UTS Chapter 4

Which among these views acknowledges the existence of a human self?

• Eastern Philosophy

• Western Philosophy

Answer explanation

Western philosophy acknowledges the existence of a human self.

Who considered individuation to be the central process of human development?

• René Descartes

• Friedrich Nietzsche

• Martin Heidegger

• Carl Jung

Answer explanation

-Carl Jung-

Individuation is a process of transformation, whereby the personal and collective unconscious is brought into consciousness to be assimilated into the whole personality.

Individuality is the state or quality of being an individuated being; a person separated from everything with unique character by possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires in comparison to other persons

Who distinguished between one’s self-representation connected to directly perceived experiences and that resulting from reflection on one’s experiences?

• Immanuel Kant

• Ulric Neisser

• Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Martin Heidegger

Answer explanation

Psychologist Ulric Neisser distinguished between one’s self-representation connected to directly perceived experiences and that resulting from reflection on one’s experiences.

o   The “ecological self,” connections of oneself to experiences in the physical environment, and

o   The “interpersonal self,” connections of oneself to others through verbal or nonverbal communication, comprise direct perception of experience.

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In this view, the self is conceived as a “relational self” – “one which is intensely aware of the social presence of other human beings”.

• Taoism

• Buddhism

• Confucianism

• Existentialism

Answer explanation

CONFUCIANISM

The concept of self is related to the social aspect of human existence. The self is conceived as a “relational self” – “one which is intensely aware of the social presence of other human beings”.

According to this doctrine, the ideal self can be achieved through harmonizing one’s everyday communication with other individuals in society.

This view accentuates the falsehood of language, way before the philosophy of linguistic analysis and the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida

• Idealism

• Hinduism

• Taoism

• Buddhism

Answer explanation

TAOISM

The so-called “Tao”, the essence of life and the universe, or the Way, cannot be described by human language.

The perfect man has no self; the spiritual man has no achievement; the true sage has no name”. The ideal of Taoism, therefore, is the achievement of a lack of self or “selflessness”.

Who advised that one should abstain from dealing with metaphysics because this activity is futile?

• Mencius

• Chu Hsi

• Chuang Tzu

• Buddha

Answer explanation

Buddha

Buddhism argues that the self as such does not exist, that it is an illusion – “The self does not exist apart from the states of consciousness. It represents incessant series of transient psychological states – this is everything, which we subsume under the term ‘self’”. There is no god, nor matter, neither is there a phenomenal world. Thus, the doctrine of “no-self” or “no-soul” emerged.

This philosophy explains the self through a monistic philosophy (metaphysics).

• Existentialism

• Hinduism

• Daoism

• Shinto

Answer explanation

Hinduism explains the self through a monistic philosophy (metaphysics).

Like Buddhism, Hinduism views the essence of human life as consisting in suffering and asserts that this is caused by having a fallacious conception of the self: “The true self is permanent and unchanging, the non-true self is impermanent and changes continually”.