UNIT 1.2- Soul, Mind And Body Flashcards
(23 cards)
Define the mind – body problem
dualism
monism
materialism
Mind and body problem is a philosophical question that tries to determine the relationship between the mind or soul and the physical body
Dualism is the belief that there is a separate body and soul and that they are entirely distinct
Monism is the belief that the body and solar one unit and therefore inseparable
Materialism is the belief that there is no soul at all only the body
Plato’s dualist understanding of the soul
+ his theory of opposites
Plato believed that because the soul was the cause of its own change it had to be immortal.
He also believe that it was the role of the philosopher to remove their soul from their body- the emotions and desires. He believed that the soul was something like a form/existed in the world of forms.
His theory of opposite dictated that everything had to have an opposite to exist in the same way that goods opposite is bad and lights opposite is dark
according to the logic of this theory there must be a death for a life to exist.
He also saw the opposite in the differences of the world of the forms and the material world for example, one was unchanging time lesson perfect where is the other was not
Platos tripartite view
+ analogy of the charioteer
“The body is the cause of endless trouble”- Plato
He believed that the soul was a prisoner within the body constantly as tempting to escape and return to the world of the forms while our body is trying to convince us at the shadow world is the reality
His analogy of the charioteer was used to explain our souls struggle in attempting to return to the world of forms
The charioteer represents our reason/ the rationality within our soul, attempting to overcome emotions and desires. He argued that the chariot was being pulled by a black horse and a white horse. The black horse represent presenting our desires attempting to stray us away from what is important and focusing instead on basic animalistic needs needs. The white horse represents our feelings for example anger which then leads to aggression. He argued that these were difficult to control.
The myth of Er
Er was a soldier that died and came back to life after 10 days from his near death experience he learned that a good life takes you to a good place, and a bad life leads you to a place that provides 10 times the amount of pain that they had inflicted on earth
He told that souls choose themselves a new life on earth for example whether or not they come back as an animal or a human – those with weak reason would choose an animal or a king so that they can receive less responsibility or achieve wealth and an easy life . In comparison to those with more reason who would choose a philosopher king, in attempts to overcome the boundaries of their body and return to the world of the forms some benefit from the cycle while others ricochet between suffering.
He then believe that the soul drank a potion to forget the experience before travelling back to earth.
Plato’s theory of recollection
Plato points out that we somehow do have knowledge of perfect, eternal and unchanging concepts. These include concepts like perfect beauty and justice. We also have perfect mathematical concepts and geometric concepts such as the idea of a perfect circle or two sticks being perfectly ‘equal’ in length. We have never experienced perfect beauty, justice or a perfect circle. So, we must have gained this knowledge a priori. In The Meno Plato tells the story of how Socrates proved that an uneducated slave boy could be prompted by a series of questions and some shapes drawn in the sand to figure out how to solve a geometry question. The slave boy must therefore have been born with geometric concepts.
Strengths of Plato’s dualism
- evidence in every day life for a reason having to control appetite on emotion for example if someone irritates us and we get angry we have to rationally think about the consequences of our actions.
- The balance between reason and appetite and emotion helps us understand human complexity
- Evidence in near death experiences and past lives and understanding that if there wasn’t afterlife predominantly that those who live a good life would go to a good place and similar equivalent circumstances for those who live a bad life
- Give us a purpose we are more than simply physical and therefore part of something larger than ourselves. Furthermore gives us comfort in knowing that we can live on.
Weaknesses of Plato’s dualism
Reliance on a prior belief in the world of the forms for which there is no evidence for the argument from past lives this week as it could conclude heaven or it could conclude a multitude of other factors including human misconception furthermore there is no evidence of where souls come from or how they became trapped in a body on Earth.
