Body, Mind And Soul

Question 1

Plato’s view of body and soul

Answer 1

Body
> Changes 
> Decays and dies
> A prison
> Diverted from true knowledge by appetites and emotion
Soul 
> Unchanging 
> Eternal 
> Seeks true knowledge by reason 
> Trapped by the body 
> Leaves the body at death

Question 2

Plato’s example

Answer 2

The charioteer and horses

Question 3

Aristotle’s examples

Answer 3

> imprint on wax
eye
axe
statue

Question 4

Descartes quotes

Answer 4

‘Body is by nature divisible, but the mind is not’

‘I am a thing that thinks’

Question 5

Ryle’s criticisms of Descartes’ substance dualism

Answer 5

The ghost in the machine
Category error
> ‘body’ and ‘mind’ are not distinct and separate substances but a description of the whole person and what it means to be a conscious, thinking being

Question 6

Dawkins quotes

Answer 6

‘There is no spirit driven life force, no throbbing heaving, pullulating, protoplasmic mystic jelly’ (Soul)
‘Life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information’ (Body)

Question 7

Dawkins: the body

Answer 7

> they are survival machines that enable our genes to replicate
self-awareness has developed becuase it has evolutionary advantages

Question 8

Dawkins: the soul (1)

Answer 8

> The ancient idea of conscious (a non-physical element of life)
“not an explanation by an evasion”
it is a God of the gaps argument
science has either killed soul one or is in the process of doing so

Question 9

Dawkins: Soul (2)

Answer 9

> intellect or development of mental faculties
is not fully explained yet but will one day, science may find the answer
Dawkins thinks that the the answer will be found in DNA

Question 10

Materialism supporters

Answer 10

Identity theory
D. Dennett
Susan Blackmore
Dawkins

Question 11

Materialism critics

Answer 11

R. Swinburne
Keith Ward
G.E.M Anscombe

Question 12

What is the identity theory

Answer 12

Mental and physical events are one in the same

Supported by NASA

Question 13

D. Dennett and materialism

Answer 13

Rejects the mythical Cartesian Theatre
there is no single place in the brain that contains consciousness
Supported by S. Blackmore

Question 14

Dawkins and materialism

Answer 14

“Bytes and bytes of digital information”

Consciousnesses an evolutionary advantage

Question 15

R. Swinburne and materialism

Answer 15

Physical terms cannot describe everything about and individual
The soul is aware of freedom to choose and recognise goodness

Question 16

Keith ward and materialism

Answer 16

Is we the loose the idea of soul:
> morality becomes personal taste
> humans are just another animal 
> Dignity of humans is rooted in idea of soul recognising morality from God 
>loses sense of final purpose

Question 17

G.E.M Anscombe and materialism

Answer 17

We end the soul to explain intention/ choice because nerve functions in the brain ca have no desire or intentions