UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

THE SLEF FROM THE VARIOUS  Man is composed of body and soul.
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE He believe that man is dualistic.
 The body cannot leave without the
Philosophy soul. The body and soul cannot leave
 The fundamental nature of without each other.
knowledge, reality, and existence.  Body = imperfect, impermanent
 It is much concerned with the  Soul = perfect, permanent
fundamental nature of self  An examine life is not worth living.
 We can get in philosophy, first, can If we do not reflect to our
justify own opinion. Second, explain experiences here on earth then we do
in people why they are wrong. Next not really know the meaning of life.
is you can spot bad argument  According to him, we should always
(against the topic). reflect on the meaning of life.
 Philosophy, teach how to think.  There is a soul before the body. We
 First person who used philosophy already existing before our body
word was Phythagoras.  We are existing in the realm of ideas,
Ubuntu Philosophy before we live or na materialize dito
 Ubuntu originated in ancient Africa sa earth .
 A new born baby is not a person.  In the realm of ideas or kung saan
Kapag new born ang bata wala pa tayo nag eexist before tayo mag exist
siyang soul, so, hindi pa siya ganap dito sa mundo is we are full of
na tao. wisdom but once our soul comes in
 But upon growing up they material world, tinatawag niyang
experiences (baby) ‘yong nag mmold material world ang earth.
sa kanila para maging isang kabuuan  Kung saan tayo ng galing doon ang
ng isang self o maging isang tao. relam of ideas. Basically kapag
 People are both without ena, ena pumunta na ‘yong soul natin sa
means soul. material world or na transfer na sa
material world we forget all.
Philosophers  Kaya may tinatawag tayo na socratic
Socrates method. There is a just we still
 Socrates was the first philosopher to remember our material self is
engage in a systematic questioning connecting doon sa past self natin, na
about the self. nag stay doon sa realm of ideas.
 "the true task of the philosopher is to
Plato
know oneself", in short, Know  He was student of Aristotle
thyself  Plato supported the idea that man is a
 Main task ng philosopher ay dapat dual nature of body and soul.
malaman niya kung sino siya at kung
bakit siya nag eexist, Socrates main
point of view.

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 Basically they are same ideas with - Responsible of thinking.

Socrates that man is dualistic. Man - Ito dapat lagging pinapairal
has a body and man has a soul • Spirited
 He founded the academy which - Responsible for our emotion and
became the proto type of today’s passion
university. • Appetitive
 He believe that there is an dichotomy - Responsible for our desire, for our
between the ideal and the material basic needs as a person.
world
 He also believe na meron tayong St. Augustine
ideal world and material world.  Augustine agreed that man is
 Material world we live in today is bifurcated nature.
not real. It just a replica of what was  Bifurcated nature means we also
in the ideal world. believe that dichotomy concept of
 We are just replica, kumbaga sa self (the man has body and man has a
mirror, we are the shadow. The true soul). We have two aspect of a
world is nasa labas. person, imperfect body and we also
 The real world is the world of fords. have this body that is capable of
The world we live in is the material reaching immortality, which is the
world, same concept with Socrates. soul.
 The soul is the most divine aspect of  The body dies and the soul reunites
the self. with creator.
 Soul is not merely related with God,  His perspective was influence by
it is not merely related with our Plato, however St. Augustine also
religion or with faith, our soul ay thinks or believe “This world is just
hindi natin nakikita at ayon ang material world” and meron tayong
nagpapagalaw sa atin as a person higher type of world and that is
 Kapag naghiwalay yong soul natin heaven.
then mawawala ‘yong dichotomy ,  Believes in present of God
means we have one body and one  Most attempted philosophy of the
soul, dahil may soul at body tayo we catholic or the Christian churches.
are human being, we have our own  Our life in world is temporary, our body.
self, this is the idea of dichotomy. The real world is heaven.
 3 opponents of the soul St. Thomas Aquinas
• Rational  Man is composed of the hyle and the
- This the part of our soul which is morphe.
responsible with our reasoning and  The soul is what animates the body;
intellect. Our thinking soul. Ito ‘yong it is what makes us human.
pinakasuperior or pinakamataas sa  The man is composed of matter
lahat ng soul natin. form.

