Soul, mind and body

Question 1

Plato’s ideas about the soul, mind and body

Answer 1

~Dualist understanding of the mind and body- they’re two separate entities
~He thought that the soul would return to the World of the Forms after death
~Tripartite view of the soul- it’s made up of reason, appetite and emotion
~Life and death come from each other in an endless chain of where souls are reborn

Question 2

Chariot Analogy

Answer 2

Reason is the charioteer that guides the two horses reason and appetite to keep them under control

Question 3

Aristotle’s ideas about the soul mind and body

Answer 3

~Disagreed with Plato
~He thought that the soul was a substance, meaning ‘essence’ or ‘real thing’
~The soul is that which gives a living thing ‘essence’
~The soul is not distinct from the body
~Soul gives bodily matter its form, efficiency and telos

Question 4

Wax Analogy

Answer 4

Aristotle used the analogy of wax with a stamp in it to illustrate his idea that the soul couldn’t be separated from the body

Question 5

Substance dualism

Answer 5

~The idea that the mind and body are two distinct substances with two different set of properties
~Descartes argued that the mind and body cannot be the same as he thought ‘I think therefore I am’ shows that the existence of the body can’t be certain but the existence of the mind can
~He thought that the mind and body could be connected by the pineal gland
~Substance allows the possibility of life after death

Question 6

Property Dualism

Answer 6

There is only one kind of substance which is matter but that matter can have two distinct properties such as physical and mental

Question 7

Emergent dualism

Answer 7

New properties emerge from physical matters as it becomes more complex and the mind and body are different but not completely distinct

Question 8

Reductive materialism

Answer 8

~The mind is not distinct from the body but is identical with it
~Mental states correspond with different activities in the brain
~Materialism doesn’t allow for life after death

Question 9

Gilbert Ryle

Answer 9

~Argues that the mind is nit a distinct part of the body but an aspect of the way that the body behaves e.g ‘team spirit’ is an aspect of the way a cricket team behaves
~There is is no ‘ghost in the machine’ there is no non-physical soul in the matter of the body

Question 10

Richard Dawkins

Answer 10

~Argues that humans are eternally material, they are ‘survival machines’
~He rejects the idea that we need a supernatural soul if we are explaining what it menas to be human
~Calls platonic ideas of the soul ‘soul one’ and Aristotelian ideas of the soul ‘soul two’

Question 11

Criticisms of the dualist approach to the mind-body problem

Answer 11

~Our personal experiences do not support a dualist approach as we feel ourselves to be a unity with mental and physical aspects
~Dualist approaches can’t explain how the mind and body work together e.g. why fear makes you’re heart rate increase
~The distinction between mental and physical properties aren’t always clear-cut

Question 12

Criticisms of materialist approaches to mind-body problem

Answer 12

~The way we use language suggests that we feel ourselves to be more than a physical body
~Descartes’ observation of the mind and body have different properties and cannot be the same substance is a valid point
~Swinburne and Ward argue that losing belief in the soul can have a damaging effect on ethics