soul mind body- Plato

Question 1

aquinas quote on soul

Answer 1

‘my soul is not me’

Question 2

plato’s view on the soul

Answer 2

-dualist
-W of F is real world and this physical world incl. our body is not the real world
-so were a soul not a body
-argument from recollection

Question 3

what’s a dualist?

Answer 3

mind/soul and body are different types of existence
mental and physical

Question 4

what’s plato’s argument from recollection?

Answer 4

-we have ideas of perfect things
-e.g. perfect circle, or perfect justice
-but we have never seen a perfect circle or perfect goodness
-must have got these ideas from the W of F where there are perfect Forms of circles and goodness
-must be a part of us (our soul) which was in the W of Fs before we were born
-dim recollection of forms which explains our knowledge of perfect concepts- anamnesis

Question 5

what’s Hume’s counter to plato’s dualism? (imagine)

Answer 5

-can invent perfection ourselves even though haven’t experienced it
-we can take our idea of imperfect beauty or imperfect circles and simply imagine them w/o the imperfection
-so just bc we haven’t experienced perfection, doesn’t require the existence of a soul or realm of forms to explain how we got the idea
-so P’s argument seems to fail

Question 6

criticism of plato: justice and beauty subjective

Answer 6

-beauty and morality are subjective- in eye of beholder
-seem like matters of opinion determined by culture and change over time rather than fact
-so every1 has a different concept of perfect beauty or justice so its not objectively perfect

Question 7

plato’s example of socrates and the slave boy

Answer 7

-socrates proved uneducated slave boy able to solve a geometry question using prompted questions and some shapes in the sand
-slave must have been born w geometric concepts

Question 8

defence of plato- maths not subjective

Answer 8

-example of perfect circles can get around this issue as much harder to argue is subjective

Question 9

hume criticism of plato about mathematical knowledge

Answer 9

mathematical knowledge could come from experience
-slave boy had no maths training but had seen shapes in his life so gained concepts of shapes and geometry
-this gave him basic conceptual understanding that Socrates’ questioning brought out and clarified

Question 10

Plato’s example of soul/body interaction

Question 11

even if plato was correct were born with perfect concepts..

Answer 11

doesn’t mean a should and work of forms is the only or even best explanation

Question 12

how could evolution discount plato’s theory of recollection?

Answer 12

evolution could have programmed us to have a sense of morality, beauty
-the evolution of intelligence could explain being born w mathematical ability

Question 13

Aristotle’s criticism of Plato: lacks empirical validity

Answer 13

-plato’s forms have no explanatory power
-the forms are unchanging and so cannot explain the change we experience in this world