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 Matter and Form we have; therefore I am, his famous quote. I

Hyle Morphe think I exist therefore I exist
 If our body and soul separated,
basically we are death. John Locke
 For Hyle, this is the matter, the  He believed that perception and
common stuff that make up experience of a person is important
everything. Our body is our matter in the establishment of who the
that’s what makes up everything person you can become.
 Morphe is our form, essence of  Popular with his concept "Tabula
living Rasa" or Blank Slate, means nong
 According to Aquinas, the essence of pinanganak tayo wala tayong
living are only located sa atin, na kamuwang muwang sa mundo.
human being.  We are born a Blank State
 Our identity, our body, our soul is
Rene Descartes not identified immediately, in our
 Father of modern philosophy human body
 The body is a machine controlled by  He include person memory
mind.
 He popularized cogito ergo sum. David Hume
 He believed that a human being was  Self is a collection of different
essentially self-contained and self- perceptions.
sufficient; an inherently rational,  The self is not an entity over and
mind-bound subject, who ought to beyond the physical body.
encounter the world outside her head  "Self is just a bundle of different
with skepticism. perception"
 "the only thing that you can be  All knowledge is the right from our
certain of is your own cogito or the human senses.
fact that you are thinking"  He was popular with bundle theory.
 He doubts the physically existence of  Our self is collection of impressions,
physical body, his first pov impression means our directive vivid
 The name of his doubt is hyperbolic, experiences
doubt of existence as a person  Somehow same his idea with John
 The mere fact that I doubt my Locke
existence is the evidence that I truly  Bundle theory, impression and idea.
exist, even though I don’t believe
that I exist with my body but the Immanuel Kant
mere fact I doubt na nageexist ako is  He argued that ideas are apparatus in
the reason na nageexist ako, his the mind.
idead about the quote I think  The self is not just what gives one
his personality; it is also the seat of

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knowledge acquisition for all human  The self is multilayered

person.  The unconscious is the source of our
 We have our inner and outer self motivations.
 He doesn’t believe in body and soul  he identified three structures of
 Our inner and outer self are personality; ID, EGO,SUPEREGO
manifesting in form of consciousness like iceberg
 Inner self comprise of our  sa ice berg mahahalintulad ang ating
psychological state, which is our brain since we have conscious part,
mind, our brain and our rational unconscious part and preconscious
thinking. part
 Outer self includes, sense and  Conscious, the things we currently
physically world. aware
 Preconscious, memories experience
Gilbert Ryle na hindi naming iniisip ngayon pero
 He denies of internal and non- kapag tinanong ka alam o lalabas
physical self which is our soul. sasagutin mo
 "what truly matters is the behavior a  Unconscious mind, our most painful
person manifests in his day-to -day experiences, keep down
life.  ID structure of our mind wherein it
 Behavior-our action, day to day life works in pleasure seeking mind,
 Self is not an entity one can locate mature, impulsive, child life cannot
and analyze but simply the delay graphication, like devil
convenient name the people use to  EGO reality principle, work in
refer to all the behaviors that people reality principle and it can console
make. the ID, CAN DELAY
 If you want to understand yourself GRAPHICATION, EGO DECIDE
you should look into you day to day  SUPERGO the concise and the
behavior or action moral judge of conduct, siya ba
sasabi na bawal yan. Too much
Merleau-Ponty influence of the superego can cause
 He believed that everything about us anxiety
are one and cannot be separated.
 The mind and body are so
intertwined that they cannot be Psychosexual Stages of Development
separated from one another.  Oral Stage: Birth to 1 year
- Need lang natin hasain ‘yong mga - Erogenous Zone: Mouth
nasa mind natin for us to be function  Anal Stage: 1 to 3
well as a person - Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder
Control
Sigmund Freud – A psychologist  Phallic Stage: 3 to 6 Year

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- Erogenous Zone: Genitals, Anal – The anus- withholding or expelling

nagkakaroon na ng curiosity regards faeces
to his genitals Phallic- The penis or clitoris – masturbation
 Latent Stage: 6 to Puberty
- Libido Inactive SUPEREGO DEVELOPS
 Genital Stage: Puberty to death Latent – Little or no sexual motivation
- Maturing sexual interest present
Genital – The penis or vagina – sexual
EGO DEVELOPS intercourse
Oral – The mouth-sucking, swallowing etc.

SELF FROM THE SOCIOLOGICAL  Separate - distinct of others

PERSPECTIVE
 Self-contained – distinct with its According to Mauss, every self has two
own thoughts, characteristic, and faces:
volition  Moi
 Consistent – enduring; expected to Person’s basic identity
persist for quite some time  Personne
 Independent – does not require other Composed of social concepts of what
it means to be who he is.
self to exist
 Unitary – center of all experiences Language is another interesting aspect of
and thoughts. this social constructivism.
 Private - isolated from the external
world Language is a salient part of the culture and
ultimately, has a tremendous effect effect in
our crafting o the self.
Social constructivists argue that the self
should not be seen as a static entity that  For Mead and Vygotsky, the way
that human persons develop with the
stays constant through and through.
use of language acquisition and
interaction with others.
 The self has to be seen as something
 The way we process information is
that is in increasing flux, in a
normally a form of an internal
constant struggle with external dialogue in our head. Those who
reality and is malleable in its deliberate about moral dillemas
dealings with society. undergo this internal dialogue.
 We ourselves play different role , act
in different ways depending on our The Self in Families
 The kind of family that we are born
circumstance.
in, the resource available to us, and
the kind of development that we will
have will certainly affect us.

