Self death and the afterlife - philosophy Flashcards
Outline Plato’s view of the soul
Plato was a dualist and so viewed the body and soul as separate substances.
Plato believed the relationship between the soul and body to be one not of partnership but imprisonment.
The soul is prisoner to the body and wants to escape and return to the Realm of Forms
The body is physical and mortal, driven by desires, fears and liable to disease. Moreover, the body is subject to fallible sense and experience and so as an “endless source of trouble” it cannot be trusted. In contrast, the soul is imperishable, perfect and capable of true knowledge.
Plato had a tripartite view of the soul. Reason, appetite and spirit.
A moral person has a balanced soul which is governed by reason.
AO2 for Plato’s concept of the soul
Linguistic argument - we speak about our bodies in a distinctively different way when referring to our bodies compared to ourselves.
Plato argues that our sense of innate knowledge can only be explained by the existence of a soul which remembers this a priori knowledge from the Realm of Forms. However, the strength of this argument is dependent on belief in innate knowledge; John Locke argues we are born “tabula rasa” and thus as a blank slate, any knowledge we have can only be a posteriori and as a result of experience.
Influence on theology: St Paul held a Platonic view of the resurrection, seeing it as spiritual thus portraying the soul and body as separate substances. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” “sown a physical body, raised a spiritual body.”
Outline Aristotle’s concept of the soul
Aristotle rejected Plato’s dualist perspective on the soul, as a monist, Aristotle held a monist view to the soul and body and believed them to be inseparable. The soul and body are therefore interconnected and both essential for our identity.
He argued the soul is “the form of the body”, it therefore animates the body giving us both our personality and abilities.
Demonstrated through the example and abilities of an axe and eye, Aristotle describes how if the body were an eye, the soul would be the ability of sight. If the body were an axe, the soul would be its ability to chop.
Outline Descartes view of the soul
Descartes expanded on the Platonic dualist ideas of the soul. He argued, that due to fallible sense experience, it is possible to doubt all things including the body. However, he said the only thing that couldn’t be doubted was that we are thinking, as doubt is a form of thought. This argument from doubt is also referred to a Cognito ergo sum and for Descartes is what indicates the body an soul to be distinctively different things.
Moreover, Descartes outlines the mind as indivisible, immaterial and non-physical, thus in complete contrast to the divisible, material body which is an extension of the physical world. Leaning upon Leibniz’s law Descartes uses this to show that the mind and body must be separate entities as identical objects must possess the exact same properties.
Descartes describes the relationship between the mind and body as one of interactionalism, in which the two interact in the pineal gland.
