essay regarding your personal philosophy about understanding yourself

Philosophical Perspective of Self Essay

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Introduction

Rene descartes, meditations on first philosophy, second meditation summary and analysis, analysis and definition of “i”, other definitions of self, works cited.

Throughout history, the philosophical perspective of “self” has received myriad descriptions and analyses from many philosophers, researchers, and even scholars. In gaining this understanding, these people are important in explaining how the knowledge of this concept affects the world and how people perceive themselves and their ultimate relationships with others.

An understanding of “self,” therefore, affirms a person’s identity in a social environment, allowing him/her to recognize others besides oneself (Sorabji 13). In other words, the way human beings socialize solely depends on how they perceive themselves and others through daily social interactions.

Innumerable philosophers, including Socrates and Aristotle, have immensely contributed towards gaining clarity in defining “I.” Yet, it is believed that some have been quite outstanding with regard to their input. In this category lies Rene Descartes, whose findings remain essential in defining the concept of “self” and how this definition affects people’s thinking and interactions.

This paper goes far ahead in synthesizing Descartes’ findings to achieve a concise definition of the word “I” that seems reasonable and critical from a philosophical perspective of the “self.” This essay further digs into several research findings unearthed by renowned scholars and experts who have devoted their time and resources to studying and exploring the definition and how it influences interpersonal relationships in one’s life.

By compiling ideas from an array of thinkers, this philosophy of “self” essay intends to explore the implications of defining “I” in a given manner and how such a stance would affect our self-reflection and perceptions of ourselves or how we treat ourselves. The survey also focuses on how these definitions would affect our knowledge of ourselves and the world outside our “selves.”

Born in 1596 in France, Rene Descartes was a great philosopher, thinker, writer, and mathematician who spent his adulthood in the Republic of Dutch. He has arguably been dubbed as the father of modern philosophy with special emphasis on the Western school of thought (Smith 1).

As a result, his pieces of writing remain key reference materials for scholars across the global plane. For example, meditations continue to serve as principal textbooks in most universities’ philosophy departments today. His contribution to mathematics set unbeaten records, with his efforts being widely applied in calculus and geometry. In the development of natural sciences, his input cannot go unnoticed.

He believed philosophy was a mega entity encompassing all aspects of knowledge expressed through it. Although most of the works and thoughts have been widely considered, there has been a strong emphasis on Meditations on First Philosophy. As mentioned before, this essay will emphasize the second meditation in defining the concept of “I,” also known as “self.”

These meditations are considered the origin of modern Western philosophy. In this coverage, Descartes criticizes most of Aristotle’s arguments and designs questions that have remained debatable in the world of philosophy today. He breaks from the norm created by Aristotle that knowledge is achieved through human senses and that mental statuses usually resemble what they are. As such, Descartes is able to develop brand new concepts about the mind, ideas, and matter (Frankfurt 185).

In this portion of his findings, Descartes explains the nature of the human mind and that it is better than the body. His research revolves around the search for certainty and ignores every idea that carries any slightest doubt. Throughout his memory, Descartes believes that whatever he happens to see is actually meaningless and may not ever exist in real life (Descartes 17).

As a result, we can view place and movement as mistaken notions in human life since lack of certainty is the only certain thing that exists in his life. This is essential in defining ourselves and our existence.

Is it possible for Descartes to believe that he does not have a body and senses, yet he exists? What about the nonexistence of the physical world, as proposed by the author? Ironically, he can only posses these doubts of nonexistence if he truly exists.

In other words, one can only be misled by the devil from within if he does exist. As such, “I” has to exist in order to doubt and be deceived by the evil one. Nevertheless, it can generally be viewed that “I” is a necessary and true preposition when suggested by somebody or conceived in one’s own mind (Descartes 72).

After conceiving the existence of “I,” the mediator does not stop at this particular point but aims at defining and explaining the meaning of the “I am.” This approach makes it possible to be certain that we possess a soul which augments our thinking, nourishment, movement, and sensibility. Furthermore, human beings have a body (Frankfurt 185).

Regardless of these initial doubts, many people sink into a ditch of doubts and hang on to the fact that one has the ability to think. In other words, our existence does not solely depend on the above-mentioned attributes of human beings, but we have no doubt about our breathing power.

This implies that thinking is essential for a person to exist regardless of whether he has other qualities like body and soul, among others. By the fact that thinking defines “self,” it is possible to relate it with human existence and consider it inseparable from being. From a general perspective, we can view one’s self as simply “thinking something.”

The definition of “I” is enshrined in Descartes’ cogito argument based on its formulation in Latin, “cogito ergo sum,” translated as “I think, therefore, I am.” This line is quite famous in the history of philosophy and is most probably regarded as the origin of Western philosophy and other schools of thought that developed after Descartes. In this line, the mediator gets in touch with a grip of certainty after his continuous disbelief is manifested in the First Mediation (Frankfurt 186).

In essence, the cogito exposes a different view of the world and states that the mind is the only thing in the world that can know itself. Notably, understanding our mind first before any other thing has remained rooted in Western philosophy, even though the main point of contention has been the connection between the mind and the real world. From this perspective, the mind is no longer an aid to understanding the world but an internally locked thing (Frankfurt 186).

In analyzing Descartes’ Second Meditation, it is of immense significance to note the existing differences between “I think, therefore I am” as described in the Discourse Method from the general formulation derived from meditations.

At this point of the synthesis, it is imperative to mention that the proposition “I am, I exist” holds only when it is put forward by a specific individual and conceived by the person’s mind. The mediation is further divided into an argument of three steps, which are: whatever thinks exists, I think therefore, and I exist (Frankfurt 188).

However, in understanding “self” through syllogistic reading and analysis, denied by Descartes in other pieces of writing is the fact that there is no reason why “whatever thinks exists” should not be doubtful as portrayed by the mediator. This reading approach further analyzes the cogito as a conclusion that has been reasoned out at a specific point in the doubtful mind of the mediator, even when inferences that have been well reasoned out are called to doubt (Frankfurt 189).

The question we need to ask ourselves in this definition of self is the path somebody takes to know the cogito when everything else is doubted. As a result, several proposals have been put forth as reading formats and methodologies aimed at simplifying this reading process and step (Frankfurt 202). It would be impossible for a person to say he/she exits or even thinks of existence without being in a real state.

Consequently, the truth is achieved by the utterance concerning the concept of existence. In this line of thought, it can be argued that the existence of a person can only be confirmed by oneself in the present tense, “I am.” It is also important to double emphasize the fact that cogito can only work when one is talking about thought. One cannot say: “I sleep, therefore I am,” since the act of sleeping can be doubted. In explaining this, one cannot doubt the act of thinking because doubt on its own is a form of thought.

Besides cogito , the mediator also affirms that he “thinks,” leading to an argument commonly referred to as sun res cogitans (Rorty 215). This comprises three controversial views regarding one being a “thinking thing.” In this approach, it is essential to comprehend the meaning of “thing” and “think” to establish their definitive relationship with “I am.”

There are two approaches to defining “self” at this point. This can be done both epistemologically and metaphysically. In other words, body and mind cannot be one since one has got either to know both of them or none of them. As a matter of fact, the existence of the body ceases since one is a “thinking thing with delinked body and mind. This gives way to the conclusion that one is a “thing that thinks.”

With preciseness, “I” can be defined as the “thing that thinks.” In addition, “I” possesses other attributes besides being able to think, understand, and be willing to do certain things. These qualities include but are not limited to imagination and the use of the senses. In the understanding of “I,” it is worth noting that senses and imagination cannot be trusted (Rorty 214). This is because imagination can trigger all forms of things that may not necessarily be real.

How can one identify wax? This is made possible through a sense of taste, color, smell, size, shape, and hardness, among others. When heated, the wax changes some properties but can be identified despite the deviation from the initial form. Due to the fact that wax can be identified even when its shape is infinitely changed, it suffices to mention that this cannot be possible via imagination but through the intellect alone and proper mental scrutiny.

Based on this argument, it can be concluded that the mind knows better than the body. In this approach, the human view is that one has to know the mind more than any other thing in his or her life as a way of understanding the self better (Rorty 214). There is no doubt in perceiving the identity of something, and these actions of thought clearly imply that the item exists in reality. Therefore, confirming one’s existence is the core of ascertaining the nature of the mind through the intellect alone.

As mentioned before, various authors have defined and described the concept of “self” throughout history. According to Sorabji, the idea of “self” is real in human history. He argues that the “self” comes to play when the owner of a body is intertwined with existing psychological states (Sorabji 13).

He further notes that in explaining the “self,” there is a stream of consciousness that lacks the owner. In his description of this analogy, Sorabji asserts that his definition of “self” fits other members like animals as embodied owners of the body. Based on this approach, Sorabji further double emphasizes the fact that there is a need to protect the human way of life and not only base it on its relationship with the “self” or the interaction between members of a given stream (Sorabji 13).

The broadness of “self” also encompasses the picture of human beings developing into male or female, baker or teacher, son or daughter, Indian or American, among other development attributes. Importantly, these cannot be visualized through the metaphysical conceptualization of the “self” because of its narrowness in determining the nature of the pictures to be adopted. Additionally, the pictures are not considered to be essential and are likely to be altered under extreme pressure (Sorabji 14).

However, visualized pictures are important in describing a complete image of selfhood, even though they can be philosophically studied differently. “I am” is also described by the use of unique features, which make human beings different from other creations (Sorabji 14). In essence, thoughts and actions people execute are usually a result of the self. It can be described as a substance that persists through time. This is to say that actions and thoughts experienced at different times of the day or in life may also concern the “self.”

In most cases, philosophical definitions of “self” are discussed based on the first-person attributes. This is because third-person definitions do not identify unique identification properties. Viewed from a different point, the “self” can be principally described through the discourse and conduct of a person.

As a result, intentions can only be deduced from something being observed through actions undertaken by an individual. Of great significance is the fact that the characteristics of a given “self” have the full potential of determining its real identity (Rorty 215).

Based on this analogy, it can be argued that “I” can be divided into various concepts as defined by specific qualities and attributes. For instance, the “self” can be viewed as an illusion (Sorabji 17). This is common in ancient spiritual traditions in which the human identity is conceived as a mere illusion for the existence of individual human beings. This identification further ensures that there is a boundary between humanity and other forms of creation, especially in terms of characteristics and abilities.

In general, individual existence is considered as the representation of a human being and advocates fighting for its rightful position in the world (Rorty 216). Moreover, “self” is linked with time and mind, which determine obsessive thinking based on the future than emphasizing the present. Most religions advocate for the dissolution of humans for human nature to prevail in the world. This is commonly known as nirvana, presence, or enlightenment.

Besides viewing the self as an illusion, other philosophers approach the concept by considering the “self” as an activity. Among these philosophers were Aristotle and Plato, who defined the human soul as the principal essence of humanity but posited against differences in existence.

Unlike Plato and other religious traditions who supported separate existence, Aristotle viewed the human “self” as an activity of the body which lacks the properties of becoming immortal (Sorabji 17). To be specific, the soul is viewed as the activity of any living body. In defining the soul, Aristotle divided his argument into four major parts, including the desiderative, calculative, rational, and scientific parts.

Another renowned philosopher and psychologist today who defines “self” is Dr. Phil. He believes that a person dwells on a state of fictional self or authentic self as created by the Supreme Being. According to Dr. Phil, most people define who they are by explaining what they are doing, where they are, or their role in society.

However, Dr. Phil argues that one’s authentic self encompasses the genuine existence of a person’s identity (McGraw 1). This is to say that an authentic self demonstrates core human qualities. Additionally, the self is made up of the part of an individual that is not defined by profession or a given role in society. It consists of an individual’s talents, skills, and wisdom.

The psychologist further argues that an authentic self revolves around a person’s uniqueness, including abilities, rather than what he/she is expected to do or become. This, therefore, implies that when an individual does not live to the standards of his authentic self, he adopts a fictional self that has emptiness and incompleteness (McGraw 1).

It is doubtless that the definition of “self” has a wide range of implications. For instance, this knowledge affects the way human beings view themselves differently from animals. It gives them an understanding of their uniqueness and potential in using their senses to recognize their surrounding and their imagination ability.

Additionally, the definition of self impacts how we interact with and perceive others. In other words, human beings are able to appreciate others regardless of their shortcomings and differences since each one of them possesses unique qualities and attributes.

Although numerous philosophers have devoted their lives to defining the “I am” concept, Rene Descartes is regarded as the father of Western philosophy and a great contributor to several schools of thought. In particular, Meditations on First Philosophy has widely been used as learning at teaching materials across the globe.

Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy . Sioux Falls: NuVision Publications, LLC, 2007. Print.

Frankfurt, Harry. Descartes’ Discussion of His Existence in the Second Mediation. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2004. Print.

McGraw, Phillip. “Self Matters.” Dr. Phil , 2012. Web.

Rorty, Amélie. Essays on Descartes’ Meditations . California: University of California Press, 1986. Print.

Smith, Kurt, “Descartes’ Life and Works.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2012. Web. < https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entries/descartes-works/ >.

Sorabji, Richard. Graeco-Roman Varieties of Self. New York, NY: Springer, 2008. Print.

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UConn Today

August 7, 2018 | Kenneth Best - UConn Communications

Know Thyself: The Philosophy of Self-Knowledge

Dating back to an ancient Greek inscription, the injunction to 'know thyself' has encouraged people to engage in a search for self-understanding. Philosophy professor Mitchell Green discusses its history and relevance to the present.

From Socrates to today's undergraduates, philosophy professor Mitchell Green discusses the history and current relevance of the human quest for self-knowledge. (Getty Images)

UConn philosopher Mitchell S. Green leads a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge  on the online learning platform Coursera. The course is based on his 2018 book (published by Routledge) of the same name. He recently spoke with Ken Best of UConn Today about the philosophy and understanding of self-knowledge. This is an edited transcript of their discussion.

Q. ‘Know Thyself’ was carved into stone at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi in Greece, according to legend. Scholars, philosophers, and civilizations have debated this question for a long time. Why have we not been able to find the answer?

A. I’m not sure that every civilization or even most civilizations have taken the goal to achieve self-knowledge as being among the most important ones. It comes and goes. It did have cachet in the Greece of 300-400 BC. Whether it had similar cachet 200 years later or had something like cultural importance in the heyday of Roman civilization is another question. Of course some philosophers would have enjoined people to engage in a search for self-understanding; some not so much. Likewise, think about the Middle Ages. There’s a case in which we don’t get a whole lot of emphasis on knowing the self, instead the focus was on knowing God. It’s only when Descartes comes on the scene centuries later that we begin to get more of a focus on introspection and understanding ourselves by looking within. Also, the injunction to “know thyself” is not a question, and would have to be modified in some way to pose a question. However, suppose the question is, “Is it possible to know oneself, either in part or fully.” In that case, I’d suggest that we’ve made considerable progress in answering this question over the last two millennia, and in the Know Thyself book, and in the MOOC of the same name, I try to guide readers and students through some of what we have learned.

Q. You point out that the shift Descartes brought about is a turning point in Western philosophy.

A. Right. It’s for various reasons cultural, political, economic, and ideological that the norm of self-knowledge has come and gone with the tides through Western history. Even if we had been constantly enjoined to achieve self-knowledge for the 2,300 years since the time Socrates spoke, just as Sigmund Freud said about civilization – that civilization is constantly being created anew and everyone being born has to work their way up to being civilized being – so, too, the project of achieving self-knowledge is a project for every single new member of our species. No one can be given it at birth. It’s not an achievement you get for free like a high IQ or a prominent chin. Continuing to beat that drum, to remind people of the importance of that, is something we’ll always be doing. I’m doubtful we’ll ever reach a point we can all say: Yup, we’re good on that. We’ve got that covered, we’ve got self-knowledge down. That’s a challenge for each of us, every time somebody is born. I would also say, given the ambient, environmental factors as well as the predilections that we’re born with as part of our cognitive and genetic nature, there are probably pressures that push against self-knowledge as well. For instance, in the book I talk about the cognitive immune system that tends to make us spin information in our own favor. When something goes bad, there’s a certain part of us, hopefully within bounds, that tends to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. That’s probably a good way of getting yourself up off the floor after you’ve been knocked down.

Q. Retirement planners tell us you’re supposed to know yourself well enough to know what your needs are going to be – create art or music, or travel – when you have all of your time to use. At what point should that point of getting to know yourself better begin?

A. I wouldn’t encourage a 9-year-old to engage in a whole lot of self-scrutiny, but I would say even when you’re young some of those indirect, especially self-distancing, types of activities, can be of value. Imagine a 9-year-old gets in a fight on the playground and a teacher asks him: Given what you said to the other kid that provoked the fight, if he had said that to you, how would you feel? That might be intended to provoke an inkling of self-knowledge – if not in the form of introspection, in the form of developing empathetic skills, which I think is part of self-knowledge because it allows me to see myself through another’s eyes. Toward the other end of the lifespan, I’d also say in my experience lots of people who are in, or near, retirement have the idea they’re going to stop working and be really happy. But I find in some cases that this expectation is not realistic because so many people find so much fulfillment, and rightly so, in their work. I would urge people to think about what it is that gives them satisfaction? Granted we sometimes find ourselves spitting nails as we think about the challenges our jobs present to us. But in some ways that frequent grumbling, the kind of hair-pulling stress and so forth, these might be part of what makes life fulfilling. More importantly, long-term projects, whether as part of one’s career or post-career, tend I think to provide more intellectual and emotional sustenance than do the more ephemeral activities such as cruises, safaris, and the like.

