Mind, Body and Soul

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Plato's Body/Soul Distinction

Plato was a Dualist and believed that the mind body and soul were two very distinct things - the body and the soul are two aspects of being human.

The soul is more important than the body because the soul is immutable and doesnt change whereas the body does change, thus it is not as important as the soul.

Plato has a distinction between the body and the soul. The soul is immutable, perfect, immortal, knowledge. The body is mutable, imperfect, mortal/finite, opinion.

For Plato the soul is unchanging - this is relevant to the body/soul distinction because it shows that the soul is immortal, thus more important. Whereas the body decays and dies which means its less important.

Plato uses the analogy of the two horses and a charioteer. You need a charioteer (reason (soul)) to control the two horses (emotion and appetite (the body)).

If reason was not charge we would become greedy OR reckless if just lead by emotion and appetite.

Plato describes the soul as eternal this means that it is without beginning or end.

The soul exists in the past, the present and the future:
Past - in the realm of the forms
Present - trapped in our body
Future - reincarnates to another body or in the realm of the forms

Plato's Evidence:
Plato argues that opposites are evidence because something is hot as there are colder things and something is bright as there are duller things. Therefore life comes from death, and death comes from life.
We remember rather than learn knowledge. For example, in the dialogue meno, a slave boy with no education was able to solve a geometry question. Plato concluded that the boy must have used knowledge that he already had, from before birth. 

Key Words/terms:
Essential - vital, most significant
Immaterial - non-physical
Temporarily united with the body - as will go once to the world of the forms

Aristotle: Body and Soul

Aristotle describes the body and the soul as: Indivisable and Insperable

Aristotle is a Monist (body and the soul are as one)

Analogy to explain the body and soul distinction:
Axe - axe represents body and the ability to chop represents soul. Axe can't be axe if it can't chop.

Aristotle describes the soul as a substance. The substance is the essence or real thing which is our continued identity

Aristotle considered the soul to include the matter and structure of the body with its funtions and capabilities.
He believed the soul could be explained in purely natural terms, rather than by making reference to any supernatural realm.
For Aristotle the soul was not some seperate entity to the body but was completely…

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