lesson 1 Philosophical Perspective on the Self

Question 1

He noted that an “unexamined life
is not worth living.”

provided a
change of perspective by focusing on
the self.

He believed that it is the duty of the
philosopher to know oneself.

To live without knowing who you are
and what virtues you can attain is the
worst that can happen to a person.

Answer 1

Socrates (469 – 399 BCE)

Question 2

Socrates saw a person as dualistic,

Answer 2

that is, every
person is composed of body and soul.

Question 3

Imperfect and impermanent aspect
Perfect and permanent

Answer 3

physical body.
soul

Question 4

Plato (428 – 347 BCE) further
expound on the idea of the soul by
stating that it has three parts or
components:

Answer 4

The appetitive soul

The rational soul

The spirited soul

Question 5

responsible for desires
and cravings of a person.

Answer 5

appetitive soul

Question 6

thinking, reasoning, and
judging aspect.

Answer 6

RATIONAL SOUL

Question 7

accountable for emotions
and also makes sure that the rules of
reason is followed in order to attain
victory and/or honor.

Answer 7

SPIRITED SOUL

Question 8

He believed in the duality of a
person.

is considered as one of the most
significant Christian thinkers,
especially in the development of
Latin Christianity theology.

His idea of the “self” merged that
of Plato and the new Christian
perspective.

Answer 8

St. Augustine

Question 9

Imperfect part of us which is connected
with the world and yearns to be with
the divine.

There is a part of us that is not bound by
this world and can therefore attain
immorality.

The imperfection of the body
incapacitates it from thriving in the
spiritual communion with God.

Answer 9

St. Augustine

Question 10

He argues that a person should only
believe the things that can pass the test
of doubt

was a French mathematician, scientist,
and philosopher.

He claimed that the person is
composed of the:

Cogito – the mind
Extenza – the body

Answer 10

Rene Descartes

Question 11

“Discourse on the Method” and
“Meditations on First Philosophy”,
- he therefore concluded that the
only thing that a person cannot
doubt is the existence of his or her
“self”.

What makes a person a person is
therefore the mind, and the body
is just some kind of a machine that
is attached and controlled by it.

Answer 11

RENE DESCARTES

Question 12

In his words, “But what then, am I?
A thinking thing. It has been said.
But what is a thinking thing? It is a
thing that doubts, understands
(conceives), affirms, denies, wills,
refuses; that imagines also, and
perceives”

Answer 12

RENE DESCARTES

Question 13

A person’s mind is a blank slate or
tabula rasa at birth.

was an
English philosopher, political
theorist, and physician.

His works as a physician provided
him with an idea that deviated
from the duality of the body and
soul.

Answer 13

JOHN LOCKE

Question 14

A personal identity or “self” is formed
when this blank slate is filled through
experiences.

This “self” cannot be found in the
soul nor the body but in one’s
consciousness

Answer 14

JOHN LOCKE

Question 15

“Self” is a bundle of collection of different
perceptions, which succeed each other with an
inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual
flux and movement”

was a Scottish
philosopher and an empiricist who
believed that all concepts as well
as knowledge come from the
senses and experiences.

He argued that there is no self
beyond what can be experienced.

Answer 15

DAVID HUME

Question 16

These experiences can be categorize into
impressions and ideas.

Impressions are real or actual
experiences or sensations.

Ideas are copies of impressions or
representation of the world and
sensations.

Answer 16

DAVID HUME

Question 17

one of the most influential
philosophers in Western philosophy, contributed
to the fields of metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics
among others.

Kant believes that there must necessarily be
something in us that organizes these sensations to
create knowledge and ideas.

Answer 17

IMMANUEL KANT

Question 18

is a rationalist who thinks that a
reason, not mere experience, is the
foundation of knowledge.

For him, it is the self that organizes and
synthesizes our experiences into
something meaningful for us.

Answer 18

KANT

Question 19

a British philosopher, proposed that we should
instead focus on the observable behavior of a person in defining the “self”.

Duality approach seems to state is that there can be a private, unobservable
aspect of a person, and a different public and observable part.

One can describe one’s “self” as good but do otherwise in real life.

Answer 19

Gilbert Ryle

Question 20

sees the self as an entirety of thoughts, emotions, and actions of a person that relates to observable behavior.

Answer 20

RYLE

Question 21

a leading French
existentialist and phenomenologist, also contributes to the idea by stating
that mind and body are interconnected with each other and therefore
cannot be separated.

Answer 21

Maurice Jean Merleau – Ponty (1908 – 1961),

Question 22

a recent philosopher, further utilized knowledge from
other academic and research fields to talk about the self as well as the mind.

He was one of those who proposed the use of “eliminative materialism” or
“eliminativism”, which claims that the old terms we use to describe the mind are
outdated, thus the need to use more accurate and scientifically proven terms,
especially based on neuroscience research.

Answer 22

PAUL CHURCHLAND

Question 23

Neuroscience somehow shows a connection of what we call mental states
to that of the physical activities of the brain.

It can be argued therefore that the self is actually located in the brain, and
that the actions of the mind or the self are processes of the brain.

Answer 23

PAUL CHURCH LAND