GILBERT RYLE  The things that we do, how we behave and react and all

other components like the way we talk, walk, and look

 Analytic Philosopher.
is generally who we are as a person.
 He mounted an attack against Cartesian mind-body
dualism and supported a behaviorist theory of mind.
 He is a Behaviorist – advocates focusing on IMMANUEL KANT
public events – the behaviors of people – while
 German philosopher during the enlightenment era of
ignoring private events – the thoughts of people.
the late 18th century.
Behaviorism contends that public behaviors as
 Enlightenment era – a philosophical movement
such can be described scientifically without
of the 18th century that stressed the belief that
recourse to either internal psychological events
science and logic give people more knowledge
or to hypothetical constructs like thoughts or
and understanding than tradition and religion. It
beliefs.
rejects the traditional social, religious, and
 The self is exemplified in his “ghost in the machine”
political ideas and an emphasis on rationalism
view.
(the belief that reason and experience and not
 The man is a complex machine with different
emotions or religious beliefs should be the basis
functioning parts (body)
for your actions, opinions, etc).
 And the intelligence, and other characteristics or
 He responded to Hume’s ideas about the self
behavior of man is represented by the ghost
 He said that impressions and behavior is only part of our
(mind/soul) in the said machine.
self and that there is a certain level of conscious self that
uses our intuition which synthesizes all the experiences,
 impressions and perceptions of ourselves which will
pave the way to define and know who we really are.
 He said through Transcendental Apperception which is
an essence of our consciousness, provides basis for
understanding and establishing the notion of self by
synthesizing one’s accumulation of experiences,
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
intuition and imagination goes. This idea goes beyond
what we experience but still able to become aware of.
JOHN LOCKE
 British philosopher physician who laid the groundwork
for an empiricist approach to philosophical questions
 He is an Empiricist – a person who practice of
basing ideas and theories on testing and
experience.
 He theorized that the mind is a Tabula Rasa, a blank
slate on which experience writes.
 He regarded experiences and sense of a person in the
identification and establishment of who we are as a
person.
 He believed that a person is born with knowing nothing
and that is susceptible to stimulation and accumulation
of learning from the experiences, failures, references,
and observations of the person.
 French philosopher whose thinking was influenced by
Husserl.
 He is known for his work on existentialism and
phenomenology.
 Existentialism – philosophical movement
embracing diverse doctrines but centering on
analysis of individual existence in unfathomable
universe and the plight of the individual who
must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of
free will without any certain knowledge of what
is wrong or good or bad.
 Phenomenology – a philosophical approach that
attempts to give a direct description of our
experience as it is in itself, without taking into
 account its psychological origins or causal
explanations.
 Phenomenological of Perception – follows the
gestalt ideation where the whole is greater than
PAUL CHURCHLAND
the sum of its parts in which the unity of the
function of the mind and body.
 Gestalt – something that is made of
many parts and yet is somehow more
than or different from the combination
of its parts.
 Phenomenological of Perception divided into three (3)
divisions:
 The Body – it both receives the experiences as
well as integrates such experiences in the
different perception.
 The Perceived World – are the accumulation of
the perception as integrated by the experiences
of the body.
 The People and the World – enables one to not
only be able to integrated the other objects in
the world but also to be able to experience the
cultural aspect and relate to others.
 Canadian philosopher known for his studies in
neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind.
 Focused on the ideas that people should improve the
association and use of words in identifying the self.
 He believed that by the movements of our brain, we can
have better understanding of man.
 his main philosophy built the “eliminative materialism”
 it opposes that people’s common sense
understanding of the mind is false and that most
of the mental states that people subscribe to, in
turn, do not actually exist, this idea applies on
the understanding of behavior and emotions.
 This leads to his idea of _____________, he believed
that to fully understand one’s different neurological
movement of the brain that pertains to different
 emotions, feelings, actions and reactions and how such
brain movements affect the body.
 Understanding the different neutral pathways, how
they work, and what implications are those movements
are to people, will we not only have proof that there is
a measurable classification on one’s behavior it can also
be said that the constant movement of the brain can be
the basis of who the person is.
 This notion is his statement, “The Brain as the Self”.
PLATO
 He further defines the soul or self as having three
 Greek philosopher, student of Socrates and a teacher of
Aristotle.
 His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and
also contained discussions in aesthetics, political
philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the
philosophy of language.
 For Plato and Socrates, the self was synonymous with
the soul. Every human being, they believed, possessed
an immortal soul that survived the physical body.
