The document discusses perspectives on the self from various disciplines including philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. It begins by providing definitions of perspective and then outlines different philosophical perspectives on the self from classical antiquity to the modern period. These include views of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Freud, Ryle, Churchland, and Merleau-Ponty. The perspectives range from the self being a unified being connected to consciousness to being entirely contained within the physical brain. The document then provides instructions for a module project requiring students to represent their learning on perspectives of self.

1. THE SELF FROM VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES

2. ON PERSPECTIVES

3. •GUESS WHAT
ANIMAL THIS IS…

5. What is “PERSPECTIVE”?
• The appearance of objects, buildings, etc.,
relative to each other, as determined by
their distance from the viewer, or
the effects of this distance on their
appearance

6. What is “PERSPECTIVE”?
• A particular perspective is a particular way
of thinking about something, especially one
that is influenced by
your beliefs or experiences.
Synonyms: outlook, attitude, context, angle

7. ON PERSPECTIVES OF SELF
Philosophical
Sociological
Anthropological
Psychological
Western vs. Eastern Views

8. MODULE PROJECT:
MY REPRESENTATIONS OF SELF
Instructions:
At the end of the module, you will pair up and select one project from
among three options to represent your learning:
1. A poster representing the various perspectives on self and insights on it
• This can be manually done on bond paper. Take a picture or scan and
submit here, OR
• It can also be digital using a paint app. Save as image file and upload here.
2. A spoken poetry about who you are from the different perspectives
• The poem may be in English or Filipino
• Take a video of the spoken poetry and submit in mp4 format.
3. An interpretive dance about self-identity from the point of view of different
disciplines
• You may dance to the music of your choice. Take a video and submit the
video in mp4 format.

9. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF SELF

10. PHILOSOPHY
• PHILOS – LOVE
• SOPHIA – WISDOM
• often called the MOTHER OF ALL
DISCIPLINES
– all fields of study began as philosophical
discourses.

11. AREAS OF PHILOSOPHY

12. WHAT ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS DID
• Attempted to explain natural and social
phenomena
– came up with their own definitions of how the
world works and what factors contribute to each
phenomenon.
– conceived of what it means to be human– of
definitions of the self.

13. From Philosophical Standpoint
UNDER EPISTEMOLOGY:
• The self has been defined as “a unified being,
essentially connected to consciousness,
awareness and agency.
• Different philosophers introduced specific
characteristics and meanings of the self, which
over time, transformed from pure abstractions to
explanations that hold scientific proofs.

14. From Philosophical Standpoint
• Rationalism – favors reason as the
source of understanding
• Empiricism – points to the senses as the
foundation of knowledge.

15. CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY PHILOSOPHERS

17. SOCRATES (c. 470 – 399 BC)
• No historical document that he as a
person really existed
• Left no known writings
• Known due to his students who spoke
eloquently and generously about his
knowledge, wit, wisdom and intellect.
• Plato, his prized student, wrote
extensively about him.

18. SOCRATES’ VIEW OF SELF
• “Know thyself”
• In Greek, it is gnothi seauton.
• This aphorism is still inscribed in the temple of
Apollo at Delphi, Greece.
o What does Socrates mean?

19. SOCRATES’ VIEW OF SELF
• If you know who you are, everything would be
clearer and simpler.
– We could act according to our own self-definition
without any doubt and self-contradiction.
– His technique of asking basic questions such as “Who
am I?,” “What is the purpose of my life?,” and “What
am I doing here?” are all based on the principle that
humans must be able to respond to these questions
so as to move forward and act accordingly based on
their definition of the self.

20. SOCRATES’ VIEW OF SELF
• Possession of knowledge is a virtue and
that ignorance is a vice.
– A person’s acceptance of ignorance is a source
or a springboard for the acquisition of
knowledge later on.
– One must first have the humility to
acknowledge one’s ignorance so as to get or
acquire knowledge.

21. SOCRATES’ VIEW OF SELF
• Dualist - a believer that a person is
composed of body and soul.
– The soul is divine, immortal, uniform,
indissoluble and ever consistent. It is the ruler
of the body, exists before the body, and is the
one that gives life to the body.
– The body is human, mortal, dissoluble and
inconsistent.
– Death is the release of the soul from the body.

