Monism

• Mono meaning one, implies that the body and soul are not separate entities but are intrinsically linked throughout life and beyond death

• Therefore the fate of one is the fate of the other

• Aristotle was a monist and he believed that when the body perished so did the soul it did not transcend into a better existence.

• This contract Plato as he said that the soul escapes the prison of the body and transcend to a world of forms

• A large body of Islamic and Christian thought believes that the body and soul will be reunited in a physical and sensory experience in an afterlife.

• It could be argued that even though Gilbert Ryle dismissed the soul as a ‘category mistake’ or as the lay person would say ‘ a misuse of language’. He said that if there was an afterlife it would have to include the physical body as the soul can’t exist without it; highlighting the fact that the body and soul are intrinsically linked.

The Bible spends a lot of its time trying to convince us that we will survive death but not exactly addressing how we will do it. It writes an imperative persuasio. John Hick attempted to do this.

1 Disappear mysteriously

2. Die and replcuate into another dimension ( we will carry with us all of our thoughts and memories and feelings and experiences)

3. Replicate again and again

4. Until you reach the ‘ ideal place’

Critical point- Why so many replications?

• Belief that everything is material, no separate soul

• All your spiritual and mental ideas are part of the physical body

• Gilbert Ryle belief- team spirit is simply a term not a separate entity on its own.

• Talks about soul in similar way, talking about it is trying to justify something that simply isn't there.

• Richard Dawkins is genetically driven and believe that the science of genetics and convictions hold the complete explanation for what we are. Following on from Charles Darwin who came up with the concept of natural selection.

• The weaknesses to Richard Dawkins belief is that it ignore innate human feeling and instinct. The reason we pursue arts and literature is because we believe we have a soul to nourish. We are not comfortable just being a machine.