PHILOSOPHICAL- Ancient and Medieval  PHILOSOPHICAL- Modern 

✾​= perfection of the soul is via self examination and self control  ✾=​ Dialectic synthesis between rationalism and empiricism 
“Know thyself”   
RENE DESCARTES  “I think therefore I am” 
* Imperative- one must know the limits of thyself  Methodic Doubt ​- everything maybe subjected to doubt 
* Requirement- self-moderation; prudence; good judgement  ➵ a way of searching for certainty by systematically and tentatively 
  doubting everything  
Who is doubting? Me! = SELF 
SOCRATES​ “the unexamined life is not worth living” 
Human Rationality​ = primary condition of the experience of ✾ 
An ​examined life​: ✓ self knowledge 
We need to reason to: ✓ exist ✓ evaluate our thoughts and 
✓ wisdom ✓ recognise ignorance  actions ✓ establish firm foundations ✓ protect ourselves ✓ build 
✓ self dignified ✓ has values and integrity  “It is not enough to have a good mind;the main thing is to use it 
“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the true  well” 
meaning of true knowledge.”   
  JOHN LOCKE “tabula rasa” 
PLATO​ “the examination of the self is a unique experience”  ✒ Man is capable of learning from experience, and skillful enough 
✒ PSYCHE is appetitive / spirited / mind  to process different perception to form a more complex idea. 
SELF = empty space ↦ filled by everyday experience ↦ necessary for 
Appetitive​- pleasures, desires, comforts, physical satisfaction 
sense data ↦ sense perception 
Spirited​- motivated and fights back 
“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience” 
Mind​- most superior, controls affairs of the self, controls the   
appetitive and spirited [animals] elements  DAVID HUME “there is no self” 
“Human Behaviours flows from three main sources:  ✒ The idea of ✾ is derived from impressions ↦ subjective, 
desire, emotion, and knowledge”  temporary, prejudicial, cannot be persisting 
  Knowledge of the self= bundles of temporary impressions 
ST. AUGUSTINE  Q: Who am I? 
✒ The development of ✾ is achieved through self  A: David, a psych student, 65 kg, a good singer 
 
presentation and self-realization 
IMMANUEL KANT 
➵​ Centered on religious convictions and beliefs 
✒ ​RATIONALITY​ unifies and makes sense the perceptions we have 
➵​ Man’s end goal is happiness - attained in and through 
in our experiences. It makes sensible ideas about ourselves and 
GOD  the world. 
“This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own  ✓ ✾ is always transcendental 
perfections”  ✓ ✾ or being is outside the body 
  ✓ Ideas are perceived by the self and connect the self and the 
  world 
  “If a man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is 
trodden on.” 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL- Contemporary   
✾​ =explained by a wide variety of theories   
   
SIGMUND FREUD 
✒ ✾ is the “I” that constitutes both mental and physical actions. I is  SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 
the product of multiple interacting processes  “​socio”- companion/associate 
Topographical Model​= we know and do not know certain things at 
the same time so 
“logos” - study 
“I” = consciousness + unconsciousness   ✓ ​Social situations influence one’s view  
 
GILBERT RYLE ​ ​ “I act therefore I am” “You are what you do” 
✓ Perceptions are identified through observations and interactions with 
✒ The mind is never separate from the body; physical actions and  others 
behaviors are dispositions of the self. It is understood based on 
✓ The self has meaning only within social context 
external manifestations (behaviours, language, expressions) 
“soul” refers to the way one behaves  ✓ The individual is an active participant 
“In searching for the self, one cannot simply simultaneously be the   
hunter and the hunted.” 
  “Social Reality”  
PAUL AND PATRICIA CHURCHLAND  - based on others 
✒ ​Eliminative Materialism​ ​states how the way we commonly think 
and talk about the mind is so mistaken that mental concepts 
- the accepted social principles of a community involving social laws and 
should be abandoned and brain processes be focused on instead.  social representation 
Neuroscience ⇄ understanding the self 
“Brains are not magical, they are causal machines” 
Social situations ↦​ ​ self concept & self esteem 
 
