Life and Death

Question 1

What do dualists believe about humans?

Answer 1

Humans are made up of two parts, a body and a soul/mind. The soul; survives death and the body is less important.

Question 2

What do monists believe about humans?

Answer 2

The soul can’t be separated from the body, humans are a unity and if they survive death it is as a unity. Most are materialists, believing only physical existence is possible and survival after death is in a physical form.

Question 3

Which philosophers believe in dualism?

Answer 3

Plato who suggested this in his theories about the soul and Descartes in his theories of the mind.

Question 4

Which other theory depends on the existence of an immortal soul?

Answer 4

Reincarnation, although belief in the immortality of the soul does not have to be religious.

Question 5

What types of non religious evidence is there for immortality of the soul?

Answer 5

Mediums, parapsychology and near death experiences.

Question 6

What do materialists believe?

Answer 6

All the contents of the world are physical, so like monists they reject the theory of immortality of the soul.

Question 7

What does reincarnation mean?

Answer 7

To take on flesh again.

Question 8

Which religions believe in reincarnation?

Answer 8

Sikhs and Hindus.

Question 9

What belief in reincarnation rely on?

Answer 9

Belief in an immortal and eternal soul called atman that passes from existence to existence based on the kind of life they’ve lived.

Question 10

What do Hindus use reincarnation to explain?

Answer 10

The presence of physical social, financial and inequality between humans. The status of the new body is dependent on the actions of the united body and soul in a previous incarnation, the law of cause and effect called karma. A morally good person is born into a higher status.

Question 11

What do Hindus believe about the physical world?

Answer 11

It is not the real world, as it is temporary and life with Brahman their creator is the real transcedent reality.

Question 12

What does every person possess?

Answer 12

There is an atman which animates the body and is the essence of the person.

Question 13

What is the ultimate goal of life for Hindus?

Answer 13

To escape the cycle of samsara - birth, death and rebirth and achieve unity moksha with Brahman, the ultimate reality. Moksha - the final release from the cycle of the soul from reincarnation into a state of bliss.

Question 14

What do people believe is evidence for reincarnation?

Answer 14

In past life memories and the sense of deja vu. Also in past life regression theory or hypnosis. People have taken on new characters and spoken in different languages.

Question 15

What are the strengths of the argument for reincarnation?

Answer 15

It could help explain why there are such differences in the world through karma. Lots of people have had experiences, for example Ruth Simmons in 1952 who had hypnosis and she began to talk in a heavy irish accent about her life as Bridey Murphy from Belfast who lived in the 19th century. Remembering details like the people from whom she brought food, it was verified by the town directory the individuals she stated were grocers.

Question 16

What are the weaknesses of the argument for reincarnation?

Answer 16

Swinburne in the Future of the Soul: rejects reincarnation, as if there is no connection between the brain of the newborn and the dead person, there is no way of saying the soul is from that person, as there is no direct link.
It can create greed and pompous with the hierarchical idea of reincarnation.
Peter Geach, rejects reincarnation, questions how is the new body you if it lacks your body, memories, experiences and feelings?

Question 17

Who believes in rebirth?

Answer 17

Buddhists.

Question 18

What is the theory of rebirth?

Answer 18

Thinks there is a consciousness generated by experiences and the life stream. At death the consciouness which is attached to life,possessions and people, craves to continue thus attaching itself to another body.

Question 19

How do Buddhists escape the cycle of rebirth?

Answer 19

Attaining nirvana - in Buddhism, this is the final release from the cycle of rebirth, attained by extinction of desires and individual existence, creating a state of absolute blessedness.

Question 20

How can Buddhists speed up the attainment of Nirvana?

Answer 20

Through mediation and following the dharma - teachings of the Buddha, they can overcome cravings that encourage their consciousness and at this point the consciousness dissolves back into the life stream that is in all things. There is no such thing as self or personality.

Question 21

Which religions believe in resurrection?

Answer 21

Christians, Muslims and Jews.

Question 22

What is the theory of Resurrection?

Answer 22

Means raised up again.God will raise the dead back to life at the end of the days (eschaton judgement day). The righteous will form an eternal kingdom of God and the sinners are excluded. Eschatological view. Life is a testing ground for heaven and hell, although this is not based on scripture. Monist view as body is needed, but some are more dualistic.

Question 23

Where is their evidence of Resurrection in the Bible?

Answer 23

Ezekiel 37: God shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones and states he can make them live again.
Gospels - the Resurrection of Jesus is attested in all 4 gospels.
1 Corinthians 15 - St Paul says the body will be ‘ raised imperishable.’

