MEDIEVAL THOUGHT Flashcards
SAINT AUGUSTINE was a rationalist, he strongly believed against?
against solipsism
(extreme idealism, cannot prove anything but your own mind exists)
What were the 2 key works of AVICENNA?
Islamic Golden Age
The Book of Healing is a scientific encyclopedia (covering logic, psychology, the natural sciences, arithmetic, astronomy and music)
The Canon of Medicine
historical medicine books
How did Thomas Aquinas’s view on the soul diverged from the Greeks?
He saw that mind and body are inextricably linked, whereas the Greeks saw the body as a cage for the soul.
Aquinas identified four broad faculties:
Vegetative soul
Sensitive soul
Rational soul
Appetitive powers: divided into
Sensitive
Rational
Who argued that the Rational Soul is subdivided into an Active and Passive intellect?
Thomas Aquinas
What 3 main concepts were introduced during the 1600’s?
Cartesian dualism
Alternative dualisms
Monism
What 2 examples did Descartes give as to why we should be sceptical of the world around us?
1 Descartes’ Dream:
We can doubt sense evidence
as its possible you could be dreaming
2 Descartes’ Demon:
We could be fooled by an evil demon
Name 3 forms of Dualism:
Epiphenomenalism
Occasionalism
Parallelism
What does Epiphenomenalism state about the mind?
Brain states causes mind states but they do not cause anything themselves
eg- Physical can cause mental issues but not the other way around
What does Occasionalism state about the Illusion of causality?
God causes 1 event first
(walking into a lampost)
Then God causes another event
(the pain you feel from the lampost)
But there is no necessary connection between the 2
What does Parallelism state about interactions?
God doesn’t interact at each step
Interactions are parallel meaning that they occur separately, without causal interference
Giving the appearance of an interaction
Name the 3 types relating to Monism:
Idealism
Materialism
Neutral Monism
Idealism
Only the mental stuff exists
Materialism
Only the physical stuff exists
The argument that the mind IS matter
Neutral Monism
Only stuff exists
Has both physical and mental aspects