Q. We’re on a college campus with undergraduates trying to learn more about themselves through what they’re studying. They’re making decisions on what they might want to do with the rest of their life, taking classes like philosophy that encourage them to think about this. Is this an optimal time for this to take place?

A. For many students it’s an optimal time. I consider one component of a liberal arts education to be that of cultivation of the self. Learning a lot of stuff is important, but in some ways that’s just filling, which might be inert unless we give it form, or structure. These things can be achieved through cultivation of the self, and if you want to do that you have to have some idea of how you want it to grow and develop, which requires some inkling of what kind of person you think you are and what you think you can be. Those are achievements that students can only attain by trying things and seeing what happens. I am not suggesting that a freshman should come to college and plan in some rigorous and lockstep way to learn about themselves, cultivate themselves, and bring themselves into fruition as some fully formed adult upon graduation. Rather, there is much more messiness; much more unpredictable try things, it doesn’t work, throw it aside, try something else. In spite of all that messiness and ambient chaos, I would also say in the midst of that there is potential for learning about yourself; taking note of what didn’t go well, what can I learn from that? Or that was really cool, I’d like to build on that experience and do more of it. Those are all good ways of both learning about yourself and constructing yourself. Those two things can go hand-in-hand. Self-knowledge, self-realization, and self-scrutiny can happen, albeit in an often messy and unpredictable way for undergraduates. It’s also illusory for us to think at age 22 we can put on our business clothes and go to work and stop with all that frivolous self-examination. I would urge that acquiring knowledge about yourself, understanding yourself is a lifelong task.

Q. There is the idea that you should learn something new every day. A lot of people who go through college come to understand this, while some think after graduation, I’m done with that. Early in the book, you talk about Socrates’ defense of himself when accused of corrupting students by teaching them in saying: I know what I don’t know, which is why I ask questions.

It seems to me the beginning of wisdom of any kind, including knowledge of ourselves, is acknowledgment of the infirmity of our beliefs and the paucity of our knowledge. — Mitchell S. Green

A. That’s very important insight on his part. That’s something I would be inclined to yell from the rooftops, in the sense that one big barrier to achieving anything in the direction of self-knowledge is hubris, thinking that we do know, often confusing our confidence in our opinions with thinking that confidence is an indication of my degree of correctness. We feel sure, and take that surety itself to be evidence of the truth of what we think. Socrates is right to say that’s a cognitive error, that’s fallacious reasoning. We should ask ourselves: Do I know what I take myself to know? It seems to me the beginning of wisdom of any kind, including knowledge of ourselves, is acknowledgment of the infirmity of our beliefs and the paucity of our knowledge; the fact that opinions we have might just be opinions. It’s always astonishing to me the disparity between the confidence with which people express their opinions, on one hand, and the negligible ability they have to back them up, especially those opinions that go beyond just whether they’re hungry or prefer chocolate over vanilla. Those are things over which you can probably have pretty confident opinions. But when it comes to politics or science, history or human psychology, it’s surprising to me just how gullible people are, not because they believe what other people say, so to speak, but rather they believe what they themselves say. They tend to just say: Here is what I think. It seems obvious to me and I’m not willing to even consider skeptical objections to my position.

Q. You also bring into the fold the theory of adaptive unconscious – that we observe and pick up information but we don’t realize it at the time. How much does that feed into people thinking that they know themselves better than they do and know more than they think they do?

A. It’s huge. There’s a chapter in the book on classical psychoanalysis and Freud. I argue that the Freudian legacy is a broken one, in the sense that while his work is incredibly interesting – he made a lot of provocative and ingenious claims interesting – surprisingly few of them have been borne out with empirical evidence. This is a less controversial view than it was in the past. Experimental psychologists in the 1970s and 80s began to ask how many of those Freudian claims about the unconscious can be established in a rigorous, experimental way? The theory of the adaptive unconscious is an attempt to do that; to find out how much of the unconscious mind that Freud posited is real, and what is it like. One of the main findings is that the unconscious mind is not quite as bound up, obsessed with, sexuality and violence as posited by Freud. It’s still a very powerful system, but not necessarily a thing to be kept at bay in the way psychoanalysis would have said. According to Freud, a great deal with the unconscious poses a constant threat to the well-functioning of civilized society, whereas for people like Tim Wilson, Tanya Chartrand, Daniel Gilbert, Joseph LeDoux, Paul Ekman, and many others, we’ve got a view that says that in many ways having an adaptive unconsciousness is a useful thing, an outsourcing of lots of cognition. It allows us to process information, interpret it, without having to consciously, painstakingly, and deliberately calculate things. It’s really good in many ways that we have adaptive unconscious. On the other hand, it tends to predispose us, for example, to things like prejudice. Today there is a discussion about so-called implicit bias, which has taught us that because we grew up watching Hollywood movies where protagonist heroes were white or male, or both; saw stereotypes in advertising that have been promulgated – that experience, even if I have never had a consciously bigoted, racist, or sexist thought in my life, can still cause me to make choices that are biased. That’s a part of the message on the theory of adaptive unconscious we would want to take very seriously and be worried about, because it can affect our choices in ways that we’re not aware of.

Q. With all of this we’ve discussed, what kind of person would know themselves well?

A. Knowing oneself well would, I suspect, be a multi-faceted affair, only one part of which would have to do with introspection as that notion is commonly understood. One of these facets involves acknowledging your limitations, “owning them” as my Department of Philosophy colleague Heather Battaly would put it. Those limitations can be cognitive – my lousy memory that distorts information, my tendency to sugarcoat any bad news I may happen to receive? Take the example of a professor reading student evaluations. It’s easy to forget the negative ones and remember the positive ones – a case of “confirmation bias,” as that term is used in psychology. Knowing that I tend to do that, if that’s what I tend to do, allows me to take a second look, as painful as it might be. Again, am I overly critical of others? Do I tend to look at the glass as overly half full or overly half empty? Those are all limitations of the emotional kind, or at least have an important affective dimension. I suspect a person who knows herself well knows how to spot the characteristic ways in which she “spins” or otherwise distorts positive or negative information, and can then step back from such reactions, rather than taking them as the last word.

I’d also go back to empathy, knowing how to see things from another person’s point of view. It is not guaranteed to, but is often apt to allow me to see myself more effectively, too. If I can to some extent put myself into your shoes, then I also have the chance to be able to see myself through your eyes and that might get me to realize things difficult to see from the first-person perspective. Empathizing with others who know me might, for instance, help to understand why they sometimes find me overbearing, cloying, or quick to judge.

Q. What would someone gain in self-knowledge by listening to someone appraising them and speaking to them about how well they knew them? How does that dynamic help?

A. It can help, but it also can be shocking. Experiments have suggested other people’s assessments of an individual can often be very out of line with that person’s self-assessment. It’s not clear those other person’s assessments are less accurate – in some cases they’re more accurate – as determined by relatively well-established objective psychological assessments. Third-person assessments can be both difficult to swallow – bitter medicine – and also extremely valuable. Because they’re difficult to swallow, I would suggest taking them in small doses. But they can help us to learn about ourselves such things as that we can be unaccountably solicitous, or petty, or prone to one-up others, or thick-skinned. I’ve sometimes found myself thinking while speaking to someone, “If you could hear yourself talking right now, you might come to realize …” Humblebragging is a case in point, in which someone is ostensibly complaining about a problem, but the subtext of what they’re saying might be self-promoting as well.

All this has implications for those of us who teach. At the end of the semester I encourage my graduate assistants to read course evaluations; not to read them all at once, but instead try to take one suggestion from those evaluations that they can work on going into the next semester. I try to do the same. I would not, however, expect there ever to be a point at which one could say, “Ah! Now I fully know myself.” Instead, this is more likely a process that we can pursue, and continue to benefit from, our entire lives.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Finding Yourself — Understanding Yourself: A Self-Discovery Journey

Understanding Yourself: a Self-discovery Journey

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How to Form a Personal Philosophy: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself

May 31, 2022

Forming a personal philosophy isn’t easy – but it’s worth it. A personal philosophy provides you with a fundamental framework for creating a meaningful life. You can use it to align all facets of your higher self and find a purpose in everything you do .

Many people flow through life with no personal guidance system in place. From this position of uncertainty, we end up breezing through life with little direction and struggle to meet our long-term goals .

By forming a personal philosophy, you create an invitation to exist intentionally and catapult yourself towards your vision of a fulfilled life. 

Whether you’re reinventing yourself or about to shift careers , a personal philosophy gives you the blueprint to ensure that you approach everything in life with intention, regardless of your current circumstances.

Does the idea of a personal philosophy resonate with you? Then keep reading to discover how to form a personal philosophy and create a life worth living. 

What Is a Personal Philosophy?

Creating a personal philosophy is the secret ingredient to living a deep and meaningful life of purpose. 

It’s a set of principles, unique to you, that guide you towards achieving your greatest dreams and aspirations.

A personal philosophy is a means of matching your thought patterns with your values, goals, and overall life vision. It’s the stepping stone towards living in alignment with your truth and reaching your highest self.

An article from the Journal of Space Philosophy explains that every human being has a personal philosophy that’s influenced by genetics, environment, and a lifetime of learning. 

In this philosophical piece, Robert Krone suggests that: 

“A small percentage of humans have explicitly documented their own philosophy as an analysis of their own value systems, or to understand the values, sources, and influences on their beliefs over time.” Robert Krone

Philosophy, in general, provides you with the means to deepen your understanding and improve your intelligence. Personal philosophies provide motivational guidelines that nurture expansive thinking and soul searching, ultimately enhancing your quality of life.

7 Questions to Guide You When Forming Your Personal Philosophy

Personal philosophies can be a wonderful ignition for your self-discovery journey. Devote this time to you, and let yourself be vulnerable in this period of discovery.

Below you will find an outline of 7 questions that will ignite inspiration and guide your mind towards new paradigms of thought. 

Take some time on each to really dig deep and do the work. 

1. What Are Your Core Values?

Begin by asking yourself, “What are my core values?” 

Understanding your core values offers you an insight into your true identity and sets the bar for establishing core moral principles.

What values drive your actions? 

As you write out each value, attach a definition to each and add a line or two about how you envision aligning your actions with your values. 

For example:

“I live and work with honor. I believe that everything I do must come from a place where honesty springs up like the headwaters of the river. In decisions and actions, I allow integrity to be my first and foremost directive. I do not expect to be perfect at this. I do expect integrity to be a constant ideal.”

By outlining your core values, you are building the foundations of your truth. Once you understand what you hold close to your heart, you can then discover ways to align your actions and values to reach your goals. 

If you need some guidance, check out my course, Be True: Discover Your Core Value System . In it, I personally walk you through proven exercises to discover your true self, find your truth and begin living it.

2. What Are Your Most Deeply Rooted Beliefs?

Take a moment to venture inwards. 

Dive deep into the core of your being and unearth the beliefs rooted in your soul. These can be associated with your worldviews or that in which you have great faith. 

Share or write down two or three of your most potent, deeply-rooted beliefs that are ingrained into your soul. These deeply-rooted beliefs are the ones that influence your perception and how you view the world.

A podcast episode by Boss Project on the subject demonstrates how our deeply-rooted beliefs are influenced by our environment and social norms. 

When you react to a situation, rather than consciously responding, it’s your deeply-rooted belief system, crafted from your upbringing and life experiences, that triggers you to act, often without thinking.

Outlining these beliefs for your personal philosophy allows you to truly understand what you stand for and, in turn, allows you to create life guidelines that are rooted in your truth. It’s like planting a seed of sincerity and watching it grow as you evolve.

3. What is Your Life’s General Philosophy?

Now that you’ve taken some time to explore your core values and fundamental beliefs, it’s time to outline your general philosophy for life. 

For this step, take a look at the principal thoughts which have blossomed from the experience, knowledge, and wisdom you have gained so far.

The basis of identifying a general philosophy starts with one question:

What is the meaning of life?

According to Joseph Campbell, “The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”

This means that the answer to this question is different for every single person. 

From the second we are born into this earth, we each have a unique experience influenced by many internal and external elements. 

The meaning of life varies according to different philosophies , but this question is for you and you alone. 

Write down what you believe your life’s general philosophy is – what you believe your life’s meaning is – and allow this to guide you down the path towards success, satisfaction, and fulfillment. 

4. What Are the Metrics by Which You Measure Success?

We all want to succeed in life, but understand that success looks different to everyone. 

You may believe that you have ‘made it’ if you are excelling in your career. If you’re more family-orientated, you may feel that you’ve made it when you have created a beautiful family surrounded by love. 

Regardless, by understanding success as it relates to you, you can inspire to integrate this definition into your personal philosophy and set out the actions you need to align with in order to achieve it.

Ask yourself – what does success mean to you ?

The answer to this intuitive question empowers you to define success broadly, in the context of your life and in relation to the unique challenges you face.

You can dissect this into different timeframes and metrics such as daily, annually, or even a lifetime measure of success. 

Outline how you hope to achieve success using the most meaningful metric for you. 

What does success mean to you?

“When this life comes to an end I will measure success by how open my mind has remained and how soft my heart still is.”

5. What Do You Feel Is Your Life’s Purpose?

It’s not uncommon for people to not yet know their life’s purpose. 

Whether it relates to your career, passions, or relationship with others, each of us has a reason as to why we are here, on earth – but we might not yet know it.

Finding purpose in life can be difficult for some yet easy for others. It may take weeks, years, or even a lifetime. But once you have an understanding of what this purpose is you can live each day intentionally, consistently doing the things that are in alignment with your truth.

You can choose to add this step in or leave it out; it’s totally up to you. If you are exploring this step, see if you can write up no more than three sentences about what you sense your life’s purpose to be.

To make things even more simple, make the statement high-level, and less specific. 

What do you feel is your life’s purpose?

“My purpose in life is to provide as much love as I can to those around me. I want to enrich my immediate environment and community. I want to leave the world a better place than when I arrived in it.”

You can take this exercise further by developing a full personal purpose statement .

A study on purpose, hope, and life satisfaction by the Journal of Positive Psychology states that when individuals, no matter what age they are, identify with a purpose in life, they experience greater life satisfaction.

Once you feel that you know your purpose, you can translate these inspiring and actionable guidelines into your personal philosophy. This in turn allows you to lead your life, nurture your relationships and achieve your goals with a sense of gratification.

6. What Are Your Greatest Strengths?

As with everything in life, we embody both strengths and weaknesses and translate these into everything we do. 

Identifying each of these can attribute great value to your life, and help you understand where you already excel and where you can improve.

So ask yourself, “ What am I good at? ” 

What are my greatest strengths in life?

Take some time to learn how to identify your strengths . While your strengths may change as your work life and circumstances shift, start with today. 

Create a list and layout the great traits that allow you to elevate your everyday life and allow you to thrive. 

For example, you may excel at what you do for a living, you may have a heart of gold that supports others, you may be the first person people call if they need help creating a PowerPoint presentation, and so on.

By adding your greatest strengths into your personal philosophy, you can identify how to take advantage of the skills that enhance your life and do more of what you are good at. 

In fact, Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains that doing something that you love, whether that’s work or play, invites you into a flow state. 

It’s from this state of flow that you tap into your creativity, encourage free-thinking, and in turn increase your chances of success.

7. What Do You Need in Life?

As the final question for guiding your personal philosophy, ask yourself, “What is essential in my everyday life?”

Each of us has our own unique needs and when these are met, we are the best version of ourselves. 

List the needs that you require at this moment in time. Next to each need, attach an intention for how you intend to meet these. 

For example: 

What do you need in life?

“In my day-to-day life, I search for peace amidst the chaos. In every moment, I sprinkle a sense of calmness onto all situations as it’s from this place of serenity that I can make conscious choices that are beneficial for me, others around me, and the environment. Even when I have no control over outside circumstances, I always have a choice to venture inwards where true peace resides.”

Maybe you are unsure as to what you truly need from this lifetime. That’s okay. Why not first figure out how to discover your passion and take it from there? 

When we lead from the heart, we can never go wrong. 

Philosophy in Practice: Examples of Personal Philosophy

We’ve shared the questions to ask yourself when forming your own personal philosophy, now let’s take a look at some examples of how they might look:

1. Failure Inspires Positive Change

This example is a life philosophy someone might create to remind themselves to embrace challenges and the unavoidable setbacks they will face on their path to success. It will guide and inspire them to keep going, especially when things get tough.

Nothing worth having in life ever comes easy. It’s only natural to experience failure along the way when pursuing your dreams. 

Keep in mind that failure is not the end. Rejection is only redirection that can support you on this journey called life. 

No matter whether it’s in your personal, career, or romantic life— failure welcomes learning curves and can even be an invitation down the path less taken. 

The path to success is never a straight line. It involves frustration, setbacks, replanning, but most importantly, continued effort. And from there springs ultimate satisfaction and achievement.

