Self and Life after Death

Plato’s view of the soul

• Plato was a dualist (soul is independent from the body and much better than it)

• The relationship between soul and body is not a partnership but an imprisonment

• The soul is from the Realm of the Forms and has been imprisoned in the physical body

The Body

Body

• The body is ‘the source of endless trouble to us‘

• Because it is physical it ages and decays (Changes)

• Needs food and water to surive (Temporal)

• Is liable to diseases (Perishable)

• Driven by lust and fears. Our sense are unreliable and deceive us.

The Soul

Soul

• It is immortal, imperishable and unchanging. It is capable of true knowledge

• It’s simple (unlike the body which is made up of parts)

• Has existed eternally in the Realm of Forms. Wants to return.

• Imprisoned in the body.

What the soul is (Platos analogy)

Analogy of a Charioteer

There is a charioteer and two horses. There are three parts of the soul- reason, spirit and appetite/desire. One of the horses behaves (spirit), whereas one does not (appetite). The soul works best when the charioteer (represents reason) is in charge. For Plato, a good person is one whose soul is properly balanced with reason in charge

Plato arguments in defence of his belief in the soul

• Innate knowledge, a soul from the Realm of Forms explains our priori knowledge. Rebuttal: John locke’s ‘Tabula Rasa‘ argument: We are all born a blank slate. So Plato argument about innate knowledge depends on if you believe we do have priori knowledge.

• Linguistic Argument- there is a distinction between how we speak about ourselves and our bodies. We we think about ourselves we say ‘i am thinking‘ but when we think about our bodies we say ‘i have a body‘. This suggests we are separate from our bodies. Rebuttal: This is reading too much into language. Wittegenstein- ‘problems arise when language goes on hoilday‘

Implications of Plato’s view of the soul

• Our soul will ‘survive‘ our physical death. (to return to the Realm of Forms)

• Christians think this means going Heaven

Developed by HH Price

• The after life is mind-based.

• Our ‘disembodied souls‘ communicate and recognise each other telepathically.

Developed by Swinburne

• Mental states are soul states

• After death, the soul retains memories, desires and identity.

• Lightbulb analogy- after death, all the soul needs is something to replace the function preformed by the brain. You just need to plug your soul into a new energy source.

Aristotle’s view of the soul

• Aristotle believed in materialism (the soul is inseparable from the body)

• He saw the soul as the ‘form of the body’- its our personality and abilities. The soul ‘animates‘ the body.

• Aristotle explains this using the example of an axe and an eye. if the body were an eye, the ‘soul’ would have the ability to see. If the body were an axe, the ‘soul‘ would have the ability to chop.

Implications of Aristotle’s view

Soul and the body are interconnected and both are essential for our identity. So it doesnt make sense to separate them both (so life after death must be physical)

John Hick’s Replica Theory

• After death God will create an ‘excate replica‘ of us (we remain the same people after death)

• You must have a physical body in the after life it is central to your identity.

Rebuttle: St Paul- ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God‘- heaven isnt a phyical place

Descrates’ view of the soul

• Descartes is a Substance Dualist (mind and body is two different types of substance)

• He believed that it is possible to doubt all things, but you cannot doubt that you are thinking (very act of thinking proves you are a thinker)- ‘I think, therefore i am‘

• Because you can doubt everything (even your body) but your ablity to think, he believed there is a distinction between the body and the mind.

• He believed that the mind and body interact at the Pineal Gland (been disproven)

• The mind is logically independent of the body.

Descartes’ Leibniz Law

He uses Leibniz law to prove that the mind and body are separate.

• if two objects are identical, they must have to have the same properties

• So if object A and object B don’t both have the same properties, they then are different.

• Body is divisble whereas the mind is indivisble, Body is material whereas the mind is immaterial, therefore they are separate

Descartes’ arguments in defence of his belief

• Argument from Divisibility- The body is divisible and can be separated into parts, whilst the ‘mind‘ cannot as it is not a physical substance.

Rebuttle: Modern neuroscience shows we can separate parts of the mind, some people suffer with split personality disorders (shows the mind is divisible) also when the brain is damage so is the mind.

• Argument from doubt- ‘i think therefore i am‘

Rebuttle: Arugument is flawed- just because i think that one thing is uncertain and another is certain, that does not mean that this is the case, or that they are separate

Ryle’s criticism of Descartes

Ryle says that Descartes argument is ‘entirely flase‘ and ‘one big mistake‘. He says that Descartes is thinking of the mind in the wrong way. He explains this using a University:

• Imagine you visit a university and look around the colleges, libraries, accommodating ect.

• You then ask your guide ‘Yes, i have seen all these things, but where is the university itself?‘

• This is the same sort of mistake that Descartes makes with the mind. The visitor wrongly assumes that the university is something extra. Dualists also wrongly assume that the mind is something extra. It is not.

More Criticisms of Dualism

• Neuroscience- Modern research into the neuroscience show us which parts of the brain are responsible for language, memeory and emotions. Consciousness can now be explained by neuroscience. Beliefs about the ‘soul‘ are outdated

• Problem of interaction- Descartes was incorrect about the Pineal Gland.

• Simplicity- Materialist argue that consciousness being explained by physical and material events is the simplest explanation, therefore the best. This uses the philosphical principle of Ockham’s Razor- ‘do not multiply entities beyond necessity‘. Simplest answer is usally

Dawkins’ view of the soul

• Argues that the soul is a mythological concept, invented in ancient cultures to explain the mysteries of personality and consciousness

• ‘Being dead will be no different from being unborn‘

• Dawkins rejects the idea that we ‘have‘ a soul but believes we can use the term metaphorically. Soul 1- Traditional idea; a separate thing that contains our personality and can survive our physical death. Rejected by Dawkins Soul 2- High development of the mental faculties (deep thinking) but this is not separate from the brain

Physical

• We have a continued physical existence after death

• Aristostle: Cannot separate body from the soul

• John Hick’s Replica Theory

• Augustine’s Resurrection of the Flesh

• Jesus’ physical resurrection in the Bible

Metaphyical