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Plato's belief about the physical body
- Subject to corruption & change
- Imprisons the soul
- Source of endless trouble in its attempt to distract the soul with its fears and desires

Plato's view of the soul
- Separate from the body & eternal
- Gives body life & directs it
- Aware of being immaterial
- At death, body perishes but soul leaves it to return to World of Forms
- Soul is then reborn into another body, though a few remain in the eternal world

Problem with Plato's dualism
Modern science, e.g. neuroscience suggests the mind & brain = closely interrelated & some scientists would say they are the same thing.

Descarte's interactionism
To explain how the body and soul interact, Descartes located the soul in the pineal gland.

Pineal gland
- Claimed it was the "seat" of imagination & common sense
- Formed the link between body and soul

Why did Descartes choose the pineal gland?
Only part of the brain that was single and its function was unknown.

Problems with Descartes' interactionism
- Pineal gland's function is now known as secreting melatonin.
- Descartes proposed where the interaction between body & soul took place, but not how.
- Gilbert Ryle assessed Descartes' theory as "the Ghost in the Machine"

Gilbert Ryle's "Ghost in the Machine" criticism
- Ryle accused Descartes of making a "category mistake"
- We should expect to find an extra something in the form of a mind over and above the different parts of the body; to talk of the mind/soul is not to talk of some "disembodied ghost"
