Richard Dawkins

• Dawkins is a hard materialist/functionalist
• Humans are simply carried of DNA:

  • The role of the body is to be a 'survival machine' for genes
  • The good genes survive and the bad ones die out
• There is no such thing as an immortal soul guiding us:

  • This is just wish-fulfilment
  • Our only guidance comes from our genetic inheritance
  • The only way in which we survive after death is through the DNA that we have passed on
• The only kind of soul that Dawkins considers consists of high intellectual and mental powers:

  • But this cannot be separated from the brain
• Consciousness developed due to its survival advantages, but when the body dies, so does consciousness