Churchland

A Canadian philosopher whose focus on the idea that people should improve our association and
use of words in identifying the “self” which he has this idea that it is defined by the movements
of our brain. 
Churchland’s work revolves around challenging of the notion and terms being used to 
explain behavior or to explain how a person feels, thinks, and act with regards to physiological 
phenomenon that is happening in the body as well as definitions brought about by emotions, 
this is one of the notion of the concept of Folk Psychology also known as common sense 
psychology. 
The main philosophy of Churchland built the idea of “eliminative materialism” which it opposes
that people’s common sense understanding of the mind is false and that most of the mental states
that people subscribe to are do not actually exist, this idea also applies on the understanding of
behavior and emotions.
This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he believed that to fully understand one’s 
behavior, one should understand the different neurological movement of the brain that 
pertains to different emotions, feelings, actions and reactions and how such brain movements 
affect the body. With this in mind we can eliminate the ambiguity of subjective and baseless
identification of the mind, behavior and self in general because by understanding the different 
neural pathways, how they work, and what implications are those movements are to people, 
will we not only have proof that there is a measurable classification on one’s behavior it can 
also be said that the constant movement of the brain can be the basis of who the person is this 
is emphasized by Churchland and his wife in the statement “The Brain as the Self”.

Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty is a French philosopher who is known for his 
works on existentialism(subject) and phenomenology(object). His idea of the self, regarded that
the body and 
mind are not separate entities, but rather those two components is one and the same. His idea 
that follows the gestalt ideation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in which 
pushed his idea on the unity of the function of the mind and body, this idea is called the 
Phenomenology of Perception.
The idea of Phenomenology of Perception according to Merleau-Ponty is divided into 
three (3) division, The Body, The Perceived World, and the People and the world. The body that 
both receives the experience as well as integrates such experiences in the different perception. 
The Perceived world, which are the accumulation of the perception as integrated by the 
experiences of the body. And the People and the world that enable one to not only be able to 
integrate the other objects in the world but also to be able to experience the cultural aspect 
and relate to others.
His idea of perception follows the idea of Gestalt psychology which gives important on 
the whole than the sum of its part. For him, perception guides our action based from what our 
experiences are, the body perceives while our consciousness provides the meaning or 
interprets the various perception we have in the world and the self could be established by the 
perceptions we have in the world, whereas one’s action, behavior and language used could be 
said to be the reflection of our united perception of the world.

Required Reading/s:
Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of personality. In Pervin and John (eds). Handbook
of 
Personality Theory and Research (pp 134 – 194) . 2nd ed. Guilford Press.
Chafee, J. (2013). Who are you? Consciousness , identity and the self. In the Philosopher’s Way. 
Thinking Critical about Profound Ideas(pp 106 – 169). Pearson.