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S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER
I FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF PHILOSOPHY ● PHILOSOPHY ○ Love of wisdom ○ Athens of Ancient Greece marked the birth of Philosophy on 600 BCE ● IDEA OF PERMANENCE (PRICE, 2000) ● BIG THREE PHILOSOPHERS ○ Socrates ○ Plato ○ Aristotle ● PHILOSOPHERS ○ Seeks truth and wisdom through reasoning and contemplation ● SOPHIST ○ Paid teachers of philosophy ○ Arguments usually about practical things and not with metaphysical speculations 1.0 (^) CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHERS
1.0.1 SOCRATES
● Mentor of Plato ● SOCRATIC METHOD ○ Dialectic method ○ Search for the correct/proper definition of a thing ○ Goal is to bring the person closer to the final understanding ○ Forces people to use their innate reason by reaching inside themselves to their deepest nature ○ Aims to make people think, seek, and ask again and again 1.0.1.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE ● “The unexamined life is not worth living“ ● “The true self in not the body but the soul” ● Seek the highest knowledge and convince others who were willing to seek this knowledge with him ● Touching of the soul – helping the person to get in touch with his true self ● Delphi Oracle ○ Named Socrates the wisest of all men ■ He was the only one who knew that did not know ○ Real understanding comes from within the person
1.0.2 PLATO
● Mentor of Aristotle ● Real name: Aristocles 428-348 BCE) ● Born in Athens as one of Greece’s aristocratic families ● Nicknamed Plato due to physical built
- ’ wide/broad ’ ● Established a school — ‘The Academy’ ● Wrote more than 20 dialogues with Socratest as protagonist in most of them ● Metaphysics — THEORY OF FORMS ○ Discussed in ‘The Republic’ ○ Forms refers to what are real ○ Can only grasped intellectually ○ Forms Characteristics: ■ Ageless and therefore are eternal ■ Unchanging and therefore permanent ■ Unmoving and indivisible ○ The Republic — Plato’s Dualism ■ THE REALM OF THE SHADOWS ● Composed of changing, ‘sensible’ things which are lesser entities ● Therefore imperfect and flawed ■ THE REALM OF FORMS/WORLD OF FORMS ● Composed of eternal things which are permanent and perfect ● Source of all reality and true knowledge ● Reality where one can discover the truth 1.0.2.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE ● Believed that knowledge lies within the person’s soul ● Human beings are microcosms of the universal macrocosm ● Even if the materials of the human body and the physical world are imperfect, humans have the immortal, rational soul which is created in the image of the divine ● The Republic — 3 Components of the Soul 1. THE REASON a. Rational b. Motivation for goodness and truth 2. THE SPIRITED a. Non-rational b. Will or the drive toward action c. Initially neutral but can be influenced/pulled in two directions 3. THE APPETITES a. Irrational b. Lean towards the desire for pleasures of the body ● Believed that people are intrinsically good. Sometimes, however, judgments are made in ignorance ● Ignorance = Evil ● THEORY OF LOVE AND BECOMING ○ ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE ■ Help man understand the search for knowledge ■ Theory of Being ● Ultimate reality lies on the material world ■ Love
S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER ● Way by which a person can move from a state of imperfect knowledge and ignorance to a state of perfection and true knowledge ● Force that paves the way for all beings to ascend to higher stages of self-realization and perfection ● To love the highest is to become the best 1.1 MIDDLE AGES PHILOSOPHERS
1.1.1 ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
● CHRISTIANITY
○ Did not believe that self-knowledge and happiness were the ultimate goals of man but instead man should rely on God’s commands and his judgment of what constitutes good and evil ○ Christianity sees man as sinners who reject/go against a loving God’s commands ○ Held faith supreme over reason and logic ● ST. AUGUSTINE (354-436 CE) of Hippo, Africa ○ Initially rejected Christianity ■ Christianity could not provide him answers to questions that interested him ○ Want to know about moral evil and why it existed in people, his personal desire for sensual pleasures and questions about all the sufferings in the world 1.1.1.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