Core values:

2. Always Act From a Place of Integrity 

Someone with this life philosophy wants to remain true to themselves in all situations, and build authentic connections to enrich their lives.

When you make decisions based on honesty you can stand up for what you believe in while also staying humble. 

It’s from this place that you can stay rooted in your truth while also staying open-minded to others’ perceptions. 

Treat every interaction as an opportunity to discover something new. You might just find learning something from welcoming a different outlook. 

• Open-mindedness 

Take the First Step Towards True Purpose

Discovering the right direction in life isn’t always easy. And often it’s not about the destination but the beautiful, complicated, and sometimes painful journey along the way. 

It may take exploring different avenues before you discover and unleash your true purpose. By dedicating time to understanding your values, beliefs, and goals through developing a personal philosophy, you’ll get there.

One step at a time. 

And when you do, I promise it’ll all be worth it. 

If you need a push in the right direction, check out my Online Course: Believing in Yourself . You’ll learn a number of proven methods to push past self-doubt, take action and achieve your goals.

About Lyn Christian

Hi there, I'm Lyn . My purpose is to support you to earn a living and live your life by doing what inspires you. To accomplish this, I work as a coach, consultant, TEDx speaker, author and founder of SoulSalt Inc.

Life Philosophy 101 – An Introduction

Personal life philosophies are not a common subject and quality information on them can be difficult to find. They can tend to be grouped with other more prescriptive philosophies or reduced to personal slogans like bumper stickers or t-shirts.

Personal Life Philosophies are unique in that there are as many of them as there are individuals. Just as no two people are alike, no two life philosophies are the same. We each have our own basis for understanding ourselves, our lives and the world and our own aspirations for how we seek them to be.

This introduction touches on the essential knowledge that everyone should have to understand personal life philosophies, why they are essential life tools and how they can enrich your life.

Introduction to Life Philosophy Resources

These key concepts establish a common foundation of knowledge.  This foundation will be helpful as you develop and live your personal life philosophy.

Start here if you are unfamiliar with life philosophy or want a refresher. Expand each of the sections if you would like more in depth information.

Life philosophy can be a tricky subject to embrace. There are common misconceptions that can bias your understanding and lead you to avoid the whole topic.  

Understanding these misconceptions can stop them from preventing knowing and embracing your unique personal philosophy.

Just as we all have our own life philosophy; we all have our own way of learning.

If you prefer, choose the topics you want to cover in the order that works best for you.

Key Concepts about Personal Philosophies

• What is a personal philosophy?

A personal life philosophy is your unique understanding of and perspective on the world and life including how you think life should be lived and the world should be.

Why does this matter? Your personal philosophy is a way to crystalize and make real your understanding of the world and life to help you make sense of it, know what is essential, sharpen your vision and bring clarity to a complex world.

The concept of a personal philosophy is something that is unique and something that is not generally well known or widespread, at least personal philosophies that are well developed and that can bring real value to one’s life. One can wonder why this is so, especially considering the importance of one’s personal philosophy . 

In general, personal philosophies include things like your most essential truths and insights about, and highest aspirations, for life and the world. They bring value to your life both through the process of developing them and through helping make more definite thoughts and feelings that can be abstract and difficult to readily access and use in your life.

A personal philosophy encapsulates what is most essential, of great consequence, vital, enlightening and imperative. It is based upon what captures your imagination, demands your attention, comes naturally to you, incites you to action, inspires you, infuriates you, drives you or frees you to the greatest degree.

Personal philosophies are typically stated in a written form such as a set of principles or tenets and sometimes are written in an essay format, though they can take any from that you find useful.

Note: There are a series of related terms used for referring to personal philosophies including personal philosophy on life, living philosophy.  Just about every conceivable combination and variation of the words philosophy, life and personal that are used to refer to personal philosophies.  Here, the terms personal philosophy, personal life philosophy and life philosophy are used interchangeably.

• What is life philosophy?

Life philosophy is the development and application of your personal philosophy to your life.  Life philosophy includes two primary components: your personal philosophy and the ongoing act of making it real through developing and living it.

Why does this matter? Personal philosophies that cannot be or are not used in one’s life, may be interesting to contemplate and discuss over an adult beverage, but they cannot enrich your life unless you actually use them in it.

Beyond the potentially transformational experience of developing a personal philosophy, most of its value is realized through living it. A personal philosophy that is only vague concepts or even one is well formed but unused is of little value. Your personal philosophies can be of great value, but only if it is clear to you and made real in your life. Living your personal philosophy is how you realize the value of it for yourself and the world. There are a wealth of practical and enriching ways that your personal philosophy can be used in your life .

• Why should I put effort into developing my personal philosophy?

Although each of us naturally has the basis for our personal philosophy, most of us do not understand our basis in ways that help us or in ways that we can make use of. Developing your personal philosophy clarifies it for you and helps you gain active knowledge of it.

Why does this matter?   The experience of developing your personal philosophy includes connecting with what is essential to you in the world, which is a rewarding and enriching experience itself. Most importantly developing and actively knowing your personal philosophy enables you to use it in your life and realize the value it can bring .

When following a good approach for developing yours, you start to realize the value early in the process. Because of the nature of personal philosophies, you necessarily need to consider your perspective on the world and to understand your thoughts and feelings about it.  Most of us do not take the time or invest the effort into actively working to understand our perspective on the world and ourselves. Developing your personal philosophy gives you an opportunity to indulge in doing so in a way that gets around much of the challenge of being too actively introspective, or touchy-feely. With the right approach, getting in touch with your perspective on the world and yourself is rewarding, freeing and simply enjoyable. You may even find it an experience that is affirmational or transformational.

Beyond the enriching personal experience, developing your personal philosophy will clarify your unique understanding of the world and life for you and make it something that you actively know. A personal philosophy that is just thoughts and feelings floating around in your mind has about as much value as a personal desire to become Yoda. It may be an interesting thought, but it probably won’t go much further than that. Your personal philosophy needs to be clear to you and something that you actively know. Clarity is critical so that when you need to use it in your life you don’t have to sort through it to figure out how it applies. Actively knowing your personal philosophy allows you to use it in your life. Not being able to clearly remember your personal philosophy makes it difficult to use in the moment. If you have to refer back to it in some written form it probably doesn’t have the clarity needed to be a real and present part of your life. Part of developing your personal philosophy is crafting it to be clear so that you can and actively know and use it in your life in large and small ways.

The importance (value) of your personal philosophy in life.

Your personal philosophy begins to bring value to your life through the experience of developing it and continues to do so for the rest of your life. It will help you make sense of the world, understand what is meaningful to you, clarify your insights, motivate and inspire you, and help you find and maintain your direction.

What does this mean to me?  Your personal philosophy is a real-world life tool. Without it you are in many ways unequipped for life in an increasingly complex and difficult world for you as an individual.

The process of developing your personal philosophy necessarily requires being in touch with the world and yourself.  The experience of doing so in a concerted, intentional way helps you crystalize what is meaningful in the world to you.  This is one part of the reason why you should put the effort into developing your personal philosophy .

Beyond the experience of developing your personal philosophy, the real importance of a personal philosophy is that it equips you for life in a complex world in ways that can be difficult to do otherwise. Knowing and understanding your essential truths about, and aspirations for, life and the world as well as what you value and what is meaningful to you helps you with some of the most challenging aspects of life. Many of the traditional sources that people have relied upon for these answers are outdated and not relevant in today’s world. Without a personal philosophy you can be left searching for answers when challenges in life arise. Your personal philosophy helps you make sense of life and the challenges you encounter. It also helps you identify things you do that are out of sync with what you place value in and be a source of strength for changing them. It will help you fend off the constant barrage from others trying to make you do and think what they want you to. It provides a clear source of personal direction that can help with difficult or important decisions that you need to make in life. It can help you better understand your unique insights about life and the world and make the most of them. It can even inspire you to do something that is wildly aspirational that you would likely not do without the clarity, vision and meaning that your personal philosophy makes real for you. Knowing and living your personal philosophy will help you be more effective in the world and help you to contribute to realizing the things that you aspire for life and the world to be.What

Why aren't personal philosophies taught on a wider basis?

The primary purpose of education in most parts of the world is to produce individuals that are effective members of society and productive workers. Secondarily the concept of personal philosophies and the individual or “self” are relatively new (see the brief history of personal philosophies ).

Why should I care about this? A personal philosophy is something that is not needed to be a productive worker or effective member of society. It is needed if you are going to live an engaged, meaningful life that aligns with who you are and what you seek for your life and the world to be.

The value of education cannot be overstated. Knowledge is empowering. Self-knowledge, like that used in one’s personal philosophy, is an especially powerful form of knowledge. Unfortunately, self-knowledge is something that most of us must learn on our own without significant guidance or education about it. 

An important part of developing a personal philosophy is quality self-knowledge. While some education systems do seek to develop the individual, but even they do not overtly educate individuals on developing self-knowledge. The concept of personal philosophies, the self and self-knowledge are relatively new. Most education systems are based upon century old theory and have not kept up with these concepts or integrated them into their method and curriculum. Imagine if our education systems sought to help people become self-aware, develop self-knowledge and become more enlightened about life and the world, instead of just seeking to produce productive contributing members of society. 

A personal philosophy is something that can help you get beyond the narrow vision and relatively low expectations that many educational systems have for you. It can help you become more self-aware, more knowledgeable and more enlightened about life and the world.

What can be included in your personal philosophy?

Anything that you think or feel is essential to your understanding of and perspective on life and the world. 

Why is the point?   There are some things that can be helpful to include to make your unique personal philosophy more valuable in your life, but in the end, it is up to you. 

A personal philosophy is the encapsulation of one’s most essential truths about, and aspirations for, the world, life and one’s self. That said, you can choose what to include in yours. To be able to apply your personal philosophy to your life, it is helpful if one includes things that you uniquely understand about life and the world, or your truths, and how you would like to see the world be, or your aspirations. The two together create a view of what you know about the world that is most significant to you, how you think life and the world should be and your desires for them. Your personal philosophy can include anything you find essential such as what you place value in and find especially meaningful. If there are other aspects of your understanding of yourself, life or the world that you think are substantive, you should include them.

One of the key attributes of your personal philosophy is that it draws upon your unique knowledge of the world and yourself. The types of knowledge that can be used in your life philosophy are those encompassed by knowledge in a broad sense. Often the concept of knowledge is constrained to specific types of knowledge such as that which is taught through formal education or that which can be attained through science and reason. While there are no hard rules about personal philosophies, constraining yourself to narrow definitions of knowledge is limiting. Including what you know beyond your capacity for reason and the realm of scientific proof, such that which you know through emotion and intuition, helps to create a personal philosophy that captures the nature of being human. Einstein’s essay in Living Philosophies is a great example of how this is true. If you are going to apply your personal philosophy to your life, it should be substantive and not oversimplify the nature of life to the point of being of little value in it. It also should not be limited to someone else’s definition of what a life philosophy should entail, or what it should be based upon.  Too, it should not be limited to systems thought and belief that have been formalized and categorized. In many ways, personal philosophy allows you to move beyond these prescribed ways of understanding and create a perspective that is rich in meaning to you.

Including those things that are the most significant to you, especially what sets you apart from others, is one approach. For instance, we all place high value on our families, health and livelihood. These are universal and stating them as a personal philosophy, while perfectly valid, may not be very insightful about your personal truths or aspirations for life and the world. In a similar way, a personal philosophy is not necessarily about defining universal truths or answering life’s big questions such as the purpose or meaning of life. These can be included if your knowledge of them is especially significant to you. Your personal philosophy is about understanding and expressing the things that stand out to you above all others.

• What do I need to know to develop my personal philosophy?

Having a reasonably broad view of life and the world is helpful, as is being able to connect with and understanding your perspective on it. An understanding of personal philosophies is also helpful.

Why does this matter to me?   While having a broad view of life and the world is important, you can never know, feel or experience everything. When you decide to develop your personal philosophy, it is important to use your perspective on the world to the greatest extent possible. Too, your personal philosophy will likely evolve as you and the world change.

Your personal philosophy necessarily draws upon your understanding of life and the world. If you have limited experience with life and the world, it can be helpful to work to expand your perspective. Even if you have an expansive perspective on the world, being in touch with that perspective is important. You may find it helpful to spend some time reconnecting with your perspective on the world as you craft your personal philosophy. Too, you continue to learn and change throughout your life and the world continues to change at a rapid pace. An effective approach for crafting your personal philosophy should help you connect with what is essential in the world to and to understand why throughout your life.

Having a good connection with yourself is also helpful. This connection allows you to understand your perspective on the world including your thoughts and feelings about it. You may find it necessary to work to create this connection, or to reconnect with yourself if you have lost touch. One of the challenges with creating and maintaining it is the constant barrage we are under from others wanting us to think and do what they want us to. A good connection with yourself helps cut through this barrage. An effective approach for developing your personal philosophy will also help.

Like with most things that you undertake, a good understanding of what you are taking on and what is involved with accomplishing it is advisable. Having an understanding of personal philosophies and what is involved with developing one can help you successfully craft yours so that it is valuable in your life.

• Where did the concept of personal philosophies come from?

While the roots of personal philosophies, individual’s interpretations on what is important in the world, can be seen even in the earliest artwork and myths, personal philosophies per se arrived on the scene much more recently.  They appear to have come into general use within the last century or so.

Like most forms of modern thinking, the roots of personal philosophies appear to have evolved along with human thought. Prehistoric evidence for personal views on the world and what is most significant in it are likely captured in the earliest myths and paintings. These early forms of expression undoubtedly included some personal interpretation of the world for practical use. Yet, considering them to be statements of personal philosophy is a stretch at best. The first formal thinking related to personal philosophies dates back to the time of the early thinkers on human condition and the nature of the world that we live in. Religious beliefs and religions evolved from individuals’ personal understanding of the world. Confucius’s writings can be considered a good example of how this happened. Undoubtedly, many of those who have focused their life on the pursuit of philosophy necessarily include what would constitute their own philosophy on life in their work including the first recognized philosophers in the 600-500 BC period. One perspective on philosophy itself is that it can be considered the pursuit of making sense of life and the world. Beyond those who pursued philosophy per se, many great thinkers and people who have put their imprint upon the course of history have recorded their philosophical perspective behind their thinking and actions. Abraham Lincoln is a familiar, notable example, and there are many more. Yet none of these can be considered a personal philosophy per se.

Personal philosophies in the context used here, are prevalent in modern times. In 1931 a volume of Living Philosophies was published by Simon & Schuster and includes short essays about their philosophy on life from notable figures including Albert Einstein. These insightful essays capture their perspective on the world including their beliefs and ideals. Two subsequent volumes were published with essays from other notables, I Believe in 1942 and Living Philosophies in 1990. All of which are worth reading.  These essays seem to come the closest to the concept of personal philosophy as used here. Interestingly the concept of individual identity and the self appears to have come into prominence on a similar timeline, within the last century.

The rapid escalation of the challenges facing humanity in general, the shift away from traditional sources and authorities for answers to life’s important questions, the increasingly difficult global environmental and political situation and the escalating assault on our individuality through the ever-present screens we view all seem to be reasons why personal philosophies are becoming more prominent. In many ways, personal philosophies have become a vital form of empowerment for the individual actualizing their individuality.

Using your personal philosophy in your life.

There are virtually limitless ways that you can use your personal philosophy in your life.  How you do so will vary based upon where you are in life and what is happening in yours.

Your personal philosophy can be made part of your life in ways large and small. In looking at the importance (value) of your personal philosophy in life , we touched upon many of the ways your personal philosophy brings value to your life including as a source of meaning, a source of guidance for important decisions, a source of strength, a source of vision and insight, even a source of inspiration.

Through actively knowing your personal philosophy you can use it in your daily life as you make decisions and to help guide your actions to be in line with how you seek to be. It can be easy to take the path of least resistance or to succumb, even momentarily, to the toxic messaging constantly targeting you. Actively knowing your personal philosophy helps you be more intentional and fend off this and other forces working against you.

Making your personal philosophy a part of your daily life helps keep what you find essential, place value in, and draw meaning from present in your life. It also provides a reassuring sense of understanding and direction through your essential truths and aspirations.

Your life philosophy can help you better understand yourself and your perspective on just about everything and under any circumstances. Having a well-developed life philosophy also allows you to share and discuss it with others, if you choose to.  It can help them understand you and your actions.  Sharing your life philosophy or some part of it can be helpful in many situations such as when you have to explain choices that you make which are different from others or that don’t align with their expectations of you.

Your life philosophy can help you achieve a greater sense of meaning and fulfillment. Some think that it is only possible to achieve higher levels of meaning and happiness through the understanding and awareness that knowing and living a personal philosophy can provide.

Common Misconceptions About Personal Philosophies

• I don’t have or need a personal philosophy.

Short Answer : Everyone has some form of a personal philosophy. Most just have not developed it into something they actively know or use in their lives.

Each individuals’ personal philosophy, including yours, is their unique understanding of the world that is developed into a form that can be actively known and used in their life. When you consider the scope of the human experience, including what we can know and feel and how we can know and feel it, and the diversity of individuals, we all truly have our unique understanding of the world.

