PHIL 101 Chapter 3 Outline and Key Terms PDF

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Chapter Three Who Are You? Consciousness, Identity, and the Self 3.1 (i) (ii)

Know Thyself? What the self is defies a clear understanding to the average person. The self can be understood in light of the following beliefs: a. A unique personal identity that remains the same over time. b. The same as “soul.” c. Something different from “body.” d. Something that can be understood using reason. e. Something that will continue to exist after the body dies. f. Something that connects with other selves in a personal way.

3.2 (i)

The Soul Is Immortal: Socrates and Plato Socrates believed reason was the way to know who we are, who we should be, and who we will become. He argues that the soul survives the death of the body. (ii) Reality consists of two worlds, the physical world in which change and imperfection are qualities and the intellectual world in which permanence, eternity, and immortality are qualities. This intellectual world consists of concepts such as truth, goodness, and beauty. (iii) According to Plato the soul consists of reason, physical appetite, and spirit or passion. Happiness is attainable if and only if reason rules physical appetite and spirit. (iv) Spellman criticizes Plato’s view of the power of reason and denying the importance of the body and emotions. She and other feminists argue that this view is insidious since it seems to relegate women to an “inferior” state of being. (v) Due to Socrates’ and Plato’s metaphysical views, central features of Western culture’s view of the human self have developed: a. The existence of an immaterial reality separate from the physical world. b. The radical distinction between an immaterial soul and physical body. c. The existence of an immortal soul that finds it ultimate fulfillment in union with the eternal, transcendent realm.

3:3

Philosophical Perspectives During the Middle Ages (i) Saint Augustine Synthesis of Plato and Christianity (ii) Saint Augustine Synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity

3:4

Descartes’ Modern Perspective on the Self (i) Descartes, “the father and founder of modern philosophy,” was concerned with understanding the thinking or reasoning process employed to answer philosophical questions and its relation to the human self. (ii) In order to develop well-informed beliefs, Descartes held that one must doubt all truths that are not certain and indubitable.

(iii) (iv) (v) (vi)

Given this method of doubt, Descartes was able to conclude through the use of reason that since I think, I am. Cogito Ergo Sum. Descartes was a devout dualist in the sense that the self consists of an immaterial, spiritual soul absolutely distinct from a finite, material body. The immaterial soul is governed by God and the laws of reason. Rationalism is the epistemological view that reason is the primary source of all knowledge and only through reason can we understand sense experience and reach sound and cogent conclusions.

3:5

The Self is Consciousness: Locke (i) Locke held that the mind or soul was a tabula rasa (blank slate). (ii) Personal identity, or knowledge of the self as a person, requires consciousness of our constantly perceiving self connect by memories. It is memory that connects our self at one moment to our self at other moments. (iii) Empiricism is the epistemological view that sense experience is the primary source of all knowledge and a care attention to sense experience enables us to understand the world and reach cogent conclusions.

3:6

There is No Self: Hume (i) Hume, a devout empiricist, claimed there is no self. Memories and experiences consist of impressions and ideas, which are distinct and variable. Per Hume, impressions are basic sensations of experience and ideas are copies of impressions. Due to the discontinuity of our memories and experiences, there can be no impression or idea of a self or personal identity. (ii) The self, according to Hume, is “a bundle or collection of different perceptions.” (iii) Since there is no self while the body lives, there can be immortal soul that survives death.

3:7

We Construct the Self: Kant (i) Kant, awakened by Hume from his “dogmatic slumber,” attempted to synthesize empiricism and rationalism. (ii) Kant argued that through a priori categories of the mind, our experiences are arranged and given order by the conscious self, i.e., the world is constructed by the mind. (iii) The self, or “transcendental unifying principle of consciousness,” transcends the senses and unifies our experiences.

3:8

The Self is Multilayered: Freud (i) Unconscious (ii) Conscious (iii) Ego

3:9

The Self is How You Behave: Ryle (i) Behaviorism -focuses of behaviors of people (ii) Ghost in the Machine (iii) Our Knowledge of others person’s minds can only be inferential at best

3:10

The Self is the Brain: Physcialism/Materialism (i) Materialism is the ontological view that all facets of the universe are composed of matter and energy and can be explicated through natural laws. (ii) Per materialists, especially neurophysiologists, the self is inseparable from the substance of the brain and the body’s physiology. (iii) Paul Churchland argues that “folk psychology” will be eliminated once advances in neuroscience develop the vocabulary that will enable us to be objective about the mind, consciousness, and human experience. This view is coined eliminative materialism.

3:11 The Self is Embodied: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty (i) Per phenomenologists such as Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, the self is the unity of mental and physical, a natural synthesis that forms our experience, i.e., the lived world (lebenswelt). (ii) Phenomenology attempts to clarify our understanding of experience and how we experience the world.

3:12 (i)

Buddhist Concepts of the Self Buddhists have a concept of “no-self” or anatta. It is composed of five aggregates or elements: a. physical form b. sensation c. conceptualization d. dispositions to act e. consciousness (ii) Anatta is comprised of the continual interaction of these five elements and there is no substance or identity beyond the dynamic interplay of these five elements.

3:13 (i)

Making Connections: In Search of the Self What is the self? An innocent question that is anything but innocent. Socrates’ adage “know thyself,” what a wonder, a miracle, and an extraordinary creation.

Key Terms Dualistic Empiricism

Rationalism Materialism

Physicalism Phenomenology Eliminative Materialism...