Soul, Mind & Body

Question 1

How does Dawkins reductively describe human beings?

Answer 1

As carriers of DNA & info - nothing more than “survival machines” only interested in surviving into the next generation

Question 2

How does Dawkins reductively describe human consciousness?

Answer 2

As nothing more than electrochemical events occurring w/i the brain

Question 3

CRITICISM OF DAWKINS

Answer 3

Fails to explain logical, complex & independent thought - the freedom to make decisions that do not purely satisfy a need to survive

If the mind were a part of the body, we would be able to identify it (E.g. we identify wood as solid and custard as liquid) - if we say it’s invisible, we suggest that the mind is a completely different substance

Question 4

How does Descartes support his claim that the body and the mind are separate substances?

Answer 4

“Argument from doubt” - only the existence of the mind cannot be doubted (“Cogito ergo sum”)

Question 5

STRENGTHS OF DESCARTES

Answer 5

Describes the difference in the properties of the mind & body (E.g. the mind is dimensionless & immeasurable) - therefore, the mind is not part of the body, because we would be able to identify it (if we suggest that it is invisible, we suggest that it is a completely different substance

Question 6

CRITICISM OF DESCARTES

Answer 6

Body can cause effects in the mind - E.g. dementia is a physical disease resulting in the shrinkage of brain tissue but also affects the mind

HOWEVER, Descartes explained that the mind & the body “Compose a certain unity” (E.g. pilots cause aeroplanes to do things) - we can expect that bodies sometimes cause minds to do things & vice versa

Question 7

How does reductive materialism suggest that the mind and the body are not different substances?

Answer 7

Psychologist Edward Boring argued that the mind & body are one and the same - mind is not distinct from the body, but identical to it

Question 8

CRITICISM OF REDUCTIVE MATERIALISM

Answer 8

Reduced consciousness to a process w/i the brain - also fails to explain the ability of human beings to think independently and logically

Fails to identify how human beings are able to have knowledge of ideas outside of this world (E.g. beauty, justice, & goodness)

Fails to explain Plato’s example of Meno

Question 9

How does Dawkins suggest that the concept of the soul is better understood metaphorically?

Answer 9

Suggests there may be a place for talking about the soul metaphorically - ‘soul two’ (intellectual, spiritual power) is a meaningful description of ourselves, provided we’re clear it doesn’t refer to a separate thing

Question 10

STRENGTHS OF PLATO

Answer 10

Soul is better understood as a reality because…

Explains how human beings are able to have knowledge of ideas outside of this world (E.g. beauty, justice, & goodness)

Explains how people w/ the same upbringing and education can have entirely different academic abilities - Meno