mind body and soul

name 2 dualists

1. plato

2. descartes

what does plato believe about the soul?

• soul is tripartite: contains reason, appetite and emotion
  → it works best when reason is in control

• soul judges logically because the sense deceive

• soul is more important than the body

• soul is trapped in the WOA and we go back to WOF after death

name 4 ways plato describes the soul

• indivisible

• eternal

• spiritual

• contains knowledge from WOF

what does plato compare mind, body and soul to?

like a charioteer in charge of 2 horses pulling 2 different ways

→ soul wants to develop understanding
→ body wants physical pleasures

name 5 strengths of plato’s view of the soul

1. there is tension between what our bodies want and what is good for us
   → e.g. eating lots of bad food feels good but eating lots of good food can be annoying
   

2. self control is evidence of an immortal soul that can reason well
   → give examples
   → shows there’s a separate part to override body’s demands
   

3. language suggests a soul separate to the body
   ‘my foot hurts’ vs ‘im tired’
   

4. near death experiences
   → pam reynolds or eben alexander
   

5. we make better decisions when reason is in control

   → e.g. better when we aren’t angry

name 4 limitations of plato

1. no explanation of how physical part interacts with the spiritual part?
   → descartes
   

2. no way to prove any of this. unfalsifiable and unverifiable because it is a priori
   → verification principle religious language
   

3. why is the soul taken from the WOF? no explanation for this which seems like an extremely important thing to explain
   

4. emotion, reason and appetite may reflect each other
   → e.g. hangry
   may not be seperate things

explain descartes view of the soul

• substance dualism

• mind and body are made up of 2 different substances

• mind/soul= immaterial and indivisble

• body= material and divisible

• the only certain thing is that we can think, so we exist
  → anything else could be something like a demon deceiving us
  → “i think, therefore i am”

• mind is the essence of yourself since it’s where thinking takes place

• the mind lives on after death

• thinking is transcendent (outside space and time)

how does descartes think the mind and soul interact

• mind and body link at the pineal gland

• the mind is the consciousness

• mind interacts with the body like a cartesian theatre
  → mind is the audience member watching everything but not being able to control it

what term does descartes use for soul?

mind (but soul can work but mind is better)

name 5 strengths of descartes

1. used dissections to explain how mind and body interact- through the pineal gland
   → counterpoint: medical research suggests pineal gland is there to help hormones like melatonin to regulate sleep
   

2. we wouldn’t recognise someone 30 years later because of their mind
   you recognise their physical features like eyes, body, voice, etc
   our essence can’t just be from the mind
   

3. ryle: “ghost in a machine”
   how can a spiritual thing move a physical thing?
   more detail later
   

4. dennett
   

5. when the brain is damaged, it can affected our thinking, so it isn’t separate from the body.
   → Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome: chronic alcohol use can lead people into having severe memory and learning problems, confusion, impaired attemtion and executive function deficists (planning, decision making and emotional control)
   → phineas gage

explain phineas gage

• railroad construction accident ended up with rod going through his head and damaging the frontal lobe

• his behaviour changed significantly

• he used to be hardworking and respectful and well liked

• he then became impulsive, irritable and unreliable
  → shows essence isn’t in mind

name 3 monists

aristotle

ryle

dawkins

what does aristotle think of the soul? (contrast to plato)

• when your body dies, your soul dies too, no survival after death

• soul is immaterial and can’t be separated from the body

• unchanging but not eternal

• all living things have a soul or they wouldn’t be living

• soul is the efficent cause as it is what makes us human and animates us

• it is also the final cause as it gives humans the ability to live well and fulfil telos
  → human life is just matter and needs the soul to animate matter

what 3 types of souls does aristotle suggest

1. vegetive
   plants, animals, humans
   need for food, water and air
   

2. appetitive
   animals and humans
   desires for friendship, love, sex
   

3. intellectual
   humans
   ability to reason and have knowledge

name 3 strengths of aristotle

1. unlike plato, body is regarded as important. this makes more sense to people and shows importance of life and science
   → modern people are more able to understand this in a secular world
   

2. distinguishes between living things and what makes them different with different types of souls
   

3. uncontroversial a lot of philosophers agree that thinking is spiritual rather than physical- secular
   

explain ryle’s view of the soul (in contrast to descartes)

• believes descartes is looking at it wrong

• he sees that view of the mind as a “ghost in a machine”
  →how can a non-physical thing move a physical thing?