1. God as the source of all reality and truth a. Without God as the source of all truth, man could never understand eternal truths b. God is within man and transcends him c. This relationship with God means that those who know most about God will come closest to understanding the true nature of the world 2. The sinfulness of man a. Sin or evil is an act of man’s freewill b. Moral goodness can only be achieved through the grace of God 1.1.1.2 THE ROLE OF LOVE ● Real happiness can only be found in God ● For God is love; created humans for them to also love ● Problems arise due to the objects humans choose to love ● Disordered love results when man loves the wrong things which he believes will give him happiness ● If man loves God first and everything else to a lesser degree then all will fall into its rightful place 1. Love of physical objects leads to the sin of greed 2. Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is the sin of jealousy 3. Love for the self leads to the sin of pride 4. Love for God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God can man find real happiness 1.2 (^) RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHERS
1.2.1 RENE DESCARTES
● Father of Modern Philosophy ● One of the Rationalist Philosophers of Europe ○ Considered truth as a universal concept and reason is superior to and independent of sensory experience ● Introduced Cartesian Method ● Invented Analytic geometry ● DESCARTES SYSTEM
1. INTUITION a. Ability to apprehend direction of certain truths 2. DEDUCTION a. Power to discover what is not known by progressing in an orderly way from what is already known b. Truths are arrived by step by step process 1.2.1.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE ● “I think, therefore I am” — his 1st principle of philosophy ● Believes that to doubt is to think 1.2.1.2 THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM ● Mind and soul can exist without the body ● All bodily processes are mechanical like being controlled by the will and aided by the mind
1.2.2 JOHN LOCKE
● Born in Wrington, England; son of Puritan lawyer ● Believed that knowledge results from ideas produced a posteriori or by objects that were experienced ● 2 FORMS OF PROCESS
**1. SENSATION
- REFLECTION** ● The mind at birth is a ‘ tabula rasa ’ or blank state ● ‘Nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses’ ● Ideas can also be the result of reflection which demonstrates the power of thinking and volition or will 1.2.2.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE ● Morals, religious and political values must come from sense experiences ● 3 LAWS
S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER ● 3 LEVELS OF MIND
1. ID a. Pleasure principle b. Demands immediate satisfaction c. Not hindered by societal expectation 2. EGO a. Reality principle b. Mediates between the impulses of the id and the restraints of the superego 3. SUPEREGO a. Learning the difference between right and wrong ● 2 KINDS OF INSTINCTS ■ From 1920 book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle 1. Eros a. Life instinct b. Energy is called libido c. Urges necessary for individual and species survival like thirst, hunger and sex 2. Thanatos a. Death instinct b. Behavior is directed towards destruction in the form of aggression and violence 1.3.1.2 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE ● Psychoanalysis sees a man as a product of his past lodged within his subconscious ● Life instinct and death instinct is born with his ego already in conflict ● Man lives his life balancing the forces of life and death
1.3.2 GILBERT RYLE
● English philosopher ● ‘I act, therefore, I am’ ● Contradicted Cartesian Dualism ● Wrote The Concept of the Mind ○ Dualism ‘involves category mistakes and is a philosophical nonsense’ ○ Mind can influence a physical, material body ○ Mind is a ‘ Ghost in the Machine ’ 1.3.2.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND KNOWLEDGE ● Freewill was invented to answer the question of whether an action deserves praise or blame. ● Agrees with Kant that ‘Freewill involves a moral responsibility; man’s action must be moral for it to be free’ ● ‘Knowing-that & knowing-how’ ● Just ‘knowing-that’ is considered as empty intellectualism
1.3.3 PATRICIA AND PAUL CHURCHLAND