There is strength in diversity.  You as an empowered, self-actualized and enlightened individual build upon what it means to be human and for us to collectively be humanity. Understanding your unique knowledge and wisdom about life and the world will help you become an empowered, self-actualized and enlightened individual.

The kinds of changes that are confronting individuals and humanity require something more than for all of us to live and think the same way, or even subscribe to a defined set of philosophic and religious systems. The scales are tipped toward you becoming more like everyone else. The intentional attempt to control your thoughts and actions through messaging and artificial intelligence is invading all aspects of your life. It is an attempt to make you think and behave in ways that others seek for you to. Actively knowing your understanding of the world and your aspirations for it is not only essential for surviving in an increasingly complex and difficult world, it is key to advancing us as humanity and overcoming the crises that confront us now and in the future.

• Personal philosophies are only for big thinkers.

Short Answer : Each of us has a unique understanding of the world and the ability to define our own personal philosophy. Be wary of anyone or any entity that tries to make you think otherwise. Question their motives. 

Society puts undue importance on the personal philosophies of famous people and preserves their perspective through time disproportionally. Historically, this may have largely been a product of our ability to record and publish the thoughts of any one person. It may be no coincidence that as our ability to record our individual thinking and share it broadly the importance of the big thinkers’ thoughts is diminishing.

For some reason, we have a tendency to treat some and their thoughts effectively as idols. We often turn to those that we view as authorities for answers to life’s important questions when the reality is that they are just people and their answers are merely that, theirs. They are not better than the answers that we each have, yet we often place more value in them than our own. 

In the end, you determine your personal philosophy. If you decide to adopt a philosophy or components of a philosophy that is defined by someone else, that is your choice. The important thing is that you have explored the world enough to know what makes sense to you and works for you. Too, nothing in life is cast in stone. The world changes and we all grow and learn. As you do, your personal philosophy should as well.

But it is not only the famous who leave their marks.  Every single one of us has, I believe, a significant part to play in the scheme of things.  Some contributors that go unrecognized may nevertheless be of the utmost importance. 

– Jane Goodall in her personal philosophy within Living Philosophies 1990.

• A personal philosophy is a one sentence maxim.

Short Answer : You’re not a car and your personal philosophy shouldn’t be a bumper sticker.

Everyone likes a concise statement that captures the essence of a common experience in life. It’s also good to have simple rules in life to remind us of basic things we know. They have practical value in specific situations. That said, simple rules of life, even a collection of really good ones do not amount to a personal philosophy. 

An effective personal philosophy encompasses the scope of your unique perspective on life and the world. To be effective it needs to be able to help you make sense of a complex and dynamic world. It needs to be able to help you derive meaning from your life, understand what you value and what you seek for life and the world to be. If you truly can express your personal philosophy in one sentence, beyond likely being an amazing sentence, it would no longer be a maxim that is applicable only in specific situations. It would be a broad, robust expression of your unique perspective on the world and life including your truths about them and how you think they should be.

Like philosophy in general, personal philosophies are esoteric and don’t have practical value.

Short Answer : This misconception is completely understandable. Philosophy is generally something that can be challenging to convert to real world value. Personal philosophies are different as they are practical real-life tools.

Unfortunately, there is not a good substitute for the word “philosophy” in the English language that fully captures its meaning in the sense of being “a set of basic concepts and beliefs that are of value as guidance in practical ways.” When we hear or read the world philosophy, we most often think of one of the other meanings primarily “systems of thought” as in skepticism, pragmatism or existentialism and the famous men (typically) that professed their virtues and argued for their specific flavor as the one best perspective on the world and life. In many ways, personal philosophies are the antithesis of these systems of thought. Personal philosophies are individual perspectives meant to have meaning and value for one individual rather than general principles that apply to all. Applied practical value in life is one of the defining characteristics of personal life philosophies. If a personal philosophy is not of practical value in life, it is not much of a personal philosophy at all.

I already know my personal philosophy. I don’t need to develop it.

Short Answer : If you have and know your personal philosophy, you should be able to state it now in a clear and concise way that you can apply in your life. If not, crafting it into a clear form to you and that you actively know will help you realize real-world value from it.

• I’m just one normal person, my personal philosophy is of no value to the world.

Short Answer : Humanity is a collective of unique individuals. Who we are, what we know, what we will become and what defines us our humanity is determined by the sum total of each of us. Your individuality, including your unique understanding of and perspective on life and the world, has real implications for humanity collectively.

It can be easy to sell oneself short considering the hype and focus given to people with power, money and fame. This is exactly what you are doing if you truly think that your personal philosophy is not of consequence to the world.

At the very least, understanding your unique perspective on the world and life, will hedge off the homogeneity we are being driven toward by the systems and institutions that we have created. Systems and institutions controlled by and for the benefit of those with power, money and fame. Systems, institutions and people that want you to think and act in ways that benefit them. Dismissing the value of your personal philosophy and not developing yours is playing their game. Their game of control lets them have power over you and makes you even more susceptible to thinking and acting like they want you to as long as you are passive to it.

Your personal philosophy will lead you to a better understanding of the world. That understanding will prompt you to take some action to make it better, at least within your immediate world. Developing and knowing your personal philosophy may even lead you to do something that you never thought you would. That action may have implications beyond what you expect, and makes a substantial difference in the lives of others and the course of the world.

Be better equipped to develop and live your personal philosophy.

On Terms of Your Own:

The Pursuit of Being and Fulfillment in a Challenging World.

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Key Concepts :

• The importance (value) of a personal philosophy.
• Why aren’t personal philosophies taught on a wider basis?
• What can be included in a personal philosophy?
• Using my personal philosophy in my life .

Common Misconceptions :

• Like philosophy in general, personal philosophies are esoteric and don’t have any practical value.
• I already know my personal philosophy. I don’t need to formalize it.

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Developing Your Personal Philosophy of Life

7 tensions to resolve..

Posted January 8, 2020 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

From Plato to Stephen Covey, it’s long been argued that life is more meaningful if guided by a foundational personal philosophy .

To that end, here are seven tensions the resolutions of which can help you develop your personal philosophy. Of course, you could choose a moderate position within each of these polar pairs but often people choose to aim toward one side or the other.

Planning vs. living in the moment. Clichés exist on both poles. Ben Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” On the other hand, Emily Dickinson wrote, “Forever is composed of nows.” In deciding which way you want to lean, it may help to look at your track record: To date, has your planning been worth it? Or has your planning too often been wrong? Has it shepherded you toward worthy paths or closed to you opportunities you should have taken? Or has your planning too often kept you from appreciating your present moments, always looking ahead as I foolishly did when, as a 20-year-old touring Paris, I raced through the Louvre so I could make it to the Tuilieries before closing time?

Practical vs. idealistic. We have been preached both: “Be realistic,” and on the other hand, “Dream big. Follow your passion.” Which side to tilt toward may depend on your self-efficacy : Bright, driven, non-procrastinators have a better chance of achieving their idealistic dreams or at least, as suggested in another cliché: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars,” (Norman Vincent Peale).

Disciplined vs. laid-back. Many people find it more pleasurable to be laid-back. The question is whether that will contribute, net, to your success and contentment, or at minimum, will the decrement to your success be worth it? On the other hand, some people enjoy the process of being disciplined or at least are willing to be disciplined in the service of more successful outcomes. The question is, “How about you?”

Reflective vs. impulsive. Some of this is hard-wired. Impulsivity has a significant genetic component , but it’s not completely genetic. Again, look at your track record: Have you been more successful by making quick decisions and thus getting more done? Or have you been more successful when taking your time, reflecting, considering more of the implications?

Just vs. merciful. Solid arguments can be made for leaning either way. Justice, by definition, means that people get what, on the merits, they deserve. How primary is that to you? Other people prefer a life tilted more toward mercy: Even if, on the merits, a person deserves less, the mercy-centric person leans toward giving people a break. How about you?

Self-critical vs. self-accepting. Some people feel it’s worth being hard on themselves: being self-critical and ever trying to improve. On the other hand, other people feel that’s too big a price to pay and/or that enough of who they are is hard-wired or has been molded by early experience and current externalities that they’d rather focus on self-acceptance.

Self-reliant vs. communitarian. There are quotable quotes at both poles. Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre wrote, “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” In contrast, Hillary Clinton famously said, “It takes a village.” Again, look at your track record. Has your reliance on other people yielded more benefit than liability to you and perhaps to them? Or have you done better by focusing on self-reliance?

The takeaway

So, do you want to write bullets or a paragraph or two describing your personal philosophy? If so, yes, consider the aforementioned seven tensions but there may be other factors that merit consideration. A few possible examples: the role of spirituality or religion? Your work or relationship non-negotiables? Your ethical red line in the sand?

If you might find a model helpful, I offer my philosophy of life here.

Most people don’t follow their personal philosophy assiduously, but developing one can create guideposts that can help you live the life you want to live.

I read this aloud on YouTube.

Marty Nemko, Ph.D ., is a career and personal coach based in Oakland, California, and the author of 10 books.

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6.2 Self and Identity

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Apply the dilemma of persistence to self and identity.
• Outline Western and Eastern theological views of self.
• Describe secular views of the self.
• Describe the mind-body problem.

Today, some might think that atomism and Aristotle’s teleological view have evolved into a theory of cells that resolves the acorn-oak tree identity problem. The purpose, or ergon, of both the acorn and the oak tree are present in the zygote, the cell that forms when male and female sex cells combine. This zygote cell contains the genetic material, or the instructions, for how the organism will develop to carry out its intended purpose.

But not all identity problems are so easily solved today. What if the author of this chapter lived in a house as a child, and years later, after traveling in the highly glamorous life that comes with being a philosopher, returned to find the house had burned down and been rebuilt exactly as it had been. Is it the same home? The generic questions that center on how we should understand the tension between identity and persistence include:

• Can a thing change without losing its identity?
• If so, how much change can occur without a loss of identity for the thing itself?

This section begins to broach these questions of identity and self.

The Ship of Theseus

Consider the following thought experiment. Imagine a wooden ship owned by the hero Theseus. Within months of launching, the need to replace decking would be evident. The salt content of sea water is highly corrosive. Accidents can also happen. Within a common version of the thought experiment, the span of one thousand years is supposed. Throughout the span, it is supposed that the entire decking and wooden content of the ship will have been replaced. The name of the ship remains constant. But given the complete change of materials over the assumed time span, in what sense can we assert that the ship is the same ship? We are tempted to conceptualize identity in terms of persistence, but the Ship of Theseus challenges the commonly held intuition regarding how to make sense of identity.

Similarly, as our bodies develop from zygote to adult, cells die and are replaced using new building materials we obtain though food, water, and our environment. Given this, are we the same being as we were 10 or 20 years ago? How can we identify what defines ourselves? What is our essence? This section examines answers proposed by secular and religious systems of belief.

Write Like a Philosopher

Watch the video “ Metaphysics: Ship of Theseus ” in the series Wi-Phi Philosophy . You will find five possible solutions for making sense of the thought experiment. Pick one solution and explain why the chosen solution is the most salient. Can you explain how the strengths outweigh the stated objections—without ignoring the objections?

Judeo-Christian Views of Self

The common view concerning identity in Judeo-Christian as well as other spiritual traditions is that the self is a soul. In Western thought, the origin of this view can be traced to Plato and his theory of forms. This soul as the real self solves the ship of Theseus dilemma, as the soul continuously exists from zygote or infant and is not replaced by basic building materials. The soul provides permanence and even persists into the afterlife.

Much of the Christian perspective on soul and identity rested on Aristotle’s theory of being, as a result of the work of St. Thomas Aquinas . Aquinas, a medieval philosopher, followed the Aristotelian composite of form and matter but modified the concept to fit within a Christianized cosmology. Drawing upon portions of Aristotle’s works reintroduced to the West as a result of the Crusades, Aquinas offered an alternative philosophical model to the largely Platonic Christian view that was dominant in his day. From an intellectual historical perspective, the reintroduction of the Aristotelian perspective into Western thought owes much to the thought of Aquinas.

In Being and Essence , Aquinas noted that there was a type of existence that was necessary and uncaused and a type of being that was contingent and was therefore dependent upon the former to be brought into existence. While the concept of a first cause or unmoved mover was present within Aristotle’s works, Aquinas identified the Christian idea of God as the “unmoved mover.” God, as necessary being, was understood as the cause of contingent being. God, as the unmoved mover, as the essence from which other contingent beings derived existence, also determined the nature and purpose driving all contingent beings. In addition, God was conceived of as a being beyond change, as perfection realized. Using Aristotelian terms, we could say that God as Being lacked potentiality and was best thought of as that being that attained complete actuality or perfection—in other words, necessary being.

God, as the ultimate Good and Truth, will typically be understood as assigning purpose to the self. The cosmology involved is typically teleological—in other words, there is a design and order and ultimately an end to the story (the eschaton ). Members of this tradition will assert that the Divine is personal and caring and that God has entered the narrative of our history to realize God’s purpose through humanity. With some doctrinal exception, if the self lives the good life (a life according to God’s will), then the possibility of sharing eternity with the Divine is promised.

Think Like a Philosopher

Watch this discussion with Timothy Pawl on the question of eternal life, part of the PBS series Closer to the Truth , “ Imagining Eternal Life ”.

Is eternal life an appealing prospect? If change is not possible within heaven, then heaven (the final resting place for immortal souls) should be outside of time. What exactly would existence within an eternal now be like? In the video, Pawl claimed that time has to be present within eternity. He argued that there must be movement from potentiality to actuality. How can that happen in an eternity?

Hindu and Buddhist Views of Self

Within Hindu traditions, atman is the term associated with the self. The term, with its roots in ancient Sanskrit, is typically translated as the eternal self, spirit, essence, soul, and breath (Rudy, 2019). Western faith traditions speak of an individual soul and its movement toward the Divine. That is, a strong principle of individuation is applied to the soul. A soul is born, and from that time forward, the soul is eternal. Hinduism, on the other hand, frames atman as eternal; atman has always been. Although atman is eternal, atman is reincarnated. The spiritual goal is to “know atman” such that liberation from reincarnation ( moksha ) occurs.

Hindu traditions vary in the meaning of brahman . Some will speak of a force supporting all things, while other traditions might invoke specific deities as manifestations of brahman . Escaping the cycle of reincarnation requires the individual to realize that atman is brahman and to live well or in accordance with dharma , observing the code of conduct as prescribed by scripture, and karma , actions and deeds. Union of the atman with brahman can be reach though yoga, meditation, rituals, and other practices.

Buddha rejected the concept of brahman and proposed an alternate view of the world and the path to liberation. The next sections consider the interaction between the concepts of Atman (the self) and Brahman (reality).

The Doctrine of Dependent Origination

Buddhist philosophy rejects the concept of an eternal soul. The doctrine of dependent origination , a central tenet within Buddhism, is built on the claim that there is a causal link between events in the past, the present, and the future. What we did in the past is part of what happened previously and is part of what will be.

The doctrine of dependent origination (also known as interdependent arising) is the starting point for Buddhist cosmology. The doctrine here asserts that not only are all people joined, but all phenomena are joined with all other phenomena. All things are caused by all other things, and in turn, all things are dependent upon other things. Being is a nexus of interdependencies. There is no first cause or prime mover in this system. There is no self—at least in the Western sense of self—in this system (O’Brien 2019a).

The Buddhist Doctrine of No Self ( Anatman )

One of many distinct features of Buddhism is the notion of anatman as the denial of the self. What is being denied here is the sense of self expressed through metaphysical terms such as substance or universal being. Western traditions want to assert an autonomous being who is strongly individuated from other beings. Within Buddhism, the “me” is ephemeral.

Listen to the podcast “ Graham Priest on Buddhism and Philosophy ” in the series Philosophy Bites.

Suffering and Liberation

Within Buddhism, there are four noble truths that are used to guide the self toward liberation. An often-quoted sentiment from Buddhism is the first of the four noble truths . The first noble truth states that “life is suffering” ( dukkha ).

But there are different types of suffering that need to be addressed in order to understand more fully how suffering is being used here. The first meaning ( dukkha-dukkha ) is commensurate with the ordinary use of suffering as pain. This sort of suffering can be experienced physically and/or emotionally. A metaphysical sense of dukkha is viparinama-dukkha . Suffering in this sense relates to the impermanence of all objects. It is our tendency to impose permanence upon that which by nature is not, or our craving for ontological persistence, that best captures this sense of dukkha. Finally, there is samkhara-dukkha , or suffering brought about through the interdependency of all things.

Building on an understanding of “suffering” informed only by the first sense, some characterize Buddhism as “life is suffering; suffering is caused by greed; suffering ends when we stop being greedy; the way to do that is to follow something called the Eightfold Path” (O’Brien 2019b). A more accurate understanding of dukkha within this context must include all three senses of suffering.

The second of the noble truths is that the cause of suffering is our thirst or craving ( tanha ) for things that lack the ability to satisfy our craving. We attach our self to material things, concepts, ideas, and so on. This attachment, although born of a desire to fulfill our internal cravings, only heightens the craving. The problem is that attachment separates the self from the other. Through our attachments, we lose sight of the impermanence not only of the self but of all things.

The third noble truth teaches that the way to awakening ( nirvana ) is through a letting go of the cravings. Letting go of the cravings entails the cessation of suffering ( dukkha ).

