Soul, Mind and Body

Question 1

What is a famous philosophical thought experiment that can be related to the puzzle of personal identity?

Answer 1

The paradox of Theseus’ ship.

Question 2

To plato what is the key to our personal identity?

Answer 2

The soul.

Question 3

What does Descartes believe in relation to the soul?

Answer 3

Descartes believes that human beings are comprised of two parts. This is called dualism. Though he specifically supports substance dualism. The belief that human beings are made of two substances.

Question 4

What is Dualism?

Answer 4

The idea that there are two fundamental kinds of categories of things or principles.

Question 5

What is substance Dualism?

Answer 5

The idea that there are two aspects of human beings, the physical and the mental. The mental may be identified with the soul.

Question 6

What is materialism?

Answer 6

The idea that human beings are made up of physical matter alone.

Question 7

What does Aristotle believe in relation to the soul?

Answer 7

That the soul is a way of describing the actions and characteristics of the body. It is not a separate thing from the body.

Question 8

What is Platos view in relation to the soul?

Answer 8

Plato is a dualist. He believes that the soul and body are separate. The soul is more important than the body as the body allows us to gain opinions via our senses while the soul enables us to have knowledge.

Question 9

What are some aspects of the soul according to plato?

Answer 9

It is immortal and cannot be divided, it is unchanging, and most importantly capable of knowledge.

Question 10

Plato believes the soul is trapped in the body. True or false?

Answer 10

True. The relationship between body and soul is not a partnership it is an imprisonment.

Question 11

Where does Plato believe knowledge is attained both before you are born and after death?

Answer 11

In the real of the forms.

Question 12

What analogy does Plato use to describe the inner workings of the soul?

Answer 12

A charioteer in charge of two horses.

Question 13

What do the two horses represent?

Answer 13

The spirit and appetite/desire.

Question 14

What does the Charioteer represent?

Answer 14

The reason.

Question 15

What does Plato believe a good person is?

Answer 15

Someone whose soul is properly balanced with reason (the charioteer) in charge.

Question 16

Where was the soul before the body was born according to Plato?

Answer 16

The soul was in the realm of the forms before being pulled to earth by appetite and getting trapped in the body.

Question 17

What example from Meno (a book he wrote) does Plato give to show that knowledge is innate?

Answer 17

A slave boy being prompted with simple questioning that helps him solve a geometry puzzle.

Question 18

What theory is the slave boy able to understand with prompting according to plato?

Answer 18

Pythagoras’ theorem

Question 19

Does Plato believe in reincarnation?

Answer 19

In a sense yes.

Question 20

Does Aristotle agree with Plato?

Answer 20

No.

Question 21

What is Aristotles definition of a form?

Answer 21

A property that is possessed by something. Unlike Plato it is not additional to the object.

Question 22

What examples does Bertrand Russel give of Aristotles definition of forms?

Answer 22

Red being unable to exist if there were no red objects and football being unable to exist if there were no footballers.

Question 23

Plato would argue that beauty exists as an idea even if there are no beautiful things. True or false?

Answer 23

True

Question 24

Aristotle argues that without beautiful things there would be no beauty. True or false?

Answer 24

Trye

Question 25

Aristotle believes we understand beauty because we experienced it in the realm of the forms. True or false?

Answer 25

False, Aristotle believes we understand beauty because we've observed.

Question 26

What does Aristotle believe the soul is?

Answer 26

A description of the essence or properties of the body.

Question 27

Does Aristotle believe the body and soul can be divided?

Answer 27

No. The body and the soul are indivisible. They are one in the same.

Question 28

What Analogies does Aristotle use to illustrate the relationship between the body and soul?

Answer 28

The axe which represents the body making the soul its ability to chop, and the eye which represents the body making the soul its ability to see.

Question 29

Can the soul exist without the body according to Aristotle?

Answer 29

No.

Question 30

What is the plant soul made of according to Aristotle?

Answer 30

A vegetative element, which is essentially the ability to gain nutrition.

Question 31

What is the Animal soul made of according to Aristotle?

Answer 31

In addition to a Vegetative element animals possess a appetitive element, which involves movement and desires.

Question 32

What is the human soul made of according to Aristotle?

Answer 32

An irrational part and a rational part.

Question 33

What is the irrational part of the human soul made up of according to Aristotle?

Answer 33

A vegetative element and an appetitive element.

Question 35

What makes the human soul different from others according to Aristotle?

Answer 35

It has the ability to reason.

