INTERWORLD COLLEGES FOUNDATION, INC
Burgos St., Paniqui, Tarlac
S.Y 2022-2023/ First Semester
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
SUMMARY OF LESSON
What is Understanding the Self?
-Understanding the self is a subject where we will try to understand ourselves by looking into the
different aspects of this subject.
-The subject is all about:
*Who we are
*Who we are as individuals
*Who we are as persons relating to other individuals
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of knowledge” –Aristotle
“Knowing yourself is a lifetime endeavor. It is not a weekend seminar, it does not come from capsule
form.”
BIOLOGICAL SELF- It brings psychosocial concepts and theories of development together with those
of brain structure and function that underpin and influence adaptation across the lifespan for better or for
worse.
MATERIAL SELF- According to William James, it pertains to objects, places or even people which we
have the label “mine”
PHILOSOPHICAL SELF- Defines the essential quality that makes one person distinct from all others.
SPIRITUAL SELF- Yourself in your most beautiful form and powerful form
POLITICAL SELF- How one’s political views and a\values form in the course of developing political
consciousness
DIGITAL SELF-Persona you use when you are using online.
“We often confuse discovering who we are with discovering who we want to be and if you commit to
the former, it would take care of the latter”
“Each of us needs to learn the language of our own soul.”
“If you need to help others, make sure you deeply understand yourself first.”
Before we even had to be in any formal institution of learning, among the things that we were first
taught as kids to articulate and write our names. Growing up, we were told to refer back to this name
when talking about ourselves. Our parents painstakingly thought about our names. Should we be named
after a famous celebrity, a respected politician or historical personality, or even a saint?
Even death cannot break the bond between the self and the name.
A name is not the person itself, no matter how intimately bound it is with the bearer. Our names
represent who we are; they are only signifiers. A person who is named after a saint most probably will
not become an actual saint. He may not even turn out to be saintly. "The self" is thought to be something
else than the name. "The self" is something that a person perennially molds, shapes, and develops. The
self is not a static thing that one is simply born with, like a mole on one’s face or is just assigned by
one’s parents just like a name.
