Soul, Mind and Body Flashcards
What is Plato’s view of the soul?
‘Triparte soul’:
Logos- reason- located in the head
Thymos- spirit- located in the chest
Eros- desire- located in the stomach
What analogy does Plato use to describe his ‘triparte soul’?
Analogy of a chariot rider riding a chariot being pulled by two winged horses
Chariot- Logos
Horse 1- Eros
Horse 2- Thymos
What is Aristotle’s view of the soul?
The soul exists and gives the body life
It is not eternal and cannot be separated from the body
What analogy does Aristotle use to describe his view of the soul?
Analogy of a stamp and was seal
The imprint on the was seal cannot be separated from the stamp, the process requires both parts to be whole- like how the body and soul are one
Substance dualism
The belief that the mind and body exist as two separate and distinct things
Dualism
The belief that there are two distinct and separate parts of reality
What is the Masked Man Fallacy?
It is possible to conceive of two things which are the same but to think of them as separate
Property Dualism
There is only one kind of substance (material) but that exists with two properties, mental and physical
Materialism
We consider that the mind, soul or essence of a person exists as a result of the chemical activity within our physical being, nothing more
DESCARTES
Look at lessons to find some info
How did Elizabeth of Bohemia challenge Descartes?
Questioned how something not physical can move something physical
In order to move a physical object you need to be in space but the mind isn’t
She argues it is more likely that the soul is at least partly physics, than not being physics, and being able to move something physical
How did Anne Conway critique Descartes?
The body and soul do share some properties, such as Descartes argument it exists somewhere in the brain, or that the soul could be perceived or sensed, or even that they both exist, both the body and soul feel pain, or understand emotion
They share qualities so do not qualify as distinct substances
What did Mary Midgley argue against?
She argues against both dualism and materialism
How does Mary Midgley argue against dualism?
It ignores that we are part of nature and the natural world- dualism gives us superiority complex which leads to environmental concerns
It makes the mind look too mysterious and beyond us
How does Mary Midgley argue against materialism?
It ignored what it means to be us and our experience of our inner lives
Narrows our view if the world and ours science above philosophy or art
The self becomes a machine without emotional value
What was Richard Dawkins argument?
The selfish gene- argued that humans are simply ‘survival machines’ which no distinction from animals other than they are biologically more complex
Conversations about having a soul or distinct mind to try to make humans seem more important than animals
He argued that this is a consequence of theistic creation stories that want to make it seem like humans have a special or unique purpose about all other living things
What two ways did Richard Dawkins say there was to talk about the soul?
Soul one: claim that the soul is a distinctive spiritual supernatural part of a person
Soul two: referring to someone’s personality individuality. Deeply felt by a person
What is Gilbert Ryle’s argument?
Argues that talking about mind or consciousness as separate from the body is a ‘category mistake’
The words ‘mind’ or ‘consciousness’ in a way of describing how the brain of complex beings works
Looking for a soul is like looking for ‘the ghost in the machine’- it isn’t something that exists rather lots of parts come together in an organised way to form one thing
