PHILOSOPHY (y13) - Self, Death and Afterlife

What did Plato believe in and what does it mean?

• Dualism

• Means he believed in the body and soul being separate

• Also believed in two world - this one and the World of the Forms

• Said our soul came from the WOTF to this world and we recognise things here after having seen their perfect versions

• When we die our soul goes back to the WOTF

What’s the difference between Plato’s two worlds?

1. WOTF = perfect, immutable, eternal, incorporeal (non-physical)

2. This world = imperfect, changing, temporal, physical

What did Plato believe about the soul’s relationship to the two worlds?

It bridges the two worlds

What were Plato’s beliefs on the mind/soul?

• Reasoning is the most important aspect of the soul

• Our soul belongs to the WOTF and came into our bodies from there

• Our knowledge is recollected from there by the soul

• WOTF contains all truth

• Knowledge is innate but physical experience prevents us from recollecting it fully

What is the Analogy of the Chariot?

• The soul (psyche) has 3 parts

• 1 = reason which tries to direct us up to the truth (forms)

• 2 = emotion which is required to take us there

• 3 = appetite which can drag us down

What are the strengths of Plato’s view on the soul?

we all have the same concept of beauty. goodness and truth

What are the weaknesses of Plato’s view on the soul?

• No empirical evidence

• Are there forms of things that don’t exist yet?

• When we are shown new things, we need to be taught what they are

• It is elitist to think only philosophers can rule

• How does the soul interact with us?

• Scientifically we can explain recollecting things

What did Aristotle believe about the soul?

• In order to be human, we need a soul

• Body and soul are not distinct, the soul is our purpose

What example does Aristotle give about his opinions on the soul?

• If the eye was an animal sight would’ve been its soul

• This is because sight is its purpose, the eye is just the way in which it is carried out

• Without sight, it is no longer an eye other than in name

What are Aristotle’s 4 causes? (MEFF)

Material - what it is made up of

Formal - what its characteristics are

Efficient - how it is made

Final - its purpose/telos

How do Aristotle’s 4 causes link to the soul?

• He addresses the formal and final causes

• The characteristic (the body) lends to the purpose (soul)

Explain fully Aristotle’s view on the soul

• Contrary to Plato, he was a MONIST

• His views are empiricist and believes truth is in this world

• “soul” didn’t mean soul like Plato described it

• All living things “have” a soul and it’s what gives something its purpose

• The soul then can’t be separated from body

What was Aristotle’s view on souls in different species?

• They have different souls

• Plants have a vegetative soul

• Animals have a sensitive soul

• Humans have a rational soul

What are the strengths of Aristotle’s view on the soul?

• Doesn’t over-complicate by bringing in “something extra”

• Rooted in science and evidence

• Demonstrates how humans are distinct to other living things - helps classification

What are the weaknesses of Aristotle’s view on the soul?

• Confusing, “soul” feels spiritual but he rejects this

• Everyone has the same “soul” which takes away our individuality

• Any human that can’t reason is not a human at all?

• Elitist

Compare Plato to Aristotle

• Plato is dualist, Aristotle is a monist

• Plato is a spiritualist while Aristotle is an empiricist

• Plato believes our soul contains innate knowledge but Aristotle didn’t really believe in a soul other than that it is our purpose

• Plato believes the soul to be superior to the body while Aristotle is the opposite

• Plato believed the soul is immortal but Aristotle didn’t

Is Descartes a dualist or a monist?

Dualist!

Explain Descartes’ substance dualism

• He believed mind and body are distinct substances made of different properties

• Matter = extended substance

• mind = mental substance

• This is sometimes called “Cartesian Dualism”

What is the problem with substance dualism?

How do the substances interact?

Explain Descartes’ reason beyond faith

• He wanted to show existence of the soul can be proven not just through theology but also through logic and reason

• He knew there needed to be natural proof of it for non-believers to understand

Explain Descartes’ 1st proof

• Argument from Doubt

• Said we can’t know the difference between dream and reality and only when we wake do we know its not real

• Everything we now “know” is just imaginary , there could be an evil demon tricking us into believing the world is not real

• However Descartes argues that because we can doubt our body exists but we cannot doubt that we are thinking beings (doubt is thinking) then we are not the same as our body

What are the issues with Descartes’ 1st proof?