Furthermore, undermine the significance of our body to our existance- Neuroscience argues that emotions are a result of chemical reactions within the body and therefore it doesn’t conclude that they are separate extent to in the analogy of the charioteer
Under my dream importance of human life and our existence aside from simply just being a philosopher, it is also quite egotistical and it’s a coat as it argues the animals and any person born into a position of wealth has weak reason
- Also is incoherent that anyone making the decision to not be a philosopher, also assumed that then people would choose to live a life as peasant or farmers which in his time would’ve been extremely difficult labour work for very little pay and very little luxury and a lot of responsibility
Aristotle’s monism
Aristotle’s concept of hylomorphism, (philosophical doctrine developed by Aristotle, proposes that physical entities are composed of both matter and form. Essentially, it suggests that objects are not just a collection of material parts, but also possess a structuring form that defines their nature and characteristics)
is a core tenet of his philosophy. It suggests that every substance is composed of form and matter. For Aristotle, the soul is the form of the body, meaning it’s the principle that gives the body its specific nature and function.
He referred to the soul as the substance meaning ‘essence’ / immortal aspect of all living things that distinguishes them from the non-living
He argues that there was a difference between the two because our physical bodies are in a constant change and therefore there is something greater that maintain who we are throughout our lives
His distingishment of souls in De anima
+ quote
“The soul is in some sense the principle of animal life”- de anima
- meaning that the soul is what distinguishes the living from the nonliving
he argued that there were vegetative or nutritive souls meaning they have the capabilities to reproduce and get nutrients for themselves
animal or perceptive souls- experienced the world, react to stimuli, and distinguished pleasure from pain, as well as having the characteristics of a nutritive soul
Humans specifically have a telos, can reason, and can recognise right from wrong
Aristotle’s analogies
The analogy of the eye- if an eye possessed an animal soul it would have the capacity to see, as it is inanimate/relies on our soul, it has no soul itself
The analogy of wax and seal – the body and so are inseparable in the say that you cannot have a wax stamp without the pattern/imprint on it
The analogy of an axe- an axe is not a real axe because it doesn’t have the capacity to chop wood itself. It is only an axe in the name of it if it had a soul it would have the ability to drop/achieve its purpose on its own .
existence of the soul after death according to Aristotle
+ quote
He believe the soul could not survive death as it was inseparable for the body. He described it as “the actuality of a body that has life”
“In some sense the principles of animal life”
Strength of Aristotle’s monism
Offers a more harmonious relationship between the body and soul and Judaism loves as implied by science which predominantly believed that there is no separate essence that has ever been found or proven
(Though some scientists do believe that there is a soul and the mind is more of an animating aspect of the body)
Furthermore, he famously dismisses the existence of the world of the forms and his methods do not rely on assumptions without empirical evidence to the same extent if I studying the observable and natural world
His concept of “four causes” provides a framework for explaining the existence and nature of things within the world, offering a more comprehensive and less abstract explanation than, for example, Plato’s Theory of Forms
Weaknesses of Aristotle‘s monism
Argument that suggest a greater distinction between the mine and body and not encompass, for example the fact that we can disguise our emotions pretend to feel something that we don’t and the present/existence of dreams in which we witness sort of different reality despite not being physically there
Furthermore, there is no clear evidence that our senses are reliable
Weaknesses of Aristotle’s monism
Many experiences suggest a greater distinction between the mind and body going beyond simply just near death experiences day-to-day activities such as disguising our emotions and dreaming or pretending to feel something that we don’t show a feeling and sense of separation between what Aristotle would deem to be our soul and our physical body
Furthermore there is no evidence as that our senses are reliable as Plato would argue that we are in the world of the form and that everything that we are witnessing is imperfect and unstable. Others may ask you that individual feeling or understanding their soul maybe less trustworthy.
Descartes dualism- root thinking
+ 2 quotes
Descartes argued that as our senses can be misled we should adopt a method of hyperbolic or extreme doubt meaning rejecting everything he believed to be true. From this approach you determine that the only thing that he couldn’t doubt was that he was definitely thinking and therefore had to exist to be doing so.
