Lesson 1: The Philosophical View of the Self Flashcards
An unexamined life is not worth living
Socrates
He directed philosophy’s attention from the universe to an examination of our existence in the universe
Socrates
There is soul first before man’s body. Man first exists in the realm of ideas and exists as a soul or pure mind
Socrates
When man came to the material world, he forgot the ideas that he knew, hence he became ignorant. Ignorance causes a problem to man.
Socrates
Dialectic method/Socratic method
Socrates
- Wonder
- Reflect
- Refine and Cross-examine
- Restate
- Repeat
5 Stages of Socratic Dialogue
“If we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself.”
Plato
An important part of his philosophy is the dichotomy of the Ideal world or the world of Forms and the Material world
Plato
The soul is the true permanent unchanging self — found in the world of Ideas
Plato
“But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in Him but in myself and His other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.”
St. Augustine
Influenced by Plato — the permanent world is where God is and the material world is our world now
St. Augustine
The pursuit of happiness can be achieved in God alone
St. Augustine
Moral law is also existing in man’s mind. Man’s rationality helps him distinguish between what is right and wrong
St. Augustine
“I think, therefore I am.” (Cognito ergo sum)
René Descartes
The mind and body are separate but at the same time conjoined with one another so they causally act upon each other (I cannot act without my body).
René Descartes
The self is the Mind more than the Body
René Descartes
The body is structured but the mind cannot be boxed — hence, the study of the self requires a science of its own because the mind pursues its own thoughts
René Descartes
“What worries you, masters you.”
John Locke
He is known as the “Father of Classical Liberalism” because of his contribution to the formation of human rights
John Locke
The self is not locked in mind, body, and soul only. Memory is part of the definition of the self
John Locke
We are the same person as we were in the past for as long as we can remember something from that past
John Locke
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
David Hume
He was a lawyer but is known more for writing “History of England”.
David Hume
Just like Locke, he is an empiricist and regarded the senses as our key source of knowledge.
David Hume
The mind is divided into two: Impressions (things perceived by the senses) and Ideas (things created in the mind; can be a combination of impressions)
David Hume
The self is merely the perception we have at the moment is is being perceived; There is no self
David Hume
“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”
Immanuel Kant
He was spurred into philosophical activism when he encountered Hume’s skepticism and took it upon himself to refute it
Immanuel Kant
To him, there is nothing higher than reason
Immanuel Kant
Man has inherent dignity and should be treated with respect as an end and not as a means
Immanuel Kant
“The ego is not master in its own house.”
Sigmund Freud
He devised the tripartite division of man - id, ego, superego
Sigmund Freud
The ____ represents biological structure, ______ represents the sociocultural environment. Whoever wins the battle between them is manifested in the ____.
id … superego … ego
The ______ represents the ethical component of the personality and provides the moral standards by which the ego operates
Superego
“Minds are things, but different sorts of things from bodies.”
Gilbert Ryle
For him, the talk of the mind is only a talk of behavior. The mind is not distinct from the body but is part of certain aspects of our bodies
Gilbert Ryle
Criticized Descartes and said Descartes made a category mistake
Gilbert Ryle
“We do have an organ for understanding and recognizing moral facts. It is called the brain.”
Paul Churchland
Known for his Eliminative Materialism — the idea which states that the mind is unreal, and the brain is real
Paul Churchland
The self is the brain. The brain is the essence of the self
Paul Churchland
“We know not through our intellect but through our experience.”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
The definition of the self is all about one’s perception of one’s experience and the interpretation of those experiences
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
The self is grounded on the experiences from the past, the possibilities for the future, and the present cognition
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
_____ answered by saying man is essentially a soul, and this was seconded by Plato
Socrates
_____ extending Plato’s idea said that man is an image in the likeness of God and he is essentially a soul whose goal is to be with God
St. Augustine
He emphasized the non-physical form of man and said that in essence, man is mind - thinking being separate from his body.
René Descartes
Claimed that the Self is a consciousness and that for as long as we have memories about who we are and our identity, then that tells us we are the same person, the same self that we are conscious of now
John Locke
Declared that there is no permanent Self, because the Self is only a bundle of senses that keeps on changing
David Hume
Said that it is possible for us to construct our Self. Since we are a thinking being, we can ogranize our experiences so that we can build an idea of who we are, hence the Self is very much present
Immanuel Kant
Asserts that the self is made up of two things, the conscious and the unconscious and that man has many layers
Sigmund Freud
How one behaves is a big factor in showing who the man is
Gilbert Ryle
Declared that the brain is the essence of the Self
Paul Churchland
Rejected entirely the idea of mind and body dichotomy because, for him, man is all about how he sees himself (an embodied subjectivity)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
