Soul, mind and body

• There are three main views: 

  • Dualist 
  • Soul and body are separate  
  • Soul is immaterial whereas the body is material 
  • Afterlife is possible if soul can survive death 
  • Monist 
  • Body and soul are one and dependant on each other's existence 
  • Only form of afterlife is physical 
  • Materialism 
  • Deny the existence of a soul 
  • Human beings are purely physical 
  • Only support life after death if it is physical 
• Plato was a dualist and that the soul and body are separate but interact. The real identity of a person lies within the soul. However, the body is physical and relies on the senses, so cannot be a source of knowledge because it is in a constant state of flux and unreliable. 
• Plato and the Soul: 

  • The soul not only exists after death but preexisted before birth in the world of the Forms. 
  • The soul is capable of understanding the forms. 
  • It has a priori knowledge. 
  • The soul can hold this knowledge and is unchanging and immortal. 

  However, the soul is not always perfect as the body corrupts it because it is interested in material desires and gets in the way of intellectual pursuits. 
• Plato uses the chariot analogy to distinguish three important elements of the soul: 

  1. Reason (charioteer) 
  2. Spirit or emotion (first horse) 
  3. Desire (second horse) 

  A philosopher has his two horses under control. 
• “The body is the source of endless trouble.” -Plato
• “Knowledge of the soul is the only universal truth.” - Plato
• Plato and the slave boy from the book Meno 

  Plato asks a slave boy about a geometric problem, and he solves it because he connected with his soul and. But from the world of the Forms. Plato asked him questions until he answered correctly. 
• Plato come up with four arguments to support his theories on the soul: 

  • Linguistic argument: Use language about ourselves, which suggests a distinction between body and soul. Words such as ‘I’ refer to inner spiritual reality. 
  • Knowledge argument: The world is in a state of flux, but humans still understand universal truths. 
  • The argument from Opposites: Things are known by their opposite, therefore must be never ending recycling of human souls. 
  • The argument from recollection: Learning is just remembering from the world of the Forms. 
• Problems with Plato's theory of the soul: 

  • Is learning really a matter of remembering? 
  • Part of his defence relies on the world of the forms, in which there are many challenges. 
  • Peter Geach says seeing World of Forms is linked to the senses, which Plato hates. 
  • Pairs of opposites can be challenged. 
• “It is meaningless as to ask whether the wax and the shape given to it by the stamp are one.” - Aristotle. 
• Aristotle was a monist and believed the soul and the body cannot be separated, just as the imprint cannot be separated from the wax. 
• Aristotle believed that there were three types of soul: 

  • Intellectual- has both vegetative and appetitive, but also the faculty of intellect and reason (humans) 
  • Appetitive - has vegetative, but also can perceive and move (animals) 
  • Vegetative - perform essential life functions (plants) 

  There is a hierarchy of the faculties of the soul. 
• Aristotle says faculty of intellect lives on when the body dies: 

  • Through teaching others. 
  • Part of God. 
• Richard Dawkins View: 

  • Adopts a materialistic position on the distinction between the body and soul. 
  • Rejects an immortal soul because there is no evidence. 
  • The only way people live on is through others memories. 
  • Humans are nothing more than a sum of DNA. 
• Descartes was a French 17th century substance dualist: 

  • Human beings are made of mind (soul) and body. 
  • Two different substances that continuously interact with each other. 
  • Body is a machine that is automatic unless the mind interferes. 

  Descartes' philosophical approach was to doubt everything because the senses cannot be trusted. The only thing that can be trusted is thinking. Therefore, the mind must have different properties to physical things. 
• Descartes response to criticism: 

  How do we know if the mind and body are distinct substances?  

  • They must be different because they have different properties - the mind is private, but the body is public. 

  If the mind and body are distinct substances, how are they supposed to interact with each other? 

  • Mind and body interact in some way inside the pineal gland (Physical place for non-physical thing?) 
• “cogito ergo sum” or “I think therefore I am” - Descartes
• Gilbert Ryle and ‘Ghost in the Machine’ 

  • In his book, Concept of the Mind. 
  • Central mistake is thinking the body and soul are separate.  
  • Category error. 
  • Analogy of Cambridge University/ cricket team. 
  • Any talk of mind/ soul (E.g. happy, clever) is about the way a person acts and interacts. It is not separate.