Question 24

How did St Paul argue for Resurrection?

Answer 24

Since Jesus was resurrected Christians should hope for Resurrection as well. God has created many types of bodies in nature, so we should believe that he can make human bodies perfect, 1 Corinthians 15. If we accept God as creator this is plausible.

Question 25

What did early Christians believe about Resurrection?

Answer 25

The resurrected body would be a transformation, St Paul mentions a ‘spiritual body’ in 1 Corinthians 15. Although Resurrection is often claimed to just be an article of faith.

Question 26

What did David Jenkins, former Bishop of Durham say about resurrection?

Answer 26

The Resurrection of Jesus is not ‘a conjuring trick with bones’, so it has a deeper meaning.

Question 27

What did Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury say about Resurrection?

Answer 27

That Resurrection lies ‘ on the frontier of any possible language.’ It is a difficult, mystical idea, but is a part of Christian faith, so can’t really be described.

Question 28

What are the strengths of the Resurrection argument?

Answer 28

It disproves the idea of disembodied existence, which many people would find hard to accept as they believe the body is what makes them unique, e.g. monists and materialists.
There is lots of evidence in the Bible from different people e.g Ezekiel and St Paul.

Question 29

What are the weaknesses of the Resurrection argument?

Answer 29

It is hard to accept for non believers, as it is based on scripture alone.
The body could be seen as the source of flaws and limitations e.g. desire and disease. therefore we might be better off as non material souls or spirits.
No empirical evidence for it, leading to supporters of the verification principle like A.J.Ayers to say any talk of Resurrection is simply meaningless.

Question 30

What did Plato argue in favour of?

Answer 30

The immortality of the soul, as he was a dualist.

Question 31

What happened in Plato’s dialogue Phaedo?

Answer 31

Plato sets the scene as just before the death of his mentor Socrates, who decides to talk to his friends about death and the immortality of the soul. He writes that a human is a soul imprisoned in the body.

Question 32

What did Plato think the goal of the soul was?

Answer 32

To reach the perfect World of the forms, our souls knew the forms of truth, beauty and goodness before we were born as they are immortal and eternal, so we see reflections of it in the world of appearances e.g. flowers are reflected beauty called particulars. When we learn we are recalling knowledge of the forms., this is called anamnesis.

Question 33

What did Plato believe about the body?

Answer 33

It stops the soul seeking knowledge about the World of the Forms and distracts us with bodily desires, lusts and fears.

Question 34

How did Plato explain the difference between knowledge and opinion?

Answer 34

Using the metaphor of sight: sight needs the eye, the object and light. Without the light the object can’t clearly be seen. The light represents the form of the good, as knowledge of true goodness allows the soul (eye) to have clear vision (real understanding).

Question 35

What was Plato’s theory of the opposites?

Answer 35

Plato believed that the soul pre exisiting the body and lives on after the body can be justified by logical argument. His first was that everything comes into being from its opposite being and couldn’t exist without it e.g. light and dark.
The opposite of living is death, so death comes from life and life from death.
People who are dead used to be alive but then experienced a change. People who are alive are people who were among the dead then experienced the change of birth.

Question 36

What was Plato’s argument of knowledge?

Answer 36

Learning is remembering what the soul knew in the World of the Forms e.g. 2 + 2 = 4. Can’t be known through the senses and thus isn’t subjective opinion, it is true objectively and is absolute, It shows the soul pre exists the body.

Question 37

What is the aim of the philosopher according to Plato?

Answer 37

To gain knowledge of the world of the forms without these distractions.

Question 38

What is the analogy of the chariot?

Answer 38

Shows the division between the body’s desires and of the soul. He compares the soul to the chariot driver who tries to make 2 horses pull the chariot.
The docile white horse represents the mind, rationality and should lead and the spirited black horse the body pulling in different directions. The soul tries to get them to cooperate to pull the chariot. The soul is the directing force of the body.

Question 39

What is Plato’s view on the soul?

Answer 39

The soul is simple(republic) and can’t be split into different parts comparable to diamond, however has 3 aspects. Composite - made of several parts, but all 1 thing. Reason - rules the soul and seeks truth. spirit - can be trained and controlled. Desire - hedonistic, pleasure for yourself. Evidence for these aspects from internal conflict - our desires can’t be fulfilled as we become frustrated by not allowing reason to rule, We should try to harmonise the soul so parts cooperate.

Question 40

What did Aristotle believe about the soul?

Answer 40

Every living thing has a soul, a form of the living thing. It is the shape of the body and the principle of life or activity in the body. The soul isn’t separate from a living thing.