The fourth truth is founded in the realization that living a good life requires doing, not just thinking. By living in accordance with the Eightfold Path, a person may live such that “every action of body, mind, and speech” are geared toward the promotion of dharma.

Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths

Part of the BBC Radio 4 series A History of Ideas , this clip is narrated by Steven Fry and scripted by Nigel Warburton.

The Five Aggregates

How might the self ( atman ) experience the world and follow a path toward liberation? Buddhist philosophy posits five aggregates ( skandhas ), which are the thoughtful and iterative processes, through which the self interacts with the world.

• Form ( rupa ): the aggregate of matter, or the body.
• Sensation ( vedana ): emotional and physical feelings.
• Perception ( samjna ): thinking, the processing of sense data; “knowledge that puts together.”
• Mental formation ( samskara ): how thoughts are processed into habits, predispositions, moods, volitions, biases, interests, etc. The fourth skandhas is related to karma, as much of our actions flow from these elements.
• Consciousness ( vijnana ): awareness and sensitivity concerning a thing that does not include conceptualization.

Although the self uses the aggregates, the self is not thought of as a static and enduring substance underlying the processes. These aggregates are collections that are very much subject to change in an interdependent world.

Secular Notions of Self

In theology, continuity of the self is achieved through the soul. Secular scholars reject this idea, defining self in different ways, some of which are explored in the next sections.

Bundle Theory

One of the first and most influential scholars in the Western tradition to propose a secular concept of self was Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711–1776). Hume formed his thoughts in response to empiricist thinkers’ views on substance and knowledge. British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) offered a definition of substance in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In Book XXIII, Locke described substance as “a something, I know not what.” He asserted that although we cannot know exactly what substance is, we can reason from experience that there must be a substance “standing under or upholding” the qualities that exist within a thing itself. The meaning of substance is taken from the Latin substantia , or “that which supports.”

If we return to the acorn and oak example, the reality of what it means to be an oak is rooted in the ultimate reality of what it means to be an oak tree. The ultimate reality, like the oak’s root system, stands beneath every particular instance of an oak tree. While not every tree is exactly the same, all oak trees do share a something, a shared whatness, that makes an oak an oak. Philosophers call this whatness that is shared among oaks a substance.

Arguments against a static and enduring substance ensued. David Hume’s answer to the related question of “What is the self?” illustrates how a singular thing may not require an equally singular substance. According to Hume, the self was not a Platonic form or an Aristotelian composite of matter and form. Hume articulated the self as a changing bundle of perceptions. In his Treatise of Human Nature (Book 1, Part IV), Hume described the self as “a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.”

Hume noted that what has been mistaken for a static and enduring self was nothing more than a constantly changing set of impressions that were tied together through their resemblance to one another, the order or predictable pattern (succession) of the impressions, and the appearance of causation lent through the resemblance and succession. The continuity we experience was not due to an enduring self but due to the mind’s ability to act as a sort of theater: “The mind is a kind of theatre, where several perceptions successively make their appearance; pass, re-pass, glide away, and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations” (Hume 1739, 252).

Which theories of self—and substance—should we accept? The Greek theories of substance and the theological theories of a soul offer advantages. Substance allows us to explain what we observe. For example, an apple, through its substance, allows us to make sense of the qualities of color, taste, the nearness of the object, etc. Without a substance, it could be objected that the qualities are merely unintelligible and unrelated qualities without a reference frame. But bundle theory allows us to make sense of a thing without presupposing a mythical form, or “something I know not what!” Yet, without the mythical form of a soul, how do we explain our own identities?

Anthropological Views

Anthropological views of the self question the cultural and social constructs upon which views of the self are erected. For example, within Western thought, it is supposed that the self is distinct from the “other.” In fact, throughout this section, we have assumed the need for a separate and distinct self and have used a principle of continuity based on the assumption that a self must persist over time. Yet, non-Western cultures blur or negate this distinction. The African notion of ubuntu , for example, posits a humanity that cannot be divided. The Nguni proverb that best describes this concept is “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” sometimes translated as “a person is a person through other persons” (Gade 2011). The word ubuntu is from the Zulu language, but cultures from southern Africa to Tanzania, Kenya, and Democratic Republic of the Congo all have words for this concept. Anthropological approaches attempt to make clear how the self and the culture share in making meaning.

The Mind as Self

Many philosophers, Western and non-Western, have equated the self to the mind. But what is the mind? A monist response is the mind is the brain. Yet, if the mind is the brain, a purely biological entity, then how do we explain consciousness? Moreover, if we take the position that the mind is immaterial but the body is material, we are left with the question of how two very different types of things can causally affect the other. The question of “How do the two nonidentical and dissimilar entities experience a causal relationship?” is known as the mind-body problem. This section explores some alternative philosophical responses to these questions.

Physicalism

Reducing the mind to the brain seems intuitive given advances in neuroscience and other related sciences that deepen our understanding of cognition. As a doctrine, physicalism is committed to the assumption that everything is physical. Exactly how to define the physical is a matter of contention. Driving this view is the assertion that nothing that is nonphysical has physical effects.

Listen to the podcast “ David Papineau on Physicalism ” in the series Philosophy Bites.

Focus on the thought experiment concerning what Mary knows. Here is a summary of the thought experiment:

Mary is a scientist and specializes in the neurophysiology of color. Strangely, her world has black, white, and shades of gray but lacks color (weird, but go with it!). Due to her expertise, she knows every physical fact concerning colors. What if Mary found herself in a room in which color as we experience it is present? Would she learn anything? A physicalist must respond “no”! Do you agree? How would you respond?

John Locke and Identity

In place of the biological, Locke defined identity as the continuity lent through what we refer to as consciousness. His approach is often referred to as the psychological continuity approach, as our memories and our ability to reflect upon our memories constitute identity for Locke. In his Essay on Human Understanding , Locke (as cited by Gordon-Roth 2019) observed, “We must consider what Person stands for . . . which, I think, is a thinking intelligent Being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider it self as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and places.” He offered a thought experiment to illustrate his point. Imagine a prince and cobbler whose memories (we might say consciousness) were swapped. The notion is far-fetched, but if this were to happen, we would assert that the prince was now the cobbler and the cobbler was now the prince. Therefore, what individuates us cannot be the body (or the biological).

John Locke on Personal Identity

Part of the BBC Radio 4 series A History of Ideas , this clip is narrated by Gillian Anderson and scripted by Nigel Warburton.

The Problem of Consciousness

Christof Koch (2018) has said that “consciousness is everything you experience.” Koch offered examples, such as “a tune stuck in your head,” the “throbbing pain from a toothache,” and “a parent’s love for a child” to illustrate the experience of consciousness. Our first-person experiences are what we think of intuitively when we try to describe what consciousness is. If we were to focus on the throbbing pain of a toothache as listed above, we can see that there is the experiencing of the toothache. Curiously, there is also the experiencing of the experiencing of the toothache. Introspection and theorizing built upon first-person inspections affords vivid and moving accounts of the things experienced, referred to as qualia .

An optimal accounting of consciousness, however, should not only explain what consciousness is but should also offer an explanation concerning how consciousness came to be and why consciousness is present. What difference or differences does consciousness introduce?

Listen to the podcast “ Ted Honderich on What It Is to Be Conscious ,” in the series Philosophy Bites.

Rene Descartes and Dualism

Dualism , as the name suggests, attempts to account for the mind through the introduction of two entities. The dualist split was addressed earlier in the discussion of substance. Plato argued for the reality of immaterial forms but admitted another type of thing—the material. Aristotle disagreed with his teacher Plato and insisted on the location of the immaterial within the material realm. How might the mind and consciousness be explained through dualism?

Mind Body Dualism

A substance dualist, in reference to the mind problem, asserts that there are two fundamental and irreducible realities that are needed to fully explain the self. The mind is nonidentical to the body, and the body is nonidentical to the mind. The French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) offered a very influential version of substance dualism in his 1641 work Meditations on First Philosophy. In that work, Descartes referred to the mind as a thinking thing ( res cogitans ) and the body as an extended nonthinking thing ( res extensa ). Descartes associated identity with the thinking thing. He introduced a model in which the self and the mind were eternal.

Behaviorism

There is a response that rejects the idea of an independent mind. Within this approach, what is important is not mental states or the existence of a mind as a sort of central processor, but activity that can be translated into statements concerning observable behavior (Palmer 2016, 122). As within most philosophical perspectives, there are many different “takes” on the most correct understanding. Behaviorism is no exception. The “hard” behaviorist asserts that there are no mental states. You might consider this perspective the purist or “die-hard” perspective. The “soft” behaviorist, the moderate position, does not deny the possibility of minds and mental events but believes that theorizing concerning human activity should be based on behavior.

Before dismissing the view, pause and consider the plausibility of the position. Do we ever really know another’s mind? There is some validity to the notion that we ought to rely on behavior when trying to know or to make sense of the “other.” But if you have a toothache, and you experience myself being aware of the qualia associated with a toothache (e.g., pain, swelling, irritability, etc.), are these sensations more than activities? What of the experience that accompanies the experience?

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• Authors: Nathan Smith
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Introduction to Philosophy
• Publication date: Jun 15, 2022
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Enrich Your Personal Philosophy with these 6 Major Philosophies for Life

Build and enrich your personal philosophy with the help of 6 of the world's wisest philosophies for living, including Stoicism, Buddhism, and Existentialism.

17 -MIN BREAK  

This article is a modified extract from my How to Live a Good Life guide , which unpacks and compares the practical wisdom of 7 major philosophies, including Stoicism, Existentialism, and Buddhism.

A personal philosophy is a set of explanations, values, and principles by which we navigate existence: it’s a framework that describes both what we think about the world and how we can best live in it.

Crucially, whether we’re conscious of it or not, we each already have a philosophy for life.

Our personal philosophies may have been shaped by our families, cultures, religions — or perhaps we’ve formed and affirmed them ourselves.

The point is this: wherever they came from, and regardless of the extent to which we actively reflect on them, we all have a set of values and principles that underpin everything we do — from the careers we choose, to the people we like and dislike; from the politicians we vote for, to the activities that fill our free time.

What questions should a personal philosophy help us answer?

I n our day-to-day lives, our personal philosophies typically sit in the background unchallenged. As Heidegger observes , it is at moments of crisis, or when wrestling with the more abstract mysteries of life, that the fundamental principles by which we navigate existence come under the spotlight.

For an established, battle-tested personal philosophy should help us answer questions like the following:

• How can I face up to my own mortality, as well as that of my loved ones?
• What does it mean to live a good life, and how can I live one?
• What is worth my time? What isn’t? What’s the most important thing to prioritize?
• What do I owe to other people, and how can I cultivate better relationships?
• Am I seeing the reality of my situation in life clearly?
• How can I stop worrying about the future and derive more meaning and fulfillment from the here and now?
• When I encounter problems, what guiding principles should I use to forge the best path forward?
• Are there any enhancements I can make to my outlook or way of life?

Given their fundamental importance, then, the question is: are our personal philosophies working for us?

Are they justified? Do we need to better define them? Do we need to radically overhaul them? Are there any enhancements we could make that would empower us to live happier, more meaningful lives, and provide better answers to the questions above?

Building a personal philosophy: 6 example philosophies for life

T hankfully, when it comes to shaping our personal philosophies, we do not need to start from scratch. Philosophers have been sharing incredibly insightful answers to life’s big questions for thousands of years.

In the remainder of this article, we’ll consider six of the world’s wisest and most influential philosophies for living.

By exploring and discussing the wisdom of Aristotle, Epicureanism, Stoicism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Existentialism, we’ll understand why millions of people have been guided by these philosophies throughout history — and see if they offer anything we want to incorporate into our own way of life.

Hopefully, then, by the end of this article, we’ll come away with clearer ideas not just about some of the most important intellectual frameworks in history, but also about our own personal philosophies.

First up, we travel back to ancient Greece...

1. Aristotle: achieving excellence

A ristotle (384 - 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher who, like his legendary teacher Plato (and his legendary teacher, Socrates), is considered to be one of the most significant figures in the history of Western philosophy.

One of the key innovations of Aristotle’s philosophy for life — and why it remains so enduring today — is that it’s a philosophy grounded entirely in the human world: it doesn’t look beyond everyday human experience in order to declare what’s good.

That might sound like a relatively uncontroversial approach. But many major philosophies and religions typically do look beyond the everyday to advise on what goodness is — say at a transcendent idea, realm, or God.

By contrast, Aristotle thinks the good life simply emerges from our behavior.

Born in 384 BC in Northern Greece, Aristotle joined Plato’s Academy in Athens when he was approximately 17 years old, quickly becoming Plato’s most brilliant student. He studied under Plato until the latter’s death 20 years later, whereupon Aristotle left Athens and became tutor to a young Alexander the Great. Transforming most of the subjects he investigated ― from metaphysics and ethics to politics and biology ― Aristotle is considered to be one of the most signficant figures in the history of Western philosophy.

We are not born perfect beings; we are not born evil. Almost all of us are capable of good lives, and the more we try to act according to excellence or ‘virtue’ over the course of our lifetimes, the happier we’ll be.

A key concept for Aristotle’s philosophy of the good life is eudaimonia , a Greek word broadly meaning happiness or flourishing.

Importantly, Aristotle characterizes eudaimonia not as a feeling, but as an activity . Living a good, eudaimonic life means using our rationality to flourish and fulfill our potential for excellence in all that we do.

Aristotle tells us that while luck does have a significant part to play in determining how our lives will turn out, we are all responsible for improving our existences, and many of us are capable of excellence if we put our minds to it.

The reward for excellence is happiness, for far from a fleeting psychological state, happiness (eudaimonia) consists in good rational activity ― in knowing that we are living well and fulfilling our potential as human beings.

For Aristotle, living well thus means getting out into the world and acting excellently in the heat of day-to-day life. It means flourishing and fulfilling our potential in all that we do. It means forging deep and meaningful relationships with our fellow human beings, while maintaining self-sufficiency. It means using reason to navigate all that life throws at us, and creating happiness through the active, ongoing achievement of excellence.

Though he was writing over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle’s influence today looms larger than ever. As the philosopher Robert J. Anderson wrote in his 1986 essay Purpose and Happiness in Aristotle:

There is no ancient thinker who can speak more directly to the concerns and anxieties of contemporary life than can Aristotle. Nor is it clear that any modern thinker offers as much for persons living in this time of uncertainty.

If you’re interested in learning more about Aristotle’s hugely influential philosophy for the eudaimonic life, you might like these related reads:

• The ‘Golden Mean’: Aristotle’s Guide to Living Excellently
• Aristotle On Why Leisure Defines Us More than Work
• Aristotle On the 3 Types of Friendship (and How Each Enriches Life)
• Aristotle: the Best 9 Books to Read

2. Epicureanism: living for pleasure

A ristotle wasn’t the only ancient Greek with big ideas about how we should be living our lives. Epicurus (341 - 270 BCE), on whose teachings Epicureanism is based, disagreed with the demanding elitism of Aristotle’s ethics.

While excellence is important, it is not what happiness and the good life are really guided by. The reality is far simpler, Epicurus claims: the good life is one in which pleasure and tranquility are maximized, and pain is minimized…

Though Epicureanism is often mischaracterized as a debaucherous form of hedonism, Epicurus actually saw philosophy as a kind of therapy.

We make many mistakes about ourselves and reality, Epicurus thought, and these mistakes can cause us a great deal of anxiety.

Through careful use of philosophical reasoning, however, we can knock the wind out of our false beliefs, rid ourselves of the pain they cause, and live lives of pleasure and tranquility.

As the ancient Epicurean philosopher Lucretius tells us, Epicureans think the ultimate good for human nature is as follows:

To avoid bodily pain, to have a mind free from anxiety and fear, and to enjoy the pleasures of the senses.

This emphasis on simple pleasures distinguishes Epicurus from other ancient Greek thinkers of the time — including Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno’s Stoics — whose characterization of the good life, as we’ve seen with Aristotle, focuses less on pleasure and more on the pursuit of excellence and virtue.

Another distinguishing factor is that, unlike those rival schools, Epicurus’s Garden admitted women, and even one of Epicurus’s slaves.

The Garden of Epicurus in ancient Athens — the home for Epicureanism, in which Epicurus (341 - 270 BCE) and his followers discussed philosophy, and lived lives of tranquility.

This relatively liberal admissions policy alarmed Epicurus’s opponents, who spread a number of rather slanderous stories about him and his followers. (In their more extreme accusations, for instance, the Stoics said the Epicureans lived in conditions of depraved sexual perversion).

Far from a debaucherous party, however, it is thought life in The Garden was actually remarkably simple.

The prevailing diet consisted mainly of bread, water, beans, and a little wine, and the Epicureans spent their days learning, resting, cultivating friendships, avoiding public life, and discussing philosophy.

So, though often caricatured as a rather indulgent, pleasure-obsessed philosophy, Epicureanism is actually more about living life free from anxiety and bodily pain, and places a strong emphasis on friendship and community in the search for a meaningful, happy human life.

Epicurus offers a simple yet powerful recipe for happiness that allowed Epicurean communities all around the world to flourish centuries after his death, and which we might find to be a pleasing balm for the complexities of life today — one that certainty pleased figures like Thomas Jefferson, who in a letter to William Short wrote:

As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.

