Mind, Body, Soul

Question 1

i am the same mind or soul despite changes in my body - term and scholars

Answer 1

dualism- plato, descartes, swinburne, anscombe, ward

Question 2

i am the same body and brain- term and scholars

Answer 2

materialism- dawkins, dennett, blackmore, russell, identity theory

Question 3

i am my continuous psychological states or memory- term and scholars

Answer 3

psychological theory- locke, hick

Question 4

there is no such thing as ‘personal identity’- term and scholar

Answer 4

bundle theory- hume

Question 5

plato’s view of the body

Answer 5

he said that the soul is more important than the body. body is part of the empirical world and is thus subject to change- so can’t be reliable to find the truth. body lets us gain opinions via senses but soul gives us knowledge. body is constantly distracting us from our real purpose

Question 6

plato’s view o f soul

Answer 6

saw the soul as ‘simple’. unlike the physical matter of the body the soul cannot be split into parts or change. it is also capable of knowledge of other simple and pure ideas (forms)

Question 7

3 aspects of the soul plato

Answer 7

reason, spirit, appetite. plato- a good person is someone whose soul is properly balanced with reason at the helm

Question 8

plato’s evidence for the soul 1- argument from knowledge

Answer 8

the soul has knowledge of eternal ideas and is able to recognise forms such as beauty. uses the example of socrates and the slave boy who knows pythagoras’ theorem to demonstrate the soul has knowledge from its prior existence. learning is thus merely remembering- amanesis

Question 9

platos evidence for the soul 2- argument from opposites

Answer 9

body and soul are opposites- one makes the other necessary just as the concept of light makes us aware of the darkness. life and death are opposite things. plato argues that death is something (rather than nothingness) which leads him to suggest that death is an event- the soul leaving the body (how they are seperate)

Question 10

plato example of charioteer to describe 3 key aspects of soul

Answer 10

charioteer is in charge of 2 horses- one behaves and the other is a little wayward. he then says that there are 3 aspects within the soul: appetite, spirit and reason. the soul works best when the charioteer (reason) is in charge. but the horses often pull in different directions - our appetites can lead us to things that are not helpful.

Question 11

weaknesses of argument from knowledge

Answer 11

learning feels like learning- it is hard- it does not feel like simply remembering. if we all recognise things such as beauty why do we have different beauty standards around the world? -(it is the same with goodness).
logical fallacy for Geach: how can a soul recognise what beauty looks like if it has no sense?- it does not have ‘eyes’

Question 12

weaknesses of argument from opposites

Answer 12

there is not an opposite to everything- eg: what is the opposite to a pen?

Question 13

aristotle criticism of plato

Answer 13

rationalism vs empiricism- we can only know what we experience

Question 14

aristotle and the soul

Answer 14

he says that the soul is the form of the body. the soul gives shape to the matter which is the body and the soul is the principle of life or activity in the body. it is our personality and abilities

Question 15

aristotle is the soul and body seperate or not?

Answer 15

aristotle is not really a dualist or materialist. he believes we have a soul but the soul cannot be divided from the body. the body is not just a prison for the body, as Plato thinks, but it is essential to us- we are body and soul

Question 16

aristotle 2 faculties of the soul

Answer 16

irrational - the abilities plants and animals have

rational- ability to reason which seperates us from animals

Question 17

aristotle famous example to show how body and soul can’t be seperated

Answer 17

imprint on wax- body and soul cannot be seperated just as imprint cannot be seperated from wax

Question 18

aquinas and soul - how he builds on aristotle

Answer 18

builds on aristotle’s views. described the soul as being ‘the first principle of life in living things…’. aquinas is not saying the soul is me, it is instead the first principle of life. rather than how aristotle said that life needs the body to be animated

Question 19

aquinas- how he describes the soul

Answer 19

‘incorporeal’ and ‘subsistent’. he says that ‘it is clear that man is not a soul only but something composed of a soul and body.’

Question 20

ancombe example of pointing

Answer 20

Monist-if i point at something i am not simply pointing, there is meaning behind it. if i point at a king on the chessboard my bodily action is just what it is - a gesture. but the meaning of the gesture (eg if i was pointing out the colour) cannot be indicated with the gesture alone. she argues that ‘this bodily act is an act of man qua spirit’ the act of a human as a whole.

Question 21

descartes is a

Answer 21

substance dualist - believed the material world and even the body to be an illusion (it can be doubted), the soul is the one certain piece of knowledge.

Question 22

descartes what does he say about the soul and thinking

Answer 22

it is not possible to doubt that i exist as a thinking thing: ‘I think therefore I am’ so when i think there must be something doing the thinking = soul. as the body can be doubted and the soul proved it shows that they are different things- i am more than just a body

Question 23

descartes: where does the body and soul interract?

