SOUL, MIND, BODY

MATERIALIST THINKERS

Hobbes

Democritus (Atomism)

Anscombe

Dawkins

Daniel Dennet

Aristotle

Thomas Hobbes

Dismisses idea of immaterial substance

Everything is physical

Democritus

Everything made up of minute particles that are unalterable and indivisible

Epicurus

Denies idea of immortal soul due to atomism

Aquinas

Body and soul aren’t distinct entities

Soul gives the body it’s essence

“Man is not soul only, but something composed of soul and body”

Anscombe

Philosophy of pointing

When you ask why someone points, you reveal a mental process behind their action

Soul and body support each other

Dawkins

All physical matter, mind dies with the body

Concept of soul is illusion caused by ignorance

We are nothing more than biological beings trying to pass on DNA

Daniel Dennet

No place in brain for subjective thought

No such thing as consciousness, thinking or qualia

Aristotle

Empiricist = Rejects idea of non-physical soul, but soul as a form of the body is okay

• Form of body = Essence of the body, defining characteristic

• Soul is formal cause of humans (distinguishes it from other things)

Aristotle - 3 types of soul

Vegetative = Living things

Appetitive = Having desires

Intellectual = Thinking and reason

Aristotle = Wax seal

Wax seal is comprised of the wax and the stamp imprint

The imprint has no existence when separated from wax, but gives shape to the wax

Aristotle = F. Bacon

Bacon said that formal cause of metaphysical (the soul) is beyond empirical study

• E.g. whiteness of snow = science explains how and where snow comes from, but not the form of whiteness

Dualists

Plato

Descartes

Plato

Body is a prison of the soul

Soul is indivisible, if it cannot be broken down it lasts forever

• Theory of Forms explains that souls have always existed and always will

Plato - Phaedo (immortality of soul

3 key arguments

1. Argument of Opposites = Everything is and has an opposite

2. Theory of recollection = Learning is recollection, anamnesis

3. Argument from Affinity = Distinguishes immaterial, invisible and immortal from material, visible and mortal

Plato - Phaedo → Simmia and Cebes

Say soul is like the atonement of the instrument

Atonement (soul) only exists as long as the instrument does (body)

• Soul is contingent on the body to exist

Plato - Tripartite soul

Charioteer= Reason, Horses = Emotion and appetite

Drive the soul, with reason keeping others in check

Plato - Meno

Anamnesis - Soul has learnt things in a previous life and “learning” of information is just recalling from the past life

Socrates gave the boy a question, eventually gets the right answer

Plato - Aristotle’s thoughts

• Ockham’s razor = Aristotle’s theory of four causes explains world easier

• Lack of empirical validity

Descartes substance dualism

Mental and physical substances make up humans

• Essence of mental substance is thinking

• Essence of physical substance is extension

  • Extended = Takes up space

What is Descartes first certainty

That you are a rational, thinking being

Descartes- Indivisibility Argument

P1. Physical substance is divisibly

P2. The mind is indivisible

P3. Leibniz’s law says things that are identical have the same properties

C. Mind cannot be identical to any physical things

Descartes- Issues with indivisibility argument

• Mind can be divided into sections e.g. memory, perception, emotions.

  • Therefore, can be divided and has same properties as physical

• Brain hemispheres being responsible for body

Descartes = Conceivability argument

P1. There is a clear idea of myself as a thinking, non-extended thing

P2. There is a clear idea of my body as a non-thinking, extended thing

C1. Opposing properties mean can conceive of the mind separate to and without body

P3. What can be conceived as separate could possibly separate

P4. What could possibly separate is non-identical

C2. Mind and body are non-identical

Descartes Conceivability argument for Dummies

If things are identical, they CANNOT be separate

3 sided shape is always a triangle, a triangle can only have 3 sides

You cannot conceive of triangle without 3 sides therefore it is not possible

Descartes - Masked Man fallacy

Assuming what you know about one aspect of something must be true for all aspects of something.

P1. I know who my father is

P2. I do not know who the masked man is

P3. Therefore, the masked man is not my father

• ATTACKS INFERENCE MADE BY IDESCARTES IN CONCEIVABILITY ARGUMENT

Interaction in the brain

Some argue its hard for non-physical to have affect on physical (Ryle + ghost in the machine)

Descartes say they interact through pineal gland

Ryle

• Ghost in the machine

• Category mistake

Ryle - Category Error

Descartes makes a mistake by trying to categorise everything, he assumes there is more than can be seen

Linguistic error that forces categories

Ryle - Example of category error

University

• Taken on tour of oxford and visit the colleges and the testing halls and different areas and asking where the university is

  • Mistake is thinking that university is in the category of building, not collection of buildings

DESCARTES ASSUMES THAT THE MIND AND SOUL ARE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF THE BODY, BUT THEY ARE FEATURES

Ryle - Brittleness of glass

Brittleness = Disposition of glass to smash on impact

• Where is the brittleness of the glass, does it have extension, can it be divided?

• Answers are obvious and lead to conclusion that brittleness of the glass is non-physical, but that is not necessarily true

Ryle argues that Descartes arguments shouldn’t lead to conclusion that mind is a non-physical thing.

Ryle - Ghost in the machine

Something immaterial can’t have an effect on something physical

• ARGUES WTIH INDIVISIBILITY ARGUMENT

Avicenna - Flying man

if a man were suspended and blindfolded, he would still be aware of his mind

Body and mind co-exist but as distinct entities