● Neurophilosophy ● Philosophy of Neuroscience ○ Study of the philosophy of the mind, the philosophy of science, neuroscience and psychology ○ Explores the relevance of neuroscientific experiments/studies to the philosophy of the mind ○ Brain-mind is central to this study ○ Mind would still be associated with the brain ● Brain is responsible for the identity known as the self 1.3.3.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE ● Deviant thoughts, feelings and actions stemmed from anomalist/aberrations in the brain’s anatomy and physiology ● Neurophilosophy states that the self is real, that it is a tool that helps the person tune-in to the realities of the brain and the extant reality
1.3.4 MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
● French Phenomenological philosopher ● Greatly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger ● Primary philosophy: The human body is the primary site of knowing the world ● Wrote books on perception, art and political thought ● Known as a philosopher of the body ● Made use of the concept of the body schema ● Focuses on relationship-between self-experience and the experience of other people 1.3.4.1 VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELF ● Developed the concept of body-subject ● ‘Perceptions occur existentially’ ● The consciousness, the world and the human body are all interconnected as they mutually perceive the world ● All knowledge is perceived through the body with all its sensory functions which take place in the here and now ● The world and the sense of self are emergent phenomena in the ongoing process of man’s ‘becoming’
S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER ● PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERCEPTION ■ Nature of man’s perceptual contact with the world ■ Phenomenology – provides a direct description of the human experience ■ Perception – forms the background of the experience which serves to guide man’s conscious actions ■ Man cannot separate himself from his perceptions of the world ■ Perception is not purely the result of sensations nor is it purely interpretation ■ Consciousness is a process that includes sensing as well as interpreting/reasoning ■ When perception towards a particular object takes place, perception is not constant ■ Subject to change depending on the perspective upon which it is seen
II FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY ● SOCIOLOGY ○ One of the disciplines in the social sciences ○ Aims to discover the ways by which the social surrounding/environment influences people ○ Understanding human societies
2.0 GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
● February 1863; Massachusetts, USA
2.0.1 SOCIAL SELF
● Social Behaviorism ○ Power of the environment in shaping human behavior ● Self is a ‘dimension of personality that is made- up of the individual’s self-awareness and self- image’ ● Self cannot be separated from the society
2.0.2 STAGES OF SELF FORMATION
1. THE PREPARATORY STAGE
a. Self develops over time b. Development is dependent on social interaction and experience c. Behaviors are primarily based on imitation d. Familiarity with symbols and use it as based on communication
2. THE PLAY STAGE a. Begin to role play and pretend to be other people b. Significant in the development of the self 3. THE GAME STAGE a. 8-9 years old b. Final stage of self-development c. Generalized other’ i. People in society have cultural norms, beliefs and values which are incorporated into each self STAGE EXISTENCE OF SELF CHARACTERISTICS Preparatory none Imitates another Play Developing Role-taking Game Present Generalized other
2.0.2 THEORY OF THE SELF
● Self is not present at birth but begins as a central character in a child’s world ● As they grow and mature, there is a change in the self ● Family particularly play a major role in the formation of the self ● They are the significant others who strongly influence his development
2.0.3 THE ‘I’ AND ‘ME’
● I SELF
○ Person initiates or performs a social action, the self functions as a subject ● ME SELF ○ Person takes the role of the other, the self functions as an object
2.1 OTHER SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES
TO UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
2.1.1 CHARLES HORTON COOLEY
● American sociologist ● Used sociopsychological approach ○ To understand how societies work ● Wrote ‘Human Nature and the Social Other’ ○ Discussed formation of the self through interaction ● Stated that people learn who they are through their social interaction with other people ● View of the self is also significantly influenced by the impression and perception of others ● Looking-glass self ○ Self that is a product of social interaction ● 3 PHASES OF DEVELOPING A SELF
- People imagine how they present themselves to others
