Key scholars Philosophy

Plato on the soul

Dualist

“the soul is most like that which is divine, immortal… and always the same as itself.”

Eternal soul connected to WOTF where they encounter truth and wisdom before entering material world

Tripartite view (charioteer analogy)

Aristotle on the soul

Materialist

“the actuality of a natural body that has life.”

Each soul is intrinsically tied to its body, fulfilling its unique functions according to its nature

Plants, animals, human souls: (vegetative, sensitive, rational)

Wax imprint analogy

René Descartes on the soul

Dualist

“I think, therefore I am” (cogito, ergo sum)

The soul is separate from the body, which is merely a machine the soul commands. Our identity and consciousness cannot be reduced to matter.

Richard Swinburne on the soul

Dualist

“if a human body ceased to function, and the human soul continued to exist, then the human would continue to exist.”

The soul provides personal contnuity and identity that the physical cannot explain

Richard Dawkins on the soul

Materialist

“there is no spirit driven life force… life is just bytes of digital information.” The soul is merely an illusion created by biological processes in the brain

Soul 1 - Religious view on the soul (immaterial, survives after death)

Soul 2 - Soul a metaphor in our language, to refer to our behavioural dispositions

Gilbert Ryle on the soul

Materialist

There is no “ghost in the machine” University analogy

“Category error” We don’t need a mystical soul; mind and consciousness are behaviours and dispositions observable in human actions

Norman Malcolm on the soul

Materialist

When we talk about the soul, we are using language shaped by our culture and shared practices, not describing an actual metaphyscial essence.

Hegel on the soul

Monist

The soul is part of the “Geist”, the universal spirit that evolves through history. A part of a dialetical process

Spiritual and physical world connected via soul

Hick on the soul

Christian Materialist

Soul is us describing our mental characteristics/personality. “behavioural dispositions.”

Replica theory - “divine creation in another space on an exact psycho-physical ‘replica’ of the deceased person.”

Aquinas (Cosmological Arg)

3 ways:
Motion - Observe motion in universe, things don’t move on own, infinite regression impossible, must be a first unmoved mover (God)
Causation - Observe cause in universe, things don’t cause themselves, I.R imp, uncaused causer (God)
Necessity/Contingency - Observe contingent beings exist, I.R imp, must be a necessary to cause all contingent (God)

Aquinas archer analogy

Arrow shot to its mark by archer.

Intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end (God)

(Design qua purpose)

Paley (Teleological Arg)

Complexity, order, and purpose observed in nature suggest the work of an intelligent designer (God)

• (Fallacy of composition by Hume + Russell)

Paley analogies

If you found a watch on the ground, with its complex and purposeful design, you would infer it had a designer.

Something as intricate as the human eye - shows complex functionality that is unlikely to have come about by chance.

Complexity implies design (God)

Leibniz (Cosmo)

Principle of sufficient reason - for any contingent substance there must be a sufficient reason or explanation for it being the way that it is.

Copleston (Cosmo)

“An adequate explanation must ultimately be a total explanation to which nothing further could be added.”

Cited Leibniz principle of sufficient reason

Swinburne (Cosmo)

Cumulative case for the existence of God

Supports P.O.S.R (intuitive understanding that things don’t exist without cause)

Hume (Cosmo)

Fallacy of composition

Simpler to argue for a universe without an outside creator (Ockham’s razor - simplest answer usually correct one)

Aquinas made inductive leap between cause and effect (they are 2 separate things not linked)

Bertrand Russel (Cosmo)

Universe exists as “brute fact” and doesn’t require external explanation

Supports infinite regress

Rejected idea of contingent + necessary being “illogical” “nonsensical”

Fallacy of Composition - mothers analogy

Kant (Cosmo)

A cause for everything only applies to world of sense experience. We cannot apply logic to something we haven’t experienced

God is outside of time and space