 3 Parts of the Soul/Self
 Physical Appetite / Appetitive Soul – our basic
biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and
sexual desire.
 Spirit or Passion/Spirited Soul – our basic
emotions such as love, anger, ambition,
aggressiveness, and empathy.
 Reason/Rational Soul – our divine essence that
enables us to think deeply, make wise choices,
and achieve a true understanding of eternal
truths.
components: Reason, Physical Appetite, and Spirit (or
passion). These three components may work in concert,
or in opposition.
RENE DESCARTES
 Father of modern philosophy.
 A mathematician and a scientist,
 A leader in the seventeenth-century scientific
revolution.
SIGMUND FREUD
 He is the proponent of the Methodical Doubt, which
simply meant of a continuous process of questioning
what we perceive and accepting the fact that doubting,
asking questions are a part of one’s existence.
 He believed that starting point of existence, “Cognito
Ergo Sum” or “I think; therefore I am” which
summarizes that a person is comprised of mind and
body, the body perceives from the different senses and
the mind thinks and question or doubt what the body
has experienced.
 He explained that we cannot always trust our sense and
in turn what we perceive as who we are or the essence
of our existence, we as a rational being should focus on
the mind.
 He implies that being in a constant doubt regarding
one’s existence is proof that a person actually exists.
 Austrian neurologist best known for developing the
theories and techniques of psychoanalysis
 Psychoanalysis - a method of explaining and
treating mental and emotional problems by
having the patient talk about dreams, feelings,
memories, etc. its intention is to look at the
unconscious of the person to reveal its
suppressed ideas and thoughts that may have
caused the emotional problem.
 He believed that man has different constructs or make
up of personality that interacts with each other and
along with his concept of the different levels of
consciousness provides and idea how a person develops
a sense of self.
 Levels of Consciousness:
 Conscious
 Is where minority of our memories are
being stored.
 The memories stored in the conscious
are easier to be tapped or accessed.
 Pre-conscious
 The middle part of the entirely of our
consciousness.
 The memories stored in pre-conscious
can still be accessed but with a little
difficulty.
 Unconscious
SOCRATES
 This area is where majority of our
memories since childhood are deeply
stored.
 It is very difficult to tap the memories in
the unconscious that it would need a
trained professional and several special
techniques in order to make some
memories resurface.
 Structural model of the mind:
 Id – its attention is on satisfaction of one’s needs
and self-gratification. It is driven by the pleasure
principle.
 Superego- the conscience of one’s personality. It
has the inclination to uphold justice and do what
is morally right and socially accepted actions.
 Ego – it is the mediator between id and
superego. It operates within the boundaries of
reality; primary function is to maintain the
impulse of the id to an acceptable degree.
 He is a Greek Philosopher and the main source of
Western thought.
 He is often called the father of Western philosophy.
 His Socratic Method or Socratic Conversation laid the
groundwork of Western Systems of Logic and
Philosophy.
 Dualism of Reality: material realm (changeable,
transient and imperfect) and the immaterial realm
(unchanging, eternal and immortal).
 Self is an immortal soul.
 Happiness – goal of man. Direct our behavior to act
towards or avoid things that could have negative
repercussions in our lives.
 He said that for one to attain happiness he must know
himself his likes and dislikes and strengths and
weaknesses which can only be done through Socratic
Method or Socratic Conversation.
 In this process of conversation is happening inside the
person where the person assumes the role of the
teacher who is asking his student, himself.
ST. AUGUSTINE
 Christian philosopher and bishop of Hippo in Northern
Africa.
 Augustine’s synthesis of Platonic and Christian concepts
was a major influence in the development of medieval
Christian doctrine and Western philosophy.
 He is Neoplatonist – were heavily influenced
both by Plato and by the Platonic tradition, a
modern term used to designate a tradition of
philosophy that arose in the third century C.E.
and persisted until shortly after the closing of
the Platonic Academy in Athens in C.E. 529.
 He is Theologian – a term derived from the Greek word
“theos” meaning God and “logos” meaning study – the
study of God.
 The focal point of his work is on how God and his
teachings affects carious aspects in life.
 He believed that our notion of ourselves and our ideas
of existence come from a higher form of sense in which
bodily senses may not perceive or understand, and the
 more one doubts and question his life means that, that
person is living.
 Dualistic view of Self: He viewed the physical body to
die and the nonphysical body, the soul to live eternally
in transcendent realm of spiritual bliss.
 the goal of every person is to attain this communion and
bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.