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 Human person learn that ways of • Generalized other

living and therefore their selfhood by • Dual Nature Self
being in a family.
The Looking Glass Self
Gender and the Self  The looking glass self refers to the
 Gender is one of those loci of self notion that self develops through our
that is subject to alteration. change, perception of other's evaluation and
and development appraisal of us.
 The sense of self that is being taught  The image people have of
make sure that an individual fits in a themselves is based on how they
particular environment, is dangerous believe others perceive them.
and detrimental in the goal is truly
finding one's self. We imagine how we appear to other people
We imagine how other people judge the
Sociology appearance that we think we present
A social science that studies human
societies, their interactions, and the • If we think the evaluation is
processes that preserve and change them. favorable, our self concept is
enhanced
 Mead: Social Self • If we think the evaluation is
 Cooley: The looking glass – self favorable, our self concept is
 Goffman: Constructing Situations diminished
and Drama
Constructive Situations and Drama
The Social Self  meaning is constructed through
 the social self is created through interaction
social interaction Interaction Order - what we
 process started in childhood, with do in the immediate presence of
children beginning to develop a others.
sense of self at about the same time  DRAMATURGY focuses on how
that they began to learn language. individuals take on roles and act
 Social experience them out to present a favorable
 Communication impression to their audience.
 Reflective Reflexive  Goffman argues that people are
concerned with controlling how
Stages in the Development of the Self others view them, a process call
impression management
Preparatory
Children mimic/imitate others The Self is a Social Construct
Play Stage  FRONTSTAGE. people play
children pretend to play the role of a different roles throughout their daily
particular or significant others lives and display different kinds of
Game Stage behavior depending on where they
children play organized games and are and the time of the day
take on the perspective of the generalized  BACKSTAGE. when people engage
other. in back stage behavior, they are free

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of the expectations and norms that  We do not create ourselves out of

dictate front stage behavior. nothing.
 Each definition of a situation lends  We need others to affirm and
itself to a different approach , and the reinforce who we think we are.
consequences are real.  What we think is important to us
 The self is a social construction may also have been influenced by
dependent of the situation. what is important in our social or
historical context.
PYSCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF
THE SELF Social interaction and group affiliation are
vital factors in creating our self concept in
The Self as Cognitive Construct providing us with self-identity.
 Theories see the self and identity as
mental constructs, created and Self-Awareness times when we are aware of
recreated in the memory our self-concept
 Identity is composed of personal
characteristics, social roles, and Two types of Self-Awareness
responsibilities, as well as CARVER AND SCHEIER
affiliations that define who one is  Private Self these are your private
 Self-concept is what comes to your thoughts, feelings
mind Self-concept is what comes to  Public Self this is your public image
your mind and it is geared toward having a
Identity good presentation
• Other similar concept to self
Schema of Self- Awareness
Self, identity, and Self-concept are not  Actual Self - who are you at the
fixed in one time frame. moment
 Carl Rogers  Ideal Self - who you like to be
He captured this idea in his concept  Ought Self - who you think you
of self-schema or our organized should be
system or collection of knowledge
about who we are. Self-awareness may be positive or negative
 Sigmund Freud depending on the circumstances and our
Freud saw the self, its mental next course of action.
processes, and one's behavior as the Our group identity and self-awareness have
result of interaction between the Id, a great impact on our self-esteem.
Ego, and Superego • SELF ESTEEM is our own positive
 Carver & Scheier or negative perception or evaluation
He identified two types of Self- of ourselves.
awareness:
1. Private Self Upward Social Comparison
2. Public Self It is comparing ourselves with those
who are better than us
Why? Downward Social Comparison
Self and Identity as Social Product It is a common type of comparing
ourselves with others.