• thinks descartes made a category error

  → he assumed that things can only be mental or physical when things can be both

• thinks descartes has addeed something extra that isn’t necessary (immaterial substance that controls everything)

• he is an analytical philosopher:

  • uses language

  • we don’t say ‘my hand is turning the kettle on’

  • he thinks descartes misused language

what 2 examples does ryle give for a category eror?

1. team spirit isn’t a physical thing that adds to the cricket game. it is part of the game
   the same way the mind isn’t something that adds to the body, it’s just another aspect
   

2. like going around oxford’s buildings: library accomodation, lecture halls, etc and then asking ‘where’s the university’
   
   all of those are things that are already there, not an additional thing

name 3 strengths of ryle

• it would be like saying you have ‘one left glove and one right glove’ rather than saying you have a pair of gloves. both things are tied together
  

• personhood also involves a physical side- shown by prisons shaving peoples heads. anger can cause physical responses in people so clearly these emotions and mind are linked to the body
  

• dawkins

name 3 limitations of ryle

1. completely different substances as division of the body doesn’t affect motives, wills or thoughts of a person
   both have very different processes
   → different things
   → we have different processes in the body, that doesn’t make the body divided.
   for example, digestion is a chemical breakdown of food (slow, chemical and continious)
   whereas reflexes are fast automatic responses (instant, electrical and only for a moment)
   

2. we all experience our mind and can tell the difference between our mind and body
   → ‘my foot hurts’ v.s. ‘i’m tired’
   → mental health is treated differently to physical health
   → mental health issues can be related to biological issues: e.g. schizophrenia can be caused by dopamine levels and depression is impacted by seretonin
   

3. generally agreed by philosophers that thinking is immaterial and spiritual rather than bodily processes
   → development in neuroscience might explain why/how we think

what does dawkins think of the soul?

• humanist

• “god of the gaps” when we don’t have an explanation, we say the explanation is god

• soul 1 and soul 2

• doesn’t believe in the soul but uses these terms to distingush between them both

explain dawkins and soul 1

• used by pre-scientific people because they wanted to explain things

• believe in mysterious life form - '“mystic jelly”

• no explanation but used for gaps in knowledge
  → e.g. how world was made before understanding of big bang
  
  rejects this!!!

explain dawkins and soul 2

• highest parts of being human
  → creativity, inspiration, etc

• intellectual and mental abilities
  → agues they will all be explained by science when we develop to this level

• physical existence is all there is. no immaterial or spiritual substance that survives after death
  
  accepts this!!!

name 2 strengths of dawkins

1. blackmore
   soul is a metaphor to describe consciousness and personhood
   we are looking for something extra that doesn’t literally exist
   

2. denett
   neuroscientists think there will be answers to explain thinking in the future
   drugs alter personality so thinking can be explained through the brain
   → however, it might not be able to be explained despite all the developments in science because it is inexplainable because it’s so different to us
   

3. ryle

name 1 limitation of dawkins

no explanation of NDEs like Pam Reynolds or Eben Alexander

explain pam reynolds

• had an anerurysm and needed surgery to drain blood from head
  → made her die during that time

• out of body experience: saw her body being operated on and heard conversations of the surgeons

• she saw light in the distance and was pulled into it

• heard her grandma calling her, then was separated again

• she went back to her body and was brought back to life (painful going back into it)

• no brain wave activity so it wouldn’t even be possible for her to remember it
  
  → could’ve happened when her body was warming up