The Science And Philosophy Of Self

Question 1

• Idealism
• Knowledge is the personification of good, while ignorance is that of evil.
• Self-knowledge is the ultimate virtue. As the ultimate virtue, it will lead to ultimate happiness.

Answer 1

Socrates’ Socratic Philosophy

Question 2

• Idealism
• Moral virtue is rooted in the intellect and leads to happiness.
• Wisdom and knowledge lead to virtue which will lead to happiness.

Answer 2

Plato’s Dualism and Idealism

Question 3

• Empiricist
• Ideal is found inside the phenomena and the universals inside the particulars.
• Ideals are ESSENCE and phenomena are MATTER.
• Matter has no form. Essence has no mass.
• Matter and essence need each other.

Answer 3

Aristotle’s Aristotelian Philosophy

Question 4

• Platonism
• All knowledge leads to God.
• Only the pure in heart can see God.
• Love of God, faith in Him, and understanding of His Gospel will ultimately lead to happiness.

Answer 4

St. Augustine’s Neoplatonism

Question 5

• Rationalist
• “I think, therefore, I am.”
• The mind and soul can exist without the body.
• Establishing the **distinction of soul from the body **can make people believe in the afterlife and the soul’s immortality.

Answer 5

René Descartes’ Mind-Body Dualism

Question 6

• Empiricist
• 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 remains intact.

Answer 6

John Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity

Question 7

• Empiricist
• All knowledge passes through the senses.
• Separate ideas can be joined in the mind.
• There is no self, only a bundle of perceptions.

Answer 7

David Hume’s Skeptical Philosophy

Question 8

• Rationalist/Empiricist
• Reason is the final authority of morality.
• There is inner self and outer self.
• The inner self includes rational reasoning and psychological state.
• The outer self includes the body and physical mind, where representation occurs.

Answer 8

Immanuel Kant’s Metaphysics of the Self

Question 9

• Empiricist
• “I act, therefore, I am.”
• The mind is not the seat of 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.

Answer 9

Gilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind

Question 10

• Empiricist
• A fully matured neuroscience will eliminate the need for beliefs since “they are not real.”
• The physical brain gives us a sense of self.

Answer 10

Patricia Churchland’s Neurophilosophy

Question 11

• Existentialist Empiricist
• ”We are our bodies.”
• Both empiricism and intellectualism are flawed in nature.
• Our bodily experiences do not detach the subject/object, mind/ body, rational/irrational.

Answer 11

Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception