Soul, Mind and Body Flashcards
Dualists
Humans are composed of a body and a soul. The soul lives on after death
Materialists
Humans are composed of a single substance, the physical body (matter). There is nothing to live on after death
Monism
Humans are composed of a single substance: mind (idealists) or matter (materialists)
Plato’s dualism
Two aspects of human beings: body + soul
Body = part of material world, subject to change, not a reliable source of truth
Soul = more important than body, indivisible + immortal, can be disembodied
Plato’s theory is influenced by his motive to seek something permanent and certain
Tripartite theory of soul
Charioteer - reason, thinking soul, seeks truth
White horse - spirit, virtues, leads th rational soul to realm of forms
Black horse - desire, body’s needs, dies with body
The body is the source of endless trouble; it fills us with earthly
desires, it is the prison of the soul, the soul wants to be free of this
illusion and return to the forms
Analogy of city
City has: 1.Philosopher - rulers/guardians 2.Defenders 3. Workers who seek only to satisfy their needs Good working city requires all three
Aristotle’s monism
Believed the body (matter) and soul (form) could not be separated
The soul is the form of the body (formal cause)
There is a hierarchy of souls according to living beings
Axe example
Aristotle
If an axe were a living thing - the handle and axe head would be its body, whilst its form (soul) would be what makes it an axe - for example, its suitability for chopping
Eye example
Aristotle
If the eye were a body, its soul would be the capacity to see
Wax example
Aristotle
The body and soul cannot be separated, just as the imprint cannot be separated from the wax
Faculties of the Soul
There are various faculties/powers of the soul and not all living things have souls with the same faculties.
The faculties are: nutrition, perception, desire, locomotion, and intellect
Criticisms of Aristotle
Confusion over the concept of the soul and intellectual thought - with Aristotle suggesting that intellectual thought could possibly be separated from the soul and be eternal.
His theory implies that animals and plants are less important than human beings - this could lead to humans mistreating the environment and animals.
Substance Dualism
The view that mind and body are separate substances - which both exist.
Substance vs Properties
A substance is a subject which has various properties
Properties cannot exist on their own without a substance that has those properties
Substance dualists on mind
The mind is a substance and thoughts, intentions and feelings are properties of the mind. The mind is not physical and is not extended (doesn’t take up space) but it doe shave the properties of thought (mental capabilities)
Substance dualists on body
It is a subject which has properties. The properties of the body could be - being tall, young, blue eyes etc,
The body is extended (takes up space).
Rene Descartes’ substance dualism
Descartes rejected the idea
that sense perception can
give us certain knowledge
of the world, because our
senses can be easily
misled. Descartes followed the thinking of Augustine, in
saying that it is possible for us to imagine being
without a body, but impossible for us to imagine being
without a mind
Richard Dawkins’ materialism
The idea of the ‘soul’ is a mythological concept. It provided a convenient ‘explanation’ of the
mysteries of personality and consciousness. Dawkins rejects religious or Platonic ideas of the soul - but does accept them for metaphorical use.
Dawkins’ Soul 1 + 2
Soul 1- the traditional principle of life; a separate thing that
contains our personality, the real person. He rejects this view
Soul 2- Defined by the Oxford dictionary as ‘intellectual or
spiritual power. High development of the mental faculties.’ This
is meaningful way of speaking provided we are clear that this is
not a separate thing from the brain
Gilbert Ryle
1949 - the concept of the mind - made an important contribution to the relationship between mind and body
Materialist view - rejected the idea the mind was distinct from the body, or mental states are different from physical states
Ryle’s Category Error
It is false to think of the mind as a ‘thing’ which is either physical or non-physical. It is a category error. There is nothing extra; just human behaviour which can be analysed by science. The mind-body problem comes form thinking about the mind in the wrong way. ‘Ghost in a machine’
Ryle’s Cricket example
If someone is watching a cricket match and they see all the player, interacting with eachother and using different tactics in the match - but then they ask where is the ‘team spirit’? As if it was something extra and observable, rather than something which they are already seeing, they make a category error.
Ryle’s University example
A foreign visitor to oxford university is taken on a tour to see the different colleges, libraries, playing fields and offices. Suppose the visitor then says ‘but where is the university itself?’ They assume that the university is something extra - category error
Behaviourism
Type of materialism
Human thoughts are simply learnt behaviour
B.F. Skinner
He believed that the idea of mental state being separate from the body is a radical misunderstanding. Skinner explained that human behaviour can be attributed to genetics, the environment and what is learnt.
Pavlov’s dog
Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food. Linked to behaviourism
Dennet’s objection to behaviourism
Daniel C Dennet argues in ‘Skinner Skinned’ that Skinner over-simplifies human consciousness. He assumes that what applies to the consciousness of a pigeon can be applied to a human. Dennet argues that Skinner would be right if the explanation stopped at human desire, but human thinking
moves beyond Skinner’s basic
theory.