- People imagine how others evaluate them
- People develop some sort of feeling about themselves as a result of those impressions ● There is a possibility that people develop self- identities based on the wrong perception of how others see them
S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER ● Human nature is determined by the ideas, meanings, beliefs and values learned as members of a society ● There is no universal or right way of being human ● Right way is always based on one’s culture ● Human beings can be shaped/formed to have the kind of life they prefer ● People have no control over what they learn
3.2.2 WAYS IN WHICH CULTURE
MAY MANIFEST ITSELF IN PEOPLE
1. SYMBOLS a. Most superficial level of culture b. Words, gestures, pictures or objects that have a recognized/accepted meaning in a particular culture c. Shared or copied by other cultures who find them also fitting or their culture 2. HEROES a. Persons from the past or present who have important characteristics in a culture b. May be real or fictitious c. Models of behavior 3. RITUALS a. Either religious or social b. Activities participated in by a group of people for the fulfillment of desired objectives c. Considered to be socially essential 4. VALUES a. Core of every culture b. Unconscious c. Can be neither discussed nor be directly observed but can only be inferred from the way people act or react to circumstances and situations d. Human tendencies/preference towards good or bad, right or wrong
IV THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF
PSYCHOLOGY ● PSYCHOLOGY ○ Deals with the description, explanation, prediction and control of behavior ○ Believes that the world of material things including people exists independently of the perceiving human mind ○ Famous ‘Nature-Nurture Controversy’ ○ Concept of the self
4.0 WILLIAM JAMES
● American Philosopher and Psychologist ● Known for his ‘Theory of the Self’ ● Wrote ‘The Principles of Psychology’ ○ Explained the theory of the self
4.0.1 THE ‘ME’ AND THE ‘I’
THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY ● 5 CHARACTERISTICS OF THOUGHTS
- All human thoughts are owned by some personal self
- All thoughts are continuity of thoughts as its focus shifts from one subject to another
- Thoughts deal with objects that are different from and independent of consciousness itself
- Consciousness can focus on particular objects and not others **● 2 PARTS OF SELF
- ME self** a. Separate object or individual that the person refers to when discussing or describing their personal experiences b. Empirical ME 2. I self a. Knows and recognizes who they are and what they have done b. Pure Ego/Thinking self i. Comprises the totality of the person’s identity **● 3 COMPONENTS OF ME
- THE MATERIAL SELF** a. Things or objects that belong to the person or entities that a person belongs to b. Body is the core of the material self 2. THE SOCIAL SELF a. Who the person is in a particular social situation b. Changes in behavior usually result from different social situation 3. THE SPIRITUAL SELF a. Self that is more concrete or permanent compared to the material and social selves b. Most subjective and intimate part of the self c. Individual’s personality, values, and morals d. Engaging in the process of introspection or self-observation i. Reflecting or looking inward to study ii. Understand the how and why of the self
4.1 OTHER SELVES IN PSYCHOLOGY
4.1.1 GLOBAL AND DIFFERENTIATED
S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER SELF MODELS ● GLOBAL SELF ○ Overall value that a person places upon himself ○ Affects how he views and feels about himself ○ Inevitable for a person to be born and to grow up in the presence of other people ○ Product of all experiences that he had in the society which accounts for the kind of person he presently is ● MURRAY BOWEN ○ American Psychiatrist ○ Professor of Psychiatry ○ One of the developer of Family Therapy and Systemic Therapy ○ Came up with differentiated self concept ○ 2 FORCES AFFECTING THE PERSON ■ 2 forces must be balance
1. TOGETHERNESS a. Too much creates friction and conflict b. Prevents the development of the person’s sense of self 2. INDIVIDUALITY a. Too much results distant and estrange feelings ● DIFFERENTIATED SELF ○ Still affected by the presence of others ○ Has the ability to separate feelings and thoughts ○ Enables the person to develop and sustain his unique identity, make his own choices and accept responsibility for his behavior and still be able to stay emotionally connected with his family and friends