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY “I live in my body”  Sociological Views 
✒ ​Lived body​ i​ s an entity that can never be objectified or known in 
a completely objective sort of way 
1. The SELF as the product of modern society 
“I”- a single integrated entity; a blending of mental, physical, and  2. The SELF as necessary fiction 
emotional structure around a core of identity: the SELF. 
3. Postmodern view of the self 
Perception- causal process ↦ perceptions are caused by the 
experiences of the elf and processed intellectually ↦ truth is  4. Rewriting the SELF as an artistic creation 
distinguished from illusion  5. SELF Creation and collective identity 
✾= phenomenon of the whole 
The unified experience of the self if the paradigm one uses to  6. Self Creation and the struggle for cultural recognition 
understand his/her nature   
“We know not through our intellect but through our experience” 
 
 
 
1. ✾ as product of modern society  “Ikaw ang gumawa ng kung ano ka” 
Modernization​- the destruction of traditional way of life  Self is required socially: 
Delocalized self​- free to seek own identity  ✓Family ✓School ✓Church Community 
CLIFFORD GEERTS​ (1973)  ✓Peer Group ✓Sports ✓The Arts ✓Electronic Media  
The struggle for individuality is possible in a modern society  ✓Workplace ✓Print Media ✓Technology ✓Neighborhood 
where:   
Religio-theological traditions ⇨ rational scientific calculation  4. Rewriting ✾ as an Artistic Creation 
Intimate personal affiliations ⇨ impersonal associations  NIETZCHE​: The unity of the self is not pre-given, but accomplished 
PROBLEMS  through conscious effort 
1. Freedom threatens authenticity of the self  ✓ Fashion ✓ Care ✓ Cultivate 
2. Alienation  Recreate the self to get hold of the present, forgive the past, and 
3. Objectification of the body  plan the future. 
4. Dehumanization of the Self  RORTY​: Contingency of selfhood 
To discover the true and authentic part of oneself to realize one’s  ↦ Conceal the “ugly” by reinterpreting the overall aesthetic 
potentials… “abolish repressive social constraints”  contours of the self 
   
2. ✾ as Necessary Fiction  5. Self Creation and Collective Identity 
FRIEDRICH NIETZCHE  Memories  ⇨ Creating the Self and identity 
✾ = actions + thoughts + feelings  social transformation 
Self is a representation of something abstract; symbolic.  Memory and Forgetting ⇨ Recreating one’s identity 
Self has a ​CONTINUITY​- it is possible to remember something  Imagined Communities ⇨ Self Creation 
which one has not experienced. Self is the presumed unity of  ⇩ ⇩ 
experiences.  Cultural Traditions  Must be done in max cultural 
  embodied in various recognition of differences along 
3. Postmodern view of ✾  social institution and between individuals and 
SELF ➵ a narrative, a text written/unwritten; a story; dynamic  cultural groups 
➵ a product of modern discourse   
➵ is complicated by electronic mediated virtual  6. Self Creation and the Struggle for Cultural Recognition 
interaction of cyber self  Self ➵ is grounded on collective solidarities 
N. GREEN: Self is “​digitalized​” in cyberspace  Creation ➵ is created by struggling with cultural hassles 
Manifestations:  ➵ we hide the ugly part of our cultural nature 
a. Information Technology dislocates the self  BEYOND SELF CREATION 
b. Global migration produces multicultural identities  Modern Society = quest for self identity 
C. Postmodern selves are “pluralized” selves  ⇩ 
  Complicated by the social-cultural sensibilities of postmodernity, 
SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS   new information technologies, and globalization 
   
Social construction of the Self:  PARADOX: Self creation is pursued within what is pre given, and 
Self is ​not discovered​; it is ​made through the realization process​.  not willfully chosen social circumstances. 
The individual is an active socialization agents.