Answer 23

the pineal gland

Question 24

what is descartes’ evidence for the pineal gland?

Answer 24

there are 2 bodily organs for each sense - two eyes, two nostrils, etc. and each part of our brain is double. but our mind only perceives one thought or impression. as there is only one pineal gland it must be the home of one singular thought.

Question 25

criticism of the pineal gland (descartes)

Answer 25

how do the physical and meta- physical interract?

Question 26

ryle book

Answer 26

concept of the mind

Question 27

in ryle’s view descartes sees the body as …

Answer 27

a machine with the mind as non-physical

Question 28

what does ryle say about descartes (clue: ghost and machine)

Answer 28

descartes represents what he calls ‘the dogma of “the ghost in the machine”’ - the body simply becomes a machine with the mind as a non-physical ‘real me’ - like an operator somehow outside that body

Question 29

RYLE: descartes is guilty of a …

Answer 29

CATEGORY ERROR: ‘mind’ and ‘matter’ are not of the same logical type, you can’t use them in sentences in the same way. he assumes sentences about causes or sensations must be either physical or mental- assuming they cannot be both

Question 30

ryle example of descartes’ error

Answer 30

foreign tourist being shown around Oxford Uni - he is shown around all of the colleges and libraries and then asks where the uni is. he is guilty of a category error assuming that the uni is something seperate from all the parts that collectively are the uni.

Question 31

ryle’s argument is …

Answer 31

holistic

Question 32

daniel dennett criticises…

Answer 32

substance dualism

Question 33

what does dennett call a myth

Answer 33

the cartesian theatre- where we are like an audience watching our actions. for dennett it is a myth because there is no single place within my mind or brain where consciousness occurs. the brain is a complex, complete organ- there is no single central control

Question 34

susan blackmore

Answer 34

says that there is nothing which points to consciousness (she conducted experiments in para-psychology). “consciousness is a grand delusion”- hard materialist. agrees with dennett that there is no single place in the brain where consciousness takes place

Question 35

what is identity theory

Answer 35

is a theory that argues that mental and physical events are one and the same- all mental activity is centred in the brain.

Question 36

strengths of identity theory

Answer 36

can be supported by modern neuroscience- drugs can alter personality and behaviour so physical states can influence the mind. research from NASA shows that sensors on the throat can detect words said silently to oneself. - these would suggest that MENTAL THOUGHTS are CAUSED by PHYSICAL EVENTS in the brain and are thus potentially readable or PREDICTABLE.

Question 37

soul 1 dawkins

Answer 37

the traditional view of the principle of life, a real seperate thing that is spiritual and contains personality.- DAWKINS REJECTS THIS ONE

Question 38

soul 2 dawkins

Answer 38

refers to ‘intellectual or spiritual power. High development of mental faculties. Deep feeling and sensitivity’- Oxford dictionary. Dawkins argues that this is a meaningful way of describing ourselves provided we are clear that this doesn’t refer to a seperate thing.

Question 39

key terms dawkins

Answer 39

soul 1
soul 2 
'survival machines'
'bytes and bytes of digital information'
hard materialist

Question 40

how does dawkins see the body

Answer 40

as ‘bytes and bytes of digital information’. he finds the evolutionary process awe inspiring but he does not think we need any kind of soul to explain this

Question 41

dawkins proposes that humans are nothing more than…

Answer 41

‘surivival machines’ - we are the vehicle of genes that are only interested in replicating themselves in order to survive to the next generation

Question 42

dawkins mystic jelly quote

Answer 42

‘there is no spirit driven life force no….mystic jelly’

Question 43

dawkins and russell both thought that..

Answer 43

religious belief in the immortality of the soul has no sound basis. they are beliefs based on wish fulfilment for those who lack courage, fear death and can’t cope with the idea of their own mortality

Question 44

for dawkins is there life after death

Answer 44

no- death is the extinguishing of our consciousness. death should not be feared and we will not know about it or experience it

Question 45

self awareness/ consciousness has developed because… (dawkins)

Answer 45

it has evolutionary advantages

Question 46

criticisms of materialism

Answer 46

intentionality- if consciousness is purely physical how can i intend to do an action?
moral responsibility- how is free will compatable with the theory that all brain events are physically determined?

Question 47

critic of materialism- swinburne

Answer 47

physical terms cannot describe everything about an individual- the most significant parts of ourselves are not physical
the soul is capable of logical, ordered and complex thought
the soul is aware of freedom to choose and moral obligation - the soul allows us to recognise goodness

Question 48

critics of materialism - K Ward

Answer 48

problems if we lose the idea of soul: morality becomes personal taste, humans are just another animal, dignity of humans is rooted in the idea of soul recognising morality from God, we lose our sense of final purpose