HUMAN PERSON AND THE SELF ACCORDING TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

This report will be focusing on the different perspective of the different philosophers since this topic is
very important to be discuss especially to the students in order for them to be guided in developing their
own self percpetion.

Before the discussion start, the reporter will ask someone to lead the prayer. After the prayer, the
discussion of the topic will start with a single question. "how well do you know your self?" The students
will say something about the question asked. Afterward, the reporter will start the proper discussion to
cater the question that has been raised.

Lesson proper

Different views of the self

Anthropology view the self as a culturally shaped constructor idea.

Psychology sees the self as having characteristics or properties tgat can be used to describe it.

Pioneers in the study pointed out that the self is related to its physical and social environment, it is
unique and it is necessary to its experience.

Western Civilization interpretation of the self possesses an internal distinction from its external
environment. That even though the self functions in the world, the self is still its own.

Eastern Civilization interpret that self is seen through the eyes of a community, rather than detached,
single entity.

PHILOSOPHERS

SOCRATES - Socrates said that existence is of two kinds:

1. The visible and

2. The invisible

The visible existence changes while the invisible existence remains constant. According to Socrates this is
the state of human being, the body which is visible, changes; the other part, the kind that is invisible to
humans yet being sensed and understood by the mind remains constant. Socrates also believe that the
goal of life is to be happy. According to Socrates, the virtuous man is a happy man, and that the virtue
alone is the and only supreme good that will secure his/her happiness.
PLATO - was the student of socrates and wrote the socratic dialogue. plato is perhaps the single most
important influence of western concept of self. According to plato the soul is indeed the most divine
aspect of the human being, his concept of the divine is not a spiritual being but rather one that has an
intellectual connotation

The self/soul/mind according to plato is the aspect of the human being by which the forms (ideas) are
known.

The three parts of the soul according to Plato are

1. The appetitive (sensual) - the element tht enjoy sensual experiences such as food,drinks,sex.

2.The rational (reasoning) - the element that forbids a person to enjoy the sensual experiences, the part
that loves truth, hence, should rule over the other parts of the soul through the use of reason.

3. The spirited (feeling) - the element that is inclined towards reason but understand the demands of
the passion; the part that loves honor and victory.

ST. AUGUSTINE - One of the latin fathers of the church, one of the doctors of the church and one of the
most significant christian thinkers. St. Augustine held that the soul the truth and capable of scientific
thinking. St. Augustine concept of the self was an inner, immaterial "I" that had self knowledge and self
awareness. He believed that a human being was both a soul and a body , and the body possess senses ,
such as imagination, memory, and mind through which the soul experienced the world.

He also reasoned that human beings through the senses could sense the material, temporal object as we
interacted with the material world; the immaterial but intelligible God would only be clear or obvious to
the mind if one tune into his/her immaterial self/soul .

The aspect of the self/soul according to St. Augustine's are:

1. It is able to be aware of it self

2. It recognizes itself as a holistic one

3. It is aware of its unity

RENE DESCARTES - was french philosopher, mathematician and scientist He is considered as the Father
of modern western philosophy. Desacartes proposed that doubt was a principal tool of disciplined
inquiry. His method was called hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt, also sometimes refer to as
methodological skepticism. It is a systematic process of beig skeptical about the truth of ones belief in
order to determine which belief could be ascertain as true.
Rene Descartes famous line "Cogito ergo sum" translated as "I think, therfore I am" became a
fundamental element of western philosophy as it secured the foundation for knowledge in the face of
radical doubt.

Descartes claim about the self are:

1. It is constant; It is not prone to change; and it is not affected by time.

2. Only the immaterial soul remains the same throughout time.

3. The immaterial soul is the source of our identity.

Some distinction between the soul and the body as pointed by Descartes

THE SOUL THE BODY

it is a conscious, thinking substance that is it is a material substance that changes through

unaffected by time. time

it is known only to its self(only you know your it can be doubted; the public can correct claims
mental event and others cannot correct your about the body.
mental states.)

it is not made up of parts, it views the entirety of it is made up of physical, quantifiable, divisible
itself with no hidden ir separated compartments. it parts.
is both conscious and aware of itself at the same
time.

JOHN LOCKE - was a philosopher and a physician and was one of the most influential enlightenment
thinkers.

The age of enlightenment or the age of reason was an intellectual and philosophical movement that
dominated the ideas in europe durig the 18th century.

Locke expanded the definition of Descartes to include the memories of that thinking thing. Locke
believed that the self is identified with consciousness and this self consist of sameness of consciousness.
This is usually interpreted to mean that the self consist of memory; that the person existing now is the
same person yesterday because he/she remembers the thought, experiences or actions of the earlier
self.

DAVID HUME - was a scotish philosopher, economist and historian during the age of enlightenment.

Rationalism - is the theory that reason rather than the experience is the foundation pf all knowledge
Empiricism - the idea that the origin of all knowledge is sense experiences.

Bundle theory - the self or a perso as a bundle or a collection of different perceptions that are moving in
a very fast and successive manner; therefore it is in a perpetual flux.

two groups of mind perception:

1. Impression - These are the perception thatbare the most strong.They enter the senses with most force
. Thess are directly experienced; thy result from inward and outward sentiments.

2. Ideas - These are the less forcible and less lively counterparts of impressions. These are the
mechanism that copy and reproduce sense data formulated based upon the previously perceived
impression.

IMMANUEL KANT - kants view of the self is transcedental. which means the self is to a spiritual or
nonphysical realm. the self is outside the body and it does not have the qualities of the body. He
proposed that it is knowledge that bridges the self and the materia things together.

two kinds of consciousness of the self:

1. consciousness of oneself and ones psychological states in innwr self. and

2. consciousness of oneself and one's state by performing acts of appreception.

Appreception - is a mental process by which a person make sense of an idea by assimilating it to the
body of ideas he or she already possess.