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• He proposed 4 Agentic
Social Contrast Perspective
It entails self-evaluation 1. Intentionally
2. Forethought
Social Comparison 3. Self-reactiveness
entails what is called self-evaluation 4. Self-reflectiveness
maintenance theory. • He emphasized the
• Social Maintenance Theory means importance of social learning
we feel threatened when someone • human beings are always
out-performs us, especially if that striving for self-fulfillment or
person is close to us. self-actualization
• In an attempt to increase or maintain • When the needs of the self
self-esteem, some people become are denied, severe anxiety
Narcissistic may result.
• Narcissistic is a trait by overly high • he was popular for his "Bobo
self-esteem, self-admiration and self- Doll Experiment"
centeredness.
Self-Concept
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
• image of self
psychological test and measurement
for self-esteem
4 Steps in Observational Learning
Psychology and Self 1. Attention
 William James concept of Self 2. Retention
2 Aspect of the Self 3. Motor reproduction
4. Motivation
"I Self"
• thinking, acting, and feeling self.
"Me Self" SELF EASTERN WESTERN
• concerned with describing personal
experience Western thoughts
 Looks at the world in dualities
 CARL ROGERS self -Theory wherein you are distinct from the
other person, the creator is separate
from the object he created, in which
Three Components of the Self
the self is distinguished and
• Self-image
acknowledged
• Ideal Self
 The Western culture is what we
• Self esteem
would call an individualistic culture
since their focus is on the person.
 ALBERT BANDURA self as
proactive and agentic Eastern Thoughts
• Bandura views people as  Sees the other person as part of
agents of experience. yourself as well as the things you
• He suggests that humans may create, a drama in which
have the ability to act and everyone is interconnected with their
make things happen. specific roles

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 Asian Culture is called a  The self is not just an extension of

collectivistic culture as the group of the family or the community; it is
social relations that is given more part of the universe.
importance that individual needs and  The ideal self is selflessness but this
wants is not forgetting about the self; it is
living a balanced life with society
Confucianism and nature, being open and accepting
 A code of ethical conduct, of how to change, forgetting about
one should properly act according to prejudices and egocentric ideas and
his/her relationship with other people thinking about equality as well as
 The identity and self-concept of the complementarity among humans as
individual are interwoven with the well as other beings
identity and status of his/her  The self is an extension of the
community or culture, sharing its cosmos, not of social relationship
pride as well as its failures.  The self is described as one of the
 Self-cultivation is seen as the limitless forms of the Tao
ultimate purpose of life  Tao is regarded as a nature that is the
 The cultivated self in Confucianism foundation of all that exist.
is what some scholars call a  The perfect man has no self and the
“subdued self” wherein personal selfless person leads to a balanced
needs are repressed (subdued) for the life, in harmony with both nature and
good of many, making Confucian society.
society also hierarchal for the  Chinese Philosophy attributed to Lao
purpose of maintaining order and Tzu
balance in society.
 Golden Rule: Principle of Buddhism
Reciprocity; "Do not do unto others  "buhd" means awake
what you would not want others to  Siddharta Gautama known as
do to you " Buddha is the founder of Buddhism.
 The individual' s greatest mission of  The self is seen as an illusion, born
attaining Self-realization wherein out of ignorance, of trying to hold
self-cultivation is instrumental and control things, or
 Self-cultivation is knowing one ' s human centered needs; thus, the
role in society and acting self is also the source of all these
accordingly. sufferings.
 Moral character is perfected through  To forget about the self, forget the
continuously taking every cravings of the self, break the
opportunity to improve oneself in attachments you have with the world,
thought and action. and to renounce the self which is the
 System of thoughts and behavior cause of all suffering and in doing
originating in Ancient China so, attain the state of Nirvana.

Taoism 5 parts that compose the individual

 Living in the way of the Tao or the 1) Matter
universe 2) Sensation
3) Perception

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4) Mental Constructs until it is freed from the cycle of

5) Consciousness rebirth and reach a state of Nirvana
or Non Birth
 There is no self ( nor soul), there is  Karma does not end with a body ' s
only nothing and all else is an death, it' s influence may extend
illusion through incarnation of the soul
 There is nothing permanent but  The religion of ancient people
change. "Aryans"
 " anicca " - means impermanence /
everything in life is always changing, Western Philosophy
nothing else last forever. • Individualism
 The ideal is to experience Nirvana, a
state of transcendence devoid of self-
• school of thought from Greek
Philosophy
reference
 State of transcendence can be • take its root from Rome and
achieved through meditation Christianity main principle: self-
dedication
Hinduism • focused on ethics
 "the goal of a man is to have
knowledge of the true reality " - Eastern Philosophy
Brahman • Collectivism
 Law of Karma is the most important • Based mainly in Asia
doctrine in Hinduism - Everything • Take its root from Confucius,
that you do in the past will Buddhism, and Taoism
eventually come back to bite you. • Main principle: unity
 Hindus believe that Atman being an • Thrives on virtues
immortal soul continues to be
reincarnated from lifetime to lifetime

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