Thinking comes from the brain which is a part of the body

Explain Descartes’ 2nd proof

• Argument from Divisibility and Non-divisibility

• All bodies are extended in space so are physically divisible

• Minds aren’t extended in space so aren’t physically divisible meaning our mental states (qualia) can’t be measured or divided

• Hence minds are v different to bodies and they function in a distinct way

What is the problem with the 2nd proof?

The mind is required for the body to function

Explain Descartes’ 3rd proof

Argument from Clear and Distinct Perception

• Whatever I see as two distinct things can be created by God as 2 distinct things

• I have a clear idea of myself as a non-extended thinking thing

• I have a clear and distinct idea of my body as an extended non-thinking thing

• So I and my body can exist separately

• Hence I am distinct from my body

What is the problem with the 3rd proof?

Without a body, do we truly exist?

Explain Gilbert Ryle’s “Ghost in the Machine”

• Ryle uses this phrase to show the key issues with Descartes’ theory

• Says he talks of the soul like a ghost in machine, something that doesn’t exist but is used to explain something that can be rationally explained otherwise

• Calls this a “category mistake” - this is a MATERIALIST view

Summarise Ryle’s University analogy

• A foreigner visits Cambridge and is shown the colleges and libraries

• They then ask where the university is but their mistake is that they’re looking for something separate from all the buildings

• They don’t realise they’ve already seen the Uni

• In the same way Ryle says dualists mistakenly search for something above the brain called the mind

What did Descartes believe was the way that body and soul interacted?

• They interacted through the Pineal Gland

• This was used to explain interaction as no one knew the function of it at the time

What is the function of the Pineal Gland that was later discovered?

Regulates melatonin which is the hormone controlling the circadian rhythm

Explain Monism/ hard materialism/ physicalism

• The completely opposite view to Descartes

• It is reductionist = mind reduces to the brain

• The brain makes who we are

• Consciousness/ the mind is simply the product of the brain’s activitiy

Explain briefly Dawkin’s view on the body and soul

• The body is a “survival machine” for genes

• Our genetic inheritance guides us, not something external like God/mind/ soul

• Soul is just a psychological concept we’ve invented

• Mental state can’t be separated from the brain

• Evolution explains development of everything

What are the strengths of hard materialism/ physicalism?

• Dawkins relies on science to support argument

• Physical events seem to impact us mentally eg: drugs affect mental state

• Solves issue of soul and body interacting

• When body stop, mind stops - consciousness doesn’t seem to continue

What are the weaknesses of hard materialism/ physicalism?

• Mind decides what body does

• Near-death experiences suggest consciousness does work after death/ during it

• Theists would disagree

• Qualia (our individual thoughts which are subjective) show that we have individual experiences

Explain functionalism

• It is physicalist

• The mind is like an info processing machine

• Minds identified by their function not what they are

Give an example to explain functionalism

• E.g: Thermostat’s function is to alter temp of room (output) based on conditions (input)

• In same way, mind’s function is to process data of sense (input) to generate outcome (output) - it does this through the brain

What is “multiple realisability” under functionalism?

• Minds and their states could run on dif systems eg: computers

• A robot could be programmed in the same way

Outline dual-aspect monism

• It is NOT dualism - there is only 1 substance

• Substance has two aspects: mind (subjective awareness) and brain (objective and physical)

• Neither brain nor mind reduces to the other, they’re both aspects of the same substance

How is dual-aspect monism potentially more useful than the other two theories?

• Avoids the problems of substance dualism - there aren’t separate substances to interact

• Avoids problem of physicalism as qualia are not only physical but ineffable

How are quarks used to explain dual-aspect monism?

• In quantum physics quarks are unobserved but make sense of our understanding of physics

• Similarly, there could be a single unknown substance that ensures mind and body are complementary aspects of one psycho-physical reality

What are the strengths of dual-aspect monism?

