Philosophy and the Self

The concept of a self serves a central function in Western philosophy and other main customs. There are three differentiated types of views about the self. These views include one move from the homo-economicus theory of Aristotelian descent and Kant’s idea of sensibly autonomous self. Independency of the first person from its social and biological atmosphere was theorized by Kant and Aristotelian’s view (Sihvola, 2008). There has been a proposal that is in contrast to these views, a perception that views the self biologically developing in a specific atmosphere.

According to Organ (1987), the concept of the self took central position in the Western customs with the Descartes in the 17thC. Descartes emphasized the independence of the first individual because an individual can comprehend that he is in existence regardless of the type of the world in which he is living. That is, according to Descartes, the cognitive base of an individual’s thinking is autonomous on its environmental factors. Hence, factors like social status, upbringing, gender, race, among others are all extraneous to capture the concept of the self.

Splane (2004) asserts that Kant developed the Cartesian viewpoint in the most essential and attractive manner. Kant held the view that every individual is an independent being with ability of imagining courses of action that surpassed any environmental association including emotional condition, race, customs, social status, upbringing, social, gender, among others. This type of notion of the independence of the self will afterward serve an essential function in the formulation of human rights. This is because every person is entitled to these types of rights specifically because of the respect that every human self values in as much as it is an independent agent (Splane, 2004). However, many different accounts have declined Kantian viewpoints over the past two centuries. They comprise one of the powerful and most appealing theoretical cores attributing a central function to the self.

Every person is viewed by homo-economicus as an individual agent whose sole function for action is self-interest. Under this viewpoint, independence of humans is expressed better in the pursuit to accomplish one’s self desires (Sihvola, 2008). The center of theories of the self whose basis is on homo-economicus view each agent as a secluded system of partiality instead of one incorporated with its surroundings even though analysis in this case of origin of desires may promote the deliberation of environmental factors.

In general, self is a development process that occurs in a specific environmental space. Hence, factors like social status, sex, formal education, gender, upbringing, emotional history, race, among others serves a function in shaping up a self. In addition, the self is dynamic, a body that is continuously in the making.