22. PLATO (c. 428/427 to 348/347 BCE)
• Considered the father of idealism and
rationalism
• Thoroughly expounded on the Socrates’
ideas of the self through his dialogue,
Phaedrus, a popular philosophical text.

23. PLATO’S VIEW OF SELF
• The main idea in this dialogue is that
reality and the truth are in two forms:
– The metaphysical realm (mind), which he
called the “ontos” or ideal
• permanent and spiritual
– The physical world (body), which he termed
“phenomena” or the manifestation of the
ideal.
• imperfect, impermanent and inferior.

24. PLATO’S VIEW OF SELF
• The self is fundamentally an intellectual
entity whose nature exists independent
from the physical world.
• This means that the real man is the
“idea of a man”, the intellectual aspect
of self which he also called “soul”, while
the physical aspect of man is just an
illusion.

25. • The soul is from the metaphysical realm, and
therefore is immortal and enduring
• Intellect is superior over the body.
PLATO’S VIEW OF SELF

26. ARISTOTLE
• Plato’s student
• He expounded on the concept of “ontos” and
“phenomena”.
• Whereas Plato believed that the ideal world is
separated from the physical world, Aristotle
suggested that the ideal and physical world
co-exist and are co-dependent to each other,
and therefore are of equal value.

27. ARISTOTLE’S VIEW OF SELF
• He termed the ideal as “essence” and the
phenomena as “matter”.
– The essence provides meaning and purpose to the
matter
– The matter provides solidity and substance to the
essence.

28. ARISTOTLE’S VIEW OF SELF
• Aristotle was considered the source of
empiricism as he pointed out the need to
observe and consider phenomena to arrive at
reason.
• Experiences with the five senses help develop
one’s intellect while reason gives sense to
experiences.

29. MOVING TOWARDS LATER
PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF SELF
LESSON 1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF SELF
(CONTINUATION)

30. TIMELINE FROM CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY (BCE)
TO 17TH CENTURY (CE)

31. THE MIDDLE AGES

32. EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

33. Medieval Philosophers
St. Augustine of Hippo St. Thomas Aquinas

34. St. Augustine
• Full name:
Aurelius Augustinus
• Birth: 354 AD, City of Tagaste
• Death: 430, City of Hippo
• Both Tagaste and Hippo were in the
Roman North African province of
Numidia (present-day Algeria)
• He lived at the time when the
Roman Empire fell to the
barbarians.

35. St. Augustine
• Famous for being a doctor of the
Catholic Church, author of
Confessions and City of God
• Philosophical Orientation:
PLATONISM
• Philosophical Orientation:
NEOPLATONISM
• Integration of Plato’s
philosophy and Christian
theology

36. St. Augustine
NEOPLATONISM
- from the work of Plotinus
- brand of Platonism that is
‘mystical’ or religious in
nature
- “There is a presence in the
soul of higher realities and
these realities act upon it.”

37. St. Augustine
• Man has a dual nature:
physical and spiritual.
– The physical part of man
dwells in the world
which is imperfect and
yearns to be with the
Divine.
– The spiritual part is
capable of learning
about the good, or God
by way of reason and of
reaching immortality.

38. St. Augustine
• The physical body dies,
but the soul lives
eternally in the
spiritual world.

39. St. Thomas Aquinas
• Name:
Tommaso d’ Aquino
• Birth: 1224/25, Roccasecca, near
Aquino, Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of
Sicily
• Death: March 7, 1274, Fossanova, near
Terracina, Latium, Papal States
– Sicily and the Papal States are now
part of Italy
• He lived during the time of the
Crusades

40. St. Thomas Aquinas
• Famous for being a doctor of the
Catholic Church, author
of Summa Theologiae
• Philosophical Orientation:
ARISTOTELIAN EMPIRICISM
• Philosophical Orientation:
SCHOLASTICISM
• Integration of Aristotelian
philosophy and Catholic
theology

41. St. Thomas Aquinas
SCHOLASTICISM
- Philosophical systems and
speculative tendencies
- Sought to solve new general
philosophical problems under
the influence of the mystical and
intuitional tradition of patristic
philosophy, especially
Augustinianism, and later under
that of Aristotle

42. St. Thomas Aquinas
• Man is composed of
matter and form.
– Matter is a common stuff
that makes up everything
in the universe.
– Form is the essence of a
substance or thing that
makes it what it is.

