Understanding Self, Self-Concept, and Self-Esteem

The most important concept I learned through the reading of the article is “I think therefore I am”. This concept is discussed very in depth throughout this piece of writing. The concept pertaining to understand one self, or complete discovering yourself is a recent phenomenon. Rene Decartes explained self as a thinking matter. In order to understand the self we have to understand how exactly we differ from other species. We are more advanced in many ways. Humans are advanced in how we use tools, how develop and use language, but most of all because have self-consciousness which animals and other species do not have they only have a sense of regular consciousness about their surroundings. Since we have self consciousness we humans are able to function in a way more complex manner due to that sense of consciousness. In my personal opinion we have many selfs. We do not act or think differently based on the people in our surroundings or the way we feel. Having more than one self just means that we are able to show a certain aspect of ourselves at certain times, not that complete change who we are because that’s completely impossible. In the article Transformations which talks about self-esteem and self-concept, it is explain that self-concept is complex in that is composed values, traits, roles, and etc. Self-concept is given the definition of how perceives oneself in relation to their surroundings and the world around them. It is important for a person to have a good sense of self-esteem that way that person will be able to function properly and feel good about themselves. Self esteem is the concept that we build about ourselves and it is imperative. On this concept of ourselves we build our belief system and our values, so like any other thing in the world we need a good foundation in order for it to be strong. It is said by many that the way that we tend to feel about ourselves depends on how we compare ourselves to other people. So instead of being put down when we lose a competition we should feel more competitive and think that we are practicing and will get better at whatever it is, that way we will boost our confidence instead of lowering it.