Philosophers View On Self.docx

Group 4 Dela Cruz, Mary Lance M. Verallo, Breeza Marie N.

VIEWS ON SELF OR THE HUMAN PERSON Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Ryle, Churchland, Husserl, Ponty

Rene Descartes: “I think, therefore I am” - Father of Modern Philosophy - States that the self is a thinking entity distinct from the body. - “Cogito, ergo sum,” which means “I think, therefore I am.” - Although the mind and the body are independent from each other and serve their own function, man must use his own mind and thinking abilities to investigate, analyze, experiment, and develop himself. - Conceived of the human person as having a body and a mind. (Dualism) - In his famous treatise, The Meditations of First Philosophy, he claims that there is so much that we should doubt. In fact, he says that since much of what we think and believe are not infallible, they may turn out to be false. - If something is so clear and lucid as not to be even doubted, then that is the only time when one should actually buy a proposition. - In the end, he thought that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of the self, for even if one doubts oneself that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and therefore, that cannot be doubted. - The fact that one thinks should lead one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he exists. - The self then for him is also a combination of two distinct entities: 1. Cogito -the thing that thinks, which is the mind 2. Extenza -extension of the mind, which is the body - In his view, 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 a man a man. If at all, that is the mind. David Hume: The Self is the Bundle Theory of Mind - An empiricist who believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experiences. - Empiricism is the school of thought that espouses the idea that knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experienced. Men can only attain knowledge by experiencing. - Is skeptical about the existence of the self, specifically, on whether there is a simple, unified self that exists over time. For him, man has no clear and intelligible idea of the self. - He posits that no single impression of the self exists; rather, the self is just the thing to which all perceptions of man is ascribed. Moreover, even if there were such an impression

-

of the self, it would have to remain constant over time to constitute identity. However, man’s impressions vary and always change. He asserts that what we call the “self” is really just “a bundle or collection of different perception/impressions which succeed each other with all inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement. For him, if one tries to examine his experiences, he finds that they can all be categorized into two; 1. Impressions -are the basic objects of our experience or sensation. They therefore form the core of our thoughts. -are vivid because they are products of our direct experience with the world. 2. Ideas - are copies of impressions. Because, of this, they are not as lively and vivid as our impressions. When one imagines the feeling of being in love for the first time.

Immanuel Kant: Consciousness of Self - Recognizes the veracity of Hume’s account that everything starts with perception and sensation of impressions. - Thinking of the self as a mere combination of impressions was problematic. - Thinks that the 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, for example, are ideas that one cannot find in the world, but is built in our minds. He calls these the apparatuses of the mind. - According to him, we humans have both an inner and an outer self which unify to give us consciousness. The inner self is comprised of our psychological state and our rational intellect. The outer self includes our sense and the physical world. - Along with the different apparatuses of the mind goes to the “self”. Without the self, one cannot organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. - Suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what gives one his personality. In addition, it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human persons.

John Locke: Personal Identity - Holds that personal identity (the self) is a matter of psychological continuity and is against the Cartesian theory that soul accounts for personal identity. - For him, personal identity is founded on consciousness (memory), and not on the substance of either the soul or the body. - Locke holds that consciousness can be transferred from one soul to another and that personal identity goes with consciousness. Consciousness can be transferred from one substance to another, and thus, while the soul is changed, consciousness remains the same, thereby preserving the personal identity through the change. On the other hand, consciousness can be lost as in utter forgetfulness while the soul or thinking substance

-

remains the same. Under these conditions, there is the same soul but a different person. These affirmations amount to the claim that the same soul or thinking substance is neither necessary nor sufficient for personal identity over time. Locke believes that the mind is originally a blank slate, called “tabula rasa”, which is shaped by experience, and sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our ideas. Personal Identity is the concept about oneself that evolves over the course of an individual’s life. It may include aspects of life that man has no control over, such as where he grew up or the color of his skin, as well as the choices he makes, like how he spends his time and what he believes.

Paul Churchland: Eliminative Materialism - Eliminative materialism- The radical claim that our ordinary, commonsense understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common-sense do not actually exist. - Churchland’s central argument is that the concepts and theoretical vocabulary we use to think about ourselves—using such terms as belief, desire, fear, sensation, pain, joy— actually misrepresent the reality of minds and selves. All of these concepts are part of a commonsense “folk psychology” that obscures rather than clarifies the nature of human experience. Eliminative materialists believe that we need to develop a new vocabulary and conceptual framework that is grounded in neuroscience and that will be a more accurate reflection of the human mind and self. - Churchland’s point is that the most compelling argument for developing a new conceptual framework and vocabulary founded on neuroscience is the simple fact that the current “folk psychology” has done a poor job in accomplishing the main reason for its existence— explaining and predicting the commonplace phenomena of the human mind and experience. And in the same way that science replaces outmoded, ineffective, and limited conceptual frameworks with ones that can explain and predict more effectively, so the same thing needs to be done in psychology and philosophy of mind. This new conceptual framework will be based on and will integrate all that we are learning about how the brain works on a neurological level. Gilbert Ryle - Solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the history of thought by blatantly denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self. - There is no immaterial self that exists independently of one’s body or visible behavior. - What truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in hid day-to-day life. - Looking for and trying to understand a self as it really exists is like visiting your friend’s university and looking for the “university.” - Suggests that the self is not an entity once can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make. Edmund Husserl: Phenomenology - Introduced a different approach to viewing the self, Phenomenology. Phenomenology refers to the conviction that all knowledge of our selves and our world is based on the “phenomena” of experience. From Husserl’s standpoint, the division between the “mind and the “body” is a product of confused thinking. The simple fact is, we experience our

self as a unity in which the mental and physical are woven seamlessly together. This idea of the self as a unity thus fully rejects the dualist ideas of Plato and Descartes.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Unlike Ryle who simply denies the self, he instead says that the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another. Our living body is a natural synthesis of mind and biology, and any attempts to divide them into separate entities are artificial and nonsensical. - “I live in my body”. The statement means an entity that can never be objectified, or viewed in an objective kind of way. - 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. Because of these bodies, men are in the world. - Everything that we are aware of and can possibly know is contained within our own consciousness - Dismisses the Cartesian Dualism that has spelled so much devastation in the history of man. - For him, the Cartesian problem is nothing else but plain misunderstanding. The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one.

Sources: ● 3.4 Descartes’s Modern Perspective on the Self, https://revelpreview.pearson.com/epubs/pearson_chaffee/OPS/xhtml/ch03_sec_04.xhtml ● John Locke: the modern view of matter and the self, 2014, https://thelycaeum.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/john-locke-the-modern-view-of-matterand-the-self/amp/ ● Hume’s Bundle Theory of the Self, Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team, 2017, https://schoolworkhelper.net/hume’s-bundle-theory-of-the-self/ ● Kant on Self-Consciousness, Peter Sjöstedt, http://www.philosopher.eu/texts/kant-onself-consciousness/ ● 3.11 The Self Is Embodied Subjectivity: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty https://revelpreview.pearson.com/epubs/pearson_chaffee/OPS/xhtml/ch03_sec_11.xhtml