SMB Flashcards
what is substance dualism?
body and soul are different and separate, the soul lives on after the death of the body.
PLATO
what is property dualism?
body is matter, soul is form
psyche - the soul shapes the body, giving it’s qualities an direction. soul is formal, efficient and formal cause
INTERDEPENDENT - the soul’s actions wouldn’t be visible without the body, yet without the soul the body would not be able to move as it cannot organise itself
INSEPERABLE - Although they are made of different things they interact so closely that it would be impossible for one to live on when the other died as they function as part of the same thing
what is aquinas’ view of soul, mind + body?
supports aristotle with religious interpretation - soul is united with its resurrection body.
animates the body (de anima)
soul operates independently, cannot be divided and hence survives death
john hick view of soul, mind + body?
religious - soul is a gift from God, should be feared
monist - “my soul is not me” without the physical body you cannot be identified and need both (ARISTOTLE)
what is materialism?
Only physical matter, no spirituality - everything about a person can be brought down to a statement of behaviours about brain cells
KEITH WARD
RICHARD DAWKINS
what is behaviourism?
BF SKINNER
Behaviourism is a type of materialism
Thoughts are simply learnt behaviours - Pavlov’s dogs; mental acts are caused acts, explicable at a physical level which would cause us not to believe in a directing soul.
POINT 1
SUBSTANCE DUALISM
Plato was deeply influenced by Pythagorean thought, which emphasised the distinction between the spiritual soul (psyche) and the material body. The body and soul are opposites – the soul the permanent spiritual essence of a person, able to access true knowledge through reason via the World of the Forms, whilst the material body distracts and imprisons the superior soul with appetites and pleasures episteme vs. doxa, Divided Line
Leibniz Law: Object A and B are the same if they have identical properties; material and physical are very different, therefore two things not one The Argument from Opposites: Since death is the opposite of life, and opposites are mutually exclusive, therefore when the body dies, life must go on.
Thus substance dualism is most convincing as it distinguishes between the different between spiritual and physical, with one being inferior to the other
POINT 1 COUNTER
BERNARD WILLIAMS
Not only does Plato’s concept of the soul rest upon the World of the Forms (a largely rejected metaphysical concept), Plato’s view seems to dismiss the value of the body, which seems to play a vital part in how one identifies themselves and moreover, how one survives – Bernard Williams: identity also comes from the body. Mind must be linked to the body as physical events i.e. taking drugs, impact upon the mind Plato and Descartes dismiss the importance of the body
POINT 1 COUNTER RESPONSE
DESCARTES
descartes – Cartesian doubt used to prove body and soul are two separate substances ‘Meditations’. COGITO ERGO SUM: Meditation 1: possible to doubt all things (unreliable senses, dreams, evil demon deceiving us). Meditation 2: Cogito ergo sum “I think therefore I am”, impossible to doubt you are thinking.
Difference between mind/ body (one can be proved, other cannot) suggests mind is logically independent of the body. Soul is the thinking thing, body is the physical part; Leibniz law, difference properties, different entities Soul/ mind is the essence of a person, their identity. A person can exist with a body but not a soul.
POINT 1 CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE
GILBERT RYLE
• Gilbert Ryle ‘The Concept of the Mind’ incorrect use of language that results in speaking of the soul as though it were identifiably extra, “The Dogma of the Ghost in the Machine” Like watching a cricket match and asking where the team spirit was to talk of the soul is merely to speak of how someone interacts with the world, does not require spiritual essence, mind is just the brain = part of the body.
POINT 2
DAWKINS
Richard Dawkins ‘Is Science Killing the Soul?’ “Soul” is a mythological concept invented by ancient philosophers to explain the mystery of consciousness “Not an explanation” of consciousness “but an evasion”.
Consciousness is no more than electro-chemical events in the brain: no person is capable of surviving brain death. Only survive death through passing on DNA to ancestors.
POINT 2 COUNTER
COTTINGHAM
John Cottingham – If we are made up of just mind and body, an area of human experience including passions, emotions and sensations cannot be straightforwardly reduced to either category
POINT 2 COUNTER RESPONSE
learned behaviours, ockhams razor and bf skinner mental processes
- B.F. Skinner – Mental processes/ consciousness can be reduced to a series of learnt behaviours – Pavlov’s dogs, mental acts are caused acts reducible to a physical level renders idea of non-physical aspect/ soul obsolete
- OCKHAM’S RAZOR: “you should not multiply entities beyond necessity”; explanation through material/ physical processes is the simplest explanation. One substance empirically examined
POINT 2 CONCLUSIVE RESPONSE
dennett, over simplifies consciousness
- Daniel C. Dennett “Skinner skinned” – humans can’t be reduced to learnt behaviours, Skinners reasons would only be correct if my explanation of something stopped at having a desire, but our thinking goes much further. Over simplifies human consciousness, would show no difference between a human and a pigeon
- Consciousness if a first person, private phenomenon and will never be able to be fully explained in third person scientific methods physical may be the cause, or consciousness may be explained through material terms, but it does not mean that consciousness/ the mind is physical itself!
POINT 3
PROPERTY DUALISM
- Aristotle rejects substance dualism, arguing that the soul is the form of the body and cannot be separated from it
- The soul (psyche) is the structure of the body - its function and organization. The soul is the body’s animation – the living force in a human being
- If the body were an axe, its “soul” would be its ability to chop. If the body were an eye, its “soul” would be its ability to see – “It indubitably follows that the soul is inseparable from the body” (‘De Anima’)
