Soul, Mind, & Body Flashcards
(17 cards)
Dualism
Mind and body are two separate things
Monism
Mind and body are inseparable
Materialism
There is no soul, just a body
Plato’s dualism
Soul and body are separate. Soul is immortal, body is not.
Theory of Recollection
Plato’s theory that our soul remembers things from the world of forms in this life. showing our body and soul are separate because our soul was there but body was not.
Slave boy
Plato’s analogy that there was a slave boy who had no education that solved a geometry puzzle so he must have used knowledge from world of forms
Weaknesses
Most people reject the theory of forms today. There is no evidence of this.
Strengths
Gives life a purpose knowing that there is an afterlife. Explains why some people remember past lives. Helps explain why we are all so different.
Aristotle’s monism
The body is in a continual state of change, but the substance (soul) keeps the body having the same identity.
Soul being formal cause
The soul gives life to the body and shapes everything that we are.
Stamp analogy
Shape stamped into wax is like the soul in the body because it is not a separate thing, it is part of the wax that gives it characteristic and it cannot be separated
Aristotle’s view on afterlife
There is no afterlife because the soul cannot survive the death of the body
Strengths
Doesn’t rely on theory of forms or an afterlife that cannot be proven.
Weaknesses
Many people do believe in an afterlife. No empirical evidence.
Reductive Materialism
Mind is not a substance, the mind and body are the same thing.
Mental states
They are classified into different types like memory, pain & desire and these correspond to activities in different parts of the brain
Ryle - Category error
Things are talked about as if they are in one category but are in another. .e.g. mind is not a thing and Descartes has put it in the category of things.
