Life, Death & Soul

Question 0

Which dualist thinker said the soul is trapped inside the body and wants to return to the realm of the forms?

Answer 0

Plato.

Question 1

What is the difference between Materialism and Dualism?

Answer 1

Materialism - our minds and bodies are inseparable.

Dualism - the physical body and immortal soul are separate.

Question 2

What is Plato’s analogy of the soul?

Answer 2

The chariot driver is reason, who controls two horses - spirit and desire.

Question 3

Which materialist thinker said the soul is the form of the body?

Answer 3

Aristotle

Question 4

What were Aristotle’s three examples of how the soul and body cannot be separated?

Answer 4

1. Imprint in wax.
2. An axe (living body = handle, soul = ability to chop).
3. The eye (ability to see).

Question 5

What are Aristotle’s five faculties (innate capabilities) of the soul?

Answer 5

1. Nutrition.
2. Perception.
3. Desire.
4. Locomotion.
5. Intellect.

Question 6

What does Dawkins say the soul is?

Answer 6

A mythological concept used to explain the mystery of consciousness. It is not an explanation but an evasion.

Question 7

Define Soul One and Soul Two. (Dawkins’ metaphorical soul)

Answer 7

Soul One: a real separate thing that is both spiritual and our personality.
Soul Two: intellectual and spiritual power. Deep feeling and sensitivity. Development of mental faculties.

Question 8

Explain John Hick’s Replica Theory.

Answer 8

The soul is our mental characteristics and personality traits. When we die, God simultaneously creates a replica in another place. This has the same consciousness, memory, emotion, etc.

Question 9

Suggest some a posteriori arguments for life after death.

Answer 9

Near death experiences. (Common features, knowledge gained.)
Mediums and psychics.
Universal belief in afterlife - implanted by God?

Question 10

Suggest some a priori arguments for life after death.

Answer 10

Simplicity (Plato's idea of a simple, immortal soul which cannot be broken into parts or destroyed). 
Ultimate happiness (Aquinas argued that humans are made to achieve this so must be there after death. Kant and moral perfection).

Question 11

Who argued that the mind and body are closely linked and effected by one another, so if the body decays and dies so does the mind?

Answer 11

Hume - proportional behaviour.

Question 12

Hume also argued about similarity between men and animals…

Answer 12

… no one suggests animals’ minds survive death, even though science shows they are similar.

Question 13

How can we be sure we are ______ with the previous embodied person? If the key is ______ then this is shown to be fallible. This issue is more looking at how do I know ____ __ ____?

Answer 13

1. identical
2. memory
3. who I am

Question 14

Why is the phrase “I will survive my own death” thought by some to be meaningless?

Answer 14

Death is a termination of existence. There will be no “I”.

Question 15

Why is the concept of a next world unintelligible?

Answer 15

Its location cannot be identified and its nature cannot be described.
(This does not necessarily rule out its existence though.)

Question 16

Psychologists observe that belief in life after death may be based on ___ __________ and a desire to survive death rather than any hard _____.

Answer 16

1. Wish fulfilment.

2. Evidence.