4.1.2 REAL AND IDEAL SELF-CONCEPTS
● CARL ROGERS
○ American psychologist ○ Proposed ‘Person-Centered Theory’ ■ Term ‘self-concept’ — refer how a person thinks about or perceives himself ● 2 TYPES OF SELF-CONCEPT
1. REAL SELF-CONCEPT a. All information and perception the person has about himself b. “Who am I?” 2. IDEAL SELF-CONCEPT a. Model version the person has of himself b. Borne out of experiences, standards and demands of society c. What the person aims for himself to be d. “Who do I want to be?” ● SELF-DISCREPANCY THEORY OF HIGGINS ○ People use internalized standards to which they compare themselves ○ Self-guides ■ Provide directions for how the person should present himself ○ Self is found to be deviating/diverting from these guides ○ May cause emotional discomfort to the individual ○ Can be manifested as guilt or worst as indifference
4.1.3 MULTIPLE AND UNIFIED SELVES
● There exists in the individual different aspect of the self ● Parts of the self may manifest themselves when situations call for it ● Psychologically healthy is able to make sense of the sometimes confusing and conflicting aspects of themselves and integrate them into a single, unified self ● UNIFIED BEING ○ Connected to consciousness, awareness and agency ○ Who is able to deal with and accept the complexities and the perceived unfairness that exist in life
4.1.4 TRUE AND FALSE SELVES
● D.W. WINNICOTT
○ English pediatrician and psychoanalyst ● TRUE SELF ○ The self is seen as creative, spontaneously experiencing each of their lives ○ Further characterized by a high level of awareness in the person of who he is; capability and not afraid to let others know his flaws ○ Individual who recognizes his strengths and accepts his limitations ○ Never afraid to try all over again ● FALSE SELF ○ Manifested as a form of defense ○ Lacks spontaneity ○ Dead and empty ○ Mask that hides the true person for fear of the pain of rejection and failure ○ Surface when the person is forced to comply with existing social norms and standards ○ Enable the person to form superficial but productive social relationships ● ( WINNICOTT ) ○ True and false selves are present in all individuals ○ Can exist in a healthy individual if functional for the advantage of both person and society
S.Y. ‘23 - ‘24 | SEM 2 | CVSU MAIN MIDTERMS REVIEWER reforming and renewing society ● PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT ○ Centered on the ren – can be manifested through li, xiao and yi ○ Ren
- Human goodness
- Makes human beings different from beasts
- Involves feelings and thinking which serves as the foundation of all human relationships
- Signifies the Chinese culture’s emphasis on feelings or the heart as the most important instead of the head in human nature
- No specific definition
- Reflection of the person’s own understanding of humanity
- Something found within each person and can be realized in one’s personal life and relationships
- Guides human actions
- To go against it means abandoning what is truly human
- Makes life worth living ○ LI ■ Propriety ■ Rituals of the community ■ ‘To master oneself and return to propriety is humanity’ ■ Conforms to the norms of humanity ○ XIAO ■ Filiality ■ Virtue of reverence and respect for family ■ REVERENCE – bringing honor to the family ○ YI ■ Rightness ■ Right way of behaving ■ Unconditional and absolute ■ No gray areas ■ ‘Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you’ QUIZ NOTES [25 ITEMS] 1. Confucius - F. Kong Zhongni 2. Rightness - I. Yi 3. Filiality - H. Xiao 4. Propriety - G. Li 5. I think, therefore I am - E. Rene Descartes 6. Social Cognitive Theory - A. Albert Bandura 7. True and False Selves - B. D.W. Winnicott 8. Real and Ideal Self - C. Carl Rogers 9. Empirical me and I Self - D. William James 10. Psychology - K. Human Behavior 11. Core of Culture - Y. Values 12. Birthdays and Graduations - W. Rituals 13. Models of Behavior - X. Heroes 14. Dove signify peace - V. Symbols 15. Study of Man - T. Anthropology 16. Impression Management - U. Erving Goffman 17. Looking glass self - S. Charles Horton Cooley 18. Social Behaviorism - Q. George Herbert Mead 19. Environment influences Behavior - R. Sociology 20. Role Taking - O. Play Stage 21. Perception is not constant - P. Maurice Merleau-Ponty 22. Neurophilosophy - M. Churchlands 23. Knowing that and knowing how - N. Gilbert Ryle 24. Sensation and Reflection - I. John Locke 25. Impressions and Ideas - Z. David Hume TEXTBOOK : UNDERSTANDING THE SELF REVISED EDITION 2024 GNED08 REVIEWER PAGE
