Self and life after death(philosophy)

• Dualism: Plato

  2 worlds- one we live in and the world of the Forms
• The soul is superior to the body and lives in the world of the Forms

  Eternal and imprisoned in a body
• Soul is divided into 3 parts-

  Rational part- immortal,keeps the other 2 aspects under control

  Spirited part(thumos)- includes emotions

  Appetitive part- dies with the body, is concerned with basic drives for sex food and drink
• Platos idea of the soul seeking escape from the body does not agree with Christian thinking
• Dualism- Descartes believed that the mind and body are separate entities.
• First proof- Argument from Doubt

  He can doubt his body’s existence

  The ability to doubt meant he couldn’t doubt his existence as a thinking being

  As a thinking being, he wasnt identical with his body
• Second proof- Argument from Divisibility and Non-divisibility

  All bodies take up space, so are divisible

  Mental states dont and are not divisible

  This means the mind and the body are different
• Third proof- Argument from Clear and Distinct Perception:

  • Attributed his perception of 2 different things to God creating 2 different things
  • He had a clear and distinct perception of himself as a thinking being and his body as not
  • He and his body could exist from eachother
  • Distcint from his body
• Evaluating Descartes arguments:

  • Against the First proof- most philosophers see consciousness as a product of the brain, which is a part of the body
  • Against the Second proof-neuroscience shows a close correlation between mind and brain
  • The Third proof is seen as a circular argument
• Hume criticised this argument:

  • The claim consciousness comes from a non material subject is a circular argument
  • Thought may have a material explanation
• Monism- Referred to as materialism, most people regard Aristotle as a monist
• Aristotle- Empiricist, rejected Plato's concept of the world of the Forms

  Thinking on the soul was based on deductions from the world of sense experience.

  Soul is what gives something its essential nature- only the human soul has the capacity for rational thought

  Through reason, humans can make moral development

  Soul is mortal
• Evaluation of Aristotles idea of the soul:

  Many Christians believe that at death, the soul leaves the body to return to its true home

  Many people think of themselves as an integrated unity: the mind/soul is distinct from but inseparable from the body
• The body-soul relationship:

  Dualism - Platos view on the body-soul relationship -

  The physical body is subject to change

  Regarded the body as a source of endless trouble

  Soul is separate from the body and is eternal

  At death, the body dies but should return to the world of the Forms

  Separate from the body but gives it life
• Evaluation of Plates view on the body-soul relationship:

  It doesn't fit with the instincts of many people and of modern science that the mind is not a separate identity

  Some suggest the mind and the brain are the same thing
• Dualism - Descartes interactionism

  Substance dualism claims that a human consists of a material body (temporary machine) and a non-physical mind/soul (permanent essence)

  Located the soul in the pineal gland - the only part of the brain that was single and the function unknown
• Evaluation of Descartes interactionism:

  Pineal glands function is now known

  Descartes suggestion says where the interaction takes place, not explaining how
• Monism - hard materialism/physicalism -

  Physicalism is reductionist - the mind reduces to the brain

  Consciousness is just electro-chemical occurrences in the brain

  No body-soul relationship because there is no soul
• Richard Dawkins - hard materialist/funtionalist

  Argues that humans are simply carriers of DNA

  The role of the body is to be a 'survival machine' for genes

  No such thing as a soul guiding us - just wish fulfilment

  When the body dies, so does consciousness
• Evaluation of hard materialism:

  Mind and body are closely related

  Hard materialisms reductionism is very determinist. Problem for belief in free will

  Rules out any form of survival after death. Unacceptable for most religious believers

  Physical brain cannot account for qualia - subjective experiences everyone has as a conscious being
• Dual-aspect Monism:

  Only one entity but has two aspects

  The brain is observable by science and is purely physical

  Mind consists of subjective consciousness

  All forms of dualism and concepts of the soul are redundant - subjective nature of consciousness is one aspect of a single substance
• Evaluation of Dual-aspect monism:

  Can combine with Process Theology to provide a different but clear view of life after death through objective immortality where everyone is remembered forever in the mind of God

  Rules out any sense of personal experience after death

  Single substance that underpins mind and body is not yet known - same can be seen in physics where quarks cannot be seen but are essential
• Possibility of continuing personal existence after death:

  3 ideas about personal identity:

  Personal identity is physical - a functioning brain is essential to being a person

  Personal identity is metaphysical - what is real about individuals is their unchanged conscious awareness

  Personal identity is psychological - during our lives, there is connectedness to the past and future but no deeper level of self
• Possibility of physical existence after death: hard materialist/physicalist view -

  Makes no sense to think of someone surviving death. A persons identity is linked to the physical body. When our physical life ends, so does mental activity

  Bertrand Russell - Concepts of surviving death result from the fear of death. Continual change in all of us means there can be no distinctive identity

  Anthony Flew - Concept of life after death is linguistically incoherent -self-contradictory
• Evaluation of hard materialist rejection of life after death:

  It is incapable of empirical proof

  But it cannot be proved that it is not true e.g. near death experiences support this possibility
• Possibility of physical existence after death: Hicks replica theory

  He was a soft materalist - when the body dies, so does the soul

  Believed in life after death

  3 scenarios to his thought experiment -

  A living person transported from one part of the world to the other

  Dead person in one part of the world and a 'replica' in the other

  Dead person on earth and their appearance as a resurrected person in another sphere
• Evaluation of Hicks replica theory:

  If God truly was omnipotent, then bodily resurrection is possible

  His belief about future states of existence fits with beliefs about reincarnation

  There are many unanswered question in his scenarios e.g. the possibility that God could create a number of replicas which each has a different conscience
• Possibility of physical existence after death: Christian beliefs on resurrection

  The Gospels all record the empty tomb

  Jesus' own teaching on resurrection suggests he had a spiritual idea of the afterlife: before death we have an earthly body but after death we have a spiritual body
• Evaluation of christian beliefs about resurrection:

  Literal Christian belief of resurrection is contradictory of science - dead bodies cannot come back to life

  Liberal Christians view also invalidates science
• Possibility of the existence after death of a conscious self:

  Platos arguments for the natural immortality of the soul -

  Believed the soul was eternal and belonged to the world of the Forms

  Everything comes into existence from its opposite e.g. living beings die so life must come from death

  Knowledge is not about learning but about remembering
• Price on disembodied souls:

  Saw the afterlife as mind-based

  Used the analogy of a dream as a state in which we perform physical action

  Environment of souls disembodied after death would be a reflection of their desires and memories
• Richard Swinburne on consciousness after death:

  Dualist, believes mental states are soul states

  Uses the analogy of a lightbulb to show the soul is different from the brain

  It can survive death, retaining memories within the same identity

  All it needs is something to replace the function performed by the brain

  Possible because God is omnipotent

  Pointing to logical possibility and not claiming fact
• Evaluation of dualist theories:

  Platos theory of opposites does not work

  Prices theory is dependent on the validity of parapsychology
• Reincarnation of the soul:

  Soul can be passed to another body e.g. young children claim to recall past-life events

  Not very convincing, research methods are weak
• Near-death experiences:

  Found in all cultures and religions

  Individual accounts may reveal religion specific or culture specific details e.g. Christians seeing Jesus

  Not actually dead so cannot argue for life after death

  Experiences may be caused by medication
• Possibility of psychological continuity of life after death:

  Parfits Bundle theory - any influence someone has in life continues after death if they are remembered

  Individuals are 'bundled' of ever-changing states of being

  Thoughts and ideas can exist without a thinker, it is the self that holds together all the events in an individuals life

  Qualia are subjective
• Objective immortality with reference to Process Theology:

  Process theology and Dual-aspect Monism are linked by panpsychism- every entity has some level of consciousness. There is no cut off point

  David Griffin claims God and the Universe exist panentheistically - God is the universe and the universe is God

  After death, very entity survives in the mind of God

  Some Process theologians think in terms of subjective immortality - They think God has the power to enable survival of individuals so that there is a continuity of identity
• Evaluation of Process Theology and Objective Immortality:

  Process Theology rejects the traditional aspects of God

  Survival after death is seen as meaningless unless it includes being self aware

  Rejects anthropocentrism