Soul, mind and body Flashcards
Define monism
The body and soul are inseparable entities
Explain Aristotle’s views on the soul
Monist, no belief in afterlife
A substance or essence dependent on the body
The body will do what the soul has the capacity to do
There are three types of soul, appetitive, intellectual and vegetative
Explain an appetite soul
Passions and appetites
Hunger, thirst, sexual desire
Emotions
What’s a vegetative soul?
shared by all living things, inc plants
Explain an intellectual soul
Rational and directive
Only present in humans
Power of memory
Reason and action
What two analogies did Aristotle use to describe the soul?
A wax and its imprint (cannot be separated)
An axe, if it had a soul its purpose would be to chop
What did Aristotle believe are the causes of the body?
Material- Flesh and blood
Final- gives purpose and meaning
Efficient- animates the body, gives it life
Formal- idea that shapes the body
Give 6 criticisms of Aristotle’s ideas of the soul
- Dreams and vivid imaginations, disguising emotions and pretending to be someone else suggests there is more separation between the body and soul than Aristotle is allowing
- Aristotle’s view doesn’t allow for an afterlife, completely contradictory to most major religions
- His writings are obscure and contradictory
- No clear evidence for his ideas, our senses maybe should not be trusted
- If the soul was the efficient cause of the body and brought it life, this suggests they were at one point separate
- Problematic to say the soul is the efficient cause which animates the body because it suggests those with disabilities or deformities have inadequate and inferior souls (eg Stephen Hawkins)
What did Gilbert Ryle say about the mind?
Mind is a byproduct of chemical reactions, and therefore inseparable from the body
Dualists have made a category error, describing the mind like a ‘ghost in a machine’
What did Richard Dawkins say about the soul?
Materialist
We are who we are due to genetic makeup
May accept soul in a metaphorical sense
Two different understandings of soul-
1.Spiritual and containing personality- rejects as personality is genetic and shaped through experience
Self awareness has developed as an evolutionary advantage
Bertrand Russell- wish fulfilment
2. Oxford Dictionary definition, describes as material and intellectual- Dawkins says its a nice description of humans but does not mean we have a separate soul entity
A quote from Dawkins
‘We are survival machines’
No purpose or soul, just driven by instincts of survival
5 Strengths of Dawkins’ materialism
- Based mainly off science
- Realistic, doesn’t allow for wish-fulfilment
- Not dependant on a belief in god
- Promotes further developments in science an d encourages a better understanding of the brain
- Promotes human development- the only way humans can be immortal is to leave a mark on the world (through poetry for example)
4 Weaknesses of Dawkins’ materialism
- Cannot explain link between brain and consciousness, there may be more undiscovered evidence for the soul just as they have not found a way to prove this either
- Goes against religion
- Very critical despite not having 100% proof other theories are wrong
- Reductionist argument, reduces humans to nothing but matter, pessimistic
How did Plato describe the body and soul?
Opposites
Body- constantly changing, only learns through experience, physical
Soul- Unchanging and immortal, understands the forms, uses reason, knows the truth
How did Plato describe the mind?
Inner life- psyche
Opinions, hopes, motives, emotions
What were Plato’s three parts to the soul?
emotion- focus on desire and physical pleasures, passions (honour, victory, courage, righteous indignation)
Reason- guides towards truth, mediates between the other two, rationality
Appetite- base needs (thirst, hunger), difficult to control, encourages us to look after physical needs, but left unchecked becomes hedonistic and makes the human become little better than an animal
What analogy did Plato use to describe the soul?
Charioteer (reason) guiding two horses (emotion and appetite)
What evidence did Plato use to support that the soul contains true knowledge which is eventually remembered?
Child progidies, contain so much knowledge without eduction
5 strengths of Plato’s views of the soul
- Gives humans a purpose knowing they are part of something greater
- Helps to understand human complexity
- Some people remember past lives- supports dualism
- Explains why people feel they are not defined by their bodies
- Arguably supported by science
6 weakness of Plato’s views of the soul
- Believing in an immortal soul undermines human life
- Theory is dependant on the theory of the forms (which is widely rejected)
- There is no evidence and an extreme lack of detail
- Plato makes the body appear as though it has no value
- Modern neuroscience- emotions are just chemical reactions
- Argument from the cycle of opposites (life, death and rebirth), things are not brought about by their opposites
Which of Richard Swinburne’s arguments support dualism?
We can imagine a situation where we exist without a body and therefore it is a logically coherent concept
People aren’t defined by their bodies, it does not make it them
People have bodies, they are not bodies themselves
What was the one thing Descartes knew for certain?
He was a great skeptic, but he knew the mind must exist
‘Cogito ergo sum’
I think therefore I am
How did Descartes describe the mind and body?
Mind- A thinking thing, res cogitans, immaterial
Body- material, res extensa
Only humans have a soul
Therefore mind and body must be separate- Cartesian dualism
What are the main two issues with Descartes theory?
Science disproves his ideas about the mind being based in the pineal gland
Problem of interactionism- how do the soul, mind and body interact?
What is hyperbolic doubt?
The idea that nothing can be trusted (except in the case of I think therefore I am)
