Existing as a Self Identity: Understanding Oneself as a Person - Essay Example

What sets human beings differently from the rest of the world is in the definition of self which also referenced to I our self concept. Who we are is just a part of the human equation. The self concept is how we think about and evaluate ourselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about or perceives themselves (Mcleod 2008). Understanding oneself as a person will lead us into a rational thinking of who we really are as a person.

Life in every form is unique and but somehow animals and humans share the basics of living but on a different levels- needs, desires, ways and intellect. But what sets a human from the rest of the animal kingdom is a controversial standard. Frankfurt defines the criteria of being a person as not to be distinguished from other species but to a sense of identity (1). Further he discussed that what is essential to a person is a set of characteristics that a person generally suppose-whether wrongly or rightly- to be called uniquely human (6).

A person’s character is his own wordy definition of himself based on his ways and actions in the social group he belongs. Frankfurt viewed that one essential difference between person and other creatures is found in the structure of a person’s will is described as the driving force every human action. According to him humans are not alone in the having desires and motives, or in making choices but differently humans have the ability to form second order desires (6)- desires contemplated upon whether to do or not to do.

They have the capability of wanting to be different and acts accordingly to his freedom of choice. A person does not act merely based on the basic needs and desires. Above all actions, a person thinks before an act and how he perceives it right or wrong is in the discretion of the person that defines the level of his being. No other animal have the capacity for reflective evaluation (7). What sets humans different from other species is that actions are not on the basis of needs alone but on the humanly standards as well.

A food will not be taken from someone else despite being hungry rather people spend their own money and buy their own food. Freedom of the will is the freedom to want whatever a man wants to want. Man acts according to his will; no other person is in total control of what he wants to do unless he desires the will not to do so. It is in the virtue of mans rational capacities that a person is capable of being critically aware of his own will (Frankfurt 11). Man therefore as a rational being has a multitude of responsibility for every action he makes.

A social responsibility not to keep others’ will at stake. The fulfillment of a person’s desire rely on the conduct of his free will, whether he is moved by his basic motives or go on a higher ground of deliberation whether to pursue the desire as what Frankfurt cited: the enjoyment of free will means the satisfaction of a certain desires, whereas its absence means frustration. Kierkegaard on the other hand have a more religious concept of self, according to him, an individual is in despair if he does not align himself with God's plan ( ).

By this concept the actualization of being a person is in connection with God and when one does not acknowledge the alignment, the person loses his self. This only shows the role of religion of molding an individual as a person and being one with a social group that somewhat defines a human as a person. Furthermore, on a psychological point of view, Carl Rogers believes that the self concept has three different components: The view a person have of himself -Self image, how much value one place on himself -Self