Question 36

What is Logical Privacy?

Answer 36

No one other then me can know my thoughts and I cannot know the thoughts of others.

Question 37

What is subjectivity?

Answer 37

My conscious experiences are from a first-person point of view.

Question 38

Which thinkers support substance dualism/dualism?

Answer 38

Plato and Descartes.

Question 39

Which thinkers support Materialism?

Answer 39

Aristotle.

Question 40

What does Descartes establish in Meditation one?

Answer 40

That it is perfectly possible to doubt everything including the existence of the body.

Question 41

What does Descartes establish in Meditation two?

Answer 41

That there is one thing that it is not possible to doubt; he is certain that he exists thanks to his ability to think.

Question 42

What is Descartes famous quote?

Answer 42

Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am).

Question 43

What reasons make Descartes doubt the body?

Answer 43

1. His senses are unreliable. 2. It is hard to know the difference between dreaming and being awake. 3. An evil demon could be in charge of the universe.

Question 44

What is the only thing Descartes believe is definitely real?

Answer 44

The part of him that does the thinking.

Question 45

Does Descartes argue the that the mind is independent of the body?

Answer 45

Yes.

Question 46

What is Leibniz law?

Answer 46

If two objects are identical they have to have exactly the same properties. Therefore if object A and B don't both have a certain property then they must be different.

Question 47

What do Modern materialists believe consciousness can be explained by?

Answer 47

Physical or material interactions.

Question 48

What does Richard Dawkins believe?

Answer 48

That the 'soul' is a mythological concept invented to explain consciousness.

Question 49

What does Dawkins believe our belief in the soul will be replaced with?

Answer 49

With a scientific explanation

Question 50

Dawkins believes the soul can be used in metaphorical terms. True or false?

Answer 50

True.

Question 51

What is 'soul 1' according to Dawkins?

Answer 51

The traditional idea of a principle of life; a separate thing that contains our personality, the real person. This view is to be rejected.

Question 52

What is 'soul 2' according to Dawkins?

Answer 52

Intellectual or spiritual power not a separate thing from the brain.

Question 53

In the case of 'soul 1' Dawkins believes what?

Answer 53

That science has either killed the soul or is in the process if doing so.

Question 54

What does Gilbert Ryle call Descartes Dualism?

Answer 54

The dogma of the ghost in the machine

Question 55

Is Ryle a materialist?

Answer 55

No, but he can be used to support Materialist thoughts.

Question 56

What does the mind-body problem come from?

Answer 56

Thinking about the mind in the wrong way.

Question 57

What does Susan Blackmore reject despite having an out-of-body experience previously?

Answer 57

The idea that our consciousness is non-physical.

Question 58

What does Susan Blackmore believe will solve the mystery of consciousness?

Answer 58

Neuroscience

Question 59

Susan Blackmore says the contents of our minds can be explained by what?

Answer 59

Memes

Question 60

What are memes according to Susan Blackmore?

Answer 60

Cultural ideas that 'stick' on the pathways of our brain and are to some extent passed down by evolution.

Question 61

What does plato believe knowledge is?

Answer 61

Innate.

Question 62

What book of Platos feature Socrates questioning a slave boy leading to him understanding a mathematical theorem?

Answer 62

Meno.

Question 63

What is the Linguistic Argument?

Answer 63

Draws a distinction between how we speak of ourselves and our body. 'I have a body' not 'I am a body' (for plato)

Question 64

What is an argument against the Linguistic one?

Answer 64

It is seen as reading too much into our language.

Question 65

For Descarte the body is what due to having extensions?

Answer 65

Divisible.

Question 66

What is an argument that challenges Descartes claim that the mind is indivisible?

Answer 66

Multiple personality Disorder. People with this disorder experience a split in consciousness.

Question 67

What is the masked man fallacy?

Answer 67

I can doubt the body but its probably real.

Question 68

What is an argument for Neuroscience being able to explain consciousness through brain chemistry?

Answer 68

The fact that depression can be treated by medication that alters the chemistry of the brain.

Question 69

What is the problem of Interaction?

Answer 69

How can a non-physical mind or soup interact with a physical body/brain? They are completely incompatible substances.

Question 70

What is Ockham's Razor?

Answer 70

The simpilist explanation is usually the best to take.

Question 71

What is a Category mistake?

Answer 71

When something is thought and talked about in the wrong way.

Question 72

What Anaologies does Ryle give of Category errors?

Answer 72

A foreigner visiting a University, A person observing a sports team, and