Question 41

What did Aristotle believe about living things?

Answer 41

There is a hierarchy. Plants only have a vegetative soul, animals are above plants as they have appetites and humans are above animals because they have reason. The soul is the principle of life for all living things so not all living things had the same faculties of the soul.

Question 42

What did Aristotle believe the faculties of the soul were?

Answer 42

Nutrition, perception, desire, locomotion and reason. Reason distinguishes humans from other forms of life. Reason was the highest form of rationality.

Question 43

What did Aristotle believe that the prime mover was?

Answer 43

A cosmic nous - the reason for our existence.

Question 44

What did Aristotle believe about the thinking part of our body?

Answer 44

It worked more independently than the body than any other aspect of the soul, it has external properties and survives death.

Question 45

What are the strengths of Plato’s argument?

Answer 45

Magee: “The theory that there is another world than this…gives value and meaning to our present world.” Can explain inequalities.
Could explain why we struggle to make decisions are faced with many temptations to do the wrong thing, as the soul has 3 aspects.

Question 46

What are the weaknesses of Plato’s argument?

Answer 46

Peter Geach says that it doesn’t make sense for the soul to see the forms and that sight is a sense experience linked to the body.
Learning usually means getting new knowledge, not just remembering.
Brian Davis’ Challenge: Not everything has an opposite.
He challenges Plato’s conception of the self as an unextended thing that doesn’t pass out of existence, because it cannot be split or broken simple,on the grounds that it is a very weak argument.
Ryle - ghost in the machine: a soul is the way a person acts and responds to others, not a disembodied ghost in the machine.
Price there was a society of disembodied souls, which is understandable, but would be very boring as it would be without creativity.

Question 47

How does Aristotle explain his understanding of the distinction between the body and the soul?

Answer 47

Using the analogy of the axe. If an axe were a living thing then its body would be made of wood and metal. Its soul would be the thing which made it an axe, its capacity to chop. If it lost its ability to chop it would stop being an axe, just wood and metal.

Question 48

What other example does Aristotle use?

Answer 48

The analogy of the eye. If the eye were an animal, sight would have to be its soul. When the eye no longer sees then it is an eye only due to its name. A dead animal is an animal only due to its name, it has the same body, but it has lost its soul. Concerned with the end purpose.

Question 49

What was the key thing Aristotle believed about the soul?

Answer 49

That the soul is what makes a person a person not just a lump of meat, without the body the soul can’t exist, so the soul dies along with the body.

Question 50

What are the strengths of Aristotle’s argument?

Answer 50

It relies on empirical evidence, which is more easily verifiable - based on experiences in our world.
Relates the relationship between body and soul to everyday objects, so it is easy to understand - Ockham’s razor the simplest explanation is the best.

Question 51

What are the weaknesses of Aristotle’s argument?

Answer 51

Anthony Kenny: writings by Aristotle about the soul are “inconsistent” and conflict with his other writings.
His idea of reason being able to be separated from the body makes little sense, if it survives death, it is not the same as personal identity.
The immaterial soul is dissimilar to everyday objects for an adequate comparison.

Question 52

Who was John Hick?

Answer 52

Her was a materialist and monist who believed that life after death is possible, although he was not a traditional dualist or monist. He defended bodily resurrection to try to establish the possibility of an afterlife, wrote about this i n death and eternal life 1976.

Question 53

Who was Hick influenced by?

Answer 53

The writings of St Paul, leading him to suggest his thought experiment of the replica theory to defend bodily resurrection. The replica theory explains Resurrection as a divine action where an exact replica is created in a different place.

Question 54

What is a replica according to Hick?

Answer 54

A replica is not a copy, as many copies could be made, but it is the real person, there can be no other replica and it is not located on earth but in a different space.

Question 55

What example does Hick use to back this?

Answer 55

John Smith. He is missing in London and reappears in New York. He is identified by his friends in New York, as he looks the same, has the same character and arrangement of matter. John dies in London and is recreated in New York. If a replica of him exists in New York and a dead body in London, it is easier to indemnify the replica in New York as the person rather than the dead body. There was continuity because the replica had the ‘consciouness, memory, emotion and volition of the person.’

Question 56

What did Descartes believe?

Answer 56

!It is certain that I am really distinct from my body and can exist without it.” Mediation 6. Life after death can be thought of in non bodily terms, the mind can exist without the body. The body is more of a functional shell than the real me, this is the non physical called mind/ soul. Backs up Plato. Can prove that my thinking self exists’ I think therefore I am’. I am primarily a ‘thinking thing’. Basic knowledge of the self is independent of the body, immortal soul connected to the body at the pineal gland the source of conscious life. The body is spatial and physical not conscious.