43. St. Thomas Aquinas
• The body of humans is
similar to animals and
objects.
– He can use his senses to gain
an idea of matter.
• But what makes a human is
his essence, his form or his
soul that makes sense of his
sensory experiences.

44. TIMELINE FROM CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY (BCE)
TO 17TH CENTURY (CE)

45. RENAISSANCE AND
ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD

46. Renaissance Philosophers
Rene Descartes John Locke
David Hume Immanuel Kant

47. Rene Descartes (1596–1650)
• French philosopher,
mathematician and
scientist
• Philosophical Orientation:
RATIONALISM
• Philosophical Orientation:
MIND-BODY DUALISM

48. Rene Descartes
• “Cogito ergo sum”, or in
English translation “I think
therefore I am”.
• Human’s concept of self and
existence are established by
our capacity to think about
it. This consciousness that
allows us to know that we
exist composes our soul,
which is a substance.
• Self-identity depends on
consciousness.

49. John Locke (1632-1704)
• British philosopher,
Oxford academic and
medical researcher
• Philosophical Orientation:
EMPIRICISM
• Philosophical Orientation:
THEORY OF PERSONAL
IDENTITY

50. John Locke
• Personal identity is founded
on consciousness and not
on either the soul or the
body.
• There is a distinction
between man and person.
The soul may change, but
consciousness remains
intact.
• A person the kind of entity
that can think self
reflectively, and think of
itself as persisting over
time.

51. David Hume (1711-1776)
• Scottish Enlightenment
philosopher, historian,
economist, and essayist
• Philosophical
Orientation:
EMPIRICISM
• Philosophical
Orientation:
SKEPTICAL PHILOSOPHY

52. David Hume
• The self is the physical
body. The mind is just a
fiction.
• All knowledge passes
through the senses. We
know we are humans not
because we have a soul,
but because we see, hear
and feel.
• There is no self, only a
bundle of perceptions..

53. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
• German philosopher
• Philosophical Orientation:
RATIONALIST/ EMPIRICIST
• Philosophical Orientation:
METAPHYSICS OF THE SELF

54. Immanuel Kant
• The self is not just a personality
but a seat of knowledge that
results from synthesizing
perceptions and experiences.
• There is an outer self that includes
the body and the physical mind
and an inner self, the enduring self
that includes rational thinking and
psychological state.
• It is not an object of experience,
but transcendental. The
transcendental ego is basic and
necessary for all human
experiences.

55. MODERN PERIOD

56. Renaissance Philosophers
Sigmund Freud Gilbert Ryle
Paul Churchland Maurice Merleau-Ponty

57. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Austrian neurologist,
founder of psychoanalysis
• Philosophical Orientation:
EMPIRICIST
• Philosophical Orientation:
THEORY OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS

58. Sigmund Freud
• Man is controlled by his
unconscious mind which is
principally driven by sexual
energy or libido, which
resides in the id.
• Every individual is composed
of the superego, ego and the
id.
• It is the main function of the
superego and the ego to
regulate and control the id.

59. Three Parts of Personality according to Freud

60. Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976)
• British philosopher,
principally known for his
critique of Cartesian
dualism
• Philosophical Orientation:
EMPIRICIST
• Philosophical Orientation:
THE CONCEPT OF MIND

61. Gilbert Ryle
• “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, a
misconception resulting from
habitual use.
• The self is not an entity one can
locate and analyze but simply the
convenient name we use to refer to
the behaviors that we make.

62. Paul Churchland (1942-present)
• Canadian philosopher and
author
• Philosophical Orientation:
EMPIRICIST
• Philosophical Orientation:
ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM

63. Paul Churchland
• It is the physical brain, not
the imaginary mind that
gives us our sense of self.
• The self is contained entirely
within the physical brain.
• There is no dualism of mind
and body. Our identity all
boils down to brain function.

64. Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)
• French philosopher and
public intellectual
• Philosophical Orientation:
EXISTENTIALIST EMPIRICIST
• Philosophical Orientation:
PHENOMENOLOGY OF
PERCEPTION

65. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• “We are our bodies.”
• Mind and body are
inseparable.
• Perception of things through
our body influences our
understanding.
• The body comes with
thought, emotions and
experiences.