soul's tool to achieve a good life (wisdom and perfection)
• Plato


  • The soul is immortal.
  • He believed in the existence of the mind and soul
  • Three Parts of the Soul/Self (Psyche): Reason, Physical Appetite, Spirit/Passion
  • One must consistently make sure that their REASON is always in control of their PHYSICAL APPETITE and SPIRIT/PASSION.
• Aristotle


  • The body and the soul are not separate. Without the body, the soul cannot exist. The soul dies along with the body.
  • Kinds of Soul: Vegetative Soul, Sentient Soul, Rational Soul
• St. Augustine


  • Being a creation of God, the human being is always geared towards the good.
  • To know GOD is to know one's self
  • Truth - The truth of which Augustine spoke refers to the truth of knowing God.
• Rationalism/ Rationalist


  A philosophy based on reason and awareness
• Empiricism/ Empiricist


  A philosophy based on experience and senses
• Skepticism/ Skeptic


  A philosophical belief that question the possibility of knowledge
• Nihilism/ Nihilist


  A philosophical belief in which all values are baseless and that nothing can be known
• Stoicism/ Stoic


  A philosophical belief which denies pleasure and lives apathetically
• Hedonism/ Hedonist


  A philosophical belief where pleasure and earthly needs are patronized
• Epicureanism/ Epicureans


  A philosophical belief which encourages moderation in all aspect
• René Descartes: A Rationalist


  • "Cogito ergo sum." – "I think, therefore, I am."
  • Human identity: self-awareness
  • Self: A thinking thing
  • Self: It can exist independently of the body, but doesn't deny the association of the body to the self
  • Dualism: thinking (spiritual) self versus physical body
  • The spiritual self, governed by the laws of reason and God's will surpasses the physical self, governed by the laws of nature.
  • Yet the intimate connection between the soul and the body is undeniable (pineal gland)

  
• John Locke: An Empiricist


  • Knowledge originates in our direct sense experience.
  • Reason plays a subsequent role in figuring out the significance of our sense experience and in reaching intelligent conclusions.
  • The self is not necessarily embedded in a single substance or soul, but exists in space and time.
  • Every aspect of the physical body is integrated with personal identity. The body changes. The physical self-changes.
  • But the self endures because of memory.
  • Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the self.
• David Hume: Empiricist, Sceptic & Nihilist

  • There is no self!
  • Empiricism are impressions of basic sensations of experiences.
  • Ideas are copies of our impressions
  • Impressions form a fleeting stream of sensations
  • No constant and invariable self that exists as a unified identity over the course of life.
  • The self is a "bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other in an inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and movement."

  
• Immanuel Kant


  • Contests Hume's idea by alluding to the primary experience of the world that is not a disconnected stream of sensations.
  • A priori concepts: fundamental organizing rules or principles built into the architecture of the mind, which categorize, organize and synthesize sense data into the familiar fabric of our lives, bounded by space and time. These are innate.
  • Unity of consciousness that makes the world intelligible
• Sigmund Freud


  • He founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. The self is multitiered/multi-layered: Conscious is governed by the reality principle; at this level, behavior and experience are organized in ways that are rational, practical and appropriate to the social environment.
  • The unconscious contains the basic instinctual drives including sexuality, aggressiveness, and self-destruction; traumatic memories; unfulfilled wishes and childhood fantasies; thoughts and feelings that would be considered socially taboo.
• Gilbert Ryle: A Physicalist


  • Behaviorism: No more dichotomy by denying the inner selves, immortal souls, states of consciousness, or unconscious entities
  • The self is defined in terms of behavior that is presented to the world.
  • The self is a pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition for a person to behave in a certain way in certain circumstances

  
• Paul Churchland: A Physicalist

  • Eliminative Materialism: grounded in neuroscience
  • The mind/self is the brain
• Edmund Husserl


  • The father of Phenomenology
  • We experience our self as a unity in which the mental and physical are seamlessly woven together.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty


  • He believed in the "lived body". An entity that can never be objectified or known in a completely objective sort of way, as opposed to the "body as object" of the dualists. "There is no duality of substance but a dialectic of living being in its biological milieu."
• BUDDHISM


  • Anatta – "no self"
  • The concept of a self is an illusion. There is no permanent concept of the self. All things are not permanent.
  • Teachings based on Siddhartha Gautama or BUDDHA ("the awakened one")
  • Rejection of a permanent, self-existent soul (atman)
  • Five (5) aspects: Physical manifestation, Sensation, Conceptualization, Dispositions to act, Consciousness
  • Eight (8) paths to Nirvana (freedom from "attachments"): Right view, Right intention, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right concentration through meditation
• Taoism


  • True knowledge cannot be known but perhaps it can be understood.
  • Taos is a system of guidance.
  • Phrases that can describe Tao: Not a God, Source of creation, Ultimate, Way of nature as a whole
  • Te: Awareness of the Tao together with the capabilities that enable a person to follow the Tao.
  • Tzu Jan: That which is naturally so. Condition something will be in if it is permitted to exist and develop naturally.
  • The Great Nothing: Some things are just unexplainable and that's okay because not everything needs explaining.
• Hindu Philosophy


  • 1. Nyaya (Reasoning): It was founded by the ancient sage Gautama, it deals with logic which is the process of reasoning, Doubt is considered a prerequisite for philosophical inquiry.
  • 2. Vaisheshika (Physical Sciences): It was developed by Prashastapada, it emphasizes the physical sciences such as chemistry, it includes exploring the elements of earth, water, fire, air and space, as well as time, mind and soul.
  • 3. Samkhya (Framework of manifestation): It offers a framework for all the levels of manifestation, it comes from samyag akhyate: that which explains the whole.
  • 4. Yoga (Practical methods for direct experience): It systematically deals with all of the levels of one's being, striving to experience the eternal center of consciousness, it involves systematic witnessing of one's inner states, so as to experientially go beyond all of them to the center of consciousness. It is often called Samkhya-Yoga, as it contains the practical methods to realize in direct experience the truths of Samkhya philosophy.
  • 5. Mimasa (Freedom through action): It has a detailed philosophy related to ritual, worship and ethical conduct, which developed into the philosophy of karma.
  • 6. Vedanta (Contemplative self-inquiry)
• Vaisheshika

  • it was developed by prashastapada
  • It emphasizes the physical sciences such as chemistry
  • It includes exploring the elements of earth, water, fire, air and space, as well as time, mind and soul
• Samkhya


  • It offers a framework for all the levels of manifestation
  • It comes from samyag akhyate: that which explains the whole
• Yoga


  • It systematically deals with all of the levels of one's being, striving to experience the eternal center of consciousness
  • It involves systematic witnessing of one's inner states, so as to experientially go beyond all of them to the center of consciousness
  • It is often called Samkhya-Yoga, as it contains the practical methods to realize in direct experience the truths of Samkhya philosophy
• Mimasa


  It has a detailed philosophy related to ritual, worship and ethical conduct, which developed into the philosophy of karma
• Vedanta


  It is contemplative methods of self-inquiry leading to the realization of one's true nature, that which is not subject to death, decay, or decomposition
• Commanding Self (in Sufism)

  • Self that succumbs to evil
  • Seeks to dominate individuals
  • No sense of morality or compassion and marked by unbridled selfishness
  • Similar to the id; closely linked to lust and aggression