Question 57

What did Plato think happened when our souls are reincarnated?

Answer 57

They go into another body and they are levels, philosophers at the top and tyrants at the bottom.

Question 58

What are the strengths of Hick’s argument?

Answer 58

Works with biblical teachings e.g. 1 Corinthians 15.

Solves body soul difficulties, consistent.

Question 59

What are the weaknesses of Hick’s argument?

Answer 59

Brian Davies - A replica is still a copy not the same as the original. “ For the continued existence of a person, more is required than replication.
If you could create one, why not create a hundred, make loads of brilliant people.
Hick thinks there is a problem: People die at different ages and are we cured of all illnesses e.g. cancer in her 80s, if she was cured is she the same person.

Question 60

What case did Richard Dawkins put forward?

Answer 60

Rejects a concept of an immortal soul and in River Out of Eden 1995, puts forward biological materialism: “ there is no spirit driven life force, no throbbing, heaving, pullulating, protoplasmic, mystic jelly. Life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information.

Question 61

What did Dawkins believe about humans?

Answer 61

Any evidence of ‘divine activity’ is an illusion. Humans are just carriers of DNA and any information flows through time unlike bones and tissue. Evolution is the only rational theory and our genetic make up not our soul. Over time good genes, the bad genes die out and we are nice to people just to survive, The only thing that continues is DNA, the function of life, this is what makes us individual and a self.

Question 62

What did he think about belief in an immortal soul?

Answer 62

It is anachronistic and damaging to human endeavour. Myths like Plato’s forms and faiths are not supported by evidence. Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence.

Question 63

What according to Dawkins is the only sense in which humans can survive death?

Answer 63

Through the memories of them in people’s minds or through their genes. Our consciousness which gives us a sense of having a soul, has evolved simply to help us survive.

Question 64

What are the strengths of Dawkins argument?

Answer 64

His view corresponds with our ideas of the physical world. It is supported by Darwin’s ideas of evolution.

Question 65

What are the weaknesses of Dawkins argument?

Answer 65

His view of the world is limited as he can’t believe anything non physical or inexplicable by science can exists, Dismisses any ideas that don’t fit into hard materialism.
He dismisses religion, but the idea science will eventually explain everything is as much a belief as belief in the existence of a soul.

Question 66

What did Kant believe?

Answer 66

We can learn about ourselves and God through studying ethics, The purpose of our life is to attain the highest good summum bonum where virtue meets happiness. However we have sort lives to achieve this goal.It makes sense that God would allow us the chance to realise this good to do this we need to survive death. For practical reasons, Kant grants that the soul exists and is immortal, able to move to highest virtue after death.

Question 67

What alternative theory did Ryle propose to dualism?

Answer 67

Philosophical behaviourism supposed mental events really just refer to complex patterns of behaviour. Our interior mental terminology is just a way of referring to our physical activities.

Question 68

What are the strengths of the arguments for disembodied existence?

Answer 68

The idea the soul joins with God at death is comforting and our bodies can be seen as a limitation as they are imperfect.
Certain religious experiences like NDES maybe seen as evidence.
If we accept that our thinking self transcends our physical body then the immortality of the soul makes good sense.

Question 69

What are the weaknesses of the arguments for disembodied existence?

Answer 69

Ryle the idea of the mind and body can be spoken about as the same thing is incorrect. It is possible to talk about mental and physical events, but that doesn’t mean they are the same type of thing to that they can be compared.
Descartes argument can be rejected as proving that one thinks is different form proving that the thinking self is a separate thing.
Kant’s argument can be denied, if you deny the possibility of perfect goodness every being realised.

Question 70

What do theodicies suggest about the problem of evil?

Answer 70

Augustine and Irenaeus use free will to explain the existence of evil. Augustine argued for salvation through Christ, enabling the afterlife to compensate for the evil in the world, some may be predestined to be saved.

Question 71

What are the traditional Christian views on the afterlife?

Answer 71

Heaven and hell. To be in hell, the person refuses forgiveness and continues wrongdoing without repenting, If there is no judgement from God free will is purposeless. For scholars like John Hick, hell as a place of eternal punishment is part of the problem of evil. Reincarnation offers a solution also through karma, but it comes up with similar problems like postponing the problem of evil.

Question 72

What is Dawkins opinion on the problem of evil?

Answer 72

He thought there was no afterlife, so we need to deal with the problem of evil within the context of our lives now without trying to find a solution in the afterlife.