Mind, Body & Soul

Question 1

The soul

Answer 1

• the soul is mainly used as meaning the same as ‘self’, to refer to the spiritual and immaterial part of a person, and is regarded as immortal
• if someone says “I had a panic attack” or “when I read a book”, the soul would be the ‘I’
• according to many religious believers the soul is capable of having a relationship with God and it carries the possibility of life after death

Question 2

The mind

Answer 2

• many people understand the mind to be the part of the person which has intelligence and emotions. It enables us to interpret data we get from our senses, it forms judgements and makes choices and holds memories
• some argue the mind being a ‘part of a person’ is nonsense; for them its the activity of physical matter and not separate

Question 3

The body

Answer 3

• body consists of physical stuff of which humans are made
• for a materialist we are simply our bodies and nothing more, but for others the body might be understood as a kind of vehicle which the ‘self’ or ‘soul’ inhabits for a while

Question 4

Dualism

Answer 4

• belief that reality can be divided into two distinct parts, such as good and evil, physical and non-physical

Question 5

Substance dualism

Answer 5

• this viewpoint agrees that human beings consist of a body and a soul, body is physical and soul is immaterial
• claims immortal souls occupy an independent ‘realm’ of existence distinct from that of the physical world

Question 6

Materialism

Answer 6

• materialist believe human beings are composed of biological matter and any concept of a soul is simply a name we ascribe to our brain activity
• materialist would argue life after death is impossible as when the body dies, the ‘soul’ dies with it

Question 7

Plato’s view on the soul

Answer 7

• Plato was a dualist, body and soul separate
• soul is temporarily united with a body, but can leave the body and move on
• soul is immortal, life is the essence of what a soul is; so if a soul is a life-giving essence, then it must always have life
• Plato thought our intuition was evidence of knowledge attained before birth. This, to Plato showed our souls once lived in the realm of forms
• Plato’s view of the soul is called a ‘tripartite view’ as he saw the soul as consisting of three elements: appetite, emotion and reason
• he used a metaphor of a chariot being pulled by two horses. The horses are ‘appetite’ and ‘emotion’, basic needs which pull us along and motivate us; they are controlled by the charioteer ‘reason’, who hold the reins and make sure appetite and emotion work together in a rational direction

Question 8

Aristotle’s view on the soul

Answer 8

• Aristotle was a monist
• Aristotle considered the soul to include the matter and structure of the body along with its function and capabilities
• he said its not possible for the soul to exist independently from the body
• the soul was a ‘substance’ which was a term he used in his own way to mean ‘essence’ or ‘real thing’
• Aristotle asked how the baby, the toddler, the child, the adult and the elderly are all the ‘same person’. His answer was that the physical body is in a continual state of change, but the ‘substance’ remains the same, in terms of continuing identity

Question 9

The mind-body problem

Answer 9

• the mind and body are different components of a human person, one non-physical and the other physical. The physical body is where physical activities take place, such as eating or sitting. The mind, in contrast is the part which does the thinking and feeling
• some philosophers have an issue with calling the mind ‘a thing’ rather than just brain activity
• machines are becoming increasingly sophisticated as technology advances, not only can they perform some tasks more efficiently than humans, but they are becoming more adaptive and responsive
• we often use terms that suggest machines are in some way thoughtful: a camera ‘knows’ the light conditions around it. However, most people believe machines are fundamentally different from human beings, people have consciousness whereas machines have nothing more than sophisticated design and programming

Question 10

Descartes dualist understanding of the mind and body

Answer 10

• he aimed to work out what exactly we can know with certainty
• he treated everything with scepticism and concluded he couldn’t trust his experiences as his senses could be fooling him and he realised he could not be 100% certain of anything
• however, he realised the one certainty he couldn’t doubt was his own existence as a thinker. ”I think therefore I am”
• because of this Descartes knew for certain that he had a mind. He could not be certain of a physical body, so this is what led him to believing the mind and body must be separate

Question 11

Property dualism

Answer 11

• the idea that, although the world is constituted of just one kind of substance, the physical kind, there exists two distinct properties: physical and mental properties
• the physical matter of the brain has physical properties (size, mass, shape) but also has mental properties (opinions, emotions, memories)
• one popular type of property dualism known as ’emergent materialism’, which is the idea that as physical things become more and more complex, new properties emerge from them. In this model the human soul is naturally emergent from the structure and function of a living human brain

Question 12

Reductive materialism

Answer 12

• the view that only the material world is truly real, and all processes and realities observed in the universe can be explained by reducing them down into their most basic scientific components (atoms, molecules)

Question 13

Richard Dawkins materialist views

Answer 13

• we are as we are because of our genetic make up, there is no soul which continues, there is only the survival of DNA
• argued genes are “potentially immortal” as they are the “basic unit of natural selection”
• human beings consciousness has evolved due to the survival advantage it gives

Question 14

A02

Answer 14

criticisms of substance dualism:
- when we are hurt, we don’t just notice our body’s our damaged, we feel it, suggesting mind and body are connected
- cannot explain how mental thoughts can cause physical responses, e.g. embarrassment can cause someone to physically blush
- Dualism does not have a satisfactory explanation to how the mind and body interconnect

criticisms if materialism:
- they way we use language creates a flaw for materialism, we might talk about ‘Emily’ and also ‘Emily’s body’ but the terms are not used in the same way. We wouldn’t say ‘Emily’s body went to the shops’ as this would imply her mind is elsewhere. This suggests we are more than simply just bodies. However this does not prove anything, it only shows our traditional way of thinking
- Descartes argued if two substances are identical, then surely they should have identical properties, not mutually exclusive ones