• Science works well with it

• Qualia - brains work the same but we have subjective minds/ opinions

• No need for a separate soul

• Process theology - objective immortality

What are the weaknesses of dual-aspect monism?

• Still not understood

• Not sure how this links to life after death - subjective immortality?

• Doesn’t cohere with Bible

List a few ways we could live on after death

• Reincarnation/ rebirth

• Afterlife ie heaven/hell

• Mental afterlife, psychological heaven

• Objective immortality, live on in God’s memory

• In memories of others

• Through our children/ legacy

What is the first ideal about personal identity?

• The Physical

• Brain is essential to who you are

• Your bodily identity is about spatio-temporal continuity (STC)

• This is the idea that you won’t disappear and reappear elsewhere, you can’t be physically split

• Hence death means the STC is finished and you have no conscience

What is the second idea about personal identity?

• The Metaphysical

• You have a conscious awareness that is changing and maintains an identity through a self-aware mind and memory

• Your soul is separate and is eternal as it carries on after death, reflects dualism

What is the third idea about personal identity?

• The Psychological

• There is a constant causal link between events and your thoughts and memories but no actual “self”

• There is no “you”

Outline Hick’s replica theory

• Hick is a monist, believes we are psychophysical entity in that mind and body can’t be separated

• However there is life after death

• When we die everything of us dies

• We can be replicated by God in heaven physically in a perfect manner with the same character and memories

• We are discernibly ourselves

• This is possible because God is omnipotent

Explain the 3 scenarios that Hick gives to explain his theory

1. John Smith disappears from NYC and appears in Australia but has the same memories - it is the same person

2. John dies in NYC and appears in Australia having the same memories - still same person

3. This is the same as us dying and reappearing in heaven as a replica (not clone, exact replica) having all same character traits

What are the strengths of Hick’s replica theory?

• Doesn’t have to verify the existence of the soul

• Optimistic

• Logically possible

What are the weaknesses of Hick’s replica theory?

• Assumes an omnipotent God

• Is a replica really us? Can’t be identical

• What does “perfect version” mean?

• Endless replications leads to a meaningless life

• Logically possible but not factually possible

What did Plato believe in?

• Arguments from recollection and cycle of opposites

• Means something only exists because its opposite exists

What was Price’s view?

• Said the afterlife is mind-based, the mind is detached from the body

• It is similar to a dream-world where it feels physical but isn’t

• Corresponds to your desires and memories

• Potential for telepathic communication

• It is your consciousness making you feel like you live on

What did Swinburne believe?

• Was a substance dualist

• Said a conscious self/ soul could exist after death in a disembodied state

• Like a lightbulb, can be plugged into a new socket in heaven when our earthly one is broken

• Is sort of like reincarnation

Define reincarnation

Re-birth; in Hinduism the belief that your soul is reborn into a new body in a repeating cycle

Explain reincarnation in a bit more detail

• It suggests body and soul are separate and soul is the real us

• Suggests we should act well in the world as we will return to it in next life

• God is necessary to give us the soul - he judges how we’ve acted and is within everything

What is karma?

That we get what we deserve, if we act bad our next life is bad too

Why do some believe in reincarnation?

• we get a second chance at life

• It’s fair

• You can do what you couldn’t do in your past life

Give the Hindu definition of the soul

The soul is the true self and is distinct from the physical body

Give some evidence for reincarnation

• Hindu scripture

• Past life regression eg: hypnotherapy

• Children’s past life memories

What are the arguments for reincarnation?

• where else would children get the info if not past life

• Physical manifestation eg: birth marks

• Child = younger, more recent

What are some arguments against reincarnation?

• children make stuff up

• Parents can push a narrative

• Reincarnation is an expectation in some cultures, experiencing it may just be confirmation bias

• It could just be an extraordinary coincidence

Define a near-death experience

A profound experience around the time of death, which is recalled upon survival

List some features of NDE’s

• meeting a barrier

• Seeing a light

• Meeting dead relatives