Mind,Body, and Soul

Question 1

What is Substance Dualism?

Answer 1

Descartes theory that humans are made up of two distinct parts the non-physical mind and the physical body.

Question 2

Monism/ Materialist

Answer 2

No separation between the soul and body with materialist saying it can be fully explained through physical behaviour

Question 3

What view did Plato take?

Answer 3

Dualism

Question 4

what is Plato’s theory of opposites?

Answer 4

He often deals with Form and Particulars, knowledge vs. opinion, philosopher vs non-philosopher - this dual aspect idea links to humans

Question 5

What did plato say is more important and why?

Answer 5

The mind is more important because the body is part of the empirical world and therefore is subject to change - cannot be relied on. Mind allows us to gain knowledge which is more important

Question 6

What is the problem with the body according to plato?

Answer 6

It distracts us from real purpose (philosophical thought)

Question 7

Why is the body a prison for the soul - plato?

Answer 7

Stops the should from achieving it purpose because the should is unchanging and capable of knowledge.

Question 8

what does the analogy of the charioteer show?

Answer 8

There are 3 aspects within the soul - reason, appetite and spirit and the soul/mind works best when reason (charioteer) is in charge and there is a balance between appetite and spirit.

Question 9

Past: Where was the soul before it was in the body?

Answer 9

in the WoF before it got pulled down by appetite to earth

Question 10

Present: What does the soul do on earth?

Answer 10

Incarnated in the body and experiences all the tension between the body and soul - the soul is liberated from the body upon death

Question 11

What is the Theory of Recollection?

Answer 11

We can remember things from the WoF - why we know when things are better than others as we have a rough idea what particulars are closer to the Form.

Question 12

Future: What happens to the soul upon death

Answer 12

It will be freed from the body and reincarnated until it is freed to the world of the forms once it has leaned to be perfect - Myth of Er

Question 13

What does Aristotle believe?

Answer 13

He is a monist meaning he believes that there is body and soul but they are not separate they are together inseparable.

Question 14

What does Aristotle say about the WoF?

Answer 14

That is it not necessary everything can be explained through observation.

Question 15

What does he mean by the soul is a form of the body? - Aristotle

Answer 15

It is a description of the essence of the body - our personalities and abilities. not a prison but essential - ‘we are body and soul’

Question 16

explain the examples of the axe and the eye?

Answer 16

If the body was the axe then the should would be its ability to chop same with the eye the body is its physical shape and the soul is the ability to see.

Question 17

What do the examples of the axe and eye show?

Answer 17

The body and soul are inseparable one cannot exist without the other.

Question 18

What does Aristotle mean by hierarchy of being?

Answer 18

life on earth are made up of different parts - vegetables only have the vegetive element, animals have the vegetive and appetite (includes movement and desire) and humans have these two plus reason which is what separates us from them. - idea has been influential in religious thought

Question 19

Counter to Plato - Subjective qualities

Answer 19

Hume states that qualities like goodness and beauty are subjective so they are not from the WoF - but plato can still be right with the math example

Question 20

Counter to plato - recreation of Perfection

Answer 20

we can recreate perfection through abstract negation - We can imagine perfect circles as ‘not perfect’ creating the idea of perfection - we can explain perfect concepts without the realm of forms or the soul

Question 21

Counter to plato - inductive leap about WoF

Answer 21

Even if we were born with perfect concepts it does not prove the existence of the WoF especially with the introduction of evolution.

Question 22

Benefits of Plato - Gives purpose

Answer 22

If we believe the soul moves on and there is goal to get to the WoF it provides us with purpose in this life.

Question 23

Benefits of Plato - human complexity

Answer 23

Plato tripartite view and the analogy of the charioteer explains why people have varying levels of reason and why some are better than others (serial killers)

Question 24

Benefits of Plato - past life experiences

Answer 24

We have evidence of reincarnation through past lives.

Question 25

Counter to Aristotle - allows no afterlife

Answer 25

Allows no afterlife which contradicts religious beliefs and removes purpose

Question 26

Counter to Aristotle - The disabled

Answer 26

If the soul gives purpose to the body what about disabled people, is there an issue with their soul.

Question 27

Plato argument for dualism - Innate knowledge

Answer 27

The soul is needed to explain a-priori knowledge. He uses the example of the slave boy who with the right questions can come up with Pythagoras' theorem, this with our innate knowledge proves we have an preexisting soul.

