Soul Mind & Body AO2 and Essay Plans

Question 1

‘I am a body’ makes more sense

Answer 1

-Dawkins- humans are merely carriers of DNA, ‘bytes and bytes of digital information’ Purpose of life is DNA survival/consciousness.
-No empirical evidence for religious belief so no basis for believing their factual truth.
Dawkins/Bertrand Russell - religious belief in ideas such as the immortality of the soul have no sound basis (AJ Ayer- Verification.
- Belief in a soul comes from a human inability to accepot that evil and suffering have no purpose (Freud/Feurbach)
-Aristotle- the soul does not survive after death. (Russell - “when i die - i rot”)
-Gilbert Ryle- Dismissed dualism, calling it a category mistake.

Question 2

‘I have a body’ makes more sense

Answer 2

• Plato- soul separate from the body, the body was mortal, whilst the soul was immortal. This world is not the end WOF.
• Plato’s belief gives a reward for living a virtuous and honest life
• Near death experiences (Raymond Moody)- Many people have used the idea of near death experiences and out of body experiences as proof that another world exists.
• Descartes- ‘ I think therefore i am’. Our immortal soul provides us with a conscious life
• Richard Swinburne: we can imagine a situation where we could exist without a body, and if we can imagine it , then it is a coherent concept.
  HH Price- agree with Swinburne, He argued for the possibility that our mind may survive the death of our body and exist in a mental world.

Question 3

Substance dualism is convincing

Answer 3

• Descartes - ‘i think therefore i am’. We know for certain he had a mind, because he can think, but it is not certain that we don’t have a body.
• Descartes - Our immortal soul provides us with a conscious life not the body.
• Descartes - A person’s body may alter , may be damaged, but nothing would be taken from the mind.
• Plato- soul is separate from the body, the body was mortal, whilst the soul was immortal. This world is not the end WOF.
• Plato’s belief in an afterlife and possible reincarnation gives a reward for giving an honest and virtuous life.
• Near Death Experiences (Raymond Moody)- many people have used the idea of near death experiences and out of body experiences as proof that another world exists.

Question 4

Substance Dualism is not convincing

Answer 4

• Gilbert Ryle, dismissed substance dualism, calling it a category error.
• Ryle’s analogy of the glove- It would be a mistake that a pair of gloves are something different from a right glove and a left glove.
• Ryle- Descartes mistaken as he assumes that sentences about causes/sensations/events must be either physical or mental.
• Hick- we are our bodies, but those bodies have a spritual dimension. No separate substances (weak materalism)
• Aristotle- monist- we are one substance (Russell- when i die i rot)
• no empirical evidence
• Dawkins- Religious belief in ideas such as immortality of the soul have no sound basis. (AJ Ayer- cannot verify the idea of a soul.)

Question 5

Platos theory of a separate soul is convincing

Answer 5

• Plato- soul seperate from the body, the body was mortal, whilst the soul was immortal. Humans are partly spiritual and partly material. This world is not the end WOF.
• Plato’s belief in an afterlife and possible reincarnation gives a reward for living an honest and virtuous and honest life.
• Emphasises the importance of pursuing a moral life.
• Concept of an afterlife is widely held by religion.
• Near death experiences (Raymond Moody)
• Descartes (i think therefore i am)
• Descartes- our immortal soul provides us with a conscious life not the body- that is just spatial and physical.

Question 6

Plato’s theory of a separate soul is not convincing

Answer 6

• Gilbert Ryle- Dismissed substance dualism, calling it a category error, claiming it was reminiscent of a ghost in a machine.
  -Ryle and his analogy of a glove.
  -Ryle- Descartes is mistaken as he assumes that sentences about causes/sensations/events must be either physical or mental.
  -Hick- we are our bodies, but those bodies have a spiritual dimension. No separate substances.
  -Aristotle- Monist- we are all one substance
  -no empirical evidence for religious belief so no basis for believing their factual truth.
  Dawkins/Bertrand Russell- religious belief in ideas such as the immortality of the soul have no sound basis (AJ Ayer Verification.)

