Self, Death and Afterlife Flashcards
What was Descartes?
A substance dualist
What did Descartes argue?
- the mind and body are distinct substances with different essential properties
- began from the point of absolute scepticism about reality
What did he say about sense experience and intellect-based ideas?
- Sense experience could be deceptive
- Intellect-based ideas could be mistaken
What was his first proof of the existence of the soul?
- Argument from Doubt
What did he say in the argument of doubt?
- 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
What was his second proof of the existence of the soul?
Argument from divisibility and non-divisibility
What did he say in his Argument from divisibility and non-divisibility?
- 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
What was his third proof of the existence of the soul?
Argument from clear and distinct perception
What was his Argument from clear and distinct perception?
- 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
What were the evaluations on Descartes argument for the existence of the soul?
- the view that the soul seeks to escape the body is not typical Christian thinking
What were the evaluations on Descartes first proof?
most philosophers view consciousness or the mind as a product of the brain, which is a part of the physical body
What were the evaluations on Descartes second proof?
neuroscience shows close correlation between the mind and brain
What were the evaluations on Descartes third proof?
is argued to be a circular argument
How did Hume challenge the argument?
- 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?
What is a dualist?
- they claim that the soul exists independently and is superior to the body
In Plato’s’ dualism, what are the two worlds?
- the world in which we live : the world of appearances
- the world of forms : which is the real world, eternal, perfect and changeless
Where does our soul belong?
to the world of forms
If our soul belongs to the world of forms what does this mean
- it is therefore eternal, which means that it does not die unlike the body
- it comes to earth and is imprisoned within a body
What happens to the soul at death ?
- 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
What was Plato’s charioteer analogy?
- 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
What three parts is the soul divided into?
- Rational part
- Irrational part
- Appetitive part
What is the Rational part?
- is immortal
- searches for the truth and keeps the other two aspects of the soul under control
What is the irrational part?
- this indicates emotions and character traits
What is the appetitive part?
- this part dies with the body
- concerned with the basic human drives for sex, food and drink
What were the evaluations on Plato’s’ ideas on the soul?
- 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
What did Descartes argue on interactionism?
In order to explain how the essentially different entities could interact, he located the soul in the pineal gland
How did he regard the pineal gland?
- 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
What are the evaluations of Descartes Interactionism?
- interaction in the pineal gland has been discredited
- the function of the pineal gland is now known
How did Ryle criticise Descartes theory?
- 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”
What is monism?
often referred to as materialism
What was Aristotle?
empiricist
Did Aristotle accept or reject Plato’s concept of the world of forms
rejected Plato’s concept
What was Aristotle’s thinking on the soul based on?
- Was based on deductions from the world of sense experience
What did Aristotle argue the soul does?
- 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)
What can humans do through reason?
- humans are able to make moral and intellectual development
- the soul develops an individuals skill and character
- it is the ‘principle of life’
Does Aristotle sees the soul as immortal or mortal?
Mortal
What are the evaluation on Aristotle’s idea of the soul?
- 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
