Philosophers about Self Flashcards
Reflects on and seeks to answer reality, knowledge, and values
Philosophy
Philos
Love
Sophia
Wisdom
Philosophy is called
Mother of all disciplines
Science of study of mind and behavior
Psychology
Logos
Science
Psyche
Mind/Self
Study of the social life of individuals, groups, and societies
Sociology
A unified being, essentially connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency
Self
Known as market philosopher
Socrates
What did Socrates say?
“Know thyself.”
If we know ourselves, we could now act according to their definition of the self without ______ and ______
Doubt and Contradiction
What did Socrates say when he held the question of who a man is?
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates is a?
Dualist
Human, mortal, multiform, unintelligible, dissoluble, and inconsistent
Body
Divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform, indissoluble, and self-consistent and invariable
Soul
Describe man’s existence according to Socrates
Man’s existence was first in the realm of ideas and exists as a soul or pure mind. This soul has knowledge by direct intuition, which is stored in his mind. However, once he came to the material world or the world of senses, he needed to remember most of what he knew.
An exchange of questions and answers that ultimately aims to make the person remember all the knowledge they have forgotten, including their former omniscient self.
Socratic method/Dialectic method
In Socratic Method, answers are always ______
subjective
For Socrates, ___________ means knowing one’s degree of understanding about the world and one’s capabilities and potentials
Self-knowledge
For Socrates, a ______ is a virtue, and ______ is a vice.
possession of knowledge, ignorance
What did Plato say?
“Thinking – the talking of the soul with itself.”
He argued that the soul is eternal and constitutes the enduring self because the soul continues to exist even after death.
Plato
The permanent, unchanging reality
Ideal World/World of Forms
Constantly changing representation of ideal world, what we see around us.
Material World
Plato’s dichotomy is reflected in his idea of the _______
Nature of man
According to Plato, we have a soul which is the ______ and a body which is the _______.
True self, replica of true self
According to Plato, the body is seen as a _______ and we can free ourselves through _________
Prison, contemplation
Entails communion of the mind with universal and eternal ideas
Contemplation
What did Rene Descartes say?
“I think; therefore I am”
“I think; therefore I am”
“Cogito ergo sum”
“I think; therefore I am” emphasizes?
consciousness of mind, evidence of existence even though existence is doubt
How does Descartes think of the mind and body?
Separate and distinct, but they causally act upon each other
For Descartes, ________ precedes _______
thought, action
For Descartes, the self is a _______ thing
thinking
What did John Locke say?
“What worries you, masters you.”
John Locke included the concept of _____ in the definition of the self.
person’s memory
Explain self according to Locke.
We are the same person as we were in the past for as long as we can remember something from that past.
For Locke, ________ is the perception of what passes in a man’s mind.
consciousness
For Locke, personal identity is in one’s
consciousness
How does it happen that there is same soul but different person according to Locke?
Consciousness may be lost involuntarily through forgetfulness while the soul stays the same. Thus, the same soul is unnecessary or insufficient in forming one’s identity over time when consciousness is lost.
A concept that posits everyone started as a blank slate, and the content is provided by one’s experiences over time.
tabula rasa
What did David Hume say?
“There is no self.”
For Hume, the self is a complex set of successive ________
impressions or perceptions
Hume views the soul as a product of the ______
imagination
____________ are those things we perceive through our senses as we experience them, while ________ are those we create in our minds even though we are no longer experiencing them.
Impressions, ideas
What is a fiction according to Hume?
enduring self
Why is there no self?
We cannot observe any permanent self because we continuously change.
What did Immanuel Kant say?
“Dare to know!”
Comprised of one’s psychological state and intellect
inner sense
Consists of one’s senses and the physical world
outer sense
Kant referred _________ as consciousness of oneself and of one’s psychological state.
empirical self-consciousness
Kant referred _______ as consciousness of oneself and of one’s state via acts of apperception.
transcendental apperception
Kant believes that man is a _______
free agent, gifted with reason and free will
Kant’s philosophy revolves around ______
inherent dignity of a human being
For Kant, knowledge is acquired through __________
experiences
What did Sigmund Freud say?
“The ego is not the master in its own house.”
What is Sigmund’s theory that contribute to psychology?
Psychoanalytic Theory
What is Sigmund’s idea?
tripartite division of man’s mind – the id, ego, and superego
It has existed since birth, pertaining to instinct. It operates on the hedonistic or pleasure principle seeking immediate gratification and avoiding pain.
Id
Maintain equilibrium between the demands of the id and superego in accordance with what is best and practical in reality
Ego
Ego operates according to what principle?
