Soul, mind and body Flashcards
Monists
body and soul are united and can not be separate
Dualist
2 aspects of human beings : physical body and non- physical soul
Materialists
humans made of one substance the physical body they reject life after death
Substance dualism
2 elements : body and soul are wholly different substances
Prince and the Cobbler
In one of his most suggestive stories, Locke imagined that a cobbler dies and after his death, the consciousness of a prince enters the cobbler’s body. This person remembers all of the prince’s past experiences and none of the cobbler’s. We would say that the prince now occupies the body of the cobbler.
Plato’s view on the soul
- separate from the body as the body is controlled by unreliable senses and constantly changing whilst the soul is permanent and eternal
- superior to the body
- linked to / lives in the WOF
- essential , immaterial part of human life
- intutition is evidence of soul
Meno’s slave boy
An uneducated slave boy of Meno’s is shown to be capable of recognising the right answer to a mathematical problem that he has never (in this life) heard before (Meno 81a-86b). Socrates is keen to stress that the boy arrives at the right answer by himself through a series of questions.
Myth of er
story of a soldier, Er, who is thought to be dead and descends to the underworld. But when he revives he is sent back to tell humanity what awaits them in the afterlife. Er describes an afterlife where the just are rewarded and the wicked are punished.
Tripartite view of the soul and chariot analogy
reason is the charioteer , emotion and appetite are horses
Aristotle’s view on the soul - Wax seal
- soul can not be separated from the body e.g imprint of a wax seal can not be separated from the wax which it is imprinted
Aristotle view on the soul - Causes
he observed that everything was made of matter ( material cause) and had a form ( formal cause ). the body is the material cause whereas the soul is the formal cause . The soul animates the body and gives it its characteristics and form seen in his book ‘ DE ANIMA on the soul ‘
Three abilties of every life form soul Aristotle
Vegetative - characterstics of growing ( plants)
Appetitve -ability to act and fulfil the desires for food and reproduction ( animal)
Rational - intellectual ability ( humans)
Blade and the handle of an axe
For example, the blade and handle of an axe are like the body; the form or soul is its ability to chop. The axe would not be an axe with only the matter, it needs the form (or soul) to be what it is.
Eye is the soul of the body
Aristotle’s analogy is used to explain the nature of the soul and it’s relation to the body. The eye, he says, is only an eye if it fulfills its purpose by having the ability of sight. In the same way, the body is only such if it has a soul
extension
body is extended .. it takes up space and can be measured but it does not have the properties of thought
properties
the abilties of something e.g the minds properties are intentions , feelings , emotions …
Descartes
SUBSTANCE DUALIST argued that reality or existence is divided into two parts. He argued that humanity could be divided into two parts as well: the mind and the body. He saw the mind and the physical body as two distinct entities.
Hyperbolic doubt
Descartes questioned everything that could be known and rejected them if there was any doubt at all e.g sense experience , maths ( mind demons)
Cogito Ergo Sum
i think therfore i am - the only thing descartes could be sure of was the fact he was a thinking being .. he was unsure if he had a body so mind and body were seperate
Pineal Gland
D belived the gland had something to do with the connection between the soul and body
My view is that this [pineal] gland is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. The reason I believe this is that I cannot find any part of the brain, except this, which is not double.
Gilbert Ryle
dismissed dualism , best known work on the concept of the mind
ghost in the machine Ryle
the “ghost” of the mind giving life to the “machine” of the body does not exist .
Category error
descartes is guilty of making a category error
Ryle - university
tour of cambridge university the person see all the different facilties and at the end of the tour asks where is the university ?
Ryle - team spirit
at a cricket game see the stands , crowds , players asks where is the team spirit ?
Ryle - military
a boy is at a miltary parade , a division is marching by , someone points out another squad … he asks when will the divisons arrive.
Biological factors linked to mental health
body and soul are not separate?
e.g brain and immune system are linked by some vessels in schizophrenia
Dawkins
Dawkins is a scientist and materialist. He argues that our current scientific view of what we are is that we are merely material physical beings composed of DNA. That’s all there is scientific evidence for, therefore we shouldn’t believe in anything supernatural such as a soul.
Dawkins view on the soul
MATERIALIST Dawkins argued there are two types of soul – one valid the other invalid. Soul 1 is the view that the soul is a real thing separate from our body, which Dawkins rejects due to lack of evidence. Soul 2 is a metaphorical idea of the soul, as a metaphor for the deep part of our mind and personality where the essence of our humanity is. For example, someone who doesn’t believe in a soul might still say “I felt that in my soul” or “Hitler was a soulless person”. They are just using the term ‘soul’ metaphorically for our deep important human feelings, not for some non-physical part of (soul 1). Dawkins thinks that everything about us, including our minds and consciousness, is nothing more than biological processes in our body and brain.
