soul, mind and body

Question 1

Radical scepticism

Answer 1

• there are many things descartes realises he can it join with certainty
• doesn’t know whether he’s dreaming or no
• whether to trust his senses or no

Question 2

Evil demon

Answer 2

• manipulating his senses
  ≠ 100% there, just can discredit the possibility
• evil demon can trick him into him thinking he exists -> because he is able to think
• link to Leibniz’ law -> he can be certain his mind exists, but not his body = therefore two different properties = they cannot be the same

Question 3

Richard Dawkins

Answer 3

• selfish gene
• conceptualised us as a colony of genes, rather than a spiritual connection with a body

Question 4

Phineas Gage

Answer 4

• 19th century railroad worker
• survived an accident where a large iron rod went through his skull, damaging his left frontal lobe
• personality changed significantly

Question 5

Plato’s charioteer and horses analogy

Answer 5

• the reason (charioteer) is keeping the emotion and appetite in control to keep the person balanced and healthy
• the body ‘taints’ out soul -> giving it these bad qualities
• appetite/ desire -> linked to the idea of seeking pleasure eg. Food, luxury items
• spirits/ emotion -> aggressiveness

Question 6

Plato’s reasonable part of our soul

Answer 6

• searches for truth (forms)
• rules the soul
• the only thing present when not in the body

Question 7

Qualities of vegetative souls

Answer 7

• nutrition (ability to take in food)
• reproduction

Question 8

Qualities of perceptive (animal) souls

Answer 8

• nutrition (ability to take in food)
• reproduction
• locomotion (ability to move by their own volition)
• instincts/ drives
• sentience

Question 9

Qualities of human souls

Answer 9

• nutrition (ability to take in food)
• reproduction
• locomotion (ability to move by their own volition)
• instincts/ drives
• sentience
• higher order reasoning

Question 10

Different types of souls

Answer 10

• proposed by Aristotle
• vegetative
• perceptive
• human

Question 11

Hylomorphism

Answer 11

• the belief that every living is a combination of physical matter and a non-physical soul - both are an important part of what makes up the living being
• both are required for a living thing to be alive

Question 12

Aristotle -> things to know

Answer 12

• wax analogy
• hylomorphic approach
• three different types of souls
• soul being the efficient, form and final cause.

Question 13

Plato -> things to consider

Answer 13

• charioteer analogy
• argument from recollection
• argument from simplicity
• soul = temporarily united with the body

Question 14

Descartes -> things to consider

Answer 14

• radical scepticism
• evil demon
• pineal gland
• argument from indivisibility
• argument from indubitability

Question 15

Argument from recollection

Answer 15

• plato
• remembered e of ideas that human beings possess in an innate way in the soul
• knowledge is not found in the external world, but its internally located using the external world
• theory affirms that soul = immortal and knows the truth before entering the body

Question 16

Formal cause

Answer 16

• the design or form that explains the shape of the thing
• the soul is what causes the living this to have the particular formal cause that it has

Question 17

The efficient cause

Answer 17

• the thing or process that causes the thing to come into existence
• the soul is the moving cause of the living body -> with respect to nutrition

Question 18

The final cause

Answer 18

• the purpose or function of a thing
• everything has the final cause of being the most perfect version of itself
• the soul causes the living thing to have the particular final cause it has