Topic 14 Physicalism

Question 1

What is a physicalist/

Answer 1

Person who believes that only physical things exist

Reject any spiritual elements of world

Would call evidence for soul unconvincing, anecdotal, subjective and hard to test

Question 2

How can religious experiences be explained?

Answer 2

Brain activity

Temporal lobe epilepsy can produce religious experience like sensations

Hallucinations

Question 3

What did Richard Dawkins believe?

Answer 3

That being altruistic is in our evolutionary interest

And because altruism is basis for morality, morality doesn’t need soul to explain it either

Question 4

What is ockham’s razor?

Answer 4

Theory which states that the simpler solution is best

Natural explanations are better than supernatural ones, as these require us to believe that supernatural things exist

Question 5

How can physicalists use ockham’s razor to justify that the soul doesn’t exist?

Answer 5

Spiritual explanations about soul are less valid due to subjective, anecdotal nature, than natural explanations from empirical evidence

• these dont require us to believe in th supernatural, which could be problematic for some people
• scientific evidence shows there is no soul

Question 6

What did Feuerbach say?

Answer 6

That belief in soul is likely to be wishful thinking, like religion, created to give comfort and reassurance