If you’re interested in learning more about Epicureanism, you might like these related reads:

• Epicureanism Defined: Philosophy is a Form of Therapy
• Epicurus’s Principal Doctrines: 40 Aphorisms for Living Well
• Epicurus On Why Death Should Not Concern Us
• Why Death is Nothing to Fear: Lucretius and Epicureanism
• Epicureanism: the Best 6 Books to Read

3. Stoicism: beating anxiety

L ike Epicureanism, Stoicism — the third and final philosophy for life we’ll consider from ancient Greece — suffers from being misunderstood.

Just as Epicureanism is often mischaracterized as involving reckless self-indulgence, so Stoicism is wrongly thought to be about repressing our emotions and living with a stiff upper lip.

But Stoicism’s approach is far more sophisticated than ‘grit your teeth’. In fact, Stoicism’s aim is to enhance our perspectives in such a way that we’ll never need to grit our teeth again…

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Stoicism was founded by the ancient Greek thinker Zeno, who arrived in Athens shortly before 300 BCE (around the same time Epicurus established The Garden).

Zeno began lecturing at the Painted Stoa (a covered walkway) in the center of Athens, and attracted a number of followers who, accordingly, came to be known as the Stoics.

Unfortunately, none of Zeno’s works survive — nor do those of his successors, Cleanthes and Chrysippus. We know of their work only through the quotations and summaries of subsequent authors.

Our knowledge of Stoicism thus mostly comes from its three major Roman practitioners and popularizers: Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius — each of whom knew the now lost ancient Greek works, and built upon them with their own hugely influential contributions.

Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE), left; Epictetus (50 CE - 135 CE), center; and Marcus Aurelius (121 CE - 180 CE).

The three major Roman Stoics do not present many arguments for why Stoicism as a broader philosophy is true: they mostly presume it is true, and then go on to discuss its profound ethical and psychological lessons.

What are those lessons? Well, perhaps the three most important are the following:

• Being a good person is the only thing that matters.
• Anyone is capable of being a good person, regardless of circumstance.
• The most crucial contribution we can make to our wellbeing is understanding the dichotomy of control.

I discuss the dichotomy of control in detail here , but it’s summarized nicely by Marcus Aurelius when he writes in his Meditations:

You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described Stoicism in glowing terms, writing in The World as Will and Representation :

Stoic philosophy is the most complete development of practical reason in the true and genuine sense of the word; it is the highest summit to which man can attain by the mere use of his reason…

To see why Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius continue to inspire millions of people around the world today, and how you might incorporate their lessons into your own personal philosophy, consider checking out these related reads:

• The 4 Cardinal Virtues: Stoicism’s Roadmap to the Best Life Possible
• The Dichotomy of Control: a Stoic Device for a Tranquil Mind
• Stoicism and Emotion: Don’t Repress Your Feelings, Reframe Them
• Seneca: To Find Peace, Stop Chasing Unfulfillable Desires
• Amor Fati: the Stoics’ and Nietzsche’s Different Takes on Loving Fate
• Seneca On Coping with the Shortness of Life
• Stoicism: the Best 6 Books to Read
• Marcus Aurelius: the Best 5 Books to Read

4. Buddhism: ending suffering

C enturies before the therapeutic philosophical approaches of Epicureanism and Stoicism, the Buddha was sharing his recommendations for how we can see the world clearly, banish suffering, and live good lives…

Buddhism is a philosophical tradition based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, a prince who lived in ancient India around 500 BCE (exact dates vary).

The historical Buddha was a man named Siddhartha Gautama who lived in northern India around 500 BCE. Siddhartha became the ‘Buddha’ (literally meaning ‘the awakened one’) when he achieved enlightenment following years of searching for the truth about reality. He spent the rest of his life traveling to share his lessons, inspiring the various Buddhist schools that exists across the world today.

It’s thought the Buddha’s teachings were originally transmitted orally, and only written down in the 1st century BCE in Sri Lanka, with further Buddhist branches spreading throughout India, China, Tibet, Japan, and South-East Asia.

Encompassing as it does a variety of traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices, Buddhism can be viewed as both a religion and a philosophy.

However, unlike some other religions, its original philosophical teachings are not (necessarily) grounded in any appeals to ‘supernatural’ elements like a creator God or gods, resulting in the emergence of secular Buddhist movements that engender keen philosophical engagement.

Rather than persuade us to believe in anything in particular, the Buddha focuses like a laser on just one subject: teaching us how to alleviate dukkha , a Pali word often translated as ‘suffering’, but perhaps stronger than this, intended to capture all of life’s dissatisfaction, disappointment, unfulfilled hopes, and unhappiness.

Indeed, while the ancient Greeks broadly saw the goal of life as eudaimonia, excellence, and happiness, Buddhists think the purpose of life is enlightenment: seeing the world as it really is, and thus freeing ourselves from suffering.

The Buddha packages his core teachings in his Four Noble Truths , which can be summarized as follows:

• There is dukkha (suffering)
• Suffering has a cause
• Suffering can be eliminated
• There is a path to eliminating suffering (the Eightfold Path)

Suffering ultimately springs from desire or craving (tanha) , which arises from a fundamental mismatch between our worldview and how things really are.

To banish craving and eliminate suffering, the Buddha tells us, we must correct our worldview to see reality clearly.

Three concepts are central to the Buddha’s teaching here: dukkha (suffering), impermanence (everything ends), and anātman (there is no persisting soul or self). It is by truly internalizing these ‘Three Marks of Existence’ that we can, via the Eightfold Path, see reality clearly and achieve enlightenment.

As the Buddha puts it in his first sermon, The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Teaching:

There is a path that leads to the cessation of suffering: it is, indeed, the Noble Eightfold Path: right views, right intentions, right speech, right actions, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

While perhaps best known in the West for its advocation of detaching from our desires, as well as its practices like mindfulness and meditation, the core of Buddhist philosophy has much to offer on a broad range of topics, from metaphysics to ethics, and many different schools and doctrines have grown up around its original teachings.

As the scholar Richard Gombrich puts it in his book How Buddhism Began :

I do not see how one could exaggerate the importance of the Buddha’s ethicization of the world, which I regard as a turning point in the history of civilization.

If you’re interested in learning more about Buddhist philosophy, you might like these related reads:

• Anātman, the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self: Why ‘You’ Do Not Really Exist
• The Buddha On Ending Suffering: the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow
• Buddhist Philosophy: the Best 7 Books to Read

5. Confucianism: growing morally

A round the same time the Buddha began spreading his teachings across ancient India, a key sage rose to prominence in ancient China: Confucius.

Confucianism stands in stark contrast with Buddhism. While the Buddha advocates detachment from desire and transcendence from the illusions of convention, Confucius encourages full-hearted attachment in our relationships — and deep commitment to our everyday social customs and rituals.

By paying careful attention to our social obligations and respectfully participating in the civilizations we are part of, Confucius says, we can cultivate our moral characters and live good, harmonious lives to the benefit of all.

Confucius (551 - 479 BCE) grew up within the fading force of the Zhou dynasty, and sought to understand what had made the dynasty lose its way.

A pertinent insight into Confucius’s philosophical project comes from his statement in The Analects that

I transmit rather than innovate. I trust in and love the ancient ways.

In other words, at a time on the cusp of great upheaval (Confucius lived just before China’s Warring States period), Confucius is intent on reaching back into the past, finding what worked, and transmitting the recipe for stability and wisdom to the present day.

So what exactly is Confucius promoting? What does the good life look like for Confucians, and what should we direct our efforts towards?

At its core, Confucianism is a system designed to help us maximize our moral development and live together in harmony. The good life is characterized by our loving relationships with our fellow human beings, and so being a good person largely comes down to how we interact with others and society at large.

Happiness is not such a prominent concept in most Chinese philosophies. Joy and pleasure are oft-mentioned, but eudaimonia or happiness — so important for the ancient Greek philosophies we’ve looked at — is not typically recognized as life’s end goal.

Perhaps the closest analogous role to eudaimonia in Chinese philosophy is the concept of dao.

For, just as everything is done in service to living a life in accordance with eudaimonia in much ancient Greek philosophy, so everything is done in service to living in accordance with dao in much ancient Chinese philosophy.

Dao is often translated to mean ‘the Way’, and it essentially refers to the way we ought to live: the optimal path we should follow to live the best, most harmonious life possible.

Indeed, it is outcomes like harmony and balance that are emphasized more than eudaimonia or happiness throughout Chinese philosophy.

For Confucians, dao is specifically a moral way, encapsulating how we should behave in society. It distills the exemplary behaviors of selfless heroes Confucius identifies from ancient China’s past.

Living in accordance with dao is not just valuable in this instrumental sense, however — i.e. it’s not just recommended because it promotes a lifestyle that benefits others.

Rather, living in accordance with dao is valuable for its own sake, for it means living a fully-realized human life.

Dao thus provides the path to the good life and Confucian sagehood, which represents supreme moral development — attaining a state of flawless, empathetic, spontaneous responsiveness to every possible situation.

Of course, we cannot all become sages overnight. Sometimes we’ll live in accordance with dao; sometimes we’ll fall off the path — and there are different stages of moral development along the way.

One of Confucianism’s most distinctive features is its suggestion for how we progress through these stages: namely, through observing ritual practice.

By following and perfecting particular traditions, say Confucians, we can shape our characters and better live according to the key Confucian virtues, perhaps the most important of which is ren.

Ren is notoriously difficult to translate. ‘Benevolence’ captures some of it, and it is sometimes translated as ‘humaneness’ or ‘human-heartedness’ too, but ren essentially means interacting with others guided by a sense of what’s good from their perspectives.

It means bringing the right affective state and attitude to all we do, being compassionately receptive to the needs of others in the pursuit of harmony. It is the attitude with which we expand the self to be respectful, reverent, and loyal to all.

Confucianism has shaped Chinese society more than any other philosophical framework. While scholars agree it had a ‘bad 20th century’ (Confucianism came under fire for promoting outdated and inefficient practices), contemporary Confucians think new life can be breathed into its ancient wisdom.

As the contemporary philosopher Stephen C. Angle notes in his book Growing Moral :

Even though Confucius lived more than two millennia ago… [his] teachings about how to live continue to resonate everywhere there are parents, children, and families; everywhere people feel stirrings of compassion for others, but sometimes selfishly ignore them; everywhere people wonder about how to interact with their environment… The Confucian tradition has undergone many changes as it has evolved over the centuries, and that process continues down to the present. At the heart of the tradition, though, are profound insights into the human condition that have much to teach us today.

If you’re interested in learning more about Confucian philosophy, you might like these related reads:

• Confucius: Rituals Grind Our Characters Like Pieces of Jade
• Mengzi vs. Xunzi On Human Nature: Are We Good or Evil?
• Confucius: the Best 6 Books to Read

6. Existentialism: overcoming nihilism

L eaving behind the ancient philosophies of east and west, we’re zooming forward to one of the most influential philosophies of the 20th and 21st centuries: existentialism.

Whereas Confucianism is all about respecting the familial and societal contexts in which you find yourself, existentialism is about defining yourself from a starting point of absolute freedom.

The frank insights of existentialism have hugely influenced popular culture, film, literature, art, and attitudes the world over — and continue to do so today.

Now, existentialism is not a set of fixed prescriptive principles; it does not strictly outline how we should live, and the thinkers labeled as ‘existentialist’ — from Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger to Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus — differ greatly in their views.

French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in a Parisian cafe in 1946.

We might then wonder how existentialism can function as a guide to life.

Well, despite the disagreement among existentialist thinkers, there is much overlap in their thought — and their forensic analysis of the human condition sheds much light on our existential situation and how we might better think about it.

Indeed, existentialists tend to agree that traditional approaches to philosophy have not really focused enough on our individual lived experience. If they had done so, they would have realized that our realities do not fit into neat little conceptual boxes, and neither do our values.

Simply describing the cosmos, existentialists argue, gets us no closer to surviving it — and objectively defining ‘goodness’ with stale theory gets us no closer to embodying it.

The task of life is to each find a reason to live . A reason not that we simply subscribe to unthinkingly, nor that we adopt to live up to the expectations of others, but one that we ourselves affirm.

The chief guide to the good life for existentialism is thus authenticity.

To live a good life, we must forge our own paths according to what we affirm; not following the rulebooks of others, not conforming to societal norms, but deliberately carving our own paths through life.

As Nietzsche puts it in his book, Untimely Meditations :

Nobody can build you the bridge over which you must cross the river of life, nobody but you alone. True, there are countless paths and bridges and demigods that would like to carry you across the river, but only at the price of yourself; you would pledge yourself and lose it. In this world there is one unique path which no one but you may walk. Where does it lead? Do not ask; take it.

The richly diverse work of key existentialist philosophers can be brought together to offer a general picture of what it means to live a good, authentic human life from an existentialist perspective.

As contemporary philosopher Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei claims in her book On Being and Becoming :

If philosophy can be applied to spiritual ailments, existentialism is one of the most versatile prescriptions.

If you’re interested in learning more about existentialism, you might like these related reads:

• What is Existentialism? 3 Core Principles of Existentialist Philosophy
• Existence Precedes Essence: What Sartre Really Meant
• Authentic Love: Simone de Beauvoir on What Makes a Healthy Relationship
• Heidegger On Being Authentic in an Inauthentic World
• Sartre’s Waiter, ‘Bad Faith’, and the Harms of Inauthenticity
• Kierkegaard On Finding the Meaning of Life
• Albert Camus on Coping with Life's Absurdity
• Existentialism: the Best 9 Books to Read

What’s your personal philosophy for life?

I asked this question to Philosophy Break’s 15,000+ subscribers, as well as what they think makes life worth living, and their answers represent a goldmine of wisdom and life experience. I feature them in this article: How to Live a Fulfilling Life, According to Philosophy Break Subscribers .

Finally, the introductions above offer only a tiny insight into the depth and wisdom of the major philosophies covered. If you’re interested in cultivating a fuller understanding of how they can enrich your personal philosophy, you might like my self-paced guide, How to Live a Good Life , which explores and compares each philosophy across 56 concise lessons. Join 400+ members inside:

How to Live a Good Life (According to 7 of the World’s Wisest Philosophies)

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11 Best Personal Philosophies To Guide Your Life

If someone asked you, “What’s your personal philosophy?” would you know how to answer them?

You probably have some idea of what’s important to you, but have you ever created a statement that sums it up? 

Look at a list of personal values, and some will stand out for you.

We all have different reasons for our goals and actions. 

Everything you do has a purpose, even if you don’t consciously acknowledge it.

Every successful person has chosen to follow a philosophy based on their core values.

You can do the same. But first, you need to know precisely what that is.  

What Is a Personal Philosophy? 

How to create your personal philosophy , 1. do no harm. , 2. there are no failures — just results to learn from. , 3. you are here to make good things happen., 4. keep stretching and challenging yourself., 5. the flow state is where the magic happens. , 6. you don’t have to understand everything. , 7. personal integrity should guide every action. , 8. impact matters more than intent., 9. be mindful in both your personal and professional life. , 10. learn by doing., 11. be bold, and have big dreams., ready to write your personal philosophy.

You make daily choices to work towards a goal. Smaller goals guide your days, while long-term goals guide months and years of your life. All of those goals are based on your core values, which determine the rules you live by. 

Those rules are known as your personal philosophies. Some of these philosophies may be tied to your religion or culture, but philosophies vary from person to person even within those frameworks. 

You can base your personal philosophy on the following questions:

• What are you passionate about? Or what inspires you?
• How would you describe your ideal life? 
• What elements or values do your passions and ideal life have in common?
• What habits do you have that relate to those values?
• How would you sum up your goals and outlook on life, using these values? 

Now you have a general idea of what it is, how do you write a personal philosophy? 

We’ve outlined a few steps to help you if you don’t know where to start.

• Start with a list of 10 to 20 personal values.
• Narrow down your list to 3 to 5 core values.
• Think about why each of these values is so important to you. 
• For each one, write about how you put those values into daily practice. 
• Connect each value to your long-term goals and aspirations. 
• Write a few sentences about how these values define and guide you. 
• Condense those into one sentence that sums up your primary motivation.

If you’d like some help identifying your values, look at our extensive list of 400 value words.

11 Personal Philosophy Examples 

Your personal philosophy will no doubt resonate with others. And it will express values like the ones you’ll see in the following life philosophy examples, each of which are important for everyone. Read these for inspiration and to help you articulate your own. 

Striving for success is a good thing only if it does not harm others. A victory that comes at someone else’s expense won’t get you closer to becoming a person you’d be proud of. 

When you undertake a challenge, commit to doing whatever it takes to get the best result for everyone involved — and for everyone likely to be affected by it. 

The more you value your connection to other humans and all life, the less you’ll want to be part of something that violates the rights of any. 

Respect others enough to be conscious of how your words and actions affect them to choose the best way forward. And look beyond the surface to see which endeavors genuinely seek the good of all. 

Personal values: 

Tenacity is behind this philosophy; no matter what happens to you, you keep going.

No matter how many less-than-desirable results you get, you keep moving toward your goal and taking action to get closer to it. 

