Self, Death and Afterlife

Question 1

What was Descartes?

Answer 1

A substance dualist

Question 2

What did Descartes argue?

Answer 2

• the mind and body are distinct substances with different essential properties
• began from the point of absolute scepticism about reality

Question 3

What did he say about sense experience and intellect-based ideas?

Answer 3

• Sense experience could be deceptive

- Intellect-based ideas could be mistaken

Question 4

What was his first proof of the existence of the soul?

Answer 4

• Argument from Doubt

Question 5

What did he say in the argument of doubt?

Answer 5

• He could doubt the existence of his body
• This ability to doubt meant he could not doubt his existence as a thinking being
• Therefore, as a thinking being, he was not identical with his body

Question 6

What was his second proof of the existence of the soul?

Answer 6

Argument from divisibility and non-divisibility

Question 7

What did he say in his Argument from divisibility and non-divisibility?

Answer 7

• All bodies take up space and so are divisible
• Mental states, however, do not and so are not divisible
• This means that minds are radically different from bodies

Question 8

What was his third proof of the existence of the soul?

Answer 8

Argument from clear and distinct perception

Question 9

What was his Argument from clear and distinct perception?

Answer 9

• If he had clear and distinct perception of himself as a thinking being and of his body as a non thinking being
• He and his body could exist apart from each other
• So he was distinct from his body
• As the mind/soul was not located in space and had no parts to decay, it was immortal

Question 10

What were the evaluations on Descartes argument for the existence of the soul?

Answer 10

• the view that the soul seeks to escape the body is not typical Christian thinking

Question 11

What were the evaluations on Descartes first proof?

Answer 11

most philosophers view consciousness or the mind as a product of the brain, which is a part of the physical body

Question 12

What were the evaluations on Descartes second proof?

Answer 12

neuroscience shows close correlation between the mind and brain

Question 13

What were the evaluations on Descartes third proof?

Answer 13

is argued to be a circular argument

Question 14

How did Hume challenge the argument?

Answer 14

• the claim that consciousness comes from nonmaterial subject is a circular argument
• thought may have a material explanation; this is also the most common view of mind in modern thinking
• since souls are not located in space, how do we know that there is only one soul?

Question 15

What is a dualist?

Answer 15

• they claim that the soul exists independently and is superior to the body

Question 16

In Plato’s’ dualism, what are the two worlds?

Answer 16

• the world in which we live : the world of appearances

- the world of forms : which is the real world, eternal, perfect and changeless

Question 17

Where does our soul belong?

Answer 17

to the world of forms

Question 18

If our soul belongs to the world of forms what does this mean

Answer 18

• it is therefore eternal, which means that it does not die unlike the body
• it comes to earth and is imprisoned within a body

Question 19

What happens to the soul at death ?

Answer 19

• At death, it escapes the body and returns to the world of forms, where it is either born again into another body or remains in the world of forms

Question 20

What was Plato’s charioteer analogy?

Answer 20

• sets out the relationship between the parts
• the role of the charioteer (reason) is to keep in check and in balance the white horse of spirit and black horse of desires

Question 21

What three parts is the soul divided into?

Answer 21

• Rational part
• Irrational part
• Appetitive part

Question 22

What is the Rational part?

Answer 22

• is immortal

- searches for the truth and keeps the other two aspects of the soul under control

Question 23

What is the irrational part?

Answer 23

• this indicates emotions and character traits

Question 24

What is the appetitive part?

Answer 24

• this part dies with the body

- concerned with the basic human drives for sex, food and drink

Question 25

What were the evaluations on Plato’s’ ideas on the soul?

Answer 25

• the view that the soul seeks to escape the body is not typical Christian thinking
• no good evidence for the meta physical world of forms

Question 26

What did Descartes argue on interactionism?

Answer 26

In order to explain how the essentially different entities could interact, he located the soul in the pineal gland

Question 27

How did he regard the pineal gland?

Answer 27

• as the seat of imagination and common sense
• it formed a link between the body and soul
• his justification for this choice was that the pineal gland was the only part of the brain that was single and its’ function was unknown

Question 28

What are the evaluations of Descartes Interactionism?

Answer 28

• interaction in the pineal gland has been discredited

- the function of the pineal gland is now known

Question 29

How did Ryle criticise Descartes theory?

Answer 29

• called it “ghost in the machine”
• accused Descartes of making a ‘category mistake’
• his point was that we should not expect to find an extra something in the form of a mind over and above the different parts of the body
• to talk of the mind/soul is not to talk of some “disembodied ghost”

Question 30

What is monism?

Answer 30

often referred to as materialism

Question 31

What was Aristotle?

Answer 31

empiricist

Question 32

Did Aristotle accept or reject Plato’s concept of the world of forms

Answer 32

rejected Plato’s concept

Question 33

What was Aristotle’s thinking on the soul based on?

Answer 33

• Was based on deductions from the world of sense experience

Question 34

What did Aristotle argue the soul does?

Answer 34

• The soul is what gives something its essential nature
• Shapes and gives life to the body
• All living things have a souls which organise them to get what they need for survival
• Not all living things have the dame faculties and Aristotle created a hierarchy of them
• Only human souls have the capacity for rational thought (nous)

Question 35

What can humans do through reason?

Answer 35

• humans are able to make moral and intellectual development
• the soul develops an individuals skill and character
• it is the ‘principle of life’

Question 36

Does Aristotle sees the soul as immortal or mortal?

Answer 36

Mortal

Question 37

What are the evaluation on Aristotle’s idea of the soul?

Answer 37

• Christians are against his ideas as at death the soul leaves the body and returns to its true home
• However, many people, including Christians, think of themselves as integrated unity
• The mind and soul is distinct from but at the same time inseparable from the body