Question 28

Counter to Plato's Argument - innate knowledge

Answer 28

The dialogue between the boy and socrates contains leading questions and the argument relies on the existence of forms which is improvable.

Question 29

Plato argument for Dualism - The linguistic Argument

Answer 29

Distinction between how we speak about the soul - 'I am happy' or 'I am thinking' compared to how we talk about the body - 'I have a body' like how you would say I have a house - creating a separation between the user and the used.

Question 30

Counter to Plato's Argument - The linguistic Argument

Answer 30

This could be considered to be reading too much into language as I might also say 'I have a headache' or 'I have an idea'

Question 31

Descartes substance dualism - Logical Privacy?

Answer 31

No one other than me can know my thoughts

Question 32

Non-spacial meaning?

Answer 32

Whilst disputed by materialist, it means that our conscious takes up no space.

Question 33

Descartes argument for Dualism - doubt

Answer 33

We can doubt the body - 3 fold reasoning: his senses are unreliable, often hard to differentiate between reality or dream, an evil demon could be creating an illusion. but we cannot doubt that we are thinking because of cogito meaning 'I think, therefore I am' because even if we are wrong the very act of thinking proves there is a thinker. we then use Leibniz law because properties are not the same they must be separate

Question 34

what is Leibniz Law?

Answer 34

Two identical substances must have the same properties

Question 35

Counter to Descartes - Doubt

Answer 35

Masked man Fallacy, it may be possible to doubt that my father is the robber but is impossible to doubt that my father is married to my mother - both can be true. - wether we are able to doubt something is not a property of the thing rather of our own mind

Question 36

Descartes argument for Dualism - indivisibility argument

Answer 36

p1. Physical substances are divisible seen through the Wax Analogy. p2. the mind is non-divisible (non-extended) - proof through cogito (thinking thing) P3. Leibniz law states that two substances must have the same properties to be the same C1. The mind and body cannot be the same.

Question 37

Counter to Descartes - Indivisibility argument (separating the mind)

Answer 37

Some ate the time claim you can separate the mind into memories/ feelings. weak - he means consciousness our sense of awareness - this is what is undivided

Question 38

Counter to Descartes - indivisibility argument (personality disorders)

Answer 38

Modern science points to multiple personality disorder as a division of the brain. Weak - not a division but rather a transition form one personality to another - not simultaneous

Question 39

Counter to Descartes - Indivisibility argument (Separate hemispheres)

Answer 39

the brain has separate hemispheres which can be separated seen through the treatment for epilepsy brain has been divided. Example: food in hand example and hugging wife example.

Question 40

Materialism - Dawkins

Answer 40

Can be explained through physical interactions - the soul was a convenient and now dated explanation. He allows the idea of the soul as the 'intellectual or spiritual power' seen in the Oxford definition because it is clear it is not separate to the body. Supporter of Neuroscience.

Question 41

Materialism - Gilbert Ryle

Answer 41

mind body problem stems from thinking the mind is a 'thing' either physical or non-physical. - called Descartes theory the 'dogma of the ghost and the machine' and is making categorical mistake - there is only human behaviour (through science) Example of the Oxford visitor - student takes tour and sees building but asks where the actual university is? making the same mistake as Descartes assuming the mind is something extra.

Question 42

Materialism - Blackmore

Answer 42

studies out-of-body experience and began to grow skeptical and ended up rejecting it entirely. just as genes can be explained through evolution our minds can be explained through memes ( cultural ideas that stick through evolution)

Question 43

Neuroscience - rejection of Dualism

Answer 43

Progress through research - we know how the brain functions with memories and emotions. conciseness is affected by brain chemistry (depression can be changed through medicine) Dawkins believed that science can explain the brain fully.

Question 44

Counter to Neuroscience - Qualia

Answer 44

Actual feeling of conscious experience cannot be explained through third-party knowledge. individual experience

Question 45

Problem of interaction - Counter to dualism

Answer 45

How can the non-physical interact with the physical? they are incompatible substances - example of the ghost riding the bike no non-physical thing could apply pressure to the pedal

Question 46

Category mistake (Ryle) - Counter to dualism

Answer 46

Thinking about the mind in the wrong way. use the Cambridge/ Oxford visitor example.

Question 47

Simplicity - counter to Dualism

Answer 47

The should being explained as materially part of the brain is the simplest reasoning. Ockham's razor - the simplest explanation is often the right one why would there be two parts of us and one which is impossible to empirically investigate when nothing else in the world is.