Soul Mind and Body Flashcards
What is the question about am I my body?
Is your body part a part of what you have or what you are?
Is someone less themselves if their leg is amputated?
Is someone more themselves if they gain weight due to a drinking problem?
Am I my consciousness?
Developing dementia causes your tastes and character to diminish. Does that make you less yourself?
What is the mind body question?
Asks about the relationship between the mind and the body
What is an ancient / materialist response to the mind body problem?
Ancient - the soul is the ‘real me’
Materialist - there is no me beyond the flesh of the body
What is Plato’s view of the soul?
- Dualist , Essential and immaterial part of a human, temporarily united with the body (trapped)
- Triarpite soul - vegetative, appetitive and intellectual
What is Aristotle’s view on the soul?
The soul as a form of the body, cannot be separated from the body (dualist)
the soul is the formal cause - humans are animated by the soul
What is the wax and seal analogy - Aristotle?
When heated wax is imprinted with someone’s seal or stamp (to seal an official letter for instance) it is impossible to separate the imprint of the seal from the wax.
So the form of the body, the soul, is imprinted on it but is also inseparable from the working of the body itself.
What is the Charioteer analogy - Plato?
Two horses (vegetative and appetite) are controlled by the charioteer (intellectual). Plato believed that unless the charioteer kept control on the reins, vegetative (the weaker horse) would be dragged in the direction that appetite (the stronger horse) wanted to go.
What is substance dualism (Descartes)?
The idea that mind and body are distinct substances (dualism)
Proposal of material and spiritual substances as a solution to the mind/soul and body problem
Our senses are unreliable and an illusion, priviledges the mental and a priori
What is Descartes most relevant latin phrase?
Cogito Ergo Sum - i think therefore I am
separates the action of thinking from existing suggesting they are separate things
How does Descartes attempt to explain the mind body connection?
Uses the pineal gland as the connection between the physical and spiritual soul
Counter - this is a weak argument since a physical anatomical part it being used as connection
What did Ryle say about Descartes theory?
Described it as a ghost in the machine, the ghost being the soul and the machine being the body
Argues he is guilty of category error, assumes that things have to be either physical or mental when they can be both.
- not very different from Peter Geach calling dualism a savage superstition
What examples did Ryle give of category error?
A forgein visitor going to Cambridge/oxford
Visits the colleges and then asks wheres the university
- assumes the university is separate not all the colleges collectively being the university
What are Hick’s views on the soul
soft materialism - our bodies have a spiritual dimension, there is no mind without matter
that we are materalist beings does not mean we are just materialist beings
Why does Hick oppose strongly Plato’s views on the soul?
Describes as Un-christian
Assumes death is not something to fear, since the soul cannot die
Christian- to die is to be before God and therefore should be feared
What are G.E.M Anscombe’s views on the mind-body problem?
-considers the phenomenon of pointing
-pointing is a gesture but cannot descibe the meaning and signficance of that pointing from merely the physical
-thought and body is needed, a disembodied soul could not point, a body without a soul could not point either
(man qua spirit - an act of the human as a whole)
What is materialism?
The idea that mind and consciousness can be fully explained by physical or material interactions
Any intention can be reduced to the our flesh, blood, nerves and cells
Richard Dawkins - materialism
-Subtle reductionism
-Rejects notion of the disembodied soul
-No empirical evidence
-Acknowledges the mystery of consciousness, asserts faith into science however.
What is Dawkins’ concept of two souls?
Soul 1 - separate substance (rejects this notion as primitive superstition)
Soul 2 - intellectual and spiritual power, higher development of moral faculties, feeling and imagination
these are rooted in the body and yet to be explained by science
What is behaviourism (materialism)?
sees human thoughts as learned behaviours
B.F. Skinner what we consider to be mental events are actually classical conditioning
e.g. Pavlov’s dogs- salivation upon hearing the bell
What are the objections to behaviourism?
Dennett, ‘Skinner Skinned’
Argues that Skinner over-simplifies human consciousness assumes what is true of a dog is true of humans
e.g. we do not read books as a learned behaviour we read them for purpose, not just because we ‘want to’
there is something more to human conciousness than cause and effect.. remains unknown
