MIND BODY SOUL

Question 1

Materialism

Answer 1

What is physical is what is real

Question 2

Dualism

Answer 2

Mind and Body are two distinct things

Question 3

Describe Plato’s view of the soul (4)

Answer 3

• Dualist: saw body and soul as 2 separate entities
• Tripartite soul made of Rational (logical), Spiritual (emotional) and Appetitive (desire)
• Soul has capacity to leave body and move on after death
• Soul goes to the Realm of Forms before life

Question 4

Describe Plato’s analogy

Answer 4

• Charioteer analogy
• Rational is the Charioteer trying to guide the Spirited and the Appetitive together rather than allowing them to contradict and be pulled in opposite directions

Question 5

Plato’s argument in other books

Answer 5

• Meno: uneducated slave boy can still work out answers to geometric and logic problems because his soul has come into contact with these ideas before in the Realm of Forms
• Myth of Er: the soul is immortal and is reborn into new lives

Question 6

Strengths of Plato on the soul (2)

Answer 6

• Offers a rationalistic approach to the soul and human knowledge
• Wide-reaching and adopted by many religions

Question 7

Criticisms of Plato’s view of the soul (2)

Answer 7

• Geach: A disembodied soul can’t see or experience things in the Realm of Forms because sight is a physical property of the body
• Relies on the belief in the Realm of Forms which is illogical and unscientific

Question 8

Aristotle’s book

Answer 8

De Anima

Question 9

Aristotle’s view on the soul

Answer 9

• Body and soul are inseparable; when the body dies so does the soul
• They are diff: the body is the material of a thing and the soul gives the body form
• Used the term ‘psyche’ to refer to the soul which has a wider meaning

Question 10

Aristotle’s view on human and non-human souls

Answer 10

• Plant: simple soul, contains the powers of reproduction, growth and nutrition
• Animals: more complex souls with basic desires and feelings
• Human: most complex since it has all of these plus power to reason and sense of justice

Question 11

Substance Dualism

Answer 11

• Body and soul are separate
• The body is a substance with physical properties (fat, short, old etc.)
• The mind is a substance with mental properties (emotion, feelings etc.)

Question 12

Rene Descartes’ view on the soul and book

Answer 12

• BOOK: Discourse (1637)
• Our mind and soul are the same thing
• Our mind must exist because we have the capacity to think; Cogito Ergo Sum
• We have a soul that is located in the Pineal Gland