MATERIAL SELF

SALE! SALE!
SELF
William James conceptualized SELF as having 2 aspects- the “I” and
the “me”.

The “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self and the “me” on the
other hand, is physical characteristics as well as psychological
capabilities that makes who you are.
MATERIAL SELF
• The material self is
a total of all of the
tangible things you
own:
• your possessions
• your home
• your body
MATERIAL SELF

• The material self to

tangible objects,
people, or places
that carry the
designation:
“my or mine”
MATERIAL SELF

• Two subclasses:
• Bodily self
• Extracorporeal
self
 MATERIAL SELF
Two subclasses:

Bodily self Extracorporeal self

It includes all of the people,

places, and things that we
regard as “ours.”
Material Self Investment Diagram
home

Immediate
family

clothes

body
1. BODY
The innermost part of our material
self is our BODY. Intentionally, we
are INVESTING in our body.
BODY
2. CLOTHES
Herman Lotze’s ‘Philosophy of
Dress’ James believed that:
Clothing is an essential part of
the material self.

Lotze book: ‘Microsmus ’any

time we bring an object into the
surface of our body, we invest
that object into the
consciousness of our personal
existence taking in its contours
to be our own and making it
part of the self.’ (Watson 2014)
3. Immediate FAMILY
Our parents and siblings hold another
great important part of our self. What
they do or become affects us.

When an immediate family member dies,

part of our self dies, too.
When their lives are in success, we feel
their victories as if we are the one holding
the trophy.
In their failures, we are put to shame or
guilt. When they are in disadvantage
situation, there is an urgent urge to help
like a voluntary instinct of saving one’s
self from danger.

We place HUGE INVESTMENT in our

immediate family when we see them
as the nearest REPLICA of our self.
Home Home is the earliest nest
of our selfhood.

Our experiences inside the home

were recorded and marked on
particular parts and things in our
home.

The home thus is an extension of

self, because in it, we can directly
connect our self
INVESTMENT
The collections in different degree of investment of self, becomes part of the
self.
As James (1890) described self: “a man’s self is the sum total of all what we CAN
call his.”
Possessions then become a part or an extension of the self.
WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE

Russel Belk (1988) – “we regard our possessions as part of ourselves.

WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE AND WHAT WE POSSESS.

The identification of the self to things started in our infancy stage when we make a distinction
among self and environment and others who may desire our possessions.

Material possession gains higher value in our lifetime if we use material possession to find
HAPPINESS, associate these things with significant events, accomplishment, and people in our
lives.

There are even times, when material possession of a person that is closely identified to the
person, gains acknowledgement with high regard even if the person already passed away.