Soul, mind and body Flashcards
What is Plato’s view on the soul?
Plato is a dualist and he believes that there are two parts of us that that make us who we are; our body and our soul
What is Plato’s view on what humans are?
- the first aspect of humans is the physical body
- the second aspect is the soul, which consists of:
1. the rational part(our reason/logic)
2. the emotional part(will)
3. the appetitive part(our appetite/what we want)
What is Plato’s analogy of the charioteer?
- two horses (will and appetite) are controlled by the charioteer(reason)
- unless the charioteer keeps control of the reins, will(the weaker horse), will be dragged into the direction that appetite(the stronger horse) wants it to go
Why does plato believe in his view of the soul?
- Argument from geometry
- Argument from opposites
What is the argument from geometry?
premise 1: a slave boy solves a geometry correctly
premise 2: he has not learnt geometry in this life
premise 3: therefore, he must have learnt it from before
conclusion: therefore, something must have preexisted his body - a non physical soul
What is the argument from opposites?
premise 1: every quality comes into being from its opposite
premise 2: death is the opposite of life and life is the opposite of death
premise 3: nothing can come from nothing
premise 4: therefore. if you were alive, you must have been dead before and so on
premise 5: there must be something that continues to exist that is you
conclusion: the soul must therefore, be seperate from the body
What is a weakness of the argument from geometry?
ROSALYN WEISS
- socrates taught the slave boy the answer using socratic questioning which drew the boys attention to important info for solving the puzzle
What is Plato’s response to rosalyn weiss’ weakness?
THE RECOGNITION ARGUMENT
what is a weakness of the argument from opposites?
ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA: THE INTERACTION PROBLEM
- she argues that how can immaterial soul interact with a material body
What is Aristotle’s view on the soul?
Aristotle is a monist and he believes that the soul is our essence and what makes us who we are
- aristotle believes that the soul is our formal cause that gives us our capabilities and characteristics
What is the wax stamp analogy and how does it show the relationship between the body and the soul?
the soul and the body are intertwined and cannot be seperated, similarly to the wax and the shape/imprint of the stamp
What is a weakness of aristotle’s view on the soul?
SARTRE:EXISTENTIALISM
- he doesn’t believe that the soul is our formal cause that helps us to reach our telos as humans don’t have to have a telos
What is a response to sartre’s weakness of aristotle?
ZOOLOGY
What is a weakness of aristotle’s view on the soul?
ARGUMENT FROM OPPOSITES
What is a response to the weakness of argument from opposites of aristotle?
INTERACTION PROBLEM
What is substance dualism?
substance dualism is the idea that the mind and body are two separate substances
- the body is a material substance
- the soul is an immaterial substance
What is hyperbolic doubt?
Hyperbolic doubt is extreme scepticism
What does Rene Descartes argue?
premise 1: for something to be knowledge we must be certain of it
premise 2: if we have a reason to doubt something, we are not certain of it
conclusion: therefore, if we have a reason to doubt something, it cannot be knowledge
What does Descarte doubt?
- our senses (sometimes they deceive us)
- dreams(sometimes we cannot tell the difference between a dream and reality)
- thoughts (there could be an evil demon manipulating and deceiving him into believing that he can know anything)
What is Descarte’s argument for substance dualism?
premise 1: i know for sure that my mind exists
premise 2: i dont know for sure that my body exists
conclusion: so my mind is different from my body
what is a weakness to descarte’s substance dualism?
THE INTERACTION PROBLEM
What is a response to the interaction problem weakness in favour of descarte?
- the interaction is like when an apple falls from a tree due to gravity
- there is an interaction between the apple (the physical thing) and gravity (the non - physical thing)
what are the two things that aristotle says about the soul (LOA1 and LOA2)?
- the soul is our formal cause that gives us our capabilities and characteristics
- the soul is the difference between and dead and a living body