Reality
The reservoir of moral standards, ensures compliance with society’s norms, values, and standards.
Superego
What did Gilbert Ryle say?
“I act; therefore I am.”
Gilbert Ryle supported the basic notions of _______ psychology
behavioristic
Theory of mind that states that mental concepts can be understood through observable events
Logical behaviorism/Analytical behaviorism
What did Paul and Patricia Churchland say?
“The self is the brain.”
A radical claim that ordinary, common sense understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common sense do not exist.
eliminative materialism
Explain Churchland’s ideas about our self.
Common sense psychology is not the capacity to explain people’s mental states.
Our moods, emotions, actions, and consciousness, are deeply affected by the state of our brain.
Churchland proposed a new conceptual framework should be made based on ________
neuroscience
What did Maurice Merleau-Ponty say?
“I am my body.”
The ________ body, as lived and experienced, and the __________ body, as observed and scientifically investigated.
subjective, objective
Merleau-Ponty regarded the self as _________
embodied subjectivity
Explain human being according to Maurice
As living creatures whose subjectivity (consciousness) is actualized in the forms of their physical involvement with the world.
For Maurice, a person is defined by ______ and _______
movement, expression
Maurice opposed what?
dualist account of subjectivity and Cartesian cogito
Social Self (person)
George Herbert Mead
What is the two parts of the self according to Mead?
Self-awareness, self-image
Process in which one takes on the role of the other by putting oneself in the position of the person with whom he/she interacts
Role Playing
Child imitates behavior of parents
Imitation Stage
Child playing the role of others
Play Stage
Child comes to see self in their roles from perspective of other people
Game Stage
Subjective, unsocialized, spontaneous, acting part of the self, free and unique
I
Objective, conventional, self that results from the progressive stages of role playing and role-taking and the perspective one assumes to view and analyze one’s own behaviors
Me
An organized community or social group which gives the individual his/her identity
Generalized Others
Social psychological concept that views the self as something developed by one’s perceptions of other people’s opinions
Looking Glass Theory
Private, Public, & Collective Self (person)
Harry Triandis
Cognition that involves traits, states, and behaviors, assessment of self by the self
Private Self
Cognition concerning the generalized other’s view of the self
Public Self
Cognition concerning a view of the self found in memberships in social groups
Collective Self
The person’s sense of who he/she is according to his/her membership to a certain group
Social Identity Theory
Social Identity Theory (person)
Henri Tajfel & William Sumner
Esteemed social group commanding a member’s loyalty where a person belongs
In-group
A scorned social group to which one feels competition or opposition, person does not belong
Out-group
People learn things about themselves by knowing
what category they belong to
Social Categorization
People adopt the identity of the group to which they have categorized themselves
Social Identification
Comparing their groups with other groups
Social Comparison
Self is not an entity but a process that orchestrates an individual’s personal experience
Anthropology of the Self
Anthropology of the Self (person)
Brian Morris
Regarded self as the “society of mind”
Dialogical Self
Dialogical Self
Hubert Hermans
How one functions in himself (e.g empathic, diligent)
Internal I-position
How one identifies himself on external factors (e.g brother, student)
External I-position
Characterized by constant connection to others, absorbs many voices
Saturated Self
Saturated Self (person)
Kenneth Gergen
Splitting self into many options
Multiphrenia
Self does not exist at birth; it is developed gradually during childhood, wherein one differentiates the self from the non-self
Humanistic Theory
Humanistic Theory (person)
Carl Rogers
The product of early experience, a mask or a persona, a form of defense that continually seeks to anticipate others’ demands and comply with them to protect the true self from a world that is felt unsafe
False Self
Based on authentic experience, flourishes in infancy if the mother responds positively to the child’s spontaneous expressions.
True Self
True Self and False Self (person)
Donald Woods Winnicott
Capable of intentionally influencing one’s own functionality and life circumstances.
Agent
Human being as capable of thinking, deciding, foreseeing, and managing their actions, free to decide for themselves.
Human agency
Agentic Theory of the Self
Albert Bandura
How an individual forms intentions with action plans and strategies to realize them.
Intentionality
How individuals position their goals in the future and visualize themselves in a future state of existence, ensuring that plans can anticipate possible opportunities or roadblocks
Forethought
Shows that agents are planners, forethinkers, and self-regulators. This includes adopting personal standards, constructing appropriate courses of action, monitoring activities, and regulating them using self-reactions
Self-reactiveness
Signifies that people can self-examine their functioning
Self-reflection
