SDA Flashcards
What are Dualists view?
1) two aspects to human beings, a physical body and a non-physical soul (psyche/self)
2) the non-physical aspect of a person experiences eternal ‘life’ after the physical life.
What are Monists/Materialists views?
Humans are made of 1 substance, the physical body.
They believe that we are made up of matter.
A persons identity is inextricably linked to their physical body so when the body dies,Their life ends.
Likely to reject life after death because without a physical form ‘life’ cannot be supported.
Who was Plato?
A Greek philosopher, dualist and rationalist who expressed the belief that the body/soul are separate substances.
What was Plato’s stance on the relationship between the body/soul?
The soul comes from the ‘realm of the forms’ which possesses true knowledge- it is immortal, imperishable and unchanging.
Whereas the body is ‘the source of endless trouble to us’ due to it being temporal,physical and mortal. It is liable to disease and is driven by lusts and fears.
Therefore to him the relationship between the body/soul is not a partnership but an imprisonment.
What was Platos analogy?
He used an analogy of a charioteer with 2 horses to explain how the soul works.
There are 3 parts to the soul: Reason, spirit and appetite (desire). One of the horses behaves (spirit) the other doesn’t (appetite).
The soul works best when the charioteer (who represents reason) is in charge. For Plato, a ‘good’ person is one whose soul is properly balanced with reason in charge.
State Platos 2 key arguments on the view of the soul:
1) Innate knowledge- the soul explains our priori knowledge, in which it remembers from the realm of the forms ‘All learning is remembering’.
2) Linguistic argument- there is a distinction between how we speak about ourselves and our bodies which suggests we are not our bodies.
Give a criticism against Plato’s ‘Innate Knowledge’ argument on the view of the soul:
John Locke’s ‘Tabula Rasa’ argument states we are all born a blank state, which supports many empiricists view that we don’t actually have any innate knowledge to begin with.
Give a criticism against Plato’s ‘Linguistic argument’ on the view of the soul:
You could argue that Plato is reading too much into language for example Wittgenstein stated ‘Problems arise when language goes on holiday’.
Just because we speak like this it doesn’t provide solid evidence that proves that the soul/body are separate.
What were Plato’s beliefs about the soul after death?
Our soul being immortal and imperishable will survive physical death, unlike the body, meaning it will return to the realm of the forms
‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’- St Paul.
What did HH Price develop responding to Plato’s beliefs on the soul after death?
He stated that we have ‘disembodied’ souls (soul without a body) therefore in the afterlife we would communicate telepathically.
He emphasised the idea that the afterlife is ‘mind based’, which was also further developed by Swinburne who said that mental states are soul states, therefore after death our memories/desires/identities remain. He used a lightbulb analogy to explain this.
What was Swinburne’s ‘lightbulb’ analogy?
After death the soul needs something else to replace the function performed by the brain (holding memories/desires/identity etc) therefore you just need to plug your soul into a new energy source essentially.
What was Aristotle’s views on the soul?
- Rejected substance dualism and argued the soul is inseparable from the body. (Believed in materialism)
- He saw the soul as the ‘form of the body’, it is our personality and abilities and he argued that the soul ‘animates’ the body.
- He uses the example of an axe and an eye, If the body were an eye, the ‘soul’ would be the ability to see (vice versatility for axe).
What are the implications of Aristotle’s view on the soul? apply this to views on the afterlife.
The body/soul are interconnected and both essential for our identity therefore if there is life after death it would have to be physical.
This is supported by Hick’s replica theory- after death God creates an ‘exact replica’ of us (body + memory) therefore we remain the same person after death.
What are Descartes’ 2 key arguments in Defense to his belief on the soul? (substance dualism)
1) Argument from divisibility- the body is divisible and can be separated into parts whilst the mind cannot as it is not a physical substance.
2) Argument from doubt- he believed it is possible to doubt all things including whether your body is real, except that you are thinking ‘cogito ergo sum’ or ‘I think therefore I am’
What is a criticism against Descartes’ argument from divisibility:
Modern neuroscience shows we can separate parts of the mind for example some people suffer from split personality disorders etc.
What is a criticism against Descartes’ argument from doubt?
It could be argued that the argument is flawed, just because I can think that 1 thing is uncertain and that another is certain doesn’t necessarily mean that the body and soul separate/distinctive substances.
Why is Descartes’ interactionism flawed?
Descartes believed that the mind/soul and body interact at the pineal gland. He failed to explain how these 2 substances interact and through modern science it has been disproven.
What is ‘Leibniz Law’ and how did Descartes apply this to his views?
‘Leibniz Law’ - if 2 objects are identical, they have to have exactly the same properties.
He argued that the essence of the mind is non-physical thought whereas the essence of the body is extensions of physical space.
The body is divisible whereas the mind is invisible, the body is material whereas the mind is immaterial. In conclusion they are separate.
What were Ryle’s criticisms of Descartes?
Ryle stated that Descartes dualism is ‘the Dogma of the Ghost in the Machine’. Essentially calling its views ‘entirely false’ and a ‘categorical mistake’.
Additionally he says that dualists are thinking of the mind in the wrong way in which he aims to explain this using the example of a university.
Through this he argues that dualists wrongly assume that the mind/soul is something extra when it’s not.
Provide criticisms of dualism as a whole:
1) Neuroscience/ modern day science can now explain parts of the brain therefore beliefs about the soul could be argued as outdated.
2) problems of interaction- it fails to explain how non-physical + physical aspects interact together (Descartes was incorrect) which means there is no explanation.
3) simplicity- Materialists argue that consciousness being explained by physical and material events is the simplest explanation.
This uses the philosophical principle of ‘Ockham’s Razor’, “do not multiply entities beyond necessity”.
What is Dawkins views on the soul?
As an atheist he does not believe in the tradition view of the soul. He argues that the ‘soul’ is a mythological concept that was invented in ancient cultures to explain the mysteries of personality and consciousness.
He stated that “being dead will be no different from being unborn”.
Although he rejects the idea we have a soul, he believes we can use the term metaphorically to label deep thinking/reflection.
