Lesson 1
The Philosophy of the Self
Essential question: What is the self, and how can it be known?
Vocabulary help: Click any underlined term to see its meaning.
Philosophy studies the self through reasoned arguments about soul, mind, identity, experience, action, brain, and . Each thinker answers a different version of ‘Who am I?’
After this lesson, you should be able to
- Define the self from major philosophical perspectives
- Compare soul, mind, memory, behavior, brain, and embodiment accounts
- Evaluate arguments instead of memorizing quotations
Ancient and Christian foundations
Socrates makes self-examination a moral duty. Plato identifies the true self closely with an immortal, tripartite soul. Augustine turns inward to memory and will before God, while Aquinas understands a human being as a body-soul unity whose knowledge begins in experience.
- Socrates: examined life, care of the soul, questioning
- Plato: reason should govern spirit and appetite
- Augustine: inwardness, will, memory, spiritual union with God
- Aquinas: rational soul as form of the body; sensation and intellect
Clickable vocabulary
Choose a term to reveal its meaning.
Philippine application
A PUP student is simultaneously a thinker, an embodied commuter, a family member, and a citizen. The theories emphasize different but overlapping parts of that one life.
Common exam traps
- Dante wrote Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso; Augustine did not.
- ‘I act, therefore I am’ is a classroom summary of Ryle, not his quotation.
- Kant does not reject experience; he argues that the mind organizes it.
Active recall — answer without looking
1. Compare Plato and Merleau-Ponty on the body.
Say your answer aloud using: claim → explanation → example → comparison. Then reopen the lesson and correct anything missing.
2. How does Kant answer Hume?
Say your answer aloud using: claim → explanation → example → comparison. Then reopen the lesson and correct anything missing.
3. Which theory best explains your identity, and why?
Say your answer aloud using: claim → explanation → example → comparison. Then reopen the lesson and correct anything missing.