1.6 Soul, mind and body Flashcards
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1
Q
What is Plato’s general approach to the soul?
A
- soul is more important than the body
- it is trapped within the body
- it belongs in the world of the forms but was pulled to earth by the appetites
- the soul will be liberated from the body in death either into another body or nir eventually back to the realm of the Forms
2
Q
how does Plato understand the soul to be made up
A
- compares it to a charioteer in charge of two horses
- the charioteer is the spirit/will that determines what to do
- the horses are reason and desire
- reason should be in charge
3
Q
how does Aristotle view the relationship between the soul and the body?
A
- it is not entirely different to the body, the theory of the forms is unnecessary
- for him the soul is a property that is possessed by the body but is not additional to it
- Bertrand Russell clarified this: football could not exist if there were no footballers or beauty could not exist if there were no beautiful things
- Plato would say beauty could exist without any beautiful things whereas Aristotle would say it comes from observation
4
Q
what does Aristotle say the soul is?
A
- it is a description of the properties of the body, our personality and abilities
- the soul and the body cannot be divided, we are body and soul
- this is demonstrated through the analogy of the axe: if the body were an axe the soul would be it ability to chop
- there can be no soul without the body
5
Q
what is Aristotle’s hierarchy of being?
A
- all living things possess souls that are made up of an irrational and rational part
- the irrational part is made up of the vegetative and appetitive element
- plants only have the vegetative element which is the ability to gain nutrition
- animals have this and the appetitive element whcih involves movements and desires
- human souls have both of those and the rational aspect, the ability to reason
6
Q
what are three issues with consciousness?
A
- logical privacy: no one other than me can know my thoughts and I cannot know the thoughts of others
- qualia: a term used to describe how an experience feels to the person who has the experience
- non-spatial: materialists would dispute this but it seems as though our consciousness does not take up physical space
7
Q
what are the three theories to consciousness?
A
- substance dualism: descartes and plato, the mind is a non-physical thing separate from the body
- materialism: aristotle and modern scientists, entirely physical explanation
- property dualism: the mind cannot be reduced just to the physical, there is only one substance but two types of properties, mental and physical
8
Q
what occurs in Descartes’ meditation 1 and 2?
A
- meditation one: it is possible to doubt all things including the existence of his body, sense are unreliable, how to know the difference between dreaming and being awake and what about an evil demon
- meditation two: the only thing he can be sure of is that he exists, cogito ergo sum
9
Q
how did Descartes attempt to prove there is a difference between the mind/soul and the body?
A
- used Leibniz’s law: for something to be identical they have to have exactly the same properties
- the essence of the mind if thought which is non-physical
- the essence of physical matter is that it is extended (occupies physical space)
- a physical thing can be divided but the mind cannot
- therefore they cannot be the same
10
Q
how does Dawkins attempt to explain the soul?
A
- says the concept of the soul is mythological invented to explain the mystery of consciousness
- it is not an explanation but an evasion and rather modern science will one day be able to explain it all
11
Q
what is Dawkin’s distinction between the two souls?
A
- soul 1: a separate thing that contains our personalities, to be rejectede
- soul 2: higher development of the mental faculties, a meaningful way to speak of the soul as long as we are clear it is not a separate thing from the brain
12
Q
what did Gilbert Ryle say about the soul?
A
- also a materialist
- belief in the soul was making a category error: when something is talked about in completely the wrong way and belongs to a different category entirely
- called descartes’ dualism ‘the dogma of the ghost in the machine’, the idea that it is impossible for a non-physical soul to interact with a physical body or brain, a ghost cannot operate a machine
13
Q
what did Susan Blackmore say about the soul?
A
- rejects the idea the conscious is non-physical but accepts it is ‘the last great mystery in science’
- the work of neuroscientists is what has made the most progress in understanding it
- wrote ‘the meme machine’ (1999) in which she argues that evolution can be explained through genes and so can the contents of our mind be explained by memes, cultural ideas that stick on the pathways of our brain
14
Q
what are two arguments for Plato’s dualism?
A
- innate knowledge: the story of the uneducated slave
- the linguistic argument: ‘i am happy’ vs ‘i have a body’ - suggests we are not our bodies
but the second one is so weak, it’s the same as saying ‘i have a headache’
Wittgenstein ‘language has gone on holiday’
15
Q
what are four arguments for materialism?
A
- neuroscience: states of consciousness are affected by brain chemistry like depression, one day we will be able to explain everything
- the problem of interaction: Ryle’s ghost in the machine and his illustration of category error through asking where the university is when touring its buildings
- simplicity: Ockham’s razor, why choose dualism where one aspect is beyond our ability to empirically investigate it?
