Self, Death And Afterlife - Materialism

Question 1

Bertrand Russell and life after deatg

Answer 1

• it is not rational but emotion to believe in life after death
• we do not have a purpose so no created afterlife/end
• no permanence concerning ourselves, so our lives would not continue after death

Question 2

What is dualism

Answer 2

We have a body and soul, but the soul can be independent

Question 3

What is materialism

Answer 3

The soul and body are one entity

Question 4

What is monism

Answer 4

Body and soul always have to be together

Question 5

Different perspectives on soul

Answer 5

• Buddhism: no soul as there is no permanent fixed self (Anatta) -Nagasena
• Hindu and Sikh - soul is divine, point to reunite with God
• Descartes, cogito ergo sum - self awareness shows there is a self
• reincarnation ans the soul - IMAGO DEI, made in the image of God in Christianity; eternal in comparison to the body

Question 6

Belief in life after death and the soul

Answer 6

• belief in whether there is a soul determines what you think will happen when u die (eg dualists think that soul outlives dead body)
• problem of continued identity: if there is life after death, is it still me who experiences that?
• medically dead = no brain activity, is this physical deahf

Question 7

arguments for ‘we are just physical beings’

Answer 7

• scientific reasons eg anatomy, no soul has been found in human body
• nothing to show existence of soul
• link to mind and brain –> brain damage affects personality
• brain affecting drugs

Question 8

arguments against ‘we are just physical beings’

Answer 8

• self awareness, conscience
• god within humans, non physical (divine jot, holy spirit etc)
• immaterial thoughts, memories etc
• reductionist to say we are physical

Question 9

What is materialism

Answer 9

Minds are inseparable from the body
- there is no place where the soul exists separately
- body ceases to exist at death and so does person identity
- materialists have a scientific approach to life - emotion is a psycho chemical reaction
- no distinction between body and soul

Question 10

what are hard materialists

Answer 10

• do not accept that an individuals characteristics are anything more than physical ones
• consciousness is brain activity
• body and mind re one - no separation

Question 11

What are soft materialists

Answer 11

Not all characteristics are physical
- consciousness is more than a brain process
- M and B are both interdependent
- source is physical but output can be non material processes and can affect physical world

Question 12

Similarities between hard and soft materialists

Answer 12

• brain and mind are not independent
• body dies, brain dies
• soft materialism - personal identity cannot exist without body

Question 13

Differences between hard and soft materialists

Answer 13

HM believes consciousness is nothing more than brain activity and individual characteristics are only physical

Question 14

Differences between hard and soft materialists

Answer 14

HM believes consciousness is nothing more than brain activity and individual characteristics are only physical

Question 15

Why do materialists not believe in life after death or the soul

Answer 15

• brain = body, so if body dies brain dies, PHYSICAL
• materialists reject the soul as there is no non material substance, and the origin of self awareness etc is physical as it comes from the brain

Question 16

two types of monism

Answer 16

• materialism: nothing exists except for material world
• agree that consciousness is function of the brain
• mental processes are identified with purely physical processes in the central nervous system
• phenomenalism: physical objects and events are reducible to mental objects, properties and events
• only mental objects like the mind exist
• Bishop Berkeley: what we think of a our body is a perception of the mind

Question 17

Gilbert Ryle and conceptual versus actual experience (why is it a category mistake to view the mind as separate from the body)

Answer 17

• speaking of the soul is a mistake in language - soul is a concept
• ‘no ghost in the machine’
• cannot point to separate consciousness anymore can we point to team spirit
• it is a mental process, non Phys concept
• like left right and a pair of gloves (right and left hand IS the pair); body and soul does not exist
• soul is contained within the physical body, not separate
• its existence is rooted in the B, it is not an extra thing within a person

Question 18

How does Ryles view align with Buddhism

Answer 18

• links with ANATTA - no permanent fixed unchanging self = no ghost in the machine

HOWEVER
- Rule focuses on identity as the BODY one of the 5 skandas
- - Buddha says identity is actions and consequences

Question 19

Science and the soul - Dawkins

Answer 19

• evolution of our morality - Consciousness, art, music etc is due to genetic evolution over animals –> shows evolutionary progress
• pass on theses genes - pass on this consciousness +human dignity
• survival of the fittest, natural selections, these genes for morality are passed on to our ancestors and we have mistaken them for a separate entity
• those concepts have origin in the material world - people put too much value on them but they are from the mind
• puts value on human life due to small chance of life - dogma/ doctrine limits our ability to to be better people and scientists

Question 20

Ryle and Dawkins are right

Answer 20

• atheist - supports human emotion/culture without God
• agrees with Buddha and ANATTA
• agrees with human need to improve human life as it is our evolutionary predisposition
• damage to our physical body affects our emotional personality eg brain damage
• empirical data from science supports
• Ryle, ontology of different aspects

Question 21

Ryle and Dawkins are wrong

Answer 21

• reductionist as life is complex
• falls apart if you do not believe in evolution
• those who believe in divine creator believe that he has the power to mold immaterial and material together
• if being good is evolutionary beneficial, morality may be seen as self serving