Soul Mind and Body

Question 1

intentionality describes …

Answer 1

the fact that thinking involves one’s attention being directed towards something

Question 2

the soul as a metaphorical reality

Answer 2

The Romantics opened up a way of understanding the soul as a metaphorical reality for the faculty which appreciates the sublime aspects of nature and existence.

Question 3

dennett on consciousness

Answer 3

Dennett says that consciousness is ‘a bunch of tricks in the brain’ and that, although it is tempting to think so, we are not experts on our own thinking and our minds are constantly fooling us.

Question 4

soul

Answer 4

often, but not always, understood to be the non-physical essence of a person

Question 5

consciousness

Answer 5

awareness or perception

Question 6

substance

Answer 6

a subject which has different properties attributed to it

Question 7

dualism

Answer 7

the belief that reality can be divided into two distinct parts, such as good and evil, or physical and non-physical

Question 8

substance dualism

Answer 8

the belief that the mind and the body both exist as two distinct and separate realities

Question 9

scepticism

Answer 9

a questioning approach which does not take assumptions for the granted

Question 10

materialism

Answer 10

the belief that only physical matter exists, and that the mind can be explained in physical terms as chemical activity in the brain

Question 11

reductive materialism

Answer 11

otherwise known as identity theory - the view that mental events are identical with physical occurrences in the brain

Question 12

category error

Answer 12

a problem of language that arises when things are talked about as if they belong to one category when in fact they belong to another