“ I think, therefore I am” cogito ergo sum
He therefore knew he had a mind and couldn’t doubt it without a direct contradiction, however the existence of the body he believed could be cast into doubt and that they pay for must be too distinct substances
“The soul by which I am what I am is entirely distinct from the body “
How he overcame issues of interactionism
He argued that the Pineal gland, a small organ in the centre of the human brain, contained air like animal spirit which controlled imagination censor deception, bodily movement and memory
He referred to it as “the principal seat of the soul”
He believed that the singularity of the brand in comparison to the duality of other features was significant the two hemispheres of the brain, two eyes and two ears, et cetera
Modern studies has shown that the penal glands main function is to produce and release melatonin which helps to regulate sleep wake up cycles and other bodily functions
Substance dualism
The view that the mind and body a separate substances
the mind has taught intentions, feelings and emotions
Whereas the body has the property of extension- takes up space and has measurements, can be separated but has no properties of thought.
“Because a body is by nature divisible but the mind is not “
Reductive materialism
The belief at the mind is identical to the physical brain
Psychologist boring – mental and physical event in the brain at the same thing determines that it is not how when X happens we feel why instead X and Y are synonymous
memory pain happiness desire are all correspondence to different parts of the brain
Rules evaluation of dualism
Gilbert Ryle argues that treating his soul a separate from the body is a category error – occurs when something is presented as belonging into one category when it doesn’t for example treating atheism as a religious belief or asking ‘where is the team spirit’ when looking at a cricket match or ‘where is the uni’ when looking at a series of colleges?
And the same way a person is made up of lots of parts and cannot be separated. He also uses the ghost in the machine analogy to determine how ridiculous it is to argue that a non-physical mind can effectively act on a physical body.
Richard Dawkins’s materialism
He believed that our consciousness is caused by a purely physical phenomenon, there is no separate or non-physical aspects to us instead we are “a mixture of chemicals “, robot vehicles program to preserve the selfish gene without a great purpose or afterlife
Argue that there were two versions of the soul
Soul one being distinctive, the spiritual and supernatural part of a person, capable of knowing God and surviving death
soul two is being personality and individuality of a person that results in their motivation to make choices and serve the buddies life
Dawkins reject soul one that accepts soul two – which has no notion of life after death or any existing connection with the divine or supernatural
Strengths of Dawkins’ materialism
Compatible with neuroscientific development for example that neurons and synapses trigger physical responses for example in adrenaline results in an increased heart rate, which can impact our feelings and emotions
Furthermore, it doesn’t rely on a non-critical afterlife and is instead entirely evidence based on scientific explanations of the processes of the brain , similarly it doesn’t rely on the lack of empirical evidence that the non-physical substance can interact with the physical
Weaknesses of Dawkins’s materialism
+secondary scholar
Doesn’t appear to explain the something more for example neuroscience doesn’t always have a full explanation for the strong emotions t
Instances where it appears that movement of the body, or where our own intervention controls emotion would arguably imply a greater divide
mindfulness/ meditation, muscle relaxation and
Swinburne argues for an immaterial immortal soul to individual as we cannot simply transfer a brain into another body
Keith Ward’s main argument against Dawkins’ materialism focuses on the inadequacy of materialism to account for consciousness and subjective experience. He argues that reducing everything to physical matter fails to explain the unique aspects of human minds, including consciousness, meaning-making, and moral intuitions. Ward suggests that consciousness is an irreducible aspect of reality, and materialism, as understood by Dawkins, struggles to incorporate this
Anthony Flew
Flew used the example of the Cheshire cat’s grin, which can appear and disappear without the cat itself being present, to illustrate his point about the mind. He argued that the mind, like the grin, can be conceived of as existing independently of the body, but this is a flawed and ultimately meaningless idea.
Flew, as a materialist, believed that the mind is a product of the body, specifically the brain. He argued that the concepts of mind, soul, or self are rooted in our language and experiences, rather than in a separate, immaterial entity.
He argued that dualism fails to explain how mental phenomena can cause physical effects and that the notion of a separate, immaterial mind is illogical.
