Soul mind and body

Aquinas short quote in summa theologica

"My soul is not me"

Dualism

Belief in two separate elements (body and soul)

Substance dualism

two elements (body and soul) are wholly different substances

Psyche

Greek word for mind/soul

Materialism

One substance and it is material

Monism

One substance not two

Reductionism

Everything can be reduced to statements about physical bodies

Behaviourism

All mental states are simply learned behaviours

How does sould mind and body link to Plato

He believes the soul is immortal and is the only thing that can experience the world of forms

What does Plato believe about the soul?

It is the essential and immaterial part of a human

How does Plato describe the soul in the Phaedo

Divine

Intelligible (understandable)

Uniform (constant)

Indissoluble (permanent)

Unchangeable

Eternal

Perfect

Immortal

What does platos arguments support

The disembodied (not in body) and embodied argument (in body) argument

What is it called when the soul goes to the Noeton

Disembodied

What is it called when the soul is reborn into a new body

Reincarnation (metempsychosis) embodied

The divisions of the soul

Appetitive

Spirited

Rational

Rational

Intellectual/thinking-truth seeking.

Which division of the soul is control of the other elements

Rational

Spirited

Our will/virtues, personality traits

Appetititve

Body's needs, appetite of the body e.g. greed, food, drink

How is the appetitive described in the phaedrus

The black horse

Bodily needs

dies with the body

How is the rational described in the phaedrus

Charioteer

Takes charge

How is the spirited described in phaedrus

White horse

Virtues e.g. courage, personality

Leads the rational/ soul to Noeton

How are the 3 parts of the soul described in phaedrus

The charioteer metaphor

How do the 3 parts of the soul interact with each other

Always in conflict

Who did the charioteer metaphor inspire

Freud and how personality's are formed

What does it mean if someone is very greedy

There black horse (appetitive) is too out of control

Horaton

The body

Platos quote about the body

"The body is the source of endless trouble"-burden, hindrance

Why does Plato believe the body is a burden

Constant requirement for food

Fills us with loves and lusts

Fears and endless foolery

Diseases

Platos quote about the bodies affect on our thinking

"Takes away from us all power of thinking at all"

How does the body link to the cave analogy

The body is a prison to our soul just as the save was the prison in the analogy

What does the soul want

To be free of empiricism and illusion/ignorance (eikasia) and be free to experience the forms and true knowledge

Supporter of Plato

Descartes

What kind of dualist was Descartes

Substance dualist

What book did Descartes writer

Meditations and the passions of the soul

Is Descartes a rationalist or empiricist?

Rationalist

What does Descartes believe

Senses can easily mislead therefore the material world and even our bodies may be an illusion

The cogito

Only certain piece of knowledge

Descartes quote

"I think therefore i am"

What does Descartes believe about the soul and body

They are wholly separate substances

Does Descartes believe that the mind is divisible

No only the body the mind stays the same no matter what

1 Critic of Dualism

Gilbert Ryle-the category mistake

What is the category mistake

Mistakenly treating something as being of one type when it is of a different type

What does the term ghost in the machine mean

A term used to criticise Descartes concept of the mind with the body being the machine and the soul being the ghost. Silly to say there's a soul in my body

What does Descartes say that Ryle calls a categorical error

Describes the mind as the pilot of the body and the body itself as a sort of mechanism

What kind of philosopher was Ryle

An analytic philosopher

What is Ryle trying to do with Descartes theory

Disprove it not create an alternative theory

Example of a category mistake

Cricket match- a foreign visitor watches a cricket maths with the bails, stumps , umpires and asks "where is the team spirit?". Category mistake as the collective game makes up the team spirit

Example of Descartes making category mistakes

Assuming that the things we experience are either physical or mental whilst according the Ryle they are both. E.g. feelings are experienced both physically and mentally (PTSD)

What is Ryle arguing

That it's improper to separate the body and soul

critic 2 of dualism

Peter geach

What does peter geach say about the soul and forms

How can the disembodied soul see the forms- this experience is linked to the body and senses

Critic 3 of dualism

G.E.M Anscombe

What does G.E.M Anscombe argue

That 'bodily act is an act of man qua spirit' = the act of a human as a whole

What does G.E.M Anscombe say about describing bodily actions

A description of my bodily actions might fully describe how my body is working but not why it is working (the why is the mind/soul)

What does G.E.M believe about the sould and body

They work together and are not separate unities

An example that explains G.E.M Anscombes arguments

I am writing this essay. My hands are moving to write the essay but that does not explain the action. For that I need to have a description of thought ' i am writing because...'

What does Aristotle believe about the soul and body

As the formal cause gives something its shape and nature the body is animated by the soul which gives it life making the soul the formal cause of a human

What does Aristotle believe happens to the soul after death

Doesn't survive after death as it isn't a separate unity, no person left just matter

What example does Aristotle give to explain the soul and body's relationship

If the eye was a body its soul would be the capacity to see (they go hand in hand together)

Is Aristotle a dualist or monist

Most scholars agree he is a dualist however he says the body and soul are needed to animate living things (dependent on each-other)

Aristotle's 3 parts of the soul

Vegetative

Appetitive

Intellectual

Vegetative

All living things

Growth reproduction

Appetitive

Animals and humans

Desires, urges and emotions

Intellectual

Unique to humans

Reasoning,thinking,remembering,deciding

Who supports Aristotle's views of the soul and body's

Aquinas

Aquinas quote in summa theological

'The soul is defined as the first principe of life in living things: for we call living things 'animate' and those things which have no life 'inanimate'

What does Aquinas quote mean

The soul us not me but it is the principle of life

My life needs the body to be animated

The soul is not material

The body is necessary for me to be me

Aquinas second quote in summer theological

'It is clear that man is not soul only, but something composed of soul and body. Plato, because he thought that sensation was simply function of the soul, was able to maintain that man was a soul making use of the body'

What does Aquinas second quote mean

He's saying to Plato that the soul isn't just using the body for a home we are soul and body

What is Richard Dawkins

Materialist

Who's theory's does he reject

Platos, Descartes and religious ideas of soul and heaven

What does Richard Dawkins believe

He acknowledges the mystery of consciousness and believes that eventually science will find the answers in or DNA

What does Richard Dawkins believe about the soul

He believes there are two types of soul (soul one and soul two)

Soul one

Separate substance found in traditional though = primitive superstition

Soul two

Intellectual and spiritual power, higher development of moral faculties, feelings and imagination - rooted in body

Who else believes in materialism

Skinner (behaviourism)

What does skinner believe about the mind

Human thoughts are just learnt behaviours and all behaviour is due to conditioning and reinforcing. Everything we do is a result of previous learning

Reward and punishment skinner

If your action leads to good results it is positively reinforced and likely to be repeated but if your action leads to bad results and is not reinforced then it is unlikely to be repeated

Evidence of behaviourism

Watson and Rayner 1920 (little Albert) how the little boy became scared of a white rat because he associated the rat with loud noise

Problem of behaviourism

Reductionist. Dennet argues skinner over simplifies human consciousness. It is not the case that what is true for animals consciousness will also apply for humans. Human thinking moves beyond skinners basic theory