You know that every so-called failure is just a result you can learn from, and you view setbacks with a growth mindset to seek out the lesson. 

You look at what went wrong or what you can do to get a better result next time. And you try again.

You don’t accept failure because every result that falls short of your hopes teaches you more than you might expect.. Every faltering step is still a step.

Personal values:

This is your philosophy (or part of it) If you believe your purpose in life is to make good things happen for the people in your world — those you love, those in your community, and those beyond it. 

You’re here to make the world better, one person and one action at a time. You believe your life won’t be well-spent unless you have a positive impact on those around you. 

All things in moderation, though. If you take on too much responsibility, you’ll always feel that it’s not enough whatever you do. And you’ll burn out. 

Be as kind and compassionate toward yourself as you are to others. 

• Relationships
• Empathy 

This one is about courage since it requires you to step outside your comfort zone. You know that a world of life-changing opportunities exists outside it. 

How can you do this?

• Take a hard look at your comfort zone and what it’s kept you from doing. 
• Commit to doing something that seems beyond your present ability. 
• Watch those who’ve accomplished things you think are beyond your ability. 
• Learn what they’re doing differently, and do it yourself (as long as it does no harm).
• If you don’t know what to do, act as if you do, and take action. 

Take it one step at a time, but keep stepping. Keep trying new things. Continue asking yourself challenging questions. Don’t wait for someone else to challenge you. 

Cognitive understanding is great, but if you’ve ever been in a state of creative flow, you know that the difference between the flow state and cognitive understanding is like the difference between intuition and reasoning. 

There are advantages to letting go of conscious control and allowing the flow to take you over. You become a conduit of thoughts, ideas, and feelings you didn’t know were accessible to you. 

Getting into a flow state indeed takes more than willingness. But once you learn how to access that state, you won’t be content with what your conscious mind can figure out. 

And you’ll want to help others experience the same creative flow. 

• Imagination

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Having a full life doesn’t require a full understanding of everything that matters to you. How boring would life be if you already had everything figured out? 

Life is a lot more fun when you still have learning to do. It’s more exciting to visit a place that’s different from any you’ve seen before. Everyone has a bit of the explorer in them. 

And the goal of the explorer isn’t to understand everything they see or even everything they study. It’s to learn and to broaden their perspective. 

An authentic learning experience should change you in some way. It should make you more than you were. 

Personal values:  

• Wisdom 

Integrity is wholeness. When you act with integrity, you behave in a manner consistent with your beliefs. Operating outside of your values undermines your integrity. It divides you. 

Commit to always acting with integrity, and people will know what to expect of you. They’ll trust you to comport yourself in a way that reflects your moral code. 

Granted, your beliefs may change and your behavior with it. If you turn away from beliefs you’ve held onto for years and continue to act with integrity, people are likely to notice the change. 

But once they know the reason for it, they’re more likely to respect you for acting in agreement with your current beliefs — even if they contrast sharply with older ones.

• Consistency

However noble your intentions, if someone’s experience causes them to receive your words or actions in a way you don’t intend, you owe it to both of you to take a closer look. 

If relationships matter more to you than being right, the impact of your words should matter more than your intent. Never assume it’s the other person’s fault for taking your comments “the wrong way.” 

If you first send the wrong message, apologize, learn where you went wrong, and try again. Learn how others can interpret your words based on their experiences. Your filter is yours, and your experience is not universal. 

• Understanding

It’s important to stop regularly and look inward. Pay attention to what you’re feeling or thinking, whether you’re relaxed, anxious, or somewhere in the middle. 

Don’t judge yourself for thinking or feeling things that don’t seem to fit the person you want to be. You’re human, and you’re still getting to know yourself and the person you want to grow into. 

Practicing mindfulness helps you stay connected to the source of your actions. And the more aware you are of what’s going on behind the scenes, the easier it is to build new habits that are consistent with your values. 

Personal values; 

• Mindfulness
• Introspection

As valuable as book-learning is, and as much as you can learn from watching YouTube videos, nothing can replace actually doing the thing. Don’t worry if you don’t do it correctly — or even well. Practice will help you improve. 

It also makes you less afraid of “looking bad.” If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly. 

Ever met a toddler who was too afraid of falling or looking bad to make the first step? We aren’t born afraid of failing. That’s something we learn as we get older. 

Think of dance as another example. Your first attempts are not going to be pretty. But people are inspired by those who love dancing too much to worry about how they look. 

Do what you love. And never be afraid to try something new. 

You don’t like being boxed in by low expectations. Maybe others think your ideas are “extra” or over the top, but you think, “Why bother dreaming if the dream is just a slightly better version of reality?” 

You want real change. You want transformation. Whatever others think of it, your metamorphosis will inspire other big dreamers to follow your lead. 

After all, what has timidity or “fitting in” ever done for you? You’re either your authentic, bold self, or you’re sleep-walking through life. 

Or maybe you don’t see yourself as bold, but you’d like to be more proactive than you have been. You feel the drive in you, and you’re ready to discover where it will lead. 

Be brave. Even if your boldness doesn’t make you rich, you’ll like yourself better for taking the risk. 

Now that you’ve looked through these personal philosophy examples, which ones resonate the most? Or what comes to mind when you make a list of your own personal values? 

Think of incidents where someone impressed you by the way they practiced one of those values. Or remember a moment when you were proud of yourself. What were you proudest of?

Writing down your thoughts can help you better understand why you do the things you do. And you’ll be that much closer to articulating your personal philosophy. 

Once you do, write it where you’ll see it every day. 

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People develop and shape their personal philosophy during the whole life. Some circumstances may radically change our views, depending on our age, social status and personal qualities. As for me, at this stage of my life I can’t say it for sure that my personal philosophy is complete and well-shaped. In my research paper I want to express my views on several sides of human life. I’d like to attract attention to such concepts as sense of life and happiness, good and evil, morality and faith in God, love and death, eternal life values, karma and religion. I’ll answer the questions what love and happiness mean for me personally. I understand that the concept of life philosophy is really versatile and it’s hard to express personal views on so many aspects. That’s why my research deals with only those things which are important for me at this stage of my life.

If you look at life from different sides for some period of time, and then gather all your thoughts into one picture – that would be your life philosophy.

Humans strive to find out and clearly define the sense of their living, and feel unhappy and desperate without it. Each person has his own sense of life and discovers it for himself only. There are people who live their lives without asking what they are living for. Personally I have always been concerned with this question and I think it is important to have at least some slightest peace of sense in life. Sometimes I feel myself broken and empty. It happens when I don’t see what I am living for. But I remember wise words that “life is too short to regret”. From time to time I feel lonely and dissatisfied with my life, but then unexpectedly I meet a nice person or find an interesting activity, and feel happy again. That’s why I think that everything depends on how we see life, and even in the most desperate situation one may find the way out.

People explore the world around and gradually get acquainted with it. People get knowledge as a moving factor of human development. Life philosophy in general means understanding of personal inner world and world around. I presume that there are certain variants of life, which people choose according to their life circumstances. “The variant of life” is a psychological characteristic of individual existence, which is defined by the attitude of people to life. Such variants form human personality and make it more typical. Life of people is many-sided and I’m still trying to find my own way in it. No matter whether someone is a writer or a reader, his aim is to live his own life, without prescribed or forced stereotypes. Creative work and desire for self-improvement are two things which are important for me in my present life. Creative people have an opportunity to ignore senseless existence. We live and work because of necessity and social duty. On the contrary creative work is inspired by our inner state. Creative people are left to their own devices. Everything depends only on personal initiative. My deep interest and curiosity to explore the world around make me move forward. On the other hand I think that one more sense in my life in desire to improve present state of things. I strive to achieve goals in life and accomplish success. But I also understand that it can’t last forever. My life is not a constant pursuit of happiness; as I take into account my abilities and chances. I understand that one person can’t achieve great results without much effort. Life of a person who always moves forward is full of worries and strain. People always want something and in order to get it, they solve problems and overcome life calamities. If I strive to achieve goals, it means I’m not satisfied with my present life and surrounding world. On the other hand I can’t hope for anything if I don’t believe in future success. I’m optimistic and always hope for better future. A wise phrase of Salvador Dali slipped through my mind:

Don’t be afraid of perfection, as you’ll never achieve it. The more so, that there is nothing good in it.

But even though I consider Salvador Dali is right, I still try to achieve what I’m able to. It’s like in “Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho: If you have a strong desire, the whole Universe will help you to make your dreams come true. Spiritual growth is a constant widening of our knowledge and experience.

Life sense helps people to survive. If we loose it, we start thinking of suicide and each of us finds own reasons for it. Despair and crucial life events make people think there is nothing worth living for and no opportunities to realize. But sense in life shows us the way to overcome difficulties and move forward.

Speaking about such important philosophic problems, I can’t help mentioning the role of fate and karma. These concepts are often mixed up, as the majority of people consider that karma means fate, but I think it is far from truth. According to a widely spread opinion, fate is an unchangeable predetermination of life obstacles (usually negative ones). As for me, I reject such views. No doubt that people are able to change karma, as everything depends on their personal strength and choice. Many people think that together with their belief in karma, they should accept the idea of reincarnation. But I think that one should not necessarily believe in reincarnation in order to understand karma. The concept “karma” means “reason and consequence”, depending on our thoughts and actions. In other words, one builds his life on his own. I believe in it and feel myself responsible for everything that happens in my life. But on the other hand I understand that certain events in life are caused by outer force – God, obstacles, luck or occasion. We meet new people, move to a new place, get interested in new activities – all these changes in our life were not decided in advance; they happened because of our choice. The concept of karma implies that people have wide choices in life. I create my karma, rule my own life, and can change everything for the better. In other words I can explain karma as following: if you act well, the results will be good and vice versa. Pleasure and pain are caused by our virtuous and evil actions.

I’m not a religious person to full extent. Having read much about different religions, I understood that the faith in its true meaning should be inside us. No matter whether a person visits church or not, he should choose either to believe in God or not on his own. I respect all religious streams and accept certain ideas from all of them. For example, in spite the fact that Christianity is closer to me than Eastern religions, I’m more likely to believe in reincarnation. I just can’t accept Christian views that after death people would find themselves either in the heaven or in the hell, according to their righteousness in terrestrial life. The belief in constant return to this world is somehow closer to me. That’s why I can’t say firmly what religion is better for me. In every religion one may find something close to his outlook. Christians believe that humans have two specific peculiarities. First of all, as they are created in the likeness of God, it is right to consider that they reflect his character　(Evans, 1986). God is considered to be good; it means that people are also good-natured. Second aspect is that we live to enjoy spiritual relationship with God, through praying and visiting church. Personally I don’t visit church and know only a few prayers, but I have inner belief and I think that’s enough. Religion is something personal. I think that each person needs God, but can’t truly be happy without Him. Human beings tend to widen their life philosophy and experience, and learn more about this world. As a result among the representatives of humanity, there is a great variety of life understanding. This understanding is our religion. That’s why I think that each person has his own religion, which is a system of ideas and beliefs concerning our world. Some people see the Universe as something chaotic and senseless. Others think that humanity lives in the world with numerous laws and if we break those laws, it would bring us misfortune and destruction. No matter what views people have, I consider it to be religion.

I want to draw attention to another aspect of my philosophy – love. I understand that an attempt to investigate love is connected with a great mystery. Love is too deep and immeasurable, and we can’t wholly explore it. I think that for the majority of people love defines happiness. When I do not love and don’t feel care from the side of close people, I can’t be happy to full extent, no matter how successful my career is. Speaking about love, I can’t help saying that it is closely connected with death. I think that if people didn’t know they were mortal, they wouldn’t be able to love so passionately. They wouldn’t be able to experience so powerful emotions and feelings. Love means being open to everything positive in this world (care, attention, joy), and negative either (grieve, gloom and disappointment). When people fall in love, they see world around from a new side. Anxiety and gladness are directly related to love. I mean that at first a person is anxious about whether his beloved shares his feelings or not. But in fact these fear and anxiety don’t vanish when a person wins somebody’s affection. When a person deals with unrequited love, he is at least able to continue his usual everyday existence.

Love reminds us of death. When one of our friends or close relatives dies, we understand how fleeting, ephemeral and irretrievable our life is. Past years will never return. What is not said or done will remain in the past forever and there is nothing to do with it. May be for this reason people try to take all chances and opportunities, provided by fate. Many people feel the value of love, friendship, loyalty and faithfulness only at the moment of someone’s death. I doubt we would be able to love, if we knew that we would never die.

Love is the complete addiction to another person. When I fell in love, I began to look at this world through the eyes of my beloved. Love acts like a drug. It occupies thoughts, reason and time. Being away from beloved is extremely crucial for a person in love. Faithful love is happiness; happiness is sense of life. Even though, being apart from beloved may be dreadful and unbearable, it would strengthen feelings and remind of past happy days. It’s better to try but fail, than not to try, fearing to fail. People, who fear to live and love sincerely, would never feel happy and satisfied.

What is happiness? One can talk for hours, answering this question. In fact happiness is to see that close people, parents, beloved and friends are happy. True happiness is when you are able to help other people and make them happy. Someone would say that they feel happy when their personal desires and wishes are fulfilled. I can’t completely agree here. Our personal satisfaction is temporary happiness. This feeling is likely to vanish very soon and we’ll forget about it. People think they would be happy if they earn much money or achieve higher position in life. But still they won’t be pleased forever. One should value each moment if he really wants to be happy. Nobody cares how much money you have. The thing that matters is happiness of people around. We often painfully react on other people’s sorrows and misfortunes. By helping other people, fulfilling their needs and dreams, we would become happier ourselves. I’d like to repeat a widely known saying: treat other people in the way you want to be treated by them.

What does moral mean? Moral is a system of views and norms, which occupy the concepts of good and evil, justice, conscience and sense of life. Moral helps people to move forward on the way to self-improvement. Moral defines certain values, which regulate human behavior. Each person is free to decide whether to follow this system of norms or not. Those, who don’t accept social rules, become either criminals or outsiders. According to good or evil actions people would be later judged by society and God. On the other hand people shouldn’t be forced to act virtuously; it should be a free-willed and unselfish choice. For example, according to moral norms one should help weak people. Originally it shows human kindness and readiness to sacrifice certain things for the sake of other people. But different people have different motives of virtuous actions. Some people help others because they want to be altruistic in public eyes. Other people follow the Commandments of God. Still others help weak people hoping for approval in society. We can’t say for sure that each virtuous deed is moral because we don’t know what made people do it. Each of us has own understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

What is good and evil? Evil is lack of good. It doesn’t exist in reality; it is just a possible condition of life, because people always have a right to choose between good and evil. For example, a usual knife is not an evil as it is, but it turns into an evil in the hands of a criminal. The same knife can be used by a doctor to rescue human life. God gives people a chance to decide what to do with this knife. There have been lots of battles in the long human history. But probably the greatest of all is the battle between evil and good, decency and immorality, altruism and egoism, love and hatred. We face this battle in our everyday life, and try to distinguish evil from good. People choose certain system of values, and follow it in life. Kindness is important for our spiritual health; evil is like a venom. Kindness is not simply a moral duty; it is nutrition for our soul in the first place. Good can exist in various forms and conditions: books, attitude to people, technical progress and justice. All of these things have common positive meaning for human life; all of them fulfill social and spiritual needs of people. Good means peace, love, respect, attention and mutual care. In this way it represents everything positive in the sphere of morality. On the contrary, evil contradicts with moral ideals, and hampers people on their way to happiness and joy.

Why do good and evil exist? We try to understand why our impartial God let violence, aggression and pain penetrate the world. To answer this question, I still should admit that people were given freedom of choice. Without it human life would be senseless. God wants us to act in a virtuous way. It is for people to decide whether to follow His will or not. There are philosophers who think that evil and good are two equal forces. But I think that people are kind beings, because they were created in the likeliness with our kind God. In our hearts we approve virtue and reject immorality. Nevertheless discussion of this topic would hardly be able to eliminate pain and sorrow from our world, penetrated with tears of history. Everybody knows consequences of evil. Nevertheless I keep to the point that life calamities strengthen human spirit and inner force. And I hope that new generations won’t repeat mistakes of their ancestors. I’m an optimist and I think that it is important to concentrate on those virtuous deeds which we are able to do now, because there’s no sense in thinking about past negative events all the time.

In conclusion I’d like to say that our personal philosophy may change due to the conditions we live in and people we meet. In my research paper I expressed my opinion on common human values, which are important for me.

• Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. Harper & Row, 1956.
• Williams, Mary. Constructing a Life Philosophy, 2005.
• Evans, Stephen. The Quest for Faith. The Mystery of persons and Belief in God. Inter Varsity Press, 1986.

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What Is Self-Knowledge in Psychology? 8 Examples & Theories

Another provocative question is, “Why do I act the way I do?”

If you’ve asked yourself similar questions, you are not alone.

When we don’t know ourselves or act in ways we don’t understand or aren’t fond of, it may be a signal that change is in order. But how do we change, and what needs changing?

Einstein once reflected, “How many people are trapped in their everyday habits: part numb, part frightened, part indifferent? To have a better life, we must keep choosing how we’re living” (Cooper, 2001, p. 131).

Ignorance, fear, and indifference do not provide the impetus for gaining self-knowledge or effecting positive change.