Question 7

Stating that the mind and body are separate substances is making a category error
AGREE

Answer 7

• Gilbert Ryle- Dismissed substance dualism, calling it a category error claiming it was reminiscent of a ghost in a machine.
• Language about the soul or self beyond the physical is a mistake
• Ryle’s analogy of the glove- it would be a mistake to think that a pair of gloves are something different from a right glove and a left glove.
• Ryle- Descartes is mistaken as he assumes that sentences about causes/sensations/events must be either physical or mental.
  -Hick- weak materialism
  -Aristotle- Monist- we are one substance (Russell- ‘when i die, I rot’)
  -No empirical evidence for religious experience so no basis for believing the factual truth.
  Dawkins/Bertrand Russell -religious belief in ideas such as the immortality of the soul have no sound basis (AJ Ayer Verification)

Question 8

Stating that the mind and body are separate substances is making a category error
DISAGREE

Answer 8

• Descartes- I think therefore I am
• Descartes- Our immortal soul provides us with a conscious life not the body
• Descartes- A person’s body may alter, may be damaged, but nothing will be taken from the mind.
• Plato- soul is seperate from the body, the body was mortal, whilst the soul was immortal. The world is not the end WOF
• JSM (emergence dualism) The mind in this view, has it’s own existence in some sense but it is not a completely separate substance from the physical.
• Near death experiences- Raymond Moody- Many people have used this idea of near-death experience and out of body experiences and out of body experiences to prove that another world exists.

Question 9

The concept of a ‘soul’ is best understood metaphorically

DISAGREE

Answer 9

• Plato- soul seperate from the body, the body was mortal, whilst the soul was immortal. This world is not the end WOF.
• Plato’s belief in an afterlife and possible reincarnation gives a reward for living an honest and virtuous life.
• Emphasises the importance of pursuit of a moral life.
• Concept of a afterlife is widely held by religion
• Near death experiences (Raymond Moody)- Many people have used this idea of near death experiences and out of body experiences as proof that another world exists.
• Descartes ‘I think therefore I am’
• Descartes- our immortal soul provides us with a conscious life not the body- that is just spatial and physical.

Question 10

The concept of a ‘soul’ is best understood metaphorically

AGREE

Answer 10

-Aristotle- monist- we are one substance
-Hick- we are our bodies, but those bodies have a spiritual dimension. No separate substances.
-No empirical evidence for religious belief so no basis for believing their factual truth.
Dawkins/Bertrand Russell- religious belief in ideas such as immortality of the soul have no sound basis .
- Dawkins- humans are merely carriers of DNA ‘just bytes and bytes of digital information’. Purpose of life is DNA survival/consciousness is not due to any kind of soil but because of self awareness have evolutionary advantages.`

Question 11

Strengths of Dualism

Answer 11

• Platos three argument are logically sound progressions from accepted truths and seem to prove his understanding of a soul based on the world of forms
• Descartes theory is entirely based on finding irrefutable truths, and developing a theory from this therefore his conclusions are equally refutable.
• Both take seriously the complexity and mystery of human thoughts rather than simply trying to explain away important questions.

Question 12

Descartes Dualism being a Category Error

Answer 12

• Gilbert Ryle suggests that Dualism is guilty of a category error.
• This is the mistaken assumption that two things are of the same logical type, and therefore comparable.
• In this case, Descartes assumes that the mind and the body are separate substances of the same logical type, and therefore actions can either be a mental or a physical process.
• Ryle sees this as a mistake, there is no reason to separate physical and mental processes as they are one unity- therefore there can be no separate soul.
• He gives the example of a university:someone is shown around a library , museum, halls and so on, but at the end asks when they will see the university.

Question 13

Strengths of Materialism

Answer 13

• Materialism is right to claim that there is no evidence for anything other than physical matter, is supported in this by science.
• Modern neuroscience suggests that all brain functions can be traced and deduced by observing brainwaves.
• Skinners behaviourism is supported by his extensive research on other animals.
• Dawkins states that materialism is the only logical answer to the theory of the mind, as it is the only theory that agrees with evolution and scientific understanding.

Question 14

Weaknesses of Materialism

Answer 14

• Behaviourism is an oversimplification of the human mind and motivations, it isn’t sufficient for complex human activities.
• It is also based on animal research.
• Materialism claims that it has the full support of science, but there are a very large number of unexplained questions to do with human consciousness, that undermine this view.
• Materialism cannot account for the richness and complexity of the human consciousness and subconsciousness.