P6.1/2 life after death

• hard materialists: monist group that believes the only substance that exists is ‘matter’ (even thinking has a material explanation)
• soft materialists: monist group including Hick that believes there is one substance unifying body and soul. When the body dies the soul dies too because they are inseparable.
• replica theory: a thought experiment used by Hick to argue that what lives after death is a replica
• Elisabeth of Bohemia's criticism of Descartes' dualism

  how does non-physical mind interact with physical brain?
• Descartes' response to Elisabeth of Bohemia's criticism of dualism

  interact in pineal gland

  >> still doesn't solve problem
• give a criticism of this argument from Descartes' dualism:

  Leibniz’s Law of Identity (diff properties = diff things) --> can doubt body but not mind so diff

  Masked man fallacy: doubt is not a property

  P1: I know who X is.

  P2: I do not know who the masked man is.

  C: Therefore, X is not the masked man
• Ryle's 2 criticisms of Descartes' dualism

  • Ryle’s Regress - infinite regress, can’t explain how soul initiates thinking
  • Talk abt soul reduces to human behaviour + brain dispositional states - Ockham's razor, no soul
  • Looking for non-existent “ghost in a machine” - category error
  • Asking where's the uni when you've seen all the buildings of the uni
• Problem of other minds criticism of Descartes' dualism

  if I only know my mind exist through introspection ("cogito ergo sum"), can't know other ppl are conscious --> ethical problems
• Aristotle's 3 layers of life

  Mind - rationality (humans)

  Appetitive - character (animals + humans)

  Vegetative - being alive (all beings)
• Argument for Plato's dualism + Forms

  slave boy argument - understood geometry just by being asked Qs, remebering from Forms
• give a criticism of Plato's slave boy argument for dualism

  some knowledge is known a priori, e.g. number, shape, Kant: morality
• criticism of materialism

  • Chalmers, Swinburne: hard problem of consciousness, can't explain subjectivity of mental qualia
  • Nagel: know objective facts about bats but not what it is like to be a bat
  • Frank Jackson: Mary knowledge argument (colourless room)
• criticism of materialism

  • Chalmers, Swinburne: hard problem of consciousness, can't explain subjectivity of mental qualia
  • Nagel: know objective facts about bats but not what it is like to be a bat
  • Frank Jackson: Mary knowledge argument (colourless room)
• Aristotle's monism

  • material cause = body
  • formal cause = soul, how body is animated (diff between alive/dead)
  • wax seal analogy - can't separate seal from wax / soul from body
• Brian Davies criticism of Hick replica theory

  challenges personal identity - replica not same as OG

  overlooks importance of continuity of consciousness, etc - simplifies complex nature of wat it means to be a person