self and life after death Flashcards
what is Plato’s idea of the soul?
- dualist – exists separately to the body
- allegory of the cave
- world of appearances, world of forms
- soul belongs to the world of forms and returns after death
- soul is divided into three parts
- rational part — immortal, controls other two
- spirited part — emotions, character traits
- appetitive part - mortal, drives for food, sex, drink
What is Descartes view of the soul?
- substantive dualist – mind and body are distinct substances
- argument of doubt
- argument from divisibility and non divisibility
- argument from clear and distinct perception
what is Descartes argument of doubt?
- he could doubt the existence of his body
- the ability to doubt means he cant doubt his existence as a thinking being
- therefore, as a thinking being he was not identical with his body
what is Descartes argument from divisibility and non divisibility?
- all bodies take up space and are therefore divisible
- mental states dont and arent divisible
- therefore they are different and seperate
what is Descartes argument from clear and distinct perception?
- attributed his perception of two different things to God creating two things
- himself as a thinking being, his body as a non thinking bein
- he was distinct from his body
- soul was immortal
what is Aristotles Monist view of the soul?
- empiricist view – based on senses
- soul is what gives something its essential nature
- through Reason, humans are able to make moral and intellectual development
- soul is mortal
evaluation of Platos view of the soul
- there is no good evidence for the metaphysical world of forms
- for many, the idea of the seperateness of the soul fits with the feeling of looking at a corpse and feeling as though something has left it
evaluation of Descartes arguments for the existence of the soul
- argument of doubt
- most philosophers view consciousness or the mind as a product of the brain, which is physical
- argument of divisibility
- science shows a close link between mind and brain
- argument from clear and distinct perception
- viewed as a circular argument
what are Humes challenges to Descartes argument
- thought may have a material explanation
- since souls are not located in space, how do we know there is only one soul
what is a strength and weakness of Aristotles idea of the soul
- the christian view is that at death the soul leaves the body to return to its true home
- many people believe the mind/soul is distinct but at the same time inseperable from the body
what are platos views on the body - soul relationship
- the physical body is subject to corruption and change and imprisons the soul (psyche)
- the soul is seperate from the body and is eternal
- at death the body perishes but the soul returns to the world of forms and reborn
- the soul gives the body life and directs it
weaknesses of platos view of the body/soul relationship
- people think of themselves as an integrated whole
- neuroscience suggests that the mind and brain are closely interrelated, and some would argue they are the same thing
how does decartes explain how the non-physical mind and physical body interract
(interactionism)
- the soul is in the pineal gland
- regarded this as the seat of imagination and common sense
- formed the link between body and soul
- the pineal gland is the only part of the brain that was single and its functions are unknown
weaknesses of descartes interactionism
- the pineal glands function is now known
- best case, descartes explanation suggests where the interaction takes place, not how
- Gilbert Ryle accused descartes of màking a category mistake. to talk of the mind/soul is not to talk of some disembodied ghost
what is physicalism
- everything can be explained in terms of matter
- is reductionist
- the mind reduces to the brain
- consciousness is nothing but electro-chemical occurrences in the brain
- there is no body - soul relationship because there is no soul
what is functionalism
- a type of physicalism that sees the mind in terms of what it does
- the mind is a system that processes information inputted from sense experience and it then generates an appropriate outcome
- there is no reason why the mind could not be uploaded onto a different platform from the human brain e.g a computer
what does richard dawkins believe about the body-soul relationship
- humans are simply carriers of DNA
- the role of the body is to be a survival machine for genes. the good survive the bad die
- there is no immortal soul guiding us