2. Soul, mind and body Flashcards
Dualism
the view that there are two different types of existence: mental and physical.
Substance dualism
Descartes’ version of dualism that the two different types of existence are two different substances, e.g. mental (characterised by thinking) and physical (characterised by extension).
A substance is a type of existence which cannot be broken down into anything further.
Monism
the view that there is one kind of existence.
Materialism
the view that the one kind of existence is physical substance.
Platos beliefs
- Dualist, believes soul (real essence of person) would survive death.
- Soul = personal identity, forms ‘I’
- human is a ‘soul imprisoned in a body’
- body = subject to change – not reliable guide to truth
- Real knowledge (of the forms) comes from the soul
- soul is immortal
- At the end of life the soul will be set free.
- The body is a distraction to the soul.
Platos belief of Souls goal
world of Forms
Plato’s chariot analogy
- Charioteer = reason Black horse = desire White horse = emotion
- Reason = searches for truth and rules the soul
- Emotion = aggressiveness, being honourable and emotions
- Desire = seeking pleasure e.g. for what is necessary and what is unnecessary
Plato - arguemnt from knowledge
- soul has knowledge of eternal ideas and able to recognise forms such as beauty.
- uses the example of Socrates questioning a slave boy about geometrical problems he had never faced before.
- slave’s answers demonstrate an awareness of Pythagoras’ theorem, which demonstrates that the soul has knowledge from its prior existence.
- Learning is therefore remembering.
Plato - arguement from opposites
- body and soul are opposites.
- One makes the other necessary just as the concept of light logically makes us aware of the idea of darkness.
- Life and death = two opposite things. Plato argues that death is a thing (rather than nothingness) and this leads him to suggest that death is an event, the soul leaving the body.
Plato - weaknesses of beliefs
- Peter Geach – rejects Plato’s ideas. What can it mean for the disembodied soul to see the Forms? Seeing is an experience of the senses.
- Is learning really remembering? Is it not new knowledge? Does the argument from opposites really demonstrate the existence of the soul?
- Plato’s argument about the soul rests on theory of Forms, but the theory of Forms is debatable.
Aristole - beliefs
- In his writings the soul is a translation of the Greek word psyche So the soul is conceived as whatever is the cause of something alive. Soul was seen as ‘life giving force of the body’
- The meaning did not correspond with the idea that the soul is the centre of a person’s identity that survives after death
aristole - substance
- For Aristotle the soul was a ‘substance’ which meant ‘essence’ or ‘real thing
- If the physical body is in a state of change the ‘substance’ must remain the same in terms of continuing identity.
- This was called the soul The soul gives something its telos - purpose
Aristole - analogy
- used the analogy of a wax with a stamp in it to illustrate his idea that the soul could not be separated from the body
- soul was not a distinct and self-contained thing – the ‘soul’ of something could be seen in its function/purpose
- Aristotle used these examples: Axe – axe and chopping Eye – eye and vision
- soul cannot be separate from the body – for example without the physical material (eye, axe) there would be no vision or chopping.
Aristole - soul = Form of the body
- The soul gives shape to the matter which is the body
- soul is the principle of life or activity of the body
- soul is merely a description of the essence or properties of the body – personality and abilities
- body is not just a prison for the soul (Plato)
Aristole - life after death
The soul is perishable as it is inseparable from the body – so it does not live on – our personality or identity does not live on
However – Aristotle believed that our reason/intellect could be immortal – therefore there is some form of intellectual post-mortem existence