Conversely, self-analysis leads to self-knowledge, which is the necessary first step in initiating positive change (Schaffner, 2020).

Let’s explore how self-knowledge facilitates self-improvement and provides other benefits.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Strengths Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help your clients realize their unique potential and create a life that feels energizing and authentic.

This Article Contains:

What is self-knowledge in psychology, why is self-knowledge important, how can self-knowledge lead to self-mastery, self-knowledge vs self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-identity, & self-concept, 2 real-life examples of self-knowledge, 6 theories about self-knowledge, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Self-knowledge in psychology is “actual genuine information one possesses about oneself” (Morin & Racy, 2021, p. 373). This includes information about our emotional state, personality traits, relationships, behavioral patterns, opinions, beliefs, values, needs, goals, preferences, and social identity (Morin & Racy, 2021).

Self-knowledge results from self-reflective and social processes (Morin & Racy, 2021).

However, self-knowledge isn’t derived solely from introspection. According to Brown (1998), there are five sources that contribute to the reservoir of self-knowledge.

1. Physical world

This category of information is limited to physical information such as height, weight, and eye color.

2. Social comparisons

This source of self-knowledge occurs when comparing ourselves with others. Subcategories include upward and downward comparisons, in which we compare ourselves with someone better off and worse off, respectively (Brown, 1998).

3. Reflected appraisals

This source of self-knowledge stems from others’ evaluations of us. The term denotes the fact that we see ourselves reflected through the eyes of others (Brown, 1998).

4. Introspection

This source of self-knowledge is derived through inward observation of thoughts, feelings, motives, and desires. Introspection is interwoven with and integrally connected to self-knowledge.

5. Self-perception

In this category of self-knowledge, we learn about ourselves through observing and examining our own behavior.

Schaffner (2020) includes two additional sources of self-knowledge:

6. CBT-style approaches

Another source of self-knowledge emanates from a rational analysis of our negative thought processes through approaches similar to and including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

7. Mindfulness techniques

Mindfulness-based techniques help us assess and enhance our emotional intelligence skills, building self-knowledge (Schaffner, 2020).

In sum, self-knowledge is obtained through a combination of the physical, social, and psychological world.

Indeed, “People who do not see themselves accurately are likely to bungle their lives” (Begley, 2020).

Key aspects at risk due to lack of self-knowledge include life partner choices, education and career choices, and where and how to live (Morin & Racy, 2021).

Deficits in self-knowledge lead to over-estimation of subjective strengths, which can cause lower life satisfaction and poor academic performance (Morin & Racy, 2021).

Schaffner (2020) lists five reasons self-knowledge is essential for psychological growth.

• It satisfies the desire to learn and make sense of experiences.
• It prevents discord between self-perceptions and others’ perceptions of us.
• It emancipates us from the irrational whims of our unconscious.
• It facilitates proactive responses rather than reactivity.
• It is a necessary first step for positive change.

Huseyin (2017) suggests that self-knowledge demands us to develop a balanced suspicion of our feelings.

Other benefits include having less work frustration, less insecurity and envy, and less stress about money. In addition, we gain the ability to take responsibility for our emotions and have more empathy and compassion (Huseyin, 2017).

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Because self-knowledge includes honest self-assessments and other acquired information, we can use it to make positive changes and master aspects of our lives.

Self-knowledge is essential for “giving a meaningful narrative to our past, present, and future actions, a sense of continuity over time, a sense of being both unique and similar to others” (Bukowski, 2019).

Knowing ourselves enhances our ability to live coherent and fulfilling lives. In addition, it allows us to understand our basic motivations and fears, and enhances our control of our emotions (Schaffner, 2020).

Conversely, the inability to recognize our feelings leaves us vulnerable and at their mercy (Schaffner, 2020).

Stellar self-knowledge motivates us to pursue ambitious projects, relationships, and other challenges. Lack of insight can inhibit great aspirations (Begley, 2020).

Psychosocial domains ripe for change

Three domains ripe for change include blind spots, self-deception, and conflict triggers.

1. Blind spots

Blind spots are unconscious processes that “typically bias the access to and formation of self-knowledge” (Bukowski, 2019).

In this video, we learn that Brian Wagner views the world differently than most and uses his gift to help others identify their personal blind spots and overcome their self-limiting beliefs.

2. Self-deception

Baumeister (2010) describes self-deception as a kind of wishful thinking. In this state, we believe what we want to believe, bereft of rigorous justifications. Various biases serve as a vehicle for self-deception.

3. Conflict triggers

Conflict triggers are words or actions performed by another that are perceived as offensive and create conflict (Wilmot & Hocker, 2011). Taibbi (2019) suggests these triggers stem from unhealed wounds from our past.

Why few people seek self-knowledge

• Exploring unknown aspects of ourselves is risky, as it may reveal information that contradicts our current self-beliefs .
• Our culture is more interested in success and advancement than introspection (Huseyin, 2017).
• A variety of closely related terms distract information seekers, forming barriers to self-knowledge (Bukowski, 2019). Terms such as self-awareness, self-concept, and self-identity dilute the field of self-knowledge.

Let’s analyze some of these terms to provide greater clarity.

Self-knowledge refers to information about subjective tendencies, such as our emotional state, personality traits, and behavioral patterns (Morin & Racy, 2021).

Psychologists view self-awareness as a stepping stone on the path toward self-knowledge (Alicke, Zhang, & Stephenson, 2020).

Goleman (1997) states that in self-awareness, the mind investigates experiences and the corresponding emotions. This investigation can be both nonreactive and nonjudgmental.

Goleman (1997, p. 47) simplifies the concept of self-awareness by defining it as being “aware of both our mood and our thoughts about that mood.”

Some benefits of self-awareness include enhanced emotional intelligence, empathy, and listening skills (Berger, 2018).

Strong empathy and listening skills are instrumental in communication and for building robust and enriching interpersonal relationships.

In addition, self-awareness boosts critical thinking and decision making. These are skills often associated with effective leaders (Berger, 2018).

Increase your self-awareness with one simple fix – Tasha Eurich

According to Sheldon Stryker, identity is “a ‘part’ of one’s self that is ‘called up’ while interacting with others” (Appelrough & Desfor-Edles, 2008, p. 478).

The number of identities associated with a person corresponds with the roles they participate in, such as child, parent, employee, friend, and spouse (Appelrough & Desfor-Edles, 2008).

Identity salience refers to how the person organizes their identities hierarchically, as not every identity has the same meaning or status (Appelrough & Desfor-Edles, 2008).

Self-concept is the image we develop about ourselves, which, contrary to self-knowledge, may or may not be reality based (Morin & Racy, 2021). Self-concept may be ascertained using assessments such as the Self-Concept Questionnaire. This tool asks 48 questions assessing domains of self, such as moral, intellectual, social, physical, educational, and temperamental.

Self-concept is developed based on beliefs about self, whereas self-knowledge is derived from various sources of information, including external evidence (Morin & Racy, 2021).

A lack of clarity, stability, and consistency of self-concept is associated with low self-esteem , chronic self-analysis, high neuroticism, low agreeableness, and low conscientiousness (Morin & Racy, 2021).

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The insight self-knowledge brings can lead to a wellspring of information needed to make critical decisions and take necessary action for health and wellbeing.

Naomi Osaka

Osaka made the difficult decision to put her mental health before her career and public image by declining to participate in the 2021 French Open press conferences (Kelly, 2021).

As public fervor grew, Osaka withdrew from the tournament and was subsequently fined $15,000 and given a stern lecture on tournament code infractions (Kelly, 2021).

It appears that Osaka knew herself physically, mentally, socially, and professionally. She was forthcoming on social media about suffering from protracted bouts of depression following her first Grand Slam win in 2018 (Kelly, 2021).

She took initiative to prioritize caring for herself over her career, despite social scrutiny. Osaka is a rare example of how self-knowledge can be used to make critical, sometimes life-altering decisions.

Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl was a 20th-century psychiatrist and psychotherapist who, as a Holocaust survivor, emerged from horrific circumstances to create logotherapy and author numerous books (Frankl, 2006).

He was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1905 and received his MD and PhD from the University of Vienna. Frankl’s (2006) early work focused on depression and suicide.

After years of waiting, Frankl received his visa allowing emigration to the United States. However, the decision necessitated that he leave his parents, wife, and siblings behind. After contemplation, Frankl allowed the visa to lapse (Schatzman, 2011).

In 1942, Frankl was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp along with his family. He was the only member of his family to emerge from imprisonment (Schatzman, 2011).

Frankl’s body of work, early achievements, and life-transforming decisions signify self-knowledge proficiency and reflect his goals, values, beliefs, and social identity.

Various models and theories seek to explain self-knowledge. Below are concepts explaining how self-knowledge is acquired.

1. The unmediated observation model

The unmediated observation model, most notably associated with Descartes, posits that we attain self-knowledge through our own unmediated thoughts, separate from outside input or sources. This model is typically used for comparing other philosophical models (Gertler, 2003).

2. The transparency model

The transparency model involves making up your mind and rationally reflecting on and reaching a conclusion about the state of the world.

Using this model, we gain knowledge not just about our beliefs, but about any judgment-sensitive attitude. One attraction of transparency is the intimate connection between self-knowledge and agency (Jongepier, 2021).

3. Social constructionism

Social constructionism is a way of understanding ourselves and our world through the use of language to create a shared reality (Gergen, 2009). Constructionists theorize that meaning is created in relation to others.

4. The “looking-glass self”

This model, posited by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, asserts that our sense of self is developed through interactions with others.

In this theory, our appearance is reflected through the other person. We then make a hypothesis about their judgment of us and have a resulting emotion regarding that judgment (Appelrough & Desfor-Edles, 2008).

5. Narrative self

Narrative self is necessary for introspective reasoning and autobiographical memory reconstruction. It includes two branches of thinking:

• Paradigmatic mode, which accesses logical explanations in order to build a rational explanation of reality
• Narrative mode, which uses meaningful interpretations of ourselves to create a coherent explanation of our identity

These narratives combine the past, present, and future events into a coherent sequence (Bukowski, 2019).

6. Self-perception theory

This theory, proposed by Daryl Bem, suggests that people learn about themselves by observing behavior and making inferences (Baumeister, 2010).

17 Exercises To Discover & Unlock Strengths

Use these 17 Strength-Finding Exercises [PDF] to help others discover and leverage their unique strengths in life, promoting enhanced performance and flourishing.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

We have an array of resources to boost self-knowledge for yourself and your clients. Below is a list of recommended courses, articles, and free worksheets from around our site.

Mindfulness X© course

This course was developed to increase mindfulness through analysis of the underlying workings of habitual thought patterns. The combined psychology, research, and practice behind mindfulness help participants better understand the workings of the mind, adding to self-knowledge.

Emotional Intelligence Masterclass©

Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and interpret emotional encounters. Individuals with high emotional intelligence skills tend to handle everyday stress better (Gohm, Corser, & Dalsky, 2005), have meaningful and close relationships (Schutte et al., 2001), and higher levels of wellbeing (Fernandez-Berrocal, Alcaide, Extremera, & Pizarro, 2006).

Emotional intelligence provides a deep understanding of subjective emotional tendencies, adding to self-knowledge. This masterclass  is an invaluable course for practitioners, as it includes high-quality material for practitioners to provide science-based training sessions.

This worksheet invites clients to discover who they are by considering how others and different temporal versions of themselves might respond to questions about their identity.

For instance, clients will consider how their closest friends and family likely perceive them. They will also consider what they would communicate about their present-day identity to past and future versions of themselves.

Personal Values Worksheet

Personal values refer to the beliefs, principles, and ideas that reflect the core of each individual. They bring meaning to our actions and shape our preferences, behaviors, and decisions.

This worksheet helps clients explore what they view as meaningful and important, serving as a basis to determine how they might focus their energy and time.

Replacing Negative Self-Talk

This exercise acknowledges the role of self-talk in making sense of our lives. Participants are encouraged to reframe negative self-talk into positive self-talk , making a positive change in their daily narrative.

Track and Measure Success

Because we remember the things that went wrong better than our successes, it is useful to track wins to add to your personal success story. This worksheet helps keep track of successes, adding to the self-knowledge base.

Self-Assessment for Assertiveness Self-Discovery

One of the numerous benefits of self-knowledge is that it can help enrich assertiveness skills. This worksheet prompts participants to explore various positive aspects of themselves to bolster confidence and self-efficacy .

87 Self-Reflection Questions for Introspection

This self-reflection article provides definitions, questions, and exercises that allow us to know ourselves more holistically.

17 Strength-Finding Exercises

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop their strengths, this collection contains 17 strength-finding tools for practitioners. Use them to help others better understand and harness their strengths in life-enhancing ways.

In this blog post, we’ve discussed several benefits and justifications for gaining self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge is essential for personal growth, decision making, and accurate self-assessment. It is the opposite of ignorance and helps us make sense of our experiences.

Importantly, self-knowledge is an essential tool to help in the change process. Change is hard. It requires intentionality and courage.

We humans spend a good amount of life avoiding the pain and discomfort associated with change.

The journey to gain self-knowledge seeks to dislodge us from our comfort zone to explore aspects of ourselves generally ignored or avoided.

The question I ask myself is, “How will I feel ten years from now if I choose not to look at all aspects of myself?”

Nelson Mandela stated,

“There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

Cooper, 2001, p. xvii

Although change may be difficult, healing, creativity, resilience, and passion are forged through change.

I believe waiting underneath our self-protective layers is a hidden wholeness.

So, who are you and what are you capable of? Aren’t you curious now?

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Strengths Exercises for free .

• Alicke, M., Zhang, Y., & Stephenson, N. (2020). Self-awareness and self-knowledge. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology . Retrieved June 29, 2021, from  https://oxfordre.com/psychology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.001.0001/acrefore-9780190236557-e-743
• Appelrough, S., & Desfor-Edles, L. (2008). Classical and contemporary sociological theory . Pine Forge Press.
• Baumeister, R. F. (2010). The self. In R. F. Baumeister & E. J. Finkel (Eds.), Advanced social psychology: The state of the science (pp. 143-175). Oxford University Press.
• Begley, S. (2020, May 18). How much self-knowledge is too much? Mindful. Retrieved June 9, 2021, from https://www.mindful.org/how-much-self-knowledge-is-too-much/
• Berger, B. (2018, May 22). Know thyself: Examining the benefits of self-reflection. Institute for Public Relations.  Retrieved June 7, 2021, from https://instituteforpr.org/know-thyself-examining-the-benefits-of-self-reflection/
• Brown, J. D. (1998).  The self.  Routledge.
• Bukowski, H. (2019). Self-knowledge. In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.) Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences (pp. 61–76). Springer.
• Cooper, R. K. (2001). The other 90% . Three Rivers Press.
• Fernandez-Berrocal, P., Alcaide, R., Extremera, N., & Pizarro, D. (2006). The role of emotional intelligence in anxiety and depression among adolescents.  Individual Differences Research ,  4 , 16–27.
• Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s search for meaning . Beacon Press.
• Gergen, K. J. (2009). An invitation to social constructionism (2nd ed.) Sage.
• Gertler, B. (2003). Self-knowledge. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.). Retrieved July 19, 2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/self-knowledge/
• Gohm, C. L., Corser, G. C., & Dalsky, D. J. (2005). Emotional intelligence under stress: Useful, unnecessary, or irrelevant?  Personality and Individual Differences ,  39 (6), 1017–1028.
• Goleman, D. (1997). Emotional intelligence. Bantam.
• Huseyin, R. (2017, August 29). Why self-knowledge is hard to come by and what to do about it . Art of Wellbeing with Rezzan Huseyin. Retrieved May 31, 2021, from  https://www.artofwellbeing.com/2017/08/29/self-knowledge/
• Jongepier, F. (2021). The value of transparent self-knowledge. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice , 24 , 65–86.
• Kelly, J. (2021, June 1). Tennis star Naomi Osaka stood up for herself, bravely shared her mental health issues and walked away from the French Open. Forbes. Retrieved June 21, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/06/01/tennis-star-naomi-osaka-stood-up-for-herself-bravely–shared-her-mental-health-issues-and-walked-away-from-the-french-open/
• Morin, A., & Racy, F. (2021). Dynamic self-processes. In J. Rauthmann (Ed.), The handbook of personality dynamics and processes (pp. 336–386). Elsevier.
• Schaffner, A. K. (2020, May 25). What’s so great about self-knowledge? Psychology Today. Retrieved May 31, 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-self-improvement/202005/whats-so-great-about-self-knowledge
• Schatzman, M. (2011, October 23). Obituary: Viktor Frankl. Independent . Retrieved June 22, 2021, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/ obituary-viktor-frankl-1237506
• Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., Bobik, C., Coston, T. D., Greeson, C., Jedlicka, C., … Wendorf, G. (2001). Emotional intelligence and interpersonal relations.  The Journal of Social Psychology ,  141 (4), 523–536.
• Taibbi, R. L. (2019). Healing the past in the present. Psychology Today. Retrieved July 1, 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fixing-families/201907/healing-the-past-in-the-present
• Wilmot, W. W., & Hocker, J. L. (2011). Interpersonal conflict . McGraw-Hill.

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