The Self According To Philosophy

GE 1
The Self According to Philosophy

IDEALISM
(‘What could be’) – When you envision and see things in a perfect and ideal manner. It is a theory that states
that our reality is shaped by our thoughts and ideas. Idealists tend to be positive thinkers but they may be more
willing to make risky decisions. This is because they are lost in a world of fantasy and unachievable goals that
they set goals that are impossible.
Socrates
 Orientation: Idealism
Description:
 Socratic Philosophy
 Knowledge is the personification of good while ignorance is that of evil.
 Self-knowledge is the ultimate virtue; it will lead to ultimate happiness.
 Believed that the real self is not the physical body, but rather the psyche (soul).
 “The unexamined life is not worth-living”
- The words he spoke during his trial after he chose death rather than exile. They represent (in modern
terms) the noble choice, that is, the choice of death in the face of an alternative.
- Believed that living a life where you live under the rules of others, in a continuous routine without
examining what you actually want out of it is not worth living.
Plato
 Orientation: Idealism, Dualism
Description:
 Moral virtue is rooted in the intellect and leads to happiness.
 Wisdom and knowledge lead to virtue which will lead to happiness.
 “Man is naturally a soul.”
St. Augustine of Hippo

 Orientation: Platonism
Description:
 All knowledge leads to God.
 Only the pure in heart can see God.
 Love of God, faith in Him, and understanding His gospel will ultimately lead to happiness.
René Descartes
 Orientation: Rationalism
 Mind-Body Dualism
 “Cogito ergo sum” – I Think, therefore, I am
 The self is a thinking being.
 The mind and soul can exist without the body.
 Establishing the distinction of soul and body can make people believe in the afterlife and the soul’s
immortality.
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Immanuel Kant
 Orientation: Rationalism/Empiricism
Description:
 Metaphysics of the Self
 Reason is the final authority of morality
 There is the inner self and the outer self; the inner self includes rational reasoning and psychological
state; the outer self includes the body and physical mind, where representation occurs.
 “Unity of Apperception”
 Transcendental Apperception – Kant thought makes experience possible. It is where the self and
the world come together. It is the uniting and building of coherent consciousness out of different
elementary inner experiences (differing in both time and topic, but all belonging to self-consciousness).
E.g. the experience of "passing of time" relies on this transcendental unity of apperception, according to
Kant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_apperception
REALISM
(‘what actually is’) – tends toward a more pragmatic and actual view of a situation. It is a theory that states that
reality has an absolute existence independent from our thoughts, ideas and even consciousness. Realists are very
rational, who thinks carefully, and weighs their options before making a choice. They make safer and more
practical choices. They set achievable goals and follow their pursuit in a planned manner.
John Locke
 Orientation: Empiricism
Description:
 Theory of personal identity
 It is in consciousness alone that identity exists, not in the body and soul.
 There is a distinction between man and person.
 The soul may change, but consciousness remain intact.
 The term tabula rasa can be traced back to its Latin roots which literally translate to “erased slate” or
“blank slate”. The Roman “tabula” refers to the wax tablet used in making notes. The idea was that man
is born with an empty mind or in other words, without any innate ideas and in the course of time,
acquires knowledge through experience. Most of the ideas that shape a person’s mind is derived from
reflections and sensations in his environment. Human intellect is like tabula rasa at birth and knowledge
is acquired through education. The mind of a child in a tabula rasa state develops to an adult state only
through experience. Locke defined the self as “that conscious thinking thing”. Empiricists (a person who
supports the theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses) believe that
individuals fill up the blank slate of the mind with knowledge acquired through experience.
David Hume
Description:
 Skeptical Philosophy;
GE 1
 All knowledge passes through the senses.
 Separate ideas can be joined in the mind.
 There is no self, only a bundle of perceptions.
 He’s known to be a skeptic and atheist
 “A part from sense and impressions, what we have is uncertain knowledge”
Sigmund Freud
 Pleasure Principle and Reality Principle - Respectively, the desire for immediate gratification vs. the
deferral of that gratification. Quite simply, the pleasure-principle drives one to seek pleasure and to
avoid pain. However, as one grows up, one begins to learn the need sometimes to endure pain and to
defer gratification because of the exigencies and obstacles of reality: "An ego thus educated has become
'reasonable'; it no longer lets itself be governed by the pleasure principle, but obeys the reality principle,
which also at bottom seeks to obtain pleasure, but pleasure which is assured through taking account of
reality, even though it is pleasure postponed and diminished" (Introductory Lectures 16.357).
https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/definitions/pleasureprinciple.html
Gilbert Ryle
Description:
 The Concept of Mind
 “I act, therefore, I am”
 The mind is not the seat of the self; it is not a separate parallel thing to our physical body.
 The mind is a category mistake, brought about by habitual use. The only way it can affect the other is
through the external world.
 “Human actions are related to the functions of the brain.” – from ma’am
Paul Churchland
Description:
 Neuro-philosophy
 A fully matured neuro-science will eliminate the need for beliefs ….
 The physical brain gives us a sense of self.
 The eliminative materialism; there are things that do not exist.
 The brain is the self.
Merleau-Ponty
 Orientation: Existentialism/Empiricism
Description:
 Phenomenology of Perception
 Both empiricism and intellectualism are flawed in nature
 “We are our bodies” – Our bodily experiences do not detach, the subject/object, mind/body,
rational/irrational
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 “the body is the seat of perception”
 Everything is connected with the mind, and are translated into action.
 “Human freedom is structured freedom”
 The things we can control and the things that we can’t control
EMPIRICISM
Aristotle
Description:
 Aristotelian Philosophy
 Ideal is found inside the phenomena and the universals inside the particulars.
 Ideals are ESSENCE; phenomena is MATTER. Matter has no form, essence has no mass. Matter and
essence need each other.
Conclusion:
1. Idealism causes you to see things in a very hopeful manner, shaping situations with your own ideas. Realism,
on the other hand, causes one to assess a situation as it is, without overt emotional involvement.
2. Idealists tend to be more positive when compared to realists, in how they perceive things and carry out tasks.
3. When making decisions, realists are more goal-oriented and thorough than idealists, who may have lofty
ambitions, but lack the clarity and focus to put them into action in an achievable way.
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GE 1

The Self According to Philosophy

St. Augustine of Hippo

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