UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF
 Table of Contents
Chapter I – Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental
Perspectives on Self and Identity
Lesson 1: The Self from Various Philosophical
Perspectives
Lesson 2: The Self, Society, and Culture
Lesson 3: The Self as Cognitive Construct
Lesson 4: The Self in Western and Eastern Thoughts
 Lesson 1:
The Self from Various
Philosophical Perspectives
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain why it is essential to understand the
self;
2. Describe and discuss the different notions of
the self from the points-of-view of the various
philosophers across time and place;
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been
represented in different philosophical schools;
and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views
of self that were discussed in class.
ABSTRACTION

 Socrates and Plato

- Socrates was the first philosopher who ever engaged
in a systematic questioning about the self; the true
task of the philosopher is to know oneself.
- For Socrates, every man is composed of body and
soul; all individuals have an imperfect, impermanent
aspect to him, and the body, while maintaining that
there is also a soul that is perfect and permanent.
- Plato supported the idea that man is a dual nature of
body and soul.
- Plato added that there are three components of the
soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the
appetitive soul.
• Augustine and Thomas Aquinas
- Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature; the
body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to
anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in
communion with God.
- The body can only thrive in the imperfect, physical
reality that is the world, whereas the soul can also stay
after death in an eternal realm with the all-
transcendent God.
- Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two parts:
matter and form. Matter, or hyle in Greek, refers to the
“common stuff that makes up everything in the
universe.” Man’s body is part of this matter. Form, on
the other hand, or morphe in Greek refers to the
“essence of a substance or thing.”
- To Aquinas the soul is what animates the body; it is
what makes us humans.
• Rene Descartes
- Conceived of the human person as having a body and
a mind
- The body is nothing else but a machine that is
attached to the mind. The human person has it but it
is not what makes man a man. If at all, that is the
mind.
• David Hume
- The self is not an entity over and beyond the physical
body.
- Men can only attain knowledge by experiencing.
- Self, according to Hume, is simply “a bundle or
collection of different perceptions, which succeed
each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in
a perpetual flux and movement.”
 Immanuel Kant
- Things that men perceive around them are not just
randomly infused into the human person without an
organizing principle that regulates the relationship of
all these impressions.
- There is necessarily a mind that organizes the
impressions that men get from the external world.
- Time and space are ideas that one cannot find in the
world, but is built in our minds; he calls these the
apparatuses of the mind.
- The self is not just what gives one his personality; it is
also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human
persons.
 Gilbert Ryle
- Blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-
physical self; what truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day-to-day life.
- “Self” is not an entity one can locate and analyze but
simply the convenient name that people use to refer to
all the behaviors that people make.
• Merleau-Ponty
- The mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot
be separated from one another.
- One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied
experience. All experience is embodied; one’s body is
his opening toward his existence to the world.
- The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences
are all one.
LESSON SUMMARY
- Philosophy is replete with men and women who
inquired into the fundamental nature of the self.
- Socrates was the first philosopher who ever
engaged in a systematic questioning about the self.
- Plato supported the idea that man is a dual nature
of body and soul.
- Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated
nature.
- Thomas Aquinas said that indeed, man is
composed of two parts: matter and form.
- Rene Descartes conceived of the human person
as having a body and a mind.
- David Hume, the self is not an entity over and
beyond the physical body
- Immanuel Kant, there is necessarily a mind that
organizes the impressions that men get from the
external world
- Gilbert Ryle, “self” is not an entity one can
locate and analyze
- Merleau-Ponty, the living body, his thoughts,
emotions, and experiences are all one
 Lesson 2:
The Self, Society,
and Culture
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain the relationship between and among
the self, society, and culture;
2. Describe and discuss the different ways by
which society and culture shape the self;
3. Compare and contrast how the self can be
influenced by the different institutions in the
society; and
4. Examine one’s self against the different views
of self that were discussed in the class.
ABSTRACTION
 What Is the Self?
The self, in contemporary literature and even common sense, is
commonly defined by the following characteristics:
- Separate means that the self is distinct from other selves. The
self is always unique and has its own identity.
- Self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist.
Its distinctness allows it to be self-contained with its own
thoughts, characteristics, and volition.
- Consistency means that a particular self’s traits,
characteristics, tendencies, and potentialities are more or less
the same.
- Unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts
that run through a certain person
- Private means that each person sorts out information, feelings
and emotions, and thought processes within the self. This
whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self.
 The Self and Culture
- According to Marcel Mauss, every self has two
faces:
Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his
body, and his basic identity, his biological
givenness.
Personne is composed of the social concepts of
what it means to be who he is.
- Language is another interesting aspect of this social
constructivism; it is a salient part of culture and
ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our crafting
of the self.
- If a self is born into a particular society or culture,
the self will have to adjust according to its
exposure.
 The Self and the Development of the Social
World
- More than his givenness (personality, tendencies, and
propensities, among others), one is believed to be in
active participation in the shaping of the self.
- Men and women in their growth and development
engage actively in the shaping of the self.
- The unending terrain of metamorphosis of the self is
mediated by language.
 Mead and Vygotsky
- For Mead and Vygotsky, the way that human persons
develop is with the use of language acquisition and
interaction with others.
- Both Vygotsky and Mead treat the human mind as
something that is made, constituted through language
as experienced in the external world and as
encountered in dialogs with others.
• Self in Families
- The kind of family that we are born in, the resources
available to us (human, spiritual, economic), and the
kind of development that we will have will certainly
affect us.
- Human beings are born virtually helpless and the
dependency period of a human baby to its parents for
nurturing is relatively longer than most other
animals.
- In trying to achieve the goal of becoming a fully
realized human, a child enters a system of
relationships, most important of which is the family.
- Human persons learn the ways of living and therefore
their selfhood by being in a family. It is what a family
initiates a person to become that serves as the basis
for this person’s progress.
 Gender and the Self

- Gender is one of those loci of the self that is

subject to alteration, change, and
development.
- The sense of self that is being taught makes
sure that an individual fits in a particular
environment, is dangerous and detrimental in
the goal of truly finding one’s self, self-
determination, and growth of the self.
- It is important to give one the leeway to find,
express, and live his identity.
- Gender has to be personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture and the
society.
LESSON SUMMARY
The self is commonly defined by the following characteristics:
- Separate, is always unique and has its own identity
- Self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist
- Consistency, a particular self’s traits, characteristics, tendencies, and
potentialities are more or less the same
- Unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run
through a certain person
- Private. Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and
thought processes within the self.
 The Self and Culture
- Every self has two faces: Moi and Personne;
- Language is a salient part of culture and
ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our
crafting of the self.
• The Self and the Development of the Social
World
- Men and women in their growth and
development engage actively in the shaping
of the self;
- The unending terrain of metamorphosis of
 Mead and Vygotsky
- The way that human persons develop is with the
use of language acquisition and interaction with
others
• Self in Families
- The kind of family that we are born in, the
resources available to us, and the kind of
development that we will have will certainly
affect us.
- Human persons learn the ways of living and
therefore their selfhood by being in a family.
 Gender and the Self

- Gender is one of those loci of the self that is

subject to alteration, change, and
development.
- It is important to give one the leeway to find,
express, and live his identity.
- Gender has to be personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture and the
society.
 Lesson 3:
The Self as Cognitive
Construct
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able
to:
1. Identify the different ideas in psychology
about the “self”;
2. Create your own definition of the “self”
based on the definitions from psychology;
and
3. Analyze the effects of various factors
identified in psychology in the formation
of the “self.”
ABSTRACTION
- There are various definitions of the “self” and other
similar or interchangeable concepts in psychology.
- Other concepts similar to self are identity and self-
concept:
Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social
roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that
define who one is.
Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when
you are asked about who you are.
- Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time
frame.
- Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-
schema or our organized system or collection of
- Theories generally see the self and identity as mental
constructs, created and recreated in memory.
- Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s
behavior as the results of the interaction between the
Id, the Ego, and the Superego.
- There are three reasons why self and identity are
social products:
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society
helped in creating the foundations of who we are.
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually
need others to affirm and reinforce who we think
we are.
3. What we think is important to us may also have
been influenced by what is important in our social
or historical context.
- Social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors
in creating our self-concept especially in the aspect of
providing us with our social identity;
- There are times when we are aware of our self-
concepts; this is also called self-awareness;
- Carver and Scheier identified two types of self that
we can be aware of:
1) the private self or your internal standards and
private thoughts and feelings; and
2) the public self or your public image commonly
geared toward having a good presentation of
yourself to others.
- Self-awareness also presents us with at least three
other self-schema:
• The “actual” self is who you are at the moment
• The “ideal” self is who you like to be
• The “ought” self is who you think you should be
- Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending
on the circumstances and our next course of action.
- Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great
impact on our self-esteem, defined as our own positive
or negative perception or evaluation of ourselves.
- One of the ways in which our social relationship
affects our self-esteem is through social comparison:
• The downward social comparison is the more
common type of comparing ourselves with others,
by comparing ourselves with those who are worse
off than us.
• The upward social comparison which is comparing
ourselves with those who are better off than us.
- Social comparison also entails what is called self-
evaluation maintenance theory, which states that we
can feel threatened when someone out-performs us,
especially when that person is close to us.
- In the attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem,
some people become narcissistic, a “trait
characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-
admiration, and self-centeredness.”
- There is a thin line between high self-esteem and
narcissism and there are a lot of tests and
measurements for self-esteem like the Rosenberg
scale.
- Though self-esteem is a very important concept
related to the self, studies have shown that it only has
a correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and
outlook.
- Programs, activities, and parenting styles to boost
self-esteem should only be for rewarding good
behavior and other achievements and not for the
purpose of merely trying to make children feel better
about themselves or to appease them when they get
angry or sad.
LESSON SUMMARY
- Other concepts similar to self:
Identity, composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and
responsibilities
Self-concept, what basically comes to your mind when you are asked
about who you are
- Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time frame.
- Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created
and recreated in memory.
- Social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors in creating our
self-concept.
- There are times when we are aware of our self-concepts;
this is also called self-awareness.
- Two types of self that we can be aware of:
(1) the private self or your internal standards and private
thoughts and feelings, and;
(2) the public self or your public image commonly geared
toward having a good presentation of yourself to others.
- Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other
self-schema:
• The “actual” self is who you are at the moment
• The “ideal” self is who you like to be
• The “ought” self is who you think you should be
- Our group identity and self-awareness also has a
great impact on our self-esteem.
- One of the ways in which our social relationship
affects our self-esteem is through social comparison:
• The downward social comparison is by comparing
ourselves with those who are worse off than us.
• The upward social comparison which is comparing
ourselves with those who are better off than us.
 Lesson 4:
The Self in Western
and Eastern Thoughts
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be
able to:
1. Differentiate the concept of self
according to Western thought against
Eastern/Oriental perspectives;
2. Explain the concept of self as found in
Asian thoughts; and
3. Create a representation of the Filipino
self.
ABSTRACTION
Eastern thoughts:
- Sees the other person as part of yourself as well as the
things you may create, a drama in which everyone is
interconnected with their specific roles
- Asian culture is called a collectivistic culture as the
group and social relations that is given more importance
than individual needs and wants.
Western thoughts:
- Looks at the world in dualities wherein you are distinct
from the other person, the creator is separate from the
object he created, in which the self is distinguished and
acknowledged
- The Western culture is what we would call an
individualistic culture since their focus is on the person.
 Confucianism
- A code of ethical conduct, of how one should properly
act according to his/her relationship with other people
- The identity and self-concept of the individual are
interwoven with the identity and status of his/her
community or culture, sharing its pride as well as its
failures.
- Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate purpose of life.
- The cultivated self in Confucianism is what some
scholars call a “subdued self” wherein personal needs
are repressed (subdued) for the good of many, making
Confucian society also hierarchal for the purpose of
maintaining order and balance in society.
 Taoism
- Living in the way of the Tao or the universe
- Rejects having one definition of what the Tao is
- Rejects the hierarchy and strictness brought by
Confucianism and would prefer a simple lifestyle
and its teachings thus aim to describe how to attain
that life
- The self is not just an extension of the family or the
community; it is part of the universe.
- The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting
about the self; it is living a balanced life with
society and nature, being open and accepting to
change, forgetting about prejudices and egocentric
ideas and thinking about equality as well as
complementarity among humans as well as other
beings.
 Buddhism
- The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance,
of trying to hold and control things, or human-
centered needs; thus, the self is also the source of all
these sufferings.
- To forget about the self, forget the cravings of the
self, break the attachments you have with the world,
and to renounce the self which is the cause of all
suffering and in doing so, attain the state of Nirvana.
LESSON SUMMARY
Eastern thoughts:
- Asian culture is called a collectivistic culture as
the group and social relations that is given
more importance than individual needs and
wants.
Western thoughts:
- The Western culture is what we would call an
individualistic culture since their focus is on the
person.
 Confucianism
- A code of ethical conduct, of how one should properly
act according to their relationship with other people
- Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate purpose of life.
• Taoism
- The self is not just an extension of the family or the
community; it is part of the universe.
- The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting
about the self; it is living a balanced life with society
and nature.
• Buddhism
- The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance, of
trying to hold and control things, or human-centered
needs
- To forget about the self